On the fence about a PW

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by TheSacredSoul

May I know how long it takes to get an estimate from the time you start your first book?

Also, is the reading speed universal for all books? Lets say I get a time left for reading book A. Will the same reading speed be used to calculate time left for book B too?

The guesstimate starts after flipping the first page.
It may be incorrect, but it gets adjusted every page you turn.

Skipping pages because of pictures, lists, links, hyperlinks, titles etc, makes the estimate go off.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by Yolina

I go through about 200 books a year, so probably 6 years worth on the PW I guess for me, which isn't too bad but still... Wouldn't kill them put in more storage.

I really like the idea of a PW but it doesn't seem to be quite there yet so I'm holding off and will wait and see what the next iteration has to offer I was given a Kandle clip-on light when I got my K3 and I've used it a grand total of 3 times in over 2 years!

You could always move the books to the cloud storage, 5GB at this moment, perhaps more in the future.
So make that 21 years worth of books (which of course, by that time the kindle is old and worn).
You could also save your books on a harddrive, and upload them when you want to re-read them again. This would make your storage unlimited.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

You could always move the books to the cloud storage, 5GB at this moment, perhaps more in the future.
So make that 21 years worth of books (which of course, by that time the kindle is old and worn).
You could also save your books on a harddrive, and upload them when you want to re-read them again. This would make your storage unlimited.

I don't really like or trust the cloud I'm afraid - it's fine as a form of back-up but I'd hate to have to rely on that. And all my books already are on my computer but I still much prefer to have them *all* on my Kindle as well. Yes, I know, I'm peculiar but surely I should be allowed to have them where I want them rather than where Amazon thinks is "easiest" or "best". I hate being dictated to

[ProDigit]

I'm into the computer business for many years already, and I still own programs I downloaded in 1995 or before that.
But I do notice that harddrives do tend to get corrupted over time.
SD cards the same, but more because of multi read/writes rather than because of keeping data static.

USB flash drives have served me well to keep my most important data saved.
They can keep files for decades without corrupting.
I still have some files on my first USB flash drive ever, a 128 MB drive I bought in 2000-2001.
And it still works wonders, albeit a bit slow, as it's a USB1 drive.

[Andy_T]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

But I do notice that harddrives do tend to get corrupted over time.

Quick question,

those hard drives that you note get corrupted ... are those drives that you have in use, or at least regularly back up to each other, or drives you leave alone for a long time?

Best regards,
Andy

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

They added a separate setting.

That's the first thing I did was turn the recommended books off.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Andy_T

Quick question,

those hard drives that you note get corrupted ... are those drives that you have in use, or at least regularly back up to each other, or drives you leave alone for a long time?

Best regards,
Andy

Any Hard Drive can go bad at anytime. It doesn't even have to be powered on. Lately it seems the quality control on hard drives have taken a huge nose dive. I've gone through a few in the last couple of years. I would never trust my only copy to a external hard drive or internal hard drive. For me I use Discs. I have DVDs that are are over 12 years old that still work. I always keep three backups though. I do use External drives but it's not my main backup. I use Discs/Cloud/External Drive when it comes to my ebooks.

[Luminose]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The UI hasn't actually changed, Blossom - the PW's UI is (other than the light) the same as that of the Kindle Touch.

That's only as of the latest firmware which I believe didn't even come out until today, 1/8/2013.

[ProDigit]

hard drives that are in constant use, have their data moved around a lot stay healthy longer, because of re-magnetizing the data. That's why a harddrive light is never really off on a Windows vista/7 computer.
Harddrives of the nineties, below 8GB used to have a data retention life of 4 to 6 years. Harddrives today are 2 to 3 years tops, before they start corrupting or losing data.
Maxtors are the worst.
SD cards keep data for a long time, but get corrupted when a lot of data is written over sectors. You may know SD cards are flash memory cards with MLC's (meaning there's multiple of data bits stored in one cell, leading to degradation when a lot of read writes are being performed).

CD-R's have a shelf life of about 3-5 years, 7 years tops. DVD's of 5-7 years, 9 tops.
But, it's still better than a floppy disk!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

CD-R's have a shelf life of about 3-5 years, 7 years tops. DVD's of 5-7 years, 9 tops.
But, it's still better than a floppy disk!

I've never had a disc go bad yet. I have discs from 1998 that still work. I have CDs much older that still work just fine.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I've never had a disc go bad yet. I have discs from 1998 that still work. I have CDs much older that still work just fine.

Same here!

[ProDigit]

Audio CD's are of different quality to CD ROMS or CD RW's.
I've had several corrupted within 5 years.
It also depends on how you store them. They seem to hold out best in a cool, dark room or storage space.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh, OK, yes . I always use list view myself, so I forgot about those .

Actually, Harry, as of today, you are right: KT got an update that makes them exactly the same:
covers
Recent order on cloud list
Time to read
Fixed layout support
Also whispersync for voice for audible player
Etc

It feels like a new device! No new fonts of course (lower screen resolution).

The good news is that most likely we can assume that any update for PW should also be available for KT going forward.

So far I haven't been able to download any of my fixed layout books ('device not supported') but probably they have not updated the supported properties in the store yet.

A very happy Kindle day....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

hard drives that are in constant use, have their data moved around a lot stay healthy longer, because of re-magnetizing the data. That's why a harddrive light is never really off on a Windows vista/7 computer.
Harddrives of the nineties, below 8GB used to have a data retention life of 4 to 6 years. Harddrives today are 2 to 3 years tops, before they start corrupting or losing data.
Maxtors are the worst.
SD cards keep data for a long time, but get corrupted when a lot of data is written over sectors. You may know SD cards are flash memory cards with MLC's (meaning there's multiple of data bits stored in one cell, leading to degradation when a lot of read writes are being performed).

CD-R's have a shelf life of about 3-5 years, 7 years tops. DVD's of 5-7 years, 9 tops.
But, it's still better than a floppy disk!

I've got numerous CD-Rs which are 20 years old. 7 years is most definitely not "tops" for their storage. They don't degrade - keep them safe from physical damage and they should last virtually indefinitely. They were designed for 100+ year storage life.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've got numerous CD-Rs which are 20 years old. 7 years is most definitely not "tops" for their storage. They don't degrade - keep them safe from physical damage and they should last virtually indefinitely. They were designed for 100+ year storage life.

Unfortunately, some of them do degrade, depending on the chemicals used in the writable layer. Especially badly if they are subject to UV in visible light.