Slashdot Mirror
The DIY Book Scanner
azoblue writes "Daniel Reetz did not want to lug around heavy textbooks, so he built a book scanner to create digital copies. '... over three days, and for about $300, he lashed together two lights, two Canon Powershot A590 cameras, a few pieces of acrylic and some chunks of wood to create a book scanner that's fast enough to scan a 400-page book in about 20 minutes (PDF). To use it, he simply loads in a book and presses a button, then turns the page and presses the button again. Each press of the button captures two pages, and when he's done, software on Reetz's computer converts the book into a PDF file. The Reetz DIY book scanner isn't automated — you still need to stand by it to turn the pages. But it's fast and inexpensive.'"
Just like last time. Or just like next year is finally going to be the year of Linux on the desktop. Not trolling, just cynical. Sorry.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
I think most medical, science, engineering, etc. texts are all available on the russian book text pirate sites like giggle and gigapedia. I doubt people outside the U.S. bother scanning U.S. law text books, but maybe you'll find some particularly common ones uploaded by American students.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell