Saturday, April 07, 2012

List of the Month - the 'To be read' pile

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9 comments:

moonrat said...

I've only read one of these. (Bao Ninh, although you probably could have guessed...)

April 09, 2012 2:47 AM
moonrat said...

WOAH!! YAY!! MY COMMENT WENT THROUGH!!! This is the first time in AGES!

April 09, 2012 2:48 AM
Froog said...

Nice to have you back, Moonie.

Of course, the problem with commenting a couple of months back was that the captcha-thingummy had gone apeshit. I've disabled that now, so it should be all smooth sailing.

Unless you include hyperlinks to sites promoting male potency enhancers...

April 09, 2012 9:29 AM
John said...

No blue, diamond-shaped pills this time but here's a link for something else you might want instead. It's a Chinese Amazon Kindle 2 rip-off!
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.founder.com/cn/paperhtml/201007/show-137-20100701095841.htm&ei=nMyCT8u2FsLQ0QXAq_CEBw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD0Q7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwefound%2Bsite:www.founder.com%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns

April 09, 2012 11:53 AM
Froog said...

I wonder if that's fully functioning (and able to download and display book files just like the Kindle), or if it's just a dummy?

In the mid-90s, there was a big vogue here for dummy mobile phones, just so you could pretend you were affluent enough to have a mobile phone. I haven't seen the same phenomenon with the i-Pad or the Kindle yet. I think there are some phones that try to look like an i-Phone but are just regular phones.

The Kindle is EVIL. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Genuine or shanzhai, makes no difference - all bad.

April 10, 2012 12:34 AM
John said...

I highly expect it's fully functioning although I doubt its functions are on par with its genuine counterpart. The point is that China just doesn't have the will to create its own designs (or admit to shanzhai at all, they claim the Kindle had no influence what so ever). Who knows, they might be able to create something good, I've seen it done but only literally once or twice.

I laughed when you said you hadn't seen a knock-off iPad. Only today I read about three whole fake Apple stores, each within a block of each other! The whole thing copied and all the merchandise counterfeit, even the staff didn't realise apparently!

I've never used an e-reader myself and I'm on the fence about them in general. I'm not a big reader in general anyway (I dislike using my imagination when someone else is describing something, much prefer to watch films *avoids torrent of abuse*). I saw an ad for the new Fire model the other day though and I really baulked. They were boasting being able to store 1500 pieces of literature which is ridiculous (another example of doing tech because we can) and the screen isn't even e-ink which is a genuinely impressive invention- as close to real ink on paper as you can get. If I was going to buy one I'd wait for someone to invent e-ink in colour first.

April 10, 2012 8:18 PM
Froog said...

I said 'dummy' - as in non-functional, just for show, an empty shell of a device. I imagine there might well be some dummy i-Phones and i-Pads appearing in the lower tier cities.

I'm waiting for the nanobots. I figure in 50 years or so, we'll be able to buy something that looks more or less like a real book, but can constantly rearrange the 'ink' on its 'pages' to become any piece of literature you choose.

April 10, 2012 10:07 PM
John said...

I think we're long past the days when people used to speak into empty shells (very loudly) although I do remember them doing so vaguely (late 90s?). Some people just have to have the latest gadgetry but I doubt there's ever been a fake iPad where touching the screen does nothing.
It's very hard to get Apple software to run on (although not hard to steal) something that isn't an Apple device so usually an alternative operating system is installed on these things. Now, if you're from the sensible part of the world you use Android or Symbian or something but in China they use their own (usually Java based) setups. Now, this would be all well and good except that invariably a) the code will be stolen or 'passed around' and be messy and b) the code will be old. Ironic then that Android is completely free. They also like to add their own interface graphics which become familiar to those of us who follow these things with a passing interest but always come over as being at least 5 years out of date. A common one to spot is the fake iPod home screen with features such as a date icon which never changes, the appearance of lot of included "apps" but in actuality only a few repeated a few times and familiar icons that when clicked pop up something completely different often having no relation to what you'd think was going to appear.

Your nano-bot idea had me scratching my head somewhat. Do you mean the book changes into any book that already exists or just a Kindle made of paper... with a cover, but you don't need to turn the pages? I love the first option but it should probably come with a safety warning, in case someone asks for an encyclopaedia for example and suddenly has all 32 volumes of the Britannica appear from nowhere...

April 10, 2012 10:32 PM
Froog said...

We envisage a standard-sized book of perhaps 300 pages. Longer works - even individual volumes of encyclopedias - would have to be broken up into smaller volumes to fit the available page space.

This could be a problem if, near the end of War and Peace or The Lord of the Rings, you decide you want to flip back to the opening chapters to remind yourself how it all started.

April 11, 2012 2:36 AM

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