What\'s in a name?...

[Don Y]

I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

 

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Thu, 25 Aug 2022 04:34:49 -0700) it happened Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote in <te7mp1$3ksa6$1@dont-email.me>:

I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

Some \'manuals\' are microscopic pieces of paper, sometimes multiple pages,..
I take pictures of those, resize the jpgs with xv to a normal format and combine into pdfs with ffmpeg.
\'Useless manual\' (the originals) comes to mind.

 

[a a]

On Thursday, 25 August 2022 at 13:35:06 UTC+2, Don Y wrote:

I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual
use first line of the document as a name of a file

since
-user manual-
is
computer generated name by default

 

[rbowman]

On 08/25/2022 05:34 AM, Don Y wrote:

I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

Nobody reads the damn things so does it really matter what they\'re
called? At least the pressure is taken of the forests when the manual is
at www.blivits.com which is referenced in the \'quick start guide\', a one
page document in 14 languages.

 

[Don Y]

On 8/25/2022 6:51 AM, rbowman wrote:

On 08/25/2022 05:34 AM, Don Y wrote:
I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

Nobody reads the damn things so does it really matter what they\'re called? At

I think manuals for *applications* tend to be too much of a \"tutorial\"/HowTo
nature; you\'re walked through a procedure to achieve a given goal (which
may not be the goal you have in mind!).

This is likely the reason most \"computer users\" just know \"click this to do X\"
instead of thinking about features and mechanisms in a more abstract sense.

E.g., when I first started using Ventura some decades ago (e.g., under
DOS/GEM!), everything was presented in that HowTo manner. But, they
didn\'t have a \"HowTo\" for \"creating list of tables/figures\": \"Can\'t
be done!\"

Of *course* it can be done -- but, only by exploiting implementation
quirks, \"See?\"

I write \"Reference Manuals\" for the devices/appliances that I design
in lieu of Specifications. They\'re just enumerations of controls and
constraints. It\'s up to the user to figure out how he wants to use
them to solve the problem at hand.

[If you need to be *taught* how to use the various triggering
mechanisms on a DSO, then go elsewhere and find *a* tutorial
for those needs; no need to build that into every DSO\'s manual!]

least the pressure is taken of the forests when the manual is at
www.blivits.com which is referenced in the \'quick start guide\', a one page
document in 14 languages.

Every place in my code that can throw an error generates a unique
code -- that is used to access a document that explains the condition
as well as likely causes and remedies. This lets me create different
messaging for \"value too low\" vs. \"value too high\":

if (value < MINVAL) {
error(VAL_MIN_ERROR)
else if (value > MAXVAL) {
error(VAL_MAX_ERROR)
}

instead of just a domain error:

if ( (value < MINVAL)
|| (value > MAXVAL) ) {
error(VAL_DOMAIN_ERROR)
}

So, the code isn\'t littered with terse descriptions of errors
(that tell the user very little -- in one language (that only
APPROXIMATES english!)

I really dislike \"online\" documentation. If you want to deliver it in
HTML, then make available a download that I can unpack in a local (shared?)
folder and a means of hooking it.

Yeah, I realize my version will only be current as of the day that
I download it. <shrug> If I really think there is a new and improved
(fixed!) version out there, I\'ll download THAT in place of the previous
version.

FWIW, I think Adobe has a means of installing local copies of their
documentation and \"wiring\" them into context-sensitive \"F1\". But, I\'ve
never bothered to sort out the details (easier to just open the PDF
and search for whatever I need).

 

[a a]

On Thursday, 25 August 2022 at 22:14:34 UTC+2, Don Y wrote:

On 8/25/2022 6:51 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 08/25/2022 05:34 AM, Don Y wrote:
I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

Nobody reads the damn things so does it really matter what they\'re called? At
I think manuals for *applications* tend to be too much of a \"tutorial\"/HowTo
nature; you\'re walked through a procedure to achieve a given goal (which
may not be the goal you have in mind!).

This is likely the reason most \"computer users\" just know \"click this to do X\"
instead of thinking about features and mechanisms in a more abstract sense.

