From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:01:56 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: opinions on book "The Truth Machine"
Message-ID: <add49ffc03021004e128@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 7:06 AM 5/31/96, Timothy C. May wrote:
>It sounds like a "make.money.fast.by.promoting.this.book" scam to me.
...
>In any case, I decided to waste a few minutes skimming the opening parts of
>this "online media event novel" and discovered at the URL you cited:
>
>"Complete this brief survey and receive the first two and a half chapters
>of the book free! Upon submission, you will be given access to these
>chapters of The Truth Machine......"
>
>Utter bullshit. If the book was any good it would have a real publisher,
>not an opinion survey.

I confess to eventually yielding to temptation and answering the "survey"
questions (though I just made up some semi-random answers so as to get
Chapters 1-3, then 4-12, etc.).

It was truly bad stuff. Terribly written, confusing, no character
development except in a cartoonish way.

One correspondent chided me for saying that if the book was any good it
would have a real publisher, citing the opportunities for using the Web to
self-publish.

Well, the book is coming out in _printed_ form, for $20 or somesuch, from a
press I've never heard of.

If more than 500 copies are sold to actual paying, third-party customers,
I'll be surprised.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."