>Many books are purchased just to possess and >display them, sort of like trophies. Just about >every upper middle class home has a copy of
Moby Dick in it somewhere. I'd guess about 1 in
100 has actually been read.
And ask your average Barnes and Nobles customer rather he'd prefer a poor translation bound in leather or a regular style, good translation for the same price and he'll go for the leather.
Speaking of display books and Mobey Dick, I received the following letter in the mail a while ago and saved it for its amusement value. Here it is, reprinted in part (ellipses where text has been eliminated -- it's too long to include the whole thing):
Building a fine library says a lot about you.
It's among the finest accomplishments a person can claim. Now take pride in adding this exquisite, leather-bound volume to
your
library.
Herman Melville's immortal classic
Moby Dick
Just one of THE 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN -- yours in an extraordinary, heirloom-quality Collector Edition, bound in genuine leather and accented with 22kt gold, for only $5.95*...
...I don't have to tell you that the measure of a man or woman is not calculated in dollars and cents.
It's calibrated on a more finely tuned scale. Character. Education. Values. Taste. Excellence. Achievement. Experience. These are the traits which set you apart.
Which is why I am writing you today. I believe you are unusually equipped to appreciate the extraordinary offer I am about to make. This offer is available only to the very few. Because only the very few will appreciate it...
...If you have never owned a Collector Edition of this superb quality, one that is bound in premium, genuine leather and accented with 22kt gold, you can scarcely imagine its impact upon you and the people in whose hands you place it. It is truly like owning a piece of art.
To prove my point, take this test: When Moby Dick arrives, don't open it right away to its immortal first sentence. Just hold it in your hands a moment. Savor it.
You have never experienced a volume so impressive!
You will immediately notice it's weight, a sign of quality materials assembled without compromise, much like the vaunted weight of a Rolls Royce automobile....
...
Now observe
Moby Dick's exquisite leather covers
....
...
Let the light play on the beautiful stamped cover
....
...
Admire the spine, stamped with 22kt gold, and featuring traditional raised hubs
...
...
Observe the gilded page edges
....
...The rewards of owning this Collector Edition go far beyond the printed page. Imagine your friends' admiration as you place this volume in their hands. Imagine your pleasure as they feel the premium leather and watch the light play off the 22kt gold on the spines....
...Your Collector Edition of Moby Dick can be -- if you choose -- just the beginning of a spectacular library of the highest strivings of the human spirit, THE 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN.
Imagine sharing your home or office with the timeless works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Dumas, Plato, Poe and Whitman. Imagine Stevenson, London, Brontë, Chaucer, Drarwin, Browning, and Dostoevsky on your bookshelves...
...Owning Moby Dick -- and any of the other great books in THE 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN may be one of the most fulfilling things to happen to you since you first tasted success. Imagine the pride you will take in your library. Imagine the pleasure of those who visit you and gaze with appreciation at your fine editions....
Well, at least they've got one thing right: when the customer's copy of Moby arrives in the mail, the first thing he'll do doubtless won't be to open it to that immortal first sentence. In fact, he'll probably just never "get around" to that.
>In fact, if we use P2P to broadcast all kinds >of government dirty laundry, their attempts to
>ban p2p will look like an attempt to crack down
>on freedom of information.
Granted, it will look like that -- to those watching. But how many people, outside of/., are really paying attention to this? I can guarantee if you went out and asked your average Joe about sharing government files/info via P2P networks he'd give you a "huh" look. And if you told him he couldn't trade government files via Kazaa, he'd just ask for a quick assurance that he'd still be able to get Eminem's latest music video on Kazaa and, upon receipt of aforesaid assurance, be quite content.
The sad and simple fact is that most people neither know nor care to know.
>As in, "as soon as somebody uses the network to >commit a crime, the police will feel moved to >enforce the laws they swore to uphold?"
