That doesn't necessarily mean that paper books are dying, but it certainly means that selling paper books in physical locations instead of an online shop is no longer a profitable activity.
Exactly the point of why monopolies like Amazon are not good for society. Amazon's day of reckoning is coming, I'm surprised the European Union has not already taken them to task. It will happen.
Sure, you say, "How are cheaper books not good for me?" Amazon destroys local economies. If you want to race to the bottom and live in Soylent Green or A Clockwork Orange, you have no problems with this.
CR, you've turned this into a "paper vs ebook" argument, but I think you miss Strosss point: Amazon's monopolistic stranglehold on distribution forces the price down which puts publishers out of business. This results in Amazon being the dominant publisher, working directly with authors. But it also allows Amazon to dictate to authors what they will pay, just as they did with the traditional publishers. This is not "free market", it is a monopoly no less than Microsoft was, and it's not good for consumer choice.
Second point: It may not seem like it here at Slashdot, but the desire to have and to hold and to read "real" books is not dead. Certain segments of the current generation might feel that way, but I don't see it. The bookstores in my town are always busy, the library in my town is always busy, and many of the books (of the so-called "dead tree" variety) are often on hold by several library patrons before I get to check them out. I suppose you're going to say "What a quaint idea! To check out a book!", but many people still enjoy the experience of turning pages...
I know I'm probably the minority, but when I buy a technical book in electronic form, I immediately print it out and put it in a three-ring binder, much easier to locate what I'm interested and flip back and forth between sections... And here's the high-tech sacrilege: I print them out single-sided with wide margins. I use the blank side for notes...
If an employer is petty enough to not hire someone because they use 'swear words' instead of something that amounts to the same thing, they're illogical and not someone you want to work for.
The ability to control oneself and behave in a manner that does not offend other employees is important to building and maintaining a productive workplace rather than, say, a hostile work environment. Conforming to some minimum standard of politeness shows that one can work as part of a team and is not some aggressive "loose canon" that will disrupt the workplace and become a liability.
And I'm not buying the "CIO" thing at all, unless it's a one or two person operation functioning out of a garage someplace. There is really no way that any real company would hire a guy who mouths off like this. He sounds more like a guy who is jealous of those who were able to attend schools like MIT. I'm sure he feels his personal experience added to his Associates degree is more than equil to 4 or 6 years at MIT, but I'm not buying it.
That's not hard to do. In the United States, our high speed Internet is much like our high speed rail...
The moon, eh? This will be important when we get around to mining the moon into a block of Swiss cheese for whatever mineral riches it possesses. I predict China will be the first, and we Americans will follow soon after they have opened the door.
When you take off your clothes in front of a camera...
...and bounce up and down on your man-whore's rock-hard penis like a mad banshee and then let him pull his man-canon out of your wet wide she-trough and then allow your boy-toy "professional model" to spluge all over your face while slapping his cock on your lips on camera , you should not be surprised where that "tape" ends up.
They can't. I get sick of posting this but: The cost to provide you internet is directly proportional to the density of the population where you live.
For large providers such as Cox and (maybe someday) Comcast, the cost is spread out over their entire customer base. I know, for you Tea Baggers (I'm sorry, "Libertarians"), that's tantamount - gasp - "Socialism". I know, I know, farmers in Bum-Fuck-Nebraska should be paying $1000 a month for their dial-up...
But providing incentives to use a particular product is neither new nor exclusive to Microsoft. If you don't think Google, Apple, and every single other major company, within or outside the USA doesn't do this, you are deluding yourself with Microsoft Hate Group Think.
Seriously, you think "free" services on Google are really "free"?
Do you use *ANY* service or product that is ostensibly "free", but provided by a company that is not non-profit? That you are being paid to use it. Perhaps not is cold hard cash, but none the less, for-profit companies do not give anything away for "free".
In addition, they seem to think only criminals leave DNA.
Do you normally leave large amounts of skin cells under the fingernails of your friends that later end up dead? Splatter a little blood and semen around the houses and apartments you visit? Please don't come over to my place...
All of my calculators used to be HP, all of my bench equipment was HP or Tektronix. But these days, I no longer own an ink-jet printer, so I don't buy printer ink, so HP has nothing for me.
There are many brands that no longer represent their heritage: Philips, Zenith, Bell Labs, Kodak...
It's sad, but it's life, HP hasen't been a "high tech" company foe several years, they have been a "re-brander" of Chinese consumer products.
Re:Auto-save is NOT your friend
on
Goodbye, Ctrl-S
·
· Score: 1
Actually MS Office tries to do that, but more often than not when it crashes (while autosaving) it corrupts both the original document and the autosave backup.
This has *NEVER* happened to me, under *very* heavy use in my work place. Never. Must be a problem on your end.
So... what's an acceptable error rate? If "only" 10% of the people we kill are innocent, is that OK?
