Philosophy
Are you in favor of E-books?
No...0
Yes...5
Sometimes...2
Well, I have to go with the "sometimes". There are distinct advantages for both. Used book stores are becoming scarce and thrift stores are looking at used books as if they were gold and charging more than what a thrift store policy should be. And, if one enlists the services of used book companies on line, the prices become almost prohibitive especially when shipping is added. The book[s] must be a "must have". New books...the prices are just too high. Thankfully, there are a number of online websites that offer free E-books. [See list below]. And many times free E-books are buried in 100s of websites. One just has to do a lot of research...and get lucky. And some publishers of college text books are experimenting with E-books though a recent study has indicated that students aren't that pleased. But E-books have some serious limitations both as a physical commodity and the aesthetic quality. It is so comforting holding a book...one of those aesthetic experiences that cannot be gleaned from E-books...the weight, the texture of the pages, the aroma. And, I am one of those individuals [that will be punished in Hell] for underlining and making marginal notations. Non-E-books are portable. It would be difficult to lug a lap top for access to some tome to pass the time while the Pinto is being repaired or just enjoying the ambiance of nature and reading some poetry. And lastly, a lot of important texts are simply not available in electronic format. Besides, it is nice to have a library that can be seen.
I have included new book and used book sources...
New books...
Professor Ishikawa Komuro’s Tokyo lab is better known for robot hands that can dribble and catch balls and spin pencils between their fingers. Now, two researchers have taken this speedy sensing tech and applied it to the ripping of paper books.
Books are different from other kinds of media, like music and movies — it’s very hard to get them into a computer. There is no equivalent of CD or DVD rippers like iTunes or Handbrake. This not only makes piracy laborious, it also stops you from turning your own books into e-books.
This high-speed scanner changes that, at least if you have the room and tech skills to build one. By using a high-speed camera that shoots at 500 frames per second, lab workers Takashi Nakashima and Yoshihiro Watanabe can scan a 200-page book in under a minute. You just hold the book under the camera and flip through the pages as if shuffling a deck of cards. The camera records the images and uses processing power to turn the odd-shaped pictures into flat, rectangular pages on which regular OCR (optical character recognition) can be performed.
The technique is unlikely to be coming to the home anytime soon (although ripping a book by flipping it in front of your notebook’s webcam would be pretty awesome), but it could certainly speed up large scanning efforts like Google’s book project.
- Bookless Libraries
I suppose that this will be the new look of libraries. I grant that it is efficient in economics and storage. But one has to miss the ambiance of wandering the shelves and actually holding a book. Even romance will be shelved. "Is a Bookless Library...
- A Real Copy Of Every Book
"Internet Archive Starts Backing Up Digital Books … on Paper" by Jon Stokes June 14th, 2011 Wired If you want real long-term backups of digitized e-books, then look no further than dead-tree. At least, that’s the consensus of the Internet Archive...
- Does An Electron Have An Aroma?
E-books are here and will remain but they cannot replace the ambiance of holding a "real" book and absorbing special odors. And you cannot write in the margins of an E-book. "5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet" by John C Abell June 3rd, 2011 Wired...
- Internet Archive Expands Services
The Internet Archive is a huge repository of books, films, music, NASA images, television and now will be offering another service for the disabled. May 19th, 2010 More than doubling the number of books available to print disabled people of all ages,...
- Google Books
Go for it Google. Google Books has only one significant competitor...Internet Archive . Other sources... ALEX CATALOGUE OF ELECTRONIC TEXTS ATHENA AUDIO BOOKS FOR FREE BARTLEBY CREATIVE COMMONS ELDRITCH PRESS INTERNET...
Philosophy
"E-book" poll
Are you in favor of E-books?
No...0
Yes...5
Sometimes...2
Well, I have to go with the "sometimes". There are distinct advantages for both. Used book stores are becoming scarce and thrift stores are looking at used books as if they were gold and charging more than what a thrift store policy should be. And, if one enlists the services of used book companies on line, the prices become almost prohibitive especially when shipping is added. The book[s] must be a "must have". New books...the prices are just too high. Thankfully, there are a number of online websites that offer free E-books. [See list below]. And many times free E-books are buried in 100s of websites. One just has to do a lot of research...and get lucky. And some publishers of college text books are experimenting with E-books though a recent study has indicated that students aren't that pleased. But E-books have some serious limitations both as a physical commodity and the aesthetic quality. It is so comforting holding a book...one of those aesthetic experiences that cannot be gleaned from E-books...the weight, the texture of the pages, the aroma. And, I am one of those individuals [that will be punished in Hell] for underlining and making marginal notations. Non-E-books are portable. It would be difficult to lug a lap top for access to some tome to pass the time while the Pinto is being repaired or just enjoying the ambiance of nature and reading some poetry. And lastly, a lot of important texts are simply not available in electronic format. Besides, it is nice to have a library that can be seen.
I have included new book and used book sources...
New books...
- AMAZON
- BARNES & NOBLE
- BIBLIOFIND
- DAVID BROWN BOOK CO.
- DOVER
- JOSEPH HENRY PRESS
- POWELLS
- ABEBOOKS
- ADDALL
- ALIBRIS
- ANTIQBOOK
- ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION
- BOOKBUTLER
- BOOKFINDER
- BOOKS ON DEMAND
- J. F. PTAK BOOKS [SCIENCE]
- TOMFOLIO
- ZUBAL BOOKS
- ALEX CATALOGUE OF ELECTRONIC TEXTS
- ATHENA
- AUDIO BOOKS FOR FREE
- BARTLEBY
- CORNELL UNIVERSITY BOOKS AT INTERNET ARCHIVE
- CREATIVE COMMONS
- ELDRITCH PRESS
- EUROPEANA
- INTERNET ARCHIVE
- INTERNET PUBLIC LIBRARY
- LIBRIVOX
- LOUDLIT.ORG
- MARXIST INTERNET ARCHIVE
- NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
- PAGE BY PAGE BOOKS
- PDF SEARCH ENGINE
- PERSEUS DIGITAL LIBRARY
- PROJECT GUTENBERG
- PUBLIC LITERATURE.ORG
- READ EASILY
- SCRIBD
- THE INTERNET SACRED TEXT LIBRARY
- THE WARBURG INSTITUTE LIBRARY
- UNIVERSAL DIGITAL LIBRARY
- WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY
"High-Speed Camera Scans Books in Seconds"
by
Charlie Sorrel
March 18th, 2010
Wired
by
Charlie Sorrel
March 18th, 2010
Wired
Professor Ishikawa Komuro’s Tokyo lab is better known for robot hands that can dribble and catch balls and spin pencils between their fingers. Now, two researchers have taken this speedy sensing tech and applied it to the ripping of paper books.
Books are different from other kinds of media, like music and movies — it’s very hard to get them into a computer. There is no equivalent of CD or DVD rippers like iTunes or Handbrake. This not only makes piracy laborious, it also stops you from turning your own books into e-books.
This high-speed scanner changes that, at least if you have the room and tech skills to build one. By using a high-speed camera that shoots at 500 frames per second, lab workers Takashi Nakashima and Yoshihiro Watanabe can scan a 200-page book in under a minute. You just hold the book under the camera and flip through the pages as if shuffling a deck of cards. The camera records the images and uses processing power to turn the odd-shaped pictures into flat, rectangular pages on which regular OCR (optical character recognition) can be performed.
The technique is unlikely to be coming to the home anytime soon (although ripping a book by flipping it in front of your notebook’s webcam would be pretty awesome), but it could certainly speed up large scanning efforts like Google’s book project.
- Bookless Libraries
I suppose that this will be the new look of libraries. I grant that it is efficient in economics and storage. But one has to miss the ambiance of wandering the shelves and actually holding a book. Even romance will be shelved. "Is a Bookless Library...
- A Real Copy Of Every Book
"Internet Archive Starts Backing Up Digital Books … on Paper" by Jon Stokes June 14th, 2011 Wired If you want real long-term backups of digitized e-books, then look no further than dead-tree. At least, that’s the consensus of the Internet Archive...
- Does An Electron Have An Aroma?
E-books are here and will remain but they cannot replace the ambiance of holding a "real" book and absorbing special odors. And you cannot write in the margins of an E-book. "5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet" by John C Abell June 3rd, 2011 Wired...
- Internet Archive Expands Services
The Internet Archive is a huge repository of books, films, music, NASA images, television and now will be offering another service for the disabled. May 19th, 2010 More than doubling the number of books available to print disabled people of all ages,...
- Google Books
Go for it Google. Google Books has only one significant competitor...Internet Archive . Other sources... ALEX CATALOGUE OF ELECTRONIC TEXTS ATHENA AUDIO BOOKS FOR FREE BARTLEBY CREATIVE COMMONS ELDRITCH PRESS INTERNET...