Ooooo, shiny!!: Comments

Comment on "New Mac?"

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:56:20 -0500

I use a 24" one for all my design work and its beautiful, I used to be a windows fan but when I saw it I was converted. I know its not supposed to be about looks with computers but they do look great!

- Mega Discount Codes

Comment on "OpenID"

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:21:27 -0500

Yeah, it's cool.

Best regards,
Tom Johnson

- Tom

Comment on "Remix Culture"

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:47:51 -0500

There is a better version available at:

http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/content/improved-lessig-keynote-video-aka-version-2

Eric

- ERIC AITALA

Comment on "Remix Culture"

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:35:12 -0500

Thanks for the heads-up on Lessig's keynote - it's exactly what I was looking for.

- Fair Trade

Comment on "Amazon Kindle"

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:49:14 -0500

I guess it is Amazon's attempt at vertical integration which really bothers me because it creates a level of control over books (or ebooks) that scares me.

If you buy a book, its yours, you can do what you want with it. Buy an ebook and you can only do what Amazon wants you to do with it. If they are successful in taking out the publishers, what happens then? Just as I don't want my only news source to be Fox News, I don't want Amazon to be my only source for 'printed' material.

I don't trust Amazon's recommendation system for one second - I have found reviews of HD TVs, for example, extolling their virtues and how great the Super Bowl looked when the TV being 'reviewed' was not even available until March.

- ERIC AITALA

Comment on "Amazon Kindle"

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:08:29 -0500

"What is the role of a publisher when they don't have to actually print anything? Why should they even make any money here - can't I just publish my Lab Manual directly through Amazon and have all the money go into my pocket?"

With all due respect, this is the whole point. Allow me to elaborate:

Kindle is but one part of Amazon's aggressive attempt at vertical integration. By removing the traditional publisher from the equation, Amazon hopes to pocket a significantly higher percentage of the per/sale revenue, while simultaneously compensating the author at a rate several times the traditional range of revenue-shares for authors.

In my opinion, what is arguably the bigger development in relation-to Amazon's attempt to monopolize publishing was its 2005 acquisition of BookSurge, a print-on-demand company. Through Kindle and BookSurge, Amazon hopes to be able to persuade authors to bypass traditional publishing in favor of e-books and print-on-demand.

Granted, this course-of-action may not come with the built-in marketing that traditional publishers offer. However, as you mentioned, Amazon's recommendation systems may offer a solution to that problem. Additionally, Amazon is hoping the rate-of-compensation per sale offered to authors for Amazon's print-on-demand services will be enough reason for many if not most authors to use Amazon exclusively for their publishing, sales and distribution.

If successful, this spells major trouble for the traditional print publishers.

FORBES.COM recently published an excellent article by Sramana Mitra entitled "How Amazon Could Change Publishing" that sheds some light on Amazon's attempt at vertical integration.
[Source: http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/16/mitra-amazon-books-tech-enter-cx_sm_0516mitra.html]

- Fat Lester

Comment on "Univ. of Colorado goes Drupal"

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:46:55 -0500

Cool.. hopefully we can get a Drupal user group going soon...

Also, I used to live in the Arts & Arch Interest House back in the 80's..

Eric

- ERIC AITALA

Comment on "Univ. of Colorado goes Drupal"

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:36:22 -0500

There's a big Drupal push at your university too :)

http://elearning.psu.edu/

The entire college is moving towards Drupal, all web courses are drupal, all sites off elearning.psu.edu are drupal sites.

- bryan o

Comment on "Univ. of Colorado goes Drupal"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:25:36 -0500

So far I think Colorado is the first time I have seen it used for a university home page at a school that size...

- ERIC AITALA

Comment on "Univ. of Colorado goes Drupal"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:20:23 -0500

It's a lot more prevalent than you might first think. I sent this link to a few co-workers last week when they wanted to see some examples of it used in Education http://drupal.org/search/node/university+category%3A25

- Jason Heffner

Comment on "Amazon Kindle"

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:25:26 -0500

This reminds me of CompuServe's bet-the-company WOW service, developed in the mid-90's as a stripped down but safe Internet experience for kids and families. Ultimately, families wanted the real Internet and things didn't go so well for CompuServe. Were I Bezos, I wouldn't bet the company on a variant product (ebooks) with fewer features than the existing, dominant product (paper books).

Whacked product strategy aside, he may be swimming against a strong tide. A couple examples of open content he'll be competing against...
- NIH is requiring open access to it's funded medical research, with similar Open Science efforts on the horizon.
- Project Gutenberg offers 17,000+ titles and could reinforce the Internet users' expectation that online content "ought" to be free or nearly free.
- MIT offers course content online for free.

In my own school district, fewer and fewer teachers even use textbooks. Mostly, K12 schools can't afford regularly obsoleted textbooks. Online resources and teacher- and student-driven projects have made the traditional textbook less important and, frankly, even less engaging for students.

If democratization of content seen in music continues in the area of book and textbook publishing, I'd expect publishers to face the same fate as the music industry. Indeed, the music industry is already moving away from DRM. Ultimately, the middlemen may be out of a job as producers and users meet in the middle instead -- online.

- Steven in Colorado

Comment on "New Mac?"

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:55:52 -0500

The 20" iMac is amazing. I set one up at work the other day, and was blown away by the video quality. In fact, it made my 19" widescreen monitor (which was right next to it) look like a dingy old child's toy. My boss -- who is not a Mac fan -- even commented on it.

- Marilu