The Vent and Rant Thread

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Nah .... the ScanSnap is so much better than a flatbed. It works faster, the pages come out really clear and the text recognition is top rate. Let me cut up a paperback and I'll have it scanned and OCR'd in a matter of minutes.

LOL! Can I send you a list?

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

LOL! Can I send you a list?

Of books you want me to purchase?? Eeeek! That's the one thing I seriously miss about moving away from San Diego to this podunk town, no really good used bookstores.

I used to be able to get books (for cutting up and scanning) for about fifty cents there. Around here, there seem to be very few literate people. Very few people who have ever been to a dentist either. Oh, now I'm rambling again.

Sorry .... it's the heat. It's supposed to hit 108 today, and I have yard work to do. (Shudder .....)

[Ceili]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

"vive la république", hmph, i suppose. i hope things quiet down after the 14th too but that still leaves a week to get through. the irony is i *love* fireworks, and i don't even mind the noise then, but firecrackers drive me crazy. and when i have to walk along the street when kids are setting them off they scare me too ; there is very little worse than having to walk past a spot where a firecracker may or may not be about to explode. what is it about them that people love them so much ?? i don't get it.

I'm with you!! I love the fireworks in the sky... anything else, not so much! For me, a lot of this has to do with losing a good portion of my hearing in one ear at age 7-walking by a window grate that someone thought would be a great place for an M-80. I was always told I was lucky it was just my hearing and not an eye or more... but having worked for bosses that NEED to whisper without their lips moving... having missed an awful lot of sweet nothings whispered (well, maybe not a lot ), and never knowing what's going on in a show or movie where they're talking but the "background" music is at Metal Concert level... never seems to feel as lucky as it should.

Of course this might explain why I don't much care for going to the movie theater.... if I can't hear it anyway, why bother?


Hopefully things quiet down for you real soon!

[pilotbob]

OK... remember my "Fracking $1 US Note" rant....

Well, I recently saw a TV show (How Do They Do It or similar) about how plastic notes are made, I can't recall the country.

So... my new rant is...

IF WE HAVE TO HAVE THE FRACKING $1 NOTE, AT LEAST MAKE A PLASTIC ONE so it will last 5 years plus rather than the 16 months the current bills last. I think the savings will more than make up for converting to make the bill. Or we could just farm it out to a mint that already makes them for some other country.

BOb

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

OK... remember my "Fracking $1 US Note" rant....

Well, I recently saw a TV show (How Do They Do It or similar) about how plastic notes are made, I can't recall the country.

So... my new rant is...

IF WE HAVE TO HAVE THE FRACKING $1 NOTE, AT LEAST MAKE A PLASTIC ONE so it will last 5 years plus rather than the 16 months the current bills last. I think the savings will more than make up for converting to make the bill. Or we could just farm it out to a mint that already makes them for some other country.

BOb

To be honest, what with the kids and the wife, I don't think a note has ever lasted more than about 10 minutes in my wallet so 16 months appears to be more than adequate

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Of books you want me to purchase?? Eeeek! That's the one thing I seriously miss about moving away from San Diego to this podunk town, no really good used bookstores.

I used to be able to get books (for cutting up and scanning) for about fifty cents there. Around here, there seem to be very few literate people. Very few people who have ever been to a dentist either. Oh, now I'm rambling again.

Sorry .... it's the heat. It's supposed to hit 108 today, and I have yard work to do. (Shudder .....)

NO! I'd never ask you to purchase anything for me, hon. I meant of books to tear up and scan... I'd buy the books and ship them to you - if I had been serious in the first place, which I wasn't. I mail order anything I have to have in pbook format these days, I don't have any good used bookstores here, either. One of the shops has a small used section, and there's the local version of Goodwill that has a book section, but both are real heavy on bodice rippers and hard core sci-fi, neither of which is usually what I'm looking for.
I need a better scanning setup - desperately - for a couple of series that aren't going to be released in ebook til hades freezes over, if then. But I'd like a non destructive solution, and those are expensive.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

NO! I'd never ask you to purchase anything for me, hon. I meant of books to tear up and scan... I'd buy the books and ship them to you - if I had been serious in the first place, which I wasn't. I mail order anything I have to have in pbook format these days, I don't have any good used bookstores here, either. One of the shops has a small used section, and there's the local version of Goodwill that has a book section, but both are real heavy on bodice rippers and hard core sci-fi, neither of which is usually what I'm looking for.
I need a better scanning setup - desperately - for a couple of series that aren't going to be released in ebook til hades freezes over, if then. But I'd like a non destructive solution, and those are expensive.

