Monday, July 20, 2009
An open letter to Amazon
Dear Amazon,
I'm trying to be a really good customer. It's perplexing that you are making it so hard for me.
I've been buying books online from you since the late 90s. As you've grown, I've ordered a wider selection of items, too - most famously, my first DVD player. (I'd ordered a book and hadn't quite spent enough to qualify for free shipping, so on a whim, I decided to buy the DVD player from you. Some way to qualify for free shipping!) Although I'm still to order the George Foreman Grill, I've even resold my near-pristine paperbacks via your site.
But why do you make it so hard for me to be a customer at all? Don't you want the few hundred dollars that I spend with you each year? If you'd rather that we parted company, just say the word and I'll try and live without you.
What's pushed me over the edge this time? Well, let's talk about two things. The first is an itty-bitty little service where, for a "small charge" you allow me to resell the pulp fiction that I bought and devoured. Then you advise me that a "market" price would be around $2 for a book, and then you charge me MORE than that in commission. So I make a loss on the sale.
Shurely shome mishtake.
Actually I made a measly $0.10 or so on the postage, and my bookshelf looks a lot better having been denuded (I bought two hardback Feng Shui books last year from you last year, remember? (Want to buy 'em back for a good price? See "Simon's Shop" on your Amazon.com site if you can ever find it. Go on, I challenge you. Believe me, it's well-hidden.))
The second, and more heinous crime, is how you've treated me with regard to the Kindle. Yes, your own, in-house, greener-than-paper, must-have yuppie tech-nerd device. That's me... so I'm delighted to have one. But after a solid 72 hours' ownership I'm wondering if I can hack the darned thing and install a lite version of Linux - because you're making it hard for me to love the Kindle for what it is.
Mine arrived last Friday, July 17th 2009, which will probably be a day of mourning in fture for Amazon. For this was the day that you chose to remotely delete readers' copies of a couple of George Orwell titles. That was rather unfortunate ... of course my Kindle was easy to name, and was Christened as Winston.
Winston came to me as a gift. I'd never have dared be as doubleplus ungood as to even think about trying to order one on your website. As you know, I don't live in the US. So how dare I even dream about owning one...
Once Winston arrived, then as you know from the built-in GPS and wireless, I wasn't in the continental US when I fired him up. He's probably already on a watch list of some kind for not "appearing" on Whispernet within a few days of shipping. From here, there's no chance of registering ... and the "experimental" web browser (yes, the "experimental" monochrome text-only web browser? Are we in 1984 or something?) won't work on any of the four wireless phone networks available in my home country.
Ah well, at least USB is Universal. That's what it stands for, Universal Serial Bus, geddit? Kudos to you for at least enabling Winston to talk to my home PC (he runs Windows 7, in English language, probably a good thing it's not set to Norwegian or something). I plugged him in and Winnie showed up immediately as a network drive. Great. Next step, order some up-to-date content and drop or download content straight on to the Kindle ...
Like yeah, right. You guys thought of that one, eh? Aren't you so clever!
It ain't working. I'm not in the US and you know it. So I cannot buy content. And without access to the latest ebooks, I'm stuck in a timewarp that makes 1984 look futuristic. There are some great novels out there available for free download, but I doubt that many were written this century, let alone the 20th. If I want to read vintage Arthur Conan Doyle or James Joyce, then 100 local bookshops (and probably your website too) can offer me numerous editions for less than the commission Amazon takes on my second-hand book sales. The Karma Sutra is available for free e-book downloading ... but with a greyscale screen and no backlight???
No, the point is that I want to read contemporary fiction. Stuff that's firmly within copyright and probably published within the last 5 years. Unfortunately, due to "geographical restrictions" I'm unable to download even free books from Amazon.com. It doesn't matter if I enter a US shipping address, and apply a US $ credit to my Amazon.com account, it's not enough to convince you, Amazon, that I should be giving you my hard-earned greenbacks.
