My next book is The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation: it’s a Big Tech disassembly manual that explains how to disenshittify the web and bring back the old good internet. The hardcover comes from Verso on Sept 5, but the audiobook comes from me — because Amazon refuses to sell my audio:
Amazon owns Audible, the monopoly audiobook platform that controls >90% of the audio market. They require mandatory DRM for every book sold, locking those books forever to Amazon’s monopoly platform. If you break up with Amazon, you have to throw away your entire audiobook library.
That’s a hell of a lot of leverage to hand to any company, let alone a rapacious monopoly that ran a program targeting small publishers called “Project Gazelle,” where execs were ordered to attack indie publishers “the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”:
The publishing industry 100% loves DRM on books. Like the publishers themselves will often insist upon it because they think it stops piracy.
The only media industry that doesn’t 100% love DRM is the music industry, and that’s because they released digital content without DRM before they realized they might need it. (You might have heard of it - it’s called the Compact Disc.)
For a while, I was de-DRMing my Kindle books specifically so Amazon couldn’t spontaneously decide to just…take them all back. I should probably look at doing that more.
I love it when Cory does this.
Aside on How People Defeated The Music Industry With a Felt-Tip Pen/Sharpie.
CDs, like records before them, store their data in a long spiral track. Music CDs go from the inside out; data CDs go from the outside in. This prevents your CD player get confused/ruined by trying to play a data CD - it will look at the middle, see nothing, and go “nothing for me here!”. This is good.
When you put a CD in a computer’s CD player, it will check the outside first (assuming it’s more likely to be a data CD), then check the inside (so it can still play your tunes / rip them).
So a music exec came up with a dastardly plan: put something that ‘looks’ like a small data file on the outside of music CDs. CD players will still be fine (they will start from the inside), but computers will think it’s a data CD and ignore the music! No ripping possible!
… except people realized you could just do a quick line around the outside with your favourite black pen. The computer wouldn’t be able to read the data file on the outside, so would then (correctly) think it’s a music CD.
The ‘small file on the outside of music CDs’ thing died very quickly after that.
idk why but this page is dangerous and mad and it def shows how Bruce can be B-man without the costume and i’m scREAMING
I love it. So powerful.
THIS is the Bruce Wayne I love. The Bruce Wayne who isn’t in a suit, whether it’s a tux or a batsuit, it’s just him in all his natural power and strength and that, more than anything else, is what makes him physically terrifying. He could break your neck without a Kevlar suit, he needs pretty much fuck all when he REALLY needs to kick ass.
Also: the blood going down his face from his nose??? The look on his face, AKA The Justice Smolder????? His Arms™?????? His shoulder to waist ratio???????? Steve Rogers who, bitch,,,,, Batman is the TRUE Justice Dorito.
TL;DR: Bruce Wayne is mad sexy when he accesses Batman out of costume and if he ever gives you the look he’s giving Evil Tim in this panel, you better start running and hope he doesn’t catch you unless you’re into that like I am but shhhhhhhh
Short-staffing has become a major problem in all sectors. Retail, food service, health care, education, factory production lines, call centers, child care, IT, office support staff, etc. Every corner of our society and economy.
Now we know that even in creative spaces employers are not willing to hire sufficient staff to accomplish necessary tasks, demand workers do more than their fair share of work, for longer hours, without fair compensation or reasonable breaks/time off.
Hi Mr. Gaiman! I’ve been seeing a lot of questions on as to why Aziraphale chose to put up a bookshop instead of a library, and I’m here to ask you a sort of the same question if you don’t mind…
Has Aziraphale ever thought of instead of putting up a bookshop, why can’t he just put all of his book collections and get a house? He would have more privacy + he wont have to deal with humans trying to buy his books. I mean, my sister lives in a house and she has TONS of books!
Aziraphale’s bookshop is like many bookshops the world over, and if you know the type you’ll recognise it.
They’re run by (mostly)gentlemen who have reached that point in their lives where they have too many books, but no desire to part with them. However, since they are taking up too much room in the house, something must be done. And since they don’t just want to give them away (books? That they own?? Just giving them away???) they do the next best thing: they sort out the books that they like the least, and they bring them down to their newly-rented storefront and set them out haphazardly along shelves and on tables, for people to come in and ogle.
There’s no rhyme or reason to the organisation of books within these bookshops. In an ideal world, no one would buy these books and the seller could continue to enjoy them at their leisure. But since renting a storefront costs money, and it turns out running a shop is something of a full-time job, they inevitably succumb to the pressure and part with those most well-worn of their treasures for a sum, so that they can continue to indulge in their book-buying habit. Still, best not make it too easy for the customers.
So they hide away the till in a dark corner and do their best to hide behind their latest novel, and hope they can get away with a meagre sacrifice to the punters each month, without losing a treasured tome.
Aziraphale’s bookshop strikes me as this type. I’m sure he’s very proud that he’s not sold a single book in years, despite being in the centre of London. You could almost call it a miracle…
I’ve heard what’s happened and I’m heartbroken that there are leaks, and that they happened like this. If you want to remain GO2 unspoiled I’d strongly suggest avoiding any places or tags that leaks happen or just staying far away from the internet until July 28th.
