The year 2009
Dirk van den Boom
mood at the end of the year. It has been somehow triggered
by a recent announcement of Amazon Germany that even here,
where development like that normally takes a little bit
longer, the sale of electronic books (EBooks) has
outnumbered dead-tree-versions in christmas-shopping for the
first time in history. This is probably connected both to
the launch of the Kindle in Germany as well as the proactive
marketing of other reader-producers during the last
Frankfurt bookfair, especially with Sony being quite visible
in Germany for that matter (my own reader is, consequently,
a Sony :)).
Over here, Ebook-sales are just beginning to emerge. I
wonder what this development has in store for us, especially
for small presses. There has been for some years an
online-store for SF/Fantasy-related material from small
presses in ebook-formats, but my royalty statements have
been relatively meagre during this period, and I'm not the
only one. Big publishers still don't differentiate between
the price for a dead-tree-version and an ebook. This makes
many reluctant to buy. I wouldn't mind paying the same
amount for an ebook if I'd know that the royalty for the
author is more than for the dead tree, which, at least in
Germany, mostly isn't.
Still, I'm confident that also over here we will come to use
the new technology in a positive manner for both customers
and authors involved. It just might take us a little bit longer.
My own writing has been quite fruitful this year. Still, not
the major breakthrough, no bestselling status, no fame, no
17year old girls screaming "I want to have your baby!", but
I have been productive and I have publishers which actually
pay me and I don't have to pay them. Therefore, I count
myself lucky. I've done too many translations in 2009, which
took too much of my time. For the next year, I decided to do
less in that area. Bill's Zooks and another Gor, but that
should be it. More of my own writing in the pipeline. I have
great hopes for my alternative-history-series which starts
coming year. Some weeks ago, "Spiegel"-online made a nice,
quite informed and positive article about the "1632"-books
by Eric Flint (there is no German translation at this time).
Maybe we can expect some more of this stuff in the
foreseeable future, and maybe I can jump on the train :)
Anyway, all those of you who have not been discouraged by
anti-gay-spam and information about Indian movie-stars, I
wish you a successfull new year and everything you wish for
yourself.
Eric Ammadon
>I don't know about you, but I feel a certain retrospective
>mood at the end of the year.
For me, the end of the calendar year mostly means that the coldest
months are all around me. I feel the retrospective mood when spring
has turned to summer, thinking "Dang, got through another winter!"
>Over here, Ebook-sales are just beginning to emerge. I
>wonder what this development has in store for us, especially
>for small presses.
I still hold the belief that the future of publishing is not
dead-tree, and not ebook-formats, but realtime/online.
>My own writing has been quite fruitful this year. Still, not
>the major breakthrough, no bestselling status, no fame, no
>17year old girls screaming "I want to have your baby!",
Consider yourself lucky there because the second half of that scream,
whether stated or not, is "...then you can take care of us forever!"
> but
>I have been productive and I have publishers which actually
>pay me and I don't have to pay them. Therefore, I count
>myself lucky.
You -are- lucky, the money is trickling in its proper direction.
>Anyway, all those of you who have not been discouraged by
>anti-gay-spam and information about Indian movie-stars, I
>wish you a successfull new year and everything you wish for
>yourself.
May the trickles flowing in your direction become raging rivers.
--
arggh, is it priate day again?
Ben Crowell
> I don't know about you, but I feel a certain retrospective mood at the
> end of the year. It has been somehow triggered by a recent announcement
> of Amazon Germany that even here, where development like that normally
> takes a little bit longer, the sale of electronic books (EBooks) has
> outnumbered dead-tree-versions in christmas-shopping for the first time
> in history. This is probably connected both to the launch of the Kindle
> in Germany as well as the proactive marketing of other reader-producers
> during the last Frankfurt bookfair, especially with Sony being quite
> visible in Germany for that matter (my own reader is, consequently, a
> Sony :)).
I think amazon must have mastered Jedi mind control. Evidence: (1) They
get people to buy large quantities of DRM'd electronic books which,
based on the history of DRM'd media, will no longer be usable within
5 years. (2) They manage not to pay sales taxes in all but a few states,
even though they have physical presence in those states, and even though
Amazon "already handles the online sales of its partner, Target.com, for
whom it collects sales taxes for all but two states that assess them."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/business/27digi.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=amazon&st=cse
But I do love the fact that they're the only retailer that will sell
me DRM-free digital music downloads.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
Bill Swears
>
> iTunes no longer has DRM.
>
would allow her to download itunes music and use in on my daughters new
this Christmas MP3 player. It seems that itunes doesn't have DRM
per-se, but that their chosen format for most music isn't MP3, and that
most third party players don't recognize the format that itunes is using.
Is there some simple fix that Teri has been missing?
Bill
--
Living on the polemic may be temporarily satisfying, but it will raise
your blood-pressure, and gives you tunnel vision.
Michael R N Dolbear
> I think amazon must have mastered Jedi mind control. Evidence: (1)
They
> get people to buy large quantities of DRM'd electronic books which,
> based on the history of DRM'd media, will no longer be usable within
> 5 years.
Amazon has lasted ten years (as has Baen with non-DRM ebooks)
I assume the customers think one of more of
Kindle DRM is or will be jailbreakeable
There are enough customers to ensure continued access even if Amazon
crashes.
Even publishers who use DRM may be able to learn from experience.
--
Mike D
Ben Crowell
> My wife just went to great trouble to buy a third party software that
> would allow her to download itunes music and use in on my daughters new
> this Christmas MP3 player. It seems that itunes doesn't have DRM
> per-se, but that their chosen format for most music isn't MP3, and that
> most third party players don't recognize the format that itunes is using.
>
> Is there some simple fix that Teri has been missing?
Yep, just buy it on amazon. Amazon sells all their music in mp3 format.
Bill Swears
player, and had already downloaded 5 songs to her stereo when she
discovered that she couldn't install them on the Walkman because of file
incompatibility. In short order she found that she couldn't save them
in MP3 format from itunes, the rip to disk command wouldn't work, and
apple was uninformative as to why.
I've seen lala.com, who sells the mp3s for 0.89, and lets you sample the
entire song once for free, then you can only hear the first thirty
seconds on that computer.
John W Kennedy
> Yah, Teri bought an itunes gift card, along with a Sony Walkman MP3
> player, and had already downloaded 5 songs to her stereo when she
> discovered that she couldn't install them on the Walkman because of file
> incompatibility. In short order she found that she couldn't save them in
> MP3 format from itunes, the rip to disk command wouldn't work, and apple
> was uninformative as to why.
This is all wrong. iTunes can save to disk in MP3 format, or, somewhat
more simply, burn either a standard CD or an MP3 CD directly from a
playlist. Help gives explicit instructions. iTunes uses AAC by default
(and it has several advantages), but it is not locked down.
--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:
>>
>> iTunes no longer has DRM.
>>
> My wife just went to great trouble to buy a third party software that
> would allow her to download itunes music and use in on my daughters new
> this Christmas MP3 player. It seems that itunes doesn't have DRM
> per-se, but that their chosen format for most music isn't MP3, and that
> most third party players don't recognize the format that itunes is using.
>
> Is there some simple fix that Teri has been missing?
Dunno. I've never had any problems with it. It does use another format
which is superior in sound to MP3 (m4a, I think?), but I'd be surprised
you'd need to BUY a converter, especially since iTunes itself will burn
standard CDs... which you can rip to MP3 directly, if you prefer.
Dirk van den Boom
> Dunno. I've never had any problems with it. It does use another
> format which is superior in sound to MP3 (m4a, I think?), but I'd be
> surprised you'd need to BUY a converter, especially since iTunes itself
> will burn standard CDs... which you can rip to MP3 directly, if you prefer.
itunes uses mp4 instead of mp3 because it gives a higher
quality of sound. You can easily transform all mp4 files
into mp3 files in the itunes-Browser, it's just one click -
and then they are on your mp3-player. And no DRM anymore as
well.
Bill Swears
recognize her CD player recorder. I didn't know if that was common or
just a peculiarity of her system.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:
>> Bill Swears wrote:
>>> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:
>>>>
>>>> iTunes no longer has DRM.
>>>>
>>> My wife just went to great trouble to buy a third party software that
>>> would allow her to download itunes music and use in on my daughters
>>> new this Christmas MP3 player. It seems that itunes doesn't have DRM
>>> per-se, but that their chosen format for most music isn't MP3, and
>>> that most third party players don't recognize the format that itunes
>>> is using.
>>>
>>> Is there some simple fix that Teri has been missing?
>>
>> Dunno. I've never had any problems with it. It does use another
>> format which is superior in sound to MP3 (m4a, I think?), but I'd be
>> surprised you'd need to BUY a converter, especially since iTunes
>> itself will burn standard CDs... which you can rip to MP3 directly, if
>> you prefer.
