Calling all Math Enthusiasts!

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 01:37 AM

Hello everyone!

I just joined today. I live in the East Bay (near San Francisco, Ca).

After about six months of studying the different readers I had decided to get a new 10" Fujitsu stylist with a 10hr battery.

Before I could buy the Fujitsu, and to my surprise, my wife and mother presented me with a Sony Reader PRS-505. I didn't let on, but I wasn't happy. The reviews were terrible. I loaded up a math book as a PDF and couldn't read it because the print was too small.

Then I discovered this wonderful forum. I downloaded PDFLRFwin-0.99 and WOW!!! What a difference! It digests everything I throw at it and produces perfectly readable mathematical books. Now I love my reader! It has replaced a banker box of books and papers that use to accompany me on car trips (which explains why my wife was so happy to provide me with the Reader).

I am so glad I have the Sony Reader instead of the bulkier Fujitsu. It is pretty darn near perfect (oh sure, nested TOC/bookmarks would be slick and so would searches, but I'm doing fine without them).

Two weeks ago I flew coast to coast then back with no entertainment save my Reader. On my return I still had two bars of charge left on my battery.

I hope to return to college next year so I'm studying my undergraduate math and first year graduate math classes.

Are there any other math guys out there using the Sony Reader?

Gideon · 02-04-2008, 11:03 AM

Not a math guy myself, but I think that's pretty damn great! Well done!

MickeyC · 02-04-2008, 12:51 PM

Hi Mike's Place and welcome to the Forum. Not a math guy either but I do have a 505 and love it. Like you I'm delighted with the battery life

vivaldirules · 02-04-2008, 01:47 PM

Welcome, Mike. I'm a professional chemist and math enthusiast. Like you, pdflrf made lots of things possible after my initial horror from looking at an unconverted pdf on my Reader. Six months later the thrill is still there, but without the ability to easily flip between sections of a document, search, take notes, have multiple documents open at once, etc., I've concluded that I really can't use my Reader efficiently for technical work. I'll need a tablet for that. But if I just want to read one thing from beginning to end, whether technical or not, it's terrific. I'm glad your satisfied, too.

RWood · 02-04-2008, 02:27 PM

As I remember Bob Russell is a math guy and HarryT is a physics guy. I did a minor in math in college. The Sony is a great machine for reading all sorts of things.

Glad to have you as a member of the forums.

badgoodDeb · 02-04-2008, 03:01 PM

I'm a Math and Physics double bachelors, followed by a Comp Sci masters and "ABD" (90% of a phd, but no thesis). But I haven't tried any technical stuff yet on my 3 days old Kindle. Just fun reading.

lovebeta · 02-04-2008, 03:56 PM

I tried a couple math book samples (from Springer) on my kindle and they did not look good. I think the format is the so-called Topaz, and most of the embedded fonts just look horrible.

On the plus side though, you don't need to transpose your head for Amazon's Topaz files.

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

but without the ability to easily flip between sections of a document, search, take notes, have multiple documents open at once, etc., I've concluded that I really can't use my Reader efficiently for technical work. I'll need a tablet for that. But if I just want to read one thing from beginning to end, whether technical or not, it's terrific. I'm glad your satisfied, too.

Yes, that's the trick. It should pretty much be a book you are reading from start to finish. The way I get around that is with lots of notes. Next to my notes I jot down page numbers for everything. Then it is easy to flip back and forth. It works very well actually.

Oh, I also use a lot of 3x5 cards for formulas, methods, tables, definitions and shorter proofs. I jot the book and page number on these also. It is basically "active" reading - very important for learning math.

Mike

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

As I remember Bob Russell is a math guy and HarryT is a physics guy. I did a minor in math in college. The Sony is a great machine for reading all sorts of things.

Glad to have you as a member of the forums.

Thanks, I'll drop them a hello.

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I'm a Math and Physics double bachelors, followed by a Comp Sci masters and "ABD" (90% of a phd, but no thesis). But I haven't tried any technical stuff yet on my 3 days old Kindle. Just fun reading.

Very cool. I was a math/physics major but I did a lot of Comp sci as Unix was being developed on microcomputers (Sun and Intel). Never heard of an ABD... sounds interesting.

Mike

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lovebeta

I tried a couple math book samples (from Springer) on my kindle and they did not look good. I think the format is the so-called Topaz, and most of the embedded fonts just look horrible.

I purchased an online book from Amazon (a V.I. Arnold classic) to read on my laptop. You have to stay online to change pages. I was quite happy with the annotative aspects of their viewer. I thought the Kindle would have a similar display, but I guess now no.

I think you would like how PDFLRF works with the Sony Reader. I don't mind cocking my head 90 degrees, but I've found it measurably more convenient to rotate the reader -90 degrees. It sits comfortably on my exercise bike in that position too.

Mike

vivaldirules · 02-04-2008, 04:48 PM

Mike, you will have already seen a post by Recycledelectron (I love that name) here who teaches math at a university somewhere. I'd say he's completely committed to using his Reader for math work.

badgoodDeb · 02-04-2008, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike's Place

Never heard of an ABD... sounds interesting.

"All But Dissertation" I've heard it used in various settings.

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

"All But Dissertation" I've heard it used in various settings.

Ah, thanks for clarity.

Mike's Place · 02-04-2008, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Mike, you will have already seen a post by Recycledelectron (I love that name) here who teaches math at a university somewhere. I'd say he's completely committed to using his Reader for math work.

Yes, I think he goes by the name Andy in another realm. He's done an amazing job of integrating all his schooling into the Reader. He even listens to class audio while flipping through jpegs of black boards. I have to admit, I'm enough of a gadgeteer that it makes my mouth water to hear such things.

Yes, very fun name - 'Recycledelectron'

. Wonder if he's a fan of Italo Calvino?

Mike

02-04-2008, 01:37 AM	#1
Mike's Place Pull up a chair Posts: 58 Karma: 113 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: San Francisco, East Bay Device: PRS-505	Calling all Math Enthusiasts! Hello everyone! I just joined today. I live in the East Bay (near San Francisco, Ca). After about six months of studying the different readers I had decided to get a new 10" Fujitsu stylist with a 10hr battery. Before I could buy the Fujitsu, and to my surprise, my wife and mother presented me with a Sony Reader PRS-505. I didn't let on, but I wasn't happy. The reviews were terrible. I loaded up a math book as a PDF and couldn't read it because the print was too small. Then I discovered this wonderful forum. I downloaded PDFLRFwin-0.99 and WOW!!! What a difference! It digests everything I throw at it and produces perfectly readable mathematical books. Now I love my reader! It has replaced a banker box of books and papers that use to accompany me on car trips (which explains why my wife was so happy to provide me with the Reader). I am so glad I have the Sony Reader instead of the bulkier Fujitsu. It is pretty darn near perfect (oh sure, nested TOC/bookmarks would be slick and so would searches, but I'm doing fine without them). Two weeks ago I flew coast to coast then back with no entertainment save my Reader. On my return I still had two bars of charge left on my battery. I hope to return to college next year so I'm studying my undergraduate math and first year graduate math classes. Are there any other math guys out there using the Sony Reader?

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02-04-2008, 11:03 AM	#2
Gideon Wearer of Pants Posts: 1,050 Karma: 7634 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norman, OK Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone	Not a math guy myself, but I think that's pretty damn great! Well done!

02-04-2008, 12:51 PM	#3
MickeyC Grand Sorcerer Posts: 16,731 Karma: 12185114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Florida Device: iPhone 6 plus, Sony T1, iPad 3	Hi Mike's Place and welcome to the Forum. Not a math guy either but I do have a 505 and love it. Like you I'm delighted with the battery life

02-04-2008, 01:47 PM	#4
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Welcome, Mike. I'm a professional chemist and math enthusiast. Like you, pdflrf made lots of things possible after my initial horror from looking at an unconverted pdf on my Reader. Six months later the thrill is still there, but without the ability to easily flip between sections of a document, search, take notes, have multiple documents open at once, etc., I've concluded that I really can't use my Reader efficiently for technical work. I'll need a tablet for that. But if I just want to read one thing from beginning to end, whether technical or not, it's terrific. I'm glad your satisfied, too.

02-04-2008, 02:27 PM	#5
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	As I remember Bob Russell is a math guy and HarryT is a physics guy. I did a minor in math in college. The Sony is a great machine for reading all sorts of things. Glad to have you as a member of the forums.

02-04-2008, 03:01 PM	#6
badgoodDeb Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,541 Karma: 64201357 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Harrisburg outskirts Device: Palms, K1-4s, iPads, iPhones, KV, KO1	I'm a Math and Physics double bachelors, followed by a Comp Sci masters and "ABD" (90% of a phd, but no thesis). But I haven't tried any technical stuff yet on my 3 days old Kindle. Just fun reading.

02-04-2008, 03:56 PM	#7
lovebeta Groupie Posts: 176 Karma: 406 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Amazon Kindle 2, Amazon Kindle, Sony PRS-505	I tried a couple math book samples (from Springer) on my kindle and they did not look good. I think the format is the so-called Topaz, and most of the embedded fonts just look horrible. On the plus side though, you don't need to transpose your head for Amazon's Topaz files.

02-04-2008, 04:48 PM	#12
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Mike, you will have already seen a post by Recycledelectron (I love that name) here who teaches math at a university somewhere. I'd say he's completely committed to using his Reader for math work.