[BC] Another public station bites the dust

[Alan Kline]

------ At 03:17 PM 6/26/2006 -0500, The Most Honourable Jerry Mathis wrote: -------
>Lots can be lost by copying and storing in/on a computer. The "flavor" of
>what was originally written can be lost completely.

Absolutely... Like a lot of people, I have fairly current CD-ROM editions
of the World Book encyclopedia and Microsoft Encarta upstairs with my
desktop.  However, I find it to be a lot more enjoyable to go down to 
the bookshelf in the living room and start looking through the paper
edition of the World Book that I won in 1969. (Obviously, I supplement
that with more recent material when necessary...) Aside from the pleasure
of holding a book in my hands, that encyclopedia now has that wonderful
"old-book" smell that just says, "Library".  Some things just can't be
digitized.

And if I *really* want to go retro, I go visit my uncle, and look at the
"Encyclopaedia Americana" that my grandparents bought for my mother just
after WWII... ;-)

A more appropriate comparison though, and closer to what Jerry was talking
about, is comparing some of the PDF e-books you can download from Amazon.com
or other places with the paper version of those books. Some of the less-
expensive e-books, reproductions of old classics, simply retype the text
with a modern typeface, and no formatting or illustrations resembling
the original.  It just isn't the same.

>I've tried to sign up and read some of my favorite magazines, such as PC and
>Stereo Review, online. I just can't do it. I need to be in my recliner,
>kicked back, and be able to turn the pages. No, I can't explain it
>logically. Some things can't.

No, you can't.  Some of the things that make life pleasurable simply can't
be expressed logically.

ak


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