I hate that, and I hate it even more when only the ebook is delayed.

Tyrus Books is taking this scheduling to an extreme. They now have an ebook set to come out in 2015 even though it was originally published in paper back in 1989.

A delay of 26 years between the print and digital release is something of  record. Perhaps this is a novel experiment (hah, see what I did there) to determine exactly how long readers will wait? If so, I think this data point should be removed from the test group. As  rule, I don’t believe you should check for a delay that is long enough for your test subjects to become grandparents.

Actually, I’m kidding. This was probably an error on the part of Tyrus Books.  No one’s really going to schedule an ebook for decades  years after the release of the paperback. I’d bet this was just  typo, and that it will be fixed soon.

But it is still a funny sight.

Amazon

Amazon Now a True Publisher – Some Ebooks Now Scheduled for a 2015 Release

Enjoy.

How To Read Poetry

Like a lot of gadget commercials, this video originally had a sappy narration. The parody is also narrated, only this time all the lines have been replaced by snarky comments.

Eee Pad Transformer Parody Video

Apple is working on a new 9.7″ tablet, only it’s going to have an entirely different shape from before. This one is going to be round, and the name will be the Apple Pi.

Yes, that’s the joke I’ve been telling all week. I thought my readers might get a kick out of it.

My New Apple Tablet Joke (From CES 2012)

It’s been quite a while since I posted a comic on this blog, and I couldn’t resist posting the strip from today’s Dilbert comic.

via Dilbert

Dilbert on Tablets

Up until this morning, all Wikipedia pages had a banner ad across the top with a plea from the founder as well as his photo. This created some hilarious opportunities to show Jimmy Wales’ face next to any number of inappropriate topics. For example, The Oatmeal (who first turned me on to the idea) have Jimmy’s mug over the entries for sex offender, anal wart, and douche.

If you have a low sense of humor then this is very funny, yes.

But today it gets better. Wikipedia swapped out Jimmy’s plea with another one, this time by a rather scary looking programmer named Brandon Harris. I’ve been entertaining myself by reading the entries on cannibalism, blackmail, serial killer, and redneck.

At first I was just going to snicker about this, but then I realized that this would make a fun little contest. Can you think of any other articles where brandon belongs? Please leave your ideas in the comments. I’ll pick the best several suggestions and the winners will get an E-ink ball. (US only, sorry)

Update: Wikipedia swapped out Brandon with another person’s picture. Since the pledge drive is still going on I will extend the contest.

Update: Now that interest has died down, I’m ending the contest. The Winners are:

• Alanna Coca
• Eric
• curiosity killed the…

New Contest: Fun With Wikipedia’s Pledge Drive

The exact details of the sale haven’t been released, but the ebook reader is rumored to have sold for well over a thousand pounds. Sotheby declined to nmae the buyer or the seller, but they did state that the Kindle was in good condition, aside from the spots on a few pages (hence the “foxed” label). This Kindle is also confirmed to contain an original Shakespeare folio, though some experts have expressed doubts about the authenticity.

This is not the first time that a second hand ebook reader has exchanged hands for a record sum. Last year an original Softbook, reputed to contain the lost Hemingway manuscripts, was bought at auction by the Hemingway estate. You probably recall the outrage in the academic community when the manuscripts were revealed to be fakes. The scandal ruined the reputations of several so called experts, and reportedly was the cause of a fist fight at last year’s Hemingway Society Conference.

Another Kindle in the same “slightly foxed” condition was put up for sale on Ebay last month. Unfortunately there were no bidders due to the fact that the Kindle contained little more than an incomplete set of Ian Fleming novels.

via

Kindle “slightly foxed” Goes for 4 Figures at Sotheby’s

The NYTimes asked John Kubiatowicz, a Computer Science Professor at UC Berkeley, whether ebooks had any weight. It turns out they do, much to my dismay. According to the professor, “The amount is very small, on the order of an atogram (10^–18 grams). This amount is effectively unmeasurable,” he said (the best scales are accurate to only 9 decimal places, not 18).

“Although the total number of electrons in the memory does not change as the stored data changes,” Dr. Kubiatowicz said, “the trapped ones have a higher energy than the untrapped ones. A conservative estimate of the difference would be 10^–15 joules per bit.”

So there you have it. Weightless ebooks are a myth, and each ebook that you load for a student is one more brick that will eventually cause, well, nothing. it would likely take a few billion books before you could even measure the change and even then you could equalize the weight by peeling one of the safety labels off the case.

I followed up with the professor, and he didn’t think it would  get this much attention.  This was all based on some back of the envelope kind of estimates, and while he trusts the numbers he didn’t do any extensive research and testing before answering the question from the NYTimes. But it sound like he might do a paper on this. If and when it’s available I’ll post a link.

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image by caryatidxx

What Should We Do About Student’s Backpacks Being Weighed Down by Heavy Ebooks?

click to enlarge

Have you ever wonted to read a classic work but not had the time to finish it? Have I got a deal for you.

I’ve just been introduced to a site that offers ultra-condensed editions of well-known books. They’re so short that they even fit on a single screen on my Sony Reader Wifi. I have The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy at right, in case you’re interested.

I’ve looked over the site, and they have a couple hundred titles there spread across a number of genres, including SF, fantasy, children, and young adult books. One title I found particularly amusing was Fahrenheit 451. If you’re familiar with that novel then you should appreciate the multi-layered joke created by condensing it. The collection include both public domain classics and books still under copyright.

This is really only intended as a joke, of course. If you browse the site you’ll see that the books are so condensed that they lose all meaning. But there are a couple titles that actually make more sense after being condensed. For example, The Collected Works of Piers Anthony was condensed down to:

I’m Piers Anthony. I can write nonsense and sell it.

And then there are The Collected Work of Isaac Asimov. This one is mostly not true, but it’s funny none the less:

Stock Asimov Character #1: I’m a suave, witty, brilliant, good-looking scientist. I am everything Asimov thought he was.

Stock Asimov Character #2: I am the same, except the opposite sex.

Stock Asimov Character #1: Great! Let’s do some science stuff, save the world, and make out.
(They do.)

THE END

And then there is Moll Flanders, the collected works of Jane Austen, and other classic titles. I’m leaving them for you to find and snicker over. This site is definitely worth a few minutes of your time. And when you get done with the condensed books, check out the condensed movies.

Book A Minute

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Got a Minute? Why Not Read Moby Dick

Edit: the following has been paraphrased because the original poster is upset.

I’m taking a trip this week and I’m worried about sending my Kindle through the X-ray machine. The last time I did that, my e-reader did not survive. True, it was a netronix clone but there was no reason to end its short, pitiful, useless, disappointing life with a cracked screen.

Any advice? I know that the screen could have cracked for any number of reasons, but once bitten twice shy. I don’t want to be trapped on a week long trip with nothing to read. Mind you though, that netronix thing was of exceptionally poor quality.

Unfortunately, this ebook reader owner had the bad luck to encounter a rare type of airport X-ray machine. It’s not intended to be physically destructive, but it does have a design quirk or 2.  You see, it sounds like this e-reader went through an experimental scanner. I’ve heard of this once or twice, and apparently the manufacturer managed to integrate some of the aspects of the Magic Mirror Gate from The Neverending Story.

As you probably know, the MM Gate shows you your true self. Brave men find themselves to be cowards. Heros are sometimes revealed as villains. But the Gate always shows the truth, which is why it’s so damaging.

In this case the truth was not a good idea, because the e-reader was forced to face the fact that it was a substandard product. It clearly couldn’t accept the truth about itself and it committed suicide by breaking its own screen. It’s tragic, I know, but we can’t all live a lie forever.

Hehe

Here’s the truth about screen breakage. It can happen for unexplained reasons, no matter how careful you are. One screen broke on me after I knew for certain that I had been careful to protect the e-reader.

Joking aside, if you’re worried about the screen breaking in the scanner then remove the e-reader from your bag and put it in one of the bins.  Send the bin through the scanner on its own. That should protect it from impact damage.

–For more ebook news, subscribe to the RSS feed or the daily email newsletter. You can also follow me on Twitter: @thDigitalReader or find me on FaceBook.

Why Do E-readers Sometimes Die in Airport Scanners?