Member postings for Steven Naslund

I don't mind the multi part articles.if the subject is complex like an engine or locomotive but something like a tool holder for the lathe is more like a weekend project for me. This also brings up the back issue problem. If you subscribed today about 50 percent of the current issue will be useless to you without the back issues where the articles and projects start. This is a bad first impression like walking into a movie an hour into it. The key is that you have to give enough of a project so the user can be busy until the next issue.

I am a member of the woodwhispererguild and they do wood working videos. There they show you a project you can choose to subscribe to and then they release weekly videos until the project is complete. You only pay for what you are interested in or you can optionally subscriber for an entire year at a discount. Project price varies with the amount of complexity. It is paced so the average guy would have to work pretty hard to stay up with the pace. You also have access for life to the content you paid for and you can go back a buy access to any past project you like. This magazine could sell back issues on a project by project basis where you could buy a complete start to finish project you want to build without all the other ongoing stuff in between. Happier customer gets exactly what they are interested in and magazine potentially makes more money since I might be paying a little more to get only what I want to build. Buying individual complete back issues means I get the project I want but a much larger percentage of other mid project noise that feels like lost value. Digital will be more focused and successful if they break the cover to cover print model.

This might get me in hot water somehow but I will tell you guys this.

ANY application that displays data on your screen will be unable to completely protect that data from being saved because in order to display that data it must be presented to your hardware in a clear format. They can make it very inconvenient and painful to do it. It is also probably a violation of their terms. In most countries the right of fair use would allow you to archive it for your own use but I am not a lawyer.

There are lots of utilities that can capture video or images from your screen. I am not advocating their use to steal things that are not yours or violate any agreement but I am pointing out the futility of copy protection in general. It has never ever been successful. It has been tried with VHS, DVD, blu ray and digital books and it has always been defeated.for better or worse. In the US we are seeing new laws regarding escrow of digital content to ensure that if a company that publishes secure ebook goes under, the copy protections can be disabled by a court order. This is usually done by forcing disclosure of encryption keys.

I cannot be responsible if you were to go out on your own and look for screen capture utilities. Your pc might even have that capability already built in. Maybe even with something as simple as a print screen key on your keyboard.

I get what you are saying about management not reading the forums but since this area is specifically dedicated to digital magazine this seemed like the place for that subject. If they choose not to monitor this, they are probably beyond hope. I think if most of us owned a business, we would monitor a forum that discusses their business. I admit I was a little aggravated and I did actually send an email to the subscription people directly, which they have failed so far to answer. Par for the course. I guess more than anything I feel bad that westerners in general are loosing engineering skills at a huge rate and with the advent of cnc a lot of machinists have lost the twiddling knobs skills that I was able to learn and have helped a lot with other skills in my life. I am hoping that a resource such as this can make a smooth transition to the digital environment but it does not look good so far.

I like cnc and there are some things that are very difficult without it but I feel that we learn more starting out with manual techniques that seem nigh impossible to learn today.

As far.as the permanency of digital archives, that is a tough one but on the bright side we are getting lots of access to old out of print books that will probably never be reprinted because they are not in wide enough demand. We need to try to insure that as companies come and go they don't take accumulated knowledge with them. There probably needs to be a rewriting of intellectual property law so that these things are not lost. Something like a national or international library that archives data. I hate government involvement in general but I see no other way to insure data is not lost. One challenge for us is to decide today what will be relevant in the future since it is physically impossible to store everything we create today. I just read that since the Apollo moon landing we have recorded more information in print and electronically than the entire rest of history. Amazing stuff.

I don't know exactly why I feel this way but this magazine and the hobby in general give me the feeling they are teetering on the brink of extinction. It might be that I am seeing the average age of the readership rising. Same thing is going on in other hobbies like model ship building. Kids now seem not to be interested in physically making stuff. That scares me because the skills of making stuff helps you in life in unanticipated ways.

I will post elsewhere in the forum about the cnc Bridgeport with the iPad controller. It is very cool stuff. It uses wifi and cameras so you can use an iPad to see what is going on and control the machine remotely. You can watch a job run and stop it in an instant if something is going wrong. It combine the machining and computer technologies I love to great effect.

I was just thinking of how cool it would be for a guy that does not have access to such nice machinery to be able to contract time remotely and see his job run. All you would need is for someone to load the right tooling and materials for you.

For the magazine to step away from their forums lie a mistake. One major advantage of the online world is the ability to more directly contact your customers. They may not like what they hear but It is usually unvarnished truth. People tend to speak more bluntly online. This is a double edged sword of course but It does give a more accurate indication of what the customers are feeling. The forums are a great way to measure interest in certain subjects. For example, if lots of people are talking about a technique or machine, that may be an indication to explore that subject in an article. They could also find out who many be knowledge enough to create some content for them. They have a good opportunity to collect knowledge globally here.

