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Pretty much done me in as well, not just Wikipedia of course but the whole interactivity of the internet in itis; entirety. Have no read a book in years, only in Doctors office waiting for the appointment I turned up on time for but somehow still end up waiting a very long time. Books were a great escape but I found I no longer need that escape, unless I am trapped bored somewhere and I know I will be trapped bored somewhere. I filled my phone with books from http://www.gutenberg.org/ specifically enjoyed http://www.gutenberg.org/ebook... the writing style takes a little adapting to but once you do it is quite entertaining.

So everyone show http://gutenberg.net.au/ or http://gutenberg.ca/index.html some love or http://www.gutenberg.org/, some love ;). Fill your phone and wish them a merry Christmas (for those who do not do Christmas and want to complain, what can I say but FOff don't be a misery guts, not that I am big on Christmas I certainly ain't but I recognise that others are and am content for them to have their fun).

And for those of you who haven't read it yet, it's definitely worth several hours of your time.

Gutenberg Australia has it here:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks...

I see your suggestions and raise you these books by Frederick Lewis Allen; Only Yesterday, Since Yesterday, and The Big Change. All free on Gutenburg (Australia).

I also enjoyed "The Rise of the One Percent", although it's still under copyright.

I see your suggestions and raise you these books by Frederick Lewis Allen; Only Yesterday, Since Yesterday, and The Big Change. All free on Gutenburg (Australia).

I also enjoyed "The Rise of the One Percent", although it's still under copyright.

I see your suggestions and raise you these books by Frederick Lewis Allen; Only Yesterday, Since Yesterday, and The Big Change. All free on Gutenburg (Australia).

I also enjoyed "The Rise of the One Percent", although it's still under copyright.

Your wrong, none of this is new. Check out, The Big Change, pop down to chapter 16.
If you read this whole book, you will really be surprised at how similar things are to the things happening in our lifetime. I was.

Okay, how about Everlasting Man?

There's been a long term conspiracy to degrade labor unions since the 1950s.

This has been happening since at least the very early 1900's. reference Fredrick Lewis Allen's excellent book, The Lords of Creation. The capitalist have succeeded in making every generation think this is a new struggle and their ways are "conservative" not cutting edge exploitation.
Further reference for free courtesy of what appears to be Australia's slightly more sane copyright laws.
Only Yesterday, by Frederick Lews Allen

If only stockholders could really effect any change.

"we would almost find it appropriate to call our present economic system "managementism" rather than "capitalism."
-Fredrerick Lewis Allen, The Big Change

Please read this book to help you understand how wrong you are. It's astounding how closely things mirror the late 90's and early 00's.
Only Yesterday, By Frederick Lewis Allen

Try the .au Project Gutenberg site instead. Not under copyright here.

HTH

http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#orwell

It's in there.

This has been an ongoing issue since America transitioned from a capitalist society to a manamentist society sometime in the 40's. This book outlines some of this and laments the way the management class has seized power, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500881h.html

And if you have any doubt that non-open influence of leaders is bad, please read Animal farm by George Orwell to see an example of how bad things can get.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200041h.html

No - just worried about too much control by big corporations. Be it Apple, Facebook, Google ... you name it.

You should read 1984.

Reminds me of this: if you don't like or use "Apple|Facebook|Google", you're suspicious and probably a terrorist.

And while you're at it, read this too.

"The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. [...] The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.[...] It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing. "

Via http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

I cannot for the life of me think how this might be useful in cooking

It's increasingly common for recipes to specify mass for a variety of reasons related to accuracy. Measuring mass also means you don't make a whole bunch of measuring cups dirty because you just put one pot on the weighing scales and zero it after each addition.

In the real world you get both volumes and masses, often in the one recipe. When it's easy to convert you don't have to rewrite every recipe that uses volume. I frequently compare recipes from three or more books with their inevitable varied units. Easy conversion means not busting out a spreadsheet to understand the differences.

This is very interesting, so interesting that I might try it. I have heard that kitchen scales are common in some European countries and I have heard of European cook books which give quantities of dry and liquid ingredients by weight, though I don't think I have ever seen such a book, at least not one that was written in English. I believe kitchen scales are available in the US, though they can be hard to find. They are mainly used by diabetics to measure portions.

