Another thing that publishers are totally screwing up: the long tail. Ebooks give them the opportunity to get some last sales out of older books.
As an example: my kids are reading an old series that contains 20-odd books. These books are no longer in print, but you can easily find them in a used bookstore for about 50 cents each. The original cover prices were $3.00 to $3.50. I thought - hey, we have an ebook reader (Sony), let's see if the publisher has them, and we'll just get the ebooks. I would have happily paid $0.99 per ebook - twice the cost at the used bookstore, but hey, they do have to reformat the things.
Sure enough, the publisher has all of the books on offer as ebooks. Price: $9.99 each, and no extra charge for the DRM.
Is that insane or what? Charging 20 times the price I would have to pay for the physical book (and three times the original cover price). Meanwhile, their DRM is not compatible with our ebook reader. Yes, I could strip the DRM off, but I shouldn't have to.
Faced with such utter stupidity on the part of the publisher, most people will make the obvious choice: it takes only a few minutes to find a torrent containing all of the books - free and without DRM. The pointy-haired managers at the publisher will, of course, draw the wrong conclusion. They will say "piracy costs us sales." In fact, their idiotic pricing and DRM policies cost them sales.
What competent engineer would design an important system that depends on GPS, with no backup? The satellite signals are very faint, and can be disrupted for seconds or hours by lots of different causes, including entirely natural causes like solar flares.
I don't now remember what the case was, but: a few months ago a read about a guy who was charged with some crime or other. They were unable to convict him of whatever it was, but they did convict him of obstruction of justice. Why? Because the computer forensics expert stated that he had deliberately deleted some files and then run a defrag.
But: who say's the ice is melting? Yes, there is less arctic ice than some years ago. What supporters of global warming somehow always omit is that the ice in Antarctica has increased by pretty much the same amount. We are seeing regional variations - for unknown reasons - that pretty much balance out.
Wow, that's quite a misrepresentation of Anthony Watts website. Pretty much the opposite of his conclusions, in fact.
Articles on his blog (which sometimes reads more like a scientific journal) show that rural stations often show no warming at all - at least, until they have been appropriately "adjusted" (using methods that are generally not released). Meanwhile, the increasing temperatures of urban stations are not adjusted to eliminate the Urban Heat Island effect. Large parts of the arctic and antarctic are presumed to be warming, even though there are no weather stations within hundreds or thousands of miles.
Is the climate warming? He would agree with you that the climate warmed through (plus or minus) the year 2000 so, but possibly has now entered a cooling phase. Articles on his blog also show that (a) over decades, there is a warming/cooling cycle that very closely follows solar cycles, (b) that the overall warming trend of the past 200 years predates any significant human contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere, (c) the planet has in the past been warmer than today - in that sense, the recent warming is not "unprecedented", and finally (d) millions of years ago CO2 levels were much, much higher than today, so a higher CO2 level is also not unprecedented.
In short: the earth warms and cools. We do not understand all of the factors that influence these climate cycles, but CO2 is almost certainly not a precursor of increased temperatures. In any case, a warmer earth is in many ways preferable to a cooling earth. The entire panic about CO2 is politically driven, and many scientists have hooked their wagons to it, in order to get research funding.
My take is that Anthony Watts wants to present the objective truth - whatever that may be - and to discredit bad science and politically driven science.
Following links from TFA, we find this fascinating quote: "Law enforcement officials picked this week to shut down the sites for a reason. The Superbowl, the most-watched sporting event of the year, is this Sunday. ICE wants to make sure football fans who planned on going online to watch the big game turn to legitamate broadcasters instead."
I knew a teacher in Austin who was paying for school supplies out of her own (underpaid) pockets. And I remember seeing statistics that there were more non-teaching staff than teachers in the district. Time to google...
"Do you really want to hear the guy in the next seat shouting into his phone about the BIG IMPORTANT EXECUTIVE THINGS BIG IMPORTANT EXECUTIVE LIKE HIM DO...or whatever other inane thing he wants to rattle on about?"
This.
At least now, if people have their electronics on, they pretend otherwise. Meaning they restrict themselves to texting, surfing and emails.
