See below,
On 3/6/05 at 4:04 PM David Kirkby wrote:
>Will Matney wrote:
>
>>Well here's the dilemma with HTML. Folks on here, especially which I
>consider all good friends, some have offered to proof read for glitches,
>etc., I cant password protect it unless it's put in a compression file
>like .zip or .rar. I don't think winzip will go cross platform, and not
>sure about rar files.
>>
>
>HTML is a bad choice for technical books (which I assume your
>transformer book would be), as how the image is displayed is determined
>partially by the HTML content, but partially by the browser. Equations
>are going to be tricky at best, so you are probably going to need to
>generate gif files for all equations.
You do, I have a program here just for that. I use an app called Mathtype and
works pretty good.
>
>Winzip is by its very name for Windoze. But zip is a compression
>algorithm that can be used on a multiple platforms. However, I don't
>think the compression algorithm is too strong.
>
>http://www.crackpassword.com/products/prs/archives/zip/
>
>I don't think ebook is too secure either
>
>http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Adobe/Gallery/PDFsecurity.pdf
>
>I can't recall if it was Adobe or Apple, but one of them took someone to
>court who published details of how to crack their encryption algorithm.
>I'd be very embarised if I wrote an encryption algorithm and someone was
>able to crack it. I certainly would not want further public humiliation
>by taking it to court.
>
A guy in Russia cracked the Adobe algorithm and Adobe threatened suit if he
didnt drop it off the website for sale. He was selling it as a password
recovery tool :) I think I have it here somewhere.
>>I know pdfs are and the other form of e-book available is only win-32
>compatible which has a built in browser.
>>
>No, acrobat reader can read e-books on any platform - it is not limited
>to just Windoze.
That is if it's a pdf file. Most "e-books" for windows are a compiled form of
html pages with an included browser so they're independant of any web browser.
They are a self standing executable file (.exe). Now, most pdf documents are
merely converted html pages.
>
>>My friends, I don't care to give a copy away free. That way, I could
>just send it all in HTML. With a pdf or an e-book, I can password protect
>those for resale. Since Adobe Acrobat is cross platform that will work for
>Mac, Linux, and Unix I think.
>>
>Yes it will.
>
>>The e-book form would be good for those running Windows. Personally, I
>like Windows and have been a hacker at it, so know how to plug all the
>holes on my machine.
>>
>Well Microsoft should hire you, as they seem unable to plug all the holes!!
To me, there's not that many holes (98 and 98SE). It really is the user who
creates the problems most of the time due to exploits sent in e-mail messages
and or attached file viruses. A decent firewall will stop anything else I've
found. The major problems with windows is memory leak problems and file changes
to an older version when someone installs a new app. That can make other apps
dependant on these files to go haywire. XP and NT4 are another story, I despise
them. Really, anything on the NT kernel.
>
>>I would like to get some comments on what would be looked for in the book
>and what would be needed.
>>
>*Personally* I hate the thought of e-books - I'd rather have something
>in my hand that I can read on the train or in bed.
Well me too, but when you dont have deep enough pockets to seek a publisher, an
e-book is the berries. Believe you me, Uncle Sam dont pay to well on
disability. You have to work at least 35 years to get anything of a retirement,
then it's only a little over $1000 a month. Where I was disabled early, mine is
under that a month!
>
>There is a fairly popular (among scientists) book called "Numerical
>Recipes in C". You can download a pdf of it for free
>http://www.numerical-recipes.com/nronline_switcher.html
>but it is sold as a hardback book. (It was sold as a hardback book
>before a free download was available).
>
>I have Mathematica, the manual for which is
>
>a) Sold as a book Mathematica at quite a significant price.
>b) Provided as a help file in the program.
>c) Is available for online viewing at
>http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/
>
>So this proves to me there are lots of people like me who would like a
>physical copy of a book, not just something to read on a screen.
>Otherwise companies would not sell books, but make downloads free.
>
>If you allow printing of the book (which allows one to get a physical
>copy), then I doubt it is too hard for someone to convert it to a normal
>unencrypted pdf. Just print to a postscript file, convert postscript to
>pdf. Very easy. If you can't print it, then I would personally not want
>to bother buying it, no matter what the content.
>
>But then people do manage to sell them, so I guess there is a market.
>How big I don't know.
It's there as I get requests all the time to help in magnetics problems. Not
great, but I've never really advertized the service either, just among friends.
>
>You might go to a lot of work and find the number of people paying to
>read the material on transformers is very small indeed.
Possibility......
>
>If you really can plug all the holes in Windoze (as you claim) I suspect
>you could earn a fortune from Microsoft, and would not need to bother
>considering selling a book at $5-$10.
They wont pay for it. They keep anything hid until a problem shows. Then, they
use their own internal hack group to just see what the outside hacker did and
fix the hole. Matter of fact, they'll wait for some company like eEye to
describe it then a patch comes out.
>
>>I don't know if you seen the one webpage(s) I did before on transformers
>but it will be similar to it.
>>
>No, its not something I have seen, but I have no great interest in
>transformers.
>
>>I want to get into the how's and why's you use certain components, and
>how to design each inductor from scratch.
>>
>Can't that be found on the web?
In a very few places I've found and the information isn't that good, especially
on transformers and power chokes. Most have a lot of mis-information too I've
seen. None I've seen goes into explanations of different core types and why a
certain core material should be used and how. That was the reason a long time
back I did those html pages for some on here.
>
>>Examples are, I always thought, the best way to learn. That is one other
>thing to include. I think some math we use scare some folks also. That's
>another are to help clear up and where example problems help a lot. If all
>would, let me know any ideas and I'll mull them over. Thanks again for the
>interest to all, I really appreciate it.
>>
>If you have Mathematica, you might consider writing it in that. Anyone
>can read it (since there is a free reader), but anyone with the program
>can change the numbers in your book and do the computations for another
>set of conditions. Just a thought - perhaps not a very good one.
>
>Or how about writing it as an ebook that anyone can read freely, but
>they would have to pay to print off copies? That might get more people
>reading it (since it's free) and if the content is really that good,
>they will pay to print a copy. You might find you generate more revenue
>that way.
>
>Or how about putting the book online for free, but selling the software
>that allows people to work out solutions for their own data? You could
>include the software with the ability to print.
I have software in the works but it will most likely be windows dependant as I
only program in Visual Basic.
>
>Anyway, enough said. I think you should be paying me for ideas!!
>
>--
>Dr. David Kirkby,
>G8WRB
>
>Please check out http://www.g8wrb.org/
>of if you live in Essex http://www.southminster-branch-line.org.uk/
>
>
>
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Will
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