Re: "Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series)" by David Weber

On Sun, 24 Mar 2024 10:11:46 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On 3/24/2024 8:25 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Sat, 23 Mar 2024 12:14:54 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>=20
>>> On 3/23/2024 8:45 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 22 Mar 2024 19:43:30 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 3/22/2024 5:14 PM, WolfFan wrote:
>>>>> And to put it where Amazon can=92t touch it; they have
>>>>>> been known to reclaim ebooks. see
>>>>>> =
https://www.pcworld.com/article/519855/amazon_kindle_1984_lawsuit.html
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don=92t trust them.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Ya, that whole incident was just stupid.  And of all the titles to
>>>>> reclaim THAT had to be first?!
>>>>
>>>> Much as I agree that reasonably-limited copyrights are helpful, =
what,
>>>> exactly, is a vendor supposed to do when it finds that it has broken
>>>> the law by selling something it has no right to sell? Go to jail? =
Pay
>>>> ginormous fines [1] for copyright violation?
>>>>
>>>> I don't know if this is the case I remember, but, in the one I
>>>> remember, the /real/ problem was that the book was an =
over-the-summer
>>>> reading assignment requiring a book report -- and the notes the kid
>>>> was planning to use for that report vanished as well.
>>>>
>>>> [1] At the rate of one fine per book sold, they will mount up
>>>> endlessly.
>>>
>>> Yes, part of what raised the volume on the screaming was that users'
>>> notes and annotations had also been erased.
>>=20
>> As it should have -- /that/ was actual damage sustained by the
>> customer. Just having to buy a legal copy if you wanted to finish the
>> book was merely inconvenient.
>>=20
>> Speaking of Kindle annoyances -- my new Kindles (both old ones stopped
>> working on their own with no encouragement [such as being dropped]
>> from me)=20
>
>If one were paranoid or had ever dealt with a tech company before (but I=
=20
>repeat myself) one might suspect deliberate remote bricking....

The Kindles that died were purchased in Feb 2014. One (a refurbished
replacement for one whose screen I managed to crack) died in Dec 2023,
the other in Feb 2024. The batteries still charged (well, the amber
charging light eventually turned green), but they just didn't respond,
even to attempted rebooting. Ten years of use isn't all that bad,
although what part(s) failed is a mystery.

I returned both of them. The first was a hoot: I was supposed to print
a Special Lable in color, but didn't have a color printer. So I
printed it on my trusty B&W dot matrix Panasonic (older than the
Kindles, BTW) and used a red marker to add color to the parts that
were supposed to be red (something to do with the type of battery
inside). The second required no such lable. I got $25 back (as a
credit) on each replacement.

Technically, that was a $5 coupon and 20% off the price of the
replacement. The $20 was taken off when I ordered the replacement
after setting up the return; the email acknowledging acceptance of the
return was written as if the $20 would be taken off only after
acceptance. So they appear to have conflicting theories. They did say
that, if I didn't return it or it wasn't accepted they would recoup
the $20 (and maybe the $5 as well).

The other weird thing I have noticed (aside from a new user interface,
which is not, IMHO, an improvement on the old one) is that, with the
"ads" set to "targetted" what I am being targetted /with/ is a
rotating set of "bedtime stories for parents and children" with
cutesy-poo cover illustrations and cutesy-poo titles. It's a good
thing I'm not diabetic; if I were, that much sugar (only a wee bit
each time, but it accumulates over time) would be fatal.

I am reading Dumas on one and Deaver on the other. Neither are
cutesy-poo, so Amazon's ad targetting appears to be off. Way off.
--=20
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"