- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: time after time
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 19 Feb '11

19 Feb '11

> sounds great! let me know when you have something i'll put the first draft of an app up online tomorrow... -bowerbird

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Re: time after time
by Morasch＠aol.com 19 Feb '11

19 Feb '11

sounds great! let me know when you have something.

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Re: time after time
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 19 Feb '11

19 Feb '11

> hey bowerbird, i will collaborate with you. great! > what did you have in mind? oh, you know, a tool that makes it simple for people to generate electronic-books... for instance, one of the things that p.g. needs is a way for people to take an e-text and then generate an .epub out of it, or .pdf, or .mobi... so that might be a good start on a project... for instance, the first day's work might be just creating the broad outlines of a user-interface. the next day might be providing the ability to read a file, perhaps loading it directly from p.g. the following day might be allowing the user to save the edited file, and recall it at a later time. that would be a start, anyway, but remember that this is a _collaboration_, and i am merely a guide, but i will require that you be an active party here, to give me feedback on what has been done, and to provide input on where you think we need to go. see, i've already explored all of this territory fully, so i don't really need to go through this exercise... it's _you_ who needs to understand how to do this, and how it should be done, and why it is being done _this_ way instead of _that_ way, and to know all that, you're going to have to _think_ about all of this stuff... i've already done that thinking; i don't need to do it again. but until _you_ have done it, you simply won't understand... this is why i require that you be an _active_ participant in this collaborative process that we will be going through... so if you're not willing to follow through on a commitment, don't bother to get me started. i have done that before, and i've quit every time because nobody would join in or keep up. -bowerbird

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Re: time after time
by Morasch＠aol.com 19 Feb '11

19 Feb '11

hey bowerbird, i will collaborate with you. what did you have in mind?

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time after time
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 19 Feb '11

19 Feb '11

time after time, i have offered to collaborate with people on this listserve to do a project... nobody, including michael hart, is interested. over the years, a lotta people here called me names, called my work "vaporware", said it was "impossible" to do what i suggested, and insulted me some more. throughout, i have continued to do my research. i've learned a lot in the process, and i've wanted to pass this knowledge along. but nobody cares. i've offered bits and pieces of my work repeatedly, and nobody even looked at it, as far as i could tell. and yet those same people came back at me with bogus "vaporware" charges, over and over again... it's as if they think that if they refuse to look at it, it doesn't exist. that's how freaking stupid they are. meanwhile, people at d.p. struggle to make e-books, because they don't have the best tools they could have. i work hard. i've done a lot. i've created some stuff that it would be _good_ for you people to know about. but i'm tired of trying to bang sense into your heads. i have asked you to take some extremely small steps, just give daily feedback on a project that evolves daily, and you're not even willing to do _that_, even though with my guidance you could have something awesome in a matter of weeks, since i know the territory so well. i'm not gonna work my ass off to _hand_ you something, when you can't even be bothered to write a simple post saying "i would like a program that did x, and y, and z." i'll go off and show the rest of the world what i know, because they are actively looking for a _simple_way_ to make electronic-books. i offered it to _you_ first, so you could have offered it to the world as your baby, battle-tested and all, but you weren't interested in it. and while i am showing it to the world, i will be here, too, every day, telling you how you could have had this thing, but you were too proud and stupid to know you wanted it. even though you are still struggling every day, trying to invent the things that i already have working perfectly well. so call me all the names you want, you twisted individuals, because i am tougher than you will ever be, count on it... -bowerbird

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Re: cryptic star-trek reference again
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 19 Feb '11

