Well, that Zaurus keyboard does look a lot more usable than my OG Droid was, but it also looks quite a bit bigger. Not hard to do -- my current phone might be a size match for the Zaurus.
And yes, I can't imagine using Swype to do any kind of markup. It would always end up trying to "fix" your spelling.
My first smartphone was the OG Droid, largely because it came with a physical keyboard.
I hated it. When the Swype beta came along I pretty much stopped using the physical keyboard, and never got another phone with a hardware keyboard. I haven't missed them.
You might tell me, well, that wasn't a very good physical keyboard, and maybe you're right. So what would make a "proper" mini keyboard?
They're *trying* to force G+ on me, but technically they haven't. Each new service they revise requires G+. They don't force you to create a profile, but features you're used to using disappear without that G+ account.
I can no longer review apps, because that requires my Google+ account. When I was using Google Talk as an IM client, my icon was defined locally (and sent to those on my buddy list via the app.) Now in the replacement for Talk (Hangouts) it is apparently tied to my non-existent G+ account and goes back and forth between being absent and using the icon I had previously designated in Talk. A great deal of the functionality of Hangouts is tied to G+.
I'm sure that there *is* a zombie G+ account in my name, but since I have never activated it or completed whatever profile they require, I'm not allowed to use those "services" that depend on it.
I do have an active Google account -- I use Gmail, Calendar, Google Music, and Android in general. But I've never used G+ and everything that explicitly depends on it are closed to me. That tells me that despite G+ supposedly being the unifying account that ties all Google services together, there is a distinction.
I've tried to find a link I saw a few months back showing hardware and firmware from a prominent electronics company, developed for the automotive market and aimed at the car companies themselves.
But I might have been wrong to say there was no consumer aftermarket. In the process of looking for that link, I found a few that do seem to be working on a consumer aftermarket.
The transmitter might not cost much, but the sytem would. If they had the system is place they would monetize it (like GM does with OnStar) and try to sell you services.
They do try to sell you their poor imitation of OnStar that uses your cell phone, but I don't think they're getting much traction on that.
GM has OnStar, which does have an satellite uplink (I don't think it's always live, but it always *can* be.)
Ford has Sync Services. You can do some of the same things with it, but it uses *your* cellphone over bluetooth. Using a voice connection. For example, if you create a "Vehicle Health Report" it will upload that data over a modem type connection via your phone (it's a dial-up call) and Ford will send you an email with a link to look at it on their site. It's pretty obvious when that call is being made.
Note that the Vehicle Health Report is in the nature of a checklist that tells you everything is OK. No actual information, just "OK".
There are companies doing development in this space, but their intended customers are the car companies. They're really not too interested in the consumer aftermarket.
My car is set to trigger a 911 call over bluetooth in case of a crash. You can turn this off (easily -- there's a button to do so on the home screen) but it's on by default.
I guess that assumes that the crash isn't bad enough to stop the system from running....
Ford Sync Services, whhich allows you to get voice turn-by-turn directions through an operator requires you phone to make that connection. All of their outbound connections require the phone. It's fairly obvious when that's happening -- it's a phone call, not a data connection. Yes, I'm talking dialup modem.
You may also purchase a subscription to SiriusXM TravelLink which is a separate deal (you're handing your data to Sirius, I'm not sure if Ford ever sees it.) It provides useful information like traffic, weather and gas prices/locations -- also silly stuff like movie listings, ski conditions and sports scores -- but it does involve sending your location upstream.
He's telling you that the investment bankers are a problem. Bitcoin introduces a new class of people that are a bigger problem. He's not defending investment bankers, he's suggesting that we shouldn't be encouraging that sort of behavior.
I had an OG Droid, partly because I wanted the physical keyboard. However, I tested Swype on it during one of their early beta test enrollments, and I almost immediately stopped using the physcial keyboard for anything other than Connectbot sessions. Swype was lots easier and faster, even on a phone that actually had a hardware keyboard.
From that point on, having a physical keyboard was no longer a positive attribute for a phone (for me.)
But I don't believe that the opinion of an anonymous idiot carries any particular weight.
If you say something worth reading, that might be different. If you've *ever* said anything worth while, that might buy you some slack. But how would we know?
You're right, it is volumetric. I have no idea how the dollars compare.
The figures are from Amazon (via the press), and they're a couple of years old, so I don't know where they stand now. 105 ebooks sold for every 100 pbooks. I've no idea whether they are counting those sold gratis.
Also, I don't know whether the expensive ebooks are selling well. I don't recall seeing those expensive ones back when I saw this article, and to be honest I haven't seen them since either because I haven't been looking. I ignore the kindle versions. I can tell you that Baen's ebook pricing has gone up but it's still less than paper.
One reason that I insist on epub (and without DRM) is that I can load an epub up into Sigil and fix many formatting issues. Bad OCR is another matter, but I haven't run inot a lot of that.
You're right about the contrast, but that's a minor issue, unless you're reading in the dark. For me, I'm normally reading in normal indoor light up to full sun.
If the flashing page breaks your immersion, you weren't really immersed.:)
I'm splitting your difference. 58, and I use a Kindle which I use exclusively with non-DRMed epub->mobi conversions via Calibre. I haven't removed any DRM yet, since I've been able to find enough non-DRM epubs to fill the pipeline for several years yet.
I generally clean the epubs up with Sigil, since I don't care for justified text on a small screen. It works for paper, but less so on an ereader.
I do re-read books. My current to-read queue is quite long right now, so I don't do it as often as I used to, but I'd say in the last month I probably picked up a couple of books off a shelf and just decided to put aside the current book-in-progress and revisit an old friend.
I also have used the shelves to make recommendations and/or loans to someone who was interested -- I've even bought paper copies of books I'd read in e-form just to be able to more easily lend them.
Last time I looked, Google Play doesn't indicate whether a given book has DRM or not. You have to buy it, try to download it, and ask for a refund if it does have DRM.
They may have fixed that, but that's how it was last time I tried.
Is that why Amazon sells more ebooks than paper books, and they sell more paper books than anyone else on the planet?
Personally, I don't buy ebooks from Amazon, although I do buy dead tree from them. I buy non-DRM epubs and then use Calibre to convert them for my Kindle.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me endorse this. It's a very well thought out opening post for a discussion, and both Slashdot staff and users could benefit from reading it.
Would they?
Maybe once they would have. Not so sure any more.
You're saying they flow very slowly?
Well, that Zaurus keyboard does look a lot more usable than my OG Droid was, but it also looks quite a bit bigger. Not hard to do -- my current phone might be a size match for the Zaurus.
And yes, I can't imagine using Swype to do any kind of markup. It would always end up trying to "fix" your spelling.
"No true Scotsman?"
My first smartphone was the OG Droid, largely because it came with a physical keyboard.
I hated it. When the Swype beta came along I pretty much stopped using the physical keyboard, and never got another phone with a hardware keyboard. I haven't missed them.
You might tell me, well, that wasn't a very good physical keyboard, and maybe you're right. So what would make a "proper" mini keyboard?
His point is that "Ukraine" is acceptable. "The Ukraine" is not.
Of course, I learned my eastern European geography from my Risk board game almost 50 years ago, so it will forever be the Ukraine to me.
Guess it's a matter of "know your audience." :/
But I never once thought of Bob Dylan.
I do.
They're *trying* to force G+ on me, but technically they haven't. Each new service they revise requires G+. They don't force you to create a profile, but features you're used to using disappear without that G+ account.
I can no longer review apps, because that requires my Google+ account. When I was using Google Talk as an IM client, my icon was defined locally (and sent to those on my buddy list via the app.) Now in the replacement for Talk (Hangouts) it is apparently tied to my non-existent G+ account and goes back and forth between being absent and using the icon I had previously designated in Talk. A great deal of the functionality of Hangouts is tied to G+.
I'm sure that there *is* a zombie G+ account in my name, but since I have never activated it or completed whatever profile they require, I'm not allowed to use those "services" that depend on it.
I do have an active Google account -- I use Gmail, Calendar, Google Music, and Android in general. But I've never used G+ and everything that explicitly depends on it are closed to me. That tells me that despite G+ supposedly being the unifying account that ties all Google services together, there is a distinction.
Isn't that what I said?
I've tried to find a link I saw a few months back showing hardware and firmware from a prominent electronics company, developed for the automotive market and aimed at the car companies themselves.
But I might have been wrong to say there was no consumer aftermarket. In the process of looking for that link, I found a few that do seem to be working on a consumer aftermarket.
http://maestro.idatalink.com/
http://www.coastaletech.com/mytouch.htm
I'm afraid these look pretty kludgy to me, and not designed to replace the whole system, but there is some activity in that direction.
I still haven't found that other link.
And since all their pollution blows out to sea, so they don't have to deal with it.
The transmitter might not cost much, but the sytem would. If they had the system is place they would monetize it (like GM does with OnStar) and try to sell you services.
They do try to sell you their poor imitation of OnStar that uses your cell phone, but I don't think they're getting much traction on that.
