Might get E-Book Reader – Kindle DX

Will Fuqua — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:29:07 +0000

Amazon Kindle DX from Wikipedia

I’ve been talking to my wife about switching over to electronic books and also buying the Amazon Kindle DX. So we’re going to start putting money aside since the product costs almost $500. We were first talking about getting the Kindle 2 which is smaller, but I wanted to get the DX because of the larger screen and pdf support so I can read textbooks on it since a lot textbooks these days come with a pdf version of it. Even though I’m not in college right now I still read quite a bit of my old textbooks to rehash on what I’ve learned and even buy textbooks on subject I’m interested in. For instance I purchased ‘Ornithology‘ by Frank B. Gill which is a great detailed science book about birds. Now for me to read this textbook on the Kindle DX I’ll have to covert it to pdf format by scanning each page and using the appropriate software. As far as I know, this is completely legal as long as I keep the original book in my possession and don’t give the pdf file to anyone else. So I’ll do this to all my textbooks then store them away in boxes. No more clutter and all on one device. Of course I’ll keep backups of all the pdf files on a disc and/or harddrive.

I’m really looking forward to see where this e-book technology goes. It’ll be nice if a way is discovered to make the screens color and use the same amount of energy and look as the e-ink technology now. But for right now the only way to support this technology, to push it forward, is to buy the product and let your purchase support those engineers and researchers. It’s the same thing with most technology. If you want to see a certain technology improve, then you must “throw money at it” because the people working on it need financing.

I will say that I was very hesitant at first to buy the e-book reader by Sony years back. I didn’t know how it would be received and the risk assessment in my head didn’t seem positive at the time. However, now with what Amazon has done with e-books, the future of it looks safe and secure for the most part. I just hope the transition to possible paperless community is a smooth one.

Of course you’ll hear about many people complaining about the loss of jobs from physical bookstores, printing factories, and the lessening of shipping. That’s why it’s important for the transition to happen slowly so civilization has time to adjust and jobs shift around so that it stay balanced. This has happened plenty of times with other technologies. Some examples in just the book industry is the transition from scribe to printing press. Then the printing press became more and more efficient where less people and work was needed to produce products. So while the jobs in that area were lessening, the jobs in the publishing area of proofreading, fact checking, and other office jobs actually grew.

In another area, the transition that happened in transportation is a good example. Horses slowly became less used as technology released newer ways of getting around. Horse trainers were less needed, along with stable boys, horse showmen, groomsmen, and etc. But jobs opened up and needed filling for those working on trains, selling tickets, and the factories where these trains were built.

I hope I got my point across. Technology changes, things come and go. We must support it, which then supports the improvement of our species. I hope to see all of us with e-book readers 15 years in the future. I can only hope.

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Will Fuqua — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:17:44 +0000

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Might get E-Book Reader – Kindle DX

Hello world!