Munsey’s Technosnarl

I’m weeping for Angela James now that the latest transit debacle means, once again, that passengers who succeed in stopping terrorist threats will be disciplined by TSA bureaucrats who demonstrably don’t.

I had a great display of security theater recently.  Couple weeks ago, at the Port Authority in NY, I caught Trailways back to DC.

Normally, I get a Chinese or Jewish bus, but it was freaking cold, my hotel was closer to the Port Authority than Penn Station, and if you book online, you only pay $20 for Trailways, so I figured I was better off waiting indoors than lugging my books and crap to 7th Avenue and standing outside.

Port Authority’s not stock full of pimps and ho’s anymore, and nobody offered me drugs or tried to recruit me for a position selling my body along 53rd and 3rd.  So, already mourning the Manhattan that was, I made my way to the lower bus gateway.

Here’s where it gets funny.

They actually had a “security station”–wherein one dude checked your luggage, and the other one made you spread arms while he waved a metal detector across your body in the weakest check for weapons on the Eastern Seaboard, save for the one they make you go through outside of M&T Bank Stadium. Probably half the line didn’t speak English, and they didn’t come out for the screening.  I did, what the hell, and they checked my laptop bag as well.

For the record, let me state that DC’s safe from bus-borne terrorism, at least at that hour, or would be were it not for the dozen or so competing lines, Chinese, Jewish and other, making roughly the same trip at roughly the same time.

I’m thinking maybe Trailways is going to try and use the “security threat” to regulate some of their competition out of Midtown–though clean, the bus’s overhead lighting didn’t work, there was no wifi or anything like that, we left at least a half-hour late, and unlike all competing buses, Trailways lets you out more than a half-mile from the nearest Metro stop at Union Station.

God bless the TSA, and government in general, for their ability to, since the initial failure to answer a flight instructor’s queries about a 9/11 passenger who didn’t want to learn how to land, punish passengers, spend our money, and make us no safer.  This failure to address a prominent father’s own concerns is a new low, but hardly surprising.

/And people wonder why I drive to Texas.

I know they’re gonna take over the world and everything, and they’ve got 1.8 million unreadable auto-OCR’d texts from the Archive, and they’ve completely abandoned their initial plan for viewing titles a chapter at a time, and… stuff.  But, even after the name change, they’re not in the top 20 Free Apps at the App Store.

Can we have a rule that you aren’t allowed to be called a multiplatform Kindle-killer until, you know, you get to the first page?  Like a height requirement at amusement parks.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: There was a tourist trap/guesthouse in Tokyo run by a guy named Kibo, who always gave great deals ‘n top service to Lonely Planet authors but absolutely sucked for anyone else.  So, you know, maybe the name’s got bad connotations for me… and all the Canuck teachers working there at that time who got lured in.

/Even today, much better deals in Kita-Otsuka, right by the JR Line.

Booked a table for Author at the Nola Book Fair.  He’ll be reading as well.

I’ll be in Maryland Sat., ‘cuz my mom, wife, sister and niece are having a big joint B-Day party Friday, and Scorpios can be mean if you miss those sorts of events.

We may do some kind of short-term getaway, possibly a cruise out of Baltimore, but otherwise, next non-day-trip for me isn’t for four months.

(Skipping Miami ‘cuz of family.  Also, there used to be a good show in NY first week of Dec., but… not this year… and my midwinter genre events are, largely, no more.)

Highlight, if you’re wondering, was seeing a blues jam-band in this little dive in Austin on Sunday.  With the rest of the clubs dead post-Halloween, every blues musician in the city came in to play a couple songs.  It was… impressive.

Nashville, despite the weather, was a very good show, and handsold a few copies of new book by new author.  We’ll see if anyone buys that one online; it’s traditionally discounted ‘n stuff, so at least I can get BAM, or Bookpeople (where he’s gonna read), or the NOLA Bookfair, to take stock.  It’s six months from now, before we’ll see if the advance earns out.  Certainly more fun to go to shows with writers….

I know there’ve been a lot of announcements in ebooks this week, but most of them are for stuff that won’t be coming for six months, or more, if then.  So, I’ll postpone my snark ’til it happens, and just sit here vaguely mocking the guy who attacked Amazon for, you know, actually producing something–Rushed!!!!

Though all the details on Kindle International aren’t yet sorted out, I think you can say, given pricing differentials, plus the “not gonna stock it in your country ‘cuz we might get sued,” stuff, Amazon won’t have quite the same control over ebook sales to KI as they do to the Kindle 2.

There’ll be less wireless use.  More of folks using their USB cables.  And downloading.  From sites.  That sell ebooks.  With consistent pricing to all nations.  And maybe don’t charge VAT…

… ‘back to work.

They need to fix “popular,” then we’ll see about speeding up downloads again without disaster.

Part of the slow pace for this is I’m, as they say, “keeping it local,” with a firm that kinda works on things for me when they have a bit of downtime from other projects.

Cool aspect is that now they know what I want for a dramatically improved mobile version.  Not that this isn’t completely flawless!

And, yeah, with the economy and so forth, it’s a better use of resources to spend on commissioning titles, prepaying translations, getting cool covers, ‘n stuff,  as opposed to putting it all into a free ebooks site…

Of to NY again, then Jersey, Nashville, and maybe Kentuck!

Going to NY in a little bit.  Should be connected all the way, but… going to NY in a little bit

Busy week.

Festival schedule to come…

May 21st, Priceline: $80 for the Hampton Inn, Soho.  Given that we’re talking a week before Memorial Day, and the average reviewer gives this one 4 stars: trust me, NY tourism has not recovered.  (In DC this time of year, $80 would only get you those former homeless-shelter-type hotels off New York Ave, several blocks from public transit… in areas you probably don’t want to be walking at night…. There, or maybe Turmont.)

Following week I’ll be in NY again, though I’m staying at The Chelsea for the last-ever BEA.  Not a bad rate there, neither.

Semi-related, since I’ll be out for a while, and am a little ahead of PG’s output (while trying to stay about a month behind), may briefly go to short ebook rations. I’ll let you know next week.

/Probably could have gotten a better deal for the 21st, but I’ve found when Priceline does that “up your bid by $20 and find a room right now” thing… it’s generally worth it.

I guess that’s where the sale was talked about.

/Maybe I should go sometime…

First 10k of the .lits has been redone and uploaded.  They upload fast.  Convert, not so much.  Hopefully, disks three and four will be done soon (tonight).  I had to redo Disk One.  ‘Cuz I forgot the “Remove Paragraph Spacing” tag. Otherwise, we’d be finished now.

I’m going to NY tomorrow.  Will be at the Philly bookfair over the weekend.  My truck will head to Edison, or maybe Iselin, definitely Metropark. You can visit it, but please don’t swipe the remainders — Well, some of the remainders you can have, but Goodloe will be there with me, so don’t snag anything new; we’re going to try and impress our booth neighbors at McSweeney’s.

Priceline let me down this time, so I’ll stay at Union Square.  In the Hilton/Center City for Philly.

Oh, and I bought a netbook.  MSI-Wind.  Got the better battery.  Figure it’ll be easier to carry.  Spare me your Netbook cultishness.  I’m traveling light from Metropark to Manhattan…

… and not paying tolls! (also, ahem, bypassing Delaware.)

/Don’t wait up tomorrow.

Yours in cheeseteaks and good pizza.

RIP Mr. Voice.