flicker

I'm sure all those people who told us "that couldn't happen" will be along to explain how.

...Aaaany second now.

If I ever embrace my fate as a lonely housewife book author, I'm going to have a rough time, because the kind of people who would forever love me for producing my books and sharing them as free (with the option to donate) and the kind of people who buy lonely housewife books are two completely different circles and I wouldn't be able to spend all the time necessary to 'market' myself online to get the books in the hands of people who want them, if I'm trying to spend that time writing.

Maybe what we need is an apparatus. A website where authors can share full-size books, users can vote on them, and if you like them enough you can give money to those writers.

I just don't know how we'd get that, be able to allow any author to share their book, and still have quality control.

I haven't looked at or held or otherwise directly perceived a kindle in many years now, but when I did it was insanely easy to just pop any old file into a converter and slip that onto the kindle and pirate and read as you like. Did they put a stop to that with some proprietary nonsense?

This'll only work if they also buy everyone else who sells the solution, and shut them down.

There's also this thing that happens where, as a whole, we'll just act capriciously.

I don't know if it's true of younger gamers but my generation seems to really choose at random whether we like your product or want you to die in a fire. Any fishy behavior can tip that scale pretty quickly, and if we already recognize a brand, and it's not one of our arbitrarily Chosen Few, then we might not even give you a chance. Just because we know the name, and that's already a strike against you.

It's not a big truck!

It's a series of tubes!

Ted Stevens, Senator for Alaska, addressed the Senate in 2006 and made history.

Here is a link to the whole 10 minute speech. If you're like me and that sounds dreadful, here follows a transcript:

"Now the Internet, you know, let's go back. Internet started with a concept of local to local connections across the country.

And, and you could for in Alaska, but you only had, you had to go through local connections to get there.

Industry wisely provided for streaming for, in effect, a new kind of long distance. And that's what we've got.

We've got a service that's immune to distance.

And, it's there for the consumer.

But, when we take, and really indicate that wants to use it, this system, for massive, massive commercial purposes.

There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by subscription, by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and in your monthly, you change your order, but you pay for that, right.

But this service is not going to go through the internet and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them, and delivered to you and the delivery charge is free. Right?

Ten movies streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things that going on the internet commercially.

And here we have this one situation where enormous entities want to use the Internet for their purposes to save money for what they're doing now. They use FedEx. They use the delivery services. They use the mail. They deliver in other ways.

But, they want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And, again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on.

It's not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled, and if they're filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material..."

Well as long as you're aware.

Not to be annoying but I actually carry a nice steel thermos with me and pour anything I might drink into the thermos.

It only feels like a hassle the first time. You get a steel thermos with a steel straw and now you're really cooking with gas.

I wanted to float out there the argument that I've had some luck with, with Xtians.

"How many good people did Jesus want you to starve in order to make sure no one was having it "too good?" Because I feel like he just said to feed the poor, not to make sure they weren't eating too well."

Most anarchists are going to see your comment as one defending capitalism, so it might attract downvotes here.

or your oppression back

Excellently done.

I'm agreeing with all the people who say they don't notice until after they've read a post, but I wanted to add a Yo ho! to my comment.