>>> On Aug 30, 1:54 am, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
>>>> This is absurd, David. She doesn't want to do it, and people are so
>>>> invested in arguing that she can in fact do it that you want to argue
>>>> about whether her assumptions that it's impossible (which are code for
>>>> "she doesn't want to do it") are in fact justified.
> You're right. I don't want to do it. Do you want to know why I
> don't want to do it? (Probably not, but too late now.)
> Because if I did, I would look like a bloody fool, puffed up with
> unwarranted self-regard, who thought she could put a book onto
> the e-market and sell it. The market for e-books, since the
> self-published ones outnumber the professionally published ones
> by a lot, out-Sturgeons Sturgeon: NINETY-NINE percent of it is
> crud. If I put anything up there, it would join the crud, never
> be bought or read, and any time, effort, or expense put in by me
> or anybody else would be wasted. For me to stay out of it is the
> better part of valour, since I haven't been able to sell anything
> else, including the last three novels, for [counts on fingers]
> fifteen years. I can live with being unpublished. I don't want
> to look stupid.
You in fact look stupid when you just deny that ebooks have any value.
On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:52:33 -0700, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com>
wrote:
>When the house line rings, it's almost always for the kids. Once they >get their own phones (which they're agitating for) or go to college, I >doubt we'll keep the house line.
We've a mobile phone each. The only reason we keep a house phone is
because it comes "for free" with the Internet access cabling. Can't
get just wired Internet alone here.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- "If we do not change the direction we are going, we are likely to
end up where we are headed." - anon
>On 2012-08-30 01:34:25 +0000, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> said:
>> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:52:33 -0700, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com>
>> wrote:
>>> My cell phone is simply my phone. I used to have an office line, but
>>> found that because I wasn't in the habit of using the cell phone, I
>>> didn't take it with me when I left the house, rendering it pretty well
>>> useless.
>>> So I ported my office number over to an iPhone, and since I was in the
>>> habit of using it at my desk, I remembered to take it with me when I
>>> leave, and now use it for many things beyond just phone calls.
>>> When the house line rings, it's almost always for the kids. Once they
>>> get their own phones (which they're agitating for) or go to college, I
>>> doubt we'll keep the house line. The iPhone is much, much more
>>> convenient.
>> When I get home, I plug my iPhone into a recharger. I have a 3 floor
>> condo, and it is not in the floor where I am right now.
I'll hazard a guess that it's a 3G or 3GS? They generally have lousy
one-and-a-half-day batteries. My partner still uses an iPhone original
because it has a six day battery.
>My recharger is at my desk. But I've gotten in the habit of taking my >phone with me if I go elsewhere in the house. Unless I'm going to bed, >in which case, no thanks.
I use mine as my alarm clock and sometimes plug it in to charge
overnight (four day battery iPhone 4). You can pop it into Airplane
mode to avoid calls, but annoyingly Apple refuse app programmers
access to that so there's no automation possible (without
jailbreaking).
>I'd like to upgrade to a music dock of some sort, so I can recharge >while playing music at my desk. Not sure what gadgets are available, >but I have a birthday coming up, and my wife has started looking into >it.
There are literally thousands of them out there. If your ears are
picky, it's worth auditioning hifi ones. If not, just get anything at
the $40+ price mark (or $80+ if hifi branded!). I use a Pure Evoke Flow which is pretty good but it's for more than
just iThing playback and priced high.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- "But people have always eaten people!
What else is there to eat?
If the Juju had meant us not to eat people
He wouldn't have made us of meat!" -- Flanders & Swann
>> :: I bought Cryoburn in hardcover, so I have the whole Vorkosigan saga
>> :: in ebook form at no additional cost of duplication. Plus, of course,
>> :: all the CD extras.
>> : erilar <dra...@chibardun.net.invalid>
>> : Now that makes a hardcover a real bargain! Of course, I believe I have
>> : everything else in paper already and the number of(almost all free)
>> : books on my iPad keeps growing faster than I get them read.