Just think about the fact that a guy on his couch Christmas day in Chicao is talking with guys in the UK about this stuff. Powerful communication when you think about it.

BTW Happy Holidays to you all.

Haven't talked to them directly since there is really no point. Once the subscription is purchased from pocket mags you are pretty much in for the duration of it. I just really think the hobby and the magazine are in big trouble unless we can attract some younger blood and online is where they will be found. I myself was not an iPad fan until we bought a Bridgeport with cnc that had an iPad control panel. The iPad turned out to be real useful in the shop since it is so light and portable. As far as MTM not participating on the forums, that is too bad since the title of this area is digital magazines you would think they might be interested. I am glad they concentrate on editing but I am quite certain their main concern would be selling the product.

Not really venting since the money is not a concern, just thought they might like to make their digital product better. I can well afford the back issues I need so not a big deal. I think the content is great but their distribution of it is not so great to reach a wider audience. Like many of you I am really concerned that younger people are learning very little science and engineering these days. As a tech guy and an experienced professional machinist I would like to help with that.

One thing younger people seem to have little of is patience so another thing MTM might want to look into is the many part articles spread over months. I think that might be a turnoff as well. I am still thinking about how that might be avoided but no great solution comes to mind immediately.

To the gentleman having the problem seeing the content, he might want to try some other browsers since it is hard to get media content to behave the same on all of them. It sucks but that is the state of browsers today. Most developers will test on IE and call it a day. We try to test for IE, chrome, and safari but not a lot of developers spend that kind of time.

No need to get personal Danny. All I am saying is the there should be no need to read fine print to buy a subscription and there should be no difference between the two digital sources.

Nick you are right that the link does not talk about the online archive but the web site does, the magazine itself advertises that fact, and it is all over the forums. I made a mistake assuming all digital subscriptions to this magazine were the same. I admitted that . I am just telling the magazine that it is dumb to have these second class subscription available.

One more thing and then I promise I will shut up on this subject. If you look to the right on this page you will see and box that says "digital back issues available". That is where I clicked, there is no indication that is anything other than the official way to get to digital back issues.

Next, I noticed that your contact Kate had to relay her comment through a volunteer moderator rather than respond here directly. If the magazine management cannot figure out how to answer a forum post then they are truly digitally doomed. Come on Kate, let's have some lively digital discourse here. Digital companies need to connect more directly with their customers. Do I need to send a telex to contact your office

Obviously I needed to do more research before subscribing to your magazine. I now understand that your official app developer seems to sell their own digital subscriptions that are different than yours. My point is that you cannot expect a person that first lands on your website to read your terms and then your app developers terms and then you r FAQ to figure out what to do. I linked to your app developer, saw the mag and pushed the subscribe button. My fault I guess but I would think that is how you would want people to buy from you. Most people do not want to go through a lot of details. Trust me on this because my day job involves running an e commerce site that does 30 million us dollars a day in business for a 10 billion us dollar corporation.

My advice would be to clarify the relationship with your app developer so they are just your app developer or convince them to offer the same terms you do. Your customers should not have to divine your business relationships. No matter where I buy your magazine in print or digitally it should be the same product.

Here is how I would do it.

1. A print subscriber should pay the digital rate plus the cost associated physical mag and get access to online issues and back issues. The idea is to give them the print mag they want and get them to see that digital is useful and maybe switch to it which is more profitable for you. When their subscription runs out, they of course keep their physical magazine and the online access to the issue during the term of their subscription. Back issues are no long er available. That is the enticement to resubscribe. Allowing permanent access to purchased issues removes the main argument against digital which is loss of value after the subscription ends.

2. A digital subscription should work the same way without the hard copy. Access in perpetuity to the paid for mags and access to the archive only during the term of subscription.

The answer to the hard copy subscriber that feels they are paying for digital they don't need is that they get the benefit of the digital archive. Print media is dying worldwide, just ask the newspapers. If they want this content, at some point digital will be the only way to get it. Think about the process of daily or weekly publications chopping down trees printing on the paper, shipping it worldwide and having people do it all again tomorrow or next week. There is no way that can compete economically with digital. At some point the print subscriber will have to pay ridiculous rates or go the way of stone tablets.

You can debate these points but just remember that this is the opinion of a tech savvy new international customer. I am guessing that this type of customer is desired in a global digital world and also the most profitable type of customer. Once your content is produced there is very little overhead in scaling that to millions of digital subscribers. Compare that to the expense of adding millions of worldwide print subscribers. Rules 1 of business is not to anger your most profitable customer.

