Live For Free » HunterDavis.com

Goodbye Paypal, Goodbye Ebay

Finance, Live For Free, News, Personal, Personal Finance 2 Responses »

May 162013

I considered titling this post many things.

Ebay: 15 years of asshole buyers
Paypal: Your game is up and it’s about damn time
I’ll never get screwed by Paypal again!
I’ll never get screwed by Ebay again!

In the end, I went with the above. If you’ve read Live For Free you know how badly eBay and Paypal can (and often do) screw people over, myself included. So when I saw this announcement today by Google, I knew what it meant to me personally. I’m done with Paypal, forever. Consequently, I’m done with eBay, forever. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the economics of the secondhand electronics market have changed drastically since I wrote LFF. Quitting eBay 5, or 10, or even 15 years ago would mean a loss of income. That’s no longer the case. So much time and effort (and fees, so many fees) are wasted on eBay due to fake buyers, buyers who don’t pay, foreign buyers who are allowed to bid on US only auctions, etc. Paypal only exacerbates the problem with its terrible customer support and awful service. eBay doesn’t even allow you to directly email anyone without going through a ‘guided help wizard’. Ridiculous.

I mean seriously, there’s a website purely to help people fight Paypal screwings. Gotta love their campaign though:

OPY: I dumped all my eBay stock.

You are Buying This for Life!

eBooks, Live For Free, News, Personal 2 Responses »

Apr 272013

The economic potential of amateur pc computer resale has changed, almost completely disappearing since I wrote “Live For Free” (LFF), and is declining for apple computers steadily. This makes a direct sequel to LFF unlikely, as it would need to be about computer and electronics repair. I’ve had my current development laptop for about 2 years now, with no reason to think I won’t be using it in another 2, or 4, or maybe even 10 years. In the 2000′s and during the course of writing LFF, I probably went through 30 laptops, ever running to beat the elusive pricing curve. Now that I’ve beat it, what’s next?

Perhaps my next book will be about just that. In the mean time, I’ll be posting up shorter and more timelier articles in an attempt to kick-start things and get back to some weird, hacked-together stuff.

A Preview of My Upcoming Fourth Book, A Direct Sequel to Live For Free

eBooks, Live For Free, News, Other Ebooks, Personal 2 Responses »

May 082012

While I sit here in bed, my body fighting the last remnants of a flu virus that had me knocked out for days, I am reminded of the past times I’ve been bedridden. Post-surgery, post-motorcycle accidents, post-European travel, etc. I’ve been knocked down plenty, but I always manage to make the best of it. This time I figured I would post up a preview of my (still in-progress) fourth book. It’s in the very early stages, but not too early for constructive criticism and a great deal of improvement across the board.

What makes this book different from my last two is that it isn’t a collection of works or a how-to guide, it’s a direct sequel to “Live for Free: The Chronicles of a Nerd Saving For A Startup”. It’s a real, brutally honest account of some tumultuous times in our industry, and in my own life. The introduction is below and you can read a couple of chapters embedded after the click-through, or feel free to download the PDF directly from here. They are sort of but not really in order.

Flash back to the beginning of December, 2011. The year has been a whirlwind. My first start-up failed. My second and third book were released. I became an Android developer. I released more Android apps in less time than anyone, ever. I joined a Google Ventures funded music start-up as their Android lead. I found out the truth about the Android platform (it’s not there yet), and about working at start-ups (it’s the VC that gets the best deal). And I just found out my significant other wants to move across the country. How I got here, that’s fairly common knowledge. How I’ll get where I’m going now? That’s another story.

Now is the Time to Buy a First Generation E-Reader

eBooks, Live For Free, News, Other Ebooks, Personal 1 Response »

Jan 302012

Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, and many others have recently released large color Android tablets/e-book readers out into the wild. Effectively the third generation of e-book readers, these tablets priced at 150-250$ USD represent the current pinnacle of our e-book world. But I’m not telling you to go buy them. Oh no. The value may be there but the price isn’t right and the technology isn’t optimum for reading books.

I’m telling you to buy a first generation Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or Sony Pocket e-Reader. Why? Besides all being based on superior e-ink screens that won’t kill your eyes for reading, they have each and every one reached that oh so sweet 40-50$ price point on eBay.

Yep! 40-50$. For the same cost of a video game, a night out at the movies, a dinner (a cheap dinner here in Los Angeles), a pair of slacks, or two weeks of Starbucks blended drinks you can have an e-reader. Many first generation e-readers come with Wifi and some come with free 2g internet. Heck buy an extra or two to keep in a drawer at home. Take them on the bus. Take them to the beach or rock climbing. Whip them out at the bus stop or in sketchy neighborhoods. Treat them like a book. And when they are lost or stolen or drop and crack or die as all electronics invariably do, simply pull another from the drawer and move on.

