This idiot fails to realize that labels have been selling DRM free music for the last 20 years. It's called a CD. Funny how the "digital economy" hasn't collapsed yet.
I think that DRM has had the opposite effect, instead of saving the record industry it has hastened its collapse. The reason: DRM is a strong disincentive to buy music from legal sources.
When Red Book CD (with no DRM) was the standard, I bought a lot of music. Now I buy very little music, and almost none of that small amount from the major labels, and DRM is the major reason.
2) It's in MP3. I think non-DRM's AAC files are fine, but MP3's are more desirable.
Whuh? Why would you prefer MP3 over AAC? Are you still using a Diamond Rio or something?:-)
The main reason I can think of for preferring MP3 over AAC: Just about every compressed audio player will play MP3 files. Although the number of players that will play AAC file is increasing, it will be a long time before it will approach the number that can play MP3.
I have many devices that will play compressed audio files (including my computer). All will play MP3, five will play WMA, two will play AAC, and two will play ATRAC.
One of the main advantages AAC has over MP3 is better sound quality at a lower bitrate. For me, encoding my MP3 files at a 192 bitrate gives me good sound quality, and I don't mind the extra space it take to store the files. I might save space using AAC but the files will only play on a limited number of devices.
Death in comics has become far too unpermanent. Just on the DC Comics side, Superman, Wonder Woman (Diana), Wonder Woman (Hyppolyta) Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) have all died and returned to life. Death used to be a big deal, now its more like giving the character a pause.
We're used to people dying and coming back, especially villains. The one that pissed me off though was when Marvel brought back Norman Osbourne, when he was the one major bad guy to have actually stayed dead. And it's not just that they brought him back, but in a gloriously shitty storyline that had Norman "hiding out in Europe for five years" to explain why he didn't come back sooner.
I break down death in comics into two classifications:
The typical comic book death, where a character can return to life via a plausable explanation, or no one is even pretending that the death is going to be permanent. The best example of this is with Donna Troy. Although she was shown to have died, the story's epilogue made it clear that she wasn't actually dead, she was simply somewhere else for the time being.
The no-kidding death, where it is firmly and without reservation stated that the character is permanently dead and will not be returning. The best example of this is with The Flash (Barry Allen). In "Crisis On Infinite Earths" he was clearly shown to have died, and subsequent stories have made it clear that not only is he dead, but undoing his death would result in the destruction of the universe. More recently is the death of Superboy (Conner Kent), which was clearly shown in a way that there is little question that he did die right then.
For me, I'm not irritated much by a character's return from the dead except in the case where it has been made extremely clear that the character is permanently dead.
Would it be safe to assume your users are mindless zombies? My girlfriend and I love the new interface.
I haven't used the new version of Word with the ribbon, so I can't speak specifically to that. But I think the user's experience is a major factor in how easy or difficult it will be to shift to a new interface.
I think an individual whose only word processor experience is with the previous versions of MS Word will find it most difficult to adjust to the new interface. From the illustrations of the ribbon I've seen, it looks like a major departure from the interface that has been used for all previous Windows versions of MS Word.
Older and experienced users who have used many different word processors over the years should have less trouble adjusting to a new interface. I've regularly used more than 10 different word processors since getting my first computer at work (including Wordstar, Wordperfect, MS Word (Windows and DOS version), Professional Write, StarOffice, and Jarte) and I've haven't found that it difficult to transition to each new interface (although I still miss Wordstar's Control-Key commands).
So did Robin (Jason Todd). Robin (Stephanie Brown) is still dead. Maybe.
Jason Todd is a special case. He was killed, buried, and spent years in his grave. But due to the actions of Superboy-Prime in conjunction with "Infinite Crisis" (which altered the timeline) Jason Todd's death was undone and a short while ago (after years in the grave) he suddenly woke up in his grave with all of the injuries he acquired from being beaten by the Joker with a crowbar and then being blown up. It took a dip in the Lazarus Pit (used to keep Ra's Al Ghul alive) that restored him back to health.
