I realized the need for e-paper in 1989. At Xerox PARC, we had long predicted the advent of the paperless office, with the widespread adoption of the personal computer we pioneered. The paperless office never happened. Instead, the personal computer caused more paper to be consumed. I realized that most of the paper consumption was caused by a difference in comfort level between reading documents on paper and reading them on the CRT screen. Any document over a half page in length was likely to be printed, subsequently read, and discarded within a day. There was a need for a paper-like electronic display—e-paper! It needed to have as many paper properties as possible, because ink on paper is the “perfect display.” Subsequently, I realized that the Gyricon display, which I had invented in the early 70s, was a good candidate for use as e-paper.
(Nick Sheridon, “Father of E-paper,” interviewed at The Future of Things)

I confess that I print nearly everything I have to read for my job, even though I spend all day (and night, obviously) reading text—much of it far longer than half a page—from a computer screen. I try to justify this by saying that I need to be able to mark things up, and that I don’t print anything at home. (Because I can’t. Because my inkjet got gummed up and I’m tired of fixing it.) But I do often e-mail PDFs to myself and print them at the office. Have you ever tried to cook from a recipe on your laptop screen? It sucks, especially if you have limited counter space.

At least I usually print on both sides. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m still not posting. I just wanted to point out that the Apple Mighty Mouse? Sucks. It’s too round and is always getting oriented just a little bit too far counterclockwise in my hand, so that I try to left-click and get a right-click instead. Also, the buttons on the side are impossibly placed. Looks pretty; lousy design.

My workaround, until I get pissed off enough to request a normal two-button mouse from GoG, has been to mark each vague-button-area of the mouse with one of those little doughnut-shaped stickers you use to reinforce the holes on looseleaf pages, so I can get my fingers in the right spots without looking. The mouse now looks like an owl: