So this guy wanted me to scan a 2500 page dictionary for him.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

Page by page. Into .TIF files. Then put them onto a CD. That he could open up and edit as he wanted to.

A Websters Universal Unabridged Dictionary.

Seriously.

I was coming out of a restaurant and he saw the signs on my car and he started asking questions about file sizes and so on, and then he reached into a backpack and whipped out a hardback dictionary and wanted to hire me to scan the whole book for him.

Needless to say after I picked my jaw up off the ground I declined the commission, trying to explain how massive and expensive a project that would be and it simply wasn't as easy as scanning a page every ten seconds or so and that would be it.

I couldn't get him to understand so I ended up just declining, telling him the same dictionary was probably already available as a CD. He didn't want that- he wanted HIS book scanned and converted.

This is another example of what I like to call "Unclear On The Concept".

I shoulda taken his money. :evilgrin:

[DarkTirade]

1. I'd have charged him a dollar per page.

Stupidity tax. :P

[Yavin4]

2. I Deal With Scanning Paper To Tif Files All of the Time

What he wanted is called "glass work", which means that the pages would have to be manually placed on the glass scanner instead of being fed. Glass work is far more expensive that feeding it.

You could have easily charged him $2 a page.

[csziggy]

3. Copyright would have been a problem

Besides, I Googled "Websters Universal Unabridged Dictionary" - third hit: CD Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Version 3.0 and 2.2 for $9.00. And I'll bet it's hypertext, which a straight scanned images of the pages would not be.

[Fleshdancer]

4. did he explain why?

Scanning a dictionary is weird enough, but he wanted to edit it? :wtf:

[electron_blue]

5. Sounds like you ran into my ex.