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Hey Y'all:
I had no idea where else to discuss this issue -- and this group seems
gadget and technology interested enough to suit my purposes. Anyway, here it
is...
Of late I have become interested in eBooks or eTexts and have been looking
at the various technologies involved in the concept. Of course, Microsoft's
recent entries into the eBook arena have at least piqued my interest -- and
here I refer simply to the advent of MS-Reader and recent announcements of
the almost surely ill-fated Tablet PC (if it isn't small enough or have
enough battery life so that I can read it on the "throne", in bed, and on
the run -- it will never fly; the fully functional "stylus" tablets/laptops
that are under consideration remain HUGE overkill).
Since I have been using simple text, RTF, HTML, and even PDF for years -- it
seems worth it to me to investigate formats I am new to, such as MS-Reader
and Mobipocket. Currently I have been experimenting with MS-Reader and have
discovered some things I am not sure I fully understand about the technology.
In the main, I am not understanding exactly what it is for these
technologies to be secure...
Now, I understand that Readers are created with various levels of encryption
-- the purpose of which seems intended to prevent one person from sharing
the content of a book with another person, or beyond several devices
belonging to the one person. Given that I was surprised to discover that it
is quite easy to cut and paste from MS-Reader:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great War of
the Ring and included many glimpses of the yet more ancient history that
preceded it. It was begun soon after The Hobbit was written and before its
publication in 1937; but I did not go on with this sequel, for I wished
first to complete and set in order the mythology and legends of the Elder
Days, which had then been taking shape for some years. I desired to do this
for my own satisfaction, and I had little hope that other people would be
interested in this work, especially since it was primarily linguistic in
inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of
'history' for Elvish tongues.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This assures me that if I wanted to I could just cut and paste the entire
contents of anything into another application and ultimately output it as
anything I wished, including an MS-Reader .lit file! Now I might have to
fiddle with it a bit, but not too much either. Are DRM5 secured eBooks
different? In my admittedly limited experience it seems that the only
purpose of the secured technology would be to annoy the users of the
MS-Reader viewer application.
But, I have only been using it to read free eBooks I discover online, so I
haven't ACTIVATED MY COMPUTER yet. At the same time I am loathe to
"activate my computer", as I don't want to lose the ability to read anything
I have already acquired (some of the eBooks looks good enough to be ripped
copies of or actual professionally formatted eBooks -- I mean assuming
things like "Ender's Game" and "The Lord of the Rings" are not in the public
domain, and these files have cover art and everything...) AND because I am
less than trusting of Microsoft's Passport technology. If they think people
are going to rush to give up private and financial information to an already
cracked security scheme just to read books on a screen, they must be high...
Another obvious point has to be that eBooks are not intended as a format
that one could ever sell back or trade as one does used books -- the
security measures surrounding the technology are clearly meant to cut off
that whole secondary market. I guess in the future I won't be able to
borrow that eBook copy of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" as I
could a real world copy of the book today. I can see the convenience of
reading an eBook in various situations, but I guess I still can't percieve
any that truly compete with the many advantages of the traditional book.
Paperbacks seem plenty portable enough to me, and I can even sell or trade
them to someone when I am done.
But now, after my experimentation with the technology, I feel semi-ready to
buy an eBook and even to give up what may be illicit copies of certain
etexts (I guess nothing excuses having an unpaid for copy of "Ender's Game"
although I guess I could get the same thing from the library at least long
enough to read it, which is generally all I would want anyway) -- but to do
so I gather I will have to "activate my computer" and I don't want to. In
reality eBooks are something I could live without -- probably forever. But
I remain intrigued. As it stands, the one thing I wanted to get from
Fictionwise was "Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman" which is a story I
must have several times over. The 99 cents it would cost to acquire this
text is only annoying inasmuch as I must have the text at least three times
in various paperback and harcover anthologies, twice in both the deluxe and
paperback versions of "The Illustrated Harlan Ellison", the recent Rick
Berry illustrated edition AND I even have the audio "Harlan! Harlan Ellison
Reads Harlan Ellison" and the artwork portfolio by Steranko. While I am by
no means Ellison obsessed, I guess I must admit a penchant for that
particular short story. But, y'know I have sort of already paid my dues as
far as this one work goes, even though 99 cents is still a pittance. My
main bitch is that I don't want to buy something if I have to "activate my
computer" with MS Passport. What to do, what to do...
So I ask you, what are you other eBook persons doing? What technologies are
you using? Why are they
/ is it easy and good to use? Could you ever see yourself buying a tablet
for more than $100 USD with only 4-6 hours of active screen battery life?
Despite the obvious and aforementioned complaints, I have to admit that
MS-Reader delivers a product that is fairly easy on the eyes, esp. if one
expands to full screen. That slightly yellowed vertical rectangle on a
black background, the old timey serif font, etc. all add up to a rather
book-like experience. There's no doubt about that...
BTW, if anyone wants to send me a digital copy of "Repent Harlequin" I won't
turn you in. I just need a digital text to experiment with and I don't want
to have to OCR or type the thing in...basically, I am keen to see how an
illustrated eBook might look if it was done right. Some university eBooks
have tried to capture this and failed -- that copy of "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland" wasn't worth the download time...
-- Hop-Frog
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