Why would you read a book !
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A book, every time. I have a huge pile of books, I order from amazon every month, read each one and add to the pile.
Christian Graus Please read this if you don't understand the answer I've given you "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Sounds like me :) My collection of technical book[^] I would love to know what kind of books you like or recommend (both tech/non tech)
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
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Because I had the great good fortune to grow up without teevee and/or computers, and to have grown up in an environment where love of books and writing was salient. Because books are real-world objects, that are tactile, portable, and are graphic design objects in their own right through the ways we are socialized to perceive text and typography. Because when I fall asleep reading, and the book drops to the floor or slides off the bed, it doesn't require a new motherboard. Even in the "technoverse" certain books, through a remarkable combination of graphic design, structure, and the writer's skills, can, imho, provide us with a cognitive richness of experience that I have yet to experience on-line (which is not to say that you have not experienced that, and may be just to say that I, old relic, have not because my cognitive habits are too shaped by over sixty years of having been read to, and reading from, books). For example, for me, Jesse Liberty's book "C# : A Developer's Notebook" is just such a "remarkable" synthesis of strong, clear writing, uniquely vivid graphic design, and use of text call-outs and annotation. It's much more than the sum of its parts and the underlying profound technical knowledge that Jesse transmits both scientifically and through judicious use of metaphor and analogy. If there's anything I have learned in my skewed ellipitcal life-orbit from the world of arts and letters into the technical, it's that technical learning (for me, anyway) requires multiple passes over complex material, a patient gradual absorption over time, and the book is, for me, the medium of choice. Fortunately for me, for you, for us, it is not a binary world underneath-the-hood : What could be a better example of a distinctively technoversic resource than CodeProject which, for me, is a community of teachers and students, peers (and gurus in the best sense of that word), a sea of understanding coming in steady waves of ideas :) It's hard to imagine now how I could live without CP, Wikipedia, Google, and I wouldn't want to imagine the world without such ! But a good novel in my hands, the cat sleeping next to me, the sounds of the talking lizards (they say "tookay, tookay' here in northern Thailand) and the frogs of the rainy season coming on-line after a heavy downpour : oh, there's nothing better for me than that. best, Bill "The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis
BillWoodruff wrote:
technical learning (for me, anyway) requires multiple passes over complex material, a patient gradual absorption over time, and the book is, for me, the medium of choice.
you can say that again. Thats another very important and Solid reason to stick to books
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
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I think that books are becoming more and more important nowadays! I know this seems like a sweeping statement but let me justify it :). Lets assume your learning C. Now you can find thousands of articles online but do they guarantee you the following? 1. Enough exercises? 2. Consistency of material? 3. Accuracy? 4. Organization? ... I can go on and on! Moreover, continuing our above example. If i am new to C i won't have a clue where to start? What should i search? Pointers? Arrays? Data types? Chances are i will miss more then one of them and will be scratching my head 90% of the time :). BTW you can find all the news online (feeds, e-papers), its actually faster and up-to-date then the print counterpart but do they really threat the newspaper? :) I would say books are great to build your foundations and online articles can help you the latter construction of the technological wall! Chao!
nutkase wrote:
I would say books are great to build your foundations and online articles can help you the latter construction of the technological wall!
You said it all in a line
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
I gather general information online, but when I want to go to the core I buy books. For instance there are thousands of C++ tutorials, but for true understanding rely on books. Again there are books and books, I always prefer online material to crash courses or pocket reference books.
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
Easier to read in bed/on the toilet/in a plane/in a car/etc... :)
------------------------------------ "I want you to imagine I have a blaster in my hand" - Zaphod Beeblebrox. "You DO have a blaster in your hand" - Freighter Pilot "Yeah, so you don't have to tax your imagination too hard" - Zaphod Beeblebrox
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
Books don't have flashing advertisements that take the majority of UI estate.
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
I can take a book to bed, and I can lie on my couch with a book. I suppose I will get used to a light-weight 'reader' device that allows the same, because I get used to anything, but the qualitative experience of close on thirty-eight years of feeling and smelling paper, reading two opposing pages, etc. will retain some not insignificant inertia.
