Hey Crew,
Long time no see. I am only mostly dead, but I am feeling better (I think!). I have been diligently working on my thesis in addition to full school load, new baby (5 months old now!), work, etc. No time for games or much chit chat. Thanks for the well wishes in PM people sent me. Alas I need some tech help covering a number of topics, I wasn't really sure where to spam this but decided since I am still alive it won't matter much? (Don't kill me Rys).
On to some quick business. Where do you go when you need the best technical advice? Yep, B3D.
So I am working on my thesis and have this little "book" issue. Namely I cannot purchase every book I need to read and getting access to many of the books I need to cover I need to aquire through interlibrary loan--BUT I need to often refer back to these volumes months after I have returned them.
So for books I cannot afford (far too many specialty volumes I am needing constant access to that cost well over $100, some nearing $300) I am looking to archive local copies. I could copy them with a photocopier but that takes up a lot of space so I am looking at a digital solution.
At first I came across the Plustek Optibook 3600 scanner. It is designed for book scanning as the scanner has a bulb to illuminate the gutter, the book binding sits right on the edge of the scanner and the scanner scans right to the edge. The software that comes with the printer can collate your scanned filed into a single PDF, rotating odd (or even) pages 180 degrees, etc. Quality is ok for text (poor for color), you can do 4-6 pages a minute (kind of slow, but acceptible). The reviews indicate kind of buggy drivers and poor support which, at $280 for the "Plus" edition (PDF support) this is scary investment. Some info about this scanner can be found here plus reviews below. Anyone want to buy me one of those scanners Google/Amazon is using
Optibook 3600
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1738870,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/article/119454/plustek_opticbook_3600.html
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9666&page=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16838122015
http://www.amazon.com/Plustek-Opticbook-3600-Book-Scanner/dp/B000A27YIO
http://www.amazon.com/Plustek-Opticbook-3600-Plus-Scanner/dp/B000EIYUAE/
After some initial frustration I did stumble across a program called Snapter by Atiz (Atiz being one of those companies that makes expensive book digitizing software). The program is $49 and there is a free trial. At first I thought this would be ideal as it is pretty slick. All you do is take a picture, turn the page, take another picture, turn the page, etc. You navigate to your pictures, select your conversion settings, and the program finds the edges of the page, splits the page in two, and spits it out into a PDF.
Unfortunately the program freezes during saving so I haven't been able to test the file size or see if it makes a functional PDF Book. If I can get the program to working (waiting on support) this would be a fast and simple way to check out a book, make a copy for my reference and reading (I like reading at the PC in PDFs), and return the book on time all the while having access to the book over the next 12 months as I finish up my thesis.
This is where super B3D guys come in: while I wait on support (snore!) does anyone know of other programs or scanners that will meet my needs? OCR is low on my priority list -- I figure 20MB or so for 50 scanned/converted pages is fine by me as searching is nice, but not essential -- but workflow is essential. All the pages, or at least 40-50 page chunks, of books in a single file, preferably PDF, is ideal. Further, the process from capture to PDF should be as painless, simple, and quick as possible.
Maybe I am going around this all wrong? But with a couple hundred books to read/re-read, about half of which I don't own and many being very expensive and not available through my local libraries without a loan, I am kind of desparate for a solution.
Btw, Zotero rocks. I like to take notes for future reference (working in theology tends to require knowing a lot of literature as well as academic positions on such) and I am finding Zotero, while still being fleshed out, a blessing to taking my notes and effortlessly finding what I need and getting them into my school papers correctly documented. Zotero is awesome, works in FireFox, and completely free.
My final question is printers... I am so sick of my Epson CX6600 AOI. The printer, like the inkjet Lexmark before it, (a) chews through ink when in use and (b) dries ink to the nozzle to the point the catridges are no good long before they are empty.
What I am looking for is a quality (for text), but affordable, Laser printer. A color one one would be nice but not necessary as we print pictures online (the Samsung CPL 300 has had some ok reviews although paper jamming is a concern) although realistically a monochrome AIO with a duplexer would be just as good, especially if it has sharp quality and is durable. I have been watching dealigg.com for deals but think I should solicit advice on what others think. NewEgg has a pretty good deal on the Canon imageCLASS MF4150 ($139 after shipping) and has received some ok reviews (pcmag).
