Hint: turn off “convert quotation marks”, “convert dashes” and “convert spaces”. Being of Russian origin, it wants to convert quotes as > characters, but with HTML and disabling the convert options, I get standard quotes, hyphens, m-dashes.

I emailed the program author with some questions and suggestions, but never did get a reply. The program isn’t perfect, but it is free.

I’m not a fan of bloated executive salaries, huge windfall profits on Wall Street., Publisher’s Row, you name it, but I am also not so fond of the noncorporate alternatives such as the “Just write for free” model. In the case of the Washington Post, for example, the Grahams have enabled their newsroom employees to lead middle- and upper-middle-class lives. I’m still waiting for independent efforts on the Web to be able to do that for writers and editors, not just techies.

The TeleBlog draws in more unique visitors than libraryjournal.com on many days—probably most. But revenue from it is $0. I keep it going as a public service that along the way promotes my little cause of well-stocked national digital libraries.

But believe me, Tamas, I am endlessly vexed when people are more interested in fighting the moguls than in figuring out, “What are the end results?” The ideal situation would be fairer distribution of wealth, in newspapering, book-publishing, you name it, but I’m also grouchy about the alternatives.

Here, as elsewhere, we need balance. I certainly applaud Europe countries for caring more than the U.S. does about fair pay and sufficient leisure time for workers (great for e-book publishers, by the way–since you can’t read books if you’re working all the time!). But let’s also give mogul-bossed corporations, as loathsome as they can often be, their fair due.

Thanks,
David