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Low Tech Gutenberg?
Peace Corps Guy asks: "I have a friend who recently left for a two year Peace Corps stint in Mozambique. While there she has limited access to electricity, no technology, and not a lot to do with her 'off' time. She's a big literature fan, and many of us here at home would like to send a care package - but how best to ship pieces of free online text like Project Gutenberg to a developing nation? We can print it (high shipping and printing costs), print it very small and ship her a high quality fresnel lens (awkward), or put it all on a cheap PDA, which would be a high theft risk en route and in situ. High shipping costs on weight and volume are another major limiting factor. What alternative solutions can Slashdot readers suggest for shipping a freely available byte-stream to someone without a computer?"
If she already has a PDA, or can get one, then the best way would be to send data via SD media.
As for powering the PDA, there are a number of options using solar power
Amazon delivers to Mozambique (linky). Just order some actual books and have them delivered. Some nice Penguin Classics paperback edition or so would probably be more practical to read than any of your ideas for delivering a Gutenberg text as well, I would think.
(Possibly giving this answer makes me a total moron because I obviously forgot about a number of problems with it, and it's not even an answer to the question. If so, kindly explain why it won't work. Ta)
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
You're talking about books that are off copyright, anyway -- buy some cheap or used paperbacks and send them as parcels. (I think there's even a discount books-only rate.) It's foolproof, familiar and when she's done, she can distribute or trade the books. A much better plan than microfiche and a Fresnel lens.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
OK, so others have already suggested this, but really, it's probably the best solution for many reasons. For example, when the person is done reading them, give the books away to locals to promote the stories. It's educational, and a great way to expose others to the literature. The problem with at PDA is that its the usefulness is really limited to that one person, but if you send books, they can be passed around to countless people. We take things like this for granted but many would love to get their hands on books to pass around...
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
What's REALLY REALLY funny about this is I purposely picked the most absurb example I could think of, with the SMALLEST, LIGHTEST, MOST PORTABLE musical instrument in existance and compared it to hauling a TON of unnecessary high-tech equipment.
And still I'm getting serious replies.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat