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Old 06-06-2010, 05:22 PM   #46
mr ploppy
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I recall that William Gibson released a short story on a self-destructing floppy disc at one point. I'm not sure how it worked. I'm guessing in that case it was a virus. I'm not sure how a self-destructing DVD would work, be interesting if anyone had the answer to that one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04...e_dvd_germany/

I've never seen any here, no idea if they took off in Germany or not.
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:23 PM   #47
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Inspector Gadget was always given his orders on self-destructing pieces of paper.
Everything has been foretold!
I wish I had a hat like that
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:31 PM   #48
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Had to search for an example of Self Destructive DVD.

The last bit, that I've highlighted, made me laugh.
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DVD-D Germany Ltd's 'Einmal' (German for 'once') - discs incorporate a self-destruct chemical coating to render them unreadable after a pre-set time. The process begins as soon as the discs are removed from vacuum-sealed packaging. After 48 hours (or longer, depending on the price) the DVD gives a 'No disc' error when put into a DVD player or PC. There appears to be no DRM (digital rights management), so you could copy the disks, if you're quick enough.
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:31 PM   #49
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Many of the greatest writers in history have "written for money": those dreadful hack writers Shakespeare and Dickens, to name but two. You make it sound as if there's something wrong with writers producing work that readers will want to read!
But how many of them started out writing because they saw it as a way of making money? And how do their "written for money" books compare to their earlier ones?
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:34 PM   #50
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If you can break DRM they can't force you to buy a new copy every time they introduce a new format or you buy new hardware. That's a big part of their business model, you buy the white album as a LP, then an 8-track then a cassette then a cd then on itunes (oops no drm end of the line). If they allowed fair use for things like backups you'd only have to buy something once and all those poor media executives wouldn't be able to afford 2 private jets this year. I mean they deserved to be paid for their work screwing consumers right? Not get taken advantage of by a bunch of freeloaders who don't want to pay extra to rip a cd to their ipod
LP > cassette
LP > computer

No need for the CD or the iTunes versions. There are ways around things legally.

In the US, the DMCA is not clear about DRM, stripping DRM, and the rights of the buyer. So until stripping DRM from eBooks actually goes to court, it's unknown if it is legal or not. I do hope that if it ever did go to court, that the judge would side with the user as long as it was for personal use.
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:40 PM   #51
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Originally Posted by Moejoe View Post
I wish I had a hat like that
Your obsession with hats is worrying me
I wish I had all his bionic gadgets to be honest. A very cool character, Inspector Gadget.

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Originally Posted by Wetdogeared View Post
Had to search for an example of Self Destructive DVD.

The last bit, that I've highlighted, made me laugh.
That was hilarious. The whole idea was hilarious. And unbelievably wasteful, among other things. What an ingenious way to generate more trash... Human resourcefulness knows no bounds - or common sense.
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:43 PM   #52
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Many of the greatest writers in history have "written for money": those dreadful hack writers Shakespeare and Dickens, to name but two. You make it sound as if there's something wrong with writers producing work that readers will want to read!
I understand your stance, Harry, but I do believe that we're a long way from Dickens and Shakespeare now and it's a stretch trying to compare their situation with our situation now.

The question these examples illustrate is why do people write? We know, at least using Shakespeare as an example, that he copied most of his ideas from earlier works and then these works were performed. His (or her) status as a writer was secondary to performance, and performance not as art but as paid entertainment. But we've evolved from that state, and we're in an ongoing revolution of intent.

I know why I write, and it isn't money because I've never made a cent from what I've written. I write because I wake up with pictures in my head, memories cramming my nostrils and my skin crawling with ideas. I wake up remembering Spain and the shadow of a bull I saw on a hill, and the picture of a bullfight I saw hanging outside a shop during siesta time. I write because I saw Picasso painting on an old black and white film, and because Dali's face haunted at least one of my dreams as a child. This all happened just after dawn this morning when I put down a story called "On the Hill, A Bull" and it was down and captured by first light. Nobody paid me to write about Spain and failed revolutions and artists waiting for the death of a dictator so that they were free to paint again. I wrote, I write because I have to, there's not really any option and I only falter in my writing when I have to think about such abstracts as money and audience and copyrights.

So yes, some write for money, and there' s nothing ignoble about that pursuit. But you must acknowledge that some of us write because we have something to say, even if that something is only to remember the heat of Spain one summer a long time ago and the shape of a shadow of a bull on a hill in a country waiting for death.
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:52 PM   #53
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Your obsession with hats is worrying me .
It's a by-product of male pattern baldness, romantic notions of the 1940's and because I have a irrational superstition that I can't write without wearing a hat
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:57 PM   #54
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Originally Posted by Moejoe View Post
The question these examples illustrate is why do people write? We know, at least using Shakespeare as an example, that he copied most of his ideas from earlier works and then these works were performed. His (or her) status as a writer was secondary to performance, and performance not as art but as paid entertainment. But we've evolved from that state, and we're in an ongoing revolution of intent.
If Shakespeare had been around today he'd probably be writing scripts for TV soap operas. His was very much the mass entertainment of his day, and he certainly wasn't writing as "art", but as a shareholder in a theatre company, as a commercial business, providing entertainment for the working classes of his day.

Quote:
So yes, some write for money, and there' s nothing ignoble about that pursuit. But you must acknowledge that some of us write because we have something to say, even if that something is only to remember the heat of Spain one summer a long time ago and the shape of a shadow of a bull on a hill in a country waiting for death.
I absolutely acknowledge that, and I have the utmost respect for those who do write for love. There's room enough in this world for both the TV soap script-writers AND the artists.
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:59 PM   #55
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Originally Posted by mr ploppy View Post
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04...e_dvd_germany/

I've never seen any here, no idea if they took off in Germany or not.
Amazing. These products should have a tick box on them with the question:

Are you stupid?

