5 Lesser Known Reasons to Give a Kindle

foreverjuly · 11-28-2011, 01:06 PM

This was an interesting, kind of amusing article that gets into some of the stuff Amazon and Kindles are involved with. Did anybody know Amazon was working on building space ships? I followed one of the links and apparently they are also trying to build a clock that lasts 10,000 years. I guess they've come a long ways from just selling books!

http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2011/11...ve-kindle.html

RainingLemur · 11-28-2011, 02:51 PM

Ha. A Kindle could get you into space. That gave me a hearty chuckle.

foreverjuly · 11-28-2011, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Ha. A Kindle could get you into space. That gave me a hearty chuckle.

Yeah, definitely kind of tongue in cheek.

vigna04 · 11-28-2011, 06:51 PM

Yea, I've heard about the clock thing a while ago. Still can't really come up with a good reason why they're doing it other than PR.

foreverjuly · 11-28-2011, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigna04

Yea, I've heard about the clock thing a while ago. Still can't really come up with a good reason why they're doing it other than PR.

Yeah, it is really puzzling why they might be doing that. Is there any chance it could help out with their algorithms? Tracking data or something? I really have no idea, but I kind of like that Amazon has a handful of completely weird pet projects.

wallcraft · 11-28-2011, 09:52 PM

These are projects funded by Jeff Bezos, rather than being owned by Amazon. The $42 million donation, plus the site, for the first Clock of the Long Now isn't relatively any more than many people spend on hobbies (see A cultural thought experiment for Charlie Stross on the very rich). The rocket ship appears to be a serious commercial effort, but I would not give it more than a 1% to 5% chance of making a go of it.

By the way, Neal Stephenson's Anathem was partly inspired by his involvement with the Clock of the Long Now project. The project is perhaps crazy, but in a interesting way.

foreverjuly · 11-29-2011, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

These are projects funded by Jeff Bezos, rather than being owned by Amazon. The $42 million donation, plus the site, for the first Clock of the Long Now isn't relatively any more than many people spend on hobbies (see A cultural thought experiment for Charlie Stross on the very rich). The rocket ship appears to be a serious commercial effort, but I would not give it more than a 1% to 5% chance of making a go of it.

By the way, Neal Stephenson's Anathem was partly inspired by his involvement with the Clock of the Long Now project. The project is perhaps crazy, but in a interesting way.

Thanks for the links. Those were interesting. I didn't realize there were lots of things people were doing like that. Yeah, 1% to 5% sounds about right, but it could be amazing if it paid off!

11-28-2011, 01:06 PM	#1
foreverjuly Crank Up The Awesome! Posts: 315 Karma: 708054 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Japan Device: Kindle, Nook, iPhone	5 Lesser Known Reasons to Give a Kindle This was an interesting, kind of amusing article that gets into some of the stuff Amazon and Kindles are involved with. Did anybody know Amazon was working on building space ships? I followed one of the links and apparently they are also trying to build a clock that lasts 10,000 years. I guess they've come a long ways from just selling books! http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2011/11...ve-kindle.html

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11-28-2011, 02:51 PM	#2
RainingLemur Spork Connoisseur Posts: 2,355 Karma: 16780603 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Nook Color	Ha. A Kindle could get you into space. That gave me a hearty chuckle.

11-28-2011, 06:51 PM	#4
vigna04 Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: kindle	Yea, I've heard about the clock thing a while ago. Still can't really come up with a good reason why they're doing it other than PR.

11-28-2011, 09:52 PM	#6
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	These are projects funded by Jeff Bezos, rather than being owned by Amazon. The $42 million donation, plus the site, for the first Clock of the Long Now isn't relatively any more than many people spend on hobbies (see A cultural thought experiment for Charlie Stross on the very rich). The rocket ship appears to be a serious commercial effort, but I would not give it more than a 1% to 5% chance of making a go of it. By the way, Neal Stephenson's Anathem was partly inspired by his involvement with the Clock of the Long Now project. The project is perhaps crazy, but in a interesting way.

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