Converted to an eBook Supporter

A couple months ago in October I posted a blog that declared my concern for the future of books. I did not ever question whether or not future generations would still be reading words that were written by some of the most brilliant penmen to have ever lived, but I did question how they would be reading it. My fear was that future generations would no longer appreciate the physical form of a book, and would soon after, forget the smell of the fresh pages when they enter a bookstore and break the spine of a recent best seller.

I thought there would never be a day when I gave into the craze of this digital book era, but I am a bit reluctant to say that I think today may be that day. The more and more I consider the hard facts behind this mass media transition, the more and more I realize that it might be for the better.

Author's should not fear that they will be losing money, because the people who will be willing to spend $250-$300 on a nook or a Kindle, are the people that will still be willing to pay for their favorite author's work as soon as it is made available. The people that will be willing to spend this chunk of change for an electronic reader are certainly not people trying to save money on books. In fact, they are the people who love reading enough that they would, given the option, like to be able to carry all their books right in one device, that can fit inside their pocket.

According to a recent New York Times article:

"For every 100 copies of a physical book we sell, where we have the Kindle edition, we will sell 48 copies of the Kindle edition. It won't be too long before we're selling more electronic books than we are physical books."

Electronic devices, such as the nook or the Kindle, are a way to give people who love to read instant access to over 360,000 books. If author's insist that there be a hold or a waiting period for their book to be available on the nook, I am sure the reader can occupy themselves with one of the 360,000 other books available to them, that is just one "instant-purchase-click" away.

To be honest, at this point, I am not sure if there is any way around books going electronic. It just seems like the most sensible thing to do with our generation and the next. All we know and all we are going to get to know is, everything digital.

Author's need to realize that by resisting the nook and the kindle, the people that they are really starting to squabble with are the their fans that have supported them from copy to copy. Below is a sample of just what the future of books might be. For a step by step by step tutorial video, check out this other video that was uploaded on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezlLHKktf9I

Digital Art: Technology Break Through

This Tuesday, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London began an exhibition of digital art: "Decode: Digital Design Sensations". Digital art may have once been thought of as an enjoyable "nerdy" pastime, but it has official given our world a break through into information that was once very hard to understand or explain. According to the recent New York Times Article, these incredible pieces that were placed in the V&A Museum are not only spectacular, but they are also, "dazzling examples of data visualization, the new medium that translates complex information into gorgeous- and easily understandable- digital images." The museum contains pieces of Digital Art from the 1950s that they refer to as, "Digital Pioneers".

The exhibition shows a whole new realm of art work for not only our generation, but the entire population of mankind. The exhibition in london walks you through the digital art world from its beginnings to its most current creations.

"Earlier artists , like Harold Cohen, devoted their loves to working directly with the machine without any intermediate software by writing their own computer programs to produce drawings."

Just like most of our technology today, this technology constructed by Harold Cohen enabled students and people interested in the digital art world to produce their own artistic work and pieces without having to truly understand the technology beneath the surface of what they were creating. Artists can now use this foreign language of 'computer code' and use it as their tools to create a masterpiece.

The potentials of technology are explored on a daily basis and the hopes for the digital design world look bright. Some day students may be able to splash paint across the screen just by simply moving their arm, as if they were stroking a brush against the screen. Hopes for the artistic world is that one day computers will be able to be controlled by gestures and voices rather than keys and a mouse.

Are the Commercials All Wrong: Is AT&T Better than Verizon?

We've all been taunted by the commercials of the rivaling wireless networks: AT&T vs. Verizon Wireless. For anyone who has not caught a glimpse of the commercial, it plays out something like this: there is one map of the United States covered in red, representing the area that Verizon Wireless covers within its network, and off to the other side of the screen is a map of the United States with a few splotches of blue, which represents what the AT&T network covers ... or lacks to cover for that matter. At the end of the commercial your Verizon Wireless tag line is: "There's a map for that".

For me, these graphically enhanced commercials offer me a sigh of relief as I hold onto my Verizon Wireless blackberry in my pocket, and can sit back and know that I will have good coverage just about anywhere in the U.S. And for those of my friends who sit on the couch next to me with their AT&T iPhones, and are engaged in their latest app purchase, they are forced to cringe a little as Verizon Wireless' marketing scheme just completely squashes any marketing scheme that AT&T has constructed thus far. Anyone who has paid attention to the marketing battle between all wireless companies must think that Verizon Wireless is not only on top, but very much ahead of the rest of the pack ... but is there a chance that the facts and the marketing we see is not exactly level with one another?

According to a recent NYT article AT&T actually carries the better phone. The article states that although AT&T's iPhone may be causing some airway problems with its "air interface" problems, AT&T does not dare speak ill of Apple because of the strengths and brains it brings to the table for AT&T. The statistics of which wireless carrier is better seems to be clear according to one paragraph of the recent NYT article, which stated the following:

"This year, Root Wireless ran 4.7 million tests on smartphones for each of the four major carriers, spread across seven metropolitan areas: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles/Orange County, New York, Seattle/Tacoma, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington. In every market, AT&T had faster average download speeds and had signal strength of 75 percent or better more frequently than did Verizon."

I think anyone who watches television can agree that if this is the case, AT&T needs to hire someone to take the bull by the horns in terms of marketing, and Apple's iPhone gadget may need to open its ears to AT&T's "techies" who can assist on the mechanic side of things. But, for now, I will still find some sort of comfort as I see the heavily shaded red on the map of the U.S. and grin a little with AT&T's confused coverage marketing scheme!