Alas I don't know much about printers. I don't print much, we use online services for photo prining, and my past printer purchases on such have been pretty poor.
All the boring stuff out of the way we are doing pretty good. Note: 3 young children devours any time you thought you had for hobbies, like technical forum posting! When not spending time with the family or working I am plugging away at writing my thesis or coursework. The next 9-12 months look to be populated with more of the same, although if the economy continues to do poorly I will probably get some "time off" at the expense of pay (layoffs for everyone!) Heh. I invested my technology savings (bye bye console!) into a laptop to replace my dead one. It is a nice Dell M1330 (refurb from Dell Outlet... 70% off retail price and one itsy bitsy scratch on the back) which is proving quite servicible for my mobility needs for studying. I was keen on one of the 12.1" HP Tablet PCs, but the Turions and poor battery performance and some build quality issues turned me off--I really wish they were up to the task as they would have been perfect as an ebook reader, just flip the display around and down and it is a digital book. I follow some news here and there but am pretty far behind on 3D architectures, but oh well, gotta keep the ducks in order. Did get to spend a spell on R&C and Uncharted and walked away pretty impressed (Sony really does have some killer developers, as we all knew). The humorous anecdote of the last half year was my new coworkers (layoffs reshuffled me around at work) are middle aged women who, gasp, love the Wii. This is like punishment for not jumping off the Ninny bandwagon I am sure, but it is an interesting sociology project. Non-gamers excited about gaming. Their gaming habits are quite interesting... they would find me disturbed if they knew I was monitoring their discussions for consumer insight Ok, so I don't have time to engage my gaming technology hobby, but it finds me elsewhere!
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their new toys, whatever they may be. Thanks for your time and thoughts I will check this thread in the coming days but, sadly, I won't be able to resume my voluminous writing and pontificating on the tech industry until well into 2009. But it is for a good cause Until then others can get their 2 cents in without my babbling.
Joshua
Ps- now that I browsed around again a mod could move this to the purchasing advice forum if theh so desired.
Long time no see. I am only mostly dead, but I am feeling better (I think!). I have been diligently working on my thesis in addition to full school load, new baby (5 months old now!), work, etc. No time for games or much chit chat. Thanks for the well wishes in PM people sent me. Alas I need some tech help covering a number of topics, I wasn't really sure where to spam this but decided since I am still alive it won't matter much? (Don't kill me Rys).
On to some quick business. Where do you go when you need the best technical advice? Yep, B3D.
So I am working on my thesis and have this little "book" issue. Namely I cannot purchase every book I need to read and getting access to many of the books I need to cover I need to aquire through interlibrary loan--BUT I need to often refer back to these volumes months after I have returned them.
So for books I cannot afford (far too many specialty volumes I am needing constant access to that cost well over $100, some nearing $300) I am looking to archive local copies. I could copy them with a photocopier but that takes up a lot of space so I am looking at a digital solution.
At first I came across the Plustek Optibook 3600 scanner. It is designed for book scanning as the scanner has a bulb to illuminate the gutter, the book binding sits right on the edge of the scanner and the scanner scans right to the edge. The software that comes with the printer can collate your scanned filed into a single PDF, rotating odd (or even) pages 180 degrees, etc. Quality is ok for text (poor for color), you can do 4-6 pages a minute (kind of slow, but acceptible). The reviews indicate kind of buggy drivers and poor support which, at $280 for the "Plus" edition (PDF support) this is scary investment. Some info about this scanner can be found here plus reviews below. Anyone want to buy me one of those scanners Google/Amazon is using
Optibook 3600
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1738870,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/article/119454/plustek_opticbook_3600.html
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9666&page=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16838122015
http://www.amazon.com/Plustek-Opticbook-3600-Book-Scanner/dp/B000A27YIO
http://www.amazon.com/Plustek-Opticbook-3600-Plus-Scanner/dp/B000EIYUAE/
After some initial frustration I did stumble across a program called Snapter by Atiz (Atiz being one of those companies that makes expensive book digitizing software). The program is $49 and there is a free trial. At first I thought this would be ideal as it is pretty slick. All you do is take a picture, turn the page, take another picture, turn the page, etc. You navigate to your pictures, select your conversion settings, and the program finds the edges of the page, splits the page in two, and spits it out into a PDF.
