Nick Projects

I have been following a story about the author’s guild trying to force the kindle to remove text to speech capabilities from the kindle E-reader.  Saying that the audio license is different than the written license.  The problem is that Amazon isn’t distributing an audio version of the book.  It is distributing the book and the user’s are making an audio version once they receive it,  in real time.  This is like saying that a mother who reads to her children at night should have to pay for the audio version of Harry Potter in addition to the written copy of the book because she is distributing an audio version. I hope the courts tell the Guild where to stick it.

In fact I think Amazon should argue that all digital material should be required to distribute audio licenses with the material as a concession to vision impaired individuals who would otherwise not be able to read books.  Amazon would need to add some screen reader capacity to the kindle to really sell this but then the courts would be forced to side with the blind or the rich.  Tough choice there!!

- See the original story in Tech Crunch.

Share this post:

Recently there was an article on Forbes about how the GPS industry is getting hammered.  Basically,  cell phones are providing much of the same functionality and most people who own GPS systems won’t upgrade.  I agree with both of these points which is why I would like to throw out some ideas for the failing GPS manufacturers everywhere so they can build some better tools for the world to have.

Forbes Article

First:

Dump the idea of buying a GPS device,  instead think car companion. I need a GPS for 3 things: Finding places that I haven’t been before, Finding things along the side of the road when I’m traveling, Getting traffic updates.  My GPS doesn’t actually provide the third function  and I don’t care enough to upgrade it.

(more…)

Share this post:

I’ve been following several people on twitter for more than a week now and have concluded that twitter is a great idea that pretty much doesn’t work.  Here’s the problem:

Comments only make sense in the context of other comments.  When I reply to one friend’s post everyone else following me sees the reply.  Of course that makes no sense unless you are looking at the post I’m replying to.

I suppose for one way communication,  entities that don’t have enough content to populate a blog or a blog woth visiting often it is a good thing.  But for dialogue; it is like eaves dropping on a skitsofrenic.

Share this post: