Should not reply to an AC but if you actually think 16 bit per channel images are not important you know exactly jack shit about image editing. Try doing stuff like this http://www.allenjeter.com/galaxies/slides/m81andm82.html with 8 bits per channel ain't gonna happen.
I am a proponent of FLOSS and I want the gimp to be great. But it does not matter until Gimp gets the basics right. Until the underlying pixel engine of Gimp can give Photoshop's pixel engine a run for it's money then the gee wiz features don't mean squat for anyone trying to do real work. Bottom line get back to me when the gimp can do full 16 bit per channel images throughout the entire program as quickly and efficiently as Photoshop can.
This is one of the biggest problems with FLOSS the volunteer programmers go and work on the neat gee wiz stuff because that's whats more fun and easier. Getting people to do the hard unsexy stuff just does not happen in a timely fashion. The number of people who are good enough at the engineering to build a really solid pixel engine are quite rare. And the number of those people who are willing to do that in their free time gratis appears to be even more rare. I say this in a goading manner because I want someone to take up the challenge.. someone that can really make that happen.
"I still don't see why Apple aren't allowed to set the terms of participation in their program. If you sign up as an iphone/ipod/ipad developer, you know what you're getting into, and you know they can change their rules at any time. Don't come whining when you don't like it any more"
Spoken like a true Apple herd member. Think Different!
So it's only cool if it's the government run lottery form of gambling where the government gets to be the house directly. Very definition of hypocrites.
Android will win long term market share wise and no one can do anything to stop it it's just a fact. Because in two years time there will be 100s of different android phone models all the way from free with contract feature phones to fire breathing fully decked smart phones and several categories in between.
Apple like in the case of the PC vs. MAC era of the 80s will lose market share to the more open platform that allows device competition. However that does not mean they will lose revenue they will always have their hardcore that will stand in line to buy whatever they sell and go on about it endlessly. So they will just keep making gadgets for that subset that want the Apple "experience". Same way not everyone drives a BMW most drive something much less flashy and affordable. But there is a certain hardcore that will always buy BMW. BMW does fine with their upmarket product and clientele and so will Apple. but the fact is they will not dominate the smart phone market ever. Right now it's RIM that dominates smart phones and they will likely be supplanted to a large degree by Android, which is open source, which means no one handset maker will likely totally dominate in the future. And that's probably a good thing as there will be choice.
Adobe would bend over backwards to make flash work in the iPhone or iPad to Steve Job's satisfaction. Apple does not want flash on their platform for simple money reasons. If you go and play Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook on your iPad Apple does not make any money for that. If you buy We Rule from the app store they do get a cut of that along with the books, music, video etc.. They sell you through the built in store. They have you completely locked down to their app store and they collect revenue on all the content you buy. They lose some control and revenue with flash, now all of the sudden you can play tons of flash games use hulu etc... and they don't get paid for that.
Also if they let flash on the platform that means flash/flex apps would work on the the Android phones and the iPhone equally. They don't want that competition either they want developers locked in to their app ecosystem and make it difficult and or expensive for them to develop cross platform mobile titles.It's all bout control money and lock in. It's good business but it's anti competitive, predatory, and anti consumer.
To willfully put on blinders and pretend it has anything to do with app quality or user experience is idiotic. If flash/flex apps sucked on iPhone or iPad then it would not be a problem for Apple because no one would bother to use them.
You don't have to have a monopoly to be anti competitive and predatory. Microsoft was both long before they established an actual monopoly. And no the Slashdot crowd generally would not accept that type of behavior from any computer software or hardware company. Except I guess, for some hypocrites, Apple.
Archos has been making an Android based tablet for some time now well before the iPad came out. Of course Microsoft has been trying to sell various tablets for years since Pen Windows plus various WinCE devices, UMPCs, Windows XP tablets etc.. Universal reaction tablets are dumb and waste of money. Steve Job's throws on his magic turtleneck and tells everyone "This is a magical device. I am really proud of the team. I really think your going to love it." And people go stand in line to get a tablet. Umm so can we all just agree there is a certain group of people that will buy whatever Steve tells them they need and hype it for him endlessly? Sorry folks but you who behave this way represent an abnormality and are not really representative you are iPeople.
