Monk

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PRINTED books provide pleasures no device created by an electrical engineer can match. The sweet smell of a brand-new book. The tactile pleasures of turning a page. The reassuring sight on one’s bookshelves of personal journeys.

But not one of these explains why books have resisted digitization. That’s simpler: Books are portable and easy to read.

Building a portable electronic reader was the easy part; matching the visual quality of ink on paper took longer. But display technology has advanced to the point where the digital page is easy on the eyes, too. At last, an e-reader performs well when placed in page-to-page competition with paper.

As a result, the digitization of personal book collections is certain to have its day soon.

-- Randall Stross for The New York Times

I cannot imagine making that transition myself, having no will to do so, but then I may be just part of a dying world, but it's my world as I die along with it. But then I also once thought that I would never get on the Internet!

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The BBC reports that the compact disc just turned twenty-five. That's still pretty young; I was just coming of age when they came out, I suppose. And it would be about ten years before I got my hands on one.

Another interesting factoid: "The first CD produced was The Visitors by Abba."

Go figure! The first CD was made in Germany, but still...


(Source: BBC News)

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