Yeah, you can, but the whole thing about ebook readers is they use ePaper and eInk. From what I understand, it has a display that highly resembles paper, has no lighting, etc. This makes it much more like a book, not to mention the form factor. I've tried to read ebooks on my MacBook pro, and I just can't, because it's nothing like a real book, it's awkward and totally terrible outside etc.

It's not just an aversion to LCD either. I'm a big comic book fan (Marvel mainly) but because I'm in a rural area, I typically am able to get pirated versions of my comics before my paper copy arrives. Because my paper version arrives up to a month after release, I've taken to downloading pirated comics and reading them before my paper copy arrives. I have no problem reading a comic on an LCD, but a text book just doesn't work for me that way.

Yeah, I was really hoping to get one for Christmas, so this pretty much sucks. If it's not out by December, I'll probably get a Sony eBook reader (yes, Sony is evil, but I like their products, and I have a high tolerance for evil.) or buy a Kindle off eBay.

For those who know better than I, if I buy an American Kindle off eBay, how well will it work in Canada? Will I be able to buy the ebooks off the American store (with a Canadian CC) and just load them with USB, or will the DRM cause me too many problems?

Basically, I'm wondering if anyone knows which will be a better option, a Sony Reader or an eBayed American Kindle if it comes to that.

(Please don't turn this into a DRM flamefest, I know DRM is evil, but I put up with it if the product's good enough.)

I very much feel for you and have a very similar situation. Bullied in school (to the point my mother pulled me out and homeschooled me for two years until I switched schools), and now have horrendously severe social anxiety, sometimes bordering on agoraphobia. I did finish high school, and went on to University. I made it through the first year, mostly because the one friend I had from high school was there and helped me through the first semester.

Anyway, people without social anxiety's experience won't be fully appic

At the start of the second semester he withdrew as his mother had cancer. I still managed to pass 4/5 of my classes, but pretty much became a withdrawn shut in, skipping many classes (out of anxiety, not laziness) and failing one of them because of it.

I took a year off, worked on my problems, thought I was ready to go back, but it turned out I was very wrong. With no friends, and no one I knew, at all there this time, I completely withdrew from everything, to the point of sleeping during the day and being awake at night because I was terrified of anyone seeing me. I started skipping all my classes, and lying to my parents about how things were going. Not because they wouldn't understand (my biological father suffered through similar problems), but because of my anxiety.

Anyway, after about 2 or 3 months or so of skipping school and lying, I eventually did withdraw and got half my money back.

So yeah, now I'm 22, C$30,000 in debt and don't plan on going back to school until at least 2011. :-/ Social anxiety sucks. (Although, the debt really isn't that bad, I have a good job with the army reserve, artillery, that pays well enough that I should be out of debt in 2 years. One of the few things I can do these days. :-/ )

I know this isn't an inspirational story with a happy ending (yet), but hopefully you don't withdraw as badly as I did. Unfortunately social anxiety is a terrible thing to try to get help for, as the whole thing is you're terrified to talk to (most) people.

Anyway, to answer your question, in most ways it's better than high school. Less bullying, less retards, less judgemental. In others it's worse. It's harder to make friends and you don't really talk to your classmates in class. I failed miserably because I didn't know anyone and didn't know how to get to know anyone. Without anyone to encourage me (or at least know of my existence), I gave in to my anxiety and skipped the schooling that I paid $15,000 (out of my own pocket) for. Blarg.

If you have any, try to go to university with a friend from high school. It helped me a lot in the first year, and it was only after he withdrew from school for personal reasons that I began failing miserably, having zero friends, and unable to make any.

I don't really pay too much attention to the chip business, so I'm wondering how well, historically, Intel has followed their roadmaps? Are they like an actual roadmap of a, uh, road, that you can follow, or more like a "Roadmap to Peace" that's made because it looks good and people expect you to, even though everyone knows it's not going to work out?

Anyone got a roadmap from 1996 or so, so one can see how well it was followed?

