[gweekly] PT2 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Nov 10 09:49:40 PST 2004
GWeekly_November_10.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 10, 2004 PT1*
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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
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
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*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
74 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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*eBook Milestones
14,355 eBooks As Of Today!!!
11,293 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Now Produced about 3,448 eBooks In 2004
We Are Already ~1/3 of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000
645 to go to 15,000!!!
We have now averaged ~430 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
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***Introduction
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 33 16/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About ~430 eBooks/Yr
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 10.00 months of this year, we produced 3448 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to July 2001 to produce our first 3,448 eBooks!
That's 44 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!
74 New eBooks This Week
69 New eBooks Last Week
74 New eBooks This Month [Nov]
344 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
3448 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
11293 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 46.00 Months!
14,355 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
10,266 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,129 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 = 113%
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*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on March 13th, 2001, the
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Oct 2004 - 263
Nov 2004 - 92 (as of 10 Nov 04)
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections holdings
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*The Coradella Bookshelf Collection of 141 eBook Files*
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Widger Library 2,600 HTML eBook Files
CIA's Electronic Reading Room 2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files==========106,162 Total Files=====
If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are duplicates,
that leaves a unique book total of
~35,400 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are duplicates,
that leaves a unique book total of
~26,540 Unique eBooks
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Today Is Day #314 of 2004
This Completes Week #44 and Month #10.00
56 Days/10 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
645 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]
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Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 44 weeks of this year, we have produced 3448 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 3448 eBooks!!!
That's 44 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
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for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
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100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $.98 when we had 10,069 eBooks a year ago
Can you imagine ~14,355 books each costing ~$.28 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~14,355 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 14,355 eBooks in 33 Years and 04.00 Months We Averaged
~430 Per Year [We do about 3/4 that much per month these days!]
35.5 Per Month
1.16 Per Day
At 3448 eBooks Done In The 314 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
11 Per Day
78 Per Week
344 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
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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:
MICROSOFT JOINS THE SEARCH
Microsoft is introducing an Internet search service positioned to compete
with Google and Yahoo. Details of the service are expected tomorrow. John
Tinker of the investment bank ThinkEquity Partners suggests that Microsoft's
initial product will be just the beginning of a much larger competitive
threat: "I think Microsoft is a couple of years from doing anything serious,
but it's a reminder that the big bad evil beast is out there."
(New York Times 10 Nov 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/technology/10search.html?oref=login>
SPITTING MAD AT SPAM
Spam over Internet telephony, known as SPIT, will become commonplace as
more people make phone calls over the Internet. Internet researcher Michael
Osterman warns that Web-based phone systems attacked by spam will "trash
voice-mail systems," and explains: "You can easily delete 100 spam text
messages. But try to weed through a voice-mail system filled with 100
unsolicited pitches. That's a pain." Spam is already appearing frequently on
instant messages, cell phones, and blogs, and one executive of an Internet
service provider admits: "As everything gets connected, there are more ways
to spam consumers. Spam is everywhere." (USA Today 9 Nov 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-09-spit_x.htm>
[and in a related story]
UNANIMOUS RULING: FCC, NOT STATES, WILL REGULATE VOIP
The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that the federal government
--rather than state regulatory bodies -- has the authority to oversee phone
service offered over the Internet (known as Voice over Internet Protocol,
or VoIP). FCC chairman Michael K. Powell says, "This landmark order
recognizes that a revolution has occurred. Internet voice services
have cracked the 19th century mold to the great benefit of consumers."
(Washington Post 9 Nov 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37972-2004Nov9.html>
E-LEARNING MEANS LESS MONEY FOR TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS
A school superintendent in Colorado explains the plight of traditional
schools faced with declining enrollments due to competition from new systems
of learning: "If I lose two kids, that's $20,000 walking out the door... I
was worried about making sure that if one student left, my budget wasn't a
disaster." The state gives each school a per-pupil reimbursement for
students who attend brick-and-mortar schools, but spends only $5,627 to
educate each online student in Colorado. In almost all schools in that
state, the cost of educating an online student is lower than for a
traditional student. (Los Angeles Times 9 Nov 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology13nov09,1,2640150.story?
coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>
P2P RADIO IS LATEST TWIST IN MUSIC SHARING
Now there's a new way to share music that's free and perfectly legal
--the trick involves marrying peer-to-peer technology with Internet radio.
