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Post by aztec70 on Aug 2, 2010 11:01:04 GMT -8
Anyone have one? If so, what do you think of it?
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Post by Bob Forsythe on Aug 2, 2010 16:29:42 GMT -8
Anyone have one? If so, what do you think of it? Don't have one, will never have one. I like the feel of a book in my hand. Hell, I even like the hassle that comes from trying to hold down the pages of a paperback without damaging the spine. Not to mention the fact that most of what they will inevitably offer are best sellers and I have no love of best sellers, except for those few history books that make the list. =Bob
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Post by Spud on Aug 2, 2010 16:35:02 GMT -8
JDAztec is a great person to ask this...he's had at least two versions of the Kindle and I heard he has an iPad too...
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Post by Spud on Aug 2, 2010 16:41:42 GMT -8
Anyone have one? If so, what do you think of it? Don't have one, will never have one. I like the feel of a book in my hand. Hell, I even like the hassle that comes from trying to hold down the pages of a paperback without damaging the spine. Not to mention the fact that most of what they will inevitably offer are best sellers and I have no love of best sellers, except for those few history books that make the list. =Bob www.gutenberg.org/And there's other efforts to provide more ebook offerings other than Tom Clancy novels... The text book publishing industry is moving towards electronic media as the prime distribution source and my guess is once all the old farts die off, the days of newspapers and books as we know them will be over. Once they conquer the color issues for displays, say goodbye to magazines too. Just think of all the trees that will be saved to combat global warming!!!
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Post by joshjones1 on Aug 3, 2010 18:47:25 GMT -8
Anyone have one? If so, what do you think of it? Don't have one, will never have one. I like the feel of a book in my hand. Hell, I even like the hassle that comes from trying to hold down the pages of a paperback without damaging the spine. Not to mention the fact that most of what they will inevitably offer are best sellers and I have no love of best sellers, except for those few history books that make the list. =Bob I like the feel of something else in my hand. Not book pages. But then, that's me. As for books....I am on a serious John Sandford binge lately. His Lucas Davenport "Prey" novels are the $#!+!
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Post by Frantic on Aug 4, 2010 10:12:30 GMT -8
Just finished The Girl who Played with Fire, which I thought was even better than the first. Highly recommend both. Best I've read in a long long time. Looking forward to the third in the series Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
I'm taking the plunge and getting the new Kindle model when it comes out on 8/23. Can't wait to check it out. Everyone I know who has a Kindle loves them.
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Post by ziggy on Aug 4, 2010 10:28:08 GMT -8
Just finished The Girl who Played with Fire, which I thought was even better than the first. Highly recommend both. Best I've read in a long long time. Looking forward to the third in the series Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'm taking the plunge and getting the new Kindle model when it comes out on 8/23. Can't wait to check it out. Everyone I know who has a Kindle loves them. I'm finshing the first probably tonight and have the next ready to go. I hadn't been hooked on a book for a while but these got me. Mine are paperbacks though so I can't help with the thread.
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Post by monty on Aug 4, 2010 11:16:19 GMT -8
Don't have one, will never have one. I like the feel of a book in my hand. Hell, I even like the hassle that comes from trying to hold down the pages of a paperback without damaging the spine. Not to mention the fact that most of what they will inevitably offer are best sellers and I have no love of best sellers, except for those few history books that make the list. =Bob www.gutenberg.org/And there's other efforts to provide more ebook offerings other than Tom Clancy novels... The text book publishing industry is moving towards electronic media as the prime distribution source and my guess is once all the old farts die off, the days of newspapers and books as we know them will be over. Once they conquer the color issues for displays, say goodbye to magazines too. Just think of all the trees that will be saved to combat global warming!!! That is one of the reasons i keep thinking of getting one - it would be a good way to read out of copyright books; I do far prefer a physical book, if feels better instead of looking at a screen, so much better just dog earing a page or writting a margin note/underlining over using any program they have, and I often recall a quote based on where on the page it is, like it's a third of the way down on the left facing page 100 or so pages in - certain memory skills which I seem to have are better suited for books. But, 19th, 18th centrury novels, etc are well suited for an ereader so this is a good question.
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Post by Bob Forsythe on Aug 4, 2010 19:33:41 GMT -8
Note - I deleted my previous post in favor of this one because I think this one expresses my love of books more than the other one did.Don't have one, will never have one. I like the feel of a book in my hand. Hell, I even like the hassle that comes from trying to hold down the pages of a paperback without damaging the spine. Not to mention the fact that most of what they will inevitably offer are best sellers and I have no love of best sellers, except for those few history books that make the list. =Bob www.gutenberg.org/And there's other efforts to provide more ebook offerings other than Tom Clancy novels... The text book publishing industry is moving towards electronic media as the prime distribution source and my guess is once all the old farts die off, the days of newspapers and books as we know them will be over. Once they conquer the color issues for displays, say goodbye to magazines too. Just think of all the trees that will be saved to combat global warming!!! Just think of all the trees that would be saved if the assholes at DEA would allow hemp to be grown in this country. 1 acre of hemp offers the same product as 10 acres of trees. Of course the publishers like electronic media. They own all the rights and they get rid of stores like Cal Books, which was on the east side of College Ave. when I was at SDSU, and sold used text books for half price (not to mention the people who'd come in before class on the first day offering their text books at around the same rate). You really don't get it, do you? All electronic media books means is that every student will be paying at least the same for a book than they paid in the past and they will have no right to resell it, not to mention if copyright issues come up, the Ebook provider retains the right to just remove it from your reader. The unfortunate thing is you've grown up in a disposal generation who is willing to give away everything in order to have a bit of perceived convenience. Books are to be valued and not just objects to be tossed away as soon as we are done with them. Bob
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Post by monty on Aug 5, 2010 23:12:16 GMT -8
Note - I deleted my previous post in favor of this one because I think this one expresses my love of books more than the other one did.www.gutenberg.org/And there's other efforts to provide more ebook offerings other than Tom Clancy novels... The text book publishing industry is moving towards electronic media as the prime distribution source and my guess is once all the old farts die off, the days of newspapers and books as we know them will be over. Once they conquer the color issues for displays, say goodbye to magazines too. Just think of all the trees that will be saved to combat global warming!!! Just think of all the trees that would be saved if the assholes at DEA would allow hemp to be grown in this country. 1 acre of hemp offers the same product as 10 acres of trees. Of course the publishers like electronic media. They own all the rights and they get rid of stores like Cal Books, which was on the east side of College Ave. when I was at SDSU, and sold used text books for half price (not to mention the people who'd come in before class on the first day offering their text books at around the same rate). You really don't get it, do you? All electronic media books means is that every student will be paying at least the same for a book than they paid in the past and they will have no right to resell it, not to mention if copyright issues come up, the Ebook provider retains the right to just remove it from your reader. The unfortunate thing is you've grown up in a disposal generation who is willing to give away everything in order to have a bit of perceived convenience. Books are to be valued and not just objects to be tossed away as soon as we are done with them. Bob Physical products and physical dispensaries are disappearing, and with them whole industries and jobs. The economies of the 'developed' countries face huge long term problems in this. Not only will jobs for the lower segment of the population vanish, but the younger folk that start in these jobs and begin to learn their skills. The issue of not fully owning things you paid for is, in fact, alarming and is or will effect all areas of art and entertainment: music, books, movies, tv shows, video games, etc - they are moving towards these digital downloads where we will in essence just be borrowing the content directly from the source at full cost. There is also the concern, as you note, that it all could be removed swiftly and without warning or cause by the powers-that-be. With the way apple is raking money in we'll see more closed systems, more corporate czars that determine content, more crushing of competition; just as it seemed the future of computing was more open-source products, Apple has shown the profits are in charging people 99cents and up for crappy $#!+, that is difficult to transfer, damn near impossible to resell, censored for content by a corporate czar and stripped down. Unless a screen becomes the size of a 4 person desk at a library so you can have multiple books open all at once, there will be loss of not having the physical medium, Also, what will be the cost to a university or institution or individual for maintaining a library? Will it be subscription based? So that, what used to cost say 75 bucks for a well bound volume that will last geneartions will cost a flat rate for all their volumes or an individual rate for each you want in the collection per month? Will the library or individual have to pay every time they want to look up The Republic or War and Peace? Ereaders, when they get better - I don't enjoy reading something like a book on a computer screen, the kindle and such are better, some of the stuff in the pipeline seems cools - will be a huge assets, but, I fear it will be another way for us to pay the full cost to some multi-national what we used to pay to some giant, but also to the people that type set, that operated and maintained the machine, that shipped the product, that housed it to sell, that sold the product and we won't have the same rights to that product we previously did. If people are going to buy one song they find catchy, why bother with a collected series of tracks that might show some experimentation? If people are going to pay the same for every book (and apple is going to take 70 percent or something right off the top) or pay a flat rate to a publisher, why bother trying something different or going for substance. There are huge philosophical issues underneath all these: of economics, of the process of learning and memory, of content, of ownership....
