how about a Schwinn documentation sub forum

[rickpaulos]

The link to the catalogs is okay but locked out. There is a lot more Schiwnn info to share.

[JeffC]

Yeah, I'm looking for a way to make that kind of page using HTML so people can add what they have and make it searchable. I need to learn more about that because I have 450 pages of Schwinn Service bulletins and posting 4 or five images at a time is getting somewhat tedious and it's not searchable. Any suggestions about how to go about that are definitely welcome.

[rickpaulos]

Flickr seems to be the best for hosting. current rate is $72.95/year & tax for Unlimited storage and no restrictions on linking.  I have some 50,000 photos there now.

Every other site has gone away or implemented restrictions.  Photobucket broke the internet by blocking linking. Picassa gone. Shutterfly is kicking me out because I don't spend enough there. The days of free photohosting is long gone. Just a few of the remaining offer free trial size.  Memory is getting cheaper all the time but all commercial internet sites have to make money somehow.  Too many were dependent on selling hard copies.

Years ago I was using a different hosting site that allowed me to create links for many images in 1 request. That was cool but I've never seen that again. They are all 1 image at a time now. Perhaps that was a patented idea that has no buyers.

The current SBF size restriction makes resizing all images to even worse resolutions rather useless for reading fine print.  So many catalog & document scans were done long ago at low resolutions.

To make the documents text searchable means rescanning with more capable software.  Adobe pro can convert existing images to text but the original images need to be pretty clear to start with.  Adobe redid all their software a couple years ago so now its "Adobe Cloud" to cover all their products.  A web based or workstation based manager for installing and updating each app.  I just had it updated on my work computer and it's not good.  I needed to convert 11,000 pdf credit reports to text and it couldn't even begin to handle the job. Adobe has script editor that allows you to pre-program all the commands. 500 files would crash it after 1 hour.  I did find an app from the web PDF2TXT that did all 11,000 files in 20 minutes and it did a better job of it.

Two useful major sites, Wishbook and Newspapers.com have text searchable content. I can't imagine the manpower it took to scan millions of pages.  Google was trying to scan every book ever published.

I've used a flat bed scanner without a feeder.  Kinda slow.
I've used an Epson document/photo scanner that scans fast but bogs down during the post scan processing.
Just a digital camera aimed well. Expect distortion.
And I'm working on scanning 100,000 35mm slides. I'm on my 4th dedicated slide scanner 10 years on.


This newer technology looks promising:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wqk05PTUIs

Many years ago the U library had bound book photo copiers.  The glass top turned down at about 45 degrees downward so it could copy facing pages at once without distortion or dark spots at the spine. I'm sure those got run out by publishers despite the fair use laws for education purposes.

[JeffC]

I've already tried to upload converted to HTML images to Post Images and they don't display. Post Images automatically resizes images if you want. I think what is going to have to happen is a separate URL and webpage created and space on the server like the SLDB is going to have to be created and documents added in HTML format to display as a web page.

 I have room on the server for that but I'm going to have to learn how to do it and find an easy way to add documents as they become available. That's what saved the SLDB catalogs, they are a sperate entity on the server but still under the SchwinnBikeForm domain. The virus was only able to destroy the Simple Machines software and not able to reach the catalogs. Miracles of miracles. If I were better at this it wouldn't take so long.     

[rickpaulos]

How about an Exerciser room in the Schwinn category.

Exercisers, AirDynes, etc.

It's that time of year, clear the pile of clothes off you yours and start working the turkey gravey off the gut.