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You forgot about compression!
> One problem is that most people have not stopped
> to think about the fact that their favorite novel,
> hich contains 397 pages, 36 lines per page, and
> 85 characters per line could just as easily be
> stored as a text file on their computer containing
> a little over 1 megabyte of unformatted informa-
> tion (since 85 x 36 x 397 = 1,214,820).

Your example is even stronger than you intended, because you forgot about compression! English text compresses *VERY* well; a typical figure is that each character has about 1.5 bits of "entropy". This suggests that (using your figures) about 220Kbytes will store your novel.

That's what makes the "universal library" (which I mentioned in an earlier reply) so compelling -- At ~5,000 novels per gigabyte, it really *MAY* be possible to carry around essentially *EVERYTHING* that you'd ever care to read (much as my next iPod will certainly store my entire music collection).
Posted by: Atlant   Posted on: 08/27/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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You learn from paper not e-books  American Pride | 08/27/04
Nothing like curling up next to the fireplace with a nice laptop?!?!  Xunil_Sierutuf | 08/27/04
You need more than 72-90 dpi for comfortable reading  Atlant | 08/27/04
Agreed, but some funny thoughts  bthomasmo@... | 08/27/04
LOL... Oh, let me just rip this advertisment out.. ZZZZZZZZZzzt!  Xunil_Sierutuf | 08/27/04
Depends on the laptop  Yagotta B. Kidding | 08/27/04
Have e-books turned a page?  Loverock Davidson | 08/27/04
In praise of Jim Baen  sales@... | 08/27/04
Mod parent up!  Yagotta B. Kidding | 08/27/04
Sounds good  Melmac_z | 08/27/04
It's all about mobility..  d_jedi | 08/27/04
Option offered  Yagotta B. Kidding | 08/27/04
Until  James Dean_z | 08/27/04
Or  bthomasmo@... | 08/27/04
Here's my view of E-books  voska | 08/27/04
Not a replacement for paperbacks, but  sales@... | 08/27/04
I find loading dozens of tech books  voska | 08/27/04
Comparing pages to bytes  gas_z | 08/27/04
You forgot about compression!  Atlant | 08/27/04
Economy  eaydinceren@... | 08/27/04
Even better, Don't need the publisher  voska | 08/27/04
I like the idea.  mathandmetal | 08/27/04
Linux Games  voska | 08/27/04
The key, for me, will be re-acquiring my existing library  Atlant | 08/27/04
Ebooks  Melmac_z | 08/27/04
As long as I BUY them not rent them  CobraA1 | 08/27/04
what we want is privacy  V Sanders | 08/29/04
Librie  samirss | 01/06/06

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