>>
>>
> Teri's RIP button doesn't do anything. For some reason, itunes doesn't
> recognize her CD player recorder. I didn't know if that was common or
> just a peculiarity of her system.
That's a peculiarity of her system. I've used iTunes on 6 different
computers, two of them PCs, and it's worked fine on all of them. The
format, btw, is MPEG-4 audio which is higher quality than MP3 in
general, and according to a couple of people you should be able to
convert them directly over in iTunes, no special tools needed.
John W Kennedy
> That's a peculiarity of her system. I've used iTunes on 6 different
> computers, two of them PCs, and it's worked fine on all of them. The
> format, btw, is MPEG-4 audio which is higher quality than MP3 in
> general, and according to a couple of people you should be able to
> convert them directly over in iTunes, no special tools needed.
iTunes can do just about anything with audio tracks except originating
and editing. (For those, I use Sibelius and/or Audacity.)
--
John W. Kennedy
"You can, if you wish, class all science-fiction together; but it is
about as perceptive as classing the works of Ballantyne, Conrad and W.
W. Jacobs together as the 'sea-story' and then criticizing _that_."
-- C. S. Lewis. "An Experiment in Criticism"
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> On 12/28/09 8:12 AM, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:
>> That's a peculiarity of her system. I've used iTunes on 6 different
>> computers, two of them PCs, and it's worked fine on all of them. The
>> format, btw, is MPEG-4 audio which is higher quality than MP3 in
>> general, and according to a couple of people you should be able to
>> convert them directly over in iTunes, no special tools needed.
>
> iTunes can do just about anything with audio tracks except originating
> and editing. (For those, I use Sibelius and/or Audacity.)
>
I want to do some simple (or I would think simple) audio tricks, such
as reversing a sound, adding background echo, etc. I have a fairly
recent MacBook (as in bought about 6 months ago). What would give me
these capabilities, if you'd know?
rochrist
> On 12/27/09 8:53 PM, Bill Swears wrote:
>
>> Yah, Teri bought an itunes gift card, along with a Sony Walkman MP3
>> player, and had already downloaded 5 songs to her stereo when she
>> discovered that she couldn't install them on the Walkman because of file
>> incompatibility. In short order she found that she couldn't save them in
>> MP3 format from itunes, the rip to disk command wouldn't work, and apple
>> was uninformative as to why.
>
> This is all wrong. iTunes can save to disk in MP3 format, or, somewhat
> more simply, burn either a standard CD or an MP3 CD directly from a
> playlist. Help gives explicit instructions. iTunes uses AAC by default
> (and it has several advantages), but it is not locked down.
>
AMong the advantages being that it sounds far far better than an awful mp3.
Ric Locke
For the little bit of audio trickery I do Audacity is fairly
overpowered, and it runs OK on most any modern PC. I don't use the Mac,
so I don't know. I never tried to reverse a track.
Regards,
Ric
John W Kennedy
I've used Audacity to create theatre cues: add echo and a
cheap-public-address-system hum to a voice track, convert a mono track
to stereo and make a stationary source "move", mix down a synthesizer
"orchestra" that my then-PC wasn't adequate to generate all at once,
edit a music track down to a snippet with a fadeout.... I never tried
reversing, but it's there in the menu.
It's a big, scary professional tool, but simple enough once you get the
hang of it, and it works on all normal platforms. The only significant
problem is that you have to get a separate plugin to create MP3 in
particular, due to legal issues.
--
John W. Kennedy
If Bill Gates believes in "intelligent design", why can't he apply it to
Windows?
R.L.
I couldn't get the recommended plugin to work, but I found a separate
conversion program that works very well.
R.L.
netcat
I assume most of the customers simply do not consider these drawbacks at
all. Most readers do not re-read most of the stuff they read, even when
they buy hardcopy.
rgds,
netcat
Bill Swears
Which is my biggest issue with DRM. I've had enough trouble just
carrying short story text over from one OS to another, over the years.
And I do keep and reread my books. In fact, I discovered decades ago
that I really hate not having my old books around for review on desire.
Right now, I consider DRM to be the equivalent of renting out the
material with an unknown expiration date, but calling it a sale. It
isn't ethical.
netcat
wsw...@gci.net says...
> netcat wrote:
> > In article <01ca874a$6a370200$LocalHost@default>, m...@privacy.net says...
