On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, David Starner wrote:
On 1/31/06, Michael Hart <hart@pglaf.org> wrote:
Once again the major point is that most of the work has already been in the system for you before you came along, and it is up to you to, "Take matters into your own hands," as one put it, and do the minuscule works that are required to make the books completely consistent with your own philosophy of how eBooks should be created.
There's nothing wrong with what such people are asking, other than that they are asking someone else to do it for them, free of charge.
"An Unfunded Mandate" as the politicians often refer to such things.
Please don't bite people because they don't work the way you do. All he said is that Gutenberg books aren't layed out optimally for him. There's nothing wrong with someone discussing how things could be better, in their opinion. He didn't ask anyone to do anything for him.
I guess you have a different way of interpreting what bowerbird says. I keep encouraging him to encourage others, rather than to discourage, and that this is more likely to get him what he says he wants. Personally, I worry that he might prefer to proven right by history, rather than by carrying his own plans to fruition, at least with the army of volunteers we have at hand. I do hope that he fines someone to pay for his work to the tune he hopes, and that he, or someone in a similar position, will eventually create something along the order of his dreams. I just think it would/could/should be now not later, and via volunteers rather than via some billionaire who gives him an enterprise grant, venture capital, etc. We've seen the billionaire approach to eBooks, and, frankly, it will be hard to imagine that such approaches could not have had any worse effect on the eBook world, even had that been their intention. That said, I/we can still hope the change that in the future. . . .