[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Sep 15 10:03:06 PDT 2004
GWeekly_September_15.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 15, 2004 PT1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
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*Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements
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*Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
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*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
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1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
69 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
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We Are Over 92% of the Way to 15,000!!!
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It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
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Over Our 33 09/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 416 eBooks/Yr
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355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
2890 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
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10735 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 43.75 Months!
13,801 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
9,429 eBooks This Week Last Year
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376 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
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Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 36 weeks of this year, we have produced 2890 new eBooks.
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That's 36 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 YEARS!!!
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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
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.06 when we had ~9429 eBooks a year ago
Can you imagine ~13,801 books each costing ~$.34 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~13,801 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 13,801 eBooks in 33 Years and 02.20 Months We Averaged About
416 Per Year [We do nearly that much a month these days!]
34.7 Per Month
1.14 Per Day
At 2890 eBooks Done In The 258 Days Of 2004 We Averaged About
11.2 Per Day
78.3 Per Week
352.3 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
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starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was
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This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
*Flashback!!!
2890 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~30 years for the first 2890 !
That's the 8.20 months of 2004 as Compared to ~30 years!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2890
Nov 2001 The Age of Invention, by Holland Thompson [nventxxx.xxx] 2900
Nov 2001 The Agrarian Crusade, by Solon J. Buck [agrcrxxx.xxx] 2899
Nov 2001 Pioneers of the Old South, by Mary Johnston [pofosxxx.xxx] 2898
Nov 2001 The Sequel of Appomattox by Walter Lynwood Fleming[sqpmxxxx.xxx] 2897
Nov 2001 California's 1909 Legislature by Franklin Hichborn[cal09xxx.xxx] 2896
Following the Equator, Complete, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) 2895
Nov 2001 Satirical Prose, by Hristo Botev [Hristo Botev #2][2botvxxx.xxx] 2894
[Language: Bulgarian] [Encoding: Windows CP-1251; recommend Cyrillic fonts]
Nov 2001 The Wizard, by H. Rider Haggard[H. R. Haggard #28][twzrdxxx.xxx] 2893
Nov 2001 Irish Fairy Tales, by James Stephens [rshftxxx.xxx] 2892
Nov 2001 Howards End, by E. M. Forster [E. M. Forster #3] [hoendxxx.xxx] 2891
Oct 2001 Epopee to the Forgotten, by Ivan Vazov [Vazov #1] [vazovxxx.xxx] 2890
[Language: Bulgarian] [Encoding: Windows CP-1251; recommend Cyrillic fonts]
Oct 2001 Flametti, by Hugo Ball [In German] [?flmtxxx.xxx] 2889
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
ORACLE AND PEOPLESOFT: LET THE TAKEOVER BEGIN
[Merger Mania Continues! More below in Edupage section]
A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the Department of
Justice Department failed to show that Oracle's takeover designs on
PeopleSoft would harm competition and violate antitrust laws. Saying that
the Justice Department used a too-narrow definition of the market for
high-end human resources and payroll software, the judge added that there
would be enough remaining rivals after a merger to assure healthy
competition. The decision is a major victory of Oracle chief executive Larry
Ellison, whose decision to challenge the Justice Department in court was
seen by many analysts as an exercise in futility.
(Washington Post 9 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9718-2004Sep9.html>
IBM GIVES SPEECH RECOGNITION CODE TO OPEN SOURCE GROUPS
In a shrewd move intended to outmaneuver rivals, IBM is contributing
some of its proprietary speech-recognition software to two open source
groups. One application that handles basic words for dates, time and
locations will go to the Apache Software Foundation, and another that
targets speech-editing will be donated to the Eclipse Foundation. "We're
trying to spur the industry around open standards to get more and more
speech application development," says IBM senior VP Steven Mills. "Our code
contribution is about getting that ecosystem going." The move reflects
IBM's strategy to broaden its software business opportunities by giving
away various pieces of code to open source software developers. IBM has
been an avid support of open-source projects like the Apache Web server and
the Linux operating system and last month it contributed Cloudscape, a
database written in Java, to the Apache Foundation. "This whole speech
world is going in the same direction as the rest of the information
technology industry, and that would drastically reduce the cost of building
speech applications," says one market research analyst.
(New York Times 13 Sep 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/technology/13speech.html>
PRIVACY COMPLAINT AGAINST AIRLINE DISMISSED
Dismissing a complaint filed by the Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC) and the Minnesota ACLU, the Department of Transportation has
ruled that Northwest Airlines did not violate its own privacy policy when it
shared passenger records with the government as part of a secret airline
security project after the terrorist attacks in September 2001. EPIC and the
ACLU had argued that Northwest committed unfair and deceptive trade
practices when it shared the information with the NASA without informing its
customers, but the Transportation Department ruled that the language of the
policy says only that the airline won't sell the information and it did not
address sharing information within the government.
