3 ms·

There is a world of difference between “phone snaps of pages in library lighting” and a proper digitization of an antique book.

by pavlov 6y ago

andrewem 6y ago
Also this book is nearly 500 years old, and is a foot thick and 2,000 pages. Just turning all the pages might cause serious damage. (But yes, the sooner it's digitized the better.)
- WalterBright 6y ago
  I'm sure they already opened it and looked through it to see what it was. After all, there's a picture of it, open, with the article.
WalterBright 6y ago
Not if your goal is to capture the text. I've used a phone for this purpose many times with nothing more than room lighting. Don't believe me? Try it yourself, right now! Remember that the HP archives burned down while waiting for a "proper digitization". Oops.
- treeman79 6y ago
  This person gets stuff done!
- Tor3 6y ago
  - The HP archives had been moved to a building without any protection. Before that the archives used to be in special vaults with fire-protection. (ref. spectrum.ieee.org) - There doesn't appear to have been plans to digitize them, not at a large scale anyway - these were papers and notes and documents in a wide variety of formats, tricky to digitize unless you have a professional organization to do so (e.g. a museum working with old documents). - In short, the HP archives seem to have been simply collected and stored, and not safely (after the archive was moved to an "ordinary" building).
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    > these were papers and notes and documents in a wide variety of formats, tricky to digitize unless you have a professional organization to do so No, they are not tricky to digitize. Throw some random pieces of paper in various sizes and formats on the floor. Pull out your phone and take a picture and see for yourself. For example, when I mail someone a package at the post office, they hand me a receipt with the tracking number. I hold the receipt in my left hand, take a phone photo of it with my other left hand, and text it to the addressee. Zip, boom, done. Works great. The phone camera is simply the greatest document scanner ever invented, and everybody has one! > not safely Fireproof vaults have burned. See what happened to the Kennedy photo archive in the safe vault in the basement of the WTC. HP likely didn't scan them because they didn't have budget for a "proper digitization". So rather than cheap snaps with a phone camera, they now have nothing.
- DanBC 6y ago
  Ecce Homo is what happens when people who don't k ow what they're doing have a go anyway.

There is a world of difference between “phone snaps of pages in library lighting” and a proper digitization of an antique book.

by pavlov 6y ago

There is a world of difference between “phone snaps of pages in library lighting” and a proper digitization of an antique book.

andrewem 6y ago

Also this book is nearly 500 years old, and is a foot thick and 2,000 pages. Just turning all the pages might cause serious damage. (But yes, the sooner it's digitized the better.)

WalterBright 6y ago
I'm sure they already opened it and looked through it to see what it was. After all, there's a picture of it, open, with the article.

WalterBright 6y ago

Not if your goal is to capture the text. I've used a phone for this purpose many times with nothing more than room lighting. Don't believe me? Try it yourself, right now! Remember that the HP archives burned down while waiting for a "proper digitization". Oops.

treeman79 6y ago
This person gets stuff done!
Tor3 6y ago
- The HP archives had been moved to a building without any protection. Before that the archives used to be in special vaults with fire-protection. (ref. spectrum.ieee.org) - There doesn't appear to have been plans to digitize them, not at a large scale anyway - these were papers and notes and documents in a wide variety of formats, tricky to digitize unless you have a professional organization to do so (e.g. a museum working with old documents). - In short, the HP archives seem to have been simply collected and stored, and not safely (after the archive was moved to an "ordinary" building).
- WalterBright 6y ago
  > these were papers and notes and documents in a wide variety of formats, tricky to digitize unless you have a professional organization to do so No, they are not tricky to digitize. Throw some random pieces of paper in various sizes and formats on the floor. Pull out your phone and take a picture and see for yourself. For example, when I mail someone a package at the post office, they hand me a receipt with the tracking number. I hold the receipt in my left hand, take a phone photo of it with my other left hand, and text it to the addressee. Zip, boom, done. Works great. The phone camera is simply the greatest document scanner ever invented, and everybody has one! > not safely Fireproof vaults have burned. See what happened to the Kennedy photo archive in the safe vault in the basement of the WTC. HP likely didn't scan them because they didn't have budget for a "proper digitization". So rather than cheap snaps with a phone camera, they now have nothing.
DanBC 6y ago
Ecce Homo is what happens when people who don't k ow what they're doing have a go anyway.