:: facepalm ::

They sent me (a link to) a survey, and before I even thought about whether or not to participate, I had two more emails. One of them is an automated “I don’t use this email, use this other one” message, and the other is in Spanish, apparently reminding Technorati that not everyone on the web speaks English, and if they want him to understand what they’re talking about, could they please offer a Spanish version?

:: sigh ::

Given how big Technorati’s userbase is, I think I need to set up a separate filter for this. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

That said, it’s been a somewhat eventful month or so.

I was planning to go to Persacon at the end of June, because wearing my T-shirts to DragonCon has been such a success. My sales have been impressive since then; the Think design is still the favorite Still not enough to live on yet, but if it continues to grow, I could very much enjoy making my living that way.

Unfortunately for my plans, I had an accident at work the very day that Persacon was to start. I was cutting banner vinyl, which is rather fussy stuff, and the T-square slipped a bit. It’s always doing that, and I had tried a different hand position to try to keep it from doing so this time. It didn’t work.

It’s funny, sometimes, the things that all come together in your head at once. I was fully aware that I was cutting with a very sharp knife; I’d flipped the blade when I started so I could make sure of it. I was fully aware that I was pulling the blade smoothly along the edge of the T-square. When I felt pressure in my finger, all these facts came together at once, registering as “That’s the knife in my finger, and this is bad.”

Kinda funny, really - it didn’t hurt. Didn’t hurt at all until I started putting pressure on it, and it stayed that way all while healing. Only hurt if pressed. Bled like crazy, though instinct had it in my mouth before it could drip on the vinyl. My co-workers ask me if I’m okay almost any time I make a sound, but this time their tone was different; apparently they could tell from my body language that it was a bit more than the usual papercut. Manager called the safety personnel, and I had to put my head down on my desk, which freaked him out, but I’ve explained before - I’m a squeamish person. I can handle emergencies (as I had just done, wrapping my finger in a paper towel until they could come show me where medical was - though if I’d been thinking of it, there are signs in the other building that I probably could have followed) but once the urgency is gone, I’ll faint if I focus too much on the blood.

That’s part of why I didn’t post about it until now. I kept getting queasy trying to describe it. Heh. Anyway, I decided to stay home for the weekend and take lots of zinc and vitamin C so it would heal faster. It’s mostly healed up now, though it’s still a little pink, and the reconnecting nerves are a little sensitive. I made the mistake of letting my teeth scrape the area yesterday when I was getting the maple syrup off my finger, and yeah, that was a little uncomfortable. It’ll probably stay scarred, though at least it’s a fairly thin line. Oh, and they ordered a safety ruler so fast, it got there the next business day, and get this - it’s purple.

Around that same time, Huntsville had a series of power outages two weekends in a row. Unfortunately, I no longer have a UPS battery backup for the VAIO, and the secondary hard drive fried. It took about 30 reboots to get Windows to run a surface scan and reassign the bad sectors, and then it took me a few days to get the important data offloaded to the external drive. There have been more power outages since then, and the monster is still unreliable. I had to resort to transferring everything to my new(ish) laptop. Newish, because it was new when I bought it, but it’s been a few months…

When it became clear that they were going to start forcing everyone to get Vista, I decided I had better get in before all the XP models were gone. It’s a fairly nice machine, though I’ll still want a desktop machine for the 3D stuff, and since I’ve been unable to get the VAIO to stay on for more that 3 minutes before it locks up (yes, even in safe mode) I’ve started installing the important software on it. Office, email, stuff like that. Just finally set up Miranda IM today. I’m casually looking at hardware for a new desktop machine, but I don’t have to rush. I bought a standalone copy of XP a while back, expecting something like this to come up, so when I can afford all the nice stuff, I can build my ultimate media machine

Anyway, I’d just managed to get all the data transfer and email stuff straightened out (though Incredimail is still glitchy on here - I suspect it’s not happy about Spybot) when I lost all contact with the web. Microsoft issued an update to XP that violently clashed with ZoneAlarm, and when I finally figured out what was going on (since I was the only one in the house who couldn’t get to the internet) I shut off ZA. We have a hardware firewall, too, and I like using PeerGuardian (yeah, okay, maybe I sound paranoid, but hey - I’ve already been hit by spyware once!). Fortunately ZA has issued a fix now, but the timing of the blockage was awful. Got SBK out late because of it, so I’ve already started assembling August, because I want it to be on time this month, for cryin’ out loud!