(Washington Post 15 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21559-2004Sep14.html>
SPYCAM MAY BE WATCHING YOU WORK
If you have a webcam and a microphone on your computer and a broadband
connection to the Internet, a hacker could be watching you from that PC in
your bedroom. Computer security experts are warning that a series of Windows
viruses released to the Internet are capable of taking control of the audio
and video accessories to spy directly on people at home or work. The worm,
dubbed W32/Rbot-GR, is "the equivalent to a Peeping Tom ... peering through
your curtains" says Graham Cluley of Sophos, the British-based anti-virus
company. Worms such as Rbot-GR can be neutralized by any of the several
anti-virus software packages available but these must be regularly updated.
Cluley warns: "If you are not using your webcam, unplug it."
(The Age 14 Sep 2004) Rec'd from J. Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/13/1094927508372.html
QUANTUM ENCRYPTION
Researchers at Harvard, Boston University, and BBN Technologies are
developing a quantum encryption system that uses light particles called
photons to lock and unlock information. Project scientist John M. Myers from
Harvard says, "It is really a futuristic technology. Its applications are
going to be a lot like the laser and the transistor, in that early people
could not think of all the possible applications and uses of it." Quantum
cryptography is based on the discovery that photons will be changed simply
by observing them; as a result, eavesdropping on the photons (e.g., by
setting up a photo detector to read the code) disrupts them, making the
codes unusable and alerting the network to the snooper. BBN chief scientist
Chip Elliott quips: "This is what every teenager wants: Instant messaging
protected by quantum cryptography. Don't tell my daughter."
(AP/USA Today 15 Sep 2004)
www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-09-15-quantum-crypto_x.htm
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*
>From Edupage
IBM TO GO OPEN SOURCE WITH SPEECH RECOGNITION
In an effort to encourage growth in speech-recognition technologies and
to outpace competitor Microsoft for such tools, IBM will contribute
speech-recognition software to two open-source groups, the Apache
Software Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation. IBM said the software
cost about $10 million to develop and that the move is designed "to
spur the industry around open standards to get more and more speech
application development." The announcement is the latest in a series of
decisions by IBM to support open-source groups with donations of
technologies it has developed, including the Cloudscape database. For
its part, Microsoft has developed free tools for building
speech-recognition applications using the company's .Net architecture,
and more than 100,000 developers have reportedly downloaded those tools.
New York Times, 13 September 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/technology/13speech.html
CALIFORNIA JOINS SUIT AGAINST DIEBOLD
The state of California, as well as the state's Alameda County, this
week joined a lawsuit filed by a computer programmer and voting rights
advocate against Diebold Inc. for selling faulty hardware and software
for electronic voting. The original plaintiffs, Jim March and Bev
Harris, are asking the courts to force Diebold to refund all of the
money paid to it for the state's electronic voting machines. Problems
with Diebold's products caused more than half of the polling places in
San Diego County to open late for the state's March primary, and at
least 6,000 voters in Alameda county had to use paper ballots instead
of Diebold's electronic voting machines. Lowell Finley, attorney for
the original plaintiffs in the case, said the decision to join shows
that the "state clearly believes there's merit to the case."
Meanwhile, the state decided not to file criminal charges against
Diebold, a move state voting officials considered after California
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley decertified one Diebold system for
being unreliable and jeopardizing the state's elections.
San Jose Mercury News, 8 September 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9608838.htm
WI-FI POLICY SPARKS CONTROVERSY AT UT DALLAS
A new policy covering Wi-Fi access points at the University of Texas at
Dallas has led to a standoff between university administrators and
students claiming the right to have their own wireless access points.
The policy forbids students from operating their own access points on
campus because of interference with the university's wireless network,
which is slower than what the students have set up, and because of
security concerns over the unregulated "hot spots." Students argue that
the airwaves for wireless Internet access are available to anyone who
wants to use them. Bill Hargrove, executive director of information
resources at the university, compared the situation to that of a
student who brings a stereo system to campus. The stereo is fine, he
said, "until the point where you turn it up and it bothers your
neighbors." Administrators and students are at an impasse now, with
neither side ready to concede.
