Comment Re:How exactly was it stolen? (Score 1) 374
Not in South Africa
Consumer Reports Says Tesla Model S Is Best Overall Vehicle 318
cartechboy writes "When one thinks of Consumer Reports, refrigerator ratings and car seat reviews usually come to mind, but the organization actually reviews cars too. In fact, it just released a new round of top vehicle picks and it said the Tesla Model S is is the Best Overall Car you can buy. It's unusual, to say the least, for an outlet that typically names a Toyota or Lexus to choose an electric car that costs nearly $100,000 in most popular configurations from a Silicon Valley upstart. Interestingly, the Toyota Prius was named the Best Green Car. Isn't the Model S green? But I digress. A company that many thought would be bankrupt and closed by now has produced a brand-new electric car from scratch that Consumer Reports feels is the best car it's actually tested since 2007."
Citizen Science: Who Makes the Rules? 189
New submitter UnderCoverPenguin writes "At MakeZine, David Lang talks about the some of the legal issues around a planned, amateur science 'expedition,' as well as some other amateur science projects.
In the not too distant past, most science was amateur. Over the past 20 or so years, society has been making it harder for amateurs to do real science, despite the technical costs falling. With the recent upswing of the 'maker movement,' amateur science has seen an increase as well, but is running into an assortment of legal issues. (An exception is astronomy, where amateurs continue to play important roles. Of course, astronomy doesn't involve chemicals or other (currently) 'scary stuff.') Can amateur science make a come-back? Or are the legal obstacles too entrenched?"
Comment Re:who can forget the nightmare of james kim (Score 1) 599
From the wiki article on Bear Camp Road:
In 1994, a man traveling over Bear Camp Road died after being stranded for nine weeks. The victim, Dewitt Finley, was a camper salesman from Montana. He was attempting to drive from Gold Beach to Grants Pass and became snowbound. He kept a journal while stranded on the road, and ultimately died of starvation.[7] His body wasn't recovered until May 1995, when it was discovered by a group of local teenagers.[8] There is no indication that Finley ever attempted to hike out, or ever left his camper. [b]Some accounts indicate that Finley would have likely survived if he had attempted to hike out.[/b]
Comment Re:totally there (Score 1) 226
Returning ebooks on Amazon is fairly straightforward. You have 7 days after purchase, and if you discover a formatting error during reading, it's longer. I have returned a book a month after purchase.
Comment All this backlash will mean one thing (Score 1) 349
The Sony PS4 will not come with a Linux option *at all*
Comment Re:From that bastion of Right Wing Capitalism (Score 1) 437
Most consumers believe that e-books should be a lot cheaper than print books because the publisher has been spared the expense of paper, printing, binding and shipping/distribution. However, only about 20 percent of the cover price of a new hardcover goes to those costs: about $5 out of $25. Retailers take from 40 to 50 percent, and after that, the majority of the cost of a new book goes to author royalties, editing, design, marketing, publicity, overhead and so on.
So, the question is, does Amazon take 40 to 50 percent of the ebook price? I would hope not, as that 40 to 50 percent would cover the costs of running a physical store (floor space rental, back office and front office staff).
Comment Re:What's the marginal cost of production on an eb (Score 1) 437
You are under the false assumption that items are priced based on marginal cost. They aren't in practically any market, they are priced at what consumers will pay and what the competition is selling at. Fortunately for them consumers are still willing to pay extra for the digital "convenience" and the competition doesn't sell the same books.
No, I'm pointing out that it doesn't cost them anything to sell another copy of an ebook. And Amazon is right in one sense, they won't be priced at what the competition is selling at, because there won't be competition for a specific title.
Of course, a consumer could always buy a *different* title from a different publisher
Comment Re:What's the marginal cost of production on an eb (Score 2, Insightful) 437
That's right, because nobody markets books, or pays authors, or runs press tours, or edits books...
... and none of that has any bearing on the marginal cost of production of an ebook. The fixed costs are just that, fixed. The marginal cost associated with selling an ebook is *zero* (Amazon covers the cost of sending you the ones and zeroes)
Comment Re:What's the marginal cost of production on an eb (Score 1) 437
Do you work for free? Why should people - you know, editors, typesetters, designers, copyeditors, etc. - in the publishing industry? And, even if the ebook is a digital translation of the print product, somebody still needs to make that digital translation and check it over to make sure all the i's stayed dotted and t's stayed crossed. Until you're willing to work for free, don't expect other people to do so.
I don't, but none of this has any bearing on the marginal cost of production of an ebook. The fixed costs are just that, fixed. The marginal cost associated with selling an ebook is *zero* (Amazon covers the cost of sending you the ones and zeroes)
Comment Re:What's the marginal cost of production on an eb (Score 1) 437
It's not quite zero. You've still got the initial work for layout and editing, as well as the author to compensate.
Let's say 5 bucks for a "hardcover" and 2 bucks for a "paperback". Far more than they're making from Barnes and Nobel, and then Amazon could tack on a dollar to actually make a profit instead of a loss on selling these things.
That's not what marginal cost of production means. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_cost
Comment What's the marginal cost of production on an ebook (Score 2, Insightful) 437
Oh that's right, zero.
Comment Re:O RLY? (Score 1) 70
BS. Have you ever seen a kindle in bright light? You can't read shit. Even indoors if there is any sort of glare from a light shining directly on it you can't read it. The same is true for *ANY* display in direct sunlight outdoors.
As a Kindle owner, I call BS. I can read outdoors, and in brightly lit rooms. Yes, if you're shining a bright light directly onto the screen then it won't be readable. But you can still shine light onto the screen to read it, they even sell a number of clip on lights for this purpose.
Comment Re:WiFi (Score 1) 260
I have my Kindle now, and I do have Wikipedia access
Comment Re:Meh (Score 1) 260
I like the idea, but I'm not going to buy any eBook reader until I can safely read it in the bathtub like a regular book. Crazy, maybe, but that's my criteria.
I read books on my netbook in the bathtub, carefully...
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