The Amazon cloud is having major problems. It's taken down quite a few sites, like say Crosscut, and one side effect is stuff you bought (but Amazon calls "rentals") is deleted because your Kindle thinks it must have expired, since the cloud sends no signal back.
Follow the worm to the giant fish at the end before you byte.
Yeah, you don't "buy" books from Amazon, you pay for a license to read them subject to their policies. The licenses can be revoked, as we see here.
I've told people I know who own Kindles about the potential for this to happen, but they don't care. All they care about is "buying" their books on the cheap. Oh, and they tell me that "this would never happen."
Meant to say, after losing 14 years' worth of emails recently when somebody hacked my Hotmail and the PTB wouldn't let me back in, this doesn't surprise me at all. That's life on the cloud.
We also do this to students at certain colleges: They are forced to "buy" books for $50–$100 (there is not an option to forgo online books for hard copies), and after the license is up (1-3 years) the company closes the account. It's another depressing way corporations profit from education. What Amazon does is really no different.
I'm such a bookworm I can't fathom why anyone would want to curl up with a Kindle. My husband once bought me one and I returned it same day.
Off-topic, but my brother's entire extensive Wish List disappeared 2 months ago, which he did not realize immediately. It took quite a bit of back-and-forth with Amazon before it got restored - presumably a manual operation performed in some obscure tech center using backups.
@18 Don't get me wrong, I still love paper books, but I commute by bicycle and ferry every day and e-readers are great for having access to numerous books, documents etc without having to haul a bag full of them around at all times or the weight of a full laptop.
@2 So... instead of clicking on the link, or googling the story yourself and finding out what you can, you go to Slog & whine about not being spoon-fed information.
The thing is, after I read a book, I rarely pick it up again.
The big advantage of eBooks to me is the online hyperlink-a-fication of text, being able to quote, Tweet and Facebook post besides integrating into comments and blogs from books.
Amazon makes this easy -- for its own books. However, for library books, for example, it removes any highlights once the subscription ends.
This is why we need to embrace this ebook thing fully and get with a monthly subscription to all the world's literature, same as we can with music and film.
And this is why I back up all my Kindle files. It's really not hard to connect your Kindle (and I assume most other e-readers) to your computer and copy the ebook files onto your computer or an external harddrive. I've paid money for those books, and even own a good number of them in physical copy, I'm not going to let Amazon arbitrarily wipe my Kindle without having the money I've spent backed up.
I wouldn't buy a book I actually want to own and re-read on a kindle. I don't mind buying pulp stuff for it though, something I'm going to skim and throw away.
I do love paper books, but I've decided I love having them on my phone or kindle more, because I don't have to carry them around with me. Yes, this may be bad for paper books in the long run.... but the value of books is in the words, not the paper.
Whew - thanks for this story. I just archived all my Kindle books and converted them to pdfs with Calibre. Now amazon will have to pry them from my cold dead computer.
Sheesh - Kindle books cost close to the same price as hardcopies - if they can take them back. I see this as a problem. I bet iTunes can probably take all your "stuff" too if they want. All this "syncing" with iTunes has me worried.
@18, @20 I don't have any particular feelings about dead-tree books. I've read some of my favorite books in e-format, from Jane Eyre to a friend's unpublished manuscript. But if I buy something, I want it to be mine, and I want to be able give it away when I'm done with it. I pass a lot of my books on to friends when I'm done, and sometimes if it's a new hardcover I paid a lot for and didn't like I resell it. There's no way I trust Amazon to keep my stuff safe for me.
Now I just need to figure out how to take full advantage of Calibre. So far I've just been using it for books that are out of copyright.
I don't doubt Amazon can be assholes but I think we are not getting the whole story.
Follow the worm to the giant fish at the end before you byte.
I've told people I know who own Kindles about the potential for this to happen, but they don't care. All they care about is "buying" their books on the cheap. Oh, and they tell me that "this would never happen."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcS_ZvDLP…
I'm such a bookworm I can't fathom why anyone would want to curl up with a Kindle. My husband once bought me one and I returned it same day.
Give it some time.
That's just grayyyyt...
The big advantage of eBooks to me is the online hyperlink-a-fication of text, being able to quote, Tweet and Facebook post besides integrating into comments and blogs from books.
Amazon makes this easy -- for its own books. However, for library books, for example, it removes any highlights once the subscription ends.
This is why we need to embrace this ebook thing fully and get with a monthly subscription to all the world's literature, same as we can with music and film.
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-s…
Yeah, I question what I read in Slog...I wish you would learn to be skeptical instead of another kool aid news drinker.
I'll see you soon Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I do love paper books, but I've decided I love having them on my phone or kindle more, because I don't have to carry them around with me. Yes, this may be bad for paper books in the long run.... but the value of books is in the words, not the paper.
http://alternativeto.net/software/kindle…
Sheesh - Kindle books cost close to the same price as hardcopies - if they can take them back. I see this as a problem. I bet iTunes can probably take all your "stuff" too if they want. All this "syncing" with iTunes has me worried.
Now I just need to figure out how to take full advantage of Calibre. So far I've just been using it for books that are out of copyright.