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Archive-name: galactic-guide/faq Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-Modified: 1995/02/10 Version: II.1.5 _____ _____ _____ ______ ___ ____ | __ \ / ____|/ ____|\ | /| ____/ _ \ / __ \ | |__) | | __| | __ \|/ | |__ | |_| | | | | | ___/| | |_ | | |_ |--o--| __|| _ | | | | | | | |__| | |__| | /|\ | | | | | | |__| | |_| \_____|\_____|/ | \|_| |_| |_|\___\_\ Project Galactic Guide Frequently Asked Questions FAQ Mk. II Release 1.5 10 February 1995 This is the Mostly All-New FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) information file for the Usenet group alt.galactic-guide. This file is intended to provide you with answers to your frequently asked questions and is 97% fat-free with no preservatives or artificial flavours. Contents -------- 1.0 What is the alt.galactic-guide newsgroup? 2.0 Who's in charge around here? 2.1 So who do I send articles to? 3.0 Format of the articles 3.1 Article text do's and don'ts 3.2 Article content and legal stuff 3.3 So where can I get article ideas then? 3.4 The article lifecycle 4.0 The PGG Mothership 4.1 Mothership mirror sites 4.2 Mothership directories 4.3 Other ways to get PGG materials 4.4 Supported computer platforms 4.5 A bug in the TG! software 5.0 World-Wide Web (WWW) sites 6.0 Miscellaneous questions ============================================================================= 1.0 What is the alt.galactic-guide newsgroup? ---------------------------------------------- This newsgroup was created for the sole purpose of allowing uninterrupted communication between people involved in Project Galactic Guide. What is this project, you ask? It all started back in, oh, November of 1991 in the alt.fan.douglas-adams newsgroup. For the uninformed, Douglas Adams is the author of a series of humourous s/f books centering on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In these books, the characters write for and frequently consult a sort of electronic encyclopedia which has an entry on just about everything. Paul said, "Hey, why don't we create a REAL guide to the galaxy?" and everyone else said, "Sounds good, let's do it!". So, with great fervor we started working on the skeletal structure of Project Galactic Guide, although at that time, we often called it "The HitchHiker's Guide the Known Galaxy." It was originally supposed to be about REAL things (as opposed to made-up things), but we eventually broke down and decided to incorporate EVERYTHING. So, now we'll take humorous entries about fictitious things (done in the Douglas Adams style, of course), and humorous entries about real things (also done in the Douglas Adams style, of course). ============================================================================= 2.0 Who's in charge around here? --------------------------------- Well, not anyone, really. Er, actually, I suppose there *are* a couple of froods who tend to have a bit more input about things than others, but really it's mostly chaotic. Well, not actually *chaotic* but instead maybe something a bit more like a good recess. The aforementioned Paul Clegg is one of PGG's Founding Fathers. Paul has since retired from active PGG work, but he still lurks around and can often be heard rattling his chains at us. His action figure should be available for the holiday season (along with the PGG Mothership playset), and he might still be available via email at: cleggp@rpi.edu Steve Baker helped get the project rolling with his "The Guide!" software for IBM/MS-DOS machines in the spring of 1992. Steve usually answers to the nom de plume "Steveadelic." Today, Steve's an Editor, the Librarian, Captain of the PGG Mothership, and actively avoids doing required updates and bug fixes to the TG! system. (He claims to be too busy working on Klingon language translation software.) You can send email to Steve at the address: swbaker@saturn.acs.oakland.edu Alexander Lachlan McLintock is the newest PGG Editor, but he's actually been involved with PGG for a long time. His articles are numerous (and often times humourous), his insights are luminous, and his email box is voluminous. Please send articles and other words that rhyme with "numerous" to: alexmc@biccdc.co.uk Roel van der Meulen joined the project in the fall of 1993, and is an active PGG Field Researcher Recruiter (he finds new articles and authors for PGG, in addition to his own work). He also maintains the PGG archives contents file and one of the fine WWW sites. Roel's Internet email address is: vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl Jeff Kramer is compiling the "PGG Report," a regular newsletter with lots of great information about the Project and its activities. He also admin's one of the PGG WWW sites. Jeff is available at: lthumper@bga.com There's a lot of others out there who have contributed t-shirt designs, press card information, great ASCII text art, articles, ideas, suggestions, comments, et al... but to avoid this becoming one of those "Hi folks"-type things, we'll just leave it at that. 2.1 So who do I send articles to? ---------------------------------- Steve and Alex are on-line and available year-round. Steve also has an America Online account -- he's available there as yIlImQo (which is Klingon for "Don't Panic!"). Steve actually collects email accounts (he's up to six different active email accounts, which is really quite a lot of passwords to remember.) To answer the question, however, let's just say that you should send your articles to one of the PGG Editors: swbaker@saturn.acs.oakland.edu -- Steve alexmc@biccdc.co.uk -- Alex We also have a fourth editor, Michael Bravo, who handles articles written in the Russian language. If you have written an article in Russian, please send them to Michael (mbravo@octopus.spb.su). ============================================================================= 3.0 Format of the articles --------------------------- The articles that are accepted are organized by category and compiled in article "archives." Each archive file contains 25 accepted Guide entries. These archives are stored and available for download from the PGG Mothership. We've decided upon a simple ASCII text format for the article entries. The specs on the format are contained in the "article.new" file. It's really pretty simple, with just a few header token-type things that define useful stuff. The fine folks at PGG spent about a year discussing, debating, formulating, postulating, configuring, finalizing, and neglecting a nifty but complex text format. It was complete with crazy text formatting things and lots of other fun and wonderful features, but it never really caught on. Oh well. We're currently investigating the possibilities of porting the article archives into HTML (HyperText Markup Language) for use with html and WWW viewers. For now, however, standard ASCII files are just fine! 3.1 Article text do's and don'ts --------------------------------- Here are some of the guidelines we've established for the contents of PGG articles. Please observe these and your friendly neighbourhood editors will thank you! 1. Please do NOT use TABS! They are very troublesome on different computer platforms. When writing, use spaces with a non-proportional font like Courier or System. 2. Please put TWO spaces after each sentence stop (period, exclamation mark, etc.) That's an old standard which we've adopted. 3. Please check your spelling if possible; authors from around the world have new and different words and slang which we may not be aware of. If we can't figure out the word, based on its context we'll figure it's a new or foreign word... and that's how typo's slip through the cracks! 4. Please read some existing articles before writing your own. You can learn a lot about the format and style of the articles by observation! 3.2 Article content and legal stuff ------------------------------------ You are welcome to write about anything. Yes, no matter how bizarre or crazy, please write about it. Really. Anything. Er, except, we don't want you to regurgitate Adams' material. Not only is this very unoriginal, it's also known as plagiarism. (Unless DNA himself decides to write it for us!) In general, please do NOT copy other people's work or ideas. We don't want the project stopped because we violated some silly copyright law! 3.3 So where can I get article ideas then? ------------------------------------------- We have a PGG Idea Bank, chock full of great ideas that beg for exploring. They're frequently posted to the alt.galactic-guide newsgroup, and all are available on-line at the Mothership. When posting an idea, be sure to include your name and email address for proper credit down the road. Conversely, when using an idea, just go ahead and write your article and credit the idea's originator in the header information. 3.4 The article lifecycle -------------------------- This describes what your Friendly Neighbourhood PGG Editor does and presents "a day in the life of an article" so to speak. Erm, actually, the articles themselves don't really speak much; that's just an expression, so let's carry on. 1) A young, up-and-coming comedian/researcher/student/author/human/whatever stumbles across, gets hit with, becomes infected by, is arrested in, has a good time from, purchases large quantities of, or otherwise comes up with a great idea for an article (or consults the Ideabank, which is sometimes less painful and/or costly). She/he/it/they then write an article about the person/place/thing and send the article to an editor via email. (Please see Section 2.1, above, for info on who the editors are and where to send stuff.) 2) The editor send a message back to the author, stating something like: "Blah blah, thanks for the article, blah blah blah, I'll edit it for format and stuff, blah blah, you'll get it back pretty soon for author confirmation, blah blah, give me all your money, etc. etc." This message is the author's "receipt" that the editor received the article submission. If you don't get one of these, then the editor hasn't received your article yet! 4) The editor edits the article and performs routine grammar and spell- checker things on the article. Note: if the editor thinks that the article (1) violates a copyright law, (2) is a copy of other work, or (3) is hopelessly lame, the editor may nix the article for good. 5) Assuming that everything is fine with the article, the editor then sends it back to the author for "author confirmation." (This is often times abbreviated as A/C. Humm, if the author and the editor had a Direct Connection, would this be AC/DC? My, it must be getting late...) 6) The author reviews the modified article, and then lets the editor know that things are alright. If the author has additional changes with the article, they go back to step one and start over. 7) Once the article is approved, the editor assigns the unique Article ID information and sends the article to the PGG Librarian. The Librarian adds the approved article into the article archives and posts the article to alt.galactic-guide. ============================================================================= 4.0 The PGG Mothership ----------------------- The Mothership is an Anonymous FTP site where you can download PGG info, articles, programs, t-shirt images, reports, and other great stuff. To get to the PGG Mothership, FTP to the following site: Lexical: vela.acs.oakland.edu Numeric: 141.210.10.2 URL: ftp://vela.acs.oakland.edu/pub/galactic-guide When you connect, use the "anonymous" user ID and specify your full Internet email address as the password. The Mothership is "pub/galactic-guide", which is actually just a link to "pub/swbaker". Thus, if you're using an FTP server which doesn't show the logical links, go into the "swbaker" directory. NOTE: When downloading files from the Mothership, be sure you are in BINARY mode. A lot of folks have been sending me email complaining of corrupt .ZIP files, etc... it's because they are trying to get the binary file in ASCII mode (which is the default, unfortunately). You only need to type 'binary' once, but unless you're using a web browser like Mosaic, you MUST type this EVERY TIME you connect. 4.1 Mothership directories --------------------------- The corridors of the Mothership contain many interesting rooms, including: pub/galactic-guide ------------------ This is the place to look for the latest and greatest in articles and other important Project Galactic Guide stuff. Currently, the following article archive files are on-line, each containing up to 25 articles (the current quantity standard): REAL01.NEW "Real" articles (i.e., fact) REAL02.NEW REAL03.NEW REAL04.NEW REAL05.NEW REAL06.NEW REAL07.NEW REAL08.NEW REAL09.NEW SREAL01.NEW "Semi-real" articles (i.e., muddled reality) SREAL02.NEW SREAL03.NEW UREAL01.NEW "Unreal" articles (i.e., fiction) UREAL02.NEW UREAL03.NEW UREAL04.NEW pub/galactic-guide/information ------------------------------ This directory contains general PGG information files, like the alt.galactic-guide Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file, and info on formatting your own text articles for submission to PGG. pub/galactic-guide/archives --------------------------- Here's where you'll find all of the article archives in PK-ZIP format. Check out the file 'ARTICLES.ZIP' and you'll be all set! pub/galactic-guide/theguide --------------------------- The Guide! for DOS is one of the pioneer reader systems of PGG lore. Requirements are an IBM-compatable 286/386/486/Pentium? system, and Ega/Vga color and hard drives are recommended but not required. A mouse is supported but is also not required. This sub-directory contains The Guide!