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Books

Submission + - Print on Demand Publisher VDM infects Amazon (realtimerendering.com)

erich666 writes: In recent months a flood of so-called books have been appearing in Amazon's catalog. VDM Publishing's imprints Alphascript and Betascript Publishing have listed over a total of 57,000 titles, adding at least 10,000 in the previous month alone. These books are simply collections of linked Wikipedia articles put into paperbacks, at a cost of roughly 40 cents a page or more. These books seem to be computer-generated for the most part, which explains the peculiar titles noted such as "Vreni Schneider: Annemarie Moser-Pröll, FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, Winter Olympic Games, Slalom Skiing, Giant Slalom Skiing, Half Man Half Biscuit." Such titles do have the marketing effect of turning up in many different searches. There is debate on Wikipedia about whether their "VDM Publishing" page should contain the words "fraud" or "scam". VDM Publishing's practice of reselling Wikipedia articles appears to be legal, but ethically questionable.

Amazon customers have begun to post 1-star reviews and complain. Amazon's response to date has been, "As a retailer, our goal is to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any item they might be seeking." The words "and pay us" were left out. Amazon carries, as a Googled guess, 2 million different book titles, so VDM Publishing is currently 1/35th of their catalog, and rapidly growing.

Input Devices

Best Mouse For Programming? 569

LosManos writes "Which is the best programming mouse? Mandatory musts are wireless, and that it doesn't clog up like old mechanical mice. Present personal preferences are for: lots of buttons, since if I have moved my hand away from the keyboard I can at least do something more than move the pointer; sturdy feeling; not too light, so it doesn't move around by me accidentally looking at it." What would you recommend?
Movies

Blockbuster Total Access Unannounced Policy Change 250

NuclearCodeMonkey writes "Blockbuster Total Access has changed the terms of its user agreement without notice to users. Previously, users could return online (mailed) rentals in-store for free rentals. The next set of online rentals was immediately mailed out. Now, without notice, they have changed their policy so that the in-store free exchanges count against you, and no more online rentals are mailed out until the in-store rentals are returned. No wonder they are closing stores and losing to Netflix! Needless to say I am canceling my account in protest." Update - 3/15 at 11:55 by SS: NuclearCodeMonkey has sent new information about an email from Blockbuster which clarifies the situation. Read on for his follow-up.

Comment Re:Away with the App store please (Score 1) 75

Some cell phone companies block users from installing *anything they want* in their Windows Mobile devices (AT&T for instance). In the end it's about the user experience, and their perception is that these phones do not allow installation of apps, unless you purchase them from the carrier's website.

You may say that unlocked phones allow installation of any app, but then, their price is not as attractive to the end user as the subsidized iPhone price is.

Cell phones and PDAs in America are simply a money making machine for the Cell Phone operators. The iPhone, Android are the first steps to open this market and move it away from the operators, with more variety and options, but we still have the censorship of Apple for their App store.

Let's hope the Android takes off and becomes a standard, so that we can have the freedom to control our own phones.

Comment What happened to Rama? (Score 1) 396

What ever happened to Rama's movie adaptation with Morgan Freeman? Googling it shows several accounts that it won't happen.
That would have been a good one for a movie, and even a series of movies based on the series of books.

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