Apparently people are buying my book on the Apple book store

eBooks, Hacks, Live For Free, News, Other Ebooks, Personal No Responses »

Jan 292012

I hadn’t logged into my account in some time (I’m registered with so many publishers and sites etc I end up checking them twice a year or something) Turns out people have been buying my books on the Apple book store. That’s cool, and an extra little bump in income I wasn’t expecting. Not as many sales on Google books though, I wonder if that speaks to the breath of market penetration or perhaps the percentage of book readers per platform. At any rate, I’ll try and post up a preview of my fourth book sometime soon.

Want to see more Hacks in Action? Follow me on Google+

Android Apps, Android Games, eBooks, Hacking, Hacking and Robotics, Hacks, Live For Free, News, Other Ebooks, Personal, Programs, Zipit Hacking 2 Responses »

Aug 092011

I never quite got into Twitter. The value proposition just wasn’t there for me and it always seemed like a passing thing. Google+ on the other hand has already given me infinite photo storage, I can put animated gifs in my stream (oh the opportunity for last-frame gif bombs!), and I can choose exactly what messages go out to which subscribers based on circles. So I’m on Google+, and that’s where I post a good chunk of my smaller hacks and tidbits of life. Want to know what I’ve been up to between posts? Curious to see my hacks in action? Want to get a sneak peek at my hacks before they’re available to the public? Then you’d better start following me on Google+ hadn’t you? Just head over to profiles.google.com/huntergdavis and add me to a circle today! Need an invite to Google+? Just ask!

Splitting It Down The Middle – Book Prices at 4.99 Starting Midnight August 2nd

eBooks, Hacks, Live For Free, News, Other Ebooks, Personal No Responses »

Aug 022011

So after my decision to up my book prices to 9.99, sales dropped by more than 70 percent. While monetarily this made sense, (I am still making more $$ because of the increased royalty), emotionally it doesn’t sit well with me. That’s potentially hundreds of people that would have bought my books that now will never read them. As my sales numbers for the Smashwords sale were pretty decent, I’m going to split the difference and start selling the books at 4.99. Anyone who bought one at 9.99 will receive an automatic credit to their account through whatever store they purchased from. This shouldn’t cost me more than a few hundred bucks in returns, and I am hoping the lower price helps drive the sales back up nearer to the .99c levels. As usual students who can’t pay can get a free copy by emailing me.

ALSO — There are some limited run hardback print editions of Live For Free hitting a few select stores and corner shops near you. If you’re interested, or if they sell enough, I can make them available for purchase online without too much trouble. Just let me know!

PLUS — Live For Free should be hitting the Apple eBook store sometime this week! Ipad/idevice owners keep an eye out for it in the new content section.

My Books 75% off this week for Smashwords Summer Sale!

eBooks, Hacks, Live For Free, Other Ebooks 1 Response »

Jul 292011

That’s right, to kick off the availability of my books on premium networks they’ve been added to the Smashwords Summer Sale. You can pick them up till August for 2.50$ apiece, 75% off the list cover price!!

You can view all of my current books which qualify for this promotion at my Smashwords author page here.

eBooks Update – Now Available In More Stores And Countries!

eBooks, Hacks, Live For Free, Other Ebooks, Personal No Responses »

Jul 282011

Yep. Due to the continued success of my books after the price increase, I’ve made them available at more places. You can now preview and purchase Hacks, Distributed Compilers, and Live For Free at new store locations! The permalink pages for each have been updated with all the new info! This will also put these titles on eReaders and in stores all over the world in many new markets. These will all trickle out over the next few weeks, so stay tuned! A few highlights:

You can now preview, purchase, and rent my books from Google Books in all territories (NO DRM, full copy-paste support).
Sony eBook Store
Kobo Store
Android Market
Apple and Apple App Store
Diesel eBook Store
Scrollmotion eBook Store
Smashwords eBook Store

Book Prices Rise at Midnight!

eBooks, Hacks, Live For Free, News, Other Ebooks, Personal 2 Responses »

Jul 202011

People (not just publishers) have been hounding me to up my book prices for some time now. While I’d like to give away everything for free, the current economy has not been good to me as an author. While I have a respectable influx of book sales each month, at 30 cents per book it’s not adding up. Every couple of months “Build Your Own Distributed Compiler” will see a quick boost in sales followed by a couple of months lull. Anecdotally, it appears that my compilers guide is helpful to some subset of graduate students. This isn’t specific to the Amazon or B&N bookstore either, so I can’t really make any inferences as to which school(s) are using it. Along with a few good reviews (and loads of support from other authors), I’ve decided to up my book prices to the industry standard 9.99. If you purchase any of these books are are not satisfied with the new pricing, send me an email and let me know. I think a tenner is an exceedingly reasonable price for a textbook/guide. As always if you’re a student and find yourself unable to pay I’ll donate you a copy. I’ll even autograph it.

You can see their permalink pages below:
Hacks
Live For Free
Build Your Own Distributed Compilation Cluster

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