However, while using loaded words like "censorship" gets peoples' attention, when the word is misapplied, you're going to have a hard time drawing people away from the word to the subject at hand

Thus, instead of a productive conversation about how good information can get lost in the flood, we're instead going to discuss why that doesn't constitute censorship. Good opportunity wasted by the misuse of a loaded word.

Blood. Turnip.

Doesn't do a lot of good to go to the effort of suing someone who doesn't have a dime to give you for your efforts-- they'd be in line behind the people who SCO has already been ordered to pay, and SCO is already insolvent.

A group of (previously) happy customers are advertising for them for free-- and they respond by threatening them with trumped up copyright violation charges? Am I reading that correctly?

Nope. E-ink displays pixels aren't made of light. The pixels are opaque black and white spheres-- the only "light" involved is the sun, candle, or lamp that you're reading by. Hence, subtractive color, (rather than additive color like a monitor.)

That's why it only needs power to change the display, not to maintain it-- and a big part of why it's so much easier on the eyes than a monitor is.

Because Sony and Amazon are making their money on the books, but Illiad is just selling you the hardware to do whatever you want with.

In other words, for the same reason that a Cannon printer costs a ton more than a Lexmark-- but the Lexmark is more expensive in the long run because they sell the printer at a loss and then gouge you on ink.

This doesn't surprise me. I grew up constantly bombarded by TV and I hated it.

I also found it mesmerizing and addictive. Which only made me hate it more. And even if it was a show I hated, I often couldn't get away from it, because I could hear it from my bedroom-- or, when visiting my dad's house, my "bedroom" was the livingroom with the TV in it, so there was nowhere I could go to escape when the damn thing was on. And I couldn't even go to bed until everyone else in the house was done watching TV for the night.

Yes, I know there are a lot of good shows that I miss out on by not having a TV. But having finally, finally escaped it's tyranny, I have never in my adult life been able to bring myself to set one up in my house.

I wasted enough hours in front of the TV growing up-- sometimes willingly, sometimes not-- to last a lifetime. I'm DONE.

Nah, it'll just be like Bluetooth

.

Ten years ago, someone walking down the street talking loudly to themselves was assumed to be crazy. Now they're assumed to be talking on the cellphone.

So it this catches on, there will be a brief period where people using these devices look like they have some sort of nervous tick, followed by a long period of time in which people with certain kinds of nervous ticks blend in better because everyone just assumes they're writing a note to themselves

I lived near Fenway Park during the 2004 world series. You know the flyover with the supersonic jets that they did during the opening ceremonies for the series? Um, yeah. Huge boom, windows of my apartment rattling like there had been an explosion, every car alarm on the street went off simultaneously, every dog on the block started freaking out at the same time. People sticking their heads out windows or standing on the sidewalk looking around trying to figure out what the fsck just happened.

If you can't wake up in the morning, it means that you're not getting enough sleep (either that or some sort of narcoleptic disorder, but sleep deprivation is much more common). The answer is adjusting the sleep schedule, not finding ways to more effectively deprive your body of something that it needs to function.

Arrgg!! Why didn't the <quote> tags work?!

[quote]test[/quote] test test

A couple of years ago, I was walking up to an intersection in Boston. A fire truck was driving up to the intersection with lights on, no siren yet.As the drivers stopped at the intersection glanced in their rear-view mirrors, their expressions seemed to say: "grumble, grumble, he's about to turn that siren on and make us get out of the way, isn't he? Grumble, grumble. I guess I'll start getting ready...sigh..."

But instead of a standard siren, the truck started blasting Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" at full volume. It was awesome-- I thought it was FAR more intimidating-sounding than a siren would have been, and apparently the drivers stopped at the intersection agreed-- their expressions all changed to "Holy crap! Get me out of the way of that thing!". And scramble, they did.

You had to be there to get the full effect, I think. Re-reading what I just wrote doesn't capture it at all. But in person, it was just... damn. Especially since it was so unexpected. I was grinning about it all afternoon. So perhaps a well-chosen CD collection for your ambulance?

Of course, confusion could enter in another form: when I say "tomorrow", do I mean "after we've gone to bed and gotten up again" or do I mean "This afternoon, at 2:00 am, before dinner"?

...All of which just further highlights the ridiculousness of trying to set the clock backwards or forwards nationwide twice a year.

I think that the default should be to stick with the same time-system year-round unless research can strongly demonstrate that the back-and-forth thing actually accomplishes something remotely productive.

Pick either daylight or standard time, keep it the same year-round, and stick the heck with it unless someone can demonstrate that there's something to be gained by all this ridiculous clock-changing. If a particular state government wants to say "due to our lat, long, and position within the timezone, we recommend that within the state 'standard business hours' be considered to be X:00 to Y:00" (or even with a "except in $SEASON, when recommend that they be A:00 to B:00")-- fine, but this clock-resetting stuff is just silly.

Why is this silly back-and-forth thing considered the default to be clung to until someone can produce proof that it's bad? Seems to me it should be the other way around.

I should add:

That I do agree with this.