> >> Ben Crowell <crow...@lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote
> >>
> >>> I think amazon must have mastered Jedi mind control. Evidence: (1)
> >> They
> >>> get people to buy large quantities of DRM'd electronic books which,
> >>> based on the history of DRM'd media, will no longer be usable within
> >>> 5 years.
> >> Amazon has lasted ten years (as has Baen with non-DRM ebooks)
> >>
> >> I assume the customers think one of more of
> >>
> >> Kindle DRM is or will be jailbreakeable
> >> There are enough customers to ensure continued access even if Amazon
> >> crashes.
> >> Even publishers who use DRM may be able to learn from experience.
> >
> > I assume most of the customers simply do not consider these drawbacks at
> > all. Most readers do not re-read most of the stuff they read, even when
> > they buy hardcopy.
>
> Which is my biggest issue with DRM. I've had enough trouble just
> carrying short story text over from one OS to another, over the years.
Really? What sort of trouble? I still have the stuff I wrote 15 years
ago and it doesn't seem to have suffered any from moving from one system
to another. Plaintext is as readable today as it was then, on any
platform.
> Right now, I consider DRM to be the equivalent of renting out the
> material with an unknown expiration date, but calling it a sale. It
> isn't ethical.
Completely agree with that.
rgds,
netcat
John F. Eldredge
> I assume most of the customers simply do not consider these drawbacks at
> all. Most readers do not re-read most of the stuff they read, even when
> they buy hardcopy.
I once loaned one of my books to my boss, as he had expressed interest in
reading it. When he still had not returned it three months later, I
asked him how far along he was, as I was interested in rereading it. He
said, "Oh, when I finished it, I gave it to someone else. I figured
that, even though you had said you were loaning it to me, you really
didn't want it back." When I had explained that, yes, I had expected it
back, and wanted to reread it, he said, "But no one reads a book more
than once!". I had to explain that, yes, indeed, I did read some books
multiple times, if I enjoyed them.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
Bill Swears
>> carrying short story text over from one OS to another, over the years.
>
> Really? What sort of trouble? I still have the stuff I wrote 15 years
> ago and it doesn't seem to have suffered any from moving from one system
> to another. Plaintext is as readable today as it was then, on any
> platform.
I bought my Apple IIC in Germany, Christmas of 1986. Getting those
Appleworks 1.0 text files converted from 5.5" double sided floppies to
even Macintosh compatible floppies was a challenge. I just plain lost a
few short stories during that transition. Then going over to DOS files
was another challenge. Not because the text was unreadable, but because
compatible transfer media was an issue. I remember having to stream a
bunch of text-files via 1200 baud modem, then strip out a lot of stray
characters. I also used word processors on early forms of Unix and
CTOS/BTOS OS's for a lot of my early writing. It always amazed me how
many programs (like WordStar) claimed to be saving things to plain text,
but weren't.
Eric Ammadon
>On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:46:33 +0200, netcat wrote:
>
>> I assume most of the customers simply do not consider these drawbacks at
>> all. Most readers do not re-read most of the stuff they read, even when
>> they buy hardcopy.
>
>I once loaned one of my books to my boss, as he had expressed interest in
>reading it. When he still had not returned it three months later, I
>asked him how far along he was, as I was interested in rereading it. He
>said, "Oh, when I finished it, I gave it to someone else. I figured
>that, even though you had said you were loaning it to me, you really
>didn't want it back." When I had explained that, yes, I had expected it
>back, and wanted to reread it, he said, "But no one reads a book more
>than once!". I had to explain that, yes, indeed, I did read some books
>multiple times, if I enjoyed them.
So did you ever see it again?
John W Kennedy
> On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:46:33 +0200, netcat wrote:
>
>> I assume most of the customers simply do not consider these drawbacks at
>> all. Most readers do not re-read most of the stuff they read, even when
>> they buy hardcopy.
>
> I once loaned one of my books to my boss, as he had expressed interest in
> reading it. When he still had not returned it three months later, I
> asked him how far along he was, as I was interested in rereading it. He
> said, "Oh, when I finished it, I gave it to someone else. I figured
> that, even though you had said you were loaning it to me, you really
> didn't want it back." When I had explained that, yes, I had expected it
> back, and wanted to reread it, he said, "But no one reads a book more
> than once!". I had to explain that, yes, indeed, I did read some books
> multiple times, if I enjoyed them.
See C. S. Lewis: "An Experiment in Criticism"
--
John W. Kennedy
"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne
of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts"
-- J. Michael Straczynski. "Babylon 5", "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"
John F. Eldredge
No, but I was rather cautious about lending him any future books. I did
do so a couple more times, but I made sure that he understood that I
expected to get the book back once he was through reading it.
