[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [Killietalk] scanning job -- an idea
Hi,
I don't know why this issue always gets so nasty. That said, AKA co-founder Al Klee might have a solution. Recently, Al put all his articles on a CD for members of the Aquarium Hobby History Society. Al will be distributing this archive of almost 50 years of the hobby's best writing to interested AHHS members at a small cost. Al has created a CD that allows the purchaser to print out the articles into a two volume book totaling about 800 hardcopy pages. Al did this alone over the last few weeks and I am guessing he simply found a way to scan all his articles so that they could be printed out like a Word document. If that is so that sounds like a pretty simple if not fancy solution to the problem and a utilitarian way to get the information -- PRICELESS INFORMATION -- to all those smart enough to want it at a low cost. I would suggest going onto the AHHS yahoo club site and talking to Al about it. I bet he might be interested as he said the one thing he did not include i!
n his CD
were all of his AKA articles starting in 1962. The download even has a great looking coverpage for the "book".
On a fishy note, a bag of peat I hatced also hatced a number of cyclops -- easy feeding!
Bobby
Barry Cooper <bjc3 at centurytel_net> wrote:
Al asks in a reply to this message "where is the leader of this
project". In response I would echo the suggestions made by Brian Watters
a few days ago. The BOT needs to revisit this issue, to determine
whether it can and should be done, to establish criteria and guidelines
for the proposed product, and to determine the best way to do it.
It would be chaotic to go into this project without an organized plan. I
can tell you that I have thought quite a bit about doing this as a
collaborative effort and have even tried to do so, to a limited extent.
There are real difficulties associated with distributing the work yet
ending up with a consistent, high quality product. You can accuse me of
being a type A personality, which I probably am, but I do not want to
see a JAKA on CD product end up being a hodge podge of scanned issues,
all varying in quality and usefulness.
Larry Botkin, who has just been elected to the BOT, and who is well
qualified as a programmer, has suggested a sensible plan of approach to
this project. I suggest we allow him to first investigate the
practicality of having the work done commercially. If that is not cost
effective, we can look into alternatives. The BOT then can develop a set
of requirements and a plan. At that stage a project leader can be
identified.
By the way, a couple of days ago I was accused of having "sat on this
project for a decade". I initially did not respond to that but, as I am
writing this anyway, I will comment now. That statement is nonsense. We
have not yet had a web site for a decade (it was started in 1996) and I
(perhaps unwisely) undertook the JAKA on CD project well after that,
possibly 5 years ago. Furthermore, I have stated before, both here and
at AKA open board meetings over the last few years, that I have not been
able to manage that project as well as continuing to develop and
maintain the web site. I have publicly offered to hand over the project
to others but, although we have indeed had offers of help, nobody has
come forward with a developed proposal.
I personally appreciate the offers of help. In her message, Kate asks
for the requirement. That's just the point - the BOT needs to develop
them. In closing, I will repeat the suggestion that we allow the BOT to
revisit this idea. Once a plan is developed and approved, a project
leader can recruit the help needed. By the way, if you want to see an
example of the type of thing that I think JAKA on CD should be, look at
the example on the web site at
http://aka.org/modules/tinycontent0/content/JAKA_1998_31_2.pdf
Barry Cooper
Barry J. Cooper
Sweet Home, OR 97386
Kate Breimayer wrote:
>Ok, now you got me curious. Somebody email the requirements off list and
>I will see if I can do it and how long it takes. Got a scanner, good
>computers, photoshop and other useful stuff, and lots of free time. Also
>a Linux box if someone wants to find an open source version of a program
>needed to do this. Note I am NOT the household member with the computer
>skills! I am merely the better half who constantly badgers him to teach
>me. The more I do while unemployed the less damage to the ol resume...
>
>Kate B
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: killietalk-bounces at aka_org [mailto:killietalk-bounces at aka_org] On
>>Behalf Of Mike Jacobs
>>Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 10:17 PM
>>To: killietalk at aka_org
>>Subject: [Killietalk] JAKA copy
>>
>>"Many people don't realize what a time consuming job this is if it is to be
>>done properly.
>>
>> Most scanners come with software for optical character recognition, but
>>mistakes always creep in because of dirt or printing imperfections. To
>>proof one page and render it error free takes a detail oriented person.
>>When your done you get a text version of the article but it is not a
>>facsimile. To get something identical to the original you need to match
>>types, margins and all the other print settings.
>>
>> Then you have to scan the pictures and insert them. To get a nice job,
>>you have to calibrate your scanner as well as you monitor. Then you insert
>>the pictures between the text columns.
>>
>> I have done this with several of my bosses' old journal articles.
>>
>>The pages were a little larger than JAKA pages, but not 8.5" X 11".
>>
>>Once I became good at it, it took about a hour to produce one digital page
>>that looked like the original with searchable text.
>>
>> The alternative is just to scan the page like a picture and then make a
>>pdf from the image. This can be done quickly, but is of much poorer
>>quality. Often times the print from the back page shows through and the
>>file size necessary to get a nice monitor viewable image, is larger than a
>>standard pdf. Also the finished product looks like the original, but can
>>not be treated as text. It is really only a picture of the original. When
>>things are going well, this will take about ten to fifteen minutes per page.
>>The end result could be put on DVD's instead of CD's.
>>
>> I think this is a much needed project, but everyone, especially
>>volunteers, should realize that it is a very time intensive project.
>>
>>Before tackling it, make sure you have good computer with plenty of memory
>>and hard drive space, as well as a high resolution scanner.
>>
>>Software made specifically for this process and not the standard OEM
>>software that comes with the scanner, will also be needed.
>>
>> A large club with a computer guru and several less technical but still
>>computer literate volunteers might be more successful, but there would have
>>to be someone overseeing the project to make sure each person is producing
>>the same quality of work.
>>
>> I do hope this gets done sometime, and will congratulate the person who
>>completes it.
>>
>>
>>
>>Bill Martin"
>>
>>
>>
>>
>Join the AKA at http://aka.org/modules/tinycontent0/index.php?id=9
>Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/
>Modify your subscription at http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/killietalk
>
>
>
>
Join the AKA at http://aka.org/modules/tinycontent0/index.php?id=9
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/
Modify your subscription at http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/killietalk
Join the AKA at http://aka.org/modules/tinycontent0/index.php?id=9
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/
Modify your subscription at http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/killietalk