[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Aug 3 10:06:52 PDT 2005
Weekly_August_03.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, Auguest 3, 2005 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
*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
3 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
56 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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*eBook Milestones
16,859 eBooks As Of Today!!!
13,797 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's 250+ eBooks per Month for 55 Months
We Have Produced 1903 eBooks in 2005
3,197 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~495 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 272 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 63 eBooks Per Week This Year
59 This Week
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000
*
***Introduction
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 07.00 months of this year, we produced 1903 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Oct 1999 to produce our first 1903 eBooks!
That's 30 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years!!!
59 New eBooks This Week
48 New eBooks Last Week
226 New eBooks This Month [Jul]
~272 Average Per Month in 2005
336 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
1903 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13797 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 55 00 Months!
Over 250 books per month!
16,859 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,438 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,421 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
466 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
[This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted
at the U.S. site: www.gutenberg.org ]
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
7,229 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
marked with <<< below.
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings
of 18 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
Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files
Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<<
Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files
Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files
Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files
Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files
PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change
Renaisscance Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files
Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files
Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files
Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files
CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files=====
Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 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
I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the
overcounting or duplication of numbers.
If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~45,714 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~34,286 Unique eBooks
***
Please also note that over 23,000 eBooks are listed via
The Online Books Page, of which over 5,300 are from PG.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar
listing which is now in limbo. If anyone knows what is
happening with the IPL, please let us know. Inquiries,
made months ago, and again recently, have not turned up
any current information.
You can try a new IPL service at:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/
It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which
has now been surpassed by the Online Books Page.
Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.
***
Today Is Day #210 of 2005
This Completes Week #30 and Month #07.00 [364 days this year]
154 Days/22 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,200 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
63 Weekly Average in 2005
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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***
Statistical Review
In the 30 weeks of this year, we have produced 1903 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 10/99 to produce our FIRST 1903 eBooks!!!
That's 30 WEEKS as Compared to ~28+ YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1903
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
[Note: books without month and year entries have been reposted]
Oct 1999 [Reserved for WWI] [ xxx.xxx] 1914*
Oct 1999 The Drums Of Jeopardy, by Harold MacGrath [jprdyxxx.xxx] 1913
The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac [Tr.: James Waring] 1912
Oct 1999 Concerning Christian Liberty, by Martin Luther[#6][clbtyxxx.xxx] 1911
Sep 1999 La Tulipe Noire, by Alexandre Dumas[Pere#6/French][tlpnrxxx.xxx] 1910
[Language: French] (Note: abridged edition)
(See Also: #965, Full-length English Edition)
Sep 1999 Darwin and Modern Science, by A.C. Seward[50th Yr][drwnmxxx.xxx] 1909
Sep 1999 Her Prairie Knight, by B. M. Bower[B.M. Bower #10][hrprkxxx.xxx] 1908
Sep 1999 Rowdy of the Cross L, by B. M. Bower [BM Bower #9][rowdyxxx.xxx] 1907
Erewhon, by Samuel Butler[Subtitle: or, Over the Range] (Revised Edition) 1906
Sep 1999 The Governess [Female Academy], by Sarah Fielding [gvrnsxxx.xxx] 1905
Sep 1999 Life & Perambulations of a Mouse by Dorothy Kilner[lpoamxxx.xxx] 1904
Sep 1999 Everybody's Guide to Money Matters, by Wm. Cotton [egtmmxxx.xxx] 1903
The Old Peabody Pew, by Kate Douglas Wiggin 1902
[Subtitle: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church]
Sep 1999 Secret of the Woods, by William J. Long [sctwdxxx.xxx] 1901
Sep 1999 Typee, by Herman Melville [Herman Melville #2][typeexxx.xxx] 1900
Sep 1999 The Village Rector, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac#79][vrctrxxx.xxx] 1899
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,457,924,389 that would be 16,859 x 64,579,244 = 1.08 Trillion !!!
With 16,859 eBooks online as of August 3, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.92 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,579,244 x 16,859 x $.92 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,859 eBooks online as of August 3, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.59 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.74 when we had 13,438 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,859 eBooks in 34 Years and 01.00 Months We Averaged
~495 Per Year
41.2 Per Month
1.35 Per Day
At 1903 eBooks Done In The 210 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
9.1 Per Day
63 Per Week
276 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 5th was
the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
***
*Headline News from Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
HP ENDS IPOD SALES
Executives at HP have put an end to a deal with Apple Computer under
which iPod music players were available as HP-branded devices. Although
the deal was first announced in January 2004, the first models were not
available from HP until the fall of 2004, and sales of HP iPods
accounted for just 5 percent of iPod sales on average. According to an
HP spokesperson, the company remains committed to a strategy of digital
entertainment, but "reselling the iPod does not fit within that
strategy." Under the terms of the original agreement, HP will continue
to provide support for the iPods it has sold, and HP is not allowed to
market a competing digital music player until August 2006. HP expects
its current inventory of iPods, iPod Minis, and iPod Shuffles will last
through the end of September. The company will continue to sell other
digital-entertainment products, such as televisions and Media Center PCs.
