i used to think this is true, but i don't anymore. My last two machines (laptop of 3 years and PC of
you know what i've discovered? I still don't click ads!

This depends on the ad and the context. I normally avoid ads like the plague, but when searching Google for something (especially when I'm shopping), I'll often (a few times a month) click the advertisers. For one thing, I can be reasonably certain that the place I'm going to has the product for sale and use it as a starting point for price comparisons. My click through rate, even for Google, is probably still way below average; but I'm glad the ads support a free search engine.

American coffee shops closely follow the Starbucks model. To get table service you usually need a more food-oriented place, but ironically the quality of the coffee either suffers or is even more expensive (especially when you factor in the tip).

The U.S. in general has a very large segment of do-it-yourself dining, like fast food or its slightly more upscale cousins in the form of Noodles/Panera/Chipotle/etc.

Sometimes classes are outright outdated. I had a course around 1999 which was supposedly about computer programming. We spent the first few weeks with only lectures and an incredibly outdated textbook. The teacher (an otherwise okay math teacher) was clearly well behind the times. He lectured about microcomputers, minicomputers and had no idea that most servers by then were basically souped up versions of typical desktop computers.

The language was Pascal, which I suppose is a decent learning language, but we barely scratched the surface of programming ability. For a high-school level class, it was tediously outdated and slow. I truly hope that by now the instruction has moved along and kids are doing more interesting things. There were other interesting courses offered in things like graphic design, web design, etc. but the core programming class had neither much CS theory nor interesting applications. Worst, if you didn't know any better the content in the course would actually mislead you about the state of computing.

All subjects have the "boring basics". The key is the instructor; a good instructor can make the basics of a field really interesting. Unfortunately, being a good programming instructor is hard, and at the K-12 level it is really hard.

Whoops. Careless with my blockquote tags, sorry about that.

I'm not the GP, but this is full of misinformation.

I think you've got a typo there, last I checked, it's more like $100 cheaper.

Check again. The wifi Nook is $149, the wifi Kindle is $139. The 3G Nook is $199, the 3G Kindle is $189.

So what? No one uses epub. PDF, text, HTML - all supported by the Kindle, and all formats you'll actually encounter.

epub is the predominate standard outside of the Kindle world. Apple's new reader uses it, Stanza uses it, and the primary DRM-free ebook sources use it. The popularity of the Kindle means that they also tend to offer mobipocket versions now, though. Aside from the Kindle store, I know of no ebook source which provides mobipocket but not epub.

You're counting anything that can read epub, aren't you? Except you're leaving out the part where the Nook DRMs its books, making those apps useless for Nook content.

No. The B&N ereader app (about to be rebranded as the Nook app) is available for Android, ipad/iphone/ipod, blackberry, and Windows. I don't own a Nook, but I use both the Kindle app and B&N app on my ipad. Honestly, I prefer the BN app for most things. I was very tempted to buy a Nook, but the latest Kindle announcement convinced me to wait until B&N responds with either further price cuts or better software/hardware.

What I know about the Nook itself is based on reading reviews and talking with a friend who owns one. It's certainly not a perfect device but until the latest release of the Kindle (which won't be available until late August) it had a lot going for it. The newest Kindle finally adds wifi, which can (in principle) be useful for obtaining non-store ebooks without paying the wireless fee. I'm not sure whether you can, though; my understanding is that both the Kindle and the Nook hook up via USB for transfer of 3rd party files (mobipocket and epub, respectively).

One of the biggest things the Kindle has going for it is free 3G service with Wikipedia and web browsing. I'm told that it's a pretty painful experience to browse the web, but if you lack a smartphone with a dataplan and really need to check something quickly online, I imagine that it's worth the $50 one time premium. The smaller form factor better matches the Nook's length and width (while being significantly thinner). So the Kindle was and is superior in terms of software and the latest gen really helps catch up in terms of hardware.

