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Vending Machine For Books Coming Next Year

Posted by Zonk on from the i've-heard-of-worse-ideas dept.

An anonymous reader writes "CNN writes about a $50,000 machine that can print books on demand. It can print up to 550 pages and put a binding on the book in seven minutes. It will be debuting in a select number of U.S. libraries in 2007. The machine is the 'output' end of a service called On Demand Books, which is also just debuting. From the article: 'Some 2.5 million books are now available - about one million in English and no longer under copyright protection. On Demand accesses the volumes through Google and the Open Content Alliance, among other sources. [Co-founder Dane] Neller predicts that within about five years On Demand Books will be able to reproduce every volume ever printed.'"

7 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. hear that sound? by macadamia_harold · · Score: 3, Funny

    CNN writes about a $50,000 machine that can print books on demand. It can print up to 550 pages and put a binding on the book in seven minutes.

    I' not sure if you hear that sound. It's faint, but i'm pretty sure it's lulu.com shriveling up and dying. Much like when you pour salt on a snail.

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
    1. Re:hear that sound? by aerthling · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, unless that vending machine can also print magical diamond-toothed attachments for its books that are capable of burrowing through the earth to me in rural Australia, I wouldn't worry about lulu.com shriveling up and dying just yet.

  2. One word: by Wilson_6500 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Neller predicts that within about five years On Demand Books will be able to reproduce every volume ever printed...

    Textbooks

  3. Re:Bah! by kimvette · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh, there's nothing to worry about. Our overlords will simply reload the matrix.

    Duh. Now, get back to metabolizing, coppertop.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  4. Re:Mein Kamft in Comic Sans with Bunny cover by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does this mean I can get a copy of Mein Kamft, hardbound and set in Comin Sans... with a bunny rabbit cover... in seven minutes?

    Why would you want a Ford owner's repair manual in a bunny rabbit cover?

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
  5. Book vending machine? by drsquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine this: You put your $5 in, wait an entire seven minutes for it to print, then the book gets stuck in the coil and doesn't drop down.

  6. 550 Page Limit? by changyang1230 · · Score: 4, Funny

    One thing for sure, this machine can't print Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.