Re:Books will stay on paper
on
Middle Media
·
· Score: 1
I'm counting on books staying on paper for quite some time. I'm just under a year into ownership of an ailing, but full of potential used bookstore.
I find that thet vast majority of fiction readers in my store resist any change from the basic mass market paperback format. Most will read a borrowed hardcover of a favorite author before the paperback comes out, but they'll buy a paperback as a reading copy later.
The key to this, I think, is portability. Paperbacks are easily purchased, inexpensive, and can be carried in a spare pocket nearly anytime. Late last year, I would joke about my huge inventory of portable information storage and retrieval devices, all of which were guaranteed y2k compliant.
People WANT portable, inexpensive and portable. They want the web in their home to be as accessible as a portable telephone, instead of a PC. Until the fiction market can beat the distribution medium of paperback books, I'll still be making money off paper.
This bozo came into my bookstore one day, trying to sell me on some sort of scheme. He found out I was a computer guy, and thought I might be interested in this Internet business opportunity.
He handed me a CD shaped like a rounded business card. I popped it into the center groove of my tray drive CD-Rom and it fired right up with this annoying clipart-animation demo that I put up with as long as I could.
Basically, the only good thing I found in the whole situation was the CD thingy.
Anyway, I kept telling him I wasn't interested in the scheme. I couldn't convince him that my idea for a web business had NOTHING to do with anything he was doing, but he eventually went away and I'm almost ready to launch:)
How d'ya find find out it was her in Raleigh? And why'd ya remeber all this?
Basically, when we decided to get married (approximately 3 weeks after we started dating), she found my business card in her purse. It was like a verification that we should get married.
Sorry. Italics for quotes, but I forgot to close, and clicked submit instead of preview. I might be a moron at times when it comes to writing clean html, but I do know basic calendar science.
Completely wrong. There really was no year 0, therefore the FIRST year was numbered 1, and the 1000th year is 1000.
In any base 10 numerical system, you have to account for zero. Are you trying to tell us that the ten digits of the decimal system are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10? Are calendar systems exempt from the basic rules of math? Exactly what planet are you from?
Once upon a time, mankind had yet to discover the concept of zero. That's why the Roman Numeral System contains no character for 0. Since the calendar's numbering system was designed using roman numerals, ther was no year 0.
I'm from this planet. Once upon a time, people on this planet didn't know as much as they do today. If they had known as much as they do today, we probably would have a calendar similar to the one spoken of by Isaac Asimov in "The Problem of the Moon."
When controvery exists, it is usually best to go to the facts, not listen to Dan Rather.
I've seen a good transparent case. I was at a Raleigh mall about eight years ago, and met a woman who taught for a local community college. She was working a table encouraging folks to take computer courses. On the table was a PC running in a case made almost entirely out of plexiglass.
The case, and not the woman, was what actually caught my eye. You see, I never actually used a case at all, until I'd been using a computer at home for around 3 years. At the time, my case consisted of an old "Computer Shopper" magazine, used to elevate the motherboard enough so that my card edges would be off the shelf the computer sat on.
Having no case is my ideal solution. Unfortunately, today's equipment probably shouldn't be run that wat. I never had to worry about much when I wanted to swap a card, or test other equipment. I'd just power down, pop out a card and pop in another. The power supply could even help move air in the immediate area of the PC.
Later, by the way, I met the same woman (without knowing it was the same woman) and married her. We had a kid. I had to start using a case.
I've got a thing against new year resolutions. I figure, if you see something that needs fixing, just fix it. If you need a NYR to get it done, you probably won't.
I, though, have thought long and hard on several life-enriching improvements that I'm in need of making, so I'm taking this opportunity to just do them. I'd call them millenial resolutions, but I may actually do that when the millenium arrives a year from now.
I hereby resolve, on the occasion of my realizing it, to take back my time in my life, and not let everybody else decide my priorities. This means my mother-in-law, my parents, my sister, my father-in-law and especially, my wife. My son is only 5, so he gets to butt in and remind me not to work too hard.
I hereby resolve to put money near the top of my priority list. Money isn't everything, but everything costs money.
There. It isn't much, but it will sure ease my stress levels, and help me get more done.