Death in comics has become far too unpermanent. Just on the DC Comics side, Superman, Wonder Woman (Diana), Wonder Woman (Hyppolyta) Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) have all died and returned to life. Death used to be a big deal, now its more like giving the character a pause.
This reminds me of the TV show "A Year At The Top" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075602/ where you literally made a deal with the Devil's son for fame and fortune for one year...at the cost of your soul. One part of the deal was you couldn't warn anyone about how bad the deal was (he/she would only spout nonsense instead of the warning).
Consoles are inferior, IMHO, for FPS and RTS compared to mouse and keyboard, and there are still games that are released solely for Windows PCs.
Although consoles might not have the sheer power of a PC, there is one factor that is the reason that I choose to do my gaming on my PS2 console instead of on a PC: If I buy a game for a PS2 I am certain that it will run well on my system. Many times, I've found that a PC game that the game specs say my system is adequate to run often provides a less-than-satisfactory gaming experience. In one case (the game "Shadow Of Destiny") the PS2 version of the game ran much better than the PC version of the same game.
I think the current copyright situation is beginning to hurt the U.S. because it seems that so much has been locked down. I've heard comments about why there are so many sequels recently. I think one of the reasons is that as more story concepts have been already used and copyrighted, there are fewer and fewer story ideas that actually can be used.
Simply put, I think that it will soon come to the point (if it hasn't already) that once a movie is made, it makes it extremely difficult to make any type of movie that is similar except for those in the form of an authorized sequel (like Rush Hour 3) or in the form of an authorized remake (like The Stepford Wives).
In my experience, OOo does a good job of reading MS formats in the general case. When it fails, there seem to be only two causes:
1. The original document was absurdly complex. Yesterday's "power users" were encouraged to use features of MS Word and Excel that belong to desk top publishing. They were also encouraged to devise macros without any training in programming practices. Through the experiences gained in dealing with these older documents, institutions have learned what should NOT be done in a word processor or spreadsheet, but if an old document looks okay superficially, no one is going to check it for flaws.
2. The underlying logic of the original document was broken. In MS Word, there are half a dozen different ways to achieve a similar appearance; eg, half a dozen ways to indent a block of text or create an ordered list. Many older documents will jump between these different ways, and get away with it because they just happen to generate a similar appearance in that version of the software.
As a general rule, if OOo fails to render an MS document correctly, there are subsurface flaws in that document that need to be corrected. If I were teaching an MS Office Applications course again, I would instill in students the habit of running their final drafts through OOo as part of their final check. Any well written document should have an acceptable appearance in OOo as well as in Office. If it doesn't, then the hidden syntax is wrong for the intended semantics, and that needs to be corrected.
Here is a link to an article from 2001 on LinuxPlanet that I read which concerns OpenOffice's filters for MS Word documents which relates to the above issues: http://linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/3857/1/.
I was thinking of HTML and plain text as extra backups, in case something happens to the ODF file. Since the ODF uses compression as part of the format there is a small chance that it could get corrupted, leaving you with nothing but the PDF file and the original proprietary-format file. Having two extra plain-text-format-file backups just in case of a disaster is a good thing, especially in the case of files created more than a decade ago.
Disk space is cheap, so I'd probably make PDFs and ODFs, and store them along with the original proprietary format in a zip file.
I would add that it should also be saved in HTML and plain text. This would ensure that the data is always accessible in some way. At worst, at least you would have access to the text with some basic formatting (HTML), or at least the actual text of the original document (plain text).
The disabling of support for older file formats is a major reason I've chosen to save my documents in RTF. Even after many years, I still have access to my documents via at least a dozen word processors.
Boo on VHS! Most of the movies on that format are Pan and Scan!
The greatest thing DVD did for home video was making letterbox/anamorphic widescreen mainstream.
