Musings of an Internet Junkie

Publishing Industry and Ebooks

admin — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Today I read on Slashdot Apple is raising prices of ebooks sold via iTunes for its iBook application. This move by Apple puts them in line with the publishing industry’s demand for the Agency model of selling books. Unfortunately other ebook vendors are following suit as well and this is bad for consumers.

After reading the Slashdot article, here is my opinion:

Another reason why Apple getting in to the E-book trade is bad for consumers. If I recall correctly, Apple is the reason Amazon went to the Agency model as well. Above all else, the two companies, Apple and Amazon, are not wholly at fault here. The publishing industry has been strong arming the companies since day one of e-book readers and software hitting the market.

As consumers, stop and ponder this for longer than a second. How much does it cost to make a book, warehouse it, ship it, and sell it at vendors, then collect the profit? Ok, now think about this, how much does it cost to create a digitized version of said book, store the digitized copy, sell it via ecommerce sites such as Amazon, and collect the profits? A whole heck of a lot less than a dead tree version of the same book.

This is the music industry fighting to keep an out of date business model in use all over again, except this time it is the publishing industry. There is no way a digital version of a book should cost anywhere near the same amount as dead tree version. Yet the publishing industry would have consumers purchase digital versions of books at prices somewhere between the soft cover copy and the hard cover copy of a dead tree version.

Returning to Baker College

Mike — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:50:33 +0000

Although I had many complaints about Baker College in the past, I have decided to return to the college to finish my Computer Science degree. With the new addition to the family arriving soon and the budget crunch we find ourselves in, this appears to be the smart choice. By attending Baker College, I will not have to rearrange my work schedule and I will also be able to spend more time with our baby once she is born.

Baby Registry

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:52:29 +0000

For those who have asked in the past, we finally put together a baby registry. The doctors are still firm on the due date during the first week of April which means the baby will be here before we know it and we need to be ready

Check it out at: http://ping.fm/lbhyI

Our Baby’s Heartbeat

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:10:58 +0000

Today we finally heard our baby’s heartbeat for the first time. Before this we had only seen it on an ultrasound the doctor had scheduled because the office had not been able to hear it the previous two visits. However, this visit we were able to hear it without any problem by using the sonogram. Here is the recording. During the first few seconds, not much is heard as the doctor is trying to find the baby and the baby thought it would be fun to dodge.

Baby’s first heartbeat

Interfacing with PC Games

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:14:36 +0000

I am currently trying to figure out if there is a way to intercept and decode the height, or z-value, of the terrain where the player currently stands as well as the height if a step is taken in any direction.

Relaxing Saturday

admin — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:37:45 +0000

I had a busy, but relaxing, Saturday today with my lovely wife. We repaired the Supra and then took out all of the cars to wash, detail, and photograph. We even had enough time at the end of the day to take the Supra out for a drive around the greater Kalamazoo area before it started raining.

On an unrelated note, I am sure some of my readers have noticed the lack of updates regarding my workout schedule. I apologize for the lapse and rest assured I have continued and will continue to exercise and eat right to reach my health and fitness goals as well as maintain this lifestyle. As an update, I have dropped to 257lbs as of today. The weight loss is slower than I had hoped, however I am optimistic this is due to the weight training more than what I am eating.

Day 8…At Least It’s Not Monday

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:45:55 +0000

I slacked off yesterday, seems to be a theme this week, and did not get in my normal upper body weight training so I have shifted it to today instead of doing lower body training.

Today is Tuesday (July 14, 2009) and I got in two sessions on the elliptical machine. I traveled approximately 4.07 miles with an average pulse rate of 170.5bpm. My weight has decreased to 260.5 lbs.

Day 7…Mondays

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:40:10 +0000

I slacked off today, Monday (July 13, 2009) only getting in one session on the elliptical machine. I traveled approximately 2.11 miles with an average pulse rate of 176bpm. My weight has increased to 262 lbs.

Day 6…Saturday Workouts

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:24:28 +0000

Since I slacked off yesterday I felt I needed to get in at least one session on the elliptical machine. I traveled approximately 1.91 miles on Saturday with an average pulse rate of 160bpm. My weight has increased to 259.5.0 lbs.

Day 5…TGIF

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:22:24 +0000

It is the end of the week and I slacked off a bit. Woke up fairly sore this morning so only walked once on the elliptical instead of three times throughout the day. However, I did push a bit harder on the upper body workout today and could really feel the burn by time I wrapped up before work.

I traveled approximately 1.75 miles on Friday with an average pulse rate of 152bpm. My weight has increased to 258.5.0 lbs. I worked upper body today by performing the bench press, military press, curls, tricep pulldowns, lat pulldowns, and the row.