Digital to Comfy Conversion?
on
Upbeat on E-books
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I have written a novel which I placed on the web as a HyperNovel, if you will. The format gives me the freedom to include complex graphics and tables, links to my sources or allusions, (no to mention soundtrack MP3's, which I'm not mentioning) and the ability to tweak text as I go. In return, the user can control the font face and size, the color and style of a background (or not), and they have full control of the size of the viewing window, and thus, the wrap length.
But even though it has received favorable feedback, including from Neil Peart:">, people don't want to read it on their computers! (Ok, i'm calm now...)
On the other hand, I also produced PDF formats of various layouts, including the "submission guideline compliant" versions and one that borrows the typography from Jordan's Crown of Swords paperback. But if they print the pages from the PDF, it totals 654 pages. The submissions guideline version is 957 sheets of paper! The total printing cost at Kinko's would be about $40. You would smoke two Epson black ink cartridges, at like $28 each! Trying to print two sides to save paper costs in patience, time and sanity.
What are we supposed to do? I wanted the book to be 'live' in that it could have "services packs;-)" so that it would slide through the changes of politics, administrations and computer technology, and remain '20 minutes into the future'. But what's the point if I can't get the "upgrades and patches" to the reader in a format that they WILL read?
Does Da 'Net have an answer? Some site where you submit a URL to a PDF and $10 on yer credit card and get a gift-wrapped printout shipped to you? Is there any technological fix for this dilemma? Is there any way to get digital verbal content into a lower cost, readable, comfy format for the reader? If not, anyone have a literary agent I can borrow?
StarGlider29a "You have the right to remain silent... anything you say will be used in my next book..."
PS: You l33tz are smooth enough to figure out what my URL is. So in an attempt to avoid slash-dotting my server, please instead peek at a low overhead, imageless, slash-dot friendlier mirror for the raw (ugly) content: http://www.traffiscope.com/slashdot/mirror/
Does this mean that we can take members of the "700 Club", heat them to 517 degrees* and then dip them in liquid oxygen? Talk about 'gone in the twinkling of an eye';-)
I hate, err... 'just cannot stand' to get technical... ok, maybe I don't. But let's step back a bit and read what 'the mark of the beast' really is, at the core.
A unique identifier of a person, used to control behavior (in this case, commerce), and those who refuse the identifier, ergo, the control, are "retired"
The "mark of the beast", in this example, the RFID, is no more evil than the social security number. It is the USE of the number by a larger entity which has been 'evil'. The tattoos on people in Nazi concentration camps were not evil, but the uses of those number were.
It is the question of "good use" versus "bad use" that this forum was discussing.
Secondly, this "mark" has been feared since Nero put his face on a coin and demanded that 'it only' be used to commerce in the Roman Empire. LONG before the SSN. IMHO, the 'mark of the beast' describes a massive database, implying unique ID of all items and all customers, as well as POS communication with the database. Think Walmart on a global scale, gone bad. SSN, bar-codes, customer courtesy cards, RFID and even biometrics all are technologies which would make the envisioned database (and thus the consequences described) more readily implimented. Given the nature of humans, there ***IS*** has a percedent upon which to draw for concern... even fear. If there were not, we wouldn't be discussing 'the good uses' of RFID. They would ALL be good uses.
<sarcasm>But look at the bright side... since you "just cannot stand" people like that, be comforted in the knowledge that if/when that day comes, they will be the first with their heads on the chopping block.</sarcasm>
StarGlider29a;-)
"Gavon's Oxymoron: World Government"
http://www.af2k.com/gavonslaw.asp
I'm relativistically certain that when these articles and replies use the word "accurate", they really want to be saying "precise." Right?
I mean, 'what time is it?' to the Universe? What time WAS it 'when time began'? Was there a 'countdown to the beginning of time?' And in which Universal Time Zone are we? Are we on "Universal Light Matter Savings Time?" Was Heinlein correct? IS THERE Time Enough for Love?
Or maybe we could get Michael Gavon and Bevin Kendall to plug it into their massive distributed computer S.Y.R.I.N.X. (SYnergistic Resource for Information eXchange, picture an iPod the size of a planet) and play the entire catalog of Rush tunes.
But enough of me... I have to get back to my lab. I'm currently working on the aerodynamics and harmonic pendula to cause laminar flow to make a windchime that plays YYZ.
StarGlider29a "You have the right to remain silent... Anything you say can and will be used in my next book;-)"
...get REAL art from a LIVING artist. I showed this article to a REAL artist, and her answer was, and I quote:
"instead of wasting hard earned cash on a picture of a painting, that you could actually
buy a real friggin painting"
And I think her SIG says it all
"www.wrosson.com --Support a living artist cuz the dead ones don't need money"
My answer, as a geek, is that this would be a great usage of P2P sharing. We could get the EBSQ artists on eBay to provide art, formatted to fit the screen nicely. then, we could share them with each other, switch them out every couple days (or when you clean your mouse;-).