In other news, I’m staffing SFLit at DragonCon again this year; no idea what my schedule will be yet, but I won’t be able to get there until late Friday night, so I won’t be findable there until Saturday. Also, I suffered a bout of temporary insanity, and volunteered to be a panelist on the self-publishing/small press panel, so I’ll be busy compiling my data on that for a bit. Obviously I won’t be online much that weekend.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to encourage people to wear my designs at conventions (advertising, don’t you know) and I just don’t know how to find the right balance. I don’t want to spend too much, because that defeats the whole purpose, but I’m not a big enough name that shoutouts would be much of an incentive. I don’t know. Maybe next year.

Oh, and I’ve also finally come back to SGA. After Joe Mallozzi (or however he spells his name) ticked me off with his fanbaiting, I walked away from SGA - for about two years. I didn’t post screaming rages on his blog, I didn’t announce my departure; I just left. Missed about half of season three and all of season four, and probably would have skipped season five as well, but I re-encountered Crysothemis at DeviantArt (had friended her on LJ ages ago, and didn’t realize she was on dA). She draws the most awesome SGA portraits, and it sparked a little. Additionally, I was reading on FFN (in another fandom) and came across a few fanauthors who wrote for SGA as well as the other fandoms, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to give a few of them a read. Then I got drawn in, and started re-reading some of my favorite authors, only to realize that I needed to catch up on the series in order to know what was going on. So I did, and about the time I finished catching up, my manager forwarded a link to the current “Watch it live” promo, and I started watching season five as it comes.

Anyway, I came up with a design (using calculus, of all things) that expressed my opinion of Mallozzi, and only now, two years later, have I uploaded it. (I still have to edit and adjust a lot of the items in that category…be patient - I’ll work on that this week.) Maybe it’ll catch on. I haven’t decided whether or not to send him one - he’s still at it, professional troll that he is, and my SGA list (which I never actually left, I just stopped reading messages until now) is again frothing about his “hints” and misinformation. I flatly refuse to visit his blog anymore. If I leave SGA again, I doubt anyone would be able to bring me back, and I know that if I let myself read his garbage, I will just get angry and leave again. Newsflash, Joe: there really IS such a thing as bad publicity.

Anyway, Rosalind recently got the death threat/extortion version, which is disturbing. I don’t know how I would take that, personally; it’s not like I know anyone who hates me that much, but the thought of it is creepy. At least I just keep getting the fraudulent fortune emails.

From: “rebekajames Gazeta.pl” rebekajames@gazeta.pl
To: rebekajames@gazeta.pl
Subject: Dear in the Lord,

Dear in the Lord,

:: blink, blink :: No one’s ever called me that before.

I am Mrs. Rebeka James a former muslem and been converted to Christian alongside my Late Husband, I am 54 Years Old Woman

Together they fight crime! Oh, wait…

and we have became more devoted in christianity for quite good number of years now but I am at this moment suffering with ( Esophageal Cancer )/breast and fibroid of the womb

Wow, that’s an…interesting ailment.

which has affected my health and after taking all type of medical treatment in other to find my self survives it still defiling that I will be only having some few Month to live, according to what the medical experts has observed in me.

…

Huh?

My Husband who is now Late was killed

Alas! If only he’d been on time…

during the September 19th 2002 political crisis.

The what?

My late Husband was the Chairman of the Contract Awarding Committee under Budgeting and Planning of our Country.

This is relevant how? Which country might that be?

Throughout the period of my marriage with him, all efforts to bear Children with him proved abortive because of my poor state of health and after his death issues,

Pesky things, aren’t they? Can’t even unsubscribe.