Actually, laserdisc (LD) preceeded DVD in providing widescreen movies and was one of the reasons I went with that format (about 10 years before the introduction of DVD). One reason that widescreen wasn't practical on VHS was due to its relatively low video resolution. One time I rented a widescreen movie in VHS and in many of the wide-shot scenes the image was so unclear that it was hard to tell who was who.
Another reason I went with LD, and this has been carried over to DVD, is multiple soundtracks and subtitles (an LD could contain up to four different soundtracks). I'm a fan of anime and one of the best things about LD (and this has been continued with DVD) is that I can watch a program with a Japanese soundtrack, or with a Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles, or with an English soundtrack, all on the same disc. In the VHS and Beta days, I had to choose either Japanese with English subtitles, or dubbed into English, with the dubbed version often being more expensive.
Returning to the topic of sitting out the HD format war, I'm one of the sitters. When the format war started, I made a decision to wait until at least 2 years after a winner is declared before I consider choose a HD player because, right now, standard DVD is good enough and I don't feel like ending up going with another losing format (I supported both Digital Compact Cassette and CD-I). Also, based on what I've seen already, I doubt any future HD format is going to be as freely usable as standard DVD is right now.
It seems to me that the solution is to carry the spare batteries in a case/holder that will prevent them from being shorted. I carry my spare AA batteries in carrying case (it was one I received when I bought some Sony alkaline AA batteries) that provides excellent protection for the batteries and makes it impossible for the batteries to short.
In the same way, it should be possible for the battery's maker to provide a protective case with the battery that would allow it to be safely carried when not in the device. Due to the sheer number of different types of batteries, I doubt that it would be possible for a third-party manufacturer to provide these type of cases.
It's an apples to oranges comparison. An eInk reader provides the following benefits:
-Reflected light display instead if emitted. This is a big deal.
-Indefinite battery life as long as you don't turn the page. Under normal usage, the battery life is still very long.
-A much better form factor and screen size for casual reading.
I agree about reflective light being a big deal. One of the biggest reasons I moved to a Sony EBook Reader is that the lighted PDA screen (I was using a Palm T/X) is hard on the eyes during extended reading.
Backlighting is also a major hit on the battery life. I used to use a Palm Vx and I could go for several days of my regular use (extremely heavy use for most other people) on a single charge, with an unlighted screen that was easy to read in normal room light. The screen didn't consume much power, it was only when I turned on the back light that I then noticed a significant drain on the battery life.
Now, most PDA require backlighting in order for the screen to be visible. The Palm T/X has a great high-rez color screen, but the screen is basically unreadable without the backlight. This significantly reduces the battery life. As said above, backlighting makes it hard to read the screen for extended periods of time, like when you are reading a book.
I think that if backlighting was provided as an integrated feature in an e-book reader, it would significantly reduce the battery life in the device (unless a much longer-lasting battery were used). In support of this point, my Sony Ebook Reader has a great battery life. However, I noticed that when I use it to play MP3 files the battery drains much faster.
The last point (about screen size) is my most important reason to going with the Sony EBook Reader. One of the biggest problems I've had with using a PDA as an e-book reader is the small screen size, it's barely enough room for a decent amount of text. Now, I have a screen that is not only large enough for comfortable reading without the need for a backlight, but also large enough to contains a large amount of text (comparable to the amount of text on a paperback book page), so I don't have to change pages as often.
ebook readers are solid state electronics. They can (if engineered properly) take a lot of G's.
I have dropped my PDA onto hard surfaces many times over the years and it is still ticking.
I've found the key to avoiding damage to a PDA is to put it in a good solid hard case, preferable one made of a strong metal. In fact, I reject any PDA that I can't get a hard case for.
I had a Palm m515 that I put in a aluminum hard case. When I retired it, the case was heavily dented and scratched (I've compared to looking like something that had been through a war zone), but the PDA inside was in mint condition.
Actually, the anime series "Chobits" does bring up a great many issues concerning the problems that will arise when realistic male and female androids become possible. Among the issues shown:
How will humans handle having to compete with someone who is "perfect?"
