NOTRECOMMENDED: Any KINDLE or ebook “purchased” from AMAZON

Monday, October 6, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/amazon-kindle-e-books-drm-harder-to-backup-3601341/

Your Kindle e-books just got locked down even tighter
With stricter DRM in place, your Kindle library is now even harder to back up.
By Matt Horne aka @SalvaCash
September 25, 2025

*** begin quote ***

For Kindle owners, this continues a pattern of losing personal control over purchased books. Earlier this year, Amazon removed the ability to download titles for local transfer via USB. Old versions of the Kindle Android app also no longer support downloads, which cut off another method people used for saving e-books. With this latest move, the company has tightened its grip on Kindle e-books even further.

*** end quote ***

As much as I linked my old Kindle, which I have misplaced, I can’t understand why AMAZON has locked it down even more.

Until the Gooferment cracks down on AMAZON for its FRAUDULENT practice of “SELLING” books when it’s really just delivering a “LICENSE” to you, we’re stuck with a BIG BROTHER “librarian”.

I’m tired of what I call “CONTENT FRAUD”.  I don’t know how many times in the past I’ve had to rebuy content.  Paper books, books on cassette tapes, books on CDs, and “audio” books are all the same content that we’re stuck buying and rebuying,

Never mind that Disney and Amazon do a big business in “SELLING” streaming content that you don’t have control over.

Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon, but I’m now at the point where I’m not BUYING content where I don’t control the MEDIA that I’ve purchased.

I want my CONTENT without DRM so I can put it in CALIBRE and enjoy it anywhere anytime.  I want to burn that into a MEDIA that is virtually eternal and that I control.

Sorry, but I’m not LICENSING anything anymore.

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P.S.: While on the topic of really free “BOOKS” I use:

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MEME: Jeff Bezos circa 1999

Monday, September 29, 2025

Image

“Sometimes what seems possible is impossible. The whizdom comes from knowing when to quit.”

IN RESPONSE TO

“Never let someone tell you what’s possible. “https://tinyurl.com/y2yuweao —Jason Stapleton @Jason_Stapleton

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TECHNOLOGY: Amazon has “sunset” Freevee — like the Google Graveyard

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/amazon-freevee-app-shut-down-august-3573688/

Amazon’s Freevee app gets an expiry date, but here’s how to keep watching for free

Prime Video is the new home for all of Freevee’s ad-supported content.

By Pranob Mehrotra

July 3, 2025

*** begin quote ***

  •     Amazon confirmed plans to sunset its free streaming service, Freevee, late last year.
  •     The company has now notified users that the Freevee app will be shut down in August 2025.
  •     Freevee’s extensive library of movies, TV shows, and live TV will be available through Prime Video.

After announcing plans to wind down its free video streaming service late last year, Amazon has now confirmed that the Freevee app will finally be shut down in August. But there’s some good news for those who enjoy Freevee’s vast library of TV shows, movies, and live TV.

*** end quote ***

Remember if it’s “free”, then you are the product!

Now like the Google Graveyard, we have an “Amazon sunset”!

Amazon’s Dash buttons are no more. Remember the “Tide button”, and other product buttons to make reordering easy?  I don’t remember Amazon “sunseting” other things.  And certainly not as frequently as Google does.

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MONEY: Walmart and Amazon are going to “mint” Stablecoins

Thursday, June 19, 2025

https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/walmart-amazon-stablecoin-07de2fdd?st=Uj2rA8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink&utm_source=tldrnewsletter

Walmart and Amazon Are Exploring Issuing Their Own Stablecoins

  • Corporate coins could take payments activity away from banks and the traditional financial system

By Gina Heeb, AnnaMaria Andriotis, Josh Dawsey
Updated June 13, 2025 4:51 pm ET

# – # – # – # – # 

FROM TLDR 2025-06-16

*** begin quote ***

Walmart and Amazon Are Exploring Issuing Their Own Stablecoins

Several multinational giants, including Walmart and Amazon, are discussing potential efforts to issue stablecoins. Whether these initiatives will go ahead depends on a bill still yet to clear the Senate and House called the Genius Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Stablecoins could allow merchants to bypass traditional payment rails, which cost them billions of dollars in fees each year. A regulatory framework for stablecoins would enable an alternative payment type for merchants that could significantly lower their expenses and create competition against Visa and Mastercard. 

*** end quote ***

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To me this is BIG (<synonym for the act of procreation in real time>) deal.

I never understood why Walmart was allowed to establish its own bank.  The politicians and bureaucrats are always whining about the “poor unbanked”.  But Walmart could solve that problem quickly, cheaply, and easily.  So could Amazon.

Stablecoins by either of them could serve the same purpose as a bank without the regulatory hassle.