-specific files, like the latest program and executable files, the complete archives pre- processed and ready for use (COMPLETE.ZIP), icons for OS/2, and other support and dox files. pub/galactic-guide/macGuide --------------------------- Here it is, the PGG Guide Reader for Macintosh systems! Yes folks, we finally have one after years of waiting, wondering, and hoping! Come on in and check it out! pub/galactic-guide/Xguide ------------------------- The X Windows Project Galactic Guide article reader system. In this sub-directory are installation files as well as text readme information files. NOTE: This stuff is the source code which needs to be compiled on a unix system which has X, and, most importantly, the Motif widget libraries. pub/galactic-guide/tug ---------------------- This is the sub-directory containing The Unix Guide (TUG!), code, dox, and support information. A new alpha release of TUG! (version 2.1.1pl1) is available in the /pub/galactic-guide/tug/alpha subdirectory. pub/galactic-guide/stguide -------------------------- This contains another cool Project Galactic Guide system, The Atari Guide (TAG!). The files here are 'stgde101.zoo' (the binary archive file containing the programs and documentation) and 'stgde101.zoo.UU' (the ASCII uuencoded version of the file). pub/galactic-guide/amigaguide ----------------------------- A great addition to PGG lore, this is a scripting system to use the AmigaGuide-based system with PGG articles. Both the binary .lha archives and the ASCII uuencoded versions of the .lha files can be found in here. pub/galactic-guide/amiguide --------------------------- This is where you will find an article-reader system for the Amiga computer systems. Both the .lha archive and the uuencoded version of the .lha file can be found here. pub/galactic-guide/archimedes ----------------------------- If you're an Acorn Archimedes user, this directory is for you. In this directory you will find your article reader system in the ever-popular uuencoded spark file format, ready for transfer. Enjoy! pub/galactic-guide/tshirt ------------------------- This directory contains information and illustrations for the Project Galactic Guide T-Shirt design. Many different ideas and images are stored here. Come and see what we may look like when we're "out in the field!" pub/galactic-guide/ideas ------------------------ Want to write a PGG article, but don't have any ideas? Check out this directory! In here are a wealth of article concepts and thoughts, ready for the picking! pub/galactic-guide/fan ---------------------- Here's where you will find all the general Hitchhiker's Guide fan stuff. Among other goodies are the two Hitchhiker's/Star Trek cross-over scripts, .gif pictures, and more! pub/galactic-guide/fan/index ---------------------------- In here is the complete ASCII index of every topic from all five Hitchhiker's books as well as the Radio Scripts! pub/galactic-guide/fan/dgindex ------------------------------ From the makers of the Hitchhiker's Guide Index comes the complete index to the Dirk Gently series... and you can find it all here! 4.2 Mothership mirror sites ---------------------------- If having all of the PGG archives, programs, gif files, and other goodies at one centralized location isn't good enough for you, you may be pleased to know that it isn't! That is to say, the stuff is available from more than one Anonymous FTP site. The PGG Mothership is mirrored at: Lexical: ftp.cs.city.ac.uk Numeric: 138.40.91.9 URL: ftp://ftp.cs.city.ac.uk/pub/galactic-guide 4.3 Other ways to get PGG materials ------------------------------------ There's a lot of BBS systems that carry Project Galactic Guide stuff. Honestly -- I'm positive there's a lot of them... although the FAQ file doesn't really reflect this. Yet. Just give us some time and soon this list will have a lot of numbers. Really. Area/Region BBS Name Number --------------- ------------------------------ ---------------- Mass., USA Sea of Noise +1 203 886 1441 In addition, you may contact one of the following hoopy froods who have volunteered to distribute PGG materials in their local countries. Please email them first, since snail mail addresses have been known to change! Country Contact --------------- ------------------------------ Denmark Christian Moensted Almindingen 66 2860 Soeborg (email: moensted@diku.dk) Sweden Henrik O A Barkman Abrahamsbergsv. 