eReader options

[rbowman]

I haven't gotten there yet after five years or so but you just start deleting title from the device.

[rbowman]

That's the problem that I hope has been resolved with the new devices. I haven't found a good way to organize either by topic or a simple read/unread. There are a series of small dots that indicate how much you've read but they require carefukl attention to differentiate.

I particularly dislike the current trend to consider webinars 'documentation'. It's the lazy way out and my mind tends to wander when people ramble on.

[Don Y]

Our library disposes of a LOT of titles! And, it appears to be a somewhat arbitrary choice. E.g., I'm friendly with the head librarian at one of the branches. One day, while chatting with her as she "checked in" titles, I saw her separating the books into two piles.

I questioned her as to why the distinction: "Oh, those haven't seen much recent readership so they'll go in the discards pile..."

WTF? But, someone just read it! Else you wouldn't be checking it back in! And, there's lots of empty space on the shelves (in this branch).

Yet, they want another bond issue to buy MORE books, etc.

I'm not keen on yet another agency/entity tracking my "interests". The local library opted NOT to comply with the request to track borrowing patterns (though you know something can surreptitiously be doing that). Recently, the outsourced their handling of the catalog, reservations, etc. to a canadian firm. No mention of any privacy guarantees.

So, I responded by severely reducing my patronage. And, voting AGAINST the recent bond issue (which failed by a 3:2 margin). I guess other folks are unhappy with their policies as well!

I keep all my "software" (movies, music, books, etc.) on a set of distributed mirrored volumes. This lets me impose any sort of structure to it that seems appropriate.

E.g., I can sort music based on artist, books based on genre, etc. "Where" a title resides (in the filesystem hierarchy) tells me what *I* want to know about it. (It's easier to manipulate a filesystem structure than it is to manipulate *tags* inside individual files).

I'm not keen on relying on something else to "store" *my* stuff. And, having to maintain a connection to that other entity just to access *my* stuff! Nothing to stop them from charging an "access fee" or "maintenance fee", etc.

[Don Y]

In her case, she's interested primarily in art and various media. Ain't much "new" happening, there! "Look! We've discovered a NEW COLOR!!! Eeeewww! Metallic Chartreuse!!!"

Exactly. The articles may get rewritten (different authors?) but the material is largely the same. That's not to say that the new rewrite might be better or more easily understood...

"Circuit Cellar" became a manual for how to ASSEMBLE things many years ago. It's the nature of the beast; you can't really write much where you expect your readers to have lots of resources at their disposal! "Using your scanning electron microscope, locate the gate region of the FET controlling the output stage. Now, engage the laser to vaporize the connection from this to the output pin. Then..." Heck, I suspect many of its readers can't use a soldering iron -- esp on SMT devices!

Most magazines have to pander to too wide of an audience. So, they waste a lot of time covering "basics". Then, don't have enough space left to really address the "meat and potatoes".

I spend most of my reading in journals -- where the authors can make some reasonably safe assumptions as to the minimum technical abilities of its readers and jump right into the "interesting parts". This cuts down on a lot of preliminary fluff which makes it easier to spend time thinking about the *substance*.

E.g., SWMBO's magazines might spend (waste?) time telling you how to

*hold* a pencil! (you hold a pencil differently when drawing than when writing) Why can't they assume a reader has this minimum level of proficiency? Instead of wasting space on it?

[Susan Bugher]

Your E-Book Is Reading You

There are ways to avoid the spying.

Susan

[Susan Bugher]

Susan

[Don Y]

Ideally, a set of tags associated with each file. But, *applying* and

*examining* them then becomes difficult -- you need to have a tool designed expressly for that purpose.

SWMBO takes a LOT of photographs. The camera records lots of detail -- most of which is unimportant to the (amateur) photographer! (exposure, etc).

Periodically, she downloads the photos from her camera onto her computer. Then, tries to sort through them based on content.

One of the tools she uses builds a database of user-defined tags (keywords) that you manually associate with the photos. So, she can create tags: rocks, water, mammals, birds, atmosphere, etc. Then, if she's got a photo of some BIRDS chasing a COYOTE alongside a ROCKy RIVERbed at SUNSET, she can choose to apply ALL of those tags to that picture. Later, if she's looking for examples of "sunsets", she can search for photos tagged with "atmosphere" and find this photo -- along with umpteen gazillion others.

Great -- in theory. In practice, its almost impossible to use!

First, *you* have to come up with an appropriate set of keywords to cover *your* interests (makes sense; how would *I* know what is of interest to YOU?!). Then, you have to go through the tedium of applying them individually to the pictures (yeah, you can select multiple photos but, chances are, each photo will have a different SET of tags; so, select all that qualify as "sunsets" and ADD the "atmosphere" tag to those; then, deselect them and select all those with birds and add the bird tag to those; etc. And, later, when you realize your categories are too *broad* (e.g., originally you may have lumped "mammals" "reptiles" and "birds" into a single "wildlife" category and you later realize that these should have been spllit out into finer detail -- do you now go back through all the "mammal"-tagged objects and retag them with this new set??)

