It’s easier than ever before to mistakenly buy a counterfeit or knockoff product online. Here’s what to do when it happens to you. --- 1. Stop using the thing 2. Write to the seller 3. File an 'A-to-z Guarantee' claim 4. Contact your credit card company 5. Write to the brand 6. Leave feedback for the seller 7. Replace what you have by finding an authorized seller See also: https://thewirecutter.com/blog/myths-about-counterfeit-products-debunked/ https://thewirecutter.com/blog/amazon-counterfeit-fake-products/

Bitcoins appear, for the moment, at least, to be immune to the machinations of inept or crooked bankers and politicians…

I was pleased to see the measured tone of the White House response to the citizen petition about SOPA and PIPA, and yet I found myself profoundly disturbed by something that seems to me to go to the root of the problem in Washington: the failure to correctly diagnose the problem we are trying to solve, but instead to accept, seemingly uncritically, the claims of various interest groups.

Readability has no right collecting money in my name without my consent. Now, realistically, I have given Readability consent by signing up — but what about other publishers that have not only not signed up, but have actively chosen to not sign up? Is it still OK for Readability to be collecting money in their name? I think not. But how do you solve this problem? I don’t know, but it is a very real problem.

Reflecting on his newly self-released $5 internet-only special. ‘I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.’

"Everyone knows that Google is killing the news business. Few people know how hard Google is trying to bring it back to life, or why the company now considers journalism’s survival crucial to its own prospects."

"The most immediate revelation, of course, is that at some point next year revenues from gigs payable to artists will for the first time overtake revenues accrued by labels from sales of recorded music."

I want to read this collection of articles someday, but I doubt I will.