The Official FAQ for
alt.binaries.e(-)book*
- Lite Version -
This FAQ was last updated on June
18, 2001
Copyright by +Chiron+ 2001
Version 0.61
What is this "Lite" version of the FAQ? |
What is the quick and dirty? |
| Limit your posts to 30 e-Books/megabytes per 24 hours |
| Make good use of the 0-(information)file and include all pertinent info. |
| Use informative subject headers that are not too long. Avoid using more than 80 characters! |
| Check your e-books before posting them. |
| Test post in the test groups ONLY. |
| Crosspost into the appropriate subject and group |
| Alert the requestor if you are responding to a request. i.e. "ATTN: <person>" |
| Wait 5 days before reposting. |
| Cancel your "oops" if you do mess up. |
| The only acceptable binaries are e-Books, and their Cover scans/associated images/diagrams. Any other application and/or other non-e-Book-related binaries/executables are NOT acceptable. |
|
You can't make a mistake that will have any impact
on anyone else if you are only downloading, |
Netiquette |
|
In General: If you're reading this, you should already know how to behave on the 'Net. No-one here is going to "mommy" you, or hold your hand(s). Watch how others interact in the groups for pointers on what is and is not expected of you. Don't be annoying and ask/post questions that are already covered in this FAQ. However, if you're simply curious about what "Netiquette" is, you can always read the Netiquette: Frequently Asked Questions Upon making a REQ: Never, *ever* ask for ANYTHING to be sent to you via e-mail. Before you EVER do anything this stupid and annoying, you need to read the Security and Encryption FAQ. General ProceduresQ: What is Rule #1? A:
Lurk, watch, read the
FAQ and learn
before jumping in. Q: What is rule #2? A: Get a well-connected server. Not only will this benefit you (because you will be able to get complete posts), but it will also benefit the group as a whole (since you will have fewer repost requests). How good is your present server? If you are missing more than 10% or so of the parts of multi-part messages, not good. Local ISPs have notoriously bad servers. You have two upgrade paths:
Whatever you have to do or spend will be well worth it in the end. But still, be patient.
Q: What is rule #3 A: BE PATIENT! The point is that, if you don't follow the FAQ, no one has to be patient with you. Q: How long should I wait to REQ a repost? A:
DAYS, not hours.
Anything LESS than a
MINIMUM of **5** days will be |
The best words of advice
that this FAQ could give are these four simple words: |
| You should use them if you're new to binary posting, are using a newsreader that you are unfamiliar with or if you have changed your settings. The test groups (alt.test and alt.binaries.test) are intended for posting tests without disrupting the normal activity in other newsgroups. They are there so you can work out the wrinkles of posting *before* you do it in the e-book groups or any other group. Everybody makes mistakes; wouldn't you rather make yours in a test group, than in front of the world? |
|
The groups I
am aware of relating to e-Books are: |
How do I download this stuff? |
If you *are* looking in the
correct groups, but you are confused because you're seeing
something like:
You can go to Section [1.6] of the
MP3 FAQ and read some of the
excellent information at the links
there. |
I know *where* to look for the e-Books, but I can't find any complete e-Book files. |
| If you consistently see incomplete
files, your news server is probably not receiving all of the parts
that are necessary to get a complete file. The solution? Either find
a new ISP or look into an additional pay-news server.
Information on ISPs can be found at http://thelist.internet.com/ or
in alt.binaries.news-server-comparison
and alt.internet.newservers (available at www.dejanews.com and www.remarq.com) or at: http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Internet_Services/Usenet_Servers/Commercial Some popular pay-newsservers are Altopia, Giganews, Newscene, Newsguy,and Supernews. If you must insist on using your ISP's News-server, just remember that you get what you pay for. Alternatively, there is this website (http://members.home.net/open-news-servers/) |
I'm using Outlook Express and it's
not automatically decoding the e-Book files. |
| Dump Outlook Express. :) No, seriously. If you choose not to take this sound advice, more tips for using Outlook Express can be found either in our quick guide "How to Combine File Sections in Outlook Express" graciously contributed by Daddio, Or alternatively, you might find what you need to learn in the OE User Tips Home Page |
Utilities for the e-book groups |
|
WinZip, this one is a big "duh". The bzip2 and libbzip2 official
home page |
Which Newsreader should I use? |
| Free Agent will do the trick but I'd
recommend getting a copy of Agent for some of the extra features
dealing with filtering and the like.
