A comparison between university professors and school teachers comes to mind. The former surely has a lot more knowledge on his subject than the latter, he has a PhD and everything. But the school teacher has a lot more training in how to convey that information efficiently, how to best reach the people he teaches.
In addition to being an example for the GP's argument, to which you agreed, this is also a case where broader, albeit less in-depth knowledge makes the school teacher a better educator.
This tool is probably meant for a controlled environment. People will not be allowed to bring their own OS.
Besides, a similar tool can be made using Linux' hal...
How would you go about studying pain?
Tons of reasons for doing that, especially finding ways to relieve pain. And no better (practical) way than to actually cause pain.
People endure pain all the time, hoping for some kind of reward that outweighs the pain endured. For some, helping science and a twenty dollar bill is enough reward to endure a little cold water. Which really isn't that bad, after all, people go for a swim in frozen lakes just for fun.
Bashing Apple for the sake of bashing Apple doesn't bring your point across very well. That even stopped working for Microsoft, finally.
Face it, Apple's hugely popular, you don't have to like it or agree with it, but denying it brings you nowhere. And they're using their influence to further their own agenda. Who wouldn't?
Not to mention the DRM infrastructure they build around PDF (and EPUB).
But they do get away with it it seems, maybe because their SDK for those fileformats is without real competition (that I know of). Every E-Reader with support for those formats I've seen uses this SDK...
As far as I know, Facebook requires an account to get to see or collect anything on their site.
Which means he agreed to some kind of TOS. The robots.txt argument seems to fail there - the TOS most likely takes precedent over what the robots.txt file allows.
Interesting. In Germany, we have insurances that pay the legal fees when you need to protect your rights. They're called "rights protection insurance", and it's absurd that those a required. They're just a quick patch for a broken legal system.
But they do lower the price of being actually able to fight for your rights, allowing more people to do so...
Re:He didn't address suitability of it as a ereade
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The assumption that other people don't like reading, that you're part of some illustrious group that sets itself apart from the masses that allegedly don't read their books (not finishing a book is not the same as not reading them at all), that's what borders on elitism.
Re:It has a lot of issues that could be improved
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Okay, for your use case, reading at night, you're probably stuck with LCDs. But not all e-readers have the poor contrast Kindles seem to have.
Re:It has a lot of issues that could be improved
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I know two readers (the iRex Illiad and one that's not yet released) with a lot more contrast than shown on the picture you linked.
So, it's not a shortcoming of the technology as such - though I wonder, what has Amazon done wrong, and why are their devices still so popular?
Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground
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Isn't the older model a lot slower in rendering PDFs? At least that was my impression..
Re:He didn't address suitability of it as a ereade
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iPad Review
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Even though I don't finish every book I buy, I still consider myself to be a reader.
The percentage of books I do finish increased when I started using an ebook-reader though. Mostly for practical reasons - I can take my books with me without feeling their weight, and read whenever I have some free time.
So maybe I'm not the kind of reader who has a separate study room with reading as its sole purpose, maybe I don't invest as much time in reading overall as you maybe do. But you can't go and say that people who don't finish their books aren't readers, that you're a minority because you actually like to read. That borders on elitism, and doesn't do your point much good.
Re:It has a lot of issues that could be improved
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iPad Review
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What is it with the claims of low contrast on the Kindle?
Is it something about the DX, or do all Kindles have that problem? Is it like the Sony Touch with its touchscreen layer?
Or do you find all e-ink displays to be lacking in contrast?
The arrogance stems from the emphasize on THEIR code, which THEY are rewriting.
Yes, people learn from other people's experiences. But some seem to think it's only them that do..
While I can't comment on the radiation issues (a touchy subject with lots and lots of seemingly conflicting findings by not necessarily independent researchers), some of those towers do generate a very annoying sound.
A friend of mine lives in close proximity of one of those beasts, and the high pitched humming makes me uncomfortable. Wouldn't want to live there myself.
I'd be annoyed with the precision of movement that would require. The maximum distance between the screen and the stylus is too small, when using the device in a car you would touch the screen every time there's a bump in the road.
Besides, it probably would be very tiring, leading to a kind of gorilla arm syndrome.
I too am trying to read technical books on an eReader.
Agreed, it's not very practical. There's a useless border wasting screen space, and the reflowing doesn't work on pages with figures and breaks formulas.
What the world needs is a working PDF to EPUP (HTML) converter.
I'd say the Iliad is an okay device for reading A4 PDFs. Not so for fiction books though.
But I myself only had the cash for one device, and the PRS-600 is a workable compromise for me.
First of all, I don't advocate DRM in any form.
But DRM ebooks are in no way harder to reproduce than traditional dead wood books, provided you have an E-Reader.
Actually, it's easier - a shellscript driving a scanner and a glued down "Next Page" button is all you need.
But note that touch screen devices often have more powerful hardware. Depending on what files you're going to read, that would have a great impact on reading comfort.
Especially PDF text books take quite a lot of processing.
Yes! Isn't that annoying?
I have no idea why they wouldn't have a "lock zoom" feature. Have you ever tried removing the borders with pdftk or something?
Slashdot Mirror
You think so?
A comparison between university professors and school teachers comes to mind. The former surely has a lot more knowledge on his subject than the latter, he has a PhD and everything. But the school teacher has a lot more training in how to convey that information efficiently, how to best reach the people he teaches.
In addition to being an example for the GP's argument, to which you agreed, this is also a case where broader, albeit less in-depth knowledge makes the school teacher a better educator.
This tool is probably meant for a controlled environment. People will not be allowed to bring their own OS.
Besides, a similar tool can be made using Linux' hal...
given how many people go out and buy something when they're down.
:)
Women supposedly do it so often it became a sitcom meme ages ago.
Still, doing a study on it might have some merit. Now those scientists at least have some idea what's up when their women go on a shopping spree
Okay, so scalding doesn't mean what I thought it meant. Doesn't matter, people voluntarily expose themselves to heat as well.
How would you go about studying pain?
Tons of reasons for doing that, especially finding ways to relieve pain. And no better (practical) way than to actually cause pain.
People endure pain all the time, hoping for some kind of reward that outweighs the pain endured. For some, helping science and a twenty dollar bill is enough reward to endure a little cold water. Which really isn't that bad, after all, people go for a swim in frozen lakes just for fun.
.o(Tsk. Humor-impaired mods.)
Bashing Apple for the sake of bashing Apple doesn't bring your point across very well. That even stopped working for Microsoft, finally.
Face it, Apple's hugely popular, you don't have to like it or agree with it, but denying it brings you nowhere. And they're using their influence to further their own agenda. Who wouldn't?
Not to mention the DRM infrastructure they build around PDF (and EPUB).
But they do get away with it it seems, maybe because their SDK for those fileformats is without real competition (that I know of). Every E-Reader with support for those formats I've seen uses this SDK...
As far as I know, Facebook requires an account to get to see or collect anything on their site.
Which means he agreed to some kind of TOS. The robots.txt argument seems to fail there - the TOS most likely takes precedent over what the robots.txt file allows.
Interesting. In Germany, we have insurances that pay the legal fees when you need to protect your rights. They're called "rights protection insurance", and it's absurd that those a required. They're just a quick patch for a broken legal system.
But they do lower the price of being actually able to fight for your rights, allowing more people to do so...
The assumption that other people don't like reading, that you're part of some illustrious group that sets itself apart from the masses that allegedly don't read their books (not finishing a book is not the same as not reading them at all), that's what borders on elitism.
Okay, for your use case, reading at night, you're probably stuck with LCDs. But not all e-readers have the poor contrast Kindles seem to have.
I know two readers (the iRex Illiad and one that's not yet released) with a lot more contrast than shown on the picture you linked.
So, it's not a shortcoming of the technology as such - though I wonder, what has Amazon done wrong, and why are their devices still so popular?
Isn't the older model a lot slower in rendering PDFs? At least that was my impression..
Even though I don't finish every book I buy, I still consider myself to be a reader.
The percentage of books I do finish increased when I started using an ebook-reader though. Mostly for practical reasons - I can take my books with me without feeling their weight, and read whenever I have some free time.
So maybe I'm not the kind of reader who has a separate study room with reading as its sole purpose, maybe I don't invest as much time in reading overall as you maybe do. But you can't go and say that people who don't finish their books aren't readers, that you're a minority because you actually like to read. That borders on elitism, and doesn't do your point much good.
What is it with the claims of low contrast on the Kindle?
Is it something about the DX, or do all Kindles have that problem? Is it like the Sony Touch with its touchscreen layer?
Or do you find all e-ink displays to be lacking in contrast?
Jeez that guy's hard to take seriously.
Using the rhetorics of conspiracy nuts makes you a conspiracy nut.
The arrogance stems from the emphasize on THEIR code, which THEY are rewriting.
Yes, people learn from other people's experiences. But some seem to think it's only them that do..
While I can't comment on the radiation issues (a touchy subject with lots and lots of seemingly conflicting findings by not necessarily independent researchers), some of those towers do generate a very annoying sound.
A friend of mine lives in close proximity of one of those beasts, and the high pitched humming makes me uncomfortable. Wouldn't want to live there myself.
I'd be annoyed with the precision of movement that would require. The maximum distance between the screen and the stylus is too small, when using the device in a car you would touch the screen every time there's a bump in the road.
Besides, it probably would be very tiring, leading to a kind of gorilla arm syndrome.
I too am trying to read technical books on an eReader.
Agreed, it's not very practical. There's a useless border wasting screen space, and the reflowing doesn't work on pages with figures and breaks formulas.
What the world needs is a working PDF to EPUP (HTML) converter.
I'd say the Iliad is an okay device for reading A4 PDFs. Not so for fiction books though.
But I myself only had the cash for one device, and the PRS-600 is a workable compromise for me.
First of all, I don't advocate DRM in any form.
But DRM ebooks are in no way harder to reproduce than traditional dead wood books, provided you have an E-Reader.
Actually, it's easier - a shellscript driving a scanner and a glued down "Next Page" button is all you need.
But note that touch screen devices often have more powerful hardware. Depending on what files you're going to read, that would have a great impact on reading comfort.
Especially PDF text books take quite a lot of processing.
Yes! Isn't that annoying?
I have no idea why they wouldn't have a "lock zoom" feature. Have you ever tried removing the borders with pdftk or something?