Tolkein was/is a public figure, feels like there isn't much to stand on here especially if its fiction and portrayed as such. Seems like this fall well within the fair use realm.

Really good article this past week on Japan's ebook industry.

In Cramped Japan, the iPad Is the Home Library
Families save space by paying startups to digitize their books
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_08/b4216033233882.htm

For $1 a book, I would be digitizing darn near all my books.

Depends on how you to define the market. This is always the problem when dealing with anti-trust issues. How narrow or broad the market is ultimately how a company is determined to be in a monopolistic position and thus the remedy. If you define the market as being the market for smartphones you have a point. IPhone is behind. However, if you define the market as phones and individuals that browse the Internet then IPhone is clearly the leader (cannot find the link at the moment but it was a Slashdot article by an ad network showing something in the neighborhood of 60% followed by RIM, WinMo, Android). If you further segment down to purchased apps then its probably 90% market share. That will be the argument Adobe makes.

With the passage of CARD Act and the accompanying Fed rules related to penalty fees customers are no longer opt-in, but automatically opt-out by default. Unless you specifically opt-in for overdraft protection your debit card will be declined if there are insufficient funds or the in the case of a check it will go NSF. This is the reason you should never have a recurring charge set against your debit card. A debit card has significantly restricted rights when it comes to chargeback. Chargeback is VERY, VERY powerful, instructing the issuer to deny the charge and recoup from the merchants bank who in turn takes it out of the merchants account, merchants then have only a few days to respond. The Acquiring bank can increase the interchange if a merchant is receiving a high number of chargebacks (or drop the merchant altogether) as well as pass along the network fines for chargeback (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, etc.) that in the case of serious offenders can go $100 per transaction.

Hopefully, this shows you how effective a weapon chargeback can be in the cases like this and why if their is any question as to the scruples of the merchant you should always use a credit card for the purchase.

Getting slashdotted. Can someone throw this up on Flickr or something?

From the immortal words of Joe Celko in response to a similar question you discuss and one of the most true statements ever written:

If data has little to no value for you then you do not need a relational database. However, if data is of any importance to you then you have to think beyond a flat file. Flat files, hierarchal databases have been around since the dawn of computing. Relational databases were brought about to solve concurrency and integrity problems inherent in these models not to make your application faster. Like the quote implies jumping out down the elevator shaft is faster then taking the car, but there are trade-offs. I think the better question would be is why does your database design or queries take so much time that flat files are faster when there are just a few users of the system?

"Leave it up to the IRS -- they probably have it figured out that if they pre-fill items on forms, that means less error and less money. Plus, this gives them more opportunity to audit and assess fees. Whee!"

Don't attribute to malice what can just as easily be attributed to incompetence.

You sound like a Microsoft developer I curse everyday. For those who actually have to be productive ie those of us in Finance Excel 2003 works great. Everyone knows where everything is and has modified the menus and buttons to make them more productive. Of course, the Ribbon is not for the power user its for the user who has no idea what they want thus its geared towards the lowest common demoninator ie the secretary or grandma. Anytime I have to drop into 2007 I lose 30 - 40% of my productivity because things that were one or two clicks away you have to first find then you are 4 - 5 clicks. Ribbon is just another word for unproductive mess.

In my former life I was a database programmer so while I was no C or Java wizard I did my best to get the people that understood databases not just someone who would do a SELECT * FROM Table1 and do everything else in the code of their choice.

My favorite question was this

SELECT
FROM
JOIN ON
WHERE
GROUP BY
HAVING

In what steps do you think the database engine would go about the process of solving the SQL statement conceptually and why would the database do it that way? While I would consider the question more technical in nature it does bring out the critical thinking especially those who may not be introduced to it formally through education but understand how a database might react. I could then push the conversation and given difference instances and ask how they might do this and how might the database react. I interviewed and hired folks who got the actual problem wrong but reasonsed and explained enough that I could understand the thinking process they were going through. It was more about how the candidate thinks then what they can regurgitate. As long as any test is exploring the problem-solving nature of the candidate it should fine.

Simple test and the one that convinced me to try to eat organic when I can.

Grab two oranges at the grocery store - one organic and one regular and come home.

Have someone peel them and serve them on two plates as a blind taste test. After taking bites of both you will understand very quickly why I purchase organic when I can.

There will be a fuel + GPS Mileage tax. No bureaucrat will give up that revenue source no matter how small it is. BTW, I don't own an aluminum foil hat but I am not even comfortable with this. I fully recognize the government could conduct surveillance and track my whereabouts today. However, today its HARD to do so. Things like warrants and satellites and patching into the cellular phone system to triangulate must be done. While there are procedures to do so, I like the fact that its HARD and not easy. Having a repository of easily viewed and mined locational data is not my idea of a good time.

GPS Mileage tax = FAIL

If you sent this guy back to 1999 with all the knowledge of the last 10 years at his disposal - I think he still screws it up and history repeats itself in terms of how the market plays out. This is a guy who cannot and will not change. The industry could have OWNED online distribution but instead decided to put its head and the sand now it deals with its gatekeeper and arbiter, Apple. Good job there sparky.

If they could both bury the hatchet for about 5 minutes, a joint bid by Oracle and IBM would actually make much more sense. IBM would take the Solaris platform and hardware, Oracle would take the ZFS, MySQL, and DTrace. They could then both jointly purchase and spin-off Java into an Open Source project or its own firm with each company taking a stake. Since both rely so heavily on Java and neither would enjoy the other firm owning the platform it makes perfect sense for it to continue as an independent entity.

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ding ding ding

I'm from Texas and I think every judge in that district should be removed.