Bezos has been openly supporting patent reform since 2000. He's repeatedly proposed a 3-5 year limit on business method and software patents to be implemented retroactively and a minimum 1 month public comment period before granting them so the public could submit prior art.
It's not his fault voters keep electing people who continually refuse to do anything of the sort. So long as they do refuse he, just like any business leader, would be stupid not to patent everything the USPTO will let them Patent as those that don't get patents get sued out of business by those who do.
For the vast majority of the customers they care about (ie, the paying ones), having to be connected whenever they play is a non-issue. They've been doing it for years already so they can tell the guy they just blew up with a grenade how good his mother was the night before.
But it's hard to rationally begrudge a company moving more towards a service based business model when I've been exploiting the flaws in the media based business model for well over a decade via things like Bittorrent and Usenet.
The way it's laid out in the submission, it sounds like he could just ignore it as an unsolicited business proposal. That he put together it's coming certified mail from a law firm as a legal threat that could destroy his business if not acted upon is a great marketing ploy on their part. But if all the letter says is "We have this great Wi-Fi patent. Would you like to license it?" he doesn't need to do anything and can safely ignore it.
For mayors and city councilmen, red light cameras just mean handing over votes to the people running against them who promise to do away with red light cameras. It doesn't take evidence to make a politician do something. It takes votes or a board position with an 8 figure salary.
It all depends on what your definition of is is and if is is what you think it is or if is is something else. If is means is, then this is The Streisand Effect But if is isn't is then is isn't. To me it's pretty clear is is is and not isn't but perhaps could be if isn't isn't isn't.
Which of course would lead one to conclude that such vehement defense of a individual's strict definition of the Streisand Effect is a fine example of the "Almost dumb enough to be a lawyer" effect.
Yes, there are. But there's even more people whose prosperity is tied to the prosperity of copyright holders.
No one wants their city to be the next Detroit which is what the politicians have been pulling out as the example for what happens if a city and it's people hold local corporations to silly things like ethics or fair business practices. Someone waiting tables at the Waffle House doesn't care about fostering technical innovation. They're happy to vote for a politician who wants to extend copyrights forever, or wants to let the local tech company re-patent everything that has ever been thought of by adding "on a computer" or "on a phone" to it, or wants to let the local steel mill dump slag water in the river; so long as it means that $0.50 tip they get for serving someone breakfast might grow to $0.75, they couldn't care less what it means to some company somewhere else whose ability to innovate will be stifled by over reaching copyright or patent laws.
Cannabis is the highest grossing drug in the US with a worldwide market estimated around $140 Billion/yr. However, relatively little of the trade is controlled by organized criminal cartels these days. Domestic production has skyrocketed in the US and there's enough countries that have legalized it to supply much of the rest of the world which has cut heavily into the cartels' piece of the market. There's just too many ways to get it these days where you don't have to deal with cartel types. It still makes billions for them and funds plenty of criminal activity, but it's not where most of their profit comes from these days. And it never really has been. It's traditionally been more a way to test smuggling routes and methods. Better to lose 1000 pounds of pot than 1000 pounds of Cocaine.
For the cartels, Cocaine (including Crack) has been and still is their bread and butter. It has an estimated market between $80-120 Billion/yr and production and distribution is controlled almost entirely by foreign drug cartels. They also make tons of money from counterfeit pharmaceuticals, Heroin, Methamphetamine, Amphetamines (mostly an Asian market), MDMA, LSD, Ketamine and Khaf.
The "cartels" that make the most from Cannabis prohibition are the corporate ones. The pharmaceutical companies who make billions selling synthesized cannabinoids for $10 a pill, the private prisons who profit off filling up their jails with docile prisoners busted for pot crimes, the law enforcement agencies who would much prefer to focus on busting preppie college pot smokers than armed gang bangers to pad their conviction rates to justify overtime and increased budgets and make a ton of money through the use of forfeiture, the other "sin" industries like tobacco and alcohol producers who don't want competition from a safer recreational drug, the drug testing industry who has a paltry number of positives for any other substances as most of them remain detectable for only a few days while cannabis remains detectable for up to a month, and of course the Government who uses the "drug war" as justification to vastly increase their own powers and stomp on the personal rights and freedoms of the people (although Terrorism has displaced drugs in that role quite a bit).
