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by dm2 4360 days ago
Here's their website: http://modnotebooks.com/

The secret is that you mail the notebooks back to them and they digitize the contents for you.

2 comments

I don't understand the attraction to this service. For me, scanning the notebooks would be good if there is some way of intelligently cataloging it, and make it searchable.

I avoid writing stuff in my notebook that I know I need to find in the future. I put into in an email and search it via Google search. Drawings and sketches are different categories. I would scan then and attached it to an email. The message of the email would provide context.

I think what Mod is providing is only half of the solution. At the moment, it is the same as "only to forget them forever when I leave it in a dusty box somewhere", only digitally. For me at least.

Definitely agree with this - but this service combined with handwriting recognition to make notebooks searchable (a la Evernote) would be perfect!
That is almost the final mile problem for this - doing OCR on handwritten notes.
What happens if the book is lost in transit? Isn't that worse than "forget them forever when I leave it in a dusty box somewhere"?
That would be good statistic for them to list: "1 out of every XX,XXX gets lost in transit". They might use a priority shipping method and pre-addressed box to help prevent that kind of incident.

I personally don't really have a use for the service. A document scanner allows me to use whatever paper I want and scan whatever I want.

It is an interesting idea though if there is a market for this type of service.

I was trying to think of a way to embed a scanner into the front cover of a notebook (with replaceable pages) but it just didn't seem practical, a flatbed or feed scanner works about as good as you're going to get.

Plus, these days you can just take a picture with your phone and be done with it. I do that for whiteboards for content I want to save before erasing them.

That's a good idea. A friend of mine created a little wooden stand and holder for his phone on his desk. Once he's done with a piece, he puts the phone in the holder, swings it around and takes a picture on a delay so he has time to hold the pages down. I believe he also has markings on the desk so he can position his papers/books correctly.

Of course, this might be way more trouble than most people are willing to go through.