What are the ethical and emotional consequences of making a android copy of someone who has died?
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
While the relationship might fulfill all three laws, but the breakup and post-relationship could break all three! The human could be emotionally injured, and the robot could be put at risk in regards to its own existence and having to obey the order that could emotionally harm the human...
It is likely that the robot would be programmed with a way to resolve the situation in case where it can't avoid violating the Three Laws through no fault of its own.
In a related issue, per Asimov's stories if a robot is in a situation where the robot cannot save all humans (say ten individuals are in danger at the same time). In that case, it is programmed to save the most humans possible.
Another way to deal with emotional pain is to program the robot to give that type of pain at a lower priority compared to physical pain.
none of your penises will likely work by then either
Speak for yourself! Anyway, I dont know about you, but I'm planning on going fully cyborg by then anyway. Then I can join Section 9!
But what about the maintenance costs and the time necessary to keep you functional? Although it's not mentioned much in the U.S., this issue pops up quite a few times in anime (Ghost In The Shell and Battle Angel Alita first come to mind).
"Equally, if Deckard really is a Nexus 7 created to work as an exterminator, why is he lacking the strength of the inferior Nexus 6 models he is chasing?"
Well, gee, if he is not supposed to know he's a replicant, super-human strength might be a bit of a give-away, no?
One possiblity is that only super-human replicants, like the Nexus 6, are illegal on Earth due to the threat the pose to regular humans. Normal-human replicants (NHR) (those with the same physical strength and intelligence as normal humans) might be legal on Earth as long as they are designed not to know that they are replicants (leading to the use of memory implants).
Considering the conditions on Earth and implied shortage of healthly people, it could be that NHRs are designed to deal with the labor shortages on Earth. If Deckard is a replicant, it is possible that he might be successor to an original Deckard who was killed in action earlier.
Harrison Ford openly tanked the voice-over because he fought with the director on doing it. He thought it was stupid, and mailed in a poor performance in that regard. Many fans hate the voice-over, and thusly it was thankfully later removed.
Storytelling 101 - show, don't tell. Especially don't tell poorly.
The movie stands up quite well without the narration.
Although I'm likely in the minority, I think that Ford's tired "voice over" added much depth to Deckard's character, giving you the feeling that he's seen it all and at this point nothing impresses him anymore.
Sure, I agree, copyright is a good thing. But what we have now is insane. Copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author, plus 70 years. That's essentially in perpetuity, because the public that is alive today, and likely their children and even grandchildren, will never see those works enter the public domain. I can buy an argument that works should remain copyrighted for the lifetime of the author (although I personally do not believe it should be this way), but an additional seventy years? Who does this benefit? Let's see... something that never dies... er, not vampires... Highlander? Oh, right! A big media company!
Rather than the lifetime of the author plus 70 years, I've been of the opinion that copyright should be a simple "100 years from the date of creation." The reason for "100 years" is that by that time anyone who had a direct hand in creating the work has passed on. My understanding is that the purpose of copyright law is to ensure that the creators have the opportunity to reap the benefits of their creative work.
An upcoming problem I can foresee due to the continuing extension of copyright law is that eventually so many concepts will be locked down that it will become extremely difficult to create new works because they will be too similar to something that already exists. Could this be one of the main reasons for the recent trend of remakes, sequels, and new versions of old properties? Examples (just a short list off the top of my head of both already released and upcoming):
Underdog
Speed Racer
Transformers
Sleuth
The Stepford Wives
The Flintstones
The Marvel Universe movies
But sometimes copyright restrictions can end up being an advantage. My understanding is that one of the reasons we have "Star Wars" is that George Lucas wasn't able to get the rights to do a movie of "Flash Gordon" (what he originally wanted to do).
The main problem with HTML is that it only provides limited formatting. One of the reasons that CSS was created was to add document control that HTML doesn't provide. Unfortunately, CSS hasn't been completely implemented. Therefore, you can't be sure how an HTML document will actually display.
