The old-timers at this were right. E-books and treadmills are a natural. I've just done a mile of David Copperfield, with a few more to go today. The treadmill technology is ancient, nothing more than a Vitamaster 7100 from the early '90s, but it's fully compatible in an old-fashioned way with my little cheapie Sony Clie.

No need for a tray of the kind that the more modern treadmills come with. I use the cord associated with the Vitamaster's pulse-rate monitor and run it across the "instrument panel" to the forward bar on the left. The PEG-SJ22, via the leather protective flap, rests on the cord. Whether with string, Velcro strips, whatever, you probably can do the equivalent if you yourself lack a tray or a well-positioned cord. I've selected a big, bold font and set Mobipocket on autoscroll; and with my usual computer and reading glasses, the letters are absolutely sharp.

So now there's no excuse for not using Project Gutenberg books or more modern writings to help keep the mind in shape, while using a treadmill to do the same with the body. Of course some would argue that Copperfield is enjoyable just at the level of entertainment, nothing more--which is fine with me.

I know some other e-book boosters think of audio books as a way to connect with the physical fitness crowd--nope, my haywired approach won't work while jogging. But it is one more option for those of us who love words on paper or screen and want to multitask our way to cardiovascular health.

And incidentally, when you're treading, don't shy away from the old favorites just because they were work in school. I agree whole-heartedly with the comments that a reader posted on the Black Mask site: "If you never have read Dickens, come meet David Copperfield. You'll find that your impressions of David from the brief snippets by critics, teachers, reviewers, professors and know-it-alls completely different than the Real Thing."
posted by David Rothman at 1:19 PM | permanent link

Yahoo's restored the RSS feature. Now you can now add the TeleBlog and other Web logs to your MyYahoo.com page and even see us at the top if you want. The keyword "TeleRead" should work fine when you fill out the form. Let us know if there's a problem.
posted by David Rothman at 2:40 AM | permanent link

While the eBookMan has been officially discounted, it is, paradoxically, still manufactured. You can buy an eight-meg EBM-901 for all of $39.99 and a 16-meg EBM 911 for $74.99 from Clearanced.Com. The word, too, from Clearanced, is that with a working capacitor or with the unit plugged in, the OS is safe when you change batteries. (Via the eBook Community list.)
posted by David Rothman at 2:03 AM | permanent link

Kodak is laying off a fifth of its employees as it goes digital with snazzy new products.

No, this won't happen tomorrow to the conventional book industry, but it is inevitable as e-book tech improves, young e-book fans grow in numbers and distribution becomes more efficient

Ideally Random House, S&S and the rest can redirect resources from bureaucracy and paper-era distribution to some rather old-fashioned activities: writing and editing.

Modern books are horridly edited and proofed, especially in the typo area, compared to those of the past. In the new era, brands will matter more for the big boys, not less. Editorial QC is a great way to protect The Name.

(And no hypocrisy here: This Web log is a great example of the difference between the well-proofed and the self-proofed. Were the TeleBlog not a daily production done with limited resources and less than an endless amount of time, I might want to call on some friends.)

Related: Shifting into E-Business; Is the Publishing Industry Lagging Behind? on eBookWeb, via eBookAd.
posted by David Rothman at 11:53 AM | permanent link

Dan Gillmore has just posted Needed: A Joan Kroc for Open Technology and Public Domain. Not such a bad idea. In fact, it brings to mind in part the proposal from Jon Noring for a Digital Media Users Association. Some say that digital activism steals time and money from activism to fight poverty. I disagree and have explained why in the comments section of the Gillmore blog.
posted by David Rothman at 2:33 PM | permanent link

While the skeptics are saying e-books won't fly in a big way on phones, the believers are a step ahead. All about Symbian has just compiled a guide to some software available.

One freeware program, Alex Zavorine's ReadM, even comes with MP3-playing software bundled and integrated.

As described by the developer, ReaderM "supports a variety of popular text and audio formats, including Aportis DOC, TCR, and MP3. Plain text files inside GZIP (not ZIP) archives are also supported. You can download books via infrared, Bluetooth, or Internet connection..."

Sony-Ericsson, Nokia, Fujitsu, Samsung and Siemens are among the vendors offering Symbian-based models.
posted by David Rothman at 11:36 AM | permanent link

Good-bye, little magazine. Hello, blog. That's increasingly the case if you go by Comfort of Strangers, a column by David Sexton in the Scotsman.

So what's the e-book angle if the above is true? More power for individual writers with online "brands" to promote. That doesn't mean publishers are going away. In fact, some may just change their MOs. Perhaps, in the case of some books, the bloggability of writers will matter as much in the future as media skills on TV or radio. A "buy me" link on a blog, of course, can lead to an instant purchase of an e-book.

Meanwhile let's hope the day comes when bloggers can do links directly to precise locations within e-books. That should help books and blogs alike.

