For older books, you would be correct to state that there is much more work involved. I was being a bit too generalist there, I should have specified that I was talking more about "current generation" publications. But in the 'current generation' of books while the printer file is not the same as the ebook produced, the conversion between the two isn't has complicated or as hard or as costly as the actual printing/warehousing/shipping of physical media.

The price not going down because they don't store the ebook the same way as a physical book they're wanting to reclaim warehouse space from is another point of "profiteering bastard". "We don't *have* to drop the price because we're making more money on this due to lack of paying as much for it".

Yes, in general this is another problem of "Make the Digital Business Model work like our old Physical Business Model" problem... Find a new business model. Try something new. Evolve. Invent. Adapt.

10% to print. How much to warehouse until distribution? How much to move from Printer to Warehouse?

A chunk of this does lie with the Publisher, and a chunk lies with the Vendor (BN and Amazon, generally). The costs associated with Dead Tree versions is still higher than the costs associated with the Electronic version. You've "saved" the costs of actually printing it (and whatever 'waste' there is for unsold printed material), shipping it to warehouse and storage for the Publisher. You've "saved" the cost of shipping from the Publisher to Warehouse as well as Distribution and Storage costs of getting it to your stores or the Warehousing costs associated for your Internet Sales for the Vendor. I don't see how they can claim, ESPECIALLY after the paperback comes out, that it continues to cost almost what the Hardback does to handle the eBook version.

Yes, some of this does lie with the consumer as well, after all we are buying this shit. However if there was no one buying it at all then we'd never make progress simply because "there's no market/no profit in it", which is a shitty way to work on evolving a medium....

Give me the option of a "Bundle Deal"... There are some series that I'm reading that I'm buying the physical copy as well as the ebook. Gimme the option for a $5 or $7 premium when I buy the hardcover to get the ebook as well. Sets up the 'impulse buy' in the consumers mind at that point and makes it easier to get the sale. Especially for Internet Sales this becomes a trivial up-sell.... "Buy this book, for $5 get the ebook and start reading now while the physical copy is shipped out to you!"

You want eBook adoption to work? QUIT BEING PROFITEERING BASTARDS.

They already have the book in an electronic format before printing begins. It's what they send to the damn printer that actually puts ink on paper. Why then is the "cost" of an eBook more than the paperback counterpart? I could see justification for a higher price when the book is Hardback only (usually the first 9 to 18 months the book is available) but once the paperback hits shelves, why is the ebook still so much more expensive?

I've actually seen some eBooks at a higher price point than the hardback.... dafuq?

You want to keep the laptop secure. You want a 12 year old to use it. You want it to run Windows.

There is no solution. There will always be security risks and in some cases a negative time-frame to deal with them. Doesn't matter how good your AV is or what utilities you put on there, if it's connected to the Internet and there's a user at the keyboard then it is inherently insecure.

Now, how "secure" do you need it to be? If you're ok with putting that laptop on a separate subnet from everything else and teach the kiddo to do a proper update check every couple of days you should be able to mitigate most of the 'risk'.... but that seems a bit much to ask.

Looks like I need to reconsider the certification then. Last I honestly looked at it it was on par with Novell's CNA and Microsoft's early MCSE.. Great for getting an introduction, but not something that's going to really take you far.

I'm still finding myself wishing at times that the CNX (Certified Network Expert) program hadn't fallen apart, but when you're a program governed by various (and opposing) members of the industry I'm shocked it got out of the womb....

Last time I looked at the CCNA courses I considered it "baseline" stuff (this being back in 99/00 timeframe). But I know a number of people who say the words "Network Engineer" and yet the only "engineering" they've done is to hire a cabling contractor to lay cables and then plug them into a few switches. The phrases "Network Map" and "Site Bible" mean nothing to them. There's no documentation of the design/implementation of the network, there's usually no disaster plan, half the time a simple stupidity of a network loop caused by an end user with a switch in their cube takes days to figure out beyond "If we disconnect this switch the network starts working again"

Ugh, I didn't think I'd be getting to the crotchety old man phase this soon... "Damn kids, get off my e-lawn!"

As usually said on woot "In for one".

Should prove interesting. I've been a network engineer since 94 and I'm quite honestly disgusted by people who claim to be network engineers these days who don't understand the difference between Bit/Byte, the concept of a Packet or what CSMA/CD is. Administrators I'd expect that from, they don't really need to know these things. Engineers should, IMO. These are the basic building blocks of "traditional ethernet" networks, how can I expect someone to actually design something properly if they don't understand the basics?

Honestly I'm signing up for the course just to see how it's handled. If they decide to offer this in the future I can think of a few "Power Users" in my sphere of influence that might benefit from this, even if it's just the basic basics. I'm not expecting high detail of the low level stuff, but if it can actually help people understand what a packet is and how it traverses the internet at large then it's going to be a BIG step forward for some people and be of benefit to anyone who wants to hold any position in IT in general....

Can someone tell me which make/model of TV he ordered and if it was cheaper than that 716?

I have a friend that owns the 516 (5.56 version of the gun instead of the 7.62) and it's a nice chunk of hardware...

I can get behind that to an extent. Yes, you do learn either way. With success however you generally have a few options on "follow up learning" whereas with failure you step back, evaluate the the how/why of it failing, reassess your original position and then start forward again. The how/why determination is a missing component when you succeed and can offer up an insight on a number of things possibly not related directly to the problem at hand.

Learning does occur (if you're paying attention at least) either way, but the way I've seen things play out over the course of my life is that there's more understanding and tangental lessons available with the "I tried and did not succeed in what I set out to do" vs "It all went according to plan".

Yes and no on the first part. You pitch the idea, the VP doesn't sign off on it and cites reasons (actual reasons not "I don't like the color"). It's documented and placed in the "public view". I come along, look at the idea and modify it. I have a different perspective on the problem and I actually make an advancement/improvement of some kind. I pitch the idea and the VP signs off on it.

Depending on how THAT aspect is handled would determine how good or bad this process goes.

The second part is more or less what I fear would actually happen. You throw the idea past a person who only got where they are by circumstance, not by actually being able to work in the areas that he's "responsible" for.... that's going to be a shitstorm no matter HOW you slice it. It's always bad.

Sadly, been there done that. Too many times. :(

The suck factor is, you wind up with some management types "hoarding" their talent pool. They'll get the benefits while their Minions do the work. And that will be the start of that nasty downhill slide of backstabbing....

I would argue that you learn more from the failure than the success.

Share the "failure". Let others take a look at it. Let someone else take a stab at it.

The "Reward" in this case sounds like they're recognizing employees who are making an effort to change things. They are providing information about the project attempt and letting others know what's going on instead of sweeping it under the rug and ignoring that it ever happened.

Done PROPERLY I can see this being a major positive, especially for morale. "Hey, Bob went to pitch his idea today, but it didn't pan out. I think I see what killed it and I might have a solution for that..." Granted I also expect massive backstabbing if this is implemented wrong. Instead of collaboration it can very quickly devolve into theft and sabotage.

Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star IV classified as "Adventure"? I guess they're throwing all RPG games into that category? I mean, Legend of Zelda is more Adventure than RPG but PS and PSIV are quite a bit more "open" as far as the RPG element goes.... For that matter, FFVII and Fallout3 as well.