Rich's Random Thoughts » OpenSource

Creating Ebooks is Easy & Free!

Rich McCue — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:20:31 +0000

I recently returned from a Law School Technology conference, and while there I learned how easy it is to create ebooks from documents in Microsoft Word or HTML formats. Elmer Masters lead a session called, Creating eBook Version of Your School’s Law Reviews Using Open Source and Free Tools (see the video here).

The ebook creation process was so easy that during the session I download, installed the tools, and created an ebook of my conference notes before Elmer had finished his talk. For anyone interest here is the process:

Download Sigil, the free and open source ebook editor for your operating system.
Install Sigil on your computer.
Open the word document that you’d like to turn into an Ebook.
Save the document as an html file by going to “File” -> “Save As” and then selecting “Web Page (htm)” in the drop down box. Then press the “Save” button.
Launch Sigil, and right mouse click on “Text” folder in the left hand column, and select “Add Existing Items…” Add the html file you just “Saved As” from word.
Now press the “Save” button on the Sigil tool bar, and you are done!

You might want to go to the Sigil “Tool” -> “Meta Data” menu to add a title and author to the book to make it look a little more professional looking, but other than that, you’ve created your first Ebook! Congratulations! If your document is long enough, you can insert chapter breaks to make it easier to navigate.

You might be wondering how you get this ebook on to your iPad or iPhone. All you need to do is either email the ebook to your self and then open it on your mobile device, or if you use Dropbox, move the ebook into Dropbox and then open it from Dropbox on your iPad or iPhone. If you’re a kindle user, you should have an email address than you can send file to in order to add them to your Kindle device.

For your reading pleasure, here are my CALI 2011 Conference Notes in ePub, PDF and Google Doc formats. Happy reading!

Tagged: ebooks, education, iPad, iPhone, libraries, OpenSource, publishing, Smart Phones, Work

Navigating the Maze that is a Library

Rich McCue — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:15:42 +0000

I found an email in my inbox this morning about an new building Way-finding utility that UC Davis Law School is working on. You’ll need to use your Firefox web browser for this early version of the app to work (a Chrome and Safari friendly version will be released soon). Here is a working demo of the application. The application is obviously early in it’s development cycle, but has the potential to be an extremely useful utility for libraries.

Put most simply, Wayfinding is a building map router, that uses jQuery and SVG to help individuals navigate from room to room in multi story buildings. Ideal for libraries that are often a complicated maze of book stacks. Enjoy!

Tagged: education, libraries, OpenSource, software, webapp, webdev

Google vs. the Library – Goliath vs. David?

Rich McCue — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:16:43 +0000

I spoke to a local Rotary club recently on topic of - Google vs. the Library: Research & Collaboration in the 21st Century. The group wanted to know if Google and the Internet would be putting our libraries out of business. My answer? Yes and No (see the link above for more details).

Yes, Google and the internet (specifically Wikipedia) have already put libraries out of the business of providing basic reference material.

No, Google and the internet will not put libraries out of the business of lending books in the short run. More importantly, Libraries for the foreseeable future will the the primary conduit for most people to access high quality and expensive research databases like Pub Med and other walled off online journals.

One interesting factoid from the presentation: The Encyclopedia Britannica contains about 100,000 articles and costs over $1,000 for a set of books. Wikipedia has over 3,000,000 articles and is completely free. Wikipedia is 30 times larger than Britannica, and is widening it’s lead on a daily basis.

For now the Goliath vs. David battle is a draw

Tagged: education, Google, libraries, OpenSource, publishing, research

“Get Legal” – OpenOffice.Org Spins Microsoft FUD

Rich McCue — Thu, 04 May 2006 14:40:12 +0000

It’s not just people who steal software who have to worry – when you buy a Microsoft product, you’re buying a lifetime of fear of audit and legal persecution. So says the new recruitment campaign by OpenOffice.org, "Get Legal – Get OpenOffice.org", launched today. Why pay $150 if you are a student, or $400 for everyone else for a word processor and spread sheet program? OpenOffice is free, and works just as well for 99% of the population!

Wikipedia vs. Encyclopaedia Britannica

Rich McCue — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:54:33 +0000

Very interesting article on the relative accuracy of Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica by he scientific magazine "Nature". They compared 42 articles in both the encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Experts in their field were given the task to check for factual errors. To the surprise of nature, both encyclopedias were containing similar amounts of errors. The verdict? Almost no difference!

LTSP Saves Schools Big

Rich McCue — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 16:16:32 +0000

I ran across an interesting article on the Linux Terminal Server Project in schools. A school in Utah reports annual savings of $24,000 by having moved to linux terminal server away from Microsoft workstations. Those savings include software licencing costs, hardware upgrades, and support costs.

From the article:

Grace Lutheran’s installation stats:

>60 Pentium 1 and Pentium II computers for 250 total students
One computer lab of 25 computers
9 classrooms with an average of four computers in each classroom
Actual cost of Linux thin client conversion for all 60 computers: under $15,000
Estimated annual maintenance cost: $3,600
Comparable cost of PC/Windows installation: $50,000
Estimated annual maintenance cost of a PC/Windows solution: $24,000
Net yearly savings, based on four-year replacement cycle: $29,150

http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT3124052951.html