Re: one of the most important points

I have always had reservations about Top 100 lists (or any other number). I think you have 
succinctly pin-pointed the source of my disquiet. "It was Michael's own idea to have a . . . 
small personal collection of literature." Yes, but it would be a personal collection of their own 
literature. You want it to be a personal collection of your literature. 
Go ahead, everyone has a right to make up their own top whatever lists - but don't try to 
make people think you're doing them a favour. 
Keith Stotyn


On 7 Sep 2013 at 4:57, Greg Newby wrote:

> You sully Michael's memory with this uninformed misrepresentation.
> 
> It's even worse that you infer people like me should stop doing
> something to help put literature in people's hands.  As you are
> well
> aware, the answer to ideas like this was always, "yes."
> 
> It was Michael's own idea to have a corner of everyone's cell phone
> or
> similar device have a small personal collection of literature. 
> That
> is the specific thing I'm trying to make easier, by making it
> simple
> to have a starter collection.
> 
> Among other things, this approach Michael encouraged was intended
> to
> make sure people had their own personal copies, to do with as they
> pleased.  He was not a cloud enthusiast, and preferred people to
> have
> their own copies of eBooks, rather than rely on copies on a server
> somewhere.
> 
> There are plenty of people doing things to keep the Project
> Gutenberg
> effort going.  If your only contribution is to tell people that
> they're doing it wrong, you can imagine for yourself what
> Michael's
> reaction would have been.
> 
>   -- Greg
> 
> On Fri, Sep 06, 2013 at 03:27:55PM -0400, bowerbird wrote:
> > it's just been 2 years, to the day, since michael passed away.
> > 
> > plus, in 2 more days, it would have been his "half-birthday".
> > 
> > so it seems kind of ironic that y'all seem to have forgotten
> > one of his most important points -- unlimited distribution.
> > 
> > i guess it gives you a kind of thrill to play "master curator",
> > making your lists -- "top 100", "best shakespeare", etc. --
> > but as one can put tens of thousands of e-books on a d.v.d.,
> > and have the whole library as close as an internet connection,
> > it's obvious that kind of thinking belonged to the last century.
> > 
> > which is the prescient vision michael had _4_decades_ back.
> > 
> > so while you guys are discussing what the best restaurant is,
> > michael hart is busy at the heavenly buffet, sampling all of it,
> > heaping big piles of _everything_ on his tray, and _loving_ it.
> > 
> > and lest you think your esoteria denotes that you're cultured,
> > let me remind you that it wasn't that michael hart lacked taste.
> > 
> > when i was with him at his local buffet, he insisted to a
> waitress
> > that she replace a glass of water another waiter had given me,
> > saying "he filled it from the spigot by the yogurt machine, and
> > everyone knows that that spigot gives the water a rusty taste".
> > well, that waitress just gave us a wry smile, one that imparted
> > that while this regular _might_ be a slight pain in the
> rear-end,
> > she did acknowledge that he knew what he was talking about.
> > 
> > and it wasn't just in the buffet either; it was the library as
> well.
> > 
> > heck, he could argue the merits of any number of classic books.
> > and that's because he _recognized_ those merits, and decided
> > to focus on the strong points of each, and not on the weak ones.
> > 
> > you wanna argue about versions of shakespeare?
> > 
> > michael was raised by parents who did that at the breakfast
> table.
> > 
> > so go ahead and pick your "top 100".
> > 
> > but michael would never be bothered with such patent nonsense,
> > as he was busy distributing trillions of books to billions of
> people.
> > 
> > _unlimited_distribution._  one of michael's most important
> points.
> > 
> > -bowerbird
> > 
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