(Via J.D. Lasica's New Media Musings.)
posted by David Rothman at 7:02 PM | permanent link

Congratulations to Sen. John Edwards on a fine Number Two showing in Iowa. Edwards is far more tolerable than Governor Blogger.

Howard Dean has used the Internet to raise a steam-shovel bucket of campaign cash. But even now he still lacks the guts to speak out forcefully against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Mute, too, is Sen. Edwards himself--the very same populist who cares about education and democracy, two causes that the Bono and DMCA Acts contravene. Isn't it time for the millworker's son to distinguish himself from the Deans and Kerrys in this respect and take a stand--despite the more than $900K that an Edwards Political Action Committee received from just one Hollywood contributor alone?

The 1998 Bono Act was a multibillion-dollar giveaway to rich copyright holders at the expense of Netfolks and more important people: schoolchildren. In fact, the two groups overlap. Cheat the Internet and you cheat your kids, given that so many of them go on the Net to research their homework. The Bono Act even stole The Great Gatsby--perhaps America's greatest 20th-century novel--from free Internet libraries for two decades. Otherwise the copyright would have lapsed in 2000 rather than the present 2020. Talk about copyright piracy. All too rationally from a Meyer Wolfsheim perspective, Congress passed the Bono Act while the media were dining on Bill and Monica.

Our self-protecting solons didn't record individual members' final votes for Bono. If you go by procedures at least, this one appears to have been discreetly fixed just like the 1919 World Series as depicted in the novel.

Chronic lockjaw on Bono: Edwards' ailment, too

So far, just like Dean and most other leading candidates, Edwards suffers from chronic lockjaw about the Sonny Bono Act and the DMCA.

But he and his wife, Elizabeth Anania Edwards, hailed as "a passionate advocate for children," have long shown an interest in education and some of the other issues dear to me.

I may or may not vote in Virginia's presidential primary for the "People's Senator," as Edwards describes himself to North Carolinians, but I expect more of him than of most of his rivals. "The American people," Edwards said in April 2001, following passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001, "deserve to know that their vote counts more than any campaign contribution."

Wanted: Details on the Hollywood donations

So here's a challenge to the Senator to do the Tar Heel state proud. He should stop ducking questions on Net-related copyright issues such as copyright term extension and the DMCA.

At the same time, Edwards should tell the full story about his Leadership PAC's big money from Hollywood, the epicenter of support for K-12-hostile legislation in the vein of Bono and the Draconian DMCA.

In advance I'll forgive past transgressions unless they're of the most serious magnitude; I'm a great believer in redemption.

Edwards can start by personally answering--in writing--the questions below:

1. Senator, how can you reconcile your interest in the welfare of average Americans with your failure to speak out against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act?

"In 1996 Bantam Books conducted a study and determined that almost 12 million literary classics are sold each year to high schools and colleges," the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association and likeminded groups noted in a friend of the court brief filed during the unsuccessful Supreme Court fight against the Act.

"One analysis concluded that if copyright were extended twenty years, consumers including schools and students would pay out an additional $345 million in royalties."

More likely the figure would be well over half a billion today, considering the increase in the prices of paperbacks. And if indeed limited to books as appears to be the case, the analysis would exclude musical compositions, Hollywood films and plenty else. So in the end Bono may cost the public more than a billion dollars within the equivalent of just one 20-year term. Costs will reach the multibillions sooner or later, with or without nonbooks included; and they will only go up from there. That's no small transfer of wealth from little school kids and others--yes, Bono means fewer books per hard-earned tax dollar--to Hollywood and wealthy friends.

Nothing against copyright holders such as writers. I've perped half a dozen books, and in fact, I'd like to see schools and libraries spending more money, not less, on intellectual property, just so the taxpayers enjoy good value and the children benefit from more books.

But really, Sen. Edwards, shouldn't we worry more about the well-being of live authors, playwrights, artists and musicians and less about the already-bloated estates of the long dead?

Do you really think that the Bono Act provided enough additional creative incentives for Scott Fitzgerald to jump out of his grave to complete "The Last Tycoon"?

Your silence on Bono--on this give-away to the "landed gentry of the information age," as Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart has called the heirs--is totally at odds with your populist rhetoric as a textile worker's son. Ironically, Gutenberg's online collection of the classics, a major victim of the Bono Act, is based on a server at the University of North Carolina, where you and your wife went to law school. Unless you and others speak up, no new works will enter the public domain in the United States until January 1, 2019.

2. Will you support the the Public Domain Enhancement Act to mitigate the damages from Bono and the DMCA, as well as Hollywood-influenced treaties or would be treaties.

Maybe Jon Noring's laundry list can give you a few ideas. Among other things he wants candidates to "Support a Federal law or statement of intent to oppose the recopyrighting of works now in the Public Domain." He'd also rather not see the horrors of the DMCA extended overseas, via trade treaties, and be exploited by dictators eager to control the flow of information.

