Robert | 12.03.2005 @ 10:46 PM
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I bought an eBook the other day from Amazon, and since then, I've had nothing but trouble trying to read it. Acrobat Reader is the only application that will open it, but it needs to be activated in order to open the PDF eBook, and for about an hour last night, I couldn't activate it to save my life. I guess I got lucky the first time I opened it - it only took twenty minutes. Last night, however, Acrobat simply wouldn't activate, even though I thought I had done it already - afterall, I was able to open the eBook previously.

So why was it so difficult? Well, Adobe has a complicated sequence of steps in place to activate the software. Trying to open the eBook for the first time sends you to the Adobe web site, to a page about activating the application. This page downloads a small file, which apparently is supposed to make everything work. I ran the file. I think it's supposed to launch Acrobat and activate it, allowing me to read my eBook. But it didn't work. In fact, nothing I tried worked. Eventually, I realized, quite by accident, that Acrobat cannot be open when you run the file from Adobe's site. Why? because the file has to launch it in order for the process to begin.

Once the software is activated, you have to wait about five more minutes for the book to download (again, I had done this once before) and finally open. Then, of course, you have to find the page you were on before quitting the application the last time.

So why was it so difficult? Heck if I know.

I've left Acrobat open since last night. I'm afraid to quit the application, as I may never see the eBook again.

This is one case where technology failed miserably. If I had a printed book in my hands, I'd be able to open it at will and freely flip through it. With the eBook, which is supposed to free me from the supposed constraints of print, I wasted an hour just trying to open it. I have to read it on my computer screen, and I can't even print it.

I ordered the hardcopy from Amazon earlier this evening. It should be here on Tuesday. So much for the promise of digital media.