Why is it that I'd have to spend >$300 for an e-book reader when I can pick up a portable DVD player (that has MORE 'computing power' in it) in a blister package at Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, etc. for under $99?
A possible reason for the higher cost of e-book readers is due to the newer technology involved. Electronic ink much newer than portable video screens like used the type used in portable DVD players.
I'd rather see something along the lines of a player that could handle TXT & RTF & PDF files and put them on the screen (as well as play movies). I could burn my stuff to a CD or DVD, drop it in the unit, and carry all the books I wanted. Give it a USB port for a thumb-ball or mouse for navigation, or keyboard for searching, and I'll bet people would snap 'em up in a minute.
One of the things that have hampered many previous e-book devices is the lit screen. Based on my experience with Palm handhelds, looking at a lit screen is very hard on the eyes over time. One of the best things about e-ink screens is that they don't have to be backlit to be read, making it easy to read for long period of time without eye discomfort.
I agree with the above document formats, and would add HTML to the list. Due to its abilities (such as links within the document) and formatting that can easily be adapted to any screen size, HTML provides a good option as an e-book format.
A problem I've observed with trying to combine different functions in the same device is that they tend to have conflicting requirements. An e-ink screen is great for reading and for static images, but its refresh rate makes it impractical to use for moving video.
PDF isn't ideal for long-term storage, but it's perfect for display. The PDFs from feedbooks are the best looking and easiest to read content I have on my iLiad. They are generated using some custom settings for the device's screen size. Rendering each page uses very little by way of CPU power, and they are a real joy to read. And why on earth do you want a backlight on an eInk device? The entire point of it is that it has the same optical properties as a printed page and is less likely to cause eye strain than an emissive device. If you want to read in the dark, get a light that clips on to the top.
I agree about PDF being a good e-book format. I have the Sony E-Reader and one of the biggest irritants for me is the inconsistent fonts with plain text and RTF files. In some documents the text will display all of the text in a sans serif font (like Arial), and other documents will show a mixture of serif fonts and san serif fonts (which is what I prefer if the document is all one font). This is regardless of the actual fonts used in the document.
PDFs avoid the above issue. I use StarOffice 8.0 to make PDFs and I've found they work well with my reader as long as I set the page size to the same size as my reader's screen. This gives me complete control over the document (including widows/orphan control) and I can easily see exactly how my e-book will look on my reader. This is something that can't be done with RTF or plain text.
Also, if I want to put the e-book on another reader with a different screen size, a quick page size change is all that is needed to allow me to generate a new version of the e-book for that screen size. I don't have to completely reformat the e-book for a new reader.
I've used a Palm as an e-book reader, and one of the worst things about it was the backlight (especially on the all-lit screens like on all of the current Palms). An e-ink screen (like on the Sony E-Reader) is much easier on the eyes, allowing me to reader for hours with little eye strain.
C3PO has a high, whiny, irritating voice. He appears to be based on an incredibly offensive stereotype. He looks goofy at best. He's clumsy -- he may try to help, but if he actually does any good, it's only because of pure dumb luck.
CP30 does demonstrate some usefulness at several points in the series, thats not the result of 'pure dumb luck'. In Star Wars, he fools some stormtroopers on the Death Star so that R2 can help out Han, Luke and Leia by shutting down the garbage compactor. In ESB, he informs Han the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon is damaged and helsp repair later (Even if he interrupts Han and Leia's near intimate moment) He translates for Luke Skylwalker a few times in RTOJ. I wouldn't consider any of those be 'dumb luck'. Plus we can forgive CP30's faults because he's a droid and 'thats not what he was programmed for'.
I agree that C3PO's apparent flaws are due to his being in a place he was not designed for. Even limited articulation is understandable since the environment he was intended for wouldn't require much. I doubt much articulation would be needed for the diplomatic duties that a droid like C3PO would be required to perform.
Also, some of his quirks can be explained due to the fact that he is a non-standard model (mostly hand created by Anakin instead of being from an assembly line like most of the other protocol droids would be). Considering his circumstances and the environments he has found himself, it is a little surprising that he survived as intact as he has.
Also, don't forget about comic books and manga. Although most comic books are firmly in the superhero genre, there are also some excellent sci-fi titles. Among them is "Y - The Last Man," which is set in a world identical to ours until the Summer of 2002 when, at the same time all over the entire world, every mammal with a Y chromosome instantly dies. Only two males survive: One man and his helper monkey. This series just ended with issue #60.
With manga, there are a massive number of sci-fi stories, including:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Gundum series (I've heard it described as the "Star Wars" of Japan)
I heard that the brother's W were making a Speed Racer movie quite some time ago... honestly it puzzled me how anyone could make a movie worth watching with Speed Racer as the source material.
Actually, a movie version of Speed Racer has been in work for a very long time, long before "The Matrix" was released. When I first heard about a movie version, Johnny Depp was one of the actors being considered for the role of Speed. If I remember correctly, it was soon after he was on the series "21 Jump Street."
Easily 90% of the television shows I watch are first recorded on my DVR. I do not have time to sit and watch the show on the network's schedule. Consider this: If the broadcast flag is set so that I cannot record the show and watch it at a time when it is convenient to me, then I will simply not watch the show. If the concern is that viewers will skip some commercials when watching a recorded broadcast, imagine how many commercials will be skipped if they don't watch at all.
I strongly agree. For me, I'd estimate that more than 98% of the TV I watch is recorded via a DVR. It is extremely rare that I watch TV as it is actually broadcast. Also, just about everything I watch is not on network TV (the only network show that comes to mind is "Samantha Who?").
Also, if a show cannot be recorded due to an activated broadcast flag, there is nothing to stop viewers from moving to other shows they CAN record, or to DVDs, or to on-line entertainment, etc. It is not the three-network-channel days anymore, people have many sources of television entertainment that the networks are in competition with, including their own older shows on DVD.
Are you using any specific converter for PDF's? The average PDF I move to my Reader looks like crap or I have to go to landscape mode and I haven't had much satisfaction with PDF's.
My experience with already-existing PDFs on my reader (the Sony Reader) is that they are usually unreadable because the documents are designed for a much larger display (like being printed on a sheet of typing paper). When displayed on the reader, it shrinks the entire page to fit on the screen, making the font too small to read.
The program I use to make PDFs is StarOffice 8.0 (a program similar to OpenOffice.org 2.0) and it can make a PDF from pretty much any file that it can open. I've not used it to make many PDFs, I prefer to use RTFs on my ebook reader since the text easily adjusts when I increase/decrease the font size.
I've found it makes PDFs that are easily readable on my reader as long as I set the document's page size to the same size as the size of my reader's screen. Then, page preview will give you an idea of what the document will look like on your ebook reader and you can make adjustments where needed.
The only problem I have with my Sony Reader is the proprietary format and the resulting dearth of available content. I use it plenty for books that have been out a few years and the odd recent publishing that shows up available, but if I could get any book I wanted as soon as I had the desire I'd use it a lot more.
I've not found the proprietary format much of a limitation since it also supports PDFs, plain text files, and RTFs (my preferred format). With those formats, there is a massive amount of material available for viewing on the device, such as the public domain texts available on Project Gutenburg.
One of the reasons I chose the Sony Reader is because I am working on several stories and I save them as RTFs. I can take my stories and put them on the Sony Reader without conversion (although I've found that I need to use an 18-point font size to make it easily viewable at the smallest size) for review.
If the only format that the Sony Reader supported was its own proprietary format I would have immediately rejected it. For me, support for non-proprietary formats is a make-or-break feature with any ebook reader. It doesn't have to be many formats, just support for plain text and RTF (to give me basic formatting capability like bold and italics) is enough for me. Support for non-proprietary formats ensures that there are always ebooks available for the device.
This isn't so much about Linux, as it is about MS recognizing that if some OS other than their's is the default OS on the low end PC's, it is only a matter of time until it starts to displace MS OS's further up the price point chain.
Or to put it another way, no Linux is not currently a competitor for MS OS's, but if Linux ever reaches 20% of the market, MS is finished (unless they come up with a completely new business model). Apple is a competitor, but Apple does not threaten MS's business model.
I agree that Linux has the potential to be a significant threat to Microsoft. But I think that threat will manifest itself over the long term, rather than with Linux quickly taking over the desktop. Simply put, over time some users give Linux a try and like it.
Besides the low-end market, one place where I can see Linux making a significant headway in the future are with "obsoleted by MS" computers. Specifically, computers that are: (1) usable with current Linux distributions, (2) can run the previous version of Windows, but (3) can't run the most recent version of Windows. Rather than purchase a new computer, some users might opt to try Linux as a low-cost way to get more usable life out of their current PC when Windows software for their version of Windows becomes difficult to find.
