Generally I'm a fan of opt-in and agree that should be the option, but the bankruptcy court's job is to recover the maximum amount of money for the people Borders owed money to. The database is worth more opt-out, so don't expect a change there. Of the options available, none really good, B&N getting the database is not that bad. I have a buying history with Borders, Amazon and B&N, so integrating my buying history from Borders with B&N is a far preferable outcome to the database being sold to some marketing company that would resell my buying habits to spammers all over the world. We give these companies access to our information to get slightly better deals, if you are really concerned about your privacy, pay cash and refuse the discounts, or lobby congress to make your purchasing habits your property and not the property of the company you are buying from.

The only "good fit" about it is Amazon has stable and competent management.

The movie Ice Station Zebra was nice, but at least reference the book it was based on. http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Station-Zebra-Alistair-MacLean/dp/1402790333/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1316100563&sr=8-4 Especially sense it was just re-released.

I've seen government institutions have unallocated money at the end of some budget cycle, that was so micro-managed that it could only be spent on a certain type of widget. I can see a university get a late grant, that had to be spent in 30 days, could only be spent on technology, that can only come out of a pre-approved catalog, and some administrative type that just saw a Top 500 super-computer list with competing university names on it, bring up in a meeting that we should build a super computer, and some grad assistant saying how easy it would be. They found a room with a window in it and ordered a bunch of parts, and will walk prospective students and their parents by it saying "This is the largest super-computer on the east coast".

Introduce them to Scratch. http://scratch.mit.edu/ It's an easy programming environment where they can actually create something. You can demo programs other kids have written and depending on the time you have, they could actually create programs themselves.

Six months ago Gaddafi and his government were legitimate. There are export restrictions to many nations (both from the US and Europe), but was there one to Libya? I'd suspect there wasn't. So this becomes a moral issue. Companies should have a "don't sell to dictators" policy. We should isolate them from all trade. No more business with China until they have a freely elected government. No more oil from Saudi Arabia until the kingdom is overthrown. The only viable solution is for "free" governments to allow and encourage anonymous, encrypted communication. Yes, that will make the job of law enforcement harder, people will use it to violate IP laws and traffic in child porn, but it is the only way to enable free exchange of ideas outside government control.

Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace fill some need, but people want something different. If Google+ is just the same again, maybe it'll fail. There may be something important with exclusivity: a social network that is more tribal and walled could be what people are looking for.

While the source of this data is obviously biased, I wonder where the stimulus money was actually spent. Think what a trillion dollars actually is. A new aircraft carrier costs ~10 billion dollars, planes double that cost, meaning that the country could have purchased 50 with the stimulus (we currently have 11). In todays dollars the Apollo program cost 150 billion meaning that we could duplicate it six times with a trillion dollars. A highway bridge near where I live is being replaced for a cost of 300 million, thus a trillion dollars could have replaced that bridge 3000 times. It could have paid the 14 million unemployed, $35000 a year for two years. Where did it go, and what did it do?

When patents were first introduced in the UK, their length was 14 years. That was based on apprenticeships lasting seven years, and two generations of apprentices learning how to build and operate a device. If it could be argued that it takes a software engineer six months to become proficient in a programing technique then software patents should only be one year. Look and feel patents, if it takes 12 weeks to master creating that look and feel, then the patent should only be six months. Something that takes a four year engineering degree to master, gets eight years. A doctorate, 16 years. This would reduce the load on the patent office, because it wouldn't be worth the effort to patent simple things.

Set a bunch of these loose in the Sahara printing out solar panels.

At the security checkpoint between the F4F Wildcat/Sushi restaurant and the Chicago Children's museum playground, only the right hand lane has a back scanner. If you get in one of the other three you can avoid being scanned. I agree that it is highly unlikely that these devices are actually dangerous, but they are ineffective. I highly doubt they discourage terrorists since they are so easy to get around (go at a busy time, start at a small airport, etc). Sure they catch people with contraband on occasion, but that's not the primary function. Scare tactics, getting the TSA agents to turn against their management, and accusations of corruption, probably will get the machines pulled faster than pointing out their expense and ineffectiveness.

Medium sized airports are the ones the are hardest to avoid the scanners. At a hub like ATL, DFW, DEN or ORD the lines are always too long to only use the scanners and pat downs. Plus it is easy, once you know the airport to not get in a line with a scanner. In CLT the C security checkpoint has no scanners, for example. The real problem is the effect is long term and ill defined. Busy business travelers want to get through security as quickly as possible, or arrive at the airport with minimal slack for making their flight. The pat down takes longer than the scanner, and the risk seems minimal. Heck subconsciously many realize that flying increases exposure to radiation from the sun. Just like living on a mountain is more dangerous than living at sea level for radiation exposure. The real victims of these devices will be the TSA agents, even if you argue complacency. Even being scanned twice a week with probably not increase cancer risks significantly (how many people would travel to Mars if the chance of getting cancer in 20 years rose from 10% to 20%?). Standing by a X-ray machine or a scanner may make cancer from radiation a near certainty.

As a frequent flyer it is fairly easy to avoid the scanners. Many smaller airports don't have them, and they are too slow for the majority of larger ones and are often turned off or majority of people waved around. Over time you learn where the scanners will not be used. The sad part is most TSA agents are normal people that need a job. They are forced to stand near devices that may be safe if operating properly, but over time normal wear and tear will increase the exposure. As is normal with a slow acting, long term effect problem, owned by the government, it won't be acknowledged until the majority of victims are dead. Like nuclear submarines, have the TSA agents where dosimeter badges every day for a year. Lets see if there is a problem.

I think B&N as the underdog has purposely left the reader fairly open. The Nook Color is extremely easy to root and has been for months. They use epub and load many other formats without charging any conversion fees. I speculate that if the publishers would let them get away with it, there wouldn't be any DRM either. While I'm sure B&N would prefer you purchase your ebooks from them, I'm purchased non-DRM versions direct from O'Rielly and Packt and they work fine on the Nook. Considering that Amazon wants to lock you into their proprietary format, severely limits the appeal of their devices for me.