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

] The "trap" is to get sucked into this cycle of tweaking,
] configuration, tinkering, hacking, figuring out how to
] make thing work, which files go with which daemon or
] application, ... and be happy about it. While such
] pursuits are noble an academic in their own right, the
] sense of accomplishment you get from doing thiscould be
] misleading - even false! There is a very thin line
] between doing something worthwhile (whether it be for
] yourself or others), or just believe that you are, but it
] is possible that your time, talent, and creativity could
] be better used elsewhere.

There is some great truth here.. This is why I don't waste my time doing systems tinkering anymore then I have to anymore. That used to be all I did.

A Psychological Trap?

Here is a picture of him.

CrankyMessiah (Brad Blines) Picture

] 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

I used that Maestro rover software to hack into NASA last night. I didn't do anything harmful, because that's not cool, but I did find some pictures they are not releasing to the public that some might find surprising.

Mars surface, new photo

Since you are so bright, you probably have at least two you can articulate. Send me two laws based on your empirical work and observations you would not mind having tagged with your name. Stick to science and to those scientific areas where you have expertise. Avoid flippancy. Remember, your name will be attached to your law.

There are a number of really insightful "laws" here. Although, this does not contain "Decius's Law":

Given a set of similar products, the one which is least technologically sophisticated will be the most successful in the marketplace.

I can't think of anything to top that right now.

What's Your Law?

check the "other news" blurb at the bottom of the page:

"The Congressional bonehead award goes to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) who, on a visit to JPL, asked if Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong! Quipped Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) to the Washington Times: "We just don't teach enough science." Worse, Jackson Lee, who represents Houston, is a member of the House Science Committee's space subcommittee. Perhaps some committee reassignments are in order..."

Congressional Bonehead Award

The trouble for these monster corporations is that an America of niches doesn't always play to their strengths. Top-heavy conglomerates are geared up for producing mass-common-denominator products, but when that mass common denominator disperses, they can be flummoxed.

What Ails Hollywood

There is a message here: Context matters

The Sunday New York Times offers the second of five parts in Tom Friedman's "War of Ideas" series.

War of Ideas, Part 2

] The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear the case of a
] U.S.-born man captured during fighting in Afghanistan
] and held without charges, the latest setback for the Bush
] administration and its assertion of broad new powers to
] prosecute the war on terrorism.

Yahoo! News - Supreme Court to Rule on Terror Detainee