- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: Some genuine fodder for Michael's ire [Re: Re: it's that time of year again]
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Nov '09

29 Nov '09

michael said: > I haven't FAILED to be an advocate, I have REFUSED. . . . bravo. -bowerbird

1 0

meanwhle, more hype on screen technology
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Nov '09

29 Nov '09

meanwhile, because it happens constantly, here is some more hype on screen technology, from one of the latest entries on the teleread blawg: > http://www.teleread.org/2009/11/28/flexible-ereader-screens-shown-in-taiwan/ anyone care to bet how long before this technology comes to market at a price affordable to end-users? -bowerbird

1 0

Re: Some genuine fodder for Michael's ire [Re: Re: it's that time of year again]
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Nov '09

29 Nov '09

it's fun to watch rothman sputter when his dale-carnegie doubletalk isn't working in a certain situation... it's even more funny when he tries to pull it back from the edge, by finding "something that everyone can agree on", and engages in another dose of doubletalk. yes, david, we all agree that the government is bad when it extends copyright and tries to keep all of those shady dealings out of sight... and, by the way, isn't this the same government your "teleread" proposal wants to put in charge? michael hart didn't seek a grant to pay for the digitization of books under project gutenberg, or try to suck at the money teat of big business. hart went directly to the people. smart choice. -bowerbird

1 0

[SPAM] re: Re: it's that time of year again]
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Nov '09

28 Nov '09

rothman said: > Same old troll, BB ;-). right. i deal in facts, and you call me names, and somehow it's _me_ who is the "troll" here. ;+) > My big point here oh please. your "big point" is bullshit. <- fact! and i've told people precisely _why_ it's bullshit, and you have no rejoinder. you don't even _try_ to mount a counter, because you don't have one. > My big point here is that schools and libraries > and the rest of us should be preparing-- your message -- whether you know it or not -- is that people should _wait_, because the tech is "right around the corner", but not _here_ yet. so everyone is sitting around waiting, while google raids the library. thanks for the catatonia, david... > the capabilities will be coming sooner or later. your message is that they will be coming _later_. let's contrast that with the message of michael hart, which is that "we can make e-books happen right now." > Glad BB himself has been so 100 percent infallible, > especially about ePub (Sony signed up for ZML lately?). i already have my response written concerning all that... i'm waiting to send it until people get back from holiday. suffice it to say for now that you're a tool of the industry, david, the corporate dinosaur publishing industry, and there is no future for the dinosaurs, zero future at all... sony will never sign up for z.m.l., because they can't slap d.r.m. on it, so they chose the publishers' .epub instead... that's quite some victory, david. just like the "victory" you had a decade ago, when microsoft slapped d.r.m. on the earlier version of .epub. now this time it's adobe, but the story will turn out the very same way, just watch. but oh well, the executives bought themselves some more quarters, even if profitability wasn't as good as they hoped. > As for E Ink, it's just one of several possibilities out there. > My pointer in fact was to Pixel Qi. yeah, see how quickly you disown your own past, david. you promoted e-ink unceasingly, for years and years, in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of your blog entries. and now pixel qi is about to prove that you were _wrong_ about e-ink being "the future" that was "around the corner". so you ditch e-ink as if you never knew it. you chase every technology that sends you a press release, instead of having the real-world discipline that requires working models, or at least something more than vapor... -bowerbird

1 0

Re: it's that time of year again]
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Nov '09

28 Nov '09

jon richfield said: > Some months ago BB intimidated me with dire descriptions of Kindle > (or was it epaper in general?) slowness, contrast and resolution. ok, first of all, jon, any time you are "intimidated" by what i say, you can just push the "delete" button. and thus you will have vanquished (and vanished) the intimidation. with one finger. instantly! see how easy it can be? *** second of all, i'm quite sure i didn't give any "dire descriptions". because the truth of the matter is, e-ink is just fine for many people. you have to try it out, and see for yourself, whether the contrast and the resolution and the speed of the software works for you... or not... like i said, it's fine for some people. and not fine for other people. and nobody can tell you whether it'll be fine for you, except you... now, in terms of judging whether it's a useful technology or not, you have to listen to the people who actually own the technology, and most people who actually own the kindle love their machines. so hey, i'm happy for them... what i _probably_ said is that -- until the technology was out and actually being used by people -- we had no idea of its limitations. as the old saying goes, the only product that has no limitations is the one that hasn't been released yet. that's why it's so _stupid_ to go on and on about unreleased technology, because only a fool or an idiot would believe the hype and marketing of a press release. so one e-ink was released, we released that there were many areas in which it was suboptimal, and we hadn't been prepared for that. because before it was released, e-ink was a "magic" technology that had no flaws. it was going to be all perfect, and very inexpensive, and e-reader-machines were right around the corner, for just $50. this is the kind of bullshit in which you find yourself knee-deep when you start dealing with speculation instead of released tech. and when someone is flooding the e-book scene with this bullshit, we need to call them on it, and tell them clearly to stop doing that. -bowerbird

1 0

Re: it's that time of year again]
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Nov '09

28 Nov '09

rothman said: > I could care less if somehow Pixel Qi or an equivalent tech > instead shows up three or four years later. since you've blown years past your original projections anyway, and thereby shattered your credibility into a million tiny pieces, i can see why you "could care less"... of course, the real damage is that -- for over a decade now -- you've managed to convince lots and lots and lots of people that the e-book revolution is "around the corner", but not here yet... -bowerbird

