January 2010 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

PDF-files
by Fernando Maia Jr. 15 Apr '10

15 Apr '10

[Sorry, I forgot to change the subject.] Hello, volunteers! I'm new here and I have a doubt. Would it be interesting for PG if it would have more PDF-files? I've searched for this information everywhere and I haven't found an answer yet, so that I decided to ask about it here. Sorry for possible mistakes (English isn't my native language). Thanks in advance, Fernando

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Formats and gripes
by Greg M. Johnson 08 Feb '10

08 Feb '10

I observed a bunch of things in the PG collection that were somewhere between maddening deficiencies in quality and simply how I wouldn't have done things. I could have made inflammatory demands that the whole system be rewrought according to my word. Instead I came up with my own custom DVD. And I'll testify that MH in discussing the idea was annoyingly non-paternalistic in not telling me how it had to be. ;) So, when someone complains, it is great when they can just go fix something themselves. There's the story of the king who demanded the whole world be covered in soft leather to keep his foot from being struck on a stone. Maybe someone should come up with a custom DVD with all the good works in EPUB format. I would respect PG if it were to refuse to host any and all of these bleeding edge formats. But I would love to be given the authority to create a raw text format without the 80-char line breaks. I agree that having these breaks (in the only TXT format available ) makes them unusable. The first-time visitor to PG probably won't be impressed that tools may be available to fix it.

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More iPad details
by Michael S. Hart 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

Mail attachment support * Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel) Languages * Language support for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian * Keyboard support for English (US) English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian * Dictionary support for English (US), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin), Russian Accessibility * Support for playback of closed-captioned content * VoiceOver screen reader * Full-screen zoom magnification * White on black * Mono audio I guess you could read .txt files in your email!!! Supported as above. "VoiceOver" Screen Reader?

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Re: Transferring PG files from PC to iPod
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

keith said: > Sorry, BB I think You did not due Walter and Andrew justice. > They did not attack anyone and just stated their views. > You could have just have just mention the advantages of > eucalyptus. But, why be so sarcastic here. hey, back off, keith, now. i didn't "attack" anyone, not by any stretch of the imagination. i just disagreed with something walter said. or, more specifically, i asked for clarification, and registered a few counter-thoughts... and i don't appreciate it when people mistake my motives and then mischaracterize them as if they had some handle on them. you've made a mistake here, keith, a bad mistake, and if i were the whining kind, i'd probably demand some kind of apology, but as it is, i'm just warning you to stop making that mistake... > You could have just have just mention the advantages of > eucalyptus. But, why be so sarcastic here. i _did_ mention the "advantage" of eucalyptus, nice formatting. but that just introduces the same question i asked about stanza, namely, "what is it that _constitutes_ nice and proper formatting?" this is a good question, one that really _needs_ to be asked, so that we can then go on and ask more sophisticated questions, such as "how do we apply that formatting?", and "what kind of rule-set is eucalyptus following in order to apply its formatting?", and so on. as it is, though, as evidenced by the mess of formats coming out of d.p., there is a wide range of "formatting" that _could_ be considered "proper", so it's rather meaningless when someone refers to "proper formatting", and it's good to know that. it doesn't mean they are "wrong", but it _does_ mean that we are justified in asking them precisely what _they_ mean by the term... and further, there is no "sarcasm" here. i'm plenty capable of being sarcastic it, it's something i do often, and fairly well, although there probably isn't much "honor" in that performance in most eyes, but there's no reason to think that everything that i do is "sarcastic"... if you pay any attention at all, it should be quite easy to see when i am being sarcastic and when i'm not. so keith, _pay_attention_, at least if you're going to make commentary. also, i'm not sure if eucalyptus uses the utf8 version of files or not. plain-text doesn't rule out an encoding -- or even utf8 -- you know. -bowerbird

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Re: More iPad details
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

jim said: > You would think that someone, Congress maybe, would > step into this mess and mandate "accessibility" of e-books they just did. of course, making it stick is another matter entirely... -bowerbird

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iPad Details
by Michael S. Hart 31 Jan '10

31 Jan '10

Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm) Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm) Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm) Weight: 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model; 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model Display * 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology * 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi) It will play .wav files!!! Supposedly NOT plain text file!!! iPad embodies Apples continuing environmental progress. It is designed with the following features to reduce environmental impact: * Arsenic-free display glass * BFR-free * Mercury-free LCD display * PVC-free * Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure Environmental requirements * Operating temperature: 32 to 95 F (0 to 35 C) * Nonoperating temperature: -4 to 113 F (-20 to 45 C) * Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing * Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m) It might not work too well in places I used to work, such as Chimney Park, Wyoming. . . .

