I believe it. I recall spending a small fortune through the university's buying textbooks and other texts -- such as the paperback versions classic works of literature that you can now purchase for a couple of dollars through various online bookstores. Back then, online used/new book vendors had yet to emerge. These days I'm a wiser student, opting to purchase my books though online used book vendors (most of the time, anyway).

Particularly when it is important for the students to have the newest editions -- as in this introductory computer course I took, which was apparently supposed to be introducing students to the latest and greatest computing technologies. The 2007 edition of the book hardly mentioned Firefox, Vista and (as would be expected from a book probably published in 2006), no mention of the iPhone or its operating system and the issues surrounding its development. Now, setting aside (for the moment) some of the views we find here on Slashdot, it would be important for an introductory computer course in 2009 to place less focus on the Netscape browser and perhaps even preview (or at least mention) Windows 7 and Leopard (or Snow Leopard) and Ubuntu and other such technocurrents. I felt like I was reading outdated information (and I was, of course). Thank goodness I was only taking this course as a requirement in order to fulfill a certificate; had I truly been taking this course to introduce myself to computers, I would seriously have been lacking in the latest information.

Do you ever used the Mac version of Word? I first purchased the '98 version, then upgraded to the next Mac version but haven't used it since. Is it still a decent product?

I usually buy my textbooks used through Amazon or Half.com or eBay but recently moved out of state and found the textbooks listed on my distance education course confusing -- it appeared to be some kind of bundle of books but didn't list the individual editions. So I opted to order the bundle directly through my college's textbook store and have them mail it out to me. First, they sent me a noticed stating that because they were out of used copies of one of the textbooks in the bundle, they would have to send me a "new" copy and charge the additional cost for it. This bundle of books came out to nearly $150 -- and it turned out the "new" textbook was the 2007 edition of a book that already had a 2010 edition available. I really felt burned -- not only had they shipped me a 2007 version of a book that had had 2008, 2009, and 2010 edition available, but they charged me full price for the book -- and I've discovered that the book is often available (used) on Amazon for less than ONE DOLLAR (plus shipping; search for "Discovering Computers", the Shelly Cashman series). The textbook industry and their relationships with colleges are due to die a slow (well, okay, make it quick) painful death. I'm all for making open and/or digital textbooks acceptable for the classroom.

Don't be an arse.

Compromise, however, is difficult to achieve because everyone has a different perspective of what's a good point of compromise. Wikipedia works that way -- as does my U.S. of A. -- but there's always going to be times when that compromise is being made in favor of one perspective over another for a long enough period of time to alarm the peeps. Hopefully, "balance" will be restored (though nothing is ever truly and completely balanced) to a point that is generally acceptable to the most interested parties.

Sounds like friends (or associates, or whatever) aren't backing up their documents often enough to recover them. Perhaps they need to step up their backup procedure; that way the corrupted docs won't be a problem.

Should I buy the new phone? I need a new mobile device, to make my life complete. I feel like an outsider: my smartphone fell apart after years of un-gentleness and now I'm back to using my old T9. This phone doesn't have the mobile Office apps I never use -- so should I upgrade? I guess I should wait for the Microsoft/Nokia arrangement to manifest itself in the stores first. I guess I'll spend my time worrying about how far behind the Hiptop generation I'm falling...Oh, woe is I!

Honestly, I think we former/still kinda fanboys of Apple have overlooked and/or dismissed many of the customer service fails our favorite computer company has had over the years. I bought my first Mac from the UCLA computer store back in the mid-90s; the Apple Performa was fine but the Apple monitor was rotten. I took it back to the store and they told me they had it shipped back to Apple. When I got it back, it still had the same problem as before. I wanted so bad for my newfound relationship with Apple (and computers, in general) to work out -- plus, I didn't want to be without a monitor for another couple of weeks -- so I never did pursue this one any further. In fact, I continued to purchase more electronics and software from the UCLA computer store over the years (plus another couple of Macs). A less foolish man might have said, "never again, I'm going PC" -- but I was a fanboy, through and through.

Apple better watch this type of behavior; there's only so much fanboys will overlook. (Former/still kinda Apple fanboy here.) Google's been getting more and more of the "cool cred" that Apple established, and if Google's Chrome OS hits its stride, it may be worth taking a real good look at. Plus there'll be a much wider variety of hardware to choose from. Hmm...wonder if Google will partner with a device maker for a portable audio device?

Because we Americans aren't going to embrace anything that isn't mind-blowing -- thus seems to be our attention span -- there's another alternative: an international effort. I attended the latest session of this panel (the Augustine Commission) when they visited Huntsville, Alabama (A.K.A. the Rocket City, original home of NASA) last week and found subcommittee chairman Lester Lyles' research into international partnerships worthy of further consideration.

You must not walk very often. It seems to be getting far more dangerous walking; even the drunks are at least keeping their eyes somewhat above the dashboard most of the time.

Today the "Rocket City USA" newspaper Huntsville Time posted an article by John Ehinger, former editor of the paper, recalling his experience of the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch.

I'll bet they re-discovered the tapes a few months ago, once they realized they were getting close to the 40th anniversary deadline and had to begin actually looking. At least, that's what procrastinator me would have done.

Somebody please mod this one up! lol