Thank you for your honest opinion. Just trying to state my experience with the system in question.

What is your experience with this system? How has it affect you, if at all, or you it?

While of course it is a strong overstatement to say all of us Americans are insane in some way, it is true that Big Pharma and our simplistic views of life are turning us into mass consumers of psychotropic medications, legally.

In some ways, I was one of those the system tried to abuse. I say that not to inflame the argument- I know the people involved did not INTEND to do me harm. Luckily for me, I have good parents who resisted the BS. Way back in early grade school, they said I was having trouble and that I should be put on Ritalin, that I had ADD or ADHD. My mother, being smart person who can think for herself, looked at the situation and removed most of the processed sugar junk from my diet. I got sufficiently better that the matter was closed.

But wait! There's more! It turns out I am one of those unlucky few who actually was born bipolar! 35 years ago, we didn't really know these things, so I went without diagnosis, let alone treatment. And the argument still rages, can a child BE bipolar? (My case is a clear argument that, yes, a child can be bipolar).

And there's still more! Once I was properly diagnosed, by two separate, unrelated psychiatrists who were unaware of each others diagnosis (I call it the 'blind taste test method of diagnosis), I began treatment. Over a decade of trying this, that, and the other medication. You know what finally worked? Testosterone replacement therapy and vitamin-B complex, along with some mental trickery I do for myself. This is MY solution and not medical advice. But the idea is, they mostly want to sell you drugs, expensive drugs. You MUST take control and find the underlying cause for yourself! And you must be intelligent about it.

Which leads me to...

RANT ON

I don't see much hope these days. I work closely with the public and it makes me want to kill. It makes me want to remove the right to vote and breed. It makes me um... depressed... again. Americans want to blame an external source for their problems and take a magic pill to make it all better. I know this. I went through that phase of trying to find something outside of me that made me screwed up and I wanted an instant fix for it. Most Americans, it seems, don't get past that phase- ever. It's the immigrant's fault. It's my spouse's fault. It's my parent's fault. As I told an ex of mine many years ago, so the fuck what! You're an adult now. Act like one and figure your shit out; take responsibility for who you are today and make yourself better. Ask for help if need be, of course. I had to and it worked. My shrink helped me figure out the testosterone issue. She's one of the good ones.

So is Big Pharma really to blame? Or are they just capitalizing on our nature? That's a trick question. We are BOTH to blame.

RANT OFF

I apologize for the rant. This is a sore subject for me and working with the public the last several years has not helped! :) But try to imagine the conversation I have to have sometimes:
Me: I'm bipolar.
Them: Ya, so is everyone else these days.
Me: Yes, I know. It's being WAY over-diagnosed now, but I really am.
Them: Yep, they all say that too now.

If they only knew the real pain. The guilt of the pain my disease has caused others. Hell, they still wouldn't give a shit. Many of is Americans are too self-absorbed to notice. I wonder if there's a pill for that...

If you follow the first link to the story (heaven forbid) you will see several pictures. One clearly shows a USB hub connected to it. Via that hub is a mouse, keyboard, and Ethernet. You could easily add external storage, too.

With just a wireless keyboard (one that has a track-pad) and network port (wireless or Ethernet) connected, I could use this on my TV as an info-panel- news, weather, quick look at the email, etc. Think Chumby or that Sony device, but small and out of the way and more functional.

I'd totally go for this for myself!

Moreover, I could use a few of these at work- I could replace some thin-clients with this and save a bundle (thin-clients are at least $300USD). They only view the web, and a short, white-listed section of it at that. Perfect! Heck, soon enough, we'll be running those and many of the full PCs through VDI, and this would work in places where we don't need people plugging junk in, possibly even in places where they do need to.

Yep, I see a need/market for this. :D

Wait, I can't choose 'everybody' because I don't want to be part of it. I can't choose 'everybody but me' because I'd be discoverable via the process of elimination. And I can't choose 'the creepy guy who lives down the street' because someone might actually think that I'm that guy. And I don't want to choose 'nobody' since I do actually want the cops to have proper tools for catching actual bad guys. And the other four choices open up the 'slippery slope' arguments, which we're so used to seeing here on /. all the time anyway. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I think it actually comes down to an all or nothing - 'everybody' or 'nobody' - issue. So, 'everybody' and lock it down with privacy measures - only the cops + court order; no insurance co access; etc. Or 'nobody'. Frankly, I don't believe for one second that 'privacy' measures work against government intrusion. So, as much as I support the cops doing their legitimate work, they'll have to suffer through not having a DB of DNA. They'll have to collect the DNA from each suspect, each time. Then again, this serves as a job opportunity, a chance for creating more jobs for somebody other than basic laborers for once because they need more labs to do this work in a more timely manner.

Thank you for your interesting reply. See my comments below....

Hmm.. Let me be more clear. In my use of the work "quite", I meant to convey a higher level of happiness. I am VERY happy with my Kindle DX. Is that more clear? And of course I said it's the best screen for e-readers. THAT'S WHAT THIS IS. I don't want a back-lit, high-def LCD screen. They have too much glare and put out too much light for comfortable reading. So, for e-readers, the type of display the Kindle has is best. And yes, which e-reader is relevant. Some are better than others.