Pioneers in the field include Apple, Virgin Digital, and startups Mercora
and Live 365, which offer tools that automatically stream users' private
playlists over the Web while in some cases storing them in a searchable
database for later retrieval. Mercora operates a Web-based network of about
8,000 "broadcasters" who serve up their playlists to somewhere between
175,000 and 200,000 listeners worldwide. "We're doing for music what Google
did for the Web," says Mercora CEO Srivats Sampath. The company reasons
that by using an Internet broadcast network model, it can take advantage of
lower copyright fees, which are set by the U.S. Copyright Office rather
than the record labels. As a result, Mercora can afford to pay the fees on
behalf of broadcasters and offset the costs through advertising sales. "The
big nut we had to crack is how to do this legally," says Sampath. "The law
says you can broadcast as long as you pay. Fine, we will pay you." And if
listeners happen to download a song? Technically, if the legally broadcast
song is for personal use only, that's okay. "It's like a tape recorder,"
says Sampath. However, the downloader runs into legal trouble only when she
tries to sell a track or transfer it to another person.
(CNet News.com 8 Nov 2004)
<//news.com.com/Music+sharing+thats+free+and+legal/2100-1027_3-5441036.html>
NIGERIAN SCAMMER JAILED
[5 years jail for $5 million. . .sounds like not enough jail time,
and you know they didn't get the $5 million back. . . .]
The Australian mastermind of a global Internet scam was today
sentenced to at least four years behind bars. Nick Marinellis pleaded
guilty in the New South Wales District Court to 10 counts of fraud and one
count of perverting the course of justice over the so-called Nigerian or
West African scam. The ruse fleeced victims of $5 million. Judge Barry
Mahoney sentenced Marinellis to five years and three months jail with a
non-parole period of four years and four months. (The Australian 8 Nov
2004) rec'd from John Lamp
<http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,11319598%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5
E,00.html>
BIDDING UP PRICES ON ONLINE AUCTIONS
[Was this penalty enough, either? How about the rest of the scammed?]
Eight eBay sellers who bid up products online to inflate their prices
have been ordered by the New York Attorney General's office to pay almost
$90,000 in restitution and fines. More than 120 people will receive money
from the settlement of the three cases. One man will receive a check for
$3,089 after overpaying for a 1999 Jeep Cherokee sport-utility vehicle he
bought from an eBay seller in 2002.(Washington Post 7 Nov 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32944-2004Nov7.html>
IRAN'S CRACKDOWN ON PRO-DEMOCRACY WEB SITES
In the past several months Iran has blocked hundreds of pro-democracy
Web sites and arrested such journalists as Mahboubeh Abbas-Gholizadeh and
Fereshteh Ghazi, both of whom write about women's issues. But the move to
block Web sites has the support of senior cleric Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi,
who declared in September that Web sites should be blocked if they "insult
sacred concepts of Islam, the Prophet and Imams," or if they publish
"harmful and deviated beliefs to promote atheism or promote sinister books."
(New York Times 8 Nov 2004)
//www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08iran.html?oref=login
GAME MAKERS THREATENED BY PATENT LAWSUIT
Computer game makers, including such big names as Electronic Arts,
Atari and Sega, have been sued by Texas-based McKool Smith, which claims
the makers' games violate a 1987 patent that covers a way to display 3D
objects realistically in a 2D space, such as a computer monitor. The
technique is used by almost every game that uses 3D modeling, including
older games such as Quake and Doom. The companies are now frantically
researching prior art, citing games such as The Colony and Spectre, which
may have been released before the 1987 patent was granted.