E.g., when I first started using Ventura some decades ago (e.g., under
DOS/GEM!), everything was presented in that HowTo manner. But, they
didn\'t have a \"HowTo\" for \"creating list of tables/figures\": \"Can\'t
be done!\"

Of *course* it can be done -- but, only by exploiting implementation
quirks, \"See?\"

I write \"Reference Manuals\" for the devices/appliances that I design
in lieu of Specifications. They\'re just enumerations of controls and
constraints. It\'s up to the user to figure out how he wants to use
them to solve the problem at hand.

[If you need to be *taught* how to use the various triggering
mechanisms on a DSO, then go elsewhere and find *a* tutorial
for those needs; no need to build that into every DSO\'s manual!]
least the pressure is taken of the forests when the manual is at
www.blivits.com which is referenced in the \'quick start guide\', a one page
document in 14 languages.
Every place in my code that can throw an error generates a unique
code -- that is used to access a document that explains the condition
as well as likely causes and remedies. This lets me create different
messaging for \"value too low\" vs. \"value too high\":

if (value < MINVAL) {
error(VAL_MIN_ERROR)
else if (value > MAXVAL) {
error(VAL_MAX_ERROR)
}

instead of just a domain error:

if ( (value < MINVAL)
|| (value > MAXVAL) ) {
error(VAL_DOMAIN_ERROR)
}

So, the code isn\'t littered with terse descriptions of errors
(that tell the user very little -- in one language (that only
APPROXIMATES english!)

I really dislike \"online\" documentation. If you want to deliver it in
HTML, then make available a download that I can unpack in a local (shared?)
folder and a means of hooking it.

Yeah, I realize my version will only be current as of the day that
I download it. <shrug> If I really think there is a new and improved
(fixed!) version out there, I\'ll download THAT in place of the previous
version.

FWIW, I think Adobe has a means of installing local copies of their
documentation and \"wiring\" them into context-sensitive \"F1\". But, I\'ve
never bothered to sort out the details (easier to just open the PDF
and search for whatever I need).

PDF is old fake format for long documents,
loading and loading in Firefox
opening, opening ...

and should be replaced by newer format ASAP

HTML is much faster and can be replaced by HTML.exe file on smartphone

I would prefer html page loaded as .png file for preview

PDF for long files should be banned since badly supported by web browsers (very slow)

 

[whit3rd]

On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 4:35:06 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:

I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

So do you have a database with other-than-title metadata support for those scan files?
Like, \'user manual\' tag, also you could organize by manufacturer (HP
equipment and Compaq, Palm, Agilent and Keysight can be separate or together...)
and by publication date and by model numbers or functional names...
and create crosslinks as appropriate when an article gives application info.
I\'d certainly want some metadata that indicates where to find the scans now,
and maybe even where the sources were.
That many pages, it could be inconvenient to do search otherwise.

 

[Don Y]

On 8/25/2022 7:07 PM, whit3rd wrote:

On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 4:35:06 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

I notice lots of manuals with inconsistent titles:
- User Manual
- User\'s Manual
- Users\' Manual

So do you have a database with other-than-title metadata support for those scan files?

Absolutely not. I have exactly the accessibility that I had when they
were dead trees lined up on shelves -- except now they take up less space
and can be duplicated with very little effort.

Like, \'user manual\' tag, also you could organize by manufacturer (HP
equipment and Compaq, Palm, Agilent and Keysight can be separate or together...)
and by publication date and by model numbers or functional names...
and create crosslinks as appropriate when an article gives application info.
I\'d certainly want some metadata that indicates where to find the scans now,
and maybe even where the sources were.

Sources are gone -- that was the whole point of the exercise.

> That many pages, it could be inconvenient to do search otherwise.

How do YOU search your dead tree collection?

They\'re 600/1200 dpi TIFFs in PDF containers. Someone with gobs of
free time could run OCR on them, sort out the illustrations from the
text, insert hyperlinks to all cross references, index entries, etc.
But, that won\'t be *me*! :>

I\'ll just be happy knowing I don\'t have all that paper taking up
space while still preserving the *content* without wasting lots of time
on the effort.

