Posts Tagged ‘debate’

Yesterday we sparked the debate that is raging on through the streets of all the major cities around the world – paper books vs Ebooks!  We looked at the paper book’s argument and although it had some good points it’s time to give Ebooks a chance to speak out…

Ebook argument;

Pros

•    Easy to read – you can zoom about, move the page about and do a lot of funky stuff with the electronic page.  It’s basically a tool to help you to read so you can imagine that you can do pretty much anything with it to do with reading…they do say that technology is supposed to make our lives easier.

•    Even more portable than a book – if you thought a book was portable then you really have no idea how much you will love carrying an Ebook around.  An Ebook is made up of 1s and 0s and you can fit hundreds in your pocket – obviously there’s no way to know what size reader you have but if you have a relatively small one then you could be carrying all the books you could want in your pocket!

•    Think about the trees! – there are no poor trees being knocked down to provide the paper for you to read off…by backing Ebooks you will be doing something great for the environment which could save you getting a cup of green “custard” thrown in your face…

•    Make note – unlike paper books you can make notes on Ebooks and you don’t have to worry about ruining the book for the rest of time.

Cons

•    My eyes… - Did your mum ever tell you that watching television for too long will make your eyes go square?  Reading an Ebook can be quite difficult on the eyes – you may find you will  need to take breaks to rest your eyes and that isn’t something that you want to factor into your reading time.

•    Where’s the power? – with a paper book there isn’t that nagging issue of battery usage.  With an Ebook you will be constantly worried about how much longer your battery will last and if you will reach page 314 in time – STRESS!

•    Portability is an issue again – Some people read Ebooks on their laptops…would you rather carry around a paper book or a laptop?  Spilling coffee onto a book can be annoying…spilling coffee onto your laptop can ruin your week!

•    Where are they – There is always the issue that they aren’t readily available, unlike paper books.  Where are they being sold?  Ebooks aren’t exactly taking off like the mighty DVD so for the Ebook to be successful they need to start appearing in more places otherwise just forget it!

So what shall we do? I vote that we should stick with our traditional paper books and leave Ebooks to the bargain bin of the Internet – I don’t think anything can beat reading a book by an open fire with a cup of hot chocolate – technology can’t really make up for tradition in this case.

Maybe you don’t agree – I’m sure not everyone does!  Let us know what you think about the debate and which format you are backing…

There is a war raging on between books and Ebooks – who do you think is going to win?  Each format allows you to do pretty much the same thing – read.  However which one do you think will be the one that will be picked up by popular demand over the next few years: paper vs binary…

Paper argument;

Pros

•    They can be picked up anywhere, from Borders to WHSmiths – we know where to get books from.  How many places could you name that sell Ebooks?
•    Books aren’t exactly heavy – sure if you have about 10 huge library books that you need to cart across a 3 mile journey then maybe books aren’t your best friend.  But say you have one book that you want to read – slip it in your bag and you can forget about it until you arrive at Starbucks, then you can open it in seconds and be immersed in the story.
•    There’s no eye strain involved – when you spend all day in front of a computer screen do you really want to spend the night sat in front of another computer screen containing your book?  Don’t you think a nice paper book would be able to provide a bit of relief?
•    Check the battery – you won’t need to with a book.  You don’t have to plug it in, worry about updating the software or thinking that if might break if you drop it…it’s just a book, plain and simple!

Cons

•    Books can be heavy – As I say above books aren’t exactly heavy, but actually they are if you have more than 3.  We’re all used to gigabytes now and we all know that we’d rather carry a USB pen compared to 10 large books.
•    I can’t see – if you’re in a dark room then forget trying to read your book.  You need a light to read a paper book and when there isn’t one there isn’t much you can do – have you ever tried to read a book in a car at night and you’re constantly trying to catch the light from the lampposts but it’s whooshing past and you’re basically not reading anything?
•    Don’t bend that spine – if you want to write in your book, bend a page or crack the spine then you have made a decision that you won’t be able to go back and change.  You won’t be un-creasing that page or rubbing out that pen scribbling.  You’ll be stuck with it!

Paper books have provided their argument…but what do you think?  If you want to hear Ebook’s argument then stay tuned to the site because we’re going to deal with the other side of the battle tomorrow…

Are you pro-paper or do you think that you want to bring Ebooks to the masses?  Let us know…

Should we be buying electric cars?

The car industry isn’t exactly having a fun time as the Government ploughs more and more money into the sinking ship – less people are wanting to buy thousands of pounds worth of automobile and as a result car companies are giving away two for one offers on their motors.  But is it time we should be switching to electric cars?

Obviously it’s not something that could be done tomorrow but there are a few reasons why you might think it’s time to leave the petrol under the ground and change to electricity to power our cars…

•    No Air Pollution – Surely that’s a winning reason if ever we heard one.  We want to stay on this world for more than another generation or two, but if we carry on ruining the planet then we’re not going to be able to enjoy our green and blue buddy for much longer.

Electric cars are an obvious way of clearing up the polluted air that we are constantly breathing in to our tired, old, tarred lungs – studies have shown that you could charge millions of electric cars overnight using existing surplus electrical generation.

•    Fuel for thought – The planet is running out of gasoline for cars and as we are aware electric cars don’t run on fuel – they run on electricity.  By using electric cars we will be avoiding depleting our planet’s gasoline deposits.

•    Saving you those precious pennies – It’s like telling a smoker that they could save a fiver everyday if they gave up smoking but switching from petrol cars to electric cars could save you an absolute fortune!

Running an electric car only costs a small fraction of the amount of money it costs to fill up a petrol or diesel car.

You will also be saving a few pennies at the garage as well as electric cars have fewer moving parts and therefore have fewer things that could cause problems.

•    It’s getting hot in here – Global warming is no laughing matter.  The o-zone layer is become more depleted month by month, the climate is changing and the globe is warming up and carbon emissions from cars are hardly helping to slow that change down.

Electric cars cut down on CO2 emissions by a staggering amount when compared to combustion cars as we all know…so they obviously make sense when you look at which wins against the fight to protect the planet.

It’s a very touchy subject, obviously, as there is so much money floating about the combustion car industry, whether it is involved with the fuel for the cars or selling them there’s a lot of money involved.

And you?

But what do you think – do these reasons make you think that we should take this opportunity to swap combustion cars for electric cars or do you think even the thought is to ridiculous to comprehend?