For me, the Nook's greatest weakness is that they haven't fully implemented synchronizing page locations between all apps and devices. Until they do, I won't be buying one. My understanding is that the Kindle sync process is pretty good. The Nook software was also very, very weak until just recently. The software lagged behind otherwise pretty nice hardware (personally, I like the versatility of a touchscreen interface even at the expense of a little battery life; I can understand how others might feel different). The screen flips as of the latest firmware update are nearly on par with the Kindle 2, though the next Kindle beats the Kindle 2 by another 20%. The Nook has a browser, but I'm told it's a pain. It also has a SD slot for additional storage - useless for books (2G is a lot), but nice for storing music to listen to while reading. Until this latest gen the Kindle was both limited in storage and the ability to play music; but the latest gen still lacks an SD slot, so you're stuck with the 4G of space.

In the end, it sucks that if I want an eink reader I have to pick a DRM-filled ecosystem. My ipad lets me use all the major stores and choose from multiple readers, but it'd be nice to have a cheaper, lighter device for just reading to complement it. epub really is important in that it is the primary ebook standard; it alone is not a sufficient reason to pick BN over Amazon, though, since the popularity of the Kindle is encouraging sources (e.g. O'Reilly) to provide mobipocket versions.

I do like the BN ipad reader and the store a bit more (I'm not an Amazon hater - I'm have Amazon Prime and order from them weekly). So I'm going to hold out getting an eink reader until BN has a chance to respond, either with updated software (finally supporting syncing and maybe improving the performance of the touch screen), hardware, or price (throw in a $25 gift card!). The Kindle 2's only redeeming feature for me was the 3G internet access, but the Kindle coming at the end of the month looks like a huge step forward.

The design obviously requires at least 3 lane roads - two lanes for cars and small trucks where the bus goes, and one lane for taller vehicles. So many large cities are also old cities, with many narrow streets; certainly digging subway tunnels and establishing infrastructure is expensive, but employing this solution basically requires a pre-planned city with huge thoroughfares. The larger the street infrastructure, though, the less need you have for a bus that allows traffic to go underneath it.

All this is before a host of other concerns people have mentioned: turning requires huge intersections and, to reduce stopping, pre-specified traffic light timing. You also need significant above ground space to build the loading (and charging?) platforms shown.

Nonetheless, it's truly something very different for urban transportation. The fact that it's getting deployed means this isn't just some crazy idea but that we'll get to see how well it works.

You have overlooked one large difference: I can scare up a used piano on Craigslist for nothing, and still make it sound great with lots of training and a bit of tuning. (Seriously, a remarkable number of pianos are given away all the time). Acquiring all of these painstakingly recorded samples, the software to compose with them, and the hardware to translate them into actual music costs a great deal of money.

Actually, a nice piano sample can be had for $50 (about half that if you buy during a sale). Minimally, these samples can be played for free with Linuxsampler. There are free DAWs, but Reaper can be had for $60 and is truly excellent. Going all out with the software library and buying something like Logic Pro or Komplete will set you back $500, and will include thousands of high quality instruments.

The MIDI keyboards themselves range from cheap and portable for $100-200 to hammered-action full digital pianos. My Yamaha P-85 is hammered action and can be had now for $500. It comes with a perfectly respectable couple of pianos built in. In the end, you can get set up with hardware and software for well less than $500 and have many really nice instruments, or spend about a grand and have a truly great setup.

I really, really disagree that traditional pianos are in any way cheaper on average than digital ones. That used piano for "nothing" on Craigslist will either not sound particularly good, or will at require quite a bit of work in moving/tuning, etc. I love playing real pianos, but I have neither the money nor the space for a nice one at the moment.

Art is rapidly becoming more about using your credit card than using your hands. At the same time, the compensation for those with the ability to create it keeps shrinking, because of the ease with which the results can be duplicated and distributed.

Here you seem to be conflating music creation with music consumption. First of all, I really think the barriers to entry for music have fallen, not risen. Anyone with Garageband and a $100 MIDI keyboard can compose nice music, if they have the talent. As for compensation for those who create music or other art, supply and demand applies. If the barriers to entry and redistribution fall, then prices will likely fall too. Yet I see plenty of very small artists who make their living playing live in small venues and selling their CDs without a label; for many of us though, music/art/photography is a wonderful hobby, not necessarily a day job. These new digital tools make that both easier and more affordable.

