Meet-Up! Paris meetup 31 january 2009 : it's back ! - Page 7

Polyglot27 · 02-02-2009, 06:32 AM

Thanks for a great evening Zelda. You must have had a direct line to those up there who control the weather to keep the snow off the roads on Saturday night. Cold it was but at least not slippery.

desertgrandma · 02-02-2009, 09:02 AM

wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing. You all looked like you were having a great time. Would that we could all get together in one place!

zelda_pinwheel · 02-02-2009, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Thanks for a great evening Zelda. You must have had a direct line to those up there who control the weather to keep the snow off the roads on Saturday night. Cold it was but at least not slippery.

yes, we got lucky for that ! but you know if i really *did* have a direct line, it would have been a tiny bit warmer while i was walking home afterwards with my teeth chattering in my skull !!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing. You all looked like you were having a great time. Would that we could all get together in one place!

that would be nice ! i think then we would DEFINITELY need to ask mauro to break down a wall. maybe more than one in fact.

lilac_jive · 02-02-2009, 09:40 AM

I'm looking at my Paris calendar wistfully now. This month is an old picture of Notre Dame (zelda what is the building in front of it? This photo is from 1891 and I remember a big piazza in front of the cathedral).

lilac_jive · 02-02-2009, 09:45 AM

Nevermind, looked at a modern picture and it is there. The angle makes it look a lot closer than it is.

Patricia · 02-02-2009, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Nevermind, looked at a modern picture and it is there. The angle makes it look a lot closer than it is.

Possibly the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu?

lilac_jive · 02-02-2009, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patricia

Possibly the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu?

I'm not sure. It's right on the Seine (same side as Notre Dame), and facing the facade of the church.

Patricia · 02-02-2009, 10:06 AM

Try Google maps, on the satellite view, and see if anything looks familiar.

lilac_jive · 02-02-2009, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patricia

Try Google maps, on the satellite view, and see if anything looks familiar.

It's not the Hopital, but whatever it is isn't named on Google Maps. *Sigh*

pshrynk · 02-02-2009, 10:18 AM

You could just call it, A Building In Paris...

lilac_jive · 02-02-2009, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pshrynk

You could just call it, A Building In Paris...

Oui! If I could say it in French it would be even better

Gaurnim · 02-03-2009, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Oui! If I could say it in French it would be even better

You can say "un bâtiment dans Paris", then.

zelda_pinwheel · 02-03-2009, 08:01 PM

Xaaf has written a very comprehensive summary of the evening in the french thread so i thought i would translate it for our non francophone members.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaaf

So, for the homework, a little more detailed summary (of the part I was present for, i didn't stay for dinner) of this very friendly evening of discussions.

A few remarks and a few conversations I took part in about e-ink devices.

There is no ideal liseuse.
• The Sony 505 and the Cybook Gen3 (from Bookeen) are relatively slow and their ergonomy is mediocre (very mediocre for the Cybook). Very good visual quality for both (normal, it's the same electronic paper) but big difference in weight, the Cybook is incredibly light.
• The Sony 700 is faster, the tactile interface is outstanding, but the display of text is really inferior to the preceeding ones because of the touch and light layer (photos don't really show the sort of light blur on the text). Drawback of the touchscreen : fingerprints on the surface.
• the Digital Reader 1000s from iRex, because of its size (10" instead of 6 for the others), is suited to numerous other types of documents than novels (on the sony and Cybook, you must reformat your pdf documents if you want them to be useable) and therefore more uses. Drawback : it won't fit in a large pocket like the Cybook. It takes a long time to turn it on, 40 seconds (!) and the energy consumption is rather high for the moment (a new firmware should correct this problem). It has a touchscreen using a special stylus.
According to several accounts, the iRex reader is rather fragile.

Plastic Logic
A lot of anticipation about PlasticLogic whose launch has been pushed back to 2010 (but an announcement is expected the 9 february). Small drawback, the OS will be Windows CE.

DRM
All the people with whom I discussed the subject are against DRM. This will be one of the key points to develop rapidly and properly the sale of ebooks : they must be copiable with no problem.
I brought an epub document with me which went from a USB flash drive to a Netbook to an SD card to eventually be read with no problem on a 505. Would such a path have been possible with DRM ?

Format
As with every new technology, several file formats are available. If none are perfect for the moment, two get the highest marks : pdf and epub. The first gives the best result for formatting when the pdf is prepared specifically for the liseuse (so you must generate one pdf for the Cybook and another for the iRex, given their respective sizes).
The second is the most promising because (among other reasons) the text adapts to any size display like html.
Let's point out the interest (for specific cases) of a third solution used by some people : plain text with no formatting.
Calibre seems to be the most complete solution, even if sometimes it generates errors, to shift from one format to another.
The format will no doubt be one of the greatest battles of e-ink.

In conclusion, we all are conscious that we are participating in the beginnings of a new (for the general public) technology which will revolutionise many domaines over the next several years.

Ah yes, and I would evaluation the geekitude of the evening at a level of 8-9 (out of 10)

well, i don't know what it takes to get a 10 on the geekitude scale, but apart from that this is a very good summary i think. thanks Xaaf !

ShortNCuddlyAm · 02-03-2009, 08:07 PM

Thanks for translating that

I think to get a 9-10 you would have needed to have been doing more live updates, and maybe tweeting it, too

zelda_pinwheel · 02-03-2009, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Thanks for translating that

i'm glad you appreciated it, that was a long post ! i would have been really disappointed if nobody read it after all my hard work.

Quote:

I think to get a 9-10 you would have needed to have been doing more live updates, and maybe tweeting it, too

we'll keep that in mind for next time (now that we've figured out that la trottinette has wifi...)

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02-02-2009, 06:32 AM	#91
Polyglot27 Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 5588994 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Paris, France Device: Cybook Gen3, Archos 80 G9, Sony PRS-650, Sony T1, Asus MemoPad.	Thanks for a great evening Zelda. You must have had a direct line to those up there who control the weather to keep the snow off the roads on Saturday night. Cold it was but at least not slippery.

02-02-2009, 09:02 AM	#92
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462841 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing. You all looked like you were having a great time. Would that we could all get together in one place!

02-02-2009, 09:40 AM	#94
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	I'm looking at my Paris calendar wistfully now. This month is an old picture of Notre Dame (zelda what is the building in front of it? This photo is from 1891 and I remember a big piazza in front of the cathedral).

02-02-2009, 09:45 AM	#95
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	Nevermind, looked at a modern picture and it is there. The angle makes it look a lot closer than it is.

02-02-2009, 10:06 AM	#98
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,504 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	Try Google maps, on the satellite view, and see if anything looks familiar.

02-02-2009, 10:18 AM	#100
pshrynk Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah! Posts: 11,726 Karma: 8255450 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, aka America's IceBox Device: iThingie, KmkII, I miss Zelda!	You could just call it, A Building In Paris...

02-03-2009, 08:07 PM	#104
ShortNCuddlyAm WWHALD Posts: 7,879 Karma: 337114 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Mitcham, Surrey, UK Device: iPad. Selling my silver 505 here	Thanks for translating that I think to get a 9-10 you would have needed to have been doing more live updates, and maybe tweeting it, too