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John Lemke

13 Ebooks and Courses That Make Great Holiday Gifts for Writers - 0 views

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    I actually have a few of these ebooks and I am aware of the success of some of the other authors on the list. In my opinion, especially for the cost of free, these 13 should be worth checking out.
John Lemke

How Much Should You Charge for Your E-Book? Ask These X Questions - 0 views

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    Seven good question to help you decide on that ebook price.
John Lemke

What happens with digital rights management in the real world? | Technology | theguardi... - 0 views

  • In 1997's Bernstein v United States, another US appeals court found that code was protected expression. Bernstein was a turning point in the history of computers and the law: it concerned itself with a UC Berkeley mathematician named Daniel Bernstein who challenged the American prohibition on producing cryptographic tools that could scramble messages with such efficiency that the police could not unscramble them. The US National Security Agency (NSA) called such programs "munitions" and severely restricted their use and publication. Bernstein published his encryption programs on the internet, and successfully defended his right to do so by citing the First Amendment. When the appellate court agreed, the NSA's ability to control civilian use of strong cryptography was destroyed. Ever since, our computers have had the power to keep secrets that none may extract except with our permission – that's why the NSA and GCHQ's secret anti-security initiatives, Bullrun and Edgehill, targetted vulnerabilities in operating systems, programs, and hardware. They couldn't defeat the maths (they also tried to subvert the maths, getting the US National Institute for Standards in Technology to adopt a weak algorithm for producing random numbers).
    • John Lemke
       
      This is also why they have a hard on for developing a quantum computer.
  • An increase in the security of the companies you buy your media from means a decrease in your own security. When your computer is designed to treat you as an untrusted party, you are at serious risk: anyone who can put malicious software on your computer has only to take advantage of your computer's intentional capacity to disguise its operation from you in order to make it much harder for you to know when and how you've been compromised.
  • The DMCA's injunction against publishing weaknesses in DRM means that its vulnerabilities remain unpatched for longer than in comparable systems that are not covered by the DMCA. That means that any system with DRM will on average be more dangerous for its users than one without DRM.
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  • For example, in 2005, Sony-BMG music shipped a DRM called the "Sony Rootkit" on 51m audio CDs. When one of these CDs was inserted into a PC, it automatically and undetectably changed the operating system so that it could no longer see files or programs that started with "$SYS$." The rootkit infected millions of computers, including over 200,000 US military and government networks, before its existence became public. However, various large and respected security organisations say they knew about the Sony Rootkit months before the disclosure, but did not publish because they feared punishment under the DMCA. Meanwhile, virus-writers immediately began renaming their programs to begin with $SYS$, because these files would be invisible to virus-checkers if they landed on a computer that had been compromised by Sony.
    • John Lemke
       
      How the Sony DRM created serious security issues.  It should also be considered a violation of our civil rights.  Who the hell gave Sony permission to modify my OS!  Furthermore why didn't the OS companies sue Sony?  Likely because they are in bed together.
  • If I was a canny entrepreneur with a high appetite for risk -- and a reasonable war-chest for litigation – I would be thinking very seriously about how to build a technology that adds legal features to a DRM-enfeebled system (say, Itunes/Netflix/Amazon video), features that all my competitors are too cowardly to contemplate. The potential market for devices that do legal things that people want to do is titanic, and a judgment that went the right way on this would eliminate a serious existential threat to computer security, which, these days, is a synonym for security itself.And once anti-circumvention is a dead letter in America, it can't survive long in the rest of the world. For one thing, a product like a notional Itunes/Amazon/Netflix video unlocker would leak across national borders very easily, making non-US bans demonstrably pointless. For another, most countries that have anti-circumvention on the books got there due to pressure from the US Trade Representative; if the US drops anti-circumvention, the trading partners it armed-twisted into the same position won't be far behind.I've talked to some lawyers who are intimate with all the relevant cases and none of them told me it was a lost cause (on the other hand, none of them said it was a sure thing, either). It's a risky proposition, but something must be done. You see, contrary to what the judge in Reimerdes said in 2000, this has nothing to do with whether information is free or not – it's all about whether people are free.
  • The DMCA is a long and complex instrument, but what I'm talking about here is section 1201: the notorious "anti-circumvention" provisions. They make it illegal to circumvent an "effective means of access control" that restricts a copyrighted work. The companies that make DRM and the courts have interpreted this very broadly, enjoining people from publishing information about vulnerabilities in DRM, from publishing the secret keys hidden in the DRM, from publishing instructions for getting around the DRM – basically, anything that could conceivably give aid and comfort to someone who wanted to do something that the manufacturer or the copyright holder forbade.
  • Significantly, in 2000, a US appeals court found (in Universal City Studios, Inc v Reimerdes) that breaking DRM was illegal, even if you were trying to do something that would otherwise be legal. In other words, if your ebook has a restriction that stops you reading it on Wednesdays, you can't break that restriction, even if it would be otherwise legal to read the book on Wednesdays.
John Lemke

» How to Get Paid as an "Elite" Writer with iWriter : Freedom With Writing - 0 views

  • iWriter is perfect for both the beginning and the established writer that wants to add another writing site to their list.
  • The range of these topics is considerably greater than most writing sites and includes pretty much anything you would want to write about and probably a few things you never considered.
  • Unlike many sites, there is no article submission required for approval. Don’t let this throw you and make you think less of this site. The site simply uses other methods to get and keep quality writers. This is great because you can get started immediately instead of waiting for an editor to approve your work.
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  • You can select the type of writings you want to do. Your choices are articles, ebooks and rewrites.
  • A rather odd note is that the writing block area specifically tells you not to copy and paste from other software into the block. However the FAQ suggests doing so. I recommend the copy and paste method simply because if there is a glitch during submission then there is little chance of recovery and you would need to start over. As an alternate, you can copy and past your work from the writing block into your word processor.
  • Essentially, you have to write at least 30 articles and have a rating of 4 stars to move to the Premium level. Once you hit 4.6 stars you move into the Elite tier. The only ratings that count are those from clients, iWriter only counts your articles. Because of this it’s important to do a good job for the clients and it’s also important to pay attention to the types of clients that you choose. Clients that reject often and are overly demanding may not be worth the effort.
  • Payment is made once your account reaches the minimum of $20 and is paid to your Paypal account.
  • Set up notifications for the topics that interest you
  • Get up early on Monday. Monday is when many new articles are added to the system.
  • Take many small articles at first.
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    This one looks very promising.
John Lemke

9 Irresistible Incentives That'll Grow Your Email List Like Crazy - 0 views

  • Unless they see the value of joining your list, they simply won’t invest any of those valuable minutes in you and your blog.
  • Do something for me and I’ll do something for you. In this case, the bribe is “give me your email address and I’ll give you something that isn’t freely available on my blog.”
  • Minimum requirements: Useful and engaging content, whether unique to the bribe or already published on your blog, that you can easily break into pieces. On the technical side, you’ll need an email newsletter service (e.g. Mailchimp, AWeber (aff), etc.) with an autoresponder feature ($10-20/month).
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  • Minimum requirements: A word processor like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or OpenOffice Writer is sufficient for creating a simple cheat sheet, but for a more sophisticated end product, you might require a desktop publishing package such as Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, or QuarkXPress. Alternatively, you can use a cheat sheet tool like Cheatography to generate cheat sheets based on a default template.
  • Minimum requirements: Your chosen word processor is enough to create a basic template, but to make it even more visually appealing, consider using some simple design elements such as colors, backgrounds and borders. If the template is meant to be printed, you can convert your .docx or .pages file into a downloadable PDF for your readers’ convenience.
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