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

Re: kindle continues to zoom, hardware and software
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

any time amazon does a press-release, the crackpots come out and try to throw rocks. it's become an amusing thing to watch. the fact of that matter is that those press-releases are fraught with legalistic landmines. look at the "forward-look statements" fine print included at the bottom, which is required by the s.e.c. i'm quite sure they think about what they say, and spin it in a way that makes it sound as good as they can, but i'm also sure it's true. because the cost of saying something false -- even technically so -- is just too damn high. it just might get you sued, class-action wise. and, as jim points out, amazon says that e-books are kicking ass _across_the_board_. and that sounds rather unambiguous to me. further, if amazon was saying something that was materially untrue, don't you think the publishers would call them on it? i'm sure of it. after all, the publishers know the actual numbers on all these claims. and they're actively looking for a way to take amazon down a notch... yet none of them are disputing what amazon says. indeed, when the last press-release was issued, publishers confirmed that it was true... *** oh, and yes, some books from p.g. are being sold (or given away) on amazon. we have discussed this before. and if p.g. wanted to, p.g. could offer those books _itself_ and knock out the knock-offs. but nobody here has stepped up to do that. y'all just wanna bitch. and until you get up off your asses and _do_something_, nothing will change. -bowerbird

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Re: Borders Books selling eReaders under $100
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

i said: > tommorow holy crap. how did my spell-checker get turned off? i apologize for subjecting you to an unnecessary typo. i assure you the situation has been corrected. -bowerbird

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Borders Books selling eReaders under $100
by James Adcock 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

As web pundits have been predicting, Borders is now selling eReaders under $100. This is for the older "USB and Bluetooth" KOBO reader, the newer model with wifi is $139. Good price if you want an ePub device with the Adobe DRM which may allow you to download ebooks from your local library using Overdrive - not to mention read ePubs from PG (But you will have to download them via your computer and USB cable, or if you have a Blackberry then by wifi.) <http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_ereaders> http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_ereaders Video review by ZDNet: <http://tinyurl.com/24lxnro> http://tinyurl.com/24lxnro

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What texts need for scholarly usage
by Karen Lofstrom 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

When texts are displayed on various ereaders, the pagination is going to vary depending on the screen size, font chosen, etc. There's no way that you can usefully refer to Tractatus p. 15, say. Page references work ONLY when everyone is using the same deadtree text. What ebooks need is a software utility that can overlay any text with the same sort of reference system used for works like the Bible or the Qur'an. Matthew 5: 9 or Sura 24 Ayat 25. Only a system like this can cope with books printed/displayed in many editions and formats. It would have to be written to work with the most common ebook formats, and should be an add-on that could be toggled on or off. Most of the time you wouldn't want it, but when you did need to refer to a certain passage, you could turn it on. Wouldn't this be simple to code, if the book has a TOC with chapter headings? -- Karen Lofstrom

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Amazon misinformation agan
by Marcello Perathoner 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

"For the top 10 bestselling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than 2 to 1." http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=14… Their top 1 bestselling book is: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as snarfed from PG. Selling books is twice as hard as giving them away. Thanks, Amazon, for this big piece of insight. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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Auto: kindle continues to zoom, hardware and software
by inka＠21torr.com 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

Vielen Dank fuer Ihre Nachricht. Ich bin vom 23. 10. bis zum 14. 11. 2010 im Urlaub und habe keinen Zugang zu meinen E-Mails. Wenden Sie sich daher in dringenden Faellen bitte an Astrid Stephan: a.stephan(a)21torr.com Telefon 07121/3 48-243

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Twitter
by Marcello Perathoner 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

You may want to follow gutenberg_new on Twitter. It cackles about new ebooks posted at PG in real time. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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Re: 7.5 million ipads sold thus far
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

jim said: > it doesn't seem like iPad has slowed > down Kindle ebook sales too much. who would have ever thought that anyway? *** i reported on the number of ipads sold versus the number of kindles sold (not kindle-books) because michael hart and i have a friendly bet on the relative number of units moved of each. -bowerbird

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7.5 million ipads sold thus far
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 19 Oct '10

19 Oct '10

apple's earnings in the most recent quarter are off the chart. iphone, ipod, and ipad... apple has sold _7.5_million_ ipads to date... still no announcement from amazon about how many kindles they have sold thus far... best of luck to both companies in the upcoming holiday buying frenzies... -bowerbird

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Re: quarterly report on fadedpage, through september 2010
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 18 Oct '10

18 Oct '10

keith said: > Well, I was taking your description for granted, I will admit that. not really. i said roger expected the postprocessor to do all of the work. you were the one who misinterpreted this as "quality control". quality-control is done _after_ the last person does the work. when the postprocessor does all the work, there's no one left to do any quality-control. so that's one of the main problems. (the other main problem is that stripping the first-line workers of the ability to finalize the page means you disempower them. "match the scan" sounds all friendly and tolerant, but -- in the long run -- it robs the proofers of a sense of accomplishment. what it boils down to is that roger solved the wrong problem... instead of "relieving proofers" of the risk of "making an error", he should have given them the reward of _finishing_the_page_.) > No mention on his HP, I am not in the forums. you can find roger's post here: > http://www.pgdp.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=711089#711089 note that the thread continues on for a few pages... and that continuation is exactly what a knowledgeable observer would have predicted, both for what is said and what is missing. (the part that's "missing" is an absence of commentary from the asses behind the scenes who obstruct any progress over there.) -bowerbird

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