Shadow of Victory missing from the monthly bundle

Sharp Claw wrote:

Eagleeye wrote:
It says that for nearly the same time as it said it is delayed. But the elfes at Baen had only 3 working days to work with the final manuscript, and to put 300,000 words, parted in probably 50+ chapters, in the different formats for the eARC may take some time; don't you think? Especially the making of the html-files could be time-consuming - after all, you have to divide the whole text in its single chapters, put everyone of them through the html-making process, check each chapter for obvious errors, correct these errors and link the chapters together for the html-version you want to publish.

But nonetheless, I hope, too, that we see the eARC on Monday ...

Yeah, Monday, maybe. God forbid they should work late nights or weekends like other Americans.

Mmmm... I sort of hate to point this out, but I often find myself converting ebooks from one format to another, depending on what device I'm going to read them on, and what format I was able to find the copy in.

There are online tools that can convert from one to another within minutes at most, and usually just a few seconds. If I can do it, then they should be able to also.

If Baen were serious about getting the eARC into their reader's hands as soon as possible, it could (and should) have been there later the same day it was turned in, or at most the next.

After all, with all the website publishing tools out there, it doesn't take all that long to update a couple of web pages either.

clancy688 wrote:

Sharp Claw wrote:Yeah, Monday, maybe. God forbid they should work late nights or weekends like other Americans.

I'm from Germany. Over here we're taking things like overwork rather serious. There are draconic punishments incoming for CEOs who even allow their people to work overtime:

- If your contract specifically states that Monday-Friday are your working days you need to be notified early if you are supposed to work on Saturdays - a couple of days is not enough
- You are not allowed AT ALL to work more than ten hours a day
- You have to take a break after six hours
- You're not allowed AT ALL to work on Sundays

Interesting. So all businesses are closed on Sundays? No restaurants, hotels, stores, or gas stations?

Or are you saying one has to be specifically hired for working weekends? What happens if people get sick or have an accident (either at work or outside it) and someone else has to be called in to replace them for the day?

No wonder European civilization is in the state it is.

Unfortunately, there appear to be folks over here that seem quite content to follow the same path, though. Talk about "herd mentality".

jchilds wrote:I'll only point out that if eARCS and monthly bundles end up becoming a net negative for Baen because a bunch of people are excessively vocal in their complaints, Bad Things(tm) may happen.

Any "professional" business tends to solicit feedback in order to better accommodate their customers and increase income. Not all of that feedback is reasonably *expected* to be favorable, though positive feedback is no doubt appreciated when it occurs.

However, a problem isn't going to be corrected unless it's actually *recognized* as a problem by all affected.

What appears to be "unnecessary" delay to us may not seem the same, or have the same default priority for fixing, to the folks at Baen. The only way to change that is to give them feedback.

One doesn't have to be overly nasty in their comments to do so, but generally a sense of urgency isn't going to be communicated without at least a little emphasis of some sort.

To Baen, a week's time between receiving a manuscript and making it available as an eARC or as sample chapters on one of their "upcoming titles" pages might not seem excessive. To the rest of us, who have basically been waiting "with baited breath" ever since the schedule for the Bain Bundle that was announced as going to be available on the 15th, we probably have a somewhat different outlook; and we need to make that clear to them.

If a delay happens, it should be corrected as soon as possible, not just whenever is most convenient.

cthia wrote:After all, I do understand their reasoning because the numbers work. For instance, they may have a 64GB tablet and that 64GB houses their current Windows 10 OS, all of their installed programs and all user data - documents, photos, movies, etc., ...

"My expensive 128GB microsd card (or thumb drive) is twice the capacity of my system. So please tell me, Microsoft, why I can't backup my 64GB system to my 128GB flash media!!!"

Well, denizens of Earth, Vince's post is why! It isn't that it can't be done, but that it shan't be done - because it should not. Which is why they won't allow it. They're protecting the idiot in us. Afterall, it is supposed to be a backup. And by the very nature of the technology, it is dying a slow death as soon as it's made. And by the very nature of when it will be needed — perhaps a long time in the future, makes it worse. A more traditional hard drive should be used for backup — one that actually has moving parts.

