Carlos, On Monday 21 November 2005 13:51, Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Monday 2005-11-21 at 07:06 -0800, Randall R Schulz wrote:
I, too, love books and my apartment is not big enough to hold my library. Does that stop me from getting more? No way.
Me too.
But I think it's likely we'll see digital paper that is entirely paper-like (thin, flexible, probably tougher than real paper) that can display text and imagery like a printed page but be electronically changeable as well as holding its image persistently even when no power is supplied. Such books would have all the characteristics of a book today plus allow moving images and sound and search. No doubt with such technology in hand, people would find new things to do with "books."
I don't need cute features like search or sound, for that I'd have the wall computer or the tablet (think Star Trek). What I want is to decide what I'm going to read, "plug" an empty or available "digibook" to the computer, and download "I Robot" to it in a reasonable time, so that I can take it to bed.
Searching is "cute?" Would sound be "cute" in a book that was meant to teach one a new language? In any event, you'll get what you want (unless you're well over 80 already).
...
Think!
Save the preaching, OK? We can always go backwards and you'll surely be able to keep the books (paper-style) you have.
You need a CD. A computer. Electricity. Suppose civilization is destroyed, you have to build anew. You know the "disaster first aid manual" is in that CD... which you can not read, because there is no power, computers were destroyed, and you have to build electronic manufacturing first. It'd take ages! Supposing the knowledge or the paper books to rebuild all that were written and survived...
But speaking of thinking, you certainly won't need a CD and probably not what we'd call a computer, either. You can take your e-book and your DRM credentials to any public terminal and retrieve a copy from the publisher or retailer when you please.
Ok, I shut up. It is OT. ...
Yes.
-- Cheers, Carlos Robinson
Randall Schulz