I guess I won't be Buying Kindle

I am a mix of old and new. I love new technology and gadgets, but I also adore antiques and retro items.

When it comes to books, I'm still old-fashioned. I love them in the form of paper, and I don't think that's going to change any time soon. Still, I really wanted a Kindle - for fun, for traveling and just to try it out.

Kindle is expensive, so I didn't rush out to buy it. Now, it seems, I will be spending my money on something else: Amazon has just done one of the most stupid things ever. It appears that the publisher of 1984 and Animal Farm changed his mind, and didn't want these books on Kindle anymore. Since a few thousand people already bought digital copies of these books for their Kindle, Amazon was faced with a problem.

And how did Amazon solve that problem, do you ask? Simple: they remotely deleted every copy of 1984 and Animal Farm from every Kindle that had them, without the owner's permission. Amazon did give the customers a refund for that deletion, but the severity of this Big Brother act remains. Amazon has simply violated the privacy of each and every customer that bought these books.

The irony doesn't escape me, either. Of all books, 1984, represents best what happens when too much control is given to the wrong people. Amazon has just lost a future Kindle customer. I'll stick to book who won't disappear on me in the middle of the night, thank you very much.

Show me How it Sucks

How it Sucks, a relatively new site, wants to help you to know how much a product sucks - before you think of buying it.

So, instead of rating bars that show how GOOD the product is, How it Sucks shows you how BAD it is.

The idea is amusing and not so bad, but the site doesn't rely on its own data. Product reviews and the "suckiness" rating are taken from another site, you all know very well - Amazon.

So basically, all this site ads is a graphic representation of the supposed level of quality of the product. Which isn't much. I am guessing that all the links to Amazon are through their affiliate program. Ah, here it is - at the bottom of the site it says "in association with Amazon". Very cool association, fellas.

So what we are seeing here is a nice way to make a few bucks without much of an effort in the content department. The design ain't much to talk about, either. The gimmick is cute, but in the end, this site doesn't really add any value to a shopper looking for opinions on an item. Can I hear you say "Web 2.0 bullshit"?