For
some reason I always assumed that part of aging meant developing a
certain cynicism to the machinations of our ever changing world. I
assumed that time would imbue us each with a “Been there, done
that” attitude.
When
I was much younger I fully embraced the spirit of the old Dylan tune
The Times They Are A-Changing since, like most boomers, I was
raised to believe change meant progress which in turn meant things
continually improved. The future I envisioned in the 1950s and 1960s
had more food, less pollution, more equality, less war, cooler cars,
zippier airplanes, cures for all diseases and the Tigers winning the
World Series year after year. Now I appreciate that change just means
something is different than it was, for better or also for worse.
And
therein lie the roots of my cynicism.
Trying
to separate the wheat of progress from the chaff of change seems more
difficult each year. And whereas once my belief was that all movement
was forward movement, I've come to understand that even true progress
is burdened with the kind of compromise that inspired the saying,
“Two steps forward, and one step back”.
The
open arms embrace of all things digital is a case in point. Not the
hardware itself, of course, but the mischievous, even malevolent
bytes that have crept into the zeroes and ones that move the world.
Our
first signs of evil arrived when the internet was new; Alta Vista was
the big name in search, and something called a virus somehow migrated
into into your system, a gift from someone unknown, for reasons
unknown.
Then
one day the viruses came of age as hackers and hucksters planted
worms, crumbs, PUPs, and Trojan horses into your system to do
everything from spy on your every keystroke to disrupting your
computer with some bad code so that you'd need to purchase the
correct $29.95 antidote they just happened to know you needed.
The
digital paradise was lost.
Today,
the fifty shades of mischief aren't solely concentrated on mayhem
and petty theft, but some are courtesy of a few of the biggest names
in the stock market. They argue that their intentions are honorable,
their means only marginally invasive. Even better, some innocently
ask for permission to poke their nose into your business. Just to
enhance your experience, don't you know.
One
of my first caution flags was raised some years ago when I was
watching an ad on television for Progressive Insurance featuring
their gal Flo preaching the benefits of letting Progressive monitor
your driving by plugging a device called Snapshot into your car. “No
way will anyone be stupid enough to let them plug one of those into
their car,” I chortled. And while my gut feeling that evil is afoot
is shared
by other cynics, a group of young whippersnappers calling
themselves “Millennials” could
care less if their every driving maneuver is tracked and recorded
by a corporation that has a vested interest in taking as much of
their money as they can get away with while returning the least
amount possible when circumstances require their payment.
Now
I find out that as of last year “black boxes” are required in all
new cars. These boxes begin
recording data when they sense potentially hazardous situations
by tracking speed, direction, hard braking, stability and, of course,
the inflation of the airbags. Since any accident my family or I have
ever been involved in could be explained within the usual parameters
of causation, I wondered who cared so deeply about our driving faux
pas?
Turns
out that in the event of an accident, your insurance company has the
right to legally remove the “black box” for analysis from the car
that you had, until that point in time, thought belonged totally to
you. While there may exist some quasi-legal dodges
to enforce rights of ownership, I don't think this Supreme Court
would be on the citizen's side should push come to shove.
And
then there's the wonderful free
apps for your smartphone that are giving numerous organizations
enough data about you that they could form a pretty accurate
description of your life should the need arise. It turns out that by
analyzing as few as 300 “likes” on your Facebook page, your
personality is revealed so thoroughly to Facebook data accumulators
that they understand your personality better than your
spouse.
I
wonder if all of this is really necessary.
Last
month, while traveling out West, we thought we'd order food and have
it delivered to our room because it was already pitch black outside
and we weren't familiar with the town. It may have been a small town
but of course there was a Domino's Pizza. Since ordering food online
didn't sound too cutting edge (although I'd never tried to before), I
fired up the laptop, but things quickly got out of hand. First, the
Domino's site wanted a zip code to know which “store” (not
restaurant) we'd be using. That made sense, but a scramble for the
motel stationary turned up nothing, nothing on the room key, but
finally a flip though the phone book in the night stand bailed me
out. Then I was asked to start my Domino's Profile, which would add
another user name, password and email account (I have a few) to my
already overflowing file cabinet of secret words and handshakes. I
closed my laptop's lid. I mean, I don't even know where the closest
Domino's is back home in Brighton, but I need a profile to order a
pizza?
