The bookshelf on the iPad starts off looking rather empty, just a "Winnie the Pooh" unless other books were previously downloaded in iTunes.
Stocking the Shelves
Project Gutenberg has about 30,000 titles, most of them free as in price and free as in freedom to use as you see fit.
Download a favorite in ePub format, drop the file on the iTunes icon on the dock. If not there already, a "Books" category will appear in the iTunes library, the book is available on the iPad after the next sync.
Huck Finn from gutenberg.org
Convert PDF to ePub
If, like me, you have information in pdf format scattered all over the place, this is a prime opportunity to make them more useful, and stock the shelves of your iPad at the same time. Simply convert the pdf files to epub format using calibre.
Converting pdf to epub is not strictly necessary to use them, just a nice way to flesh out the iBook shelf. Goodreader* will read pdf files and a whole lot more just fine without the need to convert anything to epub.* http://www.goodiware.com/goodreader.html
Print to PDF is standard in OS X, so it is easy to stock iBookshelves with information while saving the trees.
Calibre by Kovid Goyal
Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. Download it here.. http://calibre-ebook.com/download_osx
Install it and start it.
1. Drag a pdf file from finder and drop it on the calibre icon in the dock. This inserts the file into the calibre library.
-------2. Click the "Convert eBooks" icon at the top, be certain epub is listed as an output format, then clickOK to do the deed.
-------3. Next, select Save to Disk from the toolbar at the top.
The pdf file is saved with the author name serving as the top level folder structure.
Beneath that folder structure is the book name and an .epub file for the book.
Drag the .epub file to a running iTunes instance in the dock. The book appears immediately, with a nice cover page, in the Books library in iTunes. If a Books LIbrary is not already displayed, it is created by the drag and drop of an .epub file.
Just that simple.
iBooks Library - Shelf View
iBooks Library - List View
After much trial and error, finally have a sweet Podcast Producer setup running on the Mini Server.
Distributing Podcasts
Locally in iTunes
Before shot..
During Podcast producer setup, several RSS feeds are presented for entry into the Mail app of the client machine. RSS may be grabbed by user, by workflow, by keyword, custom or history parameters as defaults. By user, or workflow, makes the most sense for local.
To distribute locally, copy the url listing for the feed, something like.. feed://mini3.brethower.net:8171/podcastproducer/atom_feeds/6061889F-0AD4-44A1-A901-EC4E2636CE23
Then in iTunes, main menu, choose "Advanced->Subscribe to podcast.." and enter the copied feed url into the box provided.
------The feed then appears, get the one desired with a double-click..
-----The podcast loads into iTunes on the local machine, double-click the podcast to start it.
youtube
When the files appear in the local feed, control click the attachment files and save the desired resolution to local disk. If you don't know what desired resolution means, just use 360p and you will figure it out as you go with minimum bandwidth usage.
Then login to youtube and upload. Youtube handles the .m4v files created by podcast producer without a wimper.