I inherited all his wealth ,with our abdopted son

Abdopted? You kidnapped him in order to adopt him?

by name (Timothy ) since he has no other next of kin

You only inherited because he had no other kin? How bizarre.

but it is now obvious that I may not survive my poor state of health .I have deemed it necessary to leave a legacy on Earth and give a positive account and justification of the life I lived on Earth before the Almighty God.This is what I want to achieve by committing this wealth in all Christian Societies or orphanages Homes / widows and the less privileged peoples around the Globe.I am meditating what may happen after death that is why I am taking this decision by giving this Money out to be use to accomplish the Almighty God’s Divine Marvelous work around the Globe because I highly believed that I will be with Him in his most perfect and the most peacefully place.

Okay, here’s where I get angry. Scams can be funny, mainly because the scammers don’t have a clue about the English language and don’t really know that they’re not saying what they think they are. This, though, is offensive. A true Christian does the work of God throughout his or her life. Waiting until one is about to die and throwing out money in a last-ditch attempt to buy one’s way into heaven is both stupid and pointless, and trying to steal from people by hiding behind a religion you don’t even understand, much less follow, is infuriating. How dare you prey upon people’s desire to be helpful and kind? Go back to preying on the greedy and criminal. Better yet, get a real job.

Note that this sum(US$ 7.5 Million) was secured and Deposited in one Security Company with my name by my Late Husband and all the related Documentation covering the Treasure Box are Highly intact with me as the Cobeneficiary of the Treasure.So on the receipt of your immediate response to me I will forward all the necessary Documents covering the Treasure Box were the Money is been packaged and sealed in the Treasure Box before Depositing it in the Security Company as to enable you open up your communication with them for the releasing of the Treasure Box to you as I cannot follow it up right now because of my illness condition.

Treasure Box. What is this, Pirates of the Caribbean? Yarr.

Wait a minute. :: collapses in giggles :: A political crisis on September 19, 2002? Surely not. I’m not sure I can believe someone so bad at English would get that.

Please Religion doesn’t matter in this divine project

Then why did you bring it up in the first place?

henceforth I put all my trust in you but do actualize my dreams with this Money for the sake of the Almighty God because My happiness is that I lived a life of a true devoted life worthy of emulation.

Then you don’t need a donation legacy. Besides, if you really had the rights to a significant amount of money, you could leave it to Christian charities in your will. That’s why wills exist.

Lastly, I honestly pray that when releasing the Treasure Box to you by the Security Company were the Money is been packaged and sealed it will be well judiciously used for the said purpose as the Almighty god has reviewed for humanitarian services and you should be aware that whoever that wants to serve Him must serve him in truth and in fairness.So Please always be prayerful all through your life in this Divine marvelous Work of the Almighty God.

You know, with as much Unnecessary Capitalization as you use, one would think you could reliably capitalize the name of God.

I wait to hear from you and be sure that all my dreams will rest squarely on your shoulders

You have square dreams? Mine tend to be more spiral-ey.

to be accomplish.Reach me immediately by this email address (rbkjms@voila.fr ) so that I can give you further details. Also provide me your direct tel/fax numbers to reach you .

If you were really trying to reach ME, and not just blasting this to everyone whose email addresses you can find, you’d already have a phone number for me.

Finaly, 50% of this mony will be for the work of God, while 35 % will be for our abdopted son which you will also help him to invest in your country, while 15 % Will be for you for your assistance.

Thanks once again.

Mrs. Rebeka James.

Interesting name for a Muslim-turned-Christian with email addresses in Poland and France.

Okay, that one spoiled my humor. I don’t know if I’ll be able to poke as much fun at the next two, but I’ll give it a try. The first of these included odd blue rectangles under the location names in the email. I’m not sure how or why, but it looked very odd.

From: “ibrahim usman” ibrahim_usman14@peru.com
Reply-To: ibrahim_usman004@yahoo.com
Subject: URGENT/ASSISTANT

FROM: MR IBRAHIM USMAN
AUDITING / ACCOUNTING DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL BANK OF AFRICA(BOA)
BURKINA-FASO WEST AFRICA.

