Price goes up, people are facing other inflationary pressures, worries about job security, etc. New phone is totally optional, easily punted. When was the last time phones had a really good new feature? (says guy with 2020 iphone SE that still works just fine)
Tech CEOs are psychotic. Most CEOs are psychotic, disconnected from most of the actual work going under them. This is just a new drug for them to huff.
When we get a Word doc from an author it is sent to the typesetter for reformatting. A standard set of style codes is applied and other corrections made so it can be directly imported into the design template. This the version the copyeditor works on. Also: once proofs are set this version is basically trash. In ye olde dayes, when this was all done on paper, the edited ms would eventually go back to the author, but sometimes they didn't want it. Now when the book is done the production manuscript files get deleted.
For ebook production, you could definitely do worse than follow Standard Ebooks' method. That will get you a decent standards-compliant file with basic accessibility features accounted for.
If you live in a house long enough, you will have to deal with things. There will at some point, be a new roof, a new furnace. New windows. Some of it will be optional, some will not. If you are renting, part of your rent is going to the landlord to cover these things. And you are dependent on them doing it. One way or another you are the one paying. If you own, at least you have the choice of doing it the way you like.
Probably the biggest factor of considering the rent/buy question is how long to do you expect to be there. We paid off our mortgage after 16 years, so now it's 'free', except for ongoing maintenance and taxes. And we're looking at some nontrivial reno in the future: the kitchen is quite beat, and someday we'll need to deal with the asbestos siding (one of four layers on the house!). But it least it's our choice.
How is 'person only looking at ad because they're getting paid to do that' a better model? Advertisers presumably want ads to go to people who might be interested in what is being advertised. But if other people are willing to take the bullet, and it means less crap for me to have to look at, sure why not.
Your local library keeps papyrus scrolls on open stacks? I mean, sure, yes, there are libraries that haves such things (the university I work for does), but generally they will be kept in special boxes and you need to ask nicely to get to see them. And don't get me started about the crapitude of your average new book these days. Personally, I prefer print books too, but lasting forever is not really why.
We've always used this in our ebooks for abbreviation and glossary lists. The problem I've always had is that you need to use a bit of css to make two lined-up columns. I've done it with floats. Now, some ebook readers will support grid and flex-box, which give better results, but the Kindle still does not. Kindle is sort of the IE6 of the ebook world.
Yes. One of the tools they created was a special high-speed optical shutter. Those microsecond exposures that make the explosion look like an expanding bubble wouldn't have been possible with a mechanical shutter. EG&G was involved in building equipment for the testing program for many years.
It is, as I say, a small list. 100 Suns, of course. Also, American Ground Zero (do not try to read all at once), At Work in the Fields of the Bomb (interviews and portraits of Los Alamos and Livermore weapons scientists), and How to Photograph and Atomic Bomb. I might also include the souvenir book I got at the Nevada test site when we went on the bus tour in 2003.
I remember using Wordstar for CP/M. It did pretty much everything you needed, and it didn't get in your way.
I was also a heavy user of XyWrite. One of the fun things about XyWrite was you could get it do almost anything. If there wasn't a code for it, you could insert printer controls directly into your file.
As a production editor now, one feature those systems didn't have that we rely on is being able to track and review edits. Thirty years ago that would have been done on paper printouts.
A new Leica M6 goes for about $7K at B&H. When you could still buy them, Rolleiflexes were about that much. A mechanical camera hand-made in short runs in Germany? Not gonna be cheap. If you can afford and think you'll use it enough to make it worthwhile, there are worse things you could spend your money on.
I use a Melitta pour over cone, a Baratza grinder, a kettle with a temp control, and a spoon. Once in a while, I'll get out the French press. Good coffee doesn't really need to be complicated. You just need decent fresh beans and a little care.
Having been on the other side of that, there is a point. When an editor writes a rejection letter, aside from the fact that it already means what you wrote was better than 97% of what the editor saw that week, telling you why they turned it down isn't really quite the same level of feedback you get from an editor who has accepted a story and wants to get it over the proverbial finish line. A rejection letter is very broad strokes and first-impression. It's not actually editing. Editing needs a closer read, often a bit of back-and-forth with the author (I should say I learned a lot about editing in my younger days from both David Hartwell and Beth Meacham).
Many new trade hardcover books will not last that long. I work at a university press, and we still use acid-free paper, quarter-cloth bindings, sturdy boards, and other niceties that the big trade houses are increasingly giving up on. Guess what? Most of our books cost more than $30, or even $40.