[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Oct 6 09:47:46 PDT 2004
GWeekly_October_06.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 06, 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, 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
57 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
We Have Now Produced Over 3,000 eBooks In 2004!
We Are Over ~93% of the Way to 15,000!!!
13,948 eBooks As Of Today!!!
1,052 to go to 15,000!!!
We have now averaged about 418 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
We have now averaged about 1,000 eBooks per year since 1990!!!!!!!
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
***Introduction
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Over Our 33 13/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 419 eBooks/Yr
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back about $5,000 to get one of these into your entertainment center
or about e4,000. These are supposed to be available November 20,
but only in Japan, and no multinational plans have been announced.
Since a terabyte can be added to existing computers for $1,000,
at $250 each for 4 250G drives, I'm guessing that other systems
with a terabyte will be available even earlier than this one,
and at only $2,000. Ask a dealer near you, and let me know.
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That's 39 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 Years!
57 New eBooks This Week
47 New eBooks Last Week
271 New eBooks This Month [Sep]
338 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
3041 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
10889 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 44.00 Months!
13,948 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
9,683 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,265 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
380 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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Today Is Day #279 of 2004
This Completes Week #39 and Month #9.00
92 Days/13 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
1052 Books To Go To #15,000
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78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
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Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 39 weeks of this year, we have produced 3041 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 3041 eBooks!!!
That's 39 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 YEARS!!!
With 13,948 eBooks online as of October 06, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.72 from each book,
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 $1.03 when we had 9505 eBooks a year ago
Can you imagine ~13,948 books each costing ~$.31 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~13,948 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 13,948 eBooks in 33 Years and 03.00 Months We Averaged
419 Per Year [We do nearly that much a month these days!]
34.9 Per Month
1.15 Per Day
At 3041 eBooks Done In The 279 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
10.9 Per Day
78.0 Per Week
337.9 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!!!
3041 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~30 years for the first 3041 !
That's the 9.00 months of 2004 as Compared to ~30 years!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #3041
Jan 2002 Notes of a War Correspondent, R. H. Davis [#32][ntwrcxxx.xxx] 3050
Jan 2002 A Group of Noble Dames, Thomas Hardy [#15][nbldmxxx.xxx] 3049
Jan 2002 The Little Duke, Charlotte M. Yonge [#6][ltdukxxx.xxx] 3048
Jan 2002 Life's Little Ironies etc., Thomas Hardy [#14][lfirnxxx.xxx] 3047
Jan 2002 The Land of the Changing Sun, William N. Harben [lcsunxxx.xxx] 3046
Jan 2002 Last Chronicle of Barset, Anthony Trollope [#9][lacobxxx.xxx] 3045
Jan 2002 Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy [#13][desrmxxx.xxx] 3044
Jan 2002 The Quaker Colonies, Sydney G. Fisher [quakexxx.xxx] 3043
Jan 2002 Hispanic Nations of the New World, Wm. R. Shepherd[hispnxxx.xxx] 3042
Jan 2002 The Cleveland Era, Henry Jones Ford [clevexxx.xxx] 3041
[Title: The Cleveland Era, A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics]
Jan 2002 The Boss and the Machine, Samuel P. Orth [bossmxxx.xxx] 3040
Jan 2002 Forty-Two Poems by James Elroy Flecker[Flecker #1][42pomxxx.xxx] 3039
Jan 2002 The Armies of Labor, Samuel P. Orth [laborxxx.xxx] 3038
Jan 2002 The Age of Big Business, Burton J. Hendrick [agebbxxx.xxx] 3037
Jan 2002 The Railroad Builders, John Moody [rroadxxx.xxx] 3036
Jan 2002 The Day of the Confederacy, Nathaniel Stephenson [daycoxxx.xxx] 3035
Jan 2002 The Anti-Slavery Crusade, Jesse Macy [ascruxxx.xxx] 3034
Jan 2002 The Passing of the Frontier, Emerson Hough [passfxxx.xxx] 3033
Jan 2002 The Fathers of the Constitution, Max Farrand [fathcxxx.xxx] 3032
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
ISPs SCORE 'STUNNING VICTORY' OVER PATRIOT ACT
A New York federal judge struck down a controversial provision of the
USA Patriot Act, ruling that the FBI cannot require Internet service
providers to divulge subscriber information and then force them to keep mum
about it. The case had been brought by the ACLU on behalf of an ISP that
had received what is known as a national security letter demanding
confidential subscriber information. Unlike grand jury subpoenas, national
security letters may not be contested before a judge and require only that
the FBI describe the information it seeks as "relevant" to terrorism or
intelligence probes. Recipients of the letters are prohibited from telling
anyone -- including their customers and their lawyers -- about the FBI
requests. In the past 14 months since the Patriot Act's passage, "hundreds"
of such letters have been issued, according to U.S. District Judge Victor
Morrero, who says he appreciates the government's terrorism concerns but
feels freedoms must be carefully preserved in times of crisis: "Sometimes a
right, once extinguished, may be gone for good." ACLU executive director
Anthony Romero called the decision "a stunning victory against John
Ashcroft's Department of Justice." The Justice Department now has 90 days
to fix the law or appeal the ruling. (USA Today 30 Sep 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-09-29-patriotact_x.htm
SOUTH KOREA VULNERABLE TO CYBER ATTACKS FROM NORTH
South Korea's defense ministry says that North Korea has trained
hundreds of computer hackers who could launch a cyber-war on South Korea,
the US or Japan. Because South Korea has the world's highest usage of
broadband services yet maintains relatively low levels of Internet security,
the country is especially vulnerable to network attacks.
