See no evil.
Apr. 23rd, 2011 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reddragdivaNewsTechnica: "Free books for everyone," advertise publishers; Last Supper of Christ "happened in tenth dimension"; Virgin Media to sell 1.5 gigabit Internet to complete cocks; British girls' drinking culture just not up to scratch.
It's Easter break! And Freda is being a LITTLE TERROR. The ice cream pushers are hovering around the playgrounds, and of course she wants one. And turns into a crack-addled screaming horror within an hour. Doesn't do this at home. My mum says I wasn't like this after having an ice cream, so this is all original. I have taken to telling her that if she starts screaming I will leave her there and go home, which seems to work.
I have written new NewsTechnica for the first time in months. Because I just happened to damn well feel like it. (And updated the sidebar with "Top stories for 2010".) Don't get used to it.
(The publishing one is particularly apposite in that I am contemplating an excellent Bad Idea that involves dealing with artists. I know precisely how the record industry destroyed itself, and good fucking riddance; but I'm puzzled that it is actually possible for any author whatsoever to make cash directly from ebook publishing, even if they're just writing pulp. Why haven't books gone straight to zero the way records have? More in a later post, which some of you will have a draft of in your email.)
Another go at Pembury tomorrow likely. Anyone else?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 03:08 pm (UTC)I also suspect that book readers are a bit more conservative than music listeners -- if they can get ebooks at sensible prices from a website that they trust not to stuff the files full of surprises (here in Nicaragua, buying a DVD on the street gets you everything from a decent copy of a movie to blank DVDs and a range of things in between).
Have records gone straight to zero? One factor is it's now easier for bands to make their own CDs or DVDs and sell directly to the audience. Previously, making a record took equipment that cost serious money, from the recording studio to the record manufacturing. Record companies tried to get the same prices or more for CDs, but it was far easier to make a CD at home than it was to make a record at home.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 07:13 pm (UTC)(The only ebook format on BlackBerry is .mobi, which is a pain in the backside. And goddamn, Calibre is ugly shit and needs to be taken out and shot, or at least the file conversion part separated out so I never need to start the actual application.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 08:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 08:48 pm (UTC)I use pandoc and it's fine. I've not used Kindlegen.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 11:23 pm (UTC)I can read ebooks on my Sony-Ericcson Xperia 10 mini, but that's theoretical in two different ways as I need to get the machine back from its second trip to Managua to be updated to Android 2.1 (Claro Nicaragua and Claro Guatemala decided they/it didn't trust customers enough to let them upgrade by the net for free but seem not to get "Please upgrade this machine to Android 2.1 or don't charge me and tell me when Android 2.1 will be available in this market)."
The other reason reading on the Mini is theoretical is that it's got the smallest screen of all the Androids. It's small enough to pass for yet another Claro cheap brick phone, which is useful in Nicaragua.
I think Kindles could be somewhat cheaper ($75) but probably never as cheap as a US $16 dumb phone.