More to the point, if you don't like the Amazon device, you are free to purchase a different one.
(Trying again with a snark-free answer.)
Sounds like a good plan. But it only works if books are available in open formats. Which is why I want ebook authors not to sign exclusive distribution agreements with Amazon (as I've already said).
It doesn't lock you to a specific vendor: you are free to install e-books from other stores into your Kindle.
As long as it's in a format that Kindle can open. One more time: most publishers only provide books in a DRMed format. Which DRMed formats does Kindle support? Their own.
When you go to a B&N bookstore, you can only purchase books sold by B&N.
Visiting a B&N doesn't lock me into buying B&N books. Buying a Kindle locks me into to buying ebooks from Amazon. And, not incidentally, buying a B&N ebook reader does not lock me into buying ebooks from B&N, because they use a standard format supported by multiple devices and retailers.
More to the point, if you don't like the Amazon device, you are free to purchase a different one.
And if I don't like my new cult, I'm free to leave — as long as I do so before they serve the Koolaid.
You haven't a God-given right to have stores stock themselves with whatever you want-
Perfectly true. And that's why I don't like walled gardens, because the owner of the garden does have a God-given right to tell me what I can do there.
It is a wall garden in the same sense that going to a retail, brick-and-mortar store is entering a wall garden.
Here's an important difference: if you don't like the physical books at one B&M bookstore you can go to another. If you don't like the Kindle books at Amazon, you can go to hello.
If you're looking for a parallel to a B&M bookstore for your ebooks, then you need an ebook reader that doesn't lock you into a specific vendor.
Yes, you can read all kinds of unprotected files on Kindle. But if you want to buy books on Kindle, you have to go through Amazon.
Whatever one's feelings on DRM, the fact is that 99% of all ebooks available for purchase are DRM protected. If you can make a go of it selling DRM-free books (Pragmatic Bookshelf seems to do OK) good for you, but most publishers will only release titles in a DRM-protected format.
Now, there are two dominant formats for DRM-protected books. There's the Kindle format, which is only supported by Amazon. Then there's the EPub format with Adobe DRM, which is supported by every popular ebook reader except Kindle.
Briefly put, the Kindle ecosystem is a closed garden, the EPUB/Adobe ecosystem is not, and unprotected formats are not a part of either.
I'm aware that people mostly don't mind depending on a closed garden. The popularity of iOS devices and the Kindle demonstrate that. And that indifference to corporate control over their content is precisely what bothers me.
I'm not bothered by your being pedantic — you can't possibly be more pedantic than I am, as I'm about to demonstrate.
Res publica is Latin. I've forgotten most of my High School Latin, but I still know a First Declension noun when I see it.
The Greek name for Plato's dialogue about government is Politeia, which translates as (wait for it!) "Government". When Cicero translated this work into Latin, he titled it Res Publica in order to emphasize the supposed similarity between Plato's imaginary "perfect government" and the Roman Republic. During the middle ages, this was the only version of the book available in Western Europe — few people spoke Greek, and all literate people spoke Latin. Which is why the title in English is The Republic.
They've a right to ensure that people enjoy using their site, and their site would be less enjoyable if I had to wade through a bunch of content that is otherwise very easy to find on the rest of the web.
Good lord, have you seen some of the crap in the Kindle store? Lots of poorly written stuff that badly needs an editor. And there are titles carefully chosen to make people buy them by mistake.
This is not about content quality. They just don't want people selling content that they can get for free elsewhere — bad customer relations.
(Or is it? Back in 2006, I co-wrote a book for Sun Microsystems. I was well-paid for this work, and I wasn't expecting royalties, but for some strange reason I got them, showing that the book sold reasonably well, despite being available online before the book came out.)
Now, Amazon has every right to do this. But that's just the problem: the Kindle platform is another walled garden. Just as I don't like Steve Jobs telling me I can't have lame iPhone apps, I don't like Jeff Bezos telling me I can't buy lame books. The fact that the app or book is lame is besides the point. The central control is the problem.
If I ever become a sufficiently popular author so that people want to by ebooks written by me (unlikely, alas) I will make sure they're available in portable formats, such as EPub/Adobe. I won't try to prevent them from being available in Kindle format, but I won't stand for an exclusive release,.
Unless, of course, the Kindle starts supporting open formats.
Do you understand the concept of context? Where do I say the company is kewl because they pay travel expenses? I'm just pointing out that they're not doing this to avoid hiring an HR person, which would be a lot cheaper,.
no North (because they maintain that the South is rightfully theirs too).
Uh, there's no "South" in the official name "Republic of Korea" either.
