ebook readers can be found for 45bucks or less if you look around a bit look at geeks.com they tend to cycle thru various good brands of readers, newegg, amazon, woot all have regular deals on readers.
you can also get the nook simple touch for $70 or less, thats really not bad for top tier device is it?
I do agree breaking one would suck, but with the number of books i have lost or ruined over the years (dropped into mud puddles or the like), I could have gotten a few nooks at that price, or even more of the 5" Aluratek Libre PRO or similar units....
just saying, you dont gotta spend a mint to get a decent reader.
I have build some external audio amilification devices(external hearing aids that use headphones/earphones for output)
there are some good kits out there if you dig around, the biggest thing if you want to phase shift or only boost specific freq's is to find the proper design with the proper chip, much like a cmoy amp, you can make the same unit sound very dif with different chips, not to mention the correct pots for various freq's.
I made one for a friends grandfather who had hearing loss from the war(ww2)years ago, he couldnt afford the cash cost of getting the aids(despite being a vet and having medicare he was expected to pay almost 2 months income to get the units replaced), after some tweaking using some quality earbuds he was very happy, it wasnt that it was really loud, the issue was he had loss in a specific range where human voice normally is, i tried 6 or 8 dif chips, found the one that worked best at stock settings for him, then tweaked the range he had loss in up, NOTE: i could put them in my ears with good hearing and not feel they where to loud to listen to, and I DO NOT LISTEN TO MUSIC LOUD.
he used that unit for many years, till he moved to a retirement community and got lucky that they helped him get proper aids for both ears, but, i hear he still used them for tv watching. (i used a modified altoids can for the housing) the whole unit was under 75bucks to build even with the extra chips and rechargeable 9v batteries.
I do agree the "amp everything to hell" type are bad" but they are what some people are driven to by the high price of fitted custom hearing aids to harm their remaining hearing.
The thing is, I really this this is part of the goal of these companies, make people burn their hearing out to the point they need custom units to function, then they are hooked for the rest of their lives into your products.
wouldnt surprise me to find that those companies are also some of the ones selling those mail order noise amps that burn out peoples hearing......
must not be true everywhere, you can buy those over the counter ones here, and from what I have been told they work as well or better for many people then the ones that cost a mint even with insurance.
I have 5 people I know who either got units for themselves or for family members from bi-mart.
these units where "cheap" (less then the cost or repairing the old one) and apparently had better volume and freq attenuation(via small screws on side)
they didnt have a custom ear piece BUT you can get that done a few places, even in home kits to do it yourself and send off for the plugs you need(as one of my friends has done for years with IEM tips) the molding process is what costs alot in this case, but once done, the new tips are cheap if using the same molds.
many of these "complex dsp"s your talking about arent really that complex, read an artical about it, some of them are as simple as a set of resistors and caps(very small) to turn the audio to the patients needs(freq shifting)
the reason they charge so much is because the can....and if you ask some "free market" lovers its a good thing it is the way it is.....if you ask me....its idiotic....specially seeing as i know a couple people who got aids replaced over seas with better units for far less then they could pay here for worse units.....gotta love the USA....greeeeeeed!!!!
honestly it sucks that people loose jobs, but I have to wonder about your example of the graphic artist and type setter, those are 2 jobs that if the person evolved could still get them work even in publishing ebooks.
I have yet to see a good program for resizing books to fit on various size ereader/device screens, every single one(talking from free to thousands of dollars) has had poor correction for screen size changes.
I have 2 friends who work for companies who use automated for the first step then real people step in and reformat(set) the page so they look right on everything from a 3" screen to a 10.1" screen, some companies use 1 person to do all sizes, others have people dedicated to 1 size screen or a limited number of sizes.
it amazed me when one of them showed me her work and how it functioned on a proper ereader, the books went from being a mess to being very friendly to the eye...
I couldnt do her job, I would go mad looking at text all day every day.....
I have also seen some ebooks made to give color reader users an advantage with amazing illustrations made by good graphical artists.
I know a fellow whos 70 years old who saw changes coming to his line of work and started learning the programs that were going to outmode him, by learning them, he made himself so useful that the ended up with a promotion because he had to train others in the company to use the software.
I mean its sad that people loose jobs and get replaced and feel they have no where to turn, but, if you keep an eye on whats happening around you, and keep evolving with the market, you keep yourself relevant and valuable.
I like ebooks and real books, not all real books gain value, I cant carry around hard covers at work and on the go, they are just to big and heavy...
I use a media player i have to read books at times, I also make my own audio books with a program called textaloud when I cant find an audio book version of something I want to read/listen to.
