June 5, 2009
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #39--June 5, 2009
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Coming soon to the Smooth Reading pool…
Life of an American Workman by Walter Chrysler (PM: IonaV; PP: firefox88)
This is a very uplifting book by the man who built the Chrysler corporation. With automobile manufacturer bankruptcies and "fire sales" so much in the news today, this is a book that will reaffirm those ideals that we grew up with. Not just North Americans, but Europeans as well. firefox88 (aka Tess), who has decided to PP the book, passed on the following comment: I will probably enjoy this book also for the reason that Chrysler is one of these American ideals that people my age grew up with--even in Sweden ... Americanism was still big with American cars, Coca Cola, McDonalds and others.
This book is about the working life of Walter Percy Chrysler (1875-1940) who was an American automobile pioneer.
Excerpt from Wikipedia: His automobile career began when the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) decided to diversify into the automobile business. Chrysler was the plant manager. ALCO had some racing success but less in the way of sales success. Chrysler saw the way things were going and took a job at the Buick Motor Company in Flint, Michigan in 1911, two years before ALCO quit the automobile business.
From there, it was history….
After decades of building his company from a very small operation to a huge corporation, one wonders how he would feel today after his company had to declare bankruptcy and go begging for government money in order to keep jobs for the employees.
Tess promises to get the text version of this book into the Smooth Reading pool very soon, watch for it … enjoy it.
From the "computers are great except when they don't work" department
By IonaV
Do you ever have one of those weeks when you just feel like throwing your computer out of the window? It was suggested to me that there are some people who will commiserate with me over the following:
Computer status: uncertain at this point. It's back in the shop for the second time in less than a week. The tech had said that he fixed it--downloaded new drivers for the video card ... Hah!! I'm still getting the same problem as before: when the screen resolution is changed (as in exiting from a game) the video occasionally gets hung or when I do a restart after installing new software, the video gets hung--i.e., I end up with a blank screen even though I can "hear" the beeps and tones that Windows uses to indicate that it has started. I had a chat with my daughter-in-law who is a computer systems tech for a mid-sized company in Edmonton. She says it may or may not be the video card or just corrupted drivers, but the card does need to be checked to determine its exact status. When I spoke with the warranty department of of the store that I bought it from (for the second time), I told them that it needed to be checked. If my computer wasn't under warranty (expires in Sept 2009), I would have lugged my computer to my daughter-in-law and asked for her help from the first. I've currently have my husband's laptop "hooked" up to my monitor, USB hub and external harddrive (where I saved all my files: learned the hard way :wink:)--using it like just like a desktop computer. It has more onboard power than my laptop so I can still do scanning--though I'm going to limit that to illustrations and maps from the Chronicles of Canada books and one other special scanning project. Since my FineReader Pro 9.0 is a one-desk license, I won't do any OCRing until I get my computer fixed.
So I'm surviving, even if frustrated.
Editorial
Congratulations to DP-Int--DP-Int is celebrating the posting of 15,000 unique titles to PG-Int. That is a lot of e-books. Well done!! to all DP-Int members.
Server and site problems--Simple Simon advises that any remaining problems on-site are set aside now until the "synch-up" (unless something really major rears its ugly head). If you see something that you believe requires handling before the summer, please send him a PM.
Checklists--As promised several months ago, Simon has been producing basic checklists for DPers. He started with PPing basic checklists for simple projects: he has done checklists for startup, text version, HTML version, HTML Tables and "illustrations"--for CPers and PPers. He promises a CSS checklist for Issue #40 (that's next issue).
Simon has created a wikipage (linked to the main DPC Wiki) for the Checklists for New PPers. He has included the checklists that he has done so far. You can see from the Table of Contents what he plans for future checklists.
Any and all comments and/or questions from PPers are requested and welcome. Anyone else can comment as well. Send any questions or comments to Simple Simon.
Once the PPing checklists are done, he'll do some for CPing and PMing.
Synchronization of Guidelines--In the last newsletter issue, Simple Simon discussed his ideas about synchronization of DP-Int/US and DPC proofing and formatting guidelines. He set up a discussion thread in the Documentation Suggestions Forum which includes those ideas. There have been a couple of responses … have you any comments, ideas, suggestions, …?
Proofing/Formatting combined guidelines--There will be a significant delay in publishing this combined guidelines document. Simon has been caught up in the site code project (as well as his campaign on DP-Int) … so he's been a bit busy. ;)
ÜberProjects--see the updates below.
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.
Simon Says...
As you've probably noticed in the forums, stygiania has been systematically going through all the projects to eliminate the various "dashes" that turn up as a result of our OCR processes. The software sometimes turns perfectly ordinary em-dashes into assorted combinations of ordinary hyphens, en-dashes, em-dashes and combinations of all of these--not to mention the dreaded "soft or invisible hyphen".
She has been changing as many pages as she can, and, where the page has already been done in the round, listing the problems, so later rounds, or ultimately, the PPer, can clean them up. Thanks, styg, for all your hard work!!
But we should catch these problems at the CPer "pre-prep" stage. When you have completed the OCR, please do a search for all these entities, and make sure that they are changed to just a normal hyphen (-). The PPer can make whatever styling decision is preferred later on. We need to do this, because their presence can cause real problems in the P3 Qualification process.
Do a search for these codes, and then replace them all with a normal hyphen (Ed: these are Windows keycodes):
en-dash = Alt+0150 –
em-dash = Alt+0151 —
soft hyphen = Alt+0173 - (which looks just like a regular hyphen, when you can "see" it;
hey, "invisible" does mean "unseeable" (yes, that is a word))
This change will eventually appear in a revised version of guiprep, but for now we need to be vigilant.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Guideline Differences--See article at beginning of the April 10th issue. There is also a discussion thread--see Editorial comments above.