HTML 2/3/4, XHTML/1, and CSS/1 were all small, simple, understandable standards. Then the web got popular - in part because web standards and technology were so simple. Once the web had exploded, every damn company wanted to stick its oar in. CSS 2 took years, is overly complicated, but still just barely manageable. Look at CSS 3 - everybody's special wishes are in there - the thing is immensely complex and as a standard, frankly, it is therefore nearly useless. HTML 5 is much the same - too many special wishes and fancy features. One needs to take a weed-whacker to it and to CSS, to restore some degree of simplicity.
Think of it this way: why is there a competition to see how well browsers score on the ACID tests? The standards ought to be simple enough that any decent browser scores 100%. The fact that this is not the case is proof that the standards are far, far too complex.
Folks, take a look at the charges he was convicted of. Then think about this sentence.
Mr. Kernell was convicted of two charges. For breaking into Sarah Palin's email account, he was convicted of a misdemeanor for unlawful computer access. But a misdemeanor isn't enough payback for embarrassing one of the political elite. So he was also charged with a felony account of obstruction of justice. The FBI says that he erased data off of his computer. Specifically, he deleted his copies of Palin's emails, and then defragged his disk. He also cleared his browser history.
Well, duh. The kid did something stupid. When he saw what an uproar he had created, he tried to make it all go away. Wow, that really is grounds for a federal felony charge.
This isn't justice folks. This is payback for embarrassing one of our betters.
I just tried to buy an Ebook ("Outies") both from Amazon and from Barnes&Noble. Both refused to sell to me here in Europe. I wrote the author, who was shocked that this was the case. It certainly is not a case of the rights being sold (as an earlier poster suggested), but simply a case of blithering incompetence. Failure to notice that the Internet is, well, International. In this case, she was kind enough to sell me the book directly. However, this is not the way it ought to have to go.
By the way, a plug because she was so nice about this. If you like Jerry Pournelle's stuff, her book is a worthy to his novels in the Motie universe. It's her first novel, so not as polished as what Jerry Pournelle produces, but it's a very fine first novel.
I have done research, and tried to be rigorous. But - who knows what errors I may have made unknowingly? Did anyone try to independently reproduce my results? Almost certainly the answer is "now".
The point is: most researchers want to do original research. Very few research results are ever independently reproduced. If the initial researchers made implicit assumptions, if their work was affected by an external factor they failed to note - there are innumerable reasons their results might not hold up.
In regards to people-oriented research (medicines, etc), there can be any number of confounding factors. This should not really be terribly surprising to anyone who has done serious research. The problem may be more the fact that there is no system in place to arrange for verification of important results...
...yes, they want paid specifically in the case that child-care centers make copies of sheet music. They claim that this is a great "savings opportunity". Right. While child care centers may technically be commercial enterprises, in fact, this is an absolutely pathetic and stupid idea. The amount of money they will make will be trivial compared to the good will lost.
ISPs and other service providers are considered not to be liable for illegal content placed on their networks, precisely because they do not actively police the material. They only take action if requested to do so by the rights owners or a court order.
As I understand the situation, if they actively police the material on their networks - as Amazon has done in this case, they surrender these protections - and must actively check for illegal material. IANAL - but it seems to me that Amazon has dug themselves a huge hole here. Any lawyers care to comment?
Massive citation required for the correlation of race and IQ? Just enter "racial differences in IQ" into Google, and you will have more citations that you can deal with, on both sides of the equation. Start with the references available in Wikipedia. Follow that up with "The Bell Curve" - this book offends people precisely because it carefully documents the existence of such differences.
The problem is not whether racial IQs are different. The problem is that we are not allowed to scientifically investigate this question. By PC dictate, races must have identical intelligence distributions, and no dissent from this view will be tolerated. Truth be damned, we don't want to offend anyone...
Consider the continuing catastrophe that is Africa. If it should happen that part of the problem is a low average IQ for blacks, one might think it essential to find out why this difference exists. If the factors are primarily environmental, that sets the general approach to dealing with the situation. If the factors are primarily hereditary, then completely different solutions are required.
Sticking our collective heads in the PC-sand, by prohibiting any discussion of the topic, is just stupid.
It isn't PC to discuss differences intelligence, even when there may be some truth to be found there. There is plenty of evidence that the mental abilities for men and women are slightly different - and a slight difference in the average population can turn into a big difference at the extremes. For example, men are, on average, better at manipulating 3D objects in their heads; they are also (again, on average) slightly better at mathematics. It is possible that this (or some other) particular facet of intelligence is applicable to chess.
However, what I really wanted to point out is this: have you ever known really good, young chess players? The ones I have known are, frankly, not "normal". They are almost monomaniacal about chess. To become this obsessed about something may require a certain mental abnormality. Another mental difference: some studies have shown that women tend to be "saner" than men, meaning perhaps that they may be less susceptible to such obsessions.
Last, random thought: why is it so non-PC to discuss differences in mental abilities? No one disputes that there are physical differences. We don't have men and women competing together in sports. Even where both may be equally good, the physical differences lead to completely different styles (think: floor gymnastics). We are built differently - why should it be surprising if our brains are wired differently too? To the contrary: Vive la difference!
I hate sites that make you watch a video, instead of just telling your what they do. However, DropBox really is a very nice service, so here is what they should have said, in place of the video:
DropBox is a file synchronization service. Install it on multiple computers, and synchronize your files automatically. The files are also accessible directly from the DropBox website, in case you need access from third-party computer.
Here is what it does: You select a folder on your computer that should be automatically synchronized online. Any changes made to files in this folder are - at the next opportunity - sent to your DropBox account. If you use multiple computers, put the DropBox service on all of them, and they are kept in sync. with each other. The Linux support is excellent, you can sync cross-platform (Linux/Windows), your files are encrypted, DropBox maintains previous versions for 30 days (with a paid account, previous versions are maintained forever). Most importantly, it "just works".
I tried a lot of different synchronization tools and services (Unison, JungleDisk, etc.). This is by far the best. Note: I have no connection with them - I am just a very happy customer.
"...by the time travelers have made their way by ground to their city’s one main airport, and then traveled again by ground from the destination airport to their final destination point, the speed with which the waiting airliner will get them there has been negated.
The author forgets to mention the TSA. 20 years ago, you could show up at the airport 30 minutes before you flight, and have plenty of time. It's now 90 minutes.
The vision of small, efficient aircraft flying short distances is lovely. But first, our government must get its head out, and abolish the TSA and all the security regulations is has created. Otherwise, you will probably be faster on your bicycle.
TFA gets it wrong, too... Sure, it may be great for immersive experiences, but it doesn't even address the question of 3D. For that, we are still stuck with holograms.
I cannot imagine that the spam-kings care about Wikileaks. What organizations definitely do care and who have the resources?
I hope that the net-experts out there are tracing the DDoS. If they are being run by governments, this needs to be proven and announced.
Which is it? Are these companies totally gutless? Unable to recognize the positive publicity they could spin from this? Or - more likely - have they been put under back-room pressure by governmental officials? If so, they should publish *that* through Wikileaks.
The accounts were terminated, because Wikileaks violated their terms of service. Specifically "encouraging illegal activity". Of course the material is illegal - lots of it is classified, and whoever leaked it violated the law. That's kind of the point. Whistleblowing is always against some regulation, be it corporate or governmental. Whistleblowing to expose corrupt, unethical or simply improper practices nonetheless remains important, and should be supported.
In the current round of Wikileaks stuff, I haven't heard of any major bombshells. However, the sheer mass of classified materials points to improper governmental secrecy. There is no reason for most of this stuff to be classified in any way. After World War I, Woodrow Wilson named fourteen points for preserving international peace. His very first point includes the statement: "...there shall be no private international understanding of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view."
Slashdot Mirror
Another thing that publishers are totally screwing up: the long tail. Ebooks give them the opportunity to get some last sales out of older books.
As an example: my kids are reading an old series that contains 20-odd books. These books are no longer in print, but you can easily find them in a used bookstore for about 50 cents each. The original cover prices were $3.00 to $3.50. I thought - hey, we have an ebook reader (Sony), let's see if the publisher has them, and we'll just get the ebooks. I would have happily paid $0.99 per ebook - twice the cost at the used bookstore, but hey, they do have to reformat the things.
