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Submission + - History repeats itself: KDP Select is Amazon.com's "Payback for Playback" (eviscerati.org)

brennanw writes: "Anyone who was active on mp3.com during the late 90s/early 2000's will find Amazon.com's KDP Select awfully familiar: authors who make their works exclusive to Amazon compete for a pool of money. Any time someone "borrows" one of their books, they get a cut of a monthly sum (700K in January, 600K for February) based on how many of their books were checked out vs. how many other author's books were checked out. This is almost identical to the "Payback for Playback" service MP3.com provided musicians a little over a decade ago. Payback for Playback effectively destroyed the original MP3.com artist community, and I don't think KDP Select is going to be much different for the self-publishing community that is growing on Amazon."

Comment Here's what I'm getting from this article... (Score 4, Funny) 78

... indentity theives have to create private accounts in cyber crime stores. o_O

When they're buying their batch of stolen credit card numbers, probably with another stolen credit card number, does the store then steal the stolen credit card number and start using it themselves? Which they might then add to the next batch of stolen credit card numbers... which the identity thief might then buy back the next time he buys a new batch of stolen credit card numbers...

... it's the cycle of crime!

Comment You do, Internet. You deserve better. (Score 0) 470

Yes.

Yes you do.

You do deserve better ebooks. Because the current quality of ebooks is destroying the Internet, and, dare I say it, destroying the fabric of America itself. And as every red-blooded American knows, the Internet and the United States of America ARE EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

Every night I weep, weep bitter tears, at the terrible, terrible, quality of ebooks infesting our world. Me, I blame socialists. Or fascists. Or communists. Or atheists. Or Christians. It's the socio-fascist-communo-godless-theocratic industrial complex destroying the world one lousy ebook at a time.

... which is why you should immediately run out and buy a copy of Pay Me, Bug!, available on Amazon.com (Kindle), Barnes and Noble (Nook), Smashwords (epub, Kobe, PDF, LRF, PalmDoc), and iTunes. It is the only chance we all have to ensure a better tomorrow.

Comment My predictions... (Score 1) 357

... since he was so faithful to the concept of John Constaine, Keanu Reeves will be cast as the Doctor.

One of his companions will be a street-smart, wisecracking black man.

One of his companions will be a 20-something slacker genius computer hacker (hollywood-style)

The third companion will be Mary Jane Smith, played by either Christina Ricci or Angelina Jolie

The hacker will manage to hack into the heart of the TARDIS by guessing its password, which will be "TARDIS"

The TARDIS will be updated so that it's chameleon circuit is stuck on the form of a porta-potty. hilarity will, of course, ensue.

Comment ASUS eee Pad Transformer with Dock (Score 1) 425

The tablet alone is a good tablet, but with the keyboard it becomes what a netbook always wanted to be but could never quite manage to pull off.

15 hours of battery life -- good for an entire school day and then some. Physcially connected keyboard (useful if the campus has bluetooth restrictions). keyboard also has full-sized USB connector (2) so you can back it up to thumb drive for use elsewhere... As for specific android apps, that's sort of a mixed bag. None of the "office compatible" apps have spellcheck, which is annoying, but if you're looking for something just to put notes in the Polaris Office that comes preloaded with the ASUS is more than sufficient.

Comment My only complaint with CM7 Nook... (Score 2) 183

... is that using the touch screen is difficult at the very edge of the screen. This is really only a problem with some applications that put buttons in the corners, like Tweetcaster. Also, the Nook reader is very hard to use unless you pump up the dpi to make the graphical elements larger.

But that kind of stuff is pretty trivial.

Also, a dual-core 7" tablet for $200 is pretty sweet, especially if it's as hackable as the original.

Comment That's not a huge problem... (Score 2) 177

KDE is already involved in the changes it wants for QT that are KDE-specific, aren't they? It's not like that would stop development cold. Hell, it might even make it easier for them to get the changes they want put in. Whether that adversely effects the rest of the developers who use QT for other things... well, I can't speak to that.

Comment Cheaper? (Score 1) 666

I figured glossy screens were cheaper to manufacture in mass quantities, so they became the new standard. I have no idea if that's true or not. I too miss the matte lcd screens, even though the colors aren't usually as bright I find the screens are easier to look at in almost any lighting.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Help Desk webcomic turns 15 1

It's not particularly notable to the /. crowd at large, but some of you might find it relevant. Help Desk, a webcomic I started on March 31, 1996, turns 15 today. Announcement and introspective ramblings here: https://www.ubersoft.net/news/2011/misc-help-desk-turns-fifteen-today

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