October 2004 - dvdvol - lists.pglaf.org

Workflow system
by Marcello Perathoner 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

I could easily code a workflow system for the CD project: a public "order" form and some private forms that would display the pending orders in a table and allow the volunteers to grab some off of the top. Coordination would be easier because the system would keep track of who grabbed which orders and of the status of the orders. Furthermore we could split the orders into regions, so the European volunteers would see only orders for Europe etc. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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dvd and CD volunteer instructions
by Aaron Cannon 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

Thank you very much for your interest in helping us to distribute CD and DVDs. This is an important and enjoyable part of the work of Project Gutenberg. Without this valuable service many people would not have access to the EBooks of PG. Here's an overview of how the CD and DVD Project works. We receive a request for either a CD, DVD or both as per the instructions at http://www.gutenberg.org/cdproject/ . After we receive the request, we send a confirmation E-mail to let them know that their request has been received and to give them an idea of how long it will be before their discs are sent. Requests can either come from the web form or directly to cd(a)pglaf.org. If they come to cd(a)pglaf.org, they are generally entered into the web form by me so that the automated reply can be generated and so their request can be added to the database kept by the processing script. Each request is then handed out to volunteers, generally in the order they were received (although I have been known to give priority status to teachers, libraries and people who make donations, but such actions are neither advertised nor consistent). To some volunteers I send only requests from certain regions of the world, and others take requests from anywhere. It all depends on the location of the person and what they are interested in helping with. In the past I have sent out as few as ten or as many as 100 requests to a single volunteer, however, I have since reconsidered that position and am now going to encourage volunteers to take only what they feel they can mail in the next 72 hours. The reason is that handing out huge numbers of requests can cause disparity in the queue because some volunteers can understandably take quite some time to get through a large stack of requests. The CD we currently mail is the Project Gutenberg Best Of CD, Aug. 2003 Ed., and the DVD is the PG Dec. 2003 Ed.. Please only burn on dvd-r discs. The DVD+R format has proven to be less than reliable when it comes to compatibility with older drives. We always try to send two discs with each request. which two obviously depends on which they request. If they request a CD, we send two CDs. If they request a DVD, we send a CD and DVD. And if they request two DVDs, then, you guessed it, they get two DVDs. :) The discs are generally sent in simple paper sleeves in a 6" x 9" envelope with a folded insert printed on standard letter-sized paper. To receive a copy of the insert in .rtf or word format, please E-mail me off list. By always sending two discs, we not only give them an extra to give to a friend, but we also simplify things by keeping the weight of each envelope the same. This makes it a lot easier when dealing with postage. In the US, the packages all weigh in at just under 2 ounces. This allows us to send them for $0.60 to anywhere in the US, $0.85 to Canada, and from between $1.55-1.70 to the rest of the world. Postage rates when mailing from other countries will of course vary, but if you are paying substantially more than this for certain countries, you may want to leave those locations to volunteers in the US. When mailing the discs from the US to other countries, you may be told by the post office that you are required to fill out customs forms. This is not correct. Customs forms are only required when mailing packages at or over a pound in weight or when the contents is dutiable. Neither is the case for the discs we send. If they persist, ask the employee to check the International Mail Manual or request to speak with the Postmaster. In general, however, you shouldn't have much trouble. It's also very important to shop around when buying supplies. Prices can vary widely from vender to vender. As a guideline, CDs should cost no more than $0.25 each and DVD-rs should cost no more than $0.50. Anymore than this and it's not worth your money. Remember that you will always save more when you buy in bulk. If you are interested in being reimbursed for some or all of the expenses you incur, you must save and send us all receipts. You can either send them as image files attached to E-mail messages or as photocopies by snailmail. We will reimburse you via paypal, so you'll need an account there. When you ask us to send you a batch of requests, they will come in the following format: (mediatype) E-mail Name Address Address Country If the address is from the US, the country will be omitted. The only other part of this which may require a bit of explaining is the mediatype field. As mentioned previously, we always send two discs. (cd) = 2 CDs (dvd) = 1 DVD and 1 CD (2 dvd) = 2 DVDs. So, a standard request looks like the following: (dvd) cannona(a)fireantproductions.com Aaron Cannon 521 N Fake ST. APT 111 Davenport IA 52803-1234 After you burn package and mail the requests, the only thing left to do is to notify the requesters that their discs have been mailed. To receive the standard reply that we send, E-mail me off list. Also, please make sure that you CC all E-mails which you send to cd(a)pglaf.org so we can keep records. After that you can E-mail me to let me know that you've fulfilled your current batch and whether or not you would like more. All in all, it's not terribly complicated. However, if you do have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Otherwise, to get started, drop me a line at cannona(a)fireantproductions.com and I'll send you a batch. The information in these instructions will be changing soon due to the new automated system I am working on. Most of the sending of confirmations and handing out of batches will be reduced to a few mouse clicks. However, the basics of mailing and package preparation will not change. Stay tuned to this list for updates. Thanks again for your interest and I look forward to working with you. Sincerely Aaron Cannon -- E-mail: cannona(a)fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona(a)hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.)

