Items tagged with 1984
It was 30 years ago that Apple brought forth the Macintosh, a personal computer with a great GUI and all sorts of capabilities foreign to most users. Apple debuted that iconic “1984” ad in the Super Bowl that year, and the company has been innovating and producing new machines since then, most of which have been compelling. Apple set up a few pages to commemorate the anniversary, and unless you’re a real Apple hater, pop over and browse through it. There are images of Apple computers through the years, a lot of history, examples of what creative and smart people have done with Macs, and a timeline that shows what people have used their Macs for the most over the years. For instance,...
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Amazon made news last week when it began deleting e-books—specifically 1984 and Animal Farm off the Kindle's of buyers who had previously purchased the titles. A few days later, the reason behind the deletions became clear. The books had been published erroneously and should never have been made for sale. The incident impacted only a small number of Kindle owners, but raise questions of personal privacy and the meaning of ownership that apply to all Kindle customers and even the e-book industry as a whole. Today, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized to the community at large for the company's actions. Bezos characterizes the company's response as "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with...
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Another day, another PR mess for Amazon.com. Just as they seem to have settled the row over cracked Kindles (although the lawsuit continues!), users awoke Friday morning to find e-books remotely deleted from their Kindles, and the PR storm started up all over again.The Big Brother-ishness of the deletions was only heightened by the fact that the books in question were by George Orwell: "Animal Farm" and yes, "1984." Amazon.com did refund people's money, but it brought the wrath of not just end users, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation upon Amazon.com. The EFF said: If people want books that won't evaporate on the orders of faceless bureaucrats, if they want their libraries to last,...
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