August 1, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Issue #17--August 1, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
DPC Announcement--July 29, 2008
By Simple Simon
Recently, there have been an increasing number of instances of server delay, most notably involving the "refresh" of pages that contain a substantial amount of data from the Project database.
Sometimes, pages took up to several minutes to load, and delays have become regular. We did some analysis, and it became plain that the fundamental cause is a problem with our database MySQL server.
Our hosting company has not been very cooperative in solving the problem, and mainly mutters things like "you use too much resource for a website of your size..."--not very helpful. We later received a nice email saying how proud they are of their ability to provide service to customers!
SA has decide to change hosting companies, since they could not offer a robust upgrade that would be guaranteed to solve the problem. In the process, we will add significantly to our RAM, bandwidth and CPU cycles, and move to a dedicated server!!
By the time this Newsletter appears, the change may already be history, but--sometime during the week of July 28, 2008, the site will be shut down for 1 to 3 hours to accomplish the changeover. We will give you at least 6 hours notice of the shutdown, and should be able to nail down the actual outage time more closely by then.
This should resolve the "slow server" problem, and will go a long way towards taking care of our "synchronize with DP-INT" situation, too.
Book Preview
By firefox88 (Tess)
Baron Nils Gabriel Djurklou was born on July 24, 1829 at Sörby Manor in the parish of Norrbyås, county of Nerike (today named Närke) in Sweden and he died March 31, 1904 in Örebro, also in Sweden.
He was first and foremost baron, an archeologist and ethnologist. In 1856 he founded the first organization in Sweden for the preservation and documentation of provincial language/dialect and ancient monuments (“Föreningen för Nerikes folkspråk och fornminnen”). This organization became the model for, and was followed by, many similar local associations all over the country.
In Sweden he is also known for being one of the foremost advocates for a large scale project to lower the water levels in two Swedish lakes (one of them Hjälmaren--the fourth largest lake in Sweden), to make way for agricultural land. This project was realized and carried out 1878-87.
Baron Djurklou mostly wrote books about local customs, life and dialect. But in 1856 he became an Antiquarian Curator, which meant travelling to other provinces around the country. On these travels he became a collector of local legends and fairytales. This has inspired some of his books, to my mind they were not intended just as books for children and adults alike, but also of a way to record local legends and tales.
Not any complete book of Nils Gabriel Djurklou’s has, as far as I have been able to find, been translated into English. Some of his stories feature, even in modern time, in collections of stories such as: “Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales: Tales from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland” (New York: Gramercy Books, 1984) by Clair Booss. This book contains 16 of Baron Djurlklou’s tales. (We will have to wait awhile yet to proof read this one).
In “Fairy tales from the Swedish of G. Djurklou”, the translator, H. L. Brækstad, published a selection of Swedish Folk and Fairy tales by Nils Gabriel Djurklou. The body of the book has illustrations made by two Norwegian artists, T. Kittelsen and E. Werenskiold. The illustration on the frontispiece of the book is by the Swedish artist, Carl Larsson (one of my personal favorite artists of the time).
Sources: ”Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon” (SBH), 2nd edition, 1906 (on Project Runeberg, http://runeberg.org/) http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Gabriel_Djurklou - (Swedish Wikipedia) http://oaks.nvg.org/djinn.html - (Gullvekta - Norwegian website)
Photo: ”Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon” (SBH), 2nd edition, 1906 (on Project Runeberg, http://runeberg.org/ )
Editor: Tess is a newbie PM and is doing her first book with Simple Simon's help. She also advised that she plans to do more books and to have a Swedish and Scandinavian theme for her projects. This to introduce some Swedish authors and the Scandinavian way of life and living to DPCers. She also plans to introduce a few books in Swedish to attract some more Swedish-speaking members to DPC. She has lots of ideas and welcomes any suggestions. She thinks that her first few projects might be fairytales and other legends.
Fairy tales from the Swedish of G. Djurklou is currently in P1: Available ... go have a look.
Editorial
Server slowdowns and outages--Well, decisions were made.... Changes were made.... We've gone to another ISP.... Oh, we've been having fun, haven't we?... Hopefully, the bugs will be worked out very soon.
What are you going to do over the summer?--Think about it; I'll ask again at the end of August. Comments can be as simple/short as: Sunbathed, Read X books, Typed my fingers to the bone while proofing, Travelled to..., etc. Nothing long or fancy. Thanks for the idea, Warmheart.
ÜberProjects--see the further update on The Young Folks periodiocal under ÜberProjects #4. I can't wait to read all those classical authors....
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines--Simple Simon is still working on them; however, with one crisis or another problem they've sort of got delayed some more. But he is working on them, albeit slowly.
Comments regarding bad links to FAQs and Guidelines--coachmike is still at work on this; though some other things have slowed down the process, it will get done. We just have to be patient. Considering all the other things that have ended up on his plate in recent weeks...some things must wait.
