Rule of law of course has plenty of its own negative aspects, of course. Not to disagree with your point, but just to keep the cynicism fair and balanced.
I keep thinking eventually we'll get online communities which serve as a source of reviews and recommendations. Obviously Amazon can provide some of that now, but it could certainly be a lot better if there was a web site really focused on breaking down books by lots of different categories (not just genre and overall ratings, but specifics that might include quality of editing, accuracy of contents, marks for humor, and I don't know what else) along with really useful recommendations to help readers discover new authors.
In an expanded view of this community authors might also be able to coordinate with fans and provide sneak previews in exchange for free proofreading (I don't really want to say editing, because that probably requires a more professional touch, but you can catch a lot of typos with a just a handful of capable readers).
Something like this may already exist out there, but I don't know of it. As much as I talk about it, I should probably put my money where my mouth is and just build the site already, but I've got my hands full with other projects. It's something I'd like to see, though.
Thanks for mentioning that site. I've speculated a few times we'd get communities like that as an alternative to the current publishing model, but hadn't actually found one yet. Weird that it's audio only, though. Do you know of anything like it that does print? I could imagine sharing a second draft of my novel to get feedback, but I can't ever imagine turning it into an audiobook first.
While I accept your point, I strongly disagree with your suggested "tasty" drinks. Islay scotches and pale ales tend to be challenging drinks, and I'd suspect a lot of youngsters would choke on those more than a Miller. Personal tastes vary, of course, but if I was trying to introduce alcohol to a newbie, I'd start them with a sweet beer like a hefeweisen or kolsch, or a simpler scotch blend, long before I'd throw something hoppy or as pungent as an islay. More likely than that even is starting with a little wine, which at least has some resemblance to the child-friendly grape juice.
Reminds me of the time the dean of engineering at a state university got an email with an attachment. He didn't recognize the sender, but tried to open the attachment anyway. When it didn't seem to be doing anything, he forwarded the email to his assistant, the office manager, and a couple of other people, asking them to try to open the mysterious.bat file. Then when none of them could get it to work, one of them called me in tech support to try to open it for them. Spent the rest of my day cleaning up the virus in the entire dean's office.
I'd like to invent a few new Greek letters. How about zu, fhi, eepsilon, cramda, umega, and ita? Also:
yumicron, used as a basic unit of tastiness for foods and drinks
deta, used for measuring--what else?--data storage. It can replace bits and bytes. Terabytes are the last pronounceable and understandable of the bye units (with possible Seinfeld exceptions for yotta-yotta-yottabytes). We need a new macro unit of measure so we can start over. It's perfectly acceptable that this is a homophone for "data" because we've made it this far with "bytes."
You can get paragraphs using the html p tag -- obviously can't show you because it'd just put in a break.
As for saving, as many others have noted, we realize the number of sun hours have not changed, but that they're shifted to a more convenient location -- in the evening, when people are often out of the house and doing things, as opposed to mornings, where more people stay inside until it's time for work.
As for DST in winter, while I'd support it, I think the reason it's cut short is because of sunrise time. There's a balance between more light in the evenings and having no light until well into the workday. I'd gladly accept sunrise at 8:30 in exchange for being able to get home before dark, but apparently that's not a common opinion.
As for natural rhythms of nature... pretty sure that the 8-5 workday isn't really part of it, no matter your time zone or DST status.
You can say that like it's entirely fact, but when I try to go without an alarm clock I keep 27-hour days and go round the clock roughly once per week. That's not a terribly convenient way to live.
By that logic, we should do away with time zones, too. Because at the same time on the clock, someone standing on the eastern edge of the time zone sees the sun in a different part of the sky than someone standing on the western edge. This "real" noon you speak of happens somewhere new every minute of the day. Obviously we construct our time for matters of convenience rather than accuracy.
If I hadn't already posted I'd give you mod points. It's a said state of affairs when we hate a web site because we don't know how to scroll down. End key is super simple. Or tricking your cat into stepping on your spacebar for a few seconds (or just holding it down if you don't have a cat). Or flicking the scroll wheel on the mouse. There's tons of options.
