#custom wall detail
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Enclosed San Diego Mid-sized enclosed dining room with brown walls from the Victorian era.
#custom crown molding#custom wall detail#dark wood moulding#custom millwork#crown moulding installation
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San Diego Contemporary Kitchen An illustration of a mid-sized, modern, single-wall kitchen with raised panels, medium-tone wood cabinets, a beige backsplash, a ceramic backsplash, and no island.
#white crown molding#custom trim woodwood#kitchen#white woodwork trim#custom wall detail#crown moulding installation#white crown moulding
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Enclosed - Dining Room Enclosed dining room - mid-sized victorian enclosed dining room idea with brown walls
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Made myself a wooden frame for this piece tonight. Love the way it looks wrapped around the frame. I used a computerized quilting design by Karlee Porter for this one and there is so much quilty detail to delight the eye!
#becky’s quilting again#million little stitches#quilting as art#fiber art#custom quilting#turning quilt tops into useable art#all the quilty details#art quilt#quilt art#quilters of tumblr#wall art#Karlee Porter digital design
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This connection is supposed to be symmetrical.
#ineffablefool original post#not good omens#it's been like this for over a day now and customer support has no ETAs no explanation#although if you keep escalating up their chain then you'll keep getting completely different mutually contradictory details!#pretty cool how they're one of exactly two options for broadband in this very much not rural area#and the other option is the one where we tried to switch to them once but their installer guy was 100% incompetent#and responded to our saying 'do not go in this one room' by going 'nah it's fine' and strolling on in there anyway#(he left the room eventually but it was definitely not until he was good and ready)#(imagine letting a service person into your house and then they decide to wander around in an off-limits room for a couple minutes#while you are standing there insisting firmly that they Do Not#it is *so awkward*#and what do you do like?? call the cops??? dude will just leave the room before they show up and then you look like a weirdo)#he also promised to not knock an access hole in a specific area of wall but then when he got outside he just went ahead and did it anyway#and just left it there for us to find when we went outside after he'd gone#i seldom hope people get fired but gosh i hope that at some point he got fired#ANYWAY i guess what i'm saying is that i would like a pretty angel to give me hot chocolate + listen to my woes + miracle them all better#but who doesn't amirite?
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Milan Scandinavian Bedroom
#Large danish master medium tone wood floor#vaulted ceiling and wallpaper bedroom photo with gray walls contemporary living room#interior design details#kitchen design#art deco#custom-made
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You're more amazing than stepping down
Made a BUNCH of Ultrakill cards yesterday, here's half of them
#asks#custom cards#not sure why the order is kinda messed up. oh well#anyway there's a lot of different ways these could be designed#so much of ultrakill is in the details of movement and physicality that there's often no clear translation to card form#how do you differentiate between a normal shot and a homing shot?#how do you represent a mannequin's wall cling?#or a hideous mass's harpoon holding you in place?#i did my best#the first thing i realized i should do was make sure the mana values matched each enemy's size/strength/health#need to make sure that significant strength differences are represented properly#so the first thing i did was set Filth to 1 mana and Corpse of King Minos to 10 and then worked inward to figure out the mana values#colors were also kinda difficult so i just kinda winged it#also the only reason for Filth having 0.5 toughness is because i thought it'd be funny to exactly match its hp#still haven't made v1 v2 or gabriel yet. or ferryman. don't know what to do with them
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Why do you think Sky chose to live in a dorm?
Well, his dad lives in a whole other city, so to go to that college, he needed a place.
It isn't clear to me if it's a dorm or just apartments that typically rent to students. The subs say dorm, but that could be a vague translation of a specialized term (like student housing or whatnot).
But overall, Sky himself explains it- it is close to the university. Beyond that, it's a fairly safe building (until Pai butters the landlady up), and it gives Sky privacy at night.
He's afraid of anyone seeing or knowing his trauma, which includes night terrors that seem to come and go (probably exactly why he wouldn't stay in the hospital when he collapsed- because he was having nightly episodes at that point).
So a dorm situation was a must, but the solo room also helped.
I've interviewed assault survivors with C-PTSD and the most important thing you focus on is the set design. Clear line of sight to every door, simple layout, and close walls are all huge.
Sky's dorm has it all. The rooms are laid out so he can almost always see the front door, furniture is tight to the wall and short, nowhere for someone to hide. But the walls are also closer, cozy, comforting and non-complex.
