Kindle
There's a big-city hustle that goes like this: a hustler comes up to offering to fence you some stolen big-ticket electronics item, still sealed in its box -- say, a video camera. You can heft that box all you like, but no opening the shrink-wrap, as that would lower the resale value. Once you give the crackhead $20 for this boss $1000 camera and tear off the shrinkwrap, you discover that you've just bought a brick in a camcorder box. Basically, it's what happens when you combine crackheads, a supply of fresh consumer electronics boxes, and a shrinkwrapping machine.
Here's a modern twist on an old favorite: buy a Powerbook for a double-sawbuck. What's in the black, sleek Powerbook box?
"A fake laptop made of gray garbage bag and cardboard, spray-painted platinum silver and finished with A HAND-PAINTED APPLE LOGO DONE IN WITE-OUT."
Oh, man, that's some Martha Stewartoid crackhead creativity.
Link
(via Making Light)
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.