Books

[KelMar]

Ironically, I read it in 1984, in high school. 

I know I read this in high school too but I don't remember a lot about it. I think I have my brother's copy. Reading it might make me even more nervous than I already am, though.

[nimrod]

After some practise I can now read books on my phone, which has a 5.1" screen, I use an app called UB reader, it works very well.

Its great because if Im waiting anywhere, like Doctors etc I can read, I have about 400 books on my phone's SD card so need never be bored again haha

[Moogmodule]

After some practise I can now read books on my phone, which has a 5.1" screen, I use an app called UB reader, it works very well.

Its great because if Im waiting anywhere, like Doctors etc I can read, I have about 400 books on my phone's SD card so need never be bored again haha

Yep. People knock tech sometimes but I love that part of it. iPhones and kindles and things have taken the pain out of waiting. I wonder if their existence reduces frustration and complaints for people stuck in line for things.

[nimrod]

Yep. People knock tech sometimes but I love that part of it. iPhones and kindles and things have taken the pain out of waiting. I wonder if their existence reduces frustration and complaints for people stuck in line for things.

I would think so moog mate.
Its funny that at first I just didn't like reading a book on my phone, but a bit of persistence and now its my favourite way to read. I even read on my phone in bed nowadays !
The human body is strange...

[Mr Mustard]

I think the human body will get stranger as coming generations evolve lightning quick thumbs to operate the hand held gadgetry they already seem to find it impossible to live without. Also with ever improving visual media (video then DVD then Blu-Ray etc) future humans may well develop the pin-sharp eyes of an eagle!

I am a voracious reader but have never looked into this Kindle type stuff. I'm not particularly comfortable with technology that forces us to speed up with everything and rush through life to stave off boredom. They're starting to stock the store shelves with Christmas items and it's only September! on Boxing Day the Easter eggs will start appearing! What's the matter with us? Slow down for God's sake!! I do welcome the convenience of modern technology, but some kids today seem to have the attention span of a Guppy, have an inability to be patient and are far too easily "bored". I never learned how to get bored, seriously (until I got to grips with instruction manuals of any type: the one thing guaranteed to glaze me over into a trance - must admit the idiot-proof plug & play attitude of modern manufacturers is a Godsend!). I've sat in waiting rooms (too many times to reflect upon due to family illnesses and hospital emergencies over the past several years) and I've taken great delight in the lost art of daydreaming. It's called having an imagination; I sit back and draw cartoons or write story chapters in my mind as time floats on by: I'm always mildly shocked at the thought that everyone can't do this.

Also I still love the look and feel of a solid, well-bound, real life book - in the same way that some people prefer tangible DVDs or CDs/records rather than this sort of semi-invisible, nebulous download/streaming stuff which many of us just don't grasp. To be honest, to the exasperation of many, I can even see the merits of videotape at times - at least with tape you can physically SEE how much tape is left, observe whether it's re-wound etc, manually record over or after it (but not for much longer as VCRs die out). I can't do this with a disc where all the encoded info is, at a glance, invisible. We know acetate film and magnetic tape eventually deteriorate: has digitised media been around long enough yet to know just how long a shelf life it's ultimately got?

Remember when we were told that these new "compact discs" were crystal-sharp and physically indestructible and would make vinyl records redundant? Paper books have survived for centuries which is good enough for me. Escalators are great but there's still room for ordinary wooden staircases in the world. I suppose I'm just a lazy old Luddite, really.

I was talked into abandoning my CDs (a shelf space issue) in order to embrace "the cloud" (?) and get iTunes on this iPod thing my son got me. But when my computer crashed and the hard drive was lost, my son was only able to bring back what he'd last saved for me on an external hard drive. Since he'd done that, though, I'd significantly updated my iPod with lots of new music from CDs I'd then got rid of. If I try to synchronise my iPod with my computer now, it will be wiped and replaced with the limited behind the times version stored on the hard drive. It means I can never update my iPod with new music, so the Eight Days A Week soundtrack, for example, is annoyingly absent from my listen-on-the-go device. I did have the good sense to hang onto all of my Beatles/solo CDs (and the vinyl before that) but lots of stuff by other artists I got rid of to make room.

The irony is that my son, who talked me into this, is now collecting vinyl??!!??!!??

[tkitna]

Good write up Mr.M.

Let me add my own lunacy to this thread.  I love reading books and have had many, many recommended to me.  Here's my issue.  I am trying to get through the Bible and I feel guilty if I would start another book without doing so.  I know its crazy and asinine, but i'm just unable to do so.  Biggest problem is that I have about 1/4 of the Bible left, but I havent been able to read it for sometime now.  There are some drastic family issues my wife and I have been going through for this past year (will be revealed when I can) and I havent been able to concentrate on anything.  So in parting, when friends hand me a book that they want me to read and I kindly decline, they look at me as if i'm mad, and sadly I may be.

[nimrod]

Oh dear Mr M you truly are a dinosaur   ha2ha
The thing is, theres nothing wrong with that, were all different, and that is a good thing.

For myself I love the technology, I love have hundreds of books on my phone, (as well as all the Beatles albums) I gave away all my CD,s DVD,s to charity, they re all on hard drives, I have seriously de-cluttered and to my tidy organised head that feels very good. I also have thousands of photo's on google pictures.

