The Word Cloud

4 Comments

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  by mike 1 year ago

  The only library that provides a comprehensive range of digital services is the 'London Library'. They charge £395 a year for membership. Digital sources -and buying good from digital sources - will become increasingly expensive as alternatives close down.
  At the moment, public libraries are still free,
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  by Steve 1 year ago

  Quite a good all-encompassing article that. Thanks, Harry. Despite what Franklin says, The medium-term threat of all books available for free on-line (and piracy, when eBook copying/transferral becomes widely available) must be a future income concern to the successful published author.
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  by Gerry 1 year ago

  Beware of a Carrington Event. In 1859 a massive solar storm, observed by astronomer Richard Carrington, hit the earth with sufficient energy to knock out telegraph systems all over Europe and North America. A similar event (predicted by some for 2012) could knock out electricity grids, theoretically bringing civilisation to a brief and nasty halt. (e.g. petrol pumps wouldn't deliver, so no transport - so no transported food, so food runs out; no information via the media so mass panic, etc)
  
  There could be a lot of computer records (and e-books!) wiped in the midst of all this.
  
  (See New Scientist articles 12 th January and 23rd March 2009.)
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  by Kiki 1 year ago

  Hi Gerry, I subscribe to New Scientist and also read this article, titled; "When the sun belches..."
  Very interesting and slightly worrying. I'm old fashioned in many ways and still scribble my initial ideas in notebooks. Even printed books are subject to piracy & illegal copying but authors need to be aware of all of the risks. Great informative article Harry, thanks :)