Amazon - it’s complicated

[ian]

You'd think that if we all offered to pay a bit more they'd fire him into space and not bring him back.

Same for that moon-faced über-tosser, Musk too. Get into space, the pair of you.

[Mr Larrington]

Twats in Spaaaaaaaaaaace!

[FifeingEejit]

You'd think that if we all offered to pay a bit more they'd fire him into space and not bring him back.

Same for that moon-faced über-tosser, Musk too. Get into space, the pair of you.

The way Musks going the feds somewhere in the world are going to have him eventually.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[mrcharly-YHT]

You'd think that if we all offered to pay a bit more they'd fire him into space and not bring him back.

Same for that moon-faced über-tosser, Musk too. Get into space, the pair of you.

The way Musks going the feds somewhere in the world are going to have him eventually.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

SpaceX is achieving terrific things.

Musk is one of the most annoying people on the planet.

[Kim]

Quite.  Tom Mueller deserves much of the credit for SpaceX.  Musk put money where extremely clever people could just get on with it.

[ian]

I suspect most of the credit belongs with Nasa.

[T42]

Getting back to bloody Amazon, MrsT just asked me irately to please update my wish list because people didn't know what to get me for Eczemas and I hadn't added anything for two years!!! (her italics).  Fuck me, it's mandatory now?

Unfortunately they don't carry the bike I'd like someone else to pay for.

[John Stonebridge]

I've never used Amazon (*) and have no intention of doing so. 

I suspect that part of their success is that once caught in their web, its very difficult to get out. 

(*) I shared this fact recently with my colleagues at work, a number of whom simply failed to believe it possible - "that's like not breathing" I think one said (20 somethings, bless). 

[Ham]

DRM may be removed from Kindle boks using Calibre and the DeDrm plugin, which is a Useful Thing even if all you want to do is make the Kindle titles consistent over, say, a series of crime novels in which the guilty party is nearly always the Scotsman.

I'm purty certain that no longer applies to the latest encryption on recent Kindle OS.

[hubner]

How about getting a non Amazon e-reader, eg Kobo?

Or get a paper book.

[rafletcher]

Or get a paper book.

Indeed. I order all my reading material from our local library*, and pay some 70p per book for the privedge. And the author gets a borrowing loyalty as well.

*ETA: That is the whole of Hertforshires libraries system. And if they don't have it I can go for an inter-library loan via the SELMS system for a mere £3.  https://selms.spydus.co.uk/docs/SELMS/home.html

[Cudzoziemiec]

As Nutty said up there, libraries are free or very cheap and s/h bookshops are cheap. Both form part of what is fashionably known as the circular economy.

[L CC]

I suspect that part of their success is that once caught in their web, its very difficult to get out. 

Yes. I want a specific colouring book for a stocking. Where else am I going to get that? Google tells me I could get it at murdochbooks.com.au

O Rly

[FifeingEejit]

It's just too easy to buy from amazon... But they're doing something that makes it harder to pay them...
I saw a headline suggesting amazon want to take Control of their own payment process, which would be an interesting move,presumably an amazon credit account with a direct debit payment, presumably also the glossy pages that formed many young adolescents wank bank back in the day...

Yes Mr bezos you just reinvent the clubby book.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[Mr Larrington]

DRM may be removed from Kindle boks using Calibre and the DeDrm plugin, which is a Useful Thing even if all you want to do is make the Kindle titles consistent over, say, a series of crime novels in which the guilty party is nearly always the Scotsman.

I'm purty certain that no longer applies to the latest encryption on recent Kindle OS.

Apprentice Harper, who maintains the DeDRM plugin, says:

It also now includes code that should handle the latest KFX encryption used by the latest Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac. How long this code will work is anyone's guess. It may be that Amazon will update Kindle for PC/Mac very quickly. In which case, the existing work-arounds to get KF8 format should still work.

[Beardy]

Encryption and the hacking thereof has been an arms race since the invention of encryption. Anything one person can dream up anther person can dismantle. This has also been known for as long as the first cyphers, with governments putting significant resources into both sides of the equation. It’s fascinating to watch from the sidelines and indeed it provided me with an income for 3 years.

[grams]

Anything one person can dream up anther person can dismantle.

DRM is a special case because you have to distribute the decryption key to everyone in order to read the book, which makes them ever more elaborate versions of hiding the front door key under the mat.

Actual encryption schemes are (to a first approximation) unbreakable, at least by conventional computing power.

[Beardy]

Anything one person can dream up anther person can dismantle.

DRM is a special case because you have to distribute thedecryption key to everyone in order to read the book, which makes them ever more elaborate versions of hiding the front door key under the mat.

Actual encryption schemes are (to a first approximation) unbreakable, at least by conventional computing power.

yes perhaps sloppy language on my part. Anything with a front door can be accessed even if that mean stealing a vkey

[TimO]

... I  always try to have a visa card with one bank ( Santander have  been spot on ) ...

My newest Santander card, issued in May of this year, is Mastercard, not Visa as it used to be. I believe that Santander have swapped over from Visa, so that's likely to change for you too.

[citoyen]

I'm stuck with Audible. There isn't an alternative that works even vaguely as well.

The really annoying thing is that Audible used to be independent, but as is the way, it got bought up by Amazon. This inevitably happens to anything good.


Anyway, I was reminded of this thread by something I spotted while flicking through a recent Private Eye:

Amazon by citoyen, on Flickr

[Beardy]

There’s currently no sign of them backing down is there?

[FifeingEejit]

Nope.
I got my free 20 quid, then switched the visa card back to default.

If I ran an advertising campaign for a shop right now it would involve "we accept all major credit cards (Mc, visa no Amex sorry) "



Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[Moleman76]

I discussed the convenience of Amazon ordering with a friend who is a near-rabid fan of anything smacking of "free enterprise".  Once we got that out of the way, I thought to take a look for how many items one could buy through Amazon.  Mr. Google informed me that there are about 360 million stock keeping units (SKUs) in the Amazon system.  I don't know if that is worldwide or not.  It struck me that if no more items were added to that list, you could buy one unique item per day and go for a million years before repeating your order.

[Jaded]

Most of those will be Chinese rip-offs that catch fire.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I discussed the convenience of Amazon ordering with a friend who is a near-rabid fan of anything smacking of "free enterprise".  Once we got that out of the way, I thought to take a look for how many items one could buy through Amazon.  Mr. Google informed me that there are about 360 million stock keeping units (SKUs) in the Amazon system.  I don't know if that is worldwide or not.  It struck me that if no more items were added to that list, you could buy one unique item per day and go for a million years before repeating your order.

Well there's a hobby you won't run out of!