First kind of Kindle?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

But that title gets clicks. Old books in a case won't.

What you've just described is actually illegal. It's called bait and switch.It's what Amazon has done for the phone that Purple Lady ordered on Prime Day. They advertised one phone and sold another. This thread advertises a new and different Kindle, but the article has nothing to do with a new and different Kindle.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What you've just described is actually illegal. It's called bait and switch.

Oh, c'mon, Jon, dial it down.

Bait and switch is when a merchant advertises goods which they don't have at a cheap price, in order to inveigle you into buying something more expensive when you show up. It's a far, far reach to apply that to an enticing header and it's irresponsible to bandy about the word "illegal" when it's nothing of the kind.

ETA: I quoted Jon's post in its entirety when I clicked on it. I'll note that this thread advertises nothing and it suggests a first Kindle, not a new and different one.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What you've just described is actually illegal. It's called bait and switch.It's what Amazon has done for the phone that Purple Lady ordered on Prime Day. They advertised one phone and sold another. This thread advertises a new and different Kindle, but the article has nothing to do with a new and different Kindle.

We might could argue that one.
The title says "First kind of Kindle?" That is a question, not a statement. Therefore, it is not a bait and switch. I will agree it is kind of misleading. A better title would have been "Was this the first Kindle? " Kindle meaning portable book storage not electronic device.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Microfiche was not really portable. The film yes, but the readers of the film, nope. So if you wanted to read the microfiche, you'd have to tote around the reader and have access to a power outlet.

As for SF, one of the best examples was Star Trek TNG with the PADD.

Portable readers existed.
And still do.
Check the link.

And Star TrekNG PADDs are post-PC.
Try the original series where Rand would bring Kirk clipboards to sign off and Spock's research brought up microfiche stills.

Over time there have been all sorts of attempts to produce portable libraries.
Edison proposed printing books on ultra-thin nickel sheets: 40,000 pages in a two-inch thick binding.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/bookpatrol...le-ipad-combo/

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just because the article is wrong is no reason this thread should be wrong,

That article has nothing to do with Kindles. If the author thinks so, then the author should be looking for a new job.

My pet hate is when a brand name is used instead of the generic term. People saying Kleenex instead of tissue, Hoover instead of vacuum cleaner, Kindle instead of e-reader.

I mean, Kindle wasn't the first and it isn't even the best so why is it used as shorthand for e-book reading devices? It really, really irritates me but you don't see me ranting about it on a public forum.

Oh, wait ...

()

[Dr. Drib]

Here we go. Here's the full title, for anyone who looks at post #1 and sees only a link and nothing else. (Or for members who read posts backwards - or upside down.)

First kind of Kindle? Researchers at University of Leeds
find what is thought to be first travel-sized library

Personally, I find the full title to be so much more interesting than the title of this thread.

But Hi-Ho and Yippety-Yo - that's just me!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Microfiche was not really portable. The film yes, but the readers of the film, nope. So if you wanted to read the microfiche, you'd have to tote around the reader and have access to a power outlet.

I remember Kodak service techs with a briefcase that contained a microfiche reader and microfiche library. They also carried what looked like a loupe married to a microfiche holder which allowed reading the microfiche without requiring an AC outlet. The microfiche were fun to read since they were written in Kodak's KISL which attempted to remove the ambiguity found in standard English -- all ~1100 words of it.

As for the title of this thread? I suspect that Amazon is in the same situation as Kleenex in English speaking countries -- a trademark is in danger of becoming a generic term. Considering what was done to Bayer after the first world war and their trademark on aspirin was stripped (along with their trademark on a cough suppressant called heroin), I find it hard to find much sympathy for Kleenex or Amazon.

[PeterT]

I remember when we had the fiche listing of things like JES2, MVS 3.8, CICS builds, and of course when fixes were released new fiche would be supplied.

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Microfiche was not really portable. The film yes, but the readers of the film, nope. So if you wanted to read the microfiche, you'd have to tote around the reader and have access to a power outlet.

As for SF, one of the best examples was Star Trek TNG with the PADD.

There were collapsible microfishe readers.

[frahse]

There also the old spy tool: The Micro Dot"

We could put our library under a postage stamp, conceal it in the dot at the end of a handwritten message or inside a partially hollow coin and mail it or carry it across the oceans.

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by gmw

I doubt if a kindle will get your books out of order and upside down - yet another, previously unrealised (by me), advantage of e-readers.

Not upside down, but plenty of weird formatting. And it's impossible to order books exactly as I want as I can with a shelf of real books. Or have two books open at once to compare, etc, etc. I'm still glad to have one, but they have plenty of compromises.

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

In fact, in the SF world, quite a few stories featured portable "ebook" readers that were projectors or goggles that used photographic film spools of text. It was the "obvious" evolution in an age without PCs and where microfiche archives were ubiquitous in the science and engineering world.

Am just reading (on my Kindle...) "Icehenge" by KS Robinson, written c. 1980. He has a starship launching in the 23rd century with "a microfiche library of 40 million volumes".
I wonder if he wrote it on a typewriter?

One thing though, physical media are more resistant to corruption from things like cosmic rays. I have some floppy disks from the 90s I dearly wish I could read. And a few 19th C books that are perfectly fine.

The books in the case mentioned look quite legible after about 4 centuries.

[John F]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

... And it's impossible to order books exactly as I want as I can with a shelf of real books. ...

"Impossible" as in currently it is impractical, but it can be done.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Not upside down, but plenty of weird formatting. And it's impossible to order books exactly as I want as I can with a shelf of real books. Or have two books open at once to compare, etc, etc. I'm still glad to have one, but they have plenty of compromises.

Actually, I can have two books open at once to compare, just by having 2 ereaders side by side.

...and the two ereaders still take up less room and weigh less than one hardcover book.

Shari

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Am just reading (on my Kindle...) "Icehenge" by KS Robinson, written c. 1980. He has a starship launching in the 23rd century with "a microfiche library of 40 million volumes".

I wonder if he wrote it on a typewriter?

Almost a certainty. It was published in 1984 (so the latest he could have sold it was 1982) and it was his first published novel. Probably spent years on the query go round.
He had a couple of short stories published before that but odds are he wrote it in the 70's. Very few authors were writing on computers before the IBM PC came out in 1981.

(Niven and Pournelle are two that come to mind that go back to the Cromemco CP/M boxes.)