YA Newswatcher is a free newsreader for the Mac. It's also good for both newsreading and accessing pop3/smtp e-mail accounts. Netscape comes with a pretty good newsreader. If you run linux and you are capable of using the internet then there's no need even suggesting what you should use, you already know it and probably have it. |
Anything else I should know before continuing? |
| With all newsgroups it is a common and recommended practice to "lurk." This means that you follow the newsgroup, watching and learning, before you begin posting. Posting is NOT required. There is no "ratio" or required "trading" in the e-book newsgroups. Leeching is completely acceptable. If you are new to Usenet, or to binary newsgroups in particular, there are a number of basic FAQs that may help you. |
How do I read/use xxx? |
e-Book Readers:
Formatting:If you are
trying to clean up those many text files that come through our
favourite newsgroups or from Gutenberg, this utility will help.
Written by our very own "daddio" in C++, it takes care of the
problems with carriage returns after each line (let that text
wrap!). Converting:
NOTE:
There is *NO* known converter from *.LIT to
anything else (sadly). There is
however a WinTask script written by Technodude that is supposed to automate the process of
using 'copy'n'paste' from non-encrypted .Lit files to
wordpad. This script is for MS Windows/NT/ME/2K users only,
and there's a number of prerequisite programs that must be
installed before you can use it. Much of the info on the following table was shamelessly stolen from Memoware. They may be updating more frequently than we and there is lots of other good info on their page. Have a look. Advisory: Memoware seems dedicated to the Palm platform so their wording is usually aimed at conversions from Palm O/S to or from something else, BUT many of these programs can be used to convert back to the PC to a very portable format like text. Key: Notes:
|
How do I request e-Books? |
| The most obvious answer is to
request it in one of the e-Book groups and then hope that
some kind soul will upload it for you. It may be
honored.
Look in the
group(s) and observe how others are making their
requests. Some important tips:
|
How do I make an e-Book? |
|
Making your
own e-Books from involves a certain level of skill, and sometimes
more than a few steps. IT IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED THAT YOU DO NOT POST ANY O/S SPECIFIC FORMATSA good rule of thumb to use in your posting would
be to ask yourself the following question: "Can someone take this book I have made and convert it to something else?" If your answer is "Yes" - Post it. If the answer is "No." or "I'm not sure" - Don't. The only conceivable exception to this would be unless there is no other choice in the matter, i.e. a new e-Book that's been purchased, or "borrowed" and is unavailable in any other format. Or, that there is a *specific* amount of intrinsic value that is added by posting in a certain format (i.e. images, diagrams, etc.) like PDF. Your personal preference for non-essential things like "bookmarking" or the ability to look up further information about words in a book ARE NOT enough justification for you to post in a format that makes in inaccesible to others.Other than those few exceptions, it's simply not cool to post a LIT, or any *other* non-convertable format. |
Scanning Tips and Know-how |
|
Before you start to scan you have to ask yourself, "What titles do I have, and have they been posted already?" citizen513 is a good resource to locate titles already scanned or those that are in progress. Posting the question to the group is also a good idea in case someone is scanning it but didn't tell anyone. Please note that once you have scanned, you may submit your title to the citizen513 listing -- although our ever vigilant citizen seems to monitor titles without our help, just in case. Things to consider about a scanner: If you're scanning multiple books and have old copies you don't care about then a sheet feeder can be nice. You simply cut off the binding and drop the book quickly through the scanner. Or ... at least as quickly as your scanner goes. That's another thing to look at. How long does it take to scan a page? Faster might be better, unless you like proofreading page one while number two is whirring in the background. What
software to use? The favourites are generally: Finereader Scanning books can be a very lonely and boring process, it's understandable that you will miss some errors. If you give your books version numbers then when a correction is made the number can be updated and people will know which version is further along. |
I've made my e-Books and it's time
to name them. |
|
Even though
some people would like there to be a naming convention, there are
far too many different ideas of what would be "best". The
general consensus is that the full title of the book and the name
of the author *at least* should be included. Including
all of these key words in the subject line will help people decide
whether or not they want your post. ie:
[$$$]Author_-_title(ver.formats).$$$ Additional things to consider: There are
certain "flags" that are *strongly suggested* that you use to label
your post(s). These flags would ensure that those parties who are
*not* interested in your post would be able to set their
Kill-filters to ignore them. Including a version number, will help in comparing this post with previous copy downloaded. Will also hopefully remind others that proofreading and reposting is always appreciated. If you are
posting a multi-book set it can be nice to prefix the title with
01, 02, 03, etc so that readers know the order of the series.