BOA is Bank of Africa now? That’s kind of funny.

My dear

…

This is supposed to be a business letter?

I am contacting you in regards to a business transfer of a huge sum of money from a deceased account.

That poor account. Was it a prolonged illness?

Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make anyone apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

PROPOSITION; I discovered an abandant sum of $11.5M(Eleven Million Five Hundred thousand United states Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family. Since his death, none of his next-of-kin or relations has come forward to lay claims to this money as the heir.

Well, if they’re all dead, they can hardly come forward, now can they? Unless they’re zombies. They probably just want your brain, though.

I cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Are you telling me I’m related to zombies?

Upon this discovery,

Eureka! Either you haven’t been in banking long, or you’re remarkably incompetent.

I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased

I knew it. You are telling me I’m related to zombies. I think I’m a bit peeved.

as all documentations will be carefully worked out by me for the funds $11.5M(Eleven Million Five Hundred thousand United states Dollars)

In case I didn’t notice that the first time?

to be released in your favour as the beneficiary’s next of kin.It may interest you to note that I have secured from the probate an order of madamus to locate any of deceased beneficiaries.

:: sporfle :: Scouring all the graveyards, are you?

Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of my mutual business endeavour by

furnishing me with the following;
1. Your Full Names and Address.
2. Direct Telephone and Fax numbers.

Uh huh. You know, it’s not like a motivated individual couldn’t come up with answers to those questions with a little effort.

These requirements will enable me file a letter of claim to the appropriate departments for necessary approvals in your favour before the transfer can be made. I shall be compensating you with $4.6 Million Dollars on final conclusion of this project, while the rest $6.9Million shall be for me. Your share stays with you while the rest shall be for me for investment purposes in your
country.

Shady bankers. I’m supposed to trust someone who just told me he wants to commit fraud…?

If this proposal is acceptable by you, do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you, I await your urgent email.
Regards,


Your;s faithfully,
MR IBRAHIM USMAN

Riiiiiiight. You’ll be waiting a long time, I’m thinking.

From: abbas saidou asaidou014@earthlink.net
Reply-To: abbas saidou abbassaidou@myway.com
Subject: Urgent Business Partnership.

Mr.Abbas Saidou
Bank Of Africa,
Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso.

Dear Friend,

I feel so special. Don’t you feel special?

This message might meet you in utmost surprise, however,it’s just my
urgent need for foreign partner that made me to contact you for this
transaction. I am a banker by profession from Burkina faso in west
Africa, and currently holding the post of Director Auditing and
Accounting unit of the bank.

Wait, I thought that was Ibrahim. How many Auditing Directors does your bank have?

I have the opportunity of transfering
the left over funds ($11.5M) Eleven Million Five Hundred Thousand
United State Dollars,

Just in case I can’t figure out what $11.5M means…

You really are looking for morons, aren’t you?

of one of my bank clients who died along with
his entire family on 31 july 2000 in a plane crash.You can confirm the
genuiness of the deceased death

Not to be confused with living death, or deceased life. Or something like that.

by clicking on this website below.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Verification by random news article! Yes, let me tell you all about this famous artist guy I knew once, and prove it with a link to a sculpture from some museum somewhere.

:: eyeroll ::

Hence,I am inviting you for a business deal where this money can be
shared between us in the ratio of 60/30 while 10% will be mapped out
for expenses.If you agree to my business proposal.further details of
the transfer will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive your return
mail.


have a great day.

Mr.Abbas Saidou.

Oh, so now instead of “join me in fraud” it’s “let’s make a business deal.” How helpful. Still not the way we do things here, Mr. Africa.

I mention this because it’s up to us, the haters-of-spam, to take action to stop spam. We have to work together to take away any benefit they could get from it and block them wherever possible, whether they’re barging into our email inbox or sending messages through instant messengers or using the comment/messaging systems of your favorite social networking site. I freely acknowledge that I’m not the be-all and end-all of internet wisdom, but I’ve been around for a while, so I’ve got some advice on the subject.

