I highly doubt she's being immature about the whole thing. This could be the first that has taken it one step further to actually be published AFTER she's stated or hinted that she may actually compile her own encyclopedia of sorts in the future.
The publisher isn't trying to help the work in this case, they're trying to cash-in on it and beat her to the punch. If she had the time (or made the time) to just jump right in and compile everything and publish it before or at the same time as this book based of the website, their book would probably fail miserably and seem as a hack... which it is anyway in light of that its announcement came after hers (by at least a year).
She's stated (again before this was even announced) that if she were to do it, she'd be as meticulous about it as she has been the other seven books and could take quite a while to organize everything to where it benefits the seven books and not take away anything from them.
She's said she has many notes, lost characters or character plots that could make for some interesting reading. She may never go the Tolkien route and write emails and letters to friends or other authors and hypothesize about her own characters which would later be published posthumously, but she has a chance to do something that maybe Tolkien would have done had he had the time to accomplish it.
I'm definitely not comparing Tolkien's writing to Rowling's or vice versa or quality of writing, just that they have perhaps similar quantities of back story that could answer questions or maybe just be enjoyable reading for those who are fans of the work.
The reason this is where it's at is because Rowling has said several times over the years that there will only be 7 books and IF she were to do more relating to Harry & Co it would be an encyclopedia of sorts with extra character information, dropped characters and plot lines, etc. And around the time the 6th and 7th books were being written and published she hinted on her site and in interviews that the likelihood of this happening was growing by the day.
She's said that if there was to be something published like this for it to be as complete as possible and then some - think of it as Tolkien's letters / Unfinished Tales, but since she's still young has time to flush things out and perhaps not leave the information incomplete and scattered.
What's being published is just based on her current work - written up from a website which contains all this information just based on canon. Again, to compare to Tolkien, this would be like the Arda Encyclopedia writing up everything for a book and for profit.
There has been many arguments on/. on both sides of this. One is definitely anti copyright / IP / etc... the other arguing "well, if they don't protect their IP / copyright then they may lose the right to protect it later."
This isn't someone making a derivative work or something similar. This is someone publishing something for profit about things that already exist and that the author has stated that she may have plans to do herself later down the line if not in the immediate future.
On the other side of the coin, there have been may "theory" books similar (but not really) to what is being published prior to the completion of the series. These were more analysis of what's been published and proposing questions about what may or may not happen in the future. I think these started after Book 3 or maybe Book 4 as the wait between book 4 and 5 was three years.
Actually, they would gain flickr (I mentioned this in the flickr discussion as well... and probably better suited here...). Granted that's only a part of yahoo, it's probably a good stream of revenue for Yahoo and one of the few that people will actually pay to use; getting away from the advertising business model.
There is also a lot of data (personal and otherwise) on flickr. flickr can almost be a myspace / facebook, but without the idiots as it has one purpose (photography) and not spread thin over many (attention whoring / music / etc). But really, it has just about all the same things (profile / testimonials (or photo comments) / discussion forums that are usually kept on track / all your attention whoring needs... except the ability to alter your profile page and add a bunch of stupid crap that pisses other people off).
It also gets the 30-50 year olds that have been lost in the social networking ether.
Many people defected from flickr when Yahoo completely took over (you now have to use a yahoo id), I can't imagine the amount of users who would defect in MS took over (I would be one of them).
Well, I wasn't trying to claim 'cred' with being old skool. It was simple enough as it was using a random email address (in my case, gmail) as my login. But that is superficial.
Actually, the main issue was many flickr users did not agree with the TOS changes that were to take effect and the possible affects it would have on our ability to choose the copyright settings on our photos (I believe this was discussed here (last year?) when the switch over to Yahoo became completely yahoo-based.) Yahoo has not meddled too much (if at all really) with the flickr team. Codewise I think they are using the Yahoo JS Library and probably were able to upgrade hardware, etc. But Yahoo's influence seems to be very little (flickrites were worried that flickr would go the same way upcoming.org did and actually swtich the home URL to flickr.yahoo.com or something ridiculous like that - thankfully, that did not happen).
