Daily Thoughts 9/17/2009

Rudyard Kipling "With The Daily Mail", 1905

Daily Thoughts 9/17/2009

Google is going to sell the public domain books which it has on google booksearch for $8 each. They are doing this in part with the Espresso Book Machine which is a print on demand device which can print a trade paperback in five minutes. I have seen this more than once at conferences. It can print in full color and the paperback is for the most part indistinguishable from a paperback you might buy in a bookstore. It is kind of fun watching the book being printed. The only waste is a few tiny scraps of paper. The machine at the convention I saw had a clear plastic case so you could look inside while the book was being printed. Google is going to give away the proceeds to charity. Still, they will make money on people using the search engine indirectly through advertising.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090917/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_google_book_publishing

I don't know why this is. Sometimes when you feel the most dry, is when you seem to have the most to say. Cory Doctorow has another article on selling books online. It is a little bit of history of his writing and how he was one of the first people to release books as creative commons. Plus he is one of my favorite writers. I am in an odd mood. This is a link from Locus Magazine. I did something unusual today. I did not read any books at all. It is a first in a while. I also did not read any books yesterday. This is a long dry spell for me. I am a bit information obsessed. Anyways here is a link to the article.
http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/09/cory-doctorow-special-pleading.html