On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:06:33 -0500, the infamous Bob Engelhardt
scrawled the following:

Larry Jaques wrote:
[on on-topic reply]

--
Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other
men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.
--Jesse Lee Bennett

I saw a TV documentary once, about the introduction of the printing
press. What stuck with me was that the printing press made what had
been closely-held information widely distributed. In fact, initially
the predominant genre was how-to books. Knowledge that only guild
members had previously had access to was now available to the public.

Fast forward 300 years, or however long it's been. Today the Internet

Gutenberg done it c. 1450, or 559 years ago.


has trumped books in that regard. Not only is the information
available, it's easily found. That was/is the Achilles heel of books -
the knowledge may be in a book /somewhere/, but finding it was something
else. The Internet is changing the world as much as the printing press did.

Yes indeedy, Bob. I adore living in this era, surrounded by both
books _and_ the Internet, plus having cheap resources like eBay and
Amazon. Damn, what's not to love?

One single computer hooked up to the Internet in a Third World village
can, and often does, change the lives of everyone in the village and
surrounding area. It's wonderful.

--
Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other
men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.
--Jesse Lee Bennett