May 2009 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: !@!@! "Kindle Library"
by Joshua Hutchinson 13 May '09

13 May '09

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Re: gutenberg.org now known for TEI samples
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 13 May '09

13 May '09

ralf said: > BTW www.gutenberg.org is now referenced from this page: > http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/Samples_of_TEI_texts go, tei, go! ;+) -bowerbird ************** Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlc…)

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Re: !@!@! "Kindle Library"
by Walter H. van Holst 13 May '09

13 May '09

Jon: > *Is* it viable? I guess memory capacity couldn't be too bad if you > have > ram for photos, but what about battery capacity etc? Is it time to > jack > up my standards and look at modern equipment, or can I still represent > my anachronistic foot dragging as simple sanity? Will a new cellphone > be a better investment than a new, big Kindle with non-volatile screen > memory? (I don't have an old, small one yet!) Yes, it is. I'm using Stanza (iPhone application by Lexcycle, just acquired by Amazon) to read books from Feedbook (which does markup on Gutenberg etexts) when sitting on the metro/tram. Basically, it is useful for situations where you'd like to do some light reading, don't want to lug piles of paper around but a dedicated reader is too cumbersome. I also have the iRex iLiad, but that is more useful for longer reading sessions (15+ minutes) and when you're having more space, such as on longer train journeys. At the end of the day, it is not relevant which type of reader will prevail, as long as people do read books. I don't get why there such a flamewar about it here. Regards, Walter

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Re: !@!@! "Kindle Library"
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 13 May '09

13 May '09

jon said: > can someone tell me what kind of cellphone can give you say > half a page of print at a time in comfortable size, steadiness, > contrast and readable resolution for hours on end? no. only you can be the judge of that. "comfortable" and "readable" are highly subjective variables... but it's certainly the case that _some_ people judge the iphone to be acceptable on those dimensions (or the equivalent to those people)... and some smaller percentage of people judged the rocketbook to be acceptable, and some smaller percentage judged the palm acceptable. and some percentage of people judge the kindle to be acceptable, and some larger percentage of people will judge the kindle dx acceptable, although some of _them_ will then start complaining that it's "too big" to carry with them on a regular basis, so that'll be an offsetting factor. but don't focus on _books_ per se, because the number of book-readers in the population is very small. (and it's getting even smaller every day.) book-readers won't drive this revolution. the thing that will drive this revolution will be a growing desire on the part of "ordinary" people to carry a computer-communications device with them wherever they go. the top need, of course, will be the phone. but the iphone with its apps have shown that there are lots and lots of _other_ ways that an internet-connected device can be useful to people as they negotiate their route through their existences in the real world. first of all, making a voice-call is not the only way that people talk with each other these days. they also use text-messaging, twitter, and so on. second, location-based services are proving to be tremendously valuable. since your iphone knows where you are, it can look up handy information for you, like where is the nearest gas station, emergency room, and so on. it will even tell you where you are, when you don't have the foggiest notion, or when you think you're in some other place entirely. and it'll then tell you how to get from where you are to where you want to be. immensely handy. the kind of thing that, once you get used to, you don't want to live without. lastly, as more and more people start carrying around connected devices, the assumption will be that _everyone_ has one, and life will start to grow increasingly difficult for those who do not. for example, see public phones. there used to always be a public phone around. but as cell phones grew in popularity, public phones seemed to vanish. now they are exceedingly rare, to the point where you cannot count on finding one when you do need one. so many people bought a cell-phone when they otherwise might not have... -bowerbird ************** Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlc…)

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Reminder to connect with giacinthom plexere
by giacinthom plexere 12 May '09

12 May '09

Connect with me on Ecademy I'd like to invite you to be part of my Ecademy network. I use Ecademy to manage my professional contacts, share knowledge and market my business. Take a look - it has paid off for me. * Click here to accept the invitation to join my network! *"; It's free to join Ecademy and it only takes a minute to sign up. giacinthom plexere gpdimonderose(a)hotmail.it To avoid receiving these emails in the future just reply to invite-unsubscribe(a)ecademy.com or go to http://www.ecademy.com/blockinvites.php?e=gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org Email:support@ecademy.com Company Registration:3651083 VAT:718 0377 36

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Re: !@!@! "Kindle Library"
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 12 May '09

12 May '09

walter said: > At the end of the day, it is not relevant which type of > reader will prevail, as long as people do read books. what's so important about reading books? considering that most books being published these days are garbage, there's no magic there. better to read an intelligent blog than a stupid book. > I don't get why there such a flamewar about it here. the "flamewar" is because some people refuse to be civil. if the argument doesn't go just the way that they want it to, they'd rather upset the applecart than continue in good faith. the crux of the disagreement, however, is quite simple... some people wanted a _dedicated_ book-reading device, because "that's all i need". other people argued that "dedicated" devices nearly always yield in the long-run to generalized devices that equal the dedicated device in its own arena and surpass it in others... so that was the split -- dedicated machine or generalized? and indeed, one can see this split in the current situation... the kindle is the _dedicated_ book-reading device. the iphone is the generalized machine. and this difference in the _purpose_ results in ramifications. if you're building a dedicated book-reader, you'll use e-ink. if you're building a general-purpose machine, you go l.c.d. however, with mary lou's pixel qi screen, perhaps we see the path that we can take to make everyone happy now... part of the reason for the disagreement was that the people who were arguing for the dedicated-machine had the idea that such a machine would be _less_expensive_. remember how david rothman _insisted_ for _years_ that a machine would be manufactured that cost end-users a mere $50... i always said this idea was ridiculous, because a reader has to have a screen and a chip and an operating system, and those are the most expensive parts of any computer, so if you're going to pay for those for a dedicated reader, you might as well get a full-fledged computer instead... and yes indeed, when the reader-machines _did_ come out, like the kindle, and the iliad, they were definitely not cheap. you paid about $600 for your iliad, didn't you? _not_cheap._ but, you know, when you call someone's opinion "ridiculous", they take offense -- even when it is! -- and, boom!, flamewar. -bowerbird ************** Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlc…)

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another overdone topic
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 12 May '09

12 May '09

here's another overdone topic. releasing free e-books stimulates sales of the paper version: > http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/2009/05/more-evidence-that-oa-editions… if you're still surprised at this result, you need to get out more... -bowerbird ************** Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlc…)

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Italilc markkup
by Norm Wolcott 11 May '09

11 May '09

Can anyone tell me how to change real italics in MSWord 2003 to html markup (<i>words</i> and the reverse? I do not want to change the document to html, just the italic markup. I used to know how to do it but I have forgotten. nwolcott2(a)post.harvard.edu

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too long already
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 11 May '09

11 May '09

jimad said: > I cannot imagine paying $10 for the "joy" of reading on a cell phone! fortunately, nobody will be forcing you to do that... regardless, _lots_ of people have read _lots_ of books on screens (1) which were far and away much smaller than the iphone screen, and (2) which had much lower resolution than the iphone screen. *** this discussion has gone on too long already. sooner or later we'll all be carrying around full-blown computers in our pocket that we use to communicate with the world at large. some will have smaller screens, others will have larger screens, but we'll read off all of them, at least when we're not conversing with them via the verbal interface. (it is, after all, a phone, right?) and then we will be able to finally put down this stupid discussion. in the meantime, it's already gone on far too long. -bowerbird p.s. the ironic thing is, in the end, both sides will claim that _they_ were the side which was right all along. pretty funny. ************** Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlc…)

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Re: !@!@!
by Joshua Hutchinson 10 May '09

10 May '09

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