That's more something to teach a kid programming. As for showing a kid how computers work, it's pretty much useless. To teach a kid basic computers, buy some cheap old parts off Ebay and build a computer with him. Once you get it up and running, take it all back apart and then let him take the lead in putting it back it back together all the way through installing the OS. And I'd go with just a basic Windows machine. You're just trying to impart basic computer knowledge on the kid. No need to try and create a super geek right out of the box.
That's pretty much my position. I personally prefer ammonium nitrate to cow shit as a fertilizer. And I don't mind foods that have been irradiated when the alternative is food that you can watch insects tunneling through or that could be used in place of agar in petri dishes. That depends on what the food is and where you live though. Irradiated fish in Nebraska is one thing, in NYC or San Francisco it's another It's all the pesticides and herbicides used on plants and the hormones, antibiotics, steroids and chemically bolstered feed in meat that I really don't like because it's not required. The cattle rancher I buy beef from grows a little over 100 acres of corn, tomatoes, strawberries and Okra every year without using any pesticides at all. He uses beneficial insects to control pests (and he composts the trim from the harvests to help fertilize the fields used for graze land). And it would be far more cost effective if he didn't have to have crates of insects shipped in several times a year instead of being able to colonize them himself because they get killed off by neighboring farms' pesticides.
It's isn't. There's no FDA restrictions against milk sold in bags. You can buy bags of goat's milk or sweetened cow's milk in bags at specialty stores right now. The reason it hasn't caught on here is because consumers and shippers here reject it.
Shippers don't like them because they are far more prone to breakage, punctures and leaks than bottles and cartons. Consumers don't like it because you have to have a pitcher to place the bag in to keep it from spilling and that's an extra dish to wash every few days. You can't easily reseal the standard bags after they've been opened. And using a bag isn't as intuitive as a carton or jug and we've got a lot of really stupid people who require "Do not eat" warnings on electronics.
Rich kids with parents that care send kids to schools that educate to their child's potential and interests rather than those utilizing a "no child left behind" curriculum that requires schools to do no more than churn out barely adequate students.
Most the courses in grades 6-12 are already too long as teachers have to stretch their curriculum to fit the school year when they could actually have the kids ready to advance to a more challenging subject months sooner.
I run into people every day every day who can't balance a checkbook or name the last 5 Presidents but can recite the stats for every player on their favorite sports team for the past 50 years and instantly calculate quarterback ratings in their head. And kids are just the same where they seem unable to learn anything in school but can instantly determine how an extra 2 points of Str will affect their DPS in Warcraft and remember the names of 200 Pokemon.
Adding 10 days to the school calendar isn't going to make a kid find the Periodic table as interesting to them as Pokemon. If they don't want to learn Chemistry, they aren't going to no matter how long you stick them in a classroom. Finding better ways to motivate kids to want to learn, and trusting that they can learn a hell of a lot more than we often give them credit for is what's needed.
Seriously, you're an ignorant tool. As I stated before, Insurance companies require doctors to fill out some paperwork personally by the treating physician. It can't be filled out by software and he can't hire someone else to do it. That's what "personally" means you colossal fuckwit.
And you can't scream outlier when your argument includes the words "like my GP" and the only basis of your argument is "because I believe it to be so" with no quantifying dataset.
And finally, I never stated that my GP's experience is shared by every doctor in America or is even typical. I only related some of the personal testimony I've been listening to at dinner gatherings for years from a family friend. So you are arguing with a flawed assumption you yourself made, and losing that argument.
Thank you so much for brightening my day. It's much appreciated! A nice demonstration that others are so much more ignorant and mentally unbalanced than myself has made a marked improvement to my self esteem.