I do understand your frustration and nostalgic feelings toward dead tree books, BUT I also feel that DRM free(or easily drm stripped) ebooks have value as well, not the same value as a physical dead tree book(because they cost alot less to make) but I still feel they have value to readers like myself.
I wont buy an amazon ereader or tablet because I am quite against vendor lock-in, Thats why I have owned Cowon and Onda media playback devices and tablets for example, they have nothing to gain by trying to lock you into anything....they JUST WORK :)
for MMO's the pay to play model is slowly dieing, many big names in the MMO world have been moving to free to play models with in game cash shops OR like guild wars you buy the game to play and theres an i game cash item shop for convenience and fun items.
the problem with pay to play is that as stated you pay 50-60usd for the game then 10-15usd a month to play, people are starting to not like that in larger and larger numbers, I go there years ago, I refuse to pay to play if I have to buy the client, If your going to sell me the client, then dont charge me to play, if your going to charge me to play, dont charge for the client.....
Guild Wars 2 looks like it will be the first game to truly be able to challange WoW for polish and support without a monthly fee, and im glad, I already pre-purchased my copy for this very reason.
and ArenaNet has a history of not caring if you do visual mods to their games(anything that dosnt change gameplay in a cheating manner), as such, Im happy to give them my money.
I wont do games that have heavly restrictive DRM, I dont mind steam, I can even live with some versions of securom (the ones that dont hamper game perf and dont see apps like windvd as "cd/dvd emulation software" )
DRM like this is a real pain, and is a big part I dont like DRM at all, but when it impacts the customer theres a serious problem.
I wont own iDevices and I wont buy a Kindle because of this shit, I would buy a nook, BUT the drm on B&N books is easy to strip, and seems to only really be there for show and/or for keeping the most casual of sharing from happening(fine by me.
sad part is, if we tried that here, somebody would sue us AND then when we got service setup they would sue to make it illegal like they have a few places to stop municipal broadband from competing with private companies offerings.
gotta love america....land of big business and greed
funny, sins of a solar empire was one of the best selling games a few years ago and also one of the most pirated.....yet they didnt cry or complain, infact, the lack of DRM and Stardock being so cool about it, not forcing people to crack their games.
I know people who bought more then one copy and bought the game as gifts for that reason alone.....
when you take the attitude that most game developers take, trying to keep people from playing if they didnt pay, rather then worrying about simply maxamizing sales....not very smart....and clearly its worked so well...after all....copyright infringement is dead isnt it?
I have read more then one author I respect and heard more then one person I respect say that formal education is only intended to make sure we dont question athority or think outside the box/for our selves, its DESIGNED by its nature to ensure we think the way THEY want us to, they being those in power.
its sad but, it is what it is, I once had a computer sciences prof get so mad at me he said I would never pass his class so i may as well give up my goal to get a computer related degree(he taught classes i would need to pass for any tech related field)
why did he do this, because I proved he was wrong when he challenged his class to fix an "UN-fixable" computer, took me less then 10 min to get it back to fully functional from bsod loop.....he was enraged that i made him look bad in front of the class....
no matter that I have been fixing computers since the apple IIe and had seen far worse then what he did to his system, that didnt matter because in his opinion it wasnt fixable without a full reinstall.....
Re: Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
human nature to blame, its much like the problems we have in this nation(USA), greed and corruption are rampant, this was true for every "communist" country I have read about.
the problem is, those who seek power in any system tend to be those least suited to have power.
Honestly I have come to think that a lottery system that randomly picks people from the whole nations population would be better then what we have now, 4 year cycle 3 years then the lotto is held and for the next year the new person shadows the one before them to learn the basics, classes in the issues they will be dealing with in their jobs(no voting on stuff you cant understand...you know, for example most of our reps today wouldn't be able to vote on Internet issues)
I have no problem with socialist programs, Infact Im for a system like the NHS here in the states, its not perfect but its better then what we have now.
If thats what the tax paying public wants, we should get it....we are the ones who would be paying for it after all....
sorry but those sites do not allow unlimited bandwidth, they also limit concurrent connections and download speeds(as to be fair to other users)
Vimeo isnt ideal, most people I talk to have no clue what Vimeo is or cant watch videos there due to buffering issues.
DailyMotion isnt ideal for similar reasons, Also your forced to use formats approved by said services, much like youtube where the quality tends to be questionable after encoding to youtube formats...
really these days, torrent based hosting makes alot more sense if you want to share quality content, streaming sites force you to compromise on quality, also streaming content dosnt work to well if somebody wants to watch it offline like many people I know do when travling.
also note that I am quite sure that the MPAA and RIAA view these sites as just a shade less rogue then megaupload.
just like mediafire is now a target of the MPAA these sites that could be used for infringement are all evil according to the mpaa/riaa, because they dont give the riaa/mpaa the majority of their income.
I have seen every major video hosting service/site listed at one time or another as "rogue", no reasonable service is free from these accusations, and if one shows up, it will be accused...its a given....
if only there was some kind of law requiring our reps in federal govt to know about what they create and vote on laws for...could save alot of trouble to.....but thats about as likely as cops actually knowing the law rather then just guessing.
if only there was some kind of law requiring our reps in federal govt to know about what they create and vote on laws for...could save alot of trouble to.....but thats about as likely as cops actually knowing the law rather then just guessing.
dude, you and the other AC's here really need to take some time off trolling this blog and any forums you troll, go back to IRC trolling bootcamp and L2T(learn To Troll)...total lack of skill....
sounds like you need to try an eink or black and white(gray) lcd screen rather then color, color screens cause alot of people eyestrain over time, where eink and old school lcd's dont tend to have that issue(old skool as in like on your calculator rather then your tablet/smartphone)
just a suggestion, I find I have an easier time reading eink or b/w lcd in lighted area's and color lcd in the dark.
can even find them cheaper if you really look around....
its not the best ebook reader out there but its far from the worst, and its the price of 4 new paperbacks....
just a point, you dont need a nook or kindle, there are MANY other ebook readers out there some are very very cheap others cost way to much....
I would buy an ebook reader over paperbacks for one main reason, no worry about the book falling apart or getting damaged.
I also dont get ebooks from amazon because their drm is harder to strip then BN and sites that just dont use drm at all :) (amazon has books that work with the linked player tho, just that i prefer to be able to remove the drm or have none to start with...not a fan of being told what i can and cant do with stuff I pay for.)
well, funny thing is, some businesses I have worked for scan all cash that passes thru their hands, in 1 case it helped track down somebody who was making VERY good counterfeits(passed the pen and water mark tests)
if having images of money is illegal...then our own govt is in trouble....big trouble....
republican: cut taxes on the rich, convence poor its a good thing.
demicrieten: pretend to tax the rich, as you give them more tax loop holes to insure they pay no taxes or even get money back from govt, as you convince the poor your taxing the rich...
they both screw us in the arse and expect us to supply the lube....one just talks nice to us and the other slaps us around...
On the post: Another Reason Why DRM Is Bad -- For Publishers
Re: Re: smashwords anyone?
ebook readers can be found for 45bucks or less if you look around a bit look at geeks.com they tend to cycle thru various good brands of readers, newegg, amazon, woot all have regular deals on readers.
you can also get the nook simple touch for $70 or less, thats really not bad for top tier device is it?
I do agree breaking one would suck, but with the number of books i have lost or ruined over the years (dropped into mud puddles or the like), I could have gotten a few nooks at that price, or even more of the 5" Aluratek Libre PRO or similar units....
just saying, you dont gotta spend a mint to get a decent reader.
On the post: Hearing Aids, Monopolies, And Why The Health Industry Is Ripe For Disruption
Re: The hearing aid industry.
there are some good kits out there if you dig around, the biggest thing if you want to phase shift or only boost specific freq's is to find the proper design with the proper chip, much like a cmoy amp, you can make the same unit sound very dif with different chips, not to mention the correct pots for various freq's.
I made one for a friends grandfather who had hearing loss from the war(ww2)years ago, he couldnt afford the cash cost of getting the aids(despite being a vet and having medicare he was expected to pay almost 2 months income to get the units replaced), after some tweaking using some quality earbuds he was very happy, it wasnt that it was really loud, the issue was he had loss in a specific range where human voice normally is, i tried 6 or 8 dif chips, found the one that worked best at stock settings for him, then tweaked the range he had loss in up, NOTE: i could put them in my ears with good hearing and not feel they where to loud to listen to, and I DO NOT LISTEN TO MUSIC LOUD.
he used that unit for many years, till he moved to a retirement community and got lucky that they helped him get proper aids for both ears, but, i hear he still used them for tv watching. (i used a modified altoids can for the housing) the whole unit was under 75bucks to build even with the extra chips and rechargeable 9v batteries.
I do agree the "amp everything to hell" type are bad" but they are what some people are driven to by the high price of fitted custom hearing aids to harm their remaining hearing.
The thing is, I really this this is part of the goal of these companies, make people burn their hearing out to the point they need custom units to function, then they are hooked for the rest of their lives into your products.
wouldnt surprise me to find that those companies are also some of the ones selling those mail order noise amps that burn out peoples hearing......
