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The impermanence is reflected in society in many subtle ways.A single dramatic example is the impact of the knowledge explosion on that classic knowledge container,the book.
As knowledge has become more plentiful add less permanent,we have witnessed the virtual disappearance of the solid durable leather binding,replaced at first by cloth and later by paper covers.The book itself,like much of the information it holds,has become more transient
A decade ago,communications systems designer Sol Cornberg,a radial prophet in the field of library technology,declared that reading would soon cease to be a primary form of information intake,”Reading and writing” he suggested “will become obsolete skills”(Ironically,Mr. Cornberg’s wife is a novelist)
Whether or not he is correct,one fact is plain:the incredible expansion of knowledge implies that each book(alas,this one included) contains a progressively smaller fraction of all that is known.And the paper back revolution,by making inexpensive editions available everywhere,lessens the scarcity value of the book at precisely the very moment that the increasingly rapid obsolescence of knowledge lessens its long term information value.Thus,in the united states a paperback appears,simultaneously on more than 100,000 newsstands,only to be swept away by another wave of publication delivered a mere thirty days later.The book thus approaches the transience of the monthly magazine,indeed,many books are no more than “one-shot” magazines.
At the same time,the public’s span of interest in a book -even a popular book-is shrinking-thus for example,the life span of best sellers on The New York times list is rapidity declining.There are marked irregularities from year to year for which full data on the subject is available,1953-1956,and compare this with a similar period one decade later,1963-1966,we find the average best seller in the earlier period remained on the list a full 18.8 weeks.A decade later this had shrunk to 15.7 within a ten – year – period,the life expectancy of the average best seller had shrunk by nearly on sixth.
We can understand such trends only if we grasp the elemental underlying truth.We are witnessing a historic process that will inevitably change mans psyche.For across the board,from cosmetics to cosmology,from twiggy-type trivia to the triumphant facts of technology,our inner images of reality,responding to the acceleration of change outside ourselves,are becoming shorter lived,more temporary.We are creating and using up ideas and images at a faster and faster pace.Knowledge,like people,places,things and organizations forms,is become disposable.
– Alvin Toffler – Future Shock(1970)
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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abmv wrote: A decade ago,communications systems designer Sol Cornberg,a radial prophet in the field of library technology,declared that reading would soon cease to be a primary form of information intake,”Reading and writing” he suggested “will become obsolete skills”(Ironically,Mr. Cornberg’s wife is novelist)
Such ideas one gets once thinking is obsolete; there is no alternative to "reading and writing", even if the youtube-bloggers would imply so. Without an alternative (and no, emoticons aren't) it will not be replaced or obsoleted.
abmv wrote: The book thus approaches the transience of the monthly magazine,indeed,many books are no more than “one-shot” magazines.
Not just due to the reader; there is also a supply-side that saturates the market with "new" titles. Take a look at the books in IT, explaining the difference between .NET4.5 and .NET4.51.
abmv wrote: We can understand such trends only if we grasp the elemental underlying truth
No, that way lie leaky abstractions. There is no truth, merely observation.
People still like stories - but the paperback is no match in storytelling compared to a cinema. People still like books, but I can't CTRL-F in a paperback. Though I prefer paper over PDF, I must admit that it is nice to copy/paste the examples.
..outside "us" having a cheaper medium than paper, not much has changed.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Could you please reduce that to a 140 character tweet with words that the President can understand? 
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
modified 16-Jul-17 17:10pm.
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Marc Clifton wrote: Could you please reduce that to a 140 word
That's going to be a looooonnnnggg tweet 
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: That's going to be a looooonnnnggg tweet
Oops. Fixed.
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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tldr
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Hi
I am going to design some product software. I am not sure how to get an investor for it.
Kindly advise!
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Depends on how much you are looking for, and how much of your rights to the eventual product you want to give away.
Start with family first. If you need significant money, then you need to put a business case together before you go any further, but once you have that there is kickstarter, banks, merchant bankers, and even Dragons Den on TV!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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The first thing you need is a viable product design, and a business plan that will encourage investors to support you. As it is, it sounds like you are not quite there yet.
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Member 7762045 wrote: I am going to design some product software.
Why? That's what your potential investors want to know. 
See Creating a Business Case for a Software Project[^] as an example of what you may want to think about before seeking investors.
/ravi
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thing called "Wordpad" in Windows.
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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I find it's generally "good enough" to view/edit text that includes formatting, on machines where I haven't installed Office--on those occasions where I actually want to keep said formatting. Otherwise, yeah, Notepad it is...
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Notepad++ is my preferred text editor
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Sure, I have Notepad++ as well, but it doesn't do even basic RTF (unless you're using some plug-in?)
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It's been years. Even then, I only used it as a last ditch because it was the only thing on the computer and I needed some basic text formatting for something simple.
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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I use it regularly on customer's Systems which do not have installed Office to document... Document usually means Screen shots of error Messages... And I always wondering how big the wordpad files are  
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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Found the guy who puts screenshots in .doc files.
Well, one of them anyway. At least they're not pictures that have been taken with a camera, then printed, then scanned, then faxed, then embedded as images in a zipped Word document that contains a PowerPoint file.
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The other day when I accidentally opened it instead of Word
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This morning, its great for flat ASCII...
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Not that long actually...accidently tried to open a word document on the server. I was surprised that it actually opened with wordpad. Now, notepad I use all the time.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Wordpad is great for rtf files, which is the same as the formatting in a .net rich text box. (although both only handle a subset of the full rtf spec.) Can cut and paste between them keeping formatting.
Learned this when doing a basic report writer for a customer, RTF files are basically a type of meta tagged text file, perfect for building report templates that can be used without the need for interop or similar. Teamed with a virtual pdf printer app produces nice fully formatted reports from non office installed servers and even the most underpowered pcs (i.e. those that choke on office/interop and over-featured report writer libraries.)
Few years ago now, but got to the point where I could hand code RTF - including tables & graphics.
Interestingly wordpad handles tables in rtf files but has no way to create or structurally alter them - clearly ms purposely hobbled wordpad'ss capabilities [to keep selling word].
Also interesting: create a small doc in wordpad and save it, will be 1 maybe 2 kb (and the source readable). Open and edit that doc with ms word and save as rtf, will become a huge file - totally bloated out and intelligible. Easy fix though: open it in wordpad and save it again cleans out the bloat.
Sin tack
the any key okay
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Excellent post! There may be something here I can use! Thanks!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Years ago, but I remember that it was much better at opening broken docs than word
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I use it weekly.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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Used it 20 years ago to edit a DLL where someone had hard coded a serial number in an expected response from a signal generator. Changed it to the customer's signal generator and was up and running.
Turns out that a few months prior to this, I saw a colleague scrabbling around on various computers looking for some code and this was it. He had encountered the same problem but didn't own up and had left by the time I found the issue.
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