Hopefully one day you get the same. Perhaps you may consider volunteering to assist the mentally disabled to facilitate that. It's truly uplifting!
But usually those complaints are about how it's unstable, bloated or insecure rather than how frustrating it is to simply use it. And they come from people like Slashdotters while these complaints are coming from just about everyone who has tried using it.
But the really troubling thing for MS is that even companies like Valve and Blizzard are railing against it. Gaming has been to Windows what porn was to VHS and Bluray. If game developers jump ship and start developing their games for other operating systems, and start encouraging their customers to use them instead, Windows' future will be in serious trouble.
There's already clear definitions as to what has to be regulated and what doesn't. Obviously anything meant to control a Volumetric Infusion Pump would be regulated whether the software ran on an iPhone or a dedicated control board.
Someone mentioned iSurgeon. If iSurgeon adds the ability to use it to plot incisions or such and they suggest those plottings are accurate and should be used for surgical purposes, then yes, it should be regulated. But as it is, it's just a reference tool no different than pointing at a picture in a magazine and saying "Make me look like that". Most the Medical apps are nothing more than reference tools. And it's up to the doctor (and their malpractice attorney) to decide if their reference is accurate/comprehensive enough to be used by them or not in their practice.
My family doctor (who is also a family friend) spends 3-5 hours every day filling out paperwork that he has to process personally to meet insurance/legal guidelines and regulations, that's 3-5 hours of his 10-12 hour day that he's not seeing patents or generating income. He also has to employ 2 assistants to make the phone calls and fill out the paperwork he doesn't have to do personally and they don't work for free or without benefits.
He also has issues like having to have 2 different X-Ray machines because different insurance companies have different diagnostic requirements before they'll authorize procedures. Back in the 80s, he worked 10 hours a day, saw 40-50 patents a day and made more than $250k a year. Now, he works 10-12 hours a day and the made less than $40k. His practice actually operates at a loss, he only makes anything because he spends a month in South Africa training doctors there.
Willie Nelson was wrong. You can do better as a Cowboy than you can Doctor these days.
To actually address the OP's question specifically, as with anything, which one is best depends on many variables.
You say you'd like a dictionary, in which case a tablet is usually going to do that better.
But if you get distracted easily by things like having the ability to play Angry Birds, then a basic e-reader might be better.
If you read in bed at night, a front lit reader would be favorable (Nook has one and there's supposedly a front lit Kindle on the way soon) as backlit screens can be hard on the eyes or distracting if you have a partner who is trying to sleep while you read.
If you read in bright sunlight an e-ink reader would be best. Etc, etc....
My advice would be to get a $80 Kindle or the cheapest E-Reader you can find second hand or on clearance and give it a try for a month or so. If you end up not liking it, you'll at least have some practical use experience to determine why you don't like it and have a better idea of what you would like.
For me, I use a fairly old Sony PRS-505. I also have several other readers (Nook Glow, Kindle and a iPad) but the reason I keep it is because of my variables. The main one is that I read a lot of series books and I use Calibre to manage my book library and Sony's software allows me to group books in order by series very easily using Calibre. The Nook and Kindle don't allow outside programs that ability so you have to sort books one by one into Shelves or Collections on the reader itself which takes forever. The Sony doesn't also doesn't have a touch screen which is nice as I read in bed a lot and end up flipping pages or bringing up menus all the time whenever I shift with a touch screen. It also acts as an MP3 player which is great when traveling to block out distractions and allows me to play audiobooks as well. And it's much lighter than an iPad so it's easier to tote around or hold in one hand when I read at lunch and such.
Only if they point it at you in a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The cops need a warrant to hack into your security system and watch you on your home security cameras. But if they want to scan the security cameras at Walmart to see if you're in the store, they only need Walmart's permission. The same kind goes in this case. They still need a warrant to hack into your phone or listen into phone calls. But they only need the tower operator's permission to look around and see if you're "there". And having them monitor for connections is the electronic equivalent of handing out a picture and a business card to employees at place you're known to frequent and asking them to give them a call if you show up. It's their tower and you have no reasonable expectation of privacy while you're there.
In fact, a disposable is less private (if only slightly) as as most carrier contracts have at least some level of customer privacy protections built into them. Disposables often have no contract and thus no limitations on what the carriers can give over to police if asked.
First, your references to e-readers is more offtopic than references to the Nexus. The Nook Color, like the Nexus 7, is a tablet. The Nook Simple Touch is their eInk ebook reader but was not the focus of this submission or the article that spawned it.
Secondly, it's not likely a signal of a price war. Amazon is supposedly going to be releasing a new Kindle Fire and a new version of the Kindle E-Reader (including a front lit version like the Nook Glow Touch) "around the end of August". B&N are just getting out in front of pending competition by a competitor who has traditionally trounced them in the market.
And lastly, I already give up my privacy by buying books from them in the first place. But I personally like the results of the tracking. When logged out, B&N tries to feed me romance novels and cook books (B&M bookstores do pretty much the same). But when logged in, I get fed Raymond Feist, Tad Williams and Terry Brooks. The time saved by not having to wade through all that Nicholas Sparks crap is well worth risking whatever nefarious potential their tracking has.
But if I minded, I could always simply click skip when it asks for my wireless info or buy a reader without such capability..
Math certainly comes in more handy than all the writing practice has.
I do make occasional use of Algebra, Trig and Geometry even in daily life. But I've never once used MLA or Chicago citations outside of school. And being that I absolutely despise writing essays and reports on subjects I care little about, and in the real world I hire people to do that crap for me on the rare occasions I need it. It was the biggest limit to my education as I actively chose courses with as minimal writing requirements as I could and avoided writing intensive courses like the plague.
Math doesn't unnecessarily limit student's educational choices. It's the structure of degree programs where half or more of the required coursework is irrelevant to the field the student is studying to enter that limit people's educational choices and most of the skills learned will never be used. Math is just the most prevalent example. If someone is bad at, or dislikes math, they're most likely going to choose a degree program and elective course work as light in math as possible or avoid college entirely. Ditto for those who dislike writing, public speaking, history, science or some other task. That all degree programs are filled with such courses and requirements is the biggest limitation to education.
I certainly recall being quite happy when I first ventured out into the world on my own and was eating Ramen noodles for the majority of my meals and had to ride a bike to work because I couldn't afford a car.
Having done well in life and now being able to afford a 4000sq ft luxury home with big screen TV in every room, luxury cars in the garage and interest and investment income that would put me well into the top 10% hasn't made me inherently any happier than I was then.
Happiness and contentment don't scale with living standards.
But, you're not everyone.
Until every single human being on Earth is required, under penalty of death to go to see every movie released (including Uwe Boll movies!) at the theater, then buy it on Blu Ray 6 months later, then buy some "special" rerelease (Director's Cut, Unrated Version, special anniversary edition, etc.) every 6 months; Hollywood will still profess that they are losing trillions of dollars to piracy. Meh, they'd still claim it because somewhere some kid would pick up a broom stick and pretend it's a lightsaber instead of paying $39.99 for an "officially licensed merchandise" version.
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It's not his fault voters keep electing people who continually refuse to do anything of the sort. So long as they do refuse he, just like any business leader, would be stupid not to patent everything the USPTO will let them Patent as those that don't get patents get sued out of business by those who do.
But it's hard to rationally begrudge a company moving more towards a service based business model when I've been exploiting the flaws in the media based business model for well over a decade via things like Bittorrent and Usenet.
The way it's laid out in the submission, it sounds like he could just ignore it as an unsolicited business proposal. That he put together it's coming certified mail from a law firm as a legal threat that could destroy his business if not acted upon is a great marketing ploy on their part.
But if all the letter says is "We have this great Wi-Fi patent. Would you like to license it?" he doesn't need to do anything and can safely ignore it.
