strathspey Archive: Eric's cribs as EPUB

Those of you who found an EPUB-based (i.e., non-Kindle) e-book reader in your
stockings the day before yesterday can now download a first EPUB version of
Eric's crib collection from

http://media.strathspey.org/epub/cribs.epub

This differs in various details from the Kindle version (which I also updated)
but the long-term plan is for the two to be identical as far as the content is
concerned (there will probably always be subtle differences with the
formatting). The two documents are generated from the crib database using very
similar processes, based on substantially identical code, and will hopefully
be able to track any updates to the base cribs in the database with little
extra work. (Actually the Kindle format and EPUB are so much alike that one
wonders why Amazon bothers at all, other than to make Kindle owners buy all
their stuff through them, which is probably the main reason – but that is
neither here nor there.)

The EPUB document looks OK on my Sony PRS-T1 (a.k.a. »Sony Reader«) and
various software-based readers, but as usual no guarantees will be given. Do
let me know if it doesn't work for you or if you make any unusual
observations. (Oh, and I'll be away for the next week or so with – probably –
very spotty Internet access as I'll be teaching SCD at a workshop about as far
out in the boonies as you can go and still be in Germany, so don't expect a
quick turnaround.)

It turns out that most dances have half a page's worth of empty space below
them and so I'm now thinking about including Pilling-style diagrams – on the
web site and in the e-books – for those dances where free (i.e., not lifted
from the Pilling book) ones exist. I have a bunch of those from over 10 years
of ball programmes and if anyone would like to contribute to this I'm all
ears.

Anselm
--
Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany ................. anselm@strathspey.org
I do believe that it's the first time in history that fire has ever melted
steel. -- Rosie O'Donnell celebrates the end of the Bronze Age, on 9/11/2001

Works just fine on an iPad 1. Thank you, Anselm!

Lydia Hedge
Nova Scotia, Canada

> Those of you who found an EPUB-based (i.e., non-Kindle) e-book reader
> in your stockings the day before yesterday can now download a first
> EPUB version of Eric's crib collection from
>
> http://media.strathspey.org/epub/cribs.epub
>
> This differs in various details from the Kindle version (which I also
> updated) but the long-term plan is for the two to be identical as far
> as the content is concerned (there will probably always be subtle
> differences with the formatting). The two documents are generated from
> the crib database using very similar processes, based on substantially
> identical code, and will hopefully be able to track any updates to the
> base cribs in the database with little extra work. (Actually the
> Kindle format and EPUB are so much alike that one wonders why Amazon
> bothers at all, other than to make Kindle owners buy all their stuff
> through them, which is probably the main reason - but that is
> neither here nor there.)
>
> The EPUB document looks OK on my Sony PRS-T1 (a.k.a. »Sony Reader«)
> and various software-based readers, but as usual no guarantees will be
> given. Do let me know if it doesn't work for you or if you make any
> unusual observations. (Oh, and I'll be away for the next week or so
> with - probably - very spotty Internet access as I'll be teaching
> SCD at a workshop about as far out in the boonies as you can go and
> still be in Germany, so don't expect a quick turnaround.)
>
> It turns out that most dances have half a page's worth of empty space
> below them and so I'm now thinking about including Pilling-style
> diagrams - on the web site and in the e-books - for those dances
> where free (i.e., not lifted from the Pilling book) ones exist. I have
> a bunch of those from over 10 years of ball programmes and if anyone
> would like to contribute to this I'm all ears.
>
> Anselm
> --
> Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany .................
> anselm@strathspey.org I do believe that it's the first time in history
> that fire has ever melted steel. -- Rosie O'Donnell celebrates the
> end of the Bronze Age, on 9/11/2001
>

With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone. Searching is very easy and reasonably quick. I can easily adjust the text size for my vision or to show more on a page. It automatically rotates between Portrain and Landscape views depending on the orientation of the iPhone. Inserting bookmarks is a snap.

The iPone is about the same size as the WGB, which for me, now makes the WGB irrelevant, ESPECIALLY if the cribs will incorporate diagrams as well. I will be carrying the iPhone anyway. I was thinking the publishers of the WGB might consider making it available as an epub, but it would be of limited utility to crib users because its scope is so limited.

I never expected to use the iPhone this way!

Cheers, Oberdan.

