Not unless the extra fees are aimed at those companies. As long as the fees are billed to the individual customer, Netflix (and friends) could care less. I want to agree with you (and your +5 is well-deserved). However, my cynicism will not allow me to agree. The status-quo will not change. AT&T and netflix will continue to get their money, and we as consumers get the privilege of parting with ours. The small minority of heavy users will not have enough clout get anyone to truly listen.

Please elaborate. I'd like to tell the young future-architects that I encounter to avoid this program. The architecture school I attended was significantly more sophisticated.

While there were certainly studio exercises that explicitly ignored real-world engineering, the majority of work was influenced heavily by construction methods and feasibility. On the other hand, "cost" was consistently ignored by both students and teachers alike, as were the annoying little things called "building codes." It was generally accepted that cost and codes would be instilled through your professional on-the-job training. Architecture school was primarily intended to approach the artistic and creative side of the profession. However, there was simply no escape mechanism to avoid engineering and physics. We didn't design unicorn clouds... we designed buildings that were "mostly" buildable.

If your friend's wife is not having a more realistic experience with her architecture education, she may find herself completely shocked and disillusioned by the actual real-world practice of architecture. I highly suggest she reevaluate before getting in too deep. My 2 cents, and YMMV.

My own experience follows this closely. I have a Nook. It is superb for reading a casual novel. It absolutely fails at anything for reference. I've tried to use it for a few tech white papers and programming books, but without the ability to quickly thumb through pages, it's a no-go.

When they come up with a solution for this (with an e-ink screen, as opposed to the active lcd screen of the ipad), it's a world-changer for me.

I do not believe in God. I am not a Muslim. Therefore, the Muslim prohibition of images of your prophet neither applies to, nor concerns me.

When your religion stops trying to silence people beyond its membership, then I'll respect your faith. Respect is a two-way street, and must be earned; not demanded.

no doubt. what will this mean for users who have ISPs that do metering and capping? You can bet that the "opt out" option will be buried somewhere, and normal users will have no idea. How long until someone comes knocking on their door for sharing "valuable IP" via this new feature?

I agree too. However, I'm pretty sure that any desire to actually kill Usenet will not be some conspiracy to stifle freedom. The death of Usenet will be by slowly eroding away at its user base for one reason only: They are not able to host banner ads in your Usenet client. With ISPs dropping Usenet, the number of eyeballs is rapidly decreasing.

I'm a veteran of the wild-west days of the internet. I have a high Slashdot id because I avoided web forums like the plague. Then the day came when my ISP was bought out by AT&T. Now there's no ISP anywhere around that offers an NNTP server. I miss those days, but they've succeeded in getting my eyes into the internet that is supported by ad revenue. Gone are the days when the internet consisted of universities, altruist geeks, and decent private ISPs.

I still troll around in Usenet via web interfaces from time to time, but the mystique of those days are gone. Hell, these days I'm afraid of being on some kind of watch list just for hitting a binary group.

Now, we've got Facebook and twitter. I'm not even old enough to use the lawn joke, but seriously getting close.

Agreed. I paid $60 for the bundle. The way I see it, I took a few of the developers out for a beer, bought lunch for an EFF lawyer, and helped put a video game in the hands of a hospitalized child. In return, They gave me a collection of interesting games, no DRM, cross platform, and even the (promise of) source code. That's all win in my book. Any nay-sayers are missing the point completely.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

and that will be the day when I finally have enough incentive to just quit the whole computer/internet phase of my life. I'll retire to my garage woodshop, tyvm.

I've already quit consuming THEIR media. It shouldn't take much to disconnect entirely.

Why is everyone comparing these OSH companies to huge international tech companies? These small upstarts aren't providing schematics for the next desktop CPU. They are simply selling kits and schematics for electronics/hacker/maker gadgets. This is the next evolution of Heathkits and Radio Shack's better days. These companies aren't really trying to compete with the giants of the tech industry. The purpose is to act as an enabler for tinkerers, hobbyists, and crafters.

After years of ignoring hobbyist electronics, I purchased an Arduino, an AVR programmer, and a breadboard with a 5v power supply (all from Adafruit). When I discovered the arduino community, i was hooked. The money I paid to Adafruit was, to me, a small amount to pay for a ticket to ride. While I was relearning the electronics basics, I tweaked the design of the 5v power supply with some different parts from Digikey. This led me into etching my own circuit boards, and building my own kit. When that first gadget fired up, it was like the feeling I got when I completed Linux From Scratch for the first time. I felt like a kid again. Please refrain from pointing and yelling, "NOOB!" I'm just an architect (not the software kind) who has reconnected with my nerdy past. I'm already working on designs for DIY versions of a CNC mill and CNC laser cutter. I'm going to do this because I've been inspired by the DIY community and the companies that cater to that community.

Seriously, do a bit of research of what these companies are offering. If you're not inspired by what people like Limor Fried from Adafruit are doing, then you need to turn in your geek card. I'm just a beginner in the DIY world, but this stuff is seriously fun. That these companies are making money (even if only enough to stay alive) is a win for the geek community.

The applications you're looking for are wordport and/or filemerlin. http://www.file-convert.com/products.htm

I'm not affiliated, but we've been using it for years to convert Professional Write, thanks to my dinosaur PHB, VP and Specification Writer.

It doesn't support ODF yet, but it will get your PFS:Write files ready for a converter that does. DISCLAIMER: only runs in a windows environment.