Anything that will natively read a PDF is a great win in my book, no pun intended. The iPhone/Touch has a built in PDF reader, but without being able to store them on the device and bookmark the last page read or have a way to jump ahead to a certain page, it falls short. The perfect eBook reader is yet to come and when it does, it will be hotter than the Kindle.
Although PDFs have the advantage of consistent formatting regardless of the display device, the greatest problem I've seen with them is that they tend to only be usable at a specific display size. A PDF that is designed for a full page (8.5" x 11") tends not to be readable on a smaller screen, while designing the e-book for a smaller screen makes the print too large for a larger screen.
I think a better format for e-book is one that is flowable, like plain text, HTML, and RTF. Let the user determine the base font size, let the device flow the text on its screen, and let the format itself deal with things like typeface, italics, and bold.
Well maintained, redundant archives should last forever - the ability to copy reliably is equivalent to imortality. I have not lost a single file in the last eight years and I have all of my mail going back 20.
Although I don't have data going back quite that far, the comment about the ability to copy ensuring that data is preserved it on the mark. I have data on my current PDA that goes back more than 5 years and has travelled through at least six PDAs and four computers to get to my current PDA. A key point with electronic books is that, although the devices may die, with proper copying the data on them can survive intact for decades.
For me, one key point relating to this is the need for formats that can move from device to device without the need for conversion. One of the best things about the Sony e-book reader is that I can take RTF files that I work with on my computer and put them on my reader without conversion.
Do you hand code your Microsoft Word formatting, or do you simply push the "B" button to make your text bold? I remember the early Word Processor days, and it wasn't pretty. WYSIWYG word processing is probably one of the top 10 revelations of modern-day computing. Some day it might be that way for html as well. Some day.
Although WYSIWYG word processing has had its advantages, it also has some disadvantages. Among them is that it is difficult to view the actual code that composes your documents. This is something that is difficult to do in most modern word processors.
I used to use Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS and one of the best things about it was its reveal codes function. I could see the codes in the document so, if I was having trouble a documents format, I could go in an see what the actual codes are.
This is also an advantage of handcoding HTML. Although there are many good tools for making webpages, users have the advantage of being able to go into the page with a text editor and tinker where needed.
Based on my own experience, and what I've read in this thread, the main reason that the various WYSIWYG tools are usable is because the user can go in and edit the code by hand. Consider this: What if you created a webpage and the only way to edit it is with the tool you used (you had no choice but to use the code it produces and you couldn't handcode it)?
But why complicate the system for no apparent benefit. You're creating a Rube Goldberg voting system just to say, "look, we have electronic voting". It's more expensive, more prone to failure, and doesn't actual provide, better, faster, or more verifiable results.
I agree that one of the problems with using computer systems is that they tend to lead to overcomplication (just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it), which makes errors more likely. Also, the problem I see with punch cards is that just handling them can introduce errors (since they are not designed to be handled by human hands).
Rather than all of the complicated systems, why not use a standard printed card (say a 3X5 card) that is completed with a standard black laundry marker. It has the advantages that: (1) can be scanned by computer, (2) just handling it wouldn't change the card, (3) the cost of supplies is minimal, and (4) immediate verification can be provided when the vote is submitted.
The greatest problem I see with voting is that it has become a contest between those that are happy with the results, and those that are not. Each election is becoming a legal battleground.
Breaking binary compatibility would make development considerably *easier*, not harder.
Indeed. WinME was shite because it tried to maintain Win98 compatibility. WinVista is shite because it's trying to maintain Win2k/XP compatibility.
Sometimes you just need to flush the whole lot down the crapper and start with a clean sheet.
I strongly agree with this. Windows would be so much better if they decided not to worry about backwards compatibility and just ensure that the OS worked well. Backwards compatibility could be dealt with by allowing users to "leap" into a virtual machine to run their older apps.
The one problem I can see with this (tossing backwards compatibility) for Microsoft is that it gives users the opportunity to consider its competitors since the user will have to upgrade their apps anyway.
Although this is off-topic, I think a key difference between analog and digital is:
Digital is perfect within its standard, but is limited by its standard
Analog can be continually be improved by tweeking without altering the underlying standard
When it comes to music, I prefer to purchase it on CD because I'd rather have my music in an uncompressed format in a physical media.
On the topic of the death of newspapers, I think one factor that is working against them is the matter of storage. One of the reason that I stopped get the local paper is the problem of getting rid of them once I'm finished with them. For a while there was no place to recycle them and I'd prefer not placing them in the garbage.
This is why I prefer getting my news electronically. It's always current, I can format it to make it easy to read, and there's nothing to dispose of once I'm finished. I agree with another poster that a way for papers to survive is to embrace electronic news distribution as an option.
There will always be a place for hard copies of newspapers, but as electronic devices become even more common and less expensive they will become a very viable option for the physical newspaper. To me, a device with a paper-white screen that is the size of a sheet of typing paper would be a perfect replacement for the newspaper (and just about all document applications).
Everybody who's seen "Happy Days" knows that Fonzie is 'cool'.
But what if, instead of only one Fonzie, there had been three dozen characters who all looked, talked, and acted like Fonzie? Would all those Fonzii still have been 'cool'?
Would Ralph Malph -- of whom there would still be only one -- have been the 'cool' one because he was NOT a Fonzie?
I think what set Fonzie apart is that he was distinctive from the other characters on the show. Characterwise, Richie, Potsie, and Ralph were somewhat close as characters. The same with the older characters on the show.
But it is hard to predict exactly which character will turn out to be cool. Although Bob Denver is now most remembered as Gilligan on "Gilligan's Island," he was also Maynard G. Krebs on "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis." In that role, he was the "Fonzie" of his generation. Like Fonzie, he was a completely distinctive character from any other on the show.
I've been a supporter of a simple rule for works entering the public domain: 100 years from the date of initial release. By then, every individual who had a direct hand in the creation of the work would likely have passed on.
But I do see a coming time when the situation of works not being allowed to enter the public domain will come back to harm the corporations. Imagine this scenario: 10 years from now a major movie studio wants to release a new movie. One major problem: Because nothing has been allowed to enter the public domain in so long, every profitable story idea is too close to an existing work (although it might be slightly different, it's not different enough). IMHO, I think this may a factor in the increasing number of sequels and remakes that have been released in recent years.
Re:Comics as real literature
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Reading Comics
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For recent mainsteam comics, I'd recommend the trade paperback of "Identity Crisis." One thing I found interesting about it is that in the course of the story it changed your perceptions of many heroes and of the silver age of comics. Also, the events of this series greatly affected the DC Universe.
What the publishers need to do is make an agreement with a few distribution channels to get their books out there in PDF format incredibly cheap
Please, no. PDFs should be reserved for files where the layout is important. With ebooks, I don't care if the pagination matches that of the dead-tree version. I'd much rather have some form of text markup language where the software can rewrap to make optimal use of my screen space.
I strongly agree with this. One of the greatest advantages of e-books over physical books is that the formatting, font size, and typeface can be adjusted to fit both the user and the display device. With PDF, I've found that the document that looks great when printed on paper, is less satisfactory when viewed on my monitor, and is basically unreadable on my e-book reader. But with a format like HTML the text can automatically adjust to any device.
I think one of the hinderances to practical voice recognition has been the telephone paradigm (described in the book "Being Digital" by Nicholas Negroponte) where the computer is supposed to understand anything that anyone says at any time. What might work for voice recognition is for the user to have a custom chip that will allow a device to be configured to understand that specific user. Move the chip to a new device and that device will understand you perfectly.
What might also work is if the user trains himself/herself to speak in a way that the computer can consistently recognize, much like the user of Palm's Graffiti handwriting system learned to write in a way that the PDA could consistenly understand. With training, speaking that would could become second nature, much like typing has become for many users.
I think a factor which now works against forced upgrading is that MacOS and Linux have both become viable alternatives for many users, especially home users. Based on what I've been reading here, it seems that you must purchase a new system to be able to run Vista acceptably and even then you have to tinker with the system out of the box.
In that case, it could lead users to look at other alternatives since they most likely will have to replace their computer anyway. Pressure to get people to upgrade to Vista could end up causing people to move to a different OS. If the experience of these users is favorable, work of mouth could lead others to consider the move away from Windows.
Who really cares. At least the war is over. I was tired of the format war. Neither format really had a real reason to choose one over the other. They were both pretty evenly matched. I just hope that they don't try to kill off DVD now. I'm perfectly happy with DVD, and don't feel like spending more money just to watch movies.
I agree with you in that I'm very satisfied with DVD and I don't have a compelling reasons to move to an HD format. I doubt that DVD will be discontinued for a long while because it will take a long time until the installed base of Blu-Ray players approaches that of DVD is right now. Moving from video tape to DVD was a big leap in video and sound quality. It is much less of a leap to move from DVD to Blu-Ray.
One thing I've noticed that has been a disincentive for me to move to an HD format is that it may actually look too good. I don't know if others have experienced this, but some of the theatrical movies (like Transformers) I've seen on display in HD at some electronic stores looked to my eyes like they were on video tape, rather than looking like they were on film. I don't know if this is the case, but I'm guessing that a possible reason for this is that the image is coming directly from a digital source rather than being taken from an analog source.
I'm sorry, but HD-DVD users are just plain outta luck. Next time, join the rest of us and just wait.
That doesn't seem right though. Since you're just purchasing a license to the movie, why can't you mail your HD-DVD discs back to the manufacturer and have them be exchanged for a Blu-Ray copy of the same movie (if available) for a nominal fee (say, $5 plus reasonable shipping and handling)? Perhaps Congress needs to get involved and sort this mess out so HD-DVD users don't get screwed out of their investment... it certainly adversely affects lives more than steroid using baseball players or the war in Iraq. Write your Congressman today and demand an HD-DVD exchange program be setup immediately!!!
To me, more government involvement is what is not needed. It has the potential to lead to mandatory upgrading, and making the use of old formats eventually illegal.
It is only a short distance from a voluntary (the government will provide help to make the transition easier) move to a new format, to a government-mandated (you do it when we say or you won't get any reimbursement) move to a new format. This, combined with the ability to create new formats that can be made unusable at a later date, is of great concern.
I think that it is the consumer that has power to end future format wars via their refusal to support any of the involved formats. The consumers have the power to make it clear to the media companies that if you cause a format war, we won't support either format, we will wait until one format dies. Based on some of the posts I've seen in Slashdot, in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war it seems like many people did just that (including me).
According to the audiobook of Episode One, originally there were many Sith, more than 40. But due to their desire for power they ended up working against each other and destroying each other, leaving only one when it was all over. The impression I got was that when the Sith were defeated it was more of a mopping up operation for the Jedi rather than the Jedi having to fight a full out war with the Sith.
The final Sith went into hiding and embraced the Jedi virtue of patience, which the rest of the Sith had abandoned. To ensure that there would be none of the infighting that destroyed the Sith, he established that there would only be two Sith at any one time, a master and an apprentice. When the master passes on, the apprentice will become the master and seek out an apprentice of his own.
We hate HD DVD because they started a format war it should have been obvious from the start they were going to lose.
Why would it be obvious that HD-DVD would lose the format war? From what I've heard of both formats, each has their advantages, but neither format is so good that it wipes the floor with the other.
To me, the entire issue with the format war is that it harmed both formats. I suspect that many people are like me, meaning that when I first heard about the format war I made a decision to sit out both formats until a winner has been clearly and firmly decided.
Although it looks like Blu-Ray is the winner, I think it is far too early to declare a winner at this point. There are far too many things that could still happen, and in the end it is the consumer that will be the one to determine which format will win.
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solitas wrote:
A possible reason for the higher cost of e-book readers is due to the newer technology involved. Electronic ink much newer than portable video screens like used the type used in portable DVD players.
One of the things that have hampered many previous e-book devices is the lit screen. Based on my experience with Palm handhelds, looking at a lit screen is very hard on the eyes over time. One of the best things about e-ink screens is that they don't have to be backlit to be read, making it easy to read for long period of time without eye discomfort.
I agree with the above document formats, and would add HTML to the list. Due to its abilities (such as links within the document) and formatting that can easily be adapted to any screen size, HTML provides a good option as an e-book format.
A problem I've observed with trying to combine different functions in the same device is that they tend to have conflicting requirements. An e-ink screen is great for reading and for static images, but its refresh rate makes it impractical to use for moving video.
TheRaven64 wrote:
I agree about PDF being a good e-book format. I have the Sony E-Reader and one of the biggest irritants for me is the inconsistent fonts with plain text and RTF files. In some documents the text will display all of the text in a sans serif font (like Arial), and other documents will show a mixture of serif fonts and san serif fonts (which is what I prefer if the document is all one font). This is regardless of the actual fonts used in the document.
PDFs avoid the above issue. I use StarOffice 8.0 to make PDFs and I've found they work well with my reader as long as I set the page size to the same size as my reader's screen. This gives me complete control over the document (including widows/orphan control) and I can easily see exactly how my e-book will look on my reader. This is something that can't be done with RTF or plain text.
Also, if I want to put the e-book on another reader with a different screen size, a quick page size change is all that is needed to allow me to generate a new version of the e-book for that screen size. I don't have to completely reformat the e-book for a new reader.
I've used a Palm as an e-book reader, and one of the worst things about it was the backlight (especially on the all-lit screens like on all of the current Palms). An e-ink screen (like on the Sony E-Reader) is much easier on the eyes, allowing me to reader for hours with little eye strain.
DrFalkyn wrote and included with a post:
I agree that C3PO's apparent flaws are due to his being in a place he was not designed for. Even limited articulation is understandable since the environment he was intended for wouldn't require much. I doubt much articulation would be needed for the diplomatic duties that a droid like C3PO would be required to perform.
Also, some of his quirks can be explained due to the fact that he is a non-standard model (mostly hand created by Anakin instead of being from an assembly line like most of the other protocol droids would be). Considering his circumstances and the environments he has found himself, it is a little surprising that he survived as intact as he has.
Also, don't forget about comic books and manga. Although most comic books are firmly in the superhero genre, there are also some excellent sci-fi titles. Among them is "Y - The Last Man," which is set in a world identical to ours until the Summer of 2002 when, at the same time all over the entire world, every mammal with a Y chromosome instantly dies. Only two males survive: One man and his helper monkey. This series just ended with issue #60.
With manga, there are a massive number of sci-fi stories, including:
twistedsymphony wrote as part of a post:
Actually, a movie version of Speed Racer has been in work for a very long time, long before "The Matrix" was released. When I first heard about a movie version, Johnny Depp was one of the actors being considered for the role of Speed. If I remember correctly, it was soon after he was on the series "21 Jump Street."
It doesn't come easy wrote:
I strongly agree. For me, I'd estimate that more than 98% of the TV I watch is recorded via a DVR. It is extremely rare that I watch TV as it is actually broadcast. Also, just about everything I watch is not on network TV (the only network show that comes to mind is "Samantha Who?").
Also, if a show cannot be recorded due to an activated broadcast flag, there is nothing to stop viewers from moving to other shows they CAN record, or to DVDs, or to on-line entertainment, etc. It is not the three-network-channel days anymore, people have many sources of television entertainment that the networks are in competition with, including their own older shows on DVD.
Yardboy wrote:
My experience with already-existing PDFs on my reader (the Sony Reader) is that they are usually unreadable because the documents are designed for a much larger display (like being printed on a sheet of typing paper). When displayed on the reader, it shrinks the entire page to fit on the screen, making the font too small to read.
The program I use to make PDFs is StarOffice 8.0 (a program similar to OpenOffice.org 2.0) and it can make a PDF from pretty much any file that it can open. I've not used it to make many PDFs, I prefer to use RTFs on my ebook reader since the text easily adjusts when I increase/decrease the font size.
I've found it makes PDFs that are easily readable on my reader as long as I set the document's page size to the same size as the size of my reader's screen. Then, page preview will give you an idea of what the document will look like on your ebook reader and you can make adjustments where needed.
Yardboy wrote:
I've not found the proprietary format much of a limitation since it also supports PDFs, plain text files, and RTFs (my preferred format). With those formats, there is a massive amount of material available for viewing on the device, such as the public domain texts available on Project Gutenburg.
One of the reasons I chose the Sony Reader is because I am working on several stories and I save them as RTFs. I can take my stories and put them on the Sony Reader without conversion (although I've found that I need to use an 18-point font size to make it easily viewable at the smallest size) for review.
If the only format that the Sony Reader supported was its own proprietary format I would have immediately rejected it. For me, support for non-proprietary formats is a make-or-break feature with any ebook reader. It doesn't have to be many formats, just support for plain text and RTF (to give me basic formatting capability like bold and italics) is enough for me. Support for non-proprietary formats ensures that there are always ebooks available for the device.
Attila Dimedici wrote:
I agree that Linux has the potential to be a significant threat to Microsoft. But I think that threat will manifest itself over the long term, rather than with Linux quickly taking over the desktop. Simply put, over time some users give Linux a try and like it.
Besides the low-end market, one place where I can see Linux making a significant headway in the future are with "obsoleted by MS" computers. Specifically, computers that are: (1) usable with current Linux distributions, (2) can run the previous version of Windows, but (3) can't run the most recent version of Windows. Rather than purchase a new computer, some users might opt to try Linux as a low-cost way to get more usable life out of their current PC when Windows software for their version of Windows becomes difficult to find.
shokk wrote:
Although PDFs have the advantage of consistent formatting regardless of the display device, the greatest problem I've seen with them is that they tend to only be usable at a specific display size. A PDF that is designed for a full page (8.5" x 11") tends not to be readable on a smaller screen, while designing the e-book for a smaller screen makes the print too large for a larger screen.
