Low Tech Gutenberg? 108
Peace Corps Guy asks: "I have a friend who recently left for a two year Peace Corps stint in Mozambique. While there she has limited access to electricity, no technology, and not a lot to do with her 'off' time. She's a big literature fan, and many of us here at home would like to send a care package - but how best to ship pieces of free online text like Project Gutenberg to a developing nation? We can print it (high shipping and printing costs), print it very small and ship her a high quality fresnel lens (awkward), or put it all on a cheap PDA, which would be a high theft risk en route and in situ. High shipping costs on weight and volume are another major limiting factor. What alternative solutions can Slashdot readers suggest for shipping a freely available byte-stream to someone without a computer?"
A (compartively) new way of encoding byte-streams (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A (compartively) new way of encoding byte-strea (Score:4, Insightful)
You're talking about books that are off copyright, anyway -- buy some cheap or used paperbacks and send them as parcels. (I think there's even a discount books-only rate.) It's foolproof, familiar and when she's done, she can distribute or trade the books. A much better plan than microfiche and a Fresnel lens.
Re:A (compartively) new way of encoding byte-strea (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A (compartively) new way of encoding byte-strea (Score:3, Insightful)
No no, you've got the specs wrong. The embedded reader is based on reflective technology and absolutely REQUIRES an external energy source. Best results may be achieved using a giant ball of flaming gas positioned above and behind the user's shoulder. This is actually the preferred source of energy, since giant flaming balls of gas are abundant on this world. In this case you don't have to worry so much about environmental conditi
local (Score:1, Troll)
Digital media (Score:4, Insightful)
As for powering the PDA, there are a number of options using solar power
Re:Digital media (Score:2)
I don't know why a cheap PDA is not a viable option. Seriously, you could get some really old Palm PDA's so cheaply that it wouldn't matter if it got stolen. Just load one up with a few books (txt's don't take very much space) and mail it to her. If it doesn't get there, or somebody swipes it, send her another one.
Re:Digital media (Score:2)
Re:Digital media (Score:2)
Re:Digital media (Score:2)
Send it _as_ a book (Score:4, Interesting)
Runs up the shipping costs a little, but since hardcovers feel heavy anyway, only an xray will show it up. You can even thwart some of those by putting a couple of leaves of tinfoil inside the covers, but you'd be better off using tinfoil silhouettes to spell out "P D A" to help avoid bomb scares.
Re:Send it _as_ a book (Score:2)
Before digital media, there was microfiche (Score:2)
Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:2)
"Credit card payment"
"Subscription to nudie mag"
"Blackmail payment"
"PDA to my friend overseas - don't steal it"
Re:Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:1, Informative)
It's called "customs declaration" -- yes, I do label everything I send overseas.
Re:Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:2)
Re:Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:2)
Insurance. (Score:1)
Re:Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:4, Informative)
Go buy a big Bible or other book but Bible has advantages. Make sure to look for something that is shrink wrapped. The One Year Bibles I believe come like that. You take and cut a spot in the middle of it for the PDA. Reshrink wrap it, get a cheap Royal brand type PDA, a cheap calculator or something and put em in the same box. Now you can etchically say misc small electronic devices and a bible. Ship it off and it should make it. The other 2 pieces might not, but hopefully the Bible will since in most countries people don't steal Bibles.
In addition, she can store the PDA in the Bible once she gets it which might be a way again to help keep it safe.
At least an idea of a way to do it, don't know if it will work.
Re:Should have thought of this *before* she left (Score:2)
Make books on CD (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Make books on CD (Score:3, Insightful)
Even the best text-to-speech stuff I've heard is, uh, not something I'd want to listen to for hours on end. What you've descrived sounds like a particularly excruiating version of pure hell.
I am befuddled by your question (Score:2, Informative)
These "books" aren't that much heavier to ship than high quality fresnel lens or PDAs.
