The article notes that the charge is for medical calls to emergency services and not fire-related calls. They'll also be soaking non-residents who call with a $400 bill for the call.
I found the joke at the end of the article distinctly un-funny: "[City Councilwoman]Tucker said one person joked if her husband has a heart attack, she’ll be tempted to light the kitchen table on fire to dodge the fees."
Given the problems with DRM, and the general contempt publishers have for book quality when it's electronic(some of the typos are horrible: "It's oven" for "It's over!" in Turtledove's "How Few Remain) I'd love to know how publishers can justify more-than-paperback prices for what their policies have made a demonstrably-inferior product.
I quite agree. With so much going on, both on and off the net, the *ONLY* market they'll get to buy is the "just gotta have it" crowd. Many of the rest will stick movies in the Netflix queue (external memory) and let them show up in the stream whenever.
The rest are lost to both the studios and, sadly, probably Redbox.
But... the whole point of this exercise is to force people to *buy* see-once movies? (walks off laughing like hell)
Anybody remember the classic remark by the publisher of the Harry Potter series in regard to eBooks?
“I think they’d understand that if we don’t provide it they can’t have it.”
I suppose ol' Edgar is looking at that and saying "It didn't hurt Harry Potter sales." Of course, one has to wonder whether he noticed the fact that FANS went out and created a complete, fully-proofed and corrected set all on their own, or that the necessity of actually buying a reading electronic copy of the books has evaporated.
One of the hardest things for anybody to do is admit "I screwed up." It's at least an order of magnitude harder when the screwup is 1. major, 2. corporate, and 3. very, very, public.
So the MPAA, the RIAA, and the Authors Guild/Publishers all go down the same path, trying the same doomed remedies, getting their butts kicked, and then, rather than admitting they've dropped important bodily parts into a wood chipper, they can turn around and scream "It's the pirates! You've got to stop them!" For too many people in such organizations, seeing themselves as "right" is placed at a higher priority than surviving.
I just realized, after all this time, just WHY I became a "die in my tracks for them" fan of Baen Books. They have, in effect, been following this model for a decade with their eBooks and "Baen's Bar"(bar.baen.com).
Connect with Fans: The Bar does that, in spades. It's a place to share news, discuss the books, both with each other *and* with the authors, and the publisher even has a forum of her own, where she regularly fields questions and gathers comment. Between Toni and the authors, it is made quite plain that we're not dealing with a faceless publishing entity filled with (shudder) suits.
Reason to Buy: Some eBooks are available free, with option to pay to support the "Baen Free Library." Others are available in monthly "bundles" at $15 a pop, with individual eBooks at $6. Plus "Advance Reader's Copies" at $15 for early access to not-yet-ready-for-prime-time books.
Every book arrives as an eBook, generally (you listening Macmillan) arriving two weeks ahead of the paper books, including hardcovers.
And, everywhere and always, no DRM. A lot of people treat the eBooks as samples. Read some ("Hey, this is GOOD!) and go out and get paper. Others, like me, buy every eBook they can afford, read every eBook they have time for, and tell people about them. The wall outside my office has color copies of the book covers for eBooks I've read, and I'm not shy about explaining why I liked them. ("Run! Geoff just put up a new cover!")
Baen has, by all accounts, made money from eBooks since day zero, and has seen year-over-year sales increase even in this economy.
I've noticed that it's endemic to companies whose specialties involve communications. Google is such a company, even if their specialty is linking advertisers to customers.
The old Ma Bell and Xerox in their heydays didn't listen to what people wanted or needed. This has been equally true of their successors in the various cell-phone/land-line/ISP areas. Comcast and Verizon's crappy customer service are legendary.
And the grandest examples of all, the movie, recording, and publishing industries are pretty much stone deaf to feedback, unless it's what they're willing to hear, and accompanied by bushels of $$$$.
And that's the ultimate limit to the effectiveness of security data mining, or any other alarm system. It's my understanding that the "safest, newest" reactor at Three Mile Island had so many "safety" systems that, when something went wrong, there were too many alarms going off for the operators to figure out which one was the critical alarm in time to do anything effective to prevent the meltdown.
Same thing here. If you're gathering so much data that it takes longer to process the data and find the warning than the time before the attack begins, the system's useless.
Actually, it would seem he DOES have grounds here.
The article specifically mentions this:
In the Dominick's ad, for example, the top half of the ad congratulates Jordan and features his trademark number, 23, while the bottom features a coupon on a Rancher's Reserve steak, a trademark of Dominick's parent company, Safeway.
So at least as far as Dominick's is concerned, while I doubt anybody would actually see the ad as an endorsement by Jordan, the coupon makes the ad commercial use of his name, which (IANAL) would seem to make it clearly infringing.
The situation with Jewel's may be similar, although all the report mentions is a congratulatory ad which ends with Jewel's "just around the corner" slogan.