This is not a unique case. Recall the Republic of Vietnam ("South Vietnam"), the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany"), and the Arab Republic of Yemen ("Yemen") which existed as U.S ally/clients in opposition to the Soviet ally/clients, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ("North Vietnam"), the German Democratic Republic ("East Germany") and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen ("South Yemen"). In each of the above cases, one absorbed the other.
We still have the People's Republic of China ("China", though when I was a kid it was usually "Red China") and the Republic of China ("Taiwan") which both still officially claim to be the sole legal power on both the mainland and the island of Taiwan. Weirdly, one of Taiwan's two leading political parties is the Democratic Progressive Party, which does not accept Taiwan as being part of China; when it's in power, it sometimes threatens to "declare independence." I use scare quotes because independence is pretty much a formality (though a contentious one), since the Beijing government plays no role in governing the island. Ironically, the Nationalist Party, which set up this situation by losing the Chinese Civil War and retreating to the island, is now working with their former enemies, the Communist Party, in preventing the DPP from declaring independence. The Communists and Nationalists have a common interest in preserving their right to conquer each other!
People use words in ways they find convenient to use them. Nothing new about that.
Incidentally, the word "Republic" comes from a Latin term meaning "the public thing". Through most of its history, it was used more or less the same way we now use "commonwealth." Using it to define a style of government is pretty recent.
The original Republican party was set up in opposition to the Federalists in the late 18th century. They were using the term to mean anti-monarchist, with the implication that the Federalists were crypto-monarchists. Oddly enough, this is the same party now known as the Democratic Party. The word "Democratic" originally applied to a populist faction, the Democratic-Republicans, who eventually came to dominate the party.
Not sure exactly where political parties fit in the maze of U.S. corporate entity classification. But the network of state and local parties that calls itself "The Republican Party" is affiliated with the Republican National Committee, which owns all the IP relating to the GOP "brand". If you start calling your organization "The Republican Party", expect to Hear from their lawyers.
The GOP doesn't, to my knowledge, have a Sturmabteilung. If they did, it would presumably wear Red, not Brown.
Oh please. The process described is a lot more expensive than the usual HR screening. I mean, airfare, living expenses, time taken by the programmers you're pairing with?
And a beachfront condo, however tiny, is not exactly S/R. The coolest thing is that people who flunk out on the first day are still welcome to use the condo for the rest of the week. I'd be tempted even if I thought I had zero chance of actually being hired.
You mean Toys U+1D19 Us. This isn't Soviet Russia yet!
The way Slashdot filters out most non-ASCII characters in posts is lame. It dates back to before they started used UTF8 encoding and long since stopped making sense.
I'm multiple decades beyond the target market of this gadget, but being clumsy as hell, I might want to give it a look. Just have to avoid touching the Barney icon!
It seems to me that finding a niche market is exactly what this product is about. I'm not sure I've even seen a tablet maker call their product an "iPad killer", though I suppose it might have happened. I've only seen it used in breathless headlines on Slashdot and other tech websites.
Whenever I see a headline of the form "Is X the Y killer?" I wince, because the answer has to be "no." Y is part of the conversation because it dominates some particular market segment. That dominance is not going to disappear suddenly just because somebody introduced a product that may or may not be better than Y, which has the advantage of brand loyalty and awareness, word-of-mouth marketing, and user's reluctance to give up technology that they're used to and/or locked into. If X is a really good product and the people who make know what they're doing, it can maybe hope to steal enough market share to be called a successful product, no more.
OK, I stand corrected. . However, the more subtle problem of wealth imbalance remains, even if it's not fairly represented by Occupy cliches.
I should further note that I do not resent entrepreneurs, capitalists, or even trust fund babies who are absurdly wealthy. Having a few people with a lot of disposable income adds a necessary whimiscality to the economy and to the social system. OK, Paris Hilton is a bit of a pain, but there my problem is more her fan club and the media that panders to them.
I am bugged by people who enrich themselves by gaming the system, often sabotaging the wealth-creating mechanisms of capitalism in the process. Especially when they turn around and use their ill-gotten gains to defend their "right" to game the system. (And dude, many of the arguments you and I have is motivated by the propaganda related to the arguments over those "rights".) Also bugged by rockstar executives who manage to pull down huge compensation packages all out of proportion to their contribution to company success — in some cases when the company isn't even successful.
Perhaps inconsistent of me not to give rockstar CEOs the same pass I give trust fund babies. I suppose that comes from my having done the here's a pamphlet, good luck scene not once but twice.
Slashdot Mirror
More to the point, if you don't like the Amazon device, you are free to purchase a different one.
(Trying again with a snark-free answer.)
Sounds like a good plan. But it only works if books are available in open formats. Which is why I want ebook authors not to sign exclusive distribution agreements with Amazon (as I've already said).