>> Raises an interesting question: does baen still do with-CD
>> releases of hardcovers in major series, like it's done with
>> the Vorkosiverse or the Harringtonverse?
>> I suppose one way to see is to look at the vintage of things
>> showing up on fifth imperium website...
>You haven't been following that? The Cryoburn CD has been withdrawn
>from Fifth Imperium at...Lois's request as relayed by Baen. But as of
>quite recently, when Cryoburn came out, they included a CD with
>everything on it.
Well - everything in the Vorkosigan saga except Memory. No other
Bujold books.
> I imagine many of us will be VERY interested to look
>at the next few big Baen releases, and especially releases of Lois's
>work.
Indeed, I'll be pretty surprised if Ivan's book comes with one.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- "People can be educated beyond their intelligence" -- Marilyn vos Savant
On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:49:05 GMT, goldf...@ocf.berkeley.edu (David
Goldfarb) wrote:
>In article <NJt%r.3841$mF7....@newsfe08.iad>,
>Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>[An ebook reader is...]
>>Particularly useful for reading while on a cardio machine at the Y, >>where a real paperback would be struggling to close if I didn't keep >>manual control over it at all times.
>My mom surprised me with a Kindle Fire on my last birthday, and I
>discovered that it is *precisely* the right size to fit on the
>treadmill in my apartment complex's fitness room. To within a
>fraction of an inch. I wonder who was looking at whose specs?
The holy grail! I'd love a tablet that fit there. My current one is
too big, the phone is too small...
Cheers - Jaimie
-- I'm not imaginary, just ontologically challenged
> e> I made the full leap--all the way to iPad--to begin with, so I
> e> only know Kindle from the Kindle app ON my iPad, where it fails
> e> to impress me. e-book readers and tablets or computers that can
> e> display them vary considerably.
>I had an iPad for two years before I bought a Kindle, and the $79 Kindle
>is a far, far better ebook than the iPad (and that is saying something,
>as the iPad is an excellent ebook reader).
>For me, the principal advantages are few but telling:
>* the size. The 7-inch Kindle is more like a paperback.
>* the price. I'm not nearly as concerned about losing or breaking my
> $79 Kindle as I am my $799 iPad.
>* the screen. The e-Ink makes a huge difference in readability,
> especially outdoors.
>The iPad is a great general-purpose tablet, but the Kindle is a
>nearly-perfect device for reading text.
For me, the main advantages were
* The weight - the Kindle weighs almost nothing, the iPad is a heavy
chunk
* The battery - the Kindle lasts weeks, the iPad a few days
In the end I actually went back to using my phone, which is always
kept charged anyway and is always with me. The screen isn't as good as
a Kindle.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- Women's breasts are like electric train sets. They're meant for kids, but usually it's the fathers who wind up playing with them.
Heydt) wrote:
>In article <a216f738-36e8-45c8-af76-c4c441c43...@kr6g2000pbb.googlegroups.com>,
>Moriarty <blue...@ivillage.com> wrote:
>>On Aug 29, 5:48 pm, thro...@sheol.org (Wayne Throop) wrote:
>>> : t...@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
>>> : Ok, the mobi format on Kindle supports multiple body fonts:
>>> :
>>> :http://www.tednolan.net/misc/kindle_font.jpg
>>> Are you sure the ideograms are't an embedded image?
>>> Anyways, I've read seemingly-reliable assertions from seeming-experts
>>> that the .mobi format doesn't claim embedded fonts work, and indeed
>>> that's a pretty strong extension to basic html-style markup. However,
>>> I've likewise read assertions that it'll handle specifying any font
>>> the reader supports. It's just that kindle only seems to support one
>>> font at a time.
>>That last bit's simply not true. If you've read _Cryptonomicon_
>>you'll know that the font changes depending on whether or not it's
>>narrative text, e-mail text or even perl script. The mobi version on
>>my kindle handles it perfectly. And, yes, it displays more than one
>>font on the screen at the same time.
>>I've no idea how *hard* it was for the publishers to do this, of
>>course...