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Re: Transferring PG files from PC to iPod
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Jan '10

29 Jan '10

walter said: > Stanza on the iPhone is great. Especially in combination with Feedbook, > which provides proper formatting for many Gutenberg etexts. stanza is ok. and feedbook is very good. but something about these sentences still rubs me the wrong way. i think it's the notion that "proper formatting" can be defined well. (to that end, perhaps you'd like to give us your definition, walter.) or perhaps it's the feeling that you probably haven't yet examined enough feedbook e-books to gauge its quality with much accuracy. or maybe it's the knowledge that feedbooks has likely cherrypicked the easiest books to format, and left the difficult ones for a later day. at any rate, i would encourage you to spend the mere $10 and buy the iphone app "eucalyptus", which pulls from the entire (english) project gutenberg catalog, and provides nice formatting (defined as "it looks nice", which implies that it is "proper" formatting as well), while using the plain-text files obtained _directly_ from p.g. itself. (feedbooks starts with p.g. files, but massages them to put them into its proprietary database. which is probably why it has only done about 15% of the project gutenberg catalog, at my last check.) *** andrew said: > I was impressed with Stanza when I saw that it appears to use utf-8 really? that's all it takes to "impress" you, is the use of utf8? you're not too hard to please... -bowerbird

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New PG search engine alpha test
by Marcello Perathoner 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

Please test the new search engine at: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/search It provides a 'mobileOK' view, to use on mobile phones. It also provides an OPDS catalog view for Stanza. "In Stanza 1.5, you can add a new catalog by going to the "Online Catalog" section and tapping the "+" button, where you can enter the name and URL of you catalog to add." -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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Transferring PG files from PC to iPod
by Al Haines (shaw) 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

A request arrived at PG Errata system for help/advice on transferring PG's book files from PC to iPod. Here's the body of the message: I am having trouble downloading certain books to my itunes though others work fine. The ones I'm having trouble with download directly to my computer and I have not figured out how to move them to my ipod. Is this an error or my stupidity. I love gutenberg and was thrilled to find it but am now frustrated with certain author choices. A Google search on "transferring files from pc to ipod" finds all kinds of utilities purporting to do such transfers--any recommendations that I can pass to the requestor? Al

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Epub vs. Android
by Greg M. Johnson 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

This may be a device discussion, but it could tie in to an issue of varying "features" (if "quality" were too pejorative a term) of epub items in the PG collection. I've on occasion downloaded one or two epub books from PG directly from the web page, using the phone. I then use Astro to move the file around to the appropriate directory, and had success with Aldiko or FBreader seeing the files. That is, seeing the full file info, complete with the author showing up under author list, and having access to all of the tags. {Let me make an aside that this is one of the joys of the electronic age: I was once stuck with my family at a drive-in restaurant, and five minutes after I had the idea, I was reading them Jules Verne off my phone!} Then I got greedy. I downloaded a large handful of epub's on a PC, and moved them over to the appropriate directory. Now for most of them, Neither see the tags, Aldiko only sees the author, and FBreader doesn't even see the title! It's just "pgxxx.epub". Are there "individual design decisions" that influence how much information gets embedded in any particular epub file that gets produced? I think if someone were to want only one ebook, tags don't matter, but if someone is going to have more than five, it is a problem. Granted, one had too many redundant tags, but the title and author should be locatable. Or is it the software's fault? Maybe we need someone to be a curator of some of the best epub books in the collection. -- Greg M. Johnson http://pterandon.blogspot.com

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