from james gleick's op-ed in the new york times:
as a technology, the book is like a hammer. that is to say, it is perfect: a tool ideally suited to its task. hammers can be tweaked and varied but will never go obsolete. even when builders pound nails by the thousand with pneumatic nail guns, every household needs a hammer. likewise, the bicycle is alive and well. it was invented in a world without automobiles, and for speed and range it was quickly surpassed by motorcycles and all kinds of powered scooters. but there is nothing quaint about bicycles. they outsell cars.
novel as that sounds, i find it to be well said. comforting, even. gleick, a member of the authors guild, takes the lemons-to-lemonade position on a recent ruling that will allow google to digitize millions of books, a move that threatens to deal the publishing industry another potentially devastating, digitized blow.
LINK: about that most amazing staircase
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