[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Sep 22 10:15:17 PDT 2004
GWeekly_September_22.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 22, 2004 PT1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*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
Corrections in separate section
4 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
43 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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This week we have many new additions, from Tesla to Beethoven,
see PT2 of the Newsletter for a complete listing
*eBook Milestones
We Are Over 92% of the Way to 15,000!!!
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*Flashback!!!
2754 New eBooks So Far in 2004
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Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2754
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
MUSIC INDUSTRY SHOULD CHARGE LESS, SELL MORE
The music industry is fighting a losing battle, says Newsweek
columnist Steven Levy, who says the RIAA's legal tactics make about as much
sense as trying to sue a hurricane: "Technology generates its own form of
nature, a set of conditions that enforce an artificial, yet equally
unstoppable, reality~E For the longest time, the labels viewed digital music
as something that could hurt them with hurricane force but made no efforts
to adjust to this new reality, let alone exploit it." Levy notes that Real
Networks' experiment with sharply cutting prices for digital music -- to 49
cents per song -- was a losing proposition because they still owed 70 cents
in royalties for each song sold. But what's impressive is that Real sold
six times as much music and took in three times as much money as when they
had prices pegged at the industry's 99-cent standard. Levy says that if
labels and artists would agree to smaller royalties, everyone could get
richer quicker: "Behind Door One is the money you can make by selling a
million copies of a tune. Behind the other door is the money to be reaped
by selling 6 million copies at half the price. Do the math, guys!" Not only
that, but lowering prices significantly might just stamp out the scourge of
pirated music -- and that's what the labels say they want, right?
(Newsweek 27 Sep 2004)
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6037780/site/newsweek/>
STEAL THIS MUSIC
The editors of Wired magazine have compiled a CD whose contents are
meant to be shared, copied, remixed and sampled in an experiment aimed at
supporting the Creative Commons concept of intellectual property licensing.
About 750,000 copies of "The Wired CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share" will be
mailed along with Wired's November issue and the disc will also be
distributed to audience members at a benefit concert headlined by David
Byrne, whose "My Fair Lady" appears on the CD. Other artists include the
Beastie Boys, Zap Mama and Gilberto Gil. "The artists were relatively easy
to get on board," says Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. "The labels
have different priorities. Some of them, once briefed, got it, and some of
them never really saw the advantages." Anderson says he approached 50-60
artists in order to come up with the 16 featured on the CD.
(Wall Street Journal 20 Sep 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109563044896921709,00.html> (sub req'd)
PATCH DEALS FAVOR BIG BUSINESS
Microsoft has quietly begun giving some of its largest customers
early warning of what types of security patches it will be releasing.
Under the free program, some customers are receiving three business days'
notice as to how many security fixes Microsoft plans to release in its
regular monthly bulletins, and which Microsoft products are affected.
Customers also can learn how severe a threat the flaws pose several days
before the general public gets that information. Microsoft began testing
the program last year, and expanded it in April. It has not been widely
publicized, and Microsoft has been offering the service to some customers
individually through sales representatives.
(The Australian 17 Sep 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10792467%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
FTC OKAYS CASH BOUNTIES FOR SPAMMERS
The Federal Trade Commission has given limited endorsement to the
idea of offering cash rewards to people who help identify spammers, noting
that although technology buffs can often pierce the technical camouflage
used to disguise spam's origins, it's far more difficult to gather the kind
of information that would lead to successful prosecutions. The idea of
offering cash for outing spam-mongers has been around for awhile, but
gained credence last year when Stanford University professor and cyberlaw
expert Lawrence Lessig told Congress he was so confident that such a system
would produce results, he would quit his job if it failed to do so. The FTC
noted in its report that in order to be effective, such a law would need to
concentrate on rewarding whistleblowers and others close to the operation,
and that cash amounts would likely have to be in the $100,000 to $250,000
range -- an amount that Congress would need to fund because it exceeds any
damages likely to be won in court. Meanwhile, the FTC warned against taking
any steps that would divert resources from enforcement efforts. "A poorly
designed reward system would not only fail to achieve its purpose," but also
result in significant costs to the commission." (Washington Post 17 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27220-2004Sep16.html>
INTERNET ATTACKS JUMP SIGNIFICANTLY THIS YEAR
The semiannual Internet Security Threat Report, which is based on
monitoring by computer security firm Symantec, indicates that in the first
six months of 2004 there were at least 1,237 newly discovered software
vulnerabilities and almost 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms capable of
compromising computer security. The numbers represent a dramatic increase
over the same period in 2003. Even more troubling was the sharp rise in the
number of "bot," or robot, networks, which comprise a large number of
infected PCs that can then be used to distribute viruses, worms, spyware
and spam to other computers. The survey notes that in the first half of
2004, the number of monitored botnets rose from fewer than 2,000 to more
than 30,000. The botnets, which range in size from 2,000 to 400,000
"zombie" machines, are often "rented out" to commercial spammers who use
them to distribute junk e-mail while concealing their identities.
E-commerce was the industry most frequently targeted for attacks,
accounting for 16% of the total, and report authors note that phishing
scams are responsible for pushing up the numbers in that category. "We're
seeing a professional hand in development that was pretty startling in
terms of malicious code," says Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering
for security response at Symantec. The report's findings mirror those of
recent government-supported research. (New York Times 20 Sep 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/technology/20secure.html>
SASSER CREATOR HIRED BY SECURITY FIRM
A German teenager accused of creating the Sasser worm that infected
millions of computers around the world is being trained as a security
software programmer, the company that hired him said on Friday.
Eighteen-year-old Sven Jaschan has been taken on by the Securepoint
computer firm based in L|neburg, in northern Germany, and is being trained
to make firewalls to stop suspect files from entering computer systems.
"He has a certain know-how in this field," a company spokesman said.
Jaschan has been charged with computer sabotage, data manipulation and
disruption of public systems for allegedly hatching the Sasser worm.
(The Age 20 Sep 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/20/1095532209897.html>
HACKERS SEEK TO SAVE AMERICA
Jason Larsen types in a few lines of computer code to hack into the
controls of a nearby chemical plant. Then he finds an online video camera
inside and confirms that he has pumped up a pressure value. "It's the
challenge. It's you finding the flaws," he says when asked about his
motivation. "It's you against the defenders. It comes from a deep-seated
need to find out how things work." Larsen, 31, says his goal is not to
wreak havoc, but to boost security for America's pipelines, railways,
utilities and other infrastructure, part of a project backed by the Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Energy, the Idaho lab launched a new cyber security center
last month where expert hackers such as Larsen test computing
vulnerabilities. Spread across 890 square miles (2305 square km) in a
remote area of eastern Idaho, INEEL gives experts access to an entire
isolated infrastructure such as the one Larsen hacked into. "I don't think
people have an understanding of what could be the impact of cyber attacks,"
says INEEL director Paul Kearns. "They don't understand the threat." In
recent months, U.S. security officials have warned that the nation is not
prepared against cyber terrorism. (The Age, 17 Sep 2004) rec'd from John
Lamp, Deakin U.
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/16/1095221724884.html>
AOL OFFERS SECOND LEVEL OF SECURITY
AOL has become the first major U.S. online business to offer customers
a second layer of security, which it will make available to subscribers for
$1.95 a month in addition to a one-time $9.95 fee. The system uses a
matchbook-size device displaying a six-digit log-on code that changes every
minute; it requires that the second password be entered in order to check
e-mail or access such services as calendars, stock portfolios and AOL's Bill
Pay. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan estimates that no more than 5-15% of AOL
subscribers will sign up initially but says that "you have to start
somewhere." (AP/Washington Post 21 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37700-2004Sep21.html>
CELL PHONES TRACK DOWN WI-FI HOTSPOTS
If you're in the U.K. and you're looking for a Wi-Fi hotspot to
download e-mail, you're in luck. A Web site called Totalhotspots.com,
which offers a list of global hotspots, has teamed up with Mobile Commerce,
a phone services company, to enable users to consult the Totalhotspots
directory via cell phone while on the go. The user simply sends a text
message consisting of the word "hotspot" to the 84140 SMS short code number,
and the name, address and telephone number of the nearest Wi-Fi location
will pop up on the screen. "It's like making a directory enquiries call,"
says Mobile Commerce exec Dan Jelfs. Currently, the system works only
with the UK's GSM networks (Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile) but
compatibility with future third-generation networks is planned also.
(BBC News 17 Sep 2004)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3665382.stm>
THUMBS UP ON 'THUMB DRIVES'
Thumb drives -- those tiny gizmos also known as USB flash drives,
jump drives or keychain drives -- have been the "must-have" gadget among
techies for the past couple of years, but now they're gaining popularity
among students and business people who are replacing their recordable CDs
used for transferring data from one computer to another. The thumb drives
come in several guises -- Victorinox, maker of Swiss army knives, offers
one squeezed in next to the nail file on its Swissmemory model -- and
memory capacity has risen from an average of 64 megabytes in 2001 to 256
megabytes today. Meanwhile, during the same period prices have dropped from
about $100 to about $40 and a Gartner analyst predicts the stand-alone
versions are getting so cheap they'll soon replace coffee mugs as giveaways
at corporate events. "It's a great low-tech solution. I used to have to
carry a bunch of disks around. I don't have to do that anymore," says one
banking executive. (Wall Street Journal 17 Sep 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109537053772020139,00.html> (sub req'd)
CHICAGO'S NEW SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
Chicago is installing a network of surveillance cameras that Mayor
Richard M. Daley has said will make Chicago citizens much safer. Chicago
official Ron Huberman says, "What we're doing is a totally new concept. This
is a very innovative way to harness the power of cameras." Emergency center
dispatchers will be able to tilt or zoom the cameras to watch suspicious
people and follow them from one camera's range to another's. But ACLU
spokesman Edwin C. Yohnka worries: "With the aggressive way these types of
surveillance equipment are being marketed and implemented, it really does
raise questions about what kind of society do we ultimately want, and how
intrusive we want law enforcement officials to be in all of our lives."