>Probably the reasoning went like this. "Stephenson is an
>Important Author. Lots of people will want to buy this book. It
>has funny fonts that will take some extra coding; maybe a lot of
>extra coding. We shall therefore throw some extra money, maybe a
>lot of extra money, at it to pay people to code it."
No, it's not a matter of publisher-side coding, it's a matter of what
Amazon put into the software on the Kindle.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- Networking is well understood and well standardized,
unfortunately not by the same people.
On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:38:48 GMT, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
Heydt) wrote:
>Because if I did, I would look like a bloody fool, puffed up with
>unwarranted self-regard, who thought she could put a book onto
>the e-market and sell it.
Now *this* is nonsense. No-one would care, except those who were
pleased to be able to read your book on an e-reader.
Being embarrassed by sticking your head over the parapet is entirely
unnecessary when tens of thousands of other people are doing the same
at the same time.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- Happiness, n.: An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the
misery of another. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
>Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote, On 8/29/12 7:33 PM:
>> On 8/29/12 2:56 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>>> Then I had to spend, hmm, about five years using one when I was
>>> working for the professor of molecular biology, and everybody in
>>> the lab was using Macs. I'm sure I've told the story about how I
>>> finally called Apple and got the tech who said to me in honest
>>> bewilderment, "Why would anybody want to use the computer without
>>> the mouse????"
>>> (Because it takes my hand off the keyboard, you semi-illiterate
>>> picture-reader.)
>> You can call me that, too, because using command-line is, to me,
>> the same thing as insisting that I send all correspondence via post
>> rather than use E-mail. The advent of the GUI and point-and-click was
>> the same huge step for me as going from the typewriter to the word
>> processor, one more step towards the computer doing the work instead of
>> ME doing the work. I would (do, in fact) have the same reaction towards
>> why anyone would want to use a computer without the mouse (or trackpad,
>> whatever.).
>Mouse and trackpad certainly have their uses, particularly in graphics >and layout applications.
>If it's impossible to perform text operations without taking a hand off >the keyboard, spotting the menu item you want, pulling down the menu, >blah blah blah, then something's not right.
>One thing I liked about Windows is that any menu operation could be >performed with keystrokes. I wish Mac would pull their thumb out and add >this functionality without qualifications and exceptions.
You can. Have been able to since OSX was released in 1999, I have no
idea about the old "classic" Mac OS.
I know two blind computer users who tell me that you can do anything
on a Mac using the builtin reader and keyboard, no mousing necessary
(though the mouse can also be used if you like, with the reader
telling you what you're mousing over). They moved from Windows where
you *can't* do this stuff blind without spending thousands of pounds
on third party software.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.
-- Nancy Mitford
> In article <k1m8sa$lg...@dont-email.me>,
> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>> On 8/29/12 2:56 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>>> Then I had to spend, hmm, about five years using one when I was
>>> working for the professor of molecular biology, and everybody in
>>> the lab was using Macs. I'm sure I've told the story about how I
>>> finally called Apple and got the tech who said to me in honest
>>> bewilderment, "Why would anybody want to use the computer without
>>> the mouse????"
>>> (Because it takes my hand off the keyboard, you semi-illiterate
>>> picture-reader.)
>> You can call me that, too, because using command-line is, to me, the
>> same thing as insisting that I send all correspondence via post rather
>> than use E-mail. The advent of the GUI and point-and-click was the same
>> huge step for me as going from the typewriter to the word processor, one
>> more step towards the computer doing the work instead of ME doing the
>> work. I would (do, in fact) have the same reaction towards why anyone
>> would want to use a computer without the mouse (or trackpad, whatever.).
> How much of your writing involves inputting text, and how much
> involves fiddling around with the mouse?
Depends on which writing. My day job writing, technical proposals and reports mostly, has a lot of text input, but also has things like drawing diagrams, putting images and captions in-line with the text, font changes and formatting and so on which uses a fair amount of mouse use. A MAJOR drawing (like a concept drawing for one of the inventions we're proposing) may actually be most of an entire day of mostly mouse-driven drawing. (I have occasionally contemplated getting a drawing tablet but I actually can't draw, so I suspect I wouldn't gain much convenience from it).
