I've got a couple of extensions on Firefox on Android, which make browsing bearable. But whenever I take out my iPad, I want to put it away. Large parts of the web are extremely annoying to me due to the ads, paywalls, popups, modals, cookie warnings, fingerprinting and what have you.
"I don't care about cookies" extension, and Dark Reader. I've donated to both of them, multiple times. Well worth it.
Upon request, the creator of the "I don't care about cookies" extension will provide you with a receipt. That way you can write off your donation as a business expense or be reimbursed.
Yeup. I previously worked for a company that developed this type of product in their suite and I was able to see the data across lots of brands and industries. It really works.
How annoying, I thought the age of obnoxious pop up ads was behind us, but they have reappeared in a big way. I fail to understand the reasoning behind why designers would want them.
I don't think designers want them. The data probably shows that it increases conversions or whatever metric, so the product owners and business pushes the designers to jam in the dark ux patterns.
“A bookshop owner is unqualified to be a literary critic. It’s more useful to know the distinguishing features of the first edition of The Pickwick Papers than to have read the bloody thing, and it’s always best not to bandy lit crit across the counter.”
I strongly disagree! In fact I would say for typical customers this is exactly what’s expected of the bookseller.
To find examples of great booksellers not from this mold I suggest two wonderful books: “The Seven Stairs” and “Medium and Rare”.
as an avid small bookstore customer, in a university town where every genre of book and bookstore existed, I came to know well one successful bookseller, worked for him on special assignments, then worked at his estate. He was literate, mercurial and absolutely a scoundrel about money. The most important, basic, recurring issue of the day was money in every form. Every opportunity to get something for one price and sell it at a higher price, was the priority and the topic and what was important.
What the customer expects, how the customer buys and how the customer thinks the bookseller is in character or otherwise, is open to manipulation at every turn.
This particular was fellow probably genius material, but make no mistake, you are a tool as a customer, and that is utterly different than the stuff of reviews and taste and literary movements and craftsmanship and collectability. Now that the word appeared, yes, collections and valuing of collections came to the fore over the years. Special rare books that are collectible became a better trade for an aging trader. This was all before Amazon.com appeared. Your mileage may vary. I doubt this sort of person, absolutely real in the West for centuries, is able to be in business now. Bookshops are closed one after another in that town now. There used to be fifty in a two mile radius from campus.
>The most important, basic, recurring issue of the day was money in every form. Every opportunity to get something for one price and sell it at a higher price, was the priority and the topic and what was important.
Which, ironically, is not much different by how several very celebrated literary authors where in their everyday life...
I would go even further : your description of the bookseller is the same as the one I would do. Focus is on money and on the appearance of being a cultural persona, even if a bookseller does not read more than most of their clients. To be fair, they must focus on money as the book business relies on very thin margins (no pun intended). They can give advices based on what they have read, but I completely disbelieve now that their opinion on any book has more value than anyone else. Moreover, I trust much more any author or any publisher on their blogs than a bookseller in front of me when they give opinions on books. I have seen more than once booksellers lying about a book to avoid ordering it for a customer (because it costs them money and the returns are not high enough). I don't believe also that it is only Amazon that crashed the bookshops and led to the disappearance of the bookseller as a cultural anchor point for communities. Those who were really literate and honest had more capabilities to survive and some are still there today, but those who were just posing as cultural figures are gone now. To sum up, bookshops are businesses and their main activity is to make money. If I want a cultural advice, theirs is still interesting but very low in my rankings.
ok - I have thought about this post.. I would amend it to say, the bookseller did not focus only on price to the customer. Price to the customer was important, and a constant effort to get the highest sales price with the least resentment after the purchase, was part of the effort. But in the later chapters of business life, what really took off was ways to handle cash flow by borrowing; every kind of credit, credit line, floating shipments, sale-priced books in bulk, overstock, and consignment shipments, were worked and tried and repeated. After the retail stores were stable, a warehouse started, and there was a LOT of activity. This particular bookseller sold books in South Africa, while the world was waging an (ultimately successful) economic boycott against the govt and businesses there. The rebuttal was always "we believe books should be available to everyone" but you know damn well there was extra money to be made.
The character of this bookseller included real book appreciation, and collections were important for real reasons previously mentioned... It was not a generic, corporate environment, it was instead filled with people with real interests and specialties, and almost always an appreciation for broad areas of book meaning, craft and lore. There was freedom of thought and association -- it was not missing. Borders Books and Barnes & Noble of the early nineties were the nightmare to these people, and that was one step before Amazon dot com, which was (and is) held in open contempt by many that had experience with the older ways.
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[ 0.17 ms ] story [ 68.5 ms ] threadReader mode and https://outline.com
Upon request, the creator of the "I don't care about cookies" extension will provide you with a receipt. That way you can write off your donation as a business expense or be reimbursed.
I strongly disagree! In fact I would say for typical customers this is exactly what’s expected of the bookseller.
To find examples of great booksellers not from this mold I suggest two wonderful books: “The Seven Stairs” and “Medium and Rare”.
What the customer expects, how the customer buys and how the customer thinks the bookseller is in character or otherwise, is open to manipulation at every turn.
This particular was fellow probably genius material, but make no mistake, you are a tool as a customer, and that is utterly different than the stuff of reviews and taste and literary movements and craftsmanship and collectability. Now that the word appeared, yes, collections and valuing of collections came to the fore over the years. Special rare books that are collectible became a better trade for an aging trader. This was all before Amazon.com appeared. Your mileage may vary. I doubt this sort of person, absolutely real in the West for centuries, is able to be in business now. Bookshops are closed one after another in that town now. There used to be fifty in a two mile radius from campus.
Which, ironically, is not much different by how several very celebrated literary authors where in their everyday life...
The character of this bookseller included real book appreciation, and collections were important for real reasons previously mentioned... It was not a generic, corporate environment, it was instead filled with people with real interests and specialties, and almost always an appreciation for broad areas of book meaning, craft and lore. There was freedom of thought and association -- it was not missing. Borders Books and Barnes & Noble of the early nineties were the nightmare to these people, and that was one step before Amazon dot com, which was (and is) held in open contempt by many that had experience with the older ways.
Peak book title. Superb. Hats off to whoever thought of that.
e: oh no, I've been using peek and peak wrong my whole life...