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Comment Ignoring the biggest disappointment ... (Score 1) 418

by Keyslapper (#39250449) Attached to: The eBook Backlash
The whole idea behind e-Readers is that there are a number of advantages over traditional print:

1: You can collect a much bigger library without needing storage or more bookshelves.

2: You can take your whole library with you when you travel.

3: You can read a lot more for a lot less.

The problem is that #1 and #2 are irrelevant in my opinion. When I'm traveling, I travel for a reason, and it's not to read. I'm visiting family, off to a festival with the family, etc.. Naturally, I like to bring something to read, but one or two books and maybe a couple magazines is the most I need. Usually, it's just one book. As for the bookshelf, I really like a physical book - we have over 1000 between myself, my wife, and our 2 kids. It's that sense of permanence mentioned in TFA. I don't need to keep a book charged in order to read it, and I don't have to freak out if I spill a drop of whatever I'm drinking on it.

As for #3, this would be enough for me to at least buy more of my books in electronic format, but that argument is a load of bollocks - and the biggest disappointment in the entire eBook scene. I often find that the paperback print is the same or cheaper than the eBook. For instance, the Game of Thrones paperback bookshelf is currently $21.03 at Barnes and Noble. The eBook for the same collection of 4 stories is $29.99. Both prices are exactly the same at Amazon. Why would I want the eBook?

Granted, there are specials where the opposite is true, and others where I've grabbed eBooks for under $5, or even as low as a dollar, but these are books I would never even bother with a hard copy on - and often I'm glad I didn't waste time going to find it at the bookstore. I'm really trying to justify buying the Nook Color with books, but so far, I'm using it to let my kid watch Phineas and Ferb through Netflix a lot more than I'm reading books on it. As far as that goes, I don't even bother watching Netflix streaming videos on it, because the quality really is poor, and I can do better through the Wii or my laptop.
Android

LG To Pay Licensing Fees To Microsoft For Using Android 359

Posted by Soulskill from the those-who-can't-do-sue dept.
PerlJedi writes "InformationWeek reports that LG is the latest in a string of companies who have been bullied into paying 'license fees' to Microsoft for the use of Android on their products. 'Microsoft said the deal with LG means that 70% of Android-based smartphones sold in the U.S. are now covered by its licensing program. ... Microsoft does not disclose how much revenue it's obtaining from Android, Chrome, and Linux licenses, but some analysts believe it may be substantial, to the point where the company is making significant profits from the mobile revolution even though its own offering, Windows Phone, commands a market share of less than 2%, according to Gartner.'"
Television

Makers Keep Flogging 3D TV, Viewers Keep Shrugging 457

Posted by timothy from the but-it's-got-three-dee! dept.
A Wired article (as carried by CNN) attempts to answer the question of why 3D television hasn't caught on. The reasons listed there (high price, paltry content, the need for 3D glasses for typical sets, headaches and strain) all seem to be on the money, in themselves, but I think don't go far enough. 3D on a set small enough for home use outside a high-end home-theater rig seems to me like a clever novelty that I can't even enjoy unless I've given it my full attention. It's nothing like the jump from black-and-white to color, or even the jump from my old (circa 1993) 19" Trinitron to a flat-panel display. On the big screen, it's another story — there, 3D can be arresting and involving, even when it's exaggerated (and it is). On home sets, even quite large ones, to my eye 3D usually looks phony and out of place. Never mind that the content is limited and often expensive, or that there are competing standards for expensive glasses to wear — I just don't like that the commitment is greater than that required for casual, conventional TV; I can't readily scan email, skim through a magazine, or keep watching out the corner of my eye from another room. (I'm hoping to find some actually watchable no-glasses 3D sets at CES next week, but I'm skeptical.)

Submission + - Wow Computers from First Street? (mywowcomputer.com) 1

Submitted by Keyslapper
Keyslapper writes: My folks are in their 60's and are on the lookout for a new computer. Being on a fixed income, they're trying to be very careful about spending that kind of money, so they've sent me a few links to check out for them.

The one thing I can't get any real useful information on is the "Wow Computer" by First Street [http://www.mywowcomputer.com/]. Google turns up nothing but reviews and infomercial style testimonials about how "Wow changed my life". Unsolicited reviews or reports of personal experiences are very hard to find.

The company was founded as "Technobrands" in 1988, and the BBB gives them an A- with 31 complaints (all apparently resolved), 22 of which are related to product or service issues. This is all I can find so far.

The systems look very impressive on the website, boasting a reasonable spec list and a Linux based OS — which one isn't made entirely clear.

The website makes a lot of promises and markets hard to the elderly, even using AARP to peddle them. If it weren't for AARP pushing them, I'd say it smacks of an elderly ripoff. Still, I need to know if anyone on /. has seen these systems in action, and how usable are they for older folks? How reliable are they? When there are problems, how responsive is First Street / Technobrands?
Image

Real Life Super Hero Arrested Screenshot-sm 590

Posted by samzenpus from the not-super-enough dept.
First time accepted submitter Pat Attack writes "In an ironic twist of fate, Phoenix Jones, a self-styled super hero from Seattle, has landed in jail. Jones happened upon a group of people fighting in the street and tried to stop the fight using pepper spray. He was arrested by police on four counts of assault. The New York Daily News quotes Jones: 'I've been shot once and I don't really want it to happen again. I've been stabbed twice, hit with a baseball bat and had my nose broken,' he says. 'But in all those incidents I helped someone who was in danger. If someone is going to take that punishment it should be the guy in body armor,' he said."
Businesses

