The Vent and Rant Thread

[wyndslash]

awww...! well, someone in another forum made a comment about third world countries and how basically whatever problems we have is because of our fault. yes, that is partially the truth, but it's different when you were born and raised here, and you experience things that that person could possibly never experience. what annoys me the most is that a person from a developed country is telling me that whatever is happening to my country isn't partially their fault. oh, let's forget about the decades of slavery, spying, and generally ruining my country and installing politicians to work for THEIR benefit and not the people's benefit. let us forget about the other government's schemes to siphon off OUR natural resources and just generally *&^%*@ us up before we even had the chance to start building our own society. then of course, our politicians took over and just essentially perpetuated the status quo. lovely. sometimes i don't know if i hate or love my country, if i want this island to sink or what.

sorry. that was a purely emotional rant x.x;

[SneakySnake]

NOT! offended!

I try not to take sides in issues like this. Because given the opposite situation, the "victims" are usually exactly(sometimes worse) like the "victees". Just have a look at the French revolution.

Sometimes we have to accept that things are not always someone's fault! Shit happens!
Perhaps I should direct you to a book called "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom.
Admittedly there are some biases as there are in every book, but the observations are very interesting.

A wise man once said to me that we have to accept the isness of things.


now take a deep breath and use your energy to look after yourself!

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

NOT! offended!

I try not to take sides in issues like this. Because given the opposite situation, the "victims" are usually exactly(sometimes worse) like the "victees". Just have a look at the French revolution.

Sometimes we have to accept that things are not always someone's fault! Shit happens!
Perhaps I should direct you to a book called "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom.
Admittedly there are some biases as there are in every book, but the observations are very interesting.

A wise man once said to me that we have to accept the isness of things.


now take a deep breath and use your energy to look after yourself!

thanks and i know, but i thought that their remark was rather callous (or maybe i took it too personally as i am a national of a 3rd world country). in our country, we don't allow foreigners to own land, just to rent or lease. i think it's because people are still scared that they'd get dominated, even though we already are @_@ and not in the good sense

i'm not asking anyone to choose sides, i just wanted to let it all out

[SneakySnake]

OK my rant! *trying not to be 'racing scum'*

I am back in Darwin having last been here in September. (I come here about 3-4 times a year)

From the Airport to the hotel I stay at is a short walk (< 10 minutes) through the carpark along a path through a little park. My boss always wants me to take the Ariport shuttle for security reasons, but I always thought it was safe here and better to walk.

Well for the first time since the path was built (only a few years) did i decide that I would have to be careful of walking through the little park.

As I entered the little park I spied some itinerants on a park bench/table to my left, they looked at me and commented. On my right up ahead I see the other table with a green can midden under it. and also to my right I see a pile of clothes and personal items indicative of someone having slept (probably raped a young girl) there. There was rubbish everywhere. This is a very short path less than 100metres. This is also not an unusal sight in Darwin and surrounds, but the first time here at the airport.

How disappointing! I get very little exercise in Darwin due to the heat and the personal safety issues. the Airport management can't even keep that little park tidy!

[wyndslash]

aww D:

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

Well for the first time since the path was built (only a few years) did i decide that I would have to be careful of walking through the little park.
(

I guess it's time to start wearing a tri-tone or Survival whistle on your wrist. I say 'on your wrist' because it doesn't do you any good in your pocket or purse. 'Survival' whistle rather than coach's whistle because they are sooooo bloody loud! This is the one we use when scuba diving, and this one is a tri-tone, smaller but almost as loud. When worn on an expandable wristlet that you can just slip on and off easily, it's something you can ALWAYS have with you that may just save your bacon!

Having to plan for safety is a drag, but not planning for it often turns out much worse.

Stitchawl

[wyndslash]

i can't wait to get my kindlllleeeeee...my uncle told me to wait before ordering for a bit. he's still hoping the price might go down after ipad 2 came out but he's coming here in april so i don't see how it would go down in a month

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

awww...! well, someone in another forum made a comment about third world countries and how basically whatever problems we have is because of our fault. yes, that is partially the truth, but it's different when you were born and raised here, and you experience things that that person could possibly never experience. what annoys me the most is that a person from a developed country is telling me that whatever is happening to my country isn't partially their fault. oh, let's forget about the decades of slavery, spying, and generally ruining my country and installing politicians to work for THEIR benefit and not the people's benefit. let us forget about the other government's schemes to siphon off OUR natural resources and just generally *&^%*@ us up before we even had the chance to start building our own society. then of course, our politicians took over and just essentially perpetuated the status quo. lovely. sometimes i don't know if i hate or love my country, if i want this island to sink or what.

sorry. that was a purely emotional rant x.x;

Nice Rant and so very true! Thank you!

[wyndslash]

oh oh, just realized that most of the books that i really want to read are published by Harper Collins.

[LCF]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

awww...! well, someone in another forum made a comment about third world countries and how basically whatever problems we have is because of our fault. yes, that is partially the truth, but it's different when you were born and raised here, and you experience things that that person could possibly never experience. what annoys me the most is that a person from a developed country is telling me that whatever is happening to my country isn't partially their fault. oh, let's forget about the decades of slavery, spying, and generally ruining my country and installing politicians to work for THEIR benefit and not the people's benefit. let us forget about the other government's schemes to siphon off OUR natural resources and just generally *&^%*@ us up before we even had the chance to start building our own society. then of course, our politicians took over and just essentially perpetuated the status quo. lovely. sometimes i don't know if i hate or love my country, if i want this island to sink or what.

sorry. that was a purely emotional rant x.x;

I totally understand you. It takes centuries to shake these influences off if ever. Truth is, as it has always been, that the stronger (almost) always achieve their goals, just nowadays armies are mostly replaced by diplomacy and subtle... reminders. Anyway, so much in this topic.

