Subject: PGG FAQ Mk II, Rel. 2.3 Date: 7 November 1997 Archive-name: galactic-guide/faq URL: http://megadodo.com/pggfaq.html Posting-Frequency: fortnightly | Last-Modified: 1997/11/7 | Version: II.2.3 | \ | / \ | / _____ _____ _____ \ | / ______ ___ ____ | __ \ / ____|/ ____| \ | / | ____/ _ \ / __ \ | |__) | | __| | __ \|/ | |__ | |_| | | | | -| ___/| |-|_ | |-|_ |---*---| __|| _ | |--| |- | | | |__| | |__| | /|\ | | | | | | |__| | |_| \_____|\_____| / | \ |_| |_| |_|\___\_\ Project Galactic Guide/Frequently Asked Questions / | \ FAQ Mk. II Release 2.3 7 Nov 1997 / | \ | New and Improved! | Fortified with Niacin! This is the Mostly All-New FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) 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 now over 98% fat-free with no preservatives or artificial flavours. Some assembly required. You must be present to read, and in a measurable state of consciousness. 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 3.5 What Do You Get If You Multiply Six By Nine? 4.0 The PGG Mothership 4.1 Mothership Directories [**] 4.2 Mothership Mirror Sites 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 [**] 5.1 Other Internet Sites [**] 6.0 Publicity [**] 6.1 Fully Spammable Marketing Pitch [**] 7.0 Miscellaneous Questions [**] 8.0 Credits [**] [**] Indicates new stuff (revised and/or added) since the last FAQ release. Disclaimers =========== The PGGFAQMKII is for external use only. It will not cure baldness, rickets, or halitosis. Do not read the PGGFAQMKII while in the bath or shower. If the PGGFAQMKII changes color, begins to smoke, or emits a high, piercing noise put it down and get away immediately. If the PGGFAQMKII is swallowed, do not attempt to induce vomiting. The PGGFAQMKII may stick to certain types of skin. Any resemblance between the PGGFAQMKI and any of Shakespeare's sonnets, whole or in part, is purely coincidental. Do not taunt the PGGFAQMKII, or place it in certain types of gas cooker. The effects of long-term exposure to the PGGFAQMKII are not known. User assumes all risks. The PGGFAQMKII has no warranties, expressed or implied. You have been warned. What Is... ========== 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 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!" except for Ringo, who was sulking about never getting to do much of the singing. 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 to 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, or in your very own humorous style), and humorous entries about real things (ditto). People ====== [**] 2.0 Who's In Charge Around Here? ------------------------------------- Well, not anyone, really. That's what we say in public. But actually, there _are_ a couple of froods who have a bit more input about things than others, and they call themselves (deep voice) _The Executive_. These are merely editors, ex-editors and other people closely involved in the daily businesses of PGG. They evaluate new ideas for PGG and eventually help implement them. The editors who are enjoying a well deserved lunch are Paul Clegg, Steve Baker, Alex McLintock, Greg Wait, Chris Tann, and James Crook. The aforementioned Paul Clegg is one of PGG's Founding Fathers. Paul had retired from active PGG work, but was forcibly recalled to active duty to fill the void left by the sudden departure of Steve (see below). He now maintains that most official of PGG sites on the web: MEGADODO.COM. Paul's action figure should be available for the holiday season (along with the PGG Mothership playset), and he seems to be available via email at: cleggp@megadodo.com Steve Baker helped get the project rolling with his "The Guide!" software for IBM/MS-DOS machines in the spring of 1992. He was extremely active as an Editor, the Librarian, the Mothership Captain, and PGG Spam Minister. He has since retired to his thoughts and his dreams, but has been known to lurk about the newsgroup at all hours. Write to him at: steve@megadodo.com Alexander Lachlan McLintock has been involved with PGG for a long time as a field researcher and the very active third editor, and is also featured in the 1996 PGG Swimsuit Calendar. The resulting popularity forced him to withdraw from public appearances in the summer of 97, and start munching sandwiches with the rest of the retired crew. His articles are numerous (and often times humourous), his insights are luminous, and his email box is voluminous. Please send other words that rhyme with "numerous" to: alex@megadodo.com Greg Wait became, shortly after Steve's retirement, the next editor for PGG in the dual hopes of lessening Alex's burden and keeping Greg off the streets. Greg enjoys hunting and gathering, and hopes one day to walk erect. Most of the time he says he feels misunderstood, but nobody knows what he means. He can be reached by sub-etha radio at: zooey@behindtheboat.com Chris Tann, an experienced field researcher, upon venturing on the twisting road of editing, was abducted by alien lobster beings, and is now held on the planet Beta Fford until PGG pays a generous ransom. We wish you all the best, Chris! When/if he