CNET, 29 July 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-1047_3-5810643.html
PRINCETON DEBUTS UNIVERSITY CHANNEL
Princeton University has launched the University Channel, an online
repository of video footage of academic lectures. The service serves as
a central location for finding lectures and presentations from colleges
and universities that submit materials. Donna Liu, executive director
of the project, noted that although some institutions provide Webcasts
of important lectures, frequently tapings of lectures are purely for
archival purposes and cannot be easily located or viewed later. The
focus of the channel initially will be lectures on public policy and
international affairs, and several institutions have already submitted
content for the site. Topics might be expanded in the future. The
University Channel is also working with cable companies to broadcast
some of the lectures over cable networks. The new channel is similar in
concept to a project at the University of Washington called the
Research Channel, which focuses on scientific and medical research.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 July 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/07/2005072801t.htm
BROADENING THE SCOPE OF FREE COURSEWARE
Rice University's Connexions project is an effort to take the idea of
free educational materials to a new level. Started in 1999 by Richard
Baraniuk, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice,
Connexions is not unlike MIT's OpenCourseWare project, which puts
course materials from all MIT classes online for free. In contrast,
Connexions takes the approach of aggregating course materials from
professors at any school. Connexions also offers feedback tools that
allow users to rate content, similar to rating systems on sites such as
Amazon.com. In Connexions, ratings happen after publication, rather
than before publication as in traditional peer review, but Baraniuk
believes the rating system can provide an alternative to traditional
peer review, a system Baraniuk believes is broken. Baraniuk also sees
enormous potential in Connexions to help community colleges, which rely
heavily on adjunct professors who often have little time for course
development. With relatively limited resources, faculty at community
colleges could use Connexions to create courses tailored for their
institution and students, rather than the common practice of simply
having to rely on a single textbook for material.
Inside Higher Ed, 29 July 2005
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/29/open
CISCO AND SECURITY RESEARCHER AGREE TO DISAGREE
Security researcher Michael Lynn and Cisco Systems have reached an
agreement that should put an end to Cisco's legal action against Lynn
for speaking publicly about a flaw in the company's router software.
Lynn, who until Wednesday was employed by Internet Security Systems
(ISS), gave a presentation at the Black Hat Conference discussing the
vulnerability. Cisco and ISS had discouraged Lynn from giving the
presentation, saying that a patch had been issued for the flaw. Lynn
believed Cisco had not been open with consumers about the severity of
the problem, and he resigned from ISS to protest the company's
position that he should not give the presentation. After he left ISS,
however, Lynn faced legal action from Cisco, which argued that he had
no right to make the presentation since he was no longer employed by
ISS. Under the agreement, Lynn will stop disclosing information about
the flaw, and the legal action will be canceled. Computer security
expert Bruce Schneier applauded Lynn for his conviction in exposing
what he thought was a serious flaw despite the risks of going public.
Matt Bishop, professor of computer science at the University of California-
Davis, said he sees the practice of exposing flaws publicly as a dangerous
practice and that working with the affected vendor is preferable.
San Jose Mercury News, 29 July 2005
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12255870.htm
CONGRESS GETS SERIOUS ABOUT DATA PRIVACY
Ahead of its August recess, Congress moved data-security measures to
the top of its agenda, with various House and Senate committees
considering three different bills dealing with the protection of
sensitive information. The broadest legislation being considered is the
Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, which would place new
restrictions on how personal information may be used and imposes
criminal penalties for those found to have violated it. The bill would
limit the sale and publication of Social Security numbers, require
notification of consumers in the event their personal data is
compromised, and restrict the authority of the states in writing their
own regulations for data protection. Other bills working their way
through the Senate include similar requirements that consumers be
notified of data breaches, but they only include civil penalties. The
other measures, including one passed by the Senate Commerce Committee,
place oversight and enforcement authority with the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC). Critics of the proposed legislation argue that it is
being rushed through without proper discussion.
CNET, 28 July 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-5808894.html
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Hurricanes growing 50%v fiercer due to global warming
Hurricanes have grown significantly more powerful and destructive
over the last three decades due in part to global warming,
MIT professor, Kerry Emanuel, who warns in the journal Nature
that this trend could continue.
Both the number of days per hurricane and their highest wind speeds
have increased by ~50 percent over the last 50 years.
*
Announced last week: Sony Music, now known as Sony/BMG,
will pay a $10 million settlement as per New York's Attorney
General, Eliot Spitzer.
Memos released in this investigation:
"Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin
Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600."
"Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin
Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K"
The names were embargoed, but everyone seem to know who they were.
