going to the movies

According to the latest issue of BRW, the most popular cultural activity is going to the movies with two out of every three Australians attending the cinema at least once a year. The spend at local cinemas? $1.3 billion in 2010, the highest spend yet. (We spent a bit of $2 bilion on books.)

I had a quick look at the ABS figures and the latest I could find were 2009, when 65% of Australians went to the movies, of that 65% a little over half went to the cinema five or more times. That's pretty enthusiastic movie going.

Interestingly (for a YA/childrens publisher) 95% of 15 to 17 year olds went to the cinema. Wow. I wish that many had read a book.

The coming Cloud

I am filled with astonishment by the coming changes the cloud will make to the way the next generation thinks, and possesses things. Just as our expenditure has shifted since say 1900 from owning goods to buying services, no longer will we (generally) feel the need to have more than a subscription, a right to access, what we want to use. That's what will happen to a good proportion of the coming generation. They won't own music or books they'll have the right to access their online services that will be showing them their slice, their library, of music and books and software and news and whatever else. It will be a seismic shift in thinking. People will have instantaneous access to a far greater range of information and culture and entertainment. You want to listen to something , you won't even have to wait for it to download. Same for books and news and of course social interaction. I can't imagine how that will alter the wetware, though it will,

my Kobo fails again

My Kobo has died. The screen has gone. This is the second time. I have rung Borders - who were charming - and they'll fix or replace, when I find the receipt.

The other issue I've been having is that when I plugged it in, it would charge but the icon would not appear on my desktop, so it wouldn't synch my new purchases. I've returned it to the default settings by putting a paperclip in the back, but no luck. I'm wondering it is being in a mac environment.