I've got 6 of my own as well... how about we do a poll to win them. Here goes:

For 6 Shiny new 2004 Model GMail invites:

What publically-accessible document, pdf, website, ebook, or other work, would you like to see converted into a high-quality Plucker and iSilo document, for distribution either free, or for a small fee to cover the cost of conversion?

I've already done the 9/11 Commission Report in Plucker format (http://downloads.plkr.org/911_Report.html) and iSilo format (http://gnu-designs.com/iSilo/911_Report.html), and users have been raving at the quality and speed of the document. I'd like to contribute more... but I need some ideas, and this is your chance to chime in to win some GMail invites to help us decide!

Nice contest! Worth to be shown on the frontpage ;)

Hi,

I already have a Gmail account(Thanks Alex) but I would like to see Wikipedia converted for Isilo.

Here is a link http://members.chello.nl/epzachte/Wikipedia/ and should give you a place to start.

I know I had brought this up in a previous thread months ago but wanted to request it again.

Peace,

David

Being a microbiology major, I love this website. It's just that it's inconvienent to always have to get on the internet to read it. The book is free online (it can also be ordered, but I obviously don't want to do that since that requires money and I'm still in college). This is one of the best free microbiology resources I have found.

Here's the Front Page
http://www.gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/
(downloading 2 links deep will download each chapter as well)

or

Here's the Table of Contents
http://www.gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/toc.htm
(downloading 1 link deep will download each chapter as well)

This is a great service, and an awesome contest :)

Wikipedia in iSilo (or Plucker) format can't be based on the same code that is available now. A lot of the (broken) Perl scripts that are out there that try to convert it to something useful, don't, and are not really scalable.

The actual MediaWiki (http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/) software that drives the wiki has to be updated.. and I've already done this in my copy. This includes quite a few changes to make the output of the actual wiki more "compatible" with handhelds.

I've been working with the mediawiki developers to work this out. I have an approach that might work, but it still requires quite a bit of work to the database, content, and schema. The wiki tags used in WikiPedia are not exactly "valid" in most cases. A set of rules has to be developed to handle this conversion.

Importing the SQL dump of the wikipedia + images into a MySQL database and then parsing that with Perl to convert it, is the wrong approach. Spidering the actual visible, modified mediawiki code on a per-language basis, is the right way to do this.

It'll happen, but a lot of other pieces have to be fixed up first. See this message I wrote (http://lists.rubberchicken.org/pipermail/plucker-list/2004-July/005322.html) discussing my progress in this, and other areas.

Yesterday I discovered a site that has free programming and computer science books:
http://techbooksforfree.com/

I remarked yesterday on my linkblog that it would be cool if some of those were available as eBooks.

I'm not actually a programmer per-se, so can I recommend these ones in particular:
http://www.reciprocality.org/Reciprocality/r0/
http://www.wtec.org/loyola/kb/

ps if you're really up for a challenge, how about Stephen Wolfram's 'A new kind of science'!
http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html

cheers, Richard (I already have a gmail a/c)
http://www.ebookculture.com

Why not have other format?
I personally like the TomeRaider format, it is much faster on searches and much better on compressing than any other that I have used. :shy:

Why not support TomeRaider? Because it doesn't support HTML as an input/import format, and its support for text in general, is very primitive.

For representing rich, searchable, usable text... TomeRaider falls very short. HTML is the only way to do this (currently) for PDA displays.

...
http://www.ebookculture.com I took a look... Nice site, ricmac! Hope you'll consider becoming a member here and sticking around. We'd appreciate hearing your thoughts and input! Take care.

Thanks BobR. I've just now signed up. I found this site via someone who linked to it on a comment on my http://www.ebookculture.com blog.

cheers, Richard

Thanks BobR. I've just now signed up. I found this site via someone who linked to it on a comment on my http://www.ebookculture.com blog.

cheers, RichardGlad you found us. Welcome aboard!

I've always found the Library of Congress Country Studies (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/) very informative and an excellent starting point when doing research on a country (originally for school, now mainly for travel purposes). Having some of those in mobile form could make them an even more valuable resource.

Ditto! I have been waiting for this for a long time!


Hi,

I already have a Gmail account(Thanks Alex) but I would like to see Wikipedia converted for Isilo.

Here is a link http://members.chello.nl/epzachte/Wikipedia/ and should give you a place to start.

I know I had brought this up in a previous thread months ago but wanted to request it again.

Peace,

David

Well, maybe this is waaay too much... but it doesn't hurt to ask:
I'd like to see all the tutorials in iec.org (http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/) in iSilo format.
Or, if it becomes a rather large document, you can brake it into several iSilo files. One for each section, e.g. "broadband access", "business and strategy issues", etc. The menu is on the left.
Thank you, Hacker.

By the by, I have a gmail account, too.

EDIT: I prefer the "broken" version.

I'd like to see all the tutorials in iec.org in iSilo format. The IEC doesn't look like they are free to redistribute. They require a login to access. I'll see what I can do. Maybe I can partner with them to provide these in a more-usable format for readers.

Also, their PDFs are password-protected (which I can bypass if necessary), but it still presents the question of legality for redistribution.

Good suggestions however. Keep them coming!