The problem with the kindle was largely that the text-to-speech functionality was a mainstream feature they were advertising (albeit in somewhat beta-fashion). In terms of accessibility to enable blind and visually impaired users to read the (otherwise) print materials on the kindle, no copyright violation etc would take place because that is covered under specific exceptions. Of course, the overall inaccessibility of the kindle makes that argument a bit hard to make.

But with the Intel Reader being marketed as a specific assistive technology device, it's functionality as described would not be in violation with any copyright laws or DMCA because it is an assistive technology device that enables printed materials to be read by blind and visually impaired users.

Copyright exceptions exist for the purpose of ensuring that people with disabilities can access print materials, etc... Printed works can be presented in alternative specialized formats (and voice rendering is one of those formats) without constituting a copyright violation. Check out bookshare.org... It's largely based on that.

I also expect that it is a step towards having better protection against e.g. any form of phishing sites that would try to appear to be a Google site.

There is also an often overlooked consideration that affects the influence of piracy on sales. Quite often, if people pirate software it is because they don't care to pay for it (and it is of course illegal and wrong). But those same people are also likely to go for used copies of software as an alternative to pirated copies. In either case, the software vendor isn't making a sale from this person.

For online games, that is even less an issue because there the revenue stream is of course the subscriptions.

As a not-so-in-fashion player of only select games, I happily await the availability of used copies (yes, cheap and sometimes even free) rather than bothering with pirated copies. Sure, I won't be able to play a game within the first few days of it being available, but I do not even play many games, so I can happily wait to get my hands on a really cheap copy.

In all, looking at the amount of used copies of games that pass through e.g. EBay, I think it is quite clear that the amount of people playing a given game is vastly larger than the amount of copies that got ever sold.

You may want to check out Debian, especially now Lenny has been released as Debian 5.0. It includes a decent amount of work from the DebianEeePC team (http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC), and runs nicely. Like all distributions, there are a few rough edges for some Eee PC models (due to hardware differences and less-than-ideal drivers being available).

In the end, it will probably depend largely on what people are used to in terms of Linux distributions. But if you like Debian and Debian-derivatives, I would certainly recommend taking a look at Debian.

It is also important to note that the DebianEeePC project has a very active developer and user community that is more than happy to help out both newbies and more experienced users.

Actually, if I am not mistaken, accessibility is covered as an exception under copyright law in that accessible versions of e.g. books in specialized format (which audio is one form of) are allowed. That's what NLS (part of the Library of Congress) and bookshare.org are based on.

The text-to-speech feature of Kindle2 is important to people with visual impairments, since it is a good step in the direction of making the device accessible to that user group.

Of course, the example you refer to has more to do with a broken healthcare/insurance system than with the post.

Either way, the issue with umbilical cord blood banking is more like paying social security taxes, without having any guarantees that by the time you need to be able to count on the payout there actually will be any. While there is a lot of research pointing at stem cell research being the answer to many problems, there is no guanratee that (1) by the time you need it the research will have resulted in a usable solution to whatever problem you face, and (2) by the time you need it the banked cord blood will in fact be usable for whatever solution has been found to be possible with stem cells.

Especially (2) is a bit of a concern to me personally, because you invest a whole lot of money into the banking while there really is no guarantee that the entire process is indeed capable of storing the needed cord blood for the length of time that might be needed without any ill effects. Nor is stem cell research far enough as far as I can see that they can really answer whether cord blood banked for say 20, 30, heck, 80 years will indeed yield stem cells that can successfully be used in treatments.

It is utter irony of course that the US is so much for boasting freedom etc, but they are implementing measures that are supposedly done in the interest of security without really adding much of anything (beyond annoyance and essentially making the entire visa waiver program useless). It does however seem to indicate just what the US government thinks about the rest of the world: no one can be trusted.

Of course, since apparently green card holders now will be subjected to the ridiculous US VISIT requirements as well, that distruct shouldn't surprise anyone.

Sad thing is... I'd be willing to bet money that Obama won't change any of this during his presidency, which (to me) would be a clear indication that this isn't just the action of an adminstration under a crazy shrub, but rather a consistent move towards protectionism and isolation.

Sad sad sad...