Combined Proofing and Formatting Guidelines--Simon has 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. Unfortunately there has been a delay. Simon hopes to produce them sometime in the near future.
The "combined guidelines" will be a very summarized version, not a complete document--but it's a huge task, which is the reason for the delay in issuance. Even DP-INT has no such animal--so we can't copy theirs. Once it is drafted, Simon will ask for review by experienced proofers and foofers to ensure that it is understandable--that is, not confusing or missing some extremely important rule.
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 and IonaV are doing the prep on the rest of the volumes. Sufficient PMs have volunteered--we just need PPers, but the volumes can be picked up from the PP pool when they have completed the rounds unless there is a volume that a PPer really wants to do--in that case let the PM know sooner rather than later.
- We've arranged to get "mint condition" copies of the full set and so will be able to get good scans of all the maps and illustrations as well as picking up missing pages (if any). Thank you to hugger1935 for the use of the books.
- Volumes 4 and 12 have been split into multiple parts and are being used for BEGIN projects. A number of parts of each volume are sitting in P1: Waiting (English BEGIN) until they are needed; several parts are currently in various rounds undergoing proofing or formatting; and several parts of each volume have made it through to PPing though they won't be finalized until all parts are done--that may take awhile depending on how many newbies we get.
- Volume 32 is in P1: Waiting, Volume 9 is in P1: Available, Volume 6 is in P2: Available, Volumes 11 and 21 are in Post-Processing; Vols. 3, 8 and 18 have completed PPing. There are several in New Project being prepared for the P1: Waiting queue.
- 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. Some of the standards for PPing have been updated.
- 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 all in the P3 waiting queue.
- Six volumes have been posted to PGC:
- Volume 1: The Dawn of Canadian History, A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada,
- Volume 2: The Mariner of St Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier,
- 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,
- Volume 27: The Winning of Popular Government: A chronicle of the Union of 1841, and
- Volume 29: The Day of Sir John MacDonald, A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion.
ÜberProject #2: Jesuit Relations
Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702, our first, is currently in F2: 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, our second, is in F1: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
Simon advises that he's prepping Vol. 67: Lower Canada, Abenakis, Louisiana; 1716- 1727 as the third in our series.
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 is the first part of our ongoing periodicals ÜberProject. All the first year's volumes are either in process or completed. There are four issues currently undergoing proofing or formatting with two in P1: Waiting. Two issues are in PP; two issues have completed PP; and two issues have been posted to PGC.
Year two will be coming in due course.
Simon also needs some volunteers for PPing these periodicals--if you are interested, send him a PM.
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.
Three issues are in PP, one in P1: Available and three in P1: Waiting. Warmheart also has a bunch of them in prep as well. :wink:
To those who have worked on this periodical: comments, anyone? Do you like it?
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
Scientific American--these are very early issues, too--from 1846. The first issue is now in PP. That one sure went fast … I hope Simon has more being prepped. :wink:
We've started a wiki page for it: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Periodicals/Scientific_American. I've also been told that Tizz has agreed to co-PM/PP it.
The Maple Leaf--This is a Canadian juvenile periodical published between 1852 and 1854. Susan and IonaV are going to share the duties of PMing. Iona is handling the prep, Susan has downloaded the scans and will do the PPing. They are hoping to get it into the rounds within the next couple of weeks.
Remember, 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". 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
ÜberProject #5: Works by Charles Dickens
Simple Simon and IonaV are Dickens fans. We know that there are many more out there. Although there are some of Dickens' works on the other PG sites, some of it is text only. We've got early editions of those books with illustrations as well as stories that have not yet been posted. As well, there are letters and essays and ...
- Bleak House, the original version illustrated by "Phiz", is in prep.
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently in F2: Available.
- A Christmas Carol is in post processing.
- Two short stories for our anniversary blitz are posted to our wiki (http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Dickens_%22First_Anniversary%22_project): The Christmas Tree and What Christmas is as we get older. They will be posted to PG Canada with other Dickens' short stories.
More details and an ÜberProject wiki page to come.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 685 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 | |
|---|---|
| June 2009 | 2 |
| May 2009 | 19 |
| April 2009 | 22 |
| 2009 Q1 | 168 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 685 |
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 while they are members of a particular team. So that's why, the team pages go up whenever a team member's totals increase. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 35,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2 NEW!!!
Completed 30,000 pages in a round:
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- Team USA in P3
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- Foofers' Corner in F2
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- De2164 in F1 NEW!!!
- Team Canada in P1 and P2
- Team German in F2
- Foofers' Corner in F1
- LOTE Flotes my Bote in F2 NEW!!!
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Bibi in P3
- Daniel G in P1
- rcool in P1 and P2
- snowseraph in P2
- supo88 in P2
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F1 and F2
- Team USA in P2 and F2
- Team Canada in F1
- DPing with Cats in P2 and F1
A couple of people changed levels; there are more coming….
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
All rounds reached their May goals. Fantastic!! Way to go, people!!
Now, we've only just started June, not quite a week done; so it's hard to tell what will happen over the next 3½ weeks. Let's wait for the next issue before making any predictions as to who might pass the post first. :wink:
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| June goal | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,000 | 3,300 | 3,000 |
| *June to date | 590 | 359 | 407 | 522 | 244 |
| June to date % | 17.88% | 10.88% | 13.57% | 15.82% | 8.13% |
| May goal | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| May final | 5,278 | 3,660 | 5,730 | 4,806 | 5,518 |
| May final % | 154.78% | 107.33% | 184.84% | 140.94% | 178.00% |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PG Canada or PG-International
At press time, we had 176 Gold Star books posted to PGC or PG-Int (with 5 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 152 Silver Star projects in post processing and 128 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 currently have 23 teams; 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....
