Cooler Adds Google’s One Million ePubs Of Crap!

Click = big
Red underlining by me.

COOLERBOOKS.com announces Google partnership

Wow. Just wow. So eager to proclaim themselves “the largest ebookstore in the world,” they apparently don’t give a damn that they’re palming off utter unreadable crap to their customers.

Previously here:

Suckups, Suckers, And Sloppiness Mislead eBook Readers
Google’s One Million eBooks Of Crap!

And Sony Thinks IT Can Format eBooks?!!?

Just look at this:

It’s The Collectors by David Baldacci.

That’s done by Sony’s people (whether in-house or a service bureau doesn’t matter — these are the Formatting Priesthood Sony blesses with paychecks for their toil!).

That’s an eBook in Sony’s locked-down proprietary — and now being kicked to the curb — format, BBeB. You know BBeB, the format that Sony created just for its Reader. BBeB, the format that Sony wouldn’t provide creation tools for everyone to create their own eBooks. BBeB, the format that Sony charges at least two hundred dollars for each title to a publisher to convert into.

Sony still requires publishers to go through its people even for ePub.

How stupid is that?

What kind of world does Sony exist in where there is no Atlantis and no SIGIL?

If Sony had created the Internet, it’d be exactly like AOL was: based on a proprietary and stupid scripting language (Rainman — I kid you not!) that made grown men cry.

Let go, Sony!

Your own formatting is shown to be crap at times. You think writers who want to succeed would do worse on their own?!

Sony Drowns In Its Own Juices Of Unreality

Scott McKain clued me in to a post by Bob Lefsetz that is absolutely worth reading in its entirety, but I can’t resist quoting two bits of it.

e-books

My inbox is cluttered with mail from people railing against pirates, telling me that music is fairly priced at over ten dollars a CD. Think of all the effort! Think of all the mouths to be paid! Think of all the enjoyment!

What I love to tell these assholes is to continue to stare into the screen… What’s the value of their computer? You can buy one for $400, but the CPU, the RAM, never mind the monitor…what’s the value? Oh, don’t tell me about creativity, the artist toiling in isolation. Do you know how much research, how much effort goes into these technological revolutions? Furthermore, unlike you and your lazy ass, these programmers, these researchers, work almost ’round the clock, not tweeting to the faithful saying how great they are, but focusing on breakthroughs. The work ethic of the average person stinks…and you wonder why he’s broke and complaining.

Emphasis added by me.

Although I disagree with his perspective on how artists work (there is much slack time precisely because it isn’t science, like those researchers do), that still made me laugh.

And a stab at Sony, which really deserves it:

Meanwhile, Sony, a name revered only in the minds of oldsters, has a competing product that’s overpriced and under-featured. But Sony just announced that they too will have wireless downloading. With a one inch larger screen, which will be touch-sensitive, yet more expensive. Howard Stringer needs to be waterboarded. Doesn’t he get it, that the old Sony paradigm is dead? Where you overpay for the name, believing you’re getting a premium product? Sony’s TV sales have tanked, the PS3 is a disaster, yet he can’t compete on price with e-books?

Emphasis added by me.

Howard Stringer has been and continues to be a disaster for Sony.

Read the entire post by Lefsetz. It’s sooo good.

And what the hell is Sony doing with its Publishers Portal? Nothing as far as I can tell!

Here’s a lesson for Steve Haber, who apparently still frikkin needs to learn what the hell to do with that Portal:

Order generated without design can far outstrip plans men consciously contrive.

— economist F.A. Hayek

Stop trying to plan success, goddammit. Open the gates and let loose the dogs of war!

We now live in a world with Atlantis and SIGIL. Any writer can now create 100%-compliant ePub!

Previous posts about Howard Stringer:

Will Sony Even Exist In Five Years?
Sony’s Howard Stringer Is Delusional
When Will Sony Wake Up?
OMFGZZ!!!1 Sony’s Stringer Has Heard Of eBooks!
Sony Fumbles Its eBook Reader
Sony, The New Titanic?
Sony’s In Worse Shape Than I Thought