Check out the list of "possible future articles" at the end of the newsletter--are you interested in contributing or do you know of someone who could, or would like to, contribute, we'd love to have your article and/or thoughts. And you can do so anonymouslyAnd you can do so anonymously if you choose. It doesn't have to be long: a sentence or two, a short paragraph or two, 500 words or more if you really like to "talk"; send a PM to Quill.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines. Simple Simon started a thread ( http://pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=479 ) for comments. He promises to get on with the revisions very, very soon.
He has also reiterated his promise that he will put together a combined Proofing/Foofing wiki page for those Formatters who like to have only one document open at a time but also want to be able to check on certain Proofing Guidelines
Of course, we'll keep working our way through all of the FAQs and Guidelines, one by one--does anyone have any suggestions for other areas/activities that should have Guidelines or FAQs prepared?
Guidelines translations--Simple Simon has found a translator for the French version of our Proofing Guidelines which, since we plan to be a bilingual site, is the most important. Translators for other languages are still needed, so...send a PM to Simple Simon if you would like to help. All that's necessary is the translation--we can put them into wiki page format.
Simple Simon noted in his last Simon Says... article that there are lots of things to get properly converted/coded before we upgrade and synchronize our site code with that of DP-INT or at least as close as we can since DPC is a UTF-8 site where DP-INT works in iso-8859-1. We must thank coachmike for all his hard work and try not to get too frustrated with the waiting....
ÜberProject #1: Chronicles of Canada
There continue to be lots of spaces for volunteers to PM, PP and even CP. To see the current status of the volumes, check out the ÜberProject wiki page for The Chronicles of Canada here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/The_Chronicles_of_Canada.
- De2164 prepped a number of volumes and there are also several others that need prepping, so there's lots to do. CPers, PMs, PPers are all needed.
- Volume 3: The Founder of New France, A Chronicle of Champlain is in F2: Available. Volume 18: The Adventurers of England on Hudson Bay, A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North, is in the F1: Available. Volume 1: The Dawn of Canadian History is in P1: Waiting. Volume 27 is listed as a New Project. Volume 2 is in Post-Processing.
- PP standards have been set and the books do not have anything extremely difficult at all. Check the Chronicles wiki page for the PP standards. There is currently some discussion on Index formatting. Once that is decided upon, it will be added to the PP standards.
- Volumes 13, 17 and 24 are being done at DP-Int since the authors of these volumes are out of DPC's copyright purview. They will be posted to PG-Int in due time. For those that are interested, the books are in either the P2 or P3 waiting queues
- Three volumes have been posted to PGC: Volume 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: a Chronicle of New World Feudalism, Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas and Volume 29: The Day of Sir John MacDonald, A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion.
ÜberProject #2: Jesuit Relations
We've been working on our first volume (Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702) for just over 5 months now; it's currently in P3: Available. Simple Simon is the PM and has decided that he will definitely PP this first volume, though he says that he will undoubtedly seek help from someone fluent in French to "look over his shoulder" on that side of things. He'll probably do the same for other languages as well.
Vol. 66: Illinois, Louisiana, Iroquois, Lower Canada, 1702-1712 is now in P1: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
A set of standards has been determined and added to the Project Comments. An ÜberProject wiki page for Jesuit Relations has been created. It includes the basic instructions for proofing and formatting.
ÜberProject #3: Governor General's Award Books
Warmheart has created an ÜberProject page for this uberproject. The page looks very good and has lots of links. You can see the details of what she has completed to date here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Governor_General%27s_Literary_Awards Check it out, you might find something interesting there....
There are only a couple of books that are available since many of the authors are still alive--ah, well, we'll get them eventually. :)
ÜberProject #4: Periodicals
Graham's Magazine has been confirmed as the first part of our ongoing ÜberProject #4: Periodicals. Simple Simon has the entire first year of volumes in hand and will release them as demand calls for them. There are 3 volumes currently undergoing proofing and/or formatting: one each in rounds P1, F1 and F2. One volume has made it to PPing. The 5th volume is now waiting in the wings.... Simon also needs some volunteers for PPing these periodicals--if you are interested, send him a PM.
In the starting block...--(that is, being prepped...) Our Young Folks, An illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls; Issued monthly; Publication Dates: January 1865 thru October 1873 when it merged with St. Nicholas.
An update from Warmheart:
Simple Simon and I are still researching the DOD's for the first issue. It could take another couple of weeks before it will be ready to upload. The difficulty lies in that some authors have only been listed with initials or "unknown" pseudonoms. Once we've done our initial investigation, we will be putting a list of "missing" authors and asking for help researching DOD's. As you've seen from other requests in the forums, we have a couple of whizzes!!
We still plan to ask for help; but, at this point, we don't need anyone until we can get a volume or two in the system. It's easier to recruit when people have had a chance to really look at the projects. I am planning on adding a few (20 or so) pages to the "test" project so people can have a peek.
We are planning on releasing each month as its own project. After all issues for a year have been processed, an omnibus--accumulating all issues for that year--will be created. For stories that run through several issues (serialized), we will also require help cutting and pasting--is the best way I can explain it--to produce individual ebooks for the serialized stories.
We will definitely be looking for PPers to do the individual issues sometime in the near future. As it stands now, I plan to bash about the first issue with Simon's help. I will be placing both the text and the HTML version in Smooth Reading to get feedback from our esteemed collegues. From that point we will have establised a set "guidelines" of how we would like to have each issue processed.
