paper books are better and you can get them cheaper than ebooks most of the time
“The books will stop working.”
371–380 of 457 posts
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#372My grandmother is in her late 90s, has dementia, and is in a care home. My mother sent me this update last week: > Went to see Granny yesterday, was quite cheerful, read though the poems in "When we were very young"[0], her original copy[1], given to her in 1928, how about that. She knows them off by heart and joins in when you read them to her Q: When we're in our late 90s, how many of us will be able to consume 90-…
I've been hoping this nostalgia trend will end. It's time to move forward. Instead of teaching kids about Shakespeare, we should be teaching about Super Mario for cultural history. Why should anyone care about poems or poetry? It was the entertainment of the early-print society, it has comparably little value today.
If you ever feel inclined, take some courses in any cultural or art history department at a somewhat reputable college or university.
You will see professors are already tying "classics" to current cultural products. Drawimg parallels, discussing patterns and influences.
We jumped from Nietzsche to Japanese manga.
It's not either/ or, it's both.
I was at SFSU and Amsterdam uni. YMMV.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because our collective western culture is still the direct product of Greek philosophy no matter how many mario kart games are released. The books in the western canon are important because they are good and went on to influence everything you consume today, even the narrative in super mario. Take some time to read a good chunk of these books and you will be wiser than most people you know on all sorts of topics.
My view is quite different. They're just stories that anyone could have told and don't contain any unobtainable wisdom. The people that told those stories simply existed before us. In many ways the stories are inferior to their modern counterparts.
If you're only in for the fun, maybe (and only maybe). But this kind of limited fun is really a puny part of life.
Those stories that "anyone could have told" went through the ages through these specific people, in this specific form.
When you have knowledge of history, of old texts, your self is equipped to be free from manipulation of those that pretend that "things weren't this or that way, but my way" for their own benefit, because you know, because you have something material that holds together, that went through the trial of time, that says otherwise.
The modern counterparts, for instance, pick hugely on old stories, old arcs, and old myths.
But you only get that when you care to read and appreciate old stuff.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#374This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened, either. Amazon, before they introduced the Kindle, used Adobe DRM for ebooks. I lost a book I'd bought through them when they switched to Kindle. The thing that really gets me is I had to register my book to buy it, with my email address . They had my address, and couldn't even be bothered to send me an alert, telling me that the DRM servers were being decomm…
I have 300+ books purchased and read on iOS Kindle, after buying Neal Stephenson's latest recently I discovered it has an obnoxious popover Audible ad on the page browse screen which must be re-dismissed each time you open the book. I was shocked how quickly it totally ruined the experience of reading a book. I haven't read more than about 10 pages on Kindle since, and I can't bear to buy another kindle book knowing…
Wait... you bought the book and still got ads? That's unacceptable.
Ask for a full refund and never ever buy anything from that company again.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
The general principle of removing DRM is forbidden, at least in the US, which is presumably why DRM removal tools are distributed through the same shady web sources as pirated content. "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201
But if it is circumvented then it wasn’t effectively controlling access; therefore, this isn’t applicable. A savvy lawyer might argue that’s not what’s meant by effectively, but it’s at least a little ambiguous.
The ambiguity is resolved by the explicit definition provided in the section: 'a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.' So the word 'effectively' isn't very effective here.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Turns out this guys was right: https://www.jwz.org/doc/backups.html
NSFW: FYI if you click that link and the referrer is hacker news it redirects you to a nice picture of a testicle in a cup, first thing in the morning. (it redirects to : https://imgur.com/32R3qLv ) The link is fine, just don't click it from here -- well, unless cup-testicles are your bag. Pun intended.
That is the best use of a referrer I think I have ever seen. Off to boil an egg now.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you implying that DRM is a solution to piracy? If anything, DRM is a big driver for piracy, and its success rate is near zero. Virtually all major DRM-"protected" works are available on thepiratebay shortly after release. Sometimes before release. The "better solution" is to treat your customers with respect and let them own their bought goods. Gog.com is a good example here, in my opinion. What definitely doesn'…
Its fine to have an opinion on how things should be, but some of your assertions are not based on facts. >Virtually all major DRM-"protected" works are available on thepiratebay shortly after release. Sometimes before release. "Virtually all Server OSs get hacked/have had security bugs. Nobody should use them to host or store anything." All you're saying is that DRM isn't perfect. Nothing is perfect, and it isn't exa…
This is a very old debate. It was settled a long time ago. Restrictive copyright protection measures hurt sales. Because it prevents potential customers from trying your products. Anyone arguing otherwise is motivated by something other than facts, history, logic.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
If/when Stadia and the like take off, and streaming-only games appear, we can forget about that too. By the way, this is just one of the many reasons why I think that streamed games are very much an anti-consumer move and should not be paid for in any circumstance, to prevent normalization.
That could easily be extended to "streamed media" in general - or, more accurately, Media as a Service. Going further, Software as a Service - or at least the part that falls under FSF's "Service as a Software Substitute" (SaaSS) - is an anti-consumer move too. Related, the trend of tying physical products to Internet services in a blatant attempt to turn ownership into renting is a hugely popular and a hugely anti-c…
Some anecdata to counter that idea: A significant part of German movie piracy is done through streaming as it allows the uploaders to monetize through ads.
Piracy as a service, so to say.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Turns out this guys was right: https://www.jwz.org/doc/backups.html
NSFW: FYI if you click that link and the referrer is hacker news it redirects you to a nice picture of a testicle in a cup, first thing in the morning. (it redirects to : https://imgur.com/32R3qLv ) The link is fine, just don't click it from here -- well, unless cup-testicles are your bag. Pun intended.
I knew about that and tried beforehand to see if I needed to put a warning, but it doesn't trigger anymore for me so I thought this article was exempt, or he removed it. Maybe it's Safari that properly strips the referer.
Re: “The books will stop working.”
#380I think that if something is DRMed like this the seller should be legally required to use the word rent instead of buy. And place the length of rental(licensing), which will require them to operate the server until that point.