9 ms·

All of Einstein's writings are now online

290 points by jamesjyu 15y ago

eoghan 15y ago
This is great. Would love them in a more accessible format. 10 mins in and I still haven't been able to find anything actually written by him… :-)
- craze3 15y ago
  Just did a wildcard search and found all the documents in a second. All 80,000+ documents from the archives: http://alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfor=*&type=AllFields&submit=Find http://alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfor=*&...
  - blueplastic 15y ago
    But try clicking on one of the letters to read it. Can you find any?
  - olalonde 15y ago
    I did the same, but I still can't figure out how to read a document once you clicked the search result. i.e. http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000000005/TOC http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000000005/T...
    - JumpCrisscross 15y ago
      You have to click on the blurry DB Info image. I know, intuitive, right? You know it's a "a user-friendly interface" because they say so [1]. [1] http://alberteinstein.info/manuscripts.html http://alberteinstein.info/manuscripts.html
      - kaybe 15y ago
        Did you actually see a page yet? I only got "Currently there is no image available for this record. This is due shortly." so far, or no image to click on.
        Fpckalk 15y ago
        http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000034428#page/1/mode/2up http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000034428#... "Notes on field theory and general relativity", by using the query "General relativity". I hope there'll be more like this, it's quite interesting to see.
- zinssmeister 15y ago
  I agree, the UI is kinda terrible :(
  - indubitably 15y ago
    The search is. The reader is the same one as the internet archive, which is IMHO pretty great: http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader
- plainOldText 15y ago
  I had exactly the same thought. Although I gave up after 3 min. :)
run4yourlives 15y ago
I'm sure the internet will now point out how horribly wrong he was about everything.
- ahelwer 15y ago
  Almost an Onion headline: http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-biography-reveals-einstein-devised-theory-of-r,27313/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-biography-reveals-einst...
clone1018 15y ago
Heh, not after the HN + Reddit effect.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
3pt14159 15y ago
The thing that makes me saddest about Einstein is that his last words are forever lost since they were in German to a nurse that did not speak the language.
- gry 15y ago
  I haven't heard this nor can find the narrative. Please cite.
  - 3pt14159 15y ago
    http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_einstein,00.shtml http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_einst...
    - abailin 15y ago
      Wow, what fascinating quotes. Thank you for sharing.
- adrianwaj 15y ago
  Maybe something like: "Now I see if I was right."
creatom 15y ago
It sounds cool, but site doesn't load for me.
- morton_hu 15y ago
  The same to me.
- aangjie 15y ago
  Same here.. Anyone found a mirror? or contacted the original hoster? I wouldn't mind hosting a torrent if that can help.
EdisonW 15y ago
we should always have people commenting when the site goes down after HN/reddit effect (if no one has done it already) and then we can have an avg time goes down/host provider graph show up. :)
chaffneue 15y ago
I'm excited about the digitzation project, but the search experience is so poor that it's difficult and cumbersome to locate any actually digitized work. Some of the digitized documents appear to be broken - like this one http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000016939 http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000016939. Those that you do find are virtually impossible to read, because they aren't actually transcriptions, they're relatively low-res image scans of his manuscripts. http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000000025#page/1/mode/2up http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000000025#... - then there's access wall pdfs embedded in some of the DB entries https://sec2.einstein.caltech.edu/CookieAuth.dll?GetLogon?curl=Z2FarchivesZ2FscansZ2F004Z2F4002.pdf&reason=0&formdir=2 https://sec2.einstein.caltech.edu/CookieAuth.dll?GetLogon?cu... What a mess. I can only hope they make it much better in future revs.
dmragone 15y ago
I clicked on "Archival Database" and then "Find" (with no input) to see all documents. Using the filters on the right, I was then able to filter for Author = "Albert Einstein", Language = "English", and Digital Object = "Digitized Documents". Here's a link to what I got (sorted by title alphabetically): http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfor=&type=AllFields&filter[]=authorStr%3A%22Einstein%2C+Albert%22&filter[]=language%3A%22English%22&filter[]=has_digital%3A%22IDG%22&sort=title http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfo... Even so, I am unable to figure out how to access the document. Perhaps I am missing something relevant?

