Slashdot Mirror
Help Liberate the Debian Administrator's Handbook
First time accepted submitter buxy writes "Roland Mas and me [Raphael Hertzog] are the authors of a French Debian bestseller. We want to translate this book into English and publish it under a license compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. That would be the first free and up-to-date book about Debian that can be integrated into Debian. But we need your support to make this happen. Pledge some money [toward the translation effort] and get a copy of the book once it's done! As a special bonus, you can alternatively support the project and have about 12% of the donated money given back to the Debian project."
Will the French version tell me to build a great line of firewalls that are easily circumvented by going through a router in Belgium?
I'm not really understanding why it's going to take 15,000 euro.
It's a translation, not a new work. Why not piecemeal it out to like-minded French / English speakers, and then self publish or simply post a torrent of the file (free as in...FREE)?
You know, "community effort"?
By the way, 15,000 euro is (today) about 20,000 $.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This has to be a new low.
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
How could you leave us to these monster?!?!
Im waiting for someone to come up with 'cover expenses' idea. ie, like, lets say you are someone who is undertaking a free project or giving your music away for free. (like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL9-esIM2CY ).
you come up with a website, and you post your monthly expenses as they come up. and people donate. people know what they are donating to, and people actually see that they are covering your ass. and your monthly expenses and living gets covered. and you can even come up with small or big projects you want to undertake and people will fund it if they want, as much as they want.
transparent, trustworthy, interactive, meaningful.
Read radical news here
Hey hey hey. I'm currently allowing three Indians to do my old job, and so I find myself open to new opportunities. I took French in high school, know a little bit of Debian and a whole lotta' administration, and will work for, say, 3750 euros.
systematical, that was totally uncalled for. My display now drips Mt. Dew and mucous. I have no mod points to offer, so please accept my equally worthless kudos.
I have some beach front property in Arizona I could use help liberating....
Couldn't we use translation software and then some proofreaders/editors to make the corrections for 5% of the stated cost?
that made the front page? That is just sad.
How is it that the other distros have their docs in multiple languages due to volunteer efforts?
Can it be like Slashdot, where 5 bucks gets me the first post troll?
I'm in.
[and 33% to the slashdot editor who posts this 'story' ]
This line was accidentally erased when the story was posted.
I'd love to know who the fuck modded that insightful.
You ever wonder why the government always fucks you?
*Transliterate* the law first. Ever run "grep" on the law? Nope. I know you haven't: you can't. An open source digital does not exist. (Yes, some Universities do, and the government does, but they won't give it to you.)
And your asking to donate to French Debian books... Dude.
# apt-get install surrender
requires: cheese
requires: monkeys
I am a native English speaker who speaks and writes fluent French. I have no interest in helping with the translation of someone else's copywritten work. If it was available under a free documentation license, I would gladly contribute and commit to translating two chapters. It just looks like a gimmicky cash grab.
Are you, too, thinking that Raphael doesn't need money to survive? Did you realize that he decided to exclusively work on Debian, and maintaining dpkg, and that he isn't getting much from donation, plus this book represents only a very small bit of his annual incomes? Oh, but maybe you are volunteering for taking over the development of dpkg, doing it full time, and without accepting any source of income? How generous you are!!!
Okay, you're just being obnoxious at this point and not doing anything to help your case (not sure how you're connected to this donation drive or Raphael, but clearly you have some interest). You've posted this same sob story about Raphael in just about every thread under this story but this one in particular actually comes off as hostile.
Bottom line: people will either choose to donate or they won't and your badgering isn't helping.
This like one of those Nigerian scams that's been customized to target Slashdot nerds
I used to go to school with you and let me just say that if De Gaulle could hear you impersonating the "French" language he'd walk out of his grave and vomit. Get some qualifications, until then leave real french to the 15k pros. Not only did you fail basic grammar, you failed basic social skills IMO.
I'd love to know who the fuck modded that interesting.