This is the real reason why apple wants to keep flash off of the iPhone. Flash would run fine on the iPhone and Adobe would bend over backwards to make it work to Job's satisfaction. But Apple does not want any competition for native apps on the platform. They get a cut of everything that sells on the iPhone marketplace they don't get a cut if you play a flash game through the browser. Also flash will be cross platform mobile it' a better Java than Java in the respect that it's a virtual machine that actually works and produces attractive apps cross platform. So it's likely if they allowed flash on the platform that the flash/flex apps that worked well on iPhone would also work well on Android and Blackberry and they don't want that competition they want lock in to the iPhone platform. So it's never been about getting flash to run on the hardware it's always been about control and money. It's good business wise but it's anti competitive and bad for consumers.
Be fully aware of who your are doing business when you do business with Apple. If they had won the PC wars and we all had Macs they would be attractive and work well but Apples business practices and lock in would make Microsoft look like absolute saints.
While that was true at one point Moore's Law has eroded the assertion that computer gaming has a high cost of entry quite a bit. I just built a new Linux workstation that would actually be a quite good gaming rig for $600.00 that's pretty darn cheap. Desktop hardware prices have continued there downward trend since you left gaming on the PC. This particular PC has quad core athlon xII, 4GB ram, Nvidia 9800GT with 512MB ram, 1TB Hard drive, Optical drive etc... Next month it will be even cheaper. And in addition to gaming with it it's also a computer which you were likely going to have to buy to read slashdot.
And we seemed to have reached a plateau on raster based 3D graphics the trend is still up and to the right in terms of transistor counts and polys and shaders and what not but it seem more shallow to me the last few years. We may in fact be approaching the point of integration for hardware accelerated 3D in to motherboards that are acceptable for most games. I will somewhat boldly predict we will see quite good 3D cards built in to MOBOs within the next 5 years.
I though patents were meant to encourage innovation by encouraging the inventor to share what he or she had discovered. This looks like the patents are purely being used to stifle a potential competitor (inconceivable). Also how long exactly do patents guarantee a monopoly this is mainframe technology we are talking about here not exactly new right?
Well let's see the original patent term was not to exceed 14 years. Now it's 20 wonder why it has been lengthened so. Perhaps it is because the pace of technology advancement has slowed and thus the corporations need protection for their inventions for longer terms? Nope seems the pace of advancement has increased not decreased. So it's probably more logical to conclude that this is yet another example of how powerful people with money protect their interests by paying legislators in this country for favorable laws.
Reverse engineering is legal and morally right it is not "ripping off IBM" we would not have a had the unlicensed Compaq 386 and the white box computers that followed were it not so. But the reality is if your going to do this sort of thing in this country in this day and age you better have your own patent portfolio to go nuclear with or be able to afford a long court battle that you may very well lose. And in this case this group has neither so all they can do is whine to us. And in case you hadn't noticed we have no juice as we are neither wealthy and powerful or paid for legislators. So in short adios amigos.
Patents and copyrights need to be returned to their original length and software and business method patents abolished altogether.
Yeah uh no, your ass would most likely get fired or HR would send you to sensitivity training I.E. re-education. Common myth is that freedom of speech is the same as freedom of all societal repercussions of that speech. All freedom of speech really is according to the first amendment is that the Federal Government of the United States will not personally put you in jail for what you say. It does no cover your employers treatment of you for unpopular speech or polite society deciding to ostracize you for being an ass. Basically if you want to be an upstanding member of polite and civilized society you must be very careful of what you say at all times. Hell you can get fired for not being a "fully engaged employee" that is to say voluntarily working overtime, kissing ass, and being a yes man. Just ask Jimmy the Greek about freedom of speech.
Lucky for me I have no such aspirations to be an upstanding member of society.
It's a bad bill even liberals should concede that. It basically says the federal government will MANDATE that you buy health insurance in exchange for their corporate masters in the insurance industry agreeing to not withhold coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Never mind that you are self employed or can't afford health coverage unless you are incredibly poor and qualify for Medicaid you will get no help. There will be no public option so there will be no pricing pressure on private insurance providers. And if you don't get coverage how will they enforce it? The IRS of course, and since IRS agents carry guns and have the authority to charge you with crimes that could get you sent to one of America's humane pound me in the ass anal rape prisons. It is basically enforced by the threats of the barrel of a gun and potential anal rape and complete loss of freedom, USA USA USA!