GM cars. OnStar is a GM product.
I'd say in general, they aren't.
GM has OnStar, which does have an satellite uplink (I don't think it's always live, but it always *can* be.)
Ford has Sync Services. You can do some of the same things with it, but it uses *your* cellphone over bluetooth. Using a voice connection. For example, if you create a "Vehicle Health Report" it will upload that data over a modem type connection via your phone (it's a dial-up call) and Ford will send you an email with a link to look at it on their site. It's pretty obvious when that call is being made.
Note that the Vehicle Health Report is in the nature of a checklist that tells you everything is OK. No actual information, just "OK".
There are companies doing development in this space, but their intended customers are the car companies. They're really not too interested in the consumer aftermarket.
My car is set to trigger a 911 call over bluetooth in case of a crash. You can turn this off (easily -- there's a button to do so on the home screen) but it's on by default.
I guess that assumes that the crash isn't bad enough to stop the system from running....
Neither does Ford. At least, not in general.
Ford Sync Services, whhich allows you to get voice turn-by-turn directions through an operator requires you phone to make that connection. All of their outbound connections require the phone. It's fairly obvious when that's happening -- it's a phone call, not a data connection. Yes, I'm talking dialup modem.
You may also purchase a subscription to SiriusXM TravelLink which is a separate deal (you're handing your data to Sirius, I'm not sure if Ford ever sees it.) It provides useful information like traffic, weather and gas prices/locations -- also silly stuff like movie listings, ski conditions and sports scores -- but it does involve sending your location upstream.
So how are you disagreeing with Stross?
He's telling you that the investment bankers are a problem. Bitcoin introduces a new class of people that are a bigger problem. He's not defending investment bankers, he's suggesting that we shouldn't be encouraging that sort of behavior.
I had an OG Droid, partly because I wanted the physical keyboard. However, I tested Swype on it during one of their early beta test enrollments, and I almost immediately stopped using the physcial keyboard for anything other than Connectbot sessions. Swype was lots easier and faster, even on a phone that actually had a hardware keyboard.
From that point on, having a physical keyboard was no longer a positive attribute for a phone (for me.)
Personally, I do believe in anonymity.
But I don't believe that the opinion of an anonymous idiot carries any particular weight.
If you say something worth reading, that might be different. If you've *ever* said anything worth while, that might buy you some slack. But how would we know?
You're right, it is volumetric. I have no idea how the dollars compare.
The figures are from Amazon (via the press), and they're a couple of years old, so I don't know where they stand now. 105 ebooks sold for every 100 pbooks. I've no idea whether they are counting those sold gratis.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1754259/amazon-sells-more-e-books-paper-ones
Also, I don't know whether the expensive ebooks are selling well. I don't recall seeing those expensive ones back when I saw this article, and to be honest I haven't seen them since either because I haven't been looking. I ignore the kindle versions. I can tell you that Baen's ebook pricing has gone up but it's still less than paper.
One reason that I insist on epub (and without DRM) is that I can load an epub up into Sigil and fix many formatting issues. Bad OCR is another matter, but I haven't run inot a lot of that.
Or too young.
You're right about the contrast, but that's a minor issue, unless you're reading in the dark. For me, I'm normally reading in normal indoor light up to full sun.
If the flashing page breaks your immersion, you weren't really immersed. :)
I'm splitting your difference. 58, and I use a Kindle which I use exclusively with non-DRMed epub->mobi conversions via Calibre. I haven't removed any DRM yet, since I've been able to find enough non-DRM epubs to fill the pipeline for several years yet.
I generally clean the epubs up with Sigil, since I don't care for justified text on a small screen. It works for paper, but less so on an ereader.
Oh, yeah, also IT.
I do re-read books. My current to-read queue is quite long right now, so I don't do it as often as I used to, but I'd say in the last month I probably picked up a couple of books off a shelf and just decided to put aside the current book-in-progress and revisit an old friend.
I also have used the shelves to make recommendations and/or loans to someone who was interested -- I've even bought paper copies of books I'd read in e-form just to be able to more easily lend them.
How do you check the details?
Last time I looked, Google Play doesn't indicate whether a given book has DRM or not. You have to buy it, try to download it, and ask for a refund if it does have DRM.
They may have fixed that, but that's how it was last time I tried.
Are they?
Is that why Amazon sells more ebooks than paper books, and they sell more paper books than anyone else on the planet?
Personally, I don't buy ebooks from Amazon, although I do buy dead tree from them. I buy non-DRM epubs and then use Calibre to convert them for my Kindle.