babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.
in his Understanding Media, well worth a re-read, Marshall McLuhan noted that new media are ALWAYS suspected of killing the old media -- movies would kill theatre, TV would kill radio, video would kill cinemas, etc etc.;
in fact, they each find their niche, eventually ....
I prefer paper for many things: it has qualities of touch and permanence that beat screens, and I do not trust many valuable things -- tickets, personal memos, money things -- to electronic media alone.
I also prefer reading on paper, esp. after daytime hours, less need for eye focus.
Paper will find its niche: as the Cdn Pulp and Paper Association notes, demand for paper has risen steadily alongside the PC-printer combo in recent decades. people want to hold what they print, and read that repeatedly, anywhere..
Sigil is free as in freedom ebook creation software licensed under the GNU GPL. It runs on Windows, MacOSX and GNU/Linux.
Booktype looks interesting, but you need to be a somewhat experienced GNU/Linux user to get it up and running. It looks like it might be fairly new and thus the somewhat geeky installation process.
Glad to see people paying attention to the DRM/copyright issues in this debate. The already mentioned Cory Doctorow has some interesting insights into why amazon does DRM-free music.
Opinions on the death of books seem to have changed a fair bit since my ghostbuster post way back.
I had read about half of the novel when I was given the gift of a Nook, the e-reader from Barnes and Noble. Although I am committed to supporting my neighborhood independent book store (Books to be Red), and enjoying honest-to-goodness books, the .99 Nook edition was so lightweight that it has made reading War and Peace a genuine pleasure. For those of you who have not tackled this tome as yet, it is a page-turner.
As I was reading, I came across this sentence: "It was as if a light had been Nookd in a carved and painted lantern...." Thinking this was simply a glitch in the software, I ignored the intrusive word and continued reading. Some pages later I encountered the rogue word again. With my third encounter I decided to retrieve my hard cover book and find the original (well, the translated) text.
For the sentence above I discovered this genuine translation: "It was as if a light had been kindled in a carved and painted lantern...."
Outstanding.
Yeah, no kidding, it was excellent - and passionate.
In my completely unbiased opinion (heh), that was excellent!
Ain't love grand.
Excellent piece, rr.
in his Understanding Media, well worth a re-read, Marshall McLuhan noted that new media are ALWAYS suspected of killing the old media -- movies would kill theatre, TV would kill radio, video would kill cinemas, etc etc.;
in fact, they each find their niche, eventually ....
I prefer paper for many things: it has qualities of touch and permanence that beat screens, and I do not trust many valuable things -- tickets, personal memos, money things -- to electronic media alone.
I also prefer reading on paper, esp. after daytime hours, less need for eye focus.
Paper will find its niche: as the Cdn Pulp and Paper Association notes, demand for paper has risen steadily alongside the PC-printer combo in recent decades. people want to hold what they print, and read that repeatedly, anywhere..
Sigil is free as in freedom ebook creation software licensed under the GNU GPL. It runs on Windows, MacOSX and GNU/Linux.
Booktype looks interesting, but you need to be a somewhat experienced GNU/Linux user to get it up and running. It looks like it might be fairly new and thus the somewhat geeky installation process.
Glad to see people paying attention to the DRM/copyright issues in this debate. The already mentioned Cory Doctorow has some interesting insights into why amazon does DRM-free music.
Opinions on the death of books seem to have changed a fair bit since my ghostbuster post way back.
kindle'd and nookd -- amazing story. Thanks for posting that link, I would never have seen it (didn't know the blog).
BTW Catchfire, I'm reading Tony Judt with great appreciation -- will post suitable comments on that thread.