The New Yorker as a Commodity

Between the articles published at the New Yorker's web site, the full text archive in Marvel!, recent copies in the free box at the library and copies on top of the Maine Pack at the transfer station, the New Yorker has become a commodity available at close to zero incremental cost.

Notes on The Complete New Yorker DVDs

I don't subscribe to the New Yorker because it's way too much for me to deal with every week. What am I going to do with 80 years' worth?

• The abstacts are very detailed and worth reading themselves.
• There's no full text search.
• You can't copy text from the articles.
• The biggest barrier to writing is reading.
• Switching DVDs is quaint - very 1980s, but it sure would be nice if all this were available on the web. I wonder at their decision not to do that.
• The package and book are printed and manufactured in China.
• The up arrow icon in the upper left of the frame ejects the DVD. That's useful to know.
• Search of the complete archive is slow and it can't be interrupted.
• There's no text search within the abstracts. I have to copy and past the text into WordPad and search it there.
• No tags, but at least an item can be in more than one reading list.
• Over four thousand issues, almost half a million pages.
• Stacked into a cube more than five feet on a side.