eg: Also keep in mind that non-MS Windows platforms, especially the Mac, do not have the same long filename features that MS Windows and other OS users have become accustomed to. There's been some discussion that it would be best to put the same information used in naming the file, *INSIDE* of the file itself. This is a very good idea actually, and it is fully recommended. You may find sorting the newsgroup by Author a good way to keep files posted by Mac users in more organized fashion. There is no single answer, but AT LEAST put the author name and the title of the book in the name of the file. That way everybody has all of the information necessary to rename their e-Books as they wish. |
Cool, I've named all of my
e-Books properly, and I'm ready to post. |
| Yeah, there's a couple of things you
should be aware of. First of all, please actually LOOK at
your books. Are there any errors in them? Do they cut
off before the book is over? Is it uncorrected? Are there missing
images/chapters? All of these things should be mentioned with your post. |
What should I know before posting? |
| Limit your posts to 35 e-Books/megabytes per 24 hours |
| Make good use of the 0-(information)file and include all pertinent info. |
| Use informative subject headers that are not too long. Avoid using more than 80 characters! |
| Check your e-books before posting them. |
| Test post in the test groups ONLY. |
| Crosspost into the appropriate subject and group |
| Alert the requestor if you are responding to a request. i.e. "ATTN: <person>" |
| Wait 5 days before reposting. |
| Cancel your "oops" if you do mess up. |
| The only acceptable binaries are e-Books, and their Cover scans/associated images/diagrams. Any other application and/or other non-e-Book-related binaries/executables are NOT acceptable. |
What should I put in the subject header of my post? |
| You should include the name
of the book, the author, and the format. Test your
post in a test group so that you know what information your posting
agent posts automatically. REMEMBER: Whatever you put in the subject header, keep the total length under 80 characters or some people will not be able to read it all. If you have done anything that would be considered unconventional, you might want to include that in the subject header, and you definitely want to mention it in the 0-file [4.10]. |
What about the zero-file (0/x)? |
| A zero-file is a simple text entry in the body of your post to which the binary then gets attached. Most newsreaders will create it if you simply compose a text post and then include the binary as an attachment. The zero-file will then be part zero of the total number of parts and the first part of the binary will be part one, etc. The zero-file should contain ANY and ALL pertinent information about the post. Another common practice is to include an .nfo file as an attachment preceeding or following your binary posts to describe the post rather than or in addition to a zero- file. An .nfo file is just a .txt file that has been given an .nfo extension to denote that it contains iNFOrmation about the posting. |
How many lines per segment should I use when I post? |
| Try setting your segment size to something between 3200 and 5000 lines. 5000 lines is usually fine, but there are news servers that are filtering anything over 256k. |
Where should I post my e-Books? |
| You should post your e-Book(s) to the main e-Book binary group (alt.binaries.e-Books). If you're going to post a whole bunch of books, then you should use the appropriate sub-group (*.floods), and / or to the appropriate "subject" group, i.e. *.technical for technical manuals / computer books and the like, and *.rpg for role-playing game related books. Occasionally, if there's a high enough demand for what you're offering, it might be appropriate to crosspost to two or more groups at the same time. Contrary to the popular misconception, a crosspost does not take up extra space, and it allows more people to find your post(s) much more easily. |
Why should I crosspost the files? Doesn't that eat up bandwidth and disk space? |
| No, crossposting does not eat up bandwidth or disk space. Crossposting DOES NOT mean making your post TWICE. It means that you include both newsgroups in the "Newsgroups:" header of your post. Each news server will only carry one copy of your post, but it will provide two separate "pointers" to that file. It actually can save space. If someone posts a book in main, someone else posts in the subject group, and yet another posts in the free* group, and nobody crossposts, then nobody notices the same thing got posted three times and two extra posts of the book are a waste of space and bandwidth. |
My news server doesn't carry the subject groups so I can't crosspost to them. ...Or can I? |
| Sure you can. When you crosspost, the information in your "newsgroups" header propagates to the other servers along with your post. As long as your server carries at least the first of the groups listed in the header, it should accept your post and propagate it (and all of the header information) on to other servers. And if those other servers carry the subject groups, then pointers to your post will appear in all the specified newsgroups. |
How do I post multiple e-Books at once? |
| If you're using Forte's
Agent as your newsreader, there's a utility named
"Agent Post" that was written to work specifically
with it. It automates the queueing of the files, allows you
to customize the subject line, and to select multiple
newsgroups, all from a simple, and easy to use interface. Agent Post may be found at: http://www.skuz.net/madhat/agent/util.html#902 Alternatively, many people find Power-Post 200 to be equally simple and effective. Power-Post 2000 can be found at : http://Net-Toys.8k.com/. |
I
thought I had it all set up right, but I made a mess. |
