The eBook Revolution

An almost magical technology was thrust upon an unsuspecting world and changed it forever. It was a device that brought about a surge in communication between not only the rich and powerful, but between everyday people. It let ideas flow and set free voices that were once suppressed. Nothing could stop it. This new flow of information and ideas threatened the fabric of society and challenged all known beliefs.

I am speaking, of course, about the printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg around 1439. Gutenberg didn't so much invent the printing press as put together a number of ideas that had been around for some time, one of them thousands of years, and came up with a system using movable type that allowed different pages to be set and printed quickly, at least quicker than the legions of scribes who had to hand copy each manuscript one at a time.

Within half a century, most of the classic works had been printed along with books by contemporary scientists, philosophers, and poets. Knowledge was no longer the exclusive property of the privileged.

You might have thought that the first paragraph of this article referred to the computer or the Internet. It is true that both have changed our world and made information available in ways never dreamed of. They allow us to read mail, do research, entertain ourselves, and read books without touching a piece of paper. Indeed, electronic books, or eBooks, have been available for over a decade.

But, reading a book on a computer has never been a wholly satisfying experience. Sitting at a desktop or balancing a laptop while sitting down or laying in bed, is awkward. There are small computers such as the palm pilot, but their screens are tiny and can only display a limited amount of text and images at a time. Both share a common fault, the backlit LCD display screen that is hard to stare at for long periods of time and leads to eye strain.

All that has changed with a new generation of electronic readers and an invention called Electronic Paper Displays, or EPD. Created by E Ink Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts (http://www.eink.com), it uses an amazing technology called electronic ink.

When you view a standard LCD display, the light comes from a source behind the screen, usually a florescent tube, and the images are formed by small rectangles of liquid crystals that turn on and off to block the light or let it through.

ith EPD there is no need for backlighting. It consists of a film less than 400 microns thick that is made up of millions of microcapsules of electronic ink, or E Ink, each of which is about the diameter of a human hair. Microcapsules are filled with positively charged white pigments and negatively charged black pigments suspended in a liquid. By varying the charge on a microcapsule, the pigments are moved up and down. When the white pigments are on top, the microcapsule appears white, or blank. When the dark pigments are on top the microcapsule appears black. Varying the charge can produce up to sixteen shades of gray, although the devices reviewed in this article only offer four. Read more

An easy place to begin is the Internet white pages. Think of these sites as a gigantic phonebook with listings for people all over the country and even the world. The downfall of these types of sites is that it is usually difficult to locate the exact person you are trying to find, and it may be awkward and time consuming calling up 150 people named “Michael Brown.” There are, however, other places to turn.

Many Internet sites now claim to be experts on finding personal information. Any of these sites can be found by loading Google in your browser and searching for “find people.” Of course, these sites charge a fee, from small to large, to present you with all the information you could ask for....Read more