I got answers off their site yesterday. Since others are mentioning the way in which you get to the site may affect what you see, I would guess what changed was your way of accessing them.
Wait, so I should block myself out of a scummy site that has the real information I need, because other people might not realize they're a scummy site? I'm not sure that makes sense. I already know how they work and am not at risk of falling into their trap. The only thing that would happen if I block them for myself is I'd occasionally lose out on useful information.
Your objection may apply if you're blocking them from other people, I suppose.
I'm kind of baffled by the hate, too. Sure, it took me about a year to realize the answers were there, just down at the bottom of the page. I can't tell if everybody else just hasn't figured that out yet, or if they're doing something that I'm not doing which is hiding the answers. I got something useful from their site just yesterday.
What happens when the little guy sues megacorp simply because he knows megacorp will always have a lawyer and will basically fund his lawsuit against them? You don't think little guys would take all kinds of advantage here?
I was thinking, that's basically just boiling water temperature (here on Earth) and also if I remember right that's actually cooler than Venus, isn't it?
Of course. This was back in the days when signals were sent from lookout to lookout by lighting signal fires. You used two logs to denote the original message, then threw on a third log is you wanted to send the message in another direction. Hence the Two: line for your first recipient and a Carbon Copy (because you mostly end up with carbon after burning the logs) when you sent it to a second recipient.
I wish you luck! I've considered trying the same thing, but my own unpublished novel needs editing work that I don't have the time or money for right now, so I keep putting it off.
Sounds like you've got a pretty similar take on the situation as I do. I agree that Point A will go away with time, but I do wonder if part of that process won't involve either establishing trusted digital publishers, or means to assess the quality of the work before purchase -- possibly via tools on the distribution site, like Amazon, possibly via some other community or ratings system.
I think Point B, in the long run, is kind of moot. There'll always be some competition amongst people in the same business, and snootiness over the relative success. It'll probably be regardless of print or electronic later on, though -- any disdain based on publishing format is going to disappear with time.
Quality of work is a huge concern for me. I may be biased, having done some proofreading before. Proofreading is admittedly low-end, last-minute editing, usually after four to ten other pairs of eyes have already done serious work on the book -- and we're talking major structural stuff, like managing the complete organization of the work, or insisting that it be cut in half (or doubled) to get the right amount of entertainment and completeness. But even as a proofreader, putting on (supposedly) last-minute polish, I've caught major issues, like horrendous math errors, completely incoherent paragraphs, blatant contradictions in the text, chunks of simply missing text, and more. In a very rare couple of cases I even had to flat-out say things like "this nonfiction book doesn't deliver what the title promises" or "this entire book doesn't appear to have much of a purpose, and needs a complete rework." Of course nobody wanted to listen to the proofreader about starting over at that point, and I think they went ahead and published what they had, but they also didn't tell me I was wrong or out of line or fire me. Take away the editor or three, take away the proofreader, and you're almost guaranteed to have an inferior product.
People on this thread have argued freelance editing is inexpensive, but when you're paying out of pocket for something that may not make any money at all, it doesn't take much at all to make it unaffordable.
What's your friend do for editing with the ebooks? Does she edit her own? Hire a freelance editor? That seems to be one of the sticking points for DIY publishing, and I'm always curious how people get around those obstacles.
Who will lose is publishers, the middlemen that do nothing at all for content of the book. and honestly, every writer will say "good riddance"
Perhaps a bit harsh. I agree authors get a shockingly small cut, presently. But there are services publishers currently provide: editing, layout, distribution, marketing -- real stuff involved in making a book readable, or getting it to customers. Obviously Amazon is stepping up to be the distributor and essentially provides some of the marketing, and they still take a cut for that. Layout tends to be tossed out the window with ebooks right now, and that's mostly acceptable (though I suspect design will creep back in as a valuable service as readers improve). Editing is tough -- some authors can do a pretty decent job on their own (though most still have blind spots or need an outside perspective here and there), but others absolutely need serious help with major points like structure, plot, or coherence before they can have a final product that someone would rather read than set fire to.
