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12/08/09
12/08/09
In many cases the ebooks cost just pennies less than physical copies, with all of the restricted use that goes with the digital download. Ereaders are not purchased at their premium price to save pennies per purchase, and the companies have no right charging even 80% of full price for a digital restricted copy of a book.
12/07/09
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12/07/09
Want to know who gets hit hardest and first during a recession? Paper/lumber companies. Order fewer gadgets? The producing companies order fewer boxes. Buy fewer books? Order fewer piece of paper. While from an environmental standpoint this isn't necessarily bad, it eliminates jobs that aren't easily replaced. Which increases the strain on social resources such as unemployment and welfare systems.
12/07/09
And increases job in manufacturing, tech and IT, while creating a better venue for writers of all kinds. It's much easier for authors to get their work electronically published, which while creating so much chaff, makes the risky masterpieces much easier to get out there.
The problem with your argument is that it's in essence an argument against progress. Cars decimated jobs for drivers and stables. Computers decimated the typist jobs. The loom decimated weavers.
We can logically extend this argument all day long, eventually ending up with that hunter/gatherer societies were a good apogee for human progress.
I'm not saying ebooks are the future and that they're perfect and we should all have three. I'm just saying that this argument is not the best way towards making that point.
12/07/09
That's how things get better and move on. Want to know why GM went into the pooper? Because they produced cars that people didn't like enough, and paid people too much to do it. Tolerating that kind of inefficiency is bad for everyone.
12/07/09
The manufacturing jobs are not created in the US, not to mention we're not in a habit of retraining existing workers into new jobs. Companies here just lay them off outright.
We've been steadily destroying the manufacturing base of this country, and if we stop producing, we stop exporting. And that is part of what has us in such a quandry nationally.
Oh, and those gadgets? Remember where I said they get packaged in paper? Only, fewer of them are being sold right now, so those same workers are still hurt.
I'm not against e-readers. I just don't think they're all that great, and that they do pose a significant problem. I'd also be interested to see a pollution comparison between making an e-reader and getting it to market vs a book.
Plus, it's a lot harder to burn your e-reader to stay warm when mother earth suddenly flash freezes the planet like in the Day After Tomorrow.
I'm not a luddite, I just understand that you cannot keep destroying the manufacturing base of this country and expect it to continue to compete in a world market. The IT jobs are also already being outsourced heavily to other countries, as are call centers.
Having worked for a country that was swallowed up by a very large Indian company, I know first hand how they plan to bring products to market while maintaining a minimum of US national workforce.
12/08/09
When you have a huge gap in education like we do in the US and you come from a poor school, you need those manufacturing jobs to get ahead in life.
Only, people like you keep buying stuff from Walmart because it's slightly cheaper.
Sometimes you do need to pay more on principle. Because if you don't, you're killing the jobs around you. This is why I support real farmer's markets, small businesses, and local industries.
12/08/09
Can you say your life is better for e-books being around? Can you say your life will be better when there is only one or two e-book reader companies that all have their own proprietary format and can set their own pricing for how much writers get for their books?
At least the hunter gatherer societies were far less wasteful and damaging to the environment than the current one, and they readily lived within their means.
12/08/09
Read my whole post. I didn't say ebooks were the best thing ever, and that sliced bread better watch it's back. I said that claiming they're bad because they hurt an older industry won't get you anywhere. I don't have an ebook, and I'm not lining up to get one (though if I got a nook for christmas I wouldn't cry).
It's true that it will damage the US printing industry. It's already suffering, and not because of stuff like ebook readers. It's something that has been brewing up for a long time, and killing an ebook reader won't save it.
Actually, it's worse. You're going to lose those jobs anyway, ebook or no ebook, since Sony will step up to the plate and deliver one since there's a market for it (which you admit by being afraid of it's effect). The difference is that you can lose them to an american designed product, or a japanese designed one. It's not necessarily progress, if you prefer to see it that way, but how can you expect to keep the manufacturing base of the US if you block technical and technological innovations?
If you go this route, there are only two ways to keep the manufacture base open. The first is protectionism, which will be counterproductive if you have the slightest interest in exporting. The second is letting the US become a third world country, which I'm guessing you'll consider to be worse.
12/08/09
I generally don't shop at WalMart, and I'm a huge fan of Farmer's Markets. You want to know why? Because that's the product I want. That's how markets work. Protectionism doesn't work in the long run.
The education issue is a strong one. If America was properly educating its youth, we'd be able to send manufacturing jobs off the Shenzen or Guangzhou without having a heart attack, because those "unemployed" workers would now be free to do entrepreneurial, value creation activities. This isn't always possible, but America has done it in the past (look at jeans and t-shirts (previously high-tech jobs), vs. Google and Microsoft). And yea, now the big G and M are going to hire cheaper workers out of this country.
Two things on that. 1) It's pretty damn self-centered to think that only Americans deserve opportunities. 2) As a top-tier developed country, we can expect to fill in a higher level of thinking to supply those jobs.
Again, on a tech blog, where do you think that computer you use was made?
12/07/09
Amazon, or whomever controls the e-book industry, can effectively rewrite not only stories, but history.
12/08/09
11:04 AM
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
So, what, I shouldn't have bought the 50-odd books I've purchased and read this year, especially all the ones I couldn't find locally but could get on Amazon?
...yeah. Right.
Idiots.
12/07/09
Not until people start cracking amazon books, it will be just as slow as always.
12/07/09
You just have to know where to look.
They're not as popular because not as many people read, and even now I think people prefer the physical book over an ebook.
12/07/09
Trust me, I know where they are, but author's don't have to be afraid.
It can sometimes take many months for someone to get a book to digital format and upload to such a place. I see more tech manuals and textbooks go than regular authors by far.
They don't need to worry. Yet.
12/07/09
12/07/09
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12/07/09
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
I typed in Bill Simmons, and it gave me 3 pages of results, A LOT of which were duplicates, and NONE were for any of the Bill Simmons I was looking for.
Now if I search on Amazon, the book I'm looking for is the first thing it showed.
I might look at a Nook in say 2 years, after they shake themselves out. For now, I'm perfectly happy with my Sony.
12/07/09
12/07/09
They must have fixed it, because the 3 pages of things it finds are the same things it found in my first 2 searches.