EAN/ISBN
in [Cobol]
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From: tlmfru on 5 May 2008 13:09 The EAN is actually an upgrade of the current 12-digit UPC scheme. The ISBN13 is a way of using the current ISBN as a UPC. I thought you were joking when you spoke of "Bookland" but it's true! 979 will be used as a prefix "when the current numbers run out", whatever that means, and 977 is for periodicals presently under the ISSN. PL
From: HeyBub on 6 May 2008 12:11 tlmfru wrote: > The EAN is actually an upgrade of the current 12-digit UPC scheme. > The ISBN13 is a way of using the current ISBN as a UPC. I thought > you were joking when you spoke of "Bookland" but it's true! 979 will > be used as a prefix "when the current numbers run out", whatever that > means, and 977 is for periodicals presently under the ISSN. "Joking?" The book business is rapidly approaching 1950. We don't joke about things like that. There is only ONE major publisher in the United States that owns a printing press (Doubleday for its Anchor Bible series). There are over 3,000 trim sizes for hardbound books. Book jackets are applied by hand. Unsold mass-market books are destroyed in situ because it's cheaper to burn 'em than to print another. See if you can lay hands on "Cyberbooks" by Ben Bovi - a thinly disguised spoof of the book business. In the book you meet the Chinese mathematician who discovers that under rare, but nevertheless clearly defined, circumstances, the formula by which royalty payments are made can actually be understood and therefore must be changed! I got a kick out of the publisher that put robotic picking machines in their warehouse to gather book cartons off the shelves. Due to some misunderstanding, the robots could only reach to the fifth shelf but the warehouse had racks of seven shelves. The company then hired midgets to ride around atop the picking machines to access the higher shelves. Of course the midgets were constantly falling off the robots and getting run over... Or the accounting consultant who computd that by changing the glue used in perfect bindings the company could save five cents per hundredweight. Unfortunately, this new glue formulation decomposed in shipment causing not only the pages to become loose but the vapors from the decomposition formed an hallucinogenic gas that, when inhaled by the hippies in the bookstore's receiving department, caused them to strip naked and run about the store yelling "flying turtles are real - they just don't show up on radar!" > It's worse. The EAN believes in an optional, additional, digit (making 14 in all) to indicate packing quantity. Example: No leading digit = single can of armadillo-flavored chili 1 = case of 12 cans 2 = pallet of 50 cases 3 = truck load of 22 pallets 4 = shipping container of 3 truck loads Each of these will have a different check-digit. Fortunately, in the book business, this silliness is irrelevant. Publishers traditionally assign a different ISBN/EAN to each packing quantity, leading often to "You ordered 3 PALLETS of 'Collectable Locomotives' ?!! Have you been sniffing shipping cartons again?"
From: Anonymous on 7 May 2008 05:22 In article <roKdnRyyZfhul7zVnZ2dnUVZ_rKtnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, HeyBub <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: [snip] >I learned, during my tenure as a cop, that people are basically funny. If >you stress 'em a bit, the facade of civilization drops away. Ask any cop, >ambulance driver, emergency room worker, or fire fighter and they can tell >you stories. Many people have told me stories and I've lived through a few myself; what I've learned is that it works both ways. As human being-type peope get stressed a bit for some 'the facade of civilisation' drops, for others they get spurred to heights of selflessness, courage, nobility and valor. Don't believe it? It *must* be the case... or those whose professions involve a bit of stressing would constantly be facade-dropping... folks like firefighters... and ambulance drivers... and cops. DD
From: HeyBub on 7 May 2008 10:02 docdwarf(a)panix.com wrote: > In article <roKdnRyyZfhul7zVnZ2dnUVZ_rKtnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, > HeyBub <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: > > [snip] > >> I learned, during my tenure as a cop, that people are basically >> funny. If you stress 'em a bit, the facade of civilization drops >> away. Ask any cop, ambulance driver, emergency room worker, or fire >> fighter and they can tell you stories. > > Many people have told me stories and I've lived through a few myself; > what I've learned is that it works both ways. > > As human being-type peope get stressed a bit for some 'the facade of > civilisation' drops, for others they get spurred to heights of > selflessness, courage, nobility and valor. > > Don't believe it? It *must* be the case... or those whose professions > involve a bit of stressing would constantly be facade-dropping... > folks like firefighters... and ambulance drivers... and cops. > I agree. I was just watching the TV archives of the 9-11 attack this morning and that story proves your point. Tens of thousands screamed like little girls and bagged it for Pennsylvania while a few hundred ran toward the source of the mayhem. I recall being on a half-full flight that went through some turbulent weather. Significantly turbulent. People up front started screaming. I, in the back, yelled out "Yippee! Ride 'em cowboy! Waa-Hoo Eskimo!" and such. The screaming stopped. Later a stew leaned over and said "Thanks." This was a different stewardess than the one who once leaned over and said: "Excuse me sir, can you do me a big favor?" "I can't," I replied. "I'm married." With a smile and a tilt of the head, she said: "So am I. But we're both leaving town. Who's to know?" "Does it involve winged monkeys?" The three guys sitting in front of me lost it altogether. Ah, well. Back to work... boom-boom, ragha-ragha, boom-boom...
From: Anonymous on 7 May 2008 11:12
In article <ZeSdneSp_sjmK7zVnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, HeyBub <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: >docdwarf(a)panix.com wrote: >> In article <roKdnRyyZfhul7zVnZ2dnUVZ_rKtnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, >> HeyBub <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: >> >> [snip] >> >>> I learned, during my tenure as a cop, that people are basically >>> funny. If you stress 'em a bit, the facade of civilization drops >>> away. Ask any cop, ambulance driver, emergency room worker, or fire >>> fighter and they can tell you stories. >> >> Many people have told me stories and I've lived through a few myself; >> what I've learned is that it works both ways. >> >> As human being-type peope get stressed a bit for some 'the facade of >> civilisation' drops, for others they get spurred to heights of >> selflessness, courage, nobility and valor. [snip] >I agree. > >I was just watching the TV archives of the 9-11 attack this morning and that >story proves your point. Tens of thousands screamed like little girls and >bagged it for Pennsylvania while a few hundred ran toward the source of the >mayhem. From this it might be concluded that these characteristics of selflessness, courage, nobility and valor are *not* genetically related; those who run towards danger decrease their chances, once the danger has passed, of having children. DD |