This is my second post about this device in as many days... I suppose it was inevitable with the iPad announcement, but at risk of getting called a shill, google the Notion Ink Adam. It's a tablet with the Pixel Qi display. Supposedly, [hopefully,] it'll come out a couple months after the iPad and it looks pretty much perfect. In any case, it's the reason I don't have any kind of ereader yet.

Assuming constant cost of 3.30 USD? And they're available only in Japan? I'm guessing in six years. Three years if Sarah Palin gets elected in 2012. :P

Do yourself and your parents a favor and google "Notion Ink Adam." Unless you're married to the iTunes store, I literally cannot come up with one single reason to get an iPad instead... Assuming the thing comes out, it's just better in every way and for every conceivable purpose.

I think at this point it's pretty much implicit that if Bill Gates knows it, he wants to sell it.

I do not disagree with you in general. However, if I might attempt to provide some insight into why targeted ads are at least marginally better... at least as I see it:

First, I also almost always research most purchases greater than, say, $15. I will actually use google ads as one small part of that research. (Also, pertaining specifically to location based advertisements, as an example, I'd love to make a hobby out of random restaurant visits to holes-in-the-wall I wouldn't have heard of otherwise. Granted, I would only care when I was hungry and wanted to go random, so more of a yellow pages thing, as you mentioned, but still... I'm reaching.)

Second, I think there's something psychological about this. Kind of like free shipping making people buy things when $0.01 shipping won't. I, for example, am 28, male, a vegetarian, far from affluent, happy with my car insurance and don't have any flavor of the month pharmaceutical needs (and if I did, I'd do something crazy like listen to a doctor). When you don't think about retirement, menstruate, eat meat, invest, want a poorly rated bad faith insurance company, or run around concerned about diseases almost nobody has, you can go entire TV shows with not. one. advertisement. even close to relevant. Even hour long shows. Does it really matter? No, but for some reason it annoys the crap out of me.

You do, of course, have a legitimate point. However, unless you honestly believe that if all the pharmaceutical companies in the world closed their doors, the NIH and other analogous organizations would have no change in funding or purpose, you also have an egregious false dichotomy.

Your idea has been stolen by the past!

What do you expect, Mother? I'm HALF MACHINE!

--Buster Bluth

I can't wait to see the achievement lists.

It doesn't. Even vegans get fungus. If you actually know someone that falls for that though, you might try yeast instead of mushrooms. That ought to really blow their minds.

Certainly, switching to smokeless tobacco is effective for some people. Though I don't know numbers, I'd imagine it gets people off smoking more effectively than any current pharmaceutical NRTs, their numbers are dismal, after all. However, many harmful effects for the user are retained, particularly the tobacco-specific nitrosamines. (Though with some reduction in the case of snus.) I'm just arguing that for most smokers, vapor is the best (and almost assuredly among the healthiest) replacement. Bonus, if you're arguing for the sake of non-smokers sensibilities, it's still effectively odorless, so the only way you can reasonably complain is if the sight of someone exhaling visibly is somehow offensive... and that would be just plain whining.

I'm afraid you just don't understand. The act of smoking is as addictive as the nicotine.

The most promising thing I have ever seen are personal vaporizers. Unfortunately, the FDA, as well as a few countries, are losing their minds over them. (They do need regulation. They do not need FUD.) Those of my fellow smokers interested, I recommend this forum as the definitive resource.

I believe you are exactly backwards. DRM is about limiting the user. The GPL is about freedom for the _user_. As is pointed out ad nauseum every time a GPL story shows up on slashdot, the restrictions only apply on distribution of binaries.

Simple example: Once upon a time, in my linux n00b days, thanks to the GPL, I used to change the source of ... what was it, scp and grep? to make the flag for directory recursion lowercase r, because I couldn't be bothered to keep track of what used -R instead. Now, say Apple doesn't release the source for Darwin. It's BSD licensed, of course, so they don't have to. Then, to keep everyone tied into the Apple experience, they implement some kind of hash check before anything gets executed (sounds like DRM), so even if I reverse-engineer and compile my own binaries, I can't run them.

One way, I, the user, can do what I want. The other way, I can't do anything I want, despite that they are both open source. It's not that hard.

That said, I generally agree with you about RMS. I believe his difficulty is that he has valid practical considerations that, when stated in legalese or abstract ethical notions, sound crazy. Then, his unflinching, uncompromising nature drives him into the fringe.

For the record, there were other reasons to use Latin. First, it's what I remembered first. Second, undoubtedly resulting in the first, my girlfriend is taking an introduction to logic class this summer, and I've been perusing my old text book for nostalgia and interest. Last, I am an obnoxious linguistic prescriptivist and "argument through ignorance" doesn't (to my mind) cover the full breadth of the Latin term, eg. argument from personal incredulity or argument by lack of imagination.

Also, I'm kind of a show off, and I like it when other people use the fancy phrases because I can always copy-paste-Google and probably end up learning something. If I'm just being a tool, my sincere apologies. :)

As to your last paragraph, I agree completely with it, in its entirety.

I am puzzled and intrigued by your statements. In order to further my understanding of the world, could you please check all that apply:

[ ] I am a troll.
[ ] I am a humor writer.
[ ] I do not understand the nature of security as it effects all computers and networks, and not only the laptop my mother bought me.
[ ] I believe that a virtually 100% secure operating system requires security updates. (If so, for what?)
[ ] I do not know what "argumentum ad ignorantiam" means.
[ ] I believe that Apple is staffed by level 84 wizards with computers enchanted with "detect traps."

Thank you for your participation. Your answers will be kept as anonymous as you desire.