I believe my contribution to this discussion has been generally misunderstood. I am not against either measurement system. I switch systems depending on what I am doing and what those who are doing it with me understand.

I got involved in this discussion because I saw that the advocates of the Metric (deliberately capitalized) system were repeatedly advancing arguments which I know Americans do not find convincing. The advocates kept emphasizing the technical superiority of the Metric system and expressing the belief that those who have not yet adopted it must have failed to appreciate its technical superiority. (Many expressed this belief far less kindly than I have here.)

I believe that many if not most Americans are already convinced of the technical superiority of the Metric system, at least in theory. The problem is that for them technical superiority is not the deciding factor. For them the Metric system is a new and superior technology which they are not comfortable using and which they know is very expensive. (Metricication has many of the same costs as computerization.)

Even dramatically superior technologies consistently face huge cultural and organizational hurdles before they are adopted. The telephone, the personal computer, and the Internet all did. (See "Father Lets in the Telephone" from "Life With Father" http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608341h.html#c20) During the period between when the public knows about the technology and accepts it into their lives the advocates have a frustrating time of it. In the 1980's I participated in conversations which went something like this:

Son: Dad, we should get a home computer.

Father: Why? Do you want to be a mathemetician?

Son: Computers aren't just for mathemeticians. You could use it instead of a typewriter. A word processor is much better.

Father: But if I understood you correctly last time we discussed this the required equipment would cost $7000 and take up all of the room on my desk. A typewriter costs only $100 and I can pick it up and put it in the closet when I am not using it.

Son: But it is easier to correct mistakes on a word processor

Father: Perhaps in theory, but in order to gain that small convenience I would have to accept multiple huge inconveniences and pay enough money to buy a car.
Son: Yes, dad, but a computer is a multi-purpose machine. You could use it for lots of other things. You could balance your checkbook too.

Father: All I need to balance my checkbook is a $50 calculator.

Here my father was not denying the technical superiority of the personal computer. He simple did not yet want to do any of the things which it made possible.

I see the Metric system advocates making the same mistakes I made in conve

It already is! Once again the Net sneaks up on our old school habits! "(Blah blah blah copyright runs out in 2015 blah blah blah)". Remember that thing called countries, and how they have different laws? (Up until the US "fixes" that anyway!) Well, for now Australia's copyright laws are a lot shorter than the US, so Gutenberg Australia has some editions of texts that are still locked in copyright elsewhere. Here is Gutenberg Australia's copy of Mein Kampf, so have at it!

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt
Oh wait, there is this eerie clause:
http://gutenberg.net.au/submissions.html

"Of course, works may remain copyrighted in other countries. One cannot legally download or read books posted at Project Gutenbrg of Australia if one is in a country where copyright protections extend more than 50 years past an author's death. The author's estate and publishers still retain their legal and moral rights to oversee the work in those countries."

So, I guess you'd better not follow that link. Isn't copyright wonderful.

It already is! Once again the Net sneaks up on our old school habits! "(Blah blah blah copyright runs out in 2015 blah blah blah)". Remember that thing called countries, and how they have different laws? (Up until the US "fixes" that anyway!) Well, for now Australia's copyright laws are a lot shorter than the US, so Gutenberg Australia has some editions of texts that are still locked in copyright elsewhere. Here is Gutenberg Australia's copy of Mein Kampf, so have at it!

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt
Oh wait, there is this eerie clause:
http://gutenberg.net.au/submissions.html

"Of course, works may remain copyrighted in other countries. One cannot legally download or read books posted at Project Gutenbrg of Australia if one is in a country where copyright protections extend more than 50 years past an author's death. The author's estate and publishers still retain their legal and moral rights to oversee the work in those countries."

So, I guess you'd better not follow that link. Isn't copyright wonderful.

I'm just going to leave this here...
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500881h.html

"Looking at this segment of American business, we would almost find it appropriate to call our present economic system "managementism" rather than "capitalism."

Another author you might check out is Charles Williams, whose novels straddle science fiction & Fantasy (though heavily slanted towards the latter). These can be found on Project Gutenberg Australia.