I am betting most people reading this think I am trolling and don't believe that's what it says. Don't take my word for it go read the bill. And you might be thinking why would sane reasonable senators vote for that? I think they know it's a badly broken piece of legislation. I think even Obama knows that. I am guessing the point is to get something anything passed. And if it is broken so be it the resulting cluster fuck and outcry will create the real crisis necessary to pass a real healthcare bill with some public option and maybe eventually work towards single payer or a national health service type of situation. It's totally fucked.
I have a Kindle 2 and I like it and all but I find the back lit displays cause serious eyestrain to be a bit over hyped. Actually way over hyped. I read like probably something like 12 hours a day on a back lit LCD between work and home and that works out just fine. Back lit LCD displays are, get this, bright and easy to read otherwise these computer gadgets would be a lot less useful. Some people say well when you read on your computer that it's different somehow but I don't see how it's different at all. If you write code for a living you stare at these things all day. Now I could see the argument that I stare at an LCD all day at work I don't want to look at one when I get home. That's fair, but this my eyes will bleed if I read on a back lit LCD hype is just bunk.
The real advantage of the Kindle type device is the form factor which is more appropriate for sitting in an easy chair and reading and also the great battery life that comes from e-ink.
If you want to teach kids programming I recommend Scratch, Alice, or Greenfoot kids want to make games that's why me and all my friends learned basic on our 8 bits was to write games. These environments enable quick game making successes which increases interest.
Or they are actually taking money from Microsoft on the back end in a underhanded bid by an underhanded convicted monopolist to establish a right to licensing fees as a way to stifle competition. See for an example the Novel SUSE license certificates MS bought as a result of the Novel deal. Basically since we can't see the terms of the deals that could be happening in each and every case. Microsoft or some investment firm they have a stake in makes and investment (payoff) in these companies. They basically did that through Bay Capital as a way to fund SCO indirectly.
Make no mistake this is typical MS dirty deeds and the whole point is to stifle legitimate REAL competition which as is usually the case they can't abide. And so MS will use every dirty underhanded trick they can to destroy or marginalize OSS. They are bastards and never EVER to be trusted to be sure.
You may feel that way but your feelings don't give you or anyone else the right to violate the rights of others to take pictures in a public place. I am a photographer and I bristle at the suggestion you have that right. Only because a lot of cops and people post 9/11 think that for some reason they do have the right to stop someone taking photographs in a public place. And they do not. Google has a right to do this taking photographs in a public place is legal the EU as usual is harping on companies out of bounds.
I can't believe the hipocracy what with the thousands of surveillance cameras in EU member state Great Britain. There are actually people watching those specifically to violate the privacy of UK citizens where's the outrage there?
Just buy the right netbook the Asus 1201N plays High def video perfectly well because it has an Nvidia 9400M graphics processors with Cuda and hardware video decoding. It will even output 1080P via it's HDMI port. It also has a dual core Atom 330 running at 1.6 ghz. All together it's a hell of a gadget for the money.
I just picked up an Asus 1201N which is bascially a netbook on steroids. It's not a normal netbook it can do full 1080P video and play 3D games like WOW becuase it is a dual core Atom and has Nvidia ION graphics. Personally I think it is a much better device than the iPad. You can do all of the same things with it that you can do with the iPad and much more for $480.You can watch videos (including flash videos for free on hulu) read books from the Kindle store or wherever else you can buy ebooks with a PC. You can play free flash games online. It has a built in physical keyboard the 12 inch screen is plenty for surfing the web you can use whatever browser you want Chrome Safari, Firefox. You can run linux on it. You can play lots of older 3D games for example HL2 plays really well. You can stick the SDHC card in from your camera while on a trip and DL your pics for storage and viewing in Picasa. It's light weight low power and energy effecient. It has regular old USB ports so you can plug stuff in you already have. You can program on it I use eclipse on mine all the time. You can do 3d modeling with Blender or knock out an illustration in Inkscape or use all sorts of great open source and free software on it. You can use many thousands of great commercial Windows apps including Microsoft Office I even do some light music production on mine in EnergyXT. I know no Apple fanboys will be convinced but I really think it is superior to the limited, proprietary, and locked down iPad. Only drawback I see is the battery life but of course since it's removable you can just cary two. I love mine and feel no need to get an iPad or this Idea Pad either which is cool but I am betting is going to be close to 1k price wise. Here are the specs
dual core 1.6 ghz atom Nvidia 9400M/ION graphics will play full 1080P video and World of Warcraft 2 GB ram 250 GB HD 12.1 inch led backlit display HDMI and VGA out 3 USB ports 1 SD slot Audio in and out ~5 hours of battery life more like 4.5 in real world Webcam wireless b/g/n
Wait what! Your actually stoked because your software overlords allowed you the priviledge to use software you paid for on a new system you bought? Really? Are fucking kidding me? Talk about low expectations.