CNET, 9 September 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-7351_3-5360510.html
ORACLE WINS ANTITRUST CASE
A federal judge has ruled against the Department of Justice in its
attempt to block Oracle's hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. In his
decision, Judge Vaughn Walker said that the government failed to prove
that the merger would lead to less competition and higher prices in the
business software market. Walker said the small and midsize companies
that play a part in the business software market represent a valid
alternative to the big three--Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP. Walker
stayed his decision for 10 days to give the Department of Justice an
opportunity to file an appeal if they so choose. The PeopleSoft board
has consistently rejected Oracle's takeover offer, arguing in part
that the merger violated antitrust laws. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle,
said the court's "decision puts the onus squarely on the board of
PeopleSoft to meet with us." The takeover is still subject to approval
by European regulators.
Wall Street Journal, 10 September 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109476549979113989,00.html
MICROSOFT DOUBLES GRACE PERIOD FOR SP2 UPDATES
Microsoft this week agreed to extend the term during which customers of
its Automatic Update or Windows Update services can block the automatic
installation of Service Pack 2 (SP2). The company released SP2 in
August to address many security issues with its Windows XP operating
system, but the update may not work properly with certain applications.
Some corporate customers had asked for time to test SP2 and resolve any
conflicts, and Microsoft initially agreed to allow users to block SP2
from their automatic updates for 120 days, after which the service pack
would be installed through the update services. That period has now
been extended to 240 days, starting August 16. At that point, in
mid-April, Microsoft's update services will ignore any users'
instructions not to install the service pack.
CNET, 8 September 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5355050.html
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
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***
More Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
POLICE PROTECT THE BURGLARS BUT NOT THE BURLARIZED
A man was reported to have called his local police
when he spotted burglars removing property out his
garage doors. The police responded that they were
not going to be able to respond very soon, as they
didn't have any units in the area.
The man called back a short time later and told an
official representative that there was no longer a
need for a swift response, since he had shot those
who were burglarizing his garage.
A few minutes later a half-dozen police cars and a
helicopter were on the scene and easily rounded up
the alleged burglars who were apparently unharmed.
The police commander is reported to have said: "I
thought you said you had shot them?"
The man is reported to have replied: "I thought
YOU said there were no officers available."
Apparently the police had many more officers there
on call to defend burglars from being shot than to
protect the man who was being burglarized.
LEADING ISP AGREES TO END SERVICE TO SPAMMERS
Under pressure from antispam organization Spamhaus, Savvis, one of the
world's largest ISPs, will stop serving nearly 150 known spammers.
Though not a commonly known name, U.S.-based Savvis serves such
high-profile customers as the New York Stock Exchange and 75 of the
world's largest 100 banks. In January, Savvis bought C&W U.S., which
had 95 spammers among its 3,000 customers. That number grew to 148, and
revenue from those customers rose to $2 million a month, according to
Alif Terranson, a former employee of Savvis. Terranson contacted
Spamhaus after reportedly being told by executives of Savvis that the
company would take no action against those customers found to be
sending spam. Spamhaus, which provides antispam protection by
publishing a list of sites that send spam, persuaded Savvis to end
service of its spamming customers after threatening to block all e-mail
from Savvis. Rob McCormick, the CEO of Savvis, rejected Terranson's
revenue estimate from the spammers and said his company is committed to
working against spam. Steve Linford, operator of Spamhaus, commended
Savvis for its quick decision to cut service to the spammers.
BBC, 8 September 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3634572.stm
RACIAL PROFILING MOVIE CENSORED BY CITIES WHERE FILMED
An independent documentary movie detailing incidents of racial profiling
by local police is under attack by both city and police officials saying
that the police who appear on film were not given the proper "advise and
consent" procedures before being recorded on film. At present this film
is not being allowed on the local public access channels, and the police
appear to be suing the filmmaker[s] for filming without permission, when
heavy police presence was recorded at establishments frequented by black
members of the community, but recordings at similar establishments white
people gathered at failed to show any police presence.
Additional research yesterday indicated that that the official charges
might be made under an "eavesdropping" law that the police want to say
makes it illegal to record any conversations without permission, even
in a public place by a public official in a public capacity.
The example I was given was that it would thus be illegal to even tape
your kids playing baseball with other kids without permission, which
also included possible taping of comments by fans, bystanders, etc.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
In an Echo Poll in Moscow 93% of Russians said they
did not believe President Vladimir Putin could stop
terrorism after he declared that Russia will strike
terrorists wherever they are in the world.
*
New cellphones are equipped with one inch 1.5G hard
drives, MP3 players, cameras, and 2.2" displays.
*ODD QUOTATION OF THE WEEK
It seemed quite more than strange when some quotes
from the Russian child who escaped the school that
had been taken over took so long to appear.
Once they did appear, they seemed to appear world-
wide, all that the same time, very well translated
and very well spoken for a grade school child just
escaped from an incredibly traumatic incident, [in
all the senses: emotional, mental, physical].
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