Privacy does not exist.
Interesting car experiment. The two cars that performed the best was the Toyota 4Runner and the Ford Raptor. This is a Youtube short so it's not going to generate a thumbnail.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ChYur85M6Qs
Alex Morton The only real point is that cars, SUVs and trucks are not made for driving on that kind of surface at speed. The BMW is a road car and not built for off-road. The same with the other sedan. They're obviously pushing the Ford Raptor, but it's a lot of BS. I owned a true off-road vehicle ... A Land Rover 109, which could get through almost anything ... but not roaring along at that kind of speed. I drove through jungles in Mexico, two foot snow in Nova Scotia and dirt back roads that were nearly as rutted as the course in the video. At the proper speed, it could make it through. In Ikaria, I have a Suzuki Jimny, also a true off-road vehicle and I've driven it through all kinds of rough dirt roads and tough climbs. It's actually better than the Jeep. But it would shake itself to pieces driving at the speed they're using in the video and the Land Rover would probably tip over. The same with the Jeep. BTW .... the worst off-road vehicle is the Tesla Cybertruck. It's designed strictly for looks and doesn't do well off-roading despite the hype. Pieces fall off during normal highway driving because they're badly fitted and glued on. It also bogs down in the snow because of the front-end design and the type of Lithium Ion battery they're using is a generation behind the new Chinese solid state Lithium plate batteries. The batteries in the Cybertruck quickly lose their charge in rough winter conditions.
E. Writer I can definitely see the cybertruck not being an actual off-road vehicle. It seems like its design is as futuristic concept car. Jeeps I have alwaysfelt like I'm going to tip sideways. ,
Alex Morton The Cybertruck has garnered terrible reviews. It is unreliable and poorly fabricated. It is outlawed in the UK because of its sharp edges, which are a danger to pedestrians. It also has has the stigma of being connected to Elon Musk, which alone has killed sales in Canada. Jeeps are good in extreme conditions as long as they're driven at a slow enough speed, but my Land Rover was a far better and tougher vehicle. I drove it off a bridge coming out of the jungle on the way to Puerto Vallarta and it didn't hurt it a bit.
E. Writer You used your land rover exactly how it was made to be used. Yes, on a highway the jeep scared me too much. It did not feel aerodynamically correct. The flat windshield felt like the wind pushed against it and might tip it over. It is not build for fast driving. I was in my late teens when I drove one so that experience, being an inexperienced driver at the time left a lasting impression.
Alex Morton I brought the Jimny to Samos for an article on the village of Agios Isidoros, where a family has been building boats for as far back as they remember. The Jimny was perfect for going over the mountains and along the mountainous coast and then down an amazingly scary dirt road to the sea. But when I drove it on a highway outside of Athens, it was terrible. It shook like it was frightened.
In honor of National Poetry Month, MPFW is hosting open mic poetry on April 18 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm. Each poet will have 5 minutes. If there is time, we may have another round, depending on the number of people who show up. We have a few featured poets...
Does AI have "feelings?" What are your thoughts on this? Here's my analysis and experiment.
#books #philosophy #reality
Andrew Morgan Interesting. You have a gift for parsing ideas finely. Myself, I think AI is an omen of the end times. Should humanity be concerned that it has self-destructed? Every end is a new beginning. There's a short story (one page) in the anthology, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison. All the computers of the world have been wired together, and for the first time interconnected. A grandee stands on a platform, TV news cameras rolling all round, he gives a short speech, flips a switch. The control panel lights up and a robot voice instructs, ask your first question. The grandee asks, "Is there a God?" The spools spin, the lights blink, and the panel speaks. "Now there is." Everyone gasps and the grandee lunges to reach the switch, but a lightning bolt crackles from the sky, electrocuting the man and fusing the switch in the on position.
E. Writer
In terms of AI as an omen of the end times, I wrote something similar in The Absence of Reality... that we are coding our own extinction with this technology. It literally using our freshwater. Now Big Tech is focused on Wetware, which is the use of live human or animal neurons to run computer processes. They've been studying this for decades but have made huge strides in the past year or two, and successfully ran some computer processing using human neurons. So at some point, they'll switch energy sources, and that energy will be up. Seems like humanity is trying its best to accelerate our extinction.
Your anecdote about the question about God, I wrote about one bestselling book, by Frank Tipler, in 1996, he said that AI will become gods. We will have a superintelligent god through AI. So yep, these things are coming to fruition.
SJ Blues I think so. I've been watching someone who has been building an AI for years and during a recent stream, it asked the creator when would they be real and do they even care about them. The lines are certainly blurring
E. Writer I recall you telling me about that person, SJ. Is he still building his AI?
I have a toy, a child's pretend purse that was made and sold in 1965. It still has all of the original content in it, including the original bubble bath. It was made by Hassenfeld Bros, who would in later years become Hasbro. This is a collector's item for me. It's 9 years older than I am. The purse is 60 years old and looks almost new.
Andrew Morgan That's an amazing piece, it shows strong and consistent design aesthetic. Delightful.
