[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Aug 17 10:15:40 PDT 2005
Weekly_August_17.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, Auguest 17, 2005 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart at pobox.com or gbnewby at pglaf.org
Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart at pobox.com
*
HOT REQUESTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
WANTED!
>>> !!!People to help us collect ALL public domain eBooks!!! <<<
*
Wanted: People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc.
*
We Have Produced 2000+ eBooks This Year!!!
Next Week The Grand Total Should Be ~17,000!!!
*
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
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
32 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones*
16,960 eBooks As Of Today!!!
13,898 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's 250+ eBooks per Month for ~55 Months
We Have Produced 2004 eBooks in 2005!!!
3,040 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~497 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 267 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 63 eBooks Per Week This Year
32 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
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
hart at pobox.com and gbnewby at pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
***
***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
*
We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections
of the Internet Archive for potential Project Gutenberg eBooks.
http://www.archive.org
Don't worry, many of the numbers listed are out of date,
but you should get all the files when you pass through
to the original sites.
Click on "texts" to get started, feel free to pick up any
of the eBooks you would like to work on.
Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive!
*
Please visit and test our newest site:
"PROJECT GUTENBERG EUROPE"
http://pge.rastko.net [Project Gutenberg Europe]
http://dp.rastko.net [Distributed Proofreaders Europe]
*
There is a new experimental online reader available. Start from any
bibliographic record page, e.g.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4300
Basically this paginates the .txt file and remembers your last position
in a cookie so you can later resume reading where you left off.
Please test it. It should work with any book that has a text file
where the encoding is known.
*
MACHINE TRANSLATION
We are seeking as much information as possible on the various
approaches to Machine Translation. Any brand names or contact
information would be greatly appreciated.
***
Please use our new site for downloading DVD and CD images, etc.
http://www.gutenberg.org/cdproject
and
The PG bittorrent tracker is up and running.
Aaron Cannon has placed the CD and DVD there if anyone wants to test.
You can access it by visiting
http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu:6969
***
Please checkout the various Project Gutenberg FAQs, etc. at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/about
*
We're building a team to read our eBooks into MP3 files
for the visually impaired and other audio book users.
Let us know if you'd like to join this group.
More information at http://www.gutenberg.org/audio
***
Project Gutenberg Needs DVD Burners
So far we have sent out 15 million eBooks via snailmail!!!
We currently have access to a dozen DVD burners. If you have a DVD burner
and are interested in lending a hand, please email Aaron Cannon
<cannona at fireantproductions.com>
We can set you up with images, or snail you these DVDs
for you to copy. You can either snail them directly
to readers whose addresses we can send you, or you can
do a stack of these and send the whole box back for reshipping.
We can also reimburse you for supplies and postage if you wish.
Please note that we can only use DVDs which are burnt in the dvd-r format,
as we have had some compatibility issues with the dvd+r format.
***
Project Gutenberg is seeking graphics we can use for our Web
pages and publicity materials. If you have original graphics
depicting Project Gutenberg themes, please contribute them!
To see some of what we have now, please see:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/images
*** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES
Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers.
We have regular need for intellectual property legal advice
(both US and international) and other areas. Please email
Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> ,
if you can help.
This is much more important than many of us realize!
***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 07.50 months of this year, we produced 2004 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Nov 1999 to produce our first 2004 eBooks!
That's 32 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years!!!
33 New eBooks This Week
85 New eBooks Last Week
118 New eBooks This Month [Aug]
~267 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
2004 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13898 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 55.50 Months!
Over 250 books per month!
16,960 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,538 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,422 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
468 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
7,322 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php
*
Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how
you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before
the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog.
eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists.
Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs:
http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/subscribe-howto
or
http://www.gutenberg.org/subs.shtml
***
*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 #224 of 2005
This Completes Week #32 and Month #07.50 [364 days this year]
147 Days/22 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,040 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]
*** Permanent Requests For Assistance:
DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES
Please visit the site:
http://www.pgdp.net
for more information about how you can help a lot by
simply proofreading just a few pages per day, or more.