(The Register 3 Nov 2004)
<http://www.theregister.com/2004/11/03/game_cos_3d_lawsuit/>
IRELAND TO SILENCE MOBILES IN CINEMAS, THEATERS
Ireland's cinemas and theatres have been given the go-ahead by the
country's communications watchdog to permit the use of mobile phone
interceptors. Interceptors will allow the creation of "quiet zones" where
the mobile phones will not ring but where calls can still be made to
emergency services or to lists of approved numbers, the Communications
Regulator said on Wednesday. (The Age 4 Nov 2004) rec'd from John Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/04/1099362260997.html>
[Approved numbers: meaning the government and their friends.]
INDIA UNVEILS NATIONAL INTERNET HUB
India has created a national Internet service hub to connect all
service providers and boost web traffic in the country of one billion
people. Until now, domestic Internet service providers have been forced to
rely on international traffic routing providers to run their Web sites, and
so Information and Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran says the new plan
will help to "proliferate the Internet" in that domestic service providers
will now be able to reduce the cost of traffic routing and improve service
for subscribers. (The Australian 29 Oct 2004) Rec'd from J. Lamp
australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,11222365%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
CELL PHONE PHOTOS MAKE THE FRONT PAGE
Twice in the last month De Telegraaf, the Netherlands' largest newspaper,
has run front-page photos snapped by amateur photographers using their
cell phones. Wednesday De Telegraaf published a grisly picture of the
body of filmmaker and columnist Theo van Gogh, who police suspect was
stabbed to death by an Islamic militant. Passerby Aron Boskma took the
photo at the crime scene in Amsterdam before the body had been covered.
"This picture was the story. There was a discussion if we should use it,
but everyone who would have had this picture would have published it,"
says Telegraaf pictures editor Peter Schoonen. Last month Dutch newspapers
published cell phone pictures of a police shoot-out in the town of
Enschede. In Japan, where many citizens now have camera-equipped cell
phones, it is common practice to sell news-breaking pictures to TV stations
and other media outlets. (Reuters 3 Nov 2004)
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=UJYGZ4EES4VDICRBAEOCFEY
?type=technologyNews&storyID=6702434>
IE LOSING GROUND TO OPEN SOURCE BROWSERS
Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser is still the overwhelming
market leader [93%?], but the percentage of Americans using open-source
alternatives Mozilla and Firefox inched up to 6% in October from 3.5% in
June. Apple's Safari and the Opera browsers combined were employed by just
a little over 1% of users, according to online research firm WebSideStory.
The results were gleaned by sensors embedded on major Web sites that
identified which browsers visitors were using to access the sites. And
although Mozilla and Firefox constitute a miniscule portion of the browser
market, some analysts say their steady rise may signal a trend. "What we're
seeing is (Mozilla and Firefox) looking more like a vanguard than a flash
in the pan," says WebSideStory analyst Geoff Johnston.
(CNet News.com 1 Nov 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Study+Firefox+still+gaining+on+Internet+Explorer/2100-1
032_3-5435176.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
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*
>From Edupage
MICROSOFT SETTLES MORE SUITS
Microsoft this week moved another step closer to clearing its slate of
pending antitrust legislation when it reached a $536 million settlement
with Novell over that company's NetWare operating system. In exchange,
Novell will withdraw from the antitrust case brought by the European
Commission (EC) against Microsoft. Microsoft also settled with the
Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which had
challenged the terms of the antitrust settlement between Microsoft and
the Justice Department. Under that deal, Microsoft will join the CCIA
and will pay undisclosed legal expenses; the CCIA will stop seeking a
review of the settlement with the Justice Department and will also
withdraw from the EC case. Since the landmark deal with the Justice
Department, Microsoft has now spent about $3 billion to settle
antitrust complaints, and the company might still be liable for another
$950 million for outstanding lawsuits, including one by RealNetworks.
Despite Microsoft's argument that the EC should end its case in light
of the new settlements, an EC spokesperson said regulators would not be
ending their investigations and would insist on enforcing sanctions
against the company.