 

[whit3rd]

On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 8:54:16 PM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:

On 8/25/2022 7:07 PM, whit3rd wrote:
On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 4:35:06 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
I\'m scanning paper documentation (to rid myself of the dead
tree collection) -- 50,000pp so far.

So do you have a database with other-than-title metadata support for those scan files?

Absolutely not. I have exactly the accessibility that I had when they
were dead trees lined up on shelves -- except now they take up less space
and can be duplicated with very little effort.

Like, \'user manual\' tag, also you could organize by manufacturer (HP
equipment and Compaq, Palm, Agilent and Keysight can be separate or together...)
and by publication date and by model numbers or functional names...
and create crosslinks as appropriate when an article gives application info.
I\'d certainly want some metadata that indicates where to find the scans now,
and maybe even where the sources were.
Sources are gone -- that was the whole point of the exercise.
That many pages, it could be inconvenient to do search otherwise.
How do YOU search your dead tree collection?

Good question: a few books are in my reference shelves and get
used often, but I can\'t always find what I\'m looking for.
Vinyl records, CDs, videotape, etc. likewise.

They\'re 600/1200 dpi TIFFs in PDF containers. Someone with gobs of
free time could run OCR on them, sort out the illustrations from the
text, insert hyperlinks to all cross references, index entries, etc.
But, that won\'t be *me*! :

For modern e-books, I\'ve installed Calibre (which allows good extensible metadata);
my personal notes in e-text are under my name as author, mostly I keep dates of
publication (it matters sometimes when things change) and I\'ve added tags,
and identified some series (MIT Radiation Lab, for instance) so
they can be handled as an ensemble.

Another database (older) has just author-title-size info, for SF and such,
of the dead-trees, and I know approximately which shelves have the paperbacks
with author \'B...\'. For this, I keep a twenty-year-old computer active.
Text dump of a late version of the data lives in my cellphone.

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

I\'ll just be happy knowing I don\'t have all that paper taking up
space while still preserving the *content* without wasting lots of time
on the effort.

The spooky thing, is that a terabyte size transflash chip can fit the whole of
my e-books into my cellphone; some text, some epub, some PDF... that probably
wouldn\'t work with the organizing software and metadata. That\'s the
problem with organizing using software: it doesn\'t migrate through the decades well.

 

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 26 Aug 2022 02:52:26 -0700 (PDT)) it happened whit3rd
<whit3rd@gmail.com> wrote in
<89f83610-0931-4ec5-bd1a-3484c346a4f5n@googlegroups.com>:

For modern e-books, I\'ve installed Calibre (which allows good extensible metadata);
my personal notes in e-text are under my name as author, mostly I keep dates of
publication (it matters sometimes when things change) and I\'ve added tags,
and identified some series (MIT Radiation Lab, for instance) so
they can be handled as an ensemble.

Another database (older) has just author-title-size info, for SF and such,
of the dead-trees, and I know approximately which shelves have the paperbacks
with author \'B...\'. For this, I keep a twenty-year-old computer active.
Text dump of a late version of the data lives in my cellphone.

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

I\'ll just be happy knowing I don\'t have all that paper taking up
space while still preserving the *content* without wasting lots of time
on the effort.

The spooky thing, is that a terabyte size transflash chip can fit the whole of
my e-books into my cellphone; some text, some epub, some PDF... that probably
wouldn\'t work with the organizing software and metadata. That\'s the
problem with organizing using software: it doesn\'t migrate through the decades well.

I stopped using databeasts ? bases many years ago.
Much is on optical media, and much on TB size harddiscs, all SDcards are backed up too.
For the optical media I have a text file that says date, how it was burned (scripts), format,
disc type and content for each of the more than 1000 disk I have,
going back to when the first writable CDs came out.
As all other things are stored with real names for things
All I need is Linux \'locate\' to find things in seconds on the laptop and now raspberries with 3 TB disks
Linux / Unix is cool

