johnwilker.com

How John Birmingham lost a reader

I stumbled across John Birmingham’s “Axis of Time series” because book 1 was free in the Kindle store (Great idea, Amazon or John or his publisher).

After thoroughly enjoying ‘Weapons of Choice’ at the gym and while folding clothes in the Kindle’s robot voice, at the car wash, etc. I bought book 2, and added 3 to my Universal Wishlist.

Sunday morning I was getting ready to fold some clothes, so I grabbed my Kindle, went into the menu for ‘Designated Targets’ and what do I see? Start Text to Speach, is grayed out.

WTF?

Sure enough, someone; John or his publisher has decided I’m not allowed to use the book I legitimately purchased in any way I please. The decision was made that I couldn’t listen to the book while I did something else.

I won’t be reading future books in the series, nor will I be finishing ‘Designated Targets’, and I hope no one else does. As a consumer and someone who believes that technology is not a tool for abusing consumers, I can’t support an author that thinks I’m not trustworthy, or thinks he can milk me for more money with an audible.com version of the book or whatever shitty logic is applied to the “Disable text to speach in my books mentallity”

I really hope that publishing wakes up sooner than (have they yet?) the RIAA/MPAA. I can’t stress this enough, this time in history for publishing is the same as the launch of iTunes, napster before it, etc for music and movies. So far publishing seems to be going down a similar path.

I also hope that Amazon makes it clear on product pages, which Kindle editions have been crippled, so that I can avoid those books. It’s a bummer for sure, but I won’t support such practices.

Tags: Business, Kindle, Writing

Why eContent should NEVER cost the same as printed

(I’ll preface this post with, A lot of publishers seem to get it, based on most prices found on Amazon’s Kindle store. This post is really derived from an interesting question i was asked over twitter.)

Beyond the ridiculously obvious “you get nothing physical” there’s a lot of reasons why an eBook shouldn’t cost as much as any printed version of the same book.

Let’s look at what goes into the price of a printed book vs. an eBook.

So given that several important factors in price (setting a price that when discounted due to depreciation is still profitable for example) don’t apply to eBooks, why should we as consumers be expected to pay a price similar to that of a hardback book, for an eBook?

While the cheap consumer part of me wants eBooks to be $.99 i acknowledge that it’s a bit unrealistic, since a great deal goes into writing a book, and while a single song is $.99 an entire book, shouldn’t be. Should a book be over $10 for the eBook version? No.

I feel a certain amount of pity for the publishing industry. While the music and movie industry got their heads kicked in, and alienated customers by the thousands, the book industry (rather than learn) watched from a far (i presume) assuming they were immune. Then Amazon came and fucked it all up for them.

Now they’re doing the same thing those other two industries did (killing speach to text on the Kindle, charging $15 for an eBook, etc), and not surprisingly the same type of backlash is being felt.

Publishing at least seems to have learned a little from their cousins in movies and music, but not enough I think.

Tags: Books, Business, eBooks, Kindle, Publishing, Technology, Writing

The Creator of the eBook is wrong

I’ll admit, I had no idea who Michael Hart is. But he’s wrong. Over on the Project Gutenberg blog he says the eBook reader will never take off, and lists some reasons why, in his mind he’s correct. (I’m sure there’s no bias as the founder of PG) I’m going to debunk them based on my own world view. (Be warned, his list is long and wordy, even before I add my two cents)

There are several reasons people will not buy a dedicated eBook reader, and some of them a very powerful reasons that cannot be argued with via any intelligent reasoning rationality.

First: the new generations are used to screens the size of Nintendo GameBoys, grew up on them.

Not sure what generation he’s talking about. Sure my neice and nephew are both Nintendo DS freaks, but they have a real computer at home. My mom asked me if she should get an iPhone and stop having a computer, my answer was no. There’s no way I would sit for hours playing aroudn on the internet on an iPhone, I know my mom couldn’t. She’d be blind before the next iPhone was released. I don’t own a netbook, and I sold my Nokia N800. my iPod Touch and iPhone are both great, and both run the Kindle app, and I use neither.

Second: the new generations also think screens on cell phones are just fine, and most of those are now even larger.

