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Re: January BNL cool article - why not on the web page?
William Vannerson wrote:
snip...[Truly Great Adobe Commercial (^_^)]
> It's a great tool for some applications, but not all. But I think it's perfect for JAKA. Platform independent, automatic file compression to reduce size, indexing, and security (if used).
>
> I hope this clears up matters! :-)
Not one bit, Bill. Sorry if I seem dense. We seem to still not be
communicating.
I didn't deny that it was a terrific program that could even establish
middle-east peace and everything else we should ever want.
I'm concerned that it could produce a nearly worthless *final* product.
What I *did* say was that I don't want *you* to chose what I sort on if I
don't have to. I don't want *you* to choose how my page looks when I'm
reading it. The indices of Adobe-generated catalogs are often utter garbage
that makes even Baensch look pretty good by comparison. ;-) Making indexing
easy just makes making bad indices *particularly* likely.
Every effort should be made to put the documents into word-processor formats
that can be searched *by the CD owner, after the fact, even on word
combinations with wild cards*. I could care less if it is slower than
instantaneous. I would have absolutely zero interest in buying a fair
photocopy of all the back JAKA/KNs on CD (e.g., PDF or Acrobat), even with a
Baensch-style Atlas Index pre-prepared for me by someone else. That wastes
what the computer actually can do for us. I'd rather spring for the
dead-tree copies than do that. They are at least easier to read and
individually are far more portable, IMHO.
In a word processor, I can set up the page in any number of ways to make
readability as good as I want it. I can even change to a better font or
colors for my CRT. That is out of the question in Acrobat. It doesn't even
allow you to tinker with line length!
If I can't read my CRT (gets tough at my age ;-)) I can print out pages for
my own use (that's known as "fair use," and is quite legal). Gets back some
portability so I can even read them in bed. (^_^)
That's exactly what you didn't clear up for me.
Let me be very, very explicit. I'd happily volunteer to put a lot of time
and effort into getting out a modern, useful version of all the old
JAKA/KNs. I'm not the slightest bit interested in having essentially ancient
Xerox copies of them on CD, indexed or not.
Security? From whom? If we can sell the whole thing for a few bucks, I could
care less if someone rips off an illegal copy of an article for the local
club newsletter. The security issue assumes it costs a huge amount to
produce, and that the 1000 hours (?) of volunteer labor will be cheated out
of just compensation. That's not a real argument in a hobby environment.
They *did* it to get the information out there. They might get irked if TFH
or AFM ripped them off, though. The law handles that rather well and AKA
probably would sue, on their behalf.
Heck, I'd prefer to see AKA provide a free CD copy to each Affiliate with a
license to reprint anything in it, in their local publications, with proper
credit to the volunteers of AKA who did the real work. *That* would do
killifish some good! [It should be easy to reformat to fit their page style,
tho. ;-)]
Thanks,
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntleyone at home dot com
"DEMOCRACY" is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
"LIBERTY" is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.
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