I run a used bookstore and have approximately 30,000 Y2k compatible information storage and retrieval devices in stock.
If the apocolypse comes, I expect books to be the next TV, and I'll be a millionaire.
Of course, I'm obliged to point out, as a purveyor of information, that neither the century, nor the millenium, are due to end until the END of 2000. 11 eggs do not make a dozen, and there was no year zero. Just because everybody on TV is an idiot, doesn't mean you have to be.
I've come to believe that some people have so much hatred for capitalism that they're willing to see positives in communism where they don't even exist.
Open source is no more "communist" in nature than recipe exchanges are. On the contrary, I see it as quite the capitalist venture.
The reason these open source projects come about is because there is demand for them, and demand begets supply.
Some people, though, don't require the return on their investment to necessarily be money. If you gain a tool that takes care of a job you need to do, then you've gotten your value. Open source allows you to get that value by gaining access to the work of others. If you're going to go this route, however, you are expected to help the movement along in some way.
Better products at a lower price. That's capitalism at its finest.
Of course, open source is hardly the only way you can go. That's another great thing about the capitalist system. Communists don't need choices:)
Of course, I'm willing to pay for good software. That's why I spent good money on OS/2 and OS/2 applications as long as it met my needs. The good software, though, is now available at a better price. I can get it free.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is making software that doesn't quite measure up to my needs, is problematic for many of my needs, is very hard to configure for my needs, and costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars to purchase the software needed to meet my needs.
Anyone who has seen what communism and other controlled economy simulations can do to a country can see that M$ is easily the best choice for communists:)
It seems to me that a scaled down browser-only browser would benefit greatly if it supported plugins.
That way, if you want to just browse, you can go for it. If, however, you want audio, animation, email or any of the other stuff that's been thrown into the bag, you have the options of downloading and installing them easily.
I agree, though. Maybe a Mozilla Lite would be a good idea for many of us.
The BIGGEST problem with net voting is that it will open the voting process to those who do not have enough interest in politics to drive to a voting place.
I have no problem with making voter registration as easy as possible. Motor Voter, even with the major problems forced in by the Democrats, like never allowing voters to be removed from the rolls, even for death, does allow anyone to register to vote. Cool.
If you want to vote, though, you need to get off your butt and do it. Get in the dern car, turn the key, drive down to your local voting place, and VOTE!
Net voting might get the apathetic to vote, but it won't cure the reason they have the apathy. Therefore, those votes will be extremely uninformed.
Citizenship is a responsibility, not just something you are given. That citizenship requires that you make an informed vote.
If there ever gets to be a net vote, pay attention to the amendments to the bill made by the Democrats. They'll be the ones looking for ways to corrupt the system.
Personally, I'm just waiting for someone to hack together a jack that will let me use all my Atari 2600, 7800, Coleco, Sega Master System and TRS-80 CoCo cartridges without having to have a game system OR a TV.
Dungeons of Daggorath would be COOL if I just had to THINK the commands.
You gotta figure that this email tax is REALLY looking like a great idea to a lot of legislators. They're hearing complaints about unsolicited junk mail, and looking at having a hard time paying for all their vote buying schemes (social programs).
Unfortunately, the email tax idea is a symptom of the problem, rather than a problem in itself. Once upon a time, our federal and state governments saw themselves as stewards of our freedom. Now, they see themselves as stewards of our money. They've already decided that they can spend all of our money they want.
So, since citizens are little more than vending machines for money and votes, nobody should complain about a tiny tax on email. After all, it will still be cheaper than paying a government monopoly to spend far longer to get your mail where you want it to go, maybe.
In order to manage such a tax scheme, a huge network auditing system would have to be in place to make sure that no free email exchanges were taking place. That woulnd't hurt the feelings of Janet "The Butcher" Reno or Bill "I've got your freedom right here in my pants" Clinton much.
Then again, I have a bad attitude about government.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm counting on books staying on paper for quite some time. I'm just under a year into ownership of an ailing, but full of potential used bookstore.
I find that thet vast majority of fiction readers in my store resist any change from the basic mass market paperback format. Most will read a borrowed hardcover of a favorite author before the paperback comes out, but they'll buy a paperback as a reading copy later.