Huberman's response: "The value we gain in public safety far outweighs any
perception by the community that this is Big Brother who's watching. The
feedback we're getting is that people welcome this. It makes them feel
safer." And Mayor Daley notes: "We're not inside your home or your business.
The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the alleys."
(New York Times 21 Sep 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/national/21cameras.html>
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan:
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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
ATTACKS ON WINDOWS MACHINES ON THE RISE
Computer security firm Symantec said that the number of viruses and
worms that target Microsoft's Windows operating system jumped 400
percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period
last year. In all, nearly 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms were
identified between January and June. Symantec's report echoed a
warning from MessageLabs in August that spammers and computer hackers
were working together to take advantage of weaknesses in the Windows
operating system. According to Alfred Huger, a senior director at
Symantec's Security Response team, hackers are increasingly selling
illicit access to computers to spammers, who are having greater
difficulty getting their messages past e-mail filters.
Reuters, 20 September 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6281135
[A little more about China]
CHINESE ACADEMIC CALLS FOR SITE REOPENING
A law professor at Peking University, He Weifang, has written an open
letter calling on the government to reverse a decision to shut down the
Yita Hutu bulletin board, commonly referred to as YTHT, its Web
address. Last week, government officials ordered that the site be
permanently shut down and quickly afterwards prohibited discussion
about the closure in other online groups. YTHT was created in 1999 by a
graduate student and reportedly grew to comprise more than 700
discussion groups with more than 300,000 registered users. Many of the
topics covered on the YTHT site were banned from state-run media
coverage, including human rights issues and questions about Taiwan. In
his letter, He said the site was "an important source of information
and a channel for discussion for tens of thousands of netizens around
the world, including the teachers and students of our university." Xiao
Qiang, the head of the China Digital News project at the University of
California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, supported the
importance of the YTHT site, calling it "the most politically
provocative online community in Chinese cyberspace."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 September 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/09/2004092004n.htm
PHISHING RIFE ON INTERNET
Phishing scams are proliferating on the Internet, and some are
sophisticated enough to fool even seasoned Web users. Phishing scams
use bogus e-mails and Web sites designed to look like those of
legitimate companies to trick users into revealing personal
information, such as credit card numbers, that can then be used in any
number of other crimes. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group,
Citibank has become the most popular ruse, with nearly 500 separate
scams designed to fool Citibank customers into divulging sensitive
information. Scams directed at Ebay users totaled 285, according to the
group. Lawrence Hefler, vice president of e-business and strategic
alliances at Hilton Grand Vacations and the chairman of the Direct
Marketing Association's Internet committee, was fooled by one of the
fake Citibank messages. As Hefler noted, most of the more deft phishing
scams, including the one he fell for, make a point of talking about
security issues and the potential for identity theft.
New York Times, 20 September 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/technology/20phish.html
ATTACKS ON WINDOWS MACHINES ON THE RISE
Computer security firm Symantec said that the number of viruses and
worms that target Microsoft's Windows operating system jumped 400
percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period
last year. In all, nearly 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms were
identified between January and June. Symantec's report echoed a
warning from MessageLabs in August that spammers and computer hackers
were working together to take advantage of weaknesses in the Windows
operating system. According to Alfred Huger, a senior director at
Symantec's Security Response team, hackers are increasingly selling
illicit access to computers to spammers, who are having greater
difficulty getting their messages past e-mail filters.
Reuters, 20 September 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6281135
UT DALLAS CONCEDES STUDENT ACCESS POINTS
[This article doesn't mention that the student's network was working
better than the university network, and at no direct cost to either
the university or to users. More details available on request.]
Administrators at the University of Texas at Dallas have withdrawn a
policy that banned students from setting up Wi-Fi access points on
campus. The policy was implemented to help deal with interference from
802.11b and 802.11g access points (802.11a access points were not
banned) that some students had set up that were causing interference
with the university's own wireless network. Students who disagreed
with the policy noted that the Federal Communications Commission in
June had issued a statement that supported individuals' right to
operate access points using the Wi-Fi spectrum. University administrators
conducted a review and decided to withdraw the policy because it was
not clear that the university had the authority to enforce it.