My fiction writing is almost all text-typing, aside from italics/boldface type entry and chapter separations.
On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:28:20 GMT, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
Heydt) wrote:
>UNIX/Linux:
>If in input mode, hit ESC to get out.
>Type command.
>Watch command execute in the blink of an eye.
>To re-enter input mode, type a or o or i or several other
>available commands; continue typing.
The Mac, being a Unix OS, will also do this at a terminal.
>>I know dozens of keyboard shortcuts on Mac, but they don't have >>shortcuts for everything.
>Yup. That was what I called Apple about, asking if there were
>enough keyboard shortcuts to be able to do without the mouse
>altogether. And he said, in genuine bewilderment, "Why would
>anyone want to do without the mouse?"
If this was in the old pre-2000 Mac OS, I have no idea. Now it's no
problem.
Cheers - Jaimie (not a fanboy as such, just trying to spread
information...)
-- "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future"
- Niels Bohr
> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote, On 8/29/12 9:57 PM:
>> On 8/29/12 9:32 PM, Howard Brazee wrote:
>>> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:08:13 -0400, Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Mouse and trackpad certainly have their uses, particularly in graphics
>>>> and layout applications.
>>>> If it's impossible to perform text operations without taking a hand off
>>>> the keyboard, spotting the menu item you want, pulling down the menu,
>>>> blah blah blah, then something's not right.
>>>> One thing I liked about Windows is that any menu operation could be
>>>> performed with keystrokes. I wish Mac would pull their thumb out and
>>>> add
>>>> this functionality without qualifications and exceptions. People could
>>>> still do anything they like with the mouse, and maybe I'll join them
>>>> for
>>>> some of it.
>>> I agree with all of the above.
>> Eh. I've never understood the fascination for retaining the ability
>> to use wierd keyboard commands instead of pulldown menus. I was ECSTATIC
>> to be able to forget ctrl-x-y-z whatchamajigger codes (and not have to
>> learn any more of them) and substitute instead a SINGLE simple procedure
>> (look up at menu, select actual readable something instead of arcane
>> code). About the only areas I can think of in which I can agree are
>> simple, simple markup stuff like control-I (or "command-I" on Mac) for
>> italics. Even then I don't find clicking the "Italic" button terribly
>> onerous.
> Mac:
> Look up.
> Take hand off keyboard.
> Focus on menu
> Find item
> Grab for item. [Optional: Miss item.]
> Get item.
> Pull menu down.
> Look for item on menu.
> Mouse down to item. [Optional: Miss item. Get wrong thing. Undo wrong
> thing. Curse wrong thing, menu, computer, your life.]
> Release mouse.
> Feel around for keyboard. [Optional: Take eyes off of the spot in the
> page where you are working.]
> Put hand back on keyboard, resume typing. [Optional: Start typing
> gibberish because you've missed proper position by one key.]
Or, being as practiced in using this procedure as you are in arcane key commands, grab mouse, move to menu you know where is (or, in most things, to toolbar at top of the application), zip down to entry you need, click, resume typing because your hands can feel where the right place on the keyboard is. I very, VERY rarely put my hands back in the wrong place. VERY rarely.
> But would it kill them to -allow- some of us to get along without
> petting their little plastic toy every twelve seconds?
AFAIK there's a LOT of such keyboard commands on Macs. Though I have only learned about three or four of them (command I and B for italics and bold (and I suspect command-U would be Underline), command-Q for quit, and I think command-S for save, but I rarely use that one so I'm not 100% sure), so I cannot say authoritatively just how many there are or where they fall short.
>> Well, it's like that computer science class taught by that grad student
>> from India. You're all "oh my gosh, I can't understand a word he's
>> saying -- how am I going to pass this class" and then "bam!", you catch
>> onto his rhythm and that gets you past his accent and all is well.