You should try OSS your mind would be blown. Get this I know you won't believe me but the software is free and there aren't even any activation rituals. Oh and your really not going to believe this for a second but you even get the source code to read or modify if you like. I know I can see you shaking your head in utter disbelief. But try googling for Ubuntu and see for yourself.
I won't be flying to Heathrow or Manchester as long as this is the case. And it's not about someone seeing my junk. That really does not bother me. All though it is interesting that if I whipped it out in the Airport I would surely be arrested for indecent exposure and yet this whole thing is compulsory. But this is more about the princicipal of the matter this is a gross violation of civil rights and I will not tolerate it.
If your a subject of her majesty the queen and you aren't up in arms about this and don't fight it tooth and nail then you deserve what you get.
Let's also not forget that what failed largely in the case of the attempted underwear bomber was not airport scanners. What failed was the American inelligence services. I mean for Christ sakes his father showed up at the American embassy in Nigeria and warned anyone who would listen that his son was a threat and they did nothing with this information. So why on earth should we give up our civil liberties as a fail safe to government mailaise and incompetence that is absurd beyond belief.
Also just from a pure safety perspective motor vehicle accidents cause about 40k deaths a year in the US alone and around 4million injuries. Terrorism over the last TEN YEARS in the US does not even rate by comparison. So there really is very little security to even be had as a result of giving up your liberties it's just insane.
But why should bits honestly cost that much. I mean the fact that people are even willing to pay 9.99 for bits is a amazing to me. It is not a physical object it's completely imaginary property at this point and that does mean the value is less. I think what peaves customers is that the publishers want to give you DRM restricted conent that they have MORE CONTROL OF and the want to charge similar prices to before when it was a physical object that WE HAVE MORE CONTROL OF. You may not get it but this is what makes people see red and want you all to just go away. Because fundamentally you want your cake and to eat it to. In essence your just being greedy as hell as per the norm.
Now I get that there are writers, editors and designers involved and they all need to get paid. But a digital only copy of a book especially with restrictive DRM is just not worth any where near what even a second or third run paperback is worth in my opinion. If you try and charge me first run hardback pricing than I would just as soon see you all out on the street than buy ANYTHING at all from you.
I bought a kindle for my wife I read stuff on it and I don't agree that e-Ink is more greatly more readable. I would rather have a back lit display especially for reading in bed. I think e-Ink is over hyped. It's monochrome and slow.
e-Inks real advantage is battery life. You are reading this and all of Slashdot and other sites on a back lit LCD probably and that works out great. I know I spend many hours a day reading on a computer screen and it works fine. So I think that aspect of eInk is overplayed a bit.
Personally I would rather have this iPad 10 inch display rather than the Kindle DX display. They are similar in price but the iPad does so much more with video, iPhoto, audio, web browsing, email, sweet looking organizer, and here's the big part. It's Apple so it will all work really slick and be really well integrated far more so than my 12" Asus netbook. I am still keeping the netbook too though.
You don't get it there is still room for local news it's just the market has changed dramatically and they have not adjusted their business to the new reality. I suspect that it is entirely possibly to have an online only local news site that does real journalism supported by online ad revenue only. If HuffPo can do it on a national level it's very likely it's possible on a local level.
I think that's what the future is more niche content creators with unique content going in to the aggregated pool. This of course means new realities for the "papers". They can not be as big as they were they have to be much much smaller to make it work.However they don't need for example to report on national news at all as it is a complete duplication at this point. It's pretty well covered by CNN. MSNBC, BBC, NPR... They basically don't need a physical office they should save costs by having reporters and editors working from home. They don't need presses, trucks, printers, distributors, vending machines etc... This is all old world thinking it's time to move on. They need good journalists, columnists, editors and web servers and that's where there money should be spent.
Focus on local and state news and editorial exclusively and online ad revenue will support it just fine. I think the bottom line is from a growth and revenue perspective they don't want this new reality even though it is the new reality. They basically don't like the scenario they find themselves in and refuse to make the changes. So they are going to fight it all the way to bankruptcy in the case of many local papers.
