- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Introducing a tor hidden service mirror.
by _NSAKEY 01 Oct '14

01 Oct '14

After speaking with both Greg and Marcello via e-mail over the last week, I'm happy to announce that there is now a Project Gutenberg mirror which operates as a hidden service on the Tor network. This will give PG's legitimate Tor users a safe way to access the content (As well as attract some spammers, which should pose an interesting challenge for me given the way hidden services are designed). For the moment only the text files are mirrored, but that may change when I get better hardware. The mirror is located here: http://nsakeysjzqismynb.onion/gutenberg/ For those who are unfamiliar with Tor, it can be downloaded here: https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en Please note that access to this mirror is going to be slow due to the nature of hidden services. It may also appear to be down due to a bad connection between circuits. That's just the nature of the game, and part of the reason I'm only hosting the text files for now. - _NSAKEY P. S. The fact that this mirror was launched during Banned Book Week is just a cool coincidence.

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Images +a bit about translations
by arromdee＠rahul.net 03 Jun '14

03 Jun '14

I recently got some old PD books for use on my tablet. The books included some Jules Verne, some H. R. Haggard, and some Wizard of Oz books. My procedure for getting a book is this: 1) Go to archive.org. 2) Check to see which copies of the book have illustrations. If there are significant illustrations, download the book from there in .jp2 format and run it through a script to convert to .jpg. Then put the zip of .jpg files onto my tablet to read. 3) Only if the above step fails, do I get the book from PG. If the book is by Jules Verne, there's an additional step: check the list at http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/VerneTrans%28biblio%29.html to see which version is a decent quality translation. It often isn't (and even the relatively good ones have some problems). (Given an October post here about Dracula, perhaps I should research versions of the book even when the book was originally in English.) This ties in to a number of posts on this list about bad translations, as well as to posts I made about images, which got lost from the archives (as well as signups during that time period--I had to sign up to this list again). Basically, for illustrations, illustrations on PG books are completely inadequate. What's worse is that the rules strongly suggest that an uploader use an image size and resolution that may have been sensible 10 years ago but is ludicrously small for a high resolution modern tablet, and doesn't show all the detail in the image. As a start I would suggest fixing the rules, but you'd also need some way to automatically generate a small-images version from a large images version (for those people who actually need small images, like over a slow phone connection at an airport, or who have an older reader with limited capabilities). Big images can be used to make small images, but you can't go the other way around. (What is the practical limit on epub image size?) Previous messages about needing better bibliographical information apply to images too, especially since images are very often changed in later editions of the same book.

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Abbyy Finereader 12 "First Look"
by James Adcock 20 Mar '14

20 Mar '14

I finally shrugged my shoulders and upgraded my Finereader 11 to Finereader 12, and my first impression is that the two are almost identical. Finereader 11 was a big step forward. Finereader 12 I think is mainly cosmetic changes from Finereader 11. Finereader 12 does offer more convenient access to "charmap"-like access to the European extension glyphs from within that Finereader editor, which I am finding myself spending more and more time in as I learn how to use it better. IE I'm spending more and more time doing initial editing in the Finereader editor, before exporting into a variety of other formats - including PDF/A for future reference. Finereader 12 seems to still have some "early release" crash issues, where hopefully future bug fix releases will start to clean those crashes up. Finereader 11 also had such early teething problems. If one has an opportunity to pick up 11 cheap [and it looks line one can get a copy for $47], I would say maybe "go for it" rather than $80 for the sales price upgrade to 12. And this is USA-talk - I don't know what deals ABBYY has or doesn't have in other countries.

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PCMag new tablet buying guides
by James Adcock 20 Mar '14

20 Mar '14

http://mailing.enews.pcmag.com/read/archive?id=25453 <http://mailing.enews.pcmag.com/read/archive?id=25453&mid=1121969> &mid=1121969 Not to imply that I think PCMag has any particular genius in its vetting of tablets. On a related note, I finally picked up "Our Favorite Webmaster's" recommended Nexus 7 "sight unseen" - because apparently no bricks and mortor retailer actually carries the thing, and what I find is that our webmaster's hysterics on the issue is way overblown. The Nexus 7 has not suddenly become my favorite tablet, for the simple reason that I hate how books, including PG books, appear on its screen. I don't like "lightweight" fonts, such as the Nexus 7 and the IPads have - I prefer heavier looking fonts, such as printed out by HP laserjet printers. Further, I do not in practice find the Nexus 7 to be "less locked down" than Kindles say. Unfortunately all tablet manufacturers seen to be playing "lock down" games. The bottom line, IMHO, is that one needs to actually get a tablet into one's dirty hands, and actually be able to read books on that tablet, preferably PG books, in order to make an informed sensible decision of what to buy. I suggest the actual reading experience is probably going to trump other aspects of tablet marketing and design for the typical PG activist. The goods news is that now I have a Nexus 7 Google has ended its BS embargo on letting me download and read books from the Google Books "digitized from your local public university and then destroyed" collection.

