Amazon Drones, Meet Your Mothership

[Katsunami]

So-called advanced manufacturing, which is highly specialized and requires a facility with computers...

Blah, blah. "The computer will become more and more important, and someday we can't do without it. Everybody has to know how to use them."

Newsflash. 'Someday' was here 15 years ago (in The Netherlands). Still, many people seemed to not have realized it. Even now I see lots and lots of people who have *no* clue about anything but a smartphone (and even their understanding of that is tenuous).

As long as hordes of 20-30 year olds need help to connect their smartphone to a wifi router, it either has to become even simpler than it is now ("Tap the router name, fill out your password"), or they need to study harder. Those people can't use a computer sufficiently to use it for their daily jobs, short of some 'tricks' maybe.

There are still loads of people who simply say "I can't do that" as soon as they see something they don't understand. They don't even make an effort to try and understand it. This is particularly true when it comes down to technology, such as computers, phones, tablets, TV's, and the like.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Sure are.

Back then? Yes. Do you know how much WORK it is to tag all books correctly? Author, title, series, arches (such as in Discworld), genres, pulished dates, finding matching covers for a series, and then fixing the books where necessary? (Fortunately the calibre editor has made that process MUCH faster.)

Now I only spend an hour or so once every while if I buy something. Normally I wait, and wait and wait, and when a sale comes up, I pounce and get 10 books at a time.

It's cheaper indeed, and it has many advantages, *AFTER* you knock your library into shape.

I just bought and categorized 4 ebooks from Amazon. It took me 5 minutes to add to Calibre. It took another 2 or 3 minutes per book to update the metadata. Two of the books were boxed sets, so I spent 15 minutes each splitting them into individual books. So...about an hour for what actually ends up being 9 books.

A trip to the bookstore would take that long just to get there and back, not to mention the time spent in the store, and the extra money for gas, and the fact that the books themselves would have cost more.

Ebooks are *much* easier.

Shari

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by shalym

I just bought and categorized 4 ebooks from Amazon. It took me 5 minutes to add to Calibre. It took another 2 or 3 minutes per book to update the metadata. Two of the books were boxed sets, so I spent 15 minutes each splitting them into individual books. So...about an hour for what actually ends up being 9 books.

A trip to the bookstore would take that long just to get there and back, not to mention the time spent in the store, and the extra money for gas, and the fact that the books themselves would have cost more.

Ebooks are *much* easier.

Shari

It depends on what you call easier.

You have to have quite a bit of non-standard knowledge to be able to do what we're doing here. I'm not even talking about having the DeDRM tools installed, and the required knowledge and discipline to backup the library.

Also, you're jackassing around on a computer for an hour instead of going out and actually getting some books. In the past, I liked going into town to get books and other stuff, because I *could actually get what I wanted*, or order it and have it delivered in the store within a few days.

Nowadays, no-one ever has anything I want in stock, and bookstores tend to be *extremely* expensive. A paperback of a recently released novel can easily cost €20 or €25...

I love paper books, CD's, boxed games.... but there are just too many disadvantages compared to digital content to keep going that route. All disadvantages of digital content can be circumvented, but it requires knowledge and work.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

It depends on what you call easier.

You have to have quite a bit of non-standard knowledge to be able to do what we're doing here. I'm not even talking about having the DeDRM tools installed, and the required knowledge and discipline to backup the library.

Also, you're jackassing around on a computer for an hour instead of going out and actually getting some books. In the past, I liked going into town to get books and other stuff, because I *could actually get what I wanted*, or order it and have it delivered in the store within a few days.

Nowadays, no-one ever has anything I want in stock, and bookstores tend to be *extremely* expensive. A paperback of a recently released novel can easily cost €20 or €25...

I love paper books, CD's, boxed games.... but there are just too many disadvantages compared to digital content to keep going that route. All disadvantages of digital content can be circumvented, but it requires knowledge and work.

Ah...see, I really actively dislike going to stores for any reason. Bookstores used to be the only exception to that, and that was only because I was rewarded with books at the end.

Now that I can get what I want from the comfort of my house, and I don't have to go into actual stores as often, I enjoy leaving my house much more than I used to. (I still need to go to B&M stores for most groceries, as I live too far away for Peapod or other delivery services)

Shari

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I'm fussy. Filling in metadata automatically has never given me good results when it comes to books.

Filling in metadata automatically is something I'd never even try, I can't imagine any scenario when it would give even "decent" results and not create more of a mess to then clean up. I don't think that's being fussy just to want the info correct.

I add books to my Calibre Library as I get them, and for each and every book I then edit the metadata manually where I can make sure I select the correct book with the info I want and then select a cover of my choice, not necessarily the one that came with the book.

Fortunately I stumbled on Calibre right after getting my first ereader thanks to this forum, so I never had the headache of trying to add in hundreds of books at a time. But doing a few manually as I get them takes just a few minutes of time and is a step I never skip with new books.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Filling in metadata automatically is something I'd never even try, I can't imagine any scenario when it would give even "decent" results and not create more of a mess to then clean up. I don't think that's being fussy just to want the info correct.

As said, it works near-perfectly with music CD's, leaning on databases such as AccurateRip. The ripper creates a CD-hash, and then retrieves the metadata for that CD from the database, which is verified an known to be correct.

I add books to my Calibre Library as I get them, and for each and every book I then edit the metadata manually where I can make sure I select the correct book with the info I want and then select a cover of my choice, not necessarily the one that came with the book.

Same here. I set the metadata myself, and use the publisher and the ISBN mentioned in the ebook. The cover I get is the one I like, not necessarily the one belonging to that particular version. I like to have matching covers in series.

Fortunately I stumbled on Calibre right after getting my first ereader thanks to this forum, so I never had the headache of trying to add in hundreds of books at a time. But doing a few manually as I get them takes just a few minutes of time and is a step I never skip with new books.

It's the same for me nowadays, but in 2013-2014, I went completely bat-shit crazy with the Kobo 70-90% coupons, and bought hundreds and hundreds of books in two years time.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Filling in metadata automatically is something I'd never even try, I can't imagine any scenario when it would give even "decent" results and not create more of a mess to then clean up. I don't think that's being fussy just to want the info correct.

I add books to my Calibre Library as I get them, and for each and every book I then edit the metadata manually where I can make sure I select the correct book with the info I want and then select a cover of my choice, not necessarily the one that came with the book.

I use Calibre's Find Metadata tool and it is usually 'right enough' for me. I mean, I do make sure it is the correct book. But as long as the title, author, publisher and synopsis are okay, that's all I care about. And really, publisher isn't a major concern of mine.

Series I edit manually if they don't auto-populate. And I'm not a big fan of series anyway.

Beyond that, when you are talking eBooks, what is 'correct'?

Tags I'm not too fussed about. I add some for things that I think are important to me. Mainly genre.

Publication date I rarely pay attention to. What is the 'right' date? The date it was first published? The date the current eBook was released? I just don't care.

Sometimes if the cover is ugly and I can find an older cover I like better, I'll change it. But I have to say I don't do that very often.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I like to have matching covers in series.

That's funny, I'm exactly the same way. And then will use one of the Calibre plugins to swap the old non-matching cover for the new one I chose within the book so it displays on my reader.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I use Calibre's Find Metadata tool and it is usually 'right enough' for me. I mean, I do make sure it is the correct book. But as long as the title, author, publisher and synopsis are okay, that's all I care about. And really, publisher isn't a major concern of mine.

Series I edit manually if they don't auto-populate. And I'm not a big fan of series anyway.

Beyond that, when you are talking eBooks, what is 'correct'?

My main concerns are of course the title, author and correct synopsis. I'm not worried about the dates too much either nor the publisher. Numbers in a series I do want correct though, I like to read series in proper order, and many times what's imported is missing or just wrong, or 3 different ways to list the same series, which I'll keep to one concise name. I usually refer to the author's site or Goodreads to verify the series order.

But I've also seen many instances when the wrong book entirely is selected when trying to use the auto metadata, and that's what creates the headache trying to clean up, when the title and author of the book have been changed by the auto function. That's the main thing I want to avoid and why I'll never use auto metadata or bulk metadata methods.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

That's funny, I'm exactly the same way. And then will use one of the Calibre plugins to swap the old non-matching cover for the new one I chose within the book so it displays on my reader.

I use Polish Book for that. I like to have everything in the book; metadata and cover.

My main concerns are of course the title, author and correct synopsis. I'm not worried about the dates too much either nor the publisher. Numbers in a series I do want correct though, I like to read series in proper order, and many times what's imported is missing or just wrong, or 3 different ways to list the same series, which I'll keep to one concise name. I usually refer to the author's site or Goodreads to verify the series order.

I go much further.

I have "super series". All the Drizzt books by Salvatore are in a series, but they are all part of "The Legend of Drizzt", book 1 to three gazillion.

Also I have "Arches"; For example, the Discworld Series has 41 books. Discworld 1, 2, 5, 9, 17.... are about Rincewind, but they're not really a series on their own. So, those books are in the Rincewind arch.

In case I need something special, I have an Annotations field, and a Collections one, to put the book into additional collections apart from Series and Author, on my KA1.

Yeah, I'm going overboard, I know. I'm crazy. But I want it like that; I want to be able to know everything about a book and series by opening only Calibre, without having to look on the internet.

But I've also seen many instances when the wrong book entirely is selected when trying to use the auto metadata, and that's what creates the headache trying to clean up, when the title and author of the book have been changed by the auto function. That's the main thing I want to avoid and why I'll never use auto metadata or bulk metadata methods.

If metadata is wrong, you'll never be able to find the book. You'll have to open it and fix it by hand. It's better to just fix it when it goes into Calibre.

[Katsunami]

Oh, and with regard to covers... it was HELL to find large versions of matching covers for all the 41 Discworld books. I didn't even know if they were all (re)printed with matching covers, but it looks like they were. In the end I found all of them, except for Eric.

See attachment.... anybody has a source for a large version of a cover matching the others?

edit: It says "Rectan" in the middle. It seems I was so fast with capturing the image that the snipping tool hadn't faded out completely yet

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

But I've also seen many instances when the wrong book entirely is selected when trying to use the auto metadata, and that's what creates the headache trying to clean up, when the title and author of the book have been changed by the auto function. That's the main thing I want to avoid and why I'll never use auto metadata or bulk metadata methods.

Yeah, that I agree with. There's a difference between auto metadata and bulk metadata.

I use Calibre's Get Metadata function, but I do of course give the result a cursory scan before applying. And I only do one book at a time. I'm not fussy, but I'm not crazy either!

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I use Calibre's Get Metadata function, but I do of course give the result a cursory scan before applying. And I only do one book at a time. I'm not fussy, but I'm not crazy either!

That's exactly what I consider doing it manually... doing one book at a time. I use Calibre's Get Metadata, verify that it pulled info for the correct book and fix it if not. So I think we use the same process, just our wording is different. Automated or bulk metadata means (to me at least) that each individual book wasn't verified, that Calibre was just left to fill in what it selected as best choice, which can be a crapshoot.

[ZodWallop]

Ripplinger,

Any story to your icon besides the gloriously cheesy hologram cover art?

I'm a reader of eighties horror, but haven't read Hautala's Night Stone yet.

[DiapDealer]

I've never cared the least little bit about metadata, or covers, or organizing my ebooks (or pbooks, for that matter) in any way. I'm only interested in reading them* and then reading the next one. I have zero librarian dna in me. So ebooks have made EVERYTHING about reading easier, and more convenient for me.

* I DO tweak the formatting of my ebooks sometimes. But only if it's distractingly bad. And even then, there's a limit to how much effort I'll put into it. At some point, I'll just delete the book and move on if it's too horrifically formatted.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Ripplinger,

Any story to your icon besides the gloriously cheesy hologram cover art?

I'm a reader of eighties horror, but haven't read Hautala's Night Stone yet.

I loved the book, and that was the original cover on it (cheesy or not, I loved the cover too ) and still have it. It was one that got passed around to most all readers in my family and friends (several that cursed me out because of being scared while reading it), but one I was sure I got back when they were finished with it. Rick Hautala became one of my favorite authors after that and the few paperbacks that I didn't dump when going digital.

I intended to make it animated so you see the change, just never got around to it.