March 2011 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Reading e-books on a large device
by Mjit RaindancerStahl 14 Mar '11

14 Mar '11

With all the chatter about the best way to produce e-books for one format or the other, I thought this might be the best place to ask: What's the best way to read epub books on a Win XP laptop? I know someone mentioned a Kindle simulator. I am hoping there's a more common general-purpose word processor that can render the e-book in a readable fashion. I ask because a couple of author friends have put out kindle versions of their books. I want to support them, but I don't have the extra $300 for a Kindle... -- Mjit RaindancerStahl answerwitch(a)gmail.com

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Minor error in ePUBMaker toolchain?
by Robert Gibbins 13 Mar '11

13 Mar '11

I wonder if there isn't a minor error somewhere in the tool chain used to produce PG epub files from HTML sources. An example: - in the HTML of PG105, Persuasion by Jane Austen, at the head of the file is the line: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> - in the xhtml constituent files of the epub of PG105 is the line: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/htmlcharset=utf-8"/> (This xhtml was presumably derived from the HTML above, but presumably modified to declare that it is now in UTF-8 as required for xhtml not ISO-8859-1 as in the HTML.) BUT should it not say instead say: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> ? epubcheck V1.1 from google code doesn't raise an error at "text/htmlcharset=utf-8", and of course one can argue that the fact that the epub's xhtml files already have an overriding declaration: <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> means that the above problem doesn't really matter even if it exists, but I am wondering if I should correct it in my remastered epubs. Bob Gibbins

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Wake Up!!!
by Michael S. Hart 13 Mar '11

13 Mar '11

Just a reminder, for those who partake of Daylight Savings Time. If you are wondering why you seem to be an hour behind today??? We all lost an hour at 2AM last night, I actually watched it happen! For the rest of you. . .sorry. . .go back to sleep. . . . No!!! Don't throw things!!! I didn't mean to wake YOU up!!! Aaahhhh!!!!

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Wake Up!!!
by Michael S. Hart 13 Mar '11

13 Mar '11

Just a reminder, for those who partake of Daylight Savings Time. If you are wondering why you seem to be an hour behind today??? We all lost an hour at 2AM last night, I actually watched it happen! For the rest of you. . .sorry. . .go back to sleep. . . . No!!! Don't throw things!!! I didn't mean to wake YOU up!!! Aaahhhh!!!!

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!@! More Kindle Qs
by Michael S. Hart 09 Mar '11

09 Mar '11

Once I got to a "settings" menu that allowed me to clear the cache, which temp got rid of the "device full" error message. . . . How do I get back to that "settings" menu. . .I never get the part that says "clear cache" again. . .hee hee. When I attached to my computer the Kindle did show up as a drive, and I could delete things, but it said it has 3.33G free. . . . These are all problems on the DX, not on the G3. . . . More thanks!!! Michael

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against cruft in our e-books
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 07 Mar '11

07 Mar '11

two posts today that argue against cruft in e-books... michael quoted someone saying: > I love the PG site. I’ve found > the books to be the cleanest > of all the sites that offer free e-books. > Not quite sure that “cleanest” is > the right word, by it I mean that > other than the PG wraparound information, > there isn’t any extraneous stuff to try to read around. travis said: > The fact that pg offers things in plain text is great, > I can grab a book, put it in any format I like > (or none at all for that matter) > and know it will work with my system. add in all the hassles of the different formats, and the ongoing struggle people have with d.r.m., and it's clear that the world will come to realize that file-formats which introduce markup into the text and/or wrap the text into a proprietary file-format are not doing us readers any favors. we want the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text. but what does "the whole text" mean? well, the one thing that's missing from p.g. e-texts is any reliable indication of the _structure_ of the book... that is, we cannot easily inform the computer where the headers are, and which parts are poems, or blockquotes, or footnotes, and which paragraphs should be rewrapped and which should not, and where any images should go, and so on... if p.g. e-texts contained that information, then we could build for travis the type of e-book reader-program which would allow him to read e-books without sighted assistance. and yes, z.m.l. _is_ that format. (i'm so glad you noticed.) so travis, since the contributions have dried up on the other "collaborative" project that "we" were doing, i can make myself available to collaborate with you on one... design the type of program you'd like -- completely -- and i'll see if i can make it work... you let me know, ok? -bowerbird

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no cure? (fwd)
by Michael S. Hart 07 Mar '11

07 Mar '11

I’ve been exploring the PG site this evening. When I came across the following, I burst out laughing. “No cure is known to exist, but treatment to alleviate symptoms requires frequent and regular use of Project Gutenberg to read online or to download free e-books.” I can vouch for its accuracy :-) Over the last three or four years, I’ve downloaded approximately 4,500 books from PG...which should tell you why I’m trying to learn about cataloging (sp? Sometimes I see it with a “u.”) I love the PG site. I’ve found the books to be the cleanest of all the sites that offer free e-books. Not quite sure that “cleanest” is the right word, by it I mean that other than the PG wraparound information, there isn’t any extraneous stuff to try to read around. I recommend the site a lot.

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!@! More Kindle Issue
by Michael S. Hart 05 Mar '11

05 Mar '11

HELP!!! I started on the Kindle DX learning curve today, but I had lots more trouble than with the 3G.... 1. When I tried to surf to http://bit.ly/gutmagic it kept telling me it wasn't there, over and over. 2. When I finally got there by surfing Google and using their various links, the DX told me I cannot download anything other than textist files via the basic browser they provide. 3. I tried again from a wifi hot spot and even if it didn't say which was which, or have me login on the local wifi, apparently it did, and finally all of the stuff started to work. 4. In fact, it went back and downloaded magic and downloaded magic and downloaded magic all the time I had tried before were apparently stored up. 5. After I downloaded the same handful of books I had put on the Kindle 3G, it complained it was soo full I had to delete some to download new ones. How could it already be full? How big is "gutmagic?" Also, when I tried to open many of the books I got a message saying it couldn't open them, and when I tried to delete them they didn't go. . . . Help!!! Michael

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march forth!
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 04 Mar '11

04 Mar '11

the online converter project is marching forth quite splendidly. today's version installs formatted text into the .epub, meaning we are just about finished with that format... i'll upload today's version later, because i'm first uploading a sample of the .epub that is created, for people to evaluate: > http://76.74.254.239/~bowerbird/fepub.epub since it stopped coming, i no longer "await your feedback", but if you have any, i probably won't ignore it completely... so you have some time to view it, while i wait on other people. -bowerbird

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Interesting sci-fi view of the future of libraries
by Michael S. Hart 04 Mar '11

04 Mar '11

Interesting fiction article from [Australian] Cosmos magazine: http://bit.ly/iaUQii

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