That way, artists who are ALIVE, need exposure and cash (if you like the image buy the paint) can benefit from such profligate use of technology. It's too late for Vincent Van Gogh... let's use the 'Net for something more beneficial than pr0n or hamsterdance.com
Starglider29a "The Internet will not change the world... the people on the Internet will"
Slashdot Mirror
I have written a novel which I placed on the web as a HyperNovel, if you will. The format gives me the freedom to include complex graphics and tables, links to my sources or allusions, (no to mention soundtrack MP3's, which I'm not mentioning) and the ability to tweak text as I go. In return, the user can control the font face and size, the color and style of a background (or not), and they have full control of the size of the viewing window, and thus, the wrap length.
:">, people don't want to read it on their computers! (Ok, i'm calm now...)
;-)" so that it would slide through the changes of politics, administrations and computer technology, and remain '20 minutes into the future'. But what's the point if I can't get the "upgrades and patches" to the reader in a format that they WILL read?
But even though it has received favorable feedback, including from Neil Peart
On the other hand, I also produced PDF formats of various layouts, including the "submission guideline compliant" versions and one that borrows the typography from Jordan's Crown of Swords paperback. But if they print the pages from the PDF, it totals 654 pages. The submissions guideline version is 957 sheets of paper! The total printing cost at Kinko's would be about $40. You would smoke two Epson black ink cartridges, at like $28 each! Trying to print two sides to save paper costs in patience, time and sanity.
What are we supposed to do? I wanted the book to be 'live' in that it could have "services packs
Does Da 'Net have an answer? Some site where you submit a URL to a PDF and $10 on yer credit card and get a gift-wrapped printout shipped to you? Is there any technological fix for this dilemma? Is there any way to get digital verbal content into a lower cost, readable, comfy format for the reader? If not, anyone have a literary agent I can borrow?
StarGlider29a
"You have the right to remain silent... anything you say will be used in my next book..."
PS: You l33tz are smooth enough to figure out what my URL is. So in an attempt to avoid slash-dotting my server, please instead peek at a low overhead, imageless, slash-dot friendlier mirror for the raw (ugly) content: http://www.traffiscope.com/slashdot/mirror/
Does this mean that we can take members of the "700 Club", heat them to 517 degrees* and then dip them in liquid oxygen? Talk about 'gone in the twinkling of an eye' ;-)
:-D
*That's Celsius, BTW
And besides all that, I'm NOT a good graphic designer. At best, I'm chaotic neutral.
I hate, err... 'just cannot stand' to get technical... ok, maybe I don't. But let's step back a bit and read what 'the mark of the beast' really is, at the core.
;-)
A unique identifier of a person, used to control behavior (in this case, commerce), and those who refuse the identifier, ergo, the control, are "retired"
The "mark of the beast", in this example, the RFID, is no more evil than the social security number. It is the USE of the number by a larger entity which has been 'evil'. The tattoos on people in Nazi concentration camps were not evil, but the uses of those number were.
It is the question of "good use" versus "bad use" that this forum was discussing.
Secondly, this "mark" has been feared since Nero put his face on a coin and demanded that 'it only' be used to commerce in the Roman Empire. LONG before the SSN. IMHO, the 'mark of the beast' describes a massive database, implying unique ID of all items and all customers, as well as POS communication with the database. Think Walmart on a global scale, gone bad. SSN, bar-codes, customer courtesy cards, RFID and even biometrics all are technologies which would make the envisioned database (and thus the consequences described) more readily implimented. Given the nature of humans, there ***IS*** has a percedent upon which to draw for concern... even fear. If there were not, we wouldn't be discussing 'the good uses' of RFID. They would ALL be good uses.
<sarcasm>But look at the bright side... since you "just cannot stand" people like that, be comforted in the knowledge that if/when that day comes, they will be the first with their heads on the chopping block.</sarcasm>
StarGlider29a
"Gavon's Oxymoron: World Government"
http://www.af2k.com/gavonslaw.asp
I'm relativistically certain that when these articles and replies use the word "accurate", they really want to be saying "precise." Right?
I mean, 'what time is it?' to the Universe? What time WAS it 'when time began'? Was there a 'countdown to the beginning of time?' And in which Universal Time Zone are we? Are we on "Universal Light Matter Savings Time?" Was Heinlein correct? IS THERE Time Enough for Love?
Unofficial Slashdot Poll
"All this machinery making modern music can still be..." This is cool/insane. I could team this up with my current monster garage band projects:
- L.E.E. (Low End Emulator)
- L.I.F.E.S.O.N. (Lerxtian Influenced Finger Emulator for Sonically Overdriven Noise) and form a robot band called... (wait for it...)
- R.U.S.H. (Robots Utilizing Slashdot-esque Heuristics)
Or maybe we could get Michael Gavon and Bevin Kendall to plug it into their massive distributed computer S.Y.R.I.N.X. (SYnergistic Resource for Information eXchange, picture an iPod the size of a planet) and play the entire catalog of Rush tunes..
.
.
But enough of me... I have to get back to my lab. I'm currently working on the aerodynamics and harmonic pendula to cause laminar flow to make a windchime that plays YYZ.
StarGlider29a
"You have the right to remain silent...
Anything you say can and will be used in my next book
Starglider29a
"The Internet will not change the world... the people on the Internet will"