MetaFilter posts tagged with Amazon

So to recap, Amazon just MONETIZED FREAKING FANFIC.

robocop is bleeding — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:53:28 -0800

Amazon introduces Kindle Worlds, allowing fanfic authors to profit from works based on settings and characters not their own. Kindle Worlds is set to roll out this summer. Don't dust off your classic Kirk/Spock opus just yet, though - at this point they're only working with properties owned by Warner Brothers' Alloy Entertainment (Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries). But will fans actually pay for something that they're able to get for free?

The Lost Tribes of the Amazon

jason's_planet — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:22:52 -0800

Franco believes that governments must increase efforts to preserve indigenous cultures. “The Indians represent a special culture, and resistance to the world,” argues the historian, who has spent three decades researching isolated tribes in Colombia. Martínez says that the Indians have a unique view of the cosmos, stressing “the unity of human beings with nature, the interconnectedness of all things.” It is a philosophy that makes them natural environmentalists, since damage to the forest or to members of one tribe, the Indians believe, can reverberate across society and history with lasting consequences. “They are protecting the jungle by chasing off gold miners and whoever else goes in there,” Franco says. He adds: “We must respect their decision not to be our friends—even to hate us.”

For eccentric book-lovers with beards and cats

stbalbach — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:29:33 -0800

"..it is refreshing to see Jason Merkoski, a leader of the team that built Amazon's first Kindle, dispense with the usual techo-utopianism and say, “I think we’ve made a proverbial pact with the devil in digitizing our words.”

"Amazon, Apple and Google are a bit like medieval fortresses in their own ways. They’re secretive like China or Japan before they opened up to Westerners, or like Tibet or Mecca, closed to foreigners... There are two issues about secrecy here: social responsibility and intellectual property. As far as social responsibility goes, let me just say this: These companies have entire buildings filled with lawyers. They aren’t there to come up with new lawyer jokes. They are there, in part, to keep people like me from even answering this question. If push came to shove, I think most of these execs would rather pull e-books from the store, effectively censoring them, if that would avoid bad press. These are major retailers, not your quirky corner bookstores. They’re manned by former management consultants in clean shirts and pressed Dockers, not eccentric book-lovers with beards and cats. When it comes to book recommendations, retailers have the literary sensibilities of a spreadsheet — they’ll just recommend the most popular books to me, or books that other people also bought, but they know nothing of the soul and sparkle of a great book. In 20 years, the space of one generation, print books will be as rare as vinyl LPs. You’ll still be able to find them in artsy hipster stores, but that’s about it. Working at Amazon was like getting an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. at the same time. It was an incredible education. These were the smartest people I ever worked with. But Amazon had a dark side as well, as if it were the mean stepmother in a fairy tale. There was this push to get great products out to consumers. It makes a lot of teams very haggard. Amazon is held together by adrenaline, spreadsheets and people running around like crazy.

From his new book Burning the Page: The eBook revolution and the future of reading, available on Amazon Kindle of course. Scott Turow has a piece in the Times also The Slow Death of the American Author, saying that a number of forces are making it difficult for authors to make a living, prophesying among other things:

millions of copyrighted works are stored online [Google Books], one hacker away from worldwide dissemination for free.

"The only one used on official world tournaments. Don't settle for less"

zarq — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:04:34 -0800

"It's become a tradition among Amazon users: Find the stupidest products for sale on the site, and write sarcastically glowing reviews of them. The examples are legendary: the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt, of course, and also Bic for Her pens. Now, the latest idiotic product to get a ceremonial roasting is the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer, a little plastic gizmo that lets you "slice an entire banana with one quick motion." Universally panned as something completely unnecessary, the product is thus being faux-celebrated as a milestone of human invention." Previously * Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt, Available in Various Sizes * I bought this pen (in error, evidently) to write my reports of each day's tree felling activities in my job as a lumberjack.

Amazon buys Goodreads

bongo_x — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:42:29 -0800

The social book site Goodreads has been acquired by Amazon. Many members are upset and uncertain what this means for site which has relied on members to do the work of building and maintaining their database. Amazon already owns Shelfari and has a 40% stake in LibraryThing, two competing sites.

"This is the Amazon as one imagines it as a child"

stbalbach — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:59:32 -0800

"Hi, my name is Paul Rosolie. I'm a naturalist based out of southern Peru and today I'm headed into the jungle to show you a place that very few people have gotten to see. I'm in the Madre de Dios region of Peru, this is the far western Amazon and some of the deepest jungle on earth."

A Scientist at War With His Tribe

homunculus — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:57:45 -0800

How Napoleon Chagnon Became Our Most Controversial Anthropologist. "Jaguars and anacondas are impressive adversaries — 'Indiana Jones had nothing on me,' Napoleon Chagnon says — but his staunchest foes are other anthropologists."

