LDP Weekly News

TLDP Weekly News

Issue Number : 10
Publication Date : 2003-07-01
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Table of Contents
1. New documents
    1.1. Fresh@LDP
    1.2. Proposed new documents
    1.3. Submitted for review
   
   
2. Updates
    2.1. HOWTOs
   
   
3. Happenings in the LDP world
    3.1. We need volunteers!
    3.2. Lampadas and GFDD
    3.3. Out of date HOWTOs
   
   
4. LDP History: the sequel
5. Feedback and Contributions

1. New documents

1.1. Fresh@LDP

  * [http://es.tldp.org/Tutoriales/doc-curso-cep-arroyo/doc-curso-cep-arroyo
    /] GNU Linux para usarios, a document introducing GNU Linux and the
    spirit of free software, in Spanish by Juan Rafael Fernández García. He
    brings this subject from the users' point of view, in this case, a group
    of school teachers. It is primarily a practical guide to help teachers in
    their everyday life as Linux users.
   
  * Daniel Nofftz's [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Athlon-Powersaving-HOWTO/] Athlon
    Powersaving HOWTO which explains how to enable the power-saving
    functionality of the Athlon/Duron/AthlonXP processor on some motherboards
    /chip-sets has been release.
   

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1.2. Proposed new documents

  * Zbigniew Lisiecki proposed his [http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?5:mss:
    5188:200306:onaogjppndlafahmlcfl] RPC HOWTO, which is indeed a specific
    topic on which we don't have clear documents. Even the NFS HOWTO does not
    explain very clearly how RPC and the portmapper work.
   

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1.3. Submitted for review

  * Simon Anderson is in the process of reviewing a document which he
    presents as [http://oob.freeshell.org/nzwireless/LWAP-HOWTO.html] the
    Linux Wireless Access Point HOWTO and requests your comments. It needs to
    be compared to the [http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Wireless-HOWTO.html]
    Wireless HOWTO and the [http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/
    Wireless-Link-sys-WPC11/index.html] Wireless Linksys WPC11 Mini-HOWTO.
   
  * We always like to see more women joining us, so make Emma Jane Hogbin
    feel at home. She submitted an [http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?5:mss:
    5164:200306:ocmehohgpokhnfnkgfpf] ACPI HOWTO - ACPI being the next
    generation power management tool.
   
  * Saqib Ali converted his [http://www.xml-dev.com:8080/cocoon/mount/docbook
    /Apache-WebDAV-LDAP-HOWTO.xml] Apache-WebDAV-LDAP-HOWTO from SGML to XML.
   

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2. Updates

2.1. HOWTOs

HOWTOs updated in the past two weeks are:

  * Miroslav Skoric updated his [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/FBB.html] FBB
    Packet-radio BBS mini-HOWTO to v1.19.
   
  * And we received v2.2.6 of the [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/
    DocBook-OpenJade-SGML-XML-HOWTO/] DocBook-OpenJade-SGML-XML-HOWTO, by
    Saqib Ali.
   
  * [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Apache-WebDAV-LDAP-HOWTO/] Apache based WebDAV
    Server with LDAP and SSL by Saqib Ali updated to v4.0
   
  * [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Battery-Powered/] Battery Powered Linux
    Mini-HOWTO has been updated to v2.3 by David Lechnyr
   
  * The [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Debian-Jigdo/] Debian Jigdo mini-HOWTO by
    Peter Jay Salzman has been updated to v0.127
   
  * Ian Ward's [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Debian-and-Windows-Shared-Printing
    /] Debian and Windows Shared Printing mini-HOWTO is now at v1.1
   
  * David A. Ranch updated his [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/IP-Masquerade-HOWTO/]
    Linux IP Masquerade HOWTO to v2.00.062203
   
  * Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan) updated the [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/
    Kernel-HOWTO/] Linux Kernel HOWTO to v6.1
   
  * Miroslav "Misko" Skoric's [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO.html] LILO
    mini-HOWTO is now at v3.11.
   
  * The [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO.html] Modem-HOWTO by David S.
    Lawyer is now at v0.28
   
  * Svetoslav Slavtchev's [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree-Local-multi-user-HOWTO
    /] XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO is at v1.0.3
   
  * Mendel Leo Cooper sent in v1.9 of the [http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/]
    Advanced Bash scripting Guide.
   
  * Miroslav "Misko" Skoric updated the [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/FBB.html]
    FBB Packet-radio BBS mini-HOWTO to v1.20.
   

