Sales Increased 54% Going DRM Free

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

If people are going to steal or loan books, DRM will not stop them. So why enforce such a restrictive system on purchasers?

DRM exists not because it works but because the executives who don't understand technology feel like it works and won't allow their e-books to be sold without it. There is a huge gap between corporate perceptions of technology and the reality of technology.

[jhowell]

There is more than one purpose for DRM. In Amazon's case I believe that DRM goes hand-in-hand with proprietary eBook formats in promoting lock-in to the Kindle platform. Although the DRM is breakable and formats can be converted, the effort involved is enough that most people won't bother and will think twice before switching to another vendor.

That is probably enough to make DRM worthwhile having for Amazon. I don't think that it will be going away any time soon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There is more than one purpose for DRM. In Amazon's case I believe that DRM goes hand-in-hand with proprietary eBook formats in promoting lock-in to the Kindle platform. Although the DRM is breakable and formats can be converted, the effort involved is enough that most people won't bother and will think twice before switching to another vendor.

That is probably enough to make DRM worthwhile having for Amazon. I don't think that it will be going away any time soon.

KFX was created so it would have a particularly nasty DRM virus.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The first time I felt old was when talking to someone online who had never before seen a floppy disk.

There is a recent article in The Atlantic by a Harvard History professor on college students and cursive writing. A large fraction can not write cursive, which is not surprising to me. But a significant fraction can not read it, which is surprising to me.

This makes some research material "inaccessible" to them. (Will Google translate come to the rescue, or was that written by programmers that can not read cursive?)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

There is a recent article in The Atlantic by a Harvard History professor on college students and cursive writing. A large fraction can not write cursive, which is not surprising to me. But a significant fraction can not read it, which is surprising to me.

This makes some research material "inaccessible" to them. (Will Google translate come to the rescue, or was that written by programmers that can not read cursive?)

Has teaching cursive in school been done away with? My cursive is not all that good. But I can read it.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Has teaching cursive in school been done away with? My cursive is not all that good. But I can read it.

Apparently quite a few states have adopted a "core curriculum" that dropped teaching "penmanship" to allow more time for teaching to the test. Even though research shows that going for legibility instead of appearance is less traumatic for students, requiring ability to write cursive seems kind of horse and buggy to me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Apparently quite a few states have adopted a "core curriculum" that dropped teaching "penmanship" to allow more time for teaching to the test. Even though research shows that going for legibility instead of appearance is less traumatic for students, requiring ability to write cursive seems kind of horse and buggy to me.

No wonder it's difficult to read cursive.

When I went to school, we did cursive. The only cursive I use now is my signature.

[DiapDealer]

I read cursive well enough, but I stopped writing in it just as soon as I stopped getting graded on cursive penmanship. I printed from about middle-school onward. I couldn't wait to put cursive behind me asap.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I read cursive well enough, but I stopped writing in it just as soon as I stopped getting graded on cursive penmanship. I printed from about middle-school onward. I couldn't wait to put cursive behind me asap.

My handwriting is so bad that even I cannot read my cursive writing. I too dropped cursive as soon as it was not required.
Apache

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Apache

My handwriting is so bad that even I cannot read my cursive writing. I too dropped cursive as soon as it was not required.
Apache

I wasn't all that awful at it--I just hated it. As someone who always had their nose in a book, cursive just always looked cheesy to me. I wanted to write the way the words looked in my favorite books.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've never seen a floppy disk. Not because I'm young, but because I bought my first PC as late as in 2009, in my late thirties. I was too poor to get it earlier. I used computers at work, of course, since 1995 or so, but I had no idea what storage they used.

You are young
Some of us used programs on punched cards. Some of us were allowed to punch our own cards.
A CRT based editor and 8" floppies was a huge step-up, but I was too poor to personally own a computer till 1987. My company in 1980 owned computers, but I didn't get to keep any when I left in 1983.

[ownedbycats]

Putting data cassettes into a tape player to hear what it sounds like... (For those unaware: Dial-up noises.)

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I read cursive well enough, but I stopped writing in it just as soon as I stopped getting graded on cursive penmanship. I printed from about middle-school onward. I couldn't wait to put cursive behind me asap.

I consistantly got D in penmanship, A in everything else. Those Ds really upset my parents and their solution was to force me to copy encyclopedia pages for hours because "practice make perfect". What actually happened is that my handwriting deteriorated well before the end of each copying session, possibly because I am left handed but was forced to write right handed.

I'm not sure when I stopped writing in cursive, but know it was after I was finished with school. I essentially stopped handwriting at all years ago.

[John F]

I prefer to write in cursive. I write faster in cursive then print. Both my print and cursive are ugly.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by John F

I prefer to write in cursive. I write faster in cursive then print. Both my print and cursive are ugly.

Cursive was invented to enable faster writing.