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Medieval Copy Protection 226

Posted by samzenpus from the thou-shall-write-your-own-book dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In medieval times a 'book curse' was often included on the inside cover or on the last leaf of a manuscripts, warning away anyone who might do the book some harm. Here's a particularly pretty one from Yale's Beinecke MS 214: 'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. In the one thousand two hundred twenty-ninth year from the incarnation of our Lord, Peter, of all monks the least significant, gave this book to the [Benedictine monastery of the] most blessed martyr, St. Quentin. If anyone should steal it, let him know that on the Day of Judgment the most sainted martyr himself will be the accuser against him before the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.'"
Privacy

Lenovo Software Update Stealthily Installs Adware 186

Posted by timothy from the if-goodwill-means-absolutely-nothing-to-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A recent Lenovo automatic software update has the great feature of displaying annoying pop-up ads for Lenovo products. What's worse, it appears that many users are unable to turn the advertisement 'feature' off, subjecting them to pop-ups every couple of hours. Gee guys, a note about your 20% off sale in my e-mail wouldn't have bothered me that much, but you really had to pop up over top of my PowerPoint slides? I'm sure that all of my office colleagues will be running to order ThinkPads ..."

Comment Factory Farming Side Effect (Score 1) 315

by Lord_Pall (#27721627) Attached to: New Flu Strain Appears In the US and Mexico

This isn't genetically engineered, it's a side effect of bad farming practices.

In the same way we've managed to infect our pigs with MRSA http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15kristof.html I think we've managed to kick up yet another variant..

Signs are pointing to a Smithfields Farms hog-farm in Veracruz where the outbreak originated. http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/

I'm not arguing for us to go back to sticks and weeds for our food supply, but if you set up a farming environment where the only way to guarantee survival of your animals is continual, therapeutic antibiotics, you're doing it wrong.

Comment What it will really take (Score 1) 511

by Lord_Pall (#9832547) Attached to: What Will It Take For eBook Adoption?
So this issue pisses me off to no end.

First, I own an ebook. I bought an reb1200 from ebay once they opened their software and allowed me to load whatever i wanted to. I've bougth 5-10 books from baen (since their content is cheap, completely open format, and stuff I want to read).

The rest i've downloaded.

The problem with ebook readers isn't the hardware and whatnot. It's the content.

They're not content on fucking you on the price (A n ebook is NOT WORTH FULL BOOK PRICE).

They're not content fucking you with the limited selection.

They have to saddle the content with absolute bullshit DRM.

Give me cheap content (allofmp3.com for books!), solid hardware, and back the fuck off.

I'll buy your content if it's value added. Baen releases their books in ebook format months before they come out in stores. I'll buy your content if it's affordable. I will NOT buy your content if it self destructs or leeches onto some oddball piece of hardware.

At the end of the day, ebooks will become popular when they become usable pieces of electronics and not "content delivery systems".

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