Subject: [tt-inc] CD Copies of Troubled Times Web Site
Date:  Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:58:23 -0000
From:  Nancy
To:  tt-inc@yahoogroups.com

The nonprofit Board met Sunday Oct 19th and approved exploration of a 
proposal Mike Lob made, to create CD's of the Troubled Times web site 
content. This is public domain now, perhaps 100 MB of text pages and 
graphics, heavily devoted to survival of a cataclysm and aftertime 
living. I have been nominated to explore this with the tt-forum (as 
consultants) and tt-inc membership, as to HOW this  might proceed.  
The web site is, today, available for any member of the public to 
download, into their C: drive or onto a CD, using web whacker software 
or piecemeal, but the plan would be to offer a ready-made CD to the 
public, at cost.

The website is very amenable to be copies and run, stand-alone as all 
references to content in different directories is done by relative 
referencing. No external links required to go to other pages or 
content areas. The website of Troubled Times is probably about 100 MB 
in size, particularly if large chunks of data dealing with earth 
change gossip and statistics and photos are excluded, as they should 
be for this purpose. 

1. Given that hypertext is the format the content is already in, and 
   converting to another format would be very labor intensive and likely 
   not be done in a timely manner, are there problems with the hypertext 
   format, or other formats that are a better choice? 

2. Would loading the Troubled Times web site, in hypertext format, 
   onto a CD, with a home page to be pulled up by a brower, work, if the 
   links internally are by relative reference not going outside of the CD 
   base? This works in my PC when I am offline, using an old browser, so 
   I think the answer to this is yes.

3. External links, of which we have thousands, would bring up a 404 
   if the CD were used as a standalone, but could be stubbed so the call 
   out was not even attempted, or the pages left as is so that the CD 
   used while online could access these external sites.

4. Blank CD's can be purchased in bulk, CD duplicating services hired, 
   presumably. Does anyone have experience with this, stories to share, 
   or facilities recommended? Is there a particular density of CD that is 
   optimal?  What are the packaging considerations?