Er...not quite. More like "as soon as the government can find some oddball teenage radical infatuated with anarchism checking out some documents on the P2P network that they'd rather he not see, they'll publish a few nice long articles in Time and Newsweek with a picture of a social-misfit-in-a-black-trenchcoat-sitting-at-his -computer under headlines like "Domestic Terrorism Hits Home: What Your Child *Really* Uses Kazaa For" and "America's Teens: The Unlikely Terrorists."
>>because that web site can be taken down.
>>because it can be altered.
But chances are you can still access the unaltered/still existent document using Wayback, unless the gov actually took the trouble to use a Robots.txt exclusion file -- which so far only the FBI has (because you know how tough it is to upload that robots.txt exclusion file. You might need an IQ over 68).
Here's something I don't understand:
MS intentionally makes its Mac version of IE so that it's missing certain features it has in the MS version (cheap dirty bastards) and then Mac just right up and adopts it as "part" of its operating system, so that now when anyone buys a Mac OS he gets the partially-dysfunctional IE version as well.
Wouldn't it be in Apple's best interests to include a _fully_ functional web browser/e-mail client with its OS's? Like...say...Mozilla?
Maybe I'm just being a curmudgeon or something, but I'm starting to get really sick of Apple's obsoletism. Once your bank account has recovered from buying one 200 dollar operating system, it's marketing a new one.
Now, I was really excited when I moved up from 7.6.1 to 10.1.4 (I'm a high school student, no money of my own, subject to my parents' OS whims). And I tell you, it was great. For the first month or so. And then I found out that suddenly Apple expected everyone to have their NEW new OS if they wanted to be able to download anything whatsoever. And now you can't even find old 10.1.4 compatible versions...everyone just assumes you have hundreds of dollars to blow on whatever new thing Apple's released to render your old OS obsolete.
Freedom, perhaps, but "an excess in freedom of speech," not to mention "freedom of thought." And "by means of the dissemination of information" no less -- god forbid! The horrors of freedom of thought.
known as the human brain. archivable, back-searchable, prioritizable, even with a good selective memory feature that allows you to "forget" whatever you don't really feel like doing...it's got it all.
Slashdot Mirror
Shortly afterwards, the computer we use to run the DNA sequencing program (WebSeq) died as well.
coincidence? i think not...
an invite sent to sinical_sarchasm@yahoo.com would be enormously appreciated.
>display them, sort of like trophies. Just about
>every upper middle class home has a copy of
Moby Dick in it somewhere. I'd guess about 1 in
100 has actually been read.
And ask your average Barnes and Nobles customer rather he'd prefer a poor translation bound in leather or a regular style, good translation for the same price and he'll go for the leather.
Speaking of display books and Mobey Dick, I received the following letter in the mail a while ago and saved it for its amusement value. Here it is, reprinted in part (ellipses where text has been eliminated -- it's too long to include the whole thing):
Building a fine library says a lot about you.
It's among the finest accomplishments a person can claim. Now take pride in adding this exquisite, leather-bound volume to
- your
library.Herman Melville's immortal classic
Moby Dick
Just one of THE 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN -- yours in an extraordinary, heirloom-quality Collector Edition, bound in genuine leather and accented with 22kt gold, for only $5.95*...
...I don't have to tell you that the measure of a man or woman is not calculated in dollars and cents.
It's calibrated on a more finely tuned scale. Character. Education. Values. Taste. Excellence. Achievement. Experience. These are the traits which set you apart.
Which is why I am writing you today. I believe you are unusually equipped to appreciate the extraordinary offer I am about to make. This offer is available only to the very few. Because only the very few will appreciate it...
To prove my point, take this test: When Moby Dick arrives, don't open it right away to its immortal first sentence. Just hold it in your hands a moment. Savor it.
You have never experienced a volume so impressive!
You will immediately notice it's weight, a sign of quality materials assembled without compromise, much like the vaunted weight of a Rolls Royce automobile....
...
- Now observe
- Moby Dick's exquisite leather covers
.......
- Let the light play on the beautiful stamped cover
.......
