[extropy-chat] Boks On-line, was Re: Drexler laying down a hand...

[Jay Dugger]

On 3/3/07, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 03, 2007 at 11:45:28AM -0800, Jef Allbright wrote:
>
> > I find electronic versions of books to be far preferable to paper
> > copies, and I routinely cut and scan any paper books I acquire.  So
>
> It depends on your reader. The current displays, especially in mobiles,
> are not up to snuff. It can't be that hard to build a tough waterproofed
> version of a WiFi tablet for a VAIO-quality display for a 1-2 k$, or so.
> One should think. I've tried the iBook, but even with the two-finger
> scroll it's not fun. I need a lot of display real estate, which is not
> available in a comfortable position. Books are for trains, beds and bathtubs.
>

Buy a used laptop for $300. Install the Linux distribution de jour for
(hours taken*($/hour)). I consider WiFi optional; YMMV.

> I've tried scanning a few books, but the speed, the quality of the
> scan and of the OCR left much to be desired. I think with a device such as
> http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/09/scanner_for_books.html
> it would be less painful.
>

I have a brand new Plustek Optic Book 3600 on my right.  Boing boing
pretty well describes it, but they omit any mention of its remarkably
ugly scanner interface. The word "eyesore" fails to capture its awful
hideousness.  It looks as if the UI designer might have been a
kindergartner on LSD, and the approval committee their indulgent,
half-blind grandparents.

> > much easier to search, annotate and archive, and so much easier to
> > read in bed or when on the go.  I'm in the process of moving my
> > collection of several hundred books from my personal network storage
> > onto Amazon S3 this weekend for greater accessibility and backup
> > reliability.
>
> Open formats?
>

ASCII?

-- 
Jay Dugger
http://jaydugger.suprglu.com
Sometimes the delete key serves best.