Visualizing All ISBNs

Post by tiagod » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:01 PM UTC

Over2Chars wrote: post #40

flir wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mention the example of romance novels above. There's a schlocky Victorian pulp novel that's of no use to anyone - except that it happens to contain a fantastically detailed description of an abandoned saltings in my hometown that nobody ever thought to record in any way. For me, those two paragraphs are gold. If the novel hadn't been digitised as part of Google's Books Archive Project, I wouldn't have been able t…

Well I guess your one valuable paragraph that matters only to you justifies backing up millions (billions?) of human and soon to be AI generated books, because someone, somewhere, at some time will find a line or two valuable. Maybe. I retract my position, let's back up everything!

Post by jillesvangurp » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:17 PM UTC

heinrich5991 wrote: post #39

jillesvangurp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with such judgment is that they are subjective and subject to biases that change over time. Almost every scrap of information from ancient civilizations is considered priceless at this point because so few is left of it. Anything from obscene graffiti, shopping lists, personal messages, etc. All of it. Many autocratic regimes editorialize and censure all forms of publications. But even in the US, which is…

> Possession or distribution of his books is still not allowed in Germany. AFAIK this has never been true in Germany (for the book Mein Kampf at least). AFAIK the German state of Bavaria inherited Hitler's copyright on the book, and did not republish it. This means that no one was allowed to print it for copyright reasons, but you could still own or trade existing copies of the book. After 2015, 70 years after Hitler…

Post by Finnucane » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #2

I thought it was my color blindness that made me not able to distinguish between the red and green pixels as described (i only see red and black ones), but even with a browser extension that counters color blindness i can't distinguish more colors. Is this just me, or is the graph weird?

Post by salomonk_mur » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:28 PM UTC

greenie_beans wrote: post #54

karel-3d wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this page, which links to libgen and sci-hub, is that concerned about copyright.

annoying non-answer to my question. i already know all about anna's archive. i'm asking if a person can download these isbns and use them to make data visualizations without fear of breaking a law? https://software.annas-archive.li/AnnaArchivist/annas-archiv...

Post by jillesvangurp » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 1:32 PM UTC

globnomulous wrote: post #42

Over2Chars wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All action is "subjective and subject to biases that change over time". This would then imply I could never take any action, because it's just subjective and biased. Maybe that's an exaggeration of your position, but you do seem to be suggesting inaction or the impossibility of judgement. I reject this position 100%. I would suggest that judgement is a critical part of our civilization, and it's judgement that says t…

> All action is "subjective and subject to biases that change over time". This is poppycock. Backing up all books -- the very action discussed by the person you're answering -- is by definition neither subjective nor subject to biases. > This would then imply I could never take any action, because it's just subjective and biased. And even if the first quoted claim were true, this, too, clearly isn't. Nowhere does the…