[sdiy] Can anyone OCR the AN23.PDF File Here?

Fri Jul 7 19:40:25 CEST 2017

Quincas and Andy - thanks for the comments.

(1)  I think we all SHOULD agree that an OCR scan and/or e-Book version of Electronotes is a hopeless, ill-advised and impractical notion.  I also think I was patient with those who suppose that OCR and proofread are easy, and that we just get volunteers to help.  Warm and fuzzy.

(2)  The notion that we could have a PDF version of the old material does make more sense, but not ENOUGH sense.   There would be at least the following issues:

       (a)  What do we scan from.  I have a great assortment of originals over 45 years. If   anyone looked at my workspace, they would not know where to start.  I Barely do.

       (b)  How would the PDF collection be distributed?   Make that - safely distributed.
I do not know how to protect it, and I expect it would be pirated before the sun comes up. I will not change my mind about this.  If someone believes otherwise, let them take the FULL risk.

        (c)  What happens to my paper.   Remember, in business you only get your investment back when you have sold all your inventory, and that I am doing step-by-step. Recycler?

The solution to these issues has been available for many years.  Since the digital distribution is so easy, so safe, and so lucrative, let us have someone else buy the business and run it.  If the price is right, they can even have all the paper, and exclusive rights to the intellectual property. Instead of a running five-year contract, I would be amenable to a lump sum.   The conditions are much like I first offered them here:

http://electronotes.netfirms.com/en200.html

This is a sincere offer.  But I would feel terrible if anyone took it, because I expect they would very soon lose their entire investment.  How many times do I need to say the market is tiny.  I do not expect any offers.

So - an OCR/e-Book/wiki etc. is out of the question (years of time required).   It's not going to happen.  Neither is it likely anything (other than a pirated PDF!) of the older material will be offered - unless someone puts serious money up.    Take comfort that Electronotes is at least fully available: Food on the Table:

http://electronotes.netfirms.com/ENWN49.pdf

<http://electronotes.netfirms.com/ENWN49.pdf>Let's do NEW stuff - not add style and REDUCE substance from old stuff.

-Bernie

NB: If you wish to reply, make sure you at least cc me.  I am not a subscriber and the archives often do not work for me.

________________________________
From: Quincas Moreira <quincas at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2017 9:23 PM
To: Andrew Simper
Cc: Bernard Arthur Hutchins Jr; synth-diy at synth-diy.org
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Can anyone OCR the AN23.PDF File Here?

I think people would pay more than 40usd for 6000 historic pages as PDFs, and at no printing or shipping cost for Bernie, that can become a significant increase in profit and decrease in effort. Increase in volume too, as more people may be inclined to pay say, 100 bucks, than the current cost. That right there may be a reason to endeavor to at least make the pre 2000 issues available in PDF as well. IF Ebook becomes unmanageable a well searchable PDF collection is plenty good enough.

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 8:12 PM, Andrew Simper <andy at cytomic.com<mailto:andy at cytomic.com>> wrote:
On 7 July 2017 at 01:30, Bernard Arthur Hutchins Jr <bah13 at cornell.edu<mailto:bah13 at cornell.edu>> wrote:
>
>
> Since there is no improvement in the figures/equations, and the text is a serious downgrade, tell me again (anyone) why an OCR/ebook is a good idea here.
>
>
> Bernie
>
>

Bernie,

I admire your patience on this topic. It has always been clear to me
that trying to convert the text into computer characters is a bad
idea, but it is also very clear to me that having everything as PDF is
a good idea, even if it's just entire pages as images.

The best option from my point of view, if it's made clear that
searching may not find all instances, is to have the original whole
page images displayed for the old PDFs, but also include the OCR text
as a searchable part to the document. This way a bulk search will
hopefully at least give you a hit on each PDF that the keyword is in,
even if it doesn't get every keyword right (Rf vs Ri) in every
instance of that word at least it should give you the right document,
which would be a massive help. This process could be entirely
automated, no proofing required.

I know Bernie likes paper, and so do I, when I really want to
understand something and work through it I print out the single PDF
I'm working on so I can scribble on it and hold it and understand it
better. Most of the time I don't need to do this, just reading it on
screen is enough. For me being able to have a copy to read in digital
form is better than no copy, and it is also better than having the
entire collection as paper. I'm younger and used to PDFs, and being
able to search the entire collection for a keyword and then have the
full image scan of the PDF in question to read error free I would
definitely pay USD 40 for.

Bernie, what is your opinion on this?

Cheers,

Andy
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--
Quincas Moreira
Test Pilot at VBrazil Modular
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