Yeah, same here. I've told the teachers that my kids don't participate in fund-raisers that are simply turning them into door to door salesmen. I return the packet and offer a direct donation instead.

There are fund-raisers that I'd probably let my kid participate in (bake sales?, car wash, (where the kids actually wash the car), etc) but they've never tried those, so I really don't know.

I have a Pixel Qi screen in my Adam tablet, (Notion Ink). If I wanted to leave the screen off most the time, I'd have to pick a high-contrast theme for ICS, which I haven't really run into 'themes' at all. It works well for e-Reader apps if there is a lot of light, (outdoors on a sunny day) but everything else requires that I have the backlight on. The viewing angles are also not up to par.

However, this screen is a couple years old now, so maybe Pixel Qi have come up with some new magic.

(You do notice the battery savings with the screen turned off though.)

How similar were those pictures? I would have never thought to use a 'bear with a fish' to do thermal dynamics. That seems to be a 'non-obvious' solution. Someone else using that example would definitely be copying, even if they didn't use the exact same bear picture.

But how is the rest of the alignment done? Is is a manual process where and editor goes through and maps ever textbook they get a hold of? It is an automatic process based on the Table of Contents? (or index?)

It seems to me there are two important parts of making a text-book that would deserve copyright protection:

1. The narrative text/examples.
2. The 'flow'. The order by which the author chose to present the facts and lead you through the understanding.

Those are the two creative parts of the textbook. Those are what differentiate it from another 'book of facts.'

As much as I hate textbook cartels, I'd have to say that this 'alignment' process definitely has the potential to encroach on the actually creative side of textbook design, so I'd say the lawsuit has some merit. Of course, I haven't studied an 'aligned' book or the book from which it was derived. Heck, I didn't even RTFA.

This is absolutely the truth. I've never been able to afford to own a 'real' console. The initial investment is more like a 'trap.' After you buy the console itself, it's a never-ending chain of more purchases. You need to buy more controllers and memory cards. You have to purchase each and every game you ever want to play. And in the past there was nothing else to do with the console if you weren't playing the games.

With a PC, the initial investment is larger, but then it's done and I never have to drop another cent on it if I don't want to. I have a large back-library of games that still work. I have free-games on the internet. I have game demo's galore. I can also use it for about a bazillion 'value-added' things that have nothing to do with gaming.

Having it be twice the initial investment is overcome in a matter of months, and I'll actively use my PC much longer than I'll actively use the console. (keyword 'actively').

Now, with the newer generations and the online capabilities, they are introducing things like Virtual Console, Indie games, game demos, other uses (ie Netflix), so they are getting to have at least a 'little' more value than they had before, but it still doesn't hold a candle to a simple PC.

T-Mobile "pay as you go" I pay $30 a YEAR. No data option though without paying monthly.

I've heard that certain types of biofuel vehicles smell like French Fries when they drive past. What does this smell like?

Should it be called a 'Fart-Mobile?'

Punish them by forcing discounts on customers. Instead of paying the money directly, they pay it in reduced revenues.

Of course then there's no fees for the lawyers or fines for the government, so that'll never fly.

Nope, Speaker for the Dead...in fact it was the titular speaking in which he did it.

You're not like that already? I always need headlights for the drive home during the winter. I actually take it as a sign of approaching spring that I start to squint into the sunset on the drive home.

Half-life and the sequel were seen as huge improvements to their predecessors (Quake1 and 2). This was because of two things mainly.

1. Interactivity: It felt like you could touch the world a little more.)
2. Story: Not only was the narrative you were a part of better fleshed out, but more importantly, the characters were as well. Most of this story came from the people with you, and not so much what you did.

FarCry came out and it improved on that a bit. Halflife had very small corridors that you were allowed to walk down. FarCry had an entrance and an exit, and how you connected the two was entirely up to you. The story was just told in-between levels.

Call of Duty didn't learn that lesson though and started another 'phase' (which I'd call a decline.) It turned on tighter rails than halflife had. Not only could you only walk down a small corridor, you had to be looking the right way too. The 'vehicle' scenes didn't even allow you to drive, you just were along for the ride. I totally skipped the 'Call of Duty' series because of that. Even up to the current (unreconizable) MW2 variants.

I'd say that COD supports his statement that story has stolen too much from gameplay. However, FarCry is a better example of good balance.