(Untitled)

[therealocelot]

I really like the blackberry. Part of it is just finally having a phone with a working address book. Our old phones (Nokia 9290s, I think) which we got in late 2004 were these big old 80's style bricks, which was ok, since they had good PDA functionality. Except that the OS wasn't that great to begin with, and the PDA functionality broke on my

Comments

[mactavish]

I don't mind others' bellies at all, but I am careful about sun exposure.

[therealocelot]

I'm wondering a bit if your perceptions of me may be skewed by the fact that I was naked one of the two times we met :)

In any case, it isn't so much a belly skin thing as an ill-fitting clothing thing. I wouldn't normally choose to wear a belly exposing shirt, what with the stretch marks and all, but I'd definitely choose one that was intended for belly showing over one that was too small and not normally of a belly-showing style.

[unixronin]

I personally feel that until and unless they come out with a way of reading them that's much closer to the feel of reading a real printed book, the phrase "ideal ebook" is an oxymoron. The idea of trying to read a book on a tiny PDA-like screen is almost enough to make me give up reading.

[therealocelot]

*shrug* It works wonderfully for me. The interface isn't perfect, but not painful either. I wouldn't read nearly as much if it weren't for ebooks.

Definitely room for improvement, but I read for the words, not the paper.

[therealocelot]

Not painful *for me*, that is. I can totally understand others not finding it comfortable, and it's possible I won't either with future eyesight changes.

[koyote]

It is not a binary issue. The whole idea of there being a novel that makes an ideal ebook has more to do with the book contents and how the reader approaches them than whether or not the technology is mature.

I have used at least five vastly different types of handhelds to read books or documentation on.... Blanket statements about screen size (which ignore other user interface elements) aren't meaningful witrhout more context. The rocket, for example, is almost the size of the printed area on a standard mass market. (I prefer a tungsten 320x480 format device for other reasons, though)

And, as pointed out by the flint/drake/lackey peeps, it isnot an either or situation. Having access to the ebook can result in people adding hardcopy to their library.

[tangodiva]

I saw somethng simple that you might consider - it was a band of stretchy fabric that you wear around your belly under a regular shirt, giving you that "layered" look and allowing some pre preg shirts to work. They also suggested that it could be used as a nursing cover - ie over your tummy so that when you pull your normal shirt up you aren't baring your stomach (if you care about that sort of thing. It seems like it would be REALLY easy to make from some fabric even if you don't have access to a sewing machine.

[joceiphus]

That's creepy...I just finished Quicksilver yesterday. I lack the means for reading ebooks though, so I did indeed carry all 900+ pages to and from work (I read on the bus ride) for several months...