If you think it's anywhere near 10%, you are deluding yourself. But as I said, even one is too many. Most of the cases we know about occurred in the days before the current level of sophistication of CSI, what with DNA and other techniques.
I agree with you that the Death Penalty is morally wrong, but suggesting huge numbers of the many people on Death Row are innocent is unrealistic and detrimental you your argument.
However, I have wondered why execution by carbon monoxide poisoning isn't used. Perhaps there are too many people who would be offended by the concept of a gas chamber?
I think you've hit on something here. People don't want a "mess", so fireing squads and the electric chair and hanging (the head might pop off) are out, execute if you must, but let's not "offend" our senses...
A not-insignificant number of death row inmates aren't even guilty.
Define "not-insignificant number"? Of course one is too many. However, to suggest that the number is "large" is misleading. Probably not even a few percent, maybe less than 1 percent. Still too many, but suggesting huge numbers does your argument no favors.
You assume all the people put to death are actually guilty of the crime.
By far the vast majority *are* guilty. Most of the cases of innocent people on death row came into being before the widespread modern use of DNA, and modern (non-fiction) "CSI"...
Re:Auto-save is NOT your friend
on
Goodbye, Ctrl-S
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
A properly implemented auto-save feature does not overwrite the original document; it saves a secondary copy, to be used only if the system crashes and you need to recover your edits.
This is what MS Office does. Of course, no one here uses MS Office, so that's not much help...
If you were thinking you would realise that drone strikes on a civilian population - on women, on children, on funerals, on weddings
Ah yes, all those "weddings" and "funerals"... What do you expect the locals to say? "We where willingly hosting terrorists, please stay away"? Oh, but you say they have all these photos... And we know that photos never lie, they are always what they seem in the places and times they say they are...
With a Win 8 tablet (not RT), I can take all my dev tools and projects with me wherever I go. I can also use it as an entertainment device that's at least as useful as the alternative tablets.
Or, you can buy a modern, light weight laptop for less than the Surface Pro.
I know, the Surface Pro is a tablet with a keyboard. So it must be better than a laptop - which is a tablet with a keyboard.
Slashdot Mirror
That doesn't necessarily mean that paper books are dying, but it certainly means that selling paper books in physical locations instead of an online shop is no longer a profitable activity.
Exactly the point of why monopolies like Amazon are not good for society. Amazon's day of reckoning is coming, I'm surprised the European Union has not already taken them to task. It will happen.
Sure, you say, "How are cheaper books not good for me?" Amazon destroys local economies. If you want to race to the bottom and live in Soylent Green or A Clockwork Orange, you have no problems with this.
Here in the USA, if you must buy via the Internet, try http://www.powells.com/
CR, you've turned this into a "paper vs ebook" argument, but I think you miss Strosss point: Amazon's monopolistic stranglehold on distribution forces the price down which puts publishers out of business. This results in Amazon being the dominant publisher, working directly with authors. But it also allows Amazon to dictate to authors what they will pay, just as they did with the traditional publishers. This is not "free market", it is a monopoly no less than Microsoft was, and it's not good for consumer choice.
Second point: It may not seem like it here at Slashdot, but the desire to have and to hold and to read "real" books is not dead. Certain segments of the current generation might feel that way, but I don't see it. The bookstores in my town are always busy, the library in my town is always busy, and many of the books (of the so-called "dead tree" variety) are often on hold by several library patrons before I get to check them out. I suppose you're going to say "What a quaint idea! To check out a book!", but many people still enjoy the experience of turning pages...
I know I'm probably the minority, but when I buy a technical book in electronic form, I immediately print it out and put it in a three-ring binder, much easier to locate what I'm interested and flip back and forth between sections... And here's the high-tech sacrilege: I print them out single-sided with wide margins. I use the blank side for notes...
Now get off my lawn.
Many people have opined about the suspicious behavior of the bot known as "Karpeles" ... More recently, this bot has been very quiet.
Are those rounded corners? Isn't there a patent on that?
With that kind of added latency, it's not going to feel high-speed...
Clearly we are going to have to build a large server farm on the Moon if the users there expect to stream Netflix.
If an employer is petty enough to not hire someone because they use 'swear words' instead of something that amounts to the same thing, they're illogical and not someone you want to work for.
The ability to control oneself and behave in a manner that does not offend other employees is important to building and maintaining a productive workplace rather than, say, a hostile work environment. Conforming to some minimum standard of politeness shows that one can work as part of a team and is not some aggressive "loose canon" that will disrupt the workplace and become a liability.
And I'm not buying the "CIO" thing at all, unless it's a one or two person operation functioning out of a garage someplace. There is really no way that any real company would hire a guy who mouths off like this. He sounds more like a guy who is jealous of those who were able to attend schools like MIT. I'm sure he feels his personal experience added to his Associates degree is more than equil to 4 or 6 years at MIT, but I'm not buying it.
"faster Internet access than many U.S. homes get"
That's not hard to do. In the United States, our high speed Internet is much like our high speed rail...
