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JonLim

574 karma · joined December 9, 2010

jonlimtoronto@gmail.com - @jonlim
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JonLim··on WTF, Amazon. What The (Price) Fix?
Funny enough I just tested it out - it seems to be using a different type of serif font, or it's just smaller.

Either way, I can adjust it (and I'm kinda dumb to not have noticed it before) so there goes the differentiation I guess?

JonLim··on WTF, Amazon. What The (Price) Fix?
Hi there, OP here.

You are right, I did not notice that they were different publishers. However, I would just like to point out that the prices you are seeing are still not the one I am seeing.

One of the commenters on my blog (and one on Reddit) mentioned that they were $0.50 apart now, and that is not the case for myself, as I still see a $3.13 difference in prices!

The Tor Books version is far and away better on the eyes due to the font, but from what I can tell, they are the exact same book.

JonLim··on HN: Name a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you would be looking for, but this popped up on Kickstarter a while ago and it's a good start.

Dash: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devium/dash-the-smart-ph...

JonLim··on HN: Name a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve
Curious: are you involved with Walmart in the creation of the problem?

If so, are you guys using that RFID system that was being used for keeping tabs on stock levels at all times?

JonLim··on Double Fine raises $1m in less than 24hrs on Kickstarter
Color.

Ha ha ha, I slay myself.

But in seriousness, I threw my money into the ring because I have really craved a solid adventure game. I know these guys will take a solid crack at it, and at the very least, I will get to watch the game development process unfold on a very personal and intimate level.

$15 seems like a low price to watch an adventure game's development process, AND get the end result.

JonLim··on Paradox CEO Calls DRM a 'Waste of Money'
> As far as I can tell, there's absolutely no way around it except by having thin clients and running everything off the cloud.

You can protect yourself from piracy by making quality content that people genuinely want to support. You do more good by making it convenient, easy, and affordable to customers than anything else, and having an awesome game makes it even easier to hand over cash.

Convenience and affordability is where a lot of people fail.

JonLim··on Show HN: Using Social Network Analysis to predict your event's guest list
I usually will not connect anything to my facebook, but just curious: does it establish these relationships based on my interaction and networks shared with my friends, or some other method?
JonLim··on I dare you all, test your strength: Open a book
How do you find yours?

I'm not even sure where to start for audio books. Let alone these big fantasy books that I read!

JonLim··on Was Megaupload Targeted Because Of Its Upcoming Megabox Digital Jukebox Service?
> The article simply says MegaUpload was going to release a new site targeting music distribution.

Not just music distribution, but also movie distribution, if I am reading the article correctly.

Seems like a prime target for RIAA and MPAA, though in my mind, this is just plausible, and not the real deal.

JonLim··on I dare you all, test your strength: Open a book
I have a tremendously long commute to work. An hour and forty five minutes, one way.

Reading is my only salvation on this commute.

I am saving up for a down payment on a place that I can call my own, and I can single-handedly credit reading for making it easier to grin and bare it. That, and having an awesome job helps a bunch.

Hell, check out the number of books I've read in the past year alone: http://www.jonlim.ca/books-ive-read/

WARNING: They're affiliate links! Don't click through unless you feel like giving me some money for a cup of coffee. :)

JonLim··on CloudMine Introduces Geospatial Object Querying
Very neat! Had no idea about CloudMine before, but always happy to see alternatives to Parse and whatever other mobile backend service providers there are out there.

Congrats!

JonLim··on Play a Ruby + AI Coding Game in Your Browser via Bloc
Actually level 5 is kinda wonky. The tips tell me to rescue captives, but regardless of what I do, it just says this:

    > Oops, looks like there was a syntax error in your code. Try again and click "Grade it!"
Without anything for me to look at. Weird.
JonLim··on Play a Ruby + AI Coding Game in Your Browser via Bloc
I love this idea and learning from it, but I thought I could move left and right and instead I bump into walls.

Damn you archer!

JonLim··on SV Angel, Founder Collective put $850K In Customer Retention SaaS Custora
That's awesome news!

Learning about Custora just now - would it be a good fit for a SaaS business?

JonLim··on Inside Uber: Math, Money, and Metrics
Are there any fees per month you have to pay? If not, that's an amazing price.
JonLim··on New e-book pricing scheme a surprising assault on the wallet
I've actually gone by this system for my ebooks, where if I think the price is just too ridiculous (or it's not even offered in my region, what?) I will just go ahead and pirate it.

I buy tons of ebooks for my long commute, and if they're going to make it hard for me to keep buying them, well... I just won't.

You'd think they'd learn, but nope.

JonLim··on Mining Allrecipes.com’s Ingredient Networks for Recipe Recommendations
> "It would be interesting to study how these are affected by the availability of ingredients and cultural influences."

It would be like a window into history, but focused on food.

My inner fat guy historian is very excited.

JonLim··on Ladies Learning Code
They seem to be down at the moment.

Cached Link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dih88e9...

JonLim··on Small Demons: Seeking A Better Path to Book Discovery
I wouldn't say they suck - they're based on the purchasing patterns of similar people.

However, they're not great. But you still find good stuff - got to the third page of my Kindle recommended page before I found something, but that's better than nothing!

Their emails on the other hand...

JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
Fair enough, didn't read carefully enough. Hope it gets resolved soon.
JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
Actually, as a device purchaser, I personally don't care about edge cases. (It can happen to anyone.)

However, as a service provider, edge cases are what keep me up at night but are fantastic opportunities for providing even better service. I'm not saying Amazon shouldn't care, but I personally wouldn't care too much about an edge case as long as Amazon does that person good.

As for DRM: if it isn't invasive or affect my experience with the book (Kindle and Steam are good examples here.) then I am okay by it. If it is used in some weird way to censor things? That's uncool.

JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
When you purchase a book on your Kindle, you get taken to a page saying you bought the book.

There's a link for "Made a mistake?" which I clicked once, thinking I would get a confirmation page as well, and the refund was instantaneous.

JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
Didn't say they were obviously wrong, just that something feels missing.

However, not sure how it's silly to blame a user if they waited a month. Personal issue? Fine. But procrastinator and phone phobic aren't really excuses for this. If you're really concerned about your Kindle (I would be VERY concerned if it were more than a day.) then I would do almost anything in my power to fix it.

Wait a month? But that's a whole month of me not reading my books!

JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
No, I call websites whenever my content that I paid for is broken or inaccessible. Not to mention they already did it once, and were told to wait 24 hours, but instead they waited a month?

I understand why they're disputing charges, but that seems silly if they haven't made some concerted effort to figure out what's going on.

At least that's my take on it.

JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
To be 100% honest, I've bene nothing but very very happy with my Kindle.

Purchased a book by accident? Refund instantly or done within 5 minutes. Switching devices? No problemo, pages are synced up to the last page you read. Wiping your device? All your books are online and available for download.

This seems like a fringe case that I'm not too worried about. I have a full purchase history on Amazon.com and if anything fails, I am pretty sure their customer service wouldn't become huge pricks to me for no reason at all.

JonLim··on Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
I'm inclined to agree.

My own anecdotal experiences with Amazon customer service aside, something feels amiss about this whole situation. Why did they not call/email Amazon after a full 24 hours had gone by? Why are they disputing Amazon charges to their credit cards?

I just feel like something is wrong here.

JonLim··on Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris
I really wanted to go with Wind when they came out, but none of the new providers would let me use an iPhone on their system, which meant that they were instantly out of the running.

Sounds silly I know, but I want to keep using the phone I'm using.

JonLim··on EU digital tsar: millions wasted on anti-piracy plans
Playing the devil's advocate here: could she not be pushing for more revenue models similar to Spotify where artists and labels are paid per stream, because people are ACTUALLY listening to them?
JonLim··on 200+ Labels Withdraw Their Music From Spotify: Are Its Fortunes Unravelling?
> It's far too easy to say "give the customers what they want. Your model is antiquated, catch up!" That isn't solving a problem.

I think the gaming industry is good proof that this DOES work. Steam (and Gabe Newell) basically came out to say that making it super easy and convenient for customers basically made it easier to purchase from Steam rather than pirate. (Myself included.)

The consumer end, especially for media like music or gaming, is probably the most important for business considerations, in my opinion.

JonLim··on Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris
I would love to have an idea of what we CAN do.

This is the one thing in my life where I can't vote with my wallet. I only really have three viable choices for wireless right now: Rogers, Bell, and Telus.

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