Unfortunately the program freezes during saving so I haven't been able to test the file size or see if it makes a functional PDF Book. If I can get the program to working (waiting on support) this would be a fast and simple way to check out a book, make a copy for my reference and reading (I like reading at the PC in PDFs), and return the book on time all the while having access to the book over the next 12 months as I finish up my thesis.
This is where super B3D guys come in: while I wait on support (snore!) does anyone know of other programs or scanners that will meet my needs? OCR is low on my priority list -- I figure 20MB or so for 50 scanned/converted pages is fine by me as searching is nice, but not essential -- but workflow is essential. All the pages, or at least 40-50 page chunks, of books in a single file, preferably PDF, is ideal. Further, the process from capture to PDF should be as painless, simple, and quick as possible.
Maybe I am going around this all wrong? But with a couple hundred books to read/re-read, about half of which I don't own and many being very expensive and not available through my local libraries without a loan, I am kind of desparate for a solution.
Btw, Zotero rocks. I like to take notes for future reference (working in theology tends to require knowing a lot of literature as well as academic positions on such) and I am finding Zotero, while still being fleshed out, a blessing to taking my notes and effortlessly finding what I need and getting them into my school papers correctly documented. Zotero is awesome, works in FireFox, and completely free.
My final question is printers... I am so sick of my Epson CX6600 AOI. The printer, like the inkjet Lexmark before it, (a) chews through ink when in use and (b) dries ink to the nozzle to the point the catridges are no good long before they are empty.
What I am looking for is a quality (for text), but affordable, Laser printer. A color one one would be nice but not necessary as we print pictures online (the Samsung CPL 300 has had some ok reviews although paper jamming is a concern) although realistically a monochrome AIO with a duplexer would be just as good, especially if it has sharp quality and is durable. I have been watching dealigg.com for deals but think I should solicit advice on what others think. NewEgg has a pretty good deal on the Canon imageCLASS MF4150 ($139 after shipping) and has received some ok reviews (pcmag).
Alas I don't know much about printers. I don't print much, we use online services for photo prining, and my past printer purchases on such have been pretty poor.
All the boring stuff out of the way we are doing pretty good. Note: 3 young children devours any time you thought you had for hobbies, like technical forum posting! When not spending time with the family or working I am plugging away at writing my thesis or coursework. The next 9-12 months look to be populated with more of the same, although if the economy continues to do poorly I will probably get some "time off" at the expense of pay (layoffs for everyone!) Heh. I invested my technology savings (bye bye console!) into a laptop to replace my dead one. It is a nice Dell M1330 (refurb from Dell Outlet... 70% off retail price and one itsy bitsy scratch on the back) which is proving quite servicible for my mobility needs for studying. I was keen on one of the 12.1" HP Tablet PCs, but the Turions and poor battery performance and some build quality issues turned me off--I really wish they were up to the task as they would have been perfect as an ebook reader, just flip the display around and down and it is a digital book. I follow some news here and there but am pretty far behind on 3D architectures, but oh well, gotta keep the ducks in order. Did get to spend a spell on R&C and Uncharted and walked away pretty impressed (Sony really does have some killer developers, as we all knew). The humorous anecdote of the last half year was my new coworkers (layoffs reshuffled me around at work) are middle aged women who, gasp, love the Wii. This is like punishment for not jumping off the Ninny bandwagon I am sure, but it is an interesting sociology project. Non-gamers excited about gaming. Their gaming habits are quite interesting... they would find me disturbed if they knew I was monitoring their discussions for consumer insight
Ok, so I don't have time to engage my gaming technology hobby, but it finds me elsewhere!I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their new toys, whatever they may be. Thanks for your time and thoughts
I will check this thread in the coming days but, sadly, I won't be able to resume my voluminous writing and pontificating on the tech industry until well into 2009. But it is for a good cause Until then others can get their 2 cents in without my babbling.Joshua
Ps- now that I browsed around again a mod could move this to the purchasing advice forum if theh so desired.
