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Comment Re:PRS-650 (Score 1) 204

I can't speak to the PRS 650 model directly, but I do have its immediate predecessor the PRS 600. The touch is absolutely fantastic, the built-in dictionary has been useful more than once, and the ability to highlight sections or take notes has been handy. The 650 is supposed to have an even more responsive touch, so it should be even nicer.

I have seen the 650 screen, and it's noticeably better contrast than my 600, without the shiny coating that the 600 needed for it's resistive touch screen.

Adding files is pretty easy, you can use the sony software, the free Calibre software (which can also convert ebooks between various formats if needed) or the 600 (and presumably 650) will show up as a mass storage device, and you can just drop ebook files into the "Documents" directory on the device itself. Additionally you can use a Sony memory stick, or an SD card for more storage and books.

Hope this helps!

Comment Re:Alternatives, anyone? (Score 2) 586

An "acceptable" level of invasion of privacy, as you put it, would be to get an appropriate warrant before installing this equipment. That both serves to show that the FBI or other organizations are not just randomly tracking people in the hopes of finding something worth "investigating", but also provides them a defense against law suits like this one; eg: "The GPS device was installed in accordance with this warrant, and in relation to this investigation, and the suit has no standing."

Comment Re:I 3 my kindle (Score 1) 236

While the original poster may have been, and probably was, referring to pirated content you don't have to be breaking copyright laws to say "Screw paying for anything." Depending on your particular tastes there might be a wide array of legitimately free content available from a variety of publishers or from Project Gutenberg.

Comment Re:Greedo shooting first is far more hated ... (Score 3, Funny) 495

Greedo missing from 3 feet away, stormtroopers unable to hit anything, and Obi-wan's comment "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise," can all be explained away by another of Kenobi's comments: "...clumsy or random as a blaster."

From all this, I can only conclude that "blasters" have an intentionally random directional shift applied each time the weapon is fired. Such randomness would mean that they constitute a galaxy-spanning game of Russian roulette, and would also make them ideal terror weapons.

This feature can be used to explain the Stormtrooper precision based on the standardization of their equipment. If all Imperial blasters have an identical random-deflection-generator installed and seeded with the same value, then shots taken at the same time would have identical deflection and all strike the same area, despite having completely unpredictable accuracy.

Comment Re:As a Wii Owner (Score 1) 258

I think Nintendo support is rather hit-and-miss. I've actually had good luck with them on 2 separate issues. First one of my Wiimotes died; Nintendo sent me a shipping label, then UPS lost it so Nintendo sent me a replacement mote. The other issue was when I started getting "cannot read disc" errors after playing a gamecube game. Again with the free shipping and a fast turnaround. No big hassle or anything. On the other hand I've had 2 friends with Wii issues who couldn't get good support for love or money.

Comment Re:asteroid mining a la slashdot (Score 1) 163

Another alternative is to use a nuclear reactor for your power, then you approach the asteroid, gather water (use a permanent installation with a solar-powered centrifuge and oven to extract the water from the icy regolith), superheat that water with your reactor, and expel it into space in exchange for velocity.
Or you can use that same permanent installation to split the hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis, use the hydrogen in the same scenario as above, or in an ion engine, and add the oxygen to your environmental supplies.

Comment Re:Spooky (Score 1) 302

The other poster was attempting to clarify that "Over The Counter" simply means "you can get it without a prescription". You're stating that where you live you must speak with a pharmacy technician to acquire aspirin. This doesn't make it "OTC" since it's "OTC" even if it's on the shelf. The fact that you need to ask at the counter is unrelated to the classification as a non-prescription medication.

So in actuality we're dealing with 3 different ways to acquire medication:
Over-the-counter on-the-shelf: These are over the counter medications that are just sitting on the shelf for you to pick up and purchase

Over-the-counter regulated: These are medications that you can get without a prescription, but for which you will have to inquire at a pharmacy counter.

Prescription: You need a prescription, and you need to inquire at the pharmacy counter.

Annoying, isn't it?

Comment Re:print? (Score 2, Interesting) 147

Unless things have changed in the past five years, that's not entirely accurate. What actually happened was: for mass market paperback books (the most common type), we'd strip the covers in the store, sort the covers by publishing house (to mail back once we had enough to be worth the time), then the employees would typically pick through the coverless books and take a couple for personal enjoyment, then the rest went out with the trash.

The same process was applied to magazines, except that was happening a lot more frequently (we'd get a shipment of magazines at least once or twice a week).

With hardcover and trade paper books, the unbought stock was mailed back to the publisher, or swapped between stores depending on quantity, age, and need.

At the location where I worked there was only one dumpster, and absolutely no recycling went on aside from the store employees picking through the piles and taking what they wanted before the remainder was thrown out.

Of course, if you ever special order anything then someone from corporate would decide there was a market for it and restock the store once you bought your copy; this frequently meant that after I would special order some title for myself, we would have 2 or 3 sit on the shelves for months before we had to strip-cover and discard them. Print-on-demand would have been very nice for those sorts of purchase.

Comment Re:Ah, paranoia (Score 1) 746

Likewise. I don't own a gun, but that's not because I oppose gun ownership, it's because I haven't taken the time to first become competent with a gun and demonstrate my competence (in the form of taking the requisite gun-safety courses and obtaining a concealed-carry permit). Until such a time as I do that, I won't own a gun because I won't have demonstrated to myself the discipline needed to own that particular tool. I don't think every person needs a gun, but I also don't feel the least bit unsafe knowing that my neighbors are gun-owners and regulars at the range.

Comment Re:Dang! Things were just getting fun (Score 1) 756

I agree that one of the multitude of breeder reactor options (FBR, IFR, etc) seems to be a more effective way to go. I was attempting to point out that modern civilian reactors (light water pressurized reactors) are not the type that are run to produce weapon-grade plutonium or uranium. One of the reasons we have so much "waste" material out of them is due to that consideration, actually. The biggest issue with the waste fuel is that it would need to be reprocessed to be any use at all, either as fuel or for weapons; whereas the output from most breeders can be immediately reinserted into the reactor and "burned" to produce more energy.