For mayors and city councilmen, red light cameras just mean handing over votes to the people running against them who promise to do away with red light cameras. It doesn't take evidence to make a politician do something. It takes votes or a board position with an 8 figure salary.
Which of course would lead one to conclude that such vehement defense of a individual's strict definition of the Streisand Effect is a fine example of the "Almost dumb enough to be a lawyer" effect.
Yes, there are. But there's even more people whose prosperity is tied to the prosperity of copyright holders.
No one wants their city to be the next Detroit which is what the politicians have been pulling out as the example for what happens if a city and it's people hold local corporations to silly things like ethics or fair business practices.
Someone waiting tables at the Waffle House doesn't care about fostering technical innovation. They're happy to vote for a politician who wants to extend copyrights forever, or wants to let the local tech company re-patent everything that has ever been thought of by adding "on a computer" or "on a phone" to it, or wants to let the local steel mill dump slag water in the river; so long as it means that $0.50 tip they get for serving someone breakfast might grow to $0.75, they couldn't care less what it means to some company somewhere else whose ability to innovate will be stifled by over reaching copyright or patent laws.
For the cartels, Cocaine (including Crack) has been and still is their bread and butter. It has an estimated market between $80-120 Billion/yr and production and distribution is controlled almost entirely by foreign drug cartels. They also make tons of money from counterfeit pharmaceuticals, Heroin, Methamphetamine, Amphetamines (mostly an Asian market), MDMA, LSD, Ketamine and Khaf.
The "cartels" that make the most from Cannabis prohibition are the corporate ones. The pharmaceutical companies who make billions selling synthesized cannabinoids for $10 a pill, the private prisons who profit off filling up their jails with docile prisoners busted for pot crimes, the law enforcement agencies who would much prefer to focus on busting preppie college pot smokers than armed gang bangers to pad their conviction rates to justify overtime and increased budgets and make a ton of money through the use of forfeiture, the other "sin" industries like tobacco and alcohol producers who don't want competition from a safer recreational drug, the drug testing industry who has a paltry number of positives for any other substances as most of them remain detectable for only a few days while cannabis remains detectable for up to a month, and of course the Government who uses the "drug war" as justification to vastly increase their own powers and stomp on the personal rights and freedoms of the people (although Terrorism has displaced drugs in that role quite a bit).
That's more something to teach a kid programming. As for showing a kid how computers work, it's pretty much useless.
To teach a kid basic computers, buy some cheap old parts off Ebay and build a computer with him. Once you get it up and running, take it all back apart and then let him take the lead in putting it back it back together all the way through installing the OS.
And I'd go with just a basic Windows machine. You're just trying to impart basic computer knowledge on the kid. No need to try and create a super geek right out of the box.
That's pretty much my position. I personally prefer ammonium nitrate to cow shit as a fertilizer. And I don't mind foods that have been irradiated when the alternative is food that you can watch insects tunneling through or that could be used in place of agar in petri dishes. That depends on what the food is and where you live though. Irradiated fish in Nebraska is one thing, in NYC or San Francisco it's another
It's all the pesticides and herbicides used on plants and the hormones, antibiotics, steroids and chemically bolstered feed in meat that I really don't like because it's not required. The cattle rancher I buy beef from grows a little over 100 acres of corn, tomatoes, strawberries and Okra every year without using any pesticides at all. He uses beneficial insects to control pests (and he composts the trim from the harvests to help fertilize the fields used for graze land). And it would be far more cost effective if he didn't have to have crates of insects shipped in several times a year instead of being able to colonize them himself because they get killed off by neighboring farms' pesticides.
The reason it hasn't caught on here is because consumers and shippers here reject it.
Shippers don't like them because they are far more prone to breakage, punctures and leaks than bottles and cartons.
Consumers don't like it because you have to have a pitcher to place the bag in to keep it from spilling and that's an extra dish to wash every few days. You can't easily reseal the standard bags after they've been opened. And using a bag isn't as intuitive as a carton or jug and we've got a lot of really stupid people who require "Do not eat" warnings on electronics.