From what I understand, two of the main reasons to use PDF are: (1) it can't be easily modified by the receiver, and (2) the document will look exactly as the user intended on all systems (which is a problem with most other formats including HTML).
I don't see the fact that you can't edit PDFs as a major issue. Instead, I see PDF as a final destination format, with PDFs created from other files that can be edited. If a PDF needs to be modified, simply modify the source document and then regenerate the PDF. For example, I use StarOffice 8.0 and I'm able to generate a PDF from any file that I can open up in the program.
A problem I've had with PDFs is that they tend to be best viewed on only one type of display. For example, a PDF that I can easily read when printed on paper or displayed on screen, becomes much harder to read when I put it on my e-book reader because it shrinks the entire page to half of its size to fit on the screen.
I agree that installation should be much easier than the way that Windows does it. One of my favorite installs was for Professional Write 2.0 for DOS, in which the entire installation process was: "copy all of the files into a single directory." To uninstall the program simply delete that directory. Why can't program installations/uninstalls be that simple?
Just as literacy did in the oral tradition, and the codex did in the scroll, so may the electronic device do in the book quite soon. So far the reviews for the Kindle are all pretty positive, and any company can certainly see what to change in their device to take over the market, so we're on the cusp of something big. If enough of the public enjoys such a device, books could certainly be limited to a small market of connoiseurs, just as vinyl is today for some music fans. And once your market is so small, it's hard to keep it afloat even if some small profit is generated. Remember, making and selling books requires money, walking don't.
What I've noticed is that when e-books are discussed, the conversation seems to move in the direction of "E-books must completely displace the printed book, it is just a foregone conclusion." I think that, while e-books will become a significant portion of the reading market, I think there will still be a large market for printed books. Rather, e-books will just one more option for readers, especially if price of the reading device drops to the point where it is almost disposable.
One place I could see e-book readers being very useful are with disposable documents like newspapers and magazines, essentially type of document that you won't keep for a long time. I think that with these types of documents DRM won't be as much of an issue as it is with books since its value degrades much more quickly.
Although EMI's actions appear to be a good move, for me it is far too late. Because of the actions the record labels have taken (either directly or via their agents) I've drastically reduced the amount of music that I buy, and I tend to choose music that is not on a major label.
I think the major reason for the drop in record sales is that the days of people rebuying their existing collection in the CD format are long over. Now most music sales have to be generated from good new music that give people a reason to buy it. Consider this: In 2000 the Beatles had a #1 album (1) consisting of a collection of tracks originally released more than 25 years ago, and have already been released on CD.
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d34thm0nk3y wrote:
I think that DRM has had the opposite effect, instead of saving the record industry it has hastened its collapse. The reason: DRM is a strong disincentive to buy music from legal sources.
When Red Book CD (with no DRM) was the standard, I bought a lot of music. Now I buy very little music, and almost none of that small amount from the major labels, and DRM is the major reason.
Bob[Bob] wrote and included with a post:
The main reason I can think of for preferring MP3 over AAC: Just about every compressed audio player will play MP3 files. Although the number of players that will play AAC file is increasing, it will be a long time before it will approach the number that can play MP3.
I have many devices that will play compressed audio files (including my computer). All will play MP3, five will play WMA, two will play AAC, and two will play ATRAC.
One of the main advantages AAC has over MP3 is better sound quality at a lower bitrate. For me, encoding my MP3 files at a 192 bitrate gives me good sound quality, and I don't mind the extra space it take to store the files. I might save space using AAC but the files will only play on a limited number of devices.
Scudsucker wrote and included with a post:
I break down death in comics into two classifications:
For me, I'm not irritated much by a character's return from the dead except in the case where it has been made extremely clear that the character is permanently dead.
T-Bone-T wrote:
I haven't used the new version of Word with the ribbon, so I can't speak specifically to that. But I think the user's experience is a major factor in how easy or difficult it will be to shift to a new interface.
