I've been using Mellel for several years now. It was written primarily for working with VERY large documents, which is necessary for me as a writer. Granted, Mellel was optimized for academic paper writing, but it is still quite usable for novels.

The key thing I like about this program is it stores its data in a ZIP-compressed, human-readable, XML file. If Mellel ever closed shop, I'll still be able to recover all my writing with relative ease, unlike having to draw it out of proprietary file formats used by other companies. And if I'm feeling like it, a simply PHP script will allow me to extract all my writing from the XML file with the original formatting It also handles other tasks such as advanced page formatting, margin control, indexing, etc., which is necessary when going to print for a novel.

It's not perfect—I have yet to find a writing program that is—but it really does get the job done.

He is absolutely not Satoshi. --Philip Zimmermann

Just my opinion, but:

1. Motion sickness. Getting people in an immersive, 3D environment usually induces motion sickness to those who are vulnerable. I was the only employee in the company who could withstand being inside the CAVE visualization room for any length of time without staggering out looking for a bucket to throw up into. 3D home TV systems will have the same effect on most consumers.
2. Really, really bad 3D movie production. They all go for gags and gimmicks such as 'throwing' things at the audience, swinging objects right into your face, etc. This causes dizziness (see item 1), it is uncomfortable to the eyes, and it is highly annoying. They are basically going for gratuitous action that really has no use in the movie. They really need to focus on just clean, 3D, imaging so people can enjoy something that looks natural. I would love it if I could watch a 3D movie that looked like I was sitting aside the scene just watching it unfold before me, like actors on stage.
3. Eye strain. The camera positions tend to be wider than the human eyes are spaced. It exaggerates the 3D effect, but it strains the eyes. They also tend to try and stuff things into your face (see item 2), causing you to have to cross your eyes constantly. Well, pushing an image in 3D closer to your face while the actual screen is much more distant causes your eyes to strain in order to focus distant while crossing to see the close-up object. This will cause you to get a headache in short order. Worse, it can cause motion sickness when the physical cues don't match up with the visual cues. Watching a 3D movie is simply quite uncomfortable.

Until these issue get addressed, 3D will never actually catch on. In my opinion.

The fall detection is a must for us.

As my mother's health declined, the falls began to happen. It's one thing when you hear about it happening to someone else, but when it is happening in your own household and right in front of you and you can't move fast enough to catch that person, it is mortifying. And it isn't just one fall. It is over and over again. There is nothing more horrifying than hearing that terrible "THUD!" in the middle of the night.

It became so bad, we didn't dare leave her alone in the house. In the end, she spent her final days in a nursing facility.

A family friend suffered a stroke and spent over 18 hours on the floor of his kitchen before someone discovered him. When he didn't show up for a scheduled meeting—something that is out of character for him—and didn't respond to phone calls, someone went to check on him and found him on the floor, partially paralyzed, unable to reach the telephone that was just out of arm's reach.

For my father, the fall detection means a lot. It means he can maintain his independence and mobility, but knows someone will be able to come to his aid should he begin to suffer falls. He has health issues that are creeping up on him and could start interfering with his ability to balance.

As an author, I've always taken the stance that if you buy one of my books as an ebook, you should be able to read that book on any device you own that can display books. Be it an iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Galaxy #, etc. This is why I do not allow DRM on my books when published. Copyright fair use allows that you should be able to read that file on any device that you own. What copyright does not allow is you to make copies of that file and sell it to other people.

If your son has the ebook on his iPad, it is most likely in EPUB format. (If it is an enhanced book in Apple's iBook format, then this won't work.) Just make a copy of the EPUB file to the desktop. You can then run software that will convert the file to the Kindle MOBI format that he can then side load onto his Kindle.

Amazon has software that will convert EPUB files to Kindle files so you can read them on your Kindle. The program Calibre can also convert between formats.

I certainly appreciate your son's concern and respect for the copyright. But in this case, he can go ahead and make the copy so he can read it on another device.

At this point, there just isn't enough money to support such an endeavor.

And as much as it galls me to say this, if we turn back the clock a few centuries to the so-called "Age of Exploration," the truth is it was more the Age of Exploitation. The whole drive behind exploring and colonizing the New World was funded by those looking for economic return, not to expand knowledge and the human condition. It was all done in the name of profit, not glory. And worse, it was for short-term profit, not long-term gains.

Unless we discover significant deposits of precious metals enough to cover the enormous cost of transport to and fro, there just aren't any short-term gains to be had settling Mars.

The primary long-term gain is we gain the ability to leave the Earth and thereby guarantee the possibility of our specie's survival. For those wondering what the return is on studying a tiny population of endangered butterflies that only are found in one field, such a study is a model for how we can ensure our own survival. Consider that one field supporting those butterflies is a direct analog for the planet Earth. For now, there is only one place where humans can exist, and the Earth is our field.

I'm getting tired with all the leaks. It's like looking at all the presents under the Christmas tree and knowing what is in each wrapped box. It takes all the fun out of it. Let me be surprised!

...Strike Virginia off my list of potential places to live. :/

[p]...And now it desperately wants cake.[/p] [p]A great cake! So delicious and moist![/p]

>Do you believe rehabilitation is impossible or do you want revenge?

I don't believe that someone who commits mass murder can be rehabilitated, no. It isn't about revenge; it's about public safety.

Someone once pointed out that hoping a rapist gets raped in prison isn't a victory for his victim(s), because it somehow gives him what he had coming to him, but it's actually a victory for rape and violence. I wish I could remember who said that, because they are right. The score doesn't go Rapist: 1 World: 1. It goes Rape: 2.

What this man did is unspeakable, and he absolutely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he needs to be kept away from other prisoners as a safety issue, there are ways to do that without keeping him in solitary confinement, which has been shown conclusively to be profoundly cruel and harmful.

Putting him in solitary confinement, as a punitive measure, is not a victory for the good people in the world. It's a victory for inhumane treatment of human beings. This ruling is, in my opinion, very good and very strong for human rights, *precisely* because it was brought by such a despicable and horrible person. It affirms that all of us have basic human rights, even the absolute worst of us on this planet.