The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 09

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CD's finally arrived....................
Message #1 Posted by J Tiers on 8 Sept 2002, 1:21 a.m.

Apparently the problem must have been a holdup in customs on the border coming from the United States into the State of Missouri.

Package was sent on the 29th, and only arrived now. Good old USPS.

Maybe they had to de-Anthrax it at the border, because some parts of it don't work. I could not get from the HTML pages to the manuals, even though there is a link. Link went into the weeds.

But I can open the manual no problem as a PDF from the directory, so I'm OK. Go figure.

      
Re: CD's finally arrived....................
Message #2 Posted by John K. (US) on 8 Sept 2002, 2:56 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by J Tiers

> I could not get from the HTML pages to the manuals, even though there is a link. Link went into the weeds.

Since you're having this problem, I'm going to assume that you're not using an operating system from that Really Big software company in Redmond, Washington. :^)

The problem is related to the fact that said company's OS products don't distinguish between upper- and lower-case characters in file path names. All of the links use lower-case letters and all of the files have upper-case names. If you're using a Mac, 10.2 seems to resolve things pretty well by making allowances for the Redmond company's (IMHO, broken) implementation of long/mixed-case filenames.

If you're using a *nix, your system's automounter should be set to map upper-case names to lower-case names on ISO 9660 file systems. If it doesn't, you'll need to refer to the man pages to figure out how to set this up. There is usually a file that has mounting options for known FS types.

            
Re: CD's finally arrived....................
Message #3 Posted by Dave Hicks on 8 Sept 2002, 5:03 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by John K. (US)

The lower case links were chosen to make as many *nix systems work by default as possible. All ISO 9660 CDs use only upper case filenames but most *nix systems map them to lower case by default. Windows and Macs don't care.

There's a note about this linked from the CD order page. It's been about a year since anyone had mentioned anything like this so I'm hoping that this was due to an old OS and not some new incompatibility.

                  
A bit off-topic, but...
Message #4 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 8 Sept 2002, 8:55 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Dave Hicks

Hi, Dave;

good reading your posts again.

Some months ago, I mentioned the possibility of having "bulk" (is it correctly applied here?) Forum Archives, so we could download for reading and also including them in the CD pack. That would allow us to (re)search on subjects, topics, authors and the like. Did you take some time to consider this? I (among many others) know and understand your time spent here is gold for each one of us, and you have been doing a lot of improvements in the Museum page. This is just a wish, nothing but a wish.

Thank you and best regards.

                        
I'm sorry I don't remember this
Message #5 Posted by Dave Hicks on 9 Sept 2002, 10:04 p.m.,
in response to message #4 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

Did we talk about this through email or the forum?

                              
Re: I'm sorry I don't remember this
Message #6 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 11 Sept 2002, 11:34 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Dave Hicks

Hi;

This subject appeared at this forum when a lot of ideas about HW became the special of the day. I remember I mentioned that those ideas should be in focussed articles, together with many others. And if we had access to all of the posts, not in an on-line form, but as a file that could be downloaded to our computers, searching them would be a good way to compile the articles.

I also remember one of our contributors agreed with me, and this contributor (sorry I do not remember his name) introduced the term "bulk" as for the final file with all existing posts.

You see? I could not find the article where I post this idea, and I took a look at some of the most probable threads where I could find it. If the posts were available as files, organized as the same groups as they are available for the on-line reading, I could search for any post (faster) in my own computer.

I just want to know if this is possible. And if it is possible, would it also be a good idea to allow them to be downloaded? What's the actual size of all existing posts so far?

Thank you. And best regards.

                                    
Re: I'm sorry I don't remember this
Message #7 Posted by Ellis Easley on 12 Sept 2002, 1:40 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

I agreed with the idea of adding the Forum archives to the CD's, I likely did say "in bulk" by which I meant just as they are (not to add any more work for Dave). I figure since they are mostly* text, they wouldn't occupy too many megabytes, but I don't know how much it actually is in total.

*When a picture loads automatically, is it always a link to somewhere other than the Forum?

If it's too much altogether, maybe Dave could (1) filter out any post with "Ebay" in the text or (2) just include Tony Duell's and David Smith's and Katie's and a few other's posts! They are usually very concise and informative.

Regardless of whether they go on the CDs or not, I have in mind to put together an FAQ list using links to the Archives for the answers. My idea is that anytime I search the Archives for some reason, I will save the links to useful threads or individual messages (isn't this sort of like the original idea behind Yahoo?)