returns, you can mail him at: c-tann@ca.es2.com James Crook was found in a block of ice close to the north pole by an expedition of mountain bikers. He was defrosted and ate the entire crew. Although he calls himself Starbug, he claims he doesn't remember anything about his previous life. For some reason he took an interest in joining Project Galactic Guide, as a field researcher and editor. He is now in search for other editors, for his lunch, but can still be contacted for interrogation at: james@megadodo.com Editors Roel van der Meulen, Aaron Rice, and John Murphy remained at their desks to edit all those new entries, train new editors and do some other stuff. Roel van der Meulen joined the project in the fall of 1993 and was soon addicted. After Steve retired in 1994? he assumed the duties of PGG Librarian and purchased the requisite bi-focals. Prior to taking on his new role, Roel was also an active PGG Field Researcher Recruiter (finding new articles and authors for PGG), but took a step back in that activity to for purposes of dedication. Work forced him to distribute some of his activities among other enthusiasts, which has now given him the title of Distributor. He still writes the odd article here and there, edits, and maintains the PGG archives contents file and one of the fine WWW sites. Roel's Internet email address is: roel@megadodo.com Pondering on the link between buskers and crop circles, in the winter of 1996, something snapped and Aaron Rice's brain seemed to get a will of its own: he suddenly burst out in a frenzy of article submissions,editing and web page designing. He took on the job of Review Coordinator early 1997. We have locked him safely in his office and cancelled his appointment with the neurologist. His contact with the outside world is via: aaron@megadodo.com John Murphy, in between plays, writes about plays, and plays editor. This playful chap is available for playing at: john@megadodo.com In addition, Jeff Kramer, Stephane Lussier, and Mark Seaborn have made, and are making, various contributions to the PGG experience. Jeff Kramer is currently being held in a state of hibernation until such time as the galactic economy rebounds sufficiently so that the average frood can once again afford his smashingly successful "PGG Report," a regular newsletter whose first three issues it took the equivalent of several large deciduous forests to print. Jeff is awakened periodically to shout randomly at the newsgroup, or contribute an article about how very cold the world seems. E-mail will reach Jeff (when awake) at: lthumper@bga.com Stephane Lussier (remember to pronounce it in French, or he will never speak with you again) is our resident artist, with us from the beginning. He stays in bed for most of the days, but sometimes suddenly erupts and produces some brilliant PGG logo or T-shirt design, or finds a totally new and unthought of way of presenting articles. You can poke him a bit (but don't blame us if it goes wrong!) at: harmless@mostly.com Mark Seaborn gets his best ideas on the toilet, and has consequently installed his computer hardware there. He first excreted many, many review comments, after which he thought it would be a fun idea to help promote PGG among the ignorant, and become the official Press officer. Mark also implemented the Crap Book, for defecational pleasure around the world, and the article mailing list. Recently he has also found time to try and become editor. Knock on his door by mailing to: press@megadodo.com There are many more out there who have contributed t-shirt designs, press card information, great ASCII text art, articles, ideas, stool samples, 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? -------------------------------------- To answer in a less round-about, more direct, that is to say straight-out, shoot from the hip kind of manner. To get right to the question, and more importantly, the answer, let's just say that you should send your articles to the PGG Article Distributor at submit@megadodo.com, who will pass them on to whichever editor is most able to handle it. [**] Alternatively, Alex (alex@megadodo.com) has put up a web page to accept articles. The URL is http://www.arcfan.demon.co.uk/pgg/submit.htm. As to the status of the editors, Paul, Steve, Greg, Alex, James, and trainee Chris are away on indefinite lunch breaks, leaving us staffed with only three rather busy editors: Roel, Aaron, and John. They are currently training Mark Seaborn, Matt Baier, Rob Martingano, Don Hills, and Daniel Noll to one day become fully fledged editors. If you are interested in doing any editing yourself, and have the dedication and time to stay on it for quite some time, please contact Roel (roel@megadodo.com) and/or Aaron (aaron@megadodo.com). [**] Aspiring writers or editors could do worse than refer to the "FORMAT.NEW" file, which details the current article format. Articles ======== 3.0 Format Of The Articles -------------------------- The articles that have been accepted are organized by category and compiled in article "archives." Each archive file contains 25 (or less, depending on if we had to remove one) accepted Guide entries. These archives are stored and available for download from the PGG Mothership (see 4.0). We've decided upon a simple ASCII text format for the article entries. The most up-to-date specs on the format are contained in the "FORMAT.NEW" file. It's really pretty simple, with just a few header token-type things that define useful stuff. Please note that some information in the old "ARTICLE.NEW" file is out of date. 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 (the "TEXT.NEW" file), but it never really caught on. Oh well. We never cease to investigate 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 typos 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! The article you are writing may be included in _our_ guide, and we'd like it to be the best guide in the galaxy, so be sure to write as best you can. 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! Official Copyright Stance For Project Galactic Guide: "By submission of an article to Project Galactic Guide, the author agrees to release the right to reproduce and distribute their article to Project Galactic Guide. The author retains all other intellectual property rights as according to the international copyright laws. Project Galactic Guide further reserves the right to cease distribution and reproduction of the article in the future, at which point all rights revert back to the author." Note that this little disclaimer wasn't written by a court-appointed attorney, a hotshot copyright lawyer, or anyone with more credentials than a guy who's read the little disclaimer inside the covers of a few novels, who's watched a few "People's Court" episodes, and who just about passes for acceptable in a grey wig. 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 sometimes posted to the alt.galactic-guide newsgroup, and all are available on-line at the Mothership. When posting an original idea, be sure to include your name and email address for proper credit down the road. Conversely, when using an idea from someone else, write the article, being sure to 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(oid)/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 the article distributor via email (submit@megadodo.com), who puts it in the queue (see http://megadodo.com/submitted/). [**] 2) The distributor sends a message back to the author, stating something like: "Blah blah, thanks for the article, blah blah blah, I'll send it to somebody to edit it for format and stuff, blah blah, you'll hear from an editor pretty soon, blah blah, give me all your money, etc. etc." [**] This message and/or the appearance in the queue are the author's "receipt" that the distributor received the article submission. If you don't see one of these, then the distributor hasn't looked in his mailbox or hasn't received your article yet. [**] 3) On the request of editors with some spare time, the distributor sends articles roughly by queue position, but with priority to articles from first-time authors. (Please see Section 2.1, above, for info on who the active editors are.) [**] 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.) 6) The author reviews the modified article, and then lets the editor know whether things are alright. If the author has additional changes with the article, they send a revised version of the edited article to the editor and another round of editing begins. 7) Once the article is editor-approved, the editor will mail the article to the Review Coordinator. When the review coordinator has received enough articles, he posts the articles to the newsgroup, alt.galactic-guide, and puts them up on http://megadodo.com/review/ for peer review. Everyone who wants can post quality reviews to the newsgroup, with copies sent by email to the original author and the Review Coordinator (review@megadodo.com), for a certain period after the initial posting, as indicated by the review coordinator. A dedicated group of people send in reviews to almost every article; they are are called the quality committee. [**] 8) At the end of the review period, a final decision is made by the Review Coordinator as to whether or not the article is fit to be finally added to the archives. An article can be rejected for any number of reasons, but hopefully the reviewers need only be concerned with the intellectual quality of the article -- whether it's funny enough (or useful enough), well written, and so on. If an article has a few obvious typos in it, it may still be passed on for addition, once those typos are corrected (these typos may be corrected by the Review Coordinator). An article _can_ be rejected by the reviewers simply because it contains too many typographical/grammatical problems. 9) If the article is accepted, it is passed on to the Librarian, who slaps a unique article ID number on it, and adds it to the archives as accepted. If the article is rejected, it may be re-submitted (hopefully with the changes suggested by the review committee), and we begin all over again with step three. 