As a-dub said, "just put congrats Jordan and be done with it."
eBook readers have always been pretty much irrelevant to me. I started around 1999 when I discovered Baen was publishing eBooks I could (gasp) stuff into my Palm Pilot. After that, and my discovery of Fictionwise's open formats, all equally Palm-stuffable, I never looked back.
I tried a Cybook e-ink reader a year or two ago, bought in a mad moment, and discovered that the "blink" between pages (if you want a *clean* page display) made me dizzy and sick. I immediately went back to the PalmOS brigade.
Besides, why the [obscenity] should I carry one gadget for my schedule/addressbook/checklists AND a separate book reader. Sure, with font set to LARGE BOLD to accommodate 60-year-old eyes, I have to down-click a lot, but I don't even notice that. I just read.
THAT's why open gadgets and formats are so effective. *I* choose HOW I shall read, and don't have to say "mother may I?" to anybody.
Also, with open formats, if the publisher doesn't have what you personally like, you can roll your own. Again, I praise Baen for teaching me that. They don't produce my favorite plaintext plus _italics_, but two minutes with a regular-expression-oriented editor and an HTML file, and I've got one ready to hotsync. I've even got scripts to do the job.
It may be a real-life version of what I have gathered is a military joke of long standing, that one of the requirements for promotion to the rank of Major is a lobotomy.
Perhaps in this case, it's simply a requirement for being a Sony executive.
I have no quarrel with paperback-level prices for eBooks. The fixed costs that go into a *quality* book involve the author's time and effort, plus copyediting, proofreading, possibly story conferences with the editor, etc. etc. Those costs aren't going to change much because they're all *people* costs.
And I'm very big on publishers and authors eating hot food and sleeping indoors, if only for the selfish reason that it allows them to produce more of my favorite addiction.
Be it also noted. I despise attempts to price eBooks at the same level as hardbacks. For one thing, I don't buy hardbacks any more unless the name of Lois McMaster Bujold is on the cover, or they're from Baen, who I figure doesn't charge enough for their eBooks. Cheap eBooks, at least in my life, *can't* "cannibalize" hardcover sales because I don't buy the hardcovers. Period. I buy the electronic editions for me, Bujold hardcovers for my wife and niece, and Baens for the local library, to create new addic... er... fans. :)
On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300
More Information On This Is Available
The article notes that the charge is for medical calls to emergency services and not fire-related calls. They'll also be soaking non-residents who call with a $400 bill for the call.
I found the joke at the end of the article distinctly un-funny: "[City Councilwoman]Tucker said one person joked if her husband has a heart attack, she’ll be tempted to light the kitchen table on fire to dodge the fees."
On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300
I think Bill Cosby asked the real question here.
On the post: Book Publishers Circulating 'Talking Points' To Counter Arguments That Ebook Prices Need To Go Lower
Re: Sign
On the post: Redbox Caves To Warner Bros., Will Delay New Movie Releases From Kiosks
Re:
On the post: Redbox Caves To Warner Bros., Will Delay New Movie Releases From Kiosks
Re:
The rest are lost to both the studios and, sadly, probably Redbox.
But... the whole point of this exercise is to force people to *buy* see-once movies? (walks off laughing like hell)
On the post: Viacom To Record Labels: If You Want More Money For Music In Video Games, We'll Find Other Music
Ahhh. The Bloomsbury Approach to Marketing
“I think they’d understand that if we don’t provide it they can’t have it.”
I suppose ol' Edgar is looking at that and saying "It didn't hurt Harry Potter sales." Of course, one has to wonder whether he noticed the fact that FANS went out and created a complete, fully-proofed and corrected set all on their own, or that the necessity of actually buying a reading electronic copy of the books has evaporated.
On the post: Author's Guild Didn't Want To 'Pull An RIAA' But Still Misses The Point
Re: HI LAZY artists
On the post: Author's Guild Didn't Want To 'Pull An RIAA' But Still Misses The Point
Why am I _not_ surprised?
So the MPAA, the RIAA, and the Authors Guild/Publishers all go down the same path, trying the same doomed remedies, getting their butts kicked, and then, rather than admitting they've dropped important bodily parts into a wood chipper, they can turn around and scream "It's the pirates! You've got to stop them!" For too many people in such organizations, seeing themselves as "right" is placed at a higher priority than surviving.
On the post: Australian Court Says Men At Work's 'Down Under' Infringes On Folk Song; Only Took Decades To Notice
I've noticed a pattern here.
Might I respectfully suggest that you consult your doctor about your medication schedule? :)
On the post: Merriam Webster Dictionary Pulled From Elementary School For Defining Oral Sex; Guess What All The Students Just Found Out About?
What's the fuss about?
On the post: Billboard Gets Snarky; Not A Believer In CwF + RtB
CwF + RtB epiphany
Connect with Fans: The Bar does that, in spades. It's a place to share news, discuss the books, both with each other *and* with the authors, and the publisher even has a forum of her own, where she regularly fields questions and gathers comment. Between Toni and the authors, it is made quite plain that we're not dealing with a faceless publishing entity filled with (shudder) suits.