Retweet to add additional diamonds to your shopping basket

Wordshore — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:03:32 -0800

Twitter is experimenting with online shopping: "American Express card holders who connect their card numbers to their Twitter accounts can post on Twitter to trigger a purchase of select products, including discounted American Express gift cards, Kindle Fire tablets from Amazon.com Inc. and jewelry from designer Donna Karan. The program will roll out over the next few days." CNET report the mechanism for purchasing an item: "Amex cardholders first sync their card with Twitter. Then, when they come across products that are eligible to purchase under the plan -- products that American Express will promote through a Twitter feed -- they simply send out a tweet that includes a special hashtag. Amex will then send them an @-reply with a confirming hashtag. Finally, the buyer has to send out a second tweet with the special hashtag within 15 minutes." Adweek adds: "...Once they do, Amex will process the order and send the product via free two-day shipping." CNN have more on the first sale offer: "The two companies announced the partnership on Monday and kicked it off with a single product offering, a $25 American Express gift card for $15. Other products will be available starting Wednesday morning." The Atlantic wire hedge their bets on whether this will be successful or not: "There are a lot of things about this arrangement not to like, but we'll leave it to our commenters to point them out. Suffice it to say that this strange new social shopping idea is both strange and new. It could fail fabulously, or people could be really into it. Kind of like Twitter, circa 2007."

In the future, all Space Marines will be Games Workshop

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:13:31 -0800

Last December Amazon blocked sales of the Ebook Spots the Space Marine by author M.C.A. Hogarth after a notice from gaming industry powerhouse Games Workshop that they had trademarked the phrase "Space Marine" and that Hogarth, and anyone else who uses it, is infringing. GW brought this complaint based on "Class 16" of their European tradmark. In GW's tabletop far-future wargame Warhammer 40,000 (a.k.a. 40K), the Adeptes Astartes (a.k.a. the "Space Marines") are genetically-enhanced 8-foot-tall transhuman warrior monks in power-armor. Painting the figures for one's tabletop army is an integral part of the hobby, as GW figures come unpainted. 40K has a huge following worldwide, with tournament play going on at gaming conventions. The Space Marines are the flagship army of GW's 40K game, and also of its corporate identity. Games Workshop HQ features a statue of a Space Marine out front and an Imperial Aquila over the entrance. GW publishes novels set in the 40K universe under the Black Library imprint. According to Hogarth:

In their last email to me, Games Workshop stated that they believe that their recent entrée into the e-book market gives them the common law trademark for the term “space marine” in all formats.

The larger science fiction community, after hearing about the takedown notice, has rallied to Hogarth's cause, pointing out that the idea of "Space Marines" is a rather generic term that has been around in SF literature since the early 20th century, including authors like EE "Doc" Smith and Robert Heinlein's 1939 short story Misfit. According to TV Tropes entry on Space Marines:

Space Marines first turn up in the short story "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" by Bob Olsen in Amazing Stories Volume 7, Number 8, of November 1932, and a later followup, 1936's "The Space Marines and the Slavers." The trope, however, fully rose to prominence with the use of the term on the wildly popular Lensman Series beginning in 1934. In 1959, Starship Troopers codified the trope, popularizing the emblematic Power Armor and the array of exotic weaponry they wield. Warhammer 40000 is notable for taking these aspects to a peak, and also for owning a registered trademark on the name "Space Marine." This is because large-scale game Adeptus Titanicus had an expansion called Space Marine which was later taken as the title for the re-release of the entire game.

Author Cory Doctorow pointed out that Amazon legally didn't have to comply with GW's takedown request. As of Wednesday Hogarth reports that The Electronic Frontier Foundation have been in contact, and many hope somebody will take up her cause pro bono as she has made it clear GW has much deeper pockets to pay lawyers than she does. GW also in recent years filed a lawsuit against Chapterhouse Studios, makers of resin models and conversion bits that GW says look a whole lot like their trademarked products. While Amazon has blocked sales of the Ebook, it can still be purchased here. Amazon still carries the paperback edition for sale.

Pristine Condition! Super Fast Shipping! Five Stars!

weeyin — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 09:04:12 -0800

Amazon contemplating the used ebook market. But will they still have used book coffee rings on the pages? The Digital Reader breaks it down. And then contemplates Amazon vs. ReDigi. Previously: Places to find free ebooks

Nothing happens if you respect the snake

rewil — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:06:39 -0800

A ten-day trip to the Mato Grosso do Sul to take pictures of anacondas worked out quite well for nature photographer Franco Banfi. (Videos from a similar expedition in 2010.)

Add to cart for pricing information

cjorgensen — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:21:42 -0800

Philippe Dubost's Resume

Just when you thought it was safe to avoid Korn

mathowie — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:14:36 -0800

Amazon just announced AutoRip, a service to provide MP3 versions of any song you buy on CD from their store. That's all well and good, but the kicker is that "Amazon is retroactively giving free MP3s to any customer who has purchased an AutoRip compatible CD since its Music Store first opened in 1998". Looks like I'll be knee deep in Blink 182, Cake, and The Spin Doctors again.

CES 2013

zabuni — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:09:05 -0800

The International Consumer Electronics Show has been hosted in some form or fashion since 1967. But with the absence of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, journalists are asking if the show is still relevant.