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Post by The Great Aztec Joe on Aug 6, 2010 6:45:27 GMT -8
Note - I deleted my previous post in favor of this one because I think this one expresses my love of books more than the other one did.www.gutenberg.org/And there's other efforts to provide more ebook offerings other than Tom Clancy novels... The text book publishing industry is moving towards electronic media as the prime distribution source and my guess is once all the old farts die off, the days of newspapers and books as we know them will be over. Once they conquer the color issues for displays, say goodbye to magazines too. Just think of all the trees that will be saved to combat global warming!!! Just think of all the trees that would be saved if the assholes at DEA would allow hemp to be grown in this country. 1 acre of hemp offers the same product as 10 acres of trees. Of course the publishers like electronic media. They own all the rights and they get rid of stores like Cal Books, which was on the east side of College Ave. when I was at SDSU, and sold used text books for half price (not to mention the people who'd come in before class on the first day offering their text books at around the same rate). You really don't get it, do you? All electronic media books means is that every student will be paying at least the same for a book than they paid in the past and they will have no right to resell it, not to mention if copyright issues come up, the Ebook provider retains the right to just remove it from your reader. The unfortunate thing is you've grown up in a disposal generation who is willing to give away everything in order to have a bit of perceived convenience. Books are to be valued and not just objects to be tossed away as soon as we are done with them. Bob Bob, you are under a misconception. The last time I checked, Mobipocket, the French site where I have been leading sales for seven years now with the same book in several different categories, allows three downloads with the purchase of the E-book. So if Bob Smith bought the book, he could download it to his E-reader and his computer at home and his PDA. Many people do this and others, like college students will buy one book but download it to three different readers. Note that in most cases the cost of the E-books is far less than a book at a book store. E-books are a fantastic deal. In the future you (because you stored the books you bought on your computer at home) will be able to take that hard drive, put it in a new computer frame and give a whole library as a gift. Try doing that with a thousand books. _____________ Now, on the other topic you were wrong about, the DEA allows HEMP to be grown in the United States. The low THC variety is a commercial crop, but does not turn much of a profit because it is grown around the world and other countries are undercutting us in price. As long as Siberia has all of those virgin forests and Russia is selling the wood from those forests dirt cheap on the international market, the price of wood and wood products compete with hemp for paper use.
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Post by 83aztec on Aug 6, 2010 8:27:56 GMT -8
I can buy a boat load of books for the cost of an e-reader. I'll stick with books for now but the e-readers I have seen look pretty damn cool. Just finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Great book.
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Post by The Great Aztec Joe on Aug 6, 2010 8:44:16 GMT -8
I can buy a boat load of books for the cost of an e-reader. I'll stick with books for now but the e-readers I have seen look pretty damn cool. Just finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Great book. Compare the prices between the E-books and their paper counterparts. The E-reader makes it possible to read a lot more books for the money, including the cost of the E-reader. Paper books are so "last year."
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Post by Bob Forsythe on Aug 6, 2010 16:14:49 GMT -8
Now, on the other topic you were wrong about, the DEA allows HEMP to be grown in the United States. The low THC variety is a commercial crop, but does not turn much of a profit because it is grown around the world and other countries are undercutting us in price. As long as Siberia has all of those virgin forests and Russia is selling the wood from those forests dirt cheap on the international market, the price of wood and wood products compete with hemp for paper use. Well, if you're correct, it's fairly recent. This is from '07: tinyurl.com/38hpnhdAnd no, wood wouldn't stand a chance against hemp because one acre of hemp is equivalent to 10 acres of wood when it comes to paper production. But either way, the Russian forests are now the largest on the planet and work as the greatest CO2 sink we have. Why should they be taken out when hemp is far more efficient? =Bob
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Post by Bob Forsythe on Aug 6, 2010 16:27:54 GMT -8
I can buy a boat load of books for the cost of an e-reader. I'll stick with books for now but the e-readers I have seen look pretty damn cool. Just finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Great book. Compare the prices between the E-books and their paper counterparts. The E-reader makes it possible to read a lot more books for the money, including the cost of the E-reader. Paper books are so "last year." Damn, such a bummer to not be "cool" and have the latest technology. I am happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong, but I believe e-books are owned by the company offering them and resale (or even trading them for other books) is verboten. Trading in books is basic commerce. I went to City College and SDSU with a friend who paid his fees by spending his summers traveling around the Southwest buying books and selling them for a profit (Paul Crook, may he rest in peace - died in February at age 75). The problem I see with E-Books is you don't farking own the farking book. It's just like software - you buy it and you agree that the publisher owns it and that you will not, under any circumstances, sell it or loan it. That allows the company offering it to offer you a total piece of $#!+ if they decide to do so and you have no recourse (talk to me sometime about a game called "The Crypt of Lygia" and the company's total refusal to give my ex and I a new copy of it back in the early '80s). I don't trust computer companies any farther than I can throw them and I can't throw them more than a few inches. =Bob
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Post by The Great Aztec Joe on Aug 6, 2010 17:15:28 GMT -8
When you buy the Book, you buy access to three machines (Computers, PDA's or E-readers) that you want to download the books to. As I understand it, that access is for ever, so if you have access to your computer for aone thousand books and you place your computer in your precocious grandchildren's hands, you have just given them a gift of a thousand books, even though you may still have access on your PDA or E-reader. I think it is a darn good deal.
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