The moon, eh? This will be important when we get around to mining the moon into a block of Swiss cheese for whatever mineral riches it possesses. I predict China will be the first, and we Americans will follow soon after they have opened the door.
Top professors dominate top positions at top school!
Who would have ever guessed.
Let's just get this out of the way:
QUOTE
It's Microsoft, it suxers. It jus sux. in every way it suxxx. it's microsoft, right? it sux right? it sux. Suxxxxeeeerrrr. Sux, right?
OK.
Let's fix that up a bit...
When you take off your clothes in front of a camera...
...and bounce up and down on your man-whore's rock-hard penis like a mad banshee and then let him pull his man-canon out of your wet wide she-trough and then allow your boy-toy "professional model" to spluge all over your face while slapping his cock on your lips on camera , you should not be surprised where that "tape" ends up.
They can't. I get sick of posting this but: The cost to provide you internet is directly proportional to the density of the population where you live.
For large providers such as Cox and (maybe someday) Comcast, the cost is spread out over their entire customer base. I know, for you Tea Baggers (I'm sorry, "Libertarians"), that's tantamount - gasp - "Socialism". I know, I know, farmers in Bum-Fuck-Nebraska should be paying $1000 a month for their dial-up...
It's a rather sad and pathetic move...
Sure, whatever you say.
But providing incentives to use a particular product is neither new nor exclusive to Microsoft. If you don't think Google, Apple, and every single other major company, within or outside the USA doesn't do this, you are deluding yourself with Microsoft Hate Group Think.
Seriously, you think "free" services on Google are really "free"?
Do you use *ANY* service or product that is ostensibly "free", but provided by a company that is not non-profit? That you are being paid to use it. Perhaps not is cold hard cash, but none the less, for-profit companies do not give anything away for "free".
You have nothing to support your fantasy.
... I'd guess...
Yes you would. Guess.
In addition, they seem to think only criminals leave DNA.
Do you normally leave large amounts of skin cells under the fingernails of your friends that later end up dead? Splatter a little blood and semen around the houses and apartments you visit? Please don't come over to my place...
All of my calculators used to be HP, all of my bench equipment was HP or Tektronix. But these days, I no longer own an ink-jet printer, so I don't buy printer ink, so HP has nothing for me.
There are many brands that no longer represent their heritage: Philips, Zenith, Bell Labs, Kodak...
It's sad, but it's life, HP hasen't been a "high tech" company foe several years, they have been a "re-brander" of Chinese consumer products.
Actually MS Office tries to do that, but more often than not when it crashes (while autosaving) it corrupts both the original document and the autosave backup.
This has *NEVER* happened to me, under *very* heavy use in my work place. Never. Must be a problem on your end.
So... what's an acceptable error rate? If "only" 10% of the people we kill are innocent, is that OK?
If you think it's anywhere near 10%, you are deluding yourself. But as I said, even one is too many. Most of the cases we know about occurred in the days before the current level of sophistication of CSI, what with DNA and other techniques.
I agree with you that the Death Penalty is morally wrong, but suggesting huge numbers of the many people on Death Row are innocent is unrealistic and detrimental you your argument.
However, I have wondered why execution by carbon monoxide poisoning isn't used. Perhaps there are too many people who would be offended by the concept of a gas chamber?
I think you've hit on something here. People don't want a "mess", so fireing squads and the electric chair and hanging (the head might pop off) are out, execute if you must, but let's not "offend" our senses...
Cheap, effective, quick ("humane"), and we don't need to rely on other nations to produce the materials.
Too messy. Someone has to clean that up...
A not-insignificant number of death row inmates aren't even guilty.
Define "not-insignificant number"? Of course one is too many. However, to suggest that the number is "large" is misleading. Probably not even a few percent, maybe less than 1 percent. Still too many, but suggesting huge numbers does your argument no favors.
You assume all the people put to death are actually guilty of the crime.
By far the vast majority *are* guilty. Most of the cases of innocent people on death row came into being before the widespread modern use of DNA, and modern (non-fiction) "CSI" ...
A properly implemented auto-save feature does not overwrite the original document; it saves a secondary copy, to be used only if the system crashes and you need to recover your edits.
This is what MS Office does. Of course, no one here uses MS Office, so that's not much help...
If you were thinking you would realise that drone strikes on a civilian population - on women, on children, on funerals, on weddings
Ah yes, all those "weddings" and "funerals" ... What do you expect the locals to say? "We where willingly hosting terrorists, please stay away"? Oh, but you say they have all these photos... And we know that photos never lie, they are always what they seem in the places and times they say they are...
With a Win 8 tablet (not RT), I can take all my dev tools and projects with me wherever I go. I can also use it as an entertainment device that's at least as useful as the alternative tablets.
Or, you can buy a modern, light weight laptop for less than the Surface Pro.
I know, the Surface Pro is a tablet with a keyboard. So it must be better than a laptop - which is a tablet with a keyboard.