I think an individual whose only word processor experience is with the previous versions of MS Word will find it most difficult to adjust to the new interface. From the illustrations of the ribbon I've seen, it looks like a major departure from the interface that has been used for all previous Windows versions of MS Word.
Older and experienced users who have used many different word processors over the years should have less trouble adjusting to a new interface. I've regularly used more than 10 different word processors since getting my first computer at work (including Wordstar, Wordperfect, MS Word (Windows and DOS version), Professional Write, StarOffice, and Jarte) and I've haven't found that it difficult to transition to each new interface (although I still miss Wordstar's Control-Key commands).
Kierthos wrote:
Jason Todd is a special case. He was killed, buried, and spent years in his grave. But due to the actions of Superboy-Prime in conjunction with "Infinite Crisis" (which altered the timeline) Jason Todd's death was undone and a short while ago (after years in the grave) he suddenly woke up in his grave with all of the injuries he acquired from being beaten by the Joker with a crowbar and then being blown up. It took a dip in the Lazarus Pit (used to keep Ra's Al Ghul alive) that restored him back to health.
Death in comics has become far too unpermanent. Just on the DC Comics side, Superman, Wonder Woman (Diana), Wonder Woman (Hyppolyta) Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) have all died and returned to life. Death used to be a big deal, now its more like giving the character a pause.
This reminds me of the TV show "A Year At The Top" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075602/ where you literally made a deal with the Devil's son for fame and fortune for one year...at the cost of your soul. One part of the deal was you couldn't warn anyone about how bad the deal was (he/she would only spout nonsense instead of the warning).
Martin Blank wrote:
Although consoles might not have the sheer power of a PC, there is one factor that is the reason that I choose to do my gaming on my PS2 console instead of on a PC: If I buy a game for a PS2 I am certain that it will run well on my system. Many times, I've found that a PC game that the game specs say my system is adequate to run often provides a less-than-satisfactory gaming experience. In one case (the game "Shadow Of Destiny") the PS2 version of the game ran much better than the PC version of the same game.
I think the current copyright situation is beginning to hurt the U.S. because it seems that so much has been locked down. I've heard comments about why there are so many sequels recently. I think one of the reasons is that as more story concepts have been already used and copyrighted, there are fewer and fewer story ideas that actually can be used.
Simply put, I think that it will soon come to the point (if it hasn't already) that once a movie is made, it makes it extremely difficult to make any type of movie that is similar except for those in the form of an authorized sequel (like Rush Hour 3) or in the form of an authorized remake (like The Stepford Wives).
mysticgoat wrote:
Here is a link to an article from 2001 on LinuxPlanet that I read which concerns OpenOffice's filters for MS Word documents which relates to the above issues: http://linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/3857/1/.
I was thinking of HTML and plain text as extra backups, in case something happens to the ODF file. Since the ODF uses compression as part of the format there is a small chance that it could get corrupted, leaving you with nothing but the PDF file and the original proprietary-format file. Having two extra plain-text-format-file backups just in case of a disaster is a good thing, especially in the case of files created more than a decade ago.
mrchaotica wrote:
I would add that it should also be saved in HTML and plain text. This would ensure that the data is always accessible in some way. At worst, at least you would have access to the text with some basic formatting (HTML), or at least the actual text of the original document (plain text).
The disabling of support for older file formats is a major reason I've chosen to save my documents in RTF. Even after many years, I still have access to my documents via at least a dozen word processors.
Jonny_eh wrote:
Actually, laserdisc (LD) preceeded DVD in providing widescreen movies and was one of the reasons I went with that format (about 10 years before the introduction of DVD). One reason that widescreen wasn't practical on VHS was due to its relatively low video resolution. One time I rented a widescreen movie in VHS and in many of the wide-shot scenes the image was so unclear that it was hard to tell who was who.
