Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The Future of Books

There are the brick and mortar book stores, used and tattered books, online book stores and ebooks. All these book models have issues.

Books in book stores can be overpriced. You might spend a tonne on a book, read and figure out it wasn't worth the money. Your stuck with an expensive paperweight. Used books can be in a bad shape, pages missing, dogs ears and everything that can destroy paper.

The ebook format is not the best to read on a laptop. Hard to read on a bed and the experience is far from a real book.

Enter amazon.com

A whole new device that specializes in book reading from the worlds largest book store! Books, newspapers, blogs and magazines pushed to the device, straight from the store.

The amazon kindle is a wireless reading device. The kindle connects to a cellphone network (USA only) and downloads books wirelessly. You need to buy books in the kindle format. Books are pushed by amazon.com onto the device FREE. And No, you don't need a cellphone plan to connect to the network. The device is network *aware* out of the box.

The e-ink display ensures that text is clearly visible in direct sunlight. Hardware controls flip pages and zoom in/out of text.

Kudos to amazon.com. A device such as this, allows a subscription model and maybe book rentals.

This would also allow better and flexible screen displays and maybe the end of fat-n-heavy books.

Amazon Kindle Tech Specs:

Display: 6" diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 4-level gray scale
Size (in inches): 7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7"
Weight: 10.3 ounces
System requirements: None, because it doesn't require a computer





External Links:
Amazon Kindle

Friday, November 09, 2007

Global Warming, Sue the Government

With every passing year, our climate seems to be getting hotter or colder (depending on where you are located). It is easy to notice unexpected rainfall in the middle of summer or winter, rise in sea levels and other natural disasters.

I think the first step in getting a grip on green house gases is to sue the government. Oil companies are evil. They will do whatever it takes to _stop_ progress and widespread adoption of renewable sources of energy.

A case against the government should be such that:

A) A settlement (buying out of officials) is never reached
B) The case cannot be dismissed
C) A solution should be found
D) After the court proceedings have ended, the government should fund projects related to renewable sources of energy

So why sue the government?
Governments pass and enforce laws -> Oil companies do not -> Oil companies buy out government officials -> Government officials buy out climate *experts* -> Government officials lax out laws/rules related to environment.

Governments _profit_ trillions of dollars from oil companies.

Global Warming Fast Facts
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html

This is a great start,
California Sues EPA Over Auto Emissions
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SPL3IG1&show_article=1