On the post: Hearing Aids, Monopolies, And Why The Health Industry Is Ripe For Disruption
Re: definitely a patent minefield
I have 5 people I know who either got units for themselves or for family members from bi-mart.
these units where "cheap" (less then the cost or repairing the old one) and apparently had better volume and freq attenuation(via small screws on side)
they didnt have a custom ear piece BUT you can get that done a few places, even in home kits to do it yourself and send off for the plugs you need(as one of my friends has done for years with IEM tips) the molding process is what costs alot in this case, but once done, the new tips are cheap if using the same molds.
many of these "complex dsp"s your talking about arent really that complex, read an artical about it, some of them are as simple as a set of resistors and caps(very small) to turn the audio to the patients needs(freq shifting)
the reason they charge so much is because the can....and if you ask some "free market" lovers its a good thing it is the way it is.....if you ask me....its idiotic....specially seeing as i know a couple people who got aids replaced over seas with better units for far less then they could pay here for worse units.....gotta love the USA....greeeeeeed!!!!
On the post: Another Reason Why DRM Is Bad -- For Publishers
Re:
I have yet to see a good program for resizing books to fit on various size ereader/device screens, every single one(talking from free to thousands of dollars) has had poor correction for screen size changes.
I have 2 friends who work for companies who use automated for the first step then real people step in and reformat(set) the page so they look right on everything from a 3" screen to a 10.1" screen, some companies use 1 person to do all sizes, others have people dedicated to 1 size screen or a limited number of sizes.
it amazed me when one of them showed me her work and how it functioned on a proper ereader, the books went from being a mess to being very friendly to the eye...
I couldnt do her job, I would go mad looking at text all day every day.....
I have also seen some ebooks made to give color reader users an advantage with amazing illustrations made by good graphical artists.
I know a fellow whos 70 years old who saw changes coming to his line of work and started learning the programs that were going to outmode him, by learning them, he made himself so useful that the ended up with a promotion because he had to train others in the company to use the software.
I mean its sad that people loose jobs and get replaced and feel they have no where to turn, but, if you keep an eye on whats happening around you, and keep evolving with the market, you keep yourself relevant and valuable.
I like ebooks and real books, not all real books gain value, I cant carry around hard covers at work and on the go, they are just to big and heavy...
I use a media player i have to read books at times, I also make my own audio books with a program called textaloud when I cant find an audio book version of something I want to read/listen to.
I do understand your frustration and nostalgic feelings toward dead tree books, BUT I also feel that DRM free(or easily drm stripped) ebooks have value as well, not the same value as a physical dead tree book(because they cost alot less to make) but I still feel they have value to readers like myself.
I wont buy an amazon ereader or tablet because I am quite against vendor lock-in, Thats why I have owned Cowon and Onda media playback devices and tablets for example, they have nothing to gain by trying to lock you into anything....they JUST WORK :)
On the post: Another Reason Why DRM Is Bad -- For Publishers
Re:
the problem with pay to play is that as stated you pay 50-60usd for the game then 10-15usd a month to play, people are starting to not like that in larger and larger numbers, I go there years ago, I refuse to pay to play if I have to buy the client, If your going to sell me the client, then dont charge me to play, if your going to charge me to play, dont charge for the client.....
Guild Wars 2 looks like it will be the first game to truly be able to challange WoW for polish and support without a monthly fee, and im glad, I already pre-purchased my copy for this very reason.
and ArenaNet has a history of not caring if you do visual mods to their games(anything that dosnt change gameplay in a cheating manner), as such, Im happy to give them my money.
I wont do games that have heavly restrictive DRM, I dont mind steam, I can even live with some versions of securom (the ones that dont hamper game perf and dont see apps like windvd as "cd/dvd emulation software" )
DRM like this is a real pain, and is a big part I dont like DRM at all, but when it impacts the customer theres a serious problem.
I wont own iDevices and I wont buy a Kindle because of this shit, I would buy a nook, BUT the drm on B&N books is easy to strip, and seems to only really be there for show and/or for keeping the most casual of sharing from happening(fine by me.
On the post: UK Community Gives Up Waiting For High Speed Broadband: Digs Its Own Fiber Trenches
gotta love america....land of big business and greed
On the post: Stardock CEO Wants To Maximize Sales, Not Stop Piracy
Re: Dont be ignorant
I know people who bought more then one copy and bought the game as gifts for that reason alone.....
when you take the attitude that most game developers take, trying to keep people from playing if they didnt pay, rather then worrying about simply maxamizing sales....not very smart....and clearly its worked so well...after all....copyright infringement is dead isnt it?