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Foreign languages CD
by Marcello Perathoner 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

> It occurs to me that a cd with the foreign language books could be a good > thing, I see that hardly anyone in france is requesting, probably because > most French people don't read english, but a specialised cd for say France, > Germany and Spain might be a good thing to do... Language information in the database is pretty reliable, we should be able to generate a list of files very easily. All non-english books, zipped files: books | files | size -------+-------+----------- 1075 | 2137 | 416028225 so we can easily stuff all foreign books on a CD if we stick to zipped files. Many of those files can be thrown out because we always have 7bit and 8bit files for foreign books. I personally hold that 7bit files are useless for any language except English. Maybe throwing all those out we can build a CD with uncompressed files. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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All books on a DVD
by Marcello Perathoner 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

> As you can see, we're going to have to leave a lot off of any DVD we > create. The big question is what gets kept and what gets excluded. Even > if we only include zipped HTML and zipped text, we're still over > budget. Of course, there's always the possibility that we could create two > images, a volume 1 and a volume 2, or something similar. That's not quite true because we have many duplicated files. - some books have 7bit and 8bit files - some books have html and text files - some books have "complete" and "split" versions If we sorted that out, maybe we could do a "complete" DVD. Of course we'll have to leave any html with images or mp3s out. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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new web forms and new disc images
by Aaron Cannon 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

I fixed about a dozen bugs and made about the same number of improvements in the request processor and have added it to the cd project page. If anyone wants to take another look, you can visit http://www.gutenberg.org/cdproject/ . Then click on either the international or United States form. It's still ok to test, just make sure you say so in the comments field. Most of the improvements were in data validation. However, I also changed the program so that now, in addition to E-mailing the request to cd(a)pglaf.org, it writes the data to a flat file. This is a good thing, because it will allow us to eventually make things more distributed. What I envision is a system where volunteers can log on to a web page at Gutenberg.org and checkout requests, somewhat like the Distributed Proofing site. It shouldn't be too hard to implement. I've also been working on getting access to the PG database, so that we can start compiling a new CD and DVD image. If anyone has experience with parsing RDF/XML in Perl, I could use your help. To give you all an idea of the current size of the archive, here's a breakdown of file types and their total size in bytes. fk_filetypes | fk_compressions | files | bytes --------------+-----------------+-------+------------- ? | none | 1 | 6148 ? | zip | 56 | 1158610659 avi | zip | 1 | 9671667 css | none | 73 | 129309 doc | none | 5 | 16335360 doc | zip | 5 | 3530238 dvi | gz | 1 | 145672 eps | none | 5 | 667758 eps | zip | 1 | 50481 gif | none | 3038 | 61544329 gif | zip | 3 | 820419 html | none | 3826 | 1289404590 html | zip | 3578 | 3726062915 index | none | 339 | 882064 iso | none | 277 | 4852684800 iso | zip | 1 | 388439680 jpg | none | 26280 | 1947495197 jpg | zip | 3 | 1928065 license | none | 23 | 253207 lit | none | 57 | 5728949 lit | zip | 55 | 4477759 ly | none | 9 | 59063 ly | zip | 1 | 2423 md5 | none | 4 | 15020 mid | none | 46 | 3195924 mid | zip | 7 | 574353 mp3 | none | 12751 | 93537630338 mp3 | zip | 54 | 1717503076 mpg | none | 4 | 16441408 mpg | zip | 7 | 30644113 mus | none | 9 | 1853407 mus | zip | 8 | 4154954 nfo | none | 1 | 4222976 nfo | zip | 1 | 3063405 pageimages | zip | 1 | 12875805 pdf | none | 93 | 117202451 pdf | zip | 37 | 47006708 png | none | 10897 | 779262971 prc | none | 54 | 7266524 prc | zip | 55 | 8775500 ps | none | 5 | 17086684 ps | zip | 1 | 4210628 qt | none | 1 | 1399639 qt | zip | 1 | 7758161 readme | none | 573 | 9154766 readme | zip | 3 | 6718762 rtf | none | 41 | 47205486 rtf | zip | 53 | 28563481 sib | none | 38 | 1799503 sib | zip | 5 | 904124 svg | none | 2 | 24120 tex | none | 24 | 10556350 tex | zip | 29 | 6468205 tiff | none | 34 | 9129666 tr | zip | 1 | 2591514 txt | none | 17253 | 14194087555 txt | zip | 17200 | 4711928510 wav | none | 2 | 29144452 xml | none | 47 | 111411597 xml | zip | 42 | 25677549 xsl | none | 14 | 345476 | none | 115 | 25679187 | rar | 23 | 338860727 | zip | 49 | 583288192 (64 rows) As you can see, we're going to have to leave a lot off of any DVD we create. The big question is what gets kept and what gets excluded. Even if we only include zipped HTML and zipped text, we're still over budget. Of course, there's always the possibility that we could create two images, a volume 1 and a volume 2, or something similar. Thoughts? Sincerely Aaron Cannon -- E-mail: cannona(a)fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona(a)hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.)

