Once ebooks hardware really matures it will be cheap, thin (not paper think perhaps, but considerably thinner than a magazine), maybe even flexible, and much more abuse friendly. It will also waterproof, I'd think (thinking 20-30 years out).
Try keeping your favorite book out in the rain and see what happens.
OTOH, lots of paper products are fragile. The older paper gets, the more brittle/fragile it is. And can you clean cheetos orange or chocolate off of paper pages?
Things will get pirated. It's undeniable. I'm also not familiar with Pogue's writing.
But 99% of what I need to read is already freely available on the internet not only because of books, but also forums about specialty topics, news sites and things of that nature. Years back, when I was looking to learn lisp I found the easiest/best book was available free (by Touretzky).
And several newer ones (and highly acclaimed) were freely available as well. They sold well when they made it to print.
The way I see it, good books/resources are already so widely available on the internet that authors are shooting themselves in the foot by not putting themselves out there on a digital format. It's rather like refusing to print books because the library offers them for free and they can be xeroxed.
They don't have to compete on price, but just be better than the free competiton. I know I would be more apt to buy a book on computer languages written by Touretzky. I know this because I have been a repeat customer of other authors I like from fiction to mathematical textbooks -- my time is more valuable than trying to cop a free book. If I know an author can entertain/teach me in the allotted time, I'll pay the price.
When you consider the average American moves every 7 years, the hassle of libraries, the expense/convenience of keeping a paper library, and the inherent advantages of a digital e-ink readers; these will become a major market soon especially for the younger generation.*
It's rather like artists/RIAA of the 90s saying they wouldn't put their music out as mp3s because of piracy, they'll stick with the good old CD. The format exploded despite the content providers liking it or not.
*(Although I have dealt with DRMed digital textbooks, I won't have anything to do with them. IMO, DRMed books are a million times worse than a DRMed song. Stallman was right on the money here.)
.Funny how you touch on shit that doesn't matter in the least, yet leave out the one thing that really does paint Obama as an elitist, insensitive bastard: him going on about how people only like guns/religion because they're poor, a month or two ago.
He was saying how some people turn to religion when they lose hope; can you deny that?
Really, I hate Obama's politics (entitlements, government fixing everything, etcetera) -- but I could use one election cycle when the media/opponents aren't hungry to grab onto words to twist them the wrong way, and feed it to the public as a news story to get upset about. Same with Clinton's words, or McCains -- there are people so eager to discredit their political opposites that they hang on every word without really listening to what they are saying.
Any lack of real discourse is probably one reason politics is in the gutter.
I may be wrong, but I was taught that there is a division between an operating system and the applications that it runs. The OS is supposed to handle things like IO and memory, while the real functionality comes from userland applications (often third party) interacting with the OS.
And how joyous it would have been if IE were not so tightly integrated with Windows following that theory.
However, wanting certain capabilities bundled with the OS is not necessarily asking for it being integrated with the OS.
I don't know how old CDBurnerXP is (I'm talking about an experience I had with Windows when switching to the very first iteration of Ubuntu when Linux finally stuck) but Daemon tools plain didn't work for me back then.
I find Linux more capable on the Desktop than Microsoft. There are often times when MS's (using XP) internal burning software is inadequate - like burning images. I don't know if it's fixed yet, but for a long time XP just would not burn an image with its built in software and you had to use something like Nero. Never had a problem burning an image running any linux distro. Same with mounting.iso right from the harddrive as a cd-rom. It usually required some pay-for software (Alcohol 120%) in Windows, while a 2 minute search yield a few command lines to do it in Ubuntu. I know I'd rather save the money.
A typical mainstream Linux distro is ready. It's often superior in many ways to MS, as MS seems to deliberately makes their OS do almost nothing useful beyond the basics it seems (or was it that Monopoly ruling that caused this?) It's now just 3rd party apps for most people. Web Browsing has reversed itself (there are enough people who wouldn't switch from Firefox due to plug-ins they can't get in IE).
On the Corporate Level, solution providers are slow to change if they're an MS only shop. I even know the university/college level has problems. Blackboard and other such garbage.
I suspect the oncoming economic shitstorm may finally get corporations to really tighten their belts and that company-wide OS licenses may just not fit in the budget anymore looking ahead 5 years in some places. I just hope the current/next generation of purchase managers learns from the past and looks to do away with vendor lock-in in so many areas as much as possible.
I assume it is necessary (for them) otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.
I'll admit, I don't know much cable bandwidth, but wouldn't it be wise for them to start laying fiber and cable side by side and then do a seemless switch one day?
It seems cable vs fiber is a losing battle for cable.
I watch little TV - mostly Futurama/Colbert Report on Comedy Central and some History/Discovery Channel. Nothing else.