I’d argue that “just fine” is more along the lines of don’t know any better. I’d also argue that when a kids gets in front of a netbook or laptop with a more usable display, with WAY better resolution, they’d feel the same way I do. iPhones rock for quick look up, waiting room internet goofing around, etc. but I’m not going to sit o my couch, with my iPhone up to my face to work through emails or tweets even.

Third: the new generations have always got the paperback editions as much as the hardbacks, so they don’t have the same nostalgia for Look And Feel of those as do people who stared reading a while before paperbacks became very acceptable.

Fourth, Fifth, etc. the alternatives. . . .

This is completely bunk. I’m one of those paperback generation types. I don’tbuy hardcovers unless I either a. can’t wait for the paperback or b. want to show off a nice hardbound book on my bookshelve and get a few +1 book geek cred points.

I love the feel and smell of books, even paperbacks. I’m sure scribes loved the feel and smell of parchment, and olden day mathameticians loved the feedl of abacas beads, and slide rules. Times change. To bring a more relevant example up. CDs, and DVDs. Many folks love to have them lined up nicely in huge shelves, they like to read the jackets, look at the cover art, absorb every iota of director commentary. Yet iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, et al. are still doing pretty darn good. Times change, and whether we all want to or not, we change with them, it’s kinda silly to think in 20 years books will be common place. They’ll be antiques.

Fourth: most people don’t realize it, but many cell phones also come with WiFi built in so the unit is basically a small Kindle to start with! You don’t even have to have the phone activated to use the WiFi functions, which usually have a pretty normal browser, text reader, and such in them to start with, and also accept any numbers of third party programs most eBook readers have already heard of, no need for me to pitch them.

Clearly Mr. Hart has never tried to exist on WiFi alone. It’s far from ubiquitous. Heck broadband penetration in the US is near the lowest in the world if I recall, what makes anyone think Wifi will be different. Sure Indie coffee shops offer free wifi, sometimes it’s craptastic or doesn’t even work, but ya it’s free. Other times you can prey on people who don’t know any better than to lock their AP down.

I actually started out thinking the same thing Mr. Hart does. I bought an iPod Touch, had no music on it, and it was my ‘baby tablet’ or as I called it my iNewton. I carried it everywhere for about a month, then I gave up as most places I went had no wifi.

Fifth: many PDAs are also available that do an awful lot of the same things described above at a much lower cost than a Kindle, Sony, etc.

Sure, very true, and a lot of people will use those devices, prefering the jack of all trades master of none device. If you’re willing to make compromises, a PDA screen (usually no more than 3×2ish) will work, you can read a ‘page’ of text every 4-5 changes of the screen, with anywhere near useful fonts, and come talk to me after a marathon rainy saturday book reading exercise, or a long wait at a doctor’s office.

By that logic, we’d all own motorola razors, because they too have basic internet browsing, messaging, and actually have video and MMS messaging, unlike the iPhone, which contrary to that thought, is doing quite well in the market.

Sixth: if the largest cell phone screens would not do, even the iPhone, Curve, etc., there are all the new netbooks coming out that should get the job done in any number of ways as far as an eBook presentation goes, from reading out loud, dozens of programs to choose from to read or to listen via text to speech, etc.

See above. Sure you can squeeze all kinds of other uses into devices. A netbook also makes an excellent door stop when opened halfway, but why not use a door stop? A newton 2100 can run a basic webserver, costs way less than a rack mount Dell, why not use those to serve websites all over the world? Sure those are extreme examples intended to be silly, but they’re not far off you have to admit.

Seventh: in all the history of electronics the dedicated products, those that do only one good thing, rather than the integrated products, are never known to sell very well.

To quote fake Steve Jobs, “Dude, I invented the friggin iPhone. Have you heard of it?” But way before the iPhone was the iPod, it played music. It didn’t have an FM radio built in, it didn’t record audio notes, it was a music player, and mostly still in, unless you’re one of ‘those’ people who watch movies and TV on a tiny mostly square screen. Sure the multi taskerdevices are nice and 90% of our world is made up of those devices, but the other 10% are uni taskers, that do their single task REALLY well. Oh yeah there’s Zunes, and Rios and whatever else, that have tried the multi tasker route, how’s that worked out for them?