If you tick yes you're allowed to buy them.
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Old 06-06-2010, 06:02 PM   #56
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It's a by-product of male pattern baldness, romantic notions of the 1940's and because I have a irrational superstition that I can't write without wearing a hat
Fair enough. It is a nice hat. Do we get to read the story about Spain?

I truly believe that artists will always create, writers will always write, painters will always paint, whether they are paid or not. And I truly believe that they are more true to their selves when they are not getting paid, because then it's not a job, it's a calling.

There is one thing to be said about money though. It can afford an artist the luxury to concentrate on his art, instead of worrying about everyday life. It also probably makes him compromise this art, even just a little, to ensure getting paid again.
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Old 06-06-2010, 06:04 PM   #57
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But how many of them started out writing because they saw it as a way of making money? And how do their "written for money" books compare to their earlier ones?
Dickens was obsessed by money, even when he'd become a wealthy man, as a result of his own childhood experiences of poverty. He started writing as a parliamentary reporter, and, indeed, was a journalist as well as a novelist throughout his life, a fact which people sometimes forget today.

I think most people would say that Dickens became a significantly better writer over the course of his life. His later novels are a lot better plotted and written than his early books. But make no mistake about it, Dickens was writing the mass entertainment of his day. His novels, serialised in weekly magazines, were very much written for the commercial market. Like Shakespeare, he was writing as a commercial proposition, not as "art".
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Old 06-06-2010, 06:09 PM   #58
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Fair enough. It is a nice hat. Do we get to read the story about Spain?

I truly believe that artists will always create, writers will always write, painters will always paint, whether they are paid or not. And I truly believe that they are more true to their selves when they are not getting paid, because then it's not a job, it's a calling.

There is one thing to be said about money though. It can afford an artist the luxury to concentrate on his art, instead of worrying about everyday life. It also probably makes him compromise this art, even just a little, to ensure getting paid again.
I find the problem with money (and you've illustrated it well) is that it's all too easy for it to take control. You start out with good intentions but then you're talking to a detestable ten-percenter in some restaurant where you'd never eat normally, drinking expensive water and listening to some drone go on about potential markets and numbers as though it's actually interesting. Then you're slanting your work because you need to get into the YA market (I hate that classification with a passion. The most insulting two letters in the English language today). Then you're on some talk show answering the questions of some dead-eyed insipid creature with too much make-up and too little brain. Before long you're extremely rich and living in some mansion with an indoor swimming pool and a brainless ex-playboy model who only thinks about sex and pleasuring you in...hang on!



EDIT: The Spain stories I want to put out as a collection in the future. I have so many I want to tell. Like the one about the lonely fisherman me, my dad and uncle sat with one night until three in the morning sharing sangria, cigarettes and stories. Or the insect I met walking back one night from the town, which was the biggest thing I'd ever seen and was almost human in its reaction to me. Or the storm I witness one siesta when the whole town was deserted. Or the ones about my grandfather...there are hundreds of them.

Last edited by Moejoe; 06-06-2010 at 06:15 PM.
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Old 06-06-2010, 06:27 PM   #59
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I find the problem with money (and you've illustrated it well) is that it's all too easy for it to take control. You start out with good intentions but then you're talking to a detestable ten-percenter in some restaurant where you'd never eat normally, drinking expensive water and listening to some drone go on about potential markets and numbers as though it's actually interesting. Then you're slanting your work because you need to get into the YA market (I hate that classification with a passion. The most insulting two letters in the English language today). Then you're on some talk show answering the questions of some dead-eyed insipid creature with too much make-up and too little brain. Before long you're extremely rich and living in some mansion with an indoor swimming pool and a brainless ex-playboy model who only thinks about sex and pleasuring you in...hang on!

Stop it, you'll start liking it!

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EDIT: The Spain stories I want to put out as a collection in the future. I have so many I want to tell. Like the one about the lonely fisherman me, my dad and uncle sat with one night until three in the morning sharing sangria, cigarettes and stories. Or the insect I met walking back one night from the town, which was the biggest thing I'd ever seen and was almost human in its reaction to me. Or the storm I witness one siesta when the whole town was deserted. Or the ones about my grandfather...there are hundreds of them.
Can't wait. I can already smell grass dried from the scorching sun, for some reason
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Old 06-06-2010, 06:35 PM   #60
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Dickens was obsessed by money, even when he'd become a wealthy man, as a result of his own childhood experiences of poverty. He started writing as a parliamentary reporter, and, indeed, was a journalist as well as a novelist throughout his life, a fact which people sometimes forget today.

I think most people would say that Dickens became a significantly better writer over the course of his life. His later novels are a lot better plotted and written than his early books. But make no mistake about it, Dickens was writing the mass entertainment of his day. His novels, serialised in weekly magazines, were very much written for the commercial market. Like Shakespeare, he was writing as a commercial proposition, not as "art".
Jim Thompson is one of my favourite writers. He may not be very widely known, but he is sometimes compared to Dostoevsky. The man wrote strictly 'pulp', and strictly for money (he was always broke, and had to write to get by). 'Art' can appear in the strangest places. The definition of art is of course debatable, but it is interesting how the mass entertainment of one era can be among the 'classics' of another. Every artist was a product of his time, and the specific conditions in which he lived. Would all the famous writers we now admire have produced the same words, or better, if even one of these conditions was changed? I've no idea. But the motivation to create is always there, money or not. And the times are constantly changing.

* (do you think Dan Brown will be among the classics of the 25th century? )
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