Semicolons: The number one seller of ostomy bags world wide. - dan neely
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Cheap, portable, easier to eye, durable and personalized experience Wow thats lot of good points, ow i can argue strongly about the topic
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Author of the Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
Sadly, in my country (Romania) book have stopped being cheap for about 10 years now. I rarely afford to buy fiction novels and almost never technical books, which more than everything, are ridiculously expensive.
Come to the dark side! We have cookies.
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Benefits of the book - by me: 1) They're cheap, so you mind much less leaving one on a bus/plane/train than leaving a laptop(or whatever) on a bus/plane/train. 2) Books are portable, require no power and are unlikely to crash at the least opportune moment. 3) Even a cheaply printed book is far easier on the eye than a computer screen. 4) Books can be taken into the bath without fear. 5) Bookmarking is as easy a turning the corner of a page, adding a piece of paper or using a post it. 6) You're unlikely to get mugged because of your book. 7) You can annotate books however you want. 8) You can lend a book to anyone you wish without reprisal. 9) Books are not DRM protected. 10) The "book format" doesn't become obsolete. 11) They're durable and long lasting. 12) When friends come around, they'll be impressed by your collection - and will ask to borrow from it. Nah, the book is here to stay. :)
martin_hughes wrote:
- They're cheap
In developed countries only. Books are expensive elsewhere.
martin_hughes wrote:
- Bookmarking is as easy a turning the corner of a page, adding a piece of paper or using a post it.
Try finding the right bookmark out of 100 in a 500 page book.
martin_hughes wrote:
- You can lend a book to anyone you wish without reprisal.
Except when you want it back to check for something and the person you lent it to is on holiday, at home or forgot it at a friend's house. Books are not easily copyable.
martin_hughes wrote:
- The "book format" doesn't become obsolete.
Try reading a 100 year old English book. Plenty of differences. Give it another 100 years and you may not understand it at all. Not that most books last that long without special care. Also the format itself has been changing plenty. Chapters, line-breaks, paragraphs, indexes, contents lists, punctuation, page numbers etc. have all been added to the format over time. (I love books, got a whole wall of them and hope to continue getting more and pass them onto my children. But they are not perfect and we shouldn't ignore the benefits of other technology. It won't be long till we have tablets that have the best quality of books and the best qualities of digital technology.)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
At least he achieved immortality for a few years.
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1. My eyes are getting old. With reading glasses, books are easier on my eyes. 2. Competent editors coupled with good checkers and good readers and peer review for one book are superior to 10 incomplete internet articles. 3. Books tend to cover subject matter in much greater depth than 99% of the internet articles you read. 4. I can take a book with me without lugging a laptop. 5. I can read on the loo without fear of dunking my laptop. 6. Books don't have hyperlinks to distract me from my original train of thought. 7. Books don't go into hibernation when I go to the frig for some milk. 8. I can put notes in the margin and place Post-It notes all over the book. 9. Unlike Internet content which sometimes disappears if a web site goes off line (like some of Fritz Onions excellent articles on asynchronous COM calls), books are around forever pretty much until the binding falls apart. 10. I get excited when a new book arrives from www.bookpool.com. I don't think books, particularly technical books have been replaced by the Internet. I do think the popular journals and magazines, (e.g. DDJ have been replaced by the Internet.)
CodeWiz51 -- Life is not a spectator sport. I came to play. Code's Musings | Code's Articles
2. and 3.: Oh come on. You are comparing a 500 page book with a one page article? Compare it to the entire, instantly accessible internet. The biggest library in the world cannot contain the contents of the internet. You can find much more in-depth information on the internet as there is no physical limit that you will find in books. Editors edit out information in books due to physical constraints. "99%" is a number you pulled out of your arse. No offense. 5. How small is your laptop that it can slip between your legs and into a loo? :) 9. Books go missing. Libraries close for the night. Books get lent to friends and then you need them at 4am. You can print internet content. 10. That is true :)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
At least he achieved immortality for a few years.
