Donate to any or all of the projects which I am running....
More Action from cd3wd - April 2011
cd3wd is since 14 April 2011 on Facebook - we will use this as a means to update you the users with what is going on and any and all new stuff..... We hope Facebook may be a way to accelerate promotion and take-up of cd3wd, especially throughout the Third World....
We now recommend that you use the
bittorrent
to download the main bulk (13 GB) of cd3wd plus also download separately these 2 modules -
Practical Action (500 MB) and Biovision (300 MB)
We are planning also hopefully before 2011/06 to issue a module which is the complete contents of Appropedia - discussions and logistics for that are well underway - thank you Appropedia! We will update that complete Appropedia export about once every year I guess. So - those of you who want to update your existing cd3wd - maybe wait until we have that third recent module done and incorporated. Hopefully we will have one or maybe two bittorrents for simplified issuing of the entire revised cd3wd. Any of you who have content to donate to cd3wd - please do so now - during this period before the Appropedia stuff comes online and offline - thanks! After these 3 modules are incorporated (2 of those 3 are already in place), then we anticipate that cd3wd will be fairly static again for 6-12 months. Then our emphasis will be on getting more distribution and usage into the Third World.
If you want to make a modified dvd4 which includes this new module, then download the file
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd/cd3wd601_modify.zip, unzip it and read the instructions. You have to add the files cd601.exe and biovision.exe, replace the file setup004.bat and delete the folder CanonPixmaDrivers (to make space on the dvd) - it is pretty simple....
If you dont have decent bandwidth, then get our 4-set-dvd-collection airmailed from UK - as of about now, this dvd collection will include this 500-title-module. Request by email. Note that at the moment, this is US$ 20 to developed-country destinations, and free of charge to Third World destinations. This free offer is down to the kindness of Andrew Battles of Edinburgh Scotland - we now need *** additional volunteers *** please to effect these
free dispatches to the Third World - any and all such volunteers can specify their limit - e.g. 5, 10 or 20 dispatches. Prospective volunteers please contact
me. Note that all these DVD dispatches after today 15 April 2011 have the original 4000 titles plus also the recent 500 title module and the 1300 page Biovision module included.
Soon the bittorrent will also include this 500-title-module - when that happens we will post here, and of course on
Facebook
Action from cd3wd - February 2011
After several years without really doing very much to the product and how it is accessed, since December 2010, cd3wd is entering a new more active phase:
1. There is a new Torrent for downloading - see below..... - and this torrent produces 4 .iso files which can be used to install on PC or can be used to burn installation dvd's
2. There is an organised set of 4x dvd's now available via airmail - US$ 20-00 per set for dispatch to developed countries, and
( *** STOP PRESS ***) - FREE to the Third World (this offer is in response to Andrew Battles's VERY kind offer, and if we get flooded with requests we may have to withdraw at any time without notice - but hell - let's give it a try - let the orders please flood in!....) - previously we were for a few weeks selling to Third World Customers at US$ 8-00 per 4x dvd set..... Payment by Paypal. Email me to order. Equivalent in GBP, Euro or any hard currency is of course welcomed..
3. There is a push to get people in various countries to be re-distributors, either as gifts, at cost, or for profit - we are currently (12 March 2011) doing our first of these from Yemane Araya to Mohamed Temame, both in Ethiopia.....
4. There are only extremely minor changes in content (2 minor additions and 2 removals) - for those who have the existing cd3wd from anytime since January 2007, then there is no point in updating at this time....
5. Generally, distribution to survivalists in the West has gone well, but distribution to the Third World is an unknown quantity at the moment. NGO's and Donors have not come onboard in the way that they should be doing.
The website, the dvd set, the torrent, and the conventional http download method (approximately 44 files of about 400 Megabytes each) all have exactly the same content. There are also at least one other site and maybe more which offer browsing and/or download of cd3wd (as mentioned above)
The Torrent Download Method
A torrent is a way of downloading large files which spreads the load over many servers and PC's.
We did have one torrent on PirateBay. We have on 19 February 2011 replaced this with a new Torrent:
http://www.legittorrents.info/download.php?id=a5b2be8912b24f8c4674b09145c433c55a467293&f=CD3WD%204.0%20Full%20Archive%20ISO.torrent
. cd3wd is very grateful to Tron Bardgard of Trondheim Norway for setting this up and hosting it. This torrent produces 4 .iso files which are ready to burn to 4 x dvd's, which can then be airmailed or hand-carried to the Third World for installation on PC's and/or servers. Alternatively, using Virtual Clone Drive (freeware) or some equivalent utility, you can read the .iso files and install directly from those files to the PC's hard drive (it creates the normal directory structure - c:\cd3wd_40 and subdirectories). For burning dvd's, we found ImgBurn - a free utility - to be excellent.
News update 10 April 2011 - the new Torrent is doing well - 39 downloads were completed after 14 days, and 118 after 28 days, and 199 after 42 days.
So the rate is since 4 weeks stable on average 80/2-weeks or about 6 per day - about 80 Gigabyte per day. That compares with (completely separate) current website usage of about 40 Gigabytes per day, which is a mix of downloads and browsing (at an average 9,000 webpage views per day).
Since we would like to keep some kind of log/stats as to which country and city/town/village is downloading please visit my blog
If you have downloaded this torrent and are willing to be a local, national or even international re-distributor (for profit, at cost, or for free), then please email me and we will enter your name and city (only) on our MailRequest.htm page. Enquiries will be fielded through me until volume gets too large, then we will work out some other system......
Installation Instructions - when the torrent has finished, mount each .iso file in turn using Virtual Clone Drive or something equivalent.
Double click on the file setup001.bat, setup002.bat, setup003.bat, setup004.bat as appropriate.
The system unpacks SILENTLY into the directory C:\cd3wd_40 and subdirectories.....
- it will seem to you as though nothing is happening - do not be concerned. The process may
take up to 30 minutes for each of the 4 .iso files.
When the process has finished, then make a shortcut in the directory
C:\cd3wd_40\CD3WD to the file C:\cd3wd_40\CD3WD\index.htm and drag that shortcut out on to
the desktop. Double clicking on that shortcut will start the main menu...
Note that these instructions are for Windows PC's - Linux experts and users will know how to
unpack the self-extracting .exe (zip).
Note that if you have problems with insufficient space on your C: drive for the unpacking, you can use a looping batch file with robocopy.exe which
dynamically moves all the files to another drive as they are being unpacked onto C:. Find a sample batch file (and a copy of robocopy.exe if your PC does not already have that) at http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd/robocopy.zip
Mailing Request Webpage People who dont have the bandwidth or a decent data plan to download cd3wd themselves - check out this page for commercial or at-cost providers (including cd3wd ourselves) who can airmail DVD's. For example a typical mobile data plan in UK/Europe prices data at GBP5/Gigabyte, which translates into GBP 70 ($112) to download the complete cd3wd. Whereas ordering dvd's from us costs only $20 (or **FREE** - formerly $8 - to the 3rd World).
And data charges in the 3rd world tend to be MUCH higher than $8/Gigabyte....
Cd3wd is a free but high quality collection of practical How-To Technical Development Information - helping the 3rd world to help itself.
There are 4000 titles, totalling 13 gigabytes.
We host cd3wd free online and we also - very importantly - make it available for free download and onward dissemination via flash ram,
CD, DVD, external hard drive etc..
The International Community and International and local NGO's for some strange reason have zero or even negative interest in cd3wd -
maybe they can see the writing on the wall - a dynamic and self-sufficient 3rd world which has democratically and peacefully shaken off its
pro-Western and its anti-Western charlatan dictator-presidents will have little or no need for NGO's. This lack of interest and hostility
is however regrettable, since their involvement could hasten their own departure.
Update 2008/09 - we are currently getting downloads of about 27 gigabytes per day, and
browsing rates of about 6,000 web page hits per day. We (the Royal We) are still operating despite the total indifference
and occasional hostility of the International Community - and we will continue to
operate although the Global Aid and Development Community seems to be firmly nailing its true colours
to the mast. Note that cd3wd is only one of several projects which is beneficial to
3rd world development - without meaningful political change in most 3rd world countries
then little real benefit to the poor and the oppressed is possible. Check out
cd3wd's sister project - an Unfraudable Voting
System for the 3rd world
A very very big thanks to
John Furze of Holme, Ebeltoft near Aarhus in Denmark - on behalf of friends and colleagues of his in Denmark and many other countries - who donated
a huge quantity of content in November 2006 which we published on cd3wd in early 2007 and which doubled cd3wd from about 2000 to about 4000 titles, and took us from 2 Gigabytes to about 13 Gigabytes
It would be nice to have cd3wd available on the 4 x dvd sets for sale by these small vendors of low-cost software which you find in the major cities of most Third World Countries - e.g. MBK Center in Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Tunis, Nairobi, Cairo, Baghdad, etc.. Anyone who lives in or goes to such places and could spend the short amount of time required to hand over the dvd's and explain what they contain - please let me know....
It would also be nice to have dvd sets of cd3wd at major airport hubs and capital city cybercafes throughout the 3rd world - volunteers sought - and of course list the installations here on this page..... Maybe we start with Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Abijan and Dubai Airports?...
Conventional or http Download Technique - an alternative to BitTorrent as above. Approx 44 files @ 400 Megabytes each
Installation Instructions - when you have downloaded one,
several or all of the .zip files as below, then
unzip them into any empty directory and double click on the setup.bat file.
There may be some or many 'file not found' messages - do not worry.
The system unpacks SILENTLY into the directory C:\cd3wd_40 and subdirectories.....
- it will seem to you as though nothing is happening - do not be concerned. The process may
take up to 1 hour if all 40 downloads are being installed....
When the process has finished, then make a shortcut in the directory
C:\cd3wd_40\CD3WD to the file C:\cd3wd_40\CD3WD\index.htm and drag that shortcut out on to
the desktop. Double clicking on that shortcut will start the main menu...
Note that these instructions are for Windows PC's - Linux experts and users will know how to
unzip the .zip files and unpack the self-extracting .exe (zip) files....
