Xref: utzoo comp.sys.next:429 rec.arts.books:4328 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,rec.arts.books Subject: Re: Hundreds of books on an optical disk (long!) Message-ID: <5800@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 31 Oct 88 19:37:27 GMT References: <0XMtqn087E-0A14EYk@andrew.cmu.edu> <344@uceng.UC.EDU> <5772@hoptoad.uucp> <3447@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <5790@hoptoad.uucp> <282@bilver.UUCP> Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 74 In article <282@bilver.UUCP> bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) writes: >If a book is on disk we don't >neccesarily need to be able to read it on a character basis. The idea is to >be able to READ Shakespeare, not to re-edit, re-create, re-print, etc. Wrong. The idea is to be able to read Shakespeare, to copy and paste relevant sections for critical essays, to print sections for reading at leisure when away from the computer, to do word-frequency analyses, to follow cross-reference chains among related keywords and topics, and so on. Computers are a terrible medium for leisure reading -- less text shows on a screen than on a printed page, and the screen luminescence leads to eye fatigue, not to mention the lack of physical portability. If all you can do is read, what you have is far worse than a printed book. And I have yet to see a stage show where the director didn't do some editing of the script! >However - if we go to image storage we can still see the book on the screen, >we could have images from the book, we would be able to search through the >book (providing it was indexed - more in a later paragraph), we would be able >to do almost anything except re-edit, re-(etc.).... Almost anything; except everything you would expect to be able to do with computer text, such as copy and paste it, do keyword searches, etc. You'd be able to read it and print it out. What an awesome improvement over the printed page. >So from 8 hours per pook at 2 minutes per page, we can go to 12.5 minutes per >book at 3 seconds per page. 3 seconds a page? Is that using clairvoyance or what? Visualize the process of positioning a book on a flat-bed scanner for a moment. It takes anywhere from five to twenty seconds. Now add the scanning time, which is at the minimum 3 seconds a page. >Now before you say that can't be done - let me tell you I saw it. I forgot >the company that makes it, but the system was a document storage and retreival >system using high speed scanners, fast photo-copy type printers, and 12" laser >disk media. One of the options was a 12 video juke box. I don't recall the >exact capacity, but it was large. Perhaps you're referring to the Wang system that has gotten so much publicity. I don't see how it is well suited to mass distribution of books; it is meant for keeping copies of receipts and so forth. >The document storage/retrieval system also had software so that you would >index the document as you stored it. Then anytime you needed the document you >would go to the index and get it. On a large juke-box that could take 20 to >30 seconds to find the disk, place it, search and then display. But on a >large juke-box that was finding 1 document out of FIVE MILLION. That's a great approach for receipts. For books, you're talking at least two extra minutes per page, with a high error rate and an extremely inconvenient interface requiring that you "lasso" the words being indexed. You also have to type them out. >THen at a touch of a button you had a full hard copy of the original, and the >company had information on the legal acceptability of such documents. Quite >impressive. And quite irrelevant. >So instead of 6700 books taking 3 years, we get 50 books taking 10 hours. >This seems a more reasonable route. How about a trillion books for no money at all? That's much more attractive. Coming soon to your Isuzu dealer. -- Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim "Because there is something in you that I respect, and that makes me desire to have you for my enemy." "Thats well said. On those terms, sir, I will accept your enmity or any man's." - Shaw, "The Devil's Disciple"