may

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Today we received the following email from Amazon. Talk about the billionaires whining about a little tax. I am assuming Governor Brown signed this into law because it will help get California’s shitty finances into a better state (pun!) … as retaliation Amazon is cutting ties with any affiliates located in California, and that includes good old tikirobot.net. Not that we make any money from sending traffic to Amazon (it’s about $1 per week :-) but other Californians *DO* make money from Amazon Affiliate Marketing, and losing this revenue will just hurt California even more.

Thanks Amazon!

Hello,
For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

This e-mail was sent to jessehammons@peliom.net.

Please note that you must use this e-mail address to access your account in Associates Central or when contacting Associates Customer Service.

To manage your e-mail preferences, update your account settings.

Message Category: Notice of Contract Termination Due to Potential New California Law

© 2011 Amazon.com. All rights reserved. Amazon.com is a registered trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com, 410 Terry Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109-5210, USA.

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I was playing around with Google’s Web Font Directory and found some great fonts. I really like IM Fell English and IM Fell DW Pica, both originally designed by John Fell in the 1600′s and digitized by Igino Marini.

Marini’s THE FELL TYPES and some revival fonts page has some background and history:

The Fell Types took their name from John Fell, a Bishop of Oxford in the seventeenth-century. Not only he created an unique collection of printing types but he started one of the most important adventures in the history of typography. You will find here a non-exhaustive history and a modern digitalization of some of them.

Here is a sample of the IM Fell English web font:

I think these will be perfect when we add text mode to the IA bookreader!

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Recently I had to get an Option Icon 505 USB HSDPA modem working on Debian unstable (2.6.39-1 kernel) with a French Orange SIM.  I don’t use NetworkManager.  Here’s what worked for me.  You’ll need the minicom package installed, also probably a 2.6.39 or later kernel.

1. Plug in USB modem
2. Look for /dev/ttyHS0 to appear in the filesystem (takes a few seconds).  This is basically the control channel that accepts Hayes-style modem commands.
3. Look for the hso0 network interface to appear by running ‘/sbin/ifconfig hso0′.  This is the point-to-point network interface that will eventually send and receive your packets.
4. Launch minicom, point it at /dev/ttyHS0
5. Type :
   ATZ
   to res et the Hayes compatible modem interface (modem should respond with ‘OK’)
6. Type:
   AT+CGDCONT?
   to list the available configurations.  This listed three entries on the modem here; only one of which turned out to be useful (more on this later):
   +CGDCONT: 1,”IP”,”orange.ie”,”",0,0
   +CGDCONT: 2,”IP”,”orange”,”",0,0
   +CGDCONT: 3,”IP”,”orangeinternet”,”",0,0
   The second quoted string above is apparently the APN.
7. The first number in each of the above output lines is the channel configuration ID.  To ask the modem to try to connect to configuration 1, with connection progress messages enabled, use:
   AT_OWANCALL=1,1,1
   The general format of this command is apparently:
   AT_OWANCALL=<configuration ID>,<operation>,<display connection progress messages?>
   where <operation> can be either 0 (to disconnect) or 1 (to connect), and <display connection progress messages?> can be either 0 for ‘no’ or 1 for ‘yes’.
8. The modem should respond with “OK”, then some call status lines after a few seconds:_OWANCALL: 1,2

   _OWANCALL: 1,3
   The first line indicates that the modem is attempting to connect.  The ’3′ in the second line indicates that the connection failed.  In my case, configuration 2 was the only one that worked: after I entered:
   AT_OWANCALL=2,1,1
   the modem returned:

   _OWANCALL: 2,2

   _OWANCALL: 2,1
   (The final 1 meaning ‘connected’).

9. Now you need to figure out what IP address to use to configure the hso0 network interface.  Type:
   AT_OWANDATA?
   This should return a line like:
   _OWANDATA: 2, 10.99.101.63, 0.0.0.0, 192.168.10.110, 0.0.0.0, 0.0.0.0, 0.0.0.0, 102000
   The important dotted quad is the first one, 10.99.101.63 in this case.  I think the third dotted quad is the DNS server address, but am not really sure.
10. Exit minicom and configure your hso0 network interface as root or via sudo:
    ifconfig hso0 10.99.101.63 netmask 255.255.255.255 up
    route add default dev hso0
11. That should do it. You might also have to edit your /etc/resolv.conf file to configure your DNS server, if you use a different configuration than I do.

Here are some other links that you might find useful:

Etna – Supported AT Commands (external use), Rev. V2.04

These packages may also be helpful for you, although they were not helpful here:

PHARScape Option USB modem control programs

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