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Comment Re:Define people (Score 1) 892

Tolkein said that his hobbits "like to have books filled with things they already know, set out fair and square with no contradictions," and I imagine that humans are not far different, scientist or otherwise.

It takes a rare soul indeed to see a contradiction in a beloved text, be it the Bible or a Physics text, and explore that contradiction, throwing away long-held assumptions, in order to find a deeper truth. The only difference is that in science, such explorations are sometimes rewarded with praise and sometimes with ridicule, whereas in religion they are rewarded with a cup of hemlock, burning at a stake, or a crazy old lady telling you she'll pray for your soul.

Comment Re:My best fit for Wave; (Score 2, Interesting) 180

My best use for Wave: FAQs.

It's honestly my only use for wave, but it's a good one. Someone asks a question, someone else answers, someone else corrects the answer, someone else provides links to citations.

An example, the wave I manage: https://wave.google.com/wave/waveref/googlewave.com/w+N0MhqpVgB

Active discussions require a very active moderator to keep the wave from getting so large as to die the slow death of lag. Most collaborative documents are better handled in Google Docs. Random "which do you like best" polls should be purged from the internet in general.

Comment Re:RTFM (Score 1) 211

They only "share" highlights that three or more people have highlighted, and only from books purchased from Amazon. They don't back up notes/highlights from third-party content, like books purchased from Baen or personal documents you loaded up yourself.

So, if there's a book published and available for purchase on Amazon that has your phone number in it, and you highlighted it, and two other people purchased and highlighted that same phone number, then it might show up as highlighted on the books of additional purchases.

Notes are not shared via this service at all.

Privacy

Amazon Is Collecting Your Kindle Highlights & Notes 211

TechDirt catches Amazon playing fast and loose with data that consumers may think is private — namely, their highlights and notes entered into Kindle books. "Amazon will now remotely upload and store the user notes and highlights you take on your Kindle, which it then compiles into 'popular highlights.' I have no doubt that the feature provides some interesting data, but it's not clear that users realize their highlighting and notes are being stored and used that way. Amazon basically says there's no big privacy deal here, because the data is always aggregated. But it sounds like many users don't realize this is happening at all. Amazon says people can find out they added this feature by reading 'forum posts and help pages.' ... [This situation] once again highlights a key concern in that the 'features' of your 'book' can change over time. Your highlighting may have been yours in the past, but suddenly it becomes Amazon's with little notice."

Comment Re:sounds familiar (Score 2, Interesting) 222

The same thing goes for other consumer technologies. Insurance companies are willing to throw down thousands on huge, ugly, bulky Augmentative Communication devices for autistic kids, but I bet they wouldn't put down the $400 on an iPod Touch + Proloquo2Go, which is a) a much better solution altogether, and b) less likely to be rejected by younger kids.

A lot of kids reset having to carry around a huge box that marks them as needing special assistance - even if they really do need that assistance just to communicate. Putting that same functionality into an otherwise awesome iPod makes the kid a lot less likely to throw the device out a window in frustration- especially if the kid has music and games on it too. Unfortunately, the same music, games, and social flags that cause the kid to accept it is what causes the insurance companies to not pay for it.

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