On Dec 27, 2011, at 2:17 PM, Lydia Hedge wrote:

> Works just fine on an iPad 1. Thank you, Anselm!
>
> Lydia Hedge
> Nova Scotia, Canada
>
>> Those of you who found an EPUB-based (i.e., non-Kindle) e-book reader
>> in your stockings the day before yesterday can now download a first
>> EPUB version of Eric's crib collection from
>>
>> http://media.strathspey.org/epub/cribs.epub
>>
>> This differs in various details from the Kindle version (which I also
>> updated) but the long-term plan is for the two to be identical as far
>> as the content is concerned (there will probably always be subtle
>> differences with the formatting). The two documents are generated from
>> the crib database using very similar processes, based on substantially
>> identical code, and will hopefully be able to track any updates to the
>> base cribs in the database with little extra work. (Actually the
>> Kindle format and EPUB are so much alike that one wonders why Amazon
>> bothers at all, other than to make Kindle owners buy all their stuff
>> through them, which is probably the main reason - but that is
>> neither here nor there.)
>>
>> The EPUB document looks OK on my Sony PRS-T1 (a.k.a. »Sony Reader«)
>> and various software-based readers, but as usual no guarantees will be
>> given. Do let me know if it doesn't work for you or if you make any
>> unusual observations. (Oh, and I'll be away for the next week or so
>> with - probably - very spotty Internet access as I'll be teaching
>> SCD at a workshop about as far out in the boonies as you can go and
>> still be in Germany, so don't expect a quick turnaround.)
>>
>> It turns out that most dances have half a page's worth of empty space
>> below them and so I'm now thinking about including Pilling-style
>> diagrams - on the web site and in the e-books - for those dances
>> where free (i.e., not lifted from the Pilling book) ones exist. I have
>> a bunch of those from over 10 years of ball programmes and if anyone
>> would like to contribute to this I'm all ears.
>>
>> Anselm
>> --
>> Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany .................
>> anselm@strathspey.org I do believe that it's the first time in history
>> that fire has ever melted steel. -- Rosie O'Donnell celebrates the
>> end of the Bronze Age, on 9/11/2001
>>
>
>
>

Il giorno 28 Dec 2011, alle ore 19:12, Oberdan Otto <ootto@ootto.com> ha scritto:

> With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone.

More info, please.

Andrea

Otto:   Also more details to me, please.

Mike Briggs

  
1519 Storytown Road
Oregon WI 53575-2521 USA
+1 608 835 0914 (o)
+1 608 770 2304 (m)
+1 608 237 2379 (f)

________________________________
From: Andrea Re <andrea@andrea-re.eu>
To: "strathspey@strathspey.org" <strathspey@strathspey.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: Eric's cribs as EPUB

Il giorno 28 Dec 2011, alle ore 19:12, Oberdan Otto <ootto@ootto.com> ha scritto:

> With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone.

More info, please.

Andrea

OK…

After downloading the epub file onto my computer, I opened iTunes and "drag-dropped" the file onto the Books folder in iTunes. Then with the iPhone connected to a USB port (hence to iTunes), I performed a Sync operation of iTunes with the iPhone (iPod should work too). This cause the epub to appear in the Books folder in my iPhone. Lydia was a able to drop the epub directly into her Books folder on her iPad--I could not do this with the iPhone, hence, the procedure I used. The devices (iPad vs iPhone) must have different permissions for direct external access.

By the way, there is a pretty neat graphic for the "book cover" for which I assume Anselm must take credit!

Good luck!

Cheers, Oberdan.

On Dec 28, 2011, at 12:21 PM, Andrea Re wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
> Il giorno 28 Dec 2011, alle ore 19:12, Oberdan Otto <ootto@ootto.com> ha scritto:
>
>> With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone.
>
> More info, please.
>
> Andrea

I have an iPhone 3 and I don't use iBooks.  When I clicked on the link to the EPUB version of the cribs contained in Anselm's message, Safari informed me that it couldn't (wouldn't) download an EPUB file.  I worked around Safari's problem by downloading a free epub reader app called Bluefire.  The next time I attempted to download the cribs Safari meekly asked me if I'd like to use Bluefire for the download.  I replied in the affirmative.  And now I have the cribs on my ancient iPhone (along with one other book that came with Bluefire, namely Treasure Island.  Yo ho ho.)  And the cribs work just fine -- thank you Anselm, thank you Eric, thank you Otto, thank you Lydia.  Happy new year to you all.

