October 2005 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: [gutvol-d] New DRM free eBook reader.
by Gutenberg9443＠aol.com 05 Oct '05

05 Oct '05

In a message dated 10/4/2005 9:10:51 AM Mountain Daylight Time, brad(a)chenla.org writes: http://www.jinke.com.cn/english/v2/index.asp It handles PDF? That's a major step forward. I'd be very glad to have more information and, if possible, a unit to beta-test. As I have been in love with ebook readers for years and at present have two dedicated ebook readers plus an iPAQ that I hardly ever use, but I am a very bad techie, I'd be a good "sample reader" and would be able to edit the instruction material into something readable by most people. Anne Do you like to breathe? Then save the trees! Begin a personal relationship with an ebook TODAY!

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Thanks and apologies
by BunnyCAW＠aol.com 04 Oct '05

04 Oct '05

Folks, Thanks so much for a response to my queries. For some unknown reason the original message and any possible replies never made it to my email. I apologize for the tone of my previous message, however, I have been getting rather frustrated. This surely explains why it seems I never received any assistance since, on my end, it seemed I asked and never got any response. I hate to "stamp my feet", but was sitting here looking at a stack of books on my desk, trying to decide which one I want to work on, and wondering why (if everyone is so hot to have ebooks) no one will give any info on getting started on one. I apologize for the following reply not being directed at anyone in particular, but so many of the comments come from everyone, I'm just going to dive in. Your replies are much appreciated, especially if you have bothered to type them twice! Now for just a few replies of my own... >There is no PG membership. We just have a bunch of volunteers who >contribute what they want. Yes, I know it is not a "membership" per se. I merely mean "joining" you as in getting together and DOING this, not as in to become a member of an organization. >http://www.gutenberg.org/faq/ >It goes into much detail about many aspects of volunteering >for PG, among other things. It could be a little overwhelming >because of the amount of information it contains, but >such is the trade-off. Okay, I suppose my mistake was in not exhaustively reading the entire FAQ line for line. I read the answers to what questions I thought would direct me to info on getting approval for copyright, and about format. (Although I have to admit it had me a little confused.) I did spend some time on it, though, so please don't chastise me for being too impulsive or scatterbrained to know to go to the FAQ first. I'm not quite as dumb as I look! (Well, maybe almost...) >If you are looking at preparing a text yourself, any word processor >or text editor that can output standard plain text ought to be >suitable. I could tell you what I use, and others on this list >could do the same, but they would likely all be different. I guess my questions should have been: What format is the output BEST delivered in? and What programs do all of YOU use? (To compare them or see if I already have the software on my system.) Although I am a big fan of our language, I sometimes feel like I am speaking a foreign one! >Are you using the interface found at: >http://copy.pglaf.org/ >Or are you emailing the images directly to someone? Two parts of this little goof seem to have come to light... The first is that the link on the OLD Project Gutenberg page did NOT take me to a page where I could submit via a form. It pulled up an email to someone who (when I emailed the scans) had an auto-reply which seemed to say that they were not the person to send it to, etc. The second is that this may have been the correct person, but if they were on vacation and had that auto-reply, then I misread it. (I'm perfectly willing to take the hit on that... It happens.) >Doing a whole book yourself as a first project is very >much an uphill struggle. In the "old days" it was not >uncommon for well-intentioned people to come to PG >and then give up part-way through their first attempt. >These days, it is usual to direct people to Distributed >Proofing first, as that is a good place a to learn >the basics of what we do, and can give you a start that >can make your first book much easier. Okay, well, I intend to do just that, dive in with a book. Maybe it is overwhelming to some, but I have no trouble with typing. Besides which, I don't know how to make my scanner's text-recognition software run, so... I assume that (save typos) there will be less proofing required of a work which is typed as opposed to one which is scanned, anyway. >It also might help to realize that Project Gutenberg is >a rather decentralized volunteer organization. Those of us >involved all have "real-life" jobs and concerns to worry >about, and still spend many hours doing our best to >make PG work, though it sometimes is frustrating to >do so. If you do feel that you are being ignored, please >believe that it is not intentional. Yes, I know full well that people have "real lives". I have one myself and really don't need more things to take up my time. I have 2 children who are teens in need of special education in a school system that does not take their needs seriously and in which high school students don't receive special education services. The elder one has a brain injury which makes her forgetful and frequently angry, so it is not easy going. I also work for myself selling collectibles over the internet, have an 80 year old mother living with us who requires my care, and have 2 houses to maintain (as my husband does not know the right end of a hammer). So, do I NEED to do this, well, not as a way to fill up "idle time", but I do need things (like typing) that I can do without hassle as "therapy"! >So, to sum it all up: >Recomendation: >Go spend a week or so proofing pages at distributed proofers. I will look over what is there, but I doubt that I'll spend that much time at it. Thanks for the suggestion, though. >And do take it one step at >a time (ie, asking about copyright clearances, and how the >mailing list works, and file formats all at once might not >be a good choice.) I'd rather not constantly pester the list with elementary questions such as these. The logical progression is to get the clearance, find the correct format before I start typing, and begin working. I don't see any merit in "baby stepping" through about 25 digests filling up everyone's mailbox. I'm certain that you all have more entertaining things to do than hold my hand for a few weeks while I get started. Besides which I am ALSO certain that, once I get started, other questions will demand answers here, anyway. (So, trust me, I'll be baaack!) As for asking how the mailing list works, I asked no such questions. I merely stated that for some reason (which has since come to light, the probability that AOL or the aether ATE the message in which my original query appeared) my message (and your replies) never came through on my end. (Yes, I know, that was HORRID English! Excuse me!) Anyway, this has turned into a cursedly LONG message and I apologize profusely. It is kind of you all to take your time to straighten me out. I hope that I do not have too many more elementary and annoying things to ask of you. Again...THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We now return you to the ongoing drama of the "Bowerbird Saga"... Have at! Lay on! Cathy Waters

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PG in the comics
by Ian Stoba 04 Oct '05

04 Oct '05

I saw that PG was mentioned in the "User Friendly" comic strip today: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20051004 --Ian This email message may contain information that is confidential and proprietary to Babcock & Brown or a third party. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy the original and any copies of the original message. Babcock & Brown takes measures to protect the content of its communications. However, Babcock & Brown cannot guarantee that email messages will not be intercepted by third parties or that email messages will be free of errors or viruses. If you do not wish to receive any further e-mail from Babcock & Brown, please send an email to opt-out(a)babcockbrown.com.

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New DRM free eBook reader.
by Brad Collins 04 Oct '05

04 Oct '05

Seen on Boing Boing. There is a new eBook reader like the Sony Libre without the DRM. It handles html, pdf and text formats.... http://www.jinke.com.cn/english/v2/index.asp Not sure about the pricing. I will be contacting them to see about getting a demo unit through my old office in Hong Kong. If anyone is interested, let me know.... b/ -- Brad Collins <brad(a)chenla.org>, Bangkok, Thailand

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Sick of this...
by BunnyCAW＠aol.com 04 Oct '05

04 Oct '05

You know, about 2 weeks ago, I tried to find out how to join your project and start entering a number of older books that I have in my possession. I tried finding instructions on how to do this on the web page, but found only muddy descriptions of how to go about it. There were no firm guidelines such as USE THIS FORMAT or HERE IS THE PROGRAM THAT WE TYPCIALLY USE. I tried to send scans to obtain copyright clearance only to have the message bounce. I tried resending them with the _at_ changed to @ and never got a reply from whomever was handling the clearances. So, since joining as a PROOFREADER was all that I could find info on, I joined this list. I submitted a couple of elementary questions such as what format to type these books into, etc. My message has NEVER appeared on this digest. All that HAS appeared is a bunch of people bickering and complaining about some arrogant twit. Can we all just GET OFF OF IT and do something constructive? How about someone clueing me in as to a very basic HOW do I reach this person who clears the books for copyright? And should the output of my text files be a TXT file? Or something else? (Then of course there are questions such as how you typically handle/format tables of contents and page breaks, how illustrations are typically treated, etc.) I know that one person is not THAT important, so I won't threaten to leave if I'm not answered, but you'd surely think that you all would welcome something else to do than to gripe about this Bowerbird person... As for me... I'm getting tired of waiting and being ignored.