Another reason I went with LD, and this has been carried over to DVD, is multiple soundtracks and subtitles (an LD could contain up to four different soundtracks). I'm a fan of anime and one of the best things about LD (and this has been continued with DVD) is that I can watch a program with a Japanese soundtrack, or with a Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles, or with an English soundtrack, all on the same disc. In the VHS and Beta days, I had to choose either Japanese with English subtitles, or dubbed into English, with the dubbed version often being more expensive.
Returning to the topic of sitting out the HD format war, I'm one of the sitters. When the format war started, I made a decision to wait until at least 2 years after a winner is declared before I consider choose a HD player because, right now, standard DVD is good enough and I don't feel like ending up going with another losing format (I supported both Digital Compact Cassette and CD-I). Also, based on what I've seen already, I doubt any future HD format is going to be as freely usable as standard DVD is right now.
It seems to me that the solution is to carry the spare batteries in a case/holder that will prevent them from being shorted. I carry my spare AA batteries in carrying case (it was one I received when I bought some Sony alkaline AA batteries) that provides excellent protection for the batteries and makes it impossible for the batteries to short.
In the same way, it should be possible for the battery's maker to provide a protective case with the battery that would allow it to be safely carried when not in the device. Due to the sheer number of different types of batteries, I doubt that it would be possible for a third-party manufacturer to provide these type of cases.
ozziegt wrote as part of a post:
I agree about reflective light being a big deal. One of the biggest reasons I moved to a Sony EBook Reader is that the lighted PDA screen (I was using a Palm T/X) is hard on the eyes during extended reading.
Backlighting is also a major hit on the battery life. I used to use a Palm Vx and I could go for several days of my regular use (extremely heavy use for most other people) on a single charge, with an unlighted screen that was easy to read in normal room light. The screen didn't consume much power, it was only when I turned on the back light that I then noticed a significant drain on the battery life.
Now, most PDA require backlighting in order for the screen to be visible. The Palm T/X has a great high-rez color screen, but the screen is basically unreadable without the backlight. This significantly reduces the battery life. As said above, backlighting makes it hard to read the screen for extended periods of time, like when you are reading a book.
I think that if backlighting was provided as an integrated feature in an e-book reader, it would significantly reduce the battery life in the device (unless a much longer-lasting battery were used). In support of this point, my Sony Ebook Reader has a great battery life. However, I noticed that when I use it to play MP3 files the battery drains much faster.
The last point (about screen size) is my most important reason to going with the Sony EBook Reader. One of the biggest problems I've had with using a PDA as an e-book reader is the small screen size, it's barely enough room for a decent amount of text. Now, I have a screen that is not only large enough for comfortable reading without the need for a backlight, but also large enough to contains a large amount of text (comparable to the amount of text on a paperback book page), so I don't have to change pages as often.
The-Ixian wrote as part of a post:
I've found the key to avoiding damage to a PDA is to put it in a good solid hard case, preferable one made of a strong metal. In fact, I reject any PDA that I can't get a hard case for.
I had a Palm m515 that I put in a aluminum hard case. When I retired it, the case was heavily dented and scratched (I've compared to looking like something that had been through a war zone), but the PDA inside was in mint condition.
Actually, the anime series "Chobits" does bring up a great many issues concerning the problems that will arise when realistic male and female androids become possible. Among the issues shown:
besalope wrote as part of a post:
It is likely that the robot would be programmed with a way to resolve the situation in case where it can't avoid violating the Three Laws through no fault of its own.
In a related issue, per Asimov's stories if a robot is in a situation where the robot cannot save all humans (say ten individuals are in danger at the same time). In that case, it is programmed to save the most humans possible.
Another way to deal with emotional pain is to program the robot to give that type of pain at a lower priority compared to physical pain.
somersault wrote:
But what about the maintenance costs and the time necessary to keep you functional? Although it's not mentioned much in the U.S., this issue pops up quite a few times in anime (Ghost In The Shell and Battle Angel Alita first come to mind).
glwtta wrote:
One possiblity is that only super-human replicants, like the Nexus 6, are illegal on Earth due to the threat the pose to regular humans. Normal-human replicants (NHR) (those with the same physical strength and intelligence as normal humans) might be legal on Earth as long as they are designed not to know that they are replicants (leading to the use of memory implants).
