[p2p-research] lightfoot book sharing ?

[Alex Rollin]

Over the last couple years I've been quite a nomad, moving country 5 times.

I jettisoned the library in 2004 before the current saga began.  7000
volumes.  Oh that hurt.

Since then I've accumulated an obscene number of e-books.  Obscene.  Really.

In the past I've had them printed at Kinko's, from files, and beat the price
of a new paperback.  Same type size, very readable.  Then I've given away
the copy when I finished it.

Many of the files I have are RTF, so I can resize the font, page width,
columns and type size to fit my needs.  Then PDF it and take it to the
printer.  Because the files are RTF I can tell the printer it is a novel I
wrote or a dissertation.  Sometimes I take the author's name off it and put
in my own!  Tack, I know, but it works :)

In Europe I haven't had the same luck with big copy shop pricing.  The only
Kinko's in town is now closed, though it still exists in the Google Maps
legacy street view images.

My solution was started in the US.   I've been shopping low-end laser
printers and comparing ink refill prices for this purpose.

An HP 1000 series at 14 ppm for $100 can print several thousand pages before
a $70 refill is needed.  That beats Kinko's on mid-range volume.

I printed several books on the one I had in the USA without any issues.  Now
the new model, HP Laserjet 1005, PC/Mac, is available for 90Euro.  I was
about to buy one the other day but couldn't find the refill, and decided to
wait until I could compare price with the less expensive but comparable
Samsung laser.

I share ebooks, and the sharing isn't really the problem.

Building a local community that is capable, interested, and willing to share
costs for the printer would be nice...but it isn't necessary.

I have seen scans of text books, but these are only useful when you want to
sit in front of a computer to read them as they are often in color and
tremendously large file sizes.

On the subject of text books, I have been a long paying subscriber to
MacMillan and all the other sheister outfits that control the trade in the
US, in cahoots with the Universities.  It's a sad thing.  Few things have
excited me more over the years than collaboratively  written, wiki-tized,
printable-ebook-able, editable (of course) free text books.  It's the one
thing that has brought some hope to the teachers I speak with in California
about the future of education since they are so saddled with Bush policy
that forces them to drill students on de-contextualized errata for
standardized testing.  If the kdis fail the tests, the school gets
bushwhacked by the state.  The idea of teachers seizing the textbooks gives
them hope they might prove out an alternative method for raising children to
competency.

In college it is the same, in my experience, but more sinister.  Nothing
like a $250 textbook (that you don't really need.)  I mean, seriously, I
could print 4 of them, with binding, for that price.  Wow.  Print 200that
price at  and I'd own all the machines to make them.  Who needs a million
monkeys when you have 75 million students and 15 million at University.
 They could each copy 4 paragraphs of a single textbook and it would all be
online and ready for distribution in whatever format was needed or
appropriate.

Alex
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