Commentary on technologies of reading, writing, research, and, generally, knowledge. As these technologies change and develop, what do we lose, what do we gain, what is (fundamentally or trivially) altered? And, not least, what’s fun?
By: Alan Jacobs
March 3, 2009
Back to the subject of my previous post:If trusting overmuch in the stability of the cloud — or any one particular cloud in the brave new world of what I like to call Big Sky Computing — is unwise, there are other problems to consider. What if the magazine whose website your link directs you to goes out of business?...
March 2, 2009
Here’s a daily decision for me: How to register, note, or save things I read that I’m interested in. So, for instance, this morning I’m reading D. T. Max’s long, detailed, and deeply sad biographical essay on David Foster Wallace. If I hadn’t had time to read it this morning I would have saved it to...
March 2, 2009
March 1, 2009
Faithful reader Tony Comstock informs me that those who are eager to multiply and count the words they write, as well as the pages they read, have an option. (Link fixed. I think.)
February 28, 2009
I love the book2 site, but this idea? — not so much. Not at all. In fact, I hate the very notion. I can't imagine too many things more inimical to genuine reading than obsessively tracking the number of pages you read. bkkeepr — I’ll sure be glad when the people who name applications rmmbr whr d vwls r n thr kybrds...
February 27, 2009
Yes, I tried to forget about Text Patterns — tried to pretend it had never happened, tried to move on to "fresh fields and pastures new," as the poet once wrote. But darn it, this thing is in my blood! And when the good folks at The New Atlantis agreed to host my meditations, I couldn't forego the opportunity. So in...
January 28, 2009
At a working library I read this: In ancient days, written texts were inscribed on long pieces of parchment that were then rolled up on either side. The reader could unroll a short segment at a time in order to expose a manageable amount of text. It was called a “scroll.”Scrolls weren’t the most user-friendly device. They didn’t...
January 27, 2009
About three years ago I wrote an essay in which I claimed that “Right now, and for the foreseeable future, the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought.” Well, don’t I feel foolish now, with a blog of my own and a presence on another most excellent one?No, actually. Well, I mean, yes, I do feel foolish,...
January 26, 2009
January 26, 2009
Speaking of a lack of solitude, how would you like to try writing while the contents of your computer’s screen are being projected onto a series of very large screens for anyone who passes by to see? Yes, your every hesitation, typo, edit, rewrite, and long period of doing absolutely nothing exposed to the whole world! The horror,...