Or, you may realize there was a category that you hadn't initially considered and ALL of your existing photos need to be reexamined to determine if the category applies (if you *don't* do this, then the category has very limited practical value as it will be incomplete).

I had this problem when I originally lumped all my "programming languages" texts into a single directory -- which quickly became overly cluttered! "Hmmm.... maybe I should break things down by language?"

That's one of the reasons I don't watch youtube videos. They are all terribly amateurish.

*Organize* your thoughts before you present something. Then, *plan* how you will present it. And, afterwards, edit the result to best implement this vision! (would *you* want to watch what you've just created??)

There are lots of instructional DVD's covering art topics. One particularly good illustrator has a large series of "lectures/demos" he's prepared on different aspects of drawing human anatomy. But, the "productions" are terrible! They were apparently recorded sessions in classes he taught -- so there's lots of background noise (chairs being dragged across the floor, people coughing, crickets chirping, etc.). The microphone appears to have just been placed "somewhere convenient" -- instead of somewhere APPROPRIATE!

Camera angles are lousy -- you end up seeing *him* instead of the *work* he is preparing.

And, there's a fair bit of an investment (money and time to view!) in order to benefit from this... mess!

The same is true of many painting videos.

Given the sort of desktop audio/video editing capabilities available to damn near ANYONE, its silly that you can't shoot with multiple microphones and cameras and then mix the results appropriately in post. I.e., make a *professional* presentation instead of a cheap "hack".

[Susan Bugher]

I started out ereading on a PC - that required figuring out a bunch of stuff. Later on, the first Nook was also the first Android device I ever used and it took some days (and a lot of cussing) to get used to the Android interface. .IMO the more pieces you can break this exercize into the better.

re page count - a page number usually stays the same for several "epages".- you can vary the size of the print in all the ereaders I've tried => the number of "epages" per page number varies.

Susan

[Don Y]

You can never avoid the fact that you downloaded the book. Nor can you control what any *app* reports back to "Mother".

One advantage of print libraries is you can take a book off a shelf, walk to a comfortable chair in a corner and *read* it -- without any record of this activity (including your *visit*!)

We're extremely wary of letting technology into our home *if* it has a way of talking to the outside world -- by any means (i.e., no Windows 10, here!).

If I want to listen to a song 300 times, it's none of your business. I may *love* it. Or, may simply be out of the room and the player is on endless "repeat".

Big Data can't tell anything from that one event. But, if they can compile results from, say, 100M people and correlate that with some *other* observations, they can draw some pretty astute conclusions -- without understanding *why* there is a correlation!

[Insert story of teen's dad outraged that Target was sending his daughter coupons for discounts on baby products: "Maybe you should ask your DAUGHTER if there's something she's not telling you before you get irate!" :> ]

In the 21st century, *people* will be the products that are marketed to *vendors*. Expect your TV to tattle on your viewing preferences, which commercials you sit through/channel surf/take bathroom breaks. Expect your refrigerator to notice what you're eating -- and what times of day!

[*I* can tell you when you pee/crap/shower/sleep/eat/recreate/etc]

[Frank]

Nobody will say, I stole this. They just say, here's a free-be. In the beginning I googled for "free ebooks" and could see where they wanted to take me and said, no thanks.

BTW, working in industry, I did have some steal my stuff. They took documents I created and replaced my name with theirs. I was annoyed but the company was paying me.

[Ed Pawlowski]

You archive them to the B&N or Amazon Library. Can always dl them again if you want them. Once you buy them they are yours forever but you do not have to keep them on your device..

[Don Y]

SWMBO used to prepare elaborate financial reports for a hospital, here. Folks would pass them off as their own. She quickly learned to put her name on the documents and distribute them to many people (so lots of "witnesses") and in paper form, only ("white-out"?)

Writing software makes my "product" very easy -- and likely -- to "steal". Folks don't even bother replacing "my" name with theirs. They just deprive me of the revenues associated with the sale.

In the late 70's, (arcade) video games were at their hayday. The market craved new material. Good games were big moneymakers for the "operators" (the guys who collect the quarters out of the cashboxes).

Many vendors in the orient would literally copy the hardware and software in a game, make some token changes to the software so it wasn't an EXPLICIT copy (something along the lines of "Rac Man" instead of "Pac Man") and then push it out into the market at a cutrate price. Possible because they had spent *weeks* on the effort instead of the *years* the original had required!