> YOU do. I don't. I was still straining to understand what Mr. Gupta >meant at the end of the second semester as much as I was at the >beginning of class.
I'm a mix. I don't have trouble with this, but it takes a while to get
my ear trained. I have to stop myself using the other speaker's idioms
when talking to them, too...
>> I'm a Southerner, so I did have to slow down the default Kindle rate, and
>> I switched it to the female voice for aesthetic reasons. The only
>> remaining problems are words not in the dictionary which it tends to
>> spell out, so "hmm.." becomes eitch-emm-emm, the portentious meaning
>> it seems to freight each "well," with and the valley girl rising intonation
>> on question marks. Like the lecture example though, once you get into
>> that zone, it's easy.
> Not really. I have a particular set of voices that I assign to >characters in my head. I can't generally stand to hear people reading >books to me. Hearing a MACHINE do so is something like being in a room >with a bunch of people dragging fingernails over blackboards. (assuming >you find that sound terribly repellent).
... but I can't listen to books read out by machine, I just stop
paying any attention at all within a paragraph or so. It's as if it's
not information in a format I can accept. I think it's the pacing more
than the intonation or direct intelligibility.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- Actually, the Singularity seems rather useful in the entire work avoidance
field. "I _could_ write up that report now but if I put it off, I may well become a weakly godlike entity, at which point not only will I be able to type faster but my comments will be more on-target." - James Nicoll
>d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote in
>> I'll repeat: if I have both the physical books and the Kindle,
>> I'll be reading the physical books, because they are the ones I
>> want to read more, and they're not on the Kindle.
>That is, for the most part, a choice you have made.
Pretty much; it has to do with which books I prefer to read next.
>Like Dorothy, you simply don't like the idea of ebooks, and aren't >interested in trying them. Stop trying to rationalize it, and just >say so.
I don't think I'm against ebooks as such, or ereaders... my issue is more
of a "yes, there's gazillions of books available on the ereader but not the
ones I'm wanting to read". For example, I'm plowing through the Whateley
Universe fanfic, online, on my computer screen, that counts as e-reading,
right? If there were some way to, say, hold up my physical book to the
e-reader, and have it say "Okay, I see you own that book, <click whirr> here's
the e-version of it", that would be AWESOME. But we don't have that yet.
I guess that boils down to "I don't like how e-readers work _yet_"?
Dave
-- \/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Moriarty <blue...@ivillage.com> wrote:
>Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
>> Yep. If I'm going to reread, say, THE STAND (as I am soon), then
>> bringing the Kindle with me makes far more sense than bringing the
>> print book, and that's just one book.
>Yep x2. When I started re-reading Cryptonomicon I did so with my old
>dead-tree edition until I got about 1/2 way through. Then I caught
>the bus home and *couldn't get a seat*. Just one trip standing up
>trying to read a book that would choke a horse, while using one hand
>to hold the rail, convinced me to get the e-version and finish it on
>kindle instead.
And you got the e-version for free, say from the Baen Free Library or
some such? ... Or you went and -bought- the book again in e-form? I do not
have enough data from your paragraph to determine which.
Dave
-- \/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:31:14 -0400, d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:
>If there were some way to, say, hold up my physical book to the
>e-reader, and have it say "Okay, I see you own that book, <click whirr> here's
>the e-version of it", that would be AWESOME. But we don't have that yet.
That would be awesome and ideal. I can see ways to semi-automate it illegitimately...
>I guess that boils down to "I don't like how e-readers work _yet_"?
It also means "I (DDL) buy paper versions first rather than ebooks".
Other people are clearly not doing so.
Given the price breaks and time-based discounting on each, it's
actually arguably more sensible to purchase the ebook, then get the
paperbook second hand later on. Which sucks.
Cheers - Jaimie
-- "I did not attend his funeral, but I wrote a nice letter saying
I approved of it." - Mark Twain
> On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:38:48 GMT, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
> Heydt) wrote:
>> Because if I did, I would look like a bloody fool, puffed up with
>> unwarranted self-regard, who thought she could put a book onto
>> the e-market and sell it.
