mikecane

It's there for me too, in the order of: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, then others. Odd how G+ isn't first.

Depression is mentioned. As I'm sure everyone else here will say: There is no shame in getting help for that.

And yet with a modem and comm software, they could all connect to online services -- The Source, CompuServe, BBSes.

>>>Why should they change?

Because there's the example of the iPod. It wasn't the music player to have until Apple employees wore down Steve Jobs so they could let it connect with Windows.

>>>Yeah, Amazon is actually the worst at this because of their e-book DRM.

iBookstore, Nookbook store, and Kobo -- the other three big players also have eBook DRM (via Adobe). Kindle is no "worse" than them.

Still Mars. Unknown companies, unknown quality, unknown warranties (as in mostly non-existent). And sending it back to China to exchange a defective unit? Suddenly that $30 isn't.

>>>You can buy smart phones for 30$ in shenzhen electronic malls today.

1) That's in Shenzen. Might as well be Mars for most people. When Shenzen hardware is sourced by global brands, they usually have a generous markup where that "$30" quickly disappears.

2) How long do they last? "Oh, but they're cheap. If it breaks in 3 months, just buy another!" No. People just don't want to go through possibly losing data and having hardware just suddenly drop dead on them.

So, yeah. I'll go with the guy who said five years. That's for stuff that won't drop dead in three months.

Anyone interested in books published by former slaves, go search Google Books. 12 Years A Slave is there among others.

In the Kamalaya section, it doesn't seem to scroll down. Using the latest Firefox. Am I missing some sort of control that's too light to see on my bad-contrast screen?

Knew a guy in his his forties who wanted to work for an ad agency. Convinced them to use him for free for a while as a test and they wound up hiring him. YMMV.