3.5 What Do You Get If You Multiply Six By Nine? ------------------------------------------------ Fifty-four. The Mothership ============== 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 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 Netscape, 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 REAL10.NEW REAL11.NEW REAL12.NEW REAL13.NEW REAL14.NEW REAL15.NEW REAL16.NEW [**] REAL17.NEW [**] REAL18.NEW [**] SREAL01.NEW "Semi-real" articles (i.e., muddled reality) SREAL02.NEW SREAL03.NEW SREAL04.NEW SREAL05.NEW UREAL01.NEW "Unreal" articles (i.e., fiction) UREAL02.NEW UREAL03.NEW UREAL04.NEW UREAL05.NEW UREAL06.NEW NEW.NEW contains all articles that were added to the archives during last archive update. Some other articles tell you a little something about formatting of articles (ARTICLE.NEW, FORMAT.NEW), the titles and subtitles of all entries (CONTENTS.NEW), and about the review process (REVIEW.NEW). [**] * 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/archives Here's where you should find all of the article archives in PK-ZIP format. The file name is 19970928.ZIP (YYYYMMDD.ZIP), which reflects the last time the archives have been put together for you in this format. [**] * pub/galactic-guide/attachments [**] Only recently have we decided to allow attachments to articles. Images attached to articles can be found in this directory, in GIF or JPG format. They have names derived from the article number of the entry they belong to. * pub/galactic-guide/cargo-bay [**] This is the directory the librarian uses to put the updated archives in, plus anything else that need storing (images, new browsers). Steve is very prompt with transferring everything to its proper place, so you would be lucky if you'd find anything there at all. * 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/dirk.gently 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! * pub/galactic-guide/future-work [**] It seemed a nice idea at the time, to re-organize the archives in order of creation date. This directory shows *NEW file headers this reshuffled archive should contain. Best forget about them... * 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/images This directory contains information and illustrations for Project Galactic Guide and the 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/information This directory contains general PGG information files, like the alt.galactic-guide Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file, and antique info on formatting your own text articles for submission to PGG. This is a nice directory to study the history of PGG with, and to reminisce some of those good old times on rainy Sundays. [**] * pub/galactic-guide/images/MacGuide Here are screen shots from version 1.3 of MacGuide! * 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/newsgroup-archive [**] Oftentimes we have lengthy discussions about proposals for changes to the workings of The Guide. Here's one of them. Maybe we completely forgot an excellent idea! Read them and decide for yourself. * pub/galactic-guide/pgg2html You want HTML conversion tools? Well, you got it, buddy! This here's a bunch of stuff to convert PGG articles into HTML. * pub/galactic-guide/reports Here's the set of all official PGG Reports to-date (3 ;-). Lots of great behind-the-scenes info about Project Galactic Guide! * 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/theguide The Guide! for DOS is one of the pioneer reader systems of PGG lore. Requirements are an IBM-compatible 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 (as per September 1995) pre-processed and ready for use (COMPLETE.ZIP), icons for OS/2, and other support and dox files. * 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/windows In this directory is the latest release of WinPGG, the Windows article viewer. A beta version, which is available in both 16 and 32-bit flavours, is in the /pub/galactic-guide/windows/beta directory. * 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. 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.soi.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 --------------- ------------------------------ Sweden Henrik O A Barkman Mittringen 13 SE-833 35 Stroemsund SWEDEN (email: h-bar@skenbe.net, Fidonet 2:205/454) United Kingdom Alex McLintock 82A Beresford Avenue London W7 3AP (email: Alex.McLintock@earthling.net) "UK people can contact me for a copy of the guide for DOS or a copy of the guide in HTML format. 