BUT:
Almost immediately, Yahoo was pulling flickr users' photos for advertising (there was actually some tagging fun with this that got some interesting photos displayed) and for its own uses. Something that flickr itself never did except to highlight the most interesting photo of the day or to draw attention to a particularly talented photographer. A complete 180 in the usage of users' photos. flickr itself, still does this, and after the initial scoff of Yahoo using photos that were not shared ceased pretty quickly.
Can you imagine what this would be like under Microsoft's rule? I really think you would have seen more people leave flickr if this were to happen. Yahoo-Flickr offered pro-rated refunds for those not satisfied with the merger; MS would tell the users not to let the door hit their ass on the way out. I may have left as well, but I couldn't find another photo-site that was as easy to use and offered the same features for the same price. Plus I didn't want to re-upload 4 or 5 gigs of photos.
I don't think so. Google consolidated redundancies if anything (even with keeping Google Video) and possibly created a better bargaining chip for the future of the video market when dealing with networks and the like.
Whether or not it worked for the better is a different matter altogether.
Dammit! I had to sign up for Yahoo when Yahoo took over flickr. Now are we going to have to get an msn or live account? I'm willing to bet that flickr is a big big reason that MS wants yahoo.
There was a huge revolt amongst the users that had been with flickr since their early days (myself included) with many of us putting "old skool" tags on our photos and photo avatar.
Yep, went through this a year or two ago. Lost my license out of my wallet in a cab when paying with a credit card (cabbie wanted to verify I was the card holder). Called the TSA and the airline and they "flagged" me, but all that I had to do was put my stuff into a red-colored bin instead of a regular gray or blue bin and was asked one or two questions about the circumstances of losing my license.
If this was Netflix working with LG and / or perhaps a cable/satellite providers to offer more movies on demand through your Netflix account, then maybe they'd have something more realistic at the moment.
While nice in theory, it just isn't possible for many developers in a business sense. Unless we want to go back to the late 90's tactic and throw a message up for users that said, "This page is not viewable in IE, please download Firefox, Opera, etc".
While I understand that Verizon wants to drop overhead, in some way it does make sense. They were the ones crippling their phones at the start and their version of firmware / software changes that is usually the cause of bad phones. Now, if they're not updating the phone at all, why not send support for tech issues to the manufacturer?
I've known many people, including myself, that have had to hard-reset their phones over the last year or two, losing ring tones, games, pictures and contacts. Aside from ring tones and games, the others don't cost money but probably hold great (if not greater value) to the user.
But they will only only be able to pay for the rest of the Windows licenses after Ballmer sends the first 1000 licenses upfront, which will enable them to free up the treasury money.
Did I justify anything? That wasn't my intention. Management condoned this if not pursued this way of 'business life' themselves. And if you think that was bad, the managing directors / partners were worse. Entertaining potential clients at places like Ruth's Chris (usually more expensive places) then capping the night off at a strip club. When in NYC it wasn't unheard of to goto a place like Scores. I know better now 7 - 8 years later (hell, I knew better then when they shut their doors in 2001), but fresh out of college, just turned 21, I didn't question it, I was riding high and had 3 offers waiting upon graduation. It was a hedonistic extension of college. (I did ask why once, they replied, "it's how we can compete against the Big Five.") It was even more ridiculous that much of this had continued after the first stock crash of March/April 2000!
This is what went on at the company for which I worked. And from others I've met over the years, it's what happened at other dot-com consultancies that had huge bankrolls of VC money.
Company policy was if you can travel elsewhere for less than you could travel back home on the weekends it was approved. All travel arrangements were made by resource (or project) managers through a travel agent, I just gave preferred dates of travel.
I was more surprised flying first class to a simple orientation week in Boston, during which had someone come up to me saying my first assignment will be in Chicago, asking what dates I was able to travel and having an itinerary show up in my email within a few hours with similar accommodations.
For long term projects (I was usually on these) they were supposed to find us corp-apartments, but usually this just turned into a month at the W then two weeks in a corp-apartment once one opened up.
Slashdot Mirror
I highly doubt she's being immature about the whole thing. This could be the first that has taken it one step further to actually be published AFTER she's stated or hinted that she may actually compile her own encyclopedia of sorts in the future.
The publisher isn't trying to help the work in this case, they're trying to cash-in on it and beat her to the punch. If she had the time (or made the time) to just jump right in and compile everything and publish it before or at the same time as this book based of the website, their book would probably fail miserably and seem as a hack... which it is anyway in light of that its announcement came after hers (by at least a year).
