YASID e-book readers prior art?
alie...@gmail.com
about the Premier of Communist China being shown a prototype for what
we today would recognize as an e-book reader. The item was IIRC touted
as a way into the American electronics market. The fact that it had
only three (?) buttons, and was hence simple enough for an old man
unfamiliar with electronic devices to operate, was something the
designer sweated over, and when the Premier figured it out and smiled
the designer knew he not only had a successful product, he had a
future.
We all know about Heinlein and the water bed: is this story
sufficiently detailed prior art to impact the patents on all
subsequent e-readers?
Mark L. Fergerson
Cryptoengineer
bbc8-235...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com:
Can't give you an ID, but I think I read this back in the 80s. IIRC, it
was actually the Japanese Emperor, and the book preloaded on the device
was horticultural in nature - a known interest of Hirohito.
I seem to recall that in the 90s, Sony came out with a reader based on
their minidisc tech, but I sure as heck can't find a reference to it. It
struck me then as very similar to the story.
pt
Michael Grosberg
Are there e-reader patents basic enough and new enough to be impacted
by something like this? I doubt it. E-reader prototypes have been
around for ages; Every SF story since the forties assumed paper books
would be obsolete and we would read off a screen of some sort. It's an
actual successful implementation (cheap, light, high resolution
screen, large memory, long battery life, etc) that has eluded the
manufacturers until now.
Sean O'Hara
proclaimed...
The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
Mike Schilling
"Sean O'Hara" <sean...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.2766c7c62...@news.individual.net...
>>
>
> The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
> a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
> Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
> But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
> don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
The display in Animal Farm (that changed from "Two legs bad" to "Two legs
better") used a slightly different technology: o-ink.
Cryptoengineer
news:Xns9E46609DF47FCt...@216.196.97.131:
> "nu...@bid.nes" <alie...@gmail.com> wrote in news:b66eb1c2-99d6-4982-
> bbc8-235...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com:
>
>> Some time in the dim past I read a short story (I think in Analog)
>> about the Premier of Communist China being shown a prototype for what
>> we today would recognize as an e-book reader. The item was IIRC
>> touted as a way into the American electronics market. The fact that
>> it had only three (?) buttons, and was hence simple enough for an old
>> man unfamiliar with electronic devices to operate, was something the
>> designer sweated over, and when the Premier figured it out and smiled
>> the designer knew he not only had a successful product, he had a
>> future.
>>
>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed: is this story
>> sufficiently detailed prior art to impact the patents on all
>> subsequent e-readers?
>
> Can't give you an ID, but I think I read this back in the 80s. IIRC,
> it was actually the Japanese Emperor, and the book preloaded on the
> device was horticultural in nature - a known interest of Hirohito.
Crap. It was marine life. Took a while for those neurons to wake up.
William F. Adams
> "n...@bid.nes" <alien8...@gmail.com> wrote in news:b66eb1c2-99d6-4982-
> bbc8-235820a0c...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com:
The Sony Bookman referenced in Niven & Pournelle's _Fallen Angels_:
http://elab.eserver.org/hfl0014.html
William
Jo'Asia
> The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
> a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
> Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
> But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
> don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
"Diamond Age"... :)
Jo'Asia
--
__.-=-. -< Joanna Slupek >----------< http://goodreads.com/spriggana >-
--<()> -< http://esensja.pl/ >-------------< http://bujold.sf-f.pl/ >-
.__.'| -< This novel wasn't released - it escaped! >-
Andrew Plotkin
> Sean O'Hara wrote:
>
> > The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
> > a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
> > Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
> > But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
> > don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
>
> "Diamond Age"... :)
I remember in Asimov's original novelization of _Fantastic Voyage_
(1966), the sub's clock display was a gray panel on which black
numerals would fade in.
When I read it as a kid I imagined a liquid crystal display, but I
think 1966 is just a little too early. (People were messing with
colored dyes in liquid crystal in 1964, but the paper everyone cites
is 1968.)
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Charles Combes
news:idiv68$nbu$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
mcdowella
> Here, Jo'Asia <joa...@hel.pl> wrote:
> > Sean O'Hara wrote:
>
> > > The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
> > > a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
> > > Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
> > > But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
> > > don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
>
> > "Diamond Age"... :)
>
Against Her", Telzey Amberdon has a law library clipped to her belt
that she consults. An arbitrary web search finds
http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Schmitz/Universe-Against-Her.html to
date it to 1962.
However, this certainly doesn't anticipate e-ink. It uses "pinhead
tapes" so I assume that it is an extrapolation of a microfilm reader,
and I suspect that most early examples will be similar. OTOH e-ink is
certainly not necessary - I use a palm pilot to read in queues and
when I by something from Baen Webscriptions (Hurray! I just got hold
of the latest Drake Leary/Mundy story!). It may not even be
sufficient, if good colour displays overtake it. If/when my Palm Pilot
dies, I will probably replace it with a mobile phone I can read
documents on. So a patent on e-ink may not be that big a deal.
Cryptoengineer
news:66fa8fc5-d831-4e53...@o14g2000prn.googlegroups.com:
That's it. Introduced 1991. AFAIK it was the first portable ebook
reader. To my astonishment, it does not seem to have a Wikipedia entry.
pt
Jack Tingle
The patents on eInk electrophoretic displays are a big deal. The patent
on electronic book readers (if there even is one) is not. One is a
specific, difficult-to-invent technology. The other is an idea apparent
to anyone versed in the art, as the legalese goes.
Regards,
Jack Tingle
Howard Brazee
wrote:
>The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
>a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
>Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
>But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
>don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
Not by that name. SF does have "books" which have text looking just
like dead tree text.
--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."
- James Madison
Michael Stemper
> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed:
Do you mean how some people got the idea that Heinlein invented it,
even though the first water beds had been made over a century earlier?
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
Life's too important to take seriously.
Norm D. Plumber
>In article <b66eb1c2-99d6-4982...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com>, "nu...@bid.nes" <alie...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed:
>
>Do you mean how some people got the idea that Heinlein invented it,
>even though the first water beds had been made over a century earlier?
So, you're saying the first water beds were made in the 1800s[1]? I
never heard of that before. Is there info online?
[1] Hell, I thought they were invented in the whatever, 1960s[?], when
I first ran into them. N.B. Do not try to sleep on a waterbed if you
have a broken collar-bone, huh uh, bad idea.
--
plan [n]: a list of the reasons you aren't done yet
Mark Zenier
To find it in SF and not the real world, you'll have to go back
before Alan Kay at XPARC and his Dynabook proposal.
dig, dig, dig... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook
1968 for the idea, apparently, 1972 for the paper that laid out
a lot of the concepts.
Mark Zenier mze...@eskimo.com
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)
Jack Bohn
> Some time in the dim past I read a short story (I think in Analog)
>about the Premier of Communist China being shown a prototype for what
>we today would recognize as an e-book reader. The item was IIRC touted
>as a way into the American electronics market. The fact that it had
>only three (?) buttons, and was hence simple enough for an old man
>unfamiliar with electronic devices to operate, was something the
>designer sweated over, and when the Premier figured it out and smiled
>the designer knew he not only had a successful product, he had a
>future.
How dim a past? Bova's _Cyberbooks_ was 1989, with few buttons. He
compares them to a videocassette controls: start, stop, fast forward,
reverse. He also mentions punching in the specific page number, but
I'm not sure how he envisioned doing that with the "few" buttons.
--
-Jack
Michael Stemper
>mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:
>>In article <b66eb1c2-99d6-4982...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com>, "nu...@bid.nes" <alie...@gmail.com> writes:
>>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed:
>>
>>Do you mean how some people got the idea that Heinlein invented it,
>>even though the first water beds had been made over a century earlier?
>
>So, you're saying the first water beds were made in the 1800s[1]?
1945-100 = 1845. That works.
> I
>never heard of that before. Is there info online?
<http://books.google.co.uk/books?pg=PA165&dq=%22water+bed%22+mattress+invalid&lr=&id=UF9EToSeyO8C&output=html>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterbed#History_in_1800s>
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
This sentence no verb.
Howard Brazee
(Michael Stemper) wrote:
>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed:
>
>Do you mean how some people got the idea that Heinlein invented it,
>even though the first water beds had been made over a century earlier?
One can invent something that others have already invented.
One can discover something that others have already discovered.
Michael Grosberg
> The idea of electronic devices supplanting books has been around for
> a long time -- remember Scotty reading tech manuals on his PADD and
> Kirk's lawyer being seen as a weirdo for preferring dead tree books?
> But the big thing about modern ereaders is the e-ink display, and I
> don't recall ever seeing that in SF before it was invented.
Robert Sheckley's _Immortality, Inc._ (1958) had newspapers with
dynamically updated text. I think they only had a single page, and you
thumbed the page's corner to go to the next page. I think the paper
was described as silvery with black text on it, but It's been a long
time.
Norm D. Plumber
>In article <9afsf61lfitkavi15...@4ax.com>, "Norm D. Plumber" <nom-de...@non.com> writes:
>>mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:
>>>In article <b66eb1c2-99d6-4982...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com>, "nu...@bid.nes" <alie...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>>>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed:
>>>
>>>Do you mean how some people got the idea that Heinlein invented it,
>>>even though the first water beds had been made over a century earlier?
>>
>>So, you're saying the first water beds were made in the 1800s[1]?
>
>1945-100 = 1845. That works.
>
>> I
>>never heard of that before. Is there info online?
>
><http://books.google.co.uk/books?pg=PA165&dq=%22water+bed%22+mattress+invalid&lr=&id=UF9EToSeyO8C&output=html>
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterbed#History_in_1800s>
Interesting, thanks. I particularly like this sentence,
"In 1871 a waterbed was in use in Elmira, NY for 'invalids'."
The word "invalids" is fascinating.
Borg: "You cannot be assimmilated, you are invalid."
It just don't compute.
Michael Stemper
>On Tue, 7 Dec 2010 13:41:58 +0000 (UTC), mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:
>>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed:
>>
>>Do you mean how some people got the idea that Heinlein invented it,
>>even though the first water beds had been made over a century earlier?
>
>One can invent something that others have already invented.
So, Heinlein invented the waterbed. Al Gore invented the Internet.
These statements are true -- from a certain point of view.
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made from meat?
larso...@yahoo.com
<treif...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Cryptoengineer <treif...@gmail.com> wrote in
>news:Xns9E46609DF47FCt...@216.196.97.131:
>
>> "nu...@bid.nes" <alie...@gmail.com> wrote in news:b66eb1c2-99d6-4982-
>> bbc8-235...@p7g2000prb.googlegroups.com:
>>
>>> Some time in the dim past I read a short story (I think in Analog)
>>> about the Premier of Communist China being shown a prototype for what
>>> we today would recognize as an e-book reader. The item was IIRC
>>> touted as a way into the American electronics market. The fact that
>>> it had only three (?) buttons, and was hence simple enough for an old
>>> man unfamiliar with electronic devices to operate, was something the
>>> designer sweated over, and when the Premier figured it out and smiled
>>> the designer knew he not only had a successful product, he had a
>>> future.
>>>
>>> We all know about Heinlein and the water bed: is this story
>>> sufficiently detailed prior art to impact the patents on all
>>> subsequent e-readers?
>>
>> Can't give you an ID, but I think I read this back in the 80s. IIRC,
>> it was actually the Japanese Emperor, and the book preloaded on the
>> device was horticultural in nature - a known interest of Hirohito.
>
>Crap. It was marine life. Took a while for those neurons to wake up.
