My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us...Nan?
Pluto has been deplanetized by the International Astronomical Union. There had been some last minute politicking over the redefinition of planet (that's what this is all about) that would have actually expanded the category to clearly embrace not only Pluto but Ceres (the biggest asteroid) and Xena (a faraway, just-discovered body) as well, but in the end the conservative forces won out and we are down to just eight planets in our system. To add insult to injury, a resolution to name the category of bodies to which Pluto has been consigned "plutonian objects" failed in favor of the designation "trans-neptunian."
Poor Pluto. It was always my favorite planet, spinning out there so far away in space, the warm sun a mere bright speck in the sky. I liked the idea that after the four smaller terrestrial planets came the four gas giants, and then little Pluto, messing up the curve like the smart kid in biology class.
Pluto was a great destination in science-fiction stories: even with a spaceship, it was a long haul to Pluto. And Plutonians themselves were usually cool - in more ways than one. Check this guy out; he's from Pluto:
So farewell, Pluto - they may have stripped your title, but you'll be king of the trans-neptunian objects.
eBooks Redux!
Way back in the dark ages of the intarweb, like in 1991 or so, I was predicting the demise of books. Not the end of text - but the end of the dead-tree delivery system of text. I was all over the eBook. I remember seeing the Ur-eBook at Fred Myers way back in the eighties - it was a Phillips product that looked sort of like a Newton (remember them?) and came with a Collier's Encyclopedia installed. I could tell it wasn't a mature product, and while I lusted after the technology, I didn't buy one.
Some years later, the RocketBook came out. This was the first successful eBook. About the size of a paperback, it was a device whose sole purpose was to use for reading books, and whose design was dedicated to that end. This endeavor was not about reading books on your desktop or laptop or PDA; this was a book-reading machine. And it was as cool as its name.
I never got a RocketBook, but I did get its more boring-named but slightly improved cousin, the Gemstar eBook REB1100. Here it is:
It was great. Using the device itself as an interface (it came with a phone line cable), I bought digital books from the company (for cheaper than print books) and the files were transferred to my "online bookshelf." While still plugged into the phone line, I downloaded whichever titles I wanted onto the device. It held tons, since they were simple text files, but I could erase and re-download as much as I wanted - my online bookshelf stayed intact.
The operation of the eBook was simple and elegant: thumb-buttons for page turning, a stylus for note-taking and bookmarking, and a nicely back-lit screen were some of the features. The battery lasted a good long time and recharged quickly. I loved reading with it. I took the eBook with me on a five-week solo trip to Europe in 2001 and it was wonderful, especially on trains and in cafes.
Of course, there is a hitch in this story - or rather, a disaster. On June 18, 2003, Gemstar eBook Group Limited closed its doors. No more online bookshelves, no more monthly catalogs of new titles. We loyal users had to download as much as we could, and could only keep what we could fit on our devices. I had some trouble connecting before the deadline and wound up with just 27 titles on my machine; I think I only filled about 25 % of my memory. I thought the eBook was dead, and my machine good only for lending to friends who were going on trips and didn't mind reading stuff that I had picked out. I had to endure the slings of those who told me my eBook ideas were a flash in the pan and that print books were here to stay.
But there's news! A third-party vendor, eBook Mall, is providing new titles for all sorts of eBooks. After purchasing on-line, the books are downloaded to the customer's computer, and there's some software needed to pump it into the eBook through a serial cable. It looks like I might be back in bidness! I let you know how it goes.
In the meanwhile, if anyone wants to borrow 27 books in a one-pound package, let me know.
Wheelman news
My ride today was to Zanadu downtown and back. It netted me about 13 miles. I need to frequent stores that are farther away.
4 comments:
It's not the size, I think, so much as that Pluto is an upstart. It's not even on the plane of the ecliptic, fer Sol's sake! And it's orbit is SO eliptical that at times it's closer to the sun than Uranus...you know what I mean. Those are the bigger arguments for de-planetizing Pluto--it doesn't play the other planetoidal reindeer games.
All those texts and science shows we have to change now, just because some astrologer with a stick up his butt didn't want a planet called Xena...
The Noive!
It's all politics, man. Why is 7 degrees off the plane of the elliptic okay, but 17 degrees bad? Why is an orbital eccentricity of .206 okay, but .248 bad? (Pluto comes within Neptune, BTW, but not within Uranus.)
I know that there were other factors besides the size (the orbital eccentricity is the one articulated in Resolution 5A) but none of them is really compelling. Some of the old guard just had it in for Pluto.
In the end, I can't really argue with them too strongly. I just thought "trans-neptunian" was a deliberate slap.
Pluto was always my favorite planet too. I think its something about underdogs. Anyways, as far as I'm concerned, it will always be a planet in my eyes. What do astronomers know anyways? Stupid rocket scientists!
Mags
I remember your e-book, and have thought of it often. Since I new seem to be a real translator and have to take my fricking computer about everywhere, my new idea thing is taking pictures of reference stuff I want to take with me, and putting it on the computer. No more carrying guide book pages. Am going to test drive in Italy next month. Idea came from Scottish guy (no jokes, please) on my course in London earlier this month. I was photocopying stuff in the library for my final assignment, as it's dang hard to find reference material in English here, and he suggested I just take a picture of the pages. It's a bit clunky to read and organize, but faster and definitely cheaper than photocopying!
qwpoks: gay cowboys who have no movies made about them
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