tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post8395254125241348698..comments2023-10-02T14:33:18.136+01:00Comments on The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant: Day 3518: How can BOOKS have a FORMAT WAR?Millennium Domehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430269096817934037noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-61448957032535145912010-08-29T17:47:50.095+01:002010-08-29T17:47:50.095+01:00Hi from a Liberal-Democrat in Canada.
I have a Ki...Hi from a Liberal-Democrat in Canada.<br /><br />I have a Kindle on order, which I'm buying primarily for use when I'm travelling.<br /><br />You can download a Kindle app for ipods and PCs. However, it is not compatible with Linux Open Source. This is annoying because Amazon use other Open Source technology on their site. My other beef over the format is that having registered with Amazon.com here in Canada, I won't be able to buy from the Amazon.co.uk shop -- so for example I won't be able to take out a subscription to Liberal Democrat Voice.<br /><br />However, it is a lot cheaper than an ipod, and I like the fact that I will be able to download new books while I'm travelling.Janehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11717309322729778838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-25254127411543869872010-08-27T11:13:40.401+01:002010-08-27T11:13:40.401+01:00Pirate copies of books were all the rage back in t...Pirate copies of books were all the rage back in the 1590s: you'd get people doing cash-in sequels to 'Don Quixote' (so many that Cervantez came out of retirement to write a real one where the Sad-Countenanced one and Sancho keep meeting people who think he did all sorts of weird things he didn't), unofficial continuations of Hypnerotomachia Polyphilii (without the nice lettering and with inferior pics) and no end of bootlegs of hit plays - that's why the First Folio of Shakespeare was posthumous, because Burbage could't afford to have knock-offs in production). The steps outside St Paul's Cathedral was the textual equivalent of those pubs and precincts with people flogging hand-made DVDs of current hit films.<br /> In fact Hypneroromachia Polyphilii (go on, say it out loud three times... doesn't that feel better?) was the start of printing houses developing their own typefaces as an ad hoc copyright measure.<br /> Compared to this, the idea that the SadPad (I'm going to nick that) needs the equivalent of Joseph Smith's Magic Goggles to read it is rather quaint. It's almost as if someone who believes that the neurological 'pact' we make with printed text is different from that with screen-skimming, who has reason for the second-hand book trade to continue for at least a few more decades who has a few books out there on the market and who refuses to read off an Etch-a-Sketch or endorse any form of literacy that requires a power-source other than basic lighting has been sending hypnotic signals to Steve Jobs, Master Gideon and the designers at Amazon to sabotage these toys and force people to admit the superiority of recyclable dead-tree technology that allows everyone to play regardless of income or computer ownership.<br /> Of course, if you ask me outright I'd ddeny it...Tathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00254989710798762675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-70760444041751708452010-08-24T13:29:37.310+01:002010-08-24T13:29:37.310+01:00The moment I saw the unbelievable hilarious Yes We...The moment I saw the unbelievable hilarious Yes We Scam! B.S. We Can Believe In! Obama Approval Plummets article on Hubpages I decided that The Very Fluffy Diary Of Millennium Dome's commentators totally should be able to express their opinions on this! http://hubpages.com/hub/Yes-We-Scam-BS-We-Can-Believe-In-Obama-Approval-PlummetsCammie Novarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12740952193712153860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-3856607073203745242010-08-21T09:41:08.889+01:002010-08-21T09:41:08.889+01:00There is also a program called Stanza that can rea...There is also a program called Stanza that can read any DRM-free eBooks.<br /><br />Obviously, not many publishers will sell you DRM-free eBooks. There is one exception; Baen Books, who have a brilliant system - take a look at <a href="http://www.webscriptions.net" rel="nofollow">their ebook site</a> and wish any other publisher was half as good. Baen have also got sensible royalty rates for ebooks, ie authors get a higher percentage on the ebook because the publisher isn't paying for printing and there's no distributor or retailer to take a margin.<br /><br />However, the nice bit about Stanza is that you can read anything in the Gutenburg project - ie anything that is out of copyright - for free. Unlike recorded music, there actually are a lot of books that are public domain: Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Wilde, etc.Richard Gadsdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10545595590359552775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-81737264454271934242010-08-19T13:12:50.530+01:002010-08-19T13:12:50.530+01:00Agree, it's very irritating. Despite not being...Agree, it's very irritating. Despite not being a techno-geek (honest) I have both an iPad (for work) and a Kindle (for pleasure). <br /><br />However, I've ended up only paying for e-books which are super-cheap (eg, complete Trollope for 99p) or are disposable paperbacks (Larsson). Books I want to keep I continue to buy in book format to avoid the Betamax problem of future format redundancy. But that doesn't save me much room in my suitcase :(Stephen Tallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11720133001571029678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-34571072716380275532010-08-19T09:06:13.778+01:002010-08-19T09:06:13.778+01:00This kind of thing is, of course, why I won't ...This kind of thing is, of course, why I won't have anything to do with the wretched things at all.<br />Two things to note in making your choices though:<br />Amazon have been perfectly prepared in the past to remotely delete users' books, including any annotations the users have made (see the farrago where they deleted 1984 and Animal Farm last year).<br />Apple, meanwhile, go to ridiculous extremes in their censorship - at one point censoring a dictionary for containing naughty words.<br /><br />I refuse on principle to buy DRM'd files or non-free software, because of situatons like this , but it *appears* to be slightly easier to crack the DRM on Kindle books than on iBooks (googling gives me many different methods), so my advice is to buy those then read them in whatever you want, but only after removing the DRM.<br /><br />Removing DRM is, of course, against the law, but as we all know "bad laws are made to be broken"...Andrew Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07412263807838661843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22974616.post-91891550653271076742010-08-19T08:26:24.608+01:002010-08-19T08:26:24.608+01:00I'll try and get over my iPad envy for a momen...I'll try and get over my iPad envy for a moment to sympathise.<br /><br />I had never had anything by Apple in my life until April when I bought myself an iPod Touch so I could then buy the extremely expensive Formula 1 application to enhance my race day experience, as if actually watching the race and following it on Twitter wasn't enough.<br /><br />I just love the way it works, every little tiny thing about it, and I desperately want an iPad. <br /><br />I agree with you about the books interfaces - why can't they just stick to one format? It's just plain wrong. <br /><br />I would probably go for the one which makes reading the most pleasurable experience. For me, despite my iPad love, that means actually picking up a book and stroking its pages. Nothing electronic can replace that - although the iBooks interface comes pretty darned close. I suspect I could get to enjoy reading books using that.<br /><br />However, you could just forget about reading and download Flight Control instead. It is compulsive....and could, if you let it, keep you occupied for far too much time....Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com