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Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

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Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#211

Post by WalterBright »

walterbell wrote: post #208
WalterBright wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought what's called a "stack slicer" used on ebay for about $300. It'll neatly slice the spine off and your finger! Man it's sharp, I found out the hard way. I do enough that it's worth the cost. You'll be sorry if you scrimp on this piece of equipment. You'll also need a sheet feeding scanner with a hopper on it, that'll scan both sides at the same time. Otherwise, it takes far too long. The software with the sca…

> Turning the sheets sideways makes it go much faster. Great tip, thanks - presumably it also reduces misfeeds. Would you recommend a particular scanner? How does pdftk help with rescanned pages, does it magically know where to reinsert?

My scanner is old and not sold anymore, but it's a Fujitsu and presumably their newer models are as good.

You have to explicitly tell pdftk what to do.

http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#212

Post by mmelin »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #182
nlh wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people don't spend $9.99 on books every month on average. If Amazon encourages people who are infrequent readers to devote more of their time/entertainment-dollars on reading, then this service will be a win-win for Amazon and authors. Totally. I'm one of those people and right smack in the middle of the crosshairs for this. I'm the kind of person that is always willing to overpay in order to have "unlimited"…

Imagine if we could get access to the O'Reilly library of technical books, that would be extremely valuable.

They already do this with something called Safari Online: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#213

Post by nileshtrivedi »

roganp wrote: post #185
WalterBright wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have several thousand books. Many I've cut & scanned into pdf's. It is just marvelous to be able to take with me that library when I travel - I never lack for something to browse. I no longer have to read those wretched in-flight magazines. My bookshelves are still crammed with books, but they've all got a date with the slicer! Mua-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! BTW, for examples of books I've cut & scanned, see http://www.genera…

I'm curious about this, I've got a bunch of books I don't want to throw away, but I'm tired of the space they occupy. Seems like scanning them would be a huge hassle though. Any special techniques that you use to do this? How long does a single book take to process?

You can build a book scanner: http://www.diybookscanner.org/

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#214

Post by [deleted] »

roganp wrote: post #185
WalterBright wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have several thousand books. Many I've cut & scanned into pdf's. It is just marvelous to be able to take with me that library when I travel - I never lack for something to browse. I no longer have to read those wretched in-flight magazines. My bookshelves are still crammed with books, but they've all got a date with the slicer! Mua-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! BTW, for examples of books I've cut & scanned, see http://www.genera…

I'm curious about this, I've got a bunch of books I don't want to throw away, but I'm tired of the space they occupy. Seems like scanning them would be a huge hassle though. Any special techniques that you use to do this? How long does a single book take to process?

[deleted]

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#215

Post by 59nadir »

MadManE wrote: post #119
bitJericho wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow... I don't know what libraries you go to but libraries are generally not full of poor people...

As much as we would like it to not be true, in the real world free services attract the lowest financial class of people. Libraries are awesome, and I spent a significant portion of my life in them, but as soon as I could afford to not use them, I quit going to them.

Depends if the "real world" is the US, Sweden or, for example, Bulgaria.

In the US, this might be the case. In Sweden, mostly you'll find kids, moms and people studying (depending on the city, if it has a university or not). A very small subset is there for computer access, but it's certainly not a majority.

In Bulgaria, no one seems to go to the library. They check your ID when you go in and it's not really a place to hang out.

Libraries aren't the same everywhere.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#216

Post by 59nadir »

brickmort wrote: post #170
chubot wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a regular user of the local library, but I notice that most people in my "class" (i.e. tech people earning a lot) don't go there. It's easier to buy it on your Kindle for $10-$15 than to make a trip to the library. I'm gonna be a jerk and say that most people also like to hang out in expensive coffee shops with other members of their class, and not in the library where there are lots of poor people. It's a little…

holy cow.. pretentious much?

No, that's pretentious' older brother: Elitist.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#217

Post by eli_gottlieb »

debt wrote: post #87
chubot wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a regular user of the local library, but I notice that most people in my "class" (i.e. tech people earning a lot) don't go there. It's easier to buy it on your Kindle for $10-$15 than to make a trip to the library. I'm gonna be a jerk and say that most people also like to hang out in expensive coffee shops with other members of their class, and not in the library where there are lots of poor people. It's a little…

It's unpopular but I really enjoy reading on my phone. It's small, it's always with me, it's much more convenient than lugging around a physical book(and I love physical books). But that's why I buy ebooks(they're just expensive which sucks). It's interesting to listen to the cascading excuses when bringing up books with friends. "Why not use a kindle?" "I like holding the physical book." "Oh, then why not go to the…

Kindles are great for books I'll read sequentially, in which I'll never need to consult a specific section, and in which I'll never have to page back-and-forth. So, all fiction and most nonfiction I enjoy having in Kindle format. Textbooks and references I want to own in dead-tree format.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#218

Post by jjsz »

walterbell wrote: post #191
blhack wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, libraries seem to all recognize the need for hackerspaces, but they don't have hackers to staff them. They have budgets for things, and space, and a desire, they just need help figuring out where/how to spend things and how to then use the things they've gotten.

Is there an online community where hackers share knowledge about library-based hackerspaces?

You can search around CfA's blogs, their Brigade people, the Sunlight Foundation's blogs, Knight Foundation's blogs, Techpresident's blog, mySociety's blogs, Open Knowledge Foundation's blogs but to me the best example of a great library turned into a makerspace is https://www.fflib.org/make/fab-lab.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#219

Post by psykotic »

WalterBright wrote: post #120
psykotic wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> owning your own books has significant advantages, which I hope need not be restated here. I had to get rid of several hundred of my books years ago when I went traveling. It was tough since I had a lot of attachment to my physical books, but upon examination I realized there were few advantages and in my case many disadvantages. Exceptions are books you habitually reread or reference, but most novels fail that test…

I have several thousand books. Many I've cut & scanned into pdf's. It is just marvelous to be able to take with me that library when I travel - I never lack for something to browse. I no longer have to read those wretched in-flight magazines. My bookshelves are still crammed with books, but they've all got a date with the slicer! Mua-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! BTW, for examples of books I've cut & scanned, see http://www.genera…

That's basically what I ended up doing. After I got rid of the books, I imposed a rule on myself that except for rare cases where the book itself is an extraordinary artifact I would only buy books to cut and scan. My previous books were either replaced by ebooks or for the rarer books by buying new or used copies and cutting and scanning them. I was lucky enough that my employer at the time had an industrial-strength paper guillotine and high-volume scanner.

The paper guillotine was impossibly heavy to carry around and terrifying to operate.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#220

Post by jjsz »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #40

It'll be fascinating to see how our relationship with books plays out over the next 10-20 years. On one hand, unlike music, books are very physical objects, their content very much associated with their form, used by many as decoration within their home. On the other hand, most of us only read most of our books once. I suspect that many, like me, then hang onto those books primarily for sentimental reasons (along wit…

Hurricane season and electrical outages will still exist in 15 years and paper has proved to be the only storage medium that doesn't change every 20 years.
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