Price drop brings out new critics - Page 4

kovidgoyal · 08-05-2007, 11:05 AM

Think of LRF as a bit of pre-rendering. It allows SONY to write book reader software for the PRS500 that uses very little CPU power to achieve features like reflow, font resizing and small sized ebook files, all important for an embedded solution.

As for the ease of writing converters. You're right it's pretty easy (atleast as a one shot affair), but then writing all software is pretty easy. In fact the only activity in CS that's not necessarily easy is writing new (faster) algorithms, to solve math problems. That was one of the reasons I decided not to do CS.

The real difficulty in CS, that makes it a full time job is maintaining software, not writing it.

Actually I guess I should mention AI as well ;-)

scampos · 08-06-2007, 11:05 AM

I am always amazed at how easy it is to dismiss other peoples work as "too simple"! You've clearly not understood what CS is about. Problems in CS range from "too simple" to "rather difficult" to "unsolvable", as in any other area.

Here is a interesting observation, ever wondered why Adobe hasn't put out the "digital editions" yet ? Maybe this piece of software is not so simple after all... Can you think of any other examples ?

Nate the great · 08-06-2007, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scampos

I am always amazed at how easy it is to dismiss other peoples work as "too simple"! You've clearly not understood what CS is about. Problems in CS range from "too simple" to "rather difficult" to "unsolvable", as in any other area.

Here is a interesting observation, ever wondered why Adobe hasn't put out the "digital editions" yet ? Maybe this piece of software is not so simple after all... Can you think of any other examples ?

I did not say it was simple. I said it was not difficult so long as you have the file format specifications. And it's not, if instead of writing the program, you write the flex and yacc spec files to make a parser that will do it for you. For example, over the weekend I wrote separate parsers for HTML, TXT, RTF. The parsers are complete enough to show that they are fully functional, but don't yet output anything meaningful.

Now, working with an unexplained file type like LRF can be very difficult. I hold anyone who does this in high esteem.

But the point I tried to make before is that Sony has the LRF specs. They could have made the conversion software themselves, and released it with Connect.

kovidgoyal · 08-06-2007, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scampos

I am always amazed at how easy it is to dismiss other peoples work as "too simple"! You've clearly not understood what CS is about. Problems in CS range from "too simple" to "rather difficult" to "unsolvable", as in any other area.

Here is a interesting observation, ever wondered why Adobe hasn't put out the "digital editions" yet ? Maybe this piece of software is not so simple after all... Can you think of any other examples ?

Actually I was wrong to say CS. I meant designing software for everyday use. I agree that often writing new algorithms to perform tasks is not at all easy. In my post I gave the example of AI related algorithms.

scampos · 08-06-2007, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Actually I was wrong to say CS. I meant designing software for everyday use. I agree that often writing new algorithms to perform tasks is not at all easy. In my post I gave the example of AI related algorithms.

Well, let's make peace! Agreed! Parsers are usually not too hard to write if you have the specs. Other things can be harder, including a parser when you don't have the specs. One of the reasons I admire the effort put into libprs500.

kovidgoyal · 08-06-2007, 02:04 PM

Sure I was only saying that writing parsers is no more or less difficult than writing most other day-to-day software. I probably shouldn't have lumped all of CS into that category.

pwalker8 · 08-06-2007, 08:59 PM

To a great extent I think that Sony is a lot like AT&T and IBM during their monopoly days. The decision makers are too far removed from the consumers and really don't get why something becomes popular and why something does not.

The biggest issue that I have with the eReader is the lack of flexibility in the software. Why limit yourself if you don't have to. Yes, I know that there are some here who say, "I don't understand why you are complaining, it works exactly the way I work". My answer is, that's nice, but not everyone works the same way and it's a whole lot better to make more people happy with a little extra foresight and effort than make just a few happy.