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re: [gutvol-d] Sick of this...
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 04 Oct '05

04 Oct '05

catherine, several people already responded to you -- on the day your message appeared (the 29th) -- including me. you were instructed about the f.a.q., and distributed proofreaders, and were encouraged to ask any questions that you might have... did you not receive those messages? -bowerbird

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be careful what you ask for
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 03 Oct '05

03 Oct '05

joe said: > Why don’t you go start your own PG/DP bowerturd? be careful what you ask for... > http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2005& post=2005-10-03,3 -bowerbird

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re: [gutvol-d] the nature of the visit -- dropping the facades
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 03 Oct '05

03 Oct '05

lee said: > Speaking for myself alone, I have not found > anything in any of your posts which is > particularly novel or insightful. talk to your fellow list-members, lee, not to me. when you have all come to a collective decision, then you can relay it to me, and i'll consider it... -bowerbird

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the nature of the visit -- dropping the facades
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 03 Oct '05

03 Oct '05

it's time to call it like it is... so i'll give you something to think about over the weekend. i'm here on this listserve because i've got information that could be very useful to you. if you choose to hear it. the nature of the visit, then, is that i'm doing you a favor by being here... i'll repeat, so it sinks in: i'm doing you a favor. you are the one who will benefit. not me. i don't need to tell you this information in able to be able to use it wisely myself... i am here as a _gift_ to you, plain and simple. if you don't want the gift, that's just fine by me. i can go off and use the information wisely myself. so it's time for you to make a conscious choice, either to listen to the information, or not to listen. this little game of "we hate you, please go away" has been fun to play, but now we're done with it. if you don't acknowledge what i am giving as a gift, i simply won't give it to you. we're dropping facades... if you really want me to go without delivering the message, i'll strongly consider it. my obligation is met if i _attempt_ to make delivery; whether you _take_ delivery is irrelevant. so you should think about it over the weekend, and then talk amongst yourselves next week, and make a decision. i might stay here and post the information anyway, even if you decide that you don't want to hear it -- i'm not making my decision totally contingent on you. but if you don't realize the favor i'm doing for you, if you don't appreciate the gift that i am offering you, then i must come to the conclusion you don't deserve it -- as if there was every any reason you _did_ deserve it -- and will strongly consider abandoning you in your tar-pit... it would be a lot smarter of you to decide to hear the message, or at least listen to it, even if you're not capable of "hearing" it. then again, most of you don't impress me as being very smart. so it will be interesting to see if you can pass this i.q. test. do you want the gift i am delivering? or not. come to a collective decision. i want to hear it... don't bother with any smart-ass replies to this post... all i want to get from you is a collective "yes" or "no"... -bowerbird

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RE: [gutvol-d] the nature of the visit -- dropping the facades
by Frank van Drogen 02 Oct '05

02 Oct '05

>===== Original Message From Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion <gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org> ===== >it's time to call it like it is... > >so i'll give you something to think about over the weekend. > >the nature of the visit, then, is that >i'm doing you a favor by being here... > >i'll repeat, so it sinks in: i'm doing you a favor. Great -- I'll make an efford to appreciate this favor, if you could make an efford to let us experience that favor in a concise manner. Fifty words at a time should be largely sufficient, for somebody as intelligent as you. Frank

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