I've got one of those Netstream 2000 decoder cards everyone's one about. They sent it to me apparently so I could help betatest it--and then they never got back to me afterward, oh well. It's a nice card, and the H+ I formerly had found a good home with a friend of mine who desperately needed it (his computer wasn't fast enough to play The Matrix without skipping). And now that I've actually got Linux working, I anticipate testing it in a few days once I have the time. I'll either post about it to Slashdot, or write a Themestream article about it--or maybe I'll write the Themestream article and then submit it to Slashdot.:)
Anyway, for those who can afford the card, the beta player is available for download right from Sigma Designs. It's primitive so far, and only supports piping out to a TV set, not direct on-monitor play, and I haven't actually had the chance to get it working so I can't say much about whether it actually does--but it is a true licensed Linux DVD solution. --
In Amazon's defense, I have heard tales of items being legitimately mispriced--such as a Jet Li box set going for $17 instead of the $85 it was supposed to, or someone's hardcover book being mistakenly sold at the paperback price.
That being said, I've found an online bookseller that seems to have consistently better prices than Amazon's, if not all the bells and whistles: Booksamillion.com. --
Does anyone know how to find out what venues This is Spinal Tap is playing? If it's close enough to me, I'd like to drive up and see it. But I'll be darned if I can find that information anywhere. --
Interestingly, Peanut Press experimented with springboards full of novels--such as Star Trek novels. They found that they weren't cost-effective, and won't be doing more in the future.
I do agree with you, though, that Palms would be great for RPGs. I recently found that the Fudge RPG kit has been palmdoced--and there's a nice Fudge die-roller out there already . .. --
E-books will never replace traditional books, at least in our lifetime (though print-on-demand just might, or at least might make inroads). They're not intended to!
If you read an e-book, you'll read it in different places than a regular book. You'll use it and read it in different ways. You can read it in the dark, or in the tub or the shower, or while standing in line, or on a bus, or somewhere else that a regular book will be inconvenient or not possible. But the same holds true for regular books! You'll read them sitting comfortably in an easy chair or at a desk or table, in places and situations where an e-book just wouldn't be as comfortable.
They're companions, counterparts. To claim one will replace (or never be replaced by) the other is to try to cram a square peg into a round hole. --
Of course, how likely it is to happen depends on how likely someone is to want to type or scan the whole thing in--and then on how likely other people are to want to read it. If his books are anything like his columns, I'd just about pay someone not to have to read them!
Of course, bookswapping goes on via Gnutella and the binaries groups all the time. Usually just the more popular books, like Zelazny, Tolkien, the first three Harry Potters, and so on. Many of the authors whose posts I read on SFFnet are annoyed about this (though some more than others).
And a sort of "open source" publishing model has been proposed in the form of the Street Performers' Protocol, which I'm sure someone will drop a link to elsewhere in this discussion thread. And the Storytellers' Bowl, if it ever gets off the ground, is planning to do something similar. And then there's Free E-press, who publishes on a shareware-like model: read it free, pay us if you liked it. --
Every time I see people mindlessly parrot that trite saying, I cringe. It's a meme that's gotten distributed far enough and used as a battlecry for so many causes, both crackpot and legitimate, that people have lost track of what it was originally supposed to mean. "Information wants to be free" is only half of the original meme!
As recounted in this website, the phrase "information wants to be free" has a little-known counterpart: "information wants to be expensive." It was first uttered back in 1984 (now there's an ironic year for information wanting to be free!) by Stewart Brand:
"In fall 1984, at the first Hackers' Conference, I said in one discussion session: "On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other." That was printed in a report/transcript from the conference in the May 1985 *Whole Earth Review*, p. 49.
(emphases mine)
So, people, next time you use the phrase, please take a moment to reflect on what it really means? --
Does anyone know if there is anything like this already in existance? Would you use it if it were available?
Actually, there is! Ironically, it's brought to you by the very same people who bring you PayPal!
It's called X.Com, the Internet bank. They offer a high interest checking account, with free debit card, fifty printed checks to start you out, and allow deposits by EFT or good old-fashioned snailmail. They also allow you to email people money, though the people must have or get an X account (or request them to mail a check) to use it.