Even though Sky isn't really dealing with his trauma and is standing with his back to it hoping it goes away, the dorm he chooses to live in is also very well set and laid out for a trauma survivor.
#when i say I am damn good at my job#I mean that when I got details of the shoot and found out who would be coming in i stayed up all night doing research#on how to approach the women- because I had to put mics on them which is all up in their personal space- and how to build the set#and i was working with a really loud and overly familiar cam op#so i went through stuff with him beforehand and he was extremely receptive to what id learned#and strategizing how to make the women feel both comfortable and safe because they were recounting their attacks for these videos#and we knew thatd be extremely hard for them#the psychologist in charge of the interviews for the client came in as we were talking and was really happy with what we had planned#and advised stuff like moving the walls in a way that created even more openings for them and not making the studio feel too cavernous#by adding extra set pieces we wouldnt see on cam but could help make them feel less exposed#and for a few; the male cam op set up and left the room with me monitoring the cam for the interview to offer privacy#ironically they chose the station that ignored assaults on female employees multiple times but the psychologist didnt know that bit#i also research religious and cultural customs whenever we film in a religious building or anything for our international communities
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Besties: Me and my Cat (CC Pack for The Sims 4)
Introducing "Besties (Part 2): Me and My Cat" CC Pack!
I'm super excited to bring you the second part of the Besties series, now focusing on our beloved feline friends! In the first part, I shared with you guys a collection all about the beautiful bond between dogs and babies. For this second part, I thought I’d switch things up a bit. Instead of focusing on cats and babies, I wanted to highlight something just as heartwarming—the special relationship between cats and adults. Yes, you guessed it, I’m talking about the delightful world of cat ladies (and gents)!
This pack has loads of goodies for your Sim’s cats. There are two new versions of the cat tree: one with a cozy little house and another that looks like a cool cat gym on the wall. Your cats will love the new bed, scratchers, and another bed shaped like a tiny house. Of course, I’ve got the essentials like a litter box and food, but let’s be real—we all know the ultimate cat item is the cardboard box!
And because I know how much Sims love their kitties, I’ve added some fun items for a cat-obsessed Sim’s bedroom. I was going for an eclectic vibe this time. There’s a new classic bed with cute cat details on the pillows, a cat-shaped lamp for the night table, and an adorable armchair with cat accents. Plus, I’ve got new curtains and, most importantly, picture frames to show off the beauty of your Sim’s cats.
I’ve put a lot of love into this CC pack and can’t wait for you to enjoy it. Don’t forget to tag me in your social media posts—I can’t wait to see your amazing creations with your Sims and their feline besties!
Enjoy the fun and whimsy of The Sims 4 custom content, and as always, happy simming! 😊🐱📦
▶ ABOUT THE CC PACK
Build: 2 Wallpaper, 1 Floor
Comfort: Armchair, Double bed, Bench with blanket, Bench
Decorative: Cat food, Curtians (all sizes), Paitings, Rug
Lighting: Table Lamp
Pets (Requires Cats and Dogs EP): Bed (cardboard box), Food bowl, Cat tree (large), Cat tree (small), Bed with scratcher post, Cat climbing wall, Litter box, Scratch post (carrot)
Storage: Dresser, Dresser (opened)
Surface: Night table
GET EARLY ACCESS HERE
#maxis match cc#the sims 4#sims 4#sims#the sims#maxis match#sims 4 cc#sims 4 maxis cc#sims maxis match#sims cc#bedroom CC#cat fan#cat lover#custom content#Sims 4 animal lover#Sims 4 armchair#Sims 4 bedroom#Sims 4 bedroom ideas#Sims 4 bench#Sims 4 cat climbing wall#Sims 4 cat decor#Sims 4 cat food#Sims 4 cat themed decor#Sims 4 cat tree#Sims 4 cats#Sims 4 CC bedroom#Sims 4 CC creators#Sims 4 CC download#Sims 4 CC furniture#Sims 4 CC pet lovers
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hi simblr, it's my birthday today! virgo supremacy! I decided to share one of my favorite recolors i've ever made (finally!!!). I sticker-ed up the City Living keyboard and added some other fun swatches. There is a functional version for use with the City Living EP, and a non functional deco version for both the floor and the wall! More info + download below the cut!
DETAILS:
This is a recolor of the keyboard that came with City Living, and the deco mesh separated by @pixlmonster. Unfortunately this means CL is required, I'm sorry! I was hoping the deco versions would work without CL but they do not. Mesh by pixlmonster is included.