It doesn't lock you to a specific vendor: you are free to install e-books from other stores into your Kindle.
As long as it's in a format that Kindle can open. One more time: most publishers only provide books in a DRMed format. Which DRMed formats does Kindle support? Their own.
When you go to a B&N bookstore, you can only purchase books sold by B&N.
Visiting a B&N doesn't lock me into buying B&N books. Buying a Kindle locks me into to buying ebooks from Amazon. And, not incidentally, buying a B&N ebook reader does not lock me into buying ebooks from B&N, because they use a standard format supported by multiple devices and retailers.
More to the point, if you don't like the Amazon device, you are free to purchase a different one.
And if I don't like my new cult, I'm free to leave — as long as I do so before they serve the Koolaid.
You haven't a God-given right to have stores stock themselves with whatever you want-
Perfectly true. And that's why I don't like walled gardens, because the owner of the garden does have a God-given right to tell me what I can do there.
So, if I don't have a Kindle, I can still get Kindle books. All the more reason not to be locked in.
Already tried the the cheap, no-name tablet market, thank you very much. Not again.
There are other ways to make book purchases on your Kindle.
Such as?
It is a wall garden in the same sense that going to a retail, brick-and-mortar store is entering a wall garden.
Here's an important difference: if you don't like the physical books at one B&M bookstore you can go to another. If you don't like the Kindle books at Amazon, you can go to hello.
If you're looking for a parallel to a B&M bookstore for your ebooks, then you need an ebook reader that doesn't lock you into a specific vendor.
So, Slashdot made a mistake in allowing you to create an account?
Yes, you can read all kinds of unprotected files on Kindle. But if you want to buy books on Kindle, you have to go through Amazon.
Whatever one's feelings on DRM, the fact is that 99% of all ebooks available for purchase are DRM protected. If you can make a go of it selling DRM-free books (Pragmatic Bookshelf seems to do OK) good for you, but most publishers will only release titles in a DRM-protected format.
Now, there are two dominant formats for DRM-protected books. There's the Kindle format, which is only supported by Amazon. Then there's the EPub format with Adobe DRM, which is supported by every popular ebook reader except Kindle.
Briefly put, the Kindle ecosystem is a closed garden, the EPUB/Adobe ecosystem is not, and unprotected formats are not a part of either.
I'm aware that people mostly don't mind depending on a closed garden. The popularity of iOS devices and the Kindle demonstrate that. And that indifference to corporate control over their content is precisely what bothers me.
I'm not bothered by your being pedantic — you can't possibly be more pedantic than I am, as I'm about to demonstrate.
Res publica is Latin. I've forgotten most of my High School Latin, but I still know a First Declension noun when I see it.
The Greek name for Plato's dialogue about government is Politeia, which translates as (wait for it!) "Government". When Cicero translated this work into Latin, he titled it Res Publica in order to emphasize the supposed similarity between Plato's imaginary "perfect government" and the Roman Republic. During the middle ages, this was the only version of the book available in Western Europe — few people spoke Greek, and all literate people spoke Latin. Which is why the title in English is The Republic.
They've a right to ensure that people enjoy using their site, and their site would be less enjoyable if I had to wade through a bunch of content that is otherwise very easy to find on the rest of the web.
Good lord, have you seen some of the crap in the Kindle store? Lots of poorly written stuff that badly needs an editor. And there are titles carefully chosen to make people buy them by mistake.
This is not about content quality. They just don't want people selling content that they can get for free elsewhere — bad customer relations.
(Or is it? Back in 2006, I co-wrote a book for Sun Microsystems. I was well-paid for this work, and I wasn't expecting royalties, but for some strange reason I got them, showing that the book sold reasonably well, despite being available online before the book came out.)
Now, Amazon has every right to do this. But that's just the problem: the Kindle platform is another walled garden. Just as I don't like Steve Jobs telling me I can't have lame iPhone apps, I don't like Jeff Bezos telling me I can't buy lame books. The fact that the app or book is lame is besides the point. The central control is the problem.
If I ever become a sufficiently popular author so that people want to by ebooks written by me (unlikely, alas) I will make sure they're available in portable formats, such as EPub/Adobe. I won't try to prevent them from being available in Kindle format, but I won't stand for an exclusive release,.
Unless, of course, the Kindle starts supporting open formats.
Actually you pay my doctor.
Do you understand the concept of context? Where do I say the company is kewl because they pay travel expenses? I'm just pointing out that they're not doing this to avoid hiring an HR person, which would be a lot cheaper,.
no North (because they maintain that the South is rightfully theirs too).
Uh, there's no "South" in the official name "Republic of Korea" either.
