Not all libraries require an MLS for full-time work, but enough of them do that it's problematic. A woman I know worked for a library system for ages with a BA, was stuck at part-time with no benefits. Had to have her gall bladder removed. It was cheaper for her to fly to Thailand with a companion for a week or two than to have it done without insurance, but that's a different rant.

On a more direct note, my sister-in-law with a BA has worked for two library systems without a MLS, full-time, and is even doing research for profs.

I think a lot of it is on the dynamic of knowing that you only have 24 or 36 shots in your 35mm that you pay more attention to the photos that you take, versus being able to shoot hundreds of hi-res images on a DSLR for zero expense and weed them later. But it can also be a question of skill or luck, being able to get that peak moment that makes the shot.

My first camera was a Yashica Mat-124G 120 roll film camera, 6x6cm negatives. Manual everything, and only 12 or 24 shots per roll. I worked the summer of my freshman (HS) year mowing lawns in Phoenix earning money for it. In my opinion, it is unsurpassed as the best camera to truly learn photography if you are serious about it as you must pay very close attention to composition and exposure. Plus, the prints that you get out of a 2.25 square inch negative can be amazing.

I sometimes think DSLRs make everything too easy. Now everyone has a camera built in to their phone, and anyone can buy a good digital camera for very little money. And it's ruined a lot of markets for photography. A friend of mine worked for years developing very good skills, got a great set of pro equipment, and was making a decent living shooting weddings, quincenaras, and kid soccer team shoots. A woman came in with an entry-level DSLR and started shooting weddings for $100. Her quality was absolutely crap, but she ruined my friend's business because he refused to shoot weddings that cheap, and people wouldn't consider the additional skill and service that he brought in to the equation.

A good camera does not a good photographer make. A good camera can take good pictures, but I'd hesitate to call them photographs. But then again, I'm a snob who's been shooting for 30+ years.

There's a Brit (IIRC) who took an 8x10 view camera and mounted a flat-bed scanner to it. I think it produced hundreds of megapixels, but with very slow exposure and B&W-only. Unfortunately the site that I saw it on is long-gone. You remove the glass from the scanner and mount it to a film slide, carefully aligning the scan plane with the film plane. Focus and compose on the ground glass, make the swap, and you're off and running. You just need a scanner that can be powered by USB, so the capturing laptop can do it all.

To say it was awesome is to do the results an injustice.

I've been shooting for over 30 years and love working in the darkroom, I've always found something viscerally satisfying about inserting a white sheet of paper in the developer and watching the image emerge. But those days are pretty much over for me. I don't have access to a darkroom, I don't have a place to set one up in my house, I don't like the continuing cost of chemicals and paper since I'm unemployed and there are no good photo labs near me, plus the unemployed bit. My Canon 6D is a one-time expense (well, maybe in 5 years I'll buy a new body), and I don't make a lot of prints. I also prefer filters, I've got a 77mm circular polarizer on order and I'm very intrigued by these variable neutral density filters, but I also use Photoshop and Premiere. I've scanned something like over 100 rolls of film and just found another box of negatives, so I'm looking forward to finding out what they reveal. I just wish I could find my 6x6cm negatives.

Audiophile isn't exclusively quackery, it's personal preference plus discretionary funds. When I bought my first receiver, the store was having a two-for-one sale on B&W speakers (which I still have, probably close to 30 years old). I was doing A/B comparison between two comparable receivers from the same manufacturer, and settled on the old one because I liked the sound better. The salesman didn't believe me. When I went back a few days later to pick up my kit, he said 'You're right, the receiver that you bought does sound better. I went back in and did some more A/B comparisons, and it's a better-sounding receiver.'

For me, now in my early 50s with horrible tinnitus and sometimes needing hearing aids, MP3s ripped at max settings sounds fine as far as I'm concerned. Which is sad, but that's the way it is.

Ah, memories. Buzz Jenson's Sound Advice was a great place. I don't know of any audio/video-only stores in Phoenix anymore that are only A/V.

I read your sig as Modest doubt is called the bacon of the wise. I like my version better, though I'm not sure what it means.

Clark's Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist says something is possible, he's probably right. Corollary: When a distinguished but elderly scientist says something is not possible, he's probably wrong.

In a way, this is a core question in library science regarding censorship: does failure to carry an item constitute silent censorship? In libraries, the effort is to carry quality representations of multiple sides of an issue, even one that you may personally disagree with. But in this case, considering the bajillions of books and other items that Amazon carries in its cavernous warehouses across the United States and the world, operated by low-paid drones, also assuming they carry many other titles by the same publisher or author, then yes, it would seem to me to be abusing its position.

Having said that, there are other posts to this story that say the book is available on Amazon in a variety of formats.

4KTB. ROFLMAO!

I'd love an affordable tape backup system that had about 10 TB+, but I'm not going to buy Sony.

My Model 100 still works, though it's in a closet at the moment. And my Apple Newton works just fine. I wish my Palm Pilots had fared as well, but I don't trust anything that rides all day in my pocket to survive like that.

He's Canadian. The preferred execution method is Boot to the Head.

That is an excellent line, sadly I'll probably fail to remember it. Much thanks.

I've actually shown her that episode of The Tick! She didn't find it as amusing as I do, but I'm a lot more weird than she is.

She's not a swimsuit model, and frankly I wouldn't want one, too high maintenance. But she is good enough for television: at least two BBC productions and one Japanese production have been made because of this lunar laser ranging program. Still, we're celebrating our 9th anniversary in June, and the coolest thing is that she found me through online dating even though I was 500 miles away.

So to my fellow geeks: there is hope, and patience is sometimes rewarded.