While I can appreciate the need to have the latest updates to the Project Gutenberg collection locally, I fear that us spending time either writing an application to do this or integrating an existing application to do this (yum, the utility Google Pack uses, etc) would be a waste of time. Now, before the hoardes attack about my "waste of time" comment, let me explain. It's not a trivial undertaking to maintain a cross-platform application designed to maintain an up-to-date Project Gutenberg catalog/library on one's computer. I'm not saying it's insanely difficult either. It could probably be done with rsync and some other tools rolled together, with someone spending a couple of weeks on it so it's a polished product. I'm saying that our time is better spent elsewhere at the moment. We're already stretched thin just trying to mail out CDs and DVDs to people, and other volunteers are tied up getting books into the PG library. I'm just concerned that we're spreading ourselves too thin (looking above, I see my rant has gone on much longer then I've intended). Let's concentrate our efforts on the activities that give us the greatest possible return on our effort. If we look into an update/management application, and there's enough desire for it as well as enough people to work on it, then we should definately organize an effort to put it into place. I just want us to get the most bang for our buck. -brandon On 1/18/06, Aaron Cannon <cannona@fireantproductions.com> wrote:

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Do you know if he saw the link to the FAQ? http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/pgiso/faq.html . It's a decent set of instructions; or perhaps it's not. I wrote most of them so it's hard to say for sure. :) Was there something specific he didn't understand?

Sincerely Aaron Cannon

At 08:43 AM 1/18/2006, you wrote:

...

Here is the text of an e-mail conversation I had with a retired gentleman who is very interested in e-books.

-----Original Message----- From: Joseph Gill [mailto:gilljoseph1949@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:25 PM To: John Hagerson Subject: RE: Please confirm mailing address

Thank You John,

I tried to do as you suggested below but NO easy step by step instructions. It is sad that after so many volunteers and yourself work so hard for years that there is not a simple download program and simple update files download program.

If you offered your text in an illustrated word file they could have FULL title and author listing and would be searchable as texts. I keep 70,000 e-texts books and papers on my computer and can search the ENTIRE

collection >for words or dates ect. I have my estates allocated to go to your >organization and would like to see newer more user friendly technology at >Gutenberg; it is available for individuals as well as institutions now. > >I was a prof at Harvard Uni and a director at Sotheby's NYC and am now >retired. If you care please see www.worldglobetrotters.com . > >The more you give the more people want. Thank you for all your wonderful >giving work. > >Cordially Dr. Joseph Gill >=========================================================== > >John Hagerson &lt;j.hagerson@comcast.net> wrote: >Dr. Gill, > >We have an option that is available to you if you have a high speed >connection to the Internet. > >If you connect to http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/pgiso, you can query the >Project Gutenberg library of electronic books based on criteria that you >specify and create a CD or DVD image of electronic books. Once you specify >the criteria, the system will compile the selected books into an ISO image >and provide you with instructions for downloading the image to your PC. >Then, you can copy the image to a blank CD or DVD and distribute copies to >your friends. (If you just want to use the CD or DVD image yourself, you can >search Google for a free program called IsoBuster which allows you to >extract the contents of an ISO file collection to your hard disk.) > >Because we have yet to widely publicize this service, I am not sure how >ready it is for a large number of people to try to use it simultaneously. In >the meantime, however, if you are inclined, please test it out and send any >feedback to the e-mail alias that is listed on the page. > >If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them or I can ask >others who are more knowledgeable than I. > >Thank you for your continued interest in Project Gutenberg. > >John Hagerson >Project Gutenberg Volunteer > >-----Original Message----- >From: Joseph Gill [mailto:gilljoseph1949@yahoo.com] >Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 12:40 AM >To: John Hagerson >Subject: Re: Please confirm mailing address > >Hello John, > >I have your 3 year old DVD but would like to download your text and image >files to update your collection on my computer. A GOOD IDEA > >Dr Joseph Gill > >John Hagerson &lt;j.hagerson@comcast.net> wrote: >Dr. Gill, > >Thank you for your interest in Project Gutenberg and a request for our DVD. > >Could you please provide your mailing address? For now, all I have is your >name and Kona HI 96704. > >Thank you very much. > >John Hagerson (a Project Gutenberg volunteer) > > >Yahoo! Photos >Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands >ASAP. > > >Yahoo! Photos ­ Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover >Photo Books. You design it and we'll bind it! > > >_______________________________________________ >dvdvol mailing list >dvdvol@lists.pglaf.org >http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/dvdvol

- -- E-mail: cannona@fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona@hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.)

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-- Brandon Galbraith Email: brandon.galbraith@gmail.com AIM: brandong00 Voice: 630.400.6992

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 08:08 PM 1/18/2006, you wrote:

Aaron,

I find my interactions with Dr. Gill to be a bit surreal. I think he is disappointed because I could not send him the "completer set" of everything added to the PG collection subsequent to the production of the first CD and DVD. That may be his only real complaint.

:) I see.

Are we planning to refresh the CD and DVD soon? I believe Dr. Widger (among others) has been working to update the underlying e-books and to file them according to the new PG directory structure. Will we need to create a flatter structure for the CD or DVD? I'm concerned that many tiny directories will eat up a bunch of precious space.