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@ttgcitn.com) "I can take anything HD, please supply return postage or your disk will be assimilated, and please try an FTP-Mail server first. :-)" Actually, if you have email, you can opt to put yourself on the PGG article mailing list. This list will email random PGG articles to you at regular intervals. Our Press Officer Mark Seaborn maintains this list, so if you want to subscribe, email mseaborn@argonet.co.uk -- signing onto the list isn't automatic at the moment, because you have to specify when you want to receive articles (eg. daily, weekly, or on certain days), and what sorts of articles you want. For the most up-to-date information about the list, visit http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/maillist.html [**] 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: * Acorn Archimedes Author contact: Alex McLintock (Alex@megadodo.com), or Mark Seaborn (mseaborn@argonet.co.uk) when Alex is busy. * Amiga * Atari ST * IBM/MS-DOS Author contact: Steve Baker (Steve@megadodo.com) * Macintosh Author contact: Rickard Andersson (rickard@softlab.se) * Unix Author contact: Dave Gymer (dgymer@gdcarc.co.uk) * X Windows Author contact: David Squire (David.Squire@cui.unige.ch) * MS-Windows Author contact: Aaron Rice (aaron@megadodo.com) WinHelp contact: David Kraics (davidkrai@aol.com) 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 inconvenience." WWW Sites ========= [**] 5.0 World-Wide Web (WWW) Sites ----------------------------------- For those who can view HTML documents (including users of Netscape, MSIE, Mosaic, Cello, and WinWeb), there are a number of froody WWW sites: URL: http://megadodo.com/ Operator: Paul Clegg Notes: The Official Project Galactic Guide Homepage URL: http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/deeper/ Operator: Roel van der Meulen URL: http://www.arcfan.demon.co.uk/pgg/ Operator: Alex McLintock 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/pgg/ Operator: Jeff Kramer URL: http://anubis.science.unitn.it/services/sf/DA/adams.html Operator: Valter Cavecchia URL: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/a.rice/pgg/ Operator: Aaron Rice URL: http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/ [**] Operator: Mark Seaborn URL: http://www.pdv-systeme.de/users/martinv/pgg/root.htm [**] Operator: Martin Vorlaender URL: http://www.echo.uqam.ca/pgg/ [**] Operator: Stephane Lussier URL: http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet /Searching_the_Net/Projects/Project_Galactic_guide [**] Operator: Yahoo! URL: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/1842/ [**] Operator: Matt Baier 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. This list is also available on the web at: http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/dir.html, which is updated more frequently than the FAQ, and contains slightly more information. [**] 5.1 Other Internet Sites ------------------------ URL: telnet://megadodo.com:4242 Description: The Megadodo MUSH Operator: Paul Clegg Publicity ========= [**] 6.0 Press Officer ---------------------- Recently Mark Seaborn offered to become the Guide's "Press Officer" and be responsible for publicity. He has since made code for remarkable projects such as the PGG article mailing list (sect. 4.3) and the PGG Crap Book. Yeees, the Crap Book is a truly excellent piece of promotional material. It is a collage of 6 PGG articles, which you can find on the internet and nicely print out on paper to take along with you, for your defecational pleasure, to sooth your mind while waiting for the dentist, or on those long train travels where the mind goes numb. You can then leave the read paper there and help bring the joy of PGG to the ignorant, I mean, to all those who don't know what they're missing! There are crap books for every day of the week, and they are updated every Friday. Where can you find them? Well, take a look at http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/crapbooks/ If you have some good ideas how to promote PGG in an honourable way and maybe feel the drive to put your words into practice, you could do worse than get in touch with our official Press Officer, at press@megadodo.com. 6.1 Fully Spammable Marketing Pitch ------------------------------------ Please be on the lookout for the following officially-endorsed PGG Spam: From: swbaker@saturn.acs.oakland.edu (A Tribal Smile) Subject: PGG General Information and Marketing Pitch Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 08:45:24 UFO Summary: MAKE SPAM FAST Greetings from the Mothership! Project Galactic Guide is dedicated to bringing the highest-quality articles and information to the intergalactic hitchhiker. Well, we're dedicated to bringing fine articles to the Earth-bound hitchhiker. Er, actually, we're dedicated to mostly harmless stuff for those who bother to read it. Um, now that I think about it, we're dedicated to, well, sometimes producing a few articles, but mostly we bicker about new PGG article formats. Anyway, YOU too can participate! Yes, you can be a part of the project mentioned in Wired magazine! Be the envy of your friends and family! Secure riches and fortunes for generations to come! Actually have something to do on Friday nights! Here's a testimonial from one of our rabid PGG supporters (you may have seen his frequent posts to numerous Usenet newsgroups): ----- Hello, my name is David Rhodes. In the spring of 1988, I was homeless, the repo man just had taken my 1972 Vega, and I was a destitute bum. Now I roll in riches and can buy anything I want. Now that I'm involved with PGG my life has turned around! My friends and family adore me and I shower them in gifts. I now dine with legends like Tom Vu (the intergalactic no-money-down real