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Should not reply to an AC but if you actually think 16 bit per channel images are not important you know exactly jack shit about image editing. Try doing stuff like this http://www.allenjeter.com/galaxies/slides/m81andm82.html with 8 bits per channel ain't gonna happen.
I am a proponent of FLOSS and I want the gimp to be great. But it does not matter until Gimp gets the basics right. Until the underlying pixel engine of Gimp can give Photoshop's pixel engine a run for it's money then the gee wiz features don't mean squat for anyone trying to do real work. Bottom line get back to me when the gimp can do full 16 bit per channel images throughout the entire program as quickly and efficiently as Photoshop can.
This is one of the biggest problems with FLOSS the volunteer programmers go and work on the neat gee wiz stuff because that's whats more fun and easier. Getting people to do the hard unsexy stuff just does not happen in a timely fashion. The number of people who are good enough at the engineering to build a really solid pixel engine are quite rare. And the number of those people who are willing to do that in their free time gratis appears to be even more rare. I say this in a goading manner because I want someone to take up the challenge.. someone that can really make that happen.
"I still don't see why Apple aren't allowed to set the terms of participation in their program. If you sign up as an iphone/ipod/ipad developer, you know what you're getting into, and you know they can change their rules at any time. Don't come whining when you don't like it any more"
Spoken like a true Apple herd member. Think Different!
So it's only cool if it's the government run lottery form of gambling where the government gets to be the house directly. Very definition of hypocrites.
Android will win long term market share wise and no one can do anything to stop it it's just a fact. Because in two years time there will be 100s of different android phone models all the way from free with contract feature phones to fire breathing fully decked smart phones and several categories in between.
Apple like in the case of the PC vs. MAC era of the 80s will lose market share to the more open platform that allows device competition. However that does not mean they will lose revenue they will always have their hardcore that will stand in line to buy whatever they sell and go on about it endlessly. So they will just keep making gadgets for that subset that want the Apple "experience". Same way not everyone drives a BMW most drive something much less flashy and affordable. But there is a certain hardcore that will always buy BMW. BMW does fine with their upmarket product and clientele and so will Apple. but the fact is they will not dominate the smart phone market ever. Right now it's RIM that dominates smart phones and they will likely be supplanted to a large degree by Android, which is open source, which means no one handset maker will likely totally dominate in the future. And that's probably a good thing as there will be choice.
Adobe would bend over backwards to make flash work in the iPhone or iPad to Steve Job's satisfaction. Apple does not want flash on their platform for simple money reasons. If you go and play Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook on your iPad Apple does not make any money for that. If you buy We Rule from the app store they do get a cut of that along with the books, music, video etc.. They sell you through the built in store. They have you completely locked down to their app store and they collect revenue on all the content you buy. They lose some control and revenue with flash, now all of the sudden you can play tons of flash games use hulu etc... and they don't get paid for that.
Also if they let flash on the platform that means flash /flex apps would work on the the Android phones and the iPhone equally. They don't want that competition either they want developers locked in to their app ecosystem and make it difficult and or expensive for them to develop cross platform mobile titles.It's all bout control money and lock in. It's good business but it's anti competitive, predatory, and anti consumer.
To willfully put on blinders and pretend it has anything to do with app quality or user experience is idiotic. If flash/flex apps sucked on iPhone or iPad then it would not be a problem for Apple because no one would bother to use them.
You don't have to have a monopoly to be anti competitive and predatory. Microsoft was both long before they established an actual monopoly. And no the Slashdot crowd generally would not accept that type of behavior from any computer software or hardware company. Except I guess, for some hypocrites, Apple.
Archos has been making an Android based tablet for some time now well before the iPad came out. Of course Microsoft has been trying to sell various tablets for years since Pen Windows plus various WinCE devices, UMPCs, Windows XP tablets etc.. Universal reaction tablets are dumb and waste of money. Steve Job's throws on his magic turtleneck and tells everyone "This is a magical device. I am really proud of the team. I really think your going to love it." And people go stand in line to get a tablet. Umm so can we all just agree there is a certain group of people that will buy whatever Steve tells them they need and hype it for him endlessly? Sorry folks but you who behave this way represent an abnormality and are not really representative you are iPeople.
The market does offer options just take the other options (Dish, DirecTV, Regular old antennae and now the Internet) and quit whining.