290 points by jamesjyu 15y ago

This is great. Would love them in a more accessible format. 10 mins in and I still haven't been able to find anything actually written by him… :-)

craze3 15y ago
Just did a wildcard search and found all the documents in a second. All 80,000+ documents from the archives: http://alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfor=*&type=AllFields&submit=Find http://alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfor=*&...
- blueplastic 15y ago
  But try clicking on one of the letters to read it. Can you find any?
- olalonde 15y ago
  I did the same, but I still can't figure out how to read a document once you clicked the search result. i.e. http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000000005/TOC http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000000005/T...
  - JumpCrisscross 15y ago
    You have to click on the blurry DB Info image. I know, intuitive, right? You know it's a "a user-friendly interface" because they say so [1]. [1] http://alberteinstein.info/manuscripts.html http://alberteinstein.info/manuscripts.html
    - kaybe 15y ago
      Did you actually see a page yet? I only got "Currently there is no image available for this record. This is due shortly." so far, or no image to click on.
      - Fpckalk 15y ago
        http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000034428#page/1/mode/2up http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000034428#... "Notes on field theory and general relativity", by using the query "General relativity". I hope there'll be more like this, it's quite interesting to see.
zinssmeister 15y ago
I agree, the UI is kinda terrible :(
- indubitably 15y ago
  The search is. The reader is the same one as the internet archive, which is IMHO pretty great: http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader
plainOldText 15y ago
I had exactly the same thought. Although I gave up after 3 min. :)

run4yourlives 15y ago

I'm sure the internet will now point out how horribly wrong he was about everything.

ahelwer 15y ago
Almost an Onion headline: http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-biography-reveals-einstein-devised-theory-of-r,27313/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-biography-reveals-einst...

clone1018 15y ago

Heh, not after the HN + Reddit effect.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

3pt14159 15y ago

The thing that makes me saddest about Einstein is that his last words are forever lost since they were in German to a nurse that did not speak the language.

gry 15y ago
I haven't heard this nor can find the narrative. Please cite.
- 3pt14159 15y ago
  http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_einstein,00.shtml http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_einst...
  - abailin 15y ago
    Wow, what fascinating quotes. Thank you for sharing.
adrianwaj 15y ago
Maybe something like: "Now I see if I was right."

creatom 15y ago

It sounds cool, but site doesn't load for me.

morton_hu 15y ago
The same to me.
aangjie 15y ago
Same here.. Anyone found a mirror? or contacted the original hoster? I wouldn't mind hosting a torrent if that can help.

EdisonW 15y ago

we should always have people commenting when the site goes down after HN/reddit effect (if no one has done it already) and then we can have an avg time goes down/host provider graph show up. :)

chaffneue 15y ago

I'm excited about the digitzation project, but the search experience is so poor that it's difficult and cumbersome to locate any actually digitized work. Some of the digitized documents appear to be broken - like this one http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000016939 http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Record/EAR000016939. Those that you do find are virtually impossible to read, because they aren't actually transcriptions, they're relatively low-res image scans of his manuscripts. http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000000025#page/1/mode/2up http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Digital/EAR000000025#... - then there's access wall pdfs embedded in some of the DB entries https://sec2.einstein.caltech.edu/CookieAuth.dll?GetLogon?curl=Z2FarchivesZ2FscansZ2F004Z2F4002.pdf&reason=0&formdir=2 https://sec2.einstein.caltech.edu/CookieAuth.dll?GetLogon?cu... What a mess. I can only hope they make it much better in future revs.

dmragone 15y ago

I clicked on "Archival Database" and then "Find" (with no input) to see all documents. Using the filters on the right, I was then able to filter for Author = "Albert Einstein", Language = "English", and Digital Object = "Digitized Documents". Here's a link to what I got (sorted by title alphabetically): http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfor=&type=AllFields&filter[]=authorStr%3A%22Einstein%2C+Albert%22&filter[]=language%3A%22English%22&filter[]=has_digital%3A%22IDG%22&sort=title http://new.alberteinstein.info/vufind1/Search/Results?lookfo... Even so, I am unable to figure out how to access the document. Perhaps I am missing something relevant?