She's stated (again before this was even announced) that if she were to do it, she'd be as meticulous about it as she has been the other seven books and could take quite a while to organize everything to where it benefits the seven books and not take away anything from them.
She's said she has many notes, lost characters or character plots that could make for some interesting reading. She may never go the Tolkien route and write emails and letters to friends or other authors and hypothesize about her own characters which would later be published posthumously, but she has a chance to do something that maybe Tolkien would have done had he had the time to accomplish it.
I'm definitely not comparing Tolkien's writing to Rowling's or vice versa or quality of writing, just that they have perhaps similar quantities of back story that could answer questions or maybe just be enjoyable reading for those who are fans of the work.
The reason this is where it's at is because Rowling has said several times over the years that there will only be 7 books and IF she were to do more relating to Harry & Co it would be an encyclopedia of sorts with extra character information, dropped characters and plot lines, etc. And around the time the 6th and 7th books were being written and published she hinted on her site and in interviews that the likelihood of this happening was growing by the day.
/. on both sides of this. One is definitely anti copyright / IP / etc... the other arguing "well, if they don't protect their IP / copyright then they may lose the right to protect it later."
She's said that if there was to be something published like this for it to be as complete as possible and then some - think of it as Tolkien's letters / Unfinished Tales, but since she's still young has time to flush things out and perhaps not leave the information incomplete and scattered.
What's being published is just based on her current work - written up from a website which contains all this information just based on canon. Again, to compare to Tolkien, this would be like the Arda Encyclopedia writing up everything for a book and for profit.
There has been many arguments on
This isn't someone making a derivative work or something similar. This is someone publishing something for profit about things that already exist and that the author has stated that she may have plans to do herself later down the line if not in the immediate future.
On the other side of the coin, there have been may "theory" books similar (but not really) to what is being published prior to the completion of the series. These were more analysis of what's been published and proposing questions about what may or may not happen in the future. I think these started after Book 3 or maybe Book 4 as the wait between book 4 and 5 was three years.
No, then you just have the result where cars jump the light knowing that there is a pause.
Doesn't this already happen in Boston?
Don't tell the Scientologists... You'll only arm them!
Actually, they would gain flickr (I mentioned this in the flickr discussion as well... and probably better suited here...). Granted that's only a part of yahoo, it's probably a good stream of revenue for Yahoo and one of the few that people will actually pay to use; getting away from the advertising business model.
There is also a lot of data (personal and otherwise) on flickr. flickr can almost be a myspace / facebook, but without the idiots as it has one purpose (photography) and not spread thin over many (attention whoring / music / etc). But really, it has just about all the same things (profile / testimonials (or photo comments) / discussion forums that are usually kept on track / all your attention whoring needs... except the ability to alter your profile page and add a bunch of stupid crap that pisses other people off).
It also gets the 30-50 year olds that have been lost in the social networking ether.
Many people defected from flickr when Yahoo completely took over (you now have to use a yahoo id), I can't imagine the amount of users who would defect in MS took over (I would be one of them).
To where, however, is the question.
Well, I wasn't trying to claim 'cred' with being old skool. It was simple enough as it was using a random email address (in my case, gmail) as my login. But that is superficial.
Actually, the main issue was many flickr users did not agree with the TOS changes that were to take effect and the possible affects it would have on our ability to choose the copyright settings on our photos (I believe this was discussed here (last year?) when the switch over to Yahoo became completely yahoo-based.) Yahoo has not meddled too much (if at all really) with the flickr team. Codewise I think they are using the Yahoo JS Library and probably were able to upgrade hardware, etc. But Yahoo's influence seems to be very little (flickrites were worried that flickr would go the same way upcoming.org did and actually swtich the home URL to flickr.yahoo.com or something ridiculous like that - thankfully, that did not happen).
BUT:
Almost immediately, Yahoo was pulling flickr users' photos for advertising (there was actually some tagging fun with this that got some interesting photos displayed) and for its own uses. Something that flickr itself never did except to highlight the most interesting photo of the day or to draw attention to a particularly talented photographer. A complete 180 in the usage of users' photos. flickr itself, still does this, and after the initial scoff of Yahoo using photos that were not shared ceased pretty quickly.