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I totally agree with the technicalities, but I differ on the concept of attempting to "protect everyone just because *some* folks don't understand". That's why *good* software gives warnings when you're about to do something perhaps questionable, but doesn't necessarily keep you from proceeding if you decide to ignore the warning - either because it's not applicable to the particular scenario you're working with or because, well, you're just too stupid to realize what you're doing.

There are times I find transferring things via flash media a perfect fit. There are others where I don't. Like you, yourself noted, there are workarounds. Linux, block to block copying in Solaris, or other free or almost free utilities. But my take is that why *should* one have to "work around" such a problem?

Microsoft isn't the only vendor, and software isn't the only category, where one finds this kind of thing. Though it does seem more endemic to the IT industry than any other.

I think a lot of the reasons why Linux tends to be a bit more "relaxed" in this regard is simply because it's not intrinsically tailored to any particular vendor's gear; and thus isn't quite as susceptible to creating a "turn key" type of operation. Windows now is basically Intel-centric. Even "desktop/laptop centric", at least for the non-Enterprise versions. Restrict what a non-technical user can do, and you limit the amount of customer service you have to provide. (Not that I'd say Microsoft's customer service excels at what they're supposed to be doing, for that matter, LOL) Linux isn't like that. Linux has a port for almost *any* processor manufactured by almost any vendor; and is, realistically, more *server* oriented than *general user*. Some distributions configure it to be more "Windows like"; but the OS at it's core isn't really a "desktop OS".

clancy688 wrote:

Sharp Claw wrote:Yeah, Monday, maybe. God forbid they should work late nights or weekends like other Americans.

I'm from Germany. Over here we're taking things like overwork rather serious. There are draconic punishments incoming for CEOs who even allow their people to work overtime:

- If your contract specifically states that Monday-Friday are your working days you need to be notified early if you are supposed to work on Saturdays - a couple of days is not enough
- You are not allowed AT ALL to work more than ten hours a day
- You have to take a break after six hours
- You're not allowed AT ALL to work on Sundays

OrlandoNative wrote:Interesting. So all businesses are closed on Sundays? No restaurants, hotels, stores, or gas stations?

Or are you saying one has to be specifically hired for working weekends? What happens if people get sick or have an accident (either at work or outside it) and someone else has to be called in to replace them for the day?

No wonder European civilization is in the state it is.

Unfortunately, there appear to be folks over here that seem quite content to follow the same path, though. Talk about "herd mentality".

Not only that, they frown on having a second job. God forbid a third. The German culture stresses the importance of a healthy family unit by affording quality time -- which makes for a healthier, motivated and therefore more productive employee.

I love their take on employment.

OrlandoNative wrote:Interesting. So all businesses are closed on Sundays? No restaurants, hotels, stores, or gas stations?

There are, of course, exceptions for emergency services, hotels and such.

But no office work, no crafts work, etc.

And German work law doesn't even stop there - hire and fire like in the US is impossible over here. After a probation period, usually six months, you can only be fired with three months notice (the notice period becomes longer the longer you work for a company). And only for important reasons (managerial whims are none btw). It's insanely hard for a company to get rid of an employee they don't like as long as the employee is not ill behaving and as long as the company is not in deep financial troubles.

No wonder European civilization is in the state it is.

Unfortunately, there appear to be folks over here that seem quite content to follow the same path, though. Talk about "herd mentality".

I can't speak for the whole European civilization, but you're right... I fully blame these laws for the fact the the 16th most populous nation on the planet is also the 4th most productive.

Problem is with those laws is that while it increases productivity in the short term, long term they are horrifically detrimental to the well being of the economy. It works very well with established products. It works well with mega corporate monopolies. It is horrific for creating new products and inventions which almost universally come from start-up new companies.

Look at post WWII. All of these regulations did not exist in Gemrany post WWII as the institutions projecting and guarding the regulations were destroyed. Germany took off like a rocket as it allowed people to work When and HOW they wanted to. Britain on the other hand kept its draconian regulations upon regulations post WWII and it floundered along for 30 years before finally relaxing said regs a bit.