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how to get started mailing
by Aaron Cannon 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

For those of you who are awaiting instructions on how to get started with actually mailing requests, I plan to upload the set of general instructions either to this mailing list or to the web server later today. Thanks for your patients and thanks for your help. The new web form is doing a good job in insuring that addresses are formatted correctly, but it also seems to be resulting in more requests. So, in short, it looks like there should be plenty of work for anyone who wants it. Sincerely Aaron Cannon -- E-mail: cannona(a)fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona(a)hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.)

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Willing volunteer awaiting instructions
by Michael Quinion 14 Oct '04

14 Oct '04

Some months ago I offered to help with burning CD-ROMs and DVDs. I've not heard anything more about this other than being put on this list - might there be a problem because I'm based in the UK? -- Michael Quinion businessmail(a)quinion.com +44 1454 411128

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CD and DVD statistics
by Aaron Cannon 14 Oct '04

14 Oct '04

Following are some statistics on the CD and DVD mailing project. These are believed to be accurate to within a dozen discs or so. Project Gutenberg has mailed out a total of 1382 DVDs and 1650 CDs. Assuming that the CD has 600 titles, and the DVD has 9400 titles, we have mailed out 14,000,000 books. Thanks all! Sincerely Aaron Cannon P.S. If you would like to calculate the total number of requests, simply add the number of CDs and DVDs mailed, and then divide by two. If anyone has any additional questions, please let me know. -- E-mail: cannona(a)fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona(a)hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.)

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RE: [dvdvol] Willing volunteer awaiting instructions
by Simpson, Mark (NESL-IT) 13 Oct '04

13 Oct '04

Michael, I'm based in the UK too, so I'm not sure what the arrangements are here - perhaps we can organise ourselves into a UK-based list? Mark. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Quinion [mailto:businessmail@quinion.com] Sent: 13 October 2004 10:38 To: CD and DVD Volunteers Subject: [dvdvol] Willing volunteer awaiting instructions Some months ago I offered to help with burning CD-ROMs and DVDs. I've not heard anything more about this other than being put on this list - might there be a problem because I'm based in the UK? -- Michael Quinion businessmail(a)quinion.com +44 1454 411128 _______________________________________________ dvdvol mailing list dvdvol(a)lists.pglaf.org http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/dvdvol This e-mail is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute investment or transactional advice. For the avoidance of doubt the contents of this e-mail are subject to contract and will not constitute a legally binding contract. The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. If the reader of this message is not the addressee, you are hereby notified that you have received this e-mail in error and you must not copy, disseminate, distribute, use or take any action as a result of the information contained in it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify postmaster(a)npower.com (UK 01384 275454) and delete it immediately from your system. Neither Npower nor any of the other companies in the RWE Innogy group from whom this e-mail originates accept any responsibility for losses or damage as a result of any viruses and it is your responsibility to check attachments (if any) for viruses. Npower Limited Registered office: Windmill Hill Business Park, Whitehill Way, Swindon SN5 6PB. Registered in England and Wales: number 3653277. This e-mail may be sent on behalf of a member of the RWE Innogy group of companies. **********************************************************************

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Re: [dvdvol] Status of the project
by Barbara Reed 13 Oct '04

13 Oct '04

I would like to see the dvd updated with the latest additions, we've done a lot since it came out It occurs to me that a cd with the foreign language books could be a good thing, I see that hardly anyone in france is requesting, probably because most French people don't read english, but a specialised cd for say France, Germany and Spain might be a good thing to do... At 04:43 13/10/2004, you wrote: >Hello all. Sorry I have been mysteriously absent for the past several >days. I have been hard at work on final exams and getting CDs and DVDs >mailed. Finals are over Thursday, so you'll undoubtedly hear more from me >at that time. > >Nevertheless, I did want to let you all know that the queue that only one >month ago was a mind boggling 400+ requests long has now been slashed to >just under 50 requests. This has only been possible because of the >tireless efforts of our current mailers Barbara, Brandon, Eric and >Scott. Thanks guys and gal. I really appreciate the help and it would >not have been possible without all of you. > >I hope to have the remaining fifty in the mailbox by the middle of next week. > > >I apologize for waxing corny, but it just strikes me with awe when I think >about what we are doing. Amazing, isn't it? >Anyway, let's kick these topics around a little, and see where we want to >take this thing. > >Sincerely >Aaron Cannon > > > > >-- >E-mail: cannona(a)fireantproductions.com >Skype: cannona >MSN Messenger: cannona(a)hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail >address.) > > >_______________________________________________ >dvdvol mailing list >dvdvol(a)lists.pglaf.org >http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/dvdvol > > > > >--- >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com) >Version: 6.0.775 / Virus Database: 522 - Release Date: 08/10/2004 With best wishes From the lady of the changeable locks, soggy shazadi, duchess of darkness and damp, Barbara Reed, Crevette, Tabitha, Tom and Tippex the catz, and Dalie the Donkey --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com) Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 12/10/2004

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