~ # locate -i TDA7440D | grep -i pdf
/root/download/html/TDA7440D_6438.pdf

~ # locate -i radar | grep -i doppler
/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/pub/44kHz_Doppler_radar_mixer_test_board_IMG_4098.JPG
/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/pub/44kHz_Doppler_radar_schematic_IMG_4096.GIF
/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/pub/44kHz_Doppler_radar_Rx_transducer_and_coil_IMG_4097.JPG
/root/download/html/doppler_RADAR_sensor_0242.pdf
/root/download/html/doppler_RADAR_sensor_34685MPData.pdf
/root/download/html/doppler_RADAR_sensor_34685MPSche.pdf

when and size info:
~ # l /usr/local/httpd/htdocs/pub/44kHz_Doppler_radar_mixer_test_board_IMG_4098.JPG
-rw-r--r-- 1 7480975 100450 141594 Nov 27 2013 /usr/local/httpd/htdocs/pub/44kHz_Doppler_radar_mixer_test_board_IMG_4098.JPG
So that is on the local website, so also on my real website.

\'l\' is short for \'ls -rtl\' in my zsh config

No need for databeasts

My Usenet Newsreader NewsFleX has its own databeast search function that goes back to 1998
Email system goes back to 1998 too, all emails, searching with \'grep\' for a word
in all those emails takes seconds

From days before that I have some boxes with floppies...., important parts are on harddisks.


Password always asked for, has always been \'supercalibris ? well forgot the spelling
entering wrong password causes alligators to be released that eat little bits,
so very secure system.

 

[Don Y]

On 8/26/2022 2:52 AM, whit3rd wrote:

On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 8:54:16 PM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:

Like, \'user manual\' tag, also you could organize by manufacturer (HP
equipment and Compaq, Palm, Agilent and Keysight can be separate or together...)
and by publication date and by model numbers or functional names...
and create crosslinks as appropriate when an article gives application info.
I\'d certainly want some metadata that indicates where to find the scans now,
and maybe even where the sources were.
Sources are gone -- that was the whole point of the exercise.
That many pages, it could be inconvenient to do search otherwise.
How do YOU search your dead tree collection?

Good question: a few books are in my reference shelves and get
used often, but I can\'t always find what I\'m looking for.

I\'ve about 50 ft of shelf space -- the \"overflow\" in cardboard boxes.

The items that I am likely to reference are on the shelves, sorted
by subject matter. E.g., if I\'m looking for Organick\'s book, it
will be in with OSs; Knuth\'s with Algorithms; Wolfram with Math;
Mick & Brick in Digital; Gries in Compiler Design; Cookbooks;
Ice Cream; etc.

Manuals for bits of kit are in the lateral files in the garage.
MULTICS manuals were in another file cabinet out there (they
were among the first pages scanned as they were looseleaf,
*many* and easy to be rid of!

Paperbacks, save a few dozen, are now epubs. Technical papers
are in PDF collection and searchable, *if* true PDFs.

> Vinyl records, CDs, videotape, etc. likewise.

I\'ve only ~200 vinyl albums left -- anything mainstream was replaced
when CDs came out. Remainder are boots and will take a fair bit of effort
to digitize. But, I\'ve a shitload of other material that minimizes the
need to access those.

I think I have two video tapes left -- but the material on them is
also available on DVD.

CDs (originals) are hiding in boxes under my bed; the music long ago
ripped to MP3s and a modified FLAC format (for my music server).
Master copy is searchable (fully tagged). Other copies (phone,
tablets, etc.) aren\'t as their contents change periodically (so
updating a database would be lots of \"maintenance\") How do I find
the kickass rendering of SongX? (*Which* kickass rendering??)

My solution is to acknowledge that:
- I don\'t have any \"bad\" music (why would I keep it?)
- looking for \"The Best\" means much will be ignored
- \"The Best\" reduces your range of choice
so, just listen to whatever comes up next. And, if not in the
mood for that, at that time, hit \"NEXT\" and hope that when
it next percolates to the top of the playlist that you\'re in
a mood to hear it!

If I need to search for something, it is because I want to
bring it to someone else\'s attention. E.g., \"Watusi Wedding\"
mentioned here, recently. I could rapidly find the title
(and artist) because I knew it was a \"singleton\" (no other
titles by that artist) *and* that I had a copy of it. Armed
with the title/artist, I could find an on-line copy.

