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VagabondPilgrim
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Quote VagabondPilgrim Replybullet Topic: Alternate Site
    Posted: 31 December 2008 at 6:35pm
Hello All,

Due to the lack of maintenance on this site, and a concern (on my part anyway) that this lack of maintenance may well escalate into a complete abandonment of all the hard work that has been done here, I've taken it upon myself to put up a "safety net" site.  You can find it at: fsi-language-courses.org.

Of course, it wouldn't be worth much if people didn't know about it, so I'm announcing it here.  Please take note of it, so that if this site ends up "disappearing" in a month or two (or six), you'll know where the other one is.


Happy New Year!
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Chung
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Quote Chung Replybullet Posted: 31 December 2008 at 8:22pm
This is a very encouraging development. Thanks for setting this up.

I've noticed that flutable's Finnish texts aren't posted. I suppose that it's not a big deal as long as those .pdfs are still available on the file-hosting sites that are being used for the time being.
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DemiPuppet
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Quote DemiPuppet Replybullet Posted: 31 December 2008 at 9:04pm
I should note that I sent VagabondPilgrim all the audio files I had encoded at a higher bit rate than the one here (yep, I always retain an original uncompressed copy of all all audio files).  The files here are encoded at 32kbs CBR.  The ones I sent to VagabondPilgrim were encoded at 48kbps ABR (up to 50% larger files).  There won't be any MP3 artifacts.  For the record, The "lame version 3.98.2 MP3 encoder" settings were "--abr 48 -mm -resample 22.05 -q -0". The encoder typically had encoding peaks of 112kbs though there was the occasional 128kbs.

The following files on this site are encoded at the higher bit rate on the alternate site:

Cambodian Vol 1
Hebrew Basic Vol 1
Hungarian Basic Vol 2
Levantine Arabic
Reading Lao
Spanish Basic Vol 1
Swahili Basic
Swedish Basic
Turkish Basic Vol 1 and Vol 2
Vietnamese Basic Vol 1

All the other audio files that I posted here in the forum (i.e. Korean 1, Vietnamese 2, etc) are also encoded at the higher rate.

Also note that the lessons 10 - 15 have been added for Spanish Basic Vol 1.



Edited by DemiPuppet - 31 December 2008 at 9:28pm
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liddytime
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Quote liddytime Replybullet Posted: 31 December 2008 at 9:30pm
you guys all rock!!!!
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daristani
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Quote daristani Replybullet Posted: 01 January 2009 at 7:45am
Given that gdfellows has evidently been unable to devote himself to this site recently, a backup site is a good idea in case this one should go down, especially given the new materials that DemiPuppet and others have made available in recent months, but which haven't been posted on this site. 

Still, we all owe gdfellows a tremendous debt of gratitude for establishing this site in the first place, as well as for all the work he did to make the initial materials available.

I note that the new site doesn't include any forum or e-mail address, though, making it difficult to communicate in the event of this site going down, or someone producing new materials for posting.  I think it would be a good idea to have a way that people could communicate there, particularly in terms of new materials.

Also, note that member zardoz has digitized all the Spanish Basic Course audio; he might be willing to make them available on the new site.

A final suggestion:  It might be useful to mirror all the Amharic tapes from the Indiana University site
http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/amharic_a400.html
just in case that site might at some point go down.

In any event, all the people who've contributed so much to this ongoing effort, starting with gdfellows and then running through everyone who's contributed and/or digitized materials, tracked down missing materials, put up mirrors, provided advice to newcomers, etc., deserve tremendous thanks for all their efforts.  The new site is a great initiative in the same tradition, and I'm grateful for it as well. 

Best wishes to one and all in 2009. 
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VagabondPilgrim
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Quote VagabondPilgrim Replybullet Posted: 01 January 2009 at 10:16am
Originally posted by daristani

Still, we all owe gdfellows a tremendous debt of gratitude for establishing this site in the first place, as well as for all the work he did to make the initial materials available.


I couldn't agree more.  It was his vision and hard work that established and nurtured this site.  I've had mixed feelings about putting up the new site and especially establishing a forum there.

I feel that if I open up a forum, there may be a mass exodus to the new site making it the defacto primary site  -- i.e. making me the defacto usurper or hijacker of all that Glen has accomplished here.

Currently I'm working on setting up a forum there to have as a backup.  But if I open it up at all, right now, it will be only to discuss problems and issues with the new site itself.

For the time being, in other words, I'd like to keep the community grounded here.

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flutable
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Quote flutable Replybullet Posted: 02 January 2009 at 4:54am
@Chung (and everyone else!)
Please keep me posted if the Finnish files are not available, and I'll make sure they are available. I have to log in to the 4shared file sharing site once a month to keep the account alive, but that's not much of a problem.

@Vagabond: thanks, it's always good to have a backup!
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Chung
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Quote Chung Replybullet Posted: 02 January 2009 at 8:42am
Hey flutable, it seems OK now. VagabondPilgrim uploaded the Finnish texts to the alternate site not long after I posted.
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solniger
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Quote solniger Replybullet Posted: 03 January 2009 at 11:35pm
So, what will happen to materials that were forwarded to this site but haven't been uploaded yet? [ie. is there any chance that the webmaster here could pass what he or others have digitised, but he hasn't had time to post yet?]
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DemiPuppet
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Quote DemiPuppet Replybullet Posted: 08 January 2009 at 6:27am
If you've got material that hasn't made it on the site, you can always put it on a sharing site and post a link. The only requirements are:

  1. It must be in the US public domain
  2. It must be directly from a US government source (no 3rd party material)
  3. It must be FSI related

The usual way to to establish public domain for pre-March1989 text material is the lack of a copyright notice on the Title page and Verso (the page after the title page) and some evidence that the material was available to the general public.  The copyright notice check also works for audio material created after Feb 1972 and before March 1989. For post-March 1989, only works created by US government employees can be included.  The text preface usually indicates the employee status of the authors.  You can also look up the author's name in the State Department employee phone book. A 1995 copy is available here: dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/about/contact/personnel/1995/  . The latest copy is available from the State Department web site. Copies from other years are available at some larger libraries on micro-film.

Most of the FSI audio is from pre-1972 which is covered by state law.  Due to the hodge-podge of state laws, audio files must be created directly from NTIS government tapes or CDs.  Keep a photo of the tapes for your records to show that they were not from a third party. I always submitted the photo to gdfellows for his records.

The title page of a text is sufficient to show that the material came directly from the government.  Including the cover would also  prove this.

Edited by DemiPuppet - 08 January 2009 at 6:30am
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