Reason to Buy: Some eBooks are available free, with option to pay to support the "Baen Free Library." Others are available in monthly "bundles" at $15 a pop, with individual eBooks at $6. Plus "Advance Reader's Copies" at $15 for early access to not-yet-ready-for-prime-time books.
Every book arrives as an eBook, generally (you listening Macmillan) arriving two weeks ahead of the paper books, including hardcovers.
And, everywhere and always, no DRM. A lot of people treat the eBooks as samples. Read some ("Hey, this is GOOD!) and go out and get paper. Others, like me, buy every eBook they can afford, read every eBook they have time for, and tell people about them. The wall outside my office has color copies of the book covers for eBooks I've read, and I'm not shy about explaining why I liked them. ("Run! Geoff just put up a new cover!")
Baen has, by all accounts, made money from eBooks since day zero, and has seen year-over-year sales increase even in this economy.
CwF+RtB indeed!
On the post: Once Again, Google's Customer Service Is Becoming An Issue
Communications companies can't communicate.
The old Ma Bell and Xerox in their heydays didn't listen to what people wanted or needed. This has been equally true of their successors in the various cell-phone/land-line/ISP areas. Comcast and Verizon's crappy customer service are legendary.
And the grandest examples of all, the movie, recording, and publishing industries are pretty much stone deaf to feedback, unless it's what they're willing to hear, and accompanied by bushels of $$$$.
So Google's problem is a surprise how?
On the post: More Surveillance Can Make Us Less Safe
There are only so many hours in a day
Same thing here. If you're gathering so much data that it takes longer to process the data and find the warning than the time before the attack begins, the system's useless.
On the post: Guy Buys $3 Billion CD-ROM
Yes, the buyer should be forced to pay up.
cf. Bankruptcy Filings - As Ye Sow So Shall Ye Reap
On the post: GSM Encryption Cracked... GSMA's First Response? That's Illegal!
Ms. Cranton obviously worships the Goddess of Institutional Inertia
On the post: Don't Celebrate Michael Jordan's Accomplishments, Or He Might Sue You For Trademark Infringement
Actually, it would seem he DOES have grounds here.
The article specifically mentions this:
So at least as far as Dominick's is concerned, while I doubt anybody would actually see the ad as an endorsement by Jordan, the coupon makes the ad commercial use of his name, which (IANAL) would seem to make it clearly infringing.
The situation with Jewel's may be similar, although all the report mentions is a congratulatory ad which ends with Jewel's "just around the corner" slogan.
As a-dub said, "just put congrats Jordan and be done with it."
On the post: Sony Ebook Boss: DRM Needs To Stay And Ebooks Should Cost More Than $10
Re: Irrelevant?
I tried a Cybook e-ink reader a year or two ago, bought in a mad moment, and discovered that the "blink" between pages (if you want a *clean* page display) made me dizzy and sick. I immediately went back to the PalmOS brigade.
Besides, why the [obscenity] should I carry one gadget for my schedule/addressbook/checklists AND a separate book reader. Sure, with font set to LARGE BOLD to accommodate 60-year-old eyes, I have to down-click a lot, but I don't even notice that. I just read.
THAT's why open gadgets and formats are so effective. *I* choose HOW I shall read, and don't have to say "mother may I?" to anybody.
Also, with open formats, if the publisher doesn't have what you personally like, you can roll your own. Again, I praise Baen for teaching me that. They don't produce my favorite plaintext plus _italics_, but two minutes with a regular-expression-oriented editor and an HTML file, and I've got one ready to hotsync. I've even got scripts to do the job.
Where's yer closed formats the noo?
On the post: Sony Ebook Boss: DRM Needs To Stay And Ebooks Should Cost More Than $10
Re:
Perhaps in this case, it's simply a requirement for being a Sony executive.
On the post: Sony Ebook Boss: DRM Needs To Stay And Ebooks Should Cost More Than $10
Re: Nope
And I'm very big on publishers and authors eating hot food and sleeping indoors, if only for the selfish reason that it allows them to produce more of my favorite addiction.
Be it also noted. I despise attempts to price eBooks at the same level as hardbacks. For one thing, I don't buy hardbacks any more unless the name of Lois McMaster Bujold is on the cover, or they're from Baen, who I figure doesn't charge enough for their eBooks. Cheap eBooks, at least in my life, *can't* "cannibalize" hardcover sales because I don't buy the hardcovers. Period. I buy the electronic editions for me, Bujold hardcovers for my wife and niece, and Baens for the local library, to create new addic... er... fans. :)
On the post: Sony Ebook Boss: DRM Needs To Stay And Ebooks Should Cost More Than $10
MediaFuturist has some interesting commentary, too.
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