There are funny games out there (Portal, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, Simpsons Games), they just aren't a majority. The same way there are funny TV shows and movies, but they also aren't a majority. Although, I will say that it appear that humorous games make up a smaller percent than TV or Movies, it's still the case that it's just sort of a sub-genre.

That being said, one reason, I feel, is that game genres are based on gameplay, not content. People shop for RPGs and FPSs, not comedy games and drama games.

Additionally, many games, like gamers, tend to take themself too seriously. Some of the funniest moments I've had in gaming are when the joke is directed at the gamer ("I go on message boards and complain about games I've never played!" from Super Paper Mario), or when they really unexpectedly break the fourth wall (Ocelot's "And don't you dare use auto-fire, or I'll know!" from MGS).

Judging by the video game message boards, a lot of gamers take themself really, really seriously, (the type that go on message boards and complain about games they've never played) and wouldn't appreciate having fun poked at them, or the fourth wall broken.

Either way, I don't see it as a problem. There are humorous games out there, they just aren't a majority. Like every other medium. :)

My thoughts on this. First of all, the part is irrelevant, they have no chance of electoral success, they probably will only even run candidates in a handful of ridings. Even if they did run in all 308 ridings, they have no chance to get more than, at best, 5% of the vote in their best riding (and even that is a stretch). Our system, which has been confirmed by several recent referendums, essentially makes any votes for them "wasted" in a few ways. I'd still recommend anyone vote for them, if they support their principles.

As for my thoughts on copyrights in general. I'm a generally libertarian leaning Conservative. I don't like how the RIAA/MPAA is conducting themselves. I don't like the abuses of patent systems, and I think copyright lasts way too long. I'd be completely in favor of reform of those.

That being said, I feel the general idea of copyrights and patents is a sound one. IMO, people should have ownership over ideas and works that they create. An aspect of ownership is the right to deny use of your property to others.

I see this in a similar manner as land ownership. Land ownership is a similarly abstract concept. One can only "own" land based on the collective agreement of the population, and the government. Likewise, even if one is not using a tract of land one owns, one can deny access to it from others.

That being said, like a typical goodthinking Slashbot, I hate DRM, think the RIAA/MPAA are a bunch of thugs, and feel that copyrights last way too long (I think patents last about the right length, but stupid crap shouldn't be patentable). I don't, however, feel this gives people a right to pirate whatever they feel like, nor do I think it invalidates the idea of copyright, in general. (For my background, I'm a 22 year old white Canadian male who buys his games, music and movies, and buys a great deal of them.)

I'd be interested in seeing well thought out disagreements, of course. I'm also sure my thoughts and my analogy could be worded much better. I'm usually terrible at getting my point across.

Yup. I used to be a big supporter of electoral reform, even as a Tory, (I favored MMP). While I still wish to see the system change, I don't want to ram it down anyone's throat, I feel the referendums, while disappointing, pretty much settled the matter for quite some time.

So basically what you're saying is that in the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded.

And you wonder why people have a hard time grasping current big bang theory. :-)

DO NOT WANT

The basic idea is that Nintendo, as a company, has built up good feelings from me, and other uses, where as the RIAA has not. This is from a combination of their actions, enjoying their product, and such. Basically, they feel almost like a friend or something, so when they do something one disagrees with, the build up good feelings generally override that.

Same as Apple. You'll find plenty of Apple users who will be quite willing to say they hate some of the legal actions that Apple has taken, but in general, their experience with Apple hardware and software greatly overrides that.

The MPAA/RIAA have done nothing of the sort to build loyalty and good feelings (not that I'm really sure what that entails, but some companies are good at it, others are not). And most people see them as nothing but a bunch of jerks who sue grandmas and little kids, make you sit through stupid anti-piracy warnings on your legit bought DVDs and try to install rootkits on your computer.

My personal thoughts are the best way to counter piracy is to make people like you. I can only really give examples from my experience, as I don't really know other people's piracy habits.

