Just tried it out. You can enable the menu toolbar, and move the tabs back to the original position.. So yes.

Let me fix that for you...

"Anyone who writes code for wealth is a fool. The purpose of writing code is to create something that's valuable to people, because it is what you love. If you can manage to not starve while you do it, more power to you."

Everyone should do what they love, and try not to starve. Hmm, or maybe we should return to reality... :-)

Sure, good for itself, but RHAT is in a much different league.
        RedHat's total revenue for the last quarter was $194.3 million
        Oracle's total revenue for the last quarter was $6.5 billion.

Before being bought by Oracle, Sun's S/W business did better than Red Hat..
I was just lost in the noise since H/W is such a big component of revenue.

I've been thinking about getting an e-reader for sometime... But I want something that I can read e-books, pdf's,
websites, and e-mail. I read more on websites than books these days.. I checked out the iPad, seems to be
really good for this, and some light e-mail composing... But that's about it as far as typing goes... I looked at
using a bluetooth keyboard, but it just felt silly. I want a more traditional keyboard mouse once I set the
iPad down.

I haven't bought one yet, If it were $100 cheaper I probably would have. Probably smarter to wait for
the second generation.

BTW, I wouldn't recommend iBooks for DRM'ed books... If your ipad dies, you can't read your books
anymore.. i.e. no reader for Mac/PC.

I like Google and their products. I use them all the time.

But I am concerned about them and every other company which keeps information
on me... It's total out of control.

While I don't have a lot of concern on what Google does with the information today..
I do worry about criminals getting a hold of the information (if they haven't, it's just a
matter of time). And I do worry that the company Google is today will not be the
same as the company Google is tomorrow.

I agree with your assertion that you are replying to FUD... But, in some ways,
your reply is FUD too.. While Google may be better than all those other
companies today, does that make the data collection they do OK. It's not
a question specific to them.

> and they also provide tons of great open source products.

I consider Google to be opensource neutral. They open source very little
of their code. I would like to know how much money, as a company, they
spend on open source software vs the money spent on all software they
write.. I would expect a very low percentage.

i.e. personally I would like to look through the code for the gmail client,
maps, reader, jabber client, calendar, etc. None of this is core to their income
stream. I believe it would help dramatically improve other websites on
the web over time.

What about their e-mail server, IM server, calendar, etc?

I understand why they would keep their search algorithm closed.
Their data and how they mine it is where their real value is.
It certainly is their prerogative to to keep everything else closed
too... But I certainly wouldn't call them open source friendly.

What your missing is that the book is ~ 100% markup... So yes, the retailer takes ~ 50%
if they don't offer a discount..

So in your case above, the retailer takes $12.50.. The publisher takes $12.50. The publisher
then subtracts the $5 for printing/distribution. Then has $7.50 left to pay for the publishing
costs, take a profit, and pay the author.

If there wasn't a printing/distribution cost, the book would list @ $15.00.

I am perfectly fine if they want to charge $15 for an e-book. They will drop the price as time goes
on.. If your patient, wait and pay less.. If your not, pay more.

The real cost saving will come if e-book retailers make it easier to publish (ala the apple app store).
That will make a lot more content available and drive down prices. It will of course allow a lot more
crap in.. But that's where the breakdown in capitalism is.. The artificial throttling of what gets
published.

It has been reported that Amazon was giving a 70/30 for exclusive e-publishing
rights, and 50/50 if other e-publishers are allow to publish the books. If you switch
from 70/30 to 50/50, your price goes from $10 to $15...

It has also been reported that Apple is giving 70/30 no matter what... My guess,
the publisher wants their $7... And amazon is switching from $10 to $15 because
they aren't exclusive anymore.

> It's very simple, if Oracle wants to sell in the European markets they have to obey the European
> fair-competition rules. If they don't like them they can leave the market. In the same way, if any
> European company wants to sell in the US market they have to obey the US fair-competition
> rules or leave the market.

And what happens if the EU ignores it's own fair-competition rules and tries to block the
sale for political purposes?