Next General Meeting: At the DACS general meeting on October 5, DACS board member Bruce Preston will bring order to the confusion when he talks to us about the who, what, when, where, why, and how-to of eReaders and eBook data formats, and demonstrates some of the more popular devices on the market. Bruce will review what's available, discuss some of the pros and cons, and comment on the pricing of eBook devices and eBooks. He will also speak about audio books. (Bruce wrote at length about audio books in the March 2009 edition of dacs.doc, available for download.) The past decade has seen explosive growth in the use of battery-powered portable devices for the processing and communication of information: laptop computers, tablet computers, mp3 players, cellphones, digital cameras, GPS navigation devices, etc.One of the newest gadgets is the eBook reader (also known as eReader or eBook device). eBook readers make it possible to take with you the equivalent of an entire library of books when you travel. Of course, one can do the same with a laptop computer but an eBook reader is smaller, lighter, and more convenient to carry than a laptop. Furthermore, many e-readers use e-ink technology, which has a number of advantages over the LCD displays used by laptops and other equipment. eBooks are cheaper than conventional books and hundreds of thousands of titles are now available. They may be obtained anywhere where there is an internet connection (or even without one, if your eReader has 3G capability), so users need no longer go to a bookstore or wait for delivery of a conventional book purchased online. eBook readers provide a new channel of distribution for other print media: all major newspapers and magazines can now be downloaded in eBook formats. The newness of this technology can be seen in the profusion of devices and the tremendous number of data formats being used for eBooks. A quick look at the relevant Wikipedia articles shows a mind-boggling array of devices and formats. Anyone planning to purchase an e-reader is faced with selecting from many possibilities. To make the decision even more complex, some devices with eBook capabilities can be used for additional purposes, e.g. an Apple iPad does web browsing, e-mail, and other tasks. Mr. Preston is president of West Mountains Systems, Inc., a database consulting firm in Ridgefield. He is a frequent contributor to dacs.doc, bringing sharp insights to a variety of information technology subjects, and eReaders will not be the first topic on which he has presented at DACS meetings. At May's general meeting, Bruce demonstrated to us how to use WordPress. He also is leader of the Access SIG. Danbury Area Computer Society (DACS) is a registered nonprofit and has been serving the region since 1990. Members receive an award-winning newsletter, members-only workshops and events, and access to volunteer phone support. As a reminder, our General Meetings are free and open to the public so invite anyone you know who would be interested in this topic. DACS meetings are held at the Danbury Hospital auditorium. (Click here for directions.) Activities begin at 6:30 p.m. with registration and casual networking. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. with a question and answer period (Ask DACS), followed by announcements and a short break. The featured evening presentation begins at 8:00. .
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