The Self Publishing Journey Part II
If this is the Self Publishing Journey Part II, then what happened to Part I? Writing something is part one. Working out what to do with it is part two.
DRM: still defective by design
Microsoft announced in April that it was closing the Microsoft Store’s e-books section. The short-lived foray into e-books began in 2017 as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update. With the closure of the store, Microsoft also set a date this month (July) by which it would remove all purchased books from the libraries of…
Opinion: The Magic of the Movies
I’ve been watching movies as long as I can remember. Silent clowns Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton; classic Westerns (all of them!), visionary science fiction from Forbidden Planet to The Day the Earth Stood Still. I thrilled at Errol Flyn as Robin Hood and the Sea Hawk; Jimmy Stewart maturing from honest everyman to gritty…
Opinion: Ad Blocking and why you’re not a pirate
Web user: I hate ads. They’re annoying, intrusive, distracting, they suck up bandwidth, delay my page loads, scam me with fake content and click-bait, and show me and my kids offensive and inappropriate content that is NSFW or home and bypass my privacy and parental rights. Advertiser: That’s my revenue stream you’re talking about. That’s…
Opinion: No Summer Blockbusters, Please
Cruise, Smith and Pitt have all flopped this year, but when the cries about expensive overpaid stars no longer opening movies die down, the next wave of ‘bankable certs’ should arrive in two years time. Oblivion, After Earth and the troubled World War Z are the latest high-concept movies to have mangled the scripts in…
Opinion: The Humble Minstrel [guest post]
We’ve had some feedback on our review of the Witness Podcast about Napster, mostly concerning the old business model of the music industry and it’s relentless pursuit of ‘pirates’ in defence of the old revenue model. Some established musicians such as the band Metallica aren’t gaining any friends by siding with the major record labels…
Opinion: Write something, Write anything
Have you ever sat there, thinking “I wish I could write?” Not “I wish I could write like [Joe Schmo] or anyone in particular, just “I wish I could write.” I think you can. I don’t mean ‘the one novel that’s in all of us.’ Believe me, I’ve read a lot of those. It’s not…
My Rules for Social Networking
A couple of things last month prompted this post. First, I got hold of a little booklet by Hampshire Linux User Group member Damian Brasher, Damian’s Social Networking Rules. Second, I saw the call for a Bloggers’ Code of Conduct over at O’Reilly. Inspired, I decided to write out my (short) set of rules for…
Professional Cheapskate
Cheapskate: “a person unwilling to give or spend money; stingy person.” Frugal: “not wasteful; not spending freely or unnecessarily; thrifty; economical.” “A cheapskate is someone who takes frugality to the extreme. Instead of trying to make the most of his or her resources, the cheapskate refuses to spend money at all…” (Love-to-know) To you, cheapskate…
What Makes a Digital Messiah?
Expectations were high in January, when a guy called Steve stood up in San Francisco and announced a new kind of sanitary towel (according the product name). Expectations worthy of a new digital messiah; after almost two years of hype and speculation, it seems we’d be satisfied with nothing less. Just one look at the…
