Unless you're rich and $1500 is a piddling amount of moola...

I also got an invite to order Google Glass and politely declined. $1500 is too much for a product that isn't fully realized. Yet, Google Glass holds interest to me because it holds a possibility of improving the lives of deaf folks like me... REAL TIME CAPTIONING, right in front of our eyes. That would completely change LIVES. (Yes, I recognize that similar technology on Youtube produces lamentable results.) What disappoints me is that Google doesn't seem to recognize it, or deems it an inadequate market to follow. You really think it wouldn't be cool to more or less create a version of the Babelfish from Hitchhiker's Guide? Or recognize that if you erased communication difficulties, you'd be one step closer to a civilized world where we can exchange ideas WITHOUT throwing poo?

Glass uses bone conduction for sound (which wouldn't work for a person with truly profound nerve deafness, like myself), and has stated that they do not recommend the Glass for deaf users. While it's not the same as "get to the back of the bus", it's still disappointing to be marginalized in such a way. But I'll remain hopeful that one day, Google recognizes what they could do for folks like me, and enable us to communicate with "norms" without ya'all looking like fools :)

Ask yourself this... do you trust Apple with your pace maker? Your cochlear implant?

Would you trust MICROSOFT with your pace maker (holy hellzapoppin' no)

I can just see it... " Your cochlear implant has reached it's maximum amount of words amplified for the day. In order to hear more today, you need to upgrade to MICROSOFT COCHLEAR PROFESSIONAL 8.1" or even worse "Oh shit. I'm sorry, I can't do anything else today. I'm only using PaceMaker XP and if my heart beats more than 86,400 times today, my pace maker will throw a very literal blue screen of death."

With Apple, it's be a shiny pace maker, with a lot of features that may or may not be compatible with any other implants... like if you have an MS Cochlear, you can't have an Apple Pace Maker..

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer: "Fuck Beta!"

Seriously, tho... of course it's an underhanded tactic. It's not even new. The big "3" did the same thing when Tucker tried to revolutionize the industry. Automakers don't like change at anyone's pace but their own glacial plodding.

The issue with searching for evidence in time travel is that once it's happened, no one would know it except the time traveler themselves, assuming they avoiding any paradoxes which eliminated their very existence, or eliminated the circumstance whereas they invented or gained assess to time travel proper. Once time travel (into the past, presumably) has taken place, all evidence of the previous time line is erased from existence. Therefore, only the word of the time traveler(s) itself exists to confirm or deny the actuality.

Unless of course, you have an appropriate tachyon emitter than can track the rate at which all matter in the universe spins and locate matter that is out of sync... localized to a single person or location or item that may have been sent back....

Your mistake here is assuming that libraries do not evolve and are all about books.

Been to your local library lately? You'll find it filled with much much more than books. Meeting rooms for public events. Study rooms for single or group study. Free public wireless for your wireless enabled equipment. Computers for those who don't have them at home. DVD's and BluRays for entertainment. Art for the masses. Databases for in library or remote access, including utilities to learn a new language, or get help with your homework. Video Games in a variety of platforms. Movie nights and zombie lock ins. Classes on Informational Literacy in the Digital Age. Full of vibrant people, and fantastic energy for folks of ALL ages.

Libraries are much MUCH more than just books. They're a community gathering place staffed by exciting professionals who's sole goal is to ensure your access to information, literacy, entertainment, history, and so very much more.

How secure are Cochlear implants and their processors? Any chance I'm going to hear the voice of God (without the tooth implant, ala Real Genius?)

What, you're going to tell someone how to use silly putty and a water balloon?

Chromebooks are actually quite good for newbs. As long as they have "one of us" to set it up, connect to their wireless (home or public), they are absolutely perfect for people who use computers for nothing for than web browsing, facebooking and email. The price point works for lower income users, and there is a growing movement to bring them into public/community service like libraries and schools. That's probably where the majority of sales are coming from.

The touch enable is probably just a "MS did it, so did we." type thing. The Chromebook is probably more usable than a Surface anyhow...

In theory, if everything could be done electronically, it would significantly lower the cost of having a public Library...

Of course, the building on this article would be minimally staffed, probably not offer storytimes, or other public gathering events... but it would be cheaper, and still fulfill the "basic" tenets of what a Library "was".

Cool. you have digital literacy.

Many people do not. Many people do not possess your skill set for finding relevant information using Google. You'd be amazed the number of people who can't tell the difference between a real information, and Wikipedia spam.

Librarians are TRAINED to find this information. Your questions ARE the type of questions we deal with every day. We do this for the people who don't have your level of digital and informational literacy. And when you're stuck? (if that ever happens?) Come to the Library. We'll help you too ;)

Haven't been to a public library lately, have you?

Libraries have moved FAR FAR beyond the staid old stereotype of "shh"ing school marms in reading glasses. I have worked in Libraries for over 20 years now, and I can tell you that we are busier now than we have EVER been. eBooks haven't been a negative to us, but the treatment of libraries by publishers has been a negative to ebook users. I'm really happy that someone is looking as far forward as this article, but I'd love to know more about how they expect it to work.

and negative viewpoints yours are normally the result of someone who hasn't used their public library in a long time. You can either ask Google and get a thousand answers, or you can ask a Librarian and get the right answer.

The big issues involve licensing for eBooks and the fact that publishers seem to engage in punitive pricing with Libraries. Example: One publisher declares that an ebook can only be checked out 27 times, then the license for that expires. Multiple publishers REFUSE to sell ebooks for Library use. Libraries are treated like pirates by many publishers.

Now, different companies are trying different models. Kansas libraries spearheaded a massive campaign to control their own ebooks licensing, and they succeeded with an unprecedented project of contacting hundreds of Publishers and finagling acceptable licenses for public usage. Will the San Antonio folks be doing this? Do they expect 3M, Sirsi, or Polaris to do this?

A tertiary issue is the license themselves. Typically in libraries, you cannot use a library owned computer to capture or transfer the license to an ereader device. This is because in the case of "USB required devices or items", the license exists on the COMPUTER itself. Downloading a license to a public computer currently violates all applicable copyright law for ebooks/eaudio materials because it makes the license available to all (or the license is lost when a computer reboots and doesn't save anything at all between sessions.)

Intriguing idea, but the article doesn't include any comprehension of the issues involved in this. Just because it sounds "cool", doesn't mean it's doable.

As a deaf person now using Cochlear Implant(s), this would be so nice... except having a Cochlear implant probably precludes this from working for me (unless it repairs the damaged cillia in the ear as well.

or Bad Piggies while cooking a ham...
Perhaps there's a limit to the devices that actually need Android on them? I mean, I'm sure I don't need a toothpick with Android installed...

That's the point. Will they recognize it and make the appropriate changes to Windows 8? Cause Windows 8 is going the same way as Vista right now...