November 21, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Issue #25--November 21, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Book or Author Reviews &/or Previews
Calling all CPers, PMs, PPers, or anyone else who would like to volunteer to do a review of a posted ebook or one that is currently in the rounds. Or do you know someone who should or could volunteer....
Let us know why a book was chosen: maybe it's the fairy tale book that your grandmother always read to you or perhaps you feel that the book is an important piece of Canadiana or you have always liked the book or .... Hey, CPers, do you like to "tease" people--what have you got in your pile of books to be scanned and/or prepped: something romantic or adventurous or thoughtful or ....
You can also write about your favourite author and why you are doing his or her books--as long as they've been dead at least 50 years. If we haven't had one of his or her books go through the rounds, perhaps someone can find a copy....
I know that not everyone is great at writing so any review or preview can be in point form; it can only be a few sentences or a paragraph or two. If necessary, Quill can tidy it up.
Is there a book or project that you have really liked working on and that you'd like to mention?
Simple Simon's books in CP....
Here's a brief "heads up" on books that I have currently in my "CP pipeline"--they are actively being worked on (scanned, OCRed, prepped), or at least planned and committed to. Most of them come from my own library, have been sent to me by members who don't CP themselves, or are part of a special "consignment" of books brought over by Blue Berry--who is an active "book-shop browser". Actually, she cannot resist a bargain!
Most of these should find their way into the project queue within about 6 weeks--ooh! some stuff to curl up with over the year-end holidays...
- "Das Perpetuum mobile" by Dr. F. Tchak--a stunning expanation of how you can all build your own perpetual motion machine (but it's in German)
- "Flower Guide--Flowers East of the Rockies" by Chester A. Reed--descriptions and illos of the flowers once found in nature across North America
- Several more instalments of the Andersen fables (just an explanation of why these appear separately: Mark Akrigg of PGCanada asked that separate "books" be made for each--of course, when they're all complete, I'll prepare a compendium volume of the lot)
- "Madame Juno's Dream Book" by Thomas Jospeh Carey (still need to confirm his DOD)--fortune telling and dreams interpreted
- The first issues of "Scientific American"--from the 1840s, much earlier than the ones going through DP-INT--some of the material in these is truly bizarre!
- More "Graham's Magazine"--courtesy of JulietS, our friend who is SA at DP-INT--she also has some large-format "coffee-table" books from the 1850s she's prepping
- Another volume of the "Jesuit relations"--if we have the stamina for it
- Several ancient and exotic cook-books
- "Canada--the Foundations of its Future" by Stephen Leacock 1941--beautiful edition paid for by the Canadian distiller Seagrams, with illos by Jefferys
- "Haydn's Dictionary of Dates" by Benjamin Vincent 21st edition, 1895--actually a sort of "Timetables of History"--this is a feast for the index and tables buffs (my guess, it will take 2 years to go through the rounds--1200+ pages of fine print--I'm still struggling with how to scan it without destroying it--probably the camera route)
- Kenneth Roberts "March to Quebec"--the story of General Benedict Arnold's expedition to conquer British North America (while he was still "loyal" to the US)
- "Rats, Lice and History" by Hans Zinsser--the story of typhus and its carving of the world
There's something for every taste, I think--now if I can only shove these through the pipeline...
Editorial
DPC first anniversary is coming up December 1--Less than 2 weeks to go. So Simple Simon and IonaV decided to launch a special anniversary project to celebrate DPC's first anniversary. It will consist of two short stories by Charles Dickens, from his series of Christmas stories: "A Christmas Tree" (1850) and "What Christmas is as we get older" (1851). We'd like to do a"blitz"--complete the whole project on one day, Sunday, November 30 since more people will be available than on December 1 which is a Monday. Then Simon will PP it and post it on December 1. It only totals about 30 pages, and it's relatively simple material.
So, heads up, it'll be launched and headed your way rather soon.
Server and site problems--Simple Simon, coachmike and company have continued to work hard the last number of weeks. Things are improving, slowly but surely ... and, hopefully, we'll soon have more things fixed. Patience, all,... The chronjobs problems are still with us; coachmike is still working on them.
