Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
... I have little interest in readers for my work documents (do research and teaching) as it's just easier to mark up printed out PDFs....
...No electronic device can ever have that level of ease....
... If that wasn't an issue then I'd honestly never buy an ereader as I do prefer reading a physical book....
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To each his own, but there a lot of generalizations here, all deriving from "I".
I don't know what your field is, or what your age is, but my "I" moved to mostly online research in grad school in the '90s. And most people I know, do most of their research online.
The benefits are enormous:
lightning fast searches;
the information is more current;
availability of materials which would be prohibitive to acquire, or house locally;
instant sharing with colleagues;
considerably reduced costs; and yes,
considerably reduced environmental impact.
You keep bringing up "cheap" as a requirement of your "perfect" e-reader, but the cost of your practices annually, is likely much higher than the cost of an iRex tablet (with annotation abilities.)
Someone has to pay for the paper and its delivery, someone has to pay for the printing equipment, its supplies and maintenance, then someone has to pay for the disposal of your discarded reading. Then someone has to pay for that ample storage space you apparently use in "academia," including having to build it, heat it or cool it, and maintain it.
Add to this all the stuff involved in production and transportation, from the chopped trees, to the paper-mill's toxic chemicals, to the gas and pollution required for transportation, and your footprint gets to be quite a large one, both in terms of costs and ecological damage.
There are so many reasons why e-technology should, and will, displace most p-materials. But for some it takes a generation. Hey, some still insist on using a typewriter.