estate genius) and Dionne Warwick (spokesmodel for the Psychic Friends Network). I always have front-row tickets to Wayne Newton and the annual "Elvis-o-rama." You too can share in this fabulous life of luxury and pleasure! Just write _one_ PGG article and forward it on to _five_ friends. Have each friend write one PGG article and forward them on to five of _their_ friends. Soon you will have 50,000 PGG articles!! ----- Well, there you have it! PGG can give you the pleasure and joy you've always dreamed of! Start writing articles, and the rest, as they say, is history!! The PGG Mothership is an Anonymous FTP site where Project Galactic Guide materials are stored. Programs for IBM, Mac, Amiga, Unix, Acorn, Atari, and others are _free_! Be sure you're in Binary mode and connect to: ftp://vela.acs.oakland.edu/pub/galactic-guide All of the PGG articles, t-shirt images, reports, and Douglas Adams-related fan materials are free for your profuse enjoyment! Share and Enjoy!! Your sincere and humble friend, Steve (the Ghost of PGG past) "Not only am I the Editor, I'm also a client." Disclaimer: This was a joke, repeat, a joke. PGG does not in any way endorse SPAM, and it doesn't intend to do so in the future. We will repeat this message in hundreds of newsgroups, if we have to! Less Frequently Asked Questions =============================== [**] 7.0 Miscellaneous questions -------------------------------- The following questions are answered in this section: - What's with 42, who is Douglas Adams, and why should I carry a towel? - What's Douglas Adams' take on the whole project? - So, what do you reckon he thinks, then? [**] - How can I get a PGG Press Card? - What good are the PGG Press Cards? - What's up with the PGG t-shirts? - Do you need more editors? - Do you need more Quality Committee Members? - Do you have to be a "Quality Committee" Member to review articles? - Is there a Macintosh Guide Reader? - Is there a Microsoft Windows-based Guide Reader? - Wouldn't it be neat if there was a Guide program on a handheld computer? [**] - Can I submit PGG articles from a web page? - How can I find out where my article is in the PGG pipeline? [**] - Can I submit an article in HTML format? - Can I get the whole guide in HTML format? - There aren't many pictures in the Guide, are there? - Where is the FAQ? - Is this the end of the PGG FAQ? - Really? 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: What's Douglas Adams' take on the whole project? A: Repeated e-mails, and even some snail mail have been sent to the great exalted DNA over the years. Nary a response. Paul actually had an e-mail conversation with DNA about the existence of a Hitchhiker's Movie, but when Paul took the opportunity to ask him about his viewpoint on the Project, Adams went silent once more. As a result, we've decided our best recourse is to look at any material we get from a copyright standpoint, and therefore must reject anything that too closely resembles text from Adams' books. Q: So, what do you reckon he thinks, then? [**] A: It's hard to say, but he doesn't appear to have any obvious objections. His lack of response suggests that he either doesn't feel a response is worthy of his time, or he feels that he has no reason to openly endorse or condemn the project. One the site of his current project, The Digital Village (www.tdv.com), he says: "You may find other sites on the web which are using the name Hitch Hiker's Guide, and other names and concepts from the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Some of these are fan sites and we love them. Others are commercial organisations currently using our intellectual property to promote their business. Ignore them. Sneer at them. Flick screwed up balls of sticky paper at them. We will be using them to help pay our lawyers' kids through college." Thanks to an e-mail by our founding father Paul, The Chief Executive of TDV has replied that he is aware how we stand with respect to their project. There has been no further contact since March 1997. Suffice it to say that no one has gotten any wiser from PGG... Our mole inside TDV gave us a valuable insight: Douglas is a very busy guy, and if he read everything that his fans wrote, he'd have no time to do anything else. And if you haven't read it, then you can't condemn or endorse it. Admit, PGG contains a _lot_ of material to read through. Q: How can I get a PGG Press Card? [**] A: An official one? You can't. Several attempts at Press Cards have been made over the years, but to this day none have actually been sent out. You can check out the Mothership for some nifty designs. 