Once I've completed the omnibus, I will also put those additional guidelines on the wiki page for anyone who might wish to help create future omnibuses.
Remember there will be 106 individual issues, 9 omnibuses, and an unknown number of serialized stories. There will be plenty of help required, further on down the line. Right now De2164 is handling the CP, and I will do the PM... but of course if either one of use become overwhelmed we will be screaming for help.
Since these periodicals are geared towards children, they are not really that difficult to CP or PM, and I'm sure that the PF's will be of great help with the answering of forum questions. Of course we have our wonderful proofers and foofers who will, I'm hoping, enjoy these issues as much as the children of the time.
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
However (there's always a "however" isn't there?), these aren't the only periodicals that we can do--there are lots of others out there and some that are very different than "Graham's" or "Young Folks". Is there one that you'd like to do? Suggestions for favourite OLD periodicals are always welcome, but they must meet 3 criteria:
- published before 1860 to avoid the need for copyright checking
- good quality scans of a reasonable number of issues (preferably in whole volumes=a year)
- interesting content, out of the ordinary
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 416 members. Welcome to all new members; I hope you find some projects that you will enjoy doing. Many of our members are also members of DP-Int/US and/or DP Europe--we welcome them and thank them for all their continued support and interest in DPC. (Numbers are accurate up to "press" time.)
| New | |
|---|---|
| August 2008 | 0 |
| July 2008 | 8 |
| Q2 2008 | 63 |
| Q1 2008 | 106 |
| 2007 total | 237 |
| Total to date | 416 |
Milestones
We are going to use this space to "celebrate" notable milestones achieved by a member, team, group or project. For example, we'll report when a member completes 5,000 pages in any one round; then we'll let you know when they've done 10,000 pages and so on.
The "team" numbers are the cumulative totals for each round for each member of each team. So that's why, for the "10,000 pages" totals Team German has the most F2 pages (because of uwe-joachim) and for the "15,000 pages" totals Team USA has the most P3 pages (because of rolands). Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 15,000 pages in a round: (new!!!)
- Team USA in P3
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- uwe-joachim in F2
- Team German in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- De2164 in F1 (new!!)
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F2
- Team Canada in P1, P2 and F1
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
P3 finished in the lead, closely followed by P1--percentage-wise that is, P1 actually did 1,000 more pages; but who's counting.... The main point is that ALL page goals for July were met and exceeded.
Today starts a brand new month and anything is possible: which round will finish with the most pages done? And no, I do not bet, so don't ask.
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| August goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 2,325 | 3,100 | 2,325 |
| *August to date | 89 | 50 | 45 | 157 | 96 |
| August to date % | 2.87 % | 1.61 % | 1.94 % | 5.06 % | 4.13 % |
| July goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 2,325 | 3,100 | 2,325 |
| **July to date | 4,858 | 3,854 | 3,862 | 4,051 | 2,465 |
| July to date % | 156.71 % | 124.32 % | 166.11 % | 130.68 % | 106.02 % |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
**These numbers might be out a few pages ... what with all the hassles we've been having the last few days.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PGC
At press time, we had 66 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 6 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 66 Silver Star projects in post processing and 103 Bronze Star projects which are currently undergoing proofing or formatting. For more details about these projects, please see the listings on the bottom of the DP Welcome page.
User Team Talk
Have you checked out our user teams? To check out the teams or to join one go to: User Teams. The Team threads are located under Proofing Team Talk. Is there a team that you'd like to see? You can create a team from the link on the User Teams page--you might be surprised by who shows up to join you.
We have 16 teams; but more are always welcome.
Possible Future Articles
This is YOUR newsletter: yes, there are forum posts and user team posts, but is there something that you want to tell the whole DPC community? You are allowed to brag here. You can also be anonymous if you choose ... we won't tell.
- Tips or Hints: for those people who do/did a lot of proofing and/or formatting on DP-Int/US &/or DP-Eur, do you have any tips or "rules" that you follow to help yourself while you proof or format? Even a re-wording of a guideline that helps you remember how to do something specific.
- Tell us why you joined DPC.
- Quotable Quotes: have you seen a thought-provoking quote that is relevant to the DP Community while you were doing your proofing that you just had to pass on?...
- The most interesting, outrageous, or strangest line you proofed: before it was proofed (if that was the outrageous or strange part) and what it was after proofing (please do not submit obscene language, it will not be published).
- New projects: PMs is there a series of books or books by a very prolific author that you'd like to do?--let us know so that we can help pass the word to the proofers so they'll be there to jump in and work on them.
- Kudos, Bouquets & Compliments: are there any DPers that you would like to give special thanks and/or recognition to: a mentor who gave you lots of guidance, a PPer that made your project into a very wonderful looking book for posting to PG, a CPer or image/text preparer who went the extra little bit to provide you with clean scans, well OCR'd text, or good illustrations for your project, another DPer who made you feel really welcome or provided you with some good advice or....
- "Guest articles" by anyone and everyone who wishes to....