> Now *this* is nonsense. No-one would care, except those who were
> pleased to be able to read your book on an e-reader.
> Being embarrassed by sticking your head over the parapet is entirely
> unnecessary when tens of thousands of other people are doing the same
> at the same time.
Exactly. Tens of thousands of them, and most of them will fail to sell more than one or two copies. A few of them will see small but steady sales. A very, very few will see respectable sales. And a tiny fraction of those will get rich.
The novel that became published by Baen as Digital Knight I originally published in electronic form (yes, well before e-Books took off anywhere). I sold a grand total of 6 or 7 copies -- a small enough number that when the actual book was published, I sent a hardcopy to every single purchaser of the shorter electronic version.
I felt no "embarassment" at this. Why should I? Disappointment, yes, but I never EXPECTED any huge sales. Hoped, dreamed, etc., but no expectations.
If you just put it up there *for the purpose of letting those who are interested get it*, then where could the embarrassment come from? You're putting it up under request. You'll make a few sales from it. It will hurt NO ONE to leave it up. And if occasionally other people come along and say "Hey, neat, I'll try that", you get a bonus.
Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
>On 2012-08-29 21:47:44 +0000, d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) said:
>> Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
>>> d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) said:
>>>> Then if I already have to take the physical books with me I was going to
> >> take,
>>>> why in the world would I _also_ take a Kindle?
>>> You continue to make a nonsensical argument; you have this weird focus
>>> on being compelled to do things that you are not in fact compelled to do.
>> ...Let me correct that for you: "that in fact outside forces are not
>> compelling me to do".
>You've now slipped, seemingly unwillingly, into admitting that this is >your taste, which is entirely your privilege, of course.
Well yes!
>Your earlier argument:
>"Its advantages of lightness, compactness, take-everywhere-ness, >read-anywhereness, contain-all-your-books-ness, etc., fail rather >drastically if one CAN'T have all one's books in it."
Okay, that should be, to repair this issue, "if _I_ can't have all my books
in it". I did not mean this to apply to everyone in the world; there are
many who are quite happy to have separate glumps of books in their rooms
and in their Kindle, right?
>treats this taste as universal -- making the argument not of your own >taste, but of "one's." Now that you've abandoned that, you're just >saying you don't want one.
Apologies, I was unclear.
Dave
-- \/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Jaimie Vandenbergh <jai...@sometimes.sessile.org> wrote:
>d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote:
>> If I took the Kindle with
>>all the lesser ebooks on it, but not the physical books I wanted to read more,
>I hereby declare myself bemused at why you don't consider that the
>Kindle could have the greater (e)books on it that you want to read more?
Because people aren't, yet, putting out back-catalogs in general in e-form.
Some authors are; I don't know of a single publisher who is. Yet. (Come the
Singularity they all will, of course.) Yes, some of my piles are new MMPBs,
but a lot are a year or two or five old at this point, and some are older than
that...
Plus the whole "I'd have to buy it a second time" thing.
>I forget your preferred authors, but as an example if you have the ARC
>of the new Ivan book from Bujold, then you can *only* get that as an
>ebook. Could that not be a non-lesser book?
It could be - but I'd have to buy it AS an e-book. Things that are only
available as e-books I have much stricter "I want to read this" level
requirements for before I buy them.
Dave
-- \/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
>"Jim G." <jimgy...@geemail.com.invalid> wrote in
>> Kip Williams sent the following on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:54:33 -0400:
>>> Kurt Busiek wrote, On 8/28/12 1:15 AM:
>[...]
>>>> Because it's better to have no bag than to have a bag that's only
>>>> extremely useful rather than universally so.
>>> He's assuming something has to be perfect before it can be better than >>> what we have now. That's bagging the question.
>> Sackrilege!
>Poke that man!
And now I'm having _Noises Off_ flashbacks. "Bag! Bag bag! No bag!"