We ended up developing elaborate schemes of *detecting* counterfeiting (can't prevent it). Seize a cargo container full of counterfeit product and the folks who ponied up the cash for them get annoyed, real quick!

[Don Y]

The "figuring out" isn't an issue for SWMBO -- she has a 24/7/365 "technical support" department "on call"... :> :<

She just doesn't want to read at her PC. Typically, while seated on the couch or sitting up in bed. One of my tablet PC's would satisfy the portability argument but she's not keen on the size *nor* the technology ("Why can't they just send me a BOOK??!"). She's at a point where she will either adapt or abandon the library as a source of reading materials.

I don't mind accessing my technical documents *at* a computer because I am typically referencing them while *working* on the computer. So, will want to have a document(s) open on one display(s) while working on something on another display (I have 7 monitors at my workstation).

I would *not* want to read a novel in this environment. I prefer to do my leisure reading "in the reading room (with the ornate, white PORCELAIN chair)", lying on the floor, sitting in the car (waiting for someone) or in a waiting room (doctor/dentist/hospital/etc).

I guess I don't understand the "interface" issue. Once a document is available, all you really (typically) need to do is flip pages, forwards or back. (?)

So, are "18,000 pages" the equivalent of 18,000 PRINT pages?? Roughly

36 books (assume 500pp/book)?

[Percival P. Cassidy]

One problem I've found -- and it may depend on the particular eBook format and the device on which it's being read -- is the absence of page numbers. I used an eBook version of a textbook for a class I was auditing, and when somebody referred to a page number of the "dead-tree version," I had to ask for a phrase for which I could search to find the passage under discussion.

Perce

[Don Y]

Hmmm... I've never considered that! Most of the documents that I'm converting *from* some ebook format (*to* PDF's) would have already lost/forfeit any notion of the original page numbers.

I think most ebook formats are like HTML in the sense that they concentrate on *content*, not *form*.

Maybe I'll try converting a PDF (with VISIBLE page numbers) into a MOBI/EPUB/etc. and then back again to gauge how things "move" in the process.

[Susan Bugher]

"Once a document is available" is NOT the first step in the process and I don't have a resident guru. :)

dunno if they usually renumber ebook pages or not (and a lot of books have more that one print edition) but here's a comparison of pages for one book.

You mentioned in an earlier post: "For example, a recent read (for me) was _Snow Crash_ -- just under 500pp in an ~8x10" format."

I have an epub file of that book - from the cover illustration & other info in the epub file I'm guessing it's based on the "Bantam Spectra trade paperback reissue / September 2003".

lessee. . . rats - didn't find that paperback version online but. .. shows "Bibliographic information" "Length 480 pages"

Looking at the epub file (on one of my Nooks) it says 463 pages which is not a lot different from 480 or your ~ 500 page count.

Susan--

[Idlehands]

No idea, it's just a stat provided by my Kobo, I just read, I don't worry about the comparisons.

[Idlehands]

As well it was more of a demo that it has been a very dependable device.

[rbowman]

Yes, if you choose a larger or smaller font the page is reflowed. There is a percentage given but not a page count.

This is really apples and codfish since I don't have a book as small as the Kindle screen, but a Per Wahloo detective story in a English paperback has about 300 words on a full page. The paperback is 8x5 with a fairly dense text format. A Asa Larsson mystery (in German) on the Kindle has about 160 but the Kindle screen is 5x3.5. An English novel with a little more dialog to break up the page was 150.

I'm not sure it's a meaningful metric. The percentage is equivalent to looking at a paper book and gauging how far along you are. I believe the newer models try to predict how long it will take you to finish based on your reading rate.

[rbowman]

I volunteered at the library in Dover, NH and one of the tasks was pruning the stock. There were two or three references books. One was 'Books in Print' and being included in BIP was good. I can't remember the titles of the other two references but one was essentially 'Books Every Library Should Have' and the other was similar. Being in those guaranteed the book was retained. Miss all three and it was a goner.

I thought the BIP criterion was counter intuitive. The out of print books are those that should be preserved. I scored a complete set of John Burroughs, a late 19th century naturalist from NY. They hadn't been checked out in some time and weren't in any of the references.

The MPL doesn't have much shelf space. Part of the reason is devoting a good deal of floor space to audiovisual materials. Again, that's what is popular along with books with unicorns on the cover. Celine, Hamsun, Hemingway, hit the road.

The library supposedly only has records of holds and that you have a particular book checked out. Bring it back and the record is gone. Or so they say. I sometimes miss the cards in the pockets where they'd put your name. Not secure at all but at least I could see at a glance if I'd read a book. I tend to run through authors I enjoy and can't always remember the titles I've read. Worse, sometimes I can get 50 pages into the text before I get the deja vu feeling.