Agreed. Aside from obsolete hardware that was replaced with newer products, there isn’t really anything on this list that I miss except for HyperCard. Just about everything worthwhile became another product or got rolled into something else.
Oh, man. I remember that one. He absolutely destroyed that truck. What’s notable about that video is that the other trucks handled the abuse dramatically better than the cybertruck. He was determined to break every single vehicle in ways they would never actually be used, but it was laughable how bad the cybertruck was. If I remember correctly, he made the wheels fall off and had to get it repaired in the middle of the “test”. I think the Ford was still running at the end.
Kobo has an equivalent to Kindle Unlimited (as well as a good store). It also integrates directly with Overdrive so you can download free library books directly to your device. I recently switched to one and it's superior in just about every way.
No issues here. I liberated my kindle library and put it in Google Drive. The Kobo can download books from there out of the box. The Kobo store works fine too, although a lot of books barely have any reviews if you’re into that. I have the Kobo Libra Colour and it’s by far the best reader I’ve ever owned.
Not to mention it’s as easy to download books from Anna’s Archive as it is to buy them from Amazon. It’s weird going through so much effort to lock down books people already paid for.
I wonder how much this is about making it difficult for people to migrate to another platform. I recently switched to Kobo and the reader is far superior to Kindle. I had a hell of a time moving my library though.
I suspect at least some of this comes from publisher pressure. An acquaintance works for one of the big global book publishers and his general sense from upper management is that they still hate having to sell digital books.
It feels like the last major media industry that is holding out against a "future" that has been here for a long time already.
It's all from external pressure. Amazon spending energy on ebook DRM is a negative ROI activity for them.
A vanishingly small % of would-be ebook buyers even know pirated ones exist, and an even smaller one knows how to get those onto their Kindle.
My wife buys dozens of ebooks per year on Amazon, her friends too. I'm guessing if I poll that group, none of them would even know where to start, nor care to.
"Piracy is almost always a service problem" is also true. I see a lot of people who were risen on a pirated .mp3 and .epub to move to the streaming platforms just because it's a bit more convenient.
Yes totally agreed. I pay for streaming music and for Youtube because the costs make sense to me for what I get.
I used to pay for Netflix but now that there's so many different streaming services I have returned to the high seas because we just don't watch enough shows (maybe 3-5 shows a year?), yet they are spread across different services that all cost $20/month now, so the costs don't make sense for us.
For books, honestly, I refuse to accept that an EPUB costs $25 when the hardcover version costs $30. I also have heard first-hand how little of that $25 goes to the author (for the average author, not for a famous one)..
I do try to buy digital books directly from authors when I can, which is increasingly an option from upcoming writers, but otherwise, yarrrr...
This applies to newspapers too — if you compare the print version to the online version of a newspaper you notice that there's a lot more attention paid to the paper version. Whereas the online version has all kinds of aggressive banners and ads.
I think it's a generational thing, for a lot of publishers the internet is this newfangled thing
It gets even weirder in the Netherlands were the book industry has created a cartel. They have a minimum price that you cannot go under.
Of course what happened is that lots of people just started to import English paperbacks bypassing all the local laws. The price difference was just insane.
Dutch people in general do not have an overinflated view of their own language like in France.
This reminds me of college, where I used to take my textbooks to the local copy shop to get the pages sliced out and three-hole punched so I only had to carry around currently relevant chapters rather than 30 lbs of books.
As for e-books, long story short, my low-tech chop-and-punch method tended to be cheaper and/or more convenient than the available legal e-book options at the time.
I considered scanning, and even had access to a sheet-fed duplex scanner, but given that the only mobile device I had at the time, a 17" PowerBook G4, was both awkward as an e-book reader and heavier than the unbound printed pages I was carrying around, it wasn't worth the hassle.
I actually bought a special flatbed book scanner where the glass was flush with one side and scanned every page of a book and then returned it. Scanning was tedious but not too bad while watching a good show or movie and getting my money back felt so good. Adobe Acrobat Pro can convert 800MB of scanned pages into a 70MB PDF with searchable and copy-able text.
Given how quickly full-quality releases of movies and TV shows appear after they're first streamed, this is surprising to me, at least so long as the PC and/or Android Kindle apps continue to exist.
That’s actually really cool and I don’t feel like it’s invasive. It’s surveillance in a specific location for a specific purpose and in response to certain emergencies. Active shooter is probably the first thing that comes to mind, but accidents, fires, unexpected disasters, etc. could all be situations where this technology helps assess the situation and inform response.
"CITIZEN there has been a report of a shooting in the area, please remain motionless as we scan your face for biometrics.
Scan complete. Please do not move or attempt to leave the area until you have been notified via the 'GovernmentForYou' app that you are cleared to leave the area.
Because you have been identified in the active area police have been granted legal probable cause to search your home. Please unlock your homes doors via any smart home app you have to prevent the authorities from forcibly removing your door onsite
Notification. Citizen because of your scan you have been identified as committing a bank fraud case in North Dakota and will be detained and transported (the move process takes 2-4 weeks). Once in North Dakota your right to a speedy trial will start if you are held more than the reasonable 60 day administration period.
Have a good day citizen and thank you for your cooperation."
$1000 doesn’t cover the cost of a moving truck to get your stuff from one end of a small town to the other. In terms of moving costs to relocate from another state, it’s less than negligible. It wouldn’t influence my decision at all and wouldn’t put Detroit on my list of places to consider. If they want to attract talent and entrepreneurs they need to do better.
Many cities are offering more. Evansville, IN is offering 3k cash + other non cash incentives. Other Indiana cities give you up to 12k downpayment assiatance on a house.
I'll give you $20 to drive across the country to deliver me a pizza. At least it's not nothing right? As if getting a small amount of cash is even in the equation at all. The 99.999% bulk of the deal is uprooting your life to live in Detroit. I wouldn't move 30 minutes away from my home for $1000. It wouldn't even cover the PTO I have to take much less the moving costs.
It is and that’s great. I guess it counts for something if Detroit is already on my list, but it’s not what puts Detroit on my list in the first place. A multi-year break on property taxes or incentives like low rate SBA loans or tax credits to move my business would be more interesting.
Iran claimed today that they have a new homegrown air defense system in use. I saw another report about a new Chinese system deployed in Iran that was used to hit the F35.
Who knows what’s true, but it’s 100% clear that the administration is lying to us and maybe even to themselves. We lost multiple aircraft yesterday. That F15 would likely only be used in situations where we believe we have air superiority. The fact that it was shot down is a big fuck up and suggests the people in charge don’t actually know what they’re up against.