3. Can you tell us why Hollywood writer-producer Steve Bing of Shangri-La Entertainment donated at least $900,000 to your New American Optimists PAC during the 2002 election cycle? Bing's spokesman won't comment, nor could I reach your people to discuss this in late 2003. A top staffer on your Net side duly told the Edwards campaign of my interest.

My own sense is that despite some rather negative depictions of Bing as just dumb money in search of Bill Clinton's approval, he does care about the issues--including some rather good environmental ones such as the fight against global warming. So I'm not saying, "Hey, Bing bought you," or "The moron didn't know what he was doing." Still, you and Steve Bing both owe the public an explanation since you sit on the Judiciary Committee--involved with copyright matters, among others. Just why did he feel so generous toward your PAC?

A chance to do the Tar Heel state proud

How about it, Senator? I'm hardly the first to raise the issue of contributions from Bing or (in a different context) your feelings about copyright law.

I'm going to send these questions via e-mail to one of your staffers, the truly nice, Net-smart guy with whom I was in touch last year, and see if anything has changed. Perhaps the questions will also go to one or more news organizations such as a large North Carolina newspaper, which discussed the Bing contributions when the publicly known sum was apparently a mere $250,000. While Hollywood has done a pretty thorough buyout of power figures on the Hill as a group, I would like to cut you and Bing some slack and believe that you'll do the right thing when you know the facts.

If nothing else, you or your wife, the former literature major, might try out public domain areas on the Net, using appropriate technology to see the books in their glory in good-looking fonts. Right now students can build their own libraries on their own machines, using public domain works of Jules Verne and others. They can enjoy a feeling of ownership, without library books to return. If only they could do the same with somewhat more modern writers as well.

Who knows, along the way, a more balanced copyright policy might pry more than a few Netfolks loose from the Dean camp. What's more, if you show some guts, maybe others on the Hill can follow. Time for your Kennedy Moment? You don't have to be born rich to write your Carolina chapter of Profiles in Courage. A memorable update might be easier than you think. Not that many voters are heirs of George Gershwin or Scott Fitzgerald.

Update, Jan. 21 and Feb. 2: Revisions and additions made above. One more thought: I'd be curious how Sen. Edwards felt about the proposed Walt Disney Text Access Act as a compromise on Bono. And yet another idea: Edwards would do well to read about e-books in action at a Tennessee school. Notice? Parents were strongly supportive.

Reminder: I volunteer for Project Gutenberg. But then again, that's not my biggest selfish interest here--which is the enjoyment of PG's classics. As a reader, I bump up against that nasty 1923 cutoff that Bono produced.
posted by David Rothman at 3:46 AM | permanent link

"A continent-wide project is being launched to care for orphans and deliver relief to HIV/AIDS sufferers in 53 countries across Africa. The Hope on Africa project will build 2,166 Children's Villages for the 13 million orphans in Africa...Education is a key feature of the project. 60,000 solar-powered eBooks will be provided for teachers in Africa, and 191 million books will be sent to educate children in Africa." - News Release from hopeandcare International.

The TeleRead take: While print on demand is great as a transitional technology and maybe more, it's interesting to see hopeandcare plunge directly into genuine e-books for people in developing countries.

Tablets fit for the Third World

The rugged tablets used will be from Hewlett-Packard and, as described by hopeandcare International, can "withstand temperatures up to 50?C, desert sand and full immersion in water." Solar panels from Brunton will power them. I don't know if hopeandcare experimented with small pilot projects before settling on the deployment of the 60,000 machines, but it's good to see the group paying attention to the durability and power issues.

Some POD after all?

Teachers will use the tablet computers in classrooms to "provide elearning text books on healthcare and other curriculum topics." Hmm. "Provide elearning text books." Does this mean some POD after all? Remember, HP has supplied laser printers for POD in Uganda. Whether POD-based or "pure e-books," the project seems like a laudable effort if it's as depicted.

A TeleRead for Africa eventually, perhaps? If nothing else, it would seem people are finally catching up in a major way with ideas similar to those in the electronic peace corps concept, which has always been keen on health-related matters.

Seeking donations for e-books, hardware and other items

Meanwhile hopeandcare is seeking donations for e-books, hardware and other items and inviting donors to become virtual parents.

Usual caveat: hopeandcare sounds legitimate and even says it has a Dunn and Bradstreet listing, but I have not fully checked 'em out. Nor do I know how far along the organization is in the financing of the tablets. I intend to find out more. If my optimism is on the mark, this could be A Good Thing for health and education and perhaps, too, for the global e-book industry. Founder-CEO Gill Hope, by the way, participated in Electronic Book 2001. Admirers have called her a "High-Tech Mother Teresa."

Related: E-books a hit with Indiana kids in demo, so far.

Update: For reasons I won't go into, I would not recommend donations to hopeandcare.

posted by David Rothman at 2:43 PM | permanent link