First and foremost,
NEVER BUY FROM SPAM MESSAGES. Don’t even click their links. Some of them earn money based on how many people click their links, others only from actual purchases made through their messages. Don’t give them any encouragement. DEFINITELY don’t ever hire them to market anything for you. (Same goes for telemarketers - if nobody ever bought anything from them, they’d eventually give up and go do something else. Basic law of business.) Remember that a lot of the sites you will come across when searching for something will be built solely to snag search traffic and reroute through paid links. You’ll know them when you see them. Don’t click those either; it’ll be a lot of the same type of people.

Be careful what you forward. Not everything is worth forwarding, and sometimes, the pictures themselves are used for tracking. My first computer died an ignominious death due to my ignorance of the viruses embedded in the fun games everyone was passing around by email. The timing was terrible, and I lost a lot of data. There’s nothing wrong with passing along useful advice, though, as long as your friends haven’t already asked you to stop forwarding things.

Verify. Please, make sure things are TRUE before you pass them along (and remember that if anything requires you to forward it before you see the results, the person who sent it couldn’t have seen the results to tell you it worked). Learn to recognize the common methods of tricking people into giving away financial information, so you can protect yourself. Amber alerts without names or contact information are fake, companies do NOT give awards or donations based on the number of emails forwarded, financial institutions will not send important account closure/verification messages to you through email, virus warnings are sometimes treacherous in themselves, hitmen don’t email their targets to offer them a chance to buy their way out of being murdered, and random people with a horrible grasp of English grammar are not going to send you multi-million dollar windfalls just to help them transfer it into the US. Snopes.com is a pretty good first step, and if you still can’t tell, try contacting a friend who’s been around the web a few times.

Use copy/paste. Your friends will be grateful you didn’t send Russian nesting dolls or collections of angle brackets, and if you’re trying to forward the text of a message without useless (or potentially sneaky, data-mining) images, you can paste it into Notepad (or whatever text-only application you have handy) to strip out the non-text data. (Saving the whole message as a text file should do the same thing, if you prefer.) I hate having to scroll back and forth to read short bits of oddly truncated sentences interspersed with >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>, don’t you? Forwarding email as an attachment usually avoids the angle brackets, but then you end up with an attachment to an attachment to an attachment to an attachment… I’ve received emails a dozen layers deep, and that’s just annoying. Please, don’t do that.

Block external images from unknown senders. Many email clients will default to this setting for your safety, so take advantage of the feature. Some of them will even let you bounce the message back at the sender as if your email address doesn’t exist. Doesn’t always stop them, but some ISPs pay attention to how many messages bounce back at a sender, which raises suspicions that the address is being used to send mass messages to unconfirmed addresses - in other words, spam.

Blind Carbon Copy is your friend. Spammers love those mass-forwarded emails because they tend to gather a huge list of valid email addresses, but if you use BCC, there won’t be a list of email addresses added to the top of the message every time it’s sent. This prevents perfect strangers from collecting your personal email address when the message comes their way

Pay attention to where you give your email address. Sometimes what you consider spam is a recurring email list to which you subscribed, whether you realized it at the time or not, and accusing people of spamming you when you asked them to send you email is rather rude. In addition, it makes the tech support people skeptical of all spam claims, because they have to wade through so many complaints that turn out to be legitimate lists, which makes it that much harder to convince them that a spammer is violating the rules. If you remember subscribing, use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. If there is no unsubscribe link, try contacting the sender directly. If that doesn’t work, THEN you can start crying spam and use the other anti-spam methods listed here. If you never subscribed, though, don’t click the unsubscribe link; you’ll only verify your email address for them.