Oh, and when the EU fractures, as it is doing before our eyes, lets see if Germany can keep sending 50% of its GDP to "foreign" countries who have 25% unemployment(Spain, Italy, Greece, S. France, Hungary etc) due to all that "efficiency" of consolidated giant corporations for very efficient producing every day products. Give ya a hint, it will take a decade or two, but Germany won't be sending 50% of its GDP outside itself making all that "efficiency" in worker capital a millstone around its neck. Not only will these giant corporations become inefficient, but they will also have no new products to sell as they won't have the money to keep buying all the inventions from small start up companies.

We won't really know the true consequences for 2 decades or more as "modern" manufacturing under "modern" worker regulations is still in its infancy. Now add the demographics of Germany into the mix with its gigantic aging population. <<Shrugs>>

cthia wrote:Not only that, they frown on having a second job. God forbid a third. The German culture stresses the importance of a healthy family unit by affording quality time -- which makes for a healthier, motivated and therefore more productive employee.

I love their take on employment.

I'm not going to knock having "quality time", but time by itself doesn't magically create a "healthy family unit".

But whether someone wants to work a bit more, to get a bit ahead, should be that *person's* decision, not the government's.

And doesn't Germany have it's own "radical" subculture and foreign and domestic undesirables?

I don't think TOO MUCH work created them, it's much more likely that too much IDLE time did.

As for their production vs population, no one has ever said the Germans' can't make good products. And expensive ones, of which lots are exported and thus help boost those economic numbers. I think that, rather than copious free time, probably accounts for those figures previously cited. However, I have no desire to purchase a Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Cadillac, Lincoln, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, or any other over priced luxury vehicle, no matter where it's made. Or even a VW, since they don't make any vehicles I can buy here that fit what I need it for.

Oh, and German and French companies seem to have helped build lots of the military infrastructure of Syria, Iraq, and other places for whoever had cash in hand. I don't necessarily call that a plus. At least it seems to have come back to haunt the French (though maybe not in an expected way) since then.

I'm not going to say the US is always all that better, but at least occasionally we're a bit selective in our clientele...

clancy688 wrote:

And German work law doesn't even stop there - hire and fire like in the US is impossible over here. After a probation period, usually six months, you can only be fired with three months notice (the notice period becomes longer the longer you work for a company). And only for important reasons (managerial whims are none btw). It's insanely hard for a company to get rid of an employee they don't like as long as the employee is not ill behaving and as long as the company is not in deep financial troubles.

I think the USPS has emulated that. Once an employee has been there for six months or so, it's almost impossible to fire them. Which, of course, is probably why our postal service is so [sarcasm] efficient [/sarcasm]. There's not much incentive to work *hard* when everyone can work mediocre and still get paid.

OrlandoNative wrote:There's not much incentive to work *hard* when everyone can work mediocre and still get paid.

Everything has downsides. The upside is security for my family and me. I can work somewhere without having to fear being laid off without any notice. The possibility of being without income literally tomorrow is miniscule. I'm safe of being abused by my employer (by being forced to work weekends and overtime) just because I need this job. I can plan my future much more safely. I will have time to recreate no matter what.

All that together gives you a much higher motivated employee because he doesn't have to fear uncertainty. Of course there's the occasional slacker, but those are everywhere, and no system of the world is gonna get rid of them.

I don't believe in unregulated markets being the solution any more than you believe that regulated markets are the solution. In the end, both systems have their right to exists, but none is perfect. Your capitalism celebrates stunning successes where out social market economy utterly fails, but the same is true in reverse. Don't ignore the flaws in your system when pointing out the flaws in ours. Both systems have worked for a long time now and brought prosperity to both our citizens.

In the end, the whole thing boils down to a difference of philosophy IMHO. You Americans want freedom, essentially the freedom to be able to succeed - or to fail alike. We Europeans on the other hand want security for our families and ourselves, and for that we sacrifice the freedom to work and live like we want.