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"Maker Media Inc ceased operations this week and let go of all of its employees — about 22 employees" founder and CEO Dale Dougherty told TechCrunch. "I started this 15 years ago and it's always been a struggle as a business to make this work. Print publishing is not a great business for anybody, but it works...barely. Events are hard . . . there was a drop off in corporate sponsorship." Microsoft and Autodesk failed to sponsor this year's flagship Bay Area Maker Faire.
But Dougherty is still desperately trying to resuscitate the company in some capacity, if only to keep MAKE:'s online archive running and continue allowing third-party organizers to license the Maker Faire name to throw affiliated events. Rather than bankruptcy, Maker Media is working through an alternative Assignment for Benefit of Creditors process.
"We're trying to keep the servers running" Dougherty tells me. "I hope to be able to get control of the assets of the company and restart it. We're not necessarily going to do everything we did in the past but I'm committed to keeping the print magazine going and the Maker Faire licensing program." The fate of those hopes will depend on negotiations with banks and financiers over the next few weeks. For now the sites remain online.
LINK:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/07/make-magazine-maker-media-layoffs/
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday June 09 2019, @09:59PM (7 children)
Curated info in magazine style can be done digitally, and for free. Or digitally for a charge, if you want (a chance at) higher quality.
As for the physical aspect, eventually someone will makerhack a flat, foldable dumb terminal color e-ink display. And it will be glorious.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by EJ on Sunday June 09 2019, @11:33PM (6 children)
Nope. It's paper or GTFO. E-ink is garbage. I can't stand it. The batteries have never once run out on my paper magazines.
Digital stuff has BS DRM, and is not future-proof. I can pull out a copy of a magazine I bought 25 years ago, and it works just fine today as it did when I bought it. The same cannot be said for digital media. Digital media has a habit of disappearing when the company you "rented" it from decides to stop supporting it or simply goes out of business.
You can enjoy your digital media all you want, but I'll stick to hard copies.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 10 2019, @12:01AM (1 child)
Is e-ink "garbage" because of limited battery life or are there some other reasons? I am speculating about a future version of e-ink which could have better properties. DPI has increased, refresh rates have increased, and there will eventually be color. That limited battery life doesn't matter if it lasts for weeks and can be recharged fast. Add wireless charging support and then it would be a matter of laying the device down in the right place when you're done using it.
DRM doesn't matter to me at all because I can get reams of ripped content without paying. I don't even need to think about DRM.
At the end of the day, your hard copies will take up multiple shelves, boxes, etc. while an entire library of content can fit on a microSD card.
To each their own, but let's not entirely forget the advantages of digital.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @01:57AM
There is a bit of aesthetics as well as tactile satisfaction, like streamed tunes on thumb driver vs vinyl records with the sleeve artwork.
But it's more than that. Bound paper books are still a superior technology to ebook readers. You can thump through pages, open up at 2/3 of way out, say, just by using your finger tip, without having press all them buttons with no other visual/tactical cues. About the only advantage ebook readers offer is reduction of volume - can carry many volumes in small form factor. That is important in some applications, like shop manuals and traveling, but for others, ebook reader to paper book is like masturbation to sex.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @01:39AM (3 children)
How long ago did you check out e-ink? The early stuff was pretty ordinary, but recent screens are as good to read as 300dpi laser print.
Next time you've got a few minutes to waste in the appropriate store ask to have a look at one of the flagship models - Amazon's Kindle Oasis, or Kobo's Aura One.
Due to aging eyes and not liking glasses my reading time had dropped to almost zero, but has gone back up to historical levels since I got an Aura One. Bump the font size one or two points and suddenly reading is comfortable again.
(Score: 2) by EJ on Monday June 10 2019, @02:13AM (2 children)
DRM
Storage capacity
Batteries
Ease of use
No need to transfer to a new device
I don't lose my entire collection when the publisher goes under
Digital media will be the end of our culture. Thousands of years from now, people may wonder what we were like because there will be no physical records of our existence. Maybe someone will dig up an old Kindle from under some rubble, but it won't do anything. We can read parchments from thousands of years ago. We're going to leave nothing behind for the future.
If you don't like physical books, then we don't need to have this discussion because you just won't get it. It's like me trying to explain the joys of a well-cooked steak to a vegan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @02:50AM (1 child)
I do like books. My personal library has about four thousand physical books.
I got the Kobo Aura One because it reads almost anything, holds thousands of books, is waterproof (6' depth, 60 minutes) and is easy to read and light to carry. Combine it with Calibre to strip DRM and convert, and nobody is taking my digital books. It is not a replacement for physical books, but it is a very welcome counterpart. I take it nearly everywhere, and am never stuck waiting and bored. It lasts days to weeks on a charge, depending on backlight usage, and I usually have a small powerbank in my bag. It will recharge it several times. I've had the e-book for two years, and haven't had to transfer books to a new device yet. When I do, it will be a matter of plugging it into the PC and telling Calibre to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @03:18AM
Yeah, but that's a lot of work stripping out DRM, backing up and all that. As opposed to physical books, that you buy, stick into a bookcase, and that's that.
True, you need space and maintenance (storage space, don't get it wet, etc.), but it's so much easier to forget maintenance when it's a some file on microscopic storage devices.
Also, physical bound book is still a superior technology.