Cooperate with others. Report scams to the financial institutions being spoofed, and report private messenger spam to the site admins. Sometimes you can get their webhost to pull them, sometimes you can get help from their affiliate manager, and sometimes you can go straight to their web connection. Techie types may be able to help you track down the ISPs and get the spammers shut down. Inform your friends and family of the strategies against spam, so they can help you fight it. To that end, you may forward this entry IN ITS ENTIRETY (or quote parts with attribution on your blog) as long as you a) follow the advice in it for sending forwards, and b) include the link to this entry: http://www.chrystalline.com/2008/06/fighting-spam/

Copyright Chrystalline Lauryl
June 1, 2008
www.Chrystalline.com
redistribution permitted only as described above

In the previous versions, comment editing was easy; there was an edit link right there on the comment moderation page. Until I saw the subject line of this post (which is probably the only reason I’m keeping the news section on my dashboard now), I had not found a way to do the same in the new version, which was very frustrating. I’ve also found a plugin that’s supposed to help.

The dashboard editing plugin is helpful, though it feels a bit rudimentary to me so far. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I’ve had more time to play with it and get used to the elements of it. Maybe it’s my non-Widget mindset. I’ve yet to see a good explanation as to why Widgets are better than plain plugins or straight-up code. Clearly, I don’t get it; I just don’t know why. Is it because they’re training wheels, or what?

This plugin is nice, too, because I really hated what they did with the menus in 2.5, and this makes it easier to deal with. I also think it made no sense to split off the settings/users/plugins as if that menu selection were unrelated to the others. This plugin lets you combine it with the others, though it has a weird .! at the end of the menu bar, right before the logout/help/forums links (which really might just as well be included, too, don’t you think?) in my browser. I’ve seen complaints about it for Safari and IE, but I don’t feel like checking that right now.

Unfortunately, that one doesn’t seem to get along with this one, which has some very pretty color options for the admin section, and an option to choose colors, if you don’t like their pre-arranged blends. Wish they worked together, because while I find the menus vital, I’d really rather have it in lavender/purple, and I haven’t had time to rifle through the source code to find all the labels for the CSS yet.

I did find one for moods, but I don’t like the smileys, and I haven’t had time to create my own images. I’d like to get Niaha’s Kittens (from LJ), but while I believe they’re freely distributed with the LJ source code, I’m not sure about that, and they probably don’t mean for people to use them with WordPress instead of LJ. I also don’t like how it displays, which means I’m going to have to take the time to get into the code and figure out how to make it do what I want instead. I’ll have to see what I can come up with.

Also added comment subscription. It’s annoying to try to remember which entries you’ve commented on and not know if there’ve been any new comments; this’ll email you replies if you want them. Not that there’s a lot of comment chatter on my blog yet, but maybe this’ll help.

I’m also thinking about rearranging my websites, combining things differently. This shouldn’t affect anyone but me, as long as everything goes smoothly, but if the changes get squirrely, you may see some weirdness the next few weeks. Sorry in advance.

I don’t have the energy to be outraged over everything that comes along. At some point, the human psyche gives up and says, “You know what? I don’t care anymore. It isn’t worth it.” I have to pick and choose the things that matter the most to me, and the rest of it has to be left to others who care more. Erik Stell has a good entry along the same lines.

I don’t live in Brazil. I don’t know anyone in Brazil. I don’t use WordPress.com for anything except an Akismet key. I don’t support the “freedom” to post porn on publicly-accessible websites. I’m not apathetic, I just recognize the futility of outsiders trying to change another country’s policies. Brazilians who care enough can fight for their right to Wordpress.com in their legal system, but they’re the only ones who can.

You want to get fussy about freedom, how about fighting for Chinese rights to Wikipedia, or LiveJournal, or any number of other websites? How about the fact that I do have a friend in China, and this friend must be careful not to write explicitly about our common beliefs, because the filters will catch it. How about the fact that this friend can only have one external email contact, so that the Chinese government can better monitor the messages? All my emails have to be routed through that one person, rather than going directly to my friend. What, exactly, do you propose I do about that? I certainly don’t want to do anything that would endanger my friend, and I have no political power over China, so what do you suggest, Miss “Bloggers are apathetic”? If the Chinese government hasn’t heeded any of the countless news articles and broadcasts and objections from foreign governments, the latter of which actually have the power of war to back their orders if they so choose, what makes you think a bunch of angry bloggers typing condemnations will accomplish anything more?

Besides all of that, we have enough problems with tech-ignorant judges and politicians right here at home, and there are limits to what we can do about that, too. There are only so many hours in a day, and only so much influence any one person can have.

The solution is simple; until Brazilians get things changed from within, those who want to blog will have to choose another site, whether they purchase hosting and set up their own WP blog or move to another format. Blogs with a large Brazilian audience will have to make the same choice, or choose to lose the Brazilian segment of their audience. It’s called facing the situation that exists and adapting to what you cannot change. It’s called LIFE.

Amazon says POD publishers must use Amazon’s Booksurge publishing if they want to have their books listed as being in stock, as opposed to being limited to the “Buy Used & New From These Sellers” link. (Link 1 Link 2 Link 3) The downside to using that link is that buyers don’t get free shipping, and last time I ordered multiple items through that method, Amazon charged me individually for each item, resulting in a confused/worried call from my credit card company, who thought perhaps there was fraud going on.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you I think this policy stinks. I thought it was strange when they bought Booksurge, but I took a look at their terms and decided they were unfavorable to an author/publisher. They persisted in emailing me for quite some time afterward, and probably would have called, but I’d used a pseudonym unconnected with my Amazon account and without a phone number, precisely because I didn’t want to deal with pushy salespeople. Booksurge didn’t have a very good reputation before Amazon bought it, and it doesn’t seem to have gotten any better with time.

There are a couple of things that bother me about the current hysteria.

1. The shrillness of many of the blogs and web articles on the topic, flailing to an angry froth without saying anything more coherent than “This is terrible! It has to be illegal!” Yes, people need to be riled enough to take action of some sort, but that action could be as simple as a boycott. If everyone switches to B&N or Borders or one of who knows how many other book retailers, then Amazon’s strongarming fails. Angela Hoy suggested earlier that authors switch their links to B&N - which is a competitor of Amazon’s - which means it’s not in a monopoly position.

Authors and POD publishers could simply ignore Amazon’s fiasco. Call it a boycott, call it a strike if it makes you feel better, but say no, and walk away. Let them turn off the “Buy Now” button, if that’s what it takes. Make sure your URL is prominent somewhere on the product page (cover image, title, review, something), and make sure your website has an explanation (perhaps in an FAQ page) as to why your book isn’t being offered with a “Buy Now” option. They can’t force you to sign that contract. Why don’t we see what happens?

2. The failure to take into account what makes people shop at Amazon. People go there for the discounts. Think about it from the point of view of a shopper: would you rather pay full cover price or 45% off? When you shop, don’t you do the same thing?

Now think about how Amazon stays afloat. How can they offer such discounts? By insisting on discounts from the publishers, most likely. That’s what’s gotten Wal-mart such a horrible reputation with suppliers, and the reason they stop carrying merchandise so often (totally another rant, there).

Something I learned when working retail is that most merchandise is sold at roughly twice the wholesale price. I was a little surprised, but retailers have to cover all their expenses somehow. Markup is how a retailer survives, and when a retailer has built its entire business on “Sale! Lowest Price!” it has few options. That markup has to be thin, so as to maintain the low price position, but it has to be enough to cover the costs of operation.

I don’t believe Amazon is doing anything illegal here. Stupid, bad PR move, but not illegal. Of course, IANAL, but it is their store, not ours, and if they want to shoot themselves in the head foot, it’s still their right to do so. Just keep in mind how much you’re willing to bend, and if this is too far, tell them no. I know I won’t be having anything to do with Booksurge, and I’m giving serious thought to removing Amazon links. YMMV.

Maybe I’ll get some sleep for my birthday;)

Bah.  I’ve already decided that if I ever have a physical storefront, I’m going to change the hours of operation to negate the stupid clock change, so people don’t have to reset their personal biorhythms just to come to work on time.  If businesses want to change their hours during the summer, that’s their choice (car dealerships do, because that’s their busy season), but the government should get its nose out of our lives.

