Forum - View topicANNCast - Old Toys Club
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medama_oyaji
 Posts: 99 |
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Is this software that extracts printed Japanese text and translates it widely available? I have some books I'd love to try this on!
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Hyperdrve
 Posts: 276 |
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If you're looking for a free solution, I've personally used tesseract-ocr in conjunction with google translate. The results I've had with this setup are reasonable. Although I recommend having at least some scripting knowledge and at least some conceptual machine learning knowledge, or else it's just too tedious. If you might be interested, you can PM me and I'll see how I can help. |
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Wooga
 Posts: 916 Location: Tucson |
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Tim, is there any way I any get a print copy of Grease Monkey volume 2? That is one I'd like to add to my collection....
I recently downsized my manga and anime collection by about 70% because I was tired of packing them up every time I had to move. Packing up books is the worst, especially if you like long running shonen. Right now I mostly watch anime streaming, and spend my money collecting anime figures, mostly 1 or 2 figmas or Nendoroids I really like. It gives me something physical from the show, that is also fun to play with and pose and use as a drawing reference. Of course my collection isnt as big as these guys, it is onlay about 50 pieces. |
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Hellfish
Posts: 391 Location: Mexico |
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I thought I was gonna cringe and scream... but this podcast surprised me in a good way.
I think people like were a afraid of hearing people taking about getting of their collections like addicts trying to get clean, which sometimes happens as some people take to a hobby like an alcoholic to the bottle. And while it happens something its made like the only narrative out there. I am glad that what we got were people that for them the hobby was a good thing in their lives, and how to reconsider what is better to keep and what plans to with the stuff remaining in case of anything . Especially if the people close to us are not very attached to our stuff, letting them know better options than just giving all away to be dumped is a good thing. |
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CandisWhite
Posts: 282 |
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This is where differences in definition come into play: Some people seem to define 'collecting' as acquiring as much things as possible, regardless of space or income; I define collecting as purchasing the things which I would like to have, within reason. I have no desire to pare down my collections because I have only bought the things which I genuinely want for life; I have no need to pare down my collections as they have not overwhelmed my life because I don't treat them as something separate from my life. I have never been in a position where stuff eats up essential space, or vital money is spent on it, or I miss out on living because of it. The men in the video sound as though they ended up with massive, unmanageable collections that they could no longer handle, and no longer had a desire to own; Bohemian definitely did; I've never had this issue (The size of the pieces must really come into play because I would tally my collections, both on and off display, including books and movies, as well over 1000 pieces; I have 50 dolls on my bedroom desk alone): I love my stuff; Taking care of my collections falls right under regular housework and is no burden. I understand people having financial issues and in no way blame them for needing to treat collectibles as assets; It's heartbreaking but it is reality for some people. I am, however, still mystified at people who treat the things that they buy like temporary squatters who will one day need to make room for the new batch, or who buy like maniacs ending up with a bunch of junk that they either don't like or can't physically/emotionally live with anymore, and then treat selling pieces off as a natural part of the process. I think that there is a healthy way to collect (Don't put your stuff in the shower: That's how you end up on an episode of 'Hoarding'; Display or store your stuff like any other decoration), and if someone wants to correct past mistakes or wants to treat collectibles like library books, more power to them. I just feel, as someone who has treated it as no different than buying any other thing in my life, hearing people talking about selling things from their collections is the equivalent of hearing someone say that they're selling the leather sectional in their living room because it takes up space or because they want spending money on their vacation. |
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timeldred
Posts: 32 |
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It's not a simple process, but if you're truly motivated you'll find a way. You need a scanner to pull in text at high-res, some Photoshop skills to extract and enhance a clean image (deleting color, for example) and a program with OCR capability such as Adobe Acrobat Pro. That's how you turn printed text into digital. Then you have to proofread it character by character and correct the misfires - which are always present at some level. Once you've done that you can use free online translators to convert it to English. I use four of them and synthesize the results. If starting with print sounds too difficult, you can start with digital text instead, articles found online and such, but that's quite limiting. As I said, it takes motivation. But if you want to see the results of that in action, look no farther than ourstarblazers.com! |
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timeldred
Posts: 32 |
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Wow, thanks for your interest, but a print copy of that does not exist. There's not enough money to be made in print any more, so publishers don't take chances on stuff that isn't already pre-sold. This is one reason I'm so lucky to work in TV. That pays my bills and so I can make whatever comics I want for free. I've always dreamed of ending up in exactly that position. |
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timeldred
Posts: 32 |
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By "video" I'll assume you mean "podcast." And what you say is true of Ed and Mark (by their own admission) but I haven't gotten that far yet. I've felt for a long time that fandom needs some channel other than resale as a conduit for the things we'll eventually leave behind - a dedicated library or museum, for example - and things like that get started with a meeting of the minds. Ed and Mark have successfully divested, but all their stuff is now in the hands of others who will eventually pass on. It would be great if there was a reliable place for those things to go rather than into an uncertain fate. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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I do feel I have too much stuff (space-wise) but I do only buy things I really love (for the most part I don't regret any of my purchases in fact sometimes I regret things I didn't purchase).
