- Nook pulls out of UK – can't guarantee access to ebooks
If I owned a Nook, I would a) be furious and b) be looking to break the DRM on everything on it, ASAP.
- Dymaxion: Infrastructural Games and Societal Play
An article on using Nordic LARP tools to design and build societal infrastructure. Fascinating/important and at the perfect intersection of my interests.
- The Official Hannibal Cookbook Will Not Include Human Ingredients
The important bit: there's going to be a Hannibal cookbook!
Tag: publishing
Bookmarks for May 16, 2013
- This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community
The next time someone tells you the internet is killing our attention span, send them here. This is utterly fascinating stats-based analysis of new ways of publishing long form news and analysis on the web.
- On the Constant Moment – clayton cubitt
A superb essay on photography's place in our culture. I've seen a few people linking to this already, and they've all picked the same stand-out sentence because, fuck me, it's a doozy. "It is the creation of art through the curation of time." What a beautiful and clearly expressed idea. I'm going to be picking that one apart for a while to come.
Bookmarks for August 7, 2012
- Crowdsource book tours and host author events | Togather.com
A kickstarter-like arrangement for book tours. That's actually pretty cool.
Bookmarks for April 18, 2012
- CMAP #2: How Books Are Made – Charlie's Diary
I have had a few conversations recently with people who have kvetched about having to pay the same price for an ebook as they do for the paperback, and I have wished that I was able to easily find this post to point them at. Short version: the cost of your paperback book is *not* a materials cost. Physical production, shipping and distribution account for around a quid of the price. The other six of seven quid is labour, and there's a lot more labour goes in that you might think, and most of it isn't the author's.
- Twitter’s “Innovator’s Patent Agreement” – Marco.org
No, it looks like other people have come to the same conclusions.
- Twitter Blog: Introducing the Innovator's Patent Agreement
This is quite a good idea, although one might quibble over what "only used defensively" means – it's possible that I'm misunderstanding the legalese, but it looks to me that any company who has filed a patent infringement suit for any reason in the last ten years (and who might be infringing, obviously) would be fair game. Which in turn means that this is meaningless, and will be just as innovation-stifling in practice as any current agreement. But I await being told that I've misunderstood.
- Paul Woods – Life on the Northern Line
This made me smile this morning.
Bookmarks for March 23, 2012
- A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Presumed Inane
This si interesting food for thought – a couterpoint to the usual amazon-is-bad publishing-industry rhetoric. I don't know if I buy it (and I don't know if I don't) but it's certainly made me think about some of the things I've taken for granted as "facts" in the debate.
- On Improving iBooks – Connor Tomas O'Brien
This is two years old, and I am frustrated that most of the things that are being talked about here are not implemented. At the very least, it seems it ought to be possible to make iBooks-DRMed content available to other apps on the same device, via API. Apple/Publishers still get to make their sales money, while another app could do the work of tracking my reading habits.
- Large Bookbag – Henry Tomkins
I think I may have found the bag of my dreams. Satchel strap, double buckle, with front pocket. Knocking on the door of 200 quid, as opposed to my current 40 quid effort, but oh, isn't it beautiful? Time to start saving.
- Cool Tools: Where There Is No Doctor
This is either brilliant, or pure hypochondria fodder.
- Geeklist and a public apology
In the spirit of fairness: Geeklist have made a pretty unreserved public apology in the time since I bookmarked that first link. I'm still annoyed that they didn't get it right first time, but then, who among can say that they always do?
- Cow magnet – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I have absolutely no reason to blog this, except that I did not know these were a thing, and the words "Cow Magnet" make me laugh. I also wish that there was an accepted a alt.fan.warlord syntax for blogging as this comment would have been shorter if I thought more than three of you would understand IHNW IJLTS "Cow Magnets" without having to look anything up.
- OH HAI SEXISM · charlesarthur · Storify
Short version: woman calls geek men on their sexism. Geek men lash out in a grossly disproportionate and unprofessional manner. This is nothing new, except that these people are in the same industry as me, with a product that is targeted at, well, people exactly like me – well, it's saddening. And pathetic.
Bookmarks for March 15, 2011
- Gadget Daily News – Home – Apple Creating a Magazine Publishing Tool for Developers?
I am very, very interested in this. As, I imagine, a number of folks of my acquaintance will be.
- Inventables: Find new materials
I have no immediate use for most of the things this site sells, and yet, I want them all. Masses of fascinating stuff that the future will be made out of.
Bookmarks for November 13, 2010
- Alistair Bell's LU Record Attempt
Horrifyingly, I may have a use for this. I don't want to complete with the record, and I won't died of misery of if I fail to get the lot, but it, er, may come in handy as a chart of a way to get a job done a lot quicker than I might otherwise have thought.
- A renaissance rooted in technology: the literary magazine returns | Books | guardian.co.uk
Lots of things to think re: the future of literary publishing here.
Bookmarks for October 28, 2010
- HTTPS Everywhere | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Here's a plugin you can install and use that will protect you from Firesheep on a lot of sites that support it. Not all, by any means, so don't go assuming you're secure, just because you're running it, but it should keep you safe on many popular sites.
- Exposing Nadine Dorries and the little gang of Conservatives who cried ‘stalker’ | Bloggerheads
3 Conservative MPs, one of the them a cabinet member, have repeatedly smeared and harassed a journalist who had the temerity to question some of the lies they told in public. (I should perhaps say that I don't believe that Labour MPs are automatically above this kind of behaviour, either, merely that I haven't read anything about it lately. That doesn't make it acceptable that the Conservatives do it.)
- Subtraction.com: My iPad Magazine Stand
Some good, thoughtful writing on the current crop of magazines-for-ipad, and the failings in the software used to produce and consume them.
Bookmarks for October 12, 2010
- Amazon Introduces The Digital Pamphlet With ‘Kindle Singles’
Ooh, now this is very interesting indeed. I could probably assemble 10,000 words on any one specific subject quite easily. They might even be entertaining enough to be worth buying.
- Pass The Parcel by Delilah Des Anges
Del has made her frankly excellent book, Pass The Parcel, available for purchase, for which you should all be very grateful. Del is a writer of no small talent, and deserves your cash, so you should fork it over at your earliest convenience. In exchange, you're going to get a novel containing Weird London and collection of freaks, losers and bastards with will have you clamouring for more. Go.
Bookmarks for September 9, 2010
- budgie's squawks – Fast Fiction Challenge 2010: The one hundred stories so far…
My mate Budgie has completed 100 of his fast fiction challenges in 100 days. Firstly: give him a round of applause. Secondly: go read some of them – they're bloody good. Thirdly: Leave him a new four-word-or-less title, and a word to use in that story. Because I want to see how long he can go on doing this for. Fourthly: buy his book!
- The Commodification of Publishing & Media
Dave pointed me at this, and yes, it is a fascinating light in which to consider the publishing and creative industries, and their approach to history.