Re:I am befuddled by your question (Score:2)
Not Gutenberg (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon delivers to Mozambique (linky [amazon.com]). Just order some actual books and have them delivered. Some nice Penguin Classics paperback edition or so would probably be more practical to read than any of your ideas for delivering a Gutenberg text as well, I would think.
(Possibly giving this answer makes me a total moron because I obviously forgot about a number of problems with it, and it's not even an answer to the question. If so, kindly explain why it won't work. Ta)
Re:Not Gutenberg (Score:1)
Re:Not Gutenberg (Score:2)
Re:Not Gutenberg (Score:1)
Re:Not Gutenberg (Score:2)
Re:Not Gutenberg (Score:2)
What? They don't have broadband there? Nooo!
One option (Score:1)
Citoahc
Wow. (Score:2)
The more I think about that though, you'd be better to send her something cheap that can read compact flash, then just mail exchange the compact flash...
Then PDA's come to mind.
Why not find a really old laptop with PCMCIA, load a minimal linux with a reader? That way if it were to be stolen, no big loss?
Buy real books (Score:2)
Low tech data transport? (Score:5, Funny)
RFC 1149 'IP Over Avian Carriers'
http://klubkev.org/~ksulliva/rfc-april1/rfc1149.t
Re:Low tech data transport? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Low tech data transport? (Score:2, Insightful)
http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/03/31/22
Re:Low tech data transport? (Score:1)
Oops wrong link, try this one [waitomo.co.nz]
One suggestion (Score:3, Interesting)
From there you can burn to a CD, easily playable in any $40 portable player. Heck, you could send 2 or 3 for the price of a PDA if theft concerns are that high.
If you want to send over a real reading experience and PDAs are risky to send and there are no computers, then I dunno how you're going to get around sending either the real thing or the text in microfiche or something along those lines.
YES (Score:2)
Same power problems as a PDA, though.
I've tried the text-to-speech books, and it loses so much in the translation as to be unusable. Human read are soooo much better.
One up on the book shipping (Score:2, Insightful)
It would save on shipping costs for you (I think what you're trying to do is ship a huge amount of printed material, right?), and wouldn't cost many other people very much either.
Just buy real books (Score:4, Interesting)
At those prices, just buying the book is probably going to be a whole lot cheaper than printing the files yourself, and is going to be cheaper to ship as well (since the paper in pulp paperbacks tends to be lighter weight than printer paper.)
On top of that, the dimensions of real books are going to make them a lot easier for your friend to store and transport, and the covers are going to prevent as much wear and tear on the books. (I have lots of computer printouts of free books online. They don't last long, even though I just keep them on a desk.)
If you really really want to send a LOT of books, you can send a PDA, but that's also going to be expensive, and it's going to harm the ability of your friend to enjoy the books - she won't be able to read them just anywhere, because she would be attracting attention to herself, and in almost any country in the world foreigners with expensive crap are going to be more likely to be mugged. On top of that, you're going to have to send her a regular wall charger since she doesn't have a computer, and those things are bulky and annoying to carry around. And nobody likes a book that starts bitching about low batteries while you're reading it.
Do her a favor, don't bother being trendy or 'e', and just buy her some real books. Heck, maybe there's an online bookseller in Mozambique that sells lots of english-language books, so you can save even more on shipping costs.
Re:Just buy real books (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just buy real books (Score:2, Insightful)
Agreed: Send real books (Score:2)
Real books are much more useful under the circumstances. Sending electronics, PDAs, printers - that makes no sense. Even a PDA is a bad idea - batteries are probably expensive as hell, especially good ones.
Gutenberg is overkill. Most of the texts in there are unlikely to be of interest.
Bound paper editions of Gutenberg's top 50, or 100, or 200 would be far better. Many would be available, cheap, at used book stores, or as discount reprinted classics at Barnes & Noble.