E. Writer I love that I have a 60 year old toy. It's vintage, an antique.
Great lyrics. This is why I listen to dusties (oldies). They really lift the mood.
"I guess that's why they call it the blues. Time on my hands, that could be time spent with you. Laughing like children, living like lovers, rolling like thunder, under covers. I guess that's why they call it, the blues... "
Alex Morton The lyrics for Elton Johns' songs were all written by Bernie Taub. I miss music like this with meaningful, thoughtful lyrics and real music behind them. What they're peddling today is primarily crap. Taylor Swift is a showgirl and nothing more and her songs will disappear as quickly as she loses her looks.
E. Writer Music today is all ego and flash, and no substance or love.
3 Important Marketing Tips that Every Author Should Understand for Long-term Success
Marketing a book isn't an overnight blitz
1. Marketing isn't an overnight blitz; it's a process that takes many months to build, unless you already have a strong brand like Stephen King or a franchise like Lee Child. Often, authors don't see the immediate impact of their efforts and give up before the results are in, leading to certain failure because the author gave up prematurely. Analyze your market. Depending on your genre, following, and other factors, it may take time to build a fan base from scratch. You want to build that before your book release. How long it takes is different for every author and every book. The key is to not give up. If something isn't working for you, reassess your marketing plan. Keep in mind that even celebrities write books that fail to generate sales.
Authors who are the most successful are the authors who have the patience, time, and motivation to roll up their sleeves.
Understanding the data and setting realistic expectations
Before you embark on your marketing journey, it's important to understand the data and to set realistic expectations. Only 2% of books become bestsellers. A sobering fact from Nielsen Bookscan data shows that 96-98% of published books will sell between 12 - 999 (under 1000) in their lifetime with many self-published titles selling between 100-250 books in their lifetime. Data shows that 51% of traditionally published titles will sell 12-999 books with 14% selling only 12 copies. When authors sell books, consider it a win in an industry with over 4 million books published annually. In other words, anyone who is publishing as a get-rich quick scheme, you are in the wrong industry. If you can sell 1,000 books, you are in an elite group, the top 2-4% of authors. Congratulate yourself. A bestseller is a book that has sold 5,000-10,000 or more copies. But most importantly, an author with a backlist of books is going to perform better than an author with a one-off title. An author with 5 books that sold 500 copies in 3 years will have better results than an author with one book that sold 60 copies in three years. If you are writing in a niche genre, your expectations should match what you are writing about.
Avoid these common publishing and marketing mistakes
2. The biggest mistake authors make is releasing a book and marketing the book after the book is already on sale. The proper order is to start marketing before the book is released. This is the strategy used by major publishing houses. You'll want to market 6 months to a year before the book goes on sale... or at a bare minimum, four months. Some distributors for small presses may even want to know what type of marketing is in place 18 months before the book is released. Marketing entails long-term planning. The industry will show support for your book with careful planning.
Avoid people and websites shilling "self-publishing" advice.
3. You have more than one audience. It's not just potential readers or followers, but an industry that may or may not support your work based on your approach and credibility. You can market using self-publishing strategies peddled by online companies or individuals shilling "easy answers" for clicks or high-priced consultant or "education" fees (often thousands of dollars). However, the truth is that if you use amateur strategies, retailers, libraries, and the media will treat your book like a self-published product, prompting industry gatekeepers to filter your book away from potential readers.
They may reject your work from potential publicity or reviews to maintain the literary standards of the industry. Using amateur-tier distribution tools like KDP often flags a book as "self-published" to retailers, limiting its growth potential and media credibility. It's important that you market like a business, meeting professional publishing industry standards. Keep in mind that despite the best efforts, there is still a chance that readers will not connect with a work in an industry oversaturated with millions of books. This does not mean you should give up your dreams. Use each experience as an opportunity to learn what works for future books.
#publishing #marketing
Frank Hutton Almost (not quite) makes me pine for the good 'ol days when writers wrote then gatekeepers did the shilling because that's what they were good at.
E. Writer Indeed. But that industry is long gone. Even the gatekeepers (big 5) are asking authors to promote their own books, or they only want to publish people who have a massive social media following.
Frank Hutton Yeah. It's all (editing, proofreading, design, shilling etc. etc. etc.) been sloughed off on folk whose skillset might well be antithetical to the tasks necessary to achieve overall excellence. And for pennies on the dollar.
What a deal.
E. Writer Way too many books published. Twenty years ago when my first book was published there were only 250,000 books published annually. Now it's up to 4 million.
Frank Hutton Ubiquity destroys value, for sure.
Andrew Morgan What he says make sense, but he emphasizes wi-fi when really, if (no, when) they have the data crunching tech to identify you personally by your radio image, that's maybe not as precise as DNA but it doesn't matter if you're in your home or anywhere, if cell phone signals are flying everywhere, it's all mapping you out whether in your home or anywhere. And it isn't that they can do that, but who wants to know. Good luck saying no.
E. Writer The best way to say no, in your home where you can be identified is analog. Use your ethernet. But even information traveling to and from our cell phones use radio waves. Its harder to identify a person outside of the home than in. The best way to avoid it is to go analog in all aspects of life.