Sure enough, the publisher has all of the books on offer as ebooks. Price: $9.99 each, and no extra charge for the DRM.
Is that insane or what? Charging 20 times the price I would have to pay for the physical book (and three times the original cover price). Meanwhile, their DRM is not compatible with our ebook reader. Yes, I could strip the DRM off, but I shouldn't have to.
Faced with such utter stupidity on the part of the publisher, most people will make the obvious choice: it takes only a few minutes to find a torrent containing all of the books - free and without DRM. The pointy-haired managers at the publisher will, of course, draw the wrong conclusion. They will say "piracy costs us sales." In fact, their idiotic pricing and DRM policies cost them sales.
What competent engineer would design an important system that depends on GPS, with no backup? The satellite signals are very faint, and can be disrupted for seconds or hours by lots of different causes, including entirely natural causes like solar flares.
I don't now remember what the case was, but: a few months ago a read about a guy who was charged with some crime or other. They were unable to convict him of whatever it was, but they did convict him of obstruction of justice. Why? Because the computer forensics expert stated that he had deliberately deleted some files and then run a defrag.
But: who say's the ice is melting? Yes, there is less arctic ice than some years ago. What supporters of global warming somehow always omit is that the ice in Antarctica has increased by pretty much the same amount. We are seeing regional variations - for unknown reasons - that pretty much balance out.
Wow, that's quite a misrepresentation of Anthony Watts website. Pretty much the opposite of his conclusions, in fact.
Articles on his blog (which sometimes reads more like a scientific journal) show that rural stations often show no warming at all - at least, until they have been appropriately "adjusted" (using methods that are generally not released). Meanwhile, the increasing temperatures of urban stations are not adjusted to eliminate the Urban Heat Island effect. Large parts of the arctic and antarctic are presumed to be warming, even though there are no weather stations within hundreds or thousands of miles.
Is the climate warming? He would agree with you that the climate warmed through (plus or minus) the year 2000 so, but possibly has now entered a cooling phase. Articles on his blog also show that (a) over decades, there is a warming/cooling cycle that very closely follows solar cycles, (b) that the overall warming trend of the past 200 years predates any significant human contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere, (c) the planet has in the past been warmer than today - in that sense, the recent warming is not "unprecedented", and finally (d) millions of years ago CO2 levels were much, much higher than today, so a higher CO2 level is also not unprecedented.
In short: the earth warms and cools. We do not understand all of the factors that influence these climate cycles, but CO2 is almost certainly not a precursor of increased temperatures. In any case, a warmer earth is in many ways preferable to a cooling earth. The entire panic about CO2 is politically driven, and many scientists have hooked their wagons to it, in order to get research funding.
My take is that Anthony Watts wants to present the objective truth - whatever that may be - and to discredit bad science and politically driven science.
This is right up there with locking yourself in a cage for month - a totally meaningless, useless trick meant only to get attention.
Following links from TFA, we find this fascinating quote: "Law enforcement officials picked this week to shut down the sites for a reason. The Superbowl, the most-watched sporting event of the year, is this Sunday. ICE wants to make sure football fans who planned on going online to watch the big game turn to legitamate broadcasters instead."
Who needs due process? Just follow the money...
I knew a teacher in Austin who was paying for school supplies out of her own (underpaid) pockets. And I remember seeing statistics that there were more non-teaching staff than teachers in the district. Time to google...
The school district employs 12,183 people. Of these, 6079 are teachers (that is less than half). Now look at the reductions:
In other words, teachers are 49.8% of the staff, but 86.9% of the reductions.
What they ought to do is fire 450 administrators.
"Do you really want to hear the guy in the next seat shouting into his phone about the BIG IMPORTANT EXECUTIVE THINGS BIG IMPORTANT EXECUTIVE LIKE HIM DO...or whatever other inane thing he wants to rattle on about?"
This.
At least now, if people have their electronics on, they pretend otherwise. Meaning they restrict themselves to texting, surfing and emails.
