Comments on: Is print going the way of the DoDo?

By: Henry Emrich

Henry Emrich — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:38:28 +0000

The REAL critical “deal-breaker” on this type of technology is whether the companies producing such units opt for REAL competition — open, readily-available standards etc. — or attempt to force some sort of “vendor lock-in”. That’s what’s pretty much neutered the “E-book” thing up to this point — companies doing evil, counterproductive bullshit like taking “public domain” literature and attempting to “lock it up” via DRM and “software licenses” etc.

Doubtless our friend “Sam I am” would find no problem with that, since complaining about such things makes one a “commie anarchist”.

Yes, Jon, I AM still rather dismayed by that…..

By: Henry Emrich

Henry Emrich — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:35:02 +0000

The notion that something like this being introduced will cause something like print to “Go away” is just the sort of shortsighted thinking that makes the “technorati” look bad:

There’s a big difference between hardcopies not being used for frivolous crap like daily newspapers and there being NO use for hardcopies at all. For starters, non-volatile “backups” are going to become increasingly critical over time. Everybody seems to believe that stuff will just sit “in memory”, but that discounts stuff like EMP, drive failures, etc.

To be honest, “newspapers” have been irrelevant since the advent of Television and radio broadcasting — primarily because all they ever really DID was regurgitate the stuff supplied by the wire services, interspersed with local-flavored human interest “fluff”.

Sometimes you really “nail” one, but sometimes — like now — you really miss bigtime.

By: hahaha

hahaha — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:41:32 +0000

Print will never go away. It takes a lot less to get rid of electronic data than the printed page. There are books that are hundreds of years old–how old will a file last?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:44:26 +0000

I still prefer paper. ebooks need power and power costs a ever increasing amount of money. With paper its got a zero upkeep cost and can be recycled. also power cuts could be a problem if you need wireless to update the display. hard disk falior could also be a problem for those who don’t back up.

on the plus side you can change the font size and some you can even change the font.(harry potter in windings anyone)