*
Karl Rove and Robert Novak, whose comments "outed" CIA
operative Valerie Plame, managed to get off the hot seat
at the expense of Bush's unilateral appointment of now
Ambassador Bolton to the United Nations, but Judith Miller
still languished in jail for not revealing sources for the
story she never wrote.
For those who don't remember, you might recognize Bolton
if you look closely as a key player in stopping election
recounts in the first Bush election.
Of course, no one would ever mention such a thing, nor a
similar case, in which Judge Bork was nominated to the
Supreme Court without any mention of his being the "author
of the Saturday Night Massacre" of Watergate fame in which
no Attorney General or nominee would fire the prosector,
and we went through quite a few that night before Bork was
willing to do the dirty work to get the position.
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
Walter McCormick, Jr, President and CEO, United States Telecom Assn,
is criticizing municipal wireless links to the Internet as being too
competitive with the businesses of the members of his association.
I wonder if automobile and gasoline manufacturers should get on the
bandwagon and criticize cities for allowing taxis, busses, trains,
and subway systems to compete, thus reducing sales of cars and gas?
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
Africa Should Be Self-Sustaining After We Pillaged Rain Forests
The information has been hidden for so long that even the
Africans seem to have forgotten that the reason for droughts
has been the cutting down of the rain forests at the behest
of the white world for more exports of lumber and wood products.
If you don't understand how rain forests work, just take a look
at the early NASA pictures of Africa and you can see the clouds
that form over rain forests after the rains, and then are blown
further to provide rains to other downwind areas.
When the rain forests disappeared, so did the rain, and clearly
show with the aid of NASA photographs from before rain forests
had been eliminated as an African environmental control system.
By the way, no one seems to have learned from this, rain forests
are continually being cut down around the world, and more drought
is expected, just keep watching the news and try to remember.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Now that Novak and Rove are off the hot seat, will they consider
releasing Judith Miller from jail while no one is looking?
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Still Watching China and India
In the first half of the year Macao's [China] exports dropped
27% while imports rose 3.8%, suggesting the first possibility
that China's import-export ratio may have peaked. The cause
of the export drop is largely due to the fact that Macao's
exports are largely in textiles, which have been very volatile
as per various international trade agreements recently.
The UK Office of National Statistics announced that it will be
outsourcing a major portion of Britain's population database
to India via a 3 year contract with Siemens.
Several sources have expressed worry concerning identity theft
at the source and say the savings from outsourcing are not in
line with the risks to passport holders and others.
Of course, the World Trade Organization approves of the deal.
Project Director, Carrie Armitage, from The UK Office of National
Statistics said in a prepared statement:
"It is essential to create new solutions to save time and money
and give better service to the public, particularly as there is
a growing number of applications for certificates."
*
[The number of deaths from medical errors in the US is
more than the number of deaths from automobile accidents!
Why no big movement to save THOSE lives?]
[Edupage synopsis]
NEW LAW ESTABLISHES DATABASES OF MEDICAL ERRORS
A bill signed into law last week mandates the creation of a network of
databases that store anonymous information on medical errors. According
to a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, medical errors cost the
lives of 98,000 people in the United States each year. Sharing
information about those errors is seen by many as a useful step toward
preventing similar errors in the future, but many health care providers
have been reluctant to share such information for fear of litigation.
To that end, the databases mandated by the Patient Safety and Quality
Improvement Act of 2005 will strip identifying information regarding
patients and providers. Reporting information to the databases will be
voluntary, and backers of the measure hope that the anonymity provision
will encourage providers to submit details of medical errors, allowing
others to learn from their mistakes. Dr. J. Edward Hill, president of
the American Medical Association, called the new law "the catalyst we
need to transform the current culture of blame and punishment into one
of open communication and prevention."
Federal Computer Week, 1 August 2005
http://govhealthit.com/article89736-07-29-05-Web
*
Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries.
"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same,
it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date,
as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer
then there would be only 60 million people in the world who
owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States
households have computers, out of over 100 million households.
Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in
the United States.
I just called our local reference librarian and got the number
of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at:
111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports.
If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households
is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million,
and that's counting just one computer per household, and not
counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc.
I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate
given above, and would like some help researching these and other
such figures, if anyone is interested.
BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic
that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old.
This means that basically 90% of the world's population would
never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations
offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US
population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich
live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer
than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is
distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they
can receive more per year, but because they will live more years
to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never
receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in.
*
POEM OF THE WEEK
This is number one of a series of five poems from a volume named:
"Thoughts of My Exiled Self."
The motto for this poetry volume is,
"Upon this Word I shall build my life."
collage
scattered wood shavings fallen feathers
waves of sand tossed on a toasty beach
undulating pattern shows my heart and eyes ensemble
riding on the high tide of beauty without boundaries
Copyright 2005 by Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart
Please send comments to: simona_s75 AT yahoo.com & hart AT pobox.com
***
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