A non destructive solution .... I wonder if one exists, other than turning the pages and scanning them one at a time or actually typing the thing in.

I usually find my way into the local second hand stores from time to time (looking for stuff I can repurpose mostly), and I'll find a good book that is in piss-poor condition. Those I don't feel so bad about tearing up and feeding through the scanner.

[LazyScot]

Azertyphobia (n): the perfectly rational fear of French Keyboard Layouts. The symptoms are often indistinguishable from Tourette's Syndrome.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Azertyphobia (n): the perfectly rational fear of French Keyboard Layouts. The symptoms are often indistinguishable from Tourette's Syndrome.

not to be confused with qwertyphobia, whose symptoms are nearly identical.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

A non destructive solution .... I wonder if one exists, other than turning the pages and scanning them one at a time or actually typing the thing in.

I usually find my way into the local second hand stores from time to time (looking for stuff I can repurpose mostly), and I'll find a good book that is in piss-poor condition. Those I don't feel so bad about tearing up and feeding through the scanner.

Yeah, the system Google used is non destructive, since they were doing library books, and there's plans for a homemade one using digital cameras and plexiglass at www.bkrpr.org . However, I don't have two digital cameras for the bkrpr one, and Chris won't have time to build the frame anyway for another two years or so (when he finishes the masters degrees....).
I used my flatbed for the one I did - but it took FOREVER. The speed you get is amazing to me.

[krisk]

argh!!! I have the sleepies so bad! and another hour to go! it was another, eyes wide open from 1 until 4:30 this morning!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Ceili

I'm with you!! I love the fireworks in the sky... anything else, not so much! For me, a lot of this has to do with losing a good portion of my hearing in one ear at age 7-walking by a window grate that someone thought would be a great place for an M-80. I was always told I was lucky it was just my hearing and not an eye or more... but having worked for bosses that NEED to whisper without their lips moving... having missed an awful lot of sweet nothings whispered (well, maybe not a lot ), and never knowing what's going on in a show or movie where they're talking but the "background" music is at Metal Concert level... never seems to feel as lucky as it should.

Of course this might explain why I don't much care for going to the movie theater.... if I can't hear it anyway, why bother?


Hopefully things quiet down for you real soon!

you know, i find it oddly reassuring that other people hate those stupid things as much (or more) as i do. this time of year i sometimes start to get the impression that i'm the only one... i'm very sorry about your hearing though, that really sucks. it makes me hate those things even more than i did already.

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Yeah, the system Google used is non destructive, since they were doing library books, and there's plans for a homemade one using digital cameras and plexiglass at www.bkrpr.org . However, I don't have two digital cameras for the bkrpr one, and Chris won't have time to build the frame anyway for another two years or so (when he finishes the masters degrees....).
I used my flatbed for the one I did - but it took FOREVER. The speed you get is amazing to me.

i'm also pretty impressed with the bkrpr system but i don't have the materials or the patience to set it up... and taking FOREVER, yes, that is precisely why i haven't started digitising all my old paperbacks. alas.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Yeah, the system Google used is non destructive, since they were doing library books, and there's plans for a homemade one using digital cameras and plexiglass at www.bkrpr.org . However, I don't have two digital cameras for the bkrpr one, and Chris won't have time to build the frame anyway for another two years or so (when he finishes the masters degrees....).
I used my flatbed for the one I did - but it took FOREVER. The speed you get is amazing to me.

The Scansnap is amazing. It will scan fifty pages, both sides in about 2 minutes. However, you absolutely have to cut the book up.

I can set up OCR to run on several scanned docs while I'm asleep.

[Greg Anos]

I find proofing the OCR is what really eats the time...

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I find proofing the OCR is what really eats the time...

I've been really impressed with Acrobat's OCR of my Scansnap scans.