They\'re 600/1200 dpi TIFFs in PDF containers. Someone with gobs of
free time could run OCR on them, sort out the illustrations from the
text, insert hyperlinks to all cross references, index entries, etc.
But, that won\'t be *me*! :

For modern e-books, I\'ve installed Calibre (which allows good extensible metadata);

I only use Calibre to read epubs on a PC. I prefer Nooks as the
medium to view/read them as I\'d rather read AWAY from a computer,
in the dentist\'s waiting room, while stopped at a traffic signal, etc.

But, the stock firmware is not intended to handle large collections (so I
have to impose my own file hierarchy under \"My Files\" and search through that)

my personal notes in e-text are under my name as author, mostly I keep dates of
publication (it matters sometimes when things change) and I\'ve added tags,
and identified some series (MIT Radiation Lab, for instance) so
they can be handled as an ensemble.

Another database (older) has just author-title-size info, for SF and such,
of the dead-trees, and I know approximately which shelves have the paperbacks
with author \'B...\'. For this, I keep a twenty-year-old computer active.
Text dump of a late version of the data lives in my cellphone.

My epubs are sorted by (primary) author. This works -- if I can remember the
author and/or title. I can implement FTS but that won\'t typically buy
me anything -- what do I search for to find the story with the alien invader?
And, I\'ve titles that are reworks of early works -- should I manually tag
them as such? Or, just \"rediscover\" that the next time I reread the title?

[When I moved here, I had 80 \"photocopy paper cartons\" (10 ream ea) of
\"paperback novels\". I\'ve pruned that down to ~1 -- titles that I still
want to have paper copies of which (sentimental reasons). Everything else
is epub.]

I used to visit book sales (library discards, used book stores, etc.) but
realized this was just making the problem LARGER! :-/ I read A LOT!

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

You need to tackle YOUR paper! :> If I could find a doc on-line already
in electronic format, I DL-ed it and tossed the dead tree copy. If not,
I scanned the paper (a lot of mine come through the public library\'s
\"interlibrary loan\" system as paper copies) and discarded the original.

[Yesterday, I was searching for \"The Influence of Glottal Waveform on the
Naturalness of Speech from a Parallel Formant Synthesizer\" -- so I
could dispose of the paper copy. But, all seemed to hide behind paywalls.
So, I\'ll scan it and put the \"original\" in the recycle bin]

I group these by subject matter -- creating a new subject whenever I
have \"enough\" titles that seem related. E.g., I have a Letter-to-Sound
folder with Elovitz, McIlroy and Hunnicutt\'s papers. Another that
addresses digital signal processing quirks. etc.

I\'ll just be happy knowing I don\'t have all that paper taking up
space while still preserving the *content* without wasting lots of time
on the effort.

The spooky thing, is that a terabyte size transflash chip can fit the whole of
my e-books into my cellphone; some text, some epub, some PDF... that probably
wouldn\'t work with the organizing software and metadata. That\'s the
problem with organizing using software: it doesn\'t migrate through the decades well.

Yup. The other problem is that it is a highly manual effort; your
criteria may not be applicable to me; etc. so you have to tag each item
yourself.

For a real challenge, try organizing digital photos! :>

OTOH, if you think of the original media, the organization problem
was just as bad: \"Where are the photos of that trip to Vancouver?
And, where are the photos of the dogs \'discovering\' snow??\"

I rely on having the media accessible and a fast way of \"rendering\"
it to a form that I can \"evaluate\". E.g., a 1000 page PDF materializes in
a few seconds and I can look at thumbnails of a hundred pages at a time
to see if something looks familiar. An MP3 starts playing in a fraction
of a second. Everything is direct access (not sequential, regardless
of the nature of the original medium) so I can look for a particular
concert encore without listening to 3 hours of music, etc.

This is effectively the only way to review many types of content.
E.g., I have thumbnails of all of my clipart \"on-line\" to browse
(hundreds of CDs worth). Ditto typefaces (\"fonts\"). And, how
do I know which string library I prefer *now* for my DAW without
being able to listen to each? Special effects for video presentations?
Electronic component symbols? Software libraries/components?