There are things it doesn't say on the tin.

Diablevert — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:44:44 -0800

The customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk's Veet For Men Hair Removal Gel Creme are not for the fainthearted. "Being a loose cannon who does not play by the rules the first thing I did..."

I don't always deploy Django, but when I do I use Heroku

Megami — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:21:55 -0800

An explanation of how hard it is to boycott Amazon, even when you are an organisation calling for the boycott of corporations like Amazon While the organisation UK Uncut is calling for the boycotting of organisations that don't pay their fair share of tax, even they are using Amazon (though Amazon is not a company currently listed on their website, it is one of the most talked about in the UK for not paying corporation tax) The first linked article goes beyond the technical aspects of Amazon and cloud hosting and talks about a re-analysis of capitalism.

The Best of Times, The Worst of TImes

misha — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 09:34:46 -0800

Released today: the top Google searches of 2012. Also, the top Google searches in the UK. Hungry for more "Best of 2012" collections? Curious about "best of" versus "most popular"? There's much Images 100 Best images of 2012 (chosen from top images of the day): Best Photojournalism of 2012. After that, you'll need these: Best wild animal photos, National Geographic. Books Publishers Weekly top picks. Goodreads' readers pick their top books (Mefi's own jscalzi makes the cut) Amazon's editors picks for best books of the year. Compare to the bestselling books from Amazon, Powell's (includes the instant classic, "I could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats"), and Barnes and Noble. People Time's 100 Most Influential People: (view as a list) (Barbara Walters' "most fascinating people" will air on Wednesday here in the States, but is known to include One Direction and Honey Boo Boo. Google's most popular women of 2012. Compare with Facebook's 15 most popular people. Miscellaneous Tumblr's most popular post of all time, best of Reddit.

Randomized Consumerism

griphus — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:07:53 -0800

"Every time I run [Amazon Random Shopper], I give it a set budget, say $50. It grabs a random word ... then runs an Amazon search based on that word. It then looks for every paperback book, CD, and DVD in the results list, and buys the first thing that’s under budget."

I don't want to set the world on fire/I just want to start a flame in your heart

Toekneesan — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 03:49:13 -0800

Five years ago today Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com released the Amazon Kindle, a move that would revolutionize the publishing industry. While often controversial, most recently for its international tax avoidance schemes, Amazon has been very successful and has made millions for its founder. What has Bezos done with some of his tax-free millions? Well for one, he launched and landed a rocket vertically, and posted the video to YouTube, just yesterday. The Blue Origin site. Blue Origin's Wikipedia page.

Random Harper Penguin

stbalbach — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 02:05:22 -0800

The book publishing world is merging into behemoths in order to better negotiate with Amazon. Rupert Murdoch (HarperCollins) has made an offer to buy Penguin for $1.6 billion. This just hours after Penguin said it was in talks to merge with Random House to create a 'Random Penguin' with nearly 25% of all English-language book sales. Either way the reputation of Penguin could soon be in tatters. As one agent said, "Authors have told me they are frightened by a Random House takeover, but terrified by a HarperCollins one."

Outlawed by Amazon DRM

AceRock — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:40:05 -0800

Outlawed by Amazon DRM: A couple of days ago, my friend Linn sent me an e-mail, very frustrated: Amazon just closed her account and wiped her Kindle. Without notice. Without explanation. Leaving her without recourse. [via] Obligatory: How to strip Amazon Kindle DRM and backup your Kindle purchases.

Baby's on Fire

Artw — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:05:58 -0800

Following much speculation Amazon has refreshed the hardware for it's Kindle range, including the Kindle Paperwhite (featuring a "flattened out fibreoptic display") and an updated version of the sold out Kindle Fire and a new 8.9 Inch Kindle Fire HD. Earlier Kobo announced their new range, including a Kindle Fire like tablet. Between this, speculation that the Surface RT will have an astonishingly low price and rumors of a 7" iPad coming soon (probably to be announced sometime after Apple's September 12th iPhone 5 event) is the window of opportunity for stock Android tablets closing?

Cloud Consitency

juiceCake — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 18:52:06 -0800

Netflix has open sourced tools it uses for load balancing and failure management with Amazon Web Services . They plan to release more tools in the future. They are on Github.

"modern masterpiece"

Fizz — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 05:38:58 -0800

RJ Ellory's secret Amazon reviews anger rivals. [guardian.co.uk] "Crime bestseller caught using sock puppets to trash colleagues and hymn his own 'magnificent' work." Under the pseudonym "Nicodemus Jones":

"All I will say is that there are paragraphs and chapters that just stopped me dead in my tracks," he wrote. "Some of it was chilling, some of it raced along, some of it was poetic and langorous and had to be read twice and three times to really appreciate the depth of the prose … it really is a magnificent book."

"Can we just be kind and respectful to one another??"

Megami — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:06:17 -0800

A blogger records a blow-by-blow account of how an author tries to use social media to 'correct' bad reviews of her book. (I had never heard of Emily Giffin before I read this post) [edit: name spelling corrected]