Commentary

Linux for writers

This entry was posted in Commentary Tools and tagged computers Linux software on by

Users are discovering that Windows 10, among its many annoyances, doesn’t work well if you can’t get reliable Internet download speeds of 10 megabits a second or better without a data cap. Macs are better in some ways (I’m using one right now), but they’re expensive. A lot of writers would just like a reasonably priced laptop that doesn’t make unreasonable demands on their connection.

Some writers consider a Chromebook a reasonable solution. It’s cheap and it doesn’t have ridiculous bandwidth requirements. You can use it in a library or a coffee shop. All your documents are online, so if you have a desktop machine at home, you can easily move documents between it and the Chromebook. But it means handing all your documents over to Google. I like having my files on my own computer, thank you. If Google locks you out of your account (I’ve had that happen temporarily) or terminates it for any reason, everything is gone. If you don’t like other people reading what you write before you submit it, how confident are you that Google doesn’t?
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A banned book you may never see 3

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship law on by

“Banned Books Week” has become a joke. I call it “bland books week.” Its definition of “banned” includes being deemed inappropriate for elementary school libraries. This is at best deceptive, and it’s an excuse for not talking about books that face actual efforts to ban them. The list also includes “challenged” books; that means simply that somebody asked a library not to carry a book. Talking about real banned books would require entering real controversies.

Unless you think school libraries should carry everything down to and including hard porn, “banning” in that sense is justified in some cases. “Challenging” hardly deserves notice at all, unless it results in serious consideration of excluding a book. Whether a school library carries Captain Underpants or not isn’t an issue of freedom of the press. Whether a book can be published at all is. There are books which have actually been banned in recent US history.
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Writers: Are you an employee or a contractor?

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged business clients writing on by

Occasionally I hear from freelance writers who mistakenly think they’re employees. Some even list clients as employers on LinkedIn. I don’t think I’ve ever run into the reverse. In the United States, there’s a clear distinction between the two, and it’s important to know which you are.

If you’re an employee, you filled out a W-2 form for the IRS, and your employer deducts taxes from your paycheck. If you’re a contractor, you’re self-employed. You get a 1099 reporting your income, and normally the IRS collects the tax through estimated tax payments or with the 1040 in April. You get the privilege of paying double Social Security tax. On the positive side, you can deduct business expenses, perhaps even a home office.
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Busted for writing without a license?

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing as business and tagged law licensing on by

Opponents of the First Amendment rarely say they’re against it. They say things like “money isn’t speech,” by which they mean that your rights end when money changes hands. This would reduce freedom of speech to the freedom to stand on a soapbox and deliver an oration, provided you hadn’t paid for the soapbox.

Nonetheless, some states and localities won’t let you do any kind of business without government permission. This includes selling your writing. An article by Kylie Jane Wakefield gives some ugly details. Some governments demand money before they’ll give you permission to write for income, sometimes as much as $100 per year.
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Stop being an unpaid publicist for Google!

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Google Internet research on by

Google has accomplished something impressive. It has thousands or millions of people who regularly tell others to use its search engine. They don’t do it because they think it’s better than the alternatives. They don’t do it because they’re paid to. They do it because being an unpaid publicist for Google is a social norm. Want to show you’re smart when someone asks a question? Tell them to “Google” for it. No intelligence required.
Google is far from the only search engine around. Among the alternatives:
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