Simple Simon and coachmike and their helpers continue to work on the remaining major problems. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we'll have more fixes very soon.
ÜberProjects--New ÜberProject coming online soon--see below for details.
Update revisions for Proofing Guidelines--Newest revisions are done and posted; the effective date is November 15, 2008 for P3 qual purposes. Changes made:
- Ellipses are to be treated the same way as LOTE; that is "match the image" for numbers and spacing.
- We're still using the 3 fractions from the drop down list (¼, ½, ¾); all others are formatted with a hyphen: 3-1/3, 56-7/8, etc.--the same way as DP-Int.
- If a title page is substantially an illustration, then any text is to be typed in--this is more a clarification than a change.
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines--Simple Simon has been working on these and making sure they fit together with the Version 2.0 Formatting Guidelines from DP-INT. He sees no reason why our formatting guidelines should be very different from theirs, except for obvious site differences, like UTF-8. Simon advises that he has been working hard on these and is hoping that he'll have a draft very soon. Well, my fingers are crossed.
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. Once the server glitches have been solved, he should be able to do some more work on these.
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.
Proofing Tip
Can't figure out that "word"...
Proofers, is there a very unclear word in some book that is frustrating you because you can get several of the letters but not all? And where even the context doesn’t seem to help?
I recently got a note from rcool. He says that he found a website called www.morewords.com. As long as the word is found in an English dictionary, you should be able to find the missing letters. The instructions are right there for indicating missing single or multiple letters. Sure beats sitting with a dictionary....
Thanks, rcool.
Anybody for a Word Game?...
I've learned that many people who love books also like word games. Many DPers like doing word games--it's something to keep their minds active. There are dozens or word games from scrabble to crosswords; one type is anagrams.
Anagrams: one takes a group of letters, generally a regular word and then writes down all the different words one can make from it. For example, from the word "veterans", you can create over 260 different words, some of those words are: earnest, eastern, averse, ravens, nerve, starve, etc.
So, for our first game let's try "november" or "novembre". How many 5, 6 or 7 letter words can you come up with? The words can be English or French. Send an email to Quill and the entries will be announced in the next newsletter.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines.--Simple Simon has promised a draft for the very near future. Of course, if something else should come up in the meantime....
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. Our fearless volunteer, punicafides, has been working on a para by para French translation. Hopefully, he'll have something soon. Naturally, the translation is slow; but he wants it done properly, I'm sure. MERCI BEAUCOUP, THANK YOU.
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 an earlier 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.
- 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.
- Volume 27 is in P3: Available with Volumes 8 and 11 in P2: Available. Volumes 1, 3 and 18 are in Post-Processing. I know that there are a couple more being prepped.
- 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 in the P3 waiting queue.
- Four volumes have been posted to PGC: 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 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 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, our second, is 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 issues currently undergoing proofing and/or formatting: one each in rounds P1, F1 and F2. There is an issue in under going post-processing and one issue: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 2 (1848) has been posted to PGC.
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.
Comments from Warmheart: Finally ... the death dates for contributors for the first 3 issues have been found and I've sent them off to Simple Simon for verification. As soon as I get the clearance for these issues, I will be uploading the first issue and get it into the P1: Waiting queue.
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
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 ...
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently in P1: Available; two short stories will be coming November 30 for our anniversary blitz: The Christmas Tree and What Christmas is as we get older.
More details and an ÜberProject wiki page to come.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 456 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 | |
|---|---|
| November 2008 | 3 |
| October 2008 | 12 |
| Q3 2008 | 33 |
| Q2 2008 | 63 |
| Q1 2008 | 106 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 456 |
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 "15,000 pages" totals Team USA has the most P3 pages. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3 NEW!!
- uwe-joachim in F2 NEW!!
- Team USA in P3 NEW!!
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1
- Team German in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Daniel G in P1
- De2164 in F1
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F2
- Team Canada in P2 and F1
- DPing with Cats in P2 and F1
- Foofers' Corner in F2
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
I can't give you current figures as the chronjobs counter isn't working properly at the moment. Hopefully that will be rectified very soon.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PGC
At press time, we had 89 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 7 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 105 Silver Star projects in post processing and 92 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 now have 19 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....
