> lend it out digitally, one person at a time
Think about how much better off we'd be if books were available digitally like Wikipedia articles are, and social media posts were restricted to "borrowers" one-at-a-time.
Quotes from 1992
41–50 of 149 posts
Re: Quotes from 1992
#42I enjoy the quote referencing Gary Kildall:
Gary Kildall's ambition was limited, something that is not supposed to be a factor in American business. If you hope for a thousand and get a million, you are still expected to want more, but he didn't.
I would very much liked to have known Gary Kildall. Everything I've read about him gives me the impression he'd be an immensely interesting person to know. The persona that comes across in his co-hosting of the Computer Chronicles show (something, to itself, that you should look up if you're not familiar) is one of great technical competence combined with a gentle humbleness.
(Edit: If you're into learning more about Kildall there's a good prior discussion of an unpublished biography on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12220091)
Re: Quotes from 1992
#43... has this person never checked out an ebook from their local library? That Adobe DRM is the industry state-of-the-art.
has this person never checked out an ebook from their local library? To be fair I don't know anybody who has either. I know it's possible and I know my local library offers this, but I've never met anybody who's actually used this service.
I use it all the time, and is incredible convenient. I use Libby, and it works basically the same as the Kindle app, but with fewer features.
Check it out, it's a great resource!
Re: Quotes from 1992
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Libby app makes it trivially easy. * not affiliated in any way, just a happy user. https://meet.libbyapp.com/
Does it run under wine? https://help.libbyapp.com/6059.htm > If you have an Adobe-compatible ereader (like a NOOK or Kobo), you can download Libby ebooks on a computer, then use Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to transfer them to your device: > 1) Open libbyapp.com on a computer and go to Shelf > Loans. > 2) Select Send To A Device. > 3) Click select your device, then choose Adobe-compatible ereader. Note: If you've sen…
Or just use your phone.
Re: Quotes from 1992
#45On the value of limiting yourself to standards: ...which was why the idea of 100 percent IBM compatibility took so long to be accepted. "Why be compatible when you could be better?" the smart guys asked on their way to bankruptcy court. It sounds a bit like a jab at Apple (or maybe even NeXT, which I believe was struggling in 1992 with its hardware releases). AFAIK neither company ever went bankrupt. Or was it referr…
There were tons of almost-PC-compatible manufacturers back then, selling their proprietary very slightly better, but incompatible systems. They'd have a slightly faster but incompatible bus system, slightly higher capacity floppy disks with a custom format, a proprietary interface that was quicker but only worked with their own printers, a higher resolution display or with more colours but which required special soft…
I remember buying an LS-120 drive. To be fair, the drive was backwards compatible with 720/1.44MB floppies. But the 120MB 3.5 floppy could only be used in another LS-120 drive, oh which, I was the only one in my area with one. As the point of the floppies was to allow me to take my work with me, the larger disk capacity became essentially useless (except as a general backup).
Re: Quotes from 1992
#46... has this person never checked out an ebook from their local library? That Adobe DRM is the industry state-of-the-art.
has this person never checked out an ebook from their local library? To be fair I don't know anybody who has either. I know it's possible and I know my local library offers this, but I've never met anybody who's actually used this service.
Definitely check it out (pun not intended). Libraries are amazing institutions that many younger people assume are antiquated but are really keeping up with the times. Also, besides ebooks, many of them also have digital magazines you can read on your phone or tablet. I read the New Yorker and The Economist that way.
Re: Quotes from 1992
#47It's weird seeing 1992 associated with some kind of far off distant time.
Re: Quotes from 1992
#48What is this a giant admittance list?
Re: Quotes from 1992
#49What is this a confessional?
Re: Quotes from 1992
#50From Accidental Empires, which the article quotes: "Then there was Flight Simulator, the only computer game published by Microsoft". Even at the time (long before XBox), this wasn't true. Microsoft had published several games before Flight Simulator -- a version of the classic Colossal Cave adventure called "Microsoft Adventure", and "Microsoft Decathlon", an Olympic sports game.