Lets see how you could fix this. You could just verify with pocket mags who subscribed with them and authorize the account for online access.c if pocket mags won't do it, don't let them sell subscriptions. Simple isn't it.

You must be joking with that response. If you look at the right advert bar on your home page you will see a link saying digital back issues now available in app. I clicked there which took me to the iTunes store and the pocket mags app which I assumed was how you deliver digital issues. I got the app and saw a link to subscribe. There was no sort of warning that that digital subscription was different from yours. It's not like this is an unauthorized source since your site linked me to it.

As far as your Sony reference, if Sony says the tv includes a remote control than no matter where I purchase it I will get one. Your comparison is ridiculous.

Looking around your web forums there are a lot of complaints like this so maybe instead of explaining this ridiculous policy over and over, you might want to change it. So just for arguments sake, if I purchased a subscription direct from you, would it work on an iPad?

Since you see nothing false, look here : **LINK**

In item 11 it states :

"Digital Subscribers are currently entitled to access an Online Archive of their magazine in addition to their downloadable subscription issues."

Now look here in your FAQ : **LINK**

Q: I bought my subscription through the app on my mobile device. Do I get any subscriber benefits?

A:Unfortunately as all of our subscriber benefits are driven by your MyTime Media Subscriber Number we are not able to provide any benefits to Apple/Google/Amazon subscribers. If you would like to switch to subscribe directly through us you will need to cancel your subscription with your app store provider and call our customer services on 0844 543 8200 (UK) or +44 1858 438 798 (Overseas) (Phone lines are open weekdays 8am – 9.30pm & Saturday 8am – 4pm (GMT)), alternatively you can subscribe online by through the Subscribe section on this website.

Seems to me to be a conflict between your FAQ and your Terms and Conditions.

It would also seem to me that the page entitled Terms and Conditions would be definitive, would it not. Here in the US Terms and Conditions are considered legal statements of fact. If you violate the Terms and Conditions of a contract (which is what a subscription is) you are in breech of contract. When I subscribe we are both agreeing to the Terms and Conditions not your FAQ.

Are you quite certain it is my fault that I am confused?

So I am now reading the fine print and I am seeing that if I purchase the subscription through the iPad app instead of your website, I get a subscription that does not include access to the online archive.

WHAT DIFFERENCE SHOULD IT MAKE WHERE WE BUY THE SUBSCRIPTION!?!?!?

This is the app that you recommend for the iPad. Why should it be a worse deal than your website? You have more fine print than the last mortgage paperwork I signed. Here is a novel idea : A digital subscription includes the same features no matter where you buy it.

You guys seem to be online here trying to explain why your system is fair without noticing that you are getting tons of complaints. You might feel you are right but if your customers don't see it, it does not matter. You seem very concerned that your customers might get something they are not entitled to but remember that the digital subscriber is the most profitable one for you. The digital subscriber cuts a lot of your overhead expenses like paper, printing, postage, etc.

It is misleading because the pocketmags app shows you back issues and wants you to pay for them when you should not be. I bought a subscription and paid for several back issues before I realized that I should not have had to pay for them. That is wrong, wrong, wrong.

If someone subscribes via pocketmags you need to at least send a confirmation email with the instructions and account numbers to access the web site.

When you subscribe on Pocketmags you don't get a subscription number so there is no way to enter that into your web site. Why would you not have everything accessible through Pocketmags? That is pretty confusing to have back issues for free on the web site but in the app that you use to access your subscription you get charged for back issues, It also means I need to use two different user interfaces and possibly two different devices depending whether I am reading a current issue or a back issue. Have not tried to access the back issues via an ipad yet so I don't even know if that is possible, maybe once I figure out how to get them I will find out.

If you happen to know where one would get a subscription number if you sign up in Pocketmags, that would be nice to know. All you get in the app is an eight digit Pocketmags account number which is apparently not the same thing.

By the way, I develop iPad apps professionally and I have been a web developer since 1992 so if I can't figure out how your system works, you are going to have lots of subscribers that don't get it. I have digital subscriptions to several magazines in the US. Popular Woodworking and Fine Woodworking do handle online subscriptions properly, I would suggest you see how the Fine Woodworking site works.

Essentially this is false advertising. I read many of your offers that claimed that a digital subscription included access to digital back issues. Apparently not since pocket mags want to charge me for the few back issues they have. Since so many of your articles have many parts unless I go back the magazine is not very useful until you start new projects. I am going to send a snapshot of your claims of offering back issues with digital subscriptions to the management at Apple iTunes and request removal of the misleading app from the iTunes store.

Steven Naslund

Chicago IL