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Books

Why Amazon's Kindle Should Use Open Standards 315

Tim O'Reilly wrote in Forbes a while back that he thinks the Kindle only has another two or three years of life left, unless Amazon wises up and embraces open standards. He came to this conclusion, in part, because of his experience deciding how to publish documents on the web back in the mid-1990s. "You see, I'd recently been approached by the folks at the Microsoft Network. They'd identified O'Reilly as an interesting specialty publisher, just the kind of target that they hoped would embrace the Microsoft Network (or MSN, as it came to be called). The offer was simple: Pay Microsoft a $50,000 fee plus a share of any revenue, and in return it would provide this great platform for publishing, with proprietary publishing tools and file formats that would restrict our content to users of the Microsoft platform. The only problem was we'd already embraced the alternative: We had downloaded free Web server software and published documents using an open standards format. That meant anyone could read them using a free browser. While MSN had better tools and interfaces than the primitive World Wide Web, it was clear to us that the Web's low barriers to entry would help it to evolve more quickly, would bring in more competition and innovation, and would eventually win the day."

Comment Re:Bravo! (Score 1) 674

No. People voted for the "free stuff!" party (seriously, why do you think they call themselves pirates) because they're leeches who don't want to lose their free ride.

I have to disagree with you here. The fact is that the Pirate Party only gained most of their support after the recent PirateBay trial verdict. Many voters felt the judgment is unfair and understood something had to be done about it. They did not simply join because they want free stuff.

Censorship

Submission + - Pirate Party wins at least one seat, possibly two (torrentfreak.com)

reeeh2000 writes: According to TorrentFreak, with half of polling stations now closed in Sweden the Pirate Party has at least one guaranteed seat in the EU Parliament. Currently the party is sitting with 7% of the vote. Depending on how the remaining districts voted, the Pirate Party could win another seat for a total of two.

Comment I've faced this same issue (Score 3, Interesting) 699

What I found to be the best solution is to run Linux. My campus required Cisco clean access agent and service pack 2 to use windows on the network. I wasn't required to as Linux is allowed to connect without these. As for other concerns I would suggest setting up a encrypted proxy server at home then connecting through it. This will also allow for torrenting and PvP file sharing as this is often blocked on campus.
Medicine

The Dangers of Being Really, Really Tired 469

Sleepy Dog Millionare writes "Brian Palmer, writing for Slate, asks 'Can you die from lack of sleep?' and shockingly, the answer may very well be Yes, you can. Palmer points to 'ground breaking experiments' in the area of sleep research. It turns out that sleep deprivation can actually be deadly in rats. The obvious conclusion is that it is probably deadly in all mammals. So the next time you think you need to pull multiple all-night hack-a-thons, ask yourself if it's worth risking your life for."

Comment Google already has won this. (Score 1) 247

In 2004 Geico v. Google Inc. was a suit very similar to this. Geico was unable to prove that where searchers google Geico, they specifically only wanted the Geico webpage, instead of looking for the best insurance deal. Because Geico was unable to establish this the case was ended early with a judgment in Google's favor.

Comment Get the Stimulus Right! (Score 1) 658

I have created a group on barackobama.com called get the stimulus right. Once again we must band together as we did with FISA and make sure that this package is what it is supposed to be, instead of just another round of tax cuts.

Everyone do what you can and call every senator tomorrow and get this right. We cant afford 800 billion wasted. We need it to be spent right to create jobs and modernize the American Economy.

What good are tax cuts if we don't have work in the first place?

Comment Re:no soup! (Score 1) 658

If the infrastructure and science initiatives get stripped, then Obama needs to say no. The primary purpose of this stimulus is to give the new administration the money it needs to rebuild America.

Don't let congress mess this up. We need this stuff. If science and infrastructure are thrown out so that a few rogue republicans will add their support, then don't sign it.

Comment Interesting (Score 1) 295

I don't know why, but I find this strangely fascinating. I guess it's the little things that point to Obama as a technology friend. It's interesting that they made a rather big deal over it being the first official digital picture of a president.

Comment Its not Ubuntu's fault (Score 2, Insightful) 1654

While DELL should have fixed the problem, don't blame Ubuntu. Verizon purposely designs its phones to be unusable with Linux. Verizon has a track record of locking its phones. For example, the Blackberry's built in GPS is inaccessible so that Verizon can charge to use its triangulation based navigation system.

As for the classes, the developers of the online software have an obligation to make it work on as many systems as possible. While Linux developers must continue to work towards compatibility with other systems, the companies behind them must work with us as well.

Finally, before anyone goes calling this woman idiotic for this compliant, we should make an offer to teach her about the technology and how to use non-Linux software through applications such as Wine.

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