I've been wrangling with the issue of how to get a couch. Buying one is a matter of transferring money, but using one is a matter of making space. Because of my bookshelves and computer desk, there is no way to fit a couch and still have room to ambulate. My bedroom is already filled up with the bed, a desk, and more bookshelves. So I can't put the computer desk in there. After some measuring, I realized I can ditch my TV stand and put the 50" plasma on my computer desk. All I have to do is wheel the computer desk to where the TV stand is, and run about 15 feet of cat5 cable. There's no way to have 100% convenience, so I'll have to move my computer monitor whenever I want to watch a movie. The benefit of this setup is that I'll never need to move my headphone amplifier, which has more pieces and wiring than a computer monitor.

I'm not going to save $1576 on a couch, because it only costs $600. But I will save that much on Scientific American back issues. I want to catch up on the articles I missed, since I didn't start subscribing until 2005. I thought for sure that I could go to ebay and buy them for less than 50 cents per issue, since they're just old magazines. I didn't find many and sellers wanted $6 or more per back issue. I decided to go the source and settle the matter. Surely SciAm's official site would have great deals. I found great prices, but not great deals. They wanted $10.95 per back issue. So I was stymied. But then I noticed 'digital subscriptions' and 'access to the archives'. I could pay just $40 and read them all, back to 1993. So now I have every issue back to '93 and their footprint is quite small. In fact, they gave me negative space, since I removed all the physical copies from my shelves.

So this is encouraging. Soon I'll have space to sit other than a chair or the floor. And one day I might be able to get rid of all my bookshelves. Imagine a site that costs, say, $100 per year, but has every book (up to a certain year, like 2005) in digital form. There would be need to purchase anything other than new releases, nor to ever take up more space than the memory. We'd just need one archive of physical books, and the rest could be recycled.

You gotta be one of my favorite inmates around here, and that sentence is why. Ain't never heard anyone talk about anything so scientifically before.

NO NO NO NO! That, would be terrible. Yes, I like books... the read deal. I'm 100% against everything going digital. Don't get me wrong, some things should be digital. For instance, I do think that digital magazines are fantastic. For my research, I have to look up journal articles all the time, and instead of having to go to the library, hope the volume is there and has not been misplaced or checked out, then photocopy the article... I can just look it up online and print it.

However, for books (be they textbooks or other), there is no substitute for the real deal!

a)It doesn't hurt my eyes to read a book by light, but after a while my monitor gets annoying.
b)Books are easier to transport than a computer (even thick textooks are easier)!
c)I can easily scrible notes and thoughts in books, but not on my pdf files.
d)I can easily flip back and forth to look something up, and although not hard on a pdf file, it's not nearly as fluid.
e)Computers do sometimes crash, or corrupt files. My textbook has never corrupted any chapters or had irrecoverable errors.
f)My books are 100% green, and require no electricity yeah I know, they are made of paper, but I'm willing to live with that (nb: illegal logging is primarily done for either furniture or, to make room for livestock)
g)I think books are a work of art. It might sound strange, but I just don't see the same beauty in pdf files, even if the words are the same. Also, I love looking at illustrated books, and I certainly admire, artwork. Looking at artwork on the monitor is not the same.
h)Books have survived for hundreds of years. Some have been passed down generations, and I'm curious if digital information can also be passed down?

So anyway, I think it's great to be able to disseminate information so quickly and so widespread. At the same time, I shudder to think of the day when books go out of fashion.

cheers,

-avatar!

The first thing I do when I find myself in another's house for the first time is to look through their bookshelves. It gives me cues from which I can judge their character. If I had no books, I'm sure someone would misjudge my character severely.

i read this post as a way to save 1576$ on a couch, and since I need one for my apt it piqued my interest.  But of course it's more inane, train-of-though garbage by Jodo so now i'm annoyed.

Thanks

You should be able to expect something like that by now.

I totally agree with avatar! by the way.
And I think most people would, so I don't think that the digitalization of every book ever made is ever going to happen.

And in the off chance that it ever DOES, we'll probably already be dead by then.

You know, there was no indication anywhere that the two ideas were connected. I think you assumed a bit much, jb.

"A couch and how to save $1576" is a lot different than, say, "A couch; How I learned to save $1576 on them".

I would think the "and" separated the ideas. Ain't no call for sayin' it's an inane, train-of-thought garbage like that because it ain't what you were hoping for. I'm just sayin', is all.

I like Jodo's posts! You don't have to agree with everything he says, but I think he adds a lot to this community. He frequently has interesting, and informative look at various things. I don't think his posts are "inane" nor "garbage" at all. I'm actually a bit disappointed that people would take such stances around here. So, I hope Jodo continues being a vibrant part of this community! In fact, anyone around here should feel free to say what is on his or her mind WITHOUT having to worry "gee, maybe someone won't like what I'm posting"! We're all thinking adults (sort-of) As for those who don't like his posts, or my posts, or anybody else's posts... this is my advice: skip them. No one is forcing you to read them, and certainly no one is forcing you to berate them! Be nice people...

cheers,

-avatar!

Awesome, Avatar! High five!

That's awesome. I sometimes think of myself as an inmate, because I don't know anything! Here I am, essentially a collection of hadrons with a sprinkling of leptons, confined by forces that I do not understand. I'm familiar with them - I can tell you about electromagnetism and gravity, as well as the 2 short range forces. But I have no idea what's really going on.

Although I understand your points, I want to reveal a problem with your thinking. This is a normal problem, as it tends to afflict most people, myself included. It's too easy to forget that tomorrow will not be using today's technology. Today's technology hurts your eyes, can sometimes be problematic to transport, does not allow for easy modification (like writing directly on a piece of any paper), and does not simulate 3 dimensions effectively (yet). It's not easy to imagine a technology that would be indistinguishable from a physical book, but that's because we don't have it today. There is absolutely no reason why one needs a physical copy to appreciate art, for the same reason there is no need to stand under the sun to get vitamin D. We have captured the power of type B UV radiation in little pills, which have the same effect as that giant ball of mostly hydrogen. If we can do that - put the sun into a pill, then we can certainly go the other way. Such as turning electrons into art. Computers are driven by voltages, which are simply electrons.

And in the sufficient future, we will be reading our ebooks on holographic paper, so it will be just as nice as a hard copy.

There are much worse things in life than having your character misjudged.

Let other people think whatever they want, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter.

Ten years from now, you won't even remember the ones who thought they were better than you.

At this point in my existance, neither do I.

No wonder i feel so bored with life all the time!

Don't hate on the philosophers.

And try not to tread on the Mome-raths.

Or the smiling jaws of the Cheshire Cat's nightly moon-smile will knash your flesh into bloody ribbons.

I understand. I have to keep reading about stuff I don't understand in order to avoid depression. It's through thinking that I attempt to make sense of what I've read. This explains my attachment to particle physics and cosmology. Since no one understands either discipline, they are sufficiently advanced enough to warrant my attention.