E is the magic letter these days
Slashdot are carrying this story on the new Sony e-Book reader. Now I like the idea of e-books but they do lack some of the convenience of a paper back. The major one being cost. If I leave a £4.99 book on a train I am mostly just upset that I can't read it until I get another copy and then I will have to relocate my position. But if I leave £400 of e-book on a train I probably won't give a stuff about the books! Although if it carries 80 books will my insurance reimburse me for those too? Or will the ebook library let me have another download for free? The same is true of DRM linked music too - you might get the insurance to pay out for a new music player, but what about the music that was on it? Does iTunes music store remember what you bought and give you the right to download it again? I don't think so. The whole thing relies on the fact that you have made adequate backups. But how does the average home user backup gigabytes of data?
In the UK there has been a movement to openly share good paperbacks by leaving them on trains and in other public places, perhaps with a few comments in on what you thought about the book (I think it may have been a BBC idea.) This is great idea and gets people exposed to books they wouldn't have normally read. Could there be a an equivalent electronic version of this? I doubt it because electronic data is infinitely copyable and this whole move to electronic forms of books and music is driven by antisharing and cost reduction.
Any 'regular' readers will have noticed that this article lacks many of the authors usual linguistic tools (sarcasm, swearing, idiocy etc). Sorry about that. Normal service will be resumed soon. You wanker. See I told you.
In the UK there has been a movement to openly share good paperbacks by leaving them on trains and in other public places, perhaps with a few comments in on what you thought about the book (I think it may have been a BBC idea.) This is great idea and gets people exposed to books they wouldn't have normally read. Could there be a an equivalent electronic version of this? I doubt it because electronic data is infinitely copyable and this whole move to electronic forms of books and music is driven by antisharing and cost reduction.
Any 'regular' readers will have noticed that this article lacks many of the authors usual linguistic tools (sarcasm, swearing, idiocy etc). Sorry about that. Normal service will be resumed soon. You wanker. See I told you.
posted by AntToeKnee at 9:26 AM
2 Comments:
Hmm, perhapse the government will install wi-fi on our shambolic buses and trains so they can call them eBuses and eTrains, in the hope it will mask the shuddering, deisel-fume filled reality with a veneer of progress.
I like the thought of 'e' with everything....perhaps I've got the wrong idea...
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