Yes. Netflix can rent physical DVDs without negotiating with studios or distributors. In theory, they could run to Walmart and buy DVDs to mail out. They need nobody''s permission to do this. With streaming, they are at the mercy of the studios. Studios who want to offer their own streaming services.

The death of DVDs could equal the death of Netflix. It may or may not play out like that, but DVDs have been very good to Netflix for the simple reason of not having to enter into any agreements to do their core business.

There are any number of entities that would love to see Netflix fold. The way to do that is through license fees. They can turn the screws.

Yeah, tell Chiropractors there is no medical conspiracy. They sued the AMA for conspiring against them, and won!

http://www.yourmedicaldetectiv...

In the past, medicine has fought battles to limit the practices of such professionals as homeopaths, naturopaths, osteopaths, podiatrists, optometrists, dentists, psychologists and chiropractors. In the case of osteopathy and chiropractic, there are distinct differences in the approach to healing and health when compared to medicine. The last thing that organized medicine wants is for their doctrine of drugs and surgery to be challenged.

Osteopaths allowed themselves to be absorbed by medicine--today there is little difference between an M.D. and a D.O. Chiropractic on the other hand, fought hard to be a separate and distinct profession.

Same goes for skin, as well. Wash your hands, but you don't have to "nuke bacteria from orbit." A lot of it is good for you and is there for a reason.

Scientists Discover That Antimicrobial Wipes and Soaps May Be Making You (and Society) Sick

http://blogs.scientificamerica...

What is worse, perhaps the most comprehensive study of the effectiveness of antibiotic and non-antibiotic soaps in the U.S., led by Elaine Larson at Columbia University (with Aiello as a coauthor), found that while for healthy hand washers there was no difference between the effects of the two, for chronically sick patients (those with asthma and diabetes, for example) antibiotic soaps were actually associated with increases in the frequencies of fevers, runny noses and coughs [4]. In other words, antibiotic soaps appeared to have made those patients sicker. Let me say that again: Most people who use antibiotic soap are no healthier than those who use normal soap. AND those individuals who are chronically sick and use antibiotic soap appear to get SICKER.

Here, then, is the evidence we need, evidence very clearly at odds with our intuition to scrub and scrub. Yet hardly anyone has followed up on Larson’s study and no one has reexamined what happens with chronically sick patients and antibiotic soaps. The truth is that few biologists are studying what antibiotic soaps do to us. Still, the evidence indicates that when confronted with a dirty grocery store cart handle, we should just wash with soap and water like our great grandmothers would have done (if they had had grocery carts). At the very least, antibiotic wipes do not appear to help us and, it may be that they are actually hurting us.

Probiotics and alternative medicine people have said things like this for decades. Modern life, with antibiotics for non-life threatening illnesses, and things to kill bacteria at every turn, is one big living experiment. Little things that have big consequences that are really unknown:

Antiseptic Mouthwash Raises Heart Attack Risk
http://www.medicaldaily.com/an...

I would change my diet very quickly and take up jogging:

Is Alzheimer’s Type 3 Diabetes?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytim...

Also, I would look specifically at anti-inflammatory diets, because Alzheimers, like many chronic modern diseases, is linked to chronic inflammation (in this case, in the brain):

> Since the late 1980s, various studies have found hints that the chronic inflammation found in Alzheimer’s hastens the disease process

See the connection?

http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/...

Inactivity and obesity increase the risk for diabetes, but exactly how is unclear. Recent research suggests that inflammation inside the body plays a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

The good news: An "anti-inflammatory" diet and exercise plan can help prevent and treat type 2 diabetes.

The effects of inflammation are familiar to anyone who has experienced a bug bite, rash, skin infection, or ankle sprain. In those situations, you will see swelling in the affected area.

With type 2 diabetes, inflammation is internal.

All they would have to do is fork Android and replace all the proprietary Google parts with their own. There is nothing secret or shady about this. See: Amazon Kindle Fire.

Microsoft would just have to jump into it fully. I like the Amazon App market, but I've found apps in it are often several versions behind apps in the Google Play store. If something like that is going to work, app makers are going to have to support multiple app stores, and do so fully.

Even though I like Amazon giving Google the competition, I find I'm starting to get apps from Google more because they seem to be supported better.

I have been reading slashdot since about 1999-2000.

I've been a user since 1996-1997. Fuck Beta. The most obvious thing is they don't seem to give a shit about our feelings. I'm sorry you are getting annoyed, but it won't be long before we won't have to worry about anything in the comments, because there won't be any comments any more. It's like sitting with a dying relative. You see death coming, but there really isn't anything that is going to stop it. Sucks, but Fuck Beta.

Fuck you.

let the rest of us get back to discussing real issues?

Enjoy it while you can, because when Beta goes mandatory, there will not be any more comments.

And why should you change if what you had worked great. I'm not against change, just as long as it is change for the better. If they came out with some new snazzy looking way to write code, but everyone said it sucks...but the old way worked just fine...then freaking stick with the old way. Unless you just don't care about actually making writing code better. Now who in their right mind would want to change something just to make it worse?

Posting this from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, and I consider pre-Unity as a "classic desktop," and it is Gnome.

Seriously, I have nothing against change, but I think there should be a cross-distro standard desktop that JUST FREAKING STAYS THE SAME. There should also be bleeding-edge environments for more adventurous people. Why shouldn't people have a choice? But it would be nice to install most any popular version of Linux and get a standard desktop.

So the free market will do what New York couldn't with taxes...drive the price of junk food up! Sweet.

[O]verall, OS/2 failed to catch on in the mass market and is little used outside certain niches where IBM traditionally had a stronghold. For example, many bank installations, especially Automated Teller Machines, run OS/2 with a customized user interface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2

Yes, this. Someone had some taxpayer money to spend to come up with this crap. When the law and the NSA are playing S.H.I.E.L.D, this will look really cool on the monitors. And then they will time it for a holiday or other important day and release the DDoS.

I used to brush every day, but not always two - three times a day. Always had cavities and inflamed gums. Lost a few back teeth that couldn't be saved (but at least they were in the back). I got a Sonicare for Christmas a few years back. I haven't had a cavity since. Got a check-up yesterday and he said my gums looked great. In fact, cleanings used to be very, very painful. Not so much anymore.

True story. My second cleaning after getting the Sonicare, the person cleaning my teeth said she was going to get one. She had receding gum lines herself, and she was so impressed with my improvement that she was getting one. Her exact words were, "you may have just saved my teeth."