I understand that the design of the eReader is that the customer has a hand full of books on the reader at any one time and the media card is so you can also play music or pictures. But, a goodly percentage of the people who are buying this device want to have a lot more books available on the device than that. Why not be flexible up front and allow people to use the eReader in different ways? Me, I like to have all my books available to me at one time. I like to have all my music available, also. That's why I have the largest video iPod that they make. What's better is that Apple makes it easy for me to access any song that I may want, I quickly search by author, title, album, genre or I can create static or dynamic playlists. People who just want to play random songs can do that without fiddling with all the playlists. All in all, very very flexible.

I can't think of a technical reason for not supporting collections on card, or for not including better organization of books. It isn't hard and the little touches, make the difference between a good device that doesn't sale well and a block buster device.

I understand why Sony decided to go in the proprietary direction that they did. They already had the connect store, so someone decided that they had to leverage that. Besides, I'm sure the marketeers sold it as a why to bring in billions and billions of dollars by locking people into Sony. Personally, I think they would have been better off by partnering with mobipocket and certainly, looking at it now, they would have been far better off if they had. One would have thought that Sony had learned their lesson about proprietary devices by now, but apparently not.

nerys · 08-31-2007, 03:54 AM

I disagree its not a PDF problem its a COLOR problem. 4 shades is the problem. I have an 800x600 pixel tablet computer and an 800x600 pixel laptop both display 100% of my PDF readably but on the same 800x600 display sony reader they are not readable. This tells me its a dithering issue making them unreadable (even when enhanced) ie it just needs more than 4 shades. if we even had 16 shades I think all our PDF problems should go away but thats not possible on current hardware. I have even converted some pdf's to 640x480 and they are almost legible on my zen vision (4.3inch VGA screen)

So its not resolution and its not the PDF's. its the color depth of the screen on the reader.

HarryT · 08-31-2007, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nerys

This tells me its a dithering issue making them unreadable (even when enhanced) ie it just needs more than 4 shades. if we even had 16 shades I think all our PDF problems should go away but thats not possible on current hardware.

Not possible on the Reader's current hardware. The iLiad displays 16 grey-scales.

JSWolf · 08-31-2007, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nerys

I disagree its not a PDF problem its a COLOR problem. 4 shades is the problem. I have an 800x600 pixel tablet computer and an 800x600 pixel laptop both display 100% of my PDF readably but on the same 800x600 display sony reader they are not readable. This tells me its a dithering issue making them unreadable (even when enhanced) ie it just needs more than 4 shades. if we even had 16 shades I think all our PDF problems should go away but thats not possible on current hardware. I have even converted some pdf's to 640x480 and they are almost legible on my zen vision (4.3inch VGA screen)

So its not resolution and its not the PDF's. its the color depth of the screen on the reader.

Your tablet PC has a larger screen size. So the PDF is not as small looking as it is on the 6" Sony screen. That's the major difference.

nerys · 08-31-2007, 07:07 PM

No its not a difference. IE thats a difference in your eyeballs and my Tablet screen is almost the same size as the Sony screen. 7 inch screen on the tablet 6 inch screen on the sony. and as I said its almost readable at 640x480 on my 4" screen Zen Vision. so no its not screen size for the most part its just colors. its a pitty cause it would be awesome to read digimags on the sony reader so convenient.

What screen size DOES effect is your ability to read if you do not have the greatest vision. IE if you can not see "finer" detail. for example 1920x1440 is perfectly readable to me on my 21" monitor for my dad it might as well be a blur.

but that is a VISUAL limitation in my dad's eyesight NOT a limitation in the screen itself.

with the reader it has enough pixels and it has enough inches. It just does not have enough shades of color.

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

08-05-2007, 11:05 AM	#46
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,359 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Think of LRF as a bit of pre-rendering. It allows SONY to write book reader software for the PRS500 that uses very little CPU power to achieve features like reflow, font resizing and small sized ebook files, all important for an embedded solution. As for the ease of writing converters. You're right it's pretty easy (atleast as a one shot affair), but then writing all software is pretty easy. In fact the only activity in CS that's not necessarily easy is writing new (faster) algorithms, to solve math problems. That was one of the reasons I decided not to do CS. The real difficulty in CS, that makes it a full time job is maintaining software, not writing it. Actually I guess I should mention AI as well ;-) Last edited by kovidgoyal; 08-05-2007 at 11:28 AM.

