Mike and I are back from visiting my brother's family in Vermont. I wrote about the trip up on the train in today's Musing.

-Alyce
Also, there's a silly pic of my brother's dog.

http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1696

Download the first issue of Sandman...

Damn, Mark, that link is hawt! That one in the Haag is like they opened a window into my dream house.

Does the library at Trinity College remind anyone else of the Jedi library in Episode II?

Didn't they do "My Tank"? Good stuff.

In other news, I assure you this link is completely safe for work: Hot Library Smut.

One band that doesn't suck is the HP Lovecraft tribute band, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.

http://www.thickets.net

I recommend you go to the Media section, and listen to The Innsmouth Look for a sample of their good stuff.

Jon Acheson

Also, UB40 still sucks.

Weren't they the whiny band who recorded "Red Red Wine"? God, I hated that song.

--Jon
And it gets stuck in your head so easil---DAMMIT!

So, Wierd Al is gearing up for a new album release:

http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com/

Also, UB40 still sucks.

Jon Acheson

And when I say "sucks," I mean it's amazing they ever escaped their own event horizon in the first place.

Sailor UB313....

I would pay to see Sailor Xena.

--Amanda

...Sailor UB313..

That was my favorite band in the 1980s.

--Jon

>Sue writes: Poor, poor Pluto...
>
>http://www.moonprincess.com/galleries/details.php?image_id=1278&
>sessionid=d77c848df978733b8a3bf3af8dc81da5
>
>I predict the rest of the Sailor Senshi will rally to her
>defence to keep her in the group: "General Assembly of the
>International Astronomical Union! In the name of the Moon, I
>shall punish you!"
>
>--Matt
>And if they're successful then we could expect see a new batch
>of minor Senshi in future seasons: Sailor Charon, Sailor Ceres,
>Sailor UB313....

You, Sirrah, are the Greatest Cousin Evar!

Sue writes: Poor, poor Pluto...

http://www.moonprincess.com/galleries/deta...33b8a3bf3af8dc81da5

I predict the rest of the Sailor Senshi will rally to her defence to keep her in the group: "General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union! In the name of the Moon, I shall punish you!"

--Matt
And if they're successful then we could expect see a new batch of minor Senshi in future seasons: Sailor Charon, Sailor Ceres, Sailor UB313....

Poor, poor Pluto...

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html

The Jons have it right.

eBooks are still in the primative stages of software and hardware industry standards plus marketing.

In my purple sky, happy clown world of the future, eBook technology will be standard only in software or "deliverable" format. The sky is the limit on physical format. While the iPOD is the 800 lb. gorilla of mp3 player market, there are other players in various forms. Jon A talked about a robust, hardbacked eBook reader with decent solar power. I'd also imagine for the paperback crowd a rollup, LCD version that is one or two pages long with a touch screen to navigate any functionality. Or even VR glasses which project a page size as large or as small as needed. Or the really spooky kinds that display a book from a wireless network after a spoken voice command a la the library from Wolfram and Hart.



Shanshu Prophecy. Zapf Dingbats version.

Funny, all the pirates are using PDF. And there are plenty of tools to make free PDFs on the net, too.

I did say it should be a free format that people liked. No one I've spoken to about it (and I knew several programmers who worked with PDF) really likes PDF. It's just the de facto standard.

As for the publishing side of things, people like Baen Books and RPG publishers have made money selling ebooks for years now. The publishing side of things is beginning to be well understood. Yes, excessive DRM kills sales, while doing nothing to prevent piracy.

I had Baen and company in mind when I mentioned the early adopters. We'll see how things go for Baen. Their physical books, in my experience, are crap that fall apart, so moving to electronic distribution can only help their reputation.

--Jon

Edited by author 08-23-2006 05:48 PM
> I think one of the problems with e-books is that there's no
> standard format yet, so people are reluctant to adopt them.

Funny, all the pirates are using PDF. And there are plenty of tools to make free PDFs on the net, too. I would say that a reader that can't do a full letter sized PDF page legibly isn't good enough for me. Though, I would accept ASCII text and Palm Doc files as standards also, and they will almost certainly be supported on any e-book platform.

This is an area where I am hanging back and reading the reports from the front lines. Eventually the Right Thing will come along, at the right price point and I'll buy one.

What I think I want, for now, is a clamshell device with two half-page screens, that can be opened flat to display a full page, or held like a book to display two half-pages. The screens will need to be 5.5" x 8.5" in size. Ideally, it would have solar cells to recharge the battery, and would never need anything else in terms of power.

As for the publishing side of things, people like Baen Books and RPG publishers have made money selling ebooks for years now. The publishing side of things is beginning to be well understood. Yes, excessive DRM kills sales, while doing nothing to prevent piracy.

>The adoption of ebooks will require that people outside the
>publishing industry embrace it. The publishers will fight
>against it tooth and nail (other than a few early adopters)
>because they're terrified that ebooks will eat away at their
>paper publishing business. This will mean that ebooks will have
>DRM (digital rights management software), which makes the ebooks
>hard to use and can do stupid things like requiring that you
>only read your book on a specific reader, and if that reader
>dies you'll have to repurchase the book. This will drive away
>the reading public.
>

I have ordered 6 (count 'em) e-books for my library. They are mostly on the subject of computers. We have determined that they are a trifle clunky, but can be read through the OPAC which is available on a shell for the entire agency to read.
Unfortunately, this makes them difficult for me to access at home, as the agency has been fighting against using the Web-Opac they purchased before they hired me.
And I can't read them in the bubble bath, or in bed at night with a cup of hot cocoa or a glass of cider and seltzer, and I can't carry them about with my purse to read while waiting for my spouse and my children.
Go figure.

SubPrioress Semicolon Sue