In my previous post I linked to a blog with some work-arounds. There's actually an easier way to get content on your Kindle if you live outside the US. All you need is a partner in crime who has a US-issued credit card.
Step 1: Ask that person to register your Kindle to their account.
Step 2: Ask them to buy Kindle content.
Step 3: They download the newly-purchased content.
Step 4: They send said content to you via email or FTP server or CD or pigeon post or whatever.
Step 5: You send the person with a US credit card an Amazon voucher to cover their costs and a little bit more for their efforts. This is Step 1 if you are a shyster.
Step 6: You download the .azw files directly into your (their) Kindle.
Step 7: You read the files as Kindle books ... just as you would if you were within the borders of the US.
What a bunch of buggering around.
Next time I actually fly to the US - if I bother to take Winston along for the ride - then he's in for a delight. If you've ever seen the movie The Matrix, think of the scene where Neo is getting a download of stuff like kick-boxing. No doubt Winston will writhe in my hands.
The thing is, I know you're right according the letter of the law. I know you'd love to sell me content directly, if only the licensing laws allowed.
However, it's the way you've implemented your super-strict sales restrictions that gets me. Even with a US billing address, IP address and a pre-paid gift card, you still refused my money. Whatever next? Maybe American companies will stop selling arms to Middle Eastern juntas because their credit cards ain't issued by a US bank?
I'm trying to be a really good customer. It's perplexing that you are making it so hard for me.
I've been buying books online from you since the late 90s. As you've grown, I've ordered a wider selection of items, too - most famously, my first DVD player. (I'd ordered a book and hadn't quite spent enough to qualify for free shipping, so on a whim, I decided to buy the DVD player from you. Some way to qualify for free shipping!) Although I'm still to order the George Foreman Grill, I've even resold my near-pristine paperbacks via your site.
But why do you make it so hard for me to be a customer at all? Don't you want the few hundred dollars that I spend with you each year? If you'd rather that we parted company, just say the word and I'll try and live without you.
What's pushed me over the edge this time? Well, let's talk about two things. The first is an itty-bitty little service where, for a "small charge" you allow me to resell the pulp fiction that I bought and devoured. Then you advise me that a "market" price would be around $2 for a book, and then you charge me MORE than that in commission. So I make a loss on the sale.
Shurely shome mishtake.
Actually I made a measly $0.10 or so on the postage, and my bookshelf looks a lot better having been denuded (I bought two hardback Feng Shui books last year from you last year, remember? (Want to buy 'em back for a good price? See "Simon's Shop" on your Amazon.com site if you can ever find it. Go on, I challenge you. Believe me, it's well-hidden.))
The second, and more heinous crime, is how you've treated me with regard to the Kindle. Yes, your own, in-house, greener-than-paper, must-have yuppie tech-nerd device. That's me... so I'm delighted to have one. But after a solid 72 hours' ownership I'm wondering if I can hack the darned thing and install a lite version of Linux - because you're making it hard for me to love the Kindle for what it is.
Mine arrived last Friday, July 17th 2009, which will probably be a day of mourning in fture for Amazon. For this was the day that you chose to remotely delete readers' copies of a couple of George Orwell titles. That was rather unfortunate ... of course my Kindle was easy to name, and was Christened as Winston.
Winston came to me as a gift. I'd never have dared be as doubleplus ungood as to even think about trying to order one on your website. As you know, I don't live in the US. So how dare I even dream about owning one...
Once Winston arrived, then as you know from the built-in GPS and wireless, I wasn't in the continental US when I fired him up. He's probably already on a watch list of some kind for not "appearing" on Whispernet within a few days of shipping. From here, there's no chance of registering ... and the "experimental" web browser (yes, the "experimental" monochrome text-only web browser? Are we in 1984 or something?) won't work on any of the four wireless phone networks available in my home country.