This is not a unique case. Recall the Republic of Vietnam ("South Vietnam"), the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany"), and the Arab Republic of Yemen ("Yemen") which existed as U.S ally/clients in opposition to the Soviet ally/clients, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ("North Vietnam"), the German Democratic Republic ("East Germany") and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen ("South Yemen"). In each of the above cases, one absorbed the other.
We still have the People's Republic of China ("China", though when I was a kid it was usually "Red China") and the Republic of China ("Taiwan") which both still officially claim to be the sole legal power on both the mainland and the island of Taiwan. Weirdly, one of Taiwan's two leading political parties is the Democratic Progressive Party, which does not accept Taiwan as being part of China; when it's in power, it sometimes threatens to "declare independence." I use scare quotes because independence is pretty much a formality (though a contentious one), since the Beijing government plays no role in governing the island. Ironically, the Nationalist Party, which set up this situation by losing the Chinese Civil War and retreating to the island, is now working with their former enemies, the Communist Party, in preventing the DPP from declaring independence. The Communists and Nationalists have a common interest in preserving their right to conquer each other!
People use words in ways they find convenient to use them. Nothing new about that.
Incidentally, the word "Republic" comes from a Latin term meaning "the public thing". Through most of its history, it was used more or less the same way we now use "commonwealth." Using it to define a style of government is pretty recent.
The original Republican party was set up in opposition to the Federalists in the late 18th century. They were using the term to mean anti-monarchist, with the implication that the Federalists were crypto-monarchists. Oddly enough, this is the same party now known as the Democratic Party. The word "Democratic" originally applied to a populist faction, the Democratic-Republicans, who eventually came to dominate the party.
Words change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_a_mountain_out_of_a_molehill
Hey, I was trying to be funny too, so there!
Not sure exactly where political parties fit in the maze of U.S. corporate entity classification. But the network of state and local parties that calls itself "The Republican Party" is affiliated with the Republican National Committee, which owns all the IP relating to the GOP "brand". If you start calling your organization "The Republican Party", expect to Hear from their lawyers.
The GOP doesn't, to my knowledge, have a Sturmabteilung. If they did, it would presumably wear Red, not Brown.
there are cheaper/easier alternatives,
Like what? This thing is at least $50 less than the leading 7-inch tablets.
Oh please. The process described is a lot more expensive than the usual HR screening. I mean, airfare, living expenses, time taken by the programmers you're pairing with?
And a beachfront condo, however tiny, is not exactly S/R. The coolest thing is that people who flunk out on the first day are still welcome to use the condo for the rest of the week. I'd be tempted even if I thought I had zero chance of actually being hired.
And if you do it with Edgar Allen Poe...
Jeez, what weird little button did I push in your resentful little brain?
You mean Toys U+1D19 Us. This isn't Soviet Russia yet!
The way Slashdot filters out most non-ASCII characters in posts is lame. It dates back to before they started used UTF8 encoding and long since stopped making sense.
I'm multiple decades beyond the target market of this gadget, but being clumsy as hell, I might want to give it a look. Just have to avoid touching the Barney icon!
It seems to me that finding a niche market is exactly what this product is about. I'm not sure I've even seen a tablet maker call their product an "iPad killer", though I suppose it might have happened. I've only seen it used in breathless headlines on Slashdot and other tech websites.
Whenever I see a headline of the form "Is X the Y killer?" I wince, because the answer has to be "no." Y is part of the conversation because it dominates some particular market segment. That dominance is not going to disappear suddenly just because somebody introduced a product that may or may not be better than Y, which has the advantage of brand loyalty and awareness, word-of-mouth marketing, and user's reluctance to give up technology that they're used to and/or locked into. If X is a really good product and the people who make know what they're doing, it can maybe hope to steal enough market share to be called a successful product, no more.
OK, I stand corrected. . However, the more subtle problem of wealth imbalance remains, even if it's not fairly represented by Occupy cliches.
I should further note that I do not resent entrepreneurs, capitalists, or even trust fund babies who are absurdly wealthy. Having a few people with a lot of disposable income adds a necessary whimiscality to the economy and to the social system. OK, Paris Hilton is a bit of a pain, but there my problem is more her fan club and the media that panders to them.
I am bugged by people who enrich themselves by gaming the system, often sabotaging the wealth-creating mechanisms of capitalism in the process. Especially when they turn around and use their ill-gotten gains to defend their "right" to game the system. (And dude, many of the arguments you and I have is motivated by the propaganda related to the arguments over those "rights".) Also bugged by rockstar executives who manage to pull down huge compensation packages all out of proportion to their contribution to company success — in some cases when the company isn't even successful.
Perhaps inconsistent of me not to give rockstar CEOs the same pass I give trust fund babies. I suppose that comes from my having done the here's a pamphlet, good luck scene not once but twice.