Download cd3wd version 4.0 part 16 of 44 parts - cd3wd416.zip - see index for contents - the copy on www.download.com seems to be corrupted - here:
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD/CD3WD416.ZIP
Download cd3wd version 4.0 part 18 of 44 parts - cd3wd518.zip - see index for contents - the copy on www.download.com seems to be corrupted - thanks to Travis Hughey for that feedback - here:
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD/CD3WD518.ZIP
Download cd3wd version 4.0 part 42 of 42 parts - this is a language patch for french and spanish
content in parts 1 and 2 - there had been a probem with graves, acutes and other special characters - now resolved -
here:
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD/CD3WD442.ZIP - or
Download cd3wd version 4.0 part 43 of 44 parts - cd3wd443.zip - Urban WATSAN info - see index for contents - here:
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD/CD3WD443.ZIP - or
Download cd3wd version 4.0 part 44 of 44 parts - cd3wd444.zip - Java Programming Coursework - see index for contents - here:
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD/CD3WD444.ZIP - or
2006/12 - Major expansion of cd3wd to 41 downloads, 4000 titles, Note that cd3wd will be 13 Gigabytes install files, which will expand to 16 gigabytes when installed. People can still use the core cd3wd of course, which is about 1.2 giga install files, and 1.6 giga when installed. We apologise for the bloatware - it is just the way our material turns up..... But be aware that all the content on offer from us is good stuff - sometimes we DO turn away material which we consider to be peripheral and/or rubbish....
2006/12
- Major online and offline sections on
Livestock, Training, Metalwork, Auto Mechanics, Wind, Solar, other Alternative Energies, etc have been added 2006/12.
To explain why are we have "only" 1000 additional titles which consume a gigantic 13 gigabytes diskspace, they are almost all
large pdf files which are graphics-based pdf files instead of text-based pdf files - i.e. they are document scans, without
any OCR (optical character recognition) processing being done.
Thanks to Tron Bardgard from Trondheim, Norway, for setting up the Torrent!
Thanks to James Mwangi of wwww.spotafrica.com of Nairobi Kenya and to Kaj Wulf and Anastasia Musyoka of
Kenya Data Networks also of Nairobi Kenya for use of their Butterfly wi-fi service through
which about 13 gigabytes of cd3wd was uploaded at rates of up to 2 Megabits per second during February and March 2007 (not
bad for a 3rd world country!....)
Thanks to www.brinkster.com for making available amazing-value web hosting offers
yet again - which has greatly benefited cd3wd and will assist us greatly also in the future. In fact, Brinkster give cd3wd free web hosting, which on our plan is worth more than $300/year - a very big Thank You!..
Thanks to our benefactor
in Zimbabwe - Garth Drummond -
www.webdevworld.com
and
www.yoafrica.com
for uploading the 2 downloads for version 4.0 Parts 1 and 2 back in early 2006.
The uploading of the complete cd3wd browsing content to our own website www.cd3wd.com in 2006/11 is thanks to John Dumelow of
Dumelow International - exporters of tractors and agricultural implements globally, with specialisation to East and Southern Africa
Thanks to the free
filezilla FTP upload program, which has to be the best I have seen (and it is available for Windows as well as for Linux)
Each download is a self-extracting
.exe zip file, which extracts under Windows and Linux and probably under Mac also (if any problems under Mac then
extract under Windows, re-zip to normal zip file, and transfer to Mac for unzipping).
Note for Linux users - use the command:
unzip FISH.EXE
unzip FORESTRY.EXE
etc to unzip those .exe files you download
Sorry it took so long to get things organised. We will announce on this page as soon as the new download system is in place...
We realise that because of the high quality and useability of the material in CD3WD, a lot of
web browsing and downloading has been for use in Western countries and economies; we welcome this
and are pleased since this demonstrates that CD3WD is not some second-class solution for the world's
less developed countries - it is a first-class solution for the world's LDC's....
Anyway, we want people who are using, enjoying and benefiting from CD3WD to also push for its distribution to
3rd world countries - thank you!
CD3WD is a project to give high quality technical development information to the end user in the 3rd world,
and to international and local NGO's and individuals who are interested in Practical Action
and an end to hot air and the
cynical exploitation of the poor and needy by the rich and verbose.
November 30 2005 we fixed all
the link problems on our website and issued a new CD with
the same content, but one which will work with Linux, Mac etc.. (the original CD always worked perfectly with Windows).
In the last 16 months we have achieved an excellent 3,000 CD downloads of 660 megabytes each;
and an average of 8,000 webpage views per day; both figures are climbing....
The downloads alone are equivalent to the distribution of 2.5 million books and booklets
on practical 3rd world development technical information.
We are making provision for a rapid expansion
of these figures...
We feel that at the moment, the continued dissemination of CD3WD in its existing form with its existing content is our
top priority - we want every computer in the 3rd world to have CD3WD installed, including those projected in MIT's
OLPC (one laptop per child) Green Machine US$ 100 Laptop Project. Of course if and when content providers come to us with
good additional content we will incorporate and reissue, but some content providers
have zero interest in the digitalisation of their material - they prefer to maximise their profits and jobs rather than
maximise the benefit to mankind.