This is the real reason why apple wants to keep flash off of the iPhone. Flash would run fine on the iPhone and Adobe would bend over backwards to make it work to Job's satisfaction. But Apple does not want any competition for native apps on the platform. They get a cut of everything that sells on the iPhone marketplace they don't get a cut if you play a flash game through the browser. Also flash will be cross platform mobile it' a better Java than Java in the respect that it's a virtual machine that actually works and produces attractive apps cross platform. So it's likely if they allowed flash on the platform that the flash/flex apps that worked well on iPhone would also work well on Android and Blackberry and they don't want that competition they want lock in to the iPhone platform. So it's never been about getting flash to run on the hardware it's always been about control and money. It's good business wise but it's anti competitive and bad for consumers.
Be fully aware of who your are doing business when you do business with Apple. If they had won the PC wars and we all had Macs they would be attractive and work well but Apples business practices and lock in would make Microsoft look like absolute saints.
While that was true at one point Moore's Law has eroded the assertion that computer gaming has a high cost of entry quite a bit. I just built a new Linux workstation that would actually be a quite good gaming rig for $600.00 that's pretty darn cheap. Desktop hardware prices have continued there downward trend since you left gaming on the PC. This particular PC has quad core athlon xII, 4GB ram, Nvidia 9800GT with 512MB ram, 1TB Hard drive, Optical drive etc... Next month it will be even cheaper. And in addition to gaming with it it's also a computer which you were likely going to have to buy to read slashdot.
And we seemed to have reached a plateau on raster based 3D graphics the trend is still up and to the right in terms of transistor counts and polys and shaders and what not but it seem more shallow to me the last few years. We may in fact be approaching the point of integration for hardware accelerated 3D in to motherboards that are acceptable for most games. I will somewhat boldly predict we will see quite good 3D cards built in to MOBOs within the next 5 years.
I though patents were meant to encourage innovation by encouraging the inventor to share what he or she had discovered. This looks like the patents are purely being used to stifle a potential competitor (inconceivable). Also how long exactly do patents guarantee a monopoly this is mainframe technology we are talking about here not exactly new right?
Well let's see the original patent term was not to exceed 14 years. Now it's 20 wonder why it has been lengthened so. Perhaps it is because the pace of technology advancement has slowed and thus the corporations need protection for their inventions for longer terms? Nope seems the pace of advancement has increased not decreased. So it's probably more logical to conclude that this is yet another example of how powerful people with money protect their interests by paying legislators in this country for favorable laws.
Reverse engineering is legal and morally right it is not "ripping off IBM" we would not have a had the unlicensed Compaq 386 and the white box computers that followed were it not so. But the reality is if your going to do this sort of thing in this country in this day and age you better have your own patent portfolio to go nuclear with or be able to afford a long court battle that you may very well lose. And in this case this group has neither so all they can do is whine to us. And in case you hadn't noticed we have no juice as we are neither wealthy and powerful or paid for legislators. So in short adios amigos.
Patents and copyrights need to be returned to their original length and software and business method patents abolished altogether.
Yeah uh no, your ass would most likely get fired or HR would send you to sensitivity training I.E. re-education. Common myth is that freedom of speech is the same as freedom of all societal repercussions of that speech. All freedom of speech really is according to the first amendment is that the Federal Government of the United States will not personally put you in jail for what you say. It does no cover your employers treatment of you for unpopular speech or polite society deciding to ostracize you for being an ass. Basically if you want to be an upstanding member of polite and civilized society you must be very careful of what you say at all times. Hell you can get fired for not being a "fully engaged employee" that is to say voluntarily working overtime, kissing ass, and being a yes man. Just ask Jimmy the Greek about freedom of speech.
Lucky for me I have no such aspirations to be an upstanding member of society.
It's a bad bill even liberals should concede that. It basically says the federal government will MANDATE that you buy health insurance in exchange for their corporate masters in the insurance industry agreeing to not withhold coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Never mind that you are self employed or can't afford health coverage unless you are incredibly poor and qualify for Medicaid you will get no help. There will be no public option so there will be no pricing pressure on private insurance providers. And if you don't get coverage how will they enforce it? The IRS of course, and since IRS agents carry guns and have the authority to charge you with crimes that could get you sent to one of America's humane pound me in the ass anal rape prisons. It is basically enforced by the threats of the barrel of a gun and potential anal rape and complete loss of freedom, USA USA USA!