It’s like buying a HiFi that has one box for FM and one for AM, another as a pre-amplifier, and another as an amplifier, another bass or treble controls box, etc., versus one box for all.

Not to be mean, but the examples alone point out to me, that Mr. Hart is simply dated. Funny that some one so attached to ‘old ways of live’ would have invented something so game changing as eBooks, but hey, we all have our moments. I mean really? A HiFi?

Why would someone spend the same amount of cash on a Kindle/Sony as on a netbook or a laptop?

Speaking strictly for myself, here’s why

• I wouldn’t take a netbook/laptop to the gym, my Kindle is on the eliptical with me each day.
• I can’t read my laptop/netbook while taking off and landing. Some say I’m probably not supposed to with a Kindle, but no one has said anything, and since the power output is only in changing the page, and tiny to boot, I’d argue airlines rules have to change (separate post).
• I never carried a book in my laptop bag, except when traveling. Now I cary a few dozen or less all the time.
• I can’t compute on myMacbook in direct sunlight, reading would be out, but I’ve enjoyed my Kindle on my deck more than once.
• I can toss my Kindle around, drop it (just did this morning) and pick it up and never worry it’s harmed, I can’t say the same for my laptop/netbook
• I can read (and have) for hours on my Kindle. My eyes get sore/tired when I read long blog posts on my disply. And it’s a nice display.
  

The Kindle isn’t portable enough to be the more take along kind of item than a netbook/laptop.

I can’t imagine anything more portable. It weighs almost nothing, is the size of a Moleskine.

It would appear that ONLY the person who has an awful time reading would want a Kindle, simply, and truly, just because of the variable fonts & and the new X2 being about to read out loud, or the kind of person who just wants to have a lot of the latest toys and doesn’t care about price to benefits ratios and the like.

I’d say the converse is true, the only person who doesn’t want a Kindle/Sony is the person who doesn’t read much now, so the cost makes no sense, or the person who wants to crack open a hardback, recline in their lay-z boy and put a 45 on the turn table and enjoy ‘their’ reading experience, enjoying their anacronistic lifestyle.

Eighth: there are simply not enough Kindles to really change the eBook environment.

There weren’t enough iPods for the recording industry to care about when they launched either.

Just think about how many eBooks there are now, millions of eBooks given away in average months just from gutenberg.org.

Nothing against PG, but really? some of us like more modern reads.I mean PG is great, and I’ve got some classics on my Kindle just so I can have them when I want, but really,some of us are reading books published this milennia.

iTunes had its first million selling tune about a year ago, really only ~1 year after getting a shakedown cruise over with.

If every person who has a Kindle or a Sony buys the same book, only by adding their combination of sales will they manage a million seller, and that is not likely to happen anytime soon.

This I can’t argue with, but I think Mr. hart overlooks the underlying truth. Reading isn’t a big deal any more. Literacy is frighteningly low. People are “too busy” to read I’ve had people tell me to my face they wish they had the time to read. To which I typically say if it’s important you make time, same as anything else. Is surfing Digg, more important? It’s not a reflection on the Kindle that there isn’t yet a 1 millionth book sold, it’s a reflection on American literacy.

How long before Amazon or Sony comes out with a new model that won’t read all the previous book entries on the old models?

You mean like when VHS replaced BetaMAX? Sure Amazon/Sony could release a new device that can’t read their old formats, but that’d be kinda retarded. Anything is possible, but I hope they’ve been watching Apple. My Kindle 2 in 5 years may not get any firmware update love, but neither does my 1st Gen iPod color. But it still plays music like a champ.

How long before the first Kindle and first Sony are antique collector items rather than a real, live and well-used eBook reader?

Time will tell, but they’re electronics, so it won’t be long. Same as netbooks of today, will be cute children’s toys in the not too far future. I mean really, does Mr. Hart think that the netbooks and mobile phones he thinks we’ll be using will be around forever, not to be relegated to the antique pile? Where’d I put my Handspring Visor anyway?