Wall Street Journal, 8 November 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109992201481467517,00.html
USING VIDEO GAMES TO IMPROVE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Athletes at a number of colleges and universities are testing an
application called IntelliGym designed to improve athletic performance
through video games. Daniel Gopher, the research supervisor at the
company that developed IntelliGym, is known for his work in training
Israeli fighter pilots in the 1980s with video simulations. Cadets in
that program reportedly "performed significantly better" than others
who did not train with the computer games, and Gopher has applied the
same ideas to sports. Basketball players at the University of Memphis
are testing the IntelliGym program, which does not simulate basketball
but purportedly develops decision-making and visual skills applicable
to the game. IntelliGym endeavors to train players to keep track of
several things happening at one time, to discern patterns among moving
objects, and to make fast decisions.
San Jose Mercury News, 4 November 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10099990.htm
NEXTEL AND VERIZON SETTLE DISPUTE
[unlike MicroSoft. . .]
In a settlement widely regarded as a win for Nextel Communications, the
wireless provider and Verizon Wireless have ended a long-running
dispute over trademarks and reallocation of spectrum. Under the deal,
Nextel will drop a lawsuit against Verizon alleging trademark
infringement for use of the term "push to talk," and Nextel agreed not
to pursue such charges against Verizon or any other carrier that uses
the term. Meanwhile, Verizon will end its opposition to a reallocation
of radio-wave spectrum between the government and Nextel. Nextel's
network was woven together with various slices of the spectrum that
often caused interference with emergency workers, such as police and
firefighters. A proposed spectrum swap with the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) would eliminate much of that interference, but Verizon
objected because the swap would also allow Nextel to upgrade its
network fairly easily and to offer high-speed data services. Under the
deal with the FCC, Nextel will return about $2 billion worth of
spectrum to the FCC and will spend at least $3.2 billion to help
relocate users affected by the change. The Government Accountability
Office still has to rule on whether the FCC has the authority to swap
the spectrum as outlined in the deal.
Wall Street Journal, 3 November 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109941002329062243,00.html
VIRGINIA SEES FIRST FELONY SPAM CONVICTION
A brother and sister in Virginia have been found guilty under that
state's antispam law, which some describe as the toughest in the
nation. Jeremy D. Jaynes and Jessica DeGroot, who live in North
Carolina, were charged with sending unsolicited e-mail from a bogus
return address. Prosecutors said the e-mail the pair sent advertised
fraudulent products, such as a "FedEx refund processor" that supposedly
allowed users to earn $75 an hour from their homes. During one month,
Jaynes reportedly received 10,000 orders for the processor, which was
priced at $39.95. Jurors in the nation's first felony conviction for
spam will now consider punishment for the two defendants. Prosecutors
have asked the jury to sentence Jaynes to the maximum 15 years in
prison and have requested an unspecified prison term for DeGroot.
Washington Post, 3 November 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22961-2004Nov3.html
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*Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
Many of you have probably heard that a US National Guard F-16 fighter
shot up the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School in New Jersey, but
you probably also heard that the damage from the 20mm cannon was minimal,
leaving only puncture marks on the roof and parking lot.
[From an anonymous source on another listserver]
"For your information, 20mm cannon shells are 5 times as massive as your
standard every day police 9mm Glock bullets, and are travelling so much
faster that you probably wouldn't believe it [when they leave the plane].
"The idea that these would only leave "puncture marks in the school's roof"
is hardly testing the bloggers who challenged Dan Rather last month.
"As an example, a .50 caliber machine gun would go right through a steel
I-beam one inch thick. . .and this is only about 12.7mm in size, so I
think any kind of follow-up examination will show that there is a LOT
of damage to anything these 25 cannon rounds hit."
***
And in addition to the story below, it would appear
that the US has had missiles prepared to knock down
satellites from both ground and air-based launchers
for quite some time.
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 "Counter 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 essentially 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. . . .
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I tried 10 times to vote for Kerry,
but it always came up Bush."
*PREDICTION OF THE WEEK
This election will bear surprising
similarities to the previous one,
and to the last president declaring
a "mandate" when re-elected, Nixon.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Women in US prisons are increasing at a rate
double that of men.
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.
and. . .
In a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the
Atlanta-based federal agency said that bigger luggage is not the only thing
weighing down airliners and causing them to burn more costly fuel. In fact,
the CDC said, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds during
the 1990s - requiring an extra 350 million gallons of jet fuel to fly them
around during 2000.
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