According to Steve McGregor, a spokesman for the university,
the growing number of access points is causing interference in some
areas of the campus, but the university will not try to regulate
the access points. "Folks will have to figure it out individually,"
McGregor said.
CNET, 16 September 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-7351_3-5369921.html
AOL DROPS MICROSOFT'S ANTISPAM TECHNOLOGY
Following a new rift between Microsoft and the open-source community
over a standard to fight spam, America Online (AOL) decided it will not
adopt Microsoft's Sender ID tool. Sender ID is designed to identify
spoofed return addresses in e-mail, allowing ISPs to reject those
messages. Although Microsoft has said it will not charge royalties on
Sender ID, the software company does hold patents for some of the
technology on which the tool is built. Those patents have led to the
recent dispute between Microsoft and advocates of an open-source
approach to an antispam standard. The Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) rejected the Sender ID standard, and a statement from AOL
released shortly after that decision said that the company "will now
not be moving forward with full deployment of the Sender ID protocol."
A spokesperson from Microsoft said that despite the IETF's decision,
"It's still going to be one standard, there's just going to be two flavors."
Reuters, 16 September 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6258496
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More Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
60 Minutes Not Aired In Major Metropolitan Markets In Swing States
The last two Wednesdays, the CBS show 60 Minutes was not aired to many
who would normally be in the audience, and perhaps even more who might
have been tuning in for the latest on President Bush's National Guard
service record.
Various reasons were given by stations from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
to Nashville, Tennesee, to Ft. Pierce, Florida, according to searches
using "60 Minutes," "pre-empted," and "not aired." These reasons were
listed as being from saying they thought 60 Minutes was going to be a
rerun, to power outages that seemed to last only the hour 60 Minutes
was scheduled to be on the air. More than one station ran a Billy
Graham sponsored movie in place of 60 Minutes, at least one of which
stated that this movie had originally been scheduled weeks ago.
Most or all of the stations said they aired the 60 Minutes program
later around 1AM or 2AM. Many calls and emails to the news media
suggested that these stations did not want to run 60 Minutes until
after they knew what was going to be said in advance, even though
it is strict policy of the news media never to allow anyone to know
this information or the questions that will be raised before the
interviews take place or are aired.
The locations named above were not the only ones missing 60 Minutes.
If you find any others, please advise.
*
At least one of these stations aired Dan Rather's apology three times,
in just over one hour, before, during, and again after the program,
once even before it even aired directly on the CBS Evening News
to their viewers.
*
Further research on the reported scheduling of the Billy Graham movie
reveled that schedules provided to the local media television listings
indicated that 60 Minutes was scheduled to air at its normal time,
even though a station spokesperson indicated the Billy Graham movie
had been on the schedule for several weeks.
It would appear there is still more to this story than is apparent,
but it seems unlikely that we will ever find out the ultimate source[s]
of the information presented by 60 Minutes, and there have been rumors
that Dan Rather may end up stepping down as a result.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
90 Million More Africans In Poverty Now Than In 1950
A highly placed African source has reported that Africa
is worse off now than it was in the last colonial days,
citing that the colonial powers at least invested in an
assortment of fundamental African projects, whereas the
current rulers have taken all the capital OUT of Africa
and invested it with the major world banks or companies
and thus destroyed the African economy by displacing it
from the Third World to the First World.
Additional sources also cite the clear-cutting of their
traditional rain-forest sources of water as causing the
permanent drought in Ethiopia and other countries.
*
Antarctic Glaciers Now Moving To The Sea 8 Times Faster
World scientists studying satellite photographs of very
new data from areas surrounding the South Pole reported
that the Antarctic ice pack is falling into the ocean a
record 8 times faster than it was just two years ago in
response to the destruction of major ice shelves due to
global warming.
The effects are not only a massive proliferation of the
navigational difficulties due to 8 times as many of the
traditional icebergs, but as far away as Hawaii reports
indicate their world-class beaches are shrinking due to
increased sea-levels and related beach degradation.
[See: ICE COLLAPSE SPEEDS UP GLACIERS]
from BBC News Online, http://snipurl.com/992f
*
Zhores Alferov, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000 for his
work on fast transistors, laser LEDs, and integrated circuits, was
supposed to be addressing a major symposium in Berkeley today, but
is stuck in Russia, after a U.S. consular official could not get a
grasp on Prof. Alferov's work when he asked, and the Vice-President
of the Russian Academy of Science apparently gave an answer that
was beyond the comprehension of the average junior diplomat level,
and couldn't come up with a simple enough description to get his
visa stamped to get on the plane to the United States.
http://snipurl.com/990c
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Chicago Mayor Daley said, "We're not inside your home or your business.
The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the alleys."
[Referring to citywide surveillance project. See story further above.]
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