Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#31

Post by modzu » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:26 PM UTC

mttjj wrote: post #24

albertshin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't looked too closely at how this works, but regarding your concern, don't other printing services run this risk too if that's illegal? like Kinkos, FedEx, library printers?

Any time you print something at FedEx they make you accept an agreement stating that you are not printing or copying copyrighted material. I'm guessing those other places have the same type of thing. Even if it's a piece of paper posted next to the printer at a public library stating "By using this printer you acknowledge that you are not printing or copying any material for which you do not have the right to copy."…

thats not quite correct, you just need the right to copy it, not to be the copy owner, and as mentioned elsewhere there are all sorts of scenarios where you indeed have such rights

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#32

Post by amelius » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:33 PM UTC

I want a service that takes my "read later" folder and reads it to me in my sleep

(I wouldn't have time to read it otherwise.)

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#33

Post by interestica » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:33 PM UTC

I bring this up occasionally:

If you use Pocket (built into Firefox and low-friction plugin for other browsers incl mobile) the Kobo e-reader is awesome. You can import Pocket articles to read offline and they are essentially displayed as epub e-books. They're also displayed in print-optimized format (no ads). E-ink ends up being a great way to read these long-form articles.

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#34

Post by jamez » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:34 PM UTC

A few years ago I founded a company that did something very similar. The idea of Memeoirs[1] was that, back in the 2000s, some of your most thoughtful and interesting conversations happened via email. You could trace the story of your life collecting some of your most important emails with our webapp, which worked with Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook, and then have a printed version mailed to you.

It all started in a similar way, around 2010, with a lot of free time in my hands and with the help of some fantastic friends who became co-founders. At the beginning it was more of an artsy thing (look at our manifesto [2]), definitely fueled by a love for books and a desire to slow down the merciless wheel of tech. The commercial vein only attracted us later. Fast forward to 2014 and we had a working product, we passed through the Startup zoo (2 incubators and various shows) and managed to raise about $500k.

But sales never took off. As we tried to expand the scope of the product by integrating WhatsApp and other messaging systems, it finally dawned to us just how small the market was. By the time we decided to pivot to a more visual product (ie: Photo-books), money were running out. When we finally closed the company in 2016, I think we had produced a few thousand books, but It was a fun ride. Wish you the best of luck!

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20160131132208/https://memeoirs.... [2] https://www.jamez.it/project/memeoirs/

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#35

Post by interestica » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:38 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #26

wool_gather wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I tried to do this as a service Isn't that what this post is about? They are planning to print a physical book made up of arbitrary text chosen by the user and then ship that book to the user.

Somehow I missed the lede. You are correct, he is doing exactly that. So my conclusion is bunk, although the decision tree I loosely mapped out might still be useful for others so I'll leave it as is.

Do photo printing services (or existing self-publishing services) assess content for copyright infringements? Or do they pass it off with "you assert that you have the rights to print this content"? I suspect something along those lines could work for this too. If the service can be 'blind' to what is being collected (eg, all happens on the user's device and the central printer just takes the collected file). Automated version of a local printshop that just prints whatever you give them.

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#36

Post by psandersen » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:40 PM UTC

I'd be keen for a service that made a nice pdf for reading on an e-reader, but a physical book just feels wasteful.

Exploring a pocket to pdf to kindle pipeline is on my todolist using either https://www.printfriendly.com or https://www.api2pdf.com

If anyone has done something similar would love to some feedback.

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#37

Post by yorgos_kats » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

interestica wrote: post #33

I bring this up occasionally: If you use Pocket (built into Firefox and low-friction plugin for other browsers incl mobile) the Kobo e-reader is awesome. You can import Pocket articles to read offline and they are essentially displayed as epub e-books. They're also displayed in print-optimized format (no ads). E-ink ends up being a great way to read these long-form articles.

Definitely Pocket is a great service and provides a cool experience for online reading with its reader mode and integrations. But this is for the users that prefer online reading (definitely a lot). However we believe that lots of people would actually prefer paper. And I think paper should be an option up top with online reading and audio, when it comes to internet longform content. It's just really tough to get things right, fast and cost-effective but we will give it a shot

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#38

Post by Ninjinka » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

I am planning on doing something similar with my notes in Obsidian.md for physical backups

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#39

Post by jxramos » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

I like this idea, I've been debating the mental clutter digital experiences can add to the mix. There's something about tangible things anchoring the mind. Like the most recent example we forayed into is looking to purchase a physical kitchen timer just to find and crank the thing and get a reminder going. The barrier there is so low that I think we'd actually get in the habit of timing things more readily. Compared to setting a timer in the phone there's just too many small obstacles and interference that can get in the way that in aggregate the activation energy just becomes too much and the timing operation never gets done.

There's something to say about a physical thing demanding less mental mobilization in some scenarios where going tangible makes better sense from an experience the world and get things done perspective.

Re: Show HN: Turn your “read later” folder into a physical book

#40

Post by yorgos_kats » Mon, Oct 05, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

psandersen wrote: post #36

I'd be keen for a service that made a nice pdf for reading on an e-reader, but a physical book just feels wasteful. Exploring a pocket to pdf to kindle pipeline is on my todolist using either https://www.printfriendly.com or https://www.api2pdf.com If anyone has done something similar would love to some feedback.

Fair game. While not there yet and focused at the challenges that print production presents, we should be able to offer epub/mobi/mobile friendly/ereader friendly versions soon (since we create pdfs from html)