[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [b] -- Tax return
Subintellectual wrote:
nathan wrote:
Fair enough. I have this picture of academics being surrounded by
books. Reinforced by Sally. (she has so many her new book shelves
just cost more than the average kitchen from B and Q, i wonder if the
tax man will bite that?) But i suppose that is not true of most
nowadays. Plus there is a difference between 'arts'/ 'social
sciences' and 'hard science'.
I think arts and law tend to be more associated with books, and the
wordier end of social science (ie sociology), whereas more numerate
areas are more journal driven. But some people like surrounding
themselves with textbooks, I don't. I think lecturers do it more
because they like to mix and match sources, and need to more often,
whereas I generally need to find a reference for a particular instance
once only, so I go through WoS or Psychinfo, usually to a paper. It's
only reference books I'd use, so this morning I spend a couple of
hours looking at stats books in the library. Be no point in me buying
any of them.
In which case what do you think of the potential for E-Ink?
Apparently all pdf's will be transferrable immediately. So thats good
for you and your articles.
Is this the thing MIT have been developing for years? I think if it
looks and feels like paper, it'll work for linear reading. Sometimes
though you want to spread papers out in front of you and
cross-reference, and I'm not sure it'll have the same benefits there.
How about books? Would you use it, or would you rather make a trip
to the library. How about getting rid of the physical library as is
and using e-books and self expiring data, like the texts. Reckon it
will happen?
I'd do that - if I'm just looking for particular information, I'd
rather have it all online and searchable, as with the stats books.
Would you like to see the ebook display either nested inside another
program or with some pen that you could draw on it to make notes.
Perhaps a little file of data attached to it. (like mp3 ide tags)
That you can put a fair bit in, notes linked to pages.
I don't get pen-based computing and it really fucks me off the only
PDAs you can get these days are like that. For e-paper/ink to work in
this context it's needs to be A4, feel like paper, and have a simple,
thumb operated interface. What the functionality should be, I don't know.
Would you like an i tunes for your library?
How about beyond work? You are obviously inttelegent and middle class.
Cunt.
Do you use the books to define your self and household or could they
easily be absorbed in the computer? More or less easily that your cd
collection? What about others of your ilk?
If we are about to see the death of the album do you think we will
see the death of the book? The technical book i mean, where chapters
can mostly stand alone. Do you think we shall see massive works, like
the principia, origin of species or suicide, published again? Or will
it all be reduced to a series of papers, possibly then collated into
linked chapeters. With the only giant books being public
communitcations like schema et al.
What does this do to the nature of scholarship and the point of
university eduaction? What will happen to the publishing industry,
why bother with it when you can publish anything really easily? what
about STANDARDS.
Book casting could do away with the daily newspaper easily.
It is political correctness gone made i tell you. either that or
antisemitism.
If technology comes up with a functional equivalent of the book, at a
similar cost, books will stay as entertainment. I think academic
publishing with move away from paper more and more, but people will
still use hard copies.
But looking at the state of my desk, I'd happily have a matrix-like
plug to get information, and lose all the paper. Except the tissue.
You can't blow your nose on a pdf. Yet.
---
It looks like I'm adding my own material to the tags, which would be
the behaviour of a shitsack.
Indeed it is MIT. Should be out end of the year. 200 quid ish, which the
times seems to think expensive, but I would pay that, more than i would
pay 200 quid for an I-pod. See here:
http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search?search=e-ink&lDim=0&sort=relevance&Ntk=SingleWordSearch&servlet_path=search&N=0
I think is to be about A4 and flexible. Store lots. Massive battery life
as it only uses it when you turn the page. No lighting like a screen see.
I'd thought of the way we use books to find things, relative to other
pages in the book, but not flicking back and forth or the ability to
read two at once. nice... multiple sales.
The way of the future i tells you. Looks like library licensing is
going to go through the roof. Imagine, yes we only have on copy but not
everyone can read it at once....
nathan
---
It looks like I'm adding my own material to the tags, which would be the behaviour of a shitsack.
* Last Subject: Re: [b] -- Tax return --*
* Last Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 13:17:22 +0000 --*
* 02:11-11 --*