>
I recall this story, it was in Analog most likely in the 1980's, the
main point of the story was a comparison of American business practice
with new/revolutionary idea's and designs vs. Japanese fast track. The
Japanese inventor and the American were roommate's at an MIT like
college and had an accident in their room with their large heavy text
books, while picking them up someone said something along the lines of
"I wish these could all be stored in one electronic device with a
display!"
It then chronicled the American kid's attempt to make an ereader with
study groups, publicity/advertising specialist, etc at an American
firm. Contrasted against the Japanese kids sailing through an Sony
like companies design and production departments culminating in giving
the first production model to the Emperor with his (authored by the
Emperor) text on marine life as the first book, to get his blessing
for some reason. Then hiring his old roommate as the head of the
American sales division.
Jon Larson
William December Starr
Michael Grosberg <grosberg...@gmail.com> said:
> Robert Sheckley's _Immortality, Inc._ (1958) had newspapers with
> dynamically updated text. I think they only had a single page, and
> you thumbed the page's corner to go to the next page. I think the
> paper was described as silvery with black text on it, but It's
> been a long time.
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER,
serialized in F&SF in 1956 and published whole in 1957? What you
describe sounds very much like the version of the Los Angeles Times
(or Tribune or whatever) that Dan read in the year 2000.
-- wds
Joy Beeson
wrote:
> One can invent something that others have already invented.
Elizabeth Zimmermann coined the word "unvent" for these occasions.
Nearly all inventions in needlework are unventions of millennia-old
designs.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.
Gene Wirchenko
<jbe...@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>On Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:28:30 -0700, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net>
>wrote:
>
>> One can invent something that others have already invented.
>
>Elizabeth Zimmermann coined the word "unvent" for these occasions.
>Nearly all inventions in needlework are unventions of millennia-old
>designs.
"reinvention" is a perfectly good word.
Please excuse the vent.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Robert Carnegie
Like you set time on a digital clock or watch, maybe. If you still
have one of those. Apparently the cool kids use their phone to tell
time.
Must I mention _The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ (1978)?
When I read _Cyberbooks_ I already thought "But obviously for about
the same money you could have a general-purpose portable computer."
And in real-life 2010 or 2011, we're all going to have tablet devices
if we haven't already.
E-paper usually differs from other displays, obviously, by being
relatively slow, having a persistent image without power and therefore
potentially a long product battery life and/or light weight, viewed in
ambient light including daylight, colour and flexibility available now
or soon, and being the main cost of most of the devices using it. I
mean there's a screen with an extremely basic computer attached to it,
since its only job may be to download text or graphics over the air
and display them.
On the other hand, there is at least talk of an e-paper device driven
by the Android operating system and compatible hardware.
I would rather like also to have something that is a telephone or
maybe video phone, but in fact I very rarely use a telephone.
Howard Brazee
wrote:
>>Elizabeth Zimmermann coined the word "unvent" for these occasions.
>>Nearly all inventions in needlework are unventions of millennia-old
>>designs.
>
> "reinvention" is a perfectly good word.
>
> Please excuse the vent.
Is a forgiven vent an invent?
Jack Tingle
> On the other hand, there is at least talk of an e-paper device driven
> by the Android operating system and compatible hardware.
You can buy one today. The B&N Nook is an Android based device. It's
possible to root one with minimal brouhaha. I can't think why you would
bother, since you wind up with a mouse-powered computer with a majorly
slow display, but some people like to play with such things. For more
information, the Internet is your friend. :)
Regards,
Jack Tingle
Joe Pfeiffer
Yesterday, I learned the Color Nook had been rooted (yes, I'm behind the
times). This morning I played with one for about 45 minutes (in-store;
no, I didn't do anything they'd frown on. Though the next person to
look at that particular floor model will find a data sheet for a L293D
motor driver chip on the display). This afternoon I asked for one for
Christmas.