19 Feb '11

michael said: > I think that if BB had given it > any amout of thought when originally stated, > I would have been more than clear enough. no, i tried to figure it out, and couldn't. sorry. > Now that the events have passed, > it makes no difference. . . . the "events" are still in play. just like they have been, for the last 7 years, composed by over 2555 days... and it _does_ make a difference... > If anyone is truly curious, and sends me back > the original message, I will help them figure it out. . . . i am truly curious. the archives are here: > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-February/thread.html but i went and fetched the references for you. > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-February/007363.html > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-February/007395.html > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-February/007400.html *** so here's your post, quoting mine, where you first used it... > ok, so i've been on this listserve over 7 years. > that's over 2555 days. > > during that time, i have advised you what to do. > you didn't listen. i offered to help you. in return, > you attacked me, denigrated me, slandered me... > > every day, i gave you a new chance at redemption. > you blew it... over 2555 chances at redemption... > > i have written several drafts of yet another post > telling you how you missed the boat on what i > have been offering you, and i will consolidate > all those versions, and post it sometime soon... > > but i'm here, today, and tomorrow, and the day > after that, and the day after that, offering you > _still_another_ explicit chance at redemption... > > i will upload a web-app today. this app will be > a collaborative project of this listserve, aiming to > instantiate the advice i've offered you for years. > > every day, based on feedback given on this list, > i will improve the program. you must give some > kind of feedback -- reviews, requests, whatever -- > on the app _every_day_, or the project collapses. > > each day, we just have to make a little baby step, > some kind of improvement moving us forward... > it doesn't have to be a giant step, just a baby step. > but if we fail to make a step one day, it's all over... > > we're going to start small, and take small steps. > but if we work together, _every_day,_ it won't be > long at all before we have something worthwhile. > > together, we can create something of value. > > or not. > > the decision is up to you. > > this is your last chance at redemption. > > don't blow it. > > -bowerbird "You just go on quoting those regulations, Lt. Saavik." "Hours could seem like days, days could seem like weeks." "Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning." *** and here's your post, again quoting mine, where you used the phrase the second time... > rickywong said: > > What do you guys think? > > so, did anyone respond to you backchannel > about your project? or was it total silence? > > > > How many people are on this list anyway? > > from 300-350, depending on duplicates. > > that number has been remarkably consistent > for many years, rising slowly across that time, > but with an extremely small amount of "churn". > > as you can see, though, it's extremely passive. > > once again, everyone here has failed to meet > my challenge for them to do a collaboration... > > nothing new about that in terms of this list. > > what _is_ new is that the outside world has > finally risen to the point where it thinks that > _it_ can meet my challenge, as evidenced here: > > http://www.pressbooks.com > > this is a new venture from hugh mcguire, who > many here will surely recognize as the founder > of librivox, an audiobook public-domain project. > > i have talked with hugh. i am not convinced that > he can best me, but i'm quite happy to see him try. > > so once again, everyone here at project gutenberg > continues on autopilot, while the rest of the world > passes them by. oh well, it was nice while it lasted. > > -bowerbird And indeed it was so that: "Hours could seem like days, and day would seem like weeks." *** so, what's the explanation? -bowerbird

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cryptic star-trek reference again
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 18 Feb '11

18 Feb '11

again michael gives the same cryptic star-trek reference. care to explain it, michael? the internet informs me that, in this scene in the movie, spock speaks in code (so "days" actually means "hours") to mislead an enemy who is listening in on the dialog... i'm not speaking in code, nor am i misleading anyone, so i cannot say that i understand the meaning here... oh, and by the way, just in case it wasn't absolutely clear, my invitation to collaborate extends to michael as well, of course, so all he has to do to spur me into action is to say that he wants to collaborate, and then follow through. i'd love to develop a web-app or offline tool to his specs... indeed, i have wondered all along why michael has not responded more positively to the suggestions i've made. my recommendations could have cemented his vision, by trumpeting plain-text format as "the master version". indeed, if he had gotten on-board early, he could have propagated the model to internet archive, google, apple, amazon, and all of the other players in this little game... as it is, project gutenberg (in the persona of marcello) ended up going with a light-markup solution anyway, but it's a clumsy one that entails creating a separate file. even if marcello can make it work, michael will end up with no credit for the development, only a decreased rate of presence in his role as the p.g. founder and visionary. -bowerbird

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Re: the outside world rises to the challenge
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Feb '11

17 Feb '11

andrew said: > a website with lots of fashion photographs. sorry, my fault... > http://www.pressbooks.com and it's just a splash-screen for the time being. -bowerbird

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the outside world rises to the challenge
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Feb '11

17 Feb '11

rickywong said: > What do you guys think? so, did anyone respond to you backchannel about your project? or was it total silence? > How many people are on this list anyway? from 300-350, depending on duplicates. that number has been remarkably consistent for many years, rising slowly across that time, but with an extremely small amount of "churn". as you can see, though, it's extremely passive. once again, everyone here has failed to meet my challenge for them to do a collaboration... nothing new about that in terms of this list. what _is_ new is that the outside world has finally risen to the point where it thinks that _it_ can meet my challenge, as evidenced here: > http://www.pressbook.com this is a new venture from hugh mcguire, who many here will surely recognize as the founder of librivox, an audiobook public-domain project. i have talked with hugh. i am not convinced that he can best me, but i'm quite happy to see him try. so once again, everyone here at project gutenberg continues on autopilot, while the rest of the world passes them by. oh well, it was nice while it lasted. -bowerbird

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Re: Calibre: Open Source Software for Managing eBook Collections
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 14 Feb '11

14 Feb '11

keith said: > So it is up to the programs how the display something. > Some standard for displaying books!! i don't think anyone wants to talk about the .epub format. but, just to give you some idea of the confusion out there, many viewer-programs refuse to honor the margins that are set in the file. that would be all right if they let the user dictate the margins. but most of them just set their own... the same goes with a lot of the other important variables. of course, there are also things like curly vs. straight quotes, which _none_ of the viewer-programs offer as an option... so neither the e-book creators nor the users end up happy. this is the legacy that jon noring and the i.d.p.f. left us with. -bowerbird

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