Archived entries for Technology

Open letter to e-book publishers

Dear Macmillan and other arrogant publishing companies,

I have a Kindle, first edition. I am part of a target audience for the Kindle and similar devices: I travel a lot, I’m overeducated, and an early adopter of technology (for another example, I bought my first Tivo in 2000).

Recently, there has been a lot of coverage on how the iPad and Nook allow publishers to charge more than the $9.99 that Amazon wants to charge for e-books. Amazon believes that $9.99 is a fair price for an e-book, as the royalty and distribution model don’t require much capital. Macmillan and others believe that this price point is too low, and that books should be more like $12.99-$14.99. This is absurd.

Browsing at Amazon right now, I see that NY Times bestsellers are between….yup, $12.99 and $14.99. So Macmillan would have me buy an e-book for the same price (or even more in some cases) as a hardcover book? The utility of the e-book is less than the hardcover book. I can get money back out of a hardcover book by re-selling it, I can give it to a friend, I can light it on fire and warm my hands. Based on this diminished utility, unless I only read when I travel, why would I buy an e-book? People generally like hardcover books and they don’t require a $200+ reader in order to be able to read them.

I think twice about buying a book at $9.99 unless it’s something I really want to read; at $12.99 or $14.99, I will wait for it to be $7 in a few months. I can read one of  hundreds of thousands of other books in the meantime. Good luck with this totally asinine pricing.

Yours truly,

jdl

Keeping Track (of What’s Yours?) in Web 2.0: Twitter

Last week, there were some major revelations about who owns what in the 2.0 world.  We decided to summarize what we learned in order to help you keep track of your digital footprint.

Twitter

What they own:  All of your tweets – public or protected

What you own:  The ability to protect your tweets from everyone but Twitter (unless Twitter decides to give your updates away)

The good news?  1) Twitter limits access to Hosebird.  2) Whatever is in Twitter’s future, it includes a new Terms of Service and API license. Continue reading…

Prospective Taunts from Playground Bullies who will Grow Up to be Apple Employees

In the style of “first comes love, then comes marriage”
First name’s Palm, last name’s Pre, you don’t get to play with me.

In the style of…
Have fun listening to your Zunes.  Lots of luck without iTunes.

In the style of “Bubblegum, Bubblegum, in a dish”
Directions: Circle up in group. Each person cup their hands together & stretch forearm to center of group circle. Choose leader to boink each set of hands in the center.
Tweetie plus Facebook, I love my apps. What is on your piece of crap?

Fail safe: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but IE6 will never hurt me.

Is research too easy?

I am as big a fan of efficiency as anyone. Though I enjoy the smell of old books, I don’t miss looking through library stacks when deadlines approach. However, I do wonder what negatives will result from tools that provide instant access to heretofore unthinkably vast repositories of knowledge.

I was recently introduced to Zotero. Anything that simplifies the citation process can do no wrong. Better yet, its open source pedigree, price point of $0 and recent legal triumph over Thompson West only add to my admiration.

More spectacular, in the wake of the Google Books Search settlement (breakdown [pdf]), it appears a vast trove of humankind’s recorded history and learnings will be available imminently.

What’s not to like? Work smarter, not harder, right?

In a word: stovepiping. Stovepiping, or focusing on information in isolation, can lead to a certain lack of context. The ability to knock out work product chock full of snippets isn’t anything new. A book’s table of contents and index has always (to some degree) enabled the quick ascertainment of relevant information. Aren’t algorithms and focused queries just improvements upon what’s already out there?

Maybe not. This is a new beast and the Model-T wasn’t just a faster horse and buggy. Going directly to key words and search terms can speed a process, but I feel there is a risk that the onus on the reader to check the footnotes for contextual veracity will only increase. Good thing they’ll be easy to Google.

Knock-and-Announce Rule (Not) Applied to Bloggers

This is why the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments are important.

When the FCC Visits, It Doesn’t Bother to Knock

If you have a wireless router, a cellphone or a cordless phone in your office or home, the Federal Communications Commission says it has the right to walk right in without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.

The Internet: Democracy’s Defence?

“In an age where participatory democracy is seen to be in decline, the emergence of the internet as a tool for communication seems variously to be an agency for that breakdown of democracy, yet also a vehicle for mass communication and political participation on a scale exceeding anything our governments have yet been able to achieve. The internet is a medium which requires significant financial and intellectual investment, yet it is also without centralised control.”

The Internet and Democracy by Joanne Jacobs

The world is at a tipping point. Democracies are being challenged. Philosophies are being criticised. Politicians are becoming the scapegoats of societies. In a world that has become a mass of failure and controversy, what role does the Internet have to play in restoring faith in Democracy?

– read. like. support. –

– read. like. support. –

There is great interest in the potential for the Internet to invest its focus on democratic processes and the continued development of a ’self-regulating structure of information’ (Self-Regulation of the Internet).

Proponents of this view include Howard Rheingold who argues that “virtual communities could help citizens revitalise democracy, or they could be luring us into an attractively packaged substitute for democratic discourse.”

The argument has both positives and negatives. Rheingold suggests that those with access to hardware can, in essence, revitalise democracy. He also suggests that we, as a community, have the potential to create a version of democracy.

Which is better; the revitalisation of democracy or the development of a systematic government based on democratic governance?

Continue reading…

I Think My Mom’s Changing Too

Like RustedJesus’s mom, my mom may be changing too.  While she does not really “get” Web 2.0 (I mean, c’mon, she’s still using an AOL e-mail address), she did forward me this video:

Maybe she’s learning?  I mean, she is on Facebook.

I Think My Mom’s Changing Too

Like RustedJesus’s mom, my mom may be changing too.  While she does not really “get” Web 2.0 (I mean, c’mon, she’s still using an AOL e-mail address), she did forward me this video:

Maybe she’s learning?  I mean, she is on Facebook.

FTC & Drug SPAM

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Subject: hey there
To: recipients

Hello,
hey where have you been recently ? I did not get any mail from you for a long time. Anyway, I found a very quality online pharmacy. I ordered some meds and I got them in 3 days.

Their url : http://www.e-agoyear.com

—

The FTC addressed the problem on online Pharmacies back in 1999. Back in 2008 they shut down a major SPAM network. Simple proposal: the FTC should create an email address (say DrugSPAM@FTC.gov) to which denizens of the net can forward ads for the “quality online pharmacy” of the day. They can meet with ICANN, revoke some domain names, and add the same degree of hassle to operating a Drug SPAM firm that email users deal with on a daily basis. To add a touch of due process, send a notification requiring response to the proxy service the SPAMers list on the whois and mandate written response within 7 days or the domain is revoked and re-auctioned on GoDaddy with the proceeds going to Universal Health Care. Deal?

FTC & Drug SPAM

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Subject: hey there
To: recipients

Hello,
hey where have you been recently ? I did not get any mail from you for a long time. Anyway, I found a very quality online pharmacy. I ordered some meds and I got them in 3 days.

Their url : http://www.e-agoyear.com

—

The FTC addressed the problem on online Pharmacies back in 1999. Back in 2008 they shut down a major SPAM network. Simple proposal: the FTC should create an email address (say DrugSPAM@FTC.gov) to which denizens of the net can forward ads for the “quality online pharmacy” of the day. They can meet with ICANN, revoke some domain names, and add the same degree of hassle to operating a Drug SPAM firm that email users deal with on a daily basis. To add a touch of due process, send a notification requiring response to the proxy service the SPAMers list on the whois and mandate written response within 7 days or the domain is revoked and re-auctioned on GoDaddy with the proceeds going to Universal Health Care. Deal?