Signal Gk - the Fanzine re-issue

[Scott Martin]

Volunteers?

I'd like to see all 13 issues up, myself.

Well, as they get re-edited and updated, I've agreed to continue parking them on the website where they can be "deep linked" with impunity.

I suspect that the editing would happen faster if certain editors got emails or PM's volunteering to do some of this often-tedious and low-thanks work

Scott Martin

 

[Theophilus]

Well, as they get re-edited and updated, I've agreed to continue parking them on the website where they can be "deep linked" with impunity.

I suspect that the editing would happen faster if certain editors got emails or PM's volunteering to do some of this often-tedious and low-thanks work

Scott Martin

Who, What, When, Where, How?

Who do I contact? (ie. who are the editors)
What do I need to do? (just edit spelling, or format etc.)
When would I need to begin and finish by?
Where do I get issues 5-13 or parts there of to edit? Do I need to come up with dead tree versions. Are there scans available? IF so are they pdf format (obviously if they were they would be posted)?
How do I go about all this? I'm about as computer literate as a rock, and only have snail speed internet here.

 

[Starviking]

Normally I'd jump at the chance to contribute - but our teething baby is biting chunks out of my free time.

 

[joneshoward]

Wow -- well, sign me up to help, then. But who do I contact? I have no idea who to contact, where they are, etc.

Willing and able,

Howard Andrew Jones

 

[Theophilus]

Alas, this is what I said over one month ago, but there was no reply.

 

[Jae]

A certain Editor???

Well, as they get re-edited and updated, I've agreed to continue parking them on the website where they can be "deep linked" with impunity.

I suspect that the editing would happen faster if certain editors got emails or PM's volunteering to do some of this often-tedious and low-thanks work

Scott Martin

Hi Scott ,
Which editors? JFI I agreed to Leighton rescanning all the original material as-is and repost it (I even got as far a few years ago as (re)writing 90% of Encyclopedia Dagudashaag but never got any further) but as my day job is CEO of a UK charity and Dad to my 4 adopted kids, I knew I'd never have time to get involved beyond that.

Theophilus/rancke et al, if the stuff you want to use (Scanians, Aquans, Jala'lak etc.) are my personal work, then yes you can reuse it in an adventure etc. PROVIDED a) you acknowledge the original source and b) you send me a copy. Heck, I might even be able to provide some additional background if you ask nicely!!!

If Leighton's gone underground, let me know and I may dig out all my personal copies (each issue also included a number of extras such as the library data etc. which added to the extra fun) and poss. just do a pdf scan of the remaining issues, but only if its not stepping on Leighton's ambitions in any way.

Jae

 

[Jae]

Ok, so as I thought my scanner isn't up to scanning and converting such old material and I don't want to risk stepping on Leighton's toes so...

If someone has the capacity to scan and save as a pdf and wants to volunteer, I will send that member (preferably here in the UK) one photocopy of issue 13 (I'll see if I can also track down the library data for that issue but I had originally sent the material to BITs as they were considering printing it as a domain book - when they decided against it the returned the material but unfortunately not all the library data came back so I may not have it all) - that way I'll start at the end and work back towards Leighton.

The volunteer can either OCR into a PDF like Leighton OR just save the scans into a single PDF and send both myself and Scott Martin copies to distribute then I'm happy to proceed. If that works I'll do the same with 12 and so on back to 5 if necessary.

Any takers?

 

[Theophilus]

I will if no one closer to your location is available. Of course I'm located in the middle of some wayward colonies so getting issues here may present a problem.

 

[Jae]

Theo,

I love a willing volunteer (some of my best friends are wayward colonists) send me your postal details via signalgk@aol.com and I'll happily send you the stuff I've identified from that issue.

Jae

 

[E.D.Quibell]

Any takers?

Happy to help if needed.

South Coast UK.

Regards,

Ewan

 

[Jae]

Ewan & Theo,

Thanks for volunteering - both of you send me your postal addresses to signalgk@aol.co.uk and I'll post one of you issue 13 and the other issue 12 on the understanding that you post the finished issue with both Scott and myself.

Let's see if this works before we do anything else.