Much of the move away from live instruments to computers (especially in things like TV soundtracks) is the result of modern computing, storage, and sampling. Rather than trying to simulate the sound of a piano, you can painstakingly sample each note at multiple velocities. Depending on the desired complexity, the samples easily reach into the gigabytes for a single instrument. Yet the end result is a digital piano that's incredibly realistic; recording a real piano live better than a good sample is becoming more and more difficult. A "live" piano in person will still sound better than most speaker setups, but for recorded music sampling is really impressive.

The line between traditional and electric, analog and digital continues to blur. Rather than an analog guitar amp, it's easy to have software with a number of digital amps to provide any number of sounds.

Overall I think the benefits vastly outweigh the loss of more traditional music playing. As TFS says, modern computing allows composers to have an incredible array of instruments at their disposal. It's easier and cheaper than ever to create really interesting music of all genres, making the key constraints the right ones - training, practice, and talent.

Illustrators and typesetters cost money. It's one of the things that publisher typically covers.

Sure, but even the very simple covers that Apple uses for its free Gutenberg-derived books is more usable than what they've chosen for these books.

And think about what you just wrote...libraries lend books. Does your library lend out eBooks?

Yes, yes it does, actually (only a few thousand so far, though).

What did Amazon offer to get exclusivity for two years? My hunch is that Amazon agreed to heavily promote the books on its site, and wouldn't do so if they also went to BN and Apple.

Also, they apparently don't have the rights to decent looking book covers - the current covers are pretty ugly. Seriously - who thought it was a good idea to include quotations as cover art when it goes on devices like cell phones? Just the title and author in a decent font would do.

The contract is included in the lawsuit, available here: http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/2010/07/13/technology/facebook_lawsuit/facebook_filing.pdf

What kind of awful font is that filing made with? It looks close to, but not quite, Comic Sans (the t's are wrong, for one). It's hard to tell based on a rough scan just how crude it looks.

I remember the first time I saw a glossy screen on a laptop (it was an otherwise completely hideous Sony). Colors looked so vibrant, but you could tell that glare would be a real issue. Absent direct light sources, they really do look better to me.

Glare can be a real issue, though, which is one reason why there's a market for iPad anti-glare sheets. The iPad screen is glass, though, so glossy was the obvious choice. The glossy IPS screen is quite striking next to a TN matte laptop screen.

What really irks me though is the predominance of glossy plastic bezels. Walk into any computer store these days and you're bombarded with shiny black plastic on nearly every laptop, monitor, and TV. Here there is no functional advantage - it simply shows fingerprints more and even can distract from the screen itself. But it's the latest trend in computer/tv "fashion" (remember when silver plastic was in?). I gave in when shopping for an mid-sized TV, as Samsung (my preferred LCD manufacturer) had all glossy bezels. It's fine so long as I don't touch it, but a glossy HP laptop was a magnet for fingerprints.

Does O'Reilly sell any of its books through ebook intermediaries? Since they sell DRM-free versions direct, usually in multiple formats, I've never bothered to look. The only exception I've noticed is the occasional iPhone app.

I've noticed a few have Kindle versions, but Stanza and its store has nearly the entire library. I guess this way O'Reilly gets the full purchase price rather than 70%.

As for price, discounts aren't too hard to find. I ordered one book for half its listed ebook price. I've since gotten a couple of "deal of the day" ebooks for $10 each. Today's deal, listed prominently at oreilly.com, is Learning the vi and Vim Editors (PDF only, unfortunately).

So it would appear. I often check Retail Me Not for online store codes.

Once you have a decent ereader device, DRM-free ebooks seem like the perfect solution for tech books. Searchable, no marginal weight for otherwise heavy books, etc. What's interesting to me is that the DRM-free epubs can't be loaded directly onto my ipad in the BN or ibooks app; via dropbox, I was only able to send the epub to GoodReader or Stanza (which is fine, the Stanza reader is really nice). I think the ibooks app can transfer epub files via USB and iTunes, but that's a pain (I sync very, very rarely, since I don't use Windows or Mac OS X much). Not sure what's up with the BN reader app; the nook device can handle epubs via USB mass storage transfer.