eTextbooks - Who's working on what

Interesting recap of eTextbook players and directions in the Sri Lankan Sunday Times. Much more going on in this area than meets the eye.

Making parts from scratch

When I first heard of 3D printers, I thought it was vaporspeak. I'd read about such devices in some good Sci Fi stories, but they seemed at least 50 years off, not something that would occur anytime soon.

Well, step aside and embrace the future! Now, you can fabricate small prototype parts and items (just plastic so far) at home if you want to pony up to do it.

The idea of direct CAD  to Fab is an amazing jump, even if it's just for plastic parts so far. Expect to see some noticeable advances in various industries from the application of this technology.

Some companies producing these machines:

• 3D Systems Corp.
• Hewlett Packard (the HP DesignJet 3D)

The Printed Media Revolution

Something's going on in the world of publishing and reading the written word. Maybe not nearly as big as the printing press at the beginning, but a revolution's brewing never less.

For example, check out the discussion about the Amazon Kindle on C|Net's site, and you'll come away with the feeling of a pending "change in the wind".

I believe the shift to digital publication and reading has the potential to turn the whole concept of printed media on its ear. But the jury's still out on how it will unfold, and the price tag is too high to make paper "yesterday".

What strikes me about the overall discussion are the novel ideas voiced by the end users. Being able to scan a UPC or ISBN from your own library for access on a digital reader, or checking out books from a library website for immediate download, or searching your entire on-board library, etc. Now those are really interesting ideas *:-)