HTML 2/3/4, XHTML/1, and CSS/1 were all small, simple, understandable standards. Then the web got popular - in part because web standards and technology were so simple. Once the web had exploded, every damn company wanted to stick its oar in. CSS 2 took years, is overly complicated, but still just barely manageable. Look at CSS 3 - everybody's special wishes are in there - the thing is immensely complex and as a standard, frankly, it is therefore nearly useless. HTML 5 is much the same - too many special wishes and fancy features. One needs to take a weed-whacker to it and to CSS, to restore some degree of simplicity.
Think of it this way: why is there a competition to see how well browsers score on the ACID tests? The standards ought to be simple enough that any decent browser scores 100%. The fact that this is not the case is proof that the standards are far, far too complex.
Folks, take a look at the charges he was convicted of. Then think about this sentence.
Mr. Kernell was convicted of two charges. For breaking into Sarah Palin's email account, he was convicted of a misdemeanor for unlawful computer access. But a misdemeanor isn't enough payback for embarrassing one of the political elite. So he was also charged with a felony account of obstruction of justice. The FBI says that he erased data off of his computer. Specifically, he deleted his copies of Palin's emails, and then defragged his disk. He also cleared his browser history.
Well, duh. The kid did something stupid. When he saw what an uproar he had created, he tried to make it all go away. Wow, that really is grounds for a federal felony charge.
This isn't justice folks. This is payback for embarrassing one of our betters.
Want to stop ebook piracy? Sell me the damn book!
This.
I just tried to buy an Ebook ("Outies") both from Amazon and from Barnes&Noble. Both refused to sell to me here in Europe. I wrote the author, who was shocked that this was the case. It certainly is not a case of the rights being sold (as an earlier poster suggested), but simply a case of blithering incompetence. Failure to notice that the Internet is, well, International. In this case, she was kind enough to sell me the book directly. However, this is not the way it ought to have to go.
By the way, a plug because she was so nice about this. If you like Jerry Pournelle's stuff, her book is a worthy to his novels in the Motie universe. It's her first novel, so not as polished as what Jerry Pournelle produces, but it's a very fine first novel.
There's a sucker is born every minute. Nuf said.
I have done research, and tried to be rigorous. But - who knows what errors I may have made unknowingly? Did anyone try to independently reproduce my results? Almost certainly the answer is "now".
The point is: most researchers want to do original research. Very few research results are ever independently reproduced. If the initial researchers made implicit assumptions, if their work was affected by an external factor they failed to note - there are innumerable reasons their results might not hold up.
In regards to people-oriented research (medicines, etc), there can be any number of confounding factors. This should not really be terribly surprising to anyone who has done serious research. The problem may be more the fact that there is no system in place to arrange for verification of important results...
...yes, they want paid specifically in the case that child-care centers make copies of sheet music. They claim that this is a great "savings opportunity". Right. While child care centers may technically be commercial enterprises, in fact, this is an absolutely pathetic and stupid idea. The amount of money they will make will be trivial compared to the good will lost.
ISPs and other service providers are considered not to be liable for illegal content placed on their networks, precisely because they do not actively police the material. They only take action if requested to do so by the rights owners or a court order.
As I understand the situation, if they actively police the material on their networks - as Amazon has done in this case, they surrender these protections - and must actively check for illegal material. IANAL - but it seems to me that Amazon has dug themselves a huge hole here. Any lawyers care to comment?
Just to point out the logical inconsistencies of these fees:
Massive citation required for the correlation of race and IQ? Just enter "racial differences in IQ" into Google, and you will have more citations that you can deal with, on both sides of the equation. Start with the references available in Wikipedia. Follow that up with "The Bell Curve" - this book offends people precisely because it carefully documents the existence of such differences.
The problem is not whether racial IQs are different. The problem is that we are not allowed to scientifically investigate this question. By PC dictate, races must have identical intelligence distributions, and no dissent from this view will be tolerated. Truth be damned, we don't want to offend anyone...
Consider the continuing catastrophe that is Africa. If it should happen that part of the problem is a low average IQ for blacks, one might think it essential to find out why this difference exists. If the factors are primarily environmental, that sets the general approach to dealing with the situation. If the factors are primarily hereditary, then completely different solutions are required.
Sticking our collective heads in the PC-sand, by prohibiting any discussion of the topic, is just stupid.
It isn't PC to discuss differences intelligence, even when there may be some truth to be found there. There is plenty of evidence that the mental abilities for men and women are slightly different - and a slight difference in the average population can turn into a big difference at the extremes. For example, men are, on average, better at manipulating 3D objects in their heads; they are also (again, on average) slightly better at mathematics. It is possible that this (or some other) particular facet of intelligence is applicable to chess.
However, what I really wanted to point out is this: have you ever known really good, young chess players? The ones I have known are, frankly, not "normal". They are almost monomaniacal about chess. To become this obsessed about something may require a certain mental abnormality. Another mental difference: some studies have shown that women tend to be "saner" than men, meaning perhaps that they may be less susceptible to such obsessions.
Last, random thought: why is it so non-PC to discuss differences in mental abilities? No one disputes that there are physical differences. We don't have men and women competing together in sports. Even where both may be equally good, the physical differences lead to completely different styles (think: floor gymnastics). We are built differently - why should it be surprising if our brains are wired differently too? To the contrary: Vive la difference!
I hate sites that make you watch a video, instead of just telling your what they do. However, DropBox really is a very nice service, so here is what they should have said, in place of the video:
DropBox is a file synchronization service. Install it on multiple computers, and synchronize your files automatically. The files are also accessible directly from the DropBox website, in case you need access from third-party computer.
Here is what it does: You select a folder on your computer that should be automatically synchronized online. Any changes made to files in this folder are - at the next opportunity - sent to your DropBox account. If you use multiple computers, put the DropBox service on all of them, and they are kept in sync. with each other. The Linux support is excellent, you can sync cross-platform (Linux/Windows), your files are encrypted, DropBox maintains previous versions for 30 days (with a paid account, previous versions are maintained forever). Most importantly, it "just works".
I tried a lot of different synchronization tools and services (Unison, JungleDisk, etc.). This is by far the best. Note: I have no connection with them - I am just a very happy customer.
"...by the time travelers have made their way by ground to their city’s one main airport, and then traveled again by ground from the destination airport to their final destination point, the speed with which the waiting airliner will get them there has been negated.
The author forgets to mention the TSA. 20 years ago, you could show up at the airport 30 minutes before you flight, and have plenty of time. It's now 90 minutes.
The vision of small, efficient aircraft flying short distances is lovely. But first, our government must get its head out, and abolish the TSA and all the security regulations is has created. Otherwise, you will probably be faster on your bicycle.
TFA gets it wrong, too... Sure, it may be great for immersive experiences, but it doesn't even address the question of 3D. For that, we are still stuck with holograms.
1. What the hell are the feds doing here? Is everything a federal crime nowadays?
2. $17,000 of damage is worth how many months in jail? Really?
3. How can it possibly take months to resolve the problems?
There is surely more going on here that is being reported. I especially wonder about (1)
I cannot imagine that the spam-kings care about Wikileaks. What organizations definitely do care and who have the resources? I hope that the net-experts out there are tracing the DDoS. If they are being run by governments, this needs to be proven and announced.
Which is it? Are these companies totally gutless? Unable to recognize the positive publicity they could spin from this? Or - more likely - have they been put under back-room pressure by governmental officials? If so, they should publish *that* through Wikileaks.
The accounts were terminated, because Wikileaks violated their terms of service. Specifically "encouraging illegal activity". Of course the material is illegal - lots of it is classified, and whoever leaked it violated the law. That's kind of the point. Whistleblowing is always against some regulation, be it corporate or governmental. Whistleblowing to expose corrupt, unethical or simply improper practices nonetheless remains important, and should be supported.
In the current round of Wikileaks stuff, I haven't heard of any major bombshells. However, the sheer mass of classified materials points to improper governmental secrecy. There is no reason for most of this stuff to be classified in any way. After World War I, Woodrow Wilson named fourteen points for preserving international peace. His very first point includes the statement: "...there shall be no private international understanding of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view."