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
Quartz. wrote:
printing will be dead in 10 years
It won't begin to happen until screen technology is good enough (600dpi). I have books because it is too cumbersome to take my laptop to bed. I can take books with me anywhere. I don't have to worry about battery power with a book. It is easy to jump in randomly to a book. I can annotate books easily. I can lend books to people easily.
Upcoming FREE developer events: * Developer Day Scotland Recent blog posts: * Introduction to LINQ to XML (Part 1) - (Part 2) My website | Blog
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martin_hughes wrote:
- They're cheap
In developed countries only. Books are expensive elsewhere.
martin_hughes wrote:
- Bookmarking is as easy a turning the corner of a page, adding a piece of paper or using a post it.
Try finding the right bookmark out of 100 in a 500 page book.
martin_hughes wrote:
- You can lend a book to anyone you wish without reprisal.
Except when you want it back to check for something and the person you lent it to is on holiday, at home or forgot it at a friend's house. Books are not easily copyable.
martin_hughes wrote:
- The "book format" doesn't become obsolete.
Try reading a 100 year old English book. Plenty of differences. Give it another 100 years and you may not understand it at all. Not that most books last that long without special care. Also the format itself has been changing plenty. Chapters, line-breaks, paragraphs, indexes, contents lists, punctuation, page numbers etc. have all been added to the format over time. (I love books, got a whole wall of them and hope to continue getting more and pass them onto my children. But they are not perfect and we shouldn't ignore the benefits of other technology. It won't be long till we have tablets that have the best quality of books and the best qualities of digital technology.)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
At least he achieved immortality for a few years.
Paul Watson wrote:
Try finding the right bookmark out of 100 in a 500 page book.
Easy: you don't bother bookmarking 100 items, but use the contents and or index to track down what you were looking for.
Paul Watson wrote:
Try reading a 100 year old English book. Plenty of differences. Give it another 100 years and you may not understand it at all. Not that most books last that long without special care.
I've got loads of old books (a few of them about 250 years old), and I don't have any trouble understanding them. Language and layout may change over time, but the book is far more resilient to change than digital technology. For example, I have a whole bunch of C15 tapes at home which contain god-knows-what now; even if I had the means of connecting them to my PC, it's unlikely I'd be able to actually read the contents given the proprietary 1980's formats used to save the data.
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
I feel the points raised here though some in jest and parody the nature of the internets functionality etc etc...but in my experience:- my wife thinks i spend too much time reading them (when i could be mowing the lawn)..she'd rather chat constantly on messenger and spend 5 hours surfing but not actually having anything to show for it except that she can't remember why she'd gone on in the 1st place.. my son (13) thinks i'm a nerd/geek for reading tech/scifi books...when he would himself plays WoW til the cows came home...and he'll be doing programming in ICT next year??? Though the Internet does not charge you for late returns to the library because some'one neglects THEN refuses to take them back and the fine builds up.....they were Java books as well ;) ..and my daughter (10) still loves me reading a book to her at bed time..though apparently i still have that winnie the pooh tone, even though we read Harry Potter/Hungry cities and Dark materials..
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martin_hughes wrote:
- They're cheap
In developed countries only. Books are expensive elsewhere.
martin_hughes wrote:
- Bookmarking is as easy a turning the corner of a page, adding a piece of paper or using a post it.
Try finding the right bookmark out of 100 in a 500 page book.
martin_hughes wrote:
- You can lend a book to anyone you wish without reprisal.
Except when you want it back to check for something and the person you lent it to is on holiday, at home or forgot it at a friend's house. Books are not easily copyable.
martin_hughes wrote:
- The "book format" doesn't become obsolete.
Try reading a 100 year old English book. Plenty of differences. Give it another 100 years and you may not understand it at all. Not that most books last that long without special care. Also the format itself has been changing plenty. Chapters, line-breaks, paragraphs, indexes, contents lists, punctuation, page numbers etc. have all been added to the format over time. (I love books, got a whole wall of them and hope to continue getting more and pass them onto my children. But they are not perfect and we shouldn't ignore the benefits of other technology. It won't be long till we have tablets that have the best quality of books and the best qualities of digital technology.)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
At least he achieved immortality for a few years.
