December 2009 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: Getting Involved
by bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Dec '09

17 Dec '09

john said: > I would like to get advice on how to > get involved with the Gutenberg activities john, before you give up for lack of meaningful advice, try one more time next week and i'll give you feedback. -bowerbird

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Re: New mobile devices page
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 16 Dec '09

16 Dec '09

greg said: > You've been encouraged in a couple of ways to go for it. > If there is something you need to demonstrate your ideas, > I will try to help. The only thing I don't have is > someone to do it for you, or to pick up on your examples > and apply them to gutenberg.org. i didn't understand sufficiently at first, and others do not sufficiently understand yet, as represented by greg's autopilot response, but jim has already _done_ all of the work... the files are even now sitting on his website. as such, they can be accessed there, it is true. but i guess jim thinks -- and i would agree -- that they will have greater prominence if they were to be posted on the p.g. website itself... plus, of course, the files need to be updated as new e-texts are released. but that process could be managed with a script that's trivial... jim shrouded his request in a plethora of moans, but at base he's really not asking for much at all. show you take his work seriously. post his files. -bowerbird

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Re: [gutvol-p] Getting Involved
by Al Haines (shaw) 16 Dec '09

16 Dec '09

John, I've taken the liberty of re-posting this message to Project Gutenberg's general discussion forum (gutvol-d). (It's usually a more active and vociferous forum than gutvol-p.) You don't say precisely what you mean by "submitting files", but if you mean submitting new ebooks, you should probably start by reading PG's various How-To's and FAQ's at http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:How-To and http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:FAQ, respectively. You'll need to obtain a copyright clearance for the book you want to produce, described here: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_How-To. (You'll also need to create an account for yourself at http://upload.pglaf.org/ to submit copyright clearance requests and to upload your finished ebook.) For general information and standards for the text and HTML versions, respectively, see the Volunteers' FAQ and the HTML FAQ at http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:FAQ. For checking text files, the three utilities Gutcheck, Jeebies, and Gutspell are indispensable. They're free, and downloadable at http://gutcheck.sourceforge.net/etc.html PG requires at least a plain text version of the book. (See the Volunteers' FAQ, especially section 7.) HTML is optional, but desirable. It's pretty much required if the book has illustrations or graphical content. Other formats (doc, rtf, pdf, etc) are optional. See the File Formats FAQ at the above FAQ link for more information. Comments on your assorted utilities and conversions I leave to others. Al Haines Project Gutenberg. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Redmond" <john_redmond(a)optusnet.com.au> To: <gutvol-p(a)lists.pglaf.org> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 7:44 PM Subject: [gutvol-p] Getting Involved > Hello all: > > I write code, specifically code to process XML/XHTML, etc, as well as > lightly marked-up text. I am keen to get involved with the Gutenberg > activities, and I think that I can contribute best by providing software > to value-add on existing offerings. > > The best way to have a look at what I do is to go to my site > (www.limpidsoft.com) where I: > > 1. Outline, in a couple of PDF files, what I have been doing recently; > 2. Give some rather crude examples of PDF files I have adapted from > existing Gutenberg files; > 3. Provide downloads of free, command-line, utilities (for Linux and > Windows) to convert text or XML to LaTeX and PDF files. > > I would like to get advice on how to get involved with the Gutenberg > activities: how to submit files, what declarations and other inclusions > are required. > > John Redmond > Sydney, Australia > > > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-p mailing list > gutvol-p(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo/gutvol-p >

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Re: New mobile devices page (pls. proofread)
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 10 Dec '09

10 Dec '09

michael said: > In this case, it was specified they had a browser, > thus presuming an "agent" that could be worked with. yes, but one doesn't read books using that browser. you can _download_ book-files using that browser. (which are then read using the non-browser part.) but the project gutenberg landing-pages are not in a good form to do that, as currently constructed. jim is asking for a new construction, to make it easy for those reader-machines to download your books. the easiest way -- which is what i just suggested -- is to link to some "deep" pages on the site, but that has been "officially discouraged" by your webmaster, at least in the past, and sometimes it gets enforced. -bowerbird

