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Carpal Tunnel
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Tsu, I share your implied opinion; that is very good advice and thank you for it
I shall herewith go read the Sunday paper
Last edited by dalehileman; 02/19/2006 5:02 PM.
dalehileman
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I'm sure this has been floating around the e-world for a while... quite possibly as an advertisement(IIRC)... but just in case you haven't seen it:
*******
Technological breakthrough!
Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device - BOOK
BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology; no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's easy to use. Even a child can operate it.
Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much as a CD-ROM.
BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with one of two different custom devices, a BINDER, or DOUBLE STITCH BINDING, which keep the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufaturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density.
Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly to your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.
BOOK never crashes nor requires rebooting. The 'browse' function allows instant movement to any sheet, forward or backward, as one wishes. Many come with an 'index' feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.
Portable, durable and affordable, BOOK is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to the medium.
*******
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much as a CD-ROM.
Lessee. At, say, 60 characters per line and 35 lines per page and one byte per character we have about 2100 bytes per page. 700 MBytes on a CD-ROM divided by 2100 = well over 300,000 pages. Hmmm.
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Carpal Tunnel
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..or, a gigabyte can contain thousands of books. so start downloading your free ebooks now.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Wonderful though these downloads are, I have yet to meet anyone who had read a complete downloaded book, as opposed to looking at one to get a quote or to look us somehting already seen in paper. Has anyone here ever read an e-book on say a palm pilot? I'd be interested to know.
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I have a Palm Pilot for work and can't imagine reading an entire book on it. The screen is small so you'd constantly be scrolling down.
My brother downloads books all the time. He bought an ebook and loves using it. He's an enthusiastic reader and this was a way for him to save money.
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Pooh-Bah
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I like paper. I like the look a book takes on when you've read it once, and again, twice. I like writing marginalia. The feel of paper, the upside-downedness in my lap. I have downloaded lots of books, and begun setting up a way to format them for stitched binding, and a little jig to do the actual binding: the latter remains a mental picture. But reading on a machine really isn't as pleasurable. Still, I think it will catch on, just as paper metaphors on computer screens will die off in a generation or four.
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Quote:
I like paper. I like the look a book takes on when you've read it once, and again, twice. I like writing marginalia. The feel of paper, the upside-downedness in my lap. I have downloaded lots of books, and begun setting up a way to format them for stitched binding, and a little jig to do the actual binding: the latter remains a mental picture. But reading on a machine really isn't as pleasurable. Still, I think it will catch on, just as paper metaphors on computer screens will die off in a generation or four.
Maybe, but they can't begin to compete with the smell of the smoke, the crackling of the fire and the flames dancing in the darkness, seeming to illustrate the story that the bard is reciting from memory, but with a veracity that convinces you he was there when it all happened. No, you'll never match that with mere flecks of ink on pieces of paper.
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Pooh-Bah
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Not until you build a bonfire of them, I suppose. And bards are notoriously subject to spoilage.
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Well, they have these new devices that make ebooks easier to read portably, instead of being in a small PDA, they're on a device that is actually made for ebook reading, since it's the size of a standard page. example: [img]http://www.gemstar-ebook.com/ebcontent/images/ebook1150_sm.gif[/img] http://www.gemstar-ebook.com/ebcontent/devices/default.asp
Last edited by mechanesthesia; 02/27/2006 4:43 PM.
[insert signature here]
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Quote:
example:
[img]http://www.gemstar-ebook.com/ebcontent/images/ebook1150_sm.gif[/img]
http://www.gemstar-ebook.com/ebcontent/devices/default.asp
First line in the body of that site: Gemstar eBook devices are no longer for sale. 
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lol.
Just google "ebook devices" (I don't know if there is a "proper" name for it yet), I put that site just to give an example.
Last edited by mechanesthesia; 02/28/2006 12:41 AM.
[insert signature here]
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Quote:
Quote:
I like paper. I like the look a book takes on when you've read it once, and again, twice. I like writing marginalia. The feel of paper, the upside-downedness in my lap. I have downloaded lots of books, and begun setting up a way to format them for stitched binding, and a little jig to do the actual binding: the latter remains a mental picture. But reading on a machine really isn't as pleasurable. Still, I think it will catch on, just as paper metaphors on computer screens will die off in a generation or four.
Maybe, but they can't begin to compete with the smell of the smoke, the crackling of the fire and the flames dancing in the darkness, seeming to illustrate the story that the bard is reciting from memory, but with a veracity that convinces you he was there when it all happened. No, you'll never match that with mere flecks of ink on pieces of paper.
You guys kill me! 
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Quote:
lol.
Just google "ebook devices" (I don't know if there is a "proper" name for it yet), I put that site just to give an example.
... of an ex-ebook device.  I googled as per above and the first link lists 10 different devices. Unfortunately, four of them are companies that don't even own the domain name pointed to anymore. Three of them are pointers to Gemstar (who no longer makes or sells them). The RCA device is no longer made and cannot be found on shopping.yahoo.com. The 404 link to MIT is for a research project that was probably never made. That leaves the Franklin eBookman which you actually can still buy, but it looks the worst of any of them and it seems they haven't come out with a new model since 2001.
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Carpal Tunnel
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yeahbut this is all old hat. Try (as so often) for the breakthrough device from Sony.
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Pooh-Bah
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You know, with the flap open , I swore I could hear the crackle of a fire in the background.
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