Great idea Cory, but this adds to the wuffie issue - now you are not only giving away free e-books, but enabling people to donate physical books to those in need (and in Hellheads proposal, those in crisis). If you keep up this level of philanthropy when the wuffie system finally gets implemented you're gonna end up walking outside the next morning to find that your car or bike has been replaced with a Tesla Roadster (with a solar recharger of course) - because you deserve it :)

If it had the clear plastic all the way round I might consider it for use with my electric-assist bike. With the rear and a large chunk of the peripheral vision cut off its no good. I bet the $10 knock offs that come out next year will be 360° clear vinyl and useful for cyclists.

The reading and Q&A was super, and being able to finally pay Cory in person for the e-books I've downloaded and read was very satisfying.

I picked up 'Little Brother' and 'Someone comes to town...' while I was there (so my wife can read them, she refuses to read off a screen), but paid market value for my digital copies of 'Eastern Standard Tribe' and 'Down and Out...' because I've gotten criticism from writers that I know for not 'paying' for my reading material (I download the e-book versions to read on my palm pilot or XO - which Cory graciously autographed with gold metallic ink). They have yet to wrap their heads around the concept of giving it away for free, and those that truly appreciate it will pay for it.

Being able to recompense a writer directly, without a large chunk being diverted to the traditional physical media production and distribution system feels right to me, and I sincerely hope I have opportunities in the future to do the same for other writers that follow Cory's distribution model.

Hey Cory - please get a wuffie system started, or maybe put a 'pay for your e-book' PayPal link on Craphound; that way I won't have to wait for you to come to town when the next book comes out.

Cheap, portable ebook readers are available all over the place - I have 3 for under ~$250. I picked up a second hand Palm IIIx a couple of years ago for $20. A couple of rechargeable AAA batteries and it's good for 15-20 hours of reading without the back light. I upgraded to a Palm M505 for $30 last summer - lasts even longer, and it has colour. Both of the Palms handle multiple formats once I drop them through Dropbook for conversion. Recently I got an XO, and it is an amazing ebook reader -native PDF display in full colour, rrs feeds of web pages, .txt, pretty much anything that will show up in a browser. The screen folds over into tablet mode and with the back light off I've gotten 7 hours of reading time out of it (and once I hack together a little charger out of a windup flashlight I'm untethered from the grid forever!). On both the Palms and the XO reading text with the back light off was easy on the eyes, and I can carry a couple dozen books, text books, or documents for reading on the go without having to lug around dead trees.

I have an XO, and it ROCKS!
I did the Give-one-get-one program; ~$400 to buy two, I got one and one was donated to the distribution pool.

I love it. It gives me ~8 to 10 hours of text editing time on a charge - thats total typing time, if I stop to think or chat with someone it powers down and the battery stops draining. It's fully functional as a Linux system - as long as you don't expect it to perform beyond its capabilities. As a web browser, simple image editor, text editor, camera (yes, the built in camera is pretty good), and e reader there is NOTHING on the market better. And once you learn how to launch apps from the terminal, bypassing the GUI altogether, it runs even faster.

I've sat down with people that bought eee pc's, and some of the other 'ultra portables' and by the time we've finished comparing functionality vs actual use vs cost everyone agrees that the XO is the best bang-for-the-buck they've ever seen.

@ Outerjohn

I'm not advocating piracy. I work in the DVD authoring industry so I am well aware of how much of an impact reduced sales of material goods by the entertainment industry hits the bottom line; and consequently the incomes of the people in the production chain. I do however prefer to buy my music as directly as possible from the bands I like. Bands make a greater percentage off of merchandise (t-shirts true, but CDs and dvds as well)that is sold at a live venue. For example, I discovered Mary Prankster on MP3.com a decade ago, and downloaded the songs that she had put up for free download. I've since seen her play live twice - and bought not only a t-shirt (which I got autographed), but a complete collection of her cds - (which I also got autographed). I have the pristine cds on my shelf, and listen to my mp3 copies.

Should have appended this to the previous post...

Has anyone started to organize boycotts? If those that oppose the DMCA just stopped buying products or services from companies that support it; wouldn't it die a pretty quick death? Or are there more people that blithely consume, without consideration for the legal restrictions placed upon what they buy, than there are people aware and active against these irritating and unfair restrictions?

Hmmm... you make a very good point Cory.
I think you could very well be right about those @#$%heads interfering with the independents just in case they are sharing copyrighted music along with Creative Commons or 'free' tracks. Thinking about it from that perspective I can see the possibility of them becoming pro-actively protectionist about potential violations by services that facilitate the distribution of legally shareable files.

