I was just looking at reading the Ladies No.1 Detective agency series on my Kindle but couldn't believe the price. It costs £4.99 on Kindle or £3.99 for a paperback - with free delivery.
Is it just me, or is this taking the piss? I know it isn't Amazon's fault, but the publisher's, as they set the price.
Didn't they learn anything from the illegal downloading of music? People will download illegally if you don't give them an easy and reasonably priced download service. Music is available through iTunes and Amazon as well as many others and is reasonably priced compared to CDs - and now people use these services to purchase from.
The same thing is happening with movies - although perhaps starting to get better with streaming movie services such as LoveFilm.
Digital books are so much easier to pirate - they are tiny files, much less than 1mb - although I won't download these books illegally myself, you can imagine why people will and do.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Ladies-Detective-Agency/dp/034911675X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324321125&sr=8-1
19 December 2011
5 November 2011
Email to Sony Playstation.
Hello
To whoever it may concern. I am no longer going to be a customer of Sony but I wanted to at least let you know why. I hope this email gets to somebody who actually cares that I will no longer be a customer.
Either way, I have always been a huge fan of Sony, being one of the first people to not only buy new hardware but also peripherals for my PS 1,2,3, PSP and would have been soon to purchase Vita.
Even after the hacking earlier this year I was beginning to forgive Sony for the downtime and losing my data (even though I believed the "compensation" to be insulting).
What has really disappointed me is the decision to only allow DLC to be used on two devices. Having a PSP and a PS3 and then was son going to buy Vita, and probably a Xpreia Play I wouldn't be allowed to share content with all of these devices.
You seem to be going after people pirating, which is of course a good thing, but then are making it so darn hard to buy content legally that I am just going to give up with gaming on my PS3 completely. I am seriously considering buying an X-Box or even not bother gaming anymore.
Of course you've done the calculations and it is probably cheaper to annoy some games, but then be able to sell more content to other people that it is worth it, but I am no longer prepared to be in this ecosystem.
I do not expect a reply. However, if you do reply please do not send an automated response. If a person isn't going to reply I would rather you didn't bother replying at all.
Disappointed.
Simon King. (PSN id Mozart321)
To whoever it may concern. I am no longer going to be a customer of Sony but I wanted to at least let you know why. I hope this email gets to somebody who actually cares that I will no longer be a customer.
Either way, I have always been a huge fan of Sony, being one of the first people to not only buy new hardware but also peripherals for my PS 1,2,3, PSP and would have been soon to purchase Vita.
Even after the hacking earlier this year I was beginning to forgive Sony for the downtime and losing my data (even though I believed the "compensation" to be insulting).
What has really disappointed me is the decision to only allow DLC to be used on two devices. Having a PSP and a PS3 and then was son going to buy Vita, and probably a Xpreia Play I wouldn't be allowed to share content with all of these devices.
You seem to be going after people pirating, which is of course a good thing, but then are making it so darn hard to buy content legally that I am just going to give up with gaming on my PS3 completely. I am seriously considering buying an X-Box or even not bother gaming anymore.
Of course you've done the calculations and it is probably cheaper to annoy some games, but then be able to sell more content to other people that it is worth it, but I am no longer prepared to be in this ecosystem.
I do not expect a reply. However, if you do reply please do not send an automated response. If a person isn't going to reply I would rather you didn't bother replying at all.
Disappointed.
Simon King. (PSN id Mozart321)
28 October 2011
Children of Men
I watched Children of Men mainly (just) because I had heard from Wikipedia that it was filmed partly in Woolwich.
For the first twenty minutes or so it was a bit of a struggle but after that it started getting very good.
This is a film set in the near future,18 years since the last woman to carry a baby to term.
I loved some of the action set-pieces which were made to look like they were filmed in one shot, from a single camera. However, I have since read that it is mainly a camera trick and edited footage. However, it is still very impressive.
For the first twenty minutes or so it was a bit of a struggle but after that it started getting very good.
This is a film set in the near future,18 years since the last woman to carry a baby to term.
I loved some of the action set-pieces which were made to look like they were filmed in one shot, from a single camera. However, I have since read that it is mainly a camera trick and edited footage. However, it is still very impressive.
15 February 2011
Setting up Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix on NC10
I have tried various flavours of Linux in the past including some previous Ubuntu release. However, I have never been honestly ready to ditch Windows.
This has now changed with Ubuntu 10.10 netbook remix. It is still not perfect by any means. Fox example, setting up the brightness controls was a bit of a pain, but with a bit of jiggery pokery got it working OK.
There was no problem with the wifi drivers, which I expected to go wrong.
I plugged in my 3G (Huawei E160e) broadband dongle from Orange and it worked 'straight out of the box'.
The next thing I did was think about which programs I use mostly on Windows and decided to see if I can find Linux versions of them. The following is a list of my findings:
Google Chrome: Available on Ubuntu, appears to be more or less the same as the Windows version.
Tweet Deck: Again, no real problems getting it to run
Microsoft Office: - I decided to go with OpenOffice.Org (which comes as a default anyway). I have used OpenOffice.Org on Windows before many times - and frankly is easier to use than the Office 2007 I was using with the bizarre lack of menus.
Thunderbird: I just used the installer application to install Thunderbird for my email, and again it is very similiar to the Windows version.
Next I need to try and find myself some decent web editing software. I currently use Microsoft Expression as I get it free as part of the DreamSpark student deals. I think Kompozer currently looks like the best bet - unless someone can advise me otherwise?
This has now changed with Ubuntu 10.10 netbook remix. It is still not perfect by any means. Fox example, setting up the brightness controls was a bit of a pain, but with a bit of jiggery pokery got it working OK.
There was no problem with the wifi drivers, which I expected to go wrong.
I plugged in my 3G (Huawei E160e) broadband dongle from Orange and it worked 'straight out of the box'.
The next thing I did was think about which programs I use mostly on Windows and decided to see if I can find Linux versions of them. The following is a list of my findings:
Google Chrome: Available on Ubuntu, appears to be more or less the same as the Windows version.
Tweet Deck: Again, no real problems getting it to run
Microsoft Office: - I decided to go with OpenOffice.Org (which comes as a default anyway). I have used OpenOffice.Org on Windows before many times - and frankly is easier to use than the Office 2007 I was using with the bizarre lack of menus.
Thunderbird: I just used the installer application to install Thunderbird for my email, and again it is very similiar to the Windows version.
Next I need to try and find myself some decent web editing software. I currently use Microsoft Expression as I get it free as part of the DreamSpark student deals. I think Kompozer currently looks like the best bet - unless someone can advise me otherwise?
11 January 2011
Richard Herring's How Not to Grow Up
I read Richard Herring's latest e-book on my Kindle when I went on holiday at Christmas.
I have enjoyed listening to his various podcasts for the last few years. The only disappointment is that Andrew Collins wasn't even mentioned!
As you would expect the book is very funny - but also appears to be very honest and in some ways has far too much honesty!
You can get the first chapter for free from Amazon.
I have enjoyed listening to his various podcasts for the last few years. The only disappointment is that Andrew Collins wasn't even mentioned!
As you would expect the book is very funny - but also appears to be very honest and in some ways has far too much honesty!
You can get the first chapter for free from Amazon.
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