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3. Happenings in the LDP world

3.1. We need volunteers!

That's about the conclusion of last week's [http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?
1:mss:4627:200306:chccignifbnihoieigoj] major thread on the discuss mailing
list. In an ever-changing environment, our documents become outdated
tremendously fast: a one year old HOWTO is like pre-historic charcoal writing
on stone. Apart from people with a technical background, we also need user
reviews to check on a document's usability. Not only will user comments
improve on readability; if more people read a HOWTO and comment on it, it
would be easier to make out which are just hype and which are useful for the
general public, as [http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:4616:200306:
chccignifbnihoieigoj] David Lawyer pointed out in the discussion.

While on the subject, several means of getting more volunteers were
discussed. It was generally agreed that neither mailing the LUGS about every
review needed, nor advertising this in Slashdot would improve greatly on the
current situation. Indeed, one can hardly be forced to be a volunteer.

So let's just apply to your goodwill: make your skills known to us - even if
your only skill is that you speak English, and [http://tldp.org/mailinfo.html
#maillists] join the LDP! In my (Tille's) point of view, even if you can only
do a little bit, you owe it to the community, for being able to use such a
good system. Joining the discuss mailing list <
discuss-subscribe@en.tldp.org.NOSPAM> would be a good start. We look forward
to hearing from you soon!

Note Officially working for TLDP                                             
     Several governments, among which the European, can now subsidize your   
     work for TLDP. Check with your local representative.                    

As a side-effect, copyright laws came up in this lengthy discussion. Of
course there's the law: in almost any country all writing is copyright, on
any medium, and you need the author's permission to do anything with it. But
since most authors are rather flattered to be quoted, remember that getting
approval can be arranged in a convivial style.
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3.2. Lampadas and GFDD

 One of the topics that came up during the discussion about the progress of
Lampadas was about the [http://www.gfdd.org] Gnutemberg Free Documentation
Database. Gaetano Paolone, one of the main developers of GFDD, [http://
lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:4637:200306:dgkofndnnlmehfnbbfnd] suggested
that The LDP use GFDD engine. GFDD is written in PHP and uses PostgreSQL as
dbms. It is licensed under the GNU GPL. The developers are working on an
off-line import feature and changes on documents URI.
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3.3. Out of date HOWTOs

 Peter Jay Salzman got hebrew working on his system, and in the process
[http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:4633:200306:ooabcklckocfahafbebo]
found that there are some howto's which are so out of date that they've
become completely useless and even worse, misleading at times. He tried
reaching the maintainer of the hebrew howto and wanted to find out if there
were any provisions for "hijacking" someone else's howto.
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4. LDP History: the sequel

This is the continuation of the story started in [http://tldp.org/ldpwn/
20030617.html] TLDP WN 9, where we started digging into the past and got
stuck in 1996.

After extended research in the dungeon server rooms of Google, we can state
with almost-certainty that the mysterious Erik does have a last name after
all. Most likely, we are dealing here with the Erik Troan, who supported
virtually half of the Linux-using world in the 1993-1996 period and later on
became the Senior Director of Engineering at RedHat.

Further research revealed that somewhere in 1996, Greg Hankins became
supervisor of the LDP project. He was the original author of the [http://
www.ibiblio.org/mdw/HOWTO/Serial-HOWTO.html] Serial HOWTO, which he started
in 1993 and maintained until 1997; he was also one of the main contributors
to the SGML-tools development project.

By 1998, Guylhem Aznar was appointed coordinator of the LDP. [http://
www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/ldpResearch/ldp/wayback%20machine/
LDP%20Team12-12-98.htm] The exact configuration of the core team in those
days has been preserved. By then, it was composed of a hub consisting of one
main coordinator, and individual FAQ, Guide and HOWTO coordinators, Greg
Ferguson, Joshua Drake and Tim Bynum respectively. Furthermore, most
translation efforts started in 1994 are now running more or less at full
speed. The German translation effort was among the first. But you know (and
refer to the Italians joining us recently), it can take a while before people
find each other ;-)

It appears that this team registered the linuxdoc.org domain to which they
moved the entire Linux documentation collection, which was of course promptly
mirrored, and the relationship with the UNC was maintained. As far as we
could find out, they also started the discuss and other mailing lists - until
then, discussion primarily happened in the Usenet newsgroups

What happened in the LDP during the years just before the new millennium?
Find out in July!
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5. Feedback and Contributions

Please help us create this weekly newsletter. Seen a site putting in a story
with a link to the LDP? Completed the translation of any HOWTO? Know of any
articles about the LDP published in newspapers or magazines? You can update
us by sending in links and information at <feedback@en.tldp.org>.

LDP Weekly News is edited by Machtelt Garrels, Torsten Schlabach and Y
Giridhar Appaji Nag with help from several other people.