I find it extremely hilarious to even compare these two devices.

Owners of either one feacly defend they're product and highlight the points they want. This is just like the two 4-year olds in the park fighting whos father is a tougher man... The two devices are so far apart that comparing them is equally intelligent. But I guess that is what /. has become...

So, lets brake it down, so even the 4-year olds may understand.

Kindle (or it's competetors) are ebook readers. They are designed to do just that. Even if some of them may have features that try to mimic a tablet computer, they are still ebook readers. And excellent at that! They have extremely good battery life that is essential for an ebook reader. You do not want to be dependable on chargers when reading a book. The e-ink display is as close to paper as possible (for the price) at the moment. It is much more confortable for the eye to read for extended periods, than any CRT/LCD/LED-display. This is because it reflects light instead of emitting it. Our eyes were "designed" to work best on reflected light, not ligh emitting objects. Slow refresh has no relevance when reading a book. Very few people are able to read over a page in a second. =) These ebook readers may also play MP3s for you when reading, which is a nice addition. But they are not designed to be good email clients, web browsers or game consoles.

The iPad is a tablet. Only thing in common it has with an ebook reader is its size and form factor. But just as apples and oranges share the size and form, they still are apples and oranges. The iPad is designed for exactly the things an ebook reader is not. Email, web browsing and gaming, while the only fuctional thing it shares with an ebook reader is a MP3 player. And for these functions, people are willing to pay more, thus it costs more. Yes, you can buy and read ibooks on the iPad, but it is not its primary function. The light emitting screen is not as confortable to read books for extended periods of time. The battery life, while excellent for a tablet, still is too dependable on external power sources to compete with a book, or even an ebook reader.

They both are excellent devices, but just not comparable. But hey, if you've bought one or the other and are happy with it, great! Just don't think it is the ultimate culmitnation of technological achievement and the end of the road.

It's interesting to read the comments here in /.

Most are expecting the patents in question to be some technical gadgets being patented, and seem to be thinking UI is just BS. Hardware is where the beef is!

That is understandable, as most /. readers are geeks, and nerds do usually prefer the engineering side of the human aspect. And that is just fine. Without hardware there is no software, and without software there is no UI. But what most /.ers seem to be missing is what floats a product. Why iPhone is still selling well.

When iPhone came out, the only unique thing about it's hardware was the touch screen. And actually even that wasn't technically anything new, only the combining software made it something new. Everything else about the phone was just average. And still is. When the latest iPhone 3Gs came out, it didn't have anything we hadn't seen before. But it's not the hardware that sells the iPhone. It's not only the marketing either. While marketing will sell a product, it will not float it for three years. There is more to iPhone's success than marketing, and it certainly isn't the hardware.

The something is not the software (as features go) either. iPhone doesn't have anything that you couldn't get to any other smart phone either. Maybe there are more apps for it yes, but essentially they do not offer any killer app that you wouldn't be able to get (feature wise) for the competing products.

The only thing that set's iPhone apart from it's competitors is it's UI. The fact that there is no manual, and even a 1 year old knows how to use it. My now 18 months old son figured out how to unlock and open picture viewer and how to browse them, all by himself. Hell, he even sent email from the phone last summer, although it wasn't as he understood what he was doing then. =) Anyway, the UI is the single piece of iPhone that sets it apart, and the largest reason for it's continuing success. To repeat myself, yes marketing sold the phone, but it's the UI that keeps on selling it.

Actually this is not capitalism that this lobby group is supporting. They are actually fiercly against capitalism and free markets. They are promoting corporatism which is actually closer to Russian-communism and far from capitalism.

Russian-communism as opposed to real communism. The communism that we all know from TV is the Russian-communism, where you have/had a small elite of the Party that control the whole country, sucking off the blood of the average Igor until he's dry. The corporatism is exactly the same, except instead of the Party, you have the Corporation, or more precisely a small number of Corporate elite sucking the blood of average Joe until he's dry.

In capitalism you have a choise of selling your goods or services. You have the choise of giving your goods or services for free too, if you so wish. There is nothing in capitalism that prevents you doing that. Actually it can be an excellent business model too. Give an oil lamp for free and make profit selling oil for it. - Give your software free and make profit by selling training, customisation and support for it.

OSS is very capitalistic, and in it's most pure and working sense. You are doing something for free with the hope of profiting from it in the future. That is the core and heart of any entrepreneur, ie. capitalist.

As for morality I agree; Russian-communism and Corporatism inherently have none. Capitalism may or may not be moral, that depends on the capitalist's own values.

Talk for your self, son!

My life is The action movie, I do have The Girl, and I do look better and am tougher than Bradd Pitt and Vin Diesle put together!

You can have the soap though...

...and an other thing. My name is Chuck Norris!

Newsflash, the number is up from 32% to 34%! - I just switched...

But seriously. My netbook is counted into the Windows XP, because it wasn't available with Linux when I bought it a year ago. And until a week ago it was correct to count it to the Windows pile. I had been looking for a distro that would support my netbook (Asus S101) out of the box. I don't want to do work at home, that's why I didn't want to play the hunt-for-the-red-driver-game at home. I just wanted a Linux that would work out of the box on my rather rare netbook.

I got fed up with Windows freezing up every now and then. And lately more now than then. It would just freeze the UI to do Something Important, and then continue. A fresh reinstall didn't help it, so I started the hunt for a working Linux distro again. And now it seems I've finally found it, the Easy Peasy.

Sure, it's not a "real Linux", neither is my netbook a "real laptop". It's a netbook. I use it for web browsing, Skype, email and occational word processing when travelling. At home it's the surfboard that you use when lying on couch, or I admit, in bed when I actually should be reading a book instead. And for this I don't want a "real operating system". I want something that just works for these tasks. Something that doesn't freeze and doesn't require configuring.

Well, I think I've found it, and I'm happy now!

On the subject of the article, though. I was wondering how many other netbook users are out there that have ditched the preinstalled Windows in favour of Linux, thus contributing to the numbers of Windows netbooks instead of Linux?

Naturally there will always be energy loss when you tranport energy.

But this system is pretty well suited for cities. And naturally the pipes are well insulated and laid under ground to keep ambient temperature constant.

The water is heated at the plant (or the data center in this case) then pumped to the system. The system consists of main lines usually running under streets. These have smaller lines going to a connected building. Inside the building the pipes go to a "boiler room" or heat center or what-ever you want to call it. There the heat is transferred from the system to buildings own heating system. Usually the heating system consists of hot water running in pipes as well. Although for safety the temperature is much lower on the building's own system. Also the heat from the system may be used to heat your tap water.

In Finland gas furnaces are almost non existent and only used for camper vans or trailers used for vacations during colder seasons. In the cities this kind of centralised heating is popular due to the efficiency. Both economic and energy. In rural areas oil and electricity are most popular, but heat-exchangers are catching up. Wether it be pumping heat out of outside air or the ground, both work well and give free energy to the house owner. Solar or wind are not harnessed in Finland due more to political reasons than anything else.

Actually the statement made by Hitler in this book has nothing to do with popularity, unlike the more recent former family affairs minister's comments that were nothing but.

Hitler was writing about racial purity, only the healthy being allowed to breed / have children. But just as majority of the leaders of the biggest nations today, Hitler too was a populist. He just didn't "ride children" to fame, but poverty, unimployment and hyperinflation instead.

I wanted to have my mobile to come in two sizes. The BIG one for email, websurfing, and all that. The small one that fits in my jeans' front pocket, confortably. - The solution was two phones. Obviously. But I didn't want to swap the SIM-card every time.

MultiSIM to the rescue! - Luckily the operators in Finland finally started to sell this multi SIM-service. Basically I have two lines that share one number. If both phones are on, they both ring. First one to answer gets the call. When I call out, they both are billed as my primary. (I can actually make double billing by calling out with both phones at once, if I really wanted to.)

Only problem is the SMS. They only go to the primary SIM. I can send naturally with both, but only really receive with one.

Test piloting is a risky business, just as flying to the moon in a washing machine (well, it was a bit more advanced than that, but still). To qualify for a test pilot, you naturally need a a lot of training (just as you do to be a moonwalker). But you also need to be able to make very quick and firm decissions with incomplete information, and without hesitation. This can be concidered foolhardy and just neglegting the danger. The truth is, you know the danger, but don't think about it at the moment you need to make the decission. You just concentrate on solving the problem, and solve it in the given time. Be the time 2 seconds ot 2 minutes. You will make the decission that you feel is the right one, and you live (or die) with it. - Later you may get the shakes about it, when you're all safe and sound back on the ground.