And actually being there is better than reading the book, too, but can you get there? Do you have the time or money for it? That's what reading (and viewing multi-media) is about. Your argument is specious.

Basically, you're reading this with the meaning YOU want, not the meaning I implied, simply because you want to bash this genre of products. It's fine that you don't like them or find them useful, of course. But try not to twist another persons words. This isn't art class where you get to say how a painting makes you feel. This is written communication wherein we try to understand what the person actually meant.

Close, but not quite. You see, it IS just a copy of the book. So is any book. But it's also a copy of the other 200 books I want to carry.

Actually, e-readers already provide more than text search. They allow you to carry many books, books of large size, all in one little package. And without killing a tree. Then there is bookmarking, highlighting, word definition look-up, text-to-speech, and on-line shopping for books. There are even some games. (capabilities vary from e-reader to e-reader)

I've never seen an e-book more expensive than its dead-tree-variety. Seriously.

And I'm generally disappointed by the books I find, regardless of the format. So what? There are plenty of good books in any format, including e-books. Including free. Have you really tried? Perhaps, but I have my honest doubts. I'm not trying to be insulting, but I think maybe you just have something against e-readers in general and nobody will convince you otherwise. Fine. But there are plenty of good books, for better prices, available for e-readers.

Again, the reading is easier on the eyes with an e-reader. I can only stare at a computer screen for so long before I start hurting. And yes, I've had my eyes checked. They're 20/20 with minor astigmatism. I wear comfy glasses the doc gave me for computer use because of the minor astigmatism. I sit properly. I take breaks. Blag blah blah. I'm a computer professional and have consulted on ergonomics. I get it. And Kindle-type e-readers work best for eye comfort.

I don't know about you, but my arm would get mighty tired carrying a laptop around while trying to read it. I enjoy being able to pace back and forth or walk somewhere while reading and a good e-reader makes that easier. (And, I'll say it again, the laptop screen is not as good for reading as the Kindle-type screens.) But maybe you're super-buff and can carry a 24in laptop in one hand and your lover in the other.

That's funny because that geek-appeal didn't get me until after I started using it.

What? Which e-reader did you get? I have a Kindle DX and I'm quite happy with it. The screen is the best I've seen for e-readers and the battery life is phenomenal (I leave the wireless off most of the time). The selection of books isn't bad at all. There are plenty of free books (and occasional special free deals) and most others are LESS expensive than the dead-tree version. I have a metric ton of books on mine already. Many are PDFs and freebies provided by my girlfriend (she likes SciFi, too), Others are manuals and certification study guides, again mostly freebies I found and PDFs from the software providers. The down-side is that Amazon won't play nice with libraries, so checking out an e-book from my local library isn't going to work. However, other e-readers obviously do work for this and HarperCollins is a bunch of asses for what they're trying to do here.

Originally, I didn't want to 'waste my money on another unneeded gadget', but then came the Citrix documentation I had to study for work. Over 5000 pages of PDFs! My girlfriend made a very valid point: "If you worked for me and printed all that out, I would fire you!" And I sure as hell wasn't going to print it at home. Besides, as she also pointed out, who in their right mind would want to carry around 5000 pages? Or even a small part of that? It's inconvenient to say the least, not to mention environmentally unsound. I'm no tree-hugger (far from it) but I do my part. So an e-reader was the right way to go.

Then came an amusing, satisfying moment-
I was kicking back, reading a SciFi on my reader, occasionally tapping my way to the next page, when it dawned on my I was reading a SciFi on a device that a few years ago only existed IN A SCiFI!

AND IT WORKS!

So cool! :)

My Kindle DX fits the 1-gallon size bags just fine. Since I'm still waiting for my cover to arrive, I used one the other day to take the Kindle with me for lunch when I didn't want to carry the briefcase and it was raining. Perfect fit! And I could use it while still in the bag, too, though the readability suffered a bit.

Aren't manufacturer defects generally covered by a warranty? It should be replaced for free!

I'm REALLY trying to fight the urge this time around. The last story I saw on this was only a couple months ago, so there really is no need for me to do it again.

Other missing option: every time I see a story about Googling myself

So many people griping about companies (and rich people) using loopholes, blaming them for their problems. Well, CLOSE THE FAFFING LOOPHOLES. If there are no loopholes to take advantage of, then they will be forced to pat their fair share. Right now, they pay their fair share, which is lower than many would like but still fair due to the fact that these loopholes exist for them to use. Any company NOT taking advantage of them is likely to fail because it become economically disadvantaged compared to its competitors who are taking advantage.

Simplify the tax system. Close the loopholes.

I initially thought the headline said Big Media Wants More Privacy Busting From Google

I guess that's likely true as well.

Sure they could-
Assumption: They have the ability to cloak an entire planet.
*Secondary assumption: With that level of technology, they likely have FTL communications and FTL travel.
Therefore: They have spies here who passed our discovery of them to their home, thus causing their leaders to hide the planet.

*It is true, of course, that the secondary assumption does not necessarily follow from the first assumption, but we're guessing here anyway and it's a pretty reasonable assumption.