- Admire the spine, stamped with 22kt gold, and featuring traditional raised hubs
......
- Observe the gilded page edges
.......The rewards of owning this Collector Edition go far beyond the printed page. Imagine your friends' admiration as you place this volume in their hands. Imagine your pleasure as they feel the premium leather and watch the light play off the 22kt gold on the spines....
...Your Collector Edition of Moby Dick can be -- if you choose -- just the beginning of a spectacular library of the highest strivings of the human spirit, THE 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN.
Imagine sharing your home or office with the timeless works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Dumas, Plato, Poe and Whitman. Imagine Stevenson, London, Brontë, Chaucer, Drarwin, Browning, and Dostoevsky on your bookshelves...
...Owning Moby Dick -- and any of the other great books in THE 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN may be one of the most fulfilling things to happen to you since you first tasted success. Imagine the pride you will take in your library. Imagine the pleasure of those who visit you and gaze with appreciation at your fine editions....
Well, at least they've got one thing right: when the customer's copy of Moby arrives in the mail, the first thing he'll do doubtless won't be to open it to that immortal first sentence. In fact, he'll probably just never "get around" to that.
>of government dirty laundry, their attempts to
>ban p2p will look like an attempt to crack down
>on freedom of information.
Granted, it will look like that -- to those watching. But how many people, outside of /., are really paying attention to this? I can guarantee if you went out and asked your average Joe about sharing government files/info via P2P networks he'd give you a "huh" look. And if you told him he couldn't trade government files via Kazaa, he'd just ask for a quick assurance that he'd still be able to get Eminem's latest music video on Kazaa and, upon receipt of aforesaid assurance, be quite content.
The sad and simple fact is that most people neither know nor care to know.
>commit a crime, the police will feel moved to
>enforce the laws they swore to uphold?"
Er...not quite. More like "as soon as the government can find some oddball teenage radical infatuated with anarchism checking out some documents on the P2P network that they'd rather he not see, they'll publish a few nice long articles in Time and Newsweek with a picture of a social-misfit-in-a-black-trenchcoat-sitting-at-his -computer under headlines like "Domestic Terrorism Hits Home: What Your Child *Really* Uses Kazaa For" and "America's Teens: The Unlikely Terrorists."
>>because that web site can be taken down. >>because it can be altered. But chances are you can still access the unaltered/still existent document using Wayback, unless the gov actually took the trouble to use a Robots.txt exclusion file -- which so far only the FBI has (because you know how tough it is to upload that robots.txt exclusion file. You might need an IQ over 68).
Here's something I don't understand: MS intentionally makes its Mac version of IE so that it's missing certain features it has in the MS version (cheap dirty bastards) and then Mac just right up and adopts it as "part" of its operating system, so that now when anyone buys a Mac OS he gets the partially-dysfunctional IE version as well. Wouldn't it be in Apple's best interests to include a _fully_ functional web browser/e-mail client with its OS's? Like...say...Mozilla?
Maybe I'm just being a curmudgeon or something, but I'm starting to get really sick of Apple's obsoletism. Once your bank account has recovered from buying one 200 dollar operating system, it's marketing a new one. Now, I was really excited when I moved up from 7.6.1 to 10.1.4 (I'm a high school student, no money of my own, subject to my parents' OS whims). And I tell you, it was great. For the first month or so. And then I found out that suddenly Apple expected everyone to have their NEW new OS if they wanted to be able to download anything whatsoever. And now you can't even find old 10.1.4 compatible versions...everyone just assumes you have hundreds of dollars to blow on whatever new thing Apple's released to render your old OS obsolete.
Freedom, perhaps, but "an excess in freedom of speech," not to mention "freedom of thought." And "by means of the dissemination of information" no less -- god forbid! The horrors of freedom of thought.
known as the human brain. archivable, back-searchable, prioritizable, even with a good selective memory feature that allows you to "forget" whatever you don't really feel like doing...it's got it all.