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Censorship

Submission + - Amazon taking down erotica, removing from Kindles (blogspot.com)

ctmurray writes: The independent writers who publish on Amazon report erotica books containing incest are being taken down with no explanation by Amazon. Selena Kitt writes " I want to be clear that while the subject of incest may not appeal to some, there is no underage contact in any of my work, and I make that either explicitly clear in all my stories or I state it up front in the book's disclaimer. I don't condone or support actual incest, just as someone who writes mysteries about serial killers wouldn't condone killing. What I write is fiction."

Kindle's own TV ad features a book that has a story line of sex between a 19 yr old and their stepmother, defined in some states as incest ("Sleepwalking" by Amy Bloom). There are other books such as the Bible that describe incest. Please read the blog post for some insightful thoughts and post suggestions on what can be done to keep Amazon off the slippery slope.

Comment Re:Write a book with code - epub (Score 1) 5

It is easy to search on Amazon if you load up your book with proper keywords. So someone looking for a book of code snippets would find you. This is how I found the Excel macro snippet book I needed.

There are Excel macro specific help web sites so I have to assume there are similar sites for the code you produced (either by language or function). If not set one up yourself. If a site exists join the community - answer people's help requests and in your sig line have a link or title of your book, subtle advertising. I am not good at social networking but I suspect you add those tools as well (Tweet about code issues). I have watched YouTube videos about coding in languages I don't know - you could create a channel there. Again cross promote the epub book.

Comment Write a book with code - epub (Score 1) 5

So write a book with your code described and listed and use epublishing to get it out. I suggest a price like $2.99 on Amazon (to get the maximum cut yet still be cheap enough for an impulse spend). Then set up a programming internet help site where you can answer questions and push your book to people who have visited. Include the option to sell them the code say they pay for a download of all the code segments . The heavy code users will pay to not to have to retype your code segments (in the epub book) and people with just a small need will get the cheaper book. Excel macro sites are set up like this, though some of them have actual physical books (I am saving you the nightmare of trying to get a book published).

BTW this advice must be paid for, thanks for subscribing....

Submission + - Comcast hit with second major outage in 8 days (informationweek.com)

ctmurray writes: Comcast cut off the upper midwest from the internet last night for 4 hours due to a DNS breakdown (including me). And this was the second outage for the same reason in 8 days, with the east coast going down on Cyber Monday. Apparently I could have surfed if I had known to switch to OpenDNS or Google's DNS, but there was nothing on the TV and Comcast phones were tied up. Not knowing this was widespread I ran through the standard song and dance of unplugging the modem and my wifi unit and waiting for them to reset. I had to call friends and do a survey to determine this was widespread. I know this is old news but I could not find any comments on /. I think the comments by /. ers would be interesting.

Comment Re:Is that all surprising? (Score 1) 250

And recognizing a familiar face in a crowd might be a good survival skill for a species so it knows when to flee. Where as the math calculations are rarely fatal so no driving force for the species to develop speed at this task. Now if everyone who was slow at the task were to be killed off, then those genetically able to do the math would be left over to pass on those genes.
Google

Submission + - Google employees get 10% raise (wsj.com)

ctmurray writes: From the article: "Just six weeks after Google and five other technology firms agreed to scrap secret no-poaching agreements to avoid a Justice Department antitrust suit, the company has given all its employees a 10% pay rise to stop them from jumping ship.

Was it a coincidence, or should Google employees be sending Attorney General Eric Holder a giant thank you card? That’s the question being asked by some tech-watchers on the west coast and antitrust lawyers in D.C."

I wish my employer felt so compelled by my mobility to give me a big pay raise.

Robotics

Robotic Hands Grip Without Fingers 105

sciencehabit writes "Physicists have designed a robotic hand that doesn't have fingers, yet can still serve drinks and draw pictures. The hand is a thin, rubber sack filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres. When it comes into contact with an object, a small pipe sucks air from the sack, causing it to contract and mold to the object's shape. As long as the gripper can fold about one-fourth of the object's surface, it can pick up just about any shape thrown in its path. The article includes a video of the hand in action."

Comment Re:May be Flamebait, but it's true. (Score 2, Interesting) 366

I too am a Mac user at home. I use Yojimbo as a catchall for important emails and web pages that I "print to Yojimbo). I also save many of these in my email program in appropriate folders (thus doubling my chances of finding something). With documents I am a good filer of information in fairly well organized folders and sub folders. At work on a PC I don't have an equivalent of Yojimbo (I wish I did and this thread reminds me to look into this further). The corporate email system (Notes) is really non-intuitive on how to save emails in folders that will be available for a long time in the future. The Notes mail database size is limited by the company so files are "archived" without my permission. And yet this does not really work well (and since not under my control I can't attempt to fix). Archives get moved to different locations (server, my computer, various folders) with each revision of Notes and receipt of new computers over time. So I gave up. I am just as good at saving documents so I can find them in the future, I just can't find the email that might have been with them. I keep a phone log at work and urgent things come in by phone or I can put down urgent To Do items as I have to look at this log regularly. Don't really use stickies on a computer for this stuff.

Comment Re:Minnesota Values... (Score 2, Informative) 345

As a Minnesotan I too am dismayed that we would be leading this transition. No matter what the proposed savings might be, it will certainly cost money in the short term. We don't have any money, but a $4B hole in the budget to fill for the next biennium. Recently we had some flooding in the southern part of the state, and it looks like we will have to borrow money to cover any aide we might want to spend on this emergency. Let some other state be the guinea pigs and see if the savings pan out. By then the economy might recover and we can get competitive bids for the services offered. Like many fads in IT or business (anyone remember Six Sigma) it does not pay to be the first on your block adopting the fad.

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