(Financial Times 4 Oct 2004)
<http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3d592eb4-15f0-11d9-b835-00000e2511c8.html>
SAUDI ARABIAN BAN ON CAMERA-EQUIPPED CELLPHONES
[Do they also ban VCRs and other kinds of cameras/recording devices?]
Saudi Arabia's grand mufti has prohibited as "un-Islamic" trading in
camera-equipped mobile phones, because such phones "could be exploited to
photograph and spread vice in the Muslim community." Camera-equipped mobile
phones are ostensibly banned in the conservative kingdom, but are apparently
very much in use and are often the center of controversy.
(The Age 4 Oct 2004) Rec'd from J. Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/30/1096401689051.html>
FCC CHAIR: TIME TO SWITCH TO DIGITAL
[Are they still intending to force digital TV on us?]
The Federal Communications Commission is beginning a new
consumer-education campaign to support the nationwide switch from analog to
digital TV. Announcing a new Web site to answer questions about digital TV,
Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell explained: "For
the vast majority of American households, digital television may be
uncharted territory. We will not let them go it alone." The Consumer
Electronics Association estimates that about 10% of U.S. households
currently have digital sets. (Washington Post 5 Oct 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7846-2004Oct5.html>
DECLARING VICTORY, SONY ABANDONS COPYRIGHT PROTECTED CDs
Sony's music unit will no longer be selling CDs that use built-in
technology to prevent their being copied, because the company has come to
the conclusion that its message against illegally copying of CDs has become
widely accepted. Sony's persistent dilemma has been how to protect the
copyrights on its movies, music and other entertainment assets while at the
same time making its electronics devices attractive to consumers.
(AP/San Jose Mercury News 4 Oct 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9832592.htm>
MOBILES REACH ALL CHINA'S ETHNIC MINORITIES
China has brought its mobile phone network to the last of its ethnic
minority regions previously cut off from communication with the outside
world. The district of Drung in the mountainous county of Gongshan in
southwestern Yunnan province was connected to the mobile phone network on
Saturday -- the last of 55 ethnic minority regions to be hooked up, says
the Xinhua news agency. (The Age 4 Oct 2004) rec'd from J. Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/04/1096850384137.html>
MICROSOFT IN YOUR LIVING ROOM
[What makes this any different than Web-TV?]
Microsoft has developed a $200 device called MSN TV 2 to pipe pictures,
video and music from a PC to a TV, either wirelessly or via a cable,
and to let users send e-mail and surf the Internet from their TVs.
People with Internet connections pay either $9.95 a month or $99 a year for
the service; dial-up access costs $21.95 a month. Gartner Research analyst
David Smith explains, "As the economics tilt toward consumer electronics,
Microsoft wants to be a key technology provider. Microsoft has deep pockets
and a willingness to be there for many, many years. They're very patient.
People are interested in being able to access their content from lots of
different devices. And this is definitely a step in that direction."
(Los Angeles Times 6 Oct 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-microtv6oct06,1,6758384.story?coll=
la-headlines-technology>
[Meanwhile, TIVO makes to to radio. . .well. . .not quite]
RADIO WHEN AND HOW YOU WANT IT
A company called Griffin Technology has introduced radioShark, a
device that does for radio what TiVo does for television: allowing a user
to pause, rewind or fast-forward live programming, and of course store it
as well. Technology analyst Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal
writes: "Overall, we found the radioShark to be a good idea, but it lacks
some of TiVo's smart features. Because it doesn't have program schedules
like TiVo does, you can't look through a list of upcoming radio shows to
learn what will be on when, what specific song will be played, or which
talk-radio topic will be discussed. By contrast, TiVo's schedule grid makes
it a cinch to plan your recordings ahead of time... If radioShark were
smarter, it could be a sensation. For now, though, it's more of a
curiosity, or a tool for radio enthusiasts with a good sense of station
schedules and time to invest." (Wall Street Journal 6 Oct 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109701902050037291,00.html> (sub req'd)
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
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*
>From Edupage
JUDGE RULES PART OF PATRIOT ACT UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A federal judge this week handed the Bush administration a defeat when
he ruled part of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) had sued the Department of Justice, asking that
part of the act be thrown out because it authorizes the FBI to compel
financial institutions to divulge sensitive information about clients.
The ACLU argued that because the provision did not require the FBI to
present a compelling need for the information requested and did not
require the FBI to inform individuals how they could contest the
disclosure, the law did not include adequate safeguards for sensitive
information. The judge in the case agreed and said that the part in
question "effectively bars or substantially deters any judicial
challenge."