My vent (which is also going to be very emotional):

There are days, when I just blindly hate the publishers in my country. People on MR complain about having restrictions on number of ebooks in libraries, DRM, high e-book prices, bad formatting, etc. Well, you should actually be a bit thankful, because YOU actually HAVE ebooks in your NATIVE LANGUAGE!!!
I don't. Not officially that is. It is almost a year since the publishers jumped against a site with free self made ebooks which "robbed them from millions of $ income" for the last month. Actually, the figures they gave were bigger than the turnover from all publishers for a year.
Still, no (big) publisher wants to sell ebooks, apparently, because they will be "pirated".
Well, I'm obviously dumb, because all that is absolutely 100% sure at the moment is, that they won't make a damn penny out of ebooks, because they don't sell them. On the other hand, a lot of ebooks are posted on the mentioned site for free. Which means, that if they would offer one of the books for 50c, and ONE person bought this book, they would be 50c ahead.
But, NO, we won't offer ebooks, they are evil!!!

There was an exploding emoticon somewhere....

/rant

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by LCF

There are days, when I just blindly hate the publishers in my country. People on MR complain about having restrictions on number of ebooks in libraries, DRM, high e-book prices, bad formatting, etc. Well, you should actually be a bit thankful, because YOU actually HAVE ebooks in your NATIVE LANGUAGE!!!
I don't. Not officially that is. It is almost a year since the publishers jumped against a site with free self made ebooks which "robbed them from millions of $ income" for the last month. Actually, the figures they gave were bigger than the turnover from all publishers for a year.
Still, no (big) publisher wants to sell ebooks, apparently, because they will be "pirated".
Well, I'm obviously dumb, because all that is absolutely 100% sure at the moment is, that they won't make a damn penny out of ebooks, because they don't sell them. On the other hand, a lot of ebooks are posted on the mentioned site for free. Which means, that if they would offer one of the books for 50c, and ONE person bought this book, they would be 50c ahead.
But, NO, we won't offer ebooks, they are evil!!!

There was an exploding emoticon somewhere....

/rant

wow, that's really stupid of them. besides, they can't let pirates stop them from profiting from an emerging market. time stops for no one, and pirates have and will always be there. i'd like to think that there much more people out there who would buy author's backlists if they like even one of their works. and to be honest, if the publishers were friendlier towards their customers, that they would be able to win over more customers from the dark side. and the people who would pirate no matter what are just well...they're something else, that's for sure.

[LCF]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

wow, that's really stupid of them. besides, they can't let pirates stop them from profiting from an emerging market. time stops for no one, and pirates have and will always be there. i'd like to think that there much more people out there who would buy author's backlists if they like even one of their works. and to be honest, if the publishers were friendlier towards their customers, that they would be able to win over more customers from the dark side. and the people who would pirate no matter what are just well...they're something else, that's for sure.

Exactly. Having a large number of downloads indicates, that there is a demand.
Just refusing to meet peoples needs is not the best way to win them over... and I don't mean the dark side only, because sometimes it is not even a matter of will. There are books in this site which you can't buy new. Anywhere. All you can hope is for street sellers selling their libraries. Now this market is getting more and more popular, because a lot of books never get reprinted, but are still demanded.
I have to stop now, I can talk about this for hours and unfortunately it won't change a thing. I actually discussed this matter with a publisher. The discussion went a bit like:

Me: Why no ebooks?

Publ: Too much money to invest (DRM, rights for ebook which are not the same as for pbook, new translation(?!), ..)

Me: OK, then choose not a foreign author and loose the DRM, it's no use anyway. That way all you have to do is to post the text and set a price. Can't be too much money. And there are established paying models for example using SMS which have proven to be very user friendly and widely accepted. Test the market.

Publ: YOU, don't tell me how to run my business! I've been publishing before you were born! I'm so big (yes, he actually said that), if I tell the other publishers to stop publishing, they will and then we will see how your lot (readers) fares You, stealing *** don't deserve ebooks and you won't have them!

Me: speechless.


On the small bright side - the library website is online*, there are also a few independent publishing sites where you can find ebooks you can buy. I try to buy all I really think interesting, even if I already have it as pbook of another ebook, just to show my support. With the hope that one day some &$&^&^$#s will open their eyes.



* Here is to say, that the matter of "is this legal" is subject to how you read the law. It is said that open for everyone public institutions/libraries can reproduce in any form incl. digital texts all kind ob literature in our language in order to provide social service and availability as long as there is no profit from it. Publishers argue, that the site is not open for all, public, library, etc. The fact remains, that as of this moment there is no law suit against the site owners, which speaks for itself.

[wyndslash]

wow, he wasn't being very professional, was he x.x;

the best way to endure in a business is to meet consumer's needs. there really is a market for ebook. personally, there are TONS of books that i want but can't find here, so i turn to ebooks.

[maianhvk]

I'm marvelled at your rants :| I cannot write long at school, and I cannot rant anything longer than a 5-line passage.

@ wyndslash: calm down things will be alright in the end

(yawnnn) Oh it's nearly 2 in the morning and I'm off to bed. See you guys tomorrow.

[kennyc]

I just had a moderator at a forum I just joined - xoomforums.com - to name names! remove the links to my websites from my signature there. Yet they allow gargantuan images in the sigs (which has been a topic here recently) and the friggin moderators have links in there sigs to other forums. Friggin hypocrits! I let him know what I thought of him, the forum and that policy and asked to have my account deleted. I will not participate in a forum that is that hypocritical!