Re: [OCLUG-Tech] books
All:
I've been at this so long that eBooks weren't even a gleam in Tim
O'Reilly's eye when I started. I have a pretty complete "zoo" of
O'Reilly books on my office shelves. I like dead trees for reference.
They run forever without being plugged in. They are available without
connection to the Interweeb. The paper white display is phenomenal, and
you can write permanent notes with a standard pencil that last forever
on the display. You can have any number of them open at once without
clogging up your coding screen. I like trade print format books - they
are larger and easier on 50+ year old eyes. Real Post-it note bookmarks
work better than ethereal electronic book marks.
Although the young folks will take exception to this, eBooks are a poor,
flawed approximation of the dead tree versions, with many compromises
added. Dead tree books can't disappear through DRM measures and failure
to feed the meter every month. They can't be tied to a platform, a
vendor or an employer. Battery life is infinite with dead trees. I
don't get headaches from dead tree books. eBooks don't show enough
readable size content per screen (I hate to say "page" in eBook
context), and I'm used to scanning two pages of dead tree books in a
glance. There is a substance to real books I like. When I say it is on
page 73 of the third edition of "The Bat Book" to another old guy, they
know exactly where and what I mean. eBooks resize content based on
platform, screen resolutions and user so there is no common frame of
reference that can be easily shared.
eBooks are very profitable. eBooks are very vendor-controllable and
subscribe-able. eBooks provide recurring revenue streams to vendors.
eBooks can disappear without notice. I used to like going to see Bruce
and compare and buy books.
Now I sound like an elderly curmudgeon. I've got multiple tablets from
multiple vendors and have coded for them (I hate Java), but they just
aren't better for me.
--
Bill