prepare to be gobsmacked

[beeswax]

I'm afraid this only works in IE as far as I know, but it's worth a good look. Incredible.

[webman]

Doesn't even work in IE for me. Then again I'm still on 6. What is it?

[kearton]

It's something to do with xbap
http://www.xbap.org/faq.html
And it requires .Net framework 3
I'm curious now... will take a look when I get home...

[beeswax]

Oh, must just be IE7 then. It's a collection of original books from the British Library, Da Vinci's codex Arundel, William Blake's Notebook, Lindisfarne Gospels, all beautifully reproduced, some with commentary, or in the case of Alice in Wonderland, the actual story is being read out as you turn the pages.
The quality of reproduction is stunning. You can turn the pages, get really close up to the pages to see the detail.

[DMcCoy]

Works in IE6 with .net 3.0 installed

[webman]

Yeah just installed .net3 and it works. Slow and gimmicky are my first thoughts on that specific app. PresentationHost.exe takes up 210MB RAM. 8O

The web is better than books - this just seems a backward step in my opinion

[beeswax]

I think it's actually a step forward, metaphorically speaking. You're being given the chance to go into a virtual British Library, which is a good few hundred miles from you Webman (and even where I live up north :wink: ) and get up real close to some of the most amazing books ever produced. Take the Lindisfarne Gospels, hand illuminated over many years by Bishop Eadfrith (Bishop of Lindisfarne 698-721 AD). Reproducing that detail on the web is going to use an enormous amount of resources, but that's rather like complaining about the frame of Botticelli's Primavera.

[webman]

Maybe it's just me, not being a book person an' all.... But even then, I'd still rather have a PDF

[beeswax]

Er..?

[webman]

I don't read books so maybe I don't really see the benefit of books presented in this format for reading online.

[Andie]

Wonderful stuff!! The librarian in me thinks this is a great use for technology! It works nicely at home on my Vista pc, but I have yet to test it at school. Very useful resource too. For example, one of our years does illumiated letters for their art lessons. The Lindisfarne gospels will be great.

[beeswax]

Maybe it's just me, not being a book person an' all.... :) But even then, I'd still rather have a PDF :)

In a lot of cases, it's not about reading the books, as they're in Italian or Latin or Da vinci's handwriting. just marvel at the craft, the artistry.
For a while when I lived in Sheffield I worked as a blacksmith, but now and again I'd go down to Kelham Island Museum and watch the "Little Mesters" fashioning a bowie knife (usually for American tourists) from a lump of red hot steel. the way they'd work and edge, fold the steel, temper it, aware of the sound ringing true. Read "Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend " where the writer goes to Japan in search of the sword used to help Mishima commit ritual sepuku. Look up the chapters where he visits a swordmaker, see how he folds the steel up to 30 times judging and tempering all the time...
I seem to have gone off on one here. apologies all round.

[mortstar]

I saw this in action at a recent Microsoft Sponsored SSAT Schools conference. The speaker actually put on the screen Da Vinci's Codex Arundel and it's truly amazing. To give people access to texts that they otherwise would never have a chance of encountering (unless they were doing some very specific historic research) is exactly what technology is all about.

On a similar note, at the same conference the speaker showed PhotoSynth in action and that is really a special piece of software. Taking standard 2D photos from flikr, google images etc. and creating 3D models of them...the things we're going to see coming through from "Web 2.0" is really going to change all the data on the net to tangible information.