A Rube Goldberg machine is a device that uses overly complicated means to achieve a simple ends. The Kindle is a high-tech computer device used as a book; while it doesn't resemble a Rube Goldberg cartoon, per se, it does meet the criteria of being far more complex than similar tools for accomplishing the same task.
Except that it actually simulates many books, some of which would be a great deal more than $10 if one were to buy a physical copy. Especially for students. :|
I carry 350 books in the pocket of my jacket, I can do full text searches within them and with the waterproof plastic bag in my messenger bag, I can read under rain or in my bath.
If you have a simpler solution that provides all that, I want to hear it.
Amen. It fits in my purse, it's easy to pull out when I have to wait for something (doctors, the line at the grocery store, etc), it remembers where I left off when I'm ready to start reading again and I have 200 books in there. It also lets me use Project Gutenberg, so all in all I'm quite happy with it.
You can get eBooks free from your library as well, not to mention that B&N, Amazon, Sony, iTunes and book publishers themselves, often have eBooks available for free on on sale at ridiculous prices. I, quite literally, have thousands of eBooks that I've gotten for free from retailers and publishers. I've also purchased loads of eBooks for somewhere between 99¢ and $1.99, which you almost never find paper books for unless you're at a garage sale.
Sorry, quietly-aggressive Luddite-hipster; for less than a hundred bucks, I can have a library the size of fifteen apartments in my pocket that doesn't fill my one apartment with dust. So yeah, you go back to sucking on your Starbucks (and my balls) and mourning the loss of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation. And gas lamps.
@Dougie "The presence of one means the death of the other?"
Learn to English, Dougie. The "death" of hand-drawn animation is not connected to the Kindle any more than it's connected to gas lamps. But whiny-simpleton geeks who carp incessantly about technology usually have an axe to grind about animation.
I guess I'll read. In the dark. Wait, no, I'll set my book on fire for light. No, wait... Maybe I'll take a nap, because the power rarely goes out for very long.
(cue asshat triumphantly reciting isolated incident in which power was out for days)
I recently broke down and bought a Kindle fire, and I love it. It has cool features like a built in dictionary, press on a word and pull up the dictionary entry for that word. My public library has books you can check out on your Kindle and offers a free session to set up and learn how to do this, so FREE books.
Best part is you can have a book instantly, finish book 1 in a series, and you can buy and download book two in less than a minute and off you go. With the library and new releases for hard cover books, they only have so many and you can be on a waiting list for weeks to read it, so yeah, free is good, but wait in line.
I also use it for a tablet , play games, have a journal on it, and can Skype, it's a laptop in a small convenient size that fits in my purse. And with the backlit pages, you can read it in the dark. What's not to love.
I use a 3rd gen Kindle Keyboard -- aside from being a great low-power device (battery lasts a fugging MONTH!), The kindle paid for itself the first time I rented textbooks on it, without having to wait for the books to be shipped or paying extra to have them rushed.
Most people can't justify an iPad or a tablet because they see them as expensive, fragile toys. A Kindle e-reader, OTOH, is almost so cheap and useful that it's hard to justify NOT having one unless you're one of these people who doesn't read books.
I do not have much in the way of hate for e-readers.
I simply prefer books. I find it much easier to read a book. I like being able to flip pages. Books (to me) feel like they have more character as a medium than a digital screen. I also have an issue focusing on digital novels. I can sit down and relax with a book, but not with an e-reader. Due to this, I prefer to study from books.
Not a hater, not a hipster, not a crotchety old man. (I'm 20, for the record) I just prefer the physical to the digital when it comes to novels.
A couple years ago I would have agreed with you. Now I'm of the opinion that the sheer convenience of an ereader massively outweighs such subjective concerns.
He got a point...
ReplyDeleteHe indeed does have a point...
DeleteYou can get a Kindle for $69. It even comes with a feature that the $500 version doesn't have:
ReplyDelete- no games or internet to distract you from reading
I think he's trying to make a pun, but it doesn't work the way he wants it to.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like he's asking because doesn't know what a Rube Goldberg device is, either.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that word means what you think it means.
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDeleteSomehow I fail to make the connection between a kindle and a Rube Goldberg machine.
A Rube Goldberg machine is a device that uses overly complicated means to achieve a simple ends. The Kindle is a high-tech computer device used as a book; while it doesn't resemble a Rube Goldberg cartoon, per se, it does meet the criteria of being far more complex than similar tools for accomplishing the same task.
DeleteExcept that it actually simulates many books, some of which would be a great deal more than $10 if one were to buy a physical copy. Especially for students. :|
ReplyDeleteCounterpoint: Libraries. Especially for students.
