Some Online Reading
It’s been a frantic day today, my nose to the virtual grindstone. I had a lot of impending work hanging over me, and when I couldn’t move on any other task, I worked on the PHP code for my event schedule editor - I’m trying to anticipate all the things that could go wrong.
The office move is postponed, but that’s okay - we hadn’t planned it out yet anyway. Now maybe we will. Regardless of planning, the Verizon tech arrived downtown to wire up the new phone jacks. But, really, it looks like I’ll need a dialup line or two for EDI ordering, faxes, modem call in for the shut-ins telecommuters without a Telnet setup. All in good time.
Somehow through it all, I was able to read two good articles on-line:
Here comes $500 oil - Is it irresponsible of Fortune to pick that title? Come now, it’s downright panic-inducing. I wasn’t driven to panic, since I’ve been reading about Peak Oil for years now. At least this guy is part of the Oil Industry. He doesn’t get off topic like a lot of people I read on this subject, so that’s refreshing. Here’s some sober advice:
“…as a society, we don’t have the ability to actually come to grips with a crisis until it’s hit us in the face. I am discouraged enough now to think that we’re going to have to have a really nasty shock before we wake people up.”
He also said the Senator McCain is clueless on energy policy.
The End: Have We Reached The End of Book Publishing As We Know It? - I just love reading about the demise of publishing. But seriously folks, there is some nostalgia for the past paired with at least one imprint that is trying to change the rules and adapt. I was happy about the theme of huge corporations rushing in to buy everything only to be disappointed at the results. They catch a whiff of money and come running.
One of my regular customers wanted a book I can’t get anymore. It might be back in stock soon, but who can tell? My distributor shows it “on order”, but that sometimes masks a title that is effectively Out of Print. Publishers won’t easily declare a book Out of Print - and I assume the rumors I have heard are true - because the rights will revert, the contract expire. Maybe the author can shop it around at that point - I just don’t know. Maybe soon I’ll be trying to get my books published. (Whoa… Hang on there, tough guy - gotta write ‘em first!)
But, this customer forgot whether she asked me to cancel the order. I’ve been wanting to draft something to send out the whole group - those who order on line for store pickup - to let them know that I’ve abandoned the old search system on the web site, but haven’t been able to replace it with anything yet. When I sent the link to the title in question on Amazon, she replied “To me, there is no Amazon!”. Now, that’s the spirit… But, although it runs counter to my organization, I have to insist that Amazon does in fact exist, and that there may be the occasional item that you know you want but just can’t obtain it at your favorite local store. By all means, shop in real stores, but when the tine is right, rely on all your available resources.
For a publishing jargon guide, try A Publishing Primer
In other dead-tree news: I finished “Simplexity”, and I’m almost finished with “The Drunkard’s Walk”. DW has a pretty good explanation of Randomness, and I might try to push it on a non-mathematical friend. In the meantime, it made me covet O’Reilly’s new statistics book even more: “Statistics in a Nutshell”, or however those nutshell guides’ titles go.
I’ve got stacks more to read, and I’m feeling guilty for not reading more new books. I’ve really got my work cut out for me…
Posted by Evan Bittner Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:57:00 GMT