Internet Eats Into Time-Warner Cable Porn Profits 228

Posted by Soulskill from the internet-is-for-porn dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Big cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable keep saying they don't see Web video cutting into their business, but there's at least one big, dirty exception. Time Warner Cable said in its quarterly earnings report that its video-on-demand (VOD) business dropped significantly in the last quarter. Asked to explain where the drop came from, CEO Glenn Britt came clean, more or less: much of the drop is because, instead of renting a porn video in HD for $9.98, Time Warner's customers are getting their porn fix on the internet for free. 'One of the things going on with VOD is that there's been fairly steady trends over some time period now for adult to go down, largely because there's that kind of material available on the Internet for free,' says Britt. 'And that's pretty high margin.' To be fair, drooping porn rentals don't account for all of Time Warner Cable's VOD decline. Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus said that while 'the biggest piece of the year-over-year decline was in fact in the adult category,' the rest of the drop is because there weren't many big pay-per-view events like boxing matches last quarter, and because regular movie rentals are down, too."
Education

Can a Playground Be Too Safe? 493

Posted by timothy from the think-of-the-children's-thinking dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "John Tierney writes that the old 10-foot-high jungle gyms and slides disappeared from most American playgrounds across the country in recent decades because of parental concerns, federal guidelines, new safety standards set by manufacturers and — the most frequently cited factor — fear of lawsuits. But today some researchers question the value of safety-first playgrounds. Even if children do suffer fewer physical injuries — and the evidence for that is debatable — critics say that these playgrounds may stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone. 'Climbing equipment needs to be high enough, or else it will be too boring in the long run,' says professor Ellen Sandseter. 'Children approach thrills and risks in a progressive manner, and very few children would try to climb to the highest point for the first time they climb. The best thing is to let children encounter these challenges from an early age, and they will then progressively learn to master them through their play over the years.' After observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia, Dr. Sandseter identified six categories of risky play, although fear of litigation led New York City officials to remove seesaws, merry-go-rounds and the ropes that young Tarzans used to swing from one platform to another."
Image

Man Tries to Patent His "Godly Powers" Screenshot-sm 192

Posted by samzenpus from the this-patent-brought-to-you-by-shampoo dept.
KWInt1601 writes "A man who believes he is Christ files a patent application — and the formal dance of responding to office actions from the USPTO begins. Invoking the 1998 State Street decision, the applicant argues, 'like software, godly powers is a method, and affects a machine. Like business methods, godly powers produces a useful, concrete, and tangible result, and that should be all that's needed for statutory material.'"
Image

MI6 Swaps Bomb Making Info With Cupcake Recipe On al-Qaeda Website Screenshot-sm 149

Posted by samzenpus from the now-you're-cooking dept.
The British Intelligence agency has unveiled its latest weapon in the war on terror, cupcake recipes published by the Ellen DeGeneres show. MI6 hacked an online al-Queda magazine replacing instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom" with a web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America” from Ellen's show. From the article: "It included a recipe for the Mojito Cupcake – 'made of white rum cake and draped in vanilla buttercream'- and the Rocky Road Cupcake – 'warning: sugar rush ahead!' By contrast, the original magazine featured a recipe showing how to make a lethal pipe bomb using sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb, attached to a timer."

Comment And if the viewers have an interest in ... (Score 1) 294

by Keyslapper (#36290388) Attached to: The Next Phase of Intelligent TVs Will Observe You
"extracurricular activities" whilst watching, shall we say, content intended for mature audiences?

Can't see this working for long. Anyone aware of these cameras and not explicitly into exhibitionism of some kind will immediately cover or otherwise disable the camera (don't we already have webcams for this kind of thing?)

Next it will be people that don't want their kids being viewed in the privacy of their own home by complete strangers. Some folks get really touchy about that.

Comment Do they really need these people? (Score 1) 235

by Keyslapper (#35892066) Attached to: Google, Microsoft In Epic Hiring War
Or are they just competing?

If they're just competing, then it hardly matters who "wins" this war, either way it's going to be the layoffs later this Summer that will be the casualties. It happens at large companies all the time. Hire a bunch of folks that look interesting, then see who latches onto the promising projects like so many parasites looking for the vital organs.

Then dump the rest.

Ok, it's not really strictly along that process, but it's close enough for the dramatization to be believable when you're seeing it first hand for the umpteenth time. Small companies on the other hand, typically have a very clear idea what they need. Since they don't need to clear it along 20 levels of paper pushers and bean counters, they don't have to generalize and practice the Accuracy By Volume shotgun approach - they don't have that kind of time to waste on it anyway. Their requirements are clear and they typically get the best fit they can find.
Power

Ask Slashdot: Advice On a DIY Neutron Beam? 117

Posted by Soulskill from the preferably-something-tsunami-proof dept.
Max Littlemore writes "I have been breeding at home using lots of old smoke detectors with a view toward generating my own and getting off the grid. The only thing stopping me is a reliable neutron beam. Given that all the equipment I'm using is re-purposed kitchen equipment, concerns about safety mean I'm to build a uranium reactor to supply neutrons to the thorium one. So I'm putting the question out there: do any Slashdotters know of a way to make a powerful neutron beam out of things I might find around the house?" It would be helpful to include images and diagrams of your own personal neutron beam .

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