Gonna have to make some noise to scare the vermin off.

I sent my letter, might make a call...
But I'm still pretty uninspired about DCMA on music.
Almost all the music I listen to is from artists that released it for free on the web, and I'll pay them for it by attending their live show when they come to town and either buying some merchandise, or the new album they are selling from beside the stage. I guess the DMCA has a greater impact on people that listen to top-40 commercial radio music - the indie music scene really doesn't care from what I've seen.

YAY!!! Congratulations Cory.
This means that not only can you use your e-book generated wuffie in exchange for dinner for two, now three, at Shanghai Cowgirl on any Friday night or Sunday Brunch, but you also use it for up to 10 yours of babysitting when you happen to be in Toronto. I just hope that you'll still get enough time to write, the birth of my daughter became a total time sink - I procrastinate writing by playing with her.

I ordered mine half an hour after they want on sale.
I don't normally give to charities, but this one really struck a cord with me. After finding out that each system would be loaded up with wikis and development environments to teach the user how to create new apps I was sold. I've ordered one, and when my daughter is old enough to use it I'm going to pass it on to her - with all of the customized educational content that I plan to make.

... or someone could swoop in while I'm writing my comment and make me look like a pontificating ass by deciphering your gibberish and reposting it for us to read.

As for paying for Cory's writing - you don't need to pay for it - he gives it away for free! I as yet have not bought physical copies of his work (I read pretty much everything off of an old Palm IIIx dedicated to being my 'pocket book' to avoid usage of dead tree media), but will eventually 'pay' for them in some manner - be it copies to give as gifts, donations to a cause that Cory finds important, or picking up the tab for him and a guest if he ever comes into Shanghai Cowgirl on either Friday night (after 9:00pm) or Sunday afternoon (when I'm working -hint hint).

Cory, your vision of the future both frightens and inspires me - you always seem to write a solution to a pending ecol/econ-crises in every story. The theme of re-purposing technology that runs though your body of work is something that I hope our generation can instill into our children instead of infecting them with the crass/mass consumerism and disposable culture memes that so many people have succumbed to nowadays.

P.S. I'm curious to know if the character Kurt from 'Someone comes to town, someone leaves town' was partially based upon French Eric of the BFG's; he used to run the Mad Scientist recycled tech shop in the market.

@ Vortex - I think you need to talk to Pat Sajak about getting some vowels for your keyboard...
Or was that an attempt to be '1337'?
If you were attempting to be internet-cool through the dissonance of dropping your vowels from your post; it is my opinion that it did not work.
I'll admit that there was a time ( and there still could be some places) that the public usage of 1337 could have had a positive impact upon the content of your post. I believe that the average current internet user would rather spend the time to read a coherent, legible, article or comment rather than waste time attempting to decipher obfuscated language.

I have to find more by them - when I started playing the video my 2 year old went crazy - danced around for the whole song, and then pestered me to play it again and again for about half an hour. Does anyone know where to get more track> Or if they have a domestic (Canadian) release?

Hiya All

I'm the guy that authored this DVD - not the director or producer or anything like that - just the guy that actually assembled the final movie and menu artwork into the DVD master file.
During the course of authoring this movie I ended up watching it two or three times, and becoming quite familiar with it. Yes, the content matter is controversial and the subject 'squiky' - but it has been presented in a very tasteful manner.
Based on what I heard it was about I was initially dreading having to see this movie when it was assigned to me; but was pleasantly surprised to find it to be not a shock-doc, but a thoughtful piece of investigative documentary.
It was well researched, using interviews with people that were involved with the incident to present many sides of the story - the cop, the vet, other members of the 'scene'. The cinematography is excellent - the situating shots and interstitial pans of landscape and setting are breathtaking.
There is no gratuitous graphic sexual imagery or re-enactments, thats not the point of the piece; its an exploration of the event and the people involved in it - the central act that is the inspiration for the movie is squiky, but the movie itself is not, not even close.
As someone that has had to view, with a critical eye, 2-3 feature films per day for the past few years I would highly recommend this movie for anyone with an interest in 'the human condition' - but not to low-brow seekers of horse porn. Um, lets call it an 8/10, with my baseline 10/10 reference being the original "Revenge of the Nerds".

P.S. Although I did do the work on this DVD, this review is not sponsored in any way - I just happened to come across the post during my morning tea.