When I record something, I skip the ads -- but I usually make a mental note of the advertising and the brand being advertised. Not for any particular reason or obligation, but I think it's because I'm still focused on the show rather having zoned out earlier at the start of an advertising break.
If an ad is particularly entertaining, I even back up and watch/rewatch it though:)
I don't think it'll be big. E-paper/ink readers are here and they just need to get faster, cheaper, bigger displays, thinner, and evenntually color (you know, all the upgrade cycles all previous electronics went through). I'd say because of flash/wireless, capacity is already there/superior to any paper solution.
The big hurdles to this paper is simple the work it will take to gather the old paper up, stack them neatly, and make them fit for printing. How much premium will this paper command? What % will be wasted due to folds/creases/smears/etc every time? Staples will be extra work.
The bottom line: will it save from the bottom line? Considering the above work required: no. But will it be used? I think it will have its own niche... but epaper/eink/whatever_you_call_it is the next big thing, not this.
Microsoft has a ton of cash it is sitting on and it's burning a hole in their pocket. They're also a company that has lost an overall focus and their major enemies from the past generations are gone. They are building up a new "feindbild" with Google in the lead role -- so to them taking over number 2 (Yahoo) would be a logical procession if they can't buy #1 (Google).
Microsoft always needed an enemy to rail against (because they usually didn't innovate, rather copied and improved upon). They have been at this unfocused lash-out stage for quite a number of years.
But really, this purchase is redundant. They're better off taking the excess cash, paying dividends, and let that be the end of it. The MS/Yahoo merger will be stillborn. The management there will be hostile and leave after the buyouts and the Microsoft drones won't be any better.
Yes, but the problem is that "it" is the only noun (okay, pronoun) where the apostrophe s ('s) won't make it possesive. It's rather stupid. Another exception to add to the long list of rules and exceptions -- which English has an unnecessary amount of; just like its pronunciation quirks.
I already had 2 harddrives fail in 2 seperate notebooks. They weren't old either at the time, maybe one was 16 months and the other was 3 months at the time. I've only owned about 4 notebooks.
Something about moving around and harddrives don't mix. (Can't wait for SSD).
I have to agree. I don't think Yahoo is all that great of a buy especially at $45-50. Don't get me wrong, it may be worth a significant fraction of that but that fraction will just be fucked by MS as well.
I can't help but think that amount of money would better serve their shareholders in the form of dividends rather than flailing about looking to buy a ready-made solution to their increasing internet irrevelancy. It's too bad, MS can make pretty nice things when they try and it's the engineers that design something first without the lawyers/marketers/corporate_droid dictating every little aspect.
Binaries incompatible Windows 7 would be a godsend..... but if only IBM/some_other_donor_of_programmer_and_money stuck a major amount of resources into Wine the year before:)
Wouldn't that more likely stop the already slow migration from XP to Vista? I think since XP is still available that most businesses will just stick with it (until it becomes unbearable which is hardly the case....) if they can.
Now, maybe they actually want to slow the sales of Vista for some reason. But I'll leave it to another to extrapolate.
Speed is not the problem most of the time. America has notoriously low speed limits designed to make you the criminal when you drive normally (my state routinely has 55mph on highways where everybody goes about 72. Those who actually go 55 are in great danger from traffic). Last time I looked, it was safer to go 10mph above the limit than 10mph below.
It's just the easiest way to collect tickets. Point a radar gun, boom, and write ticket.
I see all kinds of more dangerous traffic infractions that almost no cop gives a damn about. Failure to use turn signals. Or this situation: you are on a normal two-lane two-way road at an intersection with a green light. You are at the forefront and want to make a left turn and the car opposite from you is in the same situation. There is a line of cars behind both of you. Most state laws would give the left-turners the right of way and both of you should be able to turn left simultaneously. What instead usually happens is that the cars behind you take to the shoulder (illegally in this case - going onto the shoulder is to avoid an obstacle, not traffic) and go around you, cutting the two turning left off from their right-of-way. This is where the law and (now) common practice collide.
Someone else mention the left lane as passing. It also recently became State law here that left was only to be used for passing and faster traffic. Not in practice. Most times I see some cas right next to each other neck and neck (and not even going fast) which leaves me wondering why the guy in the left lane even bothered going in the left lane... other than to block everyone else.
But cops sure do love keeping on writing the speeding tickets. I guess going slow negates the danger of not following any other rules:/
Slashdot Mirror
Teach future presidents they are not above the law?
People get the Government they deserve.
(Please note, the quote does not say "a person gets").
You need to be involved. Check your Congressman's vote:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2008-300
Write him if you don't like it (or if you did). I'm proud to say Ron Paul of TX voted Nay.