Paul Watson wrote:
It won't be long till we have tablets that have the best quality of books and the best qualities of digital technology
I have to disagree with you there: this sort of electronic information utopia has been promised for the past two decades and we're really no closer to acheiving it. There's two insurmountable problems with ebooks that paper books don't suffer from: - Cost: where I'm from (Australia) a tablet PC costs around AU$2500, compared to a technical book AU$100 (or 25 books for the price of one tablet PC) or a novel AU$20 (125 novels for the price of one tablet PC, which is 1 book a fortnight for almost 5 years) - Usability: anyone can pick up a book and read it, not everyone can work a computer. And of the people out there who are computer literate, a fair portion of them aren't going to understand nuances of ebooks. For example, why the ebook that they bought for their Amazon Kindle won't work on their friend's Franklin eBookman (or even on their friend's Kindle thanks to the wonders of DRM). Plus, as lots of other people have pointed out it's just easier to read from paper than from a screen. I think it will be a long time yet until books are obsolete :)
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
I agree, having a book is far better in my opinion. I like books because: a) I can read them anywhere, I'm not chained to my computer. b) There nothing more annoying than trying to find an article that you read a few weeks back, and then when you need to refer to it again, finding that the site owner has re-arranged the site or simply deleted the article. With a book, you know it's still going to be there for you to refer to in the future. c) You can write (!) into a book, to add your own comments and memory-jogs. I hated the idea of this at first, until I realised that I'll probably never sell any of the books that I've bought. Now, I think the ability to add your own comments and mini-indexes to a book is great. d) The quality of the material that goes into a book is usually reviewed and at least, has some rudimentary checks for accuracy. I'm dismayed by the sheer amount of nonsense that some so called "experts" write into articles on the 'net. The trouble is, developers that read "teach yourself programming in 24 hours" yesterday are now themselves, writing articles on topics they don't fully understand, and thus just spread mis-information onwards. Of course, there are plenty of books with printing errors and information that is just plain wrong as well. e) They're easier on the eyes. ...on the other hand... 1) Books are hard to search (I like the option some publishers give now, of a PDF version of the book included with the physical book itself) 2) They take up physical room - I've got a real storage problem with the number of books that I have. 3) You can't "upgrade" a book easily. I've bought newer versions, e.g. 2nd Editions of some classic books, e.g. Code Complete. It's a shame that I can't somehow get a discount given that I'd bought the first edition previously. I bought a Sony Reader recently, that's pretty good and not a bad compromise. Whilst on the subject of IT books, I am disturbed by the lack of real technical in-depth books available in bookstores nowadays. Twelve years ago, I used to go into Waterstones and gaze at the compiler book with the dragon on the front, and other really in-depth books and hoped that one day, I'd appreciate their content. Now I've reached that level myself, they've mostly vanished. Replaced with books on today's "cool" language/framwork that will have dwindled into obscurity by tomorrow. Then again, I guess that the bookstores stock the books that will sell the most, not the in-depth technical ones that would be beyond, and thus, unattrac
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
I just bought a programming book in the last few weeks to learn a new framework and with that I got the online version although I did not bother to look at the electronic version until I read most of the book I found it much less friendly than the print version for several reasons. The big problems I found with the electronic version were my displays and also the ability to read it where I wanted. The problem with the display is even with 4:3 monitors most books work better in portrait mode instead of landscape and none of my monitors pivot (CRTs and laptop) so this makes it more difficult to read. And also laptops are much harder to read in a sun room or from the passenger seat of a car (during a 6 hour drive) which were the biggest two places I read the new book.
John
modified on Monday, May 19, 2008 6:34 AM
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
For quick reference, I'd rather look online. For anything I intend to sit down and read cover-to-cover, I'll always choose a printed book even if I have the equivalent .PDF file. Oh, and I've never had a laptop that was actually readable outside during the day (and that's about a dozen of them)...
