Long Reads #10

I'm back! I still haven't been able to get much reading done, but it's better than nothing~

Beat Boutique by Lindsay Zoladz - This essay was about something called a music library. I've never heard of it before, but apparently, that's where a lot of the jingles in the commercials come from. It's quite an interesting look, because it uses music libraries and explores the whole commercialism in art idea.

When S'mores aren't enough: the New Economics of Summer Camp by Natasha Singer - I wish I could go to summer camp. It sounds really fun. But then again, I'm not a fan of nature. I don't dislike it, but I prefer to appreciate nature from the comfort of an air-conditioned room, away from bugs. If more and more kids are like me, than it might explain why summer camp is struggling. To be honest, I've never thought of this before, the biggest impression summer camp has left on me was that it was in The Parent Trap. But it does sound like a viable idea, and it'll be nice to see if the business model could be tweaked without changing the essence of summer camp.

The Worst Marriage in Georgetown by Franklin Foer - This is a look into how naive Washington can be sometime, and at an unscrupulous guy who, well, I'm not sure what his motives are. But apart from trying to fool the elite in Washington, he also abused (and killed) his wife, who's about forty years older than him (if I remember correctly).

The People Own Ideas by Lawrence Lessig - A look as to how the open source economy works. Personally, I'm all in favour of open source, but then again, I don't exactly have the cash to spend. But I suppose that if I was an author or something, I'd want people to pay for my books. But as a counter-example, Paulo Coehlo actually calls on his readers to pirate his books, because he believes that this increases demand and ultimately book sales.

Let's Try to Think This iPad Mini Thing All The Way Through by John Gruber - an iPad mini? Personally, I just want an iPad 3 with retina graphics (and 3G access, I want Internet on my iPad). But if an iPad mini is really affordable, I might be tempted into buying it, especially for reading and such. But in that case, wouldn't the kindle (or the kobo) be a better choice?

And on an unrelated but important note, Happy Teachers Day to all teachers! I've had many teachers and most of you have always encouraged me to read and explore (and I'm sorry for always reading under my desk during lessons).