COMPUTEX 2010 Day 0: Too Much Paper!

Status
Not open for further replies.

webbwbb

Distinguished
Aug 18, 2009
76
0
18,580
I tend to prefer tangible objects for that type of thing over digital anyway though I do have to say a preloaded e-reader would be nice for journalists if they got to keep them afterwards.
 

decrypted

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2010
41
0
18,580
People need to realize that paper (meaning trees) is a farmed commodity. Paper mills set up large acreage of trees that are cut down in cycles with new ones replanted. The cycle to the same area being cut down is ~15 to 20 years, giving the new trees time to regrow to usable size.
 

omnimodis78

Distinguished
Oct 7, 2008
326
0
18,940
[citation][nom]kingnoobe[/nom]Ok.. Way to give the "green" freaks a reason to cry.[/citation]
Since when are people who care about the environment "green freaks"? Dude, show some respect...
 

jona102190

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2009
2
0
18,510
What about all of the toxic materials used in an electronic reader? What about the power? Everyone seems to think that electronic is just free of resources, when really, it is a lot more toxic than a few sheets of paper.
 

JohnnyLucky

Distinguished
May 30, 2007
990
0
18,930
I bought my first computer in 1984. Shortly thereafter I read an editorial in "PC Magazine" predicting a "paperless society". It never happened.
 

NoCaDrummer

Distinguished
Aug 2, 2008
46
0
18,580
The sheer amount of paper passed out to the media during the COMPUTEX 2010 International Press Conference is staggering. Journalists were handed booth maps, press releases, and booklets--all documents
that the organizers could've passed out in digital form.

I find most "journalists" actually just quote from the manufacturers' brochures anyway, so the idea of electronic formats would make FAR more sense. They can just cut and paste, then put " contributed to this article." One CD (or DVD) with all the info on it would work far better and faster at getting the info disseminated to the public than a small forest-worth of paper.
While I appreciate paper maps for my car, it's hard to beat Google maps or GPS for finding point-to-point routes.
 

Clintonio

Distinguished
Apr 10, 2008
372
0
18,930
[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]I bought my first computer in 1984. Shortly thereafter I read an editorial in "PC Magazine" predicting a "paperless society". It never happened.[/citation]
I dunno, credit cards a good testimony to how paperless society is progressing.

But, I will probably use paper as my design medium for a long time. One day, there hopefully will be a much more sustainable replacement.
 

lightbulbsocket

Distinguished
Feb 23, 2010
37
0
18,580
I really wish they'd just legalize hemp so I wouldn't have to listen to tree-huggers whine anymore. That'd be way too inconvenient for all the manufacturers of products that would be replaced by superior hemp-derived versions of those products though.
 

Silmarunya

Distinguished
Nov 3, 2009
390
0
18,930
Paper isn't that much of an environmental problem IF it's recycled. Use of toxic substances like chloride has been hugely reduced (thanks a lot, 'green freaks'!) and the wood pulp itself can be reused several times.

If we would recycle every bit of paper we use, I see little reason to stop using it. Too bad throwing pieces of paper in the right bin is so damn hard... (that's sarcasm in case you didn't notice).

To those concerned about the environment: stop whining about paper, whine about people being too lazy to recycle it.
 

mlopinto2k1

Distinguished
Apr 25, 2006
817
0
18,930
[citation][nom]omnimodis78[/nom]Since when are people who care about the environment "green freaks"? Dude, show some respect...[/citation]Good luck trying to convince people like this that they wrong about how they think.
 

sceen311

Distinguished
Apr 19, 2008
109
0
18,630
There's a lot more to Paper, then just a tree.

Ya gotta have people or machines to cut down the tree and move it to a mill. At the mill ya gotta have more people and machines to process the tree into paper.

After you make the paper you then have to move it from: mill -> warehouse -> printer -> Computex.
To move the tons or paper used, you gotta have more people and more machines.

All these people and machines produce more then just CO2 that the tree is going to absorb... nature calls after all, and all that shit's gotta go somewhere.

Would an electronic version be more efficient then the paper version? I couldn't say... that's a whole lot of math.

One thing is for sure: There's a lot more to paper, then just a tree.
 

HeadScratcher7

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2009
12
0
18,560
In the end, everything is about money. People will go green when there's money in it. For instance, many utilities try to get you to goto paperless billing to save THEM money. But I bet in the next year or two, they will start charging YOU for those paper bills -then you'll see another big shift to paperless. LOL.

As for the rest of it, eReaders are just about to break under the $100 price point, and now there's epub standards in place, so there will be greater adoption of paperless methods.

On the horizon are technologies for flexible displays, cheap electronics printed onto bio-degradable plastics. Within 5 years its very likely people will be getting adverts and perhaps even newspapers and magazines printed on plastic instead of paper and instead of simple pictures there will be short videos embedded - likely with small plastic batteries right in the bindings to power it all.

I'll just be happy when all magazines come standard with digital versions included for the eReaders.
 
G

Guest

Guest
@Headscracher7
"But I bet in the next year or two, they will start charging YOU for those paper bills -then you'll see another big shift to paperless. LOL."
I'm in Australia. They already charge you, here,for the paper bills now. But only if they have an electronic version available.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.