Getting to it is a bit confusing, though--you have to go to X.Com-PayPal's homepage then click on the little X Finance link below the login box, then click on the "Where's X Finance?" link at the top of the page.
Anyone got any details why they cancelled it exactly? The first thing that comes to mind is some sort of legal issues with regards to banking regulations of some variety, or maybe it just wasn't being used.
It wasn't being used. According to the fellow from X.com who posted to the comp.sys.palmtops.pilot thread about it, they were only seeing about 10-20 Palm transactions per day across the entire PayPal user base. That's way too few for them to keep pouring money into supporting it. Sad, but there you go. --
Is it just me, or is Katz saying the same thing over and over again?
I need to update my article on Jon Katz to that effect . . . "seems to exhibit a fixation toward certain topics, such as how the 'new media' is destined to kill off the 'old media.' Likes to coin new words like 'mediascape'." --
I was recently in a Financial Management class where students were suggested to get the BA II+ financial calculator. However, already having a Visor, I decided I wanted to get something for that instead of having to spend the extra money on a piece of plastic and silicon I would use for only one semester then probably never again.
I found powerOne Finance, and I liked it so much--well, I didn't buy the company, but I did write a review of the program on Themestream explaining what it does, how to use it, and how it helped me so much in that class.
85-90% of the problems in that class involved Time Value of Money, and powerOne's TVM worksheet put me one up on all the people who had to enter one line at a time into those stinky little business calculators. Worked great! --
Y'know, something a lot closer to the spirit of the SPP is the Storytellers' Bowl. Their plan is to do something very similar to what SPP lays out, and only accept works that are known to be finished.
What King is doing is a more structured and restrictive version of what some friends of mine like to call "tipware"--releasing a story into the wild and saying, "If you liked it, send me something!" model, which is also being used by Free ePress. You're not paying for something not written yet; you're paying for something you've already downloaded. --
This system will also be used in the Storytellers' Bowl website, whenever it gets going. Though it'll be closer to the original concept, as payment will be made before the book is offered for download... --
From an email Handspring sent to me in response to a request for them to replace my Visor for the DRAM problem:
While we are confident that the patch will fix any problems you may experience, and we do wish for all of our customers to try the patch before getting a replacement Visor, we are willing to replace your Visor under our Advanced Replacement program.
When I called the tech support number given in the email (888-565-9393), the tech support dude suggested the patch, but when I insisted, he issued me an RMA, took my credit card number as security, and promised to FedEx me a replacement (probably a refurb) in my color, with a waybill to returnship my own Visor at their expense.
All this in the dead of night, at about 2 a.m. Central Time. Color me impressed. --
Try Pro-USA. They're a normal garden-variety ISP that works with any OS. There's a $30 setup fee, part of which goes to them, part to Rhinopoint, the firm that actually pays your ISP bill with them.
Best of all--no annoying ad-serving apps! You fill out one 5-10-question survey a month, which will ask things like what political candidate you support, whether you have confidence in the economy, and so on, which will take you maybe all of two minutes if you read slowly.
Found out about these folks just in time, as my campus started imposing time limits on peak-time dialins. So far, they've worked great for me, for Linux or Windows. --
Though IANAL (though even if I were, I don't think I could resist the chance to write "ANAL" in all caps like that:), I think it's worth noting that this is only the first round. From what I've read, lower-level courts are really reluctant to reverse laws or rock the boat without a really good reason--the judges want to win election to higher offices, after all. So it's really likely Kaplan will side with the MPAA on this one. But even so, it's not the end of the world.
This case will undoubtedly be appealed. It might well go all the way to the Supreme Court, as it is one of the first in what seems to be a whole series of new intellectual property disputes, and the Supremes might deem it a good idea to lay down a precedent. And appeals are where Garbus really shines; bear in mind that the man has never lost a case before the Supreme Court.
It might take a while, but I think we have a good chance of winning in the end. --
On the other hand, there are those of us who've known from the moment we first posted to USENET that it was a public area and anything we say there can come back to haunt us in the future. Haven't the USENET FAQs always said not to post anything you wouldn't want your family, friends, future employers, worst enemies, and so forth to read?
