- dvdvol - lists.pglaf.org

CD for teaching English
by Marcello Perathoner 13 Mar '05

13 Mar '05

Seeing that many third-world schools are using our resources how about a CD with books to teach English (French, German, ...) This should be a collection of classic works aimed at students. We should also include some human-read audio books and the relative texts. Something that goes like this: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Pride and Prejudice The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (+ audio) Shakespeare Huckleberry Finn Moby Dick ... -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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no more e-mail requests
by Aaron Cannon 13 Mar '05

13 Mar '05

Well, school has started and I am insanely busy, so sorry if I haven't gotten back to you if you've e-mailed me. If anyone is interested in helping out with some of the administration end of things, please let me know. I am considering no longer accepting requests by e-mail unless they state that they are having a problem with the form in their message. If they don't mention a problem, I would send them a message referring them to the web form. Does anyone have any objections to this? The reason behind this is that if they don't enter their info into the form, then I have to do it, and it takes time, which could be spent on other aspects of the system. 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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requested changes in place... almost
by Aaron Cannon 04 Mar '05

04 Mar '05

I have finished coding the requested changes (the select all button and the sorting of the checked out queue), however if you visit the current system you won't see them. You will see them when we switch over to the new file server in the next few days. Before this week I never would have guessed it was possible to hold a baby, feed that baby, and program all at the same time. :) 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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Fwd: feedback to your best of dvd '03 (yes, readme!)
by Aaron Cannon 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

>Delivered-To: cd(a)pglaf.org >To: cd(a)pglaf.org >From: Valentin Spirik <valentin_spirik(a)yahoo.de> >Subject: feedback to your best of dvd '03 (yes, readme!) >Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 04:25:10 +0100 >X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619.2) > >hello there, > >i really like the gutenberg archive - that is why i am giving you some >feedback to your best of dvd '03. > >i recently downloaded it via p2p (your bittorrent link), and that part >went fine. but there are two major problems i see/experience with the dvd, >i think your dvd/content needs some work for the next release: > >i) look and feel (under mac os x) is very messy >ii) some .zip files don't expand > > >i) the look and feel thing... > >under os x (10.3.8) all you see, once you open the disc image (or burn it >to dvd), is a rather messy something of folders and files (like: ACCESS - >AUTORUN_INF.BAK - AUTORUN.INF -DONATE_HOWTO.TXT - ETEXT00 - ...). some >readme files even appear to be unix-programes (at least they have these >"exec." icons) - so at first one wouldn't want to double click those >readme files... and then it takes quite a while to find the two most >important files: the ones that list all titles and authors. my suggestion: > >whether on os x or any other operating system, the only thing a user >should see at first when he or she opens the disc image/dvd are those two >files (they should be called something like "all titles" and "all >authors"). the rest could be hidden im some folder called "archive" or >something. > >this is important: if you really want people to use the dvd it has to have >a nice look and feel to it. i was planing to copy the dvd for some of my >friends, but i just can't give this dvd to anyone, it just takes to much >time to find the information you are looking for... > >ii) the problem with some .zip files... > >this is very sad: i can't expand some .zip files, the cause is a mystery >to me. for example: robert louis stevenson's "dr. jekyll and mr. hide >(#1)" (HYDE10.ZIP) just can't be expanded (unstuffed), while the next file >"dr. jekyll and mr. hide (#2)" (HYDEA10.ZIP) can be! (i get the stop sign >and an "error 1 - operation not permitted" message while trying to expand >HYDE10.ZIP - that is after copying the zipped version to my hard-drive, in >case you were wondering what i was trying to do... the permissions for the >file in questions are the same as the ones for the file that works... very >strange... and unfortunately there are some other titles with the same >problem... > >i really want to help you to improve a great project - the dvd, at least >under mac ox x, has the feel of some early beta or alpha version of some >potentially great program - that's a real shame considering all the work >that went into digitizing those texts! > >i hope this helps to improve the project. > >greetings from berlin, > >valentin spirik > -- 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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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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a new feature?
by Aaron Cannon 01 Mar '05

01 Mar '05

While we're on the subject of adding new features, I just checked in 62 requests as complete, and I couldn't help wondering if it wouldn't be a bad idea to add a "select all" button. If anyone else thinks it might be a time saver let me know and I'll get coding. 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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FW: Bordany, Hungary
by John Hagerson 01 Mar '05

01 Mar '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 27 Feb '05

27 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 27 Feb '05

27 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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