Items From the Archives
This is something I dug up as I was attempting to clean old crap off my computer, because I can’t afford all the goddamn extra storage for crap I don’t even look at anymore. But, you know, might come in useful later, right?
Speaking of which, here’s what I found:
Avoiding Data Theft With a Flux Capacitor
O’Reilly’s Auto Parts features a highly unusual item in their online catalog. They offer this for sale. Is it a window fan with lights? According to the listing, it’s a flux capacitor, a la Back to the Future. An item that “is not available for purchase.” And, apparently, never will be.
While the listing attracted a great deal of attention, as evidenced by this news coverage, [don’t bother with the link, it’s dead] the listing is neither false advertising nor a PR stunt. According to the company, it’s a creative approach to ensuring other auto parts dealers don’t simply copy their online database of parts. That’s what the company told USA Today, at any rate.
Okay, the mystery for me here is how anyone could believe that listing is real. If someone copied O’Reilly’s listings, would they really be dumb enough to copy and list that one? For that matter, if I started selling books and simply copied entries from, oh, an online bookseller, would that be data theft?
I’m actually somewhat confused about the whole problem. I need a DeLorean with a flux capacitor or a TARDIS, so I can go back to a time when the Internet wasn’t making me crazy with all this.
PS: Since then, I’ve found one!
Too bad it had no inside, let alone one that was bigger on the outside!
PPS: BTW, I have no idea what year I wrote this. Probably copied it from the previous version of this blog before I took it down.
Now this is new! 🙂
Vellum has some great news!
Amazon is making big changes to books delivered via Send to Kindle, and is now applying Enhanced Typesetting to books that are sideloaded!
That means a much better experience for ARC readers and those who purchase your book directly from your website.
On iPhone, sideloaded books will finally display Vellum’s advanced formatting features, so your readers will see drop caps, ornaments, and bubbles for Text Conversations!
Now, sideloaded books — on all Kindle devices — should look no different than books purchased from Amazon. And the books in your library will display cover thumbnails, even when they come from Send to Kindle!
Since Amazon is doing most of this work behind the scenes [the way it always does], you won’t need to do much to see these changes. However, you will want to make sure you:
- Provide your Kindle EPUB file when using Send to Kindle
- Have the latest version of the Kindle software on your device
Have you seen other improvements to your sideloaded books? Let us know!
Yeah, you do that! 🙂 I’m sure Amazon will make it all awesome.
PPPS: If only we could time travel! 🙂