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08-06-2007, 11:05 AM	#47
scampos Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Brasil Device: Sony Reader	I am always amazed at how easy it is to dismiss other peoples work as "too simple"! You've clearly not understood what CS is about. Problems in CS range from "too simple" to "rather difficult" to "unsolvable", as in any other area. Here is a interesting observation, ever wondered why Adobe hasn't put out the "digital editions" yet ? Maybe this piece of software is not so simple after all... Can you think of any other examples ?

08-06-2007, 02:04 PM	#51
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,359 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Sure I was only saying that writing parsers is no more or less difficult than writing most other day-to-day software. I probably shouldn't have lumped all of CS into that category.

08-06-2007, 08:59 PM	#52
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	To a great extent I think that Sony is a lot like AT&T and IBM during their monopoly days. The decision makers are too far removed from the consumers and really don't get why something becomes popular and why something does not. The biggest issue that I have with the eReader is the lack of flexibility in the software. Why limit yourself if you don't have to. Yes, I know that there are some here who say, "I don't understand why you are complaining, it works exactly the way I work". My answer is, that's nice, but not everyone works the same way and it's a whole lot better to make more people happy with a little extra foresight and effort than make just a few happy. I understand that the design of the eReader is that the customer has a hand full of books on the reader at any one time and the media card is so you can also play music or pictures. But, a goodly percentage of the people who are buying this device want to have a lot more books available on the device than that. Why not be flexible up front and allow people to use the eReader in different ways? Me, I like to have all my books available to me at one time. I like to have all my music available, also. That's why I have the largest video iPod that they make. What's better is that Apple makes it easy for me to access any song that I may want, I quickly search by author, title, album, genre or I can create static or dynamic playlists. People who just want to play random songs can do that without fiddling with all the playlists. All in all, very very flexible. I can't think of a technical reason for not supporting collections on card, or for not including better organization of books. It isn't hard and the little touches, make the difference between a good device that doesn't sale well and a block buster device. I understand why Sony decided to go in the proprietary direction that they did. They already had the connect store, so someone decided that they had to leverage that. Besides, I'm sure the marketeers sold it as a why to bring in billions and billions of dollars by locking people into Sony. Personally, I think they would have been better off by partnering with mobipocket and certainly, looking at it now, they would have been far better off if they had. One would have thought that Sony had learned their lesson about proprietary devices by now, but apparently not.

08-31-2007, 03:54 AM	#53
nerys Addict Posts: 243 Karma: 48 Join Date: Dec 2006 Device: PRS 500 - REB 1200	I disagree its not a PDF problem its a COLOR problem. 4 shades is the problem. I have an 800x600 pixel tablet computer and an 800x600 pixel laptop both display 100% of my PDF readably but on the same 800x600 display sony reader they are not readable. This tells me its a dithering issue making them unreadable (even when enhanced) ie it just needs more than 4 shades. if we even had 16 shades I think all our PDF problems should go away but thats not possible on current hardware. I have even converted some pdf's to 640x480 and they are almost legible on my zen vision (4.3inch VGA screen) So its not resolution and its not the PDF's. its the color depth of the screen on the reader.

08-31-2007, 07:07 PM	#56
nerys Addict Posts: 243 Karma: 48 Join Date: Dec 2006 Device: PRS 500 - REB 1200	No its not a difference. IE thats a difference in your eyeballs and my Tablet screen is almost the same size as the Sony screen. 7 inch screen on the tablet 6 inch screen on the sony. and as I said its almost readable at 640x480 on my 4" screen Zen Vision. so no its not screen size for the most part its just colors. its a pitty cause it would be awesome to read digimags on the sony reader so convenient. What screen size DOES effect is your ability to read if you do not have the greatest vision. IE if you can not see "finer" detail. for example 1920x1440 is perfectly readable to me on my 21" monitor for my dad it might as well be a blur. but that is a VISUAL limitation in my dad's eyesight NOT a limitation in the screen itself. with the reader it has enough pixels and it has enough inches. It just does not have enough shades of color. Chris Taylor http://www.nerys.com/