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Showing posts from April, 2019

eBooks and books, what you own and the lifetime of a book

Microsoft just announced that the digital library they launched when eBooks were in vogue is closing the service, with a whimper and a small print saying that they will reimburse the buyers (which if you don't know, some of them already lost their devices and books). For me, besides the physical act of discovering and buying a book, it has a network effect starting to unfold: I read the book and post about it I recommend the book to my friends and sometimes they borrowed it from me (SOME friends, not any...) sometimes I write small ideas or thoughts spurred by ideas presented in the book I hope that my kids will enjoy some of the books I bought With an eBook, the problem seems to be that the usage period is your lifetime or the lifetime of the service ( the minimum of them). Yes, you may be able to borrow your book to friends, for limited periods and you can copy and paste, in case you need some content from it. But the bottom limit is that you are paying for a period of ...

eating in rural USA

I was feeling small, in the diner, in Bath, New York. I am a 6.3 feel adult, 210 pounds, so not that small. But all people around me where in a different category. I started to have a queasy feeling that food might be one of the culprits, or maybe the hard work. Looking at their hands, work was out of the question. Is the same food in all North America that we consume, isn't it? I asked for the menu, for breakfast, and then I understood why. The "Specials" had at least 10-12 ingredients, meat was present in different ways - bacon, sausage, lard, salami, veal, chicken. The plates where large and prices cheap. Food was plenty but nutrients in it were missing. It was a systemic problem in a three days trip at Watkins Glen area, upstate New York - cheap food, no much variety, mostly from frozen bags/containers and not much flavor. I remember eating a salad, in full summer, and it didn't have any sweetness in vegetables. I felt like ordering cooked carton in each di...