-----------------------
Update 15th Jan

Ok, I've posted off copies of issues 12 and 13 (the final two) and three subsector data to my two willing volunteers today - I have also started work again on the Encyclopaedia: Dagudashaag - a 300+ page composite of all the library data we had complied and some that never saw the light of day. So far I have as far as G in draft form. One of the reasons the original never saw the light of day before was the publication of First Survey and other 'official' publications that renamed the majority of planets so I have tried to come up with a realistic compremise which has meant renaming about 50% of the systems to match First Survey planetary names but when you've over a thousand entries to reconcile and check it can be a major headache.

Many of the entries will end up with three names (though not necessarily three entries) - our DDT original, First Survey and what it is now... IF (and I admit it's a big if) I finish this, I will put it out as a free PDF (PDF's?) to anyone who wants to download a copy...

 

[Jae]

SCAN OF ISSUE 13 (with Library Data) NOW AVAILABLE

Thanks to Ewan's heroic efforts, Issue 13 and one of the library data is available to download...

These are SCANS not OCR'd copies such as Leighton had been trying to put out so they are very large files. They are temporarily stored on 4shared and may need to be removed at some point.

Hopefully a fully OCR'd version might be available in the future and I'm hoping that Scott might agree to host long-term.

For the links, go to http://www.dot-communications.org.uk/modx/index.php?id=234

Theo's working on a scan of Issue 12 once it arrives.

 

[Jae]

Feedback Craved!!!

If you do decide to download Issue 13 etc. I'd really like to get your comments and feedback.

 

[Theophilus]

I've tried twice to download this file, I have dial-up internet an it took me two and a half hours to download 22.7 meg

As soon as I try to open it I get a damaged file message.
Anyone else tried to download yet?
Any problems?

Is it possible to compress this file? I know Beech compressed the first issue of frontier report down from 14 meg to 4 meg.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

I tried to compress it, but it only took off half a meg so it's not worth bothering to.

Regards,

Ewan

 

[Jae]

Relocating Files

I have now loaded the files onto my own server but even zipping both files together they are still weighing in together at 27mb!!!

This is why Leighton was so concerned to OCR and reformat so it resembled the original of each issue and why it took so long between issues.

Hopefully moving it from 4shared to my own server should mean they can be accessed easier but I appreciate this is a stopgap - until/unless someone OCRs the files and recreates it as it was, this is the only way anyone will have access to reissues of this magazine and yes it will not be fair to dial-ups in particular, sorry!

Now if you go to http://www.dot-communications.org.uk/modx/index.php?id=234 the links will point to my copy of the files rather than 4shared and I know these are not damaged.

Now if anyone can download and has the time/energy to OCR and reformat???

Jae

 

[inexorabletash]

Throwing out a crazy idea:

Google Docs will allow you to upload a PDF and then allow others to view it as an image - it will convert PDF pages on the fly. It does so "progressively" so the image download size - unless you zoom in - will be far less than the PDF size.

This could make the files somewhat accessible to those on limited bandwidth connections.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

Now if anyone can download and has the time/energy to OCR and reformat???

Jae

They are already OCRd, as they are searchable PDFs. All you need to do is cut and past the text and reformat as nesseary. In fact it might be easier because you can see what you are trying to achieve.

Regards,

Ewan

 

[aramis]

They are already OCRd, as they are searchable PDFs. All you need to do is cut and past the text and reformat as nesseary. In fact it might be easier because you can see what you are trying to achieve.

Regards,

Ewan

"searchable" is the LARGEST size for PDF; it retains the scanned image, and adds the OCR text "underneath" the image.

 

[Theophilus]

I've tried twice to download this file, I have dial-up internet an it took me two and a half hours to download 22.7 meg

As soon as I try to open it I get a damaged file message.
Anyone else tried to download yet?
Any problems?

Is it possible to compress this file? I know Beech compressed the first issue of frontier report down from 14 meg to 4 meg.

I went to my ISP provider and used their high speed internet to download this from the other site (boy, 25 meg a second, why can't I get that here at home) brought it home and tried it. Got the same file damage message.

Anyone else had any problems?