Mega Torg

Archive for October, 2011

The idea of Google Books was first conceived in 2002 when a small group of Google programmers started pondering the question of how many man hours it would take to scan every single book ever written. We still don’t know the true answer to this question although just eight years from the idea conception there are now over 10 million books catalogued in their database.

While the first scan was done manually on a 300 page book and took 40 minutes to process, Google now use cameras capable of scanning at a rate of 1,000 pages an hour and also work with 20,000 publisher partners who provide content directly. They have also been able to provide over 1 million books that can be read in full from cover to cover; these unrestricted works are either books that have fallen out of copyright or have been provided with publishers express permission.

As well as simply scanning the books, Google performs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the pages, thereby turning them in to pure text which can be entered in to their database. As a result when you do a Google Search you are now not only returned results from relevant websites but also your search terms are checked against a library encompassing millions of books and appropriate matches are suggested for further reading.

The integration in to the Google Search engine means you may have already inadvertently stumbled across Google Books but if you haven’t and are eager to explore then the Google Books can be found by simply performing a search for ‘Google Books’. Being a Google service, it almost goes without saying that the service is completely free of charge and is instead paid for via a minimal number of sponsored links which are in no way intrusive or detrimental to the service.

From the Google Books site you can perform searches, add books to your virtual library or organise your collection in a logical manner. Searching for a book and then subsequently clicking on it opens an interface which allows you to either view the directly scanned pages from the book or in some instances a ‘plain text’ version. This plain text can then be copied and passed to another application or simply printed out for reading offline.

Books still under copyright enjoy the protection of a variety of access limitations and security measures which limit the number of viewable pages making the experience somewhat akin to being able to flick through the first couple of pages in a library or bookshop. Despite this protection there have rather predictably been a number of fairly major lawsuits issued by individuals and publishers alike; some with legitimate grievances and others just seeking money or publicity.

Possibly the most notable case was between The Authors Guild, the publishing industry and Google which resulted in Google agreeing to a settlement on October 28, 2008. This would see them pay a total $125 million not only to pay the court costs of the plaintiffs but also create a Book Rights Registry which will collect and disburse revenue generated by all third party sites such as Google which provide content based on the content of books covered by the agreement.

These issues aside, on the whole I am amazed that again this relatively new company have been able to offer such an incredible gift to the world. With Google Books we have the potential to preserve centuries of human literacy work for generations to come as well as promoting the spread and availability of knowledge amongst all groups and all classes of people.

There are number of ways to learn to play piano. You can hire a personal teacher, or go to music schools, or buy piano study books and DVDs and Videos. Whatever your preference is, there is plenty of opportunities for you to learn the piano. Here I would like to discuss and review online piano books that I came across while learning to play.

1. Rocket Piano review

As with any other new skill the best way to learn is from a live instructor. That’s why I prefer online books that are accompanied with video and audio materials. This is like taking lessons with top instructor. Online piano book Rocket Piano was developed by a top piano expert Ruth Searle. She is classically trained to Grade 8 in Solo Piano and has more than 15 years experience playing. So what will you get with this course? The following is in this course

1) 218 lessons in 3 printable E-books
2) 57 video lessons
3) 133 audio lessons
4) Rocket Jazz Piano Book
5) Rocket Piano Gospel, Spiritual and Hymns Book
6) New Rocket Piano Quizzes
7) The Chordinator teaches you to read chords in interactive game format.
Jayde Musica Pro is another software game that is cleverly designed to develop your ability to quickly identify the pitch of a note with its musical symbol and its letter name.

2. Piano by Pattern review

This course was developed by Scott Jordan. He also has 15 years of experience. However in his own words “it wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I actually was good enough to turn some heads! (The other 10 years were wasted on piano lessons, trial and error, and just plain frustration).” The most interesting thing about this online piano course is that it teaches you to learn playing by ear. In my opinion this is a very important skill for any musician. Here is what included with this online piano book.

1) Video download course that show you how to pick and play any song.
2) The course that teaches you to “play by ear”
3) The “advanced” patterns that that makes your learning experience much more rewarding.
4) Video “Secrets to Explosive Songwriting” that teaches how to write songs using the patterns taught in this course.
5) The book titled “Read Music Now” teaches you the simple way to read the sheet music.

The internet is an ideal source to get all the information you need, anytime you need it. By connecting your PC to the internet, you can find out the latest news, celebrity gossips, job vacancies, and more. Today, you can even download your favorite books in digital format from the internet. There are numerous websites that offer you thousands of titles available for download, and one of them is Google Books. It is a virtual library that provides millions of publications from many publishers and libraries around the world. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give permission for you to download the books. You can always read them on website but this means that you have to stay connected to the internet. It is not very convenient if you are always on the go and do not always have internet connection. But now there is a way to download your favorite novels from the website to your PC. You just have to follow one of the three techniques below:

1. Use Google’s PDF download feature. This tool enables you to download the out-of-copyright books. To get your favorite title, simply click the “Full view books” button. If the one you are interested in is a public domain book, you will find a “download” button and you just have to click on it to download the file in PDF format. However, it is worth noting that not all publications can be downloaded as PDF files.

2. Download books from the browse cache. The books on this online library are presented as PNG images on HTML page. It means that you can save each page as an image file to your PC. However, it is not very practical as you have to scroll down the pages and save each page manually. To make the process a bit easier, you have to use your default browser, and follow the steps below:

- Open the folder “C:Documents and Settings%USER%Local SettingsTemporary Internet Files” on your PC and delete all contents.
- Open your default browser and view the book that you have chosen and scroll it down to the very last page.
- Next, go back to the “Temporary Internet Files” folder and copy the PNG files.
- Create a PDF file from the multiple PNG images or print them out for a more convenient reading experience.

3. Last but not least, you can use the Google Books downloader software. This software enables you to download books in either PDF or JPEG format.

Before downloading a book, make sure that you verify if the download is legal or not. You have to know the rules about public domain materials applied in your country. This is why Google doesn’t recommend you to redistribute, sell, or help people to sell or buy books.