And on the subject of searching the Archives, I have a suggestion. It would be nice if the default time span was wider, to include the complete Archive. Currently, the default range is Jan. 2000 to Dec. 2000. Every time I use the Archives, I make it Jan. 1990 to Dec. 2002. If the default was Jan. 1999 to Dec. 2007, it would save me a step!

                                          
Thank you and Sorry...
Message #8 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 12 Sept 2002, 3:35 p.m.,
in response to message #7 by Ellis Easley

Hi;

thank you, Ellis, and forgive-me not remembering that it was you who suggested that all.

So, Dave, do you think it's possible?

Thanks.

                                                
Re: Thank you and Sorry...
Message #9 Posted by Dave Hicks on 12 Sept 2002, 9:32 p.m.,
in response to message #8 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

I've made the default date range for the archives "several eons".

The archives text in its internal form is about 20MB. If I convert it to HTML in order to make it friendly for a CD, then it expands to around 70MB. (Based on some preliminary attempts - I don't have a 100% complete method for this currently.)

It definitely won't fit on the next CD/DVD set in this expanded form. It might fit on the DVD in the internal form but I don't know if there's 20MB left on any of the 7 CDs. In any case, I wouldn't want to support it in its internal form since it would be accessed by text editor only. (There are HTML code fragments in the files but they are not valid HTML files.) I know a lot of people here could deal with it but I get a certain amount of "how do I use my CD drive" type emails and I don't want to make that any worse.

At some time in the future the expanded version could go onto a CD of it's own or be part of a future double-sided DVD.

If one or both of you is prepared to take on the task of building articles based on the old postings and/or some index or FAQ, I would love to see that and would happily support you by sending you a CD with the archives.

                                                      
Re: Thank you and Sorry...
Message #10 Posted by jo se goncalves on 13 Sept 2002, 7:39 a.m.,
in response to message #9 by Dave Hicks

seven CDs, next CD/DVD set ... uhh

can you tell us a little more about this, Dave ?

                                                            
Well...
Message #11 Posted by Dave Hicks on 13 Sept 2002, 6:48 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by jo se goncalves

There will be 7 CD-ROMs or 1 DVD-ROM with about 4.5GB of materials. CDs 1-5 are the same as before. Anyone who bought the 5 CD set will be able to purchase CDs 6 and 7 or the DVD at an upgrade price.

It will be ready "fairly soon" now. (This year.)

                                                      
I'm much interested...
Message #12 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 13 Sept 2002, 8:44 a.m.,
in response to message #9 by Dave Hicks

Hello;

I'd like very much having the forum files and build articles based on them, of course.

I know that a lot of details must be set up before any final document is available: authors authorization, conciseness, sequence criteria, subjects, among many others. Also, technical knowledge (I believe I can handle, but I hope I can count on you...) AND English language deep understanding (no comments... I'll often fail in that) are mandatory, so any additional text (bonding purposes) is also technically concise. I'd never disclose a final document without previous authors authorization.

AND mostly the copyright thing: every final text MUST, WILL belong to the MoHP.

Should I send you some recordable CD's so you can record the files in one of them and use the others to cover mailing expenses to send it back to me?

Let me know.

Cheers.

                                                            
Re: I'm much interested...
Message #13 Posted by Ellis Easley on 13 Sept 2002, 8:49 a.m.,
in response to message #12 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

Me too!

                                                                  
Just email me your shipping addresses
Message #14 Posted by Dave Hicks on 13 Sept 2002, 6:42 p.m.,
in response to message #13 by Ellis Easley

please. Will you two coordinate your work on this?

                  
Nope its regular old win98......
Message #15 Posted by J Tiers on 8 Sept 2002, 10:19 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Dave Hicks

another box opened it up OK.

The first was using win 98 and Acrobat reader 3, the second Win 95 and acrobat reader 4, but the first has opened every other PDF I ever tried right from the HTML links.

Another problem to blame on Big Bill..........

                        
Re: Nope its regular old win98......
Message #16 Posted by Wayne Brown on 9 Sept 2002, 7:37 a.m.,
in response to message #15 by J Tiers

Acrobat Reader 3 had some problems with large PDF files. If started from a Web browser, it would read small PDF files OK but would display a blank screen for large files. Going to the PDF files on the CD directly it would read and display even the large files correctly. I had this problem not only with the Museum CDs, but also with other CDs containing HTML and PDF files. The problem disappeared when I upgraded to Acrobat Reader 4.


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