Re:I was so excited ... at first. Kindle and acade
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The Cult of Kindle
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· Score: 1
I have an iPhone and could do basic reading and commenting if I needed to but you're right, size is the problem. I end up keeping all my papers organized on my laptop with.txt files with the same basename as the.pdf ones. I'd rather a kindle-like device for taking to the coffee shop, etc.
I was so excited ... at first. Kindle and academia
on
The Cult of Kindle
·
· Score: 1
I work in the research sciences (bioinformatics) and I'm dying for a device that lets me:
- store/categorize PDFs of research papers and journals
- annotate them
- search them
This would keep me from carrying around PDF print-outs of the last 10 papers I pulled from PubMed while I go through them and scribble all over the margins. My iPhone can display them, but that's pretty much it. The scientific journal subscription stuff would have worked nicely in their newspaper subscription model. If it could have done all this I have bought Kindle on the first day (and book reading would have been a bonus.)
This is all very detailed, accurate (from what I know), and technically sound, but it misses the point for most people. If we all had HD TVs this would matter, but most people don't. Most people have something like a 27" regular TV with a $100 dvd player, and that is what they care about. Even the budget flat-panel TVs they are selling have a resolution about equal to the current DVD technology, so it doesn't matter if they buy EITHER of these new disk formats or not. 95% of the people out there simply don't have the hardware to resolve the differene between these format, so they don't care (or understand.)
Those high-density music CDs aren't successful because most people don't have $1000+ stereo systems in their homes to take advantage of the improved sound quality. In the same way, MOST people don't want to spend $1000+ on a TV that would be needed to take advantage of these new formats. DVD is enough.
Finally, the Return of the King is coming out soon in its 4-disk box set version, and poeple will pay $40+ for it. Why? Because they are getting 4 disks and the box is a bit bigger than regular boxes, so people feel like they are getting more (which they obviously are.) People are much less likely to buy the same thing when it is only on one HD/Blu-Ray disk because it is still just one disk! People are materialistic; how many times have you overheard people in the store say something like "at $23 that dvd is a bit expensive... oh, it's ok because it is two disks!" That mentality is common, and shows that the technical aspect of having so much space on a disk is good and fine, but the social aspect of it makes it somewhat a hinderance on the technology.
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I have an iPhone and could do basic reading and commenting if I needed to but you're right, size is the problem. I end up keeping all my papers organized on my laptop with .txt files with the same basename as the .pdf ones. I'd rather a kindle-like device for taking to the coffee shop, etc.
I work in the research sciences (bioinformatics) and I'm dying for a device that lets me: - store/categorize PDFs of research papers and journals - annotate them - search them This would keep me from carrying around PDF print-outs of the last 10 papers I pulled from PubMed while I go through them and scribble all over the margins. My iPhone can display them, but that's pretty much it. The scientific journal subscription stuff would have worked nicely in their newspaper subscription model. If it could have done all this I have bought Kindle on the first day (and book reading would have been a bonus.)
oh my god, that's the funniest thing I've read today.
This is all very detailed, accurate (from what I know), and technically sound, but it misses the point for most people. If we all had HD TVs this would matter, but most people don't. Most people have something like a 27" regular TV with a $100 dvd player, and that is what they care about. Even the budget flat-panel TVs they are selling have a resolution about equal to the current DVD technology, so it doesn't matter if they buy EITHER of these new disk formats or not. 95% of the people out there simply don't have the hardware to resolve the differene between these format, so they don't care (or understand.)
... oh, it's ok because it is two disks!" That mentality is common, and shows that the technical aspect of having so much space on a disk is good and fine, but the social aspect of it makes it somewhat a hinderance on the technology.
Those high-density music CDs aren't successful because most people don't have $1000+ stereo systems in their homes to take advantage of the improved sound quality. In the same way, MOST people don't want to spend $1000+ on a TV that would be needed to take advantage of these new formats. DVD is enough.
Finally, the Return of the King is coming out soon in its 4-disk box set version, and poeple will pay $40+ for it. Why? Because they are getting 4 disks and the box is a bit bigger than regular boxes, so people feel like they are getting more (which they obviously are.) People are much less likely to buy the same thing when it is only on one HD/Blu-Ray disk because it is still just one disk! People are materialistic; how many times have you overheard people in the store say something like "at $23 that dvd is a bit expensive
IMHO