The key to this, I think, is portability. Paperbacks are easily purchased, inexpensive, and can be carried in a spare pocket nearly anytime. Late last year, I would joke about my huge inventory of portable information storage and retrieval devices, all of which were guaranteed y2k compliant.
People WANT portable, inexpensive and portable. They want the web in their home to be as accessible as a portable telephone, instead of a PC. Until the fiction market can beat the distribution medium of paperback books, I'll still be making money off paper.
This makes me happy.
paperbacks.homepage.com
This bozo came into my bookstore one day, trying to sell me on some sort of scheme. He found out I was a computer guy, and thought I might be interested in this Internet business opportunity.
o m</a>
:)
He handed me a CD shaped like a rounded business card. I popped it into the center groove of my tray drive CD-Rom and it fired right up with this annoying clipart-animation demo that I put up with as long as I could.
Basically, the only good thing I found in the whole situation was the CD thingy.
Here's a link.
<a href="http://www.bizcard-cd.com">www.bizcard-cd.c
Anyway, I kept telling him I wasn't interested in the scheme. I couldn't convince him that my idea for a web business had NOTHING to do with anything he was doing, but he eventually went away and I'm almost ready to launch
paperbacks.homepage.com
How d'ya find find out it was her in Raleigh? And why'd ya remeber all this?
Basically, when we decided to get married (approximately 3 weeks after we started dating), she found my business card in her purse. It was like a verification that we should get married.
I haven't regretted it much, since :)
Sorry. Italics for quotes, but I forgot to close, and clicked submit instead of preview. I might be a moron at times when it comes to writing clean html, but I do know basic calendar science.
1st Millenium: 0-999
*snip*
Completely wrong. There really was no year 0, therefore the FIRST year was numbered 1, and the 1000th year is 1000.
In any base 10 numerical system, you have to account for zero. Are you trying to tell us that the ten digits of the decimal system are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10? Are calendar systems exempt from the basic rules of math? Exactly what planet are you from?
Once upon a time, mankind had yet to discover the concept of zero. That's why the Roman Numeral System contains no character for 0. Since the calendar's numbering system was designed using roman numerals, ther was no year 0.
I'm from this planet. Once upon a time, people on this planet didn't know as much as they do today. If they had known as much as they do today, we probably would have a calendar similar to the one spoken of by Isaac Asimov in "The Problem of the Moon."
When controvery exists, it is usually best to go to the facts, not listen to Dan Rather.
I've seen a good transparent case. I was at a Raleigh mall about eight years ago, and met a woman who taught for a local community college. She was working a table encouraging folks to take computer courses. On the table was a PC running in a case made almost entirely out of plexiglass.
The case, and not the woman, was what actually caught my eye. You see, I never actually used a case at all, until I'd been using a computer at home for around 3 years. At the time, my case consisted of an old "Computer Shopper" magazine, used to elevate the motherboard enough so that my card edges would be off the shelf the computer sat on.
Having no case is my ideal solution. Unfortunately, today's equipment probably shouldn't be run that wat. I never had to worry about much when I wanted to swap a card, or test other equipment. I'd just power down, pop out a card and pop in another. The power supply could even help move air in the immediate area of the PC.
Later, by the way, I met the same woman (without knowing it was the same woman) and married her. We had a kid. I had to start using a case.
I've got a thing against new year resolutions. I figure, if you see something that needs fixing, just fix it. If you need a NYR to get it done, you probably won't.
I, though, have thought long and hard on several life-enriching improvements that I'm in need of making, so I'm taking this opportunity to just do them. I'd call them millenial resolutions, but I may actually do that when the millenium arrives a year from now.
I hereby resolve, on the occasion of my realizing it, to take back my time in my life, and not let everybody else decide my priorities. This means my mother-in-law, my parents, my sister, my father-in-law and especially, my wife. My son is only 5, so he gets to butt in and remind me not to work too hard.
I hereby resolve to put money near the top of my priority list. Money isn't everything, but everything costs money.
There. It isn't much, but it will sure ease my stress levels, and help me get more done.
I run a used bookstore and have approximately 30,000 Y2k compatible information storage and retrieval devices in stock.
If the apocolypse comes, I expect books to be the next TV, and I'll be a millionaire.
Of course, I'm obliged to point out, as a purveyor of information, that neither the century, nor the millenium, are due to end until the END of 2000. 11 eggs do not make a dozen, and there was no year zero. Just because everybody on TV is an idiot, doesn't mean you have to be.
I've come to believe that some people have so much hatred for capitalism that they're willing to see positives in communism where they don't even exist.
:)
:)
Open source is no more "communist" in nature than recipe exchanges are. On the contrary, I see it as quite the capitalist venture.
The reason these open source projects come about is because there is demand for them, and demand begets supply.
Some people, though, don't require the return on their investment to necessarily be money. If you gain a tool that takes care of a job you need to do, then you've gotten your value. Open source allows you to get that value by gaining access to the work of others. If you're going to go this route, however, you are expected to help the movement along in some way.
Better products at a lower price. That's capitalism at its finest.
Of course, open source is hardly the only way you can go. That's another great thing about the capitalist system. Communists don't need choices
Of course, I'm willing to pay for good software. That's why I spent good money on OS/2 and OS/2 applications as long as it met my needs. The good software, though, is now available at a better price. I can get it free.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is making software that doesn't quite measure up to my needs, is problematic for many of my needs, is very hard to configure for my needs, and costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars to purchase the software needed to meet my needs.
Anyone who has seen what communism and other controlled economy simulations can do to a country can see that M$ is easily the best choice for communists
Every time I load /. these days, I wish the preferences had a "left - off - right" for each of the slashboxes.
/. better.
MyYahoo does this. Perhaps it could help some of us format our
There's really only one thing I'd add to that.
It seems to me that a scaled down browser-only browser would benefit greatly if it supported plugins.
That way, if you want to just browse, you can go for it. If, however, you want audio, animation, email or any of the other stuff that's been thrown into the bag, you have the options of downloading and installing them easily.
I agree, though. Maybe a Mozilla Lite would be a good idea for many of us.
The BIGGEST problem with net voting is that it will open the voting process to those who do not have enough interest in politics to drive to a voting place.
I have no problem with making voter registration as easy as possible. Motor Voter, even with the major problems forced in by the Democrats, like never allowing voters to be removed from the rolls, even for death, does allow anyone to register to vote. Cool.
If you want to vote, though, you need to get off your butt and do it. Get in the dern car, turn the key, drive down to your local voting place, and VOTE!
Net voting might get the apathetic to vote, but it won't cure the reason they have the apathy. Therefore, those votes will be extremely uninformed.
Citizenship is a responsibility, not just something you are given. That citizenship requires that you make an informed vote.
If there ever gets to be a net vote, pay attention to the amendments to the bill made by the Democrats. They'll be the ones looking for ways to corrupt the system.
Dave
NOT a Republican.
Personally, I'm just waiting for someone to hack together a jack that will let me use all my Atari 2600, 7800, Coleco, Sega Master System and TRS-80 CoCo cartridges without having to have a game system OR a TV.
Dungeons of Daggorath would be COOL if I just had to THINK the commands.
You gotta figure that this email tax is REALLY looking like a great idea to a lot of legislators. They're hearing complaints about unsolicited junk mail, and looking at having a hard time paying for all their vote buying schemes (social programs).
Unfortunately, the email tax idea is a symptom of the problem, rather than a problem in itself. Once upon a time, our federal and state governments saw themselves as stewards of our freedom. Now, they see themselves as stewards of our money. They've already decided that they can spend all of our money they want.
So, since citizens are little more than vending machines for money and votes, nobody should complain about a tiny tax on email. After all, it will still be cheaper than paying a government monopoly to spend far longer to get your mail where you want it to go, maybe.
In order to manage such a tax scheme, a huge network auditing system would have to be in place to make sure that no free email exchanges were taking place. That woulnd't hurt the feelings of Janet "The Butcher" Reno or Bill "I've got your freedom right here in my pants" Clinton much.
Then again, I have a bad attitude about government.
I've decided to collect any links to articles, or other information I can find on this story and post them at fidnet.homepage.com.
Just added the CDT commentary, which also has the draft itself, online.