Please Logos Synchronize PBBs.

David Ames said:

Does rebuilt PBB always get the same file name?  

[and any idea how that random looking list of characters relates to the file? That is if you change the PBB name or the name of the docx file will it still be built in that same lbspbb file?]

The file name is linked to the entry in the Personal Books tool. Changing the PB name or filename will not change the characters in the lbspbb file. This means that the characters will sync between Logos installations, and be the same on each installation. However, deleting the entry from the Personal Books tool, and then re-creating the entry will change those characters.

The random list of characters is created randomly. It's called a globally unique identifier or GUID. There are 32 hexadecimal characters in the string, and there are 5.3×10³⁶ possible combinations of characters, which means that they chances of two randomly generated strings clashing is so unlikely that it you can consider each string to be unique.

Bruce Dunning said:

Mark Barnes said:

The random list of characters is created randomly. It's called a globally unique identifier or GUID. There are 32 hexadecimal characters in the string, and there are 5.3×10³⁶ possible combinations of characters, which means that they chances of two randomly generated strings clashing is so unlikely that it you can consider each string to be unique.

I'm impressed Mark. I didn't know the math behind this. Where did you get this information?

Bruce, if you know the range of characters used in the guid, then you can do the math yourself! (Or at least get a close approximation.) You already do this intuitively when it comes to regular decimal numbers. How many combinations of digits are there when you have two decimal places? 100, or 10². How many combinations of digits are there in 32 decimal places? 10³² 

The tricky part would be knowing how many characters can be used for each space. You'll either have to think like a computer, a developer or look at a bunch of guids (e.g.0cc58843319640049d1d446023f4fa69) to get a sense of the scale. In the case of the guid, it's 16 for each space: 0-9 and a-f. [Quick aside: This comes from the all the ways you can arrange 4-bits: 2⁴ = 16 combinations.] Count up the number of characters you see there, 32, and then you've got your number: 16³² (or 2¹²⁸) which also equals 3.4×10³⁸. Why is this different than Mark's 5.3×10³⁶? Because you don't actually get to use all of the characters when you generate a guid. 6 of the bits are reserved (only giving you 122), so you have to tweak the final number a bit. 2¹²² = 5.3×10³⁶. ("For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised" [Hebrews 10:36].)

If you want to know the probability of a collision given a certain number of guids in existence, well now that's a tough problem. See Birthday Paradox for a primer. Can be tough to wrap your head around.

Bruce Dunning said:

I'm impressed Mark. I didn't know the math behind this. Where did you get this information?

I am a mine of useless information [:)].

One more fun fact. If every human on Earth generated 600,000,000 GUIDs there would only be a 50% probability of a duplicate (taken from here).

David Ames said:

Are the GUIDs generated by Logos or Local to our system?

GUIDs are randomly generated by your software when you create the PBB. They are then synced to your other devices along with the Personal Book's metadata.

I just wanted to add a quick note, I had to call in to logos today and they answered on the very first ring even though I was calling from Kyrgyzstan. And the support was great.

 

alabama24 said:

Tes said:

I don't know why it has taken so long.

I am in full agreement in your desire to see personal books sync… I'll take a shot at answering "why so long." 

When you purchase a resource from Logos, they have it on their servers. The neat trick is that Logos can have ONE copy of the resource (with redundancies for backups of course) and THOUSANDS can have access to the one file (with the appropriate licenses). Personal books flips this around. A single book may require THOUSANDS of files stored on the Logos servers (one for each user… the files all being user created / owned and perhaps slightly different). As you can imagine, this isn't a cheap undertaking for Logos. This isn't simply a matter of making the software work… there are financial and legal considerations… And I haven't even mentioned the possibility of legal troubles for Logos if customers upload resources improperly (copyright issues  - without publisher permission). There are other potential solutions: Perhaps Logos could allow users to use their own personal DROPBOX account (or similar service). I think this might be a great option… but there are some drawbacks:

1. It would be more complicated for end users. (Do you know how to use dropbox?)
2. It would add significantly to support issues. (Most users would likely need help). This could be costly for Logos as well. 
3. If they choose Dropbox (or another provider), what happens if it goes out of business?
4. Would there be a cost to Logos to allow L5 Dropbox access? (I don't know)
5. What happens if Dropbox (or another provider) changes terms of service? There would certainly be MANY unhappy Logos users… who would be angry with Logos!

I hope I am wrong about these hurdles… I really would like to see my personal books on my iPad as well. But I am not holding my breath for its immediate release… I will, however, jump up and down for joy with y'all when the day comes. 

Discovered a hitch when using dropbox that I should have seen but didn't when I was setting things up.

IF the path is not exactly the same (and that means if you install dropbox to your user profile, and your usernames are not the same) things break.

So if you use dropbox as a stopgap, then make sure you install to c:\dropbox or something like that, on all the computers you plan to use drop box with. NOTE: as I understand it this will not allow the mobile apps to use the PB's.

alabama24 said:

abondservant said:

IF the path is not exactly the same (and that means if you install dropbox to your user profile, and your usernames are not the same) things break.

Correct.

abondservant said:

NOTE: as I understand it this will not allow the mobile apps to use the PB's.

I don't understand your point. The mobile apps aren't set up to utilize personal books, so dropbox doesn't play into the equation in any way. When Logos starts syncing, dropbox will be unnecessary (except for syncing of the .docx files).

I had just finished reading this:

Bohuslav Wojnar said:

Yes please. I am with you Tes on that. I would really like to have this feature. Most of my reading is done on iPad. It would really be great to have our PB books synced.

... and had not realized it was from February.

David Mitchell said:

I wouldn't say that you should hold your breath, but it may come sooner than you think.

(Initially, we will only roll out the ability to sync your personal books between copies of the desktop application; in the future, we intend to enable this for mobile devices, but this is a larger undertaking)

David - You just made my day.

alabama24 said:

abondservant said:

... and had not realized it was from February.

No bother... in fact, if you hadn't "bumped" the thread, we wouldn't have received the precious little tidbit of hope from David. Poor guy. 

Actually - to be precise, I replied to the thread after it was already bumped

So the credit for receiving the "good news" should go elsewhere.

David Mitchell said:

I wouldn't say that you should hold your breath, but it may come sooner than you think.

Based on what you've just said, I think it's going to come sometime within the 5.2a beta cycle. Am I to understand that it is going to come sooner than that? [:)] Or is your statement not to be applied iteratively?

In any event, I'm very happy to hear this news, and am looking forward to trying it out.

abondservant said:

Bringing up this old old thread, in hopes that we may hear something new

Well, sorry to disappoint, but it's not in 5.2a. So next possible opportunity will be 5.2b which is probably at least three months away. Maybe they'll wait until a more major number update (5.3?) because it's a pretty major new feature.

Anyone know if there has been any further updates?

It works between computers, but not between computer and mobile device, or mobile device to mobile device.

But I'd guess thats next.

Indeed. I was speaking more in a pragmatic sense. The books will show up on your other PC or Mac device, but not yet your mobile device.

Forgive my ignorance, but please could someone point to how to download to my laptop, if this is possible? (I uploaded to my iMac and can see them on my macbook, but when I try opening them, get license error?) 

Thank you for the responses!! 

For right now it only works on the unstable beta. Now that it is in the second beta stage, I've experienced a lot better functionality. However during the first beta, I had a lot of issues that caused me to be unable to use logos much of the time.

That said, make sure you read the warnings here.

And scan the forum here for the problems that others are having.

Then if you're still interested the first link has the installation directions.