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 (harmless@mostly.com) 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 start up the discussion again and 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, or revive, the t-shirt thread on alt.galactic-guide. Q: Do you need more editors? [**] A: Always! We need good editors -- people with a really good grasp of all the things you ignored during high school English class. If you can spell really well, have a good eye for proper grammar, and know where and when to put the various punctuation marks, and have a good idea of how PGG articles are formatted, you may be all set to join the ranks of the editors! Put up a post on the newsgroup, or e-mail a message to the PGG Librarian (librarian@megadodo.com) saying you're interested in becoming an editor, and we'll set you up. Please remember that being an editor may suck down a _lot_ of your spare time -- don't volunteer unless you're prepared to put some time into this. Q: Do you need more Review Committee Members? [**] A: Yes! We need a few devoted newsgroup readers to be sure to read new articles posted for review. Review Committee Members should be able to either read the newsgroup regularly, be able to read their e-mail regularly, or check the review page at http://megadodo.com/review/ which shows all articles currently under review and the comments that have already been received. We'd like to be able to have at least five different reviews of an article (from five different members) done and posted within a week of the article's posting, so a decision can be made whether or not to accept or reject an article. We don't always succeed in this, but at least we aim to. Q: Do you have to be a "Review Committee" Member to review articles? A: No. All comments received are looked at carefully, and everyone can have a say, but only Members will receive notification by e-mail when new articles are up for review. Q: Is there a Macintosh Guide Reader? A: Yup. Please see Section 4.4, above. Also, a new MGG (Mac Galactic Guide) is being written by Will Schenk (chilly@psu.edu), which is currently in development, and includes a speech facility. Q: Is there a Microsoft Windows-based Guide Reader? A: Yes indeedy! Aaron Rice (elemental@mcmail.com) has written a nice Windows-based program to display articles, allow searches, and it even allows you to write your own articles, which it will save in the correct format. Updates to the database can be performed from within the program. Version 1.0 is only available as a 16-bit program, but version 1.1 (which is currently in Beta), is available in both 16 and 32-bit versions. This replaces the Windows Help file system, which was converted by David Kraics (davidkrai@aol.com), and is still available if you prefer it that way. Q: Wouldn't it be neat if there was a Guide program on a handheld computer? [**] A: Yes it would, but so far none have been developed for that purpose. However, Don Hills (DonHills@nz1.ibm.com) offered to make a browser on the Palm Pilot, so we might see the birth of that program soon! Q: Can I submit PGG articles from a web page? A: Yes, this is now possible! Alex (Alex@megadodo.com) has recently put up a page at http://www.arcfan.demon.co.uk/pgg/submit.htm to accept article submissions using a CGI script. Q: How can I find out where my article is in the PGG pipeline? [**] A: Once you have submitted an article, it should be listed on the "submitted" page at http://megadodo.com/submitted/. This page shows if an editor has received this article, and if so, which one. Then you just link to megadodo.com/editorX/, where X is the editor number. Here you can see the progress of your article through the pipeline, until it is archived. The last news on archive updates are found on http://megadodo.com/librarian/ and there is a page where all above information is listed, on http://megadodo.com/lifecycle/. Q: Can I submit an article in HTML format? A: No, not yet. But we are thinking about it. Contact Alex (Alex@megadodo.com) if you think you have a need for HTML. But for now use the same format as in the posted approved articles. Q: Can I get the whole guide in HTML format? A: Well now you can! Martin Vorlaender took some of Alex's code and improved it greatly. The aim is to provide programs which take the current PGG format and re-write as lots of HTML files -- fully indexed and cross-referenced. This does not need a net link but it does need some kind of HTML browser on your machine. Please e-mail Martin (martin@radiogaga.harz.de) for more info. Q: There aren't many pictures in the Guide, are there? A: No, but this is mainly due to the problem of making them portable. If you have some pictures which you think are suitable then contact one of the editors with details. We can discuss formats and so on later. As a rough guide, we currently seem to be accepting gif files. Q: Where is the FAQ? A: Here! The latest version should be available on the alt.galactic-guide newsgroup, possibly on the Mothership at ftp://vela.acs.oakland.edu/pub/galactic-guide/, and at http://megadodo.com/. Q: Is this the end of the PGG FAQ? A: Yes. Q: Really? A: I mean it this time. The End ======= [**] 8.0 Credits ---------------- Mk II Rel 2.3 From: Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) -- 19971107. Thanks Mark Seaborn for proofreading. Mk II Rel 2.2 From: Aaron Rice (elemental@mcmail.com) -- 19961104. With thanks to Roel van der Meulen, Paul Clegg, and Alex McLintock. Mk II Rel 2.1 From: Paul Clegg (cleggp@megadodo.com) -- ? Mk II Rel 2.0 From: Greg Wait (zooey@behindtheboat.com) -- ? *End Of Message*