While I honestly think the best way to handle this would have been to simply state where BoingBoing parted ideological ways with Ms. Blue, I understand the desire to have done so without embarrassing anyone.

I have to say though, you really should have seen these problems coming. Unpublishing is a perfectly valid way to handle online content, but I think we would all have preferred some kind of notice explaining why. (the comments conflating it with censorship or attempting to alter history are fundamentally incorrect as you are voluntarily removing your own content, not attempting to make it seem as though it was never there)

I'm certainly not about to stop reading over this, and wouldn't expect you to care if I did, but I would respect the authors and editors a great deal more if we got a more explicit explanation of what went wrong.

@Antinous:

Wow. I'm simultaneously chagrined by my own idiot moment (somehow didn't see the link, hence didn't read the article) and shocked that Mr. Gates has such amazingly poor communications skills.

Please consider me to have retracted my previous post, and have learned to double check for additional links from now on...

*slinks off to hide in the Shadows of Shame*

There is no way that Bill Gates actually wrote that. The actual author was clearly barely computer literate and in addition refers to Microsoft at least once as 'they'.

A little critical thinking goes a long way here guys. I'm shocked that it even made it up on BoingBoing in the first place, given how transparently false it is.

As the happy owner of one of these gizmos (I got it as a stocking stuffer last year), I'd have to say that they're cool, but not really an improvement on a quick hand with a blade.

They /are/ a boon to anyone who isn't as deft with a knife as I am, and the improvement over a garlic press cannot be properly expressed in words. Also, I've found that holding it in both hands and using one hand to roll it back and forth across works better than my counter does for traction.

Clean up, as someone else has noted, is essentially just a matter of rinsing the thing off.

*waking up from anesthesia* "Wait....why does my ass hurt?!?"

The only facial tattoo I've ever seen that didn't look retarded was my friend Mindy's; it's a tiny little blue star in the corner of her left eye. Kinda cute, easy to miss, and it fits her personality.

Generally though, permanent markings on one's face are a stupid idea.

Speaking as a former phone monkey for Infocus...

The lamps are considerably more complex to make than a nomal lightbulb (50 odd steps as opposed to 3 or so, if I remember right) and work by generating a mercury-plasma bead inside the lamp. If it's not put together exactly right the bead will drift into the wall of it's enclosure and "rupture". (three guesses what that's a euphemism for) Under normal circumstances, properly maintained, a lamp will last 2-3 years before it fails.

Combine that with the fact that almost all projector lamps (regardless of projector manufacturer) are made by the same two or three companies and you've got a very expensive, very locked down market, which drives prices up. The things genuinely cost an arm and a leg, even for the companies that sell them, although they do make a considerable profit obviously.

By comparison, a black inkjet cartridge costs 10 cents, including packaging and sells for $50.

Just wanted to put in my voice of support for Baen Book's method of e-publishing. Unencrypted standard HTML, available online or as a downloadable zip file. (and a few other formats)

I own about 15 of their ebooks now, and will cheerfully buy more in the future thanks to this approach. By contrast, my desire to read a PDF novel or to have to buy a separate device to read an ebook is imaginary indeed.

It's too bad about American Gods, I love that book and deeply respect Neil Gaiman's work in general (plus he seems like a nice guy).

I'm a fan of the EULA for Sins of a Solar Empire. It takes up a single page in normally sized print at the back of the game manual and is quite sensible. (it boils down to 'please don't steal and/or give away our software, but feel free to play it on your own computers all you like')

Not that it isn't cool, but that photovoltaic array is about as steampunk as the space shuttle.

@Mousewrites: hiya!

@Haldor: personally, I'd still buy the place if I'd been planning on it anyway. I'd wager a fairly massive number of people already live in houses someone has died in, they just don't know it.

Behold, an explanation of why this is all bullshit:

http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2008/02/08/more-perpetual-motion-with-video-this-time/

I would say, about this sort of thing in general, that skepticism is the best approach. I would love to see actual verifiable proof of something beyond our understanding, esp a miraculous energy source... but I'll expect that proof up front.

Export of files shorter than 10 minutes should work fine, as will an image sequence of any length, for those in need of a workaround.

"The full error is After Effects error opening movie - you do not have permission to open this file. (-54) (44::53)"

The official solution from After Effects support sounds like it is "revert to an earlier version, use the image sequence, or pray for a speedy quicktime update".

Frankly I'm a bit skeptical that this is actually happening. Do we have any external links or other proof?

Few things infuriate me more than my own systems telling me I'm not allowed to do something perfectly reasonable. (share my own video files with my local network for instance) The tech industry love-affair with DRM needs to stop, and unless WD changes this I'm not likely to ever purchase their products again.

That said, I think the limitation is a function of their bundled software, not the drive itself. (I've sent their customer service/tech support guys an email asking for clarification to be sure)

I generally point out, re: the Portland video that it rarely freezes here, and that the bloody city is made up of a large collection of hills. This combination results in well, that video, when the weather gets nasty because you have drivers who are unused to the conditions in extremely touchy terrain.

... and I'm pretty much in the same 'Bizarre sense of pride' camp as you Lonin.