Ebook help

[yourlibrarian]

This article (thanks, Petzi) noted that ebooks are now outselling hardbacks on Amazon. Therefore, I hope someone reading this might have some tips for me on why Calibre does not seem to be recognizing my new iTouch (loading Stanza on it as well as podfics has also been a trial). What's probably making this difficult is that I am trying to do all

Comments

[shapinglight]

That Blogetry thing is alarming. I feel the sudden need to back up my Dreamwidth journals again.

Also, I know what you mean about mystery/thriller writers. I've been planning to write another book review, of a book that has a very similar problem to the one you mention.

[yourlibrarian]

It is quite alarming, less so because of our own stuff (at least for me, as I have both backups on my computer as well as everything backed up on DW) but because of the idea of all of LJ winking out from one day to the next. Sure, some content is backed up elsewhere but the majority of it isn't backed up anywhere, and if it is, there are no pointers to it anyway

[shapinglight]

Oh dear! I'm getting more and more alarmed reading this. And it could so easily happen.

:worries:

[yourlibrarian]

Don't worry, I think there are other things more likely to fret about :) Granted, I only heard of Blogetery when this incident happened, but it sounds like a much, much smaller site (although its user base seems to be around the same size as DW's). But LJ is a pretty huge site by comparison and it's no longer American owned. Those may be factors in terms of how managers would respond to a takedown notice that springs from only some users.

Personally, I'd be much more concerned about DW's fate as it does not have deep pockets, it has already been a target for groups attempting to shut down its content, and it's a more concentrated fan site. I think fandom wouldn't lose too many resources because not many people have been creating them over there. But I know it would be a real loss for me because it's the only place now that has all my own content (plus it's just a more usable site).

[ivy03]

mystery writers that they seem to think we couldn't sit through another five pages of answering all our questions before moving on.
I think it's mystery writers have a great fear of heaps of exposition, a la Agatha Christie ("I have gathered you all here today to explain to you..."). Of course, the explanation is kind of the fun of the thing. When I edited mysteries, I frequently asked for more fleshed denouement. Especially in one book which had not just a mystery but an incredibly meaty, complicated family drama. You can't just reveal who did it and then ignore how that affects the family. On my urging, he added about ten more pages of resolution. Still not enough to my taste, but getting there.

[yourlibrarian]

You can't just reveal who did it and then ignore how that affects the family. On my urging, he added about ten more pages of resolution.

Yes, this, exactly this. I don't need to have every bit of the mystery neatly tied up and laid out to me. But especially in a series where I'm supposed to care about the detective, if not some of the other characters, it feels like a real cheat to suddenly have a few paragraphs telling me what happened in subsequent days as if it's an unwanted afterthought.

[ivy03]

eee that is really disturbing about the content moderators. I had never thought about that, but yeah. Looking at what people post all day? I appreciate their efforts, though! There is far less surprise disturbing porn than I remember there being in the early days of the internets. (Or maybe I've just better learned to avoid it.)

[yourlibrarian]

I'm pretty sure I'd be happy to have most of what they ban off the Internet as well. However, the POV of the article regarding the lack of mental health care for the workers was very narrowly drawn. Honestly, there's a lot of people who would like to have health care of any kind with their jobs, who make even less than these workers. This is not major news. The type of work they do though is very underreported, and it affects a lot of people given the sites that employ them. I really wish the reporter had decided to make this into a series instead of a one-off about the workers' benefits package.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

I used to work for our film rating agency (not censors per se any more, but the ones who award the certificates; they are only refused for outright illegalities). They were well treated and did have good access to psych help, and the workload was much lighter than the infinite riches of the internet. Even so, it was hellish tough to be watching a morning's worth of kids' videos (U, U, Uc etc) and then an afternoon of Adults Only sex shows or True Crime vids with corpses or people caught dying on camera. Just... ouch. Interviewing for the posts was as much about coping mechanisms as about censorship, rating and least of all film.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I doubt I'd care for even a film critic's job. It's one thing to review something you wanted to see for whatever reason. It's another to be forced to watch an endless parade of stuff you don't want to see. The worst part is that even typical movie fare has become so violent that the job would seem very unpleasant these days.