[I have ~6T on each workstation -- and each workstation addresses
a single class of applications -- just so I can keep the \"stuff\"
that a particular class of applications will need \"on-line\"]

All of my \"originals\" are in a \"cold archive\" that is indexed
by a set of relational databases. One encodes the hierarchy
of volumes/containers and maps each object to a unique ID.
Others add appropriate metadata based on the type of file
object referenced.

E.g., DISK107/Business/ClientX/ProjectY.vmdk/support/datasheets.iso/86C010.pdf
tells me the 86C010 datasheet is located in an ISO container located in the
\"support\" folder of the ProjectY VMDK image stored in the ClientX folder under
the \"Business\" folder on volume DISK107. If I want to know how big the PDF
is, when it was last accessed or when it was last checked for data errors
I look in a \"metadata\" table. If I want to look for other copies of it,
I extract the hash and size and search for other files having the same hash,
size. If I want to know how many pages are in the document, then I use the
unique ID and look in a different table for \"number_of_pages\", etc.

[Clearly, number_of_pages wouldn\'t apply to MP3s so none of the IDs associated
with MP3s would be listed there]

But, NOT having to look through physical media -- and the space to
store it! -- is the real win. (If I have to mount a cold volume to
actually access something, so be it)

 

[whit3rd]

On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 4:42:57 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:

On 8/26/2022 2:52 AM, whit3rd wrote:

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

You need to tackle YOUR paper! :> If I could find a doc on-line already
in electronic format, I DL-ed it and tossed the dead tree copy. If not,
I scanned the paper (a lot of mine come through the public library\'s
\"interlibrary loan\" system as paper copies) and discarded the original.

True; that particular data was from circa 20 years ago, when I didn\'t have
a scanner; a few years later, I was giving away scanners to siblings for almost
exactly that purpose, but never got around to my own pile...
.... part of which I stumbled across recently.

But, NOT having to look through physical media -- and the space to
store it! -- is the real win. (If I have to mount a cold volume to
actually access something, so be it)

For artwork-critical stuff, I\'m not sure I like the scan options. For text,
if OCR and epub was easy, I\'d be OK on that. One antique machine tool
catalog has beautiful etchings, and I\'ve been meaning to work out
how to effectively scan THAT. It\'s not the sort of thing one could get by interlibrary loan.

 

[Don Y]

On 8/28/2022 10:36 PM, whit3rd wrote:

On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 4:42:57 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
On 8/26/2022 2:52 AM, whit3rd wrote:

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

You need to tackle YOUR paper! :> If I could find a doc on-line already
in electronic format, I DL-ed it and tossed the dead tree copy. If not,
I scanned the paper (a lot of mine come through the public library\'s
\"interlibrary loan\" system as paper copies) and discarded the original.

True; that particular data was from circa 20 years ago, when I didn\'t have
a scanner; a few years later, I was giving away scanners to siblings for almost
exactly that purpose, but never got around to my own pile...
... part of which I stumbled across recently.

I\'ve had scanners for decades. Desktop, large format, EXTRA large format
(40\" wide), film, etc.

But, scanning is a dreadfully tedious process. I recall scanning a bunch of
old 35mm slides and taking a whole weekend to do it! <frown>

Trying to scan a 1000pp book is a frigging *career*. Imagine hundreds of
such titles...

It was only recently that I opted to buy one with a fast feeder. Now, 1000pp
is just half an hour of your time!

So, all the loose-leaf manuals (MULTICS) were done in less than a few hours
and ceremoniously dumped in the trash (recycle bin). I\'ll repeat the exercise
with bank statements, etc. (after I finish getting rid of books).

I also own a \"stack cutter\" (a high-end \"paper cutter\" that can cut large
stacks of paper *square*; a typical paper cutter cuts each stacked sheet
in ever increasing sizes). So, I use it to cut the \"perfect bindings\"
off leaving me with a stack of individual, double-sided sheets.

[The scanner does both sides simultaneously]

I will probably NOT sacrifice the hardcover titles but damn near
everything else is going under the knife! :>

But, NOT having to look through physical media -- and the space to
store it! -- is the real win. (If I have to mount a cold volume to
actually access something, so be it)

For artwork-critical stuff, I\'m not sure I like the scan options. For text,

I have IT8 targets for the scanners (and other calibration masters for
the larger ones). So, I can build a color profile for the scanner
(let lamp warm up before scanning; repeat calibration each time
you want to be \"color correct\").