Considering the conditions on Earth and implied shortage of healthly people, it could be that NHRs are designed to deal with the labor shortages on Earth. If Deckard is a replicant, it is possible that he might be successor to an original Deckard who was killed in action earlier.
Just a thought.
Enderandrew wrote:
Although I'm likely in the minority, I think that Ford's tired "voice over" added much depth to Deckard's character, giving you the feeling that he's seen it all and at this point nothing impresses him anymore.
raddan wrote as part of a post:
Rather than the lifetime of the author plus 70 years, I've been of the opinion that copyright should be a simple "100 years from the date of creation." The reason for "100 years" is that by that time anyone who had a direct hand in creating the work has passed on. My understanding is that the purpose of copyright law is to ensure that the creators have the opportunity to reap the benefits of their creative work.
An upcoming problem I can foresee due to the continuing extension of copyright law is that eventually so many concepts will be locked down that it will become extremely difficult to create new works because they will be too similar to something that already exists. Could this be one of the main reasons for the recent trend of remakes, sequels, and new versions of old properties? Examples (just a short list off the top of my head of both already released and upcoming):
But sometimes copyright restrictions can end up being an advantage. My understanding is that one of the reasons we have "Star Wars" is that George Lucas wasn't able to get the rights to do a movie of "Flash Gordon" (what he originally wanted to do).
The main problem with HTML is that it only provides limited formatting. One of the reasons that CSS was created was to add document control that HTML doesn't provide. Unfortunately, CSS hasn't been completely implemented. Therefore, you can't be sure how an HTML document will actually display.
From what I understand, two of the main reasons to use PDF are: (1) it can't be easily modified by the receiver, and (2) the document will look exactly as the user intended on all systems (which is a problem with most other formats including HTML).
I don't see the fact that you can't edit PDFs as a major issue. Instead, I see PDF as a final destination format, with PDFs created from other files that can be edited. If a PDF needs to be modified, simply modify the source document and then regenerate the PDF. For example, I use StarOffice 8.0 and I'm able to generate a PDF from any file that I can open up in the program.
A problem I've had with PDFs is that they tend to be best viewed on only one type of display. For example, a PDF that I can easily read when printed on paper or displayed on screen, becomes much harder to read when I put it on my e-book reader because it shrinks the entire page to half of its size to fit on the screen.
I agree that installation should be much easier than the way that Windows does it. One of my favorite installs was for Professional Write 2.0 for DOS, in which the entire installation process was: "copy all of the files into a single directory." To uninstall the program simply delete that directory. Why can't program installations/uninstalls be that simple?
CRCulver wrote:
What I've noticed is that when e-books are discussed, the conversation seems to move in the direction of "E-books must completely displace the printed book, it is just a foregone conclusion." I think that, while e-books will become a significant portion of the reading market, I think there will still be a large market for printed books. Rather, e-books will just one more option for readers, especially if price of the reading device drops to the point where it is almost disposable.
One place I could see e-book readers being very useful are with disposable documents like newspapers and magazines, essentially type of document that you won't keep for a long time. I think that with these types of documents DRM won't be as much of an issue as it is with books since its value degrades much more quickly.
Although EMI's actions appear to be a good move, for me it is far too late. Because of the actions the record labels have taken (either directly or via their agents) I've drastically reduced the amount of music that I buy, and I tend to choose music that is not on a major label.
I think the major reason for the drop in record sales is that the days of people rebuying their existing collection in the CD format are long over. Now most music sales have to be generated from good new music that give people a reason to buy it. Consider this: In 2000 the Beatles had a #1 album (1) consisting of a collection of tracks originally released more than 25 years ago, and have already been released on CD.