For free literature, most classics are already in the public domain. You can get many of the greatest works of literature in English free (and without violating even today's ridiculous copyright laws) at places like Project Gutenberg. Some things, like the later Barsoom novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, are in the public domain in Australia, but not in the USA. In any case, there are a few Project Gutenberg sites. I got the first few Barsoom novels from the Project Gutenberg site for the USA (linked above), and the rest of them from the one for Australia.

Use Gutenberg from a different country, such as Australia.

I THINK that U.S. copyright can be renewed after it has expired, but I'm not sure.

I thought that was the reason you can get "Animal Farm" and "1984" at Australia's http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#orwell
but not at http://www.gutenberg.org/

Thank you. Just downloaded the book from Project Gutenberg: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601841.txt

We all know Apple is a fascist company (down to selling Mussolini speeches in app store)

Well who da thunk it? This means Amazon, my local civic library, and even Project Gutenberg are all Nazis.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mein+kampf&x=0&y=0&ih=6_2_0_1_0_0_0_0_1_1.144_129&fsc=2
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt

Thanks for the ever so "insightful" heads up.

Wow, you did so well he even made it into reprints of the book!

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt

I can't find it. Even presuming a different translation, I'm not seeing anything close to GP's quote.

Very well put. It reminded me of one of my favourite short stories.

I'm not sure the same is true if you purchase goods which infringe copyright.

In this case, I'm not sure how copyright comes into it, since the books concerned are clearly derivative works. The original text of both books is now well and truly available in the public domain, and in fact are available in clear text at Project Gutenberg here and here.

All you would be paying for is someone else's annotations.

I'm not sure the same is true if you purchase goods which infringe copyright.

In this case, I'm not sure how copyright comes into it, since the books concerned are clearly derivative works. The original text of both books is now well and truly available in the public domain, and in fact are available in clear text at Project Gutenberg here and here.

All you would be paying for is someone else's annotations.

Please tell me how the hell does a lawsuit in USA prevent Project Gutenberg Australia from digitizing works in the public domain?

While we like to think we're the center of the universe, we aren't. As for orphaned works I don't think Project Gutenberg USA has any official stance on them, at least when I search them the only orphaned works item that comes up is an ebook published in 2008.

You can read it here. But if you don't live in Australia then please ignore that link...

However I never liked that book--its was boring and the main character is a total sap.

The telescreen was giving forth an ear-splitting whistle which continued on the same note for thirty seconds. It was nought seven fifteen, getting-up time for office workers. Winston wrenched his body out of bed--naked, for a member of the Outer Party received only 3,000 clothing coupons annually, and a suit of pyjamas was 600--and seized a dingy singlet and a pair of shorts that were lying across a chair. The Physical Jerks would begin in three minutes. The next moment he was doubled up by a violent coughing fit which nearly always attacked him soon after waking up. It emptied his lungs so completely that he could only begin breathing again by lying on his back and taking a series of deep gasps. His veins had swelled with the effort of the cough, and the varicose ulcer had started itching.

'Thirty to forty group!' yapped a piercing female voice. 'Thirty to forty group! Take your places, please. Thirties to forties!'

Winston sprang to attention in front of the telescreen, upon which the image of a youngish woman, scrawny but muscular, dressed in tunic and gym-shoes, had already appeared.

'Arms bending and stretching!' she rapped out. 'Take your time by me. ONE, two, three, four! ONE, two, three, four! Come on, comrades, put a bit of life into it! ONE, two, three four! ONE two, three, four!...'

The pain of the coughing fit had not quite driven out of Winston's mind the impression made by his dream, and the rhythmic movements of the exercise restored it somewhat. As he mechanically shot his arms back and forth, wearing on his face the look of grim enjoyment which was considered proper during the Physical Jerks, he was struggling to think his way backward into the dim period of his early childhood. It was extraordinarily difficult. Beyond the late fifties everything faded. When there were no external records that you could refer to, even the outline of your own life lost its sharpness. You remembered huge events which had quite probably not happened, you remembered the detail of incidents without being able to recapture their atmosphere, and there were long blank periods to which you could assign nothing. Everything had been different then. Even the names of countries, and their shapes on the map, had been different. Airstrip One, for instance, had not been so called in those days: it had been called England or Britain, though London, he felt fairly certain, had always been called London.

Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war, but it was evident that there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his childhood, because one of his early memories was of an air raid which appeared to take everyone by surprise. Perhaps it was the time when the atomic bomb had fallen on Colchester. He did not remember the raid itself, but he did remember his father's hand clutching his own as they hurried down, down, down into some place deep in the earth, round and round a spiral staircase which rang under his feet and which finally so wearied his legs that he began whimpering and they had to stop and rest. His mother, in her slow, dreamy way, was following a long way behind them. She was carrying his baby sister--or perhaps it was only a bundle of blankets that she was carrying: he was not certain whether his sister had been born then. Finally they had emerged into a noisy, crowded place which he had realized to be a Tube station.

There were people sitting all over the stone-flagged floor, and other people, packed tightly together, were sitting on metal bunks, one above the other. Winston and his mother and father found themselves a place on the floor, and near them an old man and an old woman were sitting side by side on a bunk. The old man had on a decent dark suit and a black cloth cap pushed back from very white hair: his face was scarlet and his eyes were blue and full of tears. He reeked of gin. It seemed to breathe out of his skin in place of sweat, and one could have fancied that the tears

It is on Guttenberg, just not the "US" facing part.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

Only in the USA I think. It's public domain in many countries:

http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/books/1984.htm

http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/index.html

http://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

No, it's not listed in their archives.

Yes it is: http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#orwell

Apparently Gutenberg Australia has it because copyright got slightly less out of control in Australia than in some other parts of the world.

In any case, you can get a free copy of 1984 and Animal Farm without any DRM from Gutenberg Australia
http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#orwell

You won't break any Australian laws by downloading it, but the laws where you are may be different.

Download the full text for free and put it on your Kindle. And stop whining.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

They are legally published by Project Gutenberg Australia (see: George Orwell). Depending on how sane is copyright law in the country where you live it may be illegal for you to read them, and/or you may be legally allowed to buy a DRMed copy and convert it to a non-DRMed format.

And so, if you could get it for iRex, you could get it for Kindle from the same source!! No one forces you to buy DRM books. I have a kindle, and to date I refuse to purchase DRM-encrusted crap. That doesn't make Kindle any less of an ebook reader.

They are legally published by Project Gutenberg Australia (see: George Orwell). Depending on how sane is copyright law in the country where you live it may be illegal for you to read them, and/or you may be legally allowed to buy a DRMed copy and convert it to a non-DRMed format.

And so, if you could get it for iRex, you could get it for Kindle from the same source!! No one forces you to buy DRM books. I have a kindle, and to date I refuse to purchase DRM-encrusted crap. That doesn't make Kindle any less of an ebook reader.

I remember thinking that "The Future of Reading" was a silly, over-the-top bit of polemic. Well, here's hoping that those folks paid attention to Randall Munroe... or, I suppose, infringe local copyright law by downloading a copy from a jurisdiction where it's in the public domain.

Not to nitpick, but 1984 and Animal Farm aren't available for the iRex at all. Not legally anyway. And if they are, I will certainly mod you up for linking me to them.

They are legally published by Project Gutenberg Australia (see: George Orwell). Depending on how sane is copyright law in the country where you live it may be illegal for you to read them, and/or you may be legally allowed to buy a DRMed copy and convert it to a non-DRMed format.

Not to nitpick, but 1984 and Animal Farm aren't available for the iRex at all. Not legally anyway. And if they are, I will certainly mod you up for linking me to them.

They are legally published by Project Gutenberg Australia (see: George Orwell). Depending on how sane is copyright law in the country where you live it may be illegal for you to read them, and/or you may be legally allowed to buy a DRMed copy and convert it to a non-DRMed format.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt

Who would buy a book from a publisher and sales person who think it's okay to sell you DRM crap and then take it away on a whim when you can get those exact same books legally, and for free?

Animal Farm: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt

1984: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

Who would buy a book from a publisher and sales person who think it's okay to sell you DRM crap and then take it away on a whim when you can get those exact same books legally, and for free?

Animal Farm: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt

1984: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt