I've been a big believer in pen computing since reading Niven & Pournelle's _The Mote in God's Eye_ and using a Koala Pad graphics tablet attached to a Commodore 64 in high school.

Reasons I prefer tablets w/ a stylus:

  - drawing
  - note-taking
  - annotation
  - more efficient usage of some programs, esp. those which can be configured w/ pie menus or menu structures which can become gestural (Punch in Altsys Virtuoso was a gesture for me on my Wacom ArtZ graphics tablet attached to my NeXT Cube)
  - lighter weight / smaller --- currently trying to ``upgrade'' to a ThinkPad x61 Tablet (convertible) from a Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 slate and the former won't fit in my old laptop bag.

Almost bought an Asus Vivotab Note 8, and would've bought the Microsoft Surface 2 from sales this past weekend, but didn't. Concerns I had:

  - poor build quality for the Asus --- there's a DIY fix posted for the digitizer ceasing to work
  - standard LCD, not daylight viewable
  - the Surface 2 which was on sale was the RT model, so can't run Macromedia Freehand --- the Pro 2 was out-of-stock

I'd be sleeping on the couch tonight if someone would make a pen slate which:

  - ran either Mac OS X or Windows --- or if there was a drawing program for Android as nice as Macromedia Freehand
  - was a pen slate w/ a Wacom digitizer
  - had a daylight-viewable display (transflective LCD or better) --- I use my machine as a map reader when traveling and to control my CNC mill on the back porch
  - had a resolution higher than 1024 x 768 and was not much larger than a letter-sized notepad

PDF was open enough from the beginning to have its specification available in print from the days of Acrobat 1.0: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pd...

Here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pd...

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/con... --- for some reason they don't have the first edition available (not that it's all that useful these days).

Actually, wood can be quite good at bearings --- one just has to use the correct sort of wood. Lignum vitae was used for the bearings for steam paddle boats and submarines and is now being used for bearings in hydroelectric plants:

http://www.core77.com/blog/mat...

Interestingly there was at least one bicycle design which claimed that frame shape could influence comfort:

http://gajitz.com/riding-a-rou...

More importantly, the Bible tells those who believe in it that nothing is unknowable: Genesis 11:6

>The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language
>they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do
>will be impossible for them.

So it's blasphemous for Christians (or Jews or Muslims) to say that humanity can't understand such things (or anything).

Always was rather fond of it --- owned by Corel now?

The problem is, you can't have a shoreline which is all cove --- look at North Carolina's Outer Banks --- Waves/Rodanthe/Salvo lose sand, while it builds up at the tail end down past Hatteras.

Getting over-the-air TV isn't as easy as it used/ought to be.

When all the stations went digital they also reduced their transmission power, so I went from being able to receive in my basement to getting no signal for the local PBS affiliate.

Had to run a cable from the basement to the living room and build a special-purpose digital TV antenna in order to be able to receive a signal again: http://cachefly.oreilly.com/ma...

(I'm pretty sure PBS had the plans originally, but I can't find the link)

Actually, there was an early ebook reader, predating the Kindle, which Amazon supported and then discontinued.

Or upgraded them to Apple IIs.

There have already been a couple of instances of children being injured in car accidents --- what will be the rate of injury in an airliner crash?

I spent too much time fiddling w/ a passive stylus on a Fujitsu Point PT-510 --- not that interested in repeating it, but if it had a daylight viewable display so that it could:

  - function as a map reader when travelling
  - work as a controller for my CNC machine when using it outside (as good as the dust collection is, Ipê gets cut outside)

But I'm not seeing any machines w/ daylight viewable displays available for less than several grand....

http://www.biblioteca.jus.gov....

http://constitutionus.com/

The township has a certain set of fixed costs which it has to meet every year.

Taxes are set so as to raise that amount, apportioned as decided by the lawmakers and voters.

People who fail to pay on unreported improvements aren't adhering to the agreed-upon social contract, placing a larger requirement for payments/burden on those who are.

If you don't like the taxes in an area, move, or participate in your local government to get things changed.