This is NOT going to happen with eBooks from an assortment of other sources that have been here for much longer than Kindles or Sonys; the very first Project Gutenberg entry is still readable on any modern machine, the only thing is that a file from that era had only capitals if made on the normally available equipment of 1971 but it still works, and looks just the same now as the files downloaded on the first full day of eBook pioneering, July 5, 1971.

Is anyone even going to pretend that Kindle and Sony will even read their own proprietary files 38 years from 2009?

This is the crux of the issue. To Mr. Hart it’s clear eBook is text file. Sure 100 years from now .txt will likely still be a valid format, much like sheet music is. But who can play an 8 track? Mr. Hart is comparing the eBook as a ‘thing’ to ebook readers. Which is like comparing music to iPods. Sure the Kindle may be gone in a few decades, so will the iPod, but the medium won’t. Books and music will still be here.

And just the same as we can still play wavs, mp3, etc, we’ll be able to read eBooks, because the creative/intelligent companies will offer backwards compatibility or like iTunes, “convert your x format to the new Y format” Sure formats die, happens all the time, and I frankly hope Amazons DRM dies like the iPod’s. But it took time, I’m patient (not really, but can be when I have to be)

Sorry this was so long, but it really irks me when people get traction for their thoughts, by writing such meaningless biased crap. It’s as if chicken little had a blog.

There’s more to Mr.Hart’s ramblings if you’re so inclined, I literally could have put his whole post into mine, and picked each thing apart, but frankly ithink it would have been moot, after debunking his list.

Tags: eBooks, iPhone, iTunes, Kindle, Steve Jobs, Technology, Writing

The Kindle needs an iTunes app

Amazon quietly roled out kindle.amazon.com the other day. It’s a pretty cool but only slightly useful idea.

It’s a cool idea, you login with your amazon account and can see your Kindle content, mostly.

I’ve been thinking on this for a while and I think (I hope) that kindle.amazon.com is Amazon’s first step in ‘killing it’ as the kids say.

A lot of people have said, myself included, that the iPod alone wasn’t the winning solution, iTunes was a huge part the success. library management that works flawlessly with the device. The Kindle needs this, like yesterday.

The Kindle UI is craptastic, and there’s no way to manage content. iTunes is the secret sauce for the iPod/iPhone. you don’t need to keep all your stuff on the device, or manage it from the device. There’s an easy to use, clean interface on the desktop to manage all your media, then you sync what you want. It’s all contained and orderly and easy to manage.

The Kindle has nothing like that. You manage your media on the Kindle itself with basic “Remove from device” functionality, which puts (purchased) content into the archive, which Amazon stores in the cloud. You can pull archived content back into the Kindle, but that’s it. It’s on or off the device.

What about stuff you put on the Kindle yourself? You’re SOL. User created content can’t be archived, it can only be deleted. Sure you can keep it on the computer in a folder somewhere and when you plug the Kindle in you can copy it over again, but that’s janky to say the least.

kindle.amazon.com comes close, allowing you to manage your Kindle library (except you can only see it, not control/change anything) and see your annotations… on purchased content only. Content you’ve put on the device is notably missing. Meaning annotations you’ve placed on ebooks you loaded yourself are still tricky to retrieve/make use of and only available on the Kindle itself.

If Amazon really wants to nail the eBook reader market, they need to realize what Apple did, a device alone, while awesome, isn’t the solution. The desktop client that makes it easy to manage your library is a must. It might be too much to ask, but it’d be nice if the me@free.kindle.com functionality was built into the desktop app so I could convert my PDFs etc on my own and sync over USB.

I think the first company to launch a nice and easy to use eBook reader (the Kindle MOSTLY fits the bill) AND desktop library management application will be the winner. Until then, the race isn’t won and I hope Amazon doesn’t drop the ball at this important point in the eBook race.

Tags: Books, Business, iPhone, iTunes, Kindle, Technology

1 failed model leads to another, can we learn?

So apparently the failed Rocky Mtn News, folks decided to try their hand at a purely web play. First things first, I hadn’t even heard about the INDenverTimes until Amy started talking about their fail. So yeah strike one there, it’s called getting the word out, and clearly that flopped.