On the post: SF Students Suspended & Barred From Walking At Graduation Because They Joked About Teachers On A Blog
Re:
its sad but, it is what it is, I once had a computer sciences prof get so mad at me he said I would never pass his class so i may as well give up my goal to get a computer related degree(he taught classes i would need to pass for any tech related field)
why did he do this, because I proved he was wrong when he challenged his class to fix an "UN-fixable" computer, took me less then 10 min to get it back to fully functional from bsod loop.....he was enraged that i made him look bad in front of the class....
no matter that I have been fixing computers since the apple IIe and had seen far worse then what he did to his system, that didnt matter because in his opinion it wasnt fixable without a full reinstall.....
On the post: SF Students Suspended & Barred From Walking At Graduation Because They Joked About Teachers On A Blog
Re: Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
the problem is, those who seek power in any system tend to be those least suited to have power.
Honestly I have come to think that a lottery system that randomly picks people from the whole nations population would be better then what we have now, 4 year cycle 3 years then the lotto is held and for the next year the new person shadows the one before them to learn the basics, classes in the issues they will be dealing with in their jobs(no voting on stuff you cant understand...you know, for example most of our reps today wouldn't be able to vote on Internet issues)
I have no problem with socialist programs, Infact Im for a system like the NHS here in the states, its not perfect but its better then what we have now.
If thats what the tax paying public wants, we should get it....we are the ones who would be paying for it after all....
On the post: Forced MPAA Filter On IsoHunt Means Legitimate Content Is Being Censored
sorry but
Vimeo isnt ideal, most people I talk to have no clue what Vimeo is or cant watch videos there due to buffering issues.
DailyMotion isnt ideal for similar reasons, Also your forced to use formats approved by said services, much like youtube where the quality tends to be questionable after encoding to youtube formats...
really these days, torrent based hosting makes alot more sense if you want to share quality content, streaming sites force you to compromise on quality, also streaming content dosnt work to well if somebody wants to watch it offline like many people I know do when travling.
also note that I am quite sure that the MPAA and RIAA view these sites as just a shade less rogue then megaupload.
just like mediafire is now a target of the MPAA these sites that could be used for infringement are all evil according to the mpaa/riaa, because they dont give the riaa/mpaa the majority of their income.
I have seen every major video hosting service/site listed at one time or another as "rogue", no reasonable service is free from these accusations, and if one shows up, it will be accused...its a given....
On the post: How Can You Be Register Of Copyrights If You Don't Even Understand Copyright's Most Basic Purpose?
On the post: Microsoft Releases Utterly Bizarre And Confusing Anti-Piracy Video
Re: Re:
http://www.abisource.com/
On the post: Boston Pays $170,000 To The Guy Police Arrested For Filming Them
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Boston Pays $170,000 To The Guy Police Arrested For Filming Them
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Musician Jonathan Coulton: I Value The Internet A Lot More Than The Record Industry
Re:
On the post: Our Gift To The Author's Guild: An Ad For Brick & Mortar Book Stores
Re:
just a suggestion, I find I have an easier time reading eink or b/w lcd in lighted area's and color lcd in the dark.
On the post: Our Gift To The Author's Guild: An Ad For Brick & Mortar Book Stores
Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=AEBK01FS-R
can even find them cheaper if you really look around....
its not the best ebook reader out there but its far from the worst, and its the price of 4 new paperbacks....
just a point, you dont need a nook or kindle, there are MANY other ebook readers out there some are very very cheap others cost way to much....
I would buy an ebook reader over paperbacks for one main reason, no worry about the book falling apart or getting damaged.
I also dont get ebooks from amazon because their drm is harder to strip then BN and sites that just dont use drm at all :) (amazon has books that work with the linked player tho, just that i prefer to be able to remove the drm or have none to start with...not a fan of being told what i can and cant do with stuff I pay for.)
On the post: Since The RIAA & MPAA Say That A Copy Is Just As Valuable As The Original, Send Them A Copy Of Money
Re: Re: Re: Re: Oh my!
if having images of money is illegal...then our own govt is in trouble....big trouble....
On the post: How Big Music Companies Are Stealing Hundreds Of Millions In Royalties From Artists
Re: In Conclusion
On the post: Obama Administration: ACTA Is Binding & Don't Worry Your Pretty Little Heads About TPP
Re: Re: Re: Ron Paul
republican: cut taxes on the rich, convence poor its a good thing.
demicrieten: pretend to tax the rich, as you give them more tax loop holes to insure they pay no taxes or even get money back from govt, as you convince the poor your taxing the rich...
they both screw us in the arse and expect us to supply the lube....one just talks nice to us and the other slaps us around...
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