Remember...engage brain before posting to USENET. If you don't, it's your own fault and you can't expect the rest of the world to look out for you. --
I want a USENET engine set up as a humongous old USENET server--or perhaps cluster of servers. Call it 1991.newssearchengine.example.org, 1992.newssearchengine.example.org, etc.--or call the groups on a single server rec.arts.anime.misc.1991, rec.arts.anime.misc.1992, etc. (and do a global S&R on headers to replace newsgroup names in messages with the groupname.year thingie so that crossposts would still register properly).
You can connect to this server using any USENET newsreader program, read any article you like that way (but not post, of course). That would let people use their favored newsreading environment--which already has functions for threading and searching individual messages--to go in and read whatever they want without having to screw around with USENET search engines' moronic interfaces (of which I have never yet found one that worked decently).
Granted, this would make it harder to do global searches across multiple years...but I'd gladly sacrifice that in exchange for an interface more useful to me in searches of smaller scope. --
My GOD those things are ugly. I see that they're trying to go the "Nokia phone" route--be like those cellphones where you can pop the front off and put a new one on, so you can color-coordinate to your wardrobe or something--but the general shape of the thing...
One of my friends, who works at a prestigious private school where the staff was given Palm Vs, noted that one of the Palm's great advantages over the Visor was that it looked more professional--by comparison, the Visor looked like some kind of hand-held computer game.
Well, even the Visor has it all over those things. Ugh!
And a 25% smaller screen? That's just not going to be very useful to people. --
I fail to see anything wrong with Themestream; it's just another place to post things. The text looks a lot nicer there than it would on a Tripod or Geocities or other free-page site--plus has no annoying banner ads or spawning pop-up windows. It's nicely-formatted, fast to load, doesn't cost you anything, so as far as you're concerned, it's just the same as if I've put it up on a private website and linked to it there.
(Heck, if I did put it up on a private website that had banner ads on it I was still getting paid for, would people complain, even though Themestream's a lot less annoying and intrusive? Geez, Slashdot itself uses banner ads and gets paid for each pageview, and I'm sure they get a lot more from that than I get from one Themestream article.) --
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway, for those who can afford the card, the beta player is available for download right from Sigma Designs. It's primitive so far, and only supports piping out to a TV set, not direct on-monitor play, and I haven't actually had the chance to get it working so I can't say much about whether it actually does--but it is a true licensed Linux DVD solution.
--
That being said, I've found an online bookseller that seems to have consistently better prices than Amazon's, if not all the bells and whistles: Booksamillion.com.
--
I'm hoping for something with a list of towns so I can pick the one closest to me.
--
Does anyone know how to find out what venues This is Spinal Tap is playing? If it's close enough to me, I'd like to drive up and see it. But I'll be darned if I can find that information anywhere.
--
I do agree with you, though, that Palms would be great for RPGs. I recently found that the Fudge RPG kit has been palmdoced--and there's a nice Fudge die-roller out there already . . .
--
If you read an e-book, you'll read it in different places than a regular book. You'll use it and read it in different ways. You can read it in the dark, or in the tub or the shower, or while standing in line, or on a bus, or somewhere else that a regular book will be inconvenient or not possible. But the same holds true for regular books! You'll read them sitting comfortably in an easy chair or at a desk or table, in places and situations where an e-book just wouldn't be as comfortable.
They're companions, counterparts. To claim one will replace (or never be replaced by) the other is to try to cram a square peg into a round hole.
--
Of course, how likely it is to happen depends on how likely someone is to want to type or scan the whole thing in--and then on how likely other people are to want to read it. If his books are anything like his columns, I'd just about pay someone not to have to read them!
Of course, bookswapping goes on via Gnutella and the binaries groups all the time. Usually just the more popular books, like Zelazny, Tolkien, the first three Harry Potters, and so on. Many of the authors whose posts I read on SFFnet are annoyed about this (though some more than others).
And a sort of "open source" publishing model has been proposed in the form of the Street Performers' Protocol, which I'm sure someone will drop a link to elsewhere in this discussion thread. And the Storytellers' Bowl, if it ever gets off the ground, is planning to do something similar. And then there's Free E-press, who publishes on a shareware-like model: read it free, pay us if you liked it.
