Call your Rep if they're on the Judiciary Committee. Google the committee to find out who's on it. My Rep's staffer was unfamiliar with the bill. At least bring it to their attention. I've usually sent email. It hasn't gotten the attention that a voice phone call has. Be polite and firm and be ready to explain what the bill is.

After reading a number of comments, I see that many of them fall into either the "Amazon is evil" or "Publishers are evil" camps. Guess what? Just like politics, it comes down to choosing the lesser evil. Neither one works to serve consumers.

There's a lot of argument for more sellers. Fewer is almost always bad for consumers in the long run. But here's something else. Amazon won't sell some things for fear of attacks from special interest groups. Suppose you want to read something shunned by many. No other outlets but Amazon? Too bad. On the other hand, a small seller based in a garage in L.A. isn't going to give a flip about a special interest group in Texas.

An interesting case is Costco. They push suppliers hard, but they also concentrate on quality. In some areas, this works well. However, their definition of quality isn't everyone's. Quality to me means food with no transfat (not "0%", which is often a lie allowed by the FDA). Their idea is what the majority wants—that which tastes good. With only big box stores, there's no one to sell to the minority with different needs.

Nothing speaks to the few big guys driving out the small guys with variety more than hardware stores. Need a 3/4" to 1/2" barbed brass plumbing adapter? Forget it. It's not used in new construction or renovations, so they don't have it. But they have 50 different kinds of drills. I have two, a cordless and a hammer drill, and may never need another. Also, they tend to carry fewer brands that cover more items, even though the best maker of each item is different. Too bad. The makers that remain profitable are thusly the ones who expand their line until they're no longer very good at any one thing.

Some areas, like biology, change quickly enough to justify introducing new editions every few years. Others most certainly do not, and publishers only do that to obsolete the existing copies, creating a demand for new ones and hence supporting a higher price. Teachers can't require a book for which there may not be adequate supply, so anytime publishers change editions, teachers have to go along. What a racket.

So have two e-editions with two prices, one that comes out early with the hardbacks and includes something extra... an additional short story, visual media, lack of DRM, whatever, and one that comes out later with just the main text. Or... just drop the price of the ebook when the softback comes out.

Price elasticity of demand curves are just that—curves, so dropping the price below $9.99 doesn't mean revenue will continue to grow. However, I won't buy their claims until I see their curve, and I bet it supports that dropping the price to $8.99 or even $7.99 increases revenue even further.

How many think that paying ten dollars for something for which the marginal cost is nearly zero is rather absurd? Virtually free replication is something for which capitalism is not well suited, hence all the manufactured scarcity we see.

The Beginning? Absolutely not. Amazon may have a wider market and may play a big part in the popularization of it, but Shapeways has already done "the beginning" of mainstream 3D printing, so Amazon can't do that. Don't think it's the mainstream? Try checking out the types of people using it. Not just engineers, hobbyists, and avant-garde artists.

It's been my experience with A/C outages that people function better than desktop PCs, many of which apparently assume no more than 80F ambient temperature.

What's this about radius of a black hole? Circumference or surface area makes better sense to us, radius of an object with such intense gravity is difficult to comprehend due to the relativistic effect on distance, so comparing radii is not helpful to most of us.

or "1, 2, 5!" ( someone else has to say "Three, sir!" )

...a creature for my amusement. Prepare for battle!

So don't sit down or run around in a 5x5 space and play. Augment the reality of running around a parking garage, the woods, whatever, with enemies, enhanced surfaces, objects, obstacles you won't be touching, etc., but let the player's motion be real. Then we'll benefit from the exercise, too. From the opposite perspective, that of making exercise less boring, wouldn't you run better if someone was chasing you or you were chasing someone? I know it's going to look hilarious to those around you without the AR gear, but that's a temporary situation. The funny part will be when you see an armed human coming toward you and another person sees you, a different type of dinosaur trying to steal the carcass they're dragging around.

One problem with auto usage now is the cost of a short trip isn't paid at the beginning or end of it, but rather earlier or later when the tank's filled. Most won't bother to calculate each trip's cost. Cars need to display the approximate cost of each little trip so the owners will easily be able to decide whether sending their car to pick up a froyo is worth the cost. That'll result in a lot more trip consolidation.

A whole new category for HackADay