So from what I’ve gleened, 3 investors got some 30 odd people from the Rocky, and started this onine paper, hoping to get 50,000 subscribers at $5 a piece.

First they started with a press conference, no idea why it warranted that, but you know, whatever.

So basically learningnothing from the old and flawed model of a print newspaper (hordes of reporters and editors), the INDT team chose to try and force that same model into a web site. MMM Uh guys, it’s 2009, no matter how to try to fight the future. Print news is dying because it’s not adapting and learning. You clearly haven’t adapted or learned.

30 people? 30?  I know several web startups that operate with 2 people, and do more. 30 people? Look, I’m as sad as the next guy that the Rocky folks are collecting unemployment, but that’s no reason to prop them up with false hopes. Go find new jobs elsewhere guys! Probably in other industries! Reporting isn’t dead. Print papers are. GO report somewhere online, start a blog on your own, you’d probly get more than 3000 readers.

I’m a big fan of relying on your community to help you, because I believe that if you’re worth helping, people will help you.

“I’m not disappointed,” Preblud insists. “It’s been an amazing ride for the last five weeks, and I think we’ve learned a great deal. Although we didn’t meet our subscription goal, our other online metrics are phenomenal.” He adds that “the heroes in all this are the journalists, and I still have a commitment to journalism. We all do — and this is like any business model. There’s always challenges, and you don’t always know all the answers up front. But we believe professional journalism is a crucial component of not only a community but a democracy, and we’re going to continue to move forward in support of that” — as long as the “business model works. And it works in the immediate term.”

I can only assume the investors and 30 plus “professional journalists” (read out of touch with modern trends, human beings) thought that people would flood the site with subscriptions simply because. Sure Iwantmyrocky was created, why not. Sentiment is cheap, and easy to express. But seeing as how The Rocky closed because no one subscribed, it seems a bit retarded to think sentiment for the old Rocky would make people subscribe to the INDT.

All I can say, is that the INDT failure isn’t even remotely surprising. A complete lack of social media effort, or even reaching out to the community, fail and fail. Sorry Rocky folks, you’re ivory tower of “Professional Journalism” is crumbling around you, and paper mache ain’t gonna patch it.

Tags: Business

Ford is down with social media sorta

I had heard of the Fiesta movement (which to me sounds like a bowel movement after Mexican food, but whatever) from Jeremy. While I’m not a fan of Ford vehicles in the slightest I applauded their efforts to do more than just throw TV commercials at us. I think a ‘Mustang Movement’ woulda been cooler. I mean a free Fiesta? Really? I guss if you had no car, that’s a step up, but otherwise….

Then RJ twittered this article

The one piece that really hit home and kinda (in my head) screamed disingenuous, was Scott Monty saying

“As far as mechanical difficulties, let’s let common sense prevail,” he said. “If you were driving one of our cars as part of this program, wouldn’t you call for assistance first, rather than writing a blog post?”

Uh so you hope social media will move Fiestas but hope that people won’t use it when their Fiesta breaks down? It’s 2009 Scott, you as well as anyone should realize that 1. many people will twitter before calling for assistance, and 2. As soon as they’re done with the call for assistance, and waiting for a tow, they’ll use their iPhone to blog from the drivers seat, about their broke down Fiesta.

It just kinda hit me that, as progressive as Ford seems to be, they’re still a big company hoping that “common sense” prevails when it’s time to say something bad about their product. Hoping that the “agents” (People who’ve been given free Fiesta’s (a 47.99 value)) will not bite the hand that feeds them, so to speak.

“We’ve done a lot of war gaming and we’re prepared for a number of scenarios,” Monty told Wired.com. “Again, we’re looking for their feedback and input on the vehicle — they’re testing the vehicle as much as they’re building buzz about it, and we want to know how to make it the best possible car.”

To paraphrase, “We want their feedback publicly via youTube, Facebook and Twitter about how much they love their cars, but if they have problems, we hope they’ll call us for assistance rather than blog about it.”