I've had a couple of similar situations and have walked away from them. (Shaking a bit, but still walking.) They were all much closer to Earth though, actually come to think of it, the problem with couple of them was being so close to Earth to begin with... =)

Not commenting on netbook sales in general, but which OS to choose.

Personally I was forced to a crippled XP Home, as I could not find the netbook I bought (Asus S101) with Linux in Finland. I needed the netbook for a trip and didn't want english keyboard, thus was forced to buy what was available.

Naturally I would have preferred Linux with SSD twice the size that came on my XP-forced one for the same price.

You can guess what OS it was running by the time I got my hands on it... ...and as a hint, it's not OS X. At least not yet.

Is this guy for real?

I wish cute netbooks would have been available back when I was young and hitting on girls. - I had to rely on a puppy. And the puppies grow up to be big and scary dogs...

But as for making the netbook look better? - There's nothing that ugly that a can (or few) of matt black spray paint wouldn't fix...

I don't do without music. I even buy the music. But ONLY directly from artist at their gig. When they sell their own music on CDs they burned themselves. THAT is supporting the artist! Oh, and I don't go see Metallica or other boy bands either, as I don't want to support them. There are plenty of bands out there that are playing locally that actually make better music with their hearts in it.

Being a car-nut I always jump on the opportunity to drive a new (to me) car. And as a result I've driven quite a few cars in my life. I also race endurance (track) racing in a team, so I hope that I have some perspective in this. Also as a car-nut I tend to buy older cars that I can work on, and cars that have a good "road feel".

A while ago I had the opportunity to test drive the new LandRover Discovery. I really loved the comfort and relaxed atmosphere of the car. You could jump in, drive for 10 hours straight, and still feel refreshed upon arrival. - As long as the weather is beautifull...

Unfortunately (or fortunately for the sake of experience) it was spring here in Finland, and the winding country roads still had patches of ice where the trees cast shadows all day. Usually I enjoy these kind of roads, and with a appropriate car they can be really ejoyable to drive, even in above conditions.

Driving down the road with this brand new LandRover I quickly became aware that the car has absolutely no road feel. The drive down the road became agony, as I had no way of knowing wheter the car was close to loosing grip or not. To get safely home, I drove overtly cautiously and didn't enjoy the drive a bit.

What I'm trying to say is that the trusting on these wonderfull abbrevations that modern cars have and letting the computers control the car does indeed aliante you from driving. They give you a false sense of security and confidence that you are in control of the car. They give you no feedback to be able to tell that you are approching the limits. And when you get there, all you can do is let go (as the car is spinning out of control) and hope the active safety systems will spare your life.

Even a simple safety system like ABS (anti-locking brakes) can fail on you. I've had ABS failure just when I needed it. The ABS-light just came on when I slammed the brakes and the wheels locked. Luckily none of our race cars have ABS, so I instictively eased on the pedal and was able to steer away from the car in front of me that had turned sideways and surprised me. No, crash of scratches this time.

So, for me at least my cars will continue to be "unsafe" cars without stability management, brake assistants and other computer controlled "safe" gadgets. Also I will make sure that when my kids start driving, they will get plenty of high-speed practice with cars with no computer systems on closed areas. That is how I learned and I believe practice is the only way to learn these things to become nearly instinctive.

Excuse for rambling, but this matter is so close to my heart.

It's interesting to see that Yahoo News says it's quoting AFP on this one. What would be more interesting to hear if this is actually a AFP "news" or not. - And if so, it would be very interesting to hear who on AFP was drunk enough to come up with this... =)

Unfortunately stealing a car for joyriding in Finland is not a very big offence. Actually it's not even called stealing, but "unlawful use of motor vehicle". And I dare say the police would even have time to check a car's interior, let alone hunt for a mosquito. I've had my car stolen once, and luckily recovered. I called up the police after it was recovered, and they didn't have time to come by to have a look at it, let alone dust the car for prints. - So, no cool CSI...

And BTW. It's December here in Finland (like I guess it's in most parts of the world), and the mosquitoes died by September...