Comments for Lilith Saintcrow

Comment on The Chili-Loving Mummy Of The Met by Chris

Chris — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:21:39 +0000

So… have you watched “Night at the Museum” recently? Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly Oscar material, and I’m not dissing your sleeping brain, but still… there are some similarities.

My dreams seem to revolve around my kids misbehaving. The thing is, they’re pretty good kids! Although, the youngest has some bad grades due to 1) not turning in work and 2) not giving the teachers respect.

She’s not bad, just a disrespectful procrastinator. :-0

Comment on The Chili-Loving Mummy Of The Met by martianmooncrab

martianmooncrab — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:49:28 +0000

Fresh As A Daisy, Shamble Thru Zombie Wash… wax extra.

Comment on The Chili-Loving Mummy Of The Met by fiveandfour

fiveandfour — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:38:11 +0000

I would say that this kinda’ beats the dream I had the other night about being Superman except, dude, I was *Superman*!

Still. Chili? And a mummy? Yeah…that’s a bit…yeah…

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by Lei

Lei — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:44 +0000

Great blog and interesting discussions. The number of people who are under the delusion that the environmental and socio-economic impact of e-books has already been established because *they* happen to already own [device x] and find it to be extremely convenient or easier/better than books or physical bookstores/libraries baffles me at times. Yes, I own several e-reader devices along with a plethora of computers and gaming equipment, and I like reading on these devices just as much as having a physical book. However, this is certainly not something the vast majority of humanity is able to do. In a perfect world, it would be an easy shift to the e-book platforms and costs to all (including environmental impact) would be known and equally distributed, AND both publishers and authors would still be able to make a very comfortable living. We’re not there yet. The fact is, there are many people in this world who don’t have access to electricity or even potable water, for that manner. Like Lili says, we can’t even get governments to agree on proper distribution of FOOD to the poor and destitute, let alone access to technology that might make reading more convenient (and perhaps cheaper) at some point in the distant future. Bottom line is, no one was attacking e-books in the tweets. There simply has been no thorough research done on the subject (and the technology hasn’t matured enough) for us to find out the TRUE costs and impacts of the devices, e-books and supporting network infrastructure and architecture behind them. And we need to have that research and continued discussion on a number of related matters, not to mention the issues regarding consumer rights to devices and electronic content. Meanwhile, if I find and read a book that I truly love, I will always order the hardbound or paperback version for my personal library (because the power goes out here quite often and I can read by sunshine or candlelight) and donate one to the public library, too. Why? Because I was poor as a kid. I was raised in the projects and I remember how wonderful it was to have a library in our neighborhood. And I know damn well that there aren’t going to be any “cheap” e-readers and/or free content available to kids in my old neighborhood anytime soon.

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by David(UK)

David(UK) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:49:18 +0000

Well one of your countrymen claimed that common sense is very uncommon so it must be true. There does seem to be a lot of it on your site though so perhaps it’s not evenly distributed.

You are right it is quite legitimate to compare costs, (I have spent years doing just that sort of boring job for a local manufacturing company), but from my limited experience you normally have to wait a while for a new technology to ‘bed down’ as we say before you get an accurate result and I’m not sure ebooks have really reached that mature stage yet. That was what I was thinking anyway that it may be too early to make a proper judgement. I could for instance imagine a future scenario where say Amazon ends up giving its ereaders away ‘free’ in the knowledge that it will make the money back on future sales of ebooks, a bit like how printer prices have fallen tremendously while printer ink still costs a small fortune. Unfortunately we always end up paying in the end whatever cost recovery model they use.

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by Lili

Lili — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:09:49 +0000

I’m glad you have had a good experience. I am not quite sure how you think I’ve been “hard” on ebooks. Noting the different costs of the platforms isn’t being “hard” on them. Print has not reached “everyone” in the last hundred years…but neither has electricity, literacy, vaccines, or even common sense.

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by David(UK)

David(UK) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:58:02 +0000

I was converted to the ebook reader concept when I realised that the reader would be less than half the price of the new bookcase I was considering and yet it would hold so much more.

That first ebook reader (Sony) is still working well after about 4 years of heavy use and based on that I purchased a Kindle as soon as they were made available over here and that too has performed very well. Perhaps I am just lucky.

Reading could be considered my ‘drug of choice’ and I am sure that I now spend more money on books than I used to because it is now so easy, no more having to order from local bookshops and calling in week after to week to see if it has arrived, now most of the time, it is a few clicks and away I go and then the next and the next…

I agree with most of the above comments but I’m fairly relaxed about the situation, the current ebook readers may well be equivalent to five and a quarter inch floppy discs in 10 years time but there will still be books being written and books to read on some device or other I am sure. I do not think print books actually reached 100% of the world population and that was after a few centuries so it is perhaps a bit harsh to rush to judgement on ebooks.

I fear that eventually print will go the way of the scrolls and Illuminated manuscripts, I regret it, but not enough to buy more bookcases.

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by Lili

Lili — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:15:39 +0000

I didn’t know you were such an optimist. Considering the trouble we have funding the libraries, and the trouble conservatives raise over even such small things as food for poor people, I’m not sure tech–especially “luxury” items, since you know that’s what they’d call it–could be subsidized effectively. We could get into a whole conversation about educating what the top 1% would like to keep a dumb slave class…but that would be off-topic.

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by particle_person

particle_person — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:30:19 +0000

True, although it’s worth considering the more nearby poor also.

On that subject (since I’m throwing up my hands on the third-world problem for the moment), how about government subsidies for ebook readers? We have libraries for the ebooks themselves. There’s no way for libraries to loan ebook readers with a hope of getting them back, but possibly government (at some level, not necessarily national) could subsidize readers?

Comment on Hidden Costs, Not Haterade by Lili

Lili — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:49:52 +0000

Exactly. Which was the problem we set out to solve–the third-world one.