December 2004 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Induce law
by Norm Wolcott 11 Dec '04

11 Dec '04

The people who brought you Sonny Bono now are giving you the Induce Law. Prohibitting the manufacture or sale of any device which might be "reasonably" assumed to "induce" anyone into violating any law or regulation. A VCR is a good example. nwolcott2(a)post.harvard.edu Friar Wolcott, Gutenberg Abbey, Sherwood Forrest

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Re: [gutvol-d] Induce law
by Gutenberg9443＠aol.com 11 Dec '04

11 Dec '04

In a message dated 12/11/2004 8:27:09 AM Mountain Standard Time, nwolcott2(a)kreative.net writes: >>Prohibitting the manufacture or sale of any device >>which might be "reasonably" assumed to "induce" >>anyone into violating any law or regulation. A VCR is a >>good example. Passed or proposed? In what legislative body? It seems to me that would hit photocopiers, scanners, tape recorders, large and/or external hard drives, and . . . the list could go on quite a while longer. This is absurd. Anne Anne

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PG books used by visually impaired
by Andrew Sly 08 Dec '04

08 Dec '04

Dear fellow PG volunteers, Here's a recent newsgroup posting that I came across showing more of the use that people do get out of the texts that we are creating. Andrew Newsgroups: alt.disability.blind.social Date: 2004-12-07 11:15:06 PST I often listen to books from the Gutenberg Project on my laptop. Most of those books are available from the US Library of Congress on audio cassette tape. So mainly, when I listen to a book on my laptop, it's because I forgot to order another book and am having a "book emergency". You know, when you finish one book and have nothig else to read and it's cold and rainy outside and there's nothing on TV? But I've listened to a lot of books on my laptop and after a while you don't notice the voice -- if it's a good book.

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Re: [gutvol-d] NYT upbeat on e-books; so am I.
by Gutenberg9443＠aol.com 07 Dec '04

07 Dec '04

In a message dated 12/4/2004 4:09:58 PM Mountain Standard Time, alex(a)awstudios.net writes: "Sunday's NYT Book Review will carry an upbeat article on e-books, complete with mention of the New York Public Library's impressive 3,000-title efforts...." Good news. But, as has been pointed out often, nobody really wants to sit at the computer or take the computer to bed in order to read a book. Nobody is going to provide book-size ebook readers for very long unless doing so becomes financially feasible. So if you don't want to read on a computer or on a PDA, I would appreciate it if anybody who can afford it would go to either eBookWise.com or FictionWise.com and spend at least $20 a month. If you don't have an ebook reader you can download Microsoft Reader to your desktop free; however, if you purchase th e 1150 you will have a highly acceptable tool you can use for many years. By buying all the remaining 1150s and making them available dirt cheap; transforming over 7500 ebooks, mostly proprietary, into the right format for the 1150; hiring software engineers to fix perceived problems; and hiring hardware engineers to make improved readers, FictionWise has stuck its neck so far out it looks like a giraffe. Now we need to feed that giraffe. As to my complaints about the 1150, I was mistaken on most of them. Some of the changes from Rocket are definitely an improvement. For example, so far I have zorched TWO Rocket powercords because the location of the cord port is such that the cord is often bent at a right angle. The 1150's cord port is at the top, which obviates that problem. It is possible to insert bookmarks (I was just plain wrong on that earlier). It is also possible to handwrite your notes to yourself as you're reading. I have only two remaining objections: First, of course, is the limited ability to use personal material; that is being worked on right now, and will be fixed as soon as possible by allowing direct USB downloading from your computer. The other, which I hadn't noticed earlier, is that there is no dictionary capability. I use that extensively in the Rocket, both English dictionary and language-to-language dictionaries. I do not know whether there is any intention of adding that. I won't update again until the USB problem is remedied. But on second thought, if you have it to spare, spend $50 a month at Fictionwise and/or eBookwise. Unfortunately, $20 is my limit and I don't always have that. But I think that the combination of free ebooks from us and many other sources, and commercial ebooks, is going to be a long-range win for all of us. Anne PS--Yes, you can read at the beach if you keep your 1150 inside a ziplock plastic bag, though I wouldn't do it because the possibility of somebody stealing it or walking on it is too high. As for underwater . . . If you're underwater watch the fishies instead of reading a book. I still wouldn't read it in the bathtub, but then I never read in the bathtub anyway since I dropped a rather expensive library book into the water. AW

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NYT upbeat on e-books
by Alex Wilson 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

Just saw this note on Slashdot, though it'd be of interest. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/04/181228 "Sunday's NYT Book Review will carry an upbeat article on e-books, complete with mention of the New York Public Library's impressive 3,000-title efforts...." Links and discussion at the above link. Alex. http://www.alexwilson.com - Alex Wilson Studios http://www.telltaleweekly.org - Funding a Free Audiobook Library

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Update on eBookWise -more sanguine
by Gutenberg9443＠aol.com 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

I'm feeling a little better about the eBookWise reader than I did yesterday. The problem with getting ebooks from the online bookshelf into my reader turned out to be a problem with the telephone company serving the bookshelf. I checked on that and this afternoon I was able to download with no problem at all. The "handwriting" feature suddenly started working. I don't know why it wasn't working before. I'm still not happy about the contrast, and obviously, until an eBookWise Librarian program allows personal content to be used without limit, I'm not going to be happy about the present very limited personal content, especially since I like to do a lot of my editing on my Rocket. It will actually be far easier on eBookWise once unlimited personal content is allowed, because it's much easier for me to write in the changes and then transfer by hand to the computer than it is to monkey around with punching each letter on a teeny little keyboard with the stylus. eBookWise took care of a rather peculiar problem with my ability to order a book. Their technicians are noticeably quick to correct problems that do not entail new programs, and their customer service reps also are prompt. So I think that once the USB computer to reader problem is solved, thereby solving the problem of extensive use of personal content, the reader will be highly user-friendly. Obviously eBookWise would rather I purchase books from them than use my own content, and I will definitely be purchasing as many books as I can afford. As I have been saying for years, I can't imagine anyone who has given a fair trial to a good ebook reader chosing to go back to tree books if there's an ebook available. Anne

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Re: [gutvol-d] possible fix for overwide tables in PGTEI text (was:XMLversion of some books...)
by Joshua Hutchinson 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcello Perathoner" <marcello(a)perathoner.de> > > Joshua Hutchinson wrote: > > > Would it be possible for the converter to assume that if no manual > > width is specified, that it should just divide the table width by the > > number of columns and apply that value automatically to each column? > > That is exactly what it does unless you specify some column width. > > Good. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Josh

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Re: [gutvol-d] XML version of some books of PG (and other formats)
by Joshua Hutchinson 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