Let’s wait and see.  Competition in the “traditional financial system” for JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Visa, and Mastercard could certainly be good for the consumers.

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RANT: “Hard Back Press” and Amazon are selling old scanned books; who has the copyright?

Friday, May 23, 2025

https://www.amazon.com/Line-Mans-Bible-Foot-Ball-Instruction/dp/0371724171?&linkCode=sl1&tag=stucosuccess-20&linkId=bc86c9a014f89e03bf2127d551eb5a42&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

The Line Man’s Bible: a Foot-Ball Text Book of Detailed Instruction Paperback – August 12, 2021

by Ernest Graves (Author)

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FROM AMAZON

This is a copy of the original book. In this series, we are bringing old books back into print using our own state-of-the-art techniques. Generally, these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way that the author intended. However, as we are working with old material, so occasionally there may be certain imperfections within the text. We are so pleased to ensure these classics are available again for generations to come. 

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Copyright by Ernest Graves in 1921

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By my understanding, this should now be in the Public Domain.

Yet, “Hard Back Press” and Amazon are selling it.

Are they asserting a copyright?

I’m confused.  Can I take old out of copyright books and sell them as well?

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AI: Used AI to Beat Amazon’s Brutal Technical Interview

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

A Student Used AI to Beat Amazon’s Brutal Technical Interview. He Got an Offer and Someone Tattled to His University

https://gizmodo.com/a-student-used-ai-to-beat-amazons-brutal-technical-interview-he-got-an-offer-and-someone-tattled-to-his-university-2000571562

  • Roy Lee built an AI system that bypasses FAANG’s brutal technical interviews and says that the work of most programmers will be obsolete in two years.

By Matthew Gault Published March 4, 2025 

*** begin quote ***

Lee recorded his entire technical interview with Amazon and posted the whole thing, uncut, on YouTube. Then they made him an offer. He rejected it. For Lee, the point was proving that Interview Coder worked, not passing a technical interview and landing a position.

*** end quote ***

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Good for him.  Ethical shmethical.  Columbia is probably just pissed that they lost their market for over-priced computer science grads.  AMAZON just got embarrassed on YouTube.

​Looks like we old programmers got ours and got out before the robot uprising?

Wonder if AI does FORTRAN and COBOL?

I think my 360 Assembler experience is still unique. Too many ways to hide the methods in registers and absolute / relative addressing.  And no English language for AI to analyze.

Laugh!

P.S., The Gooferment and Big Banks still use COBOL.  Too much invested in it and too hard to recode.  I did a FORTRAN retrieval for one oil company that manage to misplace the FORTRAN source code for their refinery control code.  So there should still be work for us fat old white guy retired injineer who’s a poor old senior citizen on a fixed income to “save the day” as Mighty Mouse would say.

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RANT: Amazon advertised a great price and then failed to deliver; that won’t be relevant to all customers

Friday, December 20, 2024

EMAIL FROM AMAZON

*** begin quote ***

Please edit and resubmit your review

Hello Ferdinand J. Reinke,

We couldn’t post your review because it focuses on one or more of these topics:

    Sellers

    Delivery

    Packaging

    Pricing

    Availability

Why isn’t that allowed?

These aspects vary by order and won’t be relevant to all customers. That said, we want your feedback about sellers and packaging, just not in product reviews.

Please edit and resubmit your review. Before you do, make sure it meets all of our community guidelines.

Your review

Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds, Active Noise Cancellation, Hearing Aid Feature, Bluetooth Headphones, Transparency, Personalized Spatial Audio, High-Fidelity Sound, H2 Chip, USB-C Charging

I think the sale was a scam!

I took advantage of a Prime Day sale on the new AirPods. Funny that package NEVER gets delivered. All my other Amazon deliveries go off with no problem. I suspect that this was bait and switch. Advertise a great deal and then never deliver. I am…

*** end quote ***

AMAZON sale was a scam!

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TECHNOLOGY: The demise of Blu-Rays and DVDs allows real time “book burnings”

Sunday, January 14, 2024

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/01/05/nolte-best-buy-end-sales-blu-rays-dvds/

Nolte: Best Buy to End Sales of Blu-Rays and DVDs
John Nolte 5 Jan 2024

  • Best Buy will stop selling physical media this year, according to numerous reports.

*** begin quote ***

“The move away from physical media has been attributed to the changing habits of [stupid] consumers, who increasingly prefer streaming and digital downloads over traditional physical formats,” per the report. “This trend has been evident over the last decade as DVD and Blu-ray sales have experienced a significant decline.”

*** and ***

What’s the matter with you people?

This is our art! And you’re going to leave it in the hands of left-wing multinational corporations like Disney, Apple, and Amazon?

Hey, it’s no skin off my nose. I got mine, and I’m going to keep right on getting mine. But if you have a movie or book or TV show or video game you love, you are facing a future where it will either get disappeared, be censored, or made available only through a monthly subscription service.

I refuse to live in that future.

*** end quote ***

I learned this lesson when all my books on cassette were made obsolete and I was urged to rebut the same content on CDs.  I griped to anyone who listen and fell on the deaf ears  of all the politicians and bureaucrats. I refused to buy it all again. 

Then the car makers dropped the cassette players.  And, I was really screwed.  So I used drive with a portable cassette player in my truck and my car.  Finally the tapes began to wear out and I just gave up.

I still hate the Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats for “copyright” law that makes me “license” content that I “buy”.   

Sorry, but I’m not buying into the whole scam.

Like “lifetime guarantees”, the value of a dollar, and “jumbo shrimp”, I can recognize a scam from a long way off and here comes the next one.  Before long, every streaming “service” will force you to pay for everything al la carte IN ADDITION TO a low monthly “membership fee”.  

Argh!

And the rubes aka “We, The Sheeple” will hail “progress”.   Not me.

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CHROMEBOOK: This is a fraud and I’m surprised at WalMart

Monday, August 21, 2023

https://www.androidauthority.com/expired-chromebooks-on-sale-3352831/?utm_campaign=weeklyauthority&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=Weekly%20Authority

Computing
You shouldn’t buy these Chromebooks, even on sale

  • Thanks to Automatic Update Expiration, these Chromebooks will no longer receive any software updates.

By Aamir Siddiqui  —  August 7, 2023

*** begin quote ***

The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) (via ArsTechnica) pointed out how end-of-life Chromebooks are still sold on various marketplace platforms, like Amazon, Walmart, and possibly others, in new and unused conditions. These include devices like the ASUS Chromebook Flip C302, which was launched in 2018 and reached its Automatic Update Expiration (AUE) date on June 1, 2023. This means the laptop will no longer receive any security or platform updates for its Chrome OS from Google.

*** end quote ***

Google maintains a full list of AUE dates for all models.

Please check BEFORE you buy!

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RANT: amazon screws us again on delivery date!

Sunday, July 2, 2023

UntitledImage

# – # – # – # – # 

amazon screws us again on delivery date!

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TECHNOLOGY: You Don’t Own Digital Content! — That’s not fair

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

https://www.reviewgeek.com/137285/you-should-still-buy-blu-rays-and-dvds-heres-why/

You Should Still Buy Blu-Rays and DVDs, Here’s Why
Danny Chadwick @jdannychadwick
Nov 23, 2022, 10:18 am EST

*** begin quote ***

You Don’t Own Digital Content, Even if You “Buy” It

The digital movies you buy on VUDU, iTunes, or Amazon are subject to the same nonsense as streaming media. When you buy a digital copy of a movie, you don’t really own it. You’ve simply purchased a license to play a movie or show through a platform, whether it be Amazon, Apple, Google, or whoever. And if those platforms ever lose the right to provide the titles you’ve bought, they’ll disappear from your library. Maybe you’ll be notified, maybe not.

It may seem unbelievable for such prominent companies to lose distribution rights, but it happens. And in the coming years, it could happen more. Amazon can’t come into your home and snatch your copy of The Dark Knight from your shelf because they had a licensing dispute with Warner Brothers.

*** end quote ***

Much like “not your key; not your coin, so to you don’t own “digital content”.

I have a ton of self-help cassette tapes (I still need a lot of help), that the publisher would be happy to sell me another copy on a CD.  But I already paid for a copy.  But it’s NOT “mine”. Argh!

My SO feels the same way about “her” music on iTunes.  (I still haven’t figured out how to recover her account.)

Seems like NFTs could be a “solution” to this problem.  I buy an NFT of a book and I get to treat it as mine … FOREVER.

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: TNF picture isn’t very good

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Watching Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime.  I think the picture stinks.  Is it just me?

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RANT: AMAZON web site does “bait and switch”!

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Order some test strips which the website promised one day delivery.  

FIne.

Went to check out and the ETA switched to SIX day delivery.

Why did Amazon waste my time?

Argh!

And, of course, no one cares.

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INTERESTING: Charlotte man pleads guilty to stealing $273,000 in goods while working for Amazon – WSOC TV

Monday, January 31, 2022

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/charlotte-man-pleads-guilty-stealing-273000-goods-while-working-amazon/NVJZ4QZU3BAPJN6TCNV5XFVOWU/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Charlotte man pleads guilty to stealing $273,000 in goods while working for Amazon – WSOC TV
January 28, 2022 at 1:45 pm ESTBy WSOCTV.com News Staff

*** begin quote ***

CHARLOTTE — A former manager at an Amazon warehouse in Charlotte stole more than $273,000 in merchandise during a 15 month span, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of North Carolina. On Friday, he pleaded guilty to his crime.

*** end quote ***

So the IT system doesn’t know employee’s home addresses?

Seems like an obvious check ‘n’ balance.

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RANT: Everyone should be allowed to have their phones for safety

Friday, December 17, 2021

https://nypost.com/2021/12/13/amazon-warehouse-workers-slam-phone-ban-after-tornado-deaths/

Amazon warehouse workers slam phone ban after tornado deaths
By Theo Wayt
December 13, 2021 9:48am 

*** begin quote ***

Now, Amazon workers argue that employees need phones to access alerts about tornadoes and other emergencies — and some are threatening to quit if the company goes back to its strict no-phone policy.

“I’m not working without my phone,” one user wrote on a Reddit forum for Amazon workers. “I’m not going to quit, I’m going to either work with my phone or make them fire me for that reason.”

“If people who survived can prove that they got warnings via phone before managers told them to shelter in place, and that their phones saved lives, I’d say that’s a pretty good argument for keeping them,” another said.

“They’ll ban phones again,” a third predicted. “They don’t give a s—t about the workers.”

*** end quote ***

Sorry but this one is an easy one.

Maybe six gazillion dollar lawsuits for wrongful death will help Amazon see the error of their policy.  

Where’s OSHA?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Why should we have a “Post Office” at all?

Monday, December 6, 2021

https://www.cato.org/blog/postal-banking-loophole

NOVEMBER 30, 2021 9:29AM
The Postal Banking Loophole
By Nicholas Anthony

*** begin quote ***

The Postal Service’s pilot postal banking program is struggling to win customers. Yet, USPS officials “expect to expand the pilot into a fuller study with more locations and financial products” after the new year. This announcement has members in both the Senate and House of Representatives questioning the Postal Service’s authority to launch the program in the first place.

*** end quote ***

It just subsidized junk mail, Amazon, and UPS.

Don’t tell me that the politicians and bureaucrats are worried about the poor people who are unbanked and forced to use “check cashing” places at exorbitant costs.  WalMart offered to solve that problem for the US by offering banking series at every WalMart store. 

Seriously, let’s just outsource USPS to WalMart and save a lot of money.

Look at all the real estate that could be sold to entrepreneurs for better uses. 

Argh!

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HARDWARE: Kindle Paperwhite

Saturday, August 17, 2013

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007OZNZG0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007OZNZG0&linkCode=as2&tag=reifaclif-20

Kindle Paperwhite
Wi-Fi, Paperwhite Display, Higher Resolution, Higher Contrast, Built-in Light

# – # – # – # – #   

OK, I relented and bought one. The IPADs, Mac reading app, and such are just too “heavy”.

I like it …

… BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), …

It needs some UI (User Interface) help with respect to Library Books.

It’s a PIA to get stuff off the Kindle that has expired. 

It also doesn’t (easily if at all) differntiate between content I’ve borrowed and stuff I’ve bought.

Getting stuff emailed to it seems neat but width-wise doesn’t always fit.

More as I play with it.

“But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.” Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/quotes

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FUN: Wonder how many authors there are? 4691!

Friday, October 12, 2012

 

Dear ferdinand j. reinke,

  

Today we have added a new feature, Amazon Author Rank,

the definitive list of best-selling authors on Amazon.com. This list makes it easy for readers to discover the best-selling authors on Amazon.com overall and within a selection of major genres.

Your Amazon Author Rank:

4691 in Science Fiction

Amazon Author Rank is your rank based on the sales of all of your books on Amazon.com. Just like Amazon Best Sellers, it is updated hourly. The top 100 authors overall and the top 100 in selected genres will be displayed on Amazon.com. You can see your Amazon Author Rank trended over time inAuthor Central.

You can find your Amazon Author Rank in Author Central under the Rank tab. Historical rank data is available from September 28, 2012.

We’re always interested in feedback, so please let us know what you think.

The Author Central Team

https://authorcentral.amazon.com

P.S. You may have friends who are authors; feel free to pass this email along to them.

Amazon Author Rank is a feature available to all authors registered in Author Central.

  

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INTERESTING: Amazon contest

Monday, January 9, 2012

https://www.createspace.com/abna

Amazon Breakthrough Novel AwardThe 2012 Contest is Here!

*** begin quote ***

Do you have an unpublished or self-published novel you know Amazon.comreaders will love? Enter your novel in the 2012 Amazon BreakthroughNovel Award for a chance to win one of two $15,000 publishing contractswith Penguin USA and distribution of your novel on Amazon.com.

*** end quote ***

Maybe next year. I’ll have one or more of the novels ready.

So much to do; so little time. Argh!

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