You make it sound like the USA doesn't have its own agenda and ample proof it doesn't care about the welfare of anyone else. Don't start about recognizing laws when you unlawfully invaded a sovereign country and executed their democratically elected head of state.

That said, I'm all for deorbiting the ISS and using the budget for real science. Or perhaps pay the Russians to build fifty new MIR spacecraft and have change to spare.

I know you're right. I'm not ready (or willing) to get rid of all my real books but would be very happy if I could reclaim some space by going digital.

Perhaps I could start by thinning the herd, so to speak, and get rid of the old, outdated technical books. Who needs a reference guide for PHP 1.0 anymore?

I have to give it some more thought.

I'm not saying that I don't see the use of having a small device containing every book you own. I even understand that you have to start sometime to build a useful collection of e-books.

Say I get the Kindle and get twenty books to start of my collection. That's useful in itself. But it has no hope of competing with my 2000+ book collection on old dead tree.

The first publisher that solves this conundrum gets my money. I'd love to have my collection portable, it just isn't feasible yet.

For those of us that have large libraries of tech books, the KindleDX allows us to store our entire bookshelf on a single device that takes up less room and weighs significantly less than a single book.

I have a large library of tech books, how can I store them on the Kindle? By buying them again? No way. I'm not paying a hefty sum for an empty device and then buy my library again. Not gonna happen.

To clarify: I don't want to make it $0.40 per kilowatt, is currently is $0.40 per kilowatt. And the prices are rising fairly rapidly.

I'm guessing he won't be touring anytime soon. But that also means he won't be enjoying any of your money. So why enrich the money grabbing publishers?

Jimi isn't going to be bothered if you download his albums. So why buy? What have the labels done for you lately? They locked down the content with DRM, that's what they done.

I stand corrected. You and OP used a perfectly normal word. You are right in your assertion I should have looked it up before posting.

Thanks for expanding my vocabulary.

Well, that depends on the price of a kWh of electricity. In Europe prices are generally a lot higher than in the USA. I'm looking at a price of around $0.40 per kWh. That alone makes solar cells a viable alternative.

functionalizing? I'm not a native speaker, but even I think you are making up words....

I'm fully aware that there are dangerous things around the house. But most of them are well known by Joe User.

A slightly broken laptop battery burning down the house isn't.

It isn't statistically likely your laptop will catch fire. But considering the number of laptops out there, it's just a matter of time. Having ten times the energy density just means the difference between a scorched desktop and a burned down house.

Just to make clear that progress isn't always beneficial.

Solar panel efficiency is progressing slowly but steadily. Evolution instead of revolution. Todays panels are way better than panels made a few years ago.

Todays panels aren't ultra efficient, but they get the job done. Price isn't an issue anymore, the break even point is just a few years.

Energy density is a double edged sword. Yes, I would love to have ten times the runtime of my laptop. But there are inherent dangers. The current Lithium-Ion batteries are pretty dangerous when they are mistreated. Having ten times the energy stored in a battery? I'm not sure that is a blessing or a curse. Burning down your house isn't worth having a longer lasting laptop;

The record labels aren't interested in increasing the band's revenue stream. They care only about their own revenue.

I buy the CD because I like to support the artists I'm buying from,

Go to a concert. They make a whole lot more money that way. The percentage they get from CD sales is minimal.

For some of us, the CD is still the preferred method of buying music. It's tangible, you can play it on the trip home from the store (or in your hotel room since I bought a lot of my music when traveling), and if something happens to the 'puter, you can re-rip the tracks.

For me, downloading the mp3 file is the preferred method of getting music. It doesn't take up physical space, you can play it directly without having to go to a store with a minimal selection and you can get it wherever you have internet access (i.e. everywhere nowadays). And if something happens to the 'puter, you can easily redownload.