I’m a huge comic fan, spending usually $100 each month on buying them. So when I found the Marvel app for Chrome, I gave it a whirl.
Unfortunately, the experience could be better. The comic reader is implemented in Adobe flash. That’s not a problem as such, only the implementation sucks.
The reader has three modes: Single page, double page and “smart”. There is a reason for the quotes …
In single and double page mode, the print is too small to read on my screen when I can see the whole page (it’s only 1920×1080; portrait mode would work better I guess). So I have to zoom in. But when I zoom in, navigation becomes a chore. The cursor keys don’t repeat. They scroll the page by about 10 pixels. At a readable zoom, I have to press the keys about 100 times to scroll to the bottom.
For every page of the comic. That’s 3,737 keys pressed to read a 37 page comic. Useless.
“Smart mode” to the rescue. In smart mode scrolls cursor left moves to the next unread part of the page. There are only two zoom levels which I call “too small to read” and “cut off balloons mode”. If you’re lucky, you get three panels on a row, and you have to remember the text of all of them so you can finish understanding what everyone says when you can see the bottom half.
So when reading the demo comics, I find myself often grabbing the scroll bars and adjust the screen position just a little. A nag but it works, I guess.
Recommendation: I can live with it.
Posted by digulla 
Dark Views 
Sony cracks down on Geohot
7. February, 2011In an insane attempt to stop the world, Sony has sued George “Geohot” Hotz. Some comments on this:
The court has granted Sony’s request for TRO. In the document, the court rules: “… Hotz shall … preserve, and not destroy, erase, delete, dispose of, or alter any documents or records, … that relate to … the Circumvention Devices, or any communications with any party concerning the manufacture, …” (page 3, 12-22).
Hm … since Geohot distributed that information via his website and the “any party” is the world, doesn’t that mean he must not take the information down? Since taking down the information would mean to alter his homepage which the court ruling strictly forbids …
Or as Dan Gillmor found in his blog post: “Given that the research results Sony presumably cares about are available online, granting the order would mean that everyone except the researchers themselves would have access to their work.”
It’s interesting to see that the people, who turned the justice system into what it is today, starting to strangle themselves into it.
“Beware not to lose the war by winning it”
— Haul monk to Forne Rako
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