| Cancel your unfinished posts. Most newsreaders will allow you to easily cancel your own posts. Read the help file. The unusable pieces of your post do nothing but consume space on the news server and you should cancel them. For more on canceling posts see Sections [4.19] [4.20] and [4.21] of the MP3 FAQ. |
So, I've got a couple hundred
e-Books and a cable modem. |
|
NO! there is a
daily posting cap. NO MORE than 35 megs worth of files within any 24 hour period THIS APPLIES EVEN WHEN YOU ARE FILLING REQUESTS. The posting
limit is not an attempt to restrict *what* is being
posted. Flooding the groups pushes other posts off the servers. Don't flood these groups. (Use the *.flood(s) for that purpose) |
What about reposts? |
| Wait a
couple of days. Then repost only the missing parts (you are using Agent Post/Power-Post 2000, right?) Wait at least 5 days before considering any complete repost. The people who didn't get it the first time often don't get it the second time either, so be aware, and be prepared to tell folks to wait. |
But people keep requesting the same books. What do I tell them? |
|
Reply to
their requests with a message that tells them when you plan on
reposting it. 1.) Ignore
them |
Should I share other programs/executables with the group? |
| In a word: NO! If they are freely available on the WWW or ftp, do not post the binaries on Usenet. Just post a message in the group that includes the WWW/FTP address to let people know where they can find it. |
Whoops! |
| You should not only post a brief apology to the discussion group, but you should also cancel the post. Clean up your mess and free up the server space. Most news servers allocate different amounts of space for the binary groups than they do for the non-binary groups, so stop hogging all of the non-binary space with your misplaced binary. |
Can I post book cover scans in the e-Books binary group(s)? |
| Sure. Even though they are not e-Books *technically* it is acceptable to post accompanying cover scans along with the book(s) themselves. |
Should I zip (arj, rar, jar, gzip etc) my files before uploading? |
| In general, Yes. If your book consists of multiple files, or is rather large, it's best to compress the multiple files into a single archive. If the book is *really* big (say, 5 megs or more) It's best to compress the files into multiple volumes, as larger files usually do not get propogated correctly. |
But, I don't use a MS Windows-based PC. What about me? |
|
First and foremost:
Congratulations! :) The PowerMac Sub-FAQ - the definitive word on the Mac Pure Mac Utilities Archive - lots of links to various tools for the Mac. The Mac Orchard - Macintosh Internet applications (including newsreaders) For Unix/Linux - Links related to Unix/Linux e-Book software Gnome Alternative Rocket Librarian - Gnarly is a substitution for the software that comes with the NuvoMedia Rocket eBook. This project contains both Gnarly (written in C above Gnome) and Merlin (written in Java). In addition, the tk for the eRocket protocol is released as LGPL. rbmake - Rbmake is both a library of routines and a set of command-line utilities that enables a user to transform content into Rocket Ebook format (.rb) files and back again (unencrypted files only). freebooks - A book about how to create free books, by members of the freebooks discussion group. The license is listed incorrectly, and apparently can't be changed. The correct license is OPL 1.0 and GFDL 1.1. tkbook - This is an eText and eBook Reader with KDE look & feel but written in TCL/TK. (Browser like) eBooks can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg (http://promo.net/pg) Acrobat 4.05 Reader with Search: English versions - Self Explanatory |
Internet Sources for e-Books |
| Project Gutenberg - Large
repository of classical Public Domain e-Books. If it wasn't written
within the last 25-50 years you should probably check P.G. before
posting for the book in this newsgroup.
tip: There is a program interface to 'Digital Library of Project Gutenberg texts' called "eLibrary" -- just search ZDNet for it. It downloads the current booklist which you can then search, sort and flag to download all the files you want. - The German version of the Gutenberg site. Memoware - All manner of digital readings, most ready for the Palm O/S. Digital Library - The site contains links to most of the Gutenberg texts plus tons of other stuff Baen Books - Science Fiction and Fantasy Books. Barnes and Noble - Reader e-Books for sale. BlackMask - A large set of public domain e-Books converted into Reader format. DotLit - The Book Place. Additional books for Reader. CyclopsMedia - Fiction and non fiction e-Books in Reader format. The first chapter is free and the rest of the book is $5.95. These e-Books are compatible with the Pocket PC. eBookAd.com - A search engine for e-Books for free and for sale. eBook Mall - A website to purchase e-Books. Fictionwise - The latest fiction Reader e-Books available for sale from .50 to 2.00. These e-Books are compatible with the Pocket PC. Ken Mattern's e-Books - e-Books for People Who Think - A variety of content with new and original works. Mystikeep - Original science fiction and fantasy short stories. Personal Injuries by Scott Turow -A current book in Microsoft Reader format. Chapter 1 is free, the rest of the e-Book is currently $10.00 PocketPCPress - This is where Doug Clapp's e-Books went. There's over 200 books here. Reader Books - You can find over 40 e-Books from author Jack London here. SMARTpocket e-Books- Electronic versions of our military reference SMARTbooks -- by The Lightning Press. Designed with all levels of officers, warrants and noncommissioned officers in mind, SMARTbooks can be used as a study guides, as lesson plans and as quick reference guides during tactical operations, training and Army professional development courses. |
Miscellany |
| Microsoft Self Publish Information
General
MS-Reader resources can be found on the Microsoft Reader Website |