David Friedman
Bill Swears <wsw...@gci.net> wrote:
> netcat wrote:
> > In article <bP-dnd8MlNELGt7W...@posted.mtasolutions>,
> > wsw...@gci.net says...
> >> Which is my biggest issue with DRM. I've had enough trouble just
> >> carrying short story text over from one OS to another, over the years.
> >
> > Really? What sort of trouble? I still have the stuff I wrote 15 years
> > ago and it doesn't seem to have suffered any from moving from one system
> > to another. Plaintext is as readable today as it was then, on any
> > platform.
>
> I bought my Apple IIC in Germany, Christmas of 1986. Getting those
> Appleworks 1.0 text files converted from 5.5" double sided floppies to
> even Macintosh compatible floppies was a challenge. I just plain lost a
> few short stories during that transition. Then going over to DOS files
> was another challenge. Not because the text was unreadable, but because
> compatible transfer media was an issue.
It doesn't sound as though those problems have to do with "from one OS
to another."
--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of
_Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World_,
Cambridge University Press.
Eric Ammadon
>In article <8ZSdnWmaoKQwLtnW...@posted.mtasolutions>,
> Bill Swears <wsw...@gci.net> wrote:
>
>> netcat wrote:
>> > In article <bP-dnd8MlNELGt7W...@posted.mtasolutions>,
>> > wsw...@gci.net says...
>> >> Which is my biggest issue with DRM. I've had enough trouble just
>> >> carrying short story text over from one OS to another, over the years.
>> >
>> > Really? What sort of trouble? I still have the stuff I wrote 15 years
>> > ago and it doesn't seem to have suffered any from moving from one system
>> > to another. Plaintext is as readable today as it was then, on any
>> > platform.
>>
>> I bought my Apple IIC in Germany, Christmas of 1986. Getting those
>> Appleworks 1.0 text files converted from 5.5" double sided floppies to
>> even Macintosh compatible floppies was a challenge. I just plain lost a
>> few short stories during that transition. Then going over to DOS files
>> was another challenge. Not because the text was unreadable, but because
>> compatible transfer media was an issue.
>
>It doesn't sound as though those problems have to do with "from one OS
>to another."
They do indirectly given that so few formats were supported as to make
nearly a 1:1 correspondence between format and OS.
netcat
says...
But this is no longer the case.
Unless your stuff is still stuck on some exotic and ancient storage
medium, you're not going to have that kind of trouble again.
rgds,
netcat
Eric Ammadon
It's not as much of a problem now, granted. Some programs still use
proprietary data formats for storage though, to keep customers from
migrating away. I know that .doc and .rtf files are well enough
documented that it isn't an issue for those types. Other types, for
storage of music or books or whatever? I don't know, but I wouldn't
care to make assumptions. I was bitten fairly recently by an
accounting program that stored data in a proprietary data format, then
obsoleted that data format before I got around to deciding I needed an
upgrade, and I'm not happy about that one. I'd err on the side of
caution.
Bill Swears
media difficulties was when a Macintosh owner tried to let a guy run his
standard usb thumb drive on the mac, only to discover that mac
thumb-drives had internal batteries, or some such, so the generic thumb
wouldn't run on that generation of laptop. This happened here in Alaska
at UAA so it was no earlier than 2005.
netcat
wsw...@gci.net says...
> Well, sort of true. I think the last time I saw proprietary transfer
> media difficulties was when a Macintosh owner tried to let a guy run his
> standard usb thumb drive on the mac, only to discover that mac
> thumb-drives had internal batteries, or some such, so the generic thumb
> wouldn't run on that generation of laptop. This happened here in Alaska
> at UAA so it was no earlier than 2005.
>
>
Must have been an unpowered USB port. Possibly connecting it via a
powered hub would have helped.
rgds,
netcat
Bill Swears
>> media difficulties was when a Macintosh owner tried to let a guy run his
>> standard usb thumb drive on the mac, only to discover that mac
>> thumb-drives had internal batteries, or some such, so the generic thumb
>> wouldn't run on that generation of laptop. This happened here in Alaska
>> at UAA so it was no earlier than 2005.
>>
>>
> Must have been an unpowered USB port. Possibly connecting it via a
> powered hub would have helped.
>
> rgds,
> netcat
laptops. I'm just noting that there are still some difficulties
switching between systems.
Bill