Makers - Cory Doctorow (book recommendations for young adults .txt) š
- Author: Cory Doctorow
Book online Ā«Makers - Cory Doctorow (book recommendations for young adults .txt) šĀ». Author Cory Doctorow
thatās settled. Filing suit today. Weāre going to do a discovery on them thatāll split them open from asshole to throat. No more of this chickenshit police stuffāweāre going to figure out every source of income these bastards have, weāre going to take away their computers, weāre going down to their ISPs and getting their emails and instant messages.
āAnd as weāve seen, theyāre going to retaliate. Thatās fine. Weāre not treating these people as a couple of punk pirates who go down at the first sign of trouble. Not anymore. We know that these people are the competition. Weāre going to make an example of them. Theyāre the first ones to attack on this front, but they wonāt be the last. Weāre vulnerable, Samuel, but we can contain that vulnerability with enough deterrent.ā
Hackelberg seemed to be expecting something of Sammy, but Sammy was damned if he knew what it was. āOK,ā he said lamely.
Hackelbergās smile was like a jack oālanternās. āThat means that weāve got to be prepared for their discovery on us. I need to know every single detail of this DiaB project, including the things Iād find if I went through your phone records and your email. Because they will be going through them. Theyāll be putting you and your operation under the microscope.ā
Sammy restrained his groan. āIāll have it for you,ā he said. āGive me a day or two.ā
He saw Hackelberg out of his office as quickly as he could, then shut the door. Hackelberg wanted everything, and that meant everything, including his playmates from the advertising industryāeverything. He was becoming the kind of executive who emitted strategic intelligence, rather than the kind who gathered it. That wouldnāt do. That wasnāt the natural order of things.
He sat down at his computer. Someone had to do the competitive intelligence work around here and it looked like it would have to be him.
What the World Can Learn from Disney
Suzanne Church
Itās easy to dismiss Disney. They make more lawsuits than rides these days. They have a reputation for Polyannaish chirpiness. Their corporate communications veer from Corporate Passive Voice Third Person to a syrupy, condescending kiddee-speak thatās calculated to drive children into a frenzy of parent-nagging screeches.
But if you havenāt been to a Disney Park in a while, you donāt know what youāre missing. Iāve been in Walt Disney World for a week now, and Iām here to tell you, itās pretty good. No, itās better than thatāitās amazing.
Youāve probably heard about the attention to detail: the roofline over Fantasyland features sagging, Georgian tiles, crazy chimneys, and subtly animated gargoyles (left over from a previous, goth-ier incarnation of this part of the park). You donāt see this unless you raise your eyes above the busy, intriguing facades that front the rides, above the masterfully painted signage, and higher still. In other words, unless youāre someone like me, looking for details, you wonāt spot them. Theyāre there as pure gold-plating, theyāre there because someone who took pride in his work put them there.
It tells you something about the people behind the scenes here. People who care about their jobs work here. Itās easy to forget that when youāre thinking about Disney, a company whose reputation these days has more to do with whom they sue than with what they make.
But oh, what they make. Thereās a safari park here, something like a zoo but without that stuff that makes you feel like youāre participating in some terrible exercise that strips noble animals of their dignity for our amusement. Instead, the animals here roam free, near their hairless monkey cousins, separated from them by water features, camouflaged ditches, simulated ancient ruins [more details].
Thatās just one of six parks, each subdivided into six or seven ālands,ā each land with its own unique charm, culture, and customs. Thatās not counting the outlying areas: two new towns, golf courses, a velodrome, a preserved marshland that you can tour in a skiff with a local naturist. In these days of cheap fabrication, itās easy to forget what you can do with several billion dollars and the kind of hubris that leads you to dredge lakes, erect papier mache mountains, and create your own toy mass-transit system.
Of course, Disney Parks are no strangers to small scale fabrication. See their tiny, clever Disney-in-a-Box devices, which I have chronicled here from the other side. On the one hand, these things are networked volumetric printers, but on the other, they are superb category-busters that have achieved an entirely justifiableāyet still staggeringāmarket penetration in just a few months.
I came here ready to be bored and disgusted and fleeced of every nickel. I am disappointed. The parks are tremendous at separating people from money, itās true. Theyāve structured each promenade and stroll so that even a walk to the bathroom can create a Mommy-Daddy-Want-It-NOW situation. For such a happy place, there certainly are a lot of weepy children and frustrated parents.
But itās hard to fault Disney for being a business that makes a lot of money. Thatās the point, after all. And it canāt be cheap to keep the tens of thousands of ācastmembersā (yes, they really do call them that, even when theyāre earning minimum wage and work jobs with all the glamour of a bathroom attendant) hanging around, picking up litter and confronting every new āguestā with eerily convincing cheer.
As for āboredā and ādisgustedāānot yet. Boredāitās impossible to imagine such a thing. For starters, the worldās middle classes have converged here in a sort of bourgeois UN, and you can get a lot of pleasure out of watching a Chinese ālittle emperorā with doting parents in tow making friends with a tiny perfect Russian mafiyeh princess whose parents flick nervously at their nicotine inhalers and scout the building facades for hidden cameras.
Of course, if people-watching isnāt your thing, there are the rides themselves, which make art out of the shoebox diorama. There are luaus, indoor scuba diving with live sharks, and an island of genuinely sleazy nightclubs where you can get propositioned for some improbable acts that are hardly family friendly. These last appear to be largely populated by the ācastmembersā seeking a little after-work action.
Disgusted? I think if I were a parent, thereād be parts of the experience that drove me nuts. But once you get to know the rhythm of the place, you start to see that there are navigable pathways that donāt lead through any commercial areasāfantastic adventure playgrounds, nature hikes, petting zoos, horseback rides, sports training. And for every kid whoās having a blood-sugar meltdown after consuming half a quart of high-fructose lube slathered on a cinnamon bun, thereās another who is standing open-mouthed with complete bodily wonder, at some stupendous spectacle, clearly forming neuronal connections of a sort that will create the permanent predisposition to an appreciation of spectacle, wonder, and beauty.
This is the kind of place where you have to love the sin and hate the sinner. The company may sue and resort to dirty tricks, but itās also chock full of real artists making real art.
If you havenāt been for a visit, you should. Honestly. Oh, by all means, also go somewhere unspoiled (if you can find it). Go camping. Go to one of the rides Iāve written so much about. But if you want to see the bright side of what billions can doāthe stuff you never get from outside the walls of this fortress of funābuy a ticket.
The barman at Suzanneās hotel started building her a Lapu-Lapu as she came up the stairs. The drink involved a hollow pineapple, overproof rum, and an umbrella, and sheād concluded that it contained the perfect dosage of liquid CNS depressant to unwind her after a day of battle at the parks. That day sheād spent following around the troupes of role-playing actors at Disneyās Hollwood Studios: a cast of a hundred costumed players who acted out a series of interlocking comedies set in the black-and-white days of Hollywood. They were fearlessly cheeky, grabbing audience members and conscripting them in their plays.
Now she was footsore and there was still a nighttime at Epcot in her future. The barman passed her the pineapple and she thumped her lanyard against the bar twiceāonce to pay for the drink and once to give him a generous tip. He was gay as a goose, but fun to look at, and he flirted with her for kicks.
āGentleman caller for you, Suzanne,ā he said, tilting his head. āYou temptress.ā
She looked in the direction indicated and took in the man sitting on the bar-stool. He didnāt have the look of a harried dad and he was too old to be a love-flushed honeymooner. In sensible tropical-weight slacks and a western shirt, he was impossible to place. He smiled and gave her a little wave.
āWhat?ā
āHe came in an hour ago and asked for you.ā
She looked back at the man. āWhatās your take on him?ā
āI think he works here. He didnāt pay with an employee card, but he acted like it.ā
āOK,ā she said, āsend out a search party if Iām not back in an hour.ā
āGo get him, tiger,ā the barman said, giving her hand a squeeze.
She carried her pineapple with her and drifted down the bar.
āHello there,ā she said.
āMs Church,ā the man said. He had a disarming, confident smile. āMy name is Sammy Page.ā
She knew the name, of course. The face, too, now that she thought about it. He offered her his hand. She didnāt take it. He put it down, then wiped it on his trouser-leg.
āAre you having a good time?ā
āA lovely time, thank you.ā She sipped her drink and wished it was a little more serious and intimidating. Itās hard to do frosty when youāre holding a rum-filled pineapple with a paper parasol.
His smile faltered. āI read your article. I canāt believe I missed it. I mean, youāve been here for six days and I just figured it out today? Iām a pretty incompetent villain.ā
She let a little smile slip out at that. āWell, itās a big Internet.ā
āBut I love your stuff. Iāve been reading it since, well, back when I lived in the Valley. I used to get the Merc actually delivered on paper.ā
āYou are a walking fossil, arenāt you?ā
He bobbed his head. āSo it comes down to this. Iāve been very distracted with making things besides lawsuits lately, as you know. Iāve been putting my energy into doing stuff, not preventing stuff. Itās been refreshing.ā
She grubbed in her pocket and came up with a little steno book and a pencil. āDo you mind if I take notes?ā
He gulped. āCan this all be on background?ā
She hefted her notebook. āNo,ā she said finally. āIf thereās anything that needs publishing, Iām going to have to publish it. I can respect the fact that youāre speaking to me with candor, but frankly, Mr Page, you havenāt earned the privilege of speaking on background.ā
He sipped at his drinkāa more grown-up highball, with a lone ice-cube in it, maybe a Scotch and soda. āOK, right. Well, then, on the record, but candorously. I loved your article. I love your work in general. Iām really glad to have you here, because I think we make great stuff and weāre making more of it than ever. Your latest post was right on the moneyāwe care about our work here. Thatās how we got to where we are.ā
āBut you devote a lot of your resources to other projects here, donāt you? Iāve
āAnd as weāve seen, theyāre going to retaliate. Thatās fine. Weāre not treating these people as a couple of punk pirates who go down at the first sign of trouble. Not anymore. We know that these people are the competition. Weāre going to make an example of them. Theyāre the first ones to attack on this front, but they wonāt be the last. Weāre vulnerable, Samuel, but we can contain that vulnerability with enough deterrent.ā
Hackelberg seemed to be expecting something of Sammy, but Sammy was damned if he knew what it was. āOK,ā he said lamely.
Hackelbergās smile was like a jack oālanternās. āThat means that weāve got to be prepared for their discovery on us. I need to know every single detail of this DiaB project, including the things Iād find if I went through your phone records and your email. Because they will be going through them. Theyāll be putting you and your operation under the microscope.ā
Sammy restrained his groan. āIāll have it for you,ā he said. āGive me a day or two.ā
He saw Hackelberg out of his office as quickly as he could, then shut the door. Hackelberg wanted everything, and that meant everything, including his playmates from the advertising industryāeverything. He was becoming the kind of executive who emitted strategic intelligence, rather than the kind who gathered it. That wouldnāt do. That wasnāt the natural order of things.
He sat down at his computer. Someone had to do the competitive intelligence work around here and it looked like it would have to be him.
What the World Can Learn from Disney
Suzanne Church
Itās easy to dismiss Disney. They make more lawsuits than rides these days. They have a reputation for Polyannaish chirpiness. Their corporate communications veer from Corporate Passive Voice Third Person to a syrupy, condescending kiddee-speak thatās calculated to drive children into a frenzy of parent-nagging screeches.
But if you havenāt been to a Disney Park in a while, you donāt know what youāre missing. Iāve been in Walt Disney World for a week now, and Iām here to tell you, itās pretty good. No, itās better than thatāitās amazing.
Youāve probably heard about the attention to detail: the roofline over Fantasyland features sagging, Georgian tiles, crazy chimneys, and subtly animated gargoyles (left over from a previous, goth-ier incarnation of this part of the park). You donāt see this unless you raise your eyes above the busy, intriguing facades that front the rides, above the masterfully painted signage, and higher still. In other words, unless youāre someone like me, looking for details, you wonāt spot them. Theyāre there as pure gold-plating, theyāre there because someone who took pride in his work put them there.
It tells you something about the people behind the scenes here. People who care about their jobs work here. Itās easy to forget that when youāre thinking about Disney, a company whose reputation these days has more to do with whom they sue than with what they make.
But oh, what they make. Thereās a safari park here, something like a zoo but without that stuff that makes you feel like youāre participating in some terrible exercise that strips noble animals of their dignity for our amusement. Instead, the animals here roam free, near their hairless monkey cousins, separated from them by water features, camouflaged ditches, simulated ancient ruins [more details].
Thatās just one of six parks, each subdivided into six or seven ālands,ā each land with its own unique charm, culture, and customs. Thatās not counting the outlying areas: two new towns, golf courses, a velodrome, a preserved marshland that you can tour in a skiff with a local naturist. In these days of cheap fabrication, itās easy to forget what you can do with several billion dollars and the kind of hubris that leads you to dredge lakes, erect papier mache mountains, and create your own toy mass-transit system.
Of course, Disney Parks are no strangers to small scale fabrication. See their tiny, clever Disney-in-a-Box devices, which I have chronicled here from the other side. On the one hand, these things are networked volumetric printers, but on the other, they are superb category-busters that have achieved an entirely justifiableāyet still staggeringāmarket penetration in just a few months.
I came here ready to be bored and disgusted and fleeced of every nickel. I am disappointed. The parks are tremendous at separating people from money, itās true. Theyāve structured each promenade and stroll so that even a walk to the bathroom can create a Mommy-Daddy-Want-It-NOW situation. For such a happy place, there certainly are a lot of weepy children and frustrated parents.
But itās hard to fault Disney for being a business that makes a lot of money. Thatās the point, after all. And it canāt be cheap to keep the tens of thousands of ācastmembersā (yes, they really do call them that, even when theyāre earning minimum wage and work jobs with all the glamour of a bathroom attendant) hanging around, picking up litter and confronting every new āguestā with eerily convincing cheer.
As for āboredā and ādisgustedāānot yet. Boredāitās impossible to imagine such a thing. For starters, the worldās middle classes have converged here in a sort of bourgeois UN, and you can get a lot of pleasure out of watching a Chinese ālittle emperorā with doting parents in tow making friends with a tiny perfect Russian mafiyeh princess whose parents flick nervously at their nicotine inhalers and scout the building facades for hidden cameras.
Of course, if people-watching isnāt your thing, there are the rides themselves, which make art out of the shoebox diorama. There are luaus, indoor scuba diving with live sharks, and an island of genuinely sleazy nightclubs where you can get propositioned for some improbable acts that are hardly family friendly. These last appear to be largely populated by the ācastmembersā seeking a little after-work action.
Disgusted? I think if I were a parent, thereād be parts of the experience that drove me nuts. But once you get to know the rhythm of the place, you start to see that there are navigable pathways that donāt lead through any commercial areasāfantastic adventure playgrounds, nature hikes, petting zoos, horseback rides, sports training. And for every kid whoās having a blood-sugar meltdown after consuming half a quart of high-fructose lube slathered on a cinnamon bun, thereās another who is standing open-mouthed with complete bodily wonder, at some stupendous spectacle, clearly forming neuronal connections of a sort that will create the permanent predisposition to an appreciation of spectacle, wonder, and beauty.
This is the kind of place where you have to love the sin and hate the sinner. The company may sue and resort to dirty tricks, but itās also chock full of real artists making real art.
If you havenāt been for a visit, you should. Honestly. Oh, by all means, also go somewhere unspoiled (if you can find it). Go camping. Go to one of the rides Iāve written so much about. But if you want to see the bright side of what billions can doāthe stuff you never get from outside the walls of this fortress of funābuy a ticket.
The barman at Suzanneās hotel started building her a Lapu-Lapu as she came up the stairs. The drink involved a hollow pineapple, overproof rum, and an umbrella, and sheād concluded that it contained the perfect dosage of liquid CNS depressant to unwind her after a day of battle at the parks. That day sheād spent following around the troupes of role-playing actors at Disneyās Hollwood Studios: a cast of a hundred costumed players who acted out a series of interlocking comedies set in the black-and-white days of Hollywood. They were fearlessly cheeky, grabbing audience members and conscripting them in their plays.
Now she was footsore and there was still a nighttime at Epcot in her future. The barman passed her the pineapple and she thumped her lanyard against the bar twiceāonce to pay for the drink and once to give him a generous tip. He was gay as a goose, but fun to look at, and he flirted with her for kicks.
āGentleman caller for you, Suzanne,ā he said, tilting his head. āYou temptress.ā
She looked in the direction indicated and took in the man sitting on the bar-stool. He didnāt have the look of a harried dad and he was too old to be a love-flushed honeymooner. In sensible tropical-weight slacks and a western shirt, he was impossible to place. He smiled and gave her a little wave.
āWhat?ā
āHe came in an hour ago and asked for you.ā
She looked back at the man. āWhatās your take on him?ā
āI think he works here. He didnāt pay with an employee card, but he acted like it.ā
āOK,ā she said, āsend out a search party if Iām not back in an hour.ā
āGo get him, tiger,ā the barman said, giving her hand a squeeze.
She carried her pineapple with her and drifted down the bar.
āHello there,ā she said.
āMs Church,ā the man said. He had a disarming, confident smile. āMy name is Sammy Page.ā
She knew the name, of course. The face, too, now that she thought about it. He offered her his hand. She didnāt take it. He put it down, then wiped it on his trouser-leg.
āAre you having a good time?ā
āA lovely time, thank you.ā She sipped her drink and wished it was a little more serious and intimidating. Itās hard to do frosty when youāre holding a rum-filled pineapple with a paper parasol.
His smile faltered. āI read your article. I canāt believe I missed it. I mean, youāve been here for six days and I just figured it out today? Iām a pretty incompetent villain.ā
She let a little smile slip out at that. āWell, itās a big Internet.ā
āBut I love your stuff. Iāve been reading it since, well, back when I lived in the Valley. I used to get the Merc actually delivered on paper.ā
āYou are a walking fossil, arenāt you?ā
He bobbed his head. āSo it comes down to this. Iāve been very distracted with making things besides lawsuits lately, as you know. Iāve been putting my energy into doing stuff, not preventing stuff. Itās been refreshing.ā
She grubbed in her pocket and came up with a little steno book and a pencil. āDo you mind if I take notes?ā
He gulped. āCan this all be on background?ā
She hefted her notebook. āNo,ā she said finally. āIf thereās anything that needs publishing, Iām going to have to publish it. I can respect the fact that youāre speaking to me with candor, but frankly, Mr Page, you havenāt earned the privilege of speaking on background.ā
He sipped at his drinkāa more grown-up highball, with a lone ice-cube in it, maybe a Scotch and soda. āOK, right. Well, then, on the record, but candorously. I loved your article. I love your work in general. Iām really glad to have you here, because I think we make great stuff and weāre making more of it than ever. Your latest post was right on the moneyāwe care about our work here. Thatās how we got to where we are.ā
āBut you devote a lot of your resources to other projects here, donāt you? Iāve
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