[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Nov 24 09:44:40 PST 2004
GWeekly_November_24.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 24, 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
72 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
Project Gutenberg is 400 Months Old!
14,484 eBooks As Of Today!!!
11,219 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Now Produced about 3,577 eBooks In 2004
We Are Already ~1/2 of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000
516 to go to 15,000!!!
We have now averaged ~434 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 10.75 months of this year, we produced 3577 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to December 2002 to produce our first 3,577 eBooks!
That's 46 WEEKS as Compared to ~31.5 Years!
72 New eBooks This Week
74 New eBooks Last Week
203 New eBooks This Month [Nov]
334 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
3577 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
11422 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 46.75 Months!
14,484 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
10,396 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,088 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 = 67%
Moore's Law 18 month percentage = 115%
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*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on March 13th, 2001, the
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Of that total, there are 5,424 unique, brand-new titles.
Projects completed since the beginning of the year:
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Mar 2004 - 365
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Oct 2004 - 263
Nov 2004 - 207 (as of 24 Nov 04)
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
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PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections holdings
of 15 collections. . .with this week's listing as:
Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files
Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files
The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files
DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files
eBooks at Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files
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CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files==========106,107 Total Files=====
These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of
their donors: some are one file per book, some have a
file for each chapter, and some even have a file for a
single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons
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If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
35,360 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
26,527 Unique eBooks
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Today Is Day #328 of 2004
This Completes Week #46 and Month #10.75
42 Days/10 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
516 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 3577 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 3577 eBooks!!!
That's 44 WEEKS as Compared to ~31.5 YEARS!!!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3577
Dec 2002 Private Life of Napoleon, V1, by Constant [NB#18][nc01vxxx.xxx] 3568
Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete, by Bourrienne 3567
Dec 2002 Memoirs of Napoleon, V16, by Bourrienne [NB#16][nb16vxxx.xxx] 3566
[Two multivolume sets of Napoleon.]
With 14,484 eBooks online as of November 24, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.69 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 $.96 when we had 10,069 eBooks a year ago
Can you imagine ~14,484 books each costing ~$.27 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~14,484 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 14,484 eBooks in 33 Years and 04.75 Months We Averaged
434 Per Year [We do about 3/4 that much per month these days!]
36.1 Per Month
1.19 Per Day
At 3577 eBooks Done In The 335 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
11 Per Day
78 Per Week
334 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:
BROADBAND USE UP, BUT U.S. STILL LAGS FAR BEHIND
[In a related story, AOL has indicated it will cease providing broadband
service in in the entire southeastern United States in January.]
A Bush administration report, titled "A Nation Online: Entering the
Broadband Age," notes that the number of Americans using broadband Internet
connections doubled between 2001 and late 2003, but the country as a whole
still lags far behind many other nations, including South Korea, Taiwan and
Canada. The report also points to a widening gap between the digital haves
and have-nots. Only 25% of rural households have a broadband connection,
compared with 40% for urban areas, and only one-in-seven blacks and fewer
than one-in-eight Hispanics lives in a household with high-speed Internet
service. "It shows we continue to have a significant divide between urban
and rural America in the infrastructure of the 21st century," says Gregory
L. Rohde, a top telecom advisor during the Clinton administration.
Significant numbers of rural Americans complained there were no broadband
services available where they live. "This is lousy," says Harris Miller,
head of the Information Technology Association of America. "We're just not
keeping up with our competitors. We're not even keeping up with countries
we don't consider competitors. It's not acceptable." (AP 23 Nov 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041123/D86HL5SG0.html>
[Here's the original AOL story from 12 days ago.]
AOL WINDS DOWN BROADBAND SERVICE
Earlier this year America Online stopped signing up new
broadband customers -- and now it's telling existing broadband
subscribers in nine Southern states that they'll need to find a new
broadband carrier by mid-January, or face being moved to dial-up
service. Broadband customers affected by this decision are residents
of Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi,
Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
(AP/Los Angeles Times 12 Nov 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology10nov11,1,1067276.story?
coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>
[and in a related story]
TELCOS THREATENED BY MUNICIPAL WIFI
[Telcos fight back with army of well-paid lobbyists]
Dozens of municipalities around the country are installing WiFi
networks in order to provide citizens with low- or no-cost wireless
Internet access -- a phenomenon that has raised the ire of large telephone
and cable companies, who see their lucrative broadband businesses eroding.