This will take some preparation (Score:3, Funny)
At a mutually agreed upon time have a powerful laser flash against a satellite that will be passing overhead (for her) during the early evening. The flashes will encode the text in morse-code going slowly enough for her to read.
There are some practical details to work out, but this will work.
Or, of course, you could just send her a 10 cent paperback book from a used bookstore, but if that were practical you would have already thought of it and not asked Slashdot.
Buy a book (Score:2)
Send books (Score:4, Insightful)
Fiche, anyone? (Score:2)
Send her a handheld microfiche reader [doc-imaging.com] that runs off of 120VAV, 12VDC, or ambient light. Fiche-ify the books, voila!!
Re:Fiche, anyone? (Score:2)
Don't be selfish! (Score:3, Interesting)
Ship paper, not electronics. Don't ship small print either!
Your friend is supposed to be helping these people. When you ship an electronic book she reads it in her off time, and then what? Ship paper and she has something to leave behind as a gift when she leaves. (Note, there may be laws against this) Something that might encourage some of the natives to read for fun, which makes them better.
Prefer books printed on acid free paper. With lose pages from a printer you can count on one getting blown away in the wind and then what? (Note, you can bind your own books, something to look into though I don't know if it is worth it) Normal acid paper will be destroyed in a few years. These are people who will have enough trouble getting books, they don't need to have the few they have destroyed early.
Re:Don't be selfish! (Score:3, Informative)
Normal acid paper will be destroyed in a few years.
Unless you're using something like newsprint, they don't make acidic paper anymore [librarypreservation.org].
Granted, that doesn't mean that there aren't other possible issues, and while most paper today is acid-free, it's not generally buffered, so contact with acidic materials can still ``infect'' it. But most laser-printer and copy paper isn't going to fall apart due to acidification.
Re:Don't be selfish! (Score:2)
Cheap paperbacks are, most likely, still acidic. Budget "classics" like are sold at Barnes & Noble are probably also printed on cheap paper.
Re:Sheesh! (Score:1)
Sky writing.
Fineprint & The Online Books Page (Score:1)
You might also want
Old laptops (Score:2)
Someone else mentioned shipping things disassembled so they won't get stolen. Laptops are easier to reassembled than PDAs. Marking them as broken parts and REALLY pack the hard drive.
Better yet: make the CDs bootable so they don't even need a hard drive.
Some harebrained schemes for book transport. (Score:2)
I wonder what it would take to modify the
Similar problem here... (Score:5, Funny)
He is going to Namibia for a year trek into the deep jungle. He will have a lot of down time. He is an avid musician, primarily playing the Harmonica. He currently creates music using GarageBand on his Mac, sticky solely to his sampled harmonica sounds. He is wondering how to bring his Macintosh, multiple CinemaDisplay LCD screens, and surround-sounds speaker setup into the jungle since he has to carry everything in his backpack and there will be no electricity.
He can't bear the thought of not making or hearing any Harmonica music for an entire year. I was thinking I could ship him a PDA and he could write down the sheet music, ship it to me, then I would enter it into GarageBand for him, create a Harmonica song, cut it to MP3, download it to his PDA, and ship it back to him. But this would be difficult and expensive.
Can anyone think of anything else that might work?
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:1)
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:1)
Seriously. If knows how to play the harmonica, and he likes to hear harmonica music, then what is wrong with just playing the darned thing? Maybe he will screw up his performance occasionally. But who cares?
Or, he can mail hs Mac to me just before he leaves, and I will take care of getting it to him -- promise!
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:2)
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:4, Insightful)
And still I'm getting serious replies.
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:2)
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:2)
the SMALLEST, LIGHTEST, MOST PORTABLE musical instrument in existance
Nope. You should have said your friend was an exquisite whistler. "How will he manage without a mic, a recording deck and electricity??!" Any replies to that would be truly worthy of derision...
p.s. - it's "existence".