[I also calibrate my monitors when I need to be able to view \"camera
ready\" artwork -- and the printers (when I still had them)]

One axis of scanning is always dead-to-nuts (defined by the physical
dimensions of the sensor array). The other can exhibit small variations
from media slip -- but nothing I\'ve ever noticed as significant.

Depending on the source (and scanner chosen), I can scan at 48b color
and up to 9600 dpi optical (higher if interpolated).

I.e., I can scan an image and enlarge the hell out of it and you\'d be
hard pressed to see any digitization artifacts.

> if OCR and epub was easy, I\'d be OK on that.

The problem with OCR is it\'s not flawless. You have to proof the
results -- if you truly care about accuracy. I don\'t (for these
efforts). I just want \"digital microfiche\" to conserve space
(relying on my eyes and brain to sort out what the images contain)

One antique machine tool
catalog has beautiful etchings, and I\'ve been meaning to work out
how to effectively scan THAT. It\'s not the sort of thing one could get by interlibrary loan.

The biggest problem will be getting the sheets (pages) flat to lay on the
scanner glass -- without destroying the document in the process (I have no
desire to preserve the original items that I\'ve scanned)

I nominally scan manuals/papers at 600dpi, monochrome. This is enough to
preserve most greys without incurring the added cost of scanning in
grayscale.

If the document has lots of fine detail (like a D size schematic reproduced
as a B-size foldout), I\'ll selectively scan those images at 1200 dpi.
This has been sufficient for everything I\'ve encountered thus far.

I scan covers in 24b color -- again at 600 dpi (overkill). Documents
that use a highlight color inside I don\'t bother trying to preserve
that color but let it get rendered as grey.

Documents that *are* color -- or contain a selection of color plates in the
inner signatures -- I scan in B&W... until I get to the color plates.
I just finished scanning a book illustrating various origami folds that
was printed in \"multicolor\". The document is larger than it could be
but the book was reasonably small so I felt I could bear the cost of
an \"oversized\" PDF.

I have some 35mm negatives that I\'ll scan, soon, so I can pull more image
out of the shadows (poorly lit scenes). There, the scanning activity will
be small compared to the \"image adjustments\". I\'ll scan those at 12800dpi
in 48b color -- just to give me more signal to play with.

 

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sun, 28 Aug 2022 22:36:25 -0700 (PDT)) it happened whit3rd
<whit3rd@gmail.com> wrote in
<86c2398a-8e1d-4269-b18c-9b6364cf9e2fn@googlegroups.com>:

On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 4:42:57 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
On 8/26/2022 2:52 AM, whit3rd wrote:

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

You need to tackle YOUR paper! :> If I could find a doc on-line already
in electronic format, I DL-ed it and tossed the dead tree copy. If not,
I scanned the paper (a lot of mine come through the public library\'s
\"interlibrary loan\" system as paper copies) and discarded the original.

True; that particular data was from circa 20 years ago, when I didn\'t have
a scanner; a few years later, I was giving away scanners to siblings for almost
exactly that purpose, but never got around to my own pile...
... part of which I stumbled across recently.


But, NOT having to look through physical media -- and the space to
store it! -- is the real win. (If I have to mount a cold volume to
actually access something, so be it)

For artwork-critical stuff, I\'m not sure I like the scan options. For text,
if OCR and epub was easy, I\'d be OK on that. One antique machine tool
catalog has beautiful etchings, and I\'ve been meaning to work out
how to effectively scan THAT. It\'s not the sort of thing one could get by interlibrary loan.

I have a very good scanner, with a win 3.1 driver!!! (Old PC),
not used since year 2000,
good camera and pictures works for me much better.
Using a small Canon camera now.
but my Xiaomi smartphone can do 48M pixels too..

 

[whit3rd]

On Sunday, August 28, 2022 at 11:39:38 PM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:

On 8/28/2022 10:36 PM, whit3rd wrote:
On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 4:42:57 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
On 8/26/2022 2:52 AM, whit3rd wrote:

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

You need to tackle YOUR paper! :
I\'ve had scanners for decades. Desktop, large format, EXTRA large format
(40\" wide), film, etc.

