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User: fafaforza

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  1. Re:Huh? on Fines Fail To Curb Cell Phone Usage While Driving · · Score: 1

    It seems like you're having an argument with yourself.

    As far as not being able to function in society, well that's just part of the punishment for whatever you did to have your license suspended/revoked, and is one of the things to serve as a deterrent, and for you to mend your ways.

    I ride a motorcycle. I got a couple of speeding tickets within a few months. I'm talking 30mph over (could have been more if they lit me up at the right time). The money spent, the real possibility of not being able to ride NOR drive (they don't take away just your class M endorsement, the whole thing goes), and the inability to get insured if I do buy a car, or not being able to rent one are all deterrents for me now, and you can bet I'm a good boy and take it to the race track.

    So you want to keep your job and pay bills and such? Stay under the radar.

  2. Re:It's not the fines.... on Fines Fail To Curb Cell Phone Usage While Driving · · Score: 1

    The probable cause here is most likely the multiple drunk driving convictions, as signified by the special plate.

  3. Re:epaper is too slow on Novelists On the E-Book Experience · · Score: 1

    Please, it's not that bad. Maybe if you're paging through many pages to find something specific, but for sequential reading, it is quicker and easier than the real thing.

    You can anticipate it: as you approach the last 2 or 3 words, hit the button, read the words, then the page changes in a flash. It's near seamless.

  4. Re:Monopoly on Novelists On the E-Book Experience · · Score: 1

    Well, the main reason that publishers are in business is to make money. And they won't make it by publishing to a single place only. That is why you'll see the same books being released on Amazon and the Sony store. Why wouldn't they want that?

    Device makers, I'm sure, would like to make their device the one to get, but publishers themselves? Why wouldn't they reach for the broadest audience possible, and release in multiple DRM formats?

  5. Re:No problem on Novelists On the E-Book Experience · · Score: 1

    > A device with an unprotected screen that I don't expect to last a year?

    I've had my Sony PRS-505 for about a year and always carry it in the back pocket of my jeans, and the screen is as pristine as it was when I first bought it. Obviously you should take care not to sit on it, but you couldn't fault anyone but yourself if you did do that.

    > A device that, should Amazon or Sony decide to get out of the market, will become a paperweight that I can't read my purchased content on anymore

    The entire Sony conglomerate can be dead and buried and I'll still be able to read the books I bought, and upload new files to it. Sony has no way of "disabling" my books or the device itself, unless they shut their store down and I have no backups of my own. But keeping backups of books that are ~1MB in size isn't all that taxing.

  6. Re:Congress has limited power... on Facebook Photos Lead To Cancellation of Quebec Woman's Insurance · · Score: 1

    What more significant way to effect change than to declare war?

  7. Re:Patently stupid. on Patent Issued For Podcasting · · Score: 1

    Are you kidding me? Schedule a 90 minute tape to start recording the Stern show at 6AM. I leave for school at 8 so I pop in another tape and start recording, and I schedule my other radio to catch the end of the show from 9:30 til it runs out. A lot of calories burned for what now is a 5 minute torrent download.

  8. Re:He got it coming on Vulgar Comment On Newspaper Site Costs Man His Job · · Score: 1

    Well, then, careful not to look out the window as those precious 20 seconds belong to your employer.

    Do you seriously think that taking a few minutes here and there to check personal email or headlines causes a grave injustice to the employer? We all do it, yet we still get our work done. Most of us probably work later by a few minutes, do some work at home, etc.

    I'm all for counting our work time to the very second. Just don't expect me to stick around 5 extra minutes to take care of something that just came up, or finish that phone call I'm in the middle of. It swings both ways. I don't know what this guy did at the school, but from what I've heard, teachers take a lot of their work home with them, and even pay for supplies out of their own pocket. I doubt schools want to start nickle and diming them.

  9. The cycle continues. on Laser Weapon Shoots Down Airplanes In Test · · Score: 1

    Ahh great, let's develop another weapon with possibly public money (yes I realize Boeing is private, but it isn't out of the scope of possibility), have it fall into the hands of people we don't like, then demand that more public money/resources be used to develop more advanced weapons to counter the earlier ones.

    Sort of like that Bugs Bunny cartoon with an ever bigger gun. Great advances for humanity.

  10. Re:Which is why their computer's confuse me on Psystar Crushed In Court · · Score: 1

    And what makes you so sure they'd have to support anything that's non-Apple built? Can you call them up demanding support for an install of OSX86 on a ThinkPad? They'd laugh in your ear.

    I say let people install it on any Intel box they want, and if they run into problems, they're on their own. That's why I was rooting for Psystar.

  11. Re:Exactly on Glenn Beck Loses Dispute Over Parody Domain · · Score: 1

    Two wrongs don't make a right. If you want to play the tit for tat game, don't complain when Beck makes some outrageous statement.

  12. Re:icing on the cake: on Glenn Beck Loses Dispute Over Parody Domain · · Score: 1

    And what guarantee do you have that someone with some beef with you won't make such a site and have it indexed on Google, wich you being a lowly burger flipper?

    There are still laws about libel and slander, and even though the domain wasn't making any conclusive statements, the mere posing of the questions puts an image in one's mind, no different than a trail of an innocent person. They may be vindicated if they win, but their reputation is likely tarnished for a long while as the mere existance of such a suit causes people to make assumptions and conclusions.

    I'm not a lawyer, and someone will likely chime in with some allowance, but the domain still doesn't sit well with me. It's childish and insulting. Let Beck destroy his own credibly through, for example, comparing Obama to Hitler. He's doing a bangup job without anyone's help, so why bother in the first place?

  13. Re:Go after MS paint on Visually Impaired Gamer Sues Sony · · Score: 1

    How is a blind, or visually impaired person allowed to drive anyway? And if they are, then what's the point of the vision test when you take your written driving exam. At least I can clearly see general outlines of objects without my glasses.

  14. Re:not suitable for ebooks on For September, Book-Related Apps Overtook Games On iPhone · · Score: 1

    I tried out the 100 classic book collection and didn't stick too long with it. It was neat in the beginning, but the resolution on the DS is too low, and the LCD (at least on my phat DS) is too bright at night, and not bright enough outdoors.

  15. Re:interesting for dedicated e-book manufacturers on For September, Book-Related Apps Overtook Games On iPhone · · Score: 1

    Personally speaking, I don't think I would stick to reading a book for long if I had games and the Internet on the same device. I'd be too tempted to check the latest news or waste some time on a simple game. The PRS-505 fits in the back pocket of all the pants I own so it is easily portable. The new model is even smaller, though the screen might be a bit too small.

    One of the reasons I wanted to start reading again was because I couldn't seem to focus on individual tasks and reading materials. I think the multi tasking nature of all the devices we own are doing a disservice to us, and having everything on your iPhone wouldn't be helping you change that.

  16. Re:No surprise there... on For September, Book-Related Apps Overtook Games On iPhone · · Score: 1

    WHEN was is studied? Apple has undergone a pretty exponential growth in market recently, especially with the iPhone, and with that growth come the masses.

  17. Re:They might lose on Apple Says Booting OS X Makes an Unauthorized Copy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't think that Apple now, or in the future, would offer support for OSX installed on non-Apple hardware. So the argument that it will raise their support costs is bogus. Do they even support all the addon hardware (video, audio cards, etc) that you could put into your legit Mac now? Probably not.

  18. Re:no wonder people are switching to Mac on Who Installs the Most Crapware? · · Score: 1

    Installing Windows isn't that great of an undertaking.

    And if you buy a Mac and install Windows on it, at least you still have a copy of OSX. When you buy a laptop, most of the time, you won't be able to skip Windows, so you'll be buying Windows twice, which is kinda retarded and most people would just stick with what a laptop comes with.

  19. Re:They've taken a leaf out of the UK's book on No Hand-Held Devices In Ontario Cars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It could just as easily mean better road design and better technology in cars as far as antilock brakes, stability control and tires, which can get someone out of a jam better than the clunkers of yore.

  20. Re:MMmmmm... my head will explode. on Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of reasons for renting (or leasing) which may include not wanting to live in the same place for a long time. Every time you buy or sell a home, you're looking at fairly significant fees, taxes, etc. Even if you own a house outright, you're still subject to various taxes, so you could still lose your property.

    Having a company like Amazon or Sony go bankrupt is somewhat far fetched. But even if something like that happened, there are enough users of the service that the outrage created would have forced the company to rectify the situation by allowing people to keep their purchased books. My opinion of course. You have the right to be completely untrusting, I have the right to see the middle of the road.

    And even if Sony goes belly up and the books I bought cease to exist, so what? I have plenty of real books that I tried to get rid of. Between eBaying them, and trying (unsuccessfully) to give them away to a local library, I'll take my ephemeral digital bits gladly.

    By the way, a program called "calibre" allows you to download the WSJ (and other news sources, like Engadget, Ars, etc, and you can write your own recipes for any RSS based site). All images, charts, etc. Though it isn't perfect: you will inevitably see yesterday's article in today's download since it simply downloads from the RSS feed, but that is more of a problem with the paper itself for not compiling a daily eBook file for paid users to download.

    As far as having eBooks of books you bought, of course you'd have to prove somehow that you actually own the book, with a receipt. Something like this might eventually happen. eBooks are still in their infancy.

  21. Re:MMmmmm... my head will explode. on Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC · · Score: 1

    Agreed. Most people can't be bothered to figure out the difference between BBeB/ePub/etc, let alone decrypting books or downloading them from trackers.

    If it were as simple as right clicking on a file and selecting "Email to", ebook piracy would be more prevalent.

    If you don't agree with DRM, buy printed books, or read out of copyright classics, of which there are thousands.

  22. Re:MMmmmm... my head will explode. on Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC · · Score: 1

    But so far, you can still buy a printed book and keep it for ever. If you look at it from a publisher's point of view, if they can't comfortably release a book as a computer file without it easily being copied and shared, then they simply won't pursue the technology, and everyone will suffer because the portable reader will lose its usefulness.

  23. Re:PDF's? on Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC · · Score: 1

    There's already a secure PDF format which publishers could use. Why you'd want to read a book on an LCD or CRT I have no idea, though.

  24. Re:Shame about the kindle on Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC · · Score: 1

    So which netbook fits in the back pocket of a pair of jeans, weights nothing, and lasts for weeks between charges?

  25. Re:MMmmmm... my head will explode. on Amazon Expands Kindle To the PC · · Score: 1

    I don't see what the big deal with DRM is, and why people get so passionate about it. You'll spend $12 to go see a movie in a sticky theater and obnoxious people. You won't get to save a copy of said movie, and you'll be fine with it.

    But paying $10 for a book that will likely provide you with hours more entertainment than the movie, with some possibility that in 30 years Amazon won't exist and your books might not be usable, somehow seems like a crime.

    What does everyone suggest as a replacement for DRM? Do you honestly believe that people can be trusted on an "honor system" to purchase books honestly when they could download them for free in seconds? If there was a place to download all the latest releases, nicely formatted, in the correct format and all, I know that I'd probably download them for free more often than pay.

    Imagine if you were a writer, trying to make a living at it, as hard as it is already, and you had no control over what you created. It wouldn't sit well with you either.