I am betting most people reading this think I am trolling and don't believe that's what it says. Don't take my word for it go read the bill. And you might be thinking why would sane reasonable senators vote for that? I think they know it's a badly broken piece of legislation. I think even Obama knows that. I am guessing the point is to get something anything passed. And if it is broken so be it the resulting cluster fuck and outcry will create the real crisis necessary to pass a real healthcare bill with some public option and maybe eventually work towards single payer or a national health service type of situation. It's totally fucked.
So you reading this on your Kindle then?
I have a Kindle 2 and I like it and all but I find the back lit displays cause serious eyestrain to be a bit over hyped. Actually way over hyped. I read like probably something like 12 hours a day on a back lit LCD between work and home and that works out just fine. Back lit LCD displays are, get this, bright and easy to read otherwise these computer gadgets would be a lot less useful. Some people say well when you read on your computer that it's different somehow but I don't see how it's different at all. If you write code for a living you stare at these things all day. Now I could see the argument that I stare at an LCD all day at work I don't want to look at one when I get home. That's fair, but this my eyes will bleed if I read on a back lit LCD hype is just bunk.
The real advantage of the Kindle type device is the form factor which is more appropriate for sitting in an easy chair and reading and also the great battery life that comes from e-ink.
If you want to teach kids programming I recommend Scratch, Alice, or Greenfoot kids want to make games that's why me and all my friends learned basic on our 8 bits was to write games. These environments enable quick game making successes which increases interest.
Or they are actually taking money from Microsoft on the back end in a underhanded bid by an underhanded convicted monopolist to establish a right to licensing fees as a way to stifle competition. See for an example the Novel SUSE license certificates MS bought as a result of the Novel deal. Basically since we can't see the terms of the deals that could be happening in each and every case. Microsoft or some investment firm they have a stake in makes and investment (payoff) in these companies. They basically did that through Bay Capital as a way to fund SCO indirectly.
Make no mistake this is typical MS dirty deeds and the whole point is to stifle legitimate REAL competition which as is usually the case they can't abide. And so MS will use every dirty underhanded trick they can to destroy or marginalize OSS. They are bastards and never EVER to be trusted to be sure.
You may feel that way but your feelings don't give you or anyone else the right to violate the rights of others to take pictures in a public place. I am a photographer and I bristle at the suggestion you have that right. Only because a lot of cops and people post 9/11 think that for some reason they do have the right to stop someone taking photographs in a public place. And they do not. Google has a right to do this taking photographs in a public place is legal the EU as usual is harping on companies out of bounds.
I can't believe the hipocracy what with the thousands of surveillance cameras in EU member state Great Britain. There are actually people watching those specifically to violate the privacy of UK citizens where's the outrage there?
Just buy the right netbook the Asus 1201N plays High def video perfectly well because it has an Nvidia 9400M graphics processors with Cuda and hardware video decoding. It will even output 1080P via it's HDMI port. It also has a dual core Atom 330 running at 1.6 ghz. All together it's a hell of a gadget for the money.
I just picked up an Asus 1201N which is bascially a netbook on steroids. It's not a normal netbook it can do full 1080P video and play 3D games like WOW becuase it is a dual core Atom and has Nvidia ION graphics. Personally I think it is a much better device than the iPad. You can do all of the same things with it that you can do with the iPad and much more for $480.You can watch videos (including flash videos for free on hulu) read books from the Kindle store or wherever else you can buy ebooks with a PC. You can play free flash games online. It has a built in physical keyboard the 12 inch screen is plenty for surfing the web you can use whatever browser you want Chrome Safari, Firefox. You can run linux on it. You can play lots of older 3D games for example HL2 plays really well. You can stick the SDHC card in from your camera while on a trip and DL your pics for storage and viewing in Picasa. It's light weight low power and energy effecient. It has regular old USB ports so you can plug stuff in you already have. You can program on it I use eclipse on mine all the time. You can do 3d modeling with Blender or knock out an illustration in Inkscape or use all sorts of great open source and free software on it. You can use many thousands of great commercial Windows apps including Microsoft Office I even do some light music production on mine in EnergyXT. I know no Apple fanboys will be convinced but I really think it is superior to the limited, proprietary, and locked down iPad. Only drawback I see is the battery life but of course since it's removable you can just cary two. I love mine and feel no need to get an iPad or this Idea Pad either which is cool but I am betting is going to be close to 1k price wise. Here are the specs
dual core 1.6 ghz atom
Nvidia 9400M/ION graphics will play full 1080P video and World of Warcraft
2 GB ram
250 GB HD
12.1 inch led backlit display
HDMI and VGA out
3 USB ports
1 SD slot
Audio in and out
~5 hours of battery life more like 4.5 in real world
Webcam
wireless b/g/n
Wait what! Your actually stoked because your software overlords allowed you the priviledge to use software you paid for on a new system you bought? Really? Are fucking kidding me? Talk about low expectations.