DeleteAlso: it's not like Amazon gives those Kindle books for free, you know.
DeleteAmazon has loads of free kindle books.
DeleteAlso, most libraries, have digital books that you can check out.
You can't carry a library around with you.
DeleteI carry 350 books in the pocket of my jacket, I can do full text searches within them and with the waterproof plastic bag in my messenger bag, I can read under rain or in my bath.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a simpler solution that provides all that, I want to hear it.
Amen. It fits in my purse, it's easy to pull out when I have to wait for something (doctors, the line at the grocery store, etc), it remembers where I left off when I'm ready to start reading again and I have 200 books in there. It also lets me use Project Gutenberg, so all in all I'm quite happy with it.
DeleteNo idiot, it simulates dozens and hundreds of books.
ReplyDeleteKindels are very needs specific, since a book is a lot simpler and pretty much free if you have a library card.
ReplyDeleteYou can get eBooks free from your library as well, not to mention that B&N, Amazon, Sony, iTunes and book publishers themselves, often have eBooks available for free on on sale at ridiculous prices. I, quite literally, have thousands of eBooks that I've gotten for free from retailers and publishers. I've also purchased loads of eBooks for somewhere between 99¢ and $1.99, which you almost never find paper books for unless you're at a garage sale.
DeleteSorry, quietly-aggressive Luddite-hipster; for less than a hundred bucks, I can have a library the size of fifteen apartments in my pocket that doesn't fill my one apartment with dust. So yeah, you go back to sucking on your Starbucks (and my balls) and mourning the loss of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation. And gas lamps.
ReplyDeleteWow, bitter much?
DeleteSo, we can't have Kindles and hand-crafted animation? The presence of one means the death of the other?
DeleteWow way to piss on something completely unrelated. I LIKE my collection of ridiculous gas lamps.
Delete@Dougie
Delete"The presence of one means the death of the other?"
Learn to English, Dougie. The "death" of hand-drawn animation is not connected to the Kindle any more than it's connected to gas lamps. But whiny-simpleton geeks who carp incessantly about technology usually have an axe to grind about animation.
@Anon1
"Wow, bitter much?"
Yes. Yes I did.
I didn't realize the kindle had an Apple-like cult following.
ReplyDeleteOh, brother, did you really...!
DeleteI have two different e-readers. Neither of them is a kindle. Amazon is not the only game in town. They just like you to think they are
DeleteAnd what do you do when the power goes out?
ReplyDeleteKeep reading because the battery lasts for like two weeks?
DeleteI guess I'll read. In the dark.
ReplyDeleteWait, no, I'll set my book on fire for light. No, wait...
Maybe I'll take a nap, because the power rarely goes out for very long.
(cue asshat triumphantly reciting isolated incident in which power was out for days)
I recently broke down and bought a Kindle fire, and I love it. It has cool features like a built in dictionary, press on a word and pull up the dictionary entry for that word. My public library has books you can check out on your Kindle and offers a free session to set up and learn how to do this, so FREE books.
ReplyDeleteBest part is you can have a book instantly, finish book 1 in a series, and you can buy and download book two in less than a minute and off you go. With the library and new releases for hard cover books, they only have so many and you can be on a waiting list for weeks to read it, so yeah, free is good, but wait in line.
I also use it for a tablet , play games, have a journal on it, and can Skype, it's a laptop in a small convenient size that fits in my purse. And with the backlit pages, you can read it in the dark. What's not to love.
I use a 3rd gen Kindle Keyboard -- aside from being a great low-power device (battery lasts a fugging MONTH!), The kindle paid for itself the first time I rented textbooks on it, without having to wait for the books to be shipped or paying extra to have them rushed.
ReplyDeleteMost people can't justify an iPad or a tablet because they see them as expensive, fragile toys. A Kindle e-reader, OTOH, is almost so cheap and useful that it's hard to justify NOT having one unless you're one of these people who doesn't read books.
I do not have much in the way of hate for e-readers.
ReplyDeleteI simply prefer books. I find it much easier to read a book. I like being able to flip pages. Books (to me) feel like they have more character as a medium than a digital screen.
I also have an issue focusing on digital novels. I can sit down and relax with a book, but not with an e-reader.
Due to this, I prefer to study from books.
Not a hater, not a hipster, not a crotchety old man. (I'm 20, for the record)
I just prefer the physical to the digital when it comes to novels.
testify.
DeleteA couple years ago I would have agreed with you. Now I'm of the opinion that the sheer convenience of an ereader massively outweighs such subjective concerns.
Delete