July 15, 2004

• So part of his logic is that because his sister can buy books on the internet, that books are dying? The whole article sounds like the plaintive cry of someone who hasn't got round to working out the advantages that research on the web can bring and who doesn't understand the appropriateness of using the right tool for the right job.
• Thanks for the info on interactive fiction Skrik. I've been wanting to check that format out for awhile. By all the technology deities, may we never have to go back to researching the old way. If I could get back a fraction of the days wasted in the damn library looking for something that didn't exist, something that was stolen/misshelved... What a heartbreaking pain in the ass. And as much as I love Project Gutenberg, reading a huge txt file is a terrible strain on the eyes. As biffa said, the right tool for the right job. ...Nabokov's Pale Fire, which uses cross references to send the reader all over the place. Heh. One of my design instructors, who was a universally loathed horse's ass, had us put together a book for a final project. I bound the pages so he had to keep turning and flipping the book around. Hopefully it was irritating.
• Oh, the book's dying again? Is it Thursday already? What shinything said. I sometimes read books online because I have no choice, but my eyes always feel lightly sanded afterward. The interactive fiction links are interesting, though. High-tech Choose Your Own Adventure! Thanks, Skrik.
• Book! Bah! You damn kids! I remember back in my day we all used scrolls! Books are a Commie plot! All that page number stuff and don't even get me started on the bookmark cartel! With a scroll, you stop reading and you just roll both ends up to that section -- no bookmark needed! And just the other day me and Adorno were sitting around talking about jazz and sound pictures...
• My worst headaches come from staring at a monitor. I also tend to crush my package when I lie back with the monitor on my lap, or I get electrocuted when I spill chocolate milk on it.
• You can't read a hypertext file (or whatever) in the bathtub.
• freethought - up your refresh rate. it will help with the headaches. (and get a lighter monitor fergoshsakes, you're freakin' singing soprano now.) digital access will allow more people to see the content without endangering the book itself. as it is now, if i want to browse the rare book archives at my university i need special permission and often can't turn the page myself for fear of damage. digital content means i can see everything without harm. death of books? pah. you can still buy records and record players, can't you? besides, from a purely economic sense, publishers make too much money from selling the hard copies to give up on the idea.
• Aesthetics of interior excursion in a well-run hive: Rooms are barren and terribly undressed without bookshelves. We must have something to occupy us through the winter, when directive dancing is curtailed.
• oh and shinything - hell yeah. if it isn't available as a pdf, it isn't worth referencing - right? (glad to be working in a field in which most relevant works are less than 20 years old)
• clf- oh yes. I am seriously missing scifinder scholar at the moment.
• me and Adorno were sitting around talking about jazz and sound pictures... (laughter)
• The first link ("Death of the Book") is useless thumbsucking, of course. But you web-savvy "may we never have to go back to researching the old way" types do realize that the vast majority of the world's information is not available online, don't you? If you want to know about movies or pop music, yeah, the computer is your friend. If you want to find out about, say, history, you'll need to put down the mouse and practice your page-turning skills.
• languagehat, that is just a matter of time as more and more works are going online. Moreover, the net already is the best bibliographic reference I have ever found.
• I mean, it's the best source for bibliographic references.