Dave
-- \/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
>> e> I made the full leap--all the way to iPad--to begin with, so I
>> e> only know Kindle from the Kindle app ON my iPad, where it fails
>> e> to impress me. e-book readers and tablets or computers that can
>> e> display them vary considerably.
>> I had an iPad for two years before I bought a Kindle, and the $79 Kindle
>> is a far, far better ebook than the iPad (and that is saying something,
>> as the iPad is an excellent ebook reader).
>> For me, the principal advantages are few but telling:
>> * the size. The 7-inch Kindle is more like a paperback.
>> * the price. I'm not nearly as concerned about losing or breaking my
>> $79 Kindle as I am my $799 iPad.
>> * the screen. The e-Ink makes a huge difference in readability,
>> especially outdoors.
>> The iPad is a great general-purpose tablet, but the Kindle is a
>> nearly-perfect device for reading text.
> For me, the main advantages were
> * The weight - the Kindle weighs almost nothing, the iPad is a heavy
> chunk
> * The battery - the Kindle lasts weeks, the iPad a few days
> In the end I actually went back to using my phone, which is always
> kept charged anyway and is always with me. The screen isn't as good as
> a Kindle.
Battery's a big plus for me, too. But both the Kindle and the iPad weigh "book" to me, for different values of book. I suppose I'd rather read the Kindle of the two, but its other advantages loom larger than the weight to me.
On 2012-08-30 11:29:42 +0000, Jaimie Vandenbergh <jai...@sometimes.sessile.org> said:
> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:57:43 -0700, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com>
> wrote:
>> My recharger is at my desk. But I've gotten in the habit of taking my
>> phone with me if I go elsewhere in the house. Unless I'm going to bed,
>> in which case, no thanks.
> I use mine as my alarm clock and sometimes plug it in to charge
> overnight (four day battery iPhone 4).
If I need an alarm clock, I use it, but most of the time I don't.
> You can pop it into Airplane
> mode to avoid calls, but annoyingly Apple refuse app programmers
> access to that so there's no automation possible (without
> jailbreaking).
>> I'd like to upgrade to a music dock of some sort, so I can recharge
>> while playing music at my desk. Not sure what gadgets are available,
>> but I have a birthday coming up, and my wife has started looking into
>> it.
> There are literally thousands of them out there. If your ears are
> picky, it's worth auditioning hifi ones. If not, just get anything at
> the $40+ price mark (or $80+ if hifi branded!).
> I use a Pure Evoke Flow which is pretty good but it's for more than
> just iThing playback and priced high.
I know therre are a bunch, I just don't know anything about the various choices. My ears aren't picky, particularly since there's usually a fan going behind me anyway.
On 2012-08-30 12:39:36 +0000, d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) said:
> Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
>> Your earlier argument:
>> "Its advantages of lightness, compactness, take-everywhere-ness,
>> read-anywhereness, contain-all-your-books-ness, etc., fail rather
>> drastically if one CAN'T have all one's books in it."
> Okay, that should be, to repair this issue, "if _I_ can't have all my books
> in it". I did not mean this to apply to everyone in the world; there are
> many who are quite happy to have separate glumps of books in their rooms
> and in their Kindle, right?
Lots and lots of people. In many cases, they're happy to have the physical books they have, but don't want the collection to increase in size as fast as it used to.
I buy and read both physical books and e-books, depending on various factors, including whim.
> Brian M. Scott <b.sc...@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>> "Jim G." <jimgy...@geemail.com.invalid> wrote in
>>> Kip Williams sent the following on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:54:33 -0400:
>>>> Kurt Busiek wrote, On 8/28/12 1:15 AM:
>> [...]
>>>>> Because it's better to have no bag than to have a bag that's only
>>>>> extremely useful rather than universally so.
>>>> He's assuming something has to be perfect before it can be better than
>>>> what we have now. That's bagging the question.
>>> Sackrilege!
>> Poke that man!
> And now I'm having _Noises Off_ flashbacks. "Bag! Bag bag! No bag!"