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
Michael A. Terrell
Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
>
> Jack Tingle <wjti...@hotmail.com> writes:
>
> > On 12/10/2010 11:19 AM, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> >
> >> On the other hand, there is at least talk of an e-paper device driven
> >> by the Android operating system and compatible hardware.
> >
> > You can buy one today. The B&N Nook is an Android based device. It's
> > possible to root one with minimal brouhaha. I can't think why you
> > would bother, since you wind up with a mouse-powered computer with a
> > majorly slow display, but some people like to play with such
> > things. For more information, the Internet is your friend. :)
>
> Yesterday, I learned the Color Nook had been rooted (yes, I'm behind the
> times). This morning I played with one for about 45 minutes (in-store;
> no, I didn't do anything they'd frown on. Though the next person to
> look at that particular floor model will find a data sheet for a L293D
> motor driver chip on the display). This afternoon I asked for one for
> Christmas.
I'm still looking for a datasheet for the NEC MC5800. :)
--
For the last time: I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!
Jack Bohn
>On Dec 7, 4:20 pm, Jack Bohn <jackb...@bright.net> wrote:
>> nuny wrote:
>> > Some time in the dim past I read a short story (I think in Analog)
>> >about the Premier of Communist China being shown a prototype for what
>> >we today would recognize as an e-book reader.
>> >The fact that it had
>> >only three (?) buttons, and was hence simple enough for an old man
>> >unfamiliar with electronic devices to operate, was something the
>> >designer sweated over,
>>
>> How dim a past? Bova's _Cyberbooks_ was 1989, with few buttons. He
>> compares them to a videocassette controls: start, stop, fast forward,
>> reverse. He also mentions punching in the specific page number, but
>> I'm not sure how he envisioned doing that with the "few" buttons.
>
>Like you set time on a digital clock or watch, maybe. If you still
>have one of those. Apparently the cool kids use their phone to tell
>time.
Increment/Decrement a counter? Except for maybe moving to the tens,
hundreds (thousands?) digit, that would be a bit like just hitting a
flip page key, except for not generating a new page each keystroke.
(Now I'm wondering if the device stores text as text data, or as a
series of page images.) I remember he demo'ed with a children's book,
so a "jump to next picture" or at least "jump to colored plate" key
should be part of the interface.
>Must I mention _The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ (1978)?
I thought the point the OP was making was about the simple -if not
intuitive- interface with few keys (eventually to reach the single
proverbial "do what I want" key). The HHGttG... has no involved
description for its first few uses in the novel, enough keytaps to get
to "Vogons" from the index (any sf "point and click" interfaces? As
I've said before, the HHGtG follows digressive hyperlinks on its own.)
I'll blame the TV show for the idea that it has the keyboard of a
programmable calculator, probably with labels as useful as sin, cos,
tan, yx, and so on.
--
-Jack
Gene Wirchenko
wrote:
>On Fri, 10 Dec 2010 05:04:19 -0800, Gene Wirchenko <ge...@ocis.net>
>wrote:
>
>>>Elizabeth Zimmermann coined the word "unvent" for these occasions.
>>>Nearly all inventions in needlework are unventions of millennia-old
>>>designs.
>>
>> "reinvention" is a perfectly good word.
>>
>> Please excuse the vent.
>
>Is a forgiven vent an invent?
I will forevent, ah, forwent, ah, forgo a statement.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Gene Wirchenko
<rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
[snip]
>E-paper usually differs from other displays, obviously, by being
>relatively slow, having a persistent image without power and therefore
>potentially a long product battery life and/or light weight, viewed in
>ambient light including daylight, colour and flexibility available now
>or soon, and being the main cost of most of the devices using it. I
>mean there's a screen with an extremely basic computer attached to it,
>since its only job may be to download text or graphics over the air
>and display them.
And it neatly explains how that map worked in "The Hobbit".
Obviously, you will not be able to see the fancy bit if you do not
have the right password, or your wireless connection is down.
[snip]
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Greg Goss
>On the other hand, there is at least talk of an e-paper device driven
>by the Android operating system and compatible hardware.
