The future...

From what I've see with people I know or hear about on forums, Facebook, etc. most of the objections to the idea of e-books comes from people who haven't actually been exposed to the latest e-readers. I personally have converted several people from doubters into e-reader owners by explaining that unlike phones, an e-reader will go over a week on a charge, that e-ink has no flicker, that there are lots of sources for free and inexpensive e-books out there, etc.

While there will of course be some holdouts who refuse to read anything that's not on paper, I predict that as more people actually see an e-reader, (And, in places other than the US, as they slowly get the rights issues sorted out to make it easier to buy e-books.) there will be quite a few more converts.

Also, as more and more kids and young people grow up having always had access to a tablet computer, and having a lot of their textbooks winding up on one, the younger generation *will* wind up doing most of their reading on e-devices.

So personally, I see a big future ahead for e-books and readers and I don't see them plateauing out any time soon.

Happy with mine...

I got an Acer Aspire One 10.1in netbook about 9 months ago. I've upgraded it with more memory, and just recently set it to dual boot Ubuntu and I'm delighted with it. The Ubuntu install was easy as could be and works great with no tweaking, and the netbook itself is handy and comfortable to use.

So, another Acer owner who's happy with their machine.

Yeah...not happening.

I got my Kindle shortly before the holiday, and since then, I've probably read more, (both free and paid for books), and spent less money doing so, than I had in the year previously, all without paying a dime for shipping (meaning more money went to the writer) or causing the death of a single tree.

The fact is that the Kindle has gotten the needs of the serious book reader (As opposed to the gadget lover.) down pat. It's as light as a moderate sized paperback, I only need one hand to hold it and turn the pages, the e-ink doesn't flicker and can be read in the sun, I don't need to charge it more than once every week or so, I can keep dozens of books on it at a time, and it wasn't much over $100.

The soul of a book is not in the paper, the soul of a book is in the words contained within. While I like the smell of books, and being surrounded by shelves of them, having something that makes it easier to access the words is no bad thing.

Ironicly...

...there is another method that has been proven (At least in the various articles I've read where it's been tried in the US.) to disperse young people hanging around shops and so forth. It's called playing classical music.

In the cases I've read about, playing classic music at a moderate volume outside of shops and the like where teenagers tended to congregate was sufficient to drive them off in search of another "cooler" location without risking anyone's hearing or putting off anyone who was there to do business.

Perhaps some of the places using this "mosquito" thing could try that instead?

Here it goes again...

Anytime there's an article about Second life, I can be sure that the actual subject of the article will be completely ignored in the comments, which will instead be packed with posts by people slagging off Second Life.

Personally, I happen to be disabled, and I find logging in in the evening to hang out and chat with friends to be a superior way to spend the evening compared to passively soaking up whatever crap happens to be on TV.

Not at all surprising...

There is a reason that I built (And learned *how* to build.) my own system, which I know how to troubleshoot and fix if need be, and a reason that I'm running Ubuntu which I can also trouble shoot and fix if need be, thus eliminating the chance of someone lifting my personal info off of it.

I've known technicians who have worked at various repair shops, and according to them the first thing that they do when a new machine comes in, is to copy off any porn, music or movies you might be on there. [1] The ones I knew were ethical enough that they didn't record financial details, but as this report shows, there's no guarantee.

I've also heard personally from people who worked at a particular shop in the US, (Now long out of business, fortunately.) that the owner there made a practice of going through the computer owners financial records to determine how much he could get away with charging them for repairs.

Personally, I think that the current attitudes toward privacy on machines that have been brought in for repair are far too lax, and I'm not at all surprised that something like this has come up. In fact, I'm surprised that it's taken this long to start to hear about it.

I feel that there really needs to be a code of conduct for these types of businesses which states that personal files and information on a machine should be *absolutely* off limits, beyond the absolute minimum needed to actually fix the machine. (Which should be zero, 99% of the time.) This should include oversight of technicians to stop the currently winked at practices of copying off interesting files, and which would yank the business license of any shops that are caught doing this, even if there's no misuse made of the information.

[1] My own comment to them, that I was advising any friend who sent in their machine for repairs to entitle a folder, "My Girlfriend Nude" and fill it with octogenarian porn, was for some reason met with accusations that that I was in fact, "Evil Incarnate". Go figure.