Most the courses in grades 6-12 are already too long as teachers have to stretch their curriculum to fit the school year when they could actually have the kids ready to advance to a more challenging subject months sooner.
I run into people every day every day who can't balance a checkbook or name the last 5 Presidents but can recite the stats for every player on their favorite sports team for the past 50 years and instantly calculate quarterback ratings in their head. And kids are just the same where they seem unable to learn anything in school but can instantly determine how an extra 2 points of Str will affect their DPS in Warcraft and remember the names of 200 Pokemon.
Adding 10 days to the school calendar isn't going to make a kid find the Periodic table as interesting to them as Pokemon. If they don't want to learn Chemistry, they aren't going to no matter how long you stick them in a classroom. Finding better ways to motivate kids to want to learn, and trusting that they can learn a hell of a lot more than we often give them credit for is what's needed.
As I stated before, Insurance companies require doctors to fill out some paperwork personally by the treating physician. It can't be filled out by software and he can't hire someone else to do it. That's what "personally" means you colossal fuckwit.
And you can't scream outlier when your argument includes the words "like my GP" and the only basis of your argument is "because I believe it to be so" with no quantifying dataset.
And finally, I never stated that my GP's experience is shared by every doctor in America or is even typical. I only related some of the personal testimony I've been listening to at dinner gatherings for years from a family friend. So you are arguing with a flawed assumption you yourself made, and losing that argument.
In short: fuckwit, fuckwit, fuckwit!!!
A nice demonstration that others are so much more ignorant and mentally unbalanced than myself has made a marked improvement to my self esteem.
Hopefully one day you get the same. Perhaps you may consider volunteering to assist the mentally disabled to facilitate that. It's truly uplifting!
But the really troubling thing for MS is that even companies like Valve and Blizzard are railing against it. Gaming has been to Windows what porn was to VHS and Bluray. If game developers jump ship and start developing their games for other operating systems, and start encouraging their customers to use them instead, Windows' future will be in serious trouble.
Someone mentioned iSurgeon. If iSurgeon adds the ability to use it to plot incisions or such and they suggest those plottings are accurate and should be used for surgical purposes, then yes, it should be regulated. But as it is, it's just a reference tool no different than pointing at a picture in a magazine and saying "Make me look like that". Most the Medical apps are nothing more than reference tools. And it's up to the doctor (and their malpractice attorney) to decide if their reference is accurate/comprehensive enough to be used by them or not in their practice.
He also has issues like having to have 2 different X-Ray machines because different insurance companies have different diagnostic requirements before they'll authorize procedures.
Back in the 80s, he worked 10 hours a day, saw 40-50 patents a day and made more than $250k a year. Now, he works 10-12 hours a day and the made less than $40k. His practice actually operates at a loss, he only makes anything because he spends a month in South Africa training doctors there.
Willie Nelson was wrong. You can do better as a Cowboy than you can Doctor these days.
You say you'd like a dictionary, in which case a tablet is usually going to do that better.
But if you get distracted easily by things like having the ability to play Angry Birds, then a basic e-reader might be better.
If you read in bed at night, a front lit reader would be favorable (Nook has one and there's supposedly a front lit Kindle on the way soon) as backlit screens can be hard on the eyes or distracting if you have a partner who is trying to sleep while you read.
If you read in bright sunlight an e-ink reader would be best. Etc, etc....
My advice would be to get a $80 Kindle or the cheapest E-Reader you can find second hand or on clearance and give it a try for a month or so. If you end up not liking it, you'll at least have some practical use experience to determine why you don't like it and have a better idea of what you would like.
