http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/822775.html

Everything is switching to the internet. TV, newspapers,social life...

Good that means the end of logging operations.
Eh not really.

What about electronic ink? its sort of a compromise between internet and newspapers.

I'm waiting for BBC's on demand internet TV. I hope it boosts the industry.

We know, we know - we're forgetting how to write (http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=60683) too. This is yesterday's news (ha ha - geddit?). Until they start putting sex on the internet, though, we'll all still be gawping open-mouthed at Page 3 (http://www.page3.com/) of The Sun [*PORN WARNING* *PORN WARNING*].

We'll all stop riding penny-farthings and using 8-track cartridges next.

What about electronic ink? its sort of a compromise between internet and newspapers.

You mean the online edition of the newspapers? Well, as the article shows, that seems to be the trend, thus old fashioned papers going out of style...

Everything is switching to the internet. TV, newspapers,social life...

I wonder how many people of the world will be left behind? How many people of the world DO NOT have computers or even access to them?
Does anyone know the percentages involved?
In fact, does anyone actually care about those people who don't have computers?

Baron Max

“The paperless world.” I think we, in the still to be coined IT community a long time ago saw this.

But in reality only when the computer becomes as cheap and available as paper and ink, will it ever gain supremacy.

Paperless world sucks.
Without electricity all your digital info is useless.

Its pretty easy for goverment for example to take down info from internet newssite, but try to get all of the newspapers back, once they have been distributed.

I wonder how many people of the world will be left behind?

It is really a simple business decission. Nobody leaves anybody behind. newspapers are there for making money. They get most of it from ads, and not from your 75 cents.

Since advertisment money started to go to online businesses (see Google)
old fashioned journalism started to die. Now people who don't have computers most likely weren't buying the papers either, so it isn't like the papers can count on their continuing support...

Again, it is business and not ideology...

“The paperless world.” I think we, in the still to be coined IT community a long time ago saw this.

But in reality only when the computer becomes as cheap and available as paper and ink, will it ever gain supremacy.

I did some IT work for a paper pulping company once. One of the features they were told about their new computer system (an IBM System 34) was that it would reduce their paper consumption.

Worried about this, as paper was their business, they diversified into window and door frames, and comissioned a report on paper usage every two years.

They found that despite the goal of 'the paperless office', people were consuming more paper than ever. I guess computers just allowed more people to print more stuff.

Is any past new stories being saved anywhere? At least with papers there will always be an archive. What about online? Is old news no longer worth keeping?

It is called archiving. Most magazines are archiving their old issues and if you are a subscriber you can search decades old issues....

does it really matter? it'll save a few trees at least.

does it really matter? it'll save a few trees at least.

Apparently not. As one person above suggested, it seems that with computers and high-speed printing, there's actually MORE paper being used/wasted than before.

But even so, with the new computer equipment, due to the use of plastics, we're using more and more petroleum products, so...?

Baron Max

does it really matter? it'll save a few trees at least.

This is an urban myth, debunked by Penn and Teller in their Bullshit!!! show.

Trees for making paper are planted just like potato is planted for making french fries. So we are not running out of potatos just because you visit fast food restaurants 3 times a week... Same with trees....

I wonder how many people of the world will be left behind? How many people of the world DO NOT have computers or even access to them? Does anyone know the percentages involved? In fact, does anyone actually care about those people who don't have computers?People in I.T. certainly do not. The entire PC/Windows architecture was designed by computer geeks for computer geeks. Buying a Windows box is like signing up for a little Science Fair project that will haunt you for the rest of your life. By comparison a Macintosh is an appliance: you take it out of the box, push a button, and perfectly toasted data starts popping out.

That's a dramatization but to me it's conceivable that we might get the rest of the world wired if we standardize on the Mac architecture. We'll never get computers into the hands of the 90% of the human race that doesn't have them yet if we expect them to spend an hour a day learning to be Windows toubleshooters, or just figuring out the user-hostile, counterintuitive three-level ribbon menus in Office 2007.

(I can't find an estimate of the number of people who own computers. It appears that even in relatively wired India it's only about ten percent of the population. So it has to be much smaller in many huge countries like Kenya.)

To a certain extent these people will be ignored because short-sighted industrialists don't consider them potential consumers. But wiser people keep an eye on them. South Africa will soon have the largest foreign investment in China.

You have to remember that literacy is also low in the very same places where computer literacy is low. It's not clear how many hard-copy newspapers are being sold in those places. Considering how easy it is to print out a document, I don't see this as a problem. There will always be micro-entrepreneurs selling printouts of online news from the nearest library computer to the unwired at a modest profit.

Mobile phones are already often used to spread news in countries without infrastructure. Such as third world countries, or countries bombed back into the stoneage like Iraq.

Less newspaper = good news for trees = good news for humans.

Mobile phones are already often used to spread news in countries without infrastructure.

If they don't have any infrastructure, how is the news transmitted to those nations? I thought one had to have transmission towers with electricity and such? Ya' mean ya' don't?

Baron Max

Less newspaper = good news for trees = good news for humans.

Don't know much about papermaking, do you?

Newsprint paper, as well as lots of other types of paper, is made from trees that were planted specifically for making paper ....it's like any other crop, like wheat or corn.

Baron Max

If they don't have any infrastructure, how is the news transmitted to those nations? I thought one had to have transmission towers with electricity and such? Ya' mean ya' don't?

Baron Max

sorry...

read 'classical infrastructure', where it says 'infrastructure'. They only thing that is 'reliable' and accessible is the mobile network. No money to lay cables everywhere.

blabla.

This is an urban myth, debunked by Penn and Teller in their Bullshit!!! show.

Trees for making paper are planted just like potato is planted for making french fries. So we are not running out of potatos just because you visit fast food restaurants 3 times a week... Same with trees....

Brilliant post. This is something that you can know, but until it is put into an analogy like this, comparing it to potatos... it really made something in my head click.

Brilliant post.

Well, as much as I would like to take the credit, the analogy came from the Bullshit!! series..

Oh, what the hell, I will take the credit... :)