America will do what it does best, bring democracy and freedom to the world. Those American corps better get their bids sorted, the Chinese are good at undercutting everyone.
The new digital world is pervasive and more permanent than you could ever imagine. In a world of 6 plus billion people, the only way for everyone to have access to books, literature, everything written down by the humans for the past 10,000 years is through digital form. This is the future. A single paperback book costs on average, $20 today. A near future netbook/ereader will cost around $100 and will have access to millions of works via a cheap connection to the internet. You can't compete with that with your lump of soggy paper. And sorry to say, the first thing the mobs do when civilization ends is burn the libraries to the ground, along with all the book hoarders. For any printed book, there may be thousands, or even tens of thousands of copies, but for a digital book, there can be an infinite number of perfect copies. Beatrix Potter was a populist who wanted to make her books accessible to all segments of society. She would surely see the advent of digitalization as a GOOD THING. You may now go back to admiring and dusting your book collection.:)
But the first thing I do when I need to email someone is dust off and flip open the big ten pound thousand page tissue-paper thin book and start flipping!
Ever have an ant infestation? First one finds a crum. Then he tells his friend. About ten minutes later there is a conga line of hundreds coming out of that tiny little hole in the wall you didn't knew you had. Later...the queen ants start parading out, and the workers squeeze hundreds of eggs though that tiny little hole. They bring in specks of dirt and begin building. Building little caves of mud, one speck of dirt at a time...to house those precious eggs. It goes on.
Then one day your couch falls apart because the ants ate their way through it and millions of baby ants crawl out and proceed to eat their way through your linux book collection.
Governments exist to create and maintain standards. You can blame bureaucracy, special interests...but your excuse is that there is a FREE MARKET? HA! There is no free market in this world. I have worked in the middle east, the gas is cheap there because it is completely SUBSIDIZED by the government to placate their citizens from overthrowing their despotic rule. If everyone is able to drive around the latest Land cruiser and Mercedes, and fill their tank with 10cent liter fuel, they are much less likely to protest the fact they have very few civil rights. Please get a fucking clue. The minute the world discovers that Saudi are out of oil, they will have an Islamist revolution, it is a certainty. Its a fucking shell game. FREE MARKET is mostly an illusion to keep the peons like yourself in line while the elites fight over who gets to be in charge next. Most of the large oil producing countries are centrally controlled by the elite citizens of those countries. It is by no accident that the largest oil producers have poor democratic records...if they have democracy at all, most of them are actually totalitarian regimes. The funny thing is, the USA is the only superpower in the world. China has little ability to affect foreign affairs as their military has no ability to project power. China is reduced to giving free trade deals to such outstanding countries as Sudan, Iran, and the like. If, for example the US decided tomorrow to convert to a hydrogen economy you can bet your ass there would be revolution in Iran the day after. It is the elites in the US, the bankers, the 'investment funds' who pull the strings, who have their interests, that prevent this change from happening.
If you don't have a clue yet, the future success is not to subsidize more oil exploration (shale? ha! Why not just buy more tar sands from Canada?) The real change will come with INCENTIVES from the government for technological INNOVATION. Solar, wind power, wave power, dams, fuel cells, Nuclear, energy efficiency... its not fucking rocket science, there just needs to be the political will to make it happen.
Face it, your populace have turned into a bunch of overweight zombies. Bush, Obama, whats the difference? The corporations own your government and your asses. Where are the protests in the streets? Where is the outrage? Are you all just going to accept this disaster and go fill up your car with gas and go buy some more junk food (as usual)?
Oh wait a minutes.... you guys got lawyers by the hundreds of thousands, that will SOLVE all your problems. Just sue yourselves while you're at it, you could use the Ca$h I'm sure....
Perhaps,... just perhaps this epic MAN-MADE eco disaster will wake up enough of your patriots (are there any left anywhere in the world these days?) to take back the agenda and start acting like you deserve the moniker, Superpower...
BTW, this isn't a flame, I'm a Canuck and I believe that the US is the greatest country on the planet...Americans are awesome, Hell, I even work for the US government (via third party)! In conclusion; Show some vision will ya? WAKE UP!
for free. Google will track and record everything you do, search for, and record. Sell your personal information to the highest bidder. Not to mention those 'accidental' privacy leaks when they get hacked or someone finds a loophole. Oh sorry, too bad, our services are "free"...you get what you pay for right? Can't complain if its 'free'...
At least Apple is upfront and takes its users privacy seriously. But then I suppose some do not value their individuality as much as others.
And you're a moron. The profitability of digital is magnitudes larger than the paper equivalent. They can sell vastly fewer copies in digital form and yet make a greater profit. It's also version A, perhaps you could submit your suggestion to their editors, instead of spouting your inane criticisms on slashdot. Like whats the point in that?
I think you need some global perspective. I'm in the middle east at the moment and the world here is different. It is almost completely digital. People read on their cellphones and their laptops (mostly netbooks). In fact, one can hardly find paper magazines in news stands, as they just do not sell. Everyone is connected to wi-fi or 3G and consumes their media that way. This is the future. Paper will soon be relegated for toilet paper. It's better for the trees and forests, and better for us. Paper is dead.
There is this little thing called the "Black market". I'm In Cairo and the iPad is on display for sale at many stores. Anything can be had at most places in the world, if the price is right. Globalization transcends import laws, regional formats, and exchange rates.
You all saw The Last Starfighter right?
This guy has skills! Who know when unmatched matching of coloured gems could come in handy. Maybe we'll be invaded by variously Gem shaped aliens who (through a quirk in quantum mechanics no doubt) have a fatal weakness when matched in pairs of three. This guy could someday LITERALLY save the world!
Conversely, he may have a bright future as a stockboy at Walmart (or if you will, Target), which requires speed, precision, and the ability to organize matching products in rows of three, five, up to infinity. Clearly, he is a credit to the species.
Apple just had its best quarter in their history, their stock is at record highs, they have mountains of cash, and have the world media at their fingertips. Apple doesn't need your love.
in my office, I gotta say that this story inspired both fear and awe. The shear amount of dynamic connectors and double backing process ovals should cause our enemies to immediately shit their pants.
Gawker received approximately 8 million hits last week, ergo they are swimming in oodles of extra ad revenue. Apple is just milking a new and profitable revenue stream, or at least their legion of blood sucking lawyers are.
Slashdot Mirror
At least you won't have to worry about what to wear in the morning. Black turtlenecks and jeans for everyone!
Indeed, the war/invasion has already cost $1 trillion.
America will do what it does best, bring democracy and freedom to the world. Those American corps better get their bids sorted, the Chinese are good at undercutting everyone.
The new digital world is pervasive and more permanent than you could ever imagine. In a world of 6 plus billion people, the only way for everyone to have access to books, literature, everything written down by the humans for the past 10,000 years is through digital form. This is the future. A single paperback book costs on average, $20 today. A near future netbook/ereader will cost around $100 and will have access to millions of works via a cheap connection to the internet. You can't compete with that with your lump of soggy paper. And sorry to say, the first thing the mobs do when civilization ends is burn the libraries to the ground, along with all the book hoarders. For any printed book, there may be thousands, or even tens of thousands of copies, but for a digital book, there can be an infinite number of perfect copies. Beatrix Potter was a populist who wanted to make her books accessible to all segments of society. She would surely see the advent of digitalization as a GOOD THING. You may now go back to admiring and dusting your book collection. :)
Reading accessible to the masses. Hence, economical formats. ebooks are the most economical kinds of books ever produced by civilization.
If there is no true democratic process and you are trying to undermine the system, then yes, it is a coup!
But the first thing I do when I need to email someone is dust off and flip open the big ten pound thousand page tissue-paper thin book and start flipping!
Then one day your couch falls apart because the ants ate their way through it and millions of baby ants crawl out and proceed to eat their way through your linux book collection.
That's like us humans upon this Earth.
If you don't have a clue yet, the future success is not to subsidize more oil exploration (shale? ha! Why not just buy more tar sands from Canada?) The real change will come with INCENTIVES from the government for technological INNOVATION. Solar, wind power, wave power, dams, fuel cells, Nuclear, energy efficiency... its not fucking rocket science, there just needs to be the political will to make it happen.
Oh wait a minutes.... you guys got lawyers by the hundreds of thousands, that will SOLVE all your problems. Just sue yourselves while you're at it, you could use the Ca$h I'm sure....
Perhaps,... just perhaps this epic MAN-MADE eco disaster will wake up enough of your patriots (are there any left anywhere in the world these days?) to take back the agenda and start acting like you deserve the moniker, Superpower...
BTW, this isn't a flame, I'm a Canuck and I believe that the US is the greatest country on the planet...Americans are awesome, Hell, I even work for the US government (via third party)! In conclusion; Show some vision will ya? WAKE UP!
But without all those millions of poor people, all those charity workers would be unemployed.
To that I say; What does god need with a Starship?
At least Apple is upfront and takes its users privacy seriously. But then I suppose some do not value their individuality as much as others.
And you're a moron. The profitability of digital is magnitudes larger than the paper equivalent. They can sell vastly fewer copies in digital form and yet make a greater profit. It's also version A, perhaps you could submit your suggestion to their editors, instead of spouting your inane criticisms on slashdot. Like whats the point in that?
I think you need some global perspective. I'm in the middle east at the moment and the world here is different. It is almost completely digital. People read on their cellphones and their laptops (mostly netbooks). In fact, one can hardly find paper magazines in news stands, as they just do not sell. Everyone is connected to wi-fi or 3G and consumes their media that way. This is the future. Paper will soon be relegated for toilet paper. It's better for the trees and forests, and better for us. Paper is dead.
Enjoy your current job while it lasts. You're on borrowed time, and Steve Jobs will own your ass. ;)
He is better than you. Steve's Job place in human history for the eons to come is assured. How is yours going?
Send Kurt Russel to investigate!
There is this little thing called the "Black market". I'm In Cairo and the iPad is on display for sale at many stores. Anything can be had at most places in the world, if the price is right. Globalization transcends import laws, regional formats, and exchange rates.
He could have been watching porn!
Conversely, he may have a bright future as a stockboy at Walmart (or if you will, Target), which requires speed, precision, and the ability to organize matching products in rows of three, five, up to infinity. Clearly, he is a credit to the species.
Apple just had its best quarter in their history, their stock is at record highs, they have mountains of cash, and have the world media at their fingertips. Apple doesn't need your love.
But I got a flowchart that could rock his world.
in my office, I gotta say that this story inspired both fear and awe. The shear amount of dynamic connectors and double backing process ovals should cause our enemies to immediately shit their pants.
Nothing to worry about.
Move along.
Sent from my iPad.