If you have a book that has been scanned, but not yet run
through OCR (optical character recognition) or proofed,
and you would like the Distributed Proofreaders to work on it,
please email dphelp at pgdp.net and we will get things started.
Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the
Project Gutenberg collection. To see what is already online,
visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file)
listing Project Gutenberg eBooks and is available for downloading.
Do you have Public Domain books you would like to see in the archive?
Can they be destructively scanned? If so send them to the Distributed
Proofreading Team! Please email dphelp at pgdp.net with your geographic
location. You will be given the address of the nearest high-speed scanner.
[Note that the high-speed scanner requires destruction of the book(s) which
will not be returned.] We have high-speed scanners currently located in
the east, west and central portions of the US to make shipping easier.
Please make sure that any books you send are _not_ already in the archive
and please check them against David's "In Progress" list at:
http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html
to ensure no one is currently working on them. It would also be helpful if
you obtain copyright clearance before mailing the books, and send the 'OK'
lines to
dphelp at pgdp.net
Do you like to work on an entire book at once but don't have the time
or technology to do the scanning, OCR, and initial proofing yourself?
Distributed Proofreaders has the perfect solution! Just send us email
telling us that you are interested in post-processing and we will help
find a project you would like to work on.
Please contact us at:
dphelp at pgdp.net
if you would like to know more about the Distributed Proofreaders.
***Donation Information
We Have Included Quick and Easy Ways to Donate. . .As Per Your Requests!
We Are Looking For Volunteers To Add eBooks In More Languages,
as well as in more formats, including music, artwork, movies, etc.
***
QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG
A. Send a check or money order to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
809 North 1500 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
USA
B. Donate by credit card online:
NetworkForGood:
http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541
or
PayPal to "donate at gutenberg.org":
http://www.paypal.com
/xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.org&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of
volunteers over more than 33 years. Your donations make it possible
to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the
creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and
transfers from any country, in any currency.
Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
(PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by
the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employee Information
Number (EIN) 64-6221541.
For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to
http://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html or email donate at gutenberg.org
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
Mirrors (copies) of the complete collection are available around the world.
To find the sites nearest you, go to:
http://www.gutenberg.org/MIRRORS.ALL
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
http://www.gutenberg.org/find
allows searching by title, author, language and subject.
Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
site (or a mirror) if you know the file's name you want. Try:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs
or
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/
and then navigate to the appropriate directory and look for the first
five characters of the file's name. Note that updated eBooks usually
go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.)
***
Statistical Review
In the 32 weeks of this year, we have produced 2004 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 10/99 to produce our FIRST 2004 eBooks!!!
That's 32 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #2004
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]
Dec 1999 The Library, by Andrew Lang [Andrew Lang #20][lbrryxxx.xxx] 2018
Dec 1999 The Dhammapada, Translated by F. Max Muller [dhmpdxxx.xxx] 2017
Dec 1999 The 1998 CIA World Factbook[CIA Factbook #8][No#7][world98x.xxx] 2016
Dec 1999 A Miscellany of Men, by G. K. Chesterton [GKC #13][miscyxxx.xxx] 2015
The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes 2014
Dec 1999 The Pit Prop Syndicate, by Freeman Wills Croft [ptprpxxx.xxx] 2013
The Children, by Alice Meynell 2012
Dec 1999 Rudder Grange, by Frank R. Stockton [Stockton #4][rgrngxxx.xxx] 2011
Dec 1999 The Autobiography of Charles Darwin [Darwin #6][adrwnxxx.xxx] 2010
Dec 1999 Origin of Species, 6th Ed., by Charles Darwin [#5][otoos6xx.xxx] 2009
Dec 1999 Mazelli, and Other Poems, by George W. Sands[GS#1][mzllixxx.xxx] 2008
Dec 1999 We Two, by Edna Lyall [wetwoