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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 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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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.