On Sat, 5 Dec 2009, James Adcock wrote:
i didn't understand sufficiently at first, and others do not sufficiently understand yet, as represented by greg's autopilot response, but jim has already _done_ all of the work...
Again, a brief history of this whole episode was:
1) A couple years ago the first Kindle comes out
2) I say wow this is a better reading experience than I’ve experienced before
3) I check on the PG website and it has literally a couple MOBI files on it
4) I contact PG and say okay I am making MOBI files out of your books, how do I add them to your site?
5) PG responds Not Interested, Not Interested, Not Interested!
6) I say OK, I guess I will have to route around damage.
7) I spend two years converting PG books to MOBI format on my own website.
8) PG says, gosh, we guess we are interested after all!
9) I say, gee, this is silly, we are duplicating work, and furthermore PG is better set up to do this work anyway.
10) I suggest, PG site doesn’t work worth a dang from Mobile devices, why not make a version of the site that is Mobile Device friendly – just like the big boys do?
11) And/Or make a Mobile Device friendly version of your “Landing Pads” so PG can at least get the donations and credits greatly due PG?
12) PG responds again Not Interested, Not Interested, Not Interested!
First and foremost, when you get responses of "Not Interested" come to Greg/me for assistance. . .once you have communicated to either of us [you do not have to convince both, or anyone else] we'll fix you up with your own PG site, then you can be off to the races, and also get some PR in the Newsletter. It doesn't really matter if WE are interested! It only really matters of YOU are interested! Sometimes it sounds as if people want us to do it for them, and I think that is where the miscommunication lies. . . .! As per my previous message on this, -I- SAY GO FOR IT!!!!! You don't need to convince us. . .just do it. . . . We'll run nearly anything up the flagpole to see it it works. [As for the .mobi files, I think there has been more interest than most people are aware of. . .perhaps just too scattered]
Again, how IS one supposed to read PG books? I mean this as a SERIOUS question!
Print them out? -- Cheaper and more environmentally friendly to buy the paperback version at B&N
Some do, though I've never really understood that.
Read them on a laptop? – Too big fat and heavy to carry on the bus.
I think this all depends on the person, what they are comfortable with. I've seen plenty of people around here with laptops on busses. Not to mention at the libraries.
Read them on your cellphone? – Maybe, if you spend a couple hundred bucks on your cellphone plus maybe $100
The first thing I tell people about cellphones is NEVER GET A CELLPHONE WITHOUT WIFI!!!
a month for internet access from your local cellphone company. And if your style of reading is amenable to the “fortune cookie” problem – my style of reading ISN’T – I read bigger chunks than that. I don’t disagree that there are readers out there that read “word at a time” or “line at a time” and to them maybe the “fortune cookie” program ISN’T a problem to them – but to me it is. Not to mention that I don’t like spending big bucks on monthly cellphone bills!
Use wifi, forget the phone bill, it doesn't even have to be activated!!! As for fortune cookies, I think you're overdoing it there a bit, but the whole thing is a matter of personal taste. I don't like reading off an ereader. . .none of them. . .period. I've done live readings off cellphones that made people think I had memorized entire passages from Shakespeare. Reading a Shakespeare play is hard reading in any format for it contains so many lines by different people.
Read them on a netbook? -- Maybe, but I’m suspicious of the eventual eyestrain -- I will be trying this approach to make a “generic” reader. Also, netbooks won’t lie flat, and are kind of on the big fat and heavy side compared to a book.
I've never been in a situation where I wanted my netbook to lie flat. Now I'll have to see how far it will tilt back, and let makers know I know of at least one person who wants them to lie flat. I guess if tablets ever get very popular they might encourage this. As for B&N, I'm afraid all but the largest still don't have "nooks," and I'm afraid it's ruining their credibility, esp. since they sent so many mass mailings out to come see them at earlier dates. Now it's Pearl Harbor Day, not that the new generation knows that-- but it might become a date of infamy--just because of delay, delay. You'd think they would at least have demo's out in stores by now. They are verly likely putting a dent in their holiday sales. . . . And in their credibility. I've been every week for 10 weeks now. . .duh!!!
Why do I like the Kindle? -- It allows me to actually read books, and read books without eyestrain, and allows me to “get into” my reading just like I get into reading a paperback. Its not that the Kindle is perfect, nor Amazon perfect – they both got some pretty big problems, including overly obnoxious DRM
Is there anything like lots more about Kindles than Sonys or nooks? I've heard there are other eink ereaders out there, any differences?
schemes. But, in practice, “it works” where for me “it works” includes the idea that one doesn’t always have to run home and tether one’s ebook reader to a desktop every time you want to get a new book to read.
Again, it's always nice to have wifi.
Waiting to see the B&N reader in the bookstore to see how well it works – seems to me the B&N WiFi approach might be better than the Kindle Whispernet approach, but there are goofy aspects to the B&N reader too. And in the next year there is going to be about a dozen more interesting ebook readers coming out. Why all this interest in ebook readers? People like them. People use them. People buy them. People buy books for them. People read books on them. In short, because it works. And technology where one can actually say “it works” is really a pretty rare thing! That’s why I’m excited by ebook readers – because it actually makes projects like PG begin to make sense! [And they are really fun! Don’t really know why – they just are!]
Apparently about 4% of all books sales are now eBooks. [They still refuse to count free ones like ours] This is just about exactly the same ~4% amount that paper book sales are down. . .so books are not down in the total sense, but apparently not all of their execs got the memo and are still blaming piracy. Speaking of piracy, is anyone ready to start a work against the obvious 2018 US Copyright Act??? mh