Can you imagine what this would be like under Microsoft's rule? I really think you would have seen more people leave flickr if this were to happen. Yahoo-Flickr offered pro-rated refunds for those not satisfied with the merger; MS would tell the users not to let the door hit their ass on the way out. I may have left as well, but I couldn't find another photo-site that was as easy to use and offered the same features for the same price. Plus I didn't want to re-upload 4 or 5 gigs of photos.
I don't think so. Google consolidated redundancies if anything (even with keeping Google Video) and possibly created a better bargaining chip for the future of the video market when dealing with networks and the like.
Whether or not it worked for the better is a different matter altogether.
Dammit! I had to sign up for Yahoo when Yahoo took over flickr. Now are we going to have to get an msn or live account? I'm willing to bet that flickr is a big big reason that MS wants yahoo. There was a huge revolt amongst the users that had been with flickr since their early days (myself included) with many of us putting "old skool" tags on our photos and photo avatar.
They could probably do something pretty interesting with upcoming.org.
Shouldn't that be hard-on?
You underestimate the camwhores that will want to show off for the cable guys.
Druidia!
U2 thinks they are still relevant?
Yep, went through this a year or two ago. Lost my license out of my wallet in a cab when paying with a credit card (cabbie wanted to verify I was the card holder). Called the TSA and the airline and they "flagged" me, but all that I had to do was put my stuff into a red-colored bin instead of a regular gray or blue bin and was asked one or two questions about the circumstances of losing my license.
If this was Netflix working with LG and / or perhaps a cable/satellite providers to offer more movies on demand through your Netflix account, then maybe they'd have something more realistic at the moment.
While nice in theory, it just isn't possible for many developers in a business sense. Unless we want to go back to the late 90's tactic and throw a message up for users that said, "This page is not viewable in IE, please download Firefox, Opera, etc".
While I understand that Verizon wants to drop overhead, in some way it does make sense. They were the ones crippling their phones at the start and their version of firmware / software changes that is usually the cause of bad phones. Now, if they're not updating the phone at all, why not send support for tech issues to the manufacturer?
I've known many people, including myself, that have had to hard-reset their phones over the last year or two, losing ring tones, games, pictures and contacts. Aside from ring tones and games, the others don't cost money but probably hold great (if not greater value) to the user.
But they will only only be able to pay for the rest of the Windows licenses after Ballmer sends the first 1000 licenses upfront, which will enable them to free up the treasury money.
Or you can just call and say you're going out of the country. Same with AT&T a friend of mine just did this with his iPhone.
If this will lead to a drug to help those who suffer from amnesia, that would be terrific.
Wouldn't surprise me considering how much alike the lawyers for each operate.
I'm glad the German government / courts have some common sense unlike their American counter-parts. First Scientology now this!
This is what I told them when I setup a friend's (as well as my) connection. I refused to let their technicians touch the machines.
Did Google recently hire a bunch of former White House spindoctors?
Did I justify anything? That wasn't my intention. Management condoned this if not pursued this way of 'business life' themselves. And if you think that was bad, the managing directors / partners were worse. Entertaining potential clients at places like Ruth's Chris (usually more expensive places) then capping the night off at a strip club. When in NYC it wasn't unheard of to goto a place like Scores. I know better now 7 - 8 years later (hell, I knew better then when they shut their doors in 2001), but fresh out of college, just turned 21, I didn't question it, I was riding high and had 3 offers waiting upon graduation. It was a hedonistic extension of college. (I did ask why once, they replied, "it's how we can compete against the Big Five.") It was even more ridiculous that much of this had continued after the first stock crash of March/April 2000!
This is what went on at the company for which I worked. And from others I've met over the years, it's what happened at other dot-com consultancies that had huge bankrolls of VC money.
Company policy was if you can travel elsewhere for less than you could travel back home on the weekends it was approved. All travel arrangements were made by resource (or project) managers through a travel agent, I just gave preferred dates of travel.
I was more surprised flying first class to a simple orientation week in Boston, during which had someone come up to me saying my first assignment will be in Chicago, asking what dates I was able to travel and having an itinerary show up in my email within a few hours with similar accommodations.
For long term projects (I was usually on these) they were supposed to find us corp-apartments, but usually this just turned into a month at the W then two weeks in a corp-apartment once one opened up.