In response, telcos and cable companies are pushing states to pass
legislation that could make such municipal networks illegal. Last week,
after intensive lobbying by Verizon, the Pennsylvania General Assembly
passed a bill with a deeply buried provision that would make it illegal for
any "political subdivision" to provide to the public "for any compensation
any telecommunications services, including advanced and broadband services
within the service territory of a local exchange telecommunications company
operating under a network-modernization plan." Verizon is the local
exchange operator for most of Pennsylvania and is planning a major
fiber-optic cable rollout. Similar bills have passed in Utah, Louisiana and
Florida. Critics say the telco giants' clout is stifling broadband
expansion in the U.S., but the telcos argue it's unfair for them to have to
compete against local governments, which have easy access to capital and
pay no taxes. (Wall Street Journal 23 Nov 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110116864041881375,00.html> (sub req'd)
[and even greater threats by VOIP]
KAZAA OFFERS FREE VOIP CALLS
The latest version of Kazaa software, distributed by Sharman Networks,
incorporates Internet telephony software from Skype Technologies,
which is also owned by Kazaa founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.
That means while people are downloading their music they can also make free
online calls anywhere in the world. (Reuters/CNet.com 22 Nov 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Kazaa+offers+unlimited+free+Internet+phone+calls/2110-7
352_3-5463440.html>
MAKE INCISION HERE: RFID TAG USED IN SURGERY
[Tired of hearing they cut off the wrong leg?]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved use of radio
frequency ID (RFID) tags to ensure that physicians perform the right surgery
on the right patient. Manufactured by SurgiChip Inc., the radio tag is
encoded with the patient's name and the site, type, and date of the surgery;
the patient helps stick the adhesive-backed tag near the site of the surgery
and workers in the hospital's operating room scan the tag to compare that
information with the patient's chart. (AP/San Jose Merury News 19 Nov 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10226986.htm>
[more on RFIDs]
TRACKING SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH COMPUTER TAGS
A number of school districts around the country are implementing
systems that use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track
the whereabouts of schoolchildren. In Spring, Texas, the district's
28,000 students will be given ID cards with RFID chips in them. Card
readers on the district's school busses track where and when students
get on and off the busses and send that information to police and
school administrators. In the event that a child is reported missing,
authorities would use the system's data to help locate the child,
whether the student was kidnapped or simply went to another student's
home after school. A school district in Buffalo, New York, uses a
similar system at the doors of the school to track attendance. Despite
teething problems of the systems, not to mention concerns over cards
that are lost or traded by mischievous students, supporters said they
offer unique capacities to track students and reassure worried parents.
Critics of the systems, including the American Civil Liberties Union
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said they elevate security
concerns to the level of paranoia and represent an invasion of privacy.
New York Times, 17 November 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/technology/17tag.html
THE COMING BATTLE: GOOGLE VERSUS MICROSOFT
Already competing against one other in Web search, free e-mail, and
techniques for searching individual computers, Google and Microsoft are
drifting into a war over control of the user experience now dominated by
Microsoft's Windows operating system. Industry-watchers say that Google
could make people less dependent on storing information on their
Microsoft-powered PCs and more dependent on free Web-based e-mail and search
functions accessible anywhere from any device regardless of operating
system, and analyst David Garrity says the real question is whether computer
buyers may one day simply decide that they no longer even need a Microsoft
operating system. (AP/Los Angeles Times 22 Nov 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology11nov22,1,1657103.story?
coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>
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
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To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
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*
>From Edupage
BRITISH LIBRARY GOES WIRELESS
Responding to reports showing strong demand for Internet access,
officials at the British Library have announced the implementation of a
wireless network in the library's reading rooms, auditorium,
restaurants, and outdoor area. A study recently showed that 86 percent
of library patrons carry laptops and that 16 percent came to the
library to use it as a business center. Many visitors routinely leave
the library to check their e-mail at a local cafe, and surveys showed
that many people would like to check their e-mail, as well as access
the library catalog, while in the library. The service will cost users
4.50 British pounds per hour or 35 pounds per month. A pilot program
has been available in the library since May, and usage logs indicate
that in that time, the network has seen 1,200 sessions per week, making
it the busiest hot spot in London. BBC, 18 November 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4020241.stm
[Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of statistics will realize
that 86% of any population is not likely to be carrying laptops. . .
this very strange looking statistic is due to the fact that this is
not a library in the sense most of use. It is not open to the public,
other than a few rooms that look more like a museum, which is what it
really is, by most definitions. One actually has to pass a test to
gain entrance. . .to be a "reader." Not only do 86% of the "readers"
bring laptops, but they are incredibly "well-heeled" even by London
standards, as I observed myself when visiting there last month.]