Basically, the new compilation will get done once we either decide on what to include, or once someone just does it and says here it is. I'm not brave enough to decide what is the "best of Gutenberg" or most deserving of inclusion. We can always just keep it simple and simply let the Gutenberg readers decide, I.E. include all of the most frequently downloaded books and that's it and make no editorial judgements of our own, other than to cut out things that are just way to huge. I'm starting to think that that is the only real option. Otherwise, this thing is never going to get done. :) As for the ddisc layout, I'm not sure if small directories take up a lot of space or not. It would be something worth looking into though. I don't know how directory and file information is stored on CDs and DVDs.

On a related topic: Should we update the CD/DVD request page to summarize the contents of the discs? For example, we might state that they have nothing to do with computers. A pointer back to the main index page might help some, but someone who lands on the request page from a search engine probably just wants what he wants and isn't interested in learning that we do not provide what he wants.

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I believe it would be a good idea. If people get the message, it could cut back on the number of requests we receive. On the other hand, I sometimes wonder how many people actually read much of anything from our web pages. Maybe we should make them take a short quiz based on the information on the web page before we let them request a CD or DVD. :) Anyway, when I have some time, I'll try to update the web pages to give people a better idea of what the discs contain. Sincerely Aaron Cannon

John

-----Original Message----- From: dvdvol-bounces@lists.pglaf.org [mailto:dvdvol-bounces@lists.pglaf.org] On Behalf Of Aaron Cannon Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 2:51 PM To: CD and DVD Volunteers Subject: Re: [dvdvol] User feedback from new CD/DVD creation system

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Do you know if he saw the link to the FAQ? http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/pgiso/faq.html . It's a decent set of instructions; or perhaps it's not. I wrote most of them so it's hard to say for sure. :) Was there something specific he didn't understand?

Sincerely Aaron Cannon

At 08:43 AM 1/18/2006, you wrote:

...

Here is the text of an e-mail conversation I had with a retired gentleman who is very interested in e-books.

-----Original Message----- From: Joseph Gill [mailto:gilljoseph1949@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:25 PM To: John Hagerson Subject: RE: Please confirm mailing address

Thank You John,

I tried to do as you suggested below but NO easy step by step instructions. It is sad that after so many volunteers and yourself work so hard for years that there is not a simple download program and simple update files download program.

If you offered your text in an illustrated word file they could have FULL title and author listing and would be searchable as texts. I keep 70,000 e-texts books and papers on my computer and can search the ENTIRE

collection >for words or dates ect. I have my estates allocated to go to your >organization and would like to see newer more user friendly technology at >Gutenberg; it is available for individuals as well as institutions now. > >I was a prof at Harvard Uni and a director at Sotheby's NYC and am now >retired. If you care please see www.worldglobetrotters.com . > >The more you give the more people want. Thank you for all your wonderful >giving work. > >Cordially Dr. Joseph Gill >=========================================================== > >John Hagerson &lt;j.hagerson@comcast.net> wrote: >Dr. Gill, > >We have an option that is available to you if you have a high speed >connection to the Internet. > >If you connect to http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/pgiso, you can query the >Project Gutenberg library of electronic books based on criteria that you >specify and create a CD or DVD image of electronic books. Once you specify >the criteria, the system will compile the selected books into an ISO image >and provide you with instructions for downloading the image to your PC. >Then, you can copy the image to a blank CD or DVD and distribute copies to >your friends. (If you just want to use the CD or DVD image yourself, you can >search Google for a free program called IsoBuster which allows you to >extract the contents of an ISO file collection to your hard disk.) > >Because we have yet to widely publicize this service, I am not sure how >ready it is for a large number of people to try to use it simultaneously. In >the meantime, however, if you are inclined, please test it out and send any >feedback to the e-mail alias that is listed on the page. > >If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them or I can ask >others who are more knowledgeable than I. > >Thank you for your continued interest in Project Gutenberg. > >John Hagerson >Project Gutenberg Volunteer > >-----Original Message----- >From: Joseph Gill [mailto:gilljoseph1949@yahoo.com] >Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 12:40 AM >To: John Hagerson >Subject: Re: Please confirm mailing address > >Hello John, > >I have your 3 year old DVD but would like to download your text and image >files to update your collection on my computer. A GOOD IDEA > >Dr Joseph Gill > >John Hagerson &lt;j.hagerson@comcast.net> wrote: >Dr. Gill, > >Thank you for your interest in Project Gutenberg and a request for our DVD. > >Could you please provide your mailing address? For now, all I have is your >name and Kona HI 96704. > >Thank you very much. > >John Hagerson (a Project Gutenberg volunteer) > > >Yahoo! Photos >Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands >ASAP. > > >Yahoo! Photos - Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover >Photo Books. You design it and we'll bind it! > > >_______________________________________________ >dvdvol mailing list >dvdvol@lists.pglaf.org >http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/dvdvol

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_______________________________________________ dvdvol mailing list dvdvol@lists.pglaf.org http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/dvdvol

- -- E-mail: cannona@fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona@hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (MingW32) - GPGrelay v0.959 Comment: Key available from all major key servers. iD8DBQFD0DjEI7J99hVZuJcRAi9IAJsHJ4U1EfPrDmyX4mxZxL8ot1Nk1QCcDJ6o mk36vs7CRHd76tbaJnHDnOo= =avZO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----