Mike

  
1519 Storytown Road
Oregon WI 53575-2521 USA
+1 608 835 0914 (o)
+1 608 770 2304 (m)
+1 608 237 2379 (f)

________________________________
From: Oberdan Otto <ootto@ootto.com>
To: strathspey@strathspey.org
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 2:55 PM
Subject: Loading Eric's cribs as EPUB to an iPhone

OK…

After downloading the epub file onto my computer, I opened iTunes and "drag-dropped" the file onto the Books folder in iTunes. Then with the iPhone connected to a USB port (hence to iTunes), I performed a Sync operation of iTunes with the iPhone (iPod should work too). This cause the epub to appear in the Books folder in my iPhone. Lydia was a able to drop the epub directly into her Books folder on her iPad--I could not do this with the iPhone, hence, the procedure I used. The devices (iPad vs iPhone) must have different permissions for direct external access.

By the way, there is a pretty neat graphic for the "book cover" for which I assume Anselm must take credit!

Good luck!

Cheers, Oberdan.

On Dec 28, 2011, at 12:21 PM, Andrea Re wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
> Il giorno 28 Dec 2011, alle ore 19:12, Oberdan Otto <ootto@ootto.com> ha scritto:
>
>> With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone.
>
> More info, please.
>
> Andrea

Thank you to Otto, Steve and Mike who replied here and to Lydia who
replied privately.
Now it works (I think) perfectly well.
My only query is that the index is not made of hyperlinks, so if I want
to find a specific dance I have to fiddle a bit with it. Am I missing
something?

Thanks again.

Andrea

(Fae Falkirk and Dundee)

Il 28/12/11 20.55, Oberdan Otto ha scritto:
> OK…
>
> After downloading the epub file onto my computer, I opened iTunes and "drag-dropped" the file onto the Books folder in iTunes. Then with the iPhone connected to a USB port (hence to iTunes), I performed a Sync operation of iTunes with the iPhone (iPod should work too). This cause the epub to appear in the Books folder in my iPhone. Lydia was a able to drop the epub directly into her Books folder on her iPad--I could not do this with the iPhone, hence, the procedure I used. The devices (iPad vs iPhone) must have different permissions for direct external access.
>
> By the way, there is a pretty neat graphic for the "book cover" for which I assume Anselm must take credit!
>
> Good luck!
>
> Cheers, Oberdan.
>
>
>
> On Dec 28, 2011, at 12:21 PM, Andrea Re wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Il giorno 28 Dec 2011, alle ore 19:12, Oberdan Otto<ootto@ootto.com> ha scritto:
>>
>>> With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone.
>> More info, please.
>>
>> Andrea
>

Oberdan Otto wrote:

> By the way, there is a pretty neat graphic for the "book cover" for which I
> assume Anselm must take credit!

This is actually based on a photograph that I took from the balcony during the
»SCD Kaleidoscope« ball near Geneva in the summer of 2009. I like to take
long-exposure pictures because they look much more dynamic than the ones you
get where people are frozen in mid-air with appendages sticking out in various
directions. On hardware-based readers like the Kindle the surrealist
appearance is enhanced by the fact that the »e-paper« screens of these devices
can only display 16 shades of grey, but this experience is probably lost on
iPhone users who will see the »cover« in colour. Also, the Kindle cover is a
GIF picture while that of the EPUB version is in JPEG, i.e., it theoretically
supports more colours (which again is nothing that the e-paper users get to
take advantage of).

The cover is really there because the e-book creation programs tend to bitch
and moan if you don't include a cover.

Anselm
--
Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany ................. anselm@strathspey.org
There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears
and the dumbest tourists.
-- Yosemite National Park ranger, on the design of bear-proof garbage cans

Here's how I did it from the iPhone: in Mail, click on the link in the
original message (or Oberdan's quote of it). This will open the link in
Safari which will ask you if you want to open the epub in iBooks or another
reader. Choosing iBooks there will be a brief pause while iBooks opens and
the file downloads and installs, then you're good to go. Next time you
synch the phone with iTunes it'll upload it to your host computer.

On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Andrea Re <andrea@andrea-re.eu> wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
> Il giorno 28 Dec 2011, alle ore 19:12, Oberdan Otto <ootto@ootto.com> ha
> scritto:
>
> > With some help from Lydia, I managed to load it onto my iPhone.
>
> More info, please.
>
> Andrea

--
Steve Wyrick -- Walnut Creek, California