So Crazy, It Might Just Work
So, I've had this plan I've hinted at, but kept secret while I researched it. First, the set-up: because of my impermanent residence, I can pretty much use the computer every day, but only for short bursts, and there's no guarantees of any kind. That makes it pretty much impossible to work on projects. I can in theory write, but only the old-fashioned way, on paper. But I can't read or study role-playing books, because all my physical books are in storage and the electronic ones are inaccessible.
Now, an ebook reader or laptop would be nice, but I can't afford one right now. And as for ebook readers, their screens seem very small for my feeble eyes. I wish there were something bigger.
And then unexpectedly, my sister gave me a portable DVD player. I had never really thought about getting one before, because I've never felt the need, but it's actually nice because it will play DivX movies in addition to DVDs, which makes it easier to put videos on disc. No need to waste six hours authoring a DVD. It also will display JPEGs or play MP3s.
And then it occurred to me: I can use it like an ebook reader. I have the Codex Seraphinianus and some comics in JPEG form, so I could burn those to disc and read them at my leisure. It won't display PDFs, but there are ways around that. These are the possibilities:
Convert PDFs to JPEG: ImageMagick will do this, although I haven't tested it to see how it will look. I can even write a script to handle batches of PDFs all at once. PROS: once I write the script, it should be pretty quick. CONS: plain text books from Project Gutenberg will need some minor formatting and conversion to PDF. Directory structures will have to be set up by hand, to make sure I can jump to specific chapters. Not sure how it will handle the image conversion yet.
Convert JPEGs to DivX: Same as the previous, but instead of keeping each page as a separate JPEG in a chapter directory, I could use Avisynth and Virtualdub to convert all JPEGs in one chapter to a DivX video. PROS: Easier to move from page to page within a chapter. Might not need to worry about directory structure. CONS: Extra script writing. Extra step added to previous method.
Convert text directly to DivX: Write a script that breaks up plain ASCII text into chunks and either create JPEGs from text using ImageMagick for bundling into video OR somehow feed text directly into Avisynth, perhaps as captions, to create a video directly. PROS: Automates plain text conversion better than previous methods. CONS: Might not have much choice for fonts. Caption features in Avisynth look scary. PDFs have to be converted to text first, or use two different methods.
Convert text via Impress: OpenOffice's Powerpoint clone can export presentations to individual JPEGs for each slide. Too bad Impress doesn't export direct to video like Apple's Keynote, but at least these JPEGs can be converted to DivX via Avisynth. PROS: Better font control. CONS: Not automated, except for the JPEG-to-DivX part. Preliminary tests didn't work well, looks like lots of manual formatting is required.
Record desktop: Use autoscroll in Acrobat Reader and Firefox plus CamStudio to record straight to video. PROS: Minimal steps. Works the same for either plain text or PDF. CONS: Has to be done more or less in real-time, so it's slower. Videos will require more editing afterwards.
I need to look at some more options. Like: I have a thing called Pandoc that can convert plain text to multiple formats, including ODT. It might be possible to automate the conversion to Impress that way.
Of course, not having extended access to my own computer is keeping me from exploring these options, but whatever.
Now, an ebook reader or laptop would be nice, but I can't afford one right now. And as for ebook readers, their screens seem very small for my feeble eyes. I wish there were something bigger.
And then unexpectedly, my sister gave me a portable DVD player. I had never really thought about getting one before, because I've never felt the need, but it's actually nice because it will play DivX movies in addition to DVDs, which makes it easier to put videos on disc. No need to waste six hours authoring a DVD. It also will display JPEGs or play MP3s.
And then it occurred to me: I can use it like an ebook reader. I have the Codex Seraphinianus and some comics in JPEG form, so I could burn those to disc and read them at my leisure. It won't display PDFs, but there are ways around that. These are the possibilities:
Convert PDFs to JPEG: ImageMagick will do this, although I haven't tested it to see how it will look. I can even write a script to handle batches of PDFs all at once. PROS: once I write the script, it should be pretty quick. CONS: plain text books from Project Gutenberg will need some minor formatting and conversion to PDF. Directory structures will have to be set up by hand, to make sure I can jump to specific chapters. Not sure how it will handle the image conversion yet.
Convert JPEGs to DivX: Same as the previous, but instead of keeping each page as a separate JPEG in a chapter directory, I could use Avisynth and Virtualdub to convert all JPEGs in one chapter to a DivX video. PROS: Easier to move from page to page within a chapter. Might not need to worry about directory structure. CONS: Extra script writing. Extra step added to previous method.
Convert text directly to DivX: Write a script that breaks up plain ASCII text into chunks and either create JPEGs from text using ImageMagick for bundling into video OR somehow feed text directly into Avisynth, perhaps as captions, to create a video directly. PROS: Automates plain text conversion better than previous methods. CONS: Might not have much choice for fonts. Caption features in Avisynth look scary. PDFs have to be converted to text first, or use two different methods.
Convert text via Impress: OpenOffice's Powerpoint clone can export presentations to individual JPEGs for each slide. Too bad Impress doesn't export direct to video like Apple's Keynote, but at least these JPEGs can be converted to DivX via Avisynth. PROS: Better font control. CONS: Not automated, except for the JPEG-to-DivX part. Preliminary tests didn't work well, looks like lots of manual formatting is required.
Record desktop: Use autoscroll in Acrobat Reader and Firefox plus CamStudio to record straight to video. PROS: Minimal steps. Works the same for either plain text or PDF. CONS: Has to be done more or less in real-time, so it's slower. Videos will require more editing afterwards.
I need to look at some more options. Like: I have a thing called Pandoc that can convert plain text to multiple formats, including ODT. It might be possible to automate the conversion to Impress that way.
Of course, not having extended access to my own computer is keeping me from exploring these options, but whatever.