MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - "E-reader devices", naming

montsnmags · 02-20-2008, 07:27 AM

Now, I call my Iliad "George", because, well, he looks like a George. Nothing literary at all behind it - he just looks like a George (my eleven user cameras have names too...but that's another story, like the name of my car, or the clown in the rafters of the garage, or the plastic teddy bear hanging by his neck under the house watched over by Spidey and Miow Miow...ahh, so many stories, so little time...). Anyway, his name's George. I don't talk to him (I'm not an idiot - I have dogs to speak to).

Anyway, since the whole thing is simply a book, or multiple books, or anyway potentially a big change in how we see a "book" in future, I was thinking a name like "Book II", but just calling the device a "booktoo".

It doesn't really matter I suppose. I still tell my friends and family it's an e-reader, in the same way I call a flying disk a frisbee, an insulated flask a thermos, a foam caddy for my beer an esky and a small sticky bandage a bandaid, and lest anyone be willing to take it up with me that that personal usage is inappropriate, confusing and possibly infringing trademark or copyright legislation they should note that I'm also willing to brand and brandish all of these items as an involuntary suppository - forewarned is disarmed, as they say.

So, whatever it ends up being called (since "ebook reader device" is about as elegant as a drunken giraffe on roller skates trying to look at the back of its own head), I'm all for it not starting with "i-" (quite blatantly a usage penned by someone in marketing - "first up against the wall when the revolution comes" - with a keen awareness for the penchant of us modern consumers to delight in say "I" as often as possible), nor ending in "pod" (as pods are sticky and aliens come out of them, which can't possibly be good, and besides I'm sure manufacturers won't mention the dangers of pods in the Troubleshooting Guide or will have a clause in their EULA absolving themselves from all responsibility for alien takeover).

So, bring on the naming. Perhaps something in Sumerian would be nice.

Cheers,
MarcL

02-20-2008, 07:27 AM	#14
montsnmags Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,155 Karma: 4632658 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	Now, I call my Iliad "George", because, well, he looks like a George. Nothing literary at all behind it - he just looks like a George (my eleven user cameras have names too...but that's another story, like the name of my car, or the clown in the rafters of the garage, or the plastic teddy bear hanging by his neck under the house watched over by Spidey and Miow Miow...ahh, so many stories, so little time...). Anyway, his name's George. I don't talk to him (I'm not an idiot - I have dogs to speak to). Anyway, since the whole thing is simply a book, or multiple books, or anyway potentially a big change in how we see a "book" in future, I was thinking a name like "Book II", but just calling the device a "booktoo". It doesn't really matter I suppose. I still tell my friends and family it's an e-reader, in the same way I call a flying disk a frisbee, an insulated flask a thermos, a foam caddy for my beer an esky and a small sticky bandage a bandaid, and lest anyone be willing to take it up with me that that personal usage is inappropriate, confusing and possibly infringing trademark or copyright legislation they should note that I'm also willing to brand and brandish all of these items as an involuntary suppository - forewarned is disarmed, as they say. So, whatever it ends up being called (since "ebook reader device" is about as elegant as a drunken giraffe on roller skates trying to look at the back of its own head), I'm all for it not starting with "i-" (quite blatantly a usage penned by someone in marketing - "first up against the wall when the revolution comes" - with a keen awareness for the penchant of us modern consumers to delight in say "I" as often as possible), nor ending in "pod" (as pods are sticky and aliens come out of them, which can't possibly be good, and besides I'm sure manufacturers won't mention the dangers of pods in the Troubleshooting Guide or will have a clause in their EULA absolving themselves from all responsibility for alien takeover). So, bring on the naming. Perhaps something in Sumerian would be nice. Cheers, MarcL