There are 19 swatches. The first 6 are the more unique sticker-ed swatches, and some of my personal favorites. Swatches 7-11 are more patterned recolors, and the last 8 swatches are from @pictureamoebae's fluoro-pop collection. Sometimes you just need a neon pink keyboard, y'know?
You can see an unedited in game photo of all swatches right here (part one, part two, part three)
Custom thumbnails for the first swatch.
You can download a merged .package with the functional + deco versions, and they also come separated if you'd prefer to pick and choose.
CREDIT:
Thank you to pixlmonster for the liberated keyboard mesh and pictureamoebae for the fluoro-pop collection palette!
I'll be super honest: It's been a year since I first initially started this project and I didn't do a great job recording where I got all of the stickers used. I apologize. Some of them were in game assets already, found via petaluhsims' sticker sheets. Some were found via google/freepik and some came from other places that I'm sure I'm forgetting. I made the parental advisory + seattle grunge stickers on the first swatch myself. Simlish fonts were found via franzillasims' font masterpost. Thanks so much to all of the original sticker/pattern creators, all credit goes to them. I just compiled a bunch of stuff together.
thanks to sam @m0ckest for testing <3
here's an ugly GIF of all the swatches! I tried so hard to make it look better but alas. I have completely forgotten the art of GIF making. I still wanted to include it so y'all could see all of the swatches somewhat easily!
DL:
MERGED: SFS / MF
INDIVIDUAL: SFS / MF
#ts4#the sims 4#ts4cc#s4cc#sims 4 custom content#maxis match#sims 4 cc#ts4 custom content#mycc#drops this and runs away jdrlfk#MY MAGNUM OPUS 2.0 HAS ARRIVED#pls reblog if u like it means a lot ❤️#i literally love this recolor so much im sooo happy to finally share it#pls tag me or show me if u use it in your builds/gp! 🥺
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Sun Room Large in San Francisco Sunroom - large modern concrete floor sunroom idea
#custom window#antique furniture#coastal landscape#antiques#glass wall#modern furniture#stainless steel details
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I have been on a Willy Wonkified journey today and I need y'all to come with me
It started so innocently. Scrolling Google News I come across this article on Ars Technica:
At first glance I thought what happened was parents saw AI-generated images of an event their kids were at and became concerned, then realized it was fake. The reality? Oh so much better.
On Saturday, event organizers shut down a Glasgow-based "Willy's Chocolate Experience" after customers complained that the unofficial Wonka-inspired event, which took place in a sparsely decorated venue, did not match the lush AI-generated images listed on its official website.... According to Sky News, police were called to the event, and "advice was given."
Thing is, the people who paid to go were obviously not expecting exactly this:
But I can see how they'd be a bit pissed upon arriving to this:
It gets worse.
"Tempest, how could it possibly--"
source of this video that also includes this charming description:
Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'
There is already a meme.
Oh yes, the Wish.com Oompa Loompa:
Who has already done an interview!
As bad (and hilarious) as this all is, I got curious about the company that put on this event. Did they somehow overreach? Did the actors they hired back out at the last minute? (Or after they saw the script...) Oddly enough, it doesn't seem so!
Given what I found when poking around I'm legit surprised there was an event at all. Cuz this outfit seems to be 100% a scam.
The website for this specific event is here and it has many AI generated images on it, as stated. I don't think anyone who bought tickets looked very closely at these images, otherwise they might have been concerned about how much Catgacating their children would be exposed to.
Yes, Catgacating. You know, CATgacating!
I personally don't think anyone should serve exarserdray flavored lollipops in public spaces given how many people are allergic to it. And the sweet teats might not have been age appropriate.
Though the Twilight Tunnel looks pretty cool:
I'm not sure that Dim Tight Twdrding is safe. I've also been warned that Vivue Sounds are in that weird frequency range that makes you poop your pants upon hearing them.
Yes, Virginia, these folks used an AI image generator for everything on the website and used Chat GPT for some of the text! From the FAQ:
Q: I cannot go on the available days. Will you have more dates in the future? A: Should there be capacity when you arrive, then you will be able to enter without any problems. In the event that this is not the case, we may ask you to wait a bit.
Fear not, for this question is asked again a few lines down and the answer makes more sense.
Curious about the events company behind this disaster, I took myself over to the homepage of House of Illuminati and I was not disappointed.
I would 100% trust these people to plan my wedding.
This abomination of a website is a badly edited WordPress blog filled with AI art and just enough blog posts to make the casual viewer think that it's a legit business for about 0.0004 seconds.
Their attention to detail is stunning, from how they left up the default first post every WP blog gets to how they didn't bother changing the name on several images, thus revealing where they came from. Like this one:
With the lovely and compact filename "DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i.png"
"Concept.png" came from the same AI generator that gets text almost, but not quiiiiiite right:
There are a suspicious number of .webp images in the uploads, which makes me think they either stole them from other sites where AI "art" was uploaded or they didn't want to pay for the hi-res versions of some and just grabbed the preview image.
The real fun came when I noticed this filename: Before-and-After-Eventologists-Transformation-Edgbaston-Cricket-Ground-1024x1024-1.jpg and decided to do a Google image search. Friends, you will be shocked to hear that the image in question, found on this post touting how they can transform a boring warehouse into a fun event space, was stolen from this actual event planner.
Even better, this weirdly grainy image?
From a post that claims to be about the preparations for a "Willy Wonka" experience (we'll get to this in a minute), is not only NOT an actual image of anyone preparing anything for Illuminati's event, it is stolen from a YouTube thumbnail that's been chopped to remove the name of the company that actually made this. Here's the video.
If you actually read the blog posts they're all copypasta or some AI generated crap. To the point where this seems like not a real business at all. There's very specific business information at the bottom, but nothing else seems real.
As I said, I'm kinda surprised they put on an event at all. This has, "And then they ran off with all our money!" written all over it. I'm perplexed.
And also wondering when the copyright lawyers are gonna start calling, because...
This post explicitly says they're putting together a "Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Experience" complete with golden tickets.
Somewhere along the line someone must have wised up, because the actual event was called "Willys Chocolate Experience" (note the lack of apostrophe) and the script they handed to the actors about 10 minutes before they were supposed to "perform" was about a "Willy McDuff" and his chocolate factory.
As I was going through this madness with friends in a chat, one pointed out that it took very little prompting to get the free Chat GPT to spit out an event description and such very similar to all this while avoiding copyrighted phrases. But he couldn't figure out where the McDuff came from since it wasn't the type of thing GPT would usually spit out...
Until he altered the prompt to include it would be happening in Glasgow, Scotland.
You cannot make this stuff up.
But truly, honestly, I do not even understand why they didn't take the money and run. Clearly this was all set up to be a scam. A lazy, AI generated scam.
Everything from the website to the event images to the copy to the "script" to the names of things was either stolen or AI generated (aka stolen). Hell, I'd be looking for some poor Japanese visitor wandering the streets of Glasgow, confused, after being jacked for his mascot costume.
HE LIVES IN THE WALLS, Y'ALL.
#long post#Willy Wonka#Wonka#Willy Wonka Experience#Willy Wonka Experience disaster#Willy's Chocolate Experience#Willys Chocolate Experience#THE UNKNOWN#Wish.com Oompa Loompa#House of Illuminati#AI#ai generated
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Traditional Deck - Roof Extensions
Medium-sized, elegant backyard deck image with an addition to the roof
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Enclosed Dining Room Seattle
Mid-sized transitional medium tone wood floor enclosed dining room photo with multicolored walls and no fireplace
#custom upholstered chairs#subtle artistic dining room details#decorative floral arrangements#dining room#framed wall art#decorative house accents#custom window treatments
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Graffiti quilting and a huge flower with multiple thread colors for the win!
#becky’s quilting again#this one is mine#quilt art#fiber art#wall hanging#quilting as art#custom quilting#million little stitches#all the quilty details#floral quilt#frond designs
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Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it
My next book is The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation: it’s a Big Tech disassembly manual that explains how to disenshittify the web and bring back the old good internet. The hardcover comes from Verso on Sept 5, but the audiobook comes from me — because Amazon refuses to sell my audio:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation
Amazon owns Audible, the monopoly audiobook platform that controls >90% of the audio market. They require mandatory DRM for every book sold, locking those books forever to Amazon’s monopoly platform. If you break up with Amazon, you have to throw away your entire audiobook library.
That’s a hell of a lot of leverage to hand to any company, let alone a rapacious monopoly that ran a program targeting small publishers called “Project Gazelle,” where execs were ordered to attack indie publishers “the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”:
https://www.businessinsider.com/sadistic-amazon-treated-book-sellers-the-way-a-cheetah-would-pursue-a-sickly-gazelle-2013-10
[Image ID: Journalist and novelist Doctorow (Red Team Blues) details a plan for how to break up Big Tech in this impassioned and perceptive manifesto….Doctorow’s sense of urgency is contagious -Publishers Weekly]
I won’t sell my work with DRM, because DRM is key to the enshittification of the internet. Enshittification is why the old, good internet died and became “five giant websites filled with screenshots of the other four” (h/t Tom Eastman). When a tech company can lock in its users and suppliers, it can drain value from both sides, using DRM and other lock-in gimmicks to keep their business even as they grow ever more miserable on the platform.
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
[Image ID: A brilliant barn burner of a book. Cory is one of the sharpest tech critics, and he shows with fierce clarity how our computational future could be otherwise -Kate Crawford, author of The Atlas of AI”]
The Internet Con isn’t just an analysis of where enshittification comes from: it’s a detailed, shovel-ready policy prescription for halting enshittification, throwing it into reverse and bringing back the old, good internet.
How do we do that? With interoperability: the ability to plug new technology into those crapulent, decaying platform. Interop lets you choose which parts of the service you want and block the parts you don’t (think of how an adblocker lets you take the take-it-or-leave “offer” from a website and reply with “How about nah?”):
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah
But interop isn’t just about making platforms less terrible — it’s an explosive charge that demolishes walled gardens. With interop, you can leave a social media service, but keep talking to the people who stay. With interop, you can leave your mobile platform, but bring your apps and media with you to a rival’s service. With interop, you can break up with Amazon, and still keep your audiobooks.
So, if interop is so great, why isn’t it everywhere?
Well, it used to be. Interop is how Microsoft became the dominant operating system:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay
[Image ID: Nobody gets the internet-both the nuts and bolts that make it hum and the laws that shaped it into the mess it is-quite like Cory, and no one’s better qualified to deliver us a user manual for fixing it. That’s The Internet Con: a rousing, imaginative, and accessible treatise for correcting our curdled online world. If you care about the internet, get ready to dedicate yourself to making interoperability a reality. -Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine]
It’s how Apple saved itself from Microsoft’s vicious campaign to destroy it:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay
Every tech giant used interop to grow, and then every tech giant promptly turned around and attacked interoperators. Every pirate wants to be an admiral. When Big Tech did it, that was progress; when you do it back to Big Tech, that’s piracy. The tech giants used their monopoly power to make interop without permission illegal, creating a kind of “felony contempt of business model” (h/t Jay Freeman).
The Internet Con describes how this came to pass, but, more importantly, it tells us how to fix it. It lays out how we can combine different kinds of interop requirements (like the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Massachusetts’s Right to Repair law) with protections for reverse-engineering and other guerrilla tactics to create a system that is strong without being brittle, hard to cheat on and easy to enforce.
What’s more, this book explains how to get these policies: what existing legislative, regulatory and judicial powers can be invoked to make them a reality. Because we are living through the Great Enshittification, and crises erupt every ten seconds, and when those crises occur, the “good ideas lying around” can move from the fringes to the center in an eyeblink:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/12/only-a-crisis/#lets-gooooo
[Image ID: Thoughtfully written and patiently presented, The Internet Con explains how the promise of a free and open internet was lost to predatory business practices and the rush to commodify every aspect of our lives. An essential read for anyone that wants to understand how we lost control of our digital spaces and infrastructure to Silicon Valley’s tech giants, and how we can start fighting to get it back. -Tim Maughan, author of INFINITE DETAIL]
After all, we’ve known Big Tech was rotten for years, but we had no idea what to do about it. Every time a Big Tech colossus did something ghastly to millions or billions of people, we tried to fix the tech company. There’s no fixing the tech companies. They need to burn. The way to make users safe from Big Tech predators isn’t to make those predators behave better — it’s to evacuate those users:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/18/urban-wildlife-interface/#combustible-walled-gardens
I’ve been campaigning for human rights in the digital world for more than 20 years; I’ve been EFF’s European Director, representing the public interest at the EU, the UN, Westminster, Ottawa and DC. This is the subject I’ve devoted my life to, and I live my principles. I won’t let my books be sold with DRM, which means that Audible won’t carry my audiobooks. My agent tells me that this decision has cost me enough money to pay off my mortgage and put my kid through college. That’s a price I’m willing to pay if it means that my books aren’t enshittification bait.
But not selling on Audible has another cost, one that’s more important to me: a lot of readers prefer audiobooks and 9 out of 10 of those readers start and end their searches on Audible. When they don’t find an author there, they assume no audiobook exists, period. It got so bad I put up an audiobook on Amazon — me, reading an essay, explaining how Audible rips off writers and readers. It’s called “Why None of My Audiobooks Are For Sale on Audible”:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff
[Image ID: Doctorow has been thinking longer and smarter than anyone else I know about how we create and exchange value in a digital age. -Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock]
To get my audiobooks into readers’ ears, I pre-sell them on Kickstarter. This has been wildly successful, both financially and as a means of getting other prominent authors to break up with Amazon and use crowdfunding to fill the gap. Writers like Brandon Sanderson are doing heroic work, smashing Amazon’s monopoly:
https://www.brandonsanderson.com/guest-editorial-cory-doctorow-is-a-bestselling-author-but-audible-wont-carry-his-audiobooks/
And to be frank, I love audiobooks, too. I swim every day as physio for a chronic pain condition, and I listen to 2–3 books/month on my underwater MP3 player, disappearing into an imaginary world as I scull back and forth in my public pool. I’m able to get those audiobooks on my MP3 player thanks to Libro.fm, a DRM-free store that supports indie booksellers all over the world:
https://blog.libro.fm/a-qa-with-mark-pearson-libro-fm-ceo-and-co-founder/
Producing my own audiobooks has been a dream. Working with Skyboat Media, I’ve gotten narrators like @wilwheaton, Amber Benson, @neil-gaiman and Stefan Rudnicki for my work:
https://craphound.com/shop/
[Image ID: “This book is the instruction manual Big Tech doesn’t want you to read. It deconstructs their crummy products, undemocratic business models, rigged legal regimes, and lies. Crack this book and help build something better. -Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When Its Gone”]
But for this title, I decided that I would read it myself. After all, I’ve been podcasting since 2006, reading my own work aloud every week or so, even as I traveled the world and gave thousands of speeches about the subject of this book. I was excited (and a little trepedatious) at the prospect, but how could I pass up a chance to work with director Gabrielle de Cuir, who has directed everyone from Anne Hathaway to LeVar Burton to Eric Idle?
Reader, I fucking nailed it. I went back to those daily recordings fully prepared to hate them, but they were good — even great (especially after my engineer John Taylor Williams mastered them). Listen for yourself!
https://archive.org/details/cory_doctorow_internet_con_chapter_01
I hope you’ll consider backing this Kickstarter. If you’ve ever read my free, open access, CC-licensed blog posts and novels, or listened to my podcasts, or come to one of my talks and wished there was a way to say thank you, this is it. These crowdfunders make my DRM-free publishing program viable, even as audiobooks grow more central to a writer’s income and even as a single company takes over nearly the entire audiobook market.
Backers can choose from the DRM-free audiobook, DRM-free ebook (EPUB and MOBI) and a hardcover — including a signed, personalized option, fulfilled through the great LA indie bookstore Book Soup:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation
What’s more, these ebooks and audiobooks are unlike any you’ll get anywhere else because they are sold without any terms of service or license agreements. As has been the case since time immemorial, when you buy these books, they’re yours, and you are allowed to do anything with them that copyright law permits — give them away, lend them to friends, or simply read them with any technology you choose.
As with my previous Kickstarters, backers can get their audiobooks delivered with an app (from libro.fm) or as a folder of MP3s. That helps people who struggle with “sideloading,” a process that Apple and Google have made progressively harder, even as they force audiobook and ebook sellers to hand over a 30% app tax on every dollar they make:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell/posts/3788112
Enshittification is rotting every layer of the tech stack: mobile, payments, hosting, social, delivery, playback. Every tech company is pulling the rug out from under us, using the chokepoints they built between audiences and speakers, artists and fans, to pick all of our pockets.
The Internet Con isn’t just a lament for the internet we lost — it’s a plan to get it back. I hope you’ll get a copy and share it with the people you love, even as the tech platforms choke off your communities to pad their quarterly numbers.
Next weekend (Aug 4-6), I'll be in Austin for Armadillocon, a science fiction convention, where I'm the Guest of Honor:
https://armadillocon.org/d45/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/31/seize-the-means-of-computation/#the-internet-con
[Image ID: My forthcoming book 'The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation' in various editions: Verso hardcover, audiobook displayed on a phone, and ebook displayed on an e-ink reader.]
#pluralistic#trustbusting#big tech#gift guide#kickstarter#the internet con#books#audiobooks#enshitiffication#disenshittification#crowdfunders#seize the means of computation#audible#amazon#verso
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