There is a market for sub 300 dollar notebooks.... they are called notebook computers.....I bought a 15 inch Toshiba notebook for my wife... LCD screen, 250 gig HD, 4 gigs of memory, Decent graphics and an AMD cpu for $279. Why would I bother with a POS netbook when I can get a fully functioning PC with a sane resolution?

You make a good point -- I think that Canon is a lot better than some other manufacturers in this respect, but I just checked and their newest DSLRs are using a different battery which doesn't look like it'll work with my current camera. I think that having standardized battery types would be great -- it would be nice if batteries were as interchangeable as, say SD or CF cards. I see no reason why that isn't possible. That said, getting a hold of a CF card in 10 years may be tricky as well; guess we'll have to wait and see.

And i find it hard to believe that when they were filming their latest commercial they didn't notice what it actually sounds like when they're singing "walking in a 4g wonderland."

I would add to that the requirement that any law can only be presented to the committee after the President has signed it, and they have 2 weeks to approve or disapprove. At the end of two weeks, the law defaults to "disapproved".

Good luck getting monstrous laws passed under that regime!

If the RIAA wants their property protected without paying for it directly, then I suggest they start paying property taxes like everybody else who relies on the military or police to protect their property.

The best systems are ones that intrinsically converge to fairness -- e.g. the best way for two people who want cake to cut cake? One person cuts, the other chooses; the system enforces fairness. The best way for intellectual property to be protected? The content owners can pick whatever value they think their content is worth, then pay 4% property tax per year like everybody else. If a million people infringe on their property, each person is only liable for one-millionth of this taxable amount. The competing forces (A. company wants lower taxes so wants to claim their property is worthless, and B. company wants maximum awarded damages and so wants to claim their property is worth trillions) will force the company to self-assess a fair price. If their property is REALLY worth trillions, the company won't hesitate to pay 4% ($40 billion) per year in taxes. If the company isn't willing to pay more than $2 million per year in taxes to protect their property, then it's only worth $50 million, and so if they sue 50,000 people, each person is only liable for a maximum of $1,000. If the company isn't willing to pay more than $0 per year in taxes to protect their property, then their property is worthless and there's no penalty to infringe.

I quit sending job-applications after age 45!

!

know why?

- I even didnt get an answer any more when saying how old I am

When I faked my age to 35 and still sent my list of features, they eagerly invited me for interviews

to withdraw with an: sorry we already filled the job

not saying: with someone cheaper!

For anyone else who missed the end of the Celebrity Apprentice because of the speech, Hope got fired.

This is why people drink corporate coffee and imbibe corporate jam. Corporate products are all about the masses, what they want, with as little controversy and variation as possible. This can be very good as it allows people to focus on other things

Indie Jam, OTOH, is often about creating a tension. This is good as it differentiates the bussiness from corporate, as well as provide places for people o go who don't want corporate.

What irritates me is when an indie place complains that hey are being overrun by corporate overlords when differentiation becomes dogma and hey no longer serve a profitable purpose. We have enough churches leeching off he public good will, we don't need coffe shops. What is also irritating is corporate shops pretending to be indie shops. Powell's comes to mind, as does Whole Foods, though they are becoming more honest.

I personally know about 30 people that have automatic scripts on their MythTV boxes that automatically upload TV shows the second they are done recording and the commercials have been flagged and removed. So there has to be 40X more than who I know unless I am highly connected at the center of internet piracy.... Yarrrr!

Hey feds! Give me $1,000,000 USD tax free and I'll give up all the goods you need on these horrible evil people that are destroying humanity as we know it!

Yes I have a price. Everyone does.