The hard part is getting the table info within PG text 80 column width. A typical table might be 4 columns wide and 5 rows tall. Here is a fairly simple one from a Basebal Guide text I'm working on... Club. Won. Lost. P.C. Chicago 42 14 .788 Hartford 47 21 .691 St. Louis 45 19 .703 Boston 39 31 .557 Louisville 30 36 .455 Mutual 21 35 .375 Athletic 14 45 .237 Cincinnati 9 56 .135 Here is one a little more complex... It has more text columns. THE RECORD OF 1875. Club. Won. Lost. P.C. Club. Won. Lost. P.C. Boston ........ 71 8 .809 St. Louis Reds .... 4 14 .222 Athletic ...... 55 28 .756 Washington ........ 4 22 .156 Hartford ...... 54 28 .639 New Haven ......... 7 39 .152 St. Louis* .... 29 39 .574 Centennial......... 2 13 .133 Philadelphia .. 37 31 .544 Western ........... 1 12 .077 Chicago ....... 30 37 .448 Atlantic .......... 2 42 .065 Mutual ........ 29 38 .426 FYI, this table becomes this in TEI markup (NOTE: I made the second Club column just continue under the first for simplicities sake): <table rows="16" cols="4"> <row> <cell cols="4" role="label">THE RECORD OF 1875.</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="label">Club.</cell><cell role="label">Won.</cell><cell role="label">Lost.</cell><cell role="label">P.C.</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Boston</cell><cell role="data">71</cell><cell role="data">8</cell><cell role="data">.809</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Athletic</cell><cell role="data">55</cell><cell role="data">28</cell><cell role="data">.756</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Hartford</cell><cell role="data">54</cell><cell role="data">28</cell><cell role="data">.639</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">St. Louis</cell><cell role="data"><sic corr="39">29</sic></cell><cell role="data"><sic corr="29">39</sic></cell><cell role="data">.574</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Philadelphia</cell><cell role="data">37</cell><cell role="data">31</cell><cell role="data">.544</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Chicago</cell><cell role="data">30</cell><cell role="data">37</cell><cell role="data">.448</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Mutual</cell><cell role="data">29</cell><cell role="data">38</cell><cell role="data">.426</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">St. Louis Reds</cell><cell role="data">4</cell><cell role="data">14</cell><cell role="data">.222</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Washington</cell><cell role="data">4</cell><cell role="data">22</cell><cell role="data">.156</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">New Haven</cell><cell role="data">7</cell><cell role="data">39</cell><cell role="data">.152</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Centennial</cell><cell role="data">2</cell><cell role="data">13</cell><cell role="data">.133</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Western</cell><cell role="data">1</cell><cell role="data">12</cell><cell role="data">.077</cell> </row> <row> <cell role="data">Atlantic</cell><cell role="data">2</cell><cell role="data">42</cell><cell role="data">.065</cell> </row> </table> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sebastien Blondeel" <blondeel(a)clipper.ens.fr> To: "Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion" <gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org> Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] XML version of some books of PG (and other formats) Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 16:16:02 +0100 > > On Fri, Dec 03, 2004 at 08:46:10AM -0500, Joshua Hutchinson wrote: > > I'm curious to see if your script can handle tables. That is our > > current biggest bugaboo when it comes to transforming to PG TXT > > format. > > My DTD doesn't mention them (yet?). It focuses mainly on the French > books of the ebooksgratuits site. I guess it can very easily be injected > in a more complete DTD (TEI, Docbook, whatever). > > I already did Perl (not XSLT!) translations of XML tables (Docbook, for > example) to other formats (HTML: easy; LaTeX: harder...; TXT: w3m -dump > of the HTML version is usually good enough) for other projects. > > I heard there were now Perl modules able to deal with XML and XSLT so it > should be even easier to take care of. XSLT-style of programming is not > for me... > > How complex are your tables and what do you need to do with them? Any > example of (input, output desired, and constraints [API, language...] of > the transformation)? > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d

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promo.net/pg
by Michael Ciesielski 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

promo.net/pg is still the second result for a Google search for "Project Gutenberg". Is there any reason why this site still exists other then as a redirect to gutenberg.org? At the moment, the top two choices are: ** <http://www.gutenberg.org/> Welcome to Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg PROJECT GUTENBERG OFFICIAL HOME SITE - INDEX -- Free Books On-Line ... Not knowing anything about PG, I'd be most inclined to go for the second, which is promo.net. Once opened, the promo.net site provides no indication that it is not the real PG website, and even the link to gutenberg.net is phrased such that a casual glance would make one think that promo.net/pg was the official site. Mike

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Re: [gutvol-d] XML version of some books of PG (and other formats)
by Joshua Hutchinson 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

I'm curious to see if your script can handle tables. That is our current biggest bugaboo when it comes to transforming to PG TXT format. Josh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sebastien Blondeel" <blondeel(a)clipper.ens.fr> To: gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org Subject: [gutvol-d] XML version of some books of PG (and other formats) Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 05:28:39 +0100 > > Hello, > > I hacked some scripts doing the following: > > RTF -> XML > > RTF: from Word, using a (very) simple stylesheet: just > paragraphs, 3 title levels, footnotes, and italics > Meta-information is in the properties of the document. > My script can extract images too, if wanted. > > XML: using a personal and simple DTD (embedded), probably easy to port > to any more complete DTD, such as TEI > > This is the hard part, and I am never quite sure it will not break in > case the Word file is weird. > > > From that, I then did other (proof-of-concept) scripts to produce: > > XML -> PG TXT > XML -> (LaTeX) -> PDF, DVI, PS (with hyperlinks) > XML -> valid HTML 4.01 (probably useless) > XML -> XHTML 1.0 Strict with some CSS (embedded) > > The programming is very defensive, so when all transforms finish I am > confident enough the stuff is right. > > You can find examples of those formats at > http://www.eleves.ens.fr/home/blondeel/ebooksgratuits/ > (most of the books there don't have the meta-info properly set up, > so don't worry too much about that). > > My scripts also clean up small typography mistakes (they are specialized > in French rules but can of course be taught any thing). They will be > used to help give PG nicer formats from the ebooksgratuits team (until > now their Word macros could only produce PG TXT, which is not very sexy > to read for the end user). > > Regards, > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d

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