These are the same companies that as part of setting up shop, extorted millions of dollars in tax exemptions out of the cities and states in which they operate their businesses, thereby depriving the public education system of the revenues needed to help their students achieve at the level the companies "require." They created this problem, and it's wholly disingenuous to claim that the only viable solution is to look outside of the country for talent. I'm not exactly a proponent of Big Government, but if President Obama is the only one who can make this point to them, and get them to wake up to the ethics of their situation, then he should absolutely clamp down on tech-driven immigration.

I've used Skype a grand total of two times, and I got the email notice on July 22.

Not occultist, OP said oculist. You know, a 17th-century optometrist.

You left out the word "revocable" in the original. With a paper book, the publisher cannot come into my home and take the book back.

I think some publishers and authors "get it." Lucius Shepard's last two hardcover books were published by Subterranean Press, and came out with boutique retail pricing (~$40, if I recall). I bought *both* of them, because, well, it's Lucius Shepard, and every word is golden. Amazon.com offered both at quite nice discounts from MSRP, so that's where I made my purchase.

THEN, I spotted that Amazon has also released Kindle ebooks of both, at $5.99 and $6.99. This is, to me, a stunning example of price elasticity. These prices are so outrageously low that I happily bought the ebooks IN ADDITION TO the pbooks.

I have the best of both worlds. My treasured paper copies won't have to suffer from being thrown around on a car seat or taken to the beach, and I have the reassuring solidity of a real copy that isn't subject to licensing.

So, in some cases, increasing the price gap even further can lead to that most elusive thing in the publishing world: repeat sales.

It would be more interesting if Scott included a wrap-around narrative, showing how PKD used the I Ching, which is discussed in detail in the novel, to guide him on the plot development as he was writing it.

and TFA is all wrong. It's not "his" lab. Aquarius is owned by NOAA, operated by Florida International University, and leased to whoever can book/afford time.

CFL's can't handle vibration. they should not be used in a ceiling fan, garage door opener, swingarm lamp, or anything else that can move relative to the ground (including RV's and boats).

Except TFA only mentions load in terms of compression. In a space elevator, half of the structure (the half beyond the geostationary point) would be in tension.

I'm only a rocket scientist, not a CS person, but it seems intuitive to me. If it's an intentional change, then the new version will have a later last-modified date than the back-up. If the hash of the back-up copy made at the time it was written matches a hash calculated at the time of the second back-up, then the integrity of the back-up is confirmed. If the active copy has not been intentionally changed in the interval, and its hash no longer matches the other two, then the active should be discarded in favor of the back-up. I'm sure you can do the mental figuring for the equivalent to detect if the back-up rather than the active has bitrotted.

The challenge arrives if you have *both* intentional and unintentional changes to the same file between successive back-ups. To exclude unintentional changes, you would have to do hashes every time you save/compile/whatever,as well as keep a keystroke log of the edits. Then, you would have to execute the exact same change process on the back-up copy, repeating the process described above. It would be incredibly resource-intensive (essentially having a 'bot duplicate the work you have performed between back-ups), but it would sure be thorough.

Lord, I HOPE this is not an original idea. If I just invented it, and somebody tries to patent it later, you're in for a world of hurt.