Amazon Drones, Meet Your Mothership

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Life's always been tough. No real surprise that it's getting tougher.

That's a strange viewpoint. Why is it no surprise that life is getting tougher instead of easier? Don't you expect progress in our society?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

That's a strange viewpoint. Why is it no surprise that life is getting tougher instead of easier? Don't you expect progress in our society?

No. I expect technological progress. "Society" itself can't progress. Society can only get collectively stupider and harder to successfully navigate because of ever increasing bureaucracy, rules, and faux-mores

[Alpha o]

It's because of an information overload or "should do's"

When I was a kid, my mother and I used to do housework by the old rhyme. Monday, wash, Tuesday, clean, etc. We mostly got time in the afternoons to spend at the beach.
Supper was cooked, house cleaned. clothes washed. No problem.

I see stay at home mothers who can't accomplish this in half the time with the newer appliances and mod cons.

Same goes for reading - the easier they try to make it, the harder it gets.
Subscribe to this list, that list. Lists don't agree. Now look for a third list. You have just wasted over an hour that you could have spent reading.

Having big companies gobble up the independents leaves some of us with a lot less choice.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

No. I expect technological progress. "Society" itself can't progress. Society can only get collectively stupider and harder to successfully navigate because of ever increasing bureaucracy, rules, and faux-mores

Tell me about it. When I was out of work a few years ago, I tried to start my own company, and I got told I wasn't allowed to do so while receiving unemployment benefits.

It came down to the fact that if I *did* start a company, I would be considered to work 40 hours a week and have a full income from the moment the company was created. That's obviously impossible.

Then I looked into other avenues of earning an income besides just finding work, and the one thing I always encountered was:

"You're not allowed to do that."

Even starting your own company while working is impossible, because if you do anything that can be considered to belong in the field of the company you work for, they own everything you do, even if you do it in your own time and on your own computer. A webdesigner creating a website for someone, in his own time, is therefore violating his contract and the law if he works as a webdesigner. So.... here we go again.

"You're not allowed to do that."

It's the one thing I hear most often over here in the Netherlands, when you want to get shit done. You know how you can get it done? By quitting your job, taking out a 50K or 100K loan so you can pay yourself and taxes for a year or 2-3, and *hope* your company takes off. If not, you'll be dead broke and bankrupt for the rest of your life.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

Same goes for reading - the easier they try to make it, the harder it gets.
Subscribe to this list, that list. Lists don't agree. Now look for a third list. You have just wasted over an hour that you could have spent reading.

LOL yeah.

To be honest, e-reading is *hard* compared to reading a paper book, if you want to keep control over your purchases, and have a library worth searching.

Paper book: Go to store, buy book, go home, read. (Or order it online and wait for it to arrive, then read.)

E-book: Buy a book at Kobo/Amazon directly from the reader, and read.

E-books seem to be simpler, but you lose all of your control. If I want a library at home, as I had with paper books and make sure it's in good shape and future proof, these are the required steps:

- Install the correct version of ADE, K4PC, or Kobo Desktop.
- Install Calibre
- Install DeDRM tools
- Buy a book, and download it in the correct application
- Import it into Calibre
- Convert it to EPUB if its something else
- Fix the metadata, give it a cover if it has none
- Fix the book's internals (which, fortunately, became less necessary)
- Put the book onto your reader

With a paper book, you just shelve it at the correct spot.

I've spent SO much time the last five years getting my library into shape, it's just unbelievable. Did I have to? No, but e-books offer me many advantages over paper books. They take no space, font sizes can be set, readers have lighting, a 1400 page book doesn't weigh 3 pounds, and so on. Because of the unbreakable DRM threat, I bought hundreds of books during the huge 80-90% Kobo sales of 2013-2014, and acquired thousands of public domain books and 56 Delphi Classics, and ferreted out all of the Baen Free CD's and more. Basically, I bought/acquired everything I ever wanted, everything I thought I wanted, and everything I thought I might maybe possibly ever want.

I now have a little over 900 e-books (with the Delphi Classics often containing 10-20 books in one volume), and I paid somewhere between €0 and €3 for each one.

I did so to be able to own my own library, under my own control, for the rest of my life. So yeah, if you want to keep your own library, e-reading is hard and an unsure business compared to paper books.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

LOL yeah.

To be honest, e-reading is *hard* compared to reading a paper book, if you want to keep control over your purchases, and have a library worth searching.

First world problems, my friend.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Paper book: Go to store, buy book, go home, read. (Or order it online and wait for it to arrive, then read.)