Wired News, 29 September 2004
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65136,00.html
[Sony Keeps Learning!]
NO MORE COPY-PROTECTED CDS FROM SONY
Sony Music Entertainment, the music arm of Sony Corporation, will stop
using copy protections that debuted on its CDs two years ago. The copy
protections allowed consumers to make one copy of a CD on a personal
computer. Users who wanted to make additional copies had to pay to do
so. A company spokesperson said evidence suggests that its educational
efforts aimed at reducing illegally sharing copyrighted songs online
have been successful. According to Sony, only a small minority of users
make illegal copies of CDs. Sony also said that its portable music
players will soon be able to play all MP3 files. Currently, users who
want to play MP3 files on Sony devices first must convert them to
Sony's format.
San Jose Mercury News, 4 October 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9832592.htm
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
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***
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
For the first time since 1909, Chicago police reported no gunshot
wounds or deaths yesterday.
*
SURVEY SHOWS U.S. COMPUTER USERS UNAWARE OF SECURITY RISKS
A survey commissioned by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA)
shows significant gaps of understanding among U.S. computer users about
the actual threat posed by computer security problems. According to the
survey, 30 percent of Americans believe they are more likely to be hit
by lightning, to be audited by the IRS, or to win the lottery than be
the victim of a computer security problem; among users under the age of
25, the rate of those who believe this rises to 40 percent. In truth,
cybersecurity threats, including viruses, phishing scams, and hacking,
affect about 70 percent of computer users, while the odds of being hit
by lightning are 0.0000102 percent, according to the U.S. National
Weather Service. The survey also found that 90 percent of computer
users remember Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super
Bowl, but only 60 percent remember when the security software on their
PCs was last updated. Ken Watson, chairman of the NCSA, said that 91
percent of PCs are infected with some variant of spyware. The NCSA has
declared October to be National Cyber Security Awareness month in the
United States and is sponsoring educational efforts to teach users
about the real risks of ignoring cybersecurity.
BBC, 3 October 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3708260.stm
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
If voting could really change things,
it would be illegal.
Revolution Books, New York, New York.
***
*More Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
Diebold Case:
Lawsuit Provides Recourse for ISPs Defending Free Speech
San Jose, CA - In a landmark case in which the Online Policy Group sued
voting machine manufacturer Diebold, Inc., a California district court has
determined that Diebold incorrectly claimed that online commentators had
infringed the company's copyrights. Diebold is thus the first company to be
held liable for violating section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA), which makes it unlawful to use DMCA takedown threats when the
copyright holder knows that infringement has not actually occurred.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and
Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford Law School sued on behalf of nonprofit
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Online Policy Group (OPG) and two Swarthmore
students to prevent Diebold's abusive copyright claims from silencing public
debate about voting.
Diebold sent dozens of cease-and-desist letters to ISPs
hosting leaked internal documents revealing flaws in
Diebold's e-voting machines. The company claimed copyright violations and
used the DMCA to demand that the documents be taken down. One ISP, OPG,
refused to remove them in the name of free speech, and thus became the first
ISP to test whether it would be held liable for the actions of its users in
such a situation.
"This decision is a victory for free speech and for transparency in
discussions of electronic voting technology," said Wendy Seltzer, an EFF
staff attorney who worked on the case. "Judge Fogel recognized the fair use
of copyrighted materials in critical discussion and gave speakers a remedy
when their speech is chilled by improper claims of copyright infringement."
OPG Executive Director Will Doherty said, "This ruling means that we have
legal recourse to protect ourselves and our clients when we are sent
misleading or abusive takedown notices."
In his decision, Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote, "No reasonable copyright holder
could have believed that the portions of the email archive discussing
possible technical problems with Diebold's voting machines were protected by
copyright... the Court concludes as a matter of law that Diebold knowingly
materially misrepresented that Plaintiffs infringed Diebold's copyright
interest." *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
For this release:
<http://www.onlinepolicy.org/media/040930opgvdieboldorder.shtml>http://www.o
nlinepolicy.org/media/040930opgvdieboldorder.shtml
More info on OPG v. Diebold case, including judge's
decision:
<http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/>http://www.onli
nepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/
*
ARREST EXPOSES NASA SAFETY
from The Orlando Sentinel
A former NASA inspector lied about inspecting highly critical space-shuttle
parts -- sometimes not even entering the orbiter to make his checks -- in
the months before and after the Columbia accident, according to an
indictment released Tuesday.
The case against Billy T. Thornton comes amid the space agency's prolonged
struggle to repair safety flaws exposed by the fiery crash, which killed
seven astronauts Feb. 1, 2003.
During his 15-year career, Thornton inspected the entire shuttle fleet,
but the charges involve Discovery, slated to be the first shuttle to be
launched since the grounding of the fleet, probably next summer.
http://snipurl.com/9kr2
From: inthenews <inthenews at SIGMAXI.ORG>
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