Make: “I bought one of the Sony eBook readers and wanted a way to read my blogs and other documents offline. So I wrote a tool using a variety of Perl modules to transform RSS feeds into LaTeX and a style sheet to make it formatted for the small screen.”
Have you seen the Sony eBook Reader? The local Borders has had one on display for a while… I think I’m the only one to have noticed it, though. I have to say, it’s a pretty slick device. Great screen, looks just like a piece of paper, and a nice size device. First thing from Sony to support a media format in addition to MS/MS Duo in… what, years? Maybe a decade. The problem? Content.
Not that putting blogs on it isn’t neat… it would be really cool to do all of the data updates wirelessly, but that is out of the scope of a typical e-book reader, IMHO. Personally, I’d love to carry just this on a flight or to class, rather than lugging around a book. Add to that the ability to search in real time, and it’s an incredible tool. The problem is content: publishers have a bigger bug up their ass about electornic distrubtion than Hollywood or the RIAA does – that’s one huge bug but it’s still there. Well that, and if yer battery dies mid-flight or mid-class, yer screwed, but I could even live with that…
Consequently, it’s a totally useless but well designed and well conceived device.
Well that depends.
Baen books is DRMless, and TOR looks to be going the same way..
But that only helps if you read sci-fi..
Well and there’s the availability… I agree though that books shouldn’t bother. I mean here’s a media that’s ancient by today’s standards. People borrow books, read them and then [sometimes] return them to owners… I would think that e-books should offer the same concept. There’s no NEW loss of revenue for people: I mean, well, public library says what?