--
As recounted in this website, the phrase "information wants to be free" has a little-known counterpart: "information wants to be expensive." It was first uttered back in 1984 (now there's an ironic year for information wanting to be free!) by Stewart Brand:
(emphases mine)So, people, next time you use the phrase, please take a moment to reflect on what it really means?
--
And I forgot to mention, they don't charge you for using ATMs, and refund up to $6/mo of other banks' ATM charges.
--
It's called X.Com, the Internet bank. They offer a high interest checking account, with free debit card, fifty printed checks to start you out, and allow deposits by EFT or good old-fashioned snailmail. They also allow you to email people money, though the people must have or get an X account (or request them to mail a check) to use it.
Getting to it is a bit confusing, though--you have to go to X.Com-PayPal's homepage then click on the little X Finance link below the login box, then click on the "Where's X Finance?" link at the top of the page.
Enjoy!
--
--
I need to update my article on Jon Katz to that effect . . . "seems to exhibit a fixation toward certain topics, such as how the 'new media' is destined to kill off the 'old media.' Likes to coin new words like 'mediascape'."
--
--an "anonymous" Spinal Tap member, from their RealVideo interview on Tapster.
--
I found powerOne Finance, and I liked it so much--well, I didn't buy the company, but I did write a review of the program on Themestream explaining what it does, how to use it, and how it helped me so much in that class.
85-90% of the problems in that class involved Time Value of Money, and powerOne's TVM worksheet put me one up on all the people who had to enter one line at a time into those stinky little business calculators. Worked great!
--
I've also written opinion pieces on the M100 (my opinion: uglier than heck!) and the Claudia Schiffer Palm Vx (my opinion: why???).
(Full disclosure: Yes, they are Themestream articles.)
--
It broke within three weeks! The plastic the tips are made out of is really weak. Crumbles right to bits after a couple weeks. Never again!
--
What King is doing is a more structured and restrictive version of what some friends of mine like to call "tipware"--releasing a story into the wild and saying, "If you liked it, send me something!" model, which is also being used by Free ePress. You're not paying for something not written yet; you're paying for something you've already downloaded.
--
This system will also be used in the Storytellers' Bowl website, whenever it gets going. Though it'll be closer to the original concept, as payment will be made before the book is offered for download...
--
All this in the dead of night, at about 2 a.m. Central Time. Color me impressed.
--
Best of all--no annoying ad-serving apps! You fill out one 5-10-question survey a month, which will ask things like what political candidate you support, whether you have confidence in the economy, and so on, which will take you maybe all of two minutes if you read slowly.
Found out about these folks just in time, as my campus started imposing time limits on peak-time dialins. So far, they've worked great for me, for Linux or Windows.
--
This case will undoubtedly be appealed. It might well go all the way to the Supreme Court, as it is one of the first in what seems to be a whole series of new intellectual property disputes, and the Supremes might deem it a good idea to lay down a precedent. And appeals are where Garbus really shines; bear in mind that the man has never lost a case before the Supreme Court.
It might take a while, but I think we have a good chance of winning in the end.
--
Remember...engage brain before posting to USENET. If you don't, it's your own fault and you can't expect the rest of the world to look out for you.
--
You can connect to this server using any USENET newsreader program, read any article you like that way (but not post, of course). That would let people use their favored newsreading environment--which already has functions for threading and searching individual messages--to go in and read whatever they want without having to screw around with USENET search engines' moronic interfaces (of which I have never yet found one that worked decently).
Granted, this would make it harder to do global searches across multiple years...but I'd gladly sacrifice that in exchange for an interface more useful to me in searches of smaller scope.
--
One of my friends, who works at a prestigious private school where the staff was given Palm Vs, noted that one of the Palm's great advantages over the Visor was that it looked more professional--by comparison, the Visor looked like some kind of hand-held computer game.
Well, even the Visor has it all over those things. Ugh!
And a 25% smaller screen? That's just not going to be very useful to people.
--
(Heck, if I did put it up on a private website that had banner ads on it I was still getting paid for, would people complain, even though Themestream's a lot less annoying and intrusive? Geez, Slashdot itself uses banner ads and gets paid for each pageview, and I'm sure they get a lot more from that than I get from one Themestream article.)
--