Last
year I learned that the same computer server that stores Amazon
Prime's (and every other bit of Amazon's) transaction information
also holds data for the CIA; now what could possibly go wrong there?
I'm just thankful that thus far I've led a very boring, uninteresting
life. I hope.
None
of these facts seems to rile up the group known as Millennials. Most
of them accept the tradeoff that by using Google as your search
engine, Google Maps as your GPS, a local cell tower pinpointing your
location with every phone call made or received, and tracking every
video ever watched on YouTube, you have less privacy than any Cold
War spy sneaking through the back alleys of Moscow.
There's
an Alfred E. Neuman “What, me worry?” vibe to them.
The
Millennials were raised with a keyboard on their lap and a mouse in
their hand, surfing the web while talking or texting on their phones.
All of this digitized inter-connectedness is neither new nor
threatening in the least to them.
As
Butch asked Sundance, “Who are those guys?”
Hebdo
vs. Apple
When
discussions about selling French magazine Charlie Hebdo on iTunes
fell apart in 2010 due to censorship concerns, publisher Stephane
Charbonnier turned
his satirical sights on Apple and especially Steve Jobs.
French
Printer Held Hostage by Kouachis
After
murdering the editors and writers at Charlie Hebdo, the
killers sought refuge in a suburban Paris print shop. Ignoring
the irony of hiding in a print shop, where content is actually given
form for distribution, the brothers did get their wish to die for
their cause.
Is
There a Book Glut? Does It Matter?
Like
unvisited web sites, there are thousands of new titles offered every
year that never find an audience. Do all of these titles dilute
the market or simply ensure that a sort of “literary evolution”
will provide a steady stream of quality writing?
Kindle
Unlimited Disappoints Authors
As
ebook subscription services gain traction, the
exception is Amazon's Kindle Unlimited service which is becoming
known for obscure titles. Are ebook subscriptions to
blame for falling ebook sales?
Authors
United vs the Digerati
A
reaction to the Amazon vs Hachette tiff was the formation of Authors
United, a consequence decried by the “all digital, all the time”
disciples of Jeff Bezos. A former Random
House editor considers the current landscape.
Printers
Continue to Struggle
Printers
continue to struggle with flat sales posting a disappointing
final quarter for 2014 that was essentially the same as 2013.
Forecasts for 2015 warn that print growth will weakly follow a rising
GDP with plants
running at about 70% capacity.
Unlimited
Digital Magazine Subscriptions Last
month we showed how to get 150 digital domestic magazines for
$10/month. How about 2,000
local and international monthlies for $9.99?
eBook
Sales Stall, Print Posts Gains
The
sales of printed books cratered in 2012 and has been steadily, if
slowly, rising
since then. Ebook sales, however, seem
to have plateaued. And students who had used both preferred
printed text books 2:1.
B&N
Has a Pulse
Barnes
& Noble surprised industry watchers with a stronger than expected
holiday sales report. While digital content and Nook sales fell,
overall
sales were up very slightly over the previous year.
Your
eBook Reader is Tattling on You
Your
ebook reader reports not
only on what you read but also on what you don't read, even the
very page you quit reading on in Fifty
Shades of Gray.
Publishers are paying attention to all of this data but are wondering
how to act on it.
Penguin
Drop Caps Covers
Giving
an artist a seemingly arbitrary constraint can often focus the
artist's creativity. Book covers that are designed using the first
initial of an author's surname form the basis of a
unique and attractive set of 26 books (for
sale at Barnes & Noble as single volumes or as Nook
editions.((?))).
UK
eBook Platform Closing
English
mega-retailer Tesco has announced it
will be closing its ebook division blinkbox Books. The division
was just about to celebrate its first year of operations. Publishers
had hailed its creation as an alternative to Amazon's dominance in
the market.
Final
Thought
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