E-book: Buy a book at Kobo/Amazon directly from the reader, and read.

E-books seem to be simpler, but you lose all of your control. If I want a library at home, as I had with paper books and make sure it's in good shape and future proof, these are the required steps:

- Install the correct version of ADE, K4PC, or Kobo Desktop.
- Install Calibre
- Install DeDRM tools
- Buy a book, and download it in the correct application
- Import it into Calibre
- Convert it to EPUB if its something else
- Fix the metadata, give it a cover if it has none
- Fix the book's internals (which, fortunately, became less necessary)
- Put the book onto your reader

With a paper book, you just shelve it at the correct spot.

I've spent SO much time the last five years getting my library into shape, it's just unbelievable. Did I have to? No, but e-books offer me many advantages over paper books. They take no space, font sizes can be set, readers have lighting, a 1400 page book doesn't weigh 3 pounds, and so on. Because of the unbreakable DRM threat, I bought hundreds of books during the huge 80-90% Kobo sales of 2013-2014, and acquired thousands of public domain books and 56 Delphi Classics, and ferreted out all of the Baen Free CD's and more. Basically, I bought/acquired everything I ever wanted, everything I thought I wanted, and everything I thought I might maybe possibly ever want.

I now have a little over 900 e-books (with the Delphi Classics often containing 10-20 books in one volume), and I paid somewhere between €0 and €3 for each one.

I did so to be able to own my own library, under my own control, for the rest of my life. So yeah, if you want to keep your own library, e-reading is hard and an unsure business compared to paper books.

Are you sure you spend more time organizing your library now than you spent driving to/from the store?

And when it's time to move, that My Passport drive that's about the size of a pack of cards will be much easier to pack than bookshelf after bookshelf.

For me, e-books with Calibre are SO much easier (and cheaper) than paper books. And once Calibre is set up, it really doesn't take much time at all.

I dunno. Maybe I'm less diligent. Maybe it's because (for now) I buy all my books from a single source.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

It's because of an information overload or "should do's"

When I was a kid, my mother and I used to do housework by the old rhyme. Monday, wash, Tuesday, clean, etc. We mostly got time in the afternoons to spend at the beach.
Supper was cooked, house cleaned. clothes washed. No problem.

I see stay at home mothers who can't accomplish this in half the time with the newer appliances and mod cons.

Same goes for reading - the easier they try to make it, the harder it gets.
Subscribe to this list, that list. Lists don't agree. Now look for a third list. You have just wasted over an hour that you could have spent reading.

Having big companies gobble up the independents leaves some of us with a lot less choice.

I think part of the time factor comes with this will only take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, so they put it off until it takes hours.

[silverraven]

My oldest son is a proponent of Universal Basic Income. Everyone will be paid a salary by the govt. whether they hold a job or not. Anyone that does work keeps that money also, so therefore can afford more stuff.
I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this. I am just not sure I can see the govt. handing out money. Provide housing/food yes, but just hand out money?
It is an interesting idea though, whether you agree or disagree with it.
S

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

First world problems, my friend.

Sure are.

Are you sure you spend more time organizing your library now than you spent driving to/from the store?

Back then? Yes. Do you know how much WORK it is to tag all books correctly? Author, title, series, arches (such as in Discworld), genres, pulished dates, finding matching covers for a series, and then fixing the books where necessary? (Fortunately the calibre editor has made that process MUCH faster.)

Now I only spend an hour or so once every while if I buy something. Normally I wait, and wait and wait, and when a sale comes up, I pounce and get 10 books at a time.

And when it's time to move, that My Passport drive that's about the size of a pack of cards will be much easier to pack than bookshelf after bookshelf.

For me, e-books with Calibre are SO much easier (and cheaper) than paper books. And once Calibre is set up, it really doesn't take much time at all.

I dunno. Maybe I'm less diligent. Maybe it's because (for now) I buy all my books from a single source.

It's cheaper indeed, and it has many advantages, *AFTER* you knock your library into shape.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by silverraven

My oldest son is a proponent of Universal Basic Income. Everyone will be paid a salary by the govt. whether they hold a job or not. Anyone that does work keeps that money also, so therefore can afford more stuff.
I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this. I am just not sure I can see the govt. handing out money. Provide housing/food yes, but just hand out money?
It is an interesting idea though, whether you agree or disagree with it.
S

Something has to happen though, as it's obviously very clear that over here in the west, there will never be enough work for everyone at some point, especially with people added by emigration. Millions are coming *here*, but no-one is going *there*.