>
My college bookstore was promoting (at one of the events in the big
atrium) a device. It folded along a vertical hinge, and one side of
this "book" was epaper and the other side was tablet LCD. It was
powered by Android. I couldn't see the point of it and the salesman
wasn't very good at it. Maybe he didn't see the point either.
--
Tomorrow is today already.
Greg Goss, 1989-01-27
Michael Grosberg
> In article <76341760-1b73-4251-afc9-a199b9966...@m20g2000prc.googlegroups.com>,
> Michael Grosberg <grosberg.mich...@gmail.com> said:
>
> > Robert Sheckley's _Immortality, Inc._ (1958) had newspapers with
> > dynamically updated text. I think they only had a single page, and
> > you thumbed the page's corner to go to the next page. I think the
> > paper was described as silvery with black text on it, but It's
> > been a long time.
>
> Are you sure you aren't thinking of Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER,
> serialized in F&SF in 1956 and published whole in 1957? What you
> describe sounds very much like the version of the Los Angeles Times
> (or Tribune or whatever) that Dan read in the year 2000.
>
> -- wds
Could be; both involve involuntary forward time travel if I'm not
mistaken. But I read both in my teenage years so I couldn't tell. It
could be in either or both.
Seth
Michael Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>So, Heinlein invented the waterbed. Al Gore invented the Internet.
>These statements are true -- from a certain point of view.
The first one, maybe.
The second, no: he got the government to pay for other people to build
it. That was a critical step in it actually existing.
Seth
Kurt Busiek
That's rather more than Heinlein did.
kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!
peterw...@hotmail.com
>
> > Robert Sheckley's _Immortality, Inc._ (1958) had newspapers with
> > dynamically updated text. I think they only had a single page, and
> > you thumbed the page's corner to go to the next page. I think the
> > paper was described as silvery with black text on it, but It's
> > been a long time.
>
> Are you sure you aren't thinking of Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER,
> serialized in F&SF in 1956 and published whole in 1957? What you
> describe sounds very much like the version of the Los Angeles Times
> (or Tribune or whatever) that Dan read in the year 2000.
>
newspaper and the top page would curl up out of the way.
Also, note the "Newspads" shown in _2001: A Space Odyssey".
Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist
Mike Schilling
"Seth" <se...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:ig5iqs$1e3$3...@reader1.panix.com...
And a critical step in the development of the internet as it exists today:
based on open standards usable by all sorts of hardware and software.
Michael Stemper
>On Dec 9 2010, 9:31=A0pm, wdst...@panix.com (William December Starr) wrote:
>> In article <76341760-1b73-4251-afc9-a199b9966...@m20g2000prc.googlegroups.com>,
>> Are you sure you aren't thinking of Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER,
>> serialized in F&SF in 1956 and published whole in 1957? =A0What you
>> describe sounds very much like the version of the Los Angeles Times
>> (or Tribune or whatever) that Dan read in the year 2000.
>>
>No; in _The Door into Summer_ the reader touched the corner of the
>newspaper and the top page would curl up out of the way.
>
>Also, note the "Newspads" shown in _2001: A Space Odyssey".
The movie or the book? If it's the movie, which scene are they in?
--
Michael F. Stemper
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Please read it before posting.
Greg Goss
Mote in God's Eye (mid seventies) featured networked personal tablets.
I think once you have those, e-books would be a trivial step.
Jack Bohn
>In article <52e9088c-9169-4a7f...@s5g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, peterw...@hotmail.com writes:
>>
>>Also, note the "Newspads" shown in _2001: A Space Odyssey".
>
>The movie or the book? If it's the movie, which scene are they in?
In the movie, recall the BBB-12 interview they watch. That screen is
not built into the table, it is a tablet lying on the table, you can
see Bowman toss his down before he gets his food.
--
-Jack
Michael Stemper
I never noticed that; I'd always thought that it *was* built in to
the table.
