February 2005 - dvdvol - lists.pglaf.org

queue control
by Aaron Cannon 01 Mar '05

01 Mar '05

Right now, we are receiving more requests than we're fulfilling. In fact, it's been like this for the past several weeks. I'm interested to know if any of you happen to have any ideas for ways in which we might decrease the number of requests, while still making sure we get the discs to those who need them most. IMHO, I think the best way to go about this is to increase the inconvenience factor for placing a request. Right now, people can just click on the form, drop in their info, and submit it. The ease of this process has undoubtedly caused a lot of impulse requesting by people who may or may not ever use the discs we send them. However, if we could somehow make it more work for the requester, but still something that isn't terribly arduous for the people who really want the discs, I believe we could solve the queue problem, at least in the short-term. Of course, the devil is in the details. Any ideas on how we could implement such a system? Any thoughts or arguments for or against? 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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FW: Bordany, Hungary
by John Hagerson 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

Here is a message I received in response to the notification that I had mailed a requested CD. I think you might enjoy its contents. John -----Original Message----- Dear Sir, I thank you wholeheartedly! The disc will be copied for the local school of Bordany (in Hungary) as many times as possible and would be given free of charge for the 8th grade students as a modest present--for their graduation--to enrich their English & literary education as they move on to secondary school. The community of Bordany consists a population which is roughly over 3000. Although many families here do own a PC, very few people have any access or exposure to printed English literature, which is a great pity. Your website has given me a wonderful solution and the initiative. Your project is truely a blessing. Sincerely, Yoram Laviv, Bordany.

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automated system going down
by Aaron Cannon 27 Feb '05

27 Feb '05

The system for requesting dvds will, at some point in the next week or so, go offline for a while. I don't anticipate that it will be off for more than a day, and probably much less time than that. The reason for the down time is that Project Gutenberg is moving their web pages to a separate file server. This will ultimately result in faster access for everyone and should take care of the major delays we've been seeing when checking in and out requests. So, if you login to the automated system some time in the next few days and it looks like all the requests are gone, don't be alarmed. It's just temporary. Feel free to keep checking requests in and out like you have been up until it is taken offline. Everything will be moved over so nothing should be lost. Thanks. 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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some stats
by Aaron Cannon 26 Feb '05

26 Feb '05

At the request of a volunteer, here are some updated stats on the CD and DVD giveaway. Before the automated work-flow system was put in place, we sent out about 14 million books on CD and DVD. I don't happen to have the exact numbers of each disc type, but I do have the raw data so if anyone really really wants to know, I'd be happy to forward it for your calculating pleasure. Since the work-flow system was put in place, 1676 requests have been checked in as complete. 1363 of them were for DVDs and about 313 of them were for CDs. This brings the grand total of books to about 28 million. That's quite impressive when you consider that the first 14 million were mailed out over a period of about 10 months, and the last 14 million were mailed out over the past 4 months. Thanks again to all those who have helped out with this massive endeavor! Without you it would not have been possible. 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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My ISP is on a blacklist
by John Hagerson 26 Feb '05

26 Feb '05

My ISP, comcast.net, is on a blacklist and I am consequently unable to send e-mail to some of the CD/DVD requesters when there are problems with their requests. Would anyone be willing to relay messages or do you have any other suggestions? Thank you.

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Foreign language CD
by Barbara Reed 25 Feb '05

25 Feb '05

Where are we on this? I see we have a lot of European rzquests, and I would love to be able to send this out to some of my neighbours... AND (excited happy dance) I now have broadband so could download the image -- With best wishes From the lady of the changeable locks, soggy shazadi, duchess of darkness and damp, Barbara Reed, and all the furry friends. Dalie asks you to sponsor her in aid of the Brooke Hospital, you can visit at http://www.thebrooke.org She is walking from Nantes to Brest in 2005 and wants your money to help working animals in poor countries.

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form robbers :)
by Aaron Cannon 22 Feb '05

22 Feb '05

I broke the form from the Russian site. Well, not entirely. It redirects them to the Gutenberg home page. If they really want to get one, they can go there, read the CD Project page, and refill-out the form. Thanks to everyone who is helping with the massive queue. 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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Did we get some Russian publicity?
by John Hagerson 21 Feb '05

21 Feb '05

We suddenly have a number of requests from Russia and its immediate neighbors.

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a CD request from India
by Aaron Cannon 11 Feb '05

11 Feb '05

One of our readers from India would like 7 CDs. I guess there's a big group of students who each want one. He gave the first two we sent away. If anyone is interested in fulfilling this one, let me know and I'll send you the address. His message follows: >my friends love the disk so much that they can sell themself to purchase >it.they would have love to donate to gutenberg but they are currently >students like me.i would like to have about 7 recent cds. -- 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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[Fwd: indexing question]
by Marcello Perathoner 11 Feb '05

11 Feb '05

I think he means the CD/DVD -------- Original Message -------- Subject: indexing question Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:55:12 -0500 From: Jordan Harp <jharp(a)depauw.edu> To: webmaster(a)gutenberg.org Is there a linked index in html or any other format containing authors and titles that can be used to make the zip file collection more usable? -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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