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Rotating, at a high angular rate...
May. 2nd, 2006 03:10 pmYesterday's query blossomed today: Four PDF files filled with photocopies of mostly standards documents, the odd numbered pages of which are irregularly cut off along the right-hand border. I offer a target-word rate; the agency says it has a policy of paying per source word. I've since adjusted my rate, and the whole thing is in limbo.
The trick is figuring out the source word count properly. I was able to find a copy of one standard online and after running the PDF through OCR, my 5400 source word estimate turns out to be 1000 words short of the actual number.
Thus, my original estimate of 13,000 to 16,000 source words for the job - assuming my estimation error is just as large on the other three documents - is now 15,400 to 19,000 source words. Due in about a week.
Blyech.
Since discovering the OCRable PDF of one standard, I've been wracking my brains trying to remember where I found it (I suppose, if I really need to this info, I could just visit all the locations listed in my browser's history for the day.) This is because the online availability of Russian standards seems to have evaporated.
The only choices these days seem to be between U.S. sources offering the Russian original for some truly astounding price (one place I visited wanted $58.00 for a 20-page standard), and Russian sources offering standards at prices ranging from about $2 to about $8. Frankly, I'd be willing to risk a few bucks just to see what I get from such sources, because neither the U.S. nor Russian suppliers say anything about the visual quality of the product (I want to know: "Can I OCR it?"), but paying these folks in Russia is no easy job.
On other fronts, a page of French news came in over the transom, and has since been returned.
On yet other fronts, I just noted an April 25 item on the ILS news page, which notes that the commission investigating the failure, in late February, of the Breeze-M upper stage carrying the Arabsat 4A satellite did arrive at a conclusion (junk in the oxidizer booster pump inlet), and added that the commission will be developing corrective actions that will be reviewed by an ILS Failure Review Oversight Board in preparation for resumption of launches.
And finally, Misha has spent much of the day with me here at the house, and I need to start winding things up so as to be at the store in about 40 minutes or so.
Cheers...
The trick is figuring out the source word count properly. I was able to find a copy of one standard online and after running the PDF through OCR, my 5400 source word estimate turns out to be 1000 words short of the actual number.
Thus, my original estimate of 13,000 to 16,000 source words for the job - assuming my estimation error is just as large on the other three documents - is now 15,400 to 19,000 source words. Due in about a week.
Blyech.
Since discovering the OCRable PDF of one standard, I've been wracking my brains trying to remember where I found it (I suppose, if I really need to this info, I could just visit all the locations listed in my browser's history for the day.) This is because the online availability of Russian standards seems to have evaporated.
The only choices these days seem to be between U.S. sources offering the Russian original for some truly astounding price (one place I visited wanted $58.00 for a 20-page standard), and Russian sources offering standards at prices ranging from about $2 to about $8. Frankly, I'd be willing to risk a few bucks just to see what I get from such sources, because neither the U.S. nor Russian suppliers say anything about the visual quality of the product (I want to know: "Can I OCR it?"), but paying these folks in Russia is no easy job.
On other fronts, a page of French news came in over the transom, and has since been returned.
On yet other fronts, I just noted an April 25 item on the ILS news page, which notes that the commission investigating the failure, in late February, of the Breeze-M upper stage carrying the Arabsat 4A satellite did arrive at a conclusion (junk in the oxidizer booster pump inlet), and added that the commission will be developing corrective actions that will be reviewed by an ILS Failure Review Oversight Board in preparation for resumption of launches.
And finally, Misha has spent much of the day with me here at the house, and I need to start winding things up so as to be at the store in about 40 minutes or so.
Cheers...
