Sony is taking another stab at introducing a device on which you can read digitized books. I fail to understand why they believe there is a market for this kind of device.

1) Price - Why would anyone pay $300 - $400 for a device on which they can read ‘books’ that themselves will also cost essentially the same price as if they bought an actual physical book from the store?

Additionally when I carry an actual book and lose it or spill on it I only lose the book ($12-$25) not the device and the books on it.

2) Form Factor - to actually display a page of text in a readable format the device needs to have a large screen and consequently have a large form factor. Who wants to carry around a PDA, Cell Phone, Laptop, iPod and another device to read books when I already have a bagful of technology.

3) DRM - When I buy a book I own it. I can give it to others to read when I am done. Leave it to the publishers to prevent this type of use case with digital material.

Net-Net: It is far more likely that e-books will take off when I can load some special software optimized for book reading on one of my existing multitasking devices (Laptop, music player, PDA) rather than buying one trick pony from Sony.

Curling Up With a Good E-Book

Clarence Ray Allen a convicted murderer is 75. He has been on death row for decades due to California’s lengthy death row appeals process. Now he is seeking clemency based on the fact he is old and sick. How does this make sense to anyone?

Clarence Ray Allen was Allen was convicted in 1982 for ordering the murders of three individuals while serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison for the murder of a young woman in 1974. The individuals who he conspired to have killed were witnesses in his original murder trial in 1974.

He is scheduled to be executed on January 15th and has run out of options with regard to an appeal of the sentence and conviction. Leave it to the bleeding heart liberals to now say that ‘he should not be put to death because he is old and infirm’. Do these supposed good citizens care that Clarence was personally responsible for the premature death of four (4) persons? They appeal the to the mercy of the Governor for this man who is afflicted with blindness and crippled to the extent he requires a wheelchair.

Perhaps if more thought were given to the victims of crimes than to the perpetrators, the liberals across the country would come to the obvious conclusion that this man deserves to die. The only travesty here is that he has outlived his victims by more than 25 years.

Clarence you made a reservation for death years ago. Let justice be served with your demise. If the issue is the use of lethal injection on someone so infirm, perhaps a pillow over the face for a few minutes might be viewed as more humane by the bleeding hearts. In any case either alternatives are more humane in my opinion than the sawed off shotgun blasts that took the lives of his victims.

Want the facts? SFGate Story

Who covers this story from the liberal’s perspective? NPR of course. NPR : Death-Row Septuagenarian Seeks Clemency

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