12
Aug
2009
Be a good little sheep
Your child refuses to be brainwashed
So this is one letter? So what?. Unfortunately the above letter is only a taste.
The world is changing…Slowly our freedoms are being eroded.
It’s not only the RIAA, MPAA, and Disney are not the only ones putting greed above freedom. Names like Microsoft, Apple should also ring bells. But what about Amazon?
Book publishers have had it tough lately, so you can’t really blame them for grabbing any opportunity. It took them a long time to accept e-books, but slowly they are making inroads. Who wouldn’t want e-books? Granted they are not easy on the eyes, but with the advent of e-paper, e-book readers such as the kindle have made reading and managing e-booksa breeze. OK so the current generation of readers are a tad pricey, but at least the ebeooks are cheaper than traditional books? They must be cheaper: Printing costs are zero, and distribution costs are minimal. After origination costs, it’s all profit. Well, you would think so, but try pricing e-books, and compare the pricing to regular books. Scary stuff.
Well at least you get the same rights with an e-book as a regular book, right? Wrong. Besides the usually draconian restrictions, howe about sales not being final. Seriously.
Last month Amazon made headlines by remotely deleting a book from customers Kindle e-book readers. There were nice enough about it, and refunded the money for the purchase, but is this the future you want? A future where corporations can do what they want, eroding your rights, one licence agreement at a time. Do you really want to give them the right to effectively sneak into your house late at night and take back items that you legitimately purchased?
Big brother is not necessarily the government anymore. The new big brother was invited in by unwitting consumers by clicking the “next” button without reading the fine print. Take back your freedom. Join the EFF. Fight for your rights, or one day you may discover you don’t have them anymore.
As somebody once told me :
We are living through historic times, you just don’t realise it because you are too busy living through it.
Oh, one last thing: For those wondering about the book that Amazon deleted, how is this for irony… The title was (Drum roll please): George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.
19
Apr
2009
Need another Timmy
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwVA698Hx2g
A blast from the past… How many of you remember the show Dinosaurs from the early nineties?
There was show within the show called “Ask Mr Lizard”, with a character called Timmy.
Anyway, Timmy had a horrible habit of getting himself blown up, or otherwise getting removed from the gene pool thanks to his ever trusting attitude towards Mr Lizard (Sort of an early version of Kenny from Southpark).
Anyway, I was thinking that that Timmy is a reflection in many ways of abuse that happens everyday, all over the world.
The blind following of leaders, whether political, religious, business or community is a bad idea, and I don’t care who the leader is.
We see it everyday. Priests abusing boys (while taking their parents money through tithing or collection) , Politicians becoming corrupt, businessman screwing the economy (and getting rewarded for it). It is all over, and very common.
