Splendid Feast

[skydyr]

Not everyone has hundreds of dollars to spend on an apple device so that they can spend more money on a program so that they can read a book they may or may not be able to access in the future.

I’ve been a user of Apple products since dinosaurs walked on earth, simply because of their superior quality, yet I understand and empathize with this. We never know when one company may swim belly-up, and then we may be bereft of everything we paid for. I for one have, in the past three decades, paid hundreds and thousands of Deutschmark and Euro for hard- and software that later was abandoned (NeXTcube, anybody? ), and this is not because I’m dumb (hopefully) but because I WORK with this stuff and had to be an early adopter for many years, if only, sometimes, to know about stuff.

I've been bitten by this in the past too, and file format issues are a continual if occasional problem at my job, which is why I tend to push for open formats that can be read by multiple types of devices or programs. I don't expect Apple will go belly-up anytime soon, but I have no idea about smartgo. In addition, the earlier statement that the format is open has left me skeptical, as while it may be documented, there is no way to purchase the books without using the application, as far as I know.

[RBerenguel]

[...]because you paid the premium for, proprietary-kludged-non-commodity-designer-looks, [...] is insulting.

Well, I find this insulting. I'm not paying a "designer-looks" premium. I'm paying for an utility premium (and assuming it's really a premium, I've found no rival in price and capacity for my recent purchase of a Macbook Air to upgrade my 2008 Macbook.) A lot of people are in for the looks, but there's a huge lot of people who are there for the capabilities of the machines, only. And for Mac OS, probably.

[SmoothOper]

[...]because you paid the premium for, proprietary-kludged-non-commodity-designer-looks, [...] is insulting.

Well, I find this insulting. I'm not paying a "designer-looks" premium. I'm paying for an utility premium (and assuming it's really a premium, I've found no rival in price and capacity for my recent purchase of a Macbook Air to upgrade my 2008 Macbook.) A lot of people are in for the looks, but there's a huge lot of people who are there for the capabilities of the machines, only. And for Mac OS, probably.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with AT&T when trying to get a "smart phone" without a data package, which you can't do. The customer service representative said, "If you buy a Porsche, you need to buy premium gas for it". The bottom line is it is a tiered scheme, which is insulting to my intelligence, thanks for that. You're hardware is a kludge.

[RBerenguel]

I don't get the analogy. I find it hard to see where I paid the supposed premium compared to other vendors still, and I could easily wipe my Mac and install whatever I fancied if I wanted to, if just for the hardware factor.

[SmoothOper]

I don't get the analogy. I find it hard to see where I paid the supposed premium compared to other vendors still, and I could easily wipe my Mac and install whatever I fancied if I wanted to, if just for the hardware factor.

Lets talk about how easy it is after you have done it. Wipe your iPhone and iPad to while you're at, lets see how that goes.

[RBerenguel]

Did I say iPad? Did I say iPhone?

[SmoothOper]

Did I say iPad? Did I say iPhone?

Look buddy the tangent is related to ebooks, and that presumably people want Mr. Fairburn to release a book on their iPad or iPhone, in a format that he may or may not be inclined to support. If you think my comments about that is incidentally insulting your choice in other kludged(or otherwise) Apple hardware... bonus, buy a computer from a different company, and quit mucking up threads with Apple hinkiness.

[tchan001]

JF, Could you please let us know what is the Japanese character name of the book Yoshin Teiki?

[Bantari]

I don't get the analogy. I find it hard to see where I paid the supposed premium compared to other vendors still, and I could easily wipe my Mac and install whatever I fancied if I wanted to, if just for the hardware factor.

Well, the hardware in a Mac is pretty much the same as the hardware in a PC. This is why you can wipe it out and install Windows instead. So people do not really buy Macs for superior hardware, no matter what they think - its really a myth. When you buy a Mac you mostly pay for the looks and the OS. Which, in my opinion is worth it many times over, although this is a personal opinion only.

[Bill Spight]

JF, Could you please let us know what is the Japanese character name of the book Yoshin Teiki?

要津定規

[Polama]

Did I say iPad? Did I say iPhone?

Look buddy the tangent is related to ebooks, and that presumably people want Mr. Fairburn to release a book on their iPad or iPhone, in a format that he may or may not be inclined to support. If you think my comments about that is incidentally insulting your choice in other kludged(or otherwise) Apple hardware... bonus, buy a computer from a different company, and quit mucking up threads with Apple hinkiness.

You've got it backwards. You can only buy this book on Macs, and it's the non-Apple folk who wish he'd release it in a format they could access. It's sort of a ritual now whenever Mr. Fairbairn releases something for this discussion to be rehashed.

[Bantari]

Did I say iPad? Did I say iPhone?

Look buddy the tangent is related to ebooks, and that presumably people want Mr. Fairburn to release a book on their iPad or iPhone, in a format that he may or may not be inclined to support. If you think my comments about that is incidentally insulting your choice in other kludged(or otherwise) Apple hardware... bonus, buy a computer from a different company, and quit mucking up threads with Apple hinkiness.

Question: why would anybody want to pay money to buy an inferior product? It seems counter-intuitive to me. Once you go Mac, yo don't go back. This is why you have many people moving from PC to Mac, but not that many moving the other way (I don't know any, as a matter of fact.)

The truth is - both systems have their advantages (although PCs have very few.)
Still, most people picked their device for whatever reason they did, and I am sure those reasons make sense to them, but now they are stuck.
So I really find advice like "go buy something else" to be not very helpful.

[SmoothOper]

Did I say iPad? Did I say iPhone?

Look buddy the tangent is related to ebooks, and that presumably people want Mr. Fairburn to release a book on their iPad or iPhone, in a format that he may or may not be inclined to support. If you think my comments about that is incidentally insulting your choice in other kludged(or otherwise) Apple hardware... bonus, buy a computer from a different company, and quit mucking up threads with Apple hinkiness.

You've got it backwards. You can only buy this book on Macs, and it's the non-Apple folk who wish he'd release it in a format they could access. It's sort of a ritual now whenever Mr. Fairbairn releases something for this discussion to be rehashed.

Ah, OK. I am just practicing for when I release some software which doesn't support Apple. I can already anticipate the question... Whud aboat Mac'ntosh? Basically designer hardware just isn't worth it to me.

[Bill Spight]

I don't get the analogy. I find it hard to see where I paid the supposed premium compared to other vendors still, and I could easily wipe my Mac and install whatever I fancied if I wanted to, if just for the hardware factor.

Well, the hardware in a Mac is pretty much the same as the hardware in a PC. This is why you can wipe it out and install Windows instead. So people do not really buy Macs for superior hardware, no matter what they think - its really a myth. When you buy a Mac you mostly pay for the looks and the OS. Which, in my opinion is worth it many times over, although this is a personal opinion only.

I am thinking of buying a new computer this year. But I want to use Scientific Linux ( https://www.scientificlinux.org/ ), so a PC seems the way to go.

[Bonobo]

[..]

Ah, OK. I am just practicing for when I release some software which doesn't support Apple. I can already anticipate the question... Whud aboat Mac'ntosh? Basically designer hardware just isn't worth it to me.

Ah, OK. Finally you admit you’re trolling. Keep on practising for a time when you might have a clue.