Re: So, did you like it?

On Nov 28, 4:11 am, Ron Hunter <rphun...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Barry Gray wrote:
In message <fie5ug$2o...@xxxxxxxx>
santosh <santosh....@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <eec1bc474f.barryg...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Barry Gray
<barryg...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on Monday 26 Nov 2007 3:28 pm:

The only problem with the last four are that they are too big to put
in a jacket pocket, so you cannot really take them on holiday or
otherwise read away from home. Hence PoA remains the most-read.
What's wrong with putting them on your PDA?

In 1965 I was a menber of a Study Group set up by the British Computer
Society to study the likely impact of computer technology on book
publishing. (They also set up another Study Group to consider the
effects of technology on television: you can read about our
conclusions here
http://www.barrygray.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/NotFam/Prom.html)

At that time the predictions about the future of printed books varied
from "We are now leaving the age of print" to "of all the books in the
world that will exist in 1995 90% have not yet been written."

In 1965 there were no computer monitors, no PCs and certainly no PDAs,
no computer graphics, and only the most basic text handling programmes
(sic). We realised that computers and other developing technologies
might be used in several ways, for example the complete text of a book
might be stored in microfilm on a computer punched card. The
difficulty was not in generating the text but in making a suitable
reader.

Computers are now an indispensible part of all book production. Over
the years since 1965 many other types of, for want of a better word,
reading machines have been developed, including PDAs. But we are still
as far away from producing a reader that will replace the printed word
as we were fifty years ago.

I wouldn't say that. Recent advances in the field have made it a matter
of reducing the cost of flexible displays enough to make them
economically feasible. Frankly, a $400 PDA-like device to read books
that cost as much as a paper version doesn't appeal to me, at ALL.
As one who was in the data processing business in 1965, I agree that
many of the predictions (like the paperless office) just haven't
happened, but then things like the internet HAVE happened, and we didn't
dream of them.

Yes I do have a PDA but I would not regard it as a satisfactory way of
reading a book.

Nor would I, but then I did read DH on the laptop, even though I had the
book next to me. I found the convenience of the laptop ability to
scroll much better than holding the book, and turning pages.

I wonder if that has anything to do with your not enjoying the book as
much. Personally, I don't have any trouble turning pages, and I can
curl up in bed or a comfy chair when i read a book. but, i read lots
of stuff on the computer and enjoy that, too.
.

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