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DP extended outage
by Charlene Taylor 02 Mar '14

02 Mar '14

The DP blog will be the best place to get updates on the outage. http://blog.pgdp.net/2014/03/01/distributed-proofreaders-extended-outage/

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Book Collecting Guide
by James Adcock 20 Feb '14

20 Feb '14

Obviously intended to be self-serving, but the below AbeBooks guide contains useful stuff: http://www.abebooks.com/books/RareBooks/collecting-guide/book-collecting-gui de.shtml

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Abbyy announces Finereader 12
by James Adcock 20 Feb '14

20 Feb '14

http://finereader.abbyy.com/ I haven't personally tried this one. I'm still running Finereader 11, which I am quite happy with.

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Fwd: Inadequate bibliographic records for translations, and thoughts on The Count of Monte Cristo
by Matt Hickford 10 Feb '14

10 Feb '14

Hi all. I think translations should have more bibliographic information. For example, consider the record for the Count of Monte Cristo http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184#bibrec . The following vital information is missing: * That the author Alexandre Dumas wrote the book in French, and that this is a translation * Who did the translation, and when it was first published Information about the translation is important because translations can be copyright while the original work is public domain. * * * Also, this particular translation is questionable. For example, in the story, Captain Edmond Dantes is accused of aiding the exiled Napolean, by an anonymous letter to the king's attorney. The letter is read and re-read several times during the adventure. The wording varies each time! (I assume Dumas was not so sloppy in the original) > "The honorable, the king's attorney, is informed by a friend of the throne and religion, that one Edmond Dantes, mate of the ship Pharaon, arrived this morning from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, has been intrusted by Murat with a letter for the usurper, and by the usurper with a letter for the Bonapartist committee in Paris. Proof of this crime will be found on arresting him, for the letter will be found upon him, or at his father's, or in his cabin on board the Pharaon." > > "'The king's attorney is informed by a friend to the throne and the religions institutions of his country, that one named Edmond Dantes, mate of the ship Pharaon, this day arrived from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, has been the bearer of a letter from Murat to the usurper, and again taken charge of another letter from the usurper to the Bonapartist club in Paris. Ample corroboration of this statement may be obtained by arresting the above-mentioned Edmond Dantes, who either carries the letter for Paris about with him, or has it at his father's abode. Should it not be found in the possession of father or son, then it will assuredly be discovered in the cabin belonging to the said Dantes on board the Pharaon.'" > > Dantes paused a moment, then said, "This is it, word for word: 'The king's attorney is informed by a friend to the throne and religion, that one Edmond Dantes, mate on board the Pharaon, this day arrived from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, has been intrusted by Murat with a packet for the usurper; again, by the usurper, with a letter for the Bonapartist Club in Paris. This proof of his guilt may be procured by his immediate arrest, as the letter will be found either about his person, at his father's residence, or in his cabin on board the Pharaon.'" > > "The king's attorney is informed by a friend to the throne and religion that one Edmond Dantes, second in command on board the Pharaon, this day arrived from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, is the bearer of a letter from Murat to the usurper, and of another letter from the usurper to the Bonapartist club in Paris. Ample corroboration of this statement may be obtained by arresting the above-mentioned Edmond Dantes, who either carries the letter for Paris about with him, or has it at his father's abode. Should it not be found in possession of either father or son, then it will assuredly be discovered in the cabin belonging to the said Dantes on board the Pharaon." * * * What do you think? -Matt ps. I think Project Gutenberg ought to have public comment pages that everyone can use. A private mailing list, that requires you sign up—and wait a day for your account to activate—before you can even read it, is prohibitive for many potential contributors. pps. Fourth time lucky.

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ABBYY OCR sale
by James Adcock 23 Dec '13

23 Dec '13

ABBYY is having a sale on their popular Finereader OCR version 11 until the 29th. Half off for "normal" people. As low as $20 for a student upgrade.

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Fujitsu Scansnap SV600 scanner
by Al Haines 12 Dec '13

12 Dec '13

http://solutions.ca.fujitsu.com/products/scansnap/sv600/ >From what I've seen/read of it on Youtube and in reviews, it looks like an interesting alternative to standard flatbed scanners. Has anyone out there seen it in action or had any experience with it? Al

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