For me, I use a fairly old Sony PRS-505. I also have several other readers (Nook Glow, Kindle and a iPad) but the reason I keep it is because of my variables. The main one is that I read a lot of series books and I use Calibre to manage my book library and Sony's software allows me to group books in order by series very easily using Calibre. The Nook and Kindle don't allow outside programs that ability so you have to sort books one by one into Shelves or Collections on the reader itself which takes forever. The Sony doesn't also doesn't have a touch screen which is nice as I read in bed a lot and end up flipping pages or bringing up menus all the time whenever I shift with a touch screen. It also acts as an MP3 player which is great when traveling to block out distractions and allows me to play audiobooks as well. And it's much lighter than an iPad so it's easier to tote around or hold in one hand when I read at lunch and such.
Most of the designs create their own grey water and use it to help process the solid waste.
Only if they point it at you in a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The cops need a warrant to hack into your security system and watch you on your home security cameras. But if they want to scan the security cameras at Walmart to see if you're in the store, they only need Walmart's permission.
The same kind goes in this case. They still need a warrant to hack into your phone or listen into phone calls. But they only need the tower operator's permission to look around and see if you're "there". And having them monitor for connections is the electronic equivalent of handing out a picture and a business card to employees at place you're known to frequent and asking them to give them a call if you show up. It's their tower and you have no reasonable expectation of privacy while you're there.
In fact, a disposable is less private (if only slightly) as as most carrier contracts have at least some level of customer privacy protections built into them. Disposables often have no contract and thus no limitations on what the carriers can give over to police if asked.
First, your references to e-readers is more offtopic than references to the Nexus. The Nook Color, like the Nexus 7, is a tablet. The Nook Simple Touch is their eInk ebook reader but was not the focus of this submission or the article that spawned it.
Secondly, it's not likely a signal of a price war. Amazon is supposedly going to be releasing a new Kindle Fire and a new version of the Kindle E-Reader (including a front lit version like the Nook Glow Touch) "around the end of August". B&N are just getting out in front of pending competition by a competitor who has traditionally trounced them in the market.
And lastly, I already give up my privacy by buying books from them in the first place. But I personally like the results of the tracking. When logged out, B&N tries to feed me romance novels and cook books (B&M bookstores do pretty much the same). But when logged in, I get fed Raymond Feist, Tad Williams and Terry Brooks. The time saved by not having to wade through all that Nicholas Sparks crap is well worth risking whatever nefarious potential their tracking has.
But if I minded, I could always simply click skip when it asks for my wireless info or buy a reader without such capability..
I do make occasional use of Algebra, Trig and Geometry even in daily life. But I've never once used MLA or Chicago citations outside of school. And being that I absolutely despise writing essays and reports on subjects I care little about, and in the real world I hire people to do that crap for me on the rare occasions I need it. It was the biggest limit to my education as I actively chose courses with as minimal writing requirements as I could and avoided writing intensive courses like the plague.
Math doesn't unnecessarily limit student's educational choices. It's the structure of degree programs where half or more of the required coursework is irrelevant to the field the student is studying to enter that limit people's educational choices and most of the skills learned will never be used. Math is just the most prevalent example. If someone is bad at, or dislikes math, they're most likely going to choose a degree program and elective course work as light in math as possible or avoid college entirely. Ditto for those who dislike writing, public speaking, history, science or some other task. That all degree programs are filled with such courses and requirements is the biggest limitation to education.
How about buying someone to run against him instead?
Having done well in life and now being able to afford a 4000sq ft luxury home with big screen TV in every room, luxury cars in the garage and interest and investment income that would put me well into the top 10% hasn't made me inherently any happier than I was then.
Happiness and contentment don't scale with living standards.
But, you're not everyone.
Until every single human being on Earth is required, under penalty of death to go to see every movie released (including Uwe Boll movies!) at the theater, then buy it on Blu Ray 6 months later, then buy some "special" rerelease (Director's Cut, Unrated Version, special anniversary edition, etc.) every 6 months; Hollywood will still profess that they are losing trillions of dollars to piracy.
Meh, they'd still claim it because somewhere some kid would pick up a broom stick and pretend it's a lightsaber instead of paying $39.99 for an "officially licensed merchandise" version.
It appears everyone's funny bones have become infected. They should use MyCleanPC on their Humerus!