On Sun, 30 Jul 2000, Gary Hildebrand wrote:
> The easiest way to control men's thinking is to control the information they
> use. And computers give them that control. What's why I still like books
> -- it is very difficult to censor a million plus books, but it is very easy
> on a centralized database.
Me too. The concept of e-books is horrid, and has all sorts of rotten
implications. A company that I used to work for, which is involved in
e-books, also creates web sites for professional journals, and, at the
request of a publisher, made changes to text _after_ the journal was
published. Ok, it was a correction, however, consider the
implications; not good. Besides, there's nothing like the
satisfaction of going into a book store, looking through books, buying
some, then being able to leisurely read through them where and when
one wants - no electricity, no batteries, no net connection, nothing
to break if its dropped or stepped on... like when my mobile telephone
was stepped on by a horse... only a paper book, not an e-book reading
device, could survive that. :-) Do you think that an an uncensored
version of _Huckleberry Finn_ would survive in the e-book world for
very long (I doubt one will survive decades unchanged)?
Back on topic: Those restoring older cars can obtain certain body
parts, etc. which have been cloned (albeit some are of dubious
quality, although some are better) from the originals, and even some
auto manufacturers have begun manufacturing a few once discontinued
parts as demand has risen. Does anyone foresee the possibility of the
manufacturing of clones, or electrically compatible work-alikes, of
certain discontinued ICs at some point in the future?
--
R. D. Davis
rdd_at_perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
Received on Sun Jul 30 2000 - 20:37:15 BST