A nontechnical solution to an ultimately nontechnical problem.
One has to wonder, is ATT really such a necessary evil or can innovations like visual voicemail be rapidly available other ways than lock-in?
Once ebooks hardware really matures it will be cheap, thin (not paper think perhaps, but considerably thinner than a magazine), maybe even flexible, and much more abuse friendly. It will also waterproof, I'd think (thinking 20-30 years out).
Try keeping your favorite book out in the rain and see what happens.
OTOH, lots of paper products are fragile. The older paper gets, the more brittle/fragile it is. And can you clean cheetos orange or chocolate off of paper pages?
Things will get pirated. It's undeniable. I'm also not familiar with Pogue's writing.
But 99% of what I need to read is already freely available on the internet not only because of books, but also forums about specialty topics, news sites and things of that nature. Years back, when I was looking to learn lisp I found the easiest/best book was available free (by Touretzky).
And several newer ones (and highly acclaimed) were freely available as well. They sold well when they made it to print.
The way I see it, good books/resources are already so widely available on the internet that authors are shooting themselves in the foot by not putting themselves out there on a digital format. It's rather like refusing to print books because the library offers them for free and they can be xeroxed.
They don't have to compete on price, but just be better than the free competiton. I know I would be more apt to buy a book on computer languages written by Touretzky. I know this because I have been a repeat customer of other authors I like from fiction to mathematical textbooks -- my time is more valuable than trying to cop a free book. If I know an author can entertain/teach me in the allotted time, I'll pay the price.
When you consider the average American moves every 7 years, the hassle of libraries, the expense/convenience of keeping a paper library, and the inherent advantages of a digital e-ink readers; these will become a major market soon especially for the younger generation.*
It's rather like artists/RIAA of the 90s saying they wouldn't put their music out as mp3s because of piracy, they'll stick with the good old CD. The format exploded despite the content providers liking it or not.
*(Although I have dealt with DRMed digital textbooks, I won't have anything to do with them. IMO, DRMed books are a million times worse than a DRMed song. Stallman was right on the money here.)
He was saying how some people turn to religion when they lose hope; can you deny that?
Really, I hate Obama's politics (entitlements, government fixing everything, etcetera) -- but I could use one election cycle when the media/opponents aren't hungry to grab onto words to twist them the wrong way, and feed it to the public as a news story to get upset about. Same with Clinton's words, or McCains -- there are people so eager to discredit their political opposites that they hang on every word without really listening to what they are saying.
Any lack of real discourse is probably one reason politics is in the gutter.
And how joyous it would have been if IE were not so tightly integrated with Windows following that theory.
However, wanting certain capabilities bundled with the OS is not necessarily asking for it being integrated with the OS.
I don't know how old CDBurnerXP is (I'm talking about an experience I had with Windows when switching to the very first iteration of Ubuntu when Linux finally stuck) but Daemon tools plain didn't work for me back then.
I find Linux more capable on the Desktop than Microsoft. There are often times when MS's (using XP) internal burning software is inadequate - like burning images. I don't know if it's fixed yet, but for a long time XP just would not burn an image with its built in software and you had to use something like Nero. Never had a problem burning an image running any linux distro. Same with mounting .iso right from the harddrive as a cd-rom. It usually required some pay-for software (Alcohol 120%) in Windows, while a 2 minute search yield a few command lines to do it in Ubuntu. I know I'd rather save the money.
A typical mainstream Linux distro is ready. It's often superior in many ways to MS, as MS seems to deliberately makes their OS do almost nothing useful beyond the basics it seems (or was it that Monopoly ruling that caused this?) It's now just 3rd party apps for most people. Web Browsing has reversed itself (there are enough people who wouldn't switch from Firefox due to plug-ins they can't get in IE).
On the Corporate Level, solution providers are slow to change if they're an MS only shop. I even know the university/college level has problems. Blackboard and other such garbage.
I suspect the oncoming economic shitstorm may finally get corporations to really tighten their belts and that company-wide OS licenses may just not fit in the budget anymore looking ahead 5 years in some places. I just hope the current/next generation of purchase managers learns from the past and looks to do away with vendor lock-in in so many areas as much as possible.
You mean that yucky plastic skin that old prothestics are covered with? Hello uncanny valley!
I'd rather have a Terminator looking device as an arm than that crap! It doesn't look bad as it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
(Besides, the technology is just too new.)
I assume it is necessary (for them) otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.
I'll admit, I don't know much cable bandwidth, but wouldn't it be wise for them to start laying fiber and cable side by side and then do a seemless switch one day?
It seems cable vs fiber is a losing battle for cable.
