Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 09:29:54 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: New mass market pb format
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

> scpierce at gmail.com 1/4/05 9:07:11 AM >>>
>Actually, Google has an excellent idea of what it costs to scan
>and
>OCR all these books.  They had to create their own OCR
>programs (a
>class mate is one of the key programmers) and have special
>scanners
>built to their order.  All this to get their little blue bordered ads
>for whale oil lamps and harpoon sharpening

Let us not forget wooden prosthetics.

> on the right side
>of the
>screen as you read Moby Dick on line.

True ereaders will read Moby Dick on their palm pilot - anything else
is wimpy.

mjw

>
>         -- sam
>
>On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 09:43:16 -0500, Barry L. Newton
><bnewton at ashcomp.com> wrote:
>> As far as I can see, this will (if it actually comes off) swamp
>and
>> overwhelm Gutenberg, which seems to rely on the goodwill
>of members of the
>> public to scan and correct or even type in the full text of
>older works.
>>
>> I have my suspicions that the good folks at Google have
>badly
>> underestimated the total costs of this project, and that it will
>turn into
>> a hugely embarassing, and potentially disastrous failure.
>>
>> Really hope I'm wrong about this.
>>
>> Barry
>>