I am considering switching to digital manga for some series which I have done with books almost exclusively but alas I don't have the right Kindle for it yet. Maybe we can all get together and start the ultimate anime/manga library and museum. 
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10009 Location: Virginia |
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Maidenoftheredhand wrote:
Good idea, however, this sort of thing is best set up in connection with a University library. They already have the physical plant and are used to doing the cataloging and curating. Stand alone museums require a physical location and money for staff. |
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medama_oyaji
Posts: 99 |
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Thank you Tim! (and Hyperdrve, I will also check out your suggestion, and let you know if I have any questions) I have some Japanese knowledge, but I'm certainly not fluent and my kanji is terrible. So things like interviews or articles without furigana are very difficult to practically impossible for me to read. I've got a scanner and decent photoshop skills, so I think I'm good to go there. I guess it's just a matter of learning OCR with Acrobat and trying to make sense of what online translators like Google provide. This was a very interesting episode. I'm not a massive toy collector, I often end up with a couple new items by the end of the year that I'll pick up at a convention or something, but I do have a very large book collection, so I found a lot of what was said in this episode still applicable to me. The biggest revelation for me though, haha, is this idea of scanning in text and translating it. I'll definitely give it a shot! 
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timeldred
Posts: 32 |
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Well, then, it seems like you've got the right startup skills. My formula is this:
Scan from original at 800dpi in RGB. Open it in Photoshop, use levels and filters to eliminate color while enhancing text. (Scanning in color gives Photoshop more to work with, so it's better than scanning in greyscale.) Save the cleaned-up Photoshop file as a PDF. Adobe Acrobat Professional is the next step, and the easiest. It has built in OCR settings for foreign text, including Japanese. Once the text is converted, you select it and copy/paste into a word processor. (I use MS Word.) That's when it gets tedious - if there are irregularities in the text scan (and there usually are) Acrobat won't give you 100% accuracy. So you need to proofread the result line by line and replace the misfires. This means having a full kanji and kana archive at your fingertips. If you think you want to try all that, feel free to contact me for more info. I'm on Facebook. |
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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While I had fun collecting figures, I'm at a point in my life where I don't have the time to take care of and enjoy them as much as I used to. I'd like to donate them to charity. Normally I donate my things to the SPCA thrift store, but I was wondering if anyone knew of a charity out there that would know how to sell figures to make the most money for their cause. I was going to try and sell them on ebay and donate the money I made that way, but it sounds like ebay is not a good place for sellers and I don't have the time for dealing with the drama of fickle buyers.
Any suggestions? Thank you! |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10009 Location: Virginia |
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CandisWhite wrote:
For some people this is correct. However for a lot of collectors the primary thrill is in the finding. As someone who has made several different collections and then given them away, I can assure you that the hunt is the important thing. Don't get me wrong, having the items is important, that is how you keep score. The real fun is researching what you collect to find out what is out there, and making check lists, finding new locations to search and finding and acquiring that rare item you didn't have. At some point you sadly realize that your collection has become mature. That is that you have everything you were looking for, or you realize that the last few items are out of your reach due to price or worse yet, that the last few items are of such little value to the public that no one is offering them for sale. Usually before you get to that point you widen your search to include other lines of collectibles.
To some extent the internet has ruined much of this aspect of collecting. It has forced the closure of a lot of brick and mortar stores and made it almost too easy to find things. I used to collect books by specific authors. A few years back I checked online only to find the last few titles I needed easily available. Not nearly the thrill of scanning the stock in a used book store and finding that coveted book in a row of junk. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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This might be one of the best ANNCasts ever. Thanks to the participants for sharing.
Only downside: Zac's strategy of buying just the One True Merch Thing from something you really love might justify my buying a $200 figure off eBay, and I didn't think I was really That Guy, but maybe I am. |
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