But, scanning is a dreadfully tedious process. I recall scanning a bunch of
old 35mm slides and taking a whole weekend to do it! <frown

Trying to scan a 1000pp book is a frigging *career*. Imagine hundreds of
such titles...

It was only recently that I opted to buy one with a fast feeder. Now, 1000pp
is just half an hour of your time!

That\'s a good start; Vernor Vinge has another scheme that speeds things up

<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102439.Rainbows_End>

 

[Don Y]

On 8/30/2022 9:02 PM, whit3rd wrote:

On Sunday, August 28, 2022 at 11:39:38 PM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
On 8/28/2022 10:36 PM, whit3rd wrote:
On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 4:42:57 AM UTC-7, Don Y wrote:
On 8/26/2022 2:52 AM, whit3rd wrote:

Yet older, another organization (clippings of articles) is in three-ring binders with
alphabetical-by-topic organization.

You need to tackle YOUR paper! :
I\'ve had scanners for decades. Desktop, large format, EXTRA large format
(40\" wide), film, etc.

But, scanning is a dreadfully tedious process. I recall scanning a bunch of
old 35mm slides and taking a whole weekend to do it! <frown

Trying to scan a 1000pp book is a frigging *career*. Imagine hundreds of
such titles...

It was only recently that I opted to buy one with a fast feeder. Now, 1000pp
is just half an hour of your time!

That\'s a good start; Vernor Vinge has another scheme that speeds things up

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102439.Rainbows_End

Folks are already working on \"augmented memory\" devices. It\'s
an amusing concept -- simple, in theory (amazingly complex, in
practice).

[Imagine a device that whispers in your ear -- or displays data
on a wearable set of \"glasses\" -- information pertinent to your
*current* \"interaction\"]

Many folks MANUALLY deal with this (e.g., having details about each of your
contacts *in* your address book and having it open to their data while
you are speaking to them: \"How\'s little Timmy? And has Mary Beth had
her braces removed, yet?\")

Personally, I try to commit such \"trivia\" to memory. When you bump into
someone and can recall these details face-to-face, they seem to be
more appreciative of your (apparent) interest in them, their life,
problems, etc. SWMBO is always amazed at how much I can say to
someone I may not have seen in months/years. \"Simple: if you are
interested in them as people, then you make a point of remembering
things that are likely important/significant to *them*!\"

[The flip side of that is: \"If folks can\'t remember details about YOU
or your life/problems/undertakings/etc. then they likely aren\'t very
interested in *you*; keep that in mind when you update your opinion
of them!\"]

OTOH, I can\'t commit birthdays and anniversaries for \"average joes\"
to memory and rely on written notes for those details.

 

[rbowman]

On 08/31/2022 12:34 AM, Don Y wrote:

OTOH, I can\'t commit birthdays and anniversaries for \"average joes\"
to memory and rely on written notes for those details.

I remember my ex\'s birthday but have to check with her for when we were
married and divorced. Turns out we would have been married 50 years in
May...

I\'m lucky if I can hit the right decade for most things.

 

[Don Y]

On 8/31/2022 7:18 AM, rbowman wrote:

On 08/31/2022 12:34 AM, Don Y wrote:
OTOH, I can\'t commit birthdays and anniversaries for \"average joes\"
to memory and rely on written notes for those details.

I remember my ex\'s birthday but have to check with her for when we were married
and divorced. Turns out we would have been married 50 years in May...

I\'m lucky if I can hit the right decade for most things.

I don\'t acknowledge folks\' birthdays. I don\'t like mine acknowledged
and don\'t want to encourage \"do-gooders\" to do so! (my way of objecting
to the folks who make a big deal out of their birthday is to take the
exact oppposite approach)

Instead, I will \"coincidentally\" bake cookies, brownies, cheesecake, bread,
etc. some time *around* the victim\'s birthday so I can\'t be accused of
acknowledging it. (given that I am equally likely to do this at other
random times during the year, it never looks suspicious!)