Perfect.Simpler Times by Jacob Andrews
The Future is Here: A Book-Scanning Robot
Featuring the latest in robotics and 3D technology the BFS-Auto is a lightning fast, hi-definition scanner that just might change the playing field. Developed at the noted Ishikawa Oku Laboratory at the University of Tokyo the BFS-Auto digitally scans books at an amazing rate of 250 pages a minute without modifying the book by cutting !Let's repeat: it scans 250 pages a minute in hi-definition without damaging the book. No more hands in the picture, no more fuzzy pages and no more destruction. In fact the scanner has the ability to "restore a captured image which is distorted because of page curling to a...
Introducing the Biblio-Mat: A vending machine for modern times
The Monkey's Paw is billed as "Toronto's most idiosyncratic secondhand bookshop" and they live up to the name with their latest addition, the Biblio-Mat.Faced with the seemingly perpetual bookseller challenge of what to do with all the excess inventory that has become almost impossible to sell the folks at The Monkey's Paw came up with their own ingenious solution. They built their own vending machine.The Biblio-Mat will spew old and unusual books for $2 a piece and boasts that "Every book is a Surprise" with "No Two Alike."And who can blame the proprietor as they try and entice you to "collect all...
April 3rd, 1995. Amazon sells its first book
April 3rd, 1995. A day that will live on for a long, long time, for it marks the beginning of the end of bookselling and publishing as we know it.It was on this day the first book was bought from Amazon by a customer.The book was Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies by Douglas HofstaderIt was purchased by a John Wainwright who worked for a technology company in the Bay Area.The purchase did not go unnoticed, for Amazon has named one of the buildings on their new Seattle campus, The Wainwright!More at Quora:Amazon Company History: What was the first book ever...
Hamlet on a Bookmark
It started as a joke between cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and designer Katie Sekelsky. Wienersmith commented about being "so bookish, my bookmarks are smaller books’ and from there they got to the t-shirt design below.Luckily, they weren't done yet. What if the could make a bookmark that is also a book?And they did - using 1.29pt font! Weinersmith says, "you can make out names like Bernardo and Hamlet with the naked eye and read the whole thing with a 10x magnifying glass. "Our assumption is that people are doing this for the charm of having the whole thing right there, rather than for convenience.”In his...