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A friend of mine was arguing that nowadays you can find all the information online, why would somebody buy a book ? He also claims that, printing will be dead in 10 years Well I think a book is better because, 1. It gathers all the related information together 2. The layout is in a way which is easier to understand 3. Information on the web can be inaccurate 4. Searching for information on the net can take time, a good book give you all the required information at a single place 5. A book also teaches way of doing things in a unique author's style, who can be experienced on the subject Which one would you prefer, a book, rather than searching information online or vice versa and why?
Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.
Vista Gadget Book: Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Sample chapter here Selling Your Gadget
This almost sounds like a personal preference. Books get dated quickly, but hopefully the publishing process means the accuracy has been through some vetting procedure, ensuring a level of accuracy. I like books because they let me curl up somewhere and get away from distractions.. my computer is a built in distraction for some types of research.. I mean I see a link and go somewhere and see another that looks relevant... The next thing I know I have ten tabs up and haven't really focused on any of them yet. The book has hopefully a good author who has taken lots of care to organize the thoughts and material because they want to get paid and for that the book must sell and be useful. So I'll study it carefully and note the references and reasoning and logic. I don't want to pay 50$ for a book on xemacs which I use rarely, but it sure is useful when I do use it. If I can't find my personal reference, I'll google and find out quickly how to switch marks or something on the web.. much easier than finding it in a book. The web is ok or good for some folks or topics or types of research, but for me books almost always have their place. Jeff p.s. thanks to all the altruistic people and/or geeks that put their hard earned knowledge on the web.
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Paul Watson wrote:
It won't be long till we have tablets that have the best quality of books and the best qualities of digital technology
I have to disagree with you there: this sort of electronic information utopia has been promised for the past two decades and we're really no closer to acheiving it. There's two insurmountable problems with ebooks that paper books don't suffer from: - Cost: where I'm from (Australia) a tablet PC costs around AU$2500, compared to a technical book AU$100 (or 25 books for the price of one tablet PC) or a novel AU$20 (125 novels for the price of one tablet PC, which is 1 book a fortnight for almost 5 years) - Usability: anyone can pick up a book and read it, not everyone can work a computer. And of the people out there who are computer literate, a fair portion of them aren't going to understand nuances of ebooks. For example, why the ebook that they bought for their Amazon Kindle won't work on their friend's Franklin eBookman (or even on their friend's Kindle thanks to the wonders of DRM). Plus, as lots of other people have pointed out it's just easier to read from paper than from a screen. I think it will be a long time yet until books are obsolete :)
I agree that it's easier to read from paper than from a screen. As part of joining IEEE, I received access to the O'Reilly Safari online book collection. I think it's great to have access to all those books, but I can't imagine actually ready one online (cover-to-cover). The biggest advantage to something like Safari is that I don't have to buy a book, and then watch it go out of date with the release of a new version (which makes books even more expensive).
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2. and 3.: Oh come on. You are comparing a 500 page book with a one page article? Compare it to the entire, instantly accessible internet. The biggest library in the world cannot contain the contents of the internet. You can find much more in-depth information on the internet as there is no physical limit that you will find in books. Editors edit out information in books due to physical constraints. "99%" is a number you pulled out of your arse. No offense. 5. How small is your laptop that it can slip between your legs and into a loo? :) 9. Books go missing. Libraries close for the night. Books get lent to friends and then you need them at 4am. You can print internet content. 10. That is true :)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
At least he achieved immortality for a few years.
Paul Watson wrote:
2. and 3.: Oh come on. You are comparing a 500 page book with a one page article? Compare it to the entire, instantly accessible internet. The biggest library in the world cannot contain the contents of the internet. You can find much more in-depth information on the internet as there is no physical limit that you will find in books. Editors edit out information in books due to physical constraints. "99%" is a number you pulled out of your arse.
I find the 50,000 pages of the same code cut and pasted from MSDN samples extremely compelling. :-D To be honest, I don't really search too much for content anymore. I find the articles mostly inane.
Paul Watson wrote:
No offense.
None taken. :-D
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