I think a better format for e-book is one that is flowable, like plain text, HTML, and RTF. Let the user determine the base font size, let the device flow the text on its screen, and let the format itself deal with things like typeface, italics, and bold.
gnutoo wrote as part of a post:
Although I don't have data going back quite that far, the comment about the ability to copy ensuring that data is preserved it on the mark. I have data on my current PDA that goes back more than 5 years and has travelled through at least six PDAs and four computers to get to my current PDA. A key point with electronic books is that, although the devices may die, with proper copying the data on them can survive intact for decades.
For me, one key point relating to this is the need for formats that can move from device to device without the need for conversion. One of the best things about the Sony e-book reader is that I can take RTF files that I work with on my computer and put them on my reader without conversion.
stewbacca wrote:
Although WYSIWYG word processing has had its advantages, it also has some disadvantages. Among them is that it is difficult to view the actual code that composes your documents. This is something that is difficult to do in most modern word processors.
I used to use Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS and one of the best things about it was its reveal codes function. I could see the codes in the document so, if I was having trouble a documents format, I could go in an see what the actual codes are.
This is also an advantage of handcoding HTML. Although there are many good tools for making webpages, users have the advantage of being able to go into the page with a text editor and tinker where needed.
Based on my own experience, and what I've read in this thread, the main reason that the various WYSIWYG tools are usable is because the user can go in and edit the code by hand. Consider this: What if you created a webpage and the only way to edit it is with the tool you used (you had no choice but to use the code it produces and you couldn't handcode it)?
CastrTroy wrote:
I agree that one of the problems with using computer systems is that they tend to lead to overcomplication (just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it), which makes errors more likely. Also, the problem I see with punch cards is that just handling them can introduce errors (since they are not designed to be handled by human hands).
Rather than all of the complicated systems, why not use a standard printed card (say a 3X5 card) that is completed with a standard black laundry marker. It has the advantages that: (1) can be scanned by computer, (2) just handling it wouldn't change the card, (3) the cost of supplies is minimal, and (4) immediate verification can be provided when the vote is submitted.
The greatest problem I see with voting is that it has become a contest between those that are happy with the results, and those that are not. Each election is becoming a legal battleground.
Computershack wrote and included with a post:
I strongly agree with this. Windows would be so much better if they decided not to worry about backwards compatibility and just ensure that the OS worked well. Backwards compatibility could be dealt with by allowing users to "leap" into a virtual machine to run their older apps.
The one problem I can see with this (tossing backwards compatibility) for Microsoft is that it gives users the opportunity to consider its competitors since the user will have to upgrade their apps anyway.
Although this is off-topic, I think a key difference between analog and digital is:
When it comes to music, I prefer to purchase it on CD because I'd rather have my music in an uncompressed format in a physical media.
On the topic of the death of newspapers, I think one factor that is working against them is the matter of storage. One of the reason that I stopped get the local paper is the problem of getting rid of them once I'm finished with them. For a while there was no place to recycle them and I'd prefer not placing them in the garbage.
This is why I prefer getting my news electronically. It's always current, I can format it to make it easy to read, and there's nothing to dispose of once I'm finished. I agree with another poster that a way for papers to survive is to embrace electronic news distribution as an option.
There will always be a place for hard copies of newspapers, but as electronic devices become even more common and less expensive they will become a very viable option for the physical newspaper. To me, a device with a paper-white screen that is the size of a sheet of typing paper would be a perfect replacement for the newspaper (and just about all document applications).
poot_rootbeer wrote:
I think what set Fonzie apart is that he was distinctive from the other characters on the show. Characterwise, Richie, Potsie, and Ralph were somewhat close as characters. The same with the older characters on the show.
But it is hard to predict exactly which character will turn out to be cool. Although Bob Denver is now most remembered as Gilligan on "Gilligan's Island," he was also Maynard G. Krebs on "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis." In that role, he was the "Fonzie" of his generation. Like Fonzie, he was a completely distinctive character from any other on the show.
I've been a supporter of a simple rule for works entering the public domain: 100 years from the date of initial release. By then, every individual who had a direct hand in the creation of the work would likely have passed on.
But I do see a coming time when the situation of works not being allowed to enter the public domain will come back to harm the corporations. Imagine this scenario: 10 years from now a major movie studio wants to release a new movie. One major problem: Because nothing has been allowed to enter the public domain in so long, every profitable story idea is too close to an existing work (although it might be slightly different, it's not different enough). IMHO, I think this may a factor in the increasing number of sequels and remakes that have been released in recent years.
For recent mainsteam comics, I'd recommend the trade paperback of "Identity Crisis." One thing I found interesting about it is that in the course of the story it changed your perceptions of many heroes and of the silver age of comics. Also, the events of this series greatly affected the DC Universe.
STrinity wrote and included with a post:
I strongly agree with this. One of the greatest advantages of e-books over physical books is that the formatting, font size, and typeface can be adjusted to fit both the user and the display device. With PDF, I've found that the document that looks great when printed on paper, is less satisfactory when viewed on my monitor, and is basically unreadable on my e-book reader. But with a format like HTML the text can automatically adjust to any device.
I think one of the hinderances to practical voice recognition has been the telephone paradigm (described in the book "Being Digital" by Nicholas Negroponte) where the computer is supposed to understand anything that anyone says at any time. What might work for voice recognition is for the user to have a custom chip that will allow a device to be configured to understand that specific user. Move the chip to a new device and that device will understand you perfectly.
What might also work is if the user trains himself/herself to speak in a way that the computer can consistently recognize, much like the user of Palm's Graffiti handwriting system learned to write in a way that the PDA could consistenly understand. With training, speaking that would could become second nature, much like typing has become for many users.
I think a factor which now works against forced upgrading is that MacOS and Linux have both become viable alternatives for many users, especially home users. Based on what I've been reading here, it seems that you must purchase a new system to be able to run Vista acceptably and even then you have to tinker with the system out of the box.
In that case, it could lead users to look at other alternatives since they most likely will have to replace their computer anyway. Pressure to get people to upgrade to Vista could end up causing people to move to a different OS. If the experience of these users is favorable, work of mouth could lead others to consider the move away from Windows.
CastrTroy wrote:
I agree with you in that I'm very satisfied with DVD and I don't have a compelling reasons to move to an HD format. I doubt that DVD will be discontinued for a long while because it will take a long time until the installed base of Blu-Ray players approaches that of DVD is right now. Moving from video tape to DVD was a big leap in video and sound quality. It is much less of a leap to move from DVD to Blu-Ray.
One thing I've noticed that has been a disincentive for me to move to an HD format is that it may actually look too good. I don't know if others have experienced this, but some of the theatrical movies (like Transformers) I've seen on display in HD at some electronic stores looked to my eyes like they were on video tape, rather than looking like they were on film. I don't know if this is the case, but I'm guessing that a possible reason for this is that the image is coming directly from a digital source rather than being taken from an analog source.
Professor_UNIX wrote and included with a post:
To me, more government involvement is what is not needed. It has the potential to lead to mandatory upgrading, and making the use of old formats eventually illegal.
It is only a short distance from a voluntary (the government will provide help to make the transition easier) move to a new format, to a government-mandated (you do it when we say or you won't get any reimbursement) move to a new format. This, combined with the ability to create new formats that can be made unusable at a later date, is of great concern.
I think that it is the consumer that has power to end future format wars via their refusal to support any of the involved formats. The consumers have the power to make it clear to the media companies that if you cause a format war, we won't support either format, we will wait until one format dies. Based on some of the posts I've seen in Slashdot, in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war it seems like many people did just that (including me).
According to the audiobook of Episode One, originally there were many Sith, more than 40. But due to their desire for power they ended up working against each other and destroying each other, leaving only one when it was all over. The impression I got was that when the Sith were defeated it was more of a mopping up operation for the Jedi rather than the Jedi having to fight a full out war with the Sith.
The final Sith went into hiding and embraced the Jedi virtue of patience, which the rest of the Sith had abandoned. To ensure that there would be none of the infighting that destroyed the Sith, he established that there would only be two Sith at any one time, a master and an apprentice. When the master passes on, the apprentice will become the master and seek out an apprentice of his own.
m50d wrote:
Why would it be obvious that HD-DVD would lose the format war? From what I've heard of both formats, each has their advantages, but neither format is so good that it wipes the floor with the other.
To me, the entire issue with the format war is that it harmed both formats. I suspect that many people are like me, meaning that when I first heard about the format war I made a decision to sit out both formats until a winner has been clearly and firmly decided.
Although it looks like Blu-Ray is the winner, I think it is far too early to declare a winner at this point. There are far too many things that could still happen, and in the end it is the consumer that will be the one to determine which format will win.