Fiona L. Woods's Blog, page 400

A New Panzerism

Finders keepers. It's yours.Panzer on ownership:

Why are you telling me there's a mouse in the kitchen?

You saw it first; its yours.

Seriously ...

It's okay, you can have it.

It's NaNoWriMo Time!

NaNoWriMo started yesterday. This is the time of year when writers hunker over their computers, drink gallons of coffee, go without food or sleep to emerge on November 30 with a 50,000 word novel.

If you want to join the craziness, tootle over to NaNoWriMo

Foes want probe, but antitrust law favors Amazon

Doesn't look bad to me.Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere and he found a post he missed a couple of days ago.

According to Jay Greene at The Seattle Times newspaper site, it may be harder to prove Amazon is a monopoly than The New Republic magazine's Franklin Foer and Authors United's Douglas Preston might think. Mr. Greene addresses two salient points against Mr. Foer and Mr. Preston's assertion that Amazon is a monopoly. First: there is no argument that Amazon is the biggest dog in the pen ... but ... there are other dogs in there too. Second: the argument that Amazon causes harm to consumers is refuted by the fact Amazon wants to lower the prices of ebooks to the consumers.

Panzer says, "Lower prices makes sense to me."

To read the full post, tootle over to Foes want probe, but antitrust law favors Amazon | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times

Happy Black Cat Day!

Happy Black Cat Day
Wherever You Are!
It's the best day of the year for me!  
Oh, And Happy Halloween From Mom And Me!

YouTube Subscription Services Coming Soon?

We'd all subscribe to that.Panzer heard some sniffling noises in the Catosphere today. With a check-in at the New York Times Bits site he found the source of the crying.

According to a post by Connor Dougherty in which he quotes statements made by YouTube's Susan Wojcicki subscription services are in YouTube's planned future. The much anticipated music subscription service is one, as is a gaming service.

Panzer says, "Hmmm. Will there be a Girl Kitties of San Francisco subscription service?"

To read the whole post, tootle over to YouTube subscriptions

VAT Will Increase Ebook Price

What do you do with the tax money?Panzer got jerked out of his noon nap today by all the CATerwauling going on in the Catosphere. He hopped in the Panzermobile to track down the trouble. My poor sleepy kitty pilot found the answer at The Bookseller site.

In a post by Lisa Campbell and Sarah Shaffi he learned about a new European VAT.  This new taxation law of digital products goes into effect on January 1. Ebooks are included in the EU taxation change. The change will mandate an ebook is taxed at the location of the buyer not the location of the seller. According to Ms. Campbell and Ms. Shaffi, this means the European price of ebooks could be significantly higher after the first of the year.

Panzer says, "How can you increase the tax on a bunch of electrons from Luxembourg just because  they travel to the UK or Germany? You humans tax everything."

To read the complete post and what this change will mean for ebook prices in Europe, tootle over to ebook prices

Will you discover a great unpublished book through Amazon?

How many times can I vote?Panzer heard a bunch of meowing going on in the Catosphere. He followed all the noise to The Christian Science Monitor site. In a post by Molly Driscoll he found out that everybody is excited about Amazon's new Kindle Scout program.

According to Ms. Driscoll, through the new program you can submit your manuscript directly to Amazon. Amazon will first consider the submission. It will then be made available for online readers to consider. Readers will get to vote on whether the submission should be offered a contract. Note: The contract includes a clause that gives Amazon the rights to your book for five years.

According to an Amazon press release on Monday, the voting phase is open now. (If you want to skip the rest of this post, you can click voting phase to go register now and read the current submissions.)

Panzer says, "So how many friends and relatives do you have to vote to get you a publishing contract?"

To read Molly Driscoll's post, tootle over to Will you discover a great unpublished book through Amazon?

A New Panzerism

Panzer on Toys:

You bring home bright red rubber balls and sticks with green feathers that almost glow in the dark.

But cats are red-green color blind, remember.

So obviously you're buying those garish trinkets for yourself. It's you who likes the bright colors, not me.

Cat toys? Give me a break.Now stop calling those ridiculous objects ...

cat toys.

They are Mom toys.

Got it?

Good.

Samsun Galaxy Tab 4 Nook (Part 2)

Do I want one or not?Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere today looking for interesting news to tell you about.

My big bad black kitty boy told you earlier this week about the new large screen Nook. Well, today he found a post by Clare Swanson at the Publishers' Weekly site about the reviews of the new Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. In her post, Ms. Swanson has a roundup of the reviews by CNet, ZDNet, Tech Radar and Good EReader.

The general consensus seems to be that the new Galaxy is basically no different than the Android tablet. The only two differences are the $200 worth of Barnes and Noble content available with the new Galaxy and the customer support available at their bookstores.

Panzer says, "There is a link to each of the review sites included, so you can make up your own mind if it's worth the $300 price tag."

To read the post, tootle over to Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook

18 Free Spooky Stories

Follow me for some scary fun.Panzer heard some really scary news in the Catosphere today. My big brave kitty boy headed over to the Blastr site to check it out.

It turns out that for the third Halloween in a row, Blastr has FREE spooky short stories available at their site. There's a total of 18 short stories. Many of the stories are from authors such as Bram Stoker and H. P. Lovecraft, but others are from authors such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Robert McCammon.

Panzer says, "You'll need a big cup of tea, because you can't download the stories and have to read them online."

To read the stories, tootle over to spooky stories