I watch little TV - mostly Futurama/Colbert Report on Comedy Central and some History/Discovery Channel. Nothing else.
When I record something, I skip the ads -- but I usually make a mental note of the advertising and the brand being advertised. Not for any particular reason or obligation, but I think it's because I'm still focused on the show rather having zoned out earlier at the start of an advertising break.
If an ad is particularly entertaining, I even back up and watch/rewatch it though:)
I don't think it'll be big. E-paper/ink readers are here and they just need to get faster, cheaper, bigger displays, thinner, and evenntually color (you know, all the upgrade cycles all previous electronics went through). I'd say because of flash/wireless, capacity is already there/superior to any paper solution.
The big hurdles to this paper is simple the work it will take to gather the old paper up, stack them neatly, and make them fit for printing. How much premium will this paper command? What % will be wasted due to folds/creases/smears/etc every time? Staples will be extra work.
The bottom line: will it save from the bottom line? Considering the above work required: no. But will it be used? I think it will have its own niche... but epaper/eink/whatever_you_call_it is the next big thing, not this.
Whitehouse/Government and just "lose" emails?:)
Microsoft has a ton of cash it is sitting on and it's burning a hole in their pocket. They're also a company that has lost an overall focus and their major enemies from the past generations are gone. They are building up a new "feindbild" with Google in the lead role -- so to them taking over number 2 (Yahoo) would be a logical procession if they can't buy #1 (Google).
Microsoft always needed an enemy to rail against (because they usually didn't innovate, rather copied and improved upon). They have been at this unfocused lash-out stage for quite a number of years.
But really, this purchase is redundant. They're better off taking the excess cash, paying dividends, and let that be the end of it. The MS/Yahoo merger will be stillborn. The management there will be hostile and leave after the buyouts and the Microsoft drones won't be any better.
I thought Yahoo wanted more money, not less.
Yes, but the problem is that "it" is the only noun (okay, pronoun) where the apostrophe s ('s) won't make it possesive. It's rather stupid. Another exception to add to the long list of rules and exceptions -- which English has an unnecessary amount of; just like its pronunciation quirks.
I already had 2 harddrives fail in 2 seperate notebooks. They weren't old either at the time, maybe one was 16 months and the other was 3 months at the time. I've only owned about 4 notebooks.
Something about moving around and harddrives don't mix. (Can't wait for SSD).
I have to agree. I don't think Yahoo is all that great of a buy especially at $45-50. Don't get me wrong, it may be worth a significant fraction of that but that fraction will just be fucked by MS as well.
I can't help but think that amount of money would better serve their shareholders in the form of dividends rather than flailing about looking to buy a ready-made solution to their increasing internet irrevelancy. It's too bad, MS can make pretty nice things when they try and it's the engineers that design something first without the lawyers/marketers/corporate_droid dictating every little aspect.
Binaries incompatible Windows 7 would be a godsend..... but if only IBM/some_other_donor_of_programmer_and_money stuck a major amount of resources into Wine the year before:)
Wouldn't that more likely stop the already slow migration from XP to Vista? I think since XP is still available that most businesses will just stick with it (until it becomes unbearable which is hardly the case....) if they can.
Now, maybe they actually want to slow the sales of Vista for some reason. But I'll leave it to another to extrapolate.
Speed is not the problem most of the time. America has notoriously low speed limits designed to make you the criminal when you drive normally (my state routinely has 55mph on highways where everybody goes about 72. Those who actually go 55 are in great danger from traffic). Last time I looked, it was safer to go 10mph above the limit than 10mph below.
It's just the easiest way to collect tickets. Point a radar gun, boom, and write ticket.
I see all kinds of more dangerous traffic infractions that almost no cop gives a damn about. Failure to use turn signals. Or this situation: you are on a normal two-lane two-way road at an intersection with a green light. You are at the forefront and want to make a left turn and the car opposite from you is in the same situation. There is a line of cars behind both of you. Most state laws would give the left-turners the right of way and both of you should be able to turn left simultaneously. What instead usually happens is that the cars behind you take to the shoulder (illegally in this case - going onto the shoulder is to avoid an obstacle, not traffic) and go around you, cutting the two turning left off from their right-of-way. This is where the law and (now) common practice collide.
Someone else mention the left lane as passing. It also recently became State law here that left was only to be used for passing and faster traffic. Not in practice. Most times I see some cas right next to each other neck and neck (and not even going fast) which leaves me wondering why the guy in the left lane even bothered going in the left lane... other than to block everyone else.
But cops sure do love keeping on writing the speeding tickets. I guess going slow negates the danger of not following any other rules:/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7344181953466797353&q=spin&total=166832&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
People don't want to bite the hand that feeds IT?