You should try OSS your mind would be blown. Get this I know you won't believe me but the software is free and there aren't even any activation rituals. Oh and your really not going to believe this for a second but you even get the source code to read or modify if you like. I know I can see you shaking your head in utter disbelief. But try googling for Ubuntu and see for yourself.
I won't be flying to Heathrow or Manchester as long as this is the case. And it's not about someone seeing my junk. That really does not bother me. All though it is interesting that if I whipped it out in the Airport I would surely be arrested for indecent exposure and yet this whole thing is compulsory. But this is more about the princicipal of the matter this is a gross violation of civil rights and I will not tolerate it.
If your a subject of her majesty the queen and you aren't up in arms about this and don't fight it tooth and nail then you deserve what you get.
Let's also not forget that what failed largely in the case of the attempted underwear bomber was not airport scanners. What failed was the American inelligence services. I mean for Christ sakes his father showed up at the American embassy in Nigeria and warned anyone who would listen that his son was a threat and they did nothing with this information. So why on earth should we give up our civil liberties as a fail safe to government mailaise and incompetence that is absurd beyond belief.
Also just from a pure safety perspective motor vehicle accidents cause about 40k deaths a year in the US alone and around 4million injuries. Terrorism over the last TEN YEARS in the US does not even rate by comparison. So there really is very little security to even be had as a result of giving up your liberties it's just insane.
But why should bits honestly cost that much. I mean the fact that people are even willing to pay 9.99 for bits is a amazing to me. It is not a physical object it's completely imaginary property at this point and that does mean the value is less. I think what peaves customers is that the publishers want to give you DRM restricted conent that they have MORE CONTROL OF and the want to charge similar prices to before when it was a physical object that WE HAVE MORE CONTROL OF. You may not get it but this is what makes people see red and want you all to just go away. Because fundamentally you want your cake and to eat it to. In essence your just being greedy as hell as per the norm.
Now I get that there are writers, editors and designers involved and they all need to get paid. But a digital only copy of a book especially with restrictive DRM is just not worth any where near what even a second or third run paperback is worth in my opinion. If you try and charge me first run hardback pricing than I would just as soon see you all out on the street than buy ANYTHING at all from you.
I bought a kindle for my wife I read stuff on it and I don't agree that e-Ink is more greatly more readable. I would rather have a back lit display especially for reading in bed. I think e-Ink is over hyped. It's monochrome and slow.
e-Inks real advantage is battery life. You are reading this and all of Slashdot and other sites on a back lit LCD probably and that works out great. I know I spend many hours a day reading on a computer screen and it works fine. So I think that aspect of eInk is overplayed a bit.
Personally I would rather have this iPad 10 inch display rather than the Kindle DX display. They are similar in price but the iPad does so much more with video, iPhoto, audio, web browsing, email, sweet looking organizer, and here's the big part. It's Apple so it will all work really slick and be really well integrated far more so than my 12" Asus netbook. I am still keeping the netbook too though.
You don't get it there is still room for local news it's just the market has changed dramatically and they have not adjusted their business to the new reality. I suspect that it is entirely possibly to have an online only local news site that does real journalism supported by online ad revenue only. If HuffPo can do it on a national level it's very likely it's possible on a local level.
I think that's what the future is more niche content creators with unique content going in to the aggregated pool. This of course means new realities for the "papers". They can not be as big as they were they have to be much much smaller to make it work.However they don't need for example to report on national news at all as it is a complete duplication at this point. It's pretty well covered by CNN. MSNBC, BBC, NPR... They basically don't need a physical office they should save costs by having reporters and editors working from home. They don't need presses, trucks, printers, distributors, vending machines etc... This is all old world thinking it's time to move on. They need good journalists, columnists, editors and web servers and that's where there money should be spent.
Focus on local and state news and editorial exclusively and online ad revenue will support it just fine. I think the bottom line is from a growth and revenue perspective they don't want this new reality even though it is the new reality. They basically don't like the scenario they find themselves in and refuse to make the changes. So they are going to fight it all the way to bankruptcy in the case of many local papers.