2 1

Re: it's that time of year again]
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Nov '09

28 Nov '09

walter said: > Basically you are going to hit the point that it becomes > feasible to start producing them in larger quantities > which in itself will cause a price drop. that's the same kind of "logic" that rothman has been using. except the process is not invariable, not by a long shot, and it certainly doesn't operate nearly as quickly as we might like. first of all, e-ink is burdened with a lot of patents. second, it has had a very long history of owners who have bought in at a high price, learned the setbacks over years, and then "flipped" the technology to a new set of owners, who bought in at a high price, learned the setbacks, etc. in other words, there are a lot of investors who still want to see the profitable return that they believed was "inevitable". so they have a desire to produce "in larger quantities", but they have little inclination to drop the price, even a little bit. moreover, it's expensive to scale up their production facilities, and they've already overextended their ability to borrow money, not to mention the normal blah-blah about today's economy... so i wouldn't look for a quick drop in the price of e-ink screens. and that means you won't get a quick drop in the price of the machines that utilize such screens. sorry. it just won't happen. -bowerbird

1 0

Re: it's that time of year again]
by Michael S. Hart 28 Nov '09

28 Nov '09

On Fri, 27 Nov 2009, Walter van Holst wrote: > David H. Rothman schreef: > > > And, yes, thanks to Pixel Qi and E Ink, some interesting possibilities are > > ahead to reduce hardware prices and sharpen the view. Exactly when will > > these good things happen? As I've said before, who's to say for sure > > precisely when? But we should be looking ahead to the time when e-book > > technology is going to get much better. > > Not anywhere near the $50 (which won't buy you a good diner over here > anymore), but I've seen Cool-ER's in mainstream electronics stores for under > 300 Euro nowadays. When I got my iRex iLiad a few years ago, you could only > get it at a specific bookstore chain, not mention at a somewhat different > price point. To me this means that e-readers are becoming 'normal'. I don't consider it "normal" when someone pays 300 euros for a dedicated eBook gizmo at the same time I pay 275 dollars for a full Windows netbook. Actually, given that this was "Black Friday" in the US., I saw a name brand of 10" netbook, 8 hour battery, 160G hard drive, wifi, ports, etc., for $229, the thing was even cheaper over the counter at the store than online. Go figure. Other places were offering similar netbooks for $99 if you signed up for stuff via two contracts, but I never recommend that, nor do I usually mention brand. I still don't understand why anyone would pay so much for "dedicated hardware" when the full featured computers are even less money. I could understand in certain very specific cases when a professional writer's preference for a certain keyboard might be involved, someone who spends months or years working on a novel or the like that should make millions, but I think we are talking a bit more mainstream here. I just can't see a world where people are walking about with dedicated readers the same way they walk around with iPods, and I also notice that iPods will be more and more full functioned as the generations progress. The iPod and iPhone will become full tilt computers long before the world will turn to dedicated ereaders, except for specific situations. mh

5 7

it's that time of year again
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 27 Nov '09

27 Nov '09

i wait all year for this time. what, you ask, thanksgiving? well, yeah. but not exactly... see, 4 years ago, david rothman of teleread.com -- who's affectionately known as "the idiot" by david moynihan -- made me a little bet, and every year at this time i revisit it. david, like his best buddy jon noring, had repeated for years that "within 5 years, we will have cheap high-quality screens, and e-reader-machines will be readily available for just $50." well, along about 2001, i started pointed out to jon noring that he had been spouting that line for 5 years already, all without his big "prediction" ever coming true. finally, after a few years of that, noring finally stopped spewing that particular untruth. but rothman never got the message, and kept on babbling his insane prediction. i called him on it, repeatedly, such as: > http://www.teleread.org/blog/2005/11/29/you-can-buy-the-mit-100-laptop-for-… rothman responded, in november of 2005, with: > Folks, tune in a year from now, and we’ll see who’s right. > The MIT Media Lab has suffered its share of debacles, > but I’d bet my money on it in this case so i took rothman up on the offer, even extending out the bet. i said that if there were a $50 e-book machine within 5 years, i would buy it for him, or -- if he preferred -- a tofu turkey... so every year, around this time, i "check back" to laugh at him. 2006 came and went, and i was right. 2007 and 2008 as well. now it's 2009, and there's no $50 e-book-machine out there. so, after checking back for 4 straight years, i'm _still_ right... rothman's crystal ball is severely cracked. it always has been. that people listen to the man is a testament to their stupidity. tech-wise, he couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag... and has david learned anything? nope. he's still just as stupid as ever, still acting like a cheap machine is "around the corner", still using his blog to trumpet up whatever bucket of gullibility a screen-technology p.r. person is willing to type up for him... meanwhile... my bet that it would take until 2011 to hit an inexpensive price-point is looking to be accurate as the years roll by. key to it is if/when the pixel qi screen attains its promise. but now in 2009? well, david, you were wrong, i was right. at any rate, have a very lovely thanksgiving, everyone... even you -- david -- and i hope that crow tastes good. -bowerbird

6 7

Re: Joey Re: Re: it's that time of year again
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

if you really want a cheap machine for e-books, rather than futz around with some used p.d.a., just pay the $90 that ebookwise now wants for one of their rocketbooks, or whatever they are called nowadays; people still love that machine. and if you want a good machine, buy an itouch; you will not feel that you wasted your money... -bowerbird

1 0