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Originally published at Writer's Blog. Please leave any comments there. It kind of bugs me - I'd really wish that, when users leave bug reports and such for plugin and theme authors, that those authors would then at least acknowledge the receipt of those bug reports and give some sort of feedback as to the status of correcting those bugs, even if it's just to say, "Hey, I don't have time to work on this right now and probably won't for a while." I've got three or four different plugins in use at the moment, all of which have minor bugs and glitches, but the authors of these plugins almost seem to have fallen off the planet. If it wasn't for the fact that there is still new content showing up on their sites (which, to be fair, could be scheduled content), I'd have to assume they'd abandoned their blogs for a while. Some of these reports I've left have been out there for several days now. It'd just be nice to get an acknowledgement that, yes, they've seen my bug report, and it's on the list of things to be investigated and, hopefully, fixed. It's just common courtesy. Tags: commentary
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Originally published at Writer's Blog. Please leave any comments there. It shouldn't come as any surprise that credit card companies will resort to dirty, under-handed tricks in order to keep their customers in debt. Credit card companies are, after all, in the business of making money, and the only way they can do that is if they find ways to keep you owing money to them. It's sad, sick, and often downright unethical, but by the same token, Americans bring their own pain upon themselves. This isn't to say that unscrupulous behaviors of credit card companies shouldn't be investigated and stopped, though. If they're truly resorting to what amounts to financial sabotage on their customers, then something ought to be done.
But the really simple solution to this is to not let yourself get so far that far in debt in the first place. My wife and I have exactly one credit card between us (two, if you count the one for the mechanic), and we use that one only sparingly. I recognize that life dictates the necessity of borrowing money from time to time for things like paying for college, buying a mortgage, etc. I don't know what the statistics stand at now, but I know that the average American also has multiple credit cards, thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and no way to pay that debt down in a reasonable amount of time. The notion of not spending more money than you make is apparently far too old-fashioned for most people, hence the reason why we see so many people declaring bankruptcy each year. Delayed gratification is almost unheard of. Why wait until tomorrow to buy something you want with money you've saved up when you can buy it today with money you've borrowed and will have to pay back with interest?
Personally, I've found that it's much better, safer, and more gratifying to wait to buy things until I can actually afford them rather than rushing right out and putting them on my credit card. At the very least, I'm not stressing about how I'm going to pay those bills at the end of the month. And then, I'm not having to worry about credit card companies trying to shave as much off my paycheck as they can. Tags: commentary
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Originally published at Writer's Blog. Please leave any comments there. Cory Doctorow on Reading Books From Screens
I'm not one of those people who particularly enjoys reading e-books. There's just something about reading books and magazines on a computer screen that ruins the experience for me. Part of it, I'm sure, is the amount of eye strain I suffer - after extended periods of reading anything on a computer monitor (or PDA screen), my eyes burn and my vision tends to be a bit on the wobbly side. Sometimes there are even headaches. It's likely a combination of the continual bombardment of photons on my eyeballs and some degree of digital pixellation that does it. Either way, I just don't enjoy that kind of pain, no matter what the subject. Plus, I just prefer holding the pages in my hands, being able to flip through them at will and easily, and being able to scan at my pace, rather than what I'm limited to with scrollbars, mouse wheels, and keyboard navigation. Sure, there are benefits to the digital versions of books, but in my opinion, those benefits apply exclusively to research and reference.
I'm not so arrogant, though, to suggest that e-books will go the way of the dodo anytime soon. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that subsequent generations end up turning more and more to e-books, particularly as technology develops. After a while, perhaps, people won't even consider e-books to be new or novel (pardon the pun) - they'll just be the way reading has always been done. They'll be the ones that look back and wonder how anyone could ever have been able to stand having words printed on physical pages. I don't know - it just seems a bit presumptuous to assume that one media form or the other will die out completely.
For now, though, I will continue making my house a fire hazard by lining its walls with still more paper and cardboard. I love my books. Tags: commentary
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