68 S-161 45 Bromma SWEDEN (email: h-bar@obs.ct.se, Fidonet: 2:201/274) United Kingdom Alex McLintock 14 Lynton Avenue St Albans Herts AL1 5PD (email: alexmc@biccdc.co.uk) "UK people can contact me for a copy of the guide for DOS or the Guide for the Acorn Risc machines. Simply send a formatted HD disk, return SAE, and a nice letter. The 'cost' for this service is that you write an article!" United States PGG Batch Mail Center, Midwest Division c/o Ryan Tucker 5055 NE 38th Ave Des Moines, Iowa 50317-8035 (email: rtucker@worf.infonet.net) "I can take anything HD, please supply return postage or your disk will be assimilated, and please try an FTP-Mail server first. :-)" 4.4 Supported computer platforms --------------------------------- While having the articles themselves is pretty fun, actually being able to do something with them is even better. The following computer platforms are supported with PGG article reader systems: o Acorn Archimedes Author contact: Alex McLintock (alexmc@biccdc.co.uk) o Amiga o Atari ST o IBM/MS-DOS Author contact: Steve Baker (swbaker@saturn.acs.oakland.edu) o Macintosh Author contact: Rickard Andersson (rickard@softlab.se) o Unix Author contact: Dave Gymer (dpg@cs.nott.ac.uk) o X Windows Author contact: David Squire (squizz@cs.curtin.edu.au) Each of the programs is available in its own subdirectory on the Mothership. Questions about a particular program's use or functionality should be directed to the program's author or posted to alt.galactic-guide. 4.5 A bug in the TG! software ------------------------------ Yes, it's an imperfect world. Sorry. To add to the chaos, there's an ever-so-slight little glitch in the TG! software for IBM/MS-DOS. Yes, it's true. The program chokes with a Runtime Error when processing a very small minority of articles (in fact, only two articles reveal this problem). The glitch is in Steve's handling of the huffman encoding decryption routine in the TG! reader program, Guide.EXE. The two articles are _Lecture Games_ and _Mating Habits of the McBain Initial_. These fantastic articles have numerous long ASCII lines and drawings that are throwing off the algorithm a bit. Steve plans to fix this problem and add some long overdue enhancements to the system. "We apologize for the inconvience." ============================================================================= 5.0 World-Wide Web (WWW) sites ------------------------------- For those who can view html documents (including users of Mosaic, Cello, and WinWeb), there are a number of froody WWW sites: URL: http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/index.html Operator: Roel van der Meulen URL: http://aurora.etsiig.uniovi.es:3080/~~pippin/ Operator: Charles Briscoe-Smith URL: http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/pgg/guide.html Operator: Nick Williams URL: http://www.realtime.net/~lthumper/ Operator: Jeff Kramer URL: http://www.willamette.edu/pgg/ Operator: James Tilton These all have links to the Article Archives, the PGG Mothership, format and article information, and many have on-line archive search and article retrieval capabilities. ============================================================================= 6.0 Miscellaneous questions ---------------------------- Q: What's with 42, who is Douglas Adams, and why should I carry a towel? A: Please see the alt.fan.douglas-adams Usenet group; the a.f.d-a FAQ has answers to all of these questions and more! Q: How can I get a PGG Press Card? A: As soon as they're finished, you'll be able to get an Official PGG Press Card from Jason Kohles (jason.kohles@m.cc.utah.edu). Q: What good are the PGG Press Cards? A: They may actually get you in some places, and besides they look cool. There's an article on what to do with your Press Card; check it out! Q: What's up with the PGG t-shirts? A: Among others, Stephane Lussier (stef@phoque.info.uqam.ca) has come up with some great graphics and motif ideas for the Official PGG t-shirt. They're available for review on the Mothership. As soon as we decide on how the shirts will look, and as soon as someone makes the shirts, then you'll be able to order them! For more information, just follow the t-shirt threads on alt.galactic-guide. Q: Do you need more editors? A: Not really. Alex has now joined the ranks of Editordom, and now we're pretty much all set. Thanks for asking, however! If you really want to help the project, we can always use more researchers, reporters, and recruiters! Q: Is there a Macintosh Guide Reader? A: YES! Please see Section 4.4, above. Q: Is there a Microsoft Windows-based Guide Reader? A: Sorta. It's being developed. Under construction. Something like that. Q: Is this the end of the PGG FAQ? A: Yes. Q: Really? A: I mean it this time.