Also I fear getting left behind by technology, so I like to keep abreast of any new developments as I get older, I dont want to be the old guy who cant go through the automated checkouts at the supermarket because he doesnt understand them.

Regarding your Ipod (wow I thought they were extinct now having been replaced by phones) there is a way of updating your ipod library without deleting the existing music.

When you synchronize your iPod with Apple's iTunes software, it will delete all the music content in your iPod. To resolve this, connect your iPod to your system and click on the iPod icon. Select 'manually manage music' and create a playlist by adding the songs you want in your iPod. Then click Music.

If that isnt self explanatory enough just google it for more explanations.

[Mr Mustard]

Hey thanks for the ipod info Kev..... I'll wait until my son is next home and ask him to do what you've suggested (I daren't!!). I'm grateful to you though, seriously.  icon_good

Had to chuckle when you mentioned most people having all this stuff on their phone. To my wife's irritation I do not have a smartphone. Indeed my "mobile" ("cellphone" to our American friends) is quite literally no more than that: a phone, which sends and receives phone calls and texts (I still think texting is crazily futuristic). No, it can't take pictures (I have a camera to do that - a digital one though, I gave up on my film one two years ago). It cannot connect to the internet (that's what my computer is for!). Remembering a time when I hardly knew anyone who even had a telephone (way before mobile ones were even thought of!) and we all used phone boxes (booths/kiosks to you youngsters!) I still feel a mobile phone of any type is a creepily modern gadget.

What does puzzle me is why, having striven to make them smaller and smaller, then palm sized, then tiny, they are now getting bigger and bigger until we have "tablets" which are surely just small laptops? what are the phone/computer companies ultimately aiming for? do they know themselves? and this hankering to have the latest "must have" model of phone (some blokes I know are like this with training shoes for Christ's sake!) - WHY???

I never did understand what a "Blackberry" is/was. Maybe when you've eaten a few you get a "bluetooth"? who knows. And "Wi Fi" and stuff....gobbledygook to me! I'm the opposite of you I guess - I have no desire whatsoever to keep up with technology, just don't find it interesting and honestly couldn't care less what those around me think (I grew out of peer pressure when I was about nine). Fair dos to those who love to embrace it all - good for them, I'm certainly not knocking it.... as you say mate: a good thing that we're all different!

A few months ago I put down my mobile phone on a shop counter as I rummaged around in my pocket for cash to pay for my stuff (proper money, you see - none of this "contactless" card nonsense) and when the young girl serving at the counter saw it, she burst out laughing - from her reaction you would have thought I'd laid down an ear trumpet!

But I got the last laugh. Moments later there was a brief power cut and the electricity cut out in the shop. So her electronic till died - and I instantly calculated in my head then announced to her how much change she owed me. She looked at me open-mouthed, as if I was Einstein. So, important as it is, we can become TOO dependent on modern technology. Don't kids learn mental arithmetic any more?

[nimrod]

Haha good story M..

I think phones have got bigger again as they incorporate more stuff

The latest phones now replace, compact cameras, they take quite amazingly good photos and sales of small compact cameras are on the floor nowadays, nobody needs them.
Also the ipods are no longer manufactured, eveyone (well lots of people) has music on their phones, I can put a 128 Gig micro sd card in my HTC phone, which I could fill with my entire music collection! (handy for me on cruises) So ipod sales just stopped.

SatNavs are going the same way, you can just use Google maps on your phone now.

[Moogmodule]

Yep I'm like you Nim.  I quite like being reasonably up with the new technology. I have my eye on a portable multitrack recorder being put out by the recording software company Izotope.  It works wirelessly with your iPhone. If I didn't know how to use a smartphone I couldn't avail myself of it.

I think Mr M that it is interesting about the lack of opportunity to be bored or daydream. It is a bit of an issue with the younger generation I think. That and the attention span thing. As I travel for work a lot I love my kindle and iPhone for music and podcasts. But even then I sometimes find myself turning them all off and daydream staring out a window. We all need that time.

[nimrod]

Im interested in that Moog, have to google it..

My wife just bought the latest wireless apple headphones, terrific sound for tiny wee things..

Amazing little things, obviously no wires, and if your phone rings they stop playing music automatically and you leave them in to take the call.

also if you double tap one of them them, and ask SIRI to play Yellow Submarine or anything they will just play it

[Moogmodule]

^^^^^

http://www.spire.live

It's only going to be available in the US at first. But looks good like a useful bit of kit.

[Moogmodule]

I should clarify I'm not a salesman for Izotope or anything. I just use a bit of their software. 

[Normandie]

Don't kids learn mental arithmetic any more?

Not over here, they don't; and cursive writing has practically fallen by wayside (along with spelling, etc.; I won't get started).

Luckily my son has an old-school English teacher this year (he's 15), and on the first day of school she made them write their names in cursive 20 times and write each capital letter in traditional cursive. He wasn't too thrilled. I was!

Loved your post, Mr. Mustard; I'm on your side, although I do have a smartphone, only because that's the only way I'd hear from my kids.

[Hello Goodbye]

^

Illinois governor vetoes plan to require teaching cursive




And today is National Punctuation Day, Kathleen.