jhc's comments

Two random ideas:

- Is there any kind of alliance to be had with Albertine Press? ( http://albertinepress.com/about.html ) I'm not sure what the angle would be exactly, but they're just a few blocks away, and might have equipment and expertise that would allow for a more interesting kind of print-on-demand than the Espresso printer. And if bookstores are increasingly becoming fellow travelers with letterpress printers and vinyl shops and so on, maybe there are strategies in common.

- Others have mentioned affiliate fees. If book stores are no longer efficient ways to store and deliver books, but are still great ways to look at and play with and explore books, is it possible to fully transition to a book showroom instead of store? How would the business change if you were no longer thinking in terms of inventory, but only in terms of sample copies? You obtain exactly one copy of the very best books that fit comfortably in your space; the customer collects ones they like; and then they're scanned at the front desk, searched online, and the cheapest available copies of the quality they request are shipped to their address. So customers are getting Amazon prices (or better, because you might be better at running the search than they are), but the experience of discovering physical books. You could pay for it either with affiliate fees, if there's a program that works, or with a surcharge.

If you went down that path, your focus on the supply side would change from acquiring second-hand books, to finding really interesting ways to discover books. For example, shelves where you can flip through the top-ten favorite books of Bill Clinton, or Neil Gaiman, or Natalie Portman, or David Foster Wallace. Cyberpunk shelf curated by Neil Stephenson (with a blurb taped inside each cover if he'll write one!). Law & Tech shelf curated by Larry Lessig. Books by TED presenters. Make it so poking around the store is itself a learning experience.

Good luck -- I hope you manage to find someone, and their ideas are better than mine.

There's a huge difference between jailbreaking an iPhone, which the EFF established doesn't (necessarily) violate the DMCA, and breaking your contract by using services from AT&T that you're not paying for. The first means using something you bought and paid for in a way the manufacturer doesn't want you to. The second means using a service that the provider charges for, but you're not paying for. The law is never going to protect the second one.

To start with, tethering without paying for it is definitely a contract violation, and AT&T could cut off your service, retroactively charge you for it, or do whatever else (within reason) the contract provides for. There is little or no legal ambiguity about this. You are getting a service for free from AT&T that other people are charged for, so you're breaking your deal with them and owe them damages.

The (slightly) more interesting legal question might be whether AT&T could ask a prosecutor to bring criminal charges. My uninformed guess is they could, based on something like "theft of services." If I charged $20 a month for you to come fill up a one-gallon bucket any time you wanted from my well, and instead of a bucket you filled up a tanker truck, it would be theft plain and simple, because you'd knowingly be taking something from me without my permission.

(Actually I hate physical metaphors for computer stuff, because they usually distract more than help if you're talking with reasonably technical people. So let's not get sidetracked with questions like, "what if I filled up the tanker truck _with the bucket?_" [Unless you happen to enjoy pointless arguments as much as I do, in which case go for it.] The point is that the contract permits you to access AT&T's network in certain ways for a certain price, and you're accessing it in different ways without paying the different price, and the law's not too likely to be on your side for that one.)

This is all probably hypothetical, though. AT&T wouldn't bother to bring an expensive lawsuit or risk negative publicity from criminal charges, when they can (perfectly legitimately) charge you extra under the terms of your contract and dare you to fight it.

IAAL, in case that changes your assessment of a random person's opinions on the internet.

Yeah, I think at the very least this would be in addition to a "Forgot Password" link instead of replacing it. My favorite software seems to read my mind by supporting multiple ways of doing things, including whichever way I expect. But I like the idea of putting an extra link close to the field itself. Maybe "Password: (_Forgot?_)"

I've only been on the other side of this, but I feel like there are times I've hurt myself as a candidate with the work/life question. Some employers are looking for (and paying for) people who will put the job above everything else. With them, "work/life balance" might be a dirty word. In hindsight, I would phrase the question more like, "what kind of schedule would a successful [person in this job] at your company keep?"

On the other hand, unless you really don't care about having a life outside of work, it's probably better to get rejected by the kind of companies who will reject you for asking the question.

It seems more likely to make English less dominant by (for example) letting people read all of Wikipedia in their native language. Same goes for countless other resources that are currently published only in English.

Either way, if someone cares enough about learning English to put in the huge amount of time required to do it, I would bet they have a pretty good reason already. Giving them a free tool that helps is a clear win for everyone.

The benefit of the captcha method is that your account can't be DOSed -- the legitimate user can still get in by entering one captcha, which is much better than, say, having to wait for an hour.

I like the list of strategies, but I have to question calling any one of them "The Chinese Way." I mean, here in the US, companies leapfrog, piggyback, and copy all the time -- often within the same product. So you might as well call it all "The American Way." With the size and diversity of the tech industries in Japan, China, and India, we can probably assume they're using The American Way too. Which I think is great (the occasional bit of outright plagiarism aside).