Sunday, September 21, 2014

Jeff Bezos is history's greatest monster - What I am reading 9/21/2014

Articles 

Wired - Millennials Don’t Care About Mobile Security, and Here’s What to Do About It -
a new study is providing corporate IT departments with a reason to fear employees in their 20s and 30s. According to a survey conducted by TrackVia, a do-it-yourself business application platform, 60% of the Millennials “aren’t concerned about corporate security when they use personal apps instead of corporate-approved apps.” 70% of Millennials even admitted to bringing outside applications into the enterprise in violation of IT policies, compared to just 31% of Baby Boomers.
What to do about it?  Daily beatings is the first thing that comes to mind, but I think I would write a rider into the corporate IT policy holding them financially responsible for any data compromise / loss cause by using and unapproved app.

Boing Boing - Homeland wins Copper Cylinder award for best Canadian YA sf novel -


I'm thinking that Doctrow made this one up.  (Well he makes up most of his postings, but still...) I mean come on it's a hunk of pipe.  This is not a real award.

NYTimes - A Writerly Chill at Jeff Bezos’ Fire -
Every fall, Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, hosts Campfire, a literary weekend in Santa Fe, N.M. Dozens of well-known novelists have attended, but they do not talk about the abundance of high-end clothing and other gifts, the lavish meals, the discussion under the desert stars by Neil Armstrong or the private planes that ferried some home.
Writers loved it. There was no hard sell of Amazon, or soft sell, either. The man who sells half the books in America seemed to want nothing more each year than for everyone to have a good time. All he asked in return was silence.
Oh My God, the man is obviously history's greatest monster.  I mean he doesn't even make the writers sign non-disclosure agreements or threaten them with physical or financial harm.  He just asks that they not discuss a private event and the attendees comply.  This is horrible - The government should step in.  

From this article it's obvious that the NYTimes has chosen sides.  

Books -

Two stinkers this week

I Won A Spaceship - From the description it sounded kind of like Have Spacesuit Will Travel so I gave it a shot.  Wow what a stinker.  I stopped about 15% into the book.  Avoid it, it's just Mary-Sue fantasy porn.

The Circle - Another bad choice.  This one got a lot of buzz a few months ago and I think I got it for $2.99 on kindle so I decided to give it a try.  So far it is really bad.  The characters are wooden and unlikable, the setting is just oh so perfect and the drama doesn't exist.  Another one to avoid. 

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