Slashdot Mirror
Rule of law of course has plenty of its own negative aspects, of course. Not to disagree with your point, but just to keep the cynicism fair and balanced.
I keep thinking eventually we'll get online communities which serve as a source of reviews and recommendations. Obviously Amazon can provide some of that now, but it could certainly be a lot better if there was a web site really focused on breaking down books by lots of different categories (not just genre and overall ratings, but specifics that might include quality of editing, accuracy of contents, marks for humor, and I don't know what else) along with really useful recommendations to help readers discover new authors.
In an expanded view of this community authors might also be able to coordinate with fans and provide sneak previews in exchange for free proofreading (I don't really want to say editing, because that probably requires a more professional touch, but you can catch a lot of typos with a just a handful of capable readers).
Something like this may already exist out there, but I don't know of it. As much as I talk about it, I should probably put my money where my mouth is and just build the site already, but I've got my hands full with other projects. It's something I'd like to see, though.
Thanks for mentioning that site. I've speculated a few times we'd get communities like that as an alternative to the current publishing model, but hadn't actually found one yet. Weird that it's audio only, though. Do you know of anything like it that does print? I could imagine sharing a second draft of my novel to get feedback, but I can't ever imagine turning it into an audiobook first.
.. look to \. for ...
Wait, what? Have I fallen into a bizarro dimension where this site is called backslash dot?
Or they're solving a quadratic equation?
While I accept your point, I strongly disagree with your suggested "tasty" drinks. Islay scotches and pale ales tend to be challenging drinks, and I'd suspect a lot of youngsters would choke on those more than a Miller. Personal tastes vary, of course, but if I was trying to introduce alcohol to a newbie, I'd start them with a sweet beer like a hefeweisen or kolsch, or a simpler scotch blend, long before I'd throw something hoppy or as pungent as an islay. More likely than that even is starting with a little wine, which at least has some resemblance to the child-friendly grape juice.
Excuse me, I think I'm having a "it comes in pints?" Hobbit moment.
Reminds me of the time the dean of engineering at a state university got an email with an attachment. He didn't recognize the sender, but tried to open the attachment anyway. When it didn't seem to be doing anything, he forwarded the email to his assistant, the office manager, and a couple of other people, asking them to try to open the mysterious .bat file. Then when none of them could get it to work, one of them called me in tech support to try to open it for them. Spent the rest of my day cleaning up the virus in the entire dean's office.
Damn it, forgot to include: bifur, bofur, bombur, oin, gloin, and bilbo. Tolkien characters would make for great constant names.
I'd like to invent a few new Greek letters. How about zu, fhi, eepsilon, cramda, umega, and ita? Also:
yumicron, used as a basic unit of tastiness for foods and drinks
deta, used for measuring--what else?--data storage. It can replace bits and bytes. Terabytes are the last pronounceable and understandable of the bye units (with possible Seinfeld exceptions for yotta-yotta-yottabytes). We need a new macro unit of measure so we can start over. It's perfectly acceptable that this is a homophone for "data" because we've made it this far with "bytes."
I have actual friends who I've never had the ability to meet in real life, but who are friends nonetheless. Clients and business partners, too.
As for saving, as many others have noted, we realize the number of sun hours have not changed, but that they're shifted to a more convenient location -- in the evening, when people are often out of the house and doing things, as opposed to mornings, where more people stay inside until it's time for work.
As for DST in winter, while I'd support it, I think the reason it's cut short is because of sunrise time. There's a balance between more light in the evenings and having no light until well into the workday. I'd gladly accept sunrise at 8:30 in exchange for being able to get home before dark, but apparently that's not a common opinion.
As for natural rhythms of nature ... pretty sure that the 8-5 workday isn't really part of it, no matter your time zone or DST status.
You can say that like it's entirely fact, but when I try to go without an alarm clock I keep 27-hour days and go round the clock roughly once per week. That's not a terribly convenient way to live.
