Uh, the Kindle (at least, as of the Kindle 3/Kindle Keyboard) can read PDFs. It can also read Mobipocket files, and plain text files. And then there's the KindleGen service, which lets you attach files in a number of other formats -- including raw HTML, (unprotected) EPub, MS Word documents, and a number of image formats -- to an e-mail and have them converted to Kindle format and sent directly to your Kindle (there's a small charge if you have these delivered over 3G, but it's free if you get them over Wi-Fi).

Seems like I just read an article on Gizmodo not a month ago about how iPhones will never have more than a 3.5" display.

Fixed. It's since been modded +5 Insightful. :)

Maybe there's hope yet.

Games have been in RedBox locations in some areas for a few months now. $2.00/night.

And yeah, Netflix and Redbox are both awesome. Between them and GameFly, the three of 'em pretty much ate Blockbuster alive.

Imperial measurements are more intuitive. I can visualize common measurements in inches, feet, and miles *FAR* more easily than centimeters, meters, and kilometers. Don't get me wrong, I can usually process metric measurements reasonably well, but it still takes me a few seconds to go from "42cm" to "about this long"; if I hear "about 16 inches", I don't even have to think about it, my brain just visualizes it with no noticeable effort.

Granted, that's probably because grew up using a lot of Imperial and almost no Metric, but it's still a valid point. Until the US gets a generation of people, a significant portion of which grow up using just as much Metric as Imperial, we're going to stick to what's easiest for us to use.

You should know better than to read /. with breakfast. :P

Another case of an incomplete summary. TOS, TNG, Voyager, and Enterprise will be added to Watch Instantly sometime in June. DS9 will be added sometime in October. They'll be available for at least two years, with the option to extend it at the end.

Thank you for reiterating what the last 2 other posters have said. You may now return to your normal duties at the Department of Redundancy Department. >:|

Let me guess... Windows 98?
That was a common bug back then. Probably something to do with all that 16-bit and 32-bit code [microsoft.com] just thrown on the pile there.
You were probably connecting way bellow even 56k, it's just that you couldn't really notice it.Also, it could simply be that her PC was reporting the port speed, not the actual speed it connected at.

XP, I believe.
 

Also, it could simply be that her PC was reporting the port speed, not the actual speed it connected at.
Even XP will gladly report to you the speed of your NIC or your hub/switch/router instead of your actual internet connection speed.

Admittedly, this is the most likely scenario. It *did* seem to be a bit speedier than usual, though.

*shrug* Eh, I dunno.

Phone modem speeds weren't limited to 56kbps by technology; the tech in them is capable of reaching significantly higher speeds (well, significant in the days before cable & DSL), but was arbitrarily limited by the FCC or some shit like that.

Like 10 years ago, there was a period of a few weeks where, by some random bug or glitch somewhere, my grandmother's computer (with 56k modem) would regularly connect to her dial-up service at 118.2kbps. She, of course, never noticed it. I don't think anyone else did, either. I noticed it when my parents and I went over to visit, and I asked to use the computer because I was bored.

I think the few "realistic" racing games I've played -- mainly Forza Motorsport -- have made me a *slightlt* better driver IRL. Not a huge difference, but noticeable.

On the subject of camera views, I tend to go wtih chase-cam for the more arcadey stuff, and nose-cam for the more realistic stuff.

I'd say it's probably some of both.

Some ad services pay based on impressions/views, not clicks. The payout is significantly lower per impression than per click, but the ratio of "people who let them load, whether they click or not" to "people who click" can sometimes make pay-by-impression more valuable.

The article, along with some of the above comments, bring me back to my disgust with the so-called "Open Handset Alliance". I was under the impression that all the companies involved in this "Alliance" would be moving toward more open and user-choice-oriented hardware and software designs. So far, Google themselves seems to be the only one living up to that. Locked bootloaders, e-fuses, hardware write-protection... IMHO, Motorola, Samsung and HTC do not deserve to call themselves members of the Open Handset Alliance.

Been out for a while, so there's probably something newer that's got better specs, but this is the one I remember off the top of my head.