[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Nov 3 09:31:27 PST 2004
GWeekly_November_03.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 03, 2004 PT1*
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971*******
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart at pobox.com or gbnewby at pglaf.org
Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart at pobox.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
56 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
14,281 eBooks As Of Today!!!
11,219 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Now Produced about 3,374 eBooks In 2004
We Are Already ~1/4 of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000
719 to go to 15,000!!!
We have now averaged ~428 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 eBooks
*
HOT REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
We are trying to start up a Project Gutenberg Russian Team,
and we need someone to translate simple email messages from
members of Project Gutenberg who want to provide a service
to the Russian Team, but who do not know Russian. . .these
people will be helping with scanning, finding books, etc.
The messages will be in MS Word's .doc format in cyrillic,
we need them translated into English, also in a .doc file.
Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck <JBuck814366460 at aol.com>
***Introduction
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
hart at pobox.com and gbnewby at pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 33 15/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About ~427 eBooks/Yr
And This Year We Are Averaging 3/4 of That New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!
We Are Averaging About 346 eBooks Per Month This Year
About 78 Per Week
***
***Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements
Please visit and test our newest site:
pgcc.net [also available as gutenberg.us]
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center [PGCC]
[Under construction until opening November 4]
Please let us know of any eBook collections that
would be suitable for inclusion: public domain
or copyrighted, for which we ask permission.
or copyrighted with permission]
We also need help proofreading the various FAQ pages at this site, etc.
Only one more week to polish things up!!!
Thanks!!!!!!!
[We've left a couple typos on the front page,
just to make it easy for you to get started!]
*
There is a new experimental online reader available. Start from any
bibliographic record page, eg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4300
Basically this paginates the txt file and remembers your last position
in a cookie so you can later resume reading where you left off.
Please test it. It should work with any book that has a text file
where the encoding is known.
MACHINE TRANSLATION
We are seeking as much information as possible on the various
approaches to Machine Translation. Any brand names or contact
information would be greatly appreciated.
***
Please use our new site for downloading DVD and CD images, etc.
http://www.gutenberg.org/cdproject
and
The PG bittorrent tracker is up and running.
Aaron Cannon has placed the CD and DVD there if anyone wants to test.
You can access it by visiting
http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu:6969
***
We are in the process of rewriting some of the general FAQs and
would appreciate help proofreading them over the next few months.
We've added some new FAQs and generally updated information
about Project Gutenberg. Take a look, and email Michael or
Greg with any suggestions or corrections. We'll have these
updated from time to time, now that we've passed #10,000.
A new set of these will be in the works when we pass #20,000.
http://www.gutenberg.org/about
***Continuing Requests and Announcements
We're building a team to read our eBooks into MP3 files
for the visually impaired and other audio book users.
Let us know if you'd like to join this group.
More information at http://www.gutenberg.org/audio
***
Project Gutenberg Needs DVD Burners
So far we have sent out 14 million eBooks via snailmail!!!
We currently have access to a dozen DVD burners. If you have a DVD burner
and are interested in lending a hand, please email Aaron Cannon
<cannona at fireantproductions.com>
We can set you up with images, or snail you these DVDs
for you to copy. You can either snail them directly
to readers whose addresses we can send you, or you can
do a stack of these and send the whole box back for reshipping.
We can also reimburse you for supplies and postage if you wish.
Please note that we can only use DVDs which are burnt in the dvd-r format,
as we have had some compatibility issues with the dvd+r format.
***
Project Gutenberg is seeking graphics we can use for our Web
pages and publicity materials. If you have original graphics
depicting Project Gutenberg themes, please contribute them!
To see some of what we have now, please see:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/images
***
_I_ am still interested in a DVD that has an actual total
of 10,000 eBooks. . .or more. . .mostly for PR purposes--
if someone would be willing to make one. I think one is
on the way, but not here yet, in case you are interested.
*** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES
Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers. We have
regular needs for intellectual property legal advice
(both US and international) and other areas. Please email
Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> ,
if you can help.
This is much more important than many of us realize!
***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 9.75 months of this year, we produced 3374 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to July 2001 to produce our first 3,374 eBooks!
That's 43 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!
56 New eBooks This Week
69 New eBooks Last Week
334 New eBooks This Month [Oct]
346 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
3374 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
11219 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 46.00 Months!
14,281 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
10,155 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,126 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
386 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
We're still keeping up with Moore's Law!
Moore's Law 12 month percentage = 69%
Moore's Law 18 month percentage = 112%
[100% of Moore's Law = doubling every 18 months]
***
Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on March 13th, 2001, the
Distributed Proofreaders team has now produced its 5,594th eBook (#13936).
Of that 5,543, there are 5,260 unique, brand-new titles.
Projects completed since the beginning of the year:
Jan 2004 - 267
Feb 2004 - 421
Mar 2004 - 365
Apr 2004 - 276
May 2004 - 235
Jun 2004 - 232
Jul 2004 - 231
Aug 2004 - 220
Sep 2004 - 182
Oct 2004 - 263
Nov 2004 - 30 (as of 3 Nov 04)
*
Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how
you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before
the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog.
eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists.
Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs:
http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/subscribe-howto
or
http://www.gutenberg.org/subs.shtml
***
Today Is Day #307 of 2004
This Completes Week #43 and Month #10.00
63 Days/10 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
719 Books To Go To #15,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
*** Permanent Requests For Assistance:
DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES
Please contact us at:
dphelp at pgdp.net
if you would like to know more about the Distributed Proofreaders.
Thanks to very good recent publicity, the Distributed Proofreading
project has greatly accelerated its pace. Please visit the site:
http://www.pgdp.net
for more information about how you can help a lot, by
simply proofreading just a few pages per day, or more.
If you have a book that has been scanned, but not yet run
through OCR (optical character recognition) or proofed,
and you would like the Distributed Proofreaders to work on it,
please email dphelp at pgdp.net and we will get things started.
Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the
Project Gutenberg collection. To see what is already online,
visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file)
listing Project Gutenberg eBooks and is available for downloading.
Do you have Public Domain books you would like to see in the archive?
Can they be destructively scanned? If so send them to the Distributed
Proofreading Team! Please email dphelp at pgdp.net with your geographic
location. You will be given the address of the nearest high-speed scanner
(note that the high-speed scanner requires destruction of the book(s) which
will not be returned). We have high-speed scanners currently located in
the east, west and central portions of the US to make shipping easier.
Please make sure that any books you send are _not_ already in the archive
and please check them against David's "In Progress" list at:
http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html
to ensure no one is currently working on them. It would also be helpful if
you obtain copyright clearance before mailing the books, and send the 'OK'
lines to
dphelp at pgdp.net
Do you like to work on an entire book at once but don't have the time
or technology to do the scanning, OCR, and initial proofing yourself?
Distributed Proofreaders has the perfect solution! Just send us email
telling us that you are interested in post-processing and we will help
find a project you would like to work on.
***Donation Information
We Have Included Quick and Easy Ways to Donate. . .As Per Your Requests!
We Are Looking For Volunteers To Add eBooks In More Languages,
and in more formats, including music, artwork, movies, etc.
***
QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG
A. Send a check or money order to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
809 North 1500 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
USA
B. Donate by credit card online:
NetworkForGood:
http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541
or
PayPal to "donate at gutenberg.org":
http://www.paypal.com
/xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.org&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of
volunteers over more than 33 years. Your donations make it possible
to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the
creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and
transfers from any country, in any currency.
Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
(PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by
the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employee Information
Number (EIN) 64-6221541.
For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to
http://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html or email donate at gutenberg.org
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
Mirrors (copies) of the complete collection are available around the world.
To find the sites nearest you, go to:
http://www.gutenberg.org/MIRRORS.ALL
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
http://www.gutenberg.org/find
allows searching by title, author, language and subject.
Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
site (or a mirror) if you know the file's name you want. Try:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs
or
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/
and then navigate to the appropriate directory and look for the first
five characters of the file's name. Note that updated eBooks usually
go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.)
***
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 43 weeks of this year, we have produced 3374 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 3374 eBooks!!!
That's 43 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
With 14,281 eBooks online as of November 03, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.70 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $.98 when we had 10,069 eBooks a year ago
Can you imagine ~14,281 books each costing ~$.28 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~14,281 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 14,281 eBooks in 33 Years and 04.00 Months We Averaged
428 Per Year [We do about 3/4 that much per month these days!]
35.5 Per Month
1.16 Per Day
At 3374 eBooks Done In The 307 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
11 Per Day
78 Per Week
346 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was
the first Wednesday of 2004, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2003 and began the production year of 2004 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
*Flashback!!!
3334 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~31 years for the first 3324 !
That's the 9.75 months of 2004 as Compared to ~31 years!!!
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
GETTING INSIDE YOUR HEAD
Brain scanning technology (long used to detect conditions such as
Alzheimer's and autism) is now being used to understand how people make
choices and how they react to such things as religious experiences, Coke
versus Pepsi marketing, and Democrat versus Republican political campaigns.
Known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), brain scans measure
blood flow. During an fMRI, active regions of the brain can be seen lighting
up on a computer monitor, indicating either empathy or opposition to what
(or whom) the subject is being asked to think about. But the technology is
raising strong ethical concerns about "neuromarketing" from critics such as
Gary Ruskin of the nonprofit organization Commercial Alert: "This is a story
of the corruption of medical research. It's a technology that should be used
to ease human suffering, not make political propaganda more effective."
(AP/San Jose Mercury News 28 Oct 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10040162.htm>
[and. . .GETTING INSIDE YOUR COMPUTER'S HEAD]
SPYWARE EPIDEMIC THREATENS TO STALL COMPUTER INDUSTRY
Computer makers say that their technical support lines are lit up by
consumers frustrated over sluggish performance and increasingly they're
tracing the problems back to one culprit: spyware. Companies are concerned
about the cost of the calls, but they're even more worried that that
customers will wrongly blame them for performance deficiencies. Russ
Cooper, senior scientist with TruSecure Corp., says now that spyware has
become epidemic, it's time for Microsoft and other technology companies to
launch a public education campaign along the lines of the old "Only *you*
can prevent forest fires" concept. The industry's incentive is pure
survival, says Cooper. Microsoft officials blame rogue software for up to a
third of applications crashes on Windows XP computers and AOL estimates
that just three such programs together cause about 300,000 Internet
disconnections per day. Forrester Research analyst Jonathan Penn says
spyware-related customer support can cost $15 to $45 per phone call, but
it's worth it. "Security is a component of loyalty. People, they want all
these various services, but they expect security to come with it."
(AP 31 Oct 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041031/D862JARG0.html>
[More below on Spyware in the Edupage section]
INTERNET BROADENS VOTERS' POLITICAL HORIZONS
More than 40% of U.S. Internet users have gotten news and information
about this year's presidential campaign online, and 31% of broadband users
now cite the Net as their primary source of campaign news -- about the same
number as those who rely on newspapers (35%). And while some pundits had
expressed concern that wider use of the Internet would result in a
decreased exposure to viewpoints that conflict with users', it turns out
that Internet users have a greater overall exposure to political arguments,
including those that challenge their preferences. "People are using the
Internet to broaden their political horizons, not narrow them," says Kelly
Garret, co-author of a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life
Project. "Use of the Internet doesn't necessarily diminish partisanship, or
even zealotry. But it does expose online Americans to more points of view,
and, on balance, that is a good thing." One surprise coming out of the
survey -- about 20% of Americans say they actually prefer news sources that
challenge their point of view, and nearly 10% are *more* aware of arguments
that oppose their candidate than arguments in favor. (Pew Internet &
American Life Project 28 Oct 2004)
<http://www.pewinternet.org>
AMD's LOW-COST ONLINE-ACCESS DEVICE
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to sell an Internet access device in
India and other developing countries for two to three hundred dollars.
Called the Personal Internet Communicator (PIC), it was developed in
conjunction with companies such as Solectron, Seagate, Samsung, and
Macromedia, and will be sold in India through VSNL, an international phone
service and Internet access provider that's part of the India's Tata
conglomerate. VNSL will offer the device, which runs on a Microsoft
Windows-based operating system, as a bundled service to broadband customers.
Although Internet penetration in India is now about 0.4% and broadband
penetration 0.02%, the country plans to have 20 million broadband and 40
million Internet users by 2010, with much of that growth coming from
wireless technologies. (Reuters/USA Today 31 Oct 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/computing/2004-10-31-net-access-
india_x.htm>
[Meanwhile in China]
CHINA CLOSES INTERNET CAFES
China has shut down 1,600 Internet cafes and fined operators a total of
$12 million because they allowed children play violent games or commit other
violations of the government's policies to clean up Web sites and video
games. Investigators have inspected 1.8 million Internet cafes looking for
unlicensed operations, has ordered 18,000 of them to "stop operation for
rectification" of violations. The country has the world's second-largest
population of Internet users after the United States, with 87 million people
online. Culture Ministry official Zhang Xinjian says: "Porn, gambling,
violence and similar problems have adversely affected the healthy
development of the Internet in China." (AP/Los Angeles Times 1 Nov 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology12nov01,1,1722637.story?
coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>
[More below on this story in the Edupage section]
BUSH WEB SITE BLOCKS FOREIGN VISITORS
The Bush-Cheney campaign has cut off access to its Web site by anyone
outside the U.S. or Canada. Instead, those visitors will see the message:
"Access denied. You don't have permission to access www.georgewbush.com on
this server." The move comes a week after a crippling hacker attack that
took down the Web site for six hours. Security experts say that while it's
not usual for Web sites to block traffic from specific Internet addresses
or from certain countries notorious for churning out spam, the Bush-Cheney
campaign's move is probably unprecedented. "I've never heard of a site
wholesale blocking access from the rest of the world," says Johannes
Ulrich, CTO for the SANS Internet Storm Center. "I guess they decided it
just wasn't worth the trouble to leave it open to foreign visitors." Jonah
Sieger, a founding partner for Connections Media, which does consulting
work with Democratic candidates, says it doesn't make sense for the
Bush-Cheney folks to "consciously block access to anybody. Maybe the next
thing they'll try is to block Democrats and people in blue states from
coming to the site." (Washington Post 27 Oct 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2668-2004Oct27.html>
VIDEO GAMES FOR THE VERY YOUNG
Video game makers are turning their attention to the younger crowd --
in this case, children as young as 2 or 3 -- in an effort to meet demand
and groom a new generation of players. A report issued last year by the
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation indicated that half of all 4- to
6-year-olds had played video games -- on handheld devices, computers or
game consoles -- and a quarter reported playing several times a week. Of
children 3 or younger, 14% had played video games. "Companies have found
that there's an untapped market with the really young kid," says Kaiser VP
Vicky Rideout. To meet this demand, Atari is marketing a line of PC games
for children aged 3 to 6 that come in see-through boxes and include a small
toy, like a doll or action figure. The new market comes as a boon for the
multibillion-dollar video game industry as it looks to expand beyond its
core constituency -- males aged 14 to 34. And by starting the kids early,
it "helps to feed in new gamers all the time," says an executive at one
video game company. Meanwhile, an analyst with research firm NPD Group says
that partly as a result of this shift, conventional toy sales are flat. "If
parents are spending $200, $400 and more on these things, they take away
from other things kids can have. But kids seem very happy and content with
a computer and a couple of games." (New York Times 28 Oct 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/technology/circuits/28kids.html>
SIGN OF THE TIMES: GOLD MP3s
In a nod to the digital age, the Recording Industry Association of
America has issued its first gold, platinum and multiplatinum
certifications for digital downloads. RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol
calls the awards "a reflection of both the commitment of the entire music
community to consumer-friendly legitimate digital services and fan appetite
for high-quality music." The RIAA based its certifications on sales from
legitimate digital download services, including Apple iTunes, Musicmatch,
Napster and RealNetworks. And the winner is: Outkast's "Hey Ya!" with more
than 400,000 downloads (earning it the only multiplatinum designation). In
addition, six songs qualified for platinum (200,000 downloads) and 45 for
gold (100,000 downloads). (CNet News.com 27 Oct 2004)
http://news.com.com/From+gold+records+to+gold+MP3s/2100-1027_3-5429377.html
[and. . .in a related story]
INTERNET MUSIC REWRITES INDUSTRY RULES
While the music industry has been focusing on music piracy, another
phenomenon is slowly emerging -- the Web as venture capital source.
Chart-topping rockers The Darkness have sold enough downloads, T-shirts and
other fan-abilia to finance their next album, and British band Marillion
has used its site to raise funds for its last two albums -- before they
recorded them. "The Internet is our savior. Without it, we wouldn't be what
we are today. It's really turned the business around," says Marillion's
marketing manager. Meanwhile, Universal Music has begun using the Web as a
testing/breeding ground for new acts, signing them to a "digital rights"
contract before committing serious money to their promotion. "It acts as an
incubation label, if you will," says Universal Music UK new media services
director Rob Wells. "It's the Marillion concept." (Reuters/CNet 31 Oct 2004)
<http://news.com.com/iTunes+aside%2C+Web+is+changing+the+music+industry/2100
-1027_3-5433891.html>
E-VOTING COMPANIES DIVULGE *SOME* SOFTWARE CODE
Electronic voting equipment makers Diebold Election Systems, Election
Systems & Software, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems have agreed
to submit millions of lines of software code to the National Software
Reference Library, but have refused to include their most valuable data --
their proprietary source code. They also say they might not provide the
library with copies of software patches and updates. The companies acted at
the request of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, whose chairman
noted that although the data submitted was far from complete, he hoped the
companies' ongoing submissions would eventually result in making election
software more transparent. A number of scientists have called for "open
source" voting software that could be independently verified, but many
computer security experts remain pessimistic because no technology exists
today that would allow an election official who suspects fraud to check
software code on a voting machine and compare with the code stored in the
library. Avi Rubin, technical director of the Johns Hopkins Information
Security Institute, called the code-sharing program "meaningless."
(AP 27 Oct 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041027/D85VOSTG1.html>
LANDLINES YIELD TO MOBILES IN INDIA
Mobile phone users have outstripped traditional landline connections
in India, according to the industry, marking a major lifestyle and
communications milestone for the rapidly changing country. A survey
conducted by India's leading telecoms magazine, Voice and Data, found 45
million people possess mobile phones in India compared to 44 million who
have landlines. "It took landline phone subscriptions 50 years to get to
the 40-million-mark while mobile phones have touched it in nine years and
four months. Mobile phones have created a complete culture change in
communication," says the magazine's senior assistant editor, Pravin
Prashant. (The Age 25 Oct 2004) rec'd from John Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/25/1098667675148.html>
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan: NewsScan Daily
is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to:
Text version: Send message to NewsScan at NewsScan.com
Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html at NewsScan.com
NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html
*
>From Edupage
OXFORD HANDS OUT PUNISHMENT FOR HACKING
Oxford University's Court of Summary Jurisdiction has suspended two
students who hacked into the university's computer and then wrote
about their exploits in the student newspaper. Patrick Foster and Roger
Waite admitted they compromised the university's computer system,
using a program they easily obtained online, and said they publicized
the event to bring attention to the system's lax security. The
university court did not find the students' explanation of altruism
compelling, suspending Foster until May 2005 and Waite until January
2005. A spokesperson for the university declined to discuss details of
the case but noted that "[a]ny student found to have breached
university regulations on computer use would face disciplinary action."
Foster and Waite said they would appeal the suspension, which they
describe as "too harsh." Foster said, "We were simply trying to expose
the security failings in Oxford's IT network."
BBC, 29 October 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3966045.stm
MORE SUPPORT FOR ADDING GAMES TO CURRICULUM
Researchers at the Institute of Education at London University contend
that the study of computer and video games has a place in the academic
curriculum just as do studies of film, television, and literature. The
findings are based on a three-year study in the United Kingdom of games
and their influence on education. According to Caroline Pelletier,
manager of the project, "Games literacy is a way of investigating how
games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or
drawing." Andrew Burn, associate director of the Institute of
Education's Centre for the Study of Children, Youth, and Media, called
games "a legitimate cultural form that deserve critical analysis." Burn
noted that, according to the study, a key element of the value of games
is allowing students to create their own games. Researchers did
acknowledge, however, that in the often male-dominated world of gaming,
many of the girls in the study felt left out. Research fellow Diane
Carr said that girls "have little motivation to play and remain
disengaged." Representatives of the gaming industry praised the
researchers for "intelligently" addressing the "cultural, social, and
educational value of computer and video games."
BBC, 26 October 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3956241.stm
THE GROWING PROBLEM OF SPYWARE
As the number of computers infected with spyware spirals upward,
technology companies face a growing burden, both for supporting users
whose computers are slowed by spyware and for protecting their
corporate reputation from the perception that they are to blame.
Microsoft estimates that one-third of Windows XP crashes result from
spyware, and AOL says that three spyware applications alone cause
300,000 Internet disconnections per day. A significant portion of
spyware is installed with other applications, such as games or
file-sharing tools. Often, users who download such applications and
agree to licensing terms unwittingly consent to the spyware also, which
is included in long licensing agreements. Because many users
technically agree to install spyware, companies such as Dell are unable
to do much to help those customers when they call complaining of slow
performance. Companies such as Dell and HP are beginning to address the
problem, however, by including antispyware tools with new computers,
and Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for Windows XP works to protect users
by notifying them whenever such applications are being installed.
Associated Press, 31 October 2004
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041031/D862JARG0.html
CHINESE AUTHORITIES CLOSE INTERNET CAFES
Government officials in China have acknowledged the forced closure of
1,600 Internet cafes and the temporary closure of many thousands more.
The Chinese Culture Ministry takes an active role in protecting the
country's youth from online content including gambling, pornography,
and violence, and the ministry is known for forbidding access to some
Internet sites from anywhere in the country. Citing concerns over
minors' accessing inappropriate content, the ministry commented
officially that of the country's 1.8 million Internet cafes, 18,000
have been fined, ordered to close temporarily, or shut down permanently.
For many in China, the cafes are the only means to access the Internet.
NewsFactor Network, 1 November 2004
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=28036
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
If you have questions or comments about Edupage,
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html
or send e-mail to: edupage at educause.edu
To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to
LISTSERV at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
and in the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName
***
*Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
Two stories from the BBC shortwave broadcast to Bermuda:
[The "BBC North American World Service" was discontinued
in favor of selling the programming to U.S. radio and TV]
1.
A BBC reporter in Florida said she, and others present,
counted 150 voters come in, fill out 150 forms, but 184
votes were recorded, even though only 150 paper trails.
2.
"I voted for Kerry but it came up for Bush." [Ohio]
[At least I think this one was BBC, I stayed up pretty
much all night, and actually said these two states in
reverse when reporting this over the phone, so I'm not
sure which program I heard this on, sorry.]
US ADMITS TO DEPLOYMENT OF SPACE WARFARE TECHNOLOGY
Washington, DC, October 29
The US Air Force's Space Commanders finally admitted that they
had very quietly launched and activated various new weapons systems
aimed at jamming electronic satellite communications systems of the
other space faring countries of the world.
The "Conter Communications Systems has been in operation since last
month as per information from Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs.
Since the US does not currently have any operational space shuttles,
one is left to presume any orbital components were launched via the
recent Russian launch that orbited the most recent US astronaut.
However, no reference to any space-based components was made.
Announcements only mentioned ground-based RF [radio frequency] jammers
similar in concept to radio jammers since WW II.
***
...and in a related story, the FCC approval of the use of power lines to
transmit internet data will essentiall wipe out certain shortwave and CB
frequencies in the USA (high-amplitude modulation at high frequencies,
a loud constant blast of radio noise which will drown out everything else
on those frequencies)... thankfully, this means that Americans will no longer be
subjected to the annoyance of news programs originating from the rest of the
world, which only served to confuse the situation and make peoples' heads
hurt with contradictory information, anyway... commerical truckers, who rely
on CB radio, will not be reachable for comment on their CB radios. . . .
DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PURSUES RUBIK'S CUBE IP CASE
The Oregonian reports that a local Oregon toy store received
a visit from federal Homeland Security agents demanding that
the owner remove a toy called the Magic Cube, which they
claimed was an illegal copy of the Rubik's Cube. Officials
say that their agency is responsible for "protecting the
integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems
and obviously trademark infringement does have significant
economic implications."
Yes, there have been other cases as well of use of the PATRIOT Act to
pursue copyright infringement. In theory, anything that affects the
economy could be called a national security issue, but what is
significant is that it is so far only intellectual property that has
been singled out for this special protection.
CHINA AIMS AT FIVE-DAY SPACE SHOT
from BBC News Online
China's second manned space flight will carry two astronauts into space and
will orbit the Earth for five days.
The country's space authorities made the announcement about the mission, which
is scheduled for next year, at an air show in China's Guangzhou Province.
Mission scientists said they have been working to optimise the performance,
safety and reliability of the spacecraft, named Shenzhou VI.
http://snipurl.com/a7i9
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Red Sox will sweep World Series!!!
Win 8 straight games!!!"
*PREDICTION OF THE WEEK
Red Sox will sweep World Series!!!
Will win 8 straight games!!!
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Red Sox sweep World Series!!!
Win 8 straight games!!!
and. . . .
Not one of the major US television networks
has mentioned in their reasons for reporting
Vice President Gore as having been elected
to serve as president that perhaps those in
their exit polls actually thought they had
voted for Gore, but their votes didn't count.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists,
including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters:
and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists:
The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the
first Wednesday of the month.
To subscribe to any (or to unsubscribe or adjust your subscription
preferences), visit the Project Gutenberg mailing list server:
http://lists.pglaf.org
If you are having trouble with your subscription, please
email the list's human administrators at: help at pglaf.org
***
More information about the gweekly
mailing list