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:2)
please stop making posts to prove a point. yes, the grandparent post was funny, but your point's completely invalid
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:1)
Likewise, did I need to make this post? Probably not.
Welcome To Slashdot.
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:1)
beware the clown.
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:1)
May I also suggest the following lightweight, small, REAL instruments:
Re:Similar problem here... (Score:2)
Ah shit, I know it was meant to be funny, but this is Slashdot so I am not going to feel guilty about making fun of your geographical skills.
Namibia. A country pretty much named after the Namib desert. A country largely consisting of sand, diamonds and a few people who like sand and/or diamonds. Not much in the way of deep jungle.
But look on the bright side, if he takes some solar panels along he will have no problems powering his Mac. And i
Print and Ship from South Africa (Score:1)
Though, I suspect it may be cheaper to find a 2nd book dealer (in South Africa) with the titles your friend is after.
Re:Print and Ship from South Africa (Score:1)
If she has access to a computer and internet, unless there's some magic email that doesn't need internet, and you send a printer she can download the text documents from the internet and format them herself
The second option, if you like your friend, is te send her frequent letters and add a 6 or 7pt chapter or two of the book. If she has access to a copier, which is probably easier than getting to an Internet connection, then she can blow them
You guys just aren't thiking, you have half the id (Score:2)
I've got a Visor Platinum with a Kopsis compact flash card reader right here. A cheap 128MB compact flash will hold over 200 books.
Use Adobe's FREE Acrobat reader for Palm to port the files to the Handspring, and the copy of Acrobat you need to set up the files doesn't have to make the trip.
If your friend runs out of b
PDA versus Microfiche? (Score:2, Informative)
Find out if the Peace Corps sends other people either to where she is doing her stint, or if someone will pass through. Send the PDA with them, and have her meet them at the airport. This won't solve the theft in situ problem, but she probably has quite a few personal possessions in that category already, so it is not like an unaddressed problem. At least if you get a PDA to her, shipping her bytes consists of just sending a flash media card in a letter.
She might not live near an Internet cafe, so printing
an Ethiopian project perspective (Score:2, Interesting)
Africa is a diverse place with different needs. Many of these project are looking for solutions that are not that different from your typical under funded public library or university. They may have a donated server in the back room that they need to figure out how to best utilize it.
Our project, is working with non-profits and public institutions we have a few systems set up there with OpenBSD and Koha. K
Re:an Ethiopian project perspective (Score:2)
Just a thought... (Score:2, Insightful)
Ebookwise 1150 Ebook reader!!! (Score:1)
Peace Corp and Books (Score:1)
www.archiphysics.com
Send a game boy advance (Score:3, Interesting)
WinCE 2.0 PDA, wind up charger, CF card, $80 (Score:1)
Bound Printed Matter (Score:2, Informative)
buy it in South Africa (Score:2)
Freely available byte stream without a computer? (Score:1)
Cheap PDA (Score:2)
1)They're dirt cheap - no big loss if stolen. Get two in fact, one as a backup.
2)They run for weeks on 2 AAA batteries, no need for a recharger or access to a power supply.
3)They take MMC cards. If you use Weasel reader and the ztxt fomat for compressing books, you can get an average Guttenberg text down to about 250K. So that's about 1000 books on a 256M card. More MMC cards can be posted out from home, as an when required.
iPod shuffle? (Score:2)
Get two and when she ships one back, ship her another one updated with new audio books.
Re:iPod shuffle? (Score:2)
http://www.solio.com/html/
AND it's made from recycled materials in a developing country
Why on *earth* would you hide in your room & r (Score:2)
You sign up for '2 years that'll change your life', that'll show you another world, let you make a difference in that distant place, and then you use your off time to read a stack of old books?!
Send your friend a few classics, in hardcover, because a little reading material is always a good thing. Shop around and you'll find 'pocket' editions of classics: smaller books with durable covers and a premium thin/strong/opaque paper. I buy 'em