By that logic, we should do away with time zones, too. Because at the same time on the clock, someone standing on the eastern edge of the time zone sees the sun in a different part of the sky than someone standing on the western edge. This "real" noon you speak of happens somewhere new every minute of the day. Obviously we construct our time for matters of convenience rather than accuracy.
If I hadn't already posted I'd give you mod points. It's a said state of affairs when we hate a web site because we don't know how to scroll down. End key is super simple. Or tricking your cat into stepping on your spacebar for a few seconds (or just holding it down if you don't have a cat). Or flicking the scroll wheel on the mouse. There's tons of options.
I got answers off their site yesterday. Since others are mentioning the way in which you get to the site may affect what you see, I would guess what changed was your way of accessing them.
Your objection may apply if you're blocking them from other people, I suppose.
I'm kind of baffled by the hate, too. Sure, it took me about a year to realize the answers were there, just down at the bottom of the page. I can't tell if everybody else just hasn't figured that out yet, or if they're doing something that I'm not doing which is hiding the answers. I got something useful from their site just yesterday.
What happens when the little guy sues megacorp simply because he knows megacorp will always have a lawyer and will basically fund his lawsuit against them? You don't think little guys would take all kinds of advantage here?
I was thinking, that's basically just boiling water temperature (here on Earth) and also if I remember right that's actually cooler than Venus, isn't it?
Of course. This was back in the days when signals were sent from lookout to lookout by lighting signal fires. You used two logs to denote the original message, then threw on a third log is you wanted to send the message in another direction. Hence the Two: line for your first recipient and a Carbon Copy (because you mostly end up with carbon after burning the logs) when you sent it to a second recipient.
Sounds like you've got a pretty similar take on the situation as I do. I agree that Point A will go away with time, but I do wonder if part of that process won't involve either establishing trusted digital publishers, or means to assess the quality of the work before purchase -- possibly via tools on the distribution site, like Amazon, possibly via some other community or ratings system.
I think Point B, in the long run, is kind of moot. There'll always be some competition amongst people in the same business, and snootiness over the relative success. It'll probably be regardless of print or electronic later on, though -- any disdain based on publishing format is going to disappear with time.
Quality of work is a huge concern for me. I may be biased, having done some proofreading before. Proofreading is admittedly low-end, last-minute editing, usually after four to ten other pairs of eyes have already done serious work on the book -- and we're talking major structural stuff, like managing the complete organization of the work, or insisting that it be cut in half (or doubled) to get the right amount of entertainment and completeness. But even as a proofreader, putting on (supposedly) last-minute polish, I've caught major issues, like horrendous math errors, completely incoherent paragraphs, blatant contradictions in the text, chunks of simply missing text, and more. In a very rare couple of cases I even had to flat-out say things like "this nonfiction book doesn't deliver what the title promises" or "this entire book doesn't appear to have much of a purpose, and needs a complete rework." Of course nobody wanted to listen to the proofreader about starting over at that point, and I think they went ahead and published what they had, but they also didn't tell me I was wrong or out of line or fire me. Take away the editor or three, take away the proofreader, and you're almost guaranteed to have an inferior product.
People on this thread have argued freelance editing is inexpensive, but when you're paying out of pocket for something that may not make any money at all, it doesn't take much at all to make it unaffordable.
Well, just be the first to price your book at NINETY-EIGHT cents! Duh!
Who will lose is publishers, the middlemen that do nothing at all for content of the book. and honestly, every writer will say "good riddance"
Perhaps a bit harsh. I agree authors get a shockingly small cut, presently. But there are services publishers currently provide: editing, layout, distribution, marketing -- real stuff involved in making a book readable, or getting it to customers. Obviously Amazon is stepping up to be the distributor and essentially provides some of the marketing, and they still take a cut for that. Layout tends to be tossed out the window with ebooks right now, and that's mostly acceptable (though I suspect design will creep back in as a valuable service as readers improve). Editing is tough -- some authors can do a pretty decent job on their own (though most still have blind spots or need an outside perspective here and there), but others absolutely need serious help with major points like structure, plot, or coherence before they can have a final product that someone would rather read than set fire to.
This is not the human brain making those choices, though. It's a die making the choices.