Mad props to Scott and Ford for the effort, but in my mind still a ways off of being a really truly, first class citizen in social media. But hey, they’re doing it so they’ll get there before Chrysler, and that is worth something. What exactly, I’m not sure.

Tags: Social Media

Telemarketing is NOT something you have to do!

I’ve been stewing on this for a while now, and I can’t hold it in any more. Cold Calling, and in general telemarketing, SUCK!

I’m going to pick on conferences for two reasons. 1. it’s my business, and 2. Conferences most definitely should be be telemarketing, other businesses shouldn’t either, but conferences?!

My irritation started with Robo Ted calling about MAX. LAME! Not only was it not really Ted, it wasn’t a real person, it was a recorded message. Whatever that cost, should have been taken off of the price of registration, I’m sure it woulda had a better result on registrations.

Then there was CFUnited just the other day. The worst part (Actually there’s two) was that it was an Indian guy with such a thick accent I barely understood why he was calling and asking me to register. The other worst part, I was already registered! According to Liz

lizign @jwilker telemarketing is just something we gotta do. sucks i know.  don’t know what else to do except make the calls myself?

I call Bull Shit. Not only is it not something you gotta do, but if you took whatever you paid thick accent Indian guy, off the rpice of admission, you wouldn’t need to call and bug people to register.

And that’s the problem with this kind of crap marketing. I went to CFUnited a few years ago. I’m going this year on behalf of the Flex Show, different email address. I can only assume that’s why I got a “Please come to CFUnited” call, when I already was.

Weak Sauce. Tom and I would never in a million years call our attendees. We don’t even like having to send emails, since we feel spammy. Calling, hellz no!

Tags: marketing, sleeze

Is the printed book dead?

So I got a Kindle for work, we’ve launched an effort to help developers get their articles and content up on the Kindle (to start) and make a little money. The idea being we make some money too, and help us pay ourselves salary. Wanna write for us?

OK Pitch over. So I’ve bought two books for my Kindle and even experimented with Calibre a little. The experience so far, awesome.

I was a skeptic, I love books. I love the feel of paper, the weight, the act of holding it in your hands, all of it. I love traveling with books and putting ticket stubs in the book. My books are like time capsules.

The Kindle changes most or all of that.

The device itself (I have the Kindle2 obviously) is lightweight, and inside it’s little leather sleeve (separate price of course) is about the size of a Moleskine, and a bit lighter. So as far a footprint, if you carry a moleskine, you’re not gonna gripe about carrying a Kindle

The screen is very readable. When we got them Toms complaint was “There’s no backlight.” I laughed and pointed out that, that was the point, books don’t have back lights either. Sure it’d be nice if it was backlit, but my books aren’t so it’s not like I’m losing some sort of functionality.

I never tried a Kindle 1 but I heard that the screen refresh was terribly slow, the Kindle 2 is fast. Probably close to about the speed that I take to reach for a page, flip and start reading. I’m very surprised by how nice the E-ink screen is. it’s very crisp and easy to read.

I remember reading that one of the biggest complaints of the Kindle 1 were the buttons. Taking up most of the right side of the device, making it hard to hold and not flip the page. The Kindle 2 solves that nicely. The buttons aren’t very large, but just in the right place.

I’m finding that the Kindle is much more a game changer than I gave it credit for when it was released. It’s truly the iPod of books. Screw Audible and the whole audio book thing. Sorry ya’ll, listen to music in the car or whatever, reading is for the eyes, not the ears.

It’s amazing when a company creates a product that is by no means the first of it’s kind, and even by no means the best as far as features, yet still that company and their product completely kill the competition. Apple did it with the iPod, and I’m comfortable calling the eReader space for Amazon. I know there’s a lot of complaint about the Kindle not being outside the US, etc, etc. but the same was the case for the iPod, and still is. Each iTunes store is different, but I think it’s fair to assume, where ever there’s an amazon.* domain, there’ll be a Kindle store so long as the publishing industry doesn’t act like dill holes.

I think in the very near future we’ll see Kindles as frequently as we see iPods.

That said, it’s truly incredible that this device exists. Part of me is sad, that it spells the end (by and large) for printed books. The idea of a wall of books, ones I’ve read and need to read, lining my house just resonates with me. I’d have a real and true library in my house if there was room and money for it. It’s not. Like I said above, the printed book just feels special, and while the Kindle is awesome, it’s not a book, it’s a device and it feels like a device.

The fact that I can carry on a single device more books than I currently own (Ring any bells folks? the iPod allows the same thing with music) is a hugely mind wobbling thing. Though I wouldn’t complain if I could put content into folders, or sort by meta data or something. scrolling through thousands of titles…. no thank you.

One nice feature that makes the $300+ price tag more tolerable, is that for the most part, Kindle books are cheaper than their dead tree editions, so long run, you’re saving some money (and of course space in the house!). I do wish (AMAZON READ THIS) that there was some path where I could ‘upgrade’ books that I have purchased on Amazon as dead tree editons to Kindle editions. iTunes Plus style, there has to be a way to make that work. I’m sure part of the problem is the publishing industry, but come on!!!

My biggest complaint is the DRM. DRM sucks. It’s a terrible idea, that benefits no one, and punishes legitimate content owners. My hope both as a consumer, and now a publisher on the platform is that as more users get on board with the Kindle, Amazon follows Apple’s lead, and pushes the publishing industry (RIAA’s lost second cousin as far as fucking consumers and treating us like crap?) to wake up and drop DRM. I suspect it’s clearly working for apple, Amazon, don’t drop the ball. You’ve picked up the banner, it’s up to you now.

Join the revolution! If you’re feeling nice, click this link to buy it, kick back some coin my way to buy books :)

Tags: Books, Kindle, Publishing

Close the patent office right now!

This AppleInsider post is further proof, that the patent system is 100% flawed.

MONEC Holding Ltd, can rot in hell. I’ve never heard of them, and based on their website I’m guessing they’re nothing more than a patent troll.

Basically, they’re suing Apple (Not Amazon) for hyping the iPod/iPhone as a touch screen eBook reader. Something they patented in 2002. What’s wrong with that? Well in 7 years they’ve got nothing to show, clearly and their patent is clearly as vague as possible.

“dimensions such that [...] approximately one page of a book can be illustrated at normal size, this display being integrated in a flat, frame-like housing.”

“Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.”

Emphasis mine, but really? That’s a patent? “I’ll build something that’s sorta like a book, but maybe a touch screen in some kind of frame, and it’ll display ebooks probably.”

WTF?!

Not only should they not have been awarded a patent in the first place, but I strongly maintain that any patent awarded on vaporware should have a life of no more than 5 years. If you can’t execute your idea in 5 years (Less actually, but 5 is easy to use) move aside and let someone else with the means to innovate take a stab at it.

Our patent process is such an innovation killer! Apple certainly does their fair share of patent craziness, but they actualy, eventually execute on a lot of them. Some they don’t and those should also go back into the pool in 5 years.

Patents are rediculous, I challange anyone to show me a patent that’s done good. That hasn’t stifled innovation, that hasn’t locked out competition, for completely stupid reasons, or isn’t just plain stupid (patenting a click, or a molecule, color, shape, etc)

Tags: Apple, patents suck, Technology

This is sobering

Dave twittered this, and all I can say is wow. Some of the stats I had heard/seen at defrag last year, but the rest, were, well, wow.

It’s incredible that we’re producing so much data now, that we can’t even consume it all. What’s really sad, clearly america is losing.

I’m anti breeding like bunnies, but sadly most other countries aren’t. On top of that, they’re making smarter babies than we are. I mean, what’s the value proposition of a 4 year college, when what you start learning is worthless when you graduate? Other than being $100k in debt of course. We either need to make college relevant, or stop pushing it on kids. Sure you learn how to learn, but WTF, any moron can figure that out, ask an entrepreneur. Everyone I meet that’s pro college education, uses “learn to learn” as a main reason, for $100k, I really hope there’s more to it.

I freely admit, i’m a college drop out, I was a CS Major for 2 years

Hopefully the president get’s a link to this video on his super secure, NSA crackberry and watches it.

Tags: video, youtube