At some point, there just has to be an end to how far an economy in the west can grow without exploding.

Also, if you boil everything down to what it is, what are we all doing? We're getting an education and try to find work, because you need money to survive, even if you don't do or want anything apart from housing, clothing and food.

In the end, 80% of the people are chasing after the money 20% of the others/corporations have. Only very, very few people succeed in becoming so rich that it doesn't make a difference what they do or don't.

20% of the people hold 94%+ of the world's wealth

As long as that doesn't change, most people will never fulfill their potential. (Pity you have to have an account or subscription to read the entire article.)

And this as well

In essence, money goes where money is, because it's easy to get more of something you already have. Extend it to its logical extreme. At some point all of the money will be with 50-100 people, and they will start to find ways to get that money from one another, and there will be rich and poor people in that segment. (You'd be poor if you only had a billion dollars.) In the end, one person will have 99.9% of all the money and resources in the world.

Obviously that's never going to happen, because the world will fall apart long before then. As soon as people don't have the money to buy more than the bare necessities, companies (and thus also, rich people) will begin to decline.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Do you know how much WORK it is to tag all books correctly? Author, title, series, arches (such as in Discworld), genres, pulished dates, finding matching covers for a series, and then fixing the books where necessary? (Fortunately the calibre editor has made that process MUCH faster.)

It could be argued that you are making the all that busywork for yourself. When I was still buying paper books I was a fan of LibraryThing which does much the same thing. If you were using that site and adding all that info for your library, you would have been spending just as much time then as you are now.

BTW:

Originally Posted by Katsunami

fixing the books where necessary

I have noticed that e-books have gotten much better lately. I also open the epub and check the formatting and the number of books needing attention seems to have shrunk drastically. (Not an argument, just an observation.)

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

It could be argued that you are making the all that busywork for yourself. When I was still buying paper books I was a fan of LibraryThing which does much the same thing. If you were using that site and adding all that info for your library, you would have been spending just as much time then as you are now.

Never used something like that. Physical books are mostly just correct. They have a cover, the title on it, publisher and date of release in it, and so on. The only thing I have to do is shelve it in the correct place. Maybe, write the genre down somewhere.

With regard to e-books, you can't take all of that for granted. If your metadata isn't correct, Calibre is practically useless (same as with Foobar, or other managers with regard to music).

I have noticed that e-books have gotten much better lately. I also open the epub and check the formatting and the number of books needing attention seems to have shrunk drastically. (Not an argument, just an observation.)

True, I noticed the same.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Never used something like that. Physical books are mostly just correct. They have a cover, the title on it, publisher and date of release in it, and so on. The only thing I have to do is shelve it in the correct place. Maybe, write the genre down somewhere.

Don't you get all that with Calibre's metadata editor?

At least from Amazon, my books always have the author, title, publisher, cover and release date. Generally speaking, the only thing I find myself having to occasionally add is the series info and maybe tags (those can both be iffy).

Maybe Kobo and the rest aren't as good with their metadata or maybe I'm not fussy enough with my library.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Don't you get all that with Calibre's metadata editor?

At least from Amazon, my books always have the author, title, publisher, cover and release date. Generally speaking, the only thing I find myself having to occasionally add is the series info and maybe tags (those can both be iffy).

Maybe Kobo and the rest aren't as good with their metadata or maybe I'm not fussy enough with my library.

Probably the latter. I'm fussy. Filling in metadata automatically has never given me good results when it comes to books. Using CueTools and CueRipper (for CD's) works perfectly, because there are several databases that store hashes of the CD's that are requested. If you have a CD of which the hash is in the database, your metadata will be perfect.

[fjtorres]

Reading is fun.
It can also be educational.

On automation:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business...utm_source=twb

As some types of manufacturing disappear in America—manual jobs that can be performed in places like Mexico where there are lower wages, and repetitive ones that can be automated—other types are growing. So-called advanced manufacturing, which is highly specialized and requires a facility with computers, is actually expanding. The U.S. economy will need to fill 3.5 million skilled manufacturing jobs over the next decade, the White House says. This is an industry that employs skilled and educated workers such as engineers and scientists. It’s also an industry that adds significant value to the economy. Manufacturing output continues to rise in the U.S., and the average factory worker makes $180,000 worth of goods every year, more than three times what he produced in 1978.

eBooks are a good example of how losses in one area (pbooks) are more than made up in other areas, to the general benefit of society.

Disruption and confusion and localized pain leads to an overall gain. Best way to navigate those waters is to stay informed and be agile. This is the new normal.