I am an avid gamer of all systems, although I rarely game on my PC anymore, as it's typically too much of a hassle with configurations and DRM. The DRM decreases my chance of buying a PC game, (especially if there's a good console version) and makes me more likely to pirate. As an example, I bought a copy of Spore. My bought copy of Spore thought I was pirating it. After screwing around for a bit, I decided to say screw it, and downloaded a pirated copy from the Pirate Bay. As a result, were I actually interested in the Sims 3, I feel I'd be much more likely to pirate it, now that EA's ticked me off.

I have around 200+ console + handheld games, none of them pirated. Several of my systems (DS + PSP in particular) have very active "homebrew" communities, that make it very easy to acquire "backups". Despite the ease of which I know I could get handheld games for free, I choose to buy them, because I derive a great deal of value in having the original box + manual + disc/card to display, and because I actually like the companies.

Pirating a game from, say, Nintendo to me would feel like kicking Mario in the groin. Nintendo (and others) have brought me such good times, that they seem almost like a friend. The few times I've even considered pirating DS games, I've felt very uneasy, the thought of it feels just wrong, to me. The RIAA, on the other hand, does not invoke such warm, fuzzy feelings to just about anyone. Perhaps if they stopped suing so many people, and installing rootkits on people's computers, they might have some more goodwill left.

Those are just my thoughts. I know plenty of people don't derive the same satisfaction from having a big collection of legit games/music/whatever, but I really think that if the RIAA stopped suing people and instead built up a strong relationship with its customers like many gaming companies, and Apple, they might see similar loyalty and less piracy.

Also, suing little kids is stupid on a logical level. I pirated plenty of software when I was around 12 or so because I had no money. Ten years later, I have plenty of disposable income, and provide the entertainment industries with many thousands of dollars in revenue a year.

Heh, I feel like I just got some random notes of mine handed back, graded as an essay. You a teacher or professor or something by chance, hehe. :)

Eh, I wasn't trying really to make a point, just sort of letting thoughts wander out of my brain. When I'm actually trying (ie: essay writing), I can effectively make actual points, support them and such. When I'm not trying, especially when I don't even really have a specific point to make, my thoughts appear just as jumbled and disorganized as they do in my head. :)

The general gist of what I was attempting to say is that, while there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence, it is just that. I think there was probably electoral fraud.

And yeah, this election can be compared to others, in that people are voting. When people vote, weird stuff can and has happened. To what degree it can be compared to others, I'm not prepared to say, having little knowledge of Iran, the Iranian political system, or generally of politics in the region.

Anyway, thanks for marking my disorganized thoughts I spewed out in between playing Zelda on my Wii, hehe. Was interesting. :)

Well, you know us university students, we hate to grow up and get a job.

Now to party like it's 1909 again!

I actually pretty much agree with what you've said. My post was pretty much a jumbled collection of my thoughts. The basic idea that I was saying is that there's a lot of circumstantial evidence of tampering, but nothing I haven't seen in legit elections. I think there was some degree of tampering, either in outright fraud, or intimidation, but I hate jumping to conclusions, and (even with Iran) I prefer to take an "innocent until proven guilty" approach.

I'm not speaking as an expert on Iran. I don't know a heck of a lot about Iran. I think there was probably some tampering, but I would leave the ultimate call on that for someone who has great experience with Iranian issues, and especially politics and political outcomes. Jumping to conclusions based on circumstantial evidence is usually not a good idea.

Gods, I am terrible at getting my ideas out concisely. TLDR: I largely agree with you, but like caution.

From what I understand, Iran has a good, or at least decent, transit system, (they aren't a third world country) and a decent communication grid.

Having 4x more votes means nothing. They could easily have 4x (or more) counters.

The US could hand count over 100m ballots in the same time frame, if you only had one election at a time, like Canada. Because you have a FREAKING CRAP TON of elections (President, Senate, House, State Senate, State House, DA, Judge, School Board, Official State Dog Walker) and often several referendums all at one time, hand counting becomes impractical. BTW, I am not bashing having so many elections, just pointing out that it is the major reason why hand counting is impractical in the US.