--
Michael F. Stemper
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Jack Bohn
>In article <jdnli6dhqgiejm16f...@4ax.com>, Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> writes:
>>Michael Stemper wrote:
>>>In article <52e9088c-9169-4a7f...@s5g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, peterw...@hotmail.com writes:
>
>>>>Also, note the "Newspads" shown in _2001: A Space Odyssey".
>>>
>>>The movie or the book? If it's the movie, which scene are they in?
>>
>>In the movie, recall the BBB-12 interview they watch. That screen is
>>not built into the table, it is a tablet lying on the table, you can
>>see Bowman toss his down before he gets his food.
>
>I never noticed that; I'd always thought that it *was* built in to
>the table.
Oh, I did, too. As is obligatory with 2001, I have to admit I had to
have it pointed out to me.
--
-Jack
Robert Carnegie
Michael Stemper wrote:
> In article <jdnli6dhqgiejm16f...@4ax.com>, Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> writes:
> >Michael Stemper wrote:
> >>In article <52e9088c-9169-4a7f...@s5g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, peterw...@hotmail.com writes:
>
> >>>Also, note the "Newspads" shown in _2001: A Space Odyssey".
> >>
> >>The movie or the book? If it's the movie, which scene are they in?
> >
> >In the movie, recall the BBB-12 interview they watch. That screen is
> >not built into the table, it is a tablet lying on the table, you can
> >see Bowman toss his down before he gets his food.
>
> I never noticed that; I'd always thought that it *was* built in to
> the table.
I'll have to look sometime, but I'd guess that it was, in actual
physical fact, built into the table. But meant to look like a tablet,
from what you say.
Alternatively, there were clever mirrors installed in the film set to
put the image there.
Just as the electric doors of the 1960s Starship Enterprise were
actually operated by Gene Roddenberry pressing a button... that
signalled to two stage hands standing behind the doors to pull them
out or in. Or so I think I read someplace.
John F. Eldredge
Yes, I have read that also. They didn't have a large enough budget to
afford real pneumatic doors. I once saw a Star Trek Original Series
blooper reel at a science fiction convention, and several of the bloopers
involved the stage hands not opening the doors soon enough, so that the
actors walked into the still-closed doors.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly
is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
Kay Shapero
says...
>
> Yes, I have read that also. They didn't have a large enough budget to
> afford real pneumatic doors. I once saw a Star Trek Original Series
> blooper reel at a science fiction convention, and several of the bloopers
> involved the stage hands not opening the doors soon enough, so that the
> actors walked into the still-closed doors.
>
You wouldn't want to use real ones - not the way sets are constructed.
Years later, the same thing happened during a B5 episode Majel was a
guest in - the blooper shows her getting back up and laughing "I'm used
to it". :)
--
Kay Shapero
address munged, email kay at following domain
http://www.kayshapero.net
Michael Stemper
>Michael Stemper wrote:
>> In article <jdnli6dhqgiejm16f...@4ax.com>, Jack Bohn <jack...@bright.net> writes:
>> >Michael Stemper wrote:
>> >>In article <52e9088c-9169-4a7f...@s5g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, peterw...@hotmail.com writes:
>>
>> >>>Also, note the "Newspads" shown in _2001: A Space Odyssey".
>> >>
>> >>The movie or the book? If it's the movie, which scene are they in?
>> >
>> >In the movie, recall the BBB-12 interview they watch. That screen is
>> >not built into the table, it is a tablet lying on the table, you can
>> >see Bowman toss his down before he gets his food.
>>
>> I never noticed that; I'd always thought that it *was* built in to
>> the table.
>
>I'll have to look sometime, but I'd guess that it was, in actual
>physical fact, built into the table. But meant to look like a tablet,
>from what you say.
I checked, and its appearance is that of a tablet-like thing, propped up.
>Alternatively, there were clever mirrors installed in the film set to
>put the image there.
I cannot speak to how it was done, but in-movie it was a tablet.
--
Michael F. Stemper
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