[Coco] RE: Rainbow magazines]

[John Murphy]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger at pobox.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:52 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] RE: Rainbow magazines]


> On Thu, 2005-06-09 at 00:41 -0400, John Murphy wrote:
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "John Hogerhuis" <jhoger at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 5:43 PM
>>
>>
>> > Whatever the format I think it has to work on Windows, OSX and Linux
>> > (Linux for me to be interested). But if you put it in something else I
>> > would just have to convert it for my own use under Linux.
>> >
>> > Whatever you do *do not* lock it up in some dastardly DRMed format.
>> > Please, open, standard, unencrypted, no passwords or keys to lose.
>> >
>> > The only document format I know that permits that and has good readers 
>> > is
>> > PDF.
>> >
>> > In any event, we're basically just using the format as a container for
>> > scanned pages. No matter what format we use it ain't gonna be tiny.
>> > Also we should separate the issue of how to scan and what will be in
>> > the final product. If you scan at 600dpi B&W, we can down convert it
>> > to 150dpi later, automatically. But if we want color we have to decide
>> > that early on since it can't really be added later.
>> >
>> > For Thinking Forth we actually re-typeset the book, so that's why it
>> > is so small. There's no graphics there except for the illustrations.
>> > Everything else is one character approx equals one byte.
>> >
>> > I think it would be a lifetime project to re-typeset Rainbow. Just
>> > scan it and package it up as PDF, that's feasible.
>> >
>> > -- John.
>> >
>>
>> For re-typesetting,
>>
>> http://dproofreaders.sourceforge.net/
>>
>> is an app that would be a valuable resource...
>>
>> <quote>
>> Distributed Proofreaders provides a web-based method of easing the
>> proofreading work associated with the creation of Project Gutenberg 
>> E-Texts.
>> By breaking the work into individual pages many proofreaders can be 
>> working
>> on the same book at the same time. This significantly speeds up the
>> proofreading/E-Text creation process.
>>
>> When a proofer elects to proofread a page for a particular project, the 
>> text
>> and image file are displayed on a single webpage. This allows the text 
>> file
>> to be easily reviewed and compared to the image file, thus assisting the
>> proofreading of the text file. The edited text file is then submitted 
>> back
>> to the site via the same webpage that it was edited on.
>> </quote>
>>
>> "All" that would be needed would be a site willing to host the app.
>>
>> And many, many of the problems around scanning and re-purposing magazines
>> are solved problems: another good resource is those evil,
>> copyright-infringing ebook-scanning scofflaws at
>>
>> alt.binaries.e-book.d
>>
>> Many of them are quite knowledgeable, and don't mind sharing "trade
>> secrets", as it were.
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>
> I agree these are solved problems, but there are issues: I think these
> open collaboration tools are designed for use with out-of-copyright
> works. What we're dealing with here can't be available widely without
> good controls.
>

Agreed, re-typesetting is probably outside the scope of this project.

Typically used on out-of-copyright works, yes. Very good point.
When used in support of a project that has the permission of the copyright 
owner, I can't see that this would be a problem.

The Distributed Proofer app does, indeed, have controls over who can see 
what, etc.


> Anyway, believe me, retypesetting the Rainbow is possible, but not a
> good use of anyone's time. It's a lot of work, and if anyone has that
> kind of time and energy available, I have a whole list of great retro
> computing projects to offload to them ;-)

It may be possible. The whole point is that it distrubutes the work, so that 
there is no requirement for "anyONE" to have "that kind of time and energy 
available." It might be worth your time to at least look at it.

The "official" site that uses the app is at http://www.pgdp.net . Just for 
fun, check it out.


>
> I think the best compromise is to OCR and just provide the proofread,
> raw ascii cross referenced on the DVDs with everything else as text
> files. Compared to the size of the magazine PDFs, the space taken will
> be totally negligible.
>
> Of course that assumes Lonnie would allow that. I'm not sure what the
> objection would be but there might be one especially considering his
> comments about needing to include the ads. The OCRed text would be more
> of a derivative work of the original, and may create issues with
> whatever contracts he has with the advertisers or authors. Dunno.
>
> -- John.
>
>
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