Text 10679, 73 rader
Skriven 2007-01-25 00:43:12 av Jeffrey MacHott (14114.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 10650 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (14085.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: How did they do that??
==================================
Jeffrey Kaplan wrote:
> It is alleged that Joseph DeMartino claimed:
> 
>> Still they do have their advantages.  Every try lining a bird cage with
>> old computer monitors?  More seriously, I don't like reading large
>> amounts of text on a screen and couldn't imagine reading an entire book
> 
> Me neither.  But it's better with LCD than CRT.  My main "problem" with
> ebooks is the display size and screen resolution.  If I could have an
> ebook display the same size as a standard paperback's page with
> resolution sharp enough to handle images and text without jagged edges,
> I'd be more willing to buy ebooks instead of paper books.

You know what would be great?  I've seen eBook readers that were 
basically oversized (and underfeatured) PDAs.  It'd be great if someone 
(I'm winking at YOU, PalmOne) could make an eBook reader that was also a 
full-featured PDA, with the ergonomic design to make it easier to hold 
one-handed, the size to make it easy to read like a book, and maybe a 
wrist-strap to make it easy to not drop or get snatched.  Maybe even 
(and here is where I begin to get overly ambitious) include a USB port 
or two to use with peripheals like a keyboard or printer.

>> that way.  And papers are both portable and disposable in a way
>> computers aren't.  It is much easier and less obtrusive to read a
> 
> The ebook would be a memory chip.  Much more portable and disposable
> than a paper book.  The computer part is just the display medium.

Not even memory chips much of the time, the way I've normally seen it is 
that you spend $4 or $5 or more for a digital copy of a book that you 
download.  Of course, I've ALSO seen books on flash media, but usually 
stuff like Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus.

>> newspaper or magazine on a commuter train or an airliner than it is to
>> fool with a computer.  PDAs are smaller and lighter, but the screens
> 
> Ever try to read the NYT or WSJ on a crowded train?

Also, with a PDA, it's harder for the boss to tell that you're reading 
For Better Or For Worse if you're doing it on a PDA than if you had the 
newspaper laid out in front of you.  Now, if it was Get Fuzzy, the 
laughing would be a dead giveaway, but that's never an issue with FBoFW.

>> been predicting the imminent demise of print for about 30 years now.  I
>> see no sign of it happening anytime soon, and I would not be the least
>> bit surprised to find printed materials still alive and well two or
>> three hundred years from now.  
> 
> I hope you're right.  As much convenience as ebook distribution and
> reading may eventually be, nothing compares to the look&feel of a real
> leather bound hardback paper book with a silk ribbon bookmark.  Even if
> it does make Lord Of The Rings heavier than my cat!

"Simple" solution would be to offer licenses for Print on Demand for 
those who like something solid.  Include the cover art and the jacket 
blurb and the "If you liked this book, check out these OTHER titles from 
MySpace Publishing!" sort of thing that they stick in the back of the 
books in the electronic version, and just have the printer put them all 
in the appropriate place at the printing press.

Also, I don't see things like paper-and-binding copies of the Holy Bible 
disappearing any time soon.  Is the demand for that high enough to keep 
it in print at an affordable rate if it were one of the only books being 
printed, or do you think Bibles will become the next generation's 
college textbook, with expensive new editions coming out every few years 
so they could include a slightly different map of Palestine circa 1AD?

-- 
--Jeffrey MacHott

"Sola bona lingua est mortua lingua"
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
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