Maybe I'd prefer to have an operating system written by a professional programmer, etc?
Without waiting years until a community effort reaches the same state, that is.
You do realize that there are millions upon millions of qualified individuals available to assist with such an effort, right? And probably on the order of between tens and hundreds of thousands of professional translators out there too, right?
This isn't kernel programming, where a very small number of people are qualified to contribute productively.
Please help metamoderate.
Apprenez à lire des Français
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I used to go to school with you and let me just say that if De Gaulle could hear you impersonating the "French" language he'd walk out of his grave and vomit. Get some qualifications, until then leave real french to the 15k pros. Not only did you fail basic grammar, you failed basic social skills IMO.
And yet he has a reasonably low id number and you're posting flamebait as AC. Perhaps if you posted in French we might be interested. Otherwise, meh.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I didn't go to school with either of you guys, but his verbal French is really not the issue here: all that is required is that he can understand the French original and write good English. You translate towards your native/best language if at all possible.
Seriously, this sounds like a kick-starter project.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You wouldn't qualify as a translator anyway — I think they're rather looking for someone that can spell copyrighted properly.
You wouldn't qualify as a translator anyway — I think they're rather looking for someone that can spell copyrighted properly.
You cannot spell if you don't understand the meaning of words.
And yet he has a reasonably low id number and you're posting flamebait as AC. Perhaps if you posted in French we might be interested. Otherwise, meh.
Quand on est même pas capable de faire la différence entre une copie écrite et un droit de copie, on se la ferme.
Avant donc que d'écrire, apprenez à penser. - Nicolas Boileau
Hey, wouldn't you want to have a dinner with the book authors?
I have no problem with him trying to make ends meet but with this being a "major" story on slashdot.
Oh, but maybe you are volunteering for taking over the development of dpkg, doing it full time, and without accepting any source of income?
No I will not (I would prefer to work on FreeBSD) but neither should he if he cannot make ends meet. If he chooses do work on dpkg fine; if he can get support for doing it even better, but don't start spamming 'news' sites with this stuff. Post it in the relevant news groups/mailing list etc.
Are you, too, thinking that Raphael doesn't need money to survive? ... How generous you are!!!
This self-righteousness is really getting nauseating. There are millions of worthwhile projects to be done. Volunteer if you can, ask for support in the appropriate places and then decide if you can do it. But stop whining if people complain if you start your money drives in the wrong places.
Quand on est même pas capable de faire la différence entre une copie écrite et un droit de copie, on se la ferme.
Where the heck did you learn to speak French like that? It's sure isn't Parisian.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Help us translate this book so we can make more money on international markets, please !!
Thomas Goirand (aka GPLHost-Thomas) is another Debian developer but he has no interest in this operation.
Could you elaborate how "copywritten" makes sense in OP?
Unfortunately we don't own the rights on the French version, so we can't liberate it and then do the translation. But we do have all the rights on the translated version though. So we're going to liberate that one if we meet our fundraising goals.
I know, if anything it's an informative statement. sheesh, moderators today.
You do realize that there are millions upon millions of qualified individuals available to assist with such an effort, right?
And you do realize that this is the version 2 of the book, written for Squeeze, and that Raphael had the experience of the Lenny version (where he didn't find volunteers)?
You're not liberating it, you're holding it hostage!
There is a liberation fund too but...
BEWARE! There appears to be a threat that money donated just to the liberation fund might be taken and used to translate a copyright protected work!
From one of the creator's comments:
'The money pledged towards the liberation fund is also counted in the "base funding" target.'
Hello,
I'm a bilingual Franco-Australian, computer science professor and researcher at a French institution. I have already written, translated and published several technical books in both French and English. I can basically translate almost as fast as I can type in either direction, and faster still with dictation software.
I'm willing to help by translating a couple of chapters. I'm sure there are dozens like me with similar or better skills. Your book could probably be all done in two weeks tops. You only have to divvy up the work and collect the translated chapters.
Even better, put the French version of the book under a suitable license under Git somewhere, and watch the work unfold before you.
It's "copyrighted", not "copywritten", and I'm not even a native English speaker. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing that you're not involved in the translation ;-)
(but I agree with your point)
Tomorrow news: "BitCoin donations to free software documentation translations could make 2011 the Year of Linux!"
Speaking of which, where's the flattr button on that Debian Administrator's Handbook donation page.
Or to say it in Dutch: "alle kleine beetjes helpen"; "elke dag een draadje is een hemdsmouw in het jaar".
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
Troll mod? Hilarious. Pretty much proves the point AND demonstrates a serious case of crystalline vaginal silicates.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You do realize that there are millions upon millions of qualified individuals available to assist with such an effort, right? And probably on the order of between tens and hundreds of thousands of professional translators out there too, right?
You'd be surprised.
Okay, you need someone who is sufficiently fluent in French and English that they can put together a half-decent translation. Fair enough. I'd agree that there's no shortage of translators.
Really, you need someone who's also sufficiently comfortable with Linux that they can be trusted to ensure that as few errors as possible slip in during the translation process. To put it into context, many publishers paying professionals have difficulty with this - you'd be amazed how many French programmers would much prefer to use the original English version of a reference book for exactly that reason; this reduces the pool of qualified people quite considerably straight away.
Now you need someone who has the time to dedicate to that, the patience to deal with the never-ending stream of questions and criticism that "this paragraph isn't very clear" and the inclination to do all that free of charge.
I reckon it'd be just as easy to find €15,000.
So then it isn't you, but the original copyright holder who is holding people hostage. Debian documentation is usually available in multiple languages, what happens when well meaning people take the english work and re-translate it to French, Spanish, or whatever, is it a copyright violation? http://qref.sourceforge.net/Debian/reference/index.en.html You leave a hole in the matrix for the French version? You produce a second one not covered by the original because it is based on the translation? You put a link to amazon store? (I'm sure that last one will be popular ;-) As long as the original work is not released, there is substantial risk that the rights holder will cause trouble in some fashion at some point, which makes it unattractive.
Re-translating it to French would not be a copyright violation, no. It's a new work. But my hope is that the free English version will have success so that I can convince my editor to release the original French version under a free license.
Fluent French speaker and reader here as well. Although I understand the authors' need to earn some money, I think I'll just put in an offer to translate a chapter here myself.
Not understanding the difference between rights and writing, ouch!
...but I do have my skills, and am willing to lend a hand. I am a native French speaker/writer who is completely fluent in English (in fact my life/media consumption is 90% English right now), and I'd be willing to help out in the translation effort.
I downloaded the original Cahier de l'admin ebook PDF here: http://www.4shared.com/document/AwZDpWi9/Cahier_de_ladmin_Debian.html
Then I uploaded the PDF to Split PDF since Google Translate has limit on large pdf, split pdf splits up the pdf into smaller chunks: http://foxyutils.com/splitpdf/
Then I reuploaded them to google docs and translated them back to english.
Seems to have worked perfectly for me :)
just do that instead of trying to hire tons of people I guess, just upload your ebook to google translator it does french to english perfectly.
It's "copyright", not "copywrite". Also, copyright does not preclude being under a free license. For example, see the GNU guidelines which specifically instruct all authors publishing under the GPL to include a copyright notice.
Use Google Translator Stupid.
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
I will donate for a signed book. I have always been a long supporter of Debian and having this translated professionally is a great idea.
All cows eat grass!
sounds like a scam trying to take advantage of the gullible.
you post the frog version on tpb and i'll use google translate on it. close enough for me
It should be for sid, that's a rolling release.
"I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
Thank you for the offers but please send them to me at raphael@ouaza.com... I need at least an email and a name to get back to you in case we're looking for help (either for translation or for review).