McGraw-Hill Allegedly Leaks iSlate/iPad

McGraw-Hill CEO Confirms Apple Tablet, iPhone OS Based, Going to Be “Terrific”

Shit, does he think that thing on his head is “terrific” too?

Do you realize you look basically like that, McGraw?

Barnes & Noble Nook Buyer Horror Story

Learn from my misery: Don’t buy a nook.

This is a lengthy post that is worth reading because it’s an absolutely breathtaking clusterfuck of bad customer service.

It’s like Barnes & Noble does hire people with brains — but somehow behind the scenes refuses to let them use their brains.

Barnes & Noble should make this better than fixed. You do that, B&N, by refunding the purchase price of that Nook, making it free, and throwing in two — yes, two — free $100 Gift Cards.

What, you’re going to squawk because your incompetency has a penalty on one sale? It should have a penalty for something this staggeringly stupid — and that’s it. And think of all the potential sales that post is killing. Fixing this ASAP is cheap in comparison.

Make it better than fixed, Barnes & Noble. All of the Internet is watching.

Apple’s iSlate Gives Book Publishers False Hope

Disney bought Marvel for over four billion dollars.

Four billion dollars!

In my lifetime I have seen a comic book company aimed at children go from being printed on rotten paper with the worst four-color printing and a rotten distribution system to something that became worth four billion dollars.

Marvel. Comic books. Adults were ashamed to work in comic books!

Marvel! Home of Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Thor, Hulk, Man-Thing, Ant-Man, X-Men.

Think about those characters.

New York Times Bizarre Metered Model Of FAIL

The New York Times Announces Plans for a Metered Model for NYTimes.com in 2011

NEW YORK, Jan 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The New York Times announced today that it will be introducing a paid model for NYTimes.com at the beginning of 2011.

The new approach, referred to as the metered model, will offer users free access to a set number of articles per month and then charge users once they exceed that number. This will enable NYTimes.com to create a second revenue stream and preserve its robust advertising business. It will also provide the necessary flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio between free and paid content and stay connected to a search-driven Web.

And how precisely is this going to work?

Cookies? FAIL!

Log-in? FAIL!

Forget it.

This is what you do instead.

You create a daily New York Times Lite. It summarizes everything. This Lite version is absolutely free. And you let everyone link to it — because this is marketing.

For people who are enticed by a summary and want to read further, that’s when you stick up the gate and demand payment.

Your meter will be shredded within hours of its appearance.

Really, do you guys just want to continue to bleed to death?

I Help OK Go Give Some Back

The OK Go Fracas

The truth is OK Go’s fighting for its career with its hands tied behind its back.

Piss off EMI.

And from the band itself:

Open Letter From OK Go, regarding non-embeddable YouTube videos

When push comes to shove, however, we like our fans more, which is why you can take the code at the bottom of this email and embed the “This Too Shall Pass” video all over the Internet.

This is 2010. We must all give some back.

Another Reformed Hippie Decrying Hippedom

World Wide Mush

On the other hand, we made a huge mistake in making those contributions unpaid, and often anonymous, because those bad decisions robbed people of dignity. I am appalled that our old fantasies have become so entrenched that it’s hard to get anyone to remember that there are alternatives to a framework that isn’t working.

This guy got tons and tons of press over a decade ago.

Check your back issues of Wired magazine.

If I had told him back then that what he was advocating was suicidal bullshit that would bring down everyone, he would have laughed in my face.

But now that he has finally seen the light, he expects by virtue of his own revelation, everyone else will now wake up.

Yeah, right.

Welcome to your offspring laughing in your face now.

You made this shit. Now pay for it.

Desperate U.K. Newspapers Get Stupid

The Right to Link: the right to create, forward and follow links.

Why do we need a campaign to protect the right to link? Well moves are afoot in the marketplace that could lose us internet freedoms that we have taken for granted till now. Most of us aren’t even aware it’s happening.

This is absolutely stupid.

If UK newspapers think I’m going to land on their cloggy front pages when all I want to do is read one of their articles, they’ve got their heads stuffed up their bums.

As they withdraw from the Internet, I’ll see fewer and fewer of their items. Is that really what they want — fewer readers?

Now Google Can’t Be Trusted To Be Google!

Google Blocking Negative Search Recommendations On Islam – Why?

They have devastating screensnaps. I’ve verified it myself.

And I also tried it out with another group:

And I tried some others…

I Don’t Like The Future Apple And Google Are Creating

Exclusive: Apple to Buy Quattro Wireless for $275 Million

Google (GOOG) recently forked over an astonishing $750 million for Silicon Valley’s AdMob, a Quattro competitor, which Apple (AAPL) had also made a bid to acquire.

Both innovative start-ups are aimed squarely at the fast-growing market to advertise on smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices.

I do not like this at all.

Apple and Google are two of the smartest and most nimble companies on this planet.

They are now revealing they see the same economic future I’ve been seeing.

* We’re all shit poor
* We can’t afford shiny devices
* We can have the shiny devices for free if we are bitches to their ads
* The ads will be intrusive and inescapable
* Some ads will require “opting-in”
* Every ad will cause a privacy invasion
* No ads, no opting in, no services: no voice, no data, no nothin’
* Apple and Google have more data about us than every government agency

Some disgusting fanboiz out there will cheer each company for their foresight, so they can keep up their supply of shiny toys.

I wasn’t put on this earth to be anyone’s ad bitch.

You Won’t Be Published, You’ll Only Be Robbed

I am not rehashing this damned issue again. I’ve done it in several past posts. Go read those or just STFU when you’re left holding nothing because you stupidly signed a contract with a bastard print publisher.

At Mike Cane 2008:

Writer 2.0: Realize Your Investment
Quote: Matt Fraction
Suit Bastard Print Publishers NAILED!
MammothMedia Loses Another Pair Of Balls
Tonight’s TV: Monopoly!
You CAN Fight And WIN!
Writers: Laugh Last, Laugh Best

At The eBook Test:

Quote: Writer M.J. Rose
The Authors Guild Leadership: 21st Century Chamberlains
Writer Ursula K. Le Guin Nails Authors Guild
Edgar Allan Poe Knew The Score In The 1800s!
Writing Quote Of The Year: Paul Witcover
YOUR Creation, YOUR Work, YOUR Art
Quote Of The Day: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
TV’s Bonanza: With Charles Dickens

Additional:

In 2010 Give Some Back
For Writers Only