From: sandra_d2013@yahoo.co.jp
Date: 3/4/2008 10:38:07 AM
To: sandra_d2013@yahoo.co.jp
Subject: My Sincere Heart Dear,My Dearest One,It is my pleasure to send you this details of my life for a sincere relationship

Er. Sorry, I don’t swing that way.

and for the fact that i am in need of your commit zeal

What do you get for that, probation and community service?

to help me on this important matter. I hope you will honor my mail

Gold star for email! Such a useful thing; it deserves it. Do you think I should give it a certificate of achievement, too?

and reply with your kindness, May almighty be with you (amen).

You kidding? BFFs, yeah? How about you?

I will begging by introducing myself to you.

Aw, you don’t have to do that.

My name is Sandra Denis, my father’s name is Dr.Rosen Denis. I was a student in University studying Medicine but i drop out after my late fathers death and i am here today in Ivory Coast because of the problem i explained bellow;

Not to be confused with your live father’s death. You have a Japanese Yahoo address and you’re in the Ivory Coast? And don’t bellow; it’s not lady-like.

My Father died when I was 13 years

Wait, wait, wait, wait. You were studying “Medicine” at “University” until your father died when you were thirteen? …and you’re trying to get a stranger on the internet to marry you? at thirteen?

and left me and mother with inheritance worth 14, 500,000.00 US dollars (Fourteen Million five Hundred Thousand US Dollars)

Ahahahaahaahaahahhhaaahaaahhhaaa…

In the Security Company here in Ivory Coast before my late father was call to the glory of almighty God with untimely death.

If he was called, it wasn’t untimely, now was it?

Though I have not meet with you before this introduction neither you know me but I believe that; one has to risk confiding in succeed sometimes in life.

And I have a bridge to sell you, too!

The death of my late father gave my mother serious intensive illness killed her in few month after my late fathers death.

Brought to you by the bulletin of the Department of Redundancy Department’s bulletin! Death has never been so funny.

I live in the house of our great grand Mother In Sierra Leone our home country before i decide to come over to Ivory Coast here to seek the release of my deposit inheritance in the security company custody.

Daddy liked long distance investments?

But my problem is that I need the assistance of a reliable and responsible man in your country

Er. :: looks at self :: I have never been mistaken for a man. Well, okay, there was that one time in the ladies’ room, but it was a two- or three-year-old kid who only saw a glimpse of me as I entered the next stall, and thought that since I had short hair and was wearing a Rocket Center jumpsuit, I must have been a guy. That was entertaining: “Mommy, there’s a MAN in here!” “No, dear, that wasn’t a man; she just has short hair.”

Still, no one who’s actually looked at me has ever mistaken me for male.

to assist me retrieve this consignment fund safely to invest the money in your country under a mutual agreement without the concept of my fathers relative or any third party.

By definition, I’m a third party. Now what?

I wanted to do this clearance outside the concept of my uncle because first, i am warned not to trust him or any of the family member because the death of my late father lays on his fortune and it is masterminded to them and they may also kill me according to the warning my mother gave me before she give up in life.

I… :: sporfles :: It’s like bad fanfic. Mary Sue, is that you?

Please, I have the great pleasure in confiding this matter to you for help if you can honor my mail as i honor you

Oooh, do I get gold stars, too?

and give me your sincere love and kindness to me regarding my request and myself.

“Love me, love my…money?”

I can send you the proves of this consignment if you promise to help me sincerely in your heart and that you will take good care of me when i get married to you not.

Marriage! Wait a minute - you just said “not” - tricksy, aren’t you?

But my coming to your country will be after the transfer of our consignment fund to your country is successfully or anyhow you decide to assist me on that. Please help me because my heart feel good with you and i want to be your future partner, for better or worse.

WHOA NELLY. Already told you, I don’t swing that way.

Please You Can Contact Me Through This E-mail; dns_sndrn@yahoo.no

Nobody ever wants to be contacted at the same email they used to send the message. :: Sigh ::

Yours faithfully,
Miss.Sandra Denis.

Still no. Just, no.