See paper here http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature08956.html and article here http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100321/full/news.2010.138.html

Why do I keep seeing summaries that link to articles that are summaries of summaries of the original publication? Just link to the damn Nature article if that's the source.

This was originally published in the Nature Journal: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/news.2010.130.html
Obviously there is much more useful information in this one...

Really, do we really need it? I think when the majority of a population blatantly disregards a law, something about it is fundamentally flawed and needs to be reevaluated and possibly fixed... before we even talk about [t/pr]eaching it to schoolkids.

Because schools are not there to teach our kids about respecting the law, they are there to teach them critical thinking and problem solving skills, and to expose them to knowledge... not force them to agree with it. Copyright has nothing to do with critical thinking or problem solving, and it is not the kind of knowledge that k-12 kids should be worried about in the context of schools. Don't forget, schools are not parents... no matter what the 'gumment says yo! Of course, this is just my opinion and not reality, which makes me sad. How about you?

What's wrong with masturbation?

Actually, if you buy a dvd/blu-ray you ARE paying for the format and not the content. If we were paying for the content, then my purchase of the Alien Trilogy on VHS should've included reasonably priced upgrades to newer formats based on the cost of new media. So, if today I decided to finally get the DVD version of Alien, I should only have to pay for disc+shipping or so. Same for blu-ray.

As it stands, we aren't paying for the content. Otherwise we wouldn't be forced to buy the content multiple times depending on our choice of playback device and preference of data quality.

So when we download from the Bay, we are acquiring content without any of the chains. Years ago I downloaded the Alien DVD rip. Today I downloaded the Alien blu-ray (making a point, I don't think it exists yet). Tomorrow I will download the Alien holo-disc. I already paid for my Alien "content" twice, when I saw it in the theaters, and when I bought it on VHS.

Maybe the industry needs to rethink how they sell content (if they even want to do that at all) to the folks who love watching movies/shows outside the theater. Maybe when content gets created it should get digitally stored in data centers using the highest reasonably possible format. Then, when people purchase the "content" the studios fetch it from the datacenters, transcode it down to the desired format/media delivery system. So the first time you buy a movie for example, you'll pay two fees. One for the content, and one for the processing and delivery. But consecutively you'll only pay processing and delivery if you choose to keep getting that content in new formats. As I mentioned earlier, the prices should be reasonable... not $5 VHS -> $15 DVD -> $35 blu-ray, but instead maybe $5 VHS -> $5 DVD -> $5 blu-ray

The problem you are having with the "feel" of the WiiMote based games is due to the inaccurate nature of the controller. I don't know if you're aware of this, but the WiiMote is not 1:1, therefore you lack much precision. The new WiiMotion Plus addon will solve many of these accuracy problems, unfortunately it will only be adopted by future titles. The PS3 motion controls that were announced are on par with WiiMotion Plus, they are 1:1 motion matching. The Xbox 360, while focusing a lot of it's energy on Project Natal, is also having a WiiMote like controller coming out although I believe it is a 3rd party device (google it, I'm lazy).

Anyway, my point is don't use your past experiences with the Wii motion based games as a standard. That was just a tease, and a test. The real fun will pick up over the next couple of years as new titles take advantage of WiiMotion Plus, Natal, and PS3's motion controller.

Have any of you even read TFA? Of course not this is slashdot... The second link contains more interesting information, so I suggest everyone checks it out. But for the lazy...

 

First of all, this is for math(s) and science textbooks only. So don't worry about cuddling up with your English lit stuff on the couch, you can still do that. Second, this is an open call for submissions which will be up for approval. This most likely means that if there are honestly no satisfying submissions, this idea may get scrapped/postponed.

I think if these were down to earth, non-drm, popular/flexible format based ebooks that are not stuck in online-only mode and are downloadable, then there shouldn't be too many problems. Yeah, I'm curious about many of the infrastructure issues, such as delivery, storage, etc... as well as the business model that will be behind the acquirement of these textbooks. But many of the comments I've read here seemed to be really ignorant of the above paragraph which I think negates half of the concerns I've read about so far.

 

So reading further, and seeing the above statement sheds some more light on my first quote. It sounds like the state is expecting the submitted learning material to be "donated" for the cause of education. Meaning no publishers and no money involved in acquiring it. So all that's left is storage/delivery/viewing infrastructure. This is looking more promising now (just hinging on the availability of quality free educational content).

 

Again, more mention of FREE.

I don't live in California, but I recognize that the education system in the entire country is in shambles. I'm personally glad to see ideas like these being pushed around, and not only that but actually looking like they'll get implemented and not just talked about. While it's not mentioned explicitly, this sounds to me like it's talking about k-12 education. So all of you who only remember the university environment, please realize that k-12 is different. The textbooks were never yours to begin with. Hell, I'm from Florida and sometimes my school didn't have enough textbooks to give one to each student to take home. So yes, we only used them in class. Homework was improvised... photocopy, worksheets, etc...