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People who can't give up paper

bbc.com

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Re: People who can't give up paper

#101

Post by djha-skin »

There is more than simply preferential reasons to keep paper around. Some of them were touched on by the article:

* Paper does not run out of battery. On a ship where you need to be able to navigate whether or not the computer fails, this is a feature. My brother-in-law tells a story of when he was an air traffic controller in the military. Every so often they told them they had to turn off their computers and navigate the pilots in the air using paper to make sure they knew how to do it in case the computers failed and the power turned off.

* Paper cannot be hacked. In the article, Russian intelligence and MI5 were mentioned, as well as paper prescriptions. Of all highly secure mediums, paper is the most convenient.

* Paper is just handy. I use it right now to print out knitting patterns and write notes on them. I don't have to find some app to annotate the pattern I can just write directly on the paper. For what it is, paper is the default because it is so fully featured.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#102

Post by dotnet00 »

Where does "digital paper" rank in this?

Over the years I've gradually transitioned all my computing devices to be ones that support pressure sensitive stylus input. Most of my note taking thus ends up being handwritten, but still offering the benefits of digitization.

For me it's the perfect compromise since I always have a device I can access all my years of notes on (although I don't tend to need to access them). With paper notes, I used to just throw them out every few months because they'd pile up and it was clear I wouldn't miss them.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#103

Post by analog31 »

I suffer from not being able to read my own handwriting. So I prefer electronic notebooks (Jupyter) over paper for note taking. With three exceptions:

1. Drawing is laborious on a computer, and it rarely needs to be precise. It gives me eyestrain headaches and wrist fatigue. I still draw things like simple wiring schematics and flow diagrams by hand, take a pic with my phone, paste into Jupyter.

2. Sheet music. My kids have the latest tech (Apple 12" tablet, Apple pencil, page turning pedal) but I haven't upgraded yet. Also, the "charts" for one of my bands have not been digitized. Someday, but not yet. My notebook computer in tablet mode might be an option.

3 Meeting notes, just because I don't want to have a device in front of me when I'm having face-to-face discussions. The time is too precious.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#104

Post by dredmorbius »

djha-skin wrote: post #101

There is more than simply preferential reasons to keep paper around. Some of them were touched on by the article: * Paper does not run out of battery. On a ship where you need to be able to navigate whether or not the computer fails, this is a feature. My brother-in-law tells a story of when he was an air traffic controller in the military. Every so often they told them they had to turn off their computers and naviga…

Paper is difficult to hack.

Typewriters, however, are a different story, and the Soviets managed to bug IBM Selectrics during the Cold War:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-crazy-story-of-how-soviet-russ...>

Several related HN discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16246432> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31965969> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21998774>

Re: People who can't give up paper

#105

Post by bovermyer »

Avshalom wrote: post #100

Paper is enormous and extremely high resolution. Even a shitty printer has a higher dpi than almost any screen and you can do get an almost arbitrarily large print at that dpi instead of constantly losing density. that's why we all keep using it for maps.

Well, also, you don't need to charge paper.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#107

Post by thsksbd »

Paper is real, so it is uninhibited by the limitations imposed by the imagination of the programer.

For note taking, with a pen I cam easily transcribe math formulas. I cant do that with a txt editor.

Ok, so I switch to org-mode and become a tex mode guru. There's still no easy way to make a geometric drawing.

So now I have a tablet. The stylus feels weird, the tablet heavy. The resolution much lower than paper, the GUI, the battery life abysmal compared to paper, the latency anodyne.

But sure, it does everything paper can do.

... that is until I crease the paper to make a geometric figure freed from the limitations of compass and straight edge constructions, a cube [1], a crane to flirt with my neighbor, a bottle opener [2], a makeshift knife [3] or to use as kindling.

[1] I've actually done this to help me visualize crystal structure's interstitials.

[2] Neat trick a frenchman taught me.

[3] really sucks at this, but I did slice an apple with a sheet of printer paper once

Re: People who can't give up paper

#108

Post by bvan »

Today, I had to create a couple of handwritten reference index cards. Went to the trouble of finding a ruler (remember those things?) to cleanly underline my headings. It was a wonderful feeling.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#109

Post by ioseph »

analog31 wrote: post #103

I suffer from not being able to read my own handwriting. So I prefer electronic notebooks (Jupyter) over paper for note taking. With three exceptions: 1. Drawing is laborious on a computer, and it rarely needs to be precise. It gives me eyestrain headaches and wrist fatigue. I still draw things like simple wiring schematics and flow diagrams by hand, take a pic with my phone, paste into Jupyter. 2. Sheet music. My ki…

The big one for me with sheet music is being able to add notes, scribble, etc. It would be way to slow in the middle of a rehearsal to take down some direction from the conductor on a tablet

Re: People who can't give up paper

#110

Post by j45 »

This article seems a little out of touch.

Paper doesn’t need to go away or be given up. Some uses of it would be better digital.

Digital can’t do everything nor would it be able to handle everything in every way.

I might use paper less, but writing is still invaluable.

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