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Re: New mobile devices page (pls. proofread)
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 05 Dec '09

05 Dec '09

ok, jim, i downloaded your "magic" catalog. for anyone else who hasn't downloaded it, this "magic" catalog is just a file with a link for every p.g. text. i appended a few lines from it to this e-mail so you can view them. (there's just like what i'd suggested to jim.) anyway, i find that jim's files contain links to all the e-texts in the entire p.g. library. so now i'm perplexed, jim. why don't _you_ just offer the files to the kindle community? you've already _done_ all the work required. sure, i agree with you that it would be better if p.g. itself would just churn out these files, especially since they'd be constantly updated. but if marcello isn't willing to do that for you, why don't you just release your files to the wild? heck, i'd even think you could charge a dollar or two for these files, and release them as kindle-books, available in the kindle store, and make a few bucks to subsidize your work, not to mention help out the whole kindle scene. that is the kind of direct action that michael hart always strongly encourages in the p.g. volunteers. as another thought, i'd suggest that you submit your files to p.g. as an e-text for the p.g. library. -bowerbird <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1818/pg1818.epub">Richard Harding Davis: The Spy</a> <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1819/pg1819.epub">Richard Harding Davis: The Messengers</a> <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1820/pg1820.epub">Richard Harding Davis: A Wasted Day</a> <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1821/pg1821.epub">Richard Harding Davis: A Charmed Life</a> <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1822/pg1822.epub">Richard Harding Davis: The Amateur</a> <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1823/pg1823.epub">Richard Harding Davis: The Make-Believe Man</a>

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Fwd: Android audio book listener BookDroid available for Project Gutenberg
by Greg Newby 05 Dec '09

05 Dec '09

Of possible interest: ----- Forwarded message from santtu.syrjala(a)absent.fi ----- From: santtu.syrjala(a)absent.fi To: help(a)pglaf.org Subject: Android audio book listener BookDroid available for Project Gutenberg Hi Project Gutenberg team! We have created an audio book listener for Android platform that links to your website within it's internal browser so users can download your books for it. For more information about the application see : http://www.absent.fi/mobile/bookdroid/ We thank You for Your marvelous service to provide free books for people! Please send a reply if you wish to get the program free for You if you have Android enabled devices within Your team. We will provide the application installer and registration key to You. Thank you, --- Santtu Syrjälä Development Manager Absent Oy www.absent.fi ----- End forwarded message -----

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Some Things I Like the Best and the Least About eBooks
by Michael S. Hart 05 Dec '09

05 Dec '09

Some Things I Like the Best and the Least About eBooks by Michael S. Hart Founder Project Gutenberg, Inventor of eBooks One of those things I like best about eBooks is giving them away. Not just giving them away, but how easy it is to give them away-- and how many you can give away with such little effort. Another wonderful thing about eBooks is that you can correct what you find in error, or just make changes in how YOU think an eBook should look for you and then whenever you give them away everyone you give them to will have the same improved copies. Of course, you can also send in Project Gutenberg error reports-- and we will gladly check these against various edition, and these will be fixed for the rest of the history of that eBook. One of my personal favorite things about eBooks is how easy it is to find your way around in them; even a three word phrase such as "not to be" only appears twice in Hamlet, so telling everyone how to find a certain place in an eBook is much easier than on paper, as giving the page number in a paper book only takes you within a thousand or two thousand characters of where you want to go. The idea of giving someone just a three word phrase to find the exact location is something that works incredibly better, and, as those examples in Hamlet demonstrate, if you get another identical word combination, just hit the search key again, much easier than scan and scan to find the phrase on any given page. Quoting eBooks is also quick and easy, and of course accurate for eBooks in comparison to paper books. Gone are the stacks, stacks and stacks of 3x5 index cards or notebooks full of quotations and the labor of writing each one out longhand. Gone is is the quote you wanted to use and just can't find, even though you remember a card you laboriously wrote it down on. And, thankfully, gone are the errors you made in the quotations, the ones marked in red and made you wonder how your instructor knew the quotes so well as to nail you for leaving out that comma. Footnoting those quotations is trivial with most word processors, as are indices, bibliographies, concordances, etc. Cost is a huge factor, too, as most of the eBooks in the world of research papers, particularly in literature classes, are free, as are millions of other eBooks. Yes, there still is The Digital Divide, but for those willing and and able to use their cellphones, many of the functions of eBooks are available to the vast majority of the world with cellphones-- about 4.5 billion by the end of 2009. The Least The thing I perhaps like least about eBooks is how many people in the world think it is my job to make eBooks come out exactly that way they think is the best in the world, and constantly harass me to change to this format or that one as the only, or primary, one of all the formats in the world. Sorry, CONTENT is what Project Gutenberg provides but not FORMAT, FORM, FORMALITY, etc. Let's face it, but when even the plainest of plain text eBooks is created, 99% of the work of re-creating it into another format is already done, all YOU have to do is change 1% and you can have it any other way you want it. On top of this, there are many format conversion programs out there that will do most of this for you. It's funny how something that has already done 99% of the labor's time and effort can be so vilified for not doing the other 1%. I suppose these people also feel that mass-produced clothing that they buy should be made their own exact fittings, along with cars and every other product. Not to mention, of course, that this product is free of charge. Yes, there are those who insist that we vacillate between formats as quickly as a new set of them come out: insisting that we join with some new effort by The Billionaire Boys club, then dropping, like a hot potato, that format in favor of another one. Some are even insisting that we do ALL formats. Sorry again, but what we provide is CONTENT not FORM. Anyone is welcome to impose their own FORM on our CONTENT, and we will even help them in the process by publicizing their wish, and asking for volunteers to help them. However, in the end, it nearly always turns out just the same, as it all comes out as hot air, with none left over to turn wheels a new industry needs to turn to create new products. I must admit, but sometimes it appears that everyone in the world seems to know how to run Project Gutenberg better than I. However, then when I offer them the keys to the kingdom to create their own competitive effort, that the effort is not there. Just more hot air. . . . All in all, of course, there are many more things about eBooks in general that I like, respect and even love.

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Re: New mobile devices page (pls. proofread)
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 05 Dec '09

05 Dec '09

jim- you complain that the p.g. people aren't listening or trying to help you. i'm listening to you, and trying to help you, but you aren't listening back, or responding to the questions that i've asked about what you want. that's kind of ironic, don't you think? :+) -bowerbird

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we'll talk about formats next week
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 04 Dec '09

04 Dec '09

since david rothman brought it up before thanksgiving, i was gonna talk about formats, even before turkey-day. but then time ran short, and i didn't want to plug up everybody's e-mailboxes during the long weekend... so i was gonna talk about it this week, but held back because they're having some interesting discussions over on the distributed proofreader forum boards... but i promise i'll get to it _first_thing_ next week, ok? :+) and if you'd like to refresh yourself with that dialog about .epub over at the d.p. forums, here's the u.r.l.: > http://www.pgdp.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=41237&start=0 and here's where the conversation picked up after thanksgiving: > http://www.pgdp.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=618157#618157 or, if you want to examine the place where it turns philosophical: > http://www.pgdp.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=620316#620316 -bowerbird

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Re: New mobile devices page (pls. proofread)
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 04 Dec '09

04 Dec '09

> http://code.google.com/p/openpub/wiki/OPDS o.p.d.s. is another project from the acronym kids, and it is likely to be limited to .epub books only... (in its first incarnation, that was explicitly the case; i think they've relaxed that restriction since then, but i don't expect they will actually do any work to support anything other than .epub in the long run.) and since this bunch is now aligned _with_ adobe, which means _against_ amazon, i'd guess that the o.p.d.s. stuff won't interface nicely with the kindle. just so you know... -bowerbird

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