A California inventor has developed a book-binding machine that makes it cheap and easy to print professional-quality books within minutes. Industry analysts say the device could make it possible for consumers to purchase previously hard-to-find texts at most bookstores.

Brewster Kahle likes it.

In a few years, the term "bookstore" may refer to one of those little kiosks in the mall, where today they sell incense, neckties, cheap jewelry, and what-not. It will consist of a keyboard, a plasma display, and a small box resembling an inkjet printer.

One could envision using this flexible technology to sell 'scalable' books. If the 1,181 page version of "The Codebreakers" is too much detail for you, perhaps you'd prefer the 500 page version, or the 250 page version with a focus on pre-20th century technology.

Interested in the latest Harry Potter book? Choose anywhere from 100 to 1,000 pages in length, depending on how much time you have to spend. Buying it for the kids, and want to delete the dark parts of the story? Easy.

How about a version of the LOTR trilogy without all of the poetry and the songs? Done. Care to drop the pages-long descriptions of minutia unrelated to the plot, too? Done. Illustrated, or text only?

Music retail outlets could do this today with audio CDs; it's not clear why they don't. There is simply no good reason why you should ever walk out of Tower Records empty handed because the clerk said, "we don't have that in stock, but we could order it for you and have it here in seven to ten business days."

A good-sized Tower Records has on the order of $1 million in inventory on hand. For a million dollars, the store could buy more than a petabyte of online disk storage, on which they could store more than two million different full length albums in CD quality (not MPEG encoded), along with high quality cover art and liner notes. By comparison, online music services like iTunes and Rhapsody offer only 30,000 to 40,000 different CDs.

Book-Binding Technique Could Revive Rare Texts

] RIP Brad. Hopefully you are sharing your sence of humour
] with some good spirits, on the other side.

Another site that CrankyMessiah used pays it's respects. There is a link here to a picture for those who wanted to know what he looked like.

FAZED - Slorum - CrankyMessiah Thread

New Life Lodge
Alumni Association
P.O. Box 430
Burns, TN 37029

To Whom It May Concern,

Please accept this donation offered in memory of our friend Brad Blines. Brad was a part of our online community, called MemeStreams. One of the features of this community is that it tracks the popularity of the posts members make to it. Out of some 800 members, there are only three people in the community who have a higher popularity score then Brad, and they are the people who created the software the community runs on. This fact should illustrate the significant impact that Brad has had on our lives. We owe many smiles and laughs to his posts and comments over the past year. His presence will be missed by all of us.

Sincerely,
Tom & Marie Cross

For CrankyMessiah...

It is with an extraordinarily heavy heart that I post that my good friend, Brad Blines, died on Thursday morning of a heroin overdose. Folks on memestreams will know him as crankymessiah. People from the 'scene' in Nashville will remember him from the days of Dragon Park, countless concerts and shows, and Predators games.

Brad was one of the lights of my life. We shared the same giddy excitement over music, film, and creativity that few people can understand. We had that kind of brotherly relationship where you don't really have to say anything to hear the other person. I hope that I will be able to still hear his infectious laugh in my head for the rest of my life.

Goodbye my friend.

Brad Michael BLINES
Nashville, TN
Age 35
January 8, 2003
January 8, 2003. Survived by parents, Michael and Diana Blines; sister, Kristin (Richard) Vik; grandmothers, Bonnie (Lloyd) Holt, Ruth Allen; nephews, Ethan Richard Vik, Brennan Michael Vik. The funeral service will be held at 3 p.m. at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home with Bro. Doug Varnado officiating. Pallbearers will be Chris Scheele, Richard Vik, Michael Dodson, Rich Husband, Jim Folger, Ernie Simon. The Interment will follow at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the New Life Lodge. Visitation will be Friday 5-9 p.m. and Saturday 1 p.m. until service at HARPETH HILLS FUNERAL HOME, 9090 Hwy. 100, 615-646-9292

[Sad day in the Memestreams community. :( - Nano]

I am sad, and unhappy...

] Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N said
] on Thursday it will soon sell a digital music player
] based on Apple Computer Inc.'s AAPL.O popular iPod player
] and announced plans for a home "entertainment hub."

!

Sweet....can't wait to see what HP and Apple put together...great combo - Nano

Reuters | HP to Sell Own Version of Apple iPod Music Player

Rather funny.. :)

[hehehe....mac kills my inner child - Now thats just damn funny. I, um, still want one though - Nano]

Crash Different

Great gift idea for the overly paranoid:)

Germ-Zapping Mailbox

] New work shows the promise, and pitfalls, of
] embryonic-stem-cell research

Economist.com | Cloning and stem cells

] How do you get to know a robot?
]
]
] Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University are betting
] that putting humans and robots on the same soccer team
] will encourage the kind of cooperation that leads to
] understanding.

w00t...soccer playing robots....that will go nicely with Toms irobot, which vaccums our floor:)

Bots, humans play together TRN 123103

] We found that heavy coffee consumption substantially
] reduced the risk of Type 2 diabetes in both men and women

Rattle is the ginipig for this test. We shall see if his 3 pot a day coffee intake wards off diabetes. Now taking bets.

CBS News | Coffee Cuts Risk Of Diabetes | January 5, 2004 20:13:38