Standards
Sometimes, all it takes is a decent format. MP3 is one. EPUB is another. A way to make media fit the player, rather than requiring a plethora of gadgets to get around the idiotic notion that the consumer won’t notice.
I’m busily preparing “the library”. For my ebook reader… and without the efforts of Calibre, I’d be out of luck. Here’s another example of really good software, written from a philanthropic point of view. Even better, the coders continue to upgrade and improve the package. Too bad their karma wasn’t shared by a few other companies (not to point the proverbial finger at some of the big names).
Try to, rationally, explain why something as “standard” as the text on the e-page requires no less than fourteen formats (as supported by Calibre). There are others. Doesn’t anybody remember the story of Babel? Hint… the tower was just a symptom.
I’m about halfway through my project, which involves several thousand different files. I’m going to try and stick with EPUB, just because it works for me. The same intensive sessions were necessary to put order in my collection of audio files (no, that one may never be complete). Mainly typing and retyping titles, to try and make things searchable with tools less sophisticated than the Google server farm.
Next up; trying to archive this stuff. Hard drives fail. Optical media “blurs”. The cloud is still not ready for small freeholders. Duplication ups the cost, but my local electro-hardware shop keeps offering newer, faster, bigger gadgets. Keeps me in the consumer loop.
