[Beowulf] how Google warps your brain

[Robert G. Brown]

On Mon, 25 Oct 2010, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:

> It's interesting: I just got an iPad a few weeks ago, mostly as a
> reader/web-browser device, and I've been reading a variety of
> out-of-copyright works: H. Rider Haggard, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain.   Thank
> you Gutenberg Project!

It is awesome, isn't it?

> And, since I am sitting/lying here with a very sore back from moving boxes
> of books around this weekend looking for that book that I *know* is in there
> somewhere, the prospect of some magic box that would scan all my books into
> a format usable into eternity would be quite nice.  I might even think that
> a personal "print on demand" would be nice that could generate a cheap/quick
> copy for reading in bed(yes, the iPad and Kindle, etc., are nice, but
> there's affordances provided by the paper edition that is nice.. But I don't
> need hardcover or, even, any cover..)
>
> (or, even better, a service that has scanned all the books for me, e.g.
> Google, and that upon receiving some proof of ownership of the physical
> book, lets me have an electronic copy of the same...  I'd gladly pay some
> nominal fee for such a thing, providing it wasn't for some horrible locked,
> time limited format which depends on the original vendor being in business
> 20 years from now.  I also recognize the concern about how "once in digital
> form, copying becomes very cheap" which I think is valid.)

What a killer idea.  Acceptable use, doggone it!  I'd ship them books by
the boxful in exchange for a movable (even DRM controlled) image, a la
Ipod music.  I just don't want to rebuy them, like I've now bought most
of my music collection TWICE (vinyl and CD).

    rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu