Why would you read a book !
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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
CodeWiz51 -- Life is not a spectator sport. I came to play. Code's Musings | Code's Articles
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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)...
Daniel Desormeaux wrote:
Oh, and I've never had a laptop that was actually readable outside during the day
Same here. It is nice to get outside but the difficulty of reading the screen cancels that. With a book you do not have this problem (well at least not to the same extent).
John
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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
Reading a book is a great way to acquire information because you are focussed on the book. When you sit in your comfy chair, bed, desk (computer turned off), airplane seat, etc. there is no ambiguity about what you are doing. You are reading a specific book because you want/need to. You didn't "stumble" upon it while on the web and you won't get stumbled-out of it because you saw a hyperlink or ad in the book. To paraphrase one of the other posters, the author has gathered and synthesized information and is presenting it to the reader in a methodical manner. It's more like taking a class with a good teacher. Reading on-line can in some ways be the opposite. To extend the analogy: If you are taking an Engineering lab course, the "online" method would be to have a huge lab full of every imaginable apparatus, every instruction manual, every doctoral thesis, every ad for related lab stuff, etc. all randomly in front of you; you don't know where to start. The "book" way is that first you are presented with an overview, then simple instructions, then you are presented with exactly the right equipment you need to work. I'm not saying that reading online is not useful. In fact, most of my technical reading IS online, it's just that sometimes, when you need a complete reading on a topic, a book is the right way to go. I also like to be able to cite books in arguments. They hold a lot more weight that saying "I read it on a web site". For example, when ironing out some points of our company's coding guidelines, I often pulled the "Code Complete" card. Show them the book and they'll have a hard time arguing it!
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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
"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" I work at the largest library in our area (with 13 branches) and we keep setting records of people checking out books each month. We receive boxes of new books each day and keep ordering new ones all the time. I do not see any trend of decline in book printing. Just the opposite.
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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 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.
How is this relevant to the argument? eBooks from today read 100 years ago will still be exactly the same language as they are today, unless you're suggesting some kind of digital auto-translation, which I suppose is possible. Besides, we're arguing primarily that books are not going away, we're not saying that digitial forms are worthless. I think we can all agree there are things digital books can do that real books can't, but all I'm saying is don't jump the gun and start burning all your paperbacks because you think a revolution is here. ;)
“Time and space can be a bitch.” –Gushie, Quantum Leap {o,o}.oO( Looking for a great RSS reader? Try FeedBeast! ) |)””’) Built with home-grown CodeProject components! -”-”-
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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:
Compare it to the entire, instantly accessible internet.
I don't know where your Internet is from, but around here information on the net is far from instantly accessible. Sure it's instant if you know the url or have a link to exactly what you want, but you have to take into account all the searching and reading and opening new tabs and going back and searching again (with a slightly different term this time) and opening more tabs, then reading those tabs, close the ones that sounded good but are actually irrelevant, open more tabs from links in other tabs, and FINALLY (if you're lucky) by the end of the day you might have actually found what you're looking for. In a good, complete book on the subject you have two options: Table of Contents, or the Index, both of which take a lot less time.
“Time and space can be a bitch.” –Gushie, Quantum Leap {o,o}.oO( Looking for a great RSS reader? Try FeedBeast! ) |)””’) Built with home-grown CodeProject components! -”-”-
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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
Just thought I'd offer my take on the corollary. So here's a list of possible online sources and where they fall short (all can be good at times): 1) Articles -- Sometimes not in-depth enough. Often the situation presented in the article is too specific to a particular application. 2) White papers -- Often waaaay too theoretical. 3) Search -- Way too often gives broken links, outdated information, and/or un-relevant (is that a word?) information. 3) Wikis -- One of the better sources, imho. Often incomplete though. 4) Forums -- Any person can say whatever they want. What makes this really bad, though, is that people often don't or refuse to backup their statements (and yes, I can back that up :)). 5) Blogs -- See forums, although here you can get the advantage of finding a true expert who adheres to some type of intellectual and professional integrity. For me it all boils down to this: Writing and publishing a book is still a lot of hard work, so more thought and effort is put into it and the quality of the information is generally higher. This is also true of some books that are published online, although definitely not all.
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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 are easier to manipulate in the head, if they fall into the sink the won't break.
MrPlankton
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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
Most computer books are trash anyway - they've become a bloated mass of repeated examples - they show the first 3 lines, explain them, then show those same 3 lines with 3 more added to explain them. Perhaps this type of organization is useful to some people, but I much prefer to see the whole example and then a detailed description of how-it-works. That said, I do prefer reading a book to learning/reading on-line. But for looking something up, Online is invaluable. One service I've used in the past was books24x7.com they have quite a few books on line (and searchable). Still not as good as having the book in front of you, but adequate.
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"Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell... musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is... it has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be, um... smelly."
------------------ John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
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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
Online media are great when you are in Search mode and you know what you're looking for. They aren't always as good at instruction, when you don't know what questions to ask. And books are far better at encouraging serendipity... when you're flipping through and find something that makes you say, "Hey, I didn't know I could do that!" But then, I'm a little biased. There are about a dozen books with my name on the cover.
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Hmm, I was wondering if anyone was going to quote that scene. Thank you for saving me the trouble of having to surf Buffy fan sites to find the quote myself in order to post it. Though you left out the interactive part of the quote. :)
yup!!
------------------ John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
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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
Actually, I partly agree and partly disagree with you. I think that inacurate books also exist. Moreover, there are many books out there that have a bad design, or are poorly written. In my opinion, the unique thing a book reading offers is the ability / chance to concentrate ONLY on what you read and nothing else. This helps you get the maximum information possible and oprimize the process of increasing your knowledge. When you are on your computer and read, you also multitask at the same time. Other applications are alive at the same moment, which could - either you want it or not - distract you from reading what you want. An online chat message, an unexpected email, a thing you forgot to write in Word etc... On the other hand, when you read a book, you just read a book - period! Nothing else. You can more easily concentrate on the pages in front of you without any distractions. The book is more personal, the PC-Internet not! That is the thing that matters most for me when you read a book. :cool:
Per ardua ad astra, per ignem vincimus! http://www.kakos.com.gr[^]
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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, a great summation. Books are more popular now (admittedly I live in England and I can't comment about elsewhere) than they have ever been. Best selling authors earn more from royalties (eg JK Rowling) than pop stars and although the market may one day collapse due to some new, ubiquitous, unexpected development that development is not some form of computer as we currently envisage computers. Tablets? I want tablets that reduce headaches and don't induce them! It is difficult to improve on the 12 reasons above but (obviously I'm going to); 13) Tech advances mean that books stored electronically for today's market would need to be constantly 'upgraded' Floppy, HDD, CD, USB, DVD, Blu-Ray, whatever. Like music moving from 8-track to cassette to CD to MP3 to whatever; this is counter-productive. 14) Books look nice 15) Books allow strangers an inight into your personality, suggesting that you could subconsciously suggest to potential partners that you are passionate, yet considerate (for example). Check out people looking at your computer (even if it is an Apple) are they really thinking something other than, 'oh look, a computer'. 16) Books allow you to find out what you don't know you don't know - all search allows you to do is find out something you've forgotten 17) Books are art, computers are science - they are apples and oranges
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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 think you are missing one: 6. A book is more comfortable to read while in the bathroom. :D
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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
Always prefer books. Its relaxing
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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
1. You're way out in the country and they're out of toilet paper. Laptop? Do me a favour! :~ 2. The two of you research the Kama Sutra. Online? Do me a favour! Where do you park the mouse? :sigh: 3. Try reading on-line for six hours during a power failure, by candle-light. :mad: 4. Try taking your laptop tramping... :zzz: You are inevitably led to the conclusion that this is a dubious debate and the book is only contested by the illiterate. ;P
Troft not lest ye be sponned on the nurg! (Milligan)