COLLEGE BLOCKS HOTMAIL AND YAHOO TO FIGHT SPAM
Frustrated with the problem of spam and unable to afford antispam
software packages, officials at Guam Community College have implemented
a policy that blocks all mail from Hotmail or Yahoo--favorites with
spammers--from being delivered to college e-mail accounts. Exceptions
are made for return addresses that are on the institution's list of
legitimate addresses. Currently, the college only provides e-mail
accounts to faculty and staff, and many students rely on Hotmail or
Yahoo accounts to keep in touch with faculty or to turn in assignments,
prompting many complaints about the policy. The policy has resulted in
significantly less spam, and the college's technical staff are
spending much less time dealing with the spam that does get through.
Still, many members of the faculty do not support the policy, saying
that whatever benefits it provides do not outweigh the problems it
causes. Joe St. Sauver of the University of Oregon Computing Center and
an expert on spam issues said the tactic of blocking Hotmail and Yahoo
has been tried before but that most institutions dropped it because
they were not happy with the results.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 19 November 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i13/13a03101.htm
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
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***
*Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of "The Iron Lady," British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, is finally being forced to
answer questions in open court concerning charges that
he was planning a coup to take over Equatorial Guinea,
a country rich in oil.
The Cape High Court ruled today that he must face court
tomorrow [or the next day, depending on sources], and he
may be extradited later from South Africa to face more
direct charges in Equatorial Guinea. This ruling has
finally come after months of legal wrangling since his
arrest last August in his suburban Cape Town home.
Dozens of mercenaries and planners have been arrested
in Equatorial Guinea and in Zimbabwe, where one of Sir
Mark's friends has already been convicted.
In earlier arrests on March 7, about 70 men were taken
at the Harare airport, mostly South Africans led by
former SAS officer Simon Mann, a graduate of Eton.
Most of these have been charged with violations of
South Africa's foreign military assistance act and
other charges are pending in other countries.
It would appear all involved deny any participation
in the failed coup attempt, including Severo Moto,
who mysteriously appeared in nearby Mali just before
the coup attempt, apparently ready to be the new leader
if the right-wing network of businessmen had been
successful in taking over the country. Mr. Moto has
been reported to have been involved in several previous
such failed coup attempts, including one in which he
was arrested aboard a boat containing military supplies
for one of the previous events in 1997. Government
sources in Spain confirm Mr. Moto's involvement in
these events over the years.
Apparently one of Thatcher's friends has already been
convicted in Zimbabwe.
"Clockwork Orange" Medical Plan Finally Outlawed By Chinese
The Chinese announced that they will no longer be supporting
medical testing on hundreds of human beings in which they
remove or disable the portions of the brain receptive to
certain drugs. This technology was inherited from Russia,
where no such annoucement has been heard.
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
>From Jim Carrey:
"Prozac is like a low level of despair."
"Everything is just OK."
"You're not getting any answers."
"People need motivation to do anything.
I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation."
*PREDICTION OF THE WEEK
We will find that Russia only signed the Kyoto accords
to make Bush look bad for not signing, and to gain an
earlier membership in the World Trade Organization [WTO].
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Martha Stewart made $10-$20 million this week, even in jail,
due to her ownership of millions of shares of K-Mart, which
jumped in price when the Sears merger was announced.
Camden, NJ, named "US Most Dangerous City."
[Camden is just across from Phildephia, PA]
Newton, MA, Boston suburb, named the safest.
Murder rate is 0 in Newton, highest in Camden.
$1 of each $7 in the U.S. is spent on health care. 14%
Housing for those above the povertey level equals 20%
Housing for those around the poverty level equals 30%
Housing for those below the poverty level equals 40%
Transportation costs for those above poverty lines 20%
Transportation costs for those below poverty lines 40%
Obviously these studies aren't all from the same year
using the same information base or we would run 100%+
without much effort; however, it should be duly noted
that for those under the poverty line, the sum of all
food, housing, and transportation leaves little room.
Clothing, education, etc., add up to very little.
Back to health care, it all started during the Reagan years:
What Americans spend on health care increased 117% between 1980-1988.
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