Ah well, at least USB is Universal. That's what it stands for, Universal Serial Bus, geddit? Kudos to you for at least enabling Winston to talk to my home PC (he runs Windows 7, in English language, probably a good thing it's not set to Norwegian or something). I plugged him in and Winnie showed up immediately as a network drive. Great. Next step, order some up-to-date content and drop or download content straight on to the Kindle ...
Like yeah, right. You guys thought of that one, eh? Aren't you so clever!
It ain't working. I'm not in the US and you know it. So I cannot buy content. And without access to the latest ebooks, I'm stuck in a timewarp that makes 1984 look futuristic. There are some great novels out there available for free download, but I doubt that many were written this century, let alone the 20th. If I want to read vintage Arthur Conan Doyle or James Joyce, then 100 local bookshops (and probably your website too) can offer me numerous editions for less than the commission Amazon takes on my second-hand book sales. The Karma Sutra is available for free e-book downloading ... but with a greyscale screen and no backlight???
No, the point is that I want to read contemporary fiction. Stuff that's firmly within copyright and probably published within the last 5 years. Unfortunately, due to "geographical restrictions" I'm unable to download even free books from Amazon.com. It doesn't matter if I enter a US shipping address, and apply a US $ credit to my Amazon.com account, it's not enough to convince you, Amazon, that I should be giving you my hard-earned greenbacks.
In my previous post I linked to a blog with some work-arounds. There's actually an easier way to get content on your Kindle if you live outside the US. All you need is a partner in crime who has a US-issued credit card.
Step 1: Ask that person to register your Kindle to their account.
Step 2: Ask them to buy Kindle content.
Step 3: They download the newly-purchased content.
Step 4: They send said content to you via email or FTP server or CD or pigeon post or whatever.
Step 5: You send the person with a US credit card an Amazon voucher to cover their costs and a little bit more for their efforts. This is Step 1 if you are a shyster.
Step 6: You download the .azw files directly into your (their) Kindle.
Step 7: You read the files as Kindle books ... just as you would if you were within the borders of the US.
What a bunch of buggering around.
Next time I actually fly to the US - if I bother to take Winston along for the ride - then he's in for a delight. If you've ever seen the movie The Matrix, think of the scene where Neo is getting a download of stuff like kick-boxing. No doubt Winston will writhe in my hands.
The thing is, I know you're right according the letter of the law. I know you'd love to sell me content directly, if only the licensing laws allowed.
However, it's the way you've implemented your super-strict sales restrictions that gets me. Even with a US billing address, IP address and a pre-paid gift card, you still refused my money. Whatever next? Maybe American companies will stop selling arms to Middle Eastern juntas because their credit cards ain't issued by a US bank?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Kindling the privacy debate
The arrival of my Kindle 2 (an unexpected but welcome gift) coincided with Amazon's action to act as Big Bother and remotely delete copies of George Orwell?s books on users' devices. Oh dear me. It really couldn't have been a worse choice of books to zap remotely via its Whispernet mobile network.
Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.
This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet ? so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.
Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.
Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card ? even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US ? and kyboshed the deal.
I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted ? and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com ? which was happy to take my money for the voucher ? and I can't use it.
This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks ? most from Amazon ? that I'm now reselling ? via Amazon.
Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends ? within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe.The company has gained a foothold by opening for business in the UK, so who knows what Winston will do when I take him on a business trip to London later this week. Watch this space.*
And keep away from the Thought Police!
*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.
Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.
This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet ? so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.
Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.
Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card ? even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US ? and kyboshed the deal.
I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted ? and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com ? which was happy to take my money for the voucher ? and I can't use it.
This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks ? most from Amazon ? that I'm now reselling ? via Amazon.
Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends ? within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe.
And keep away from the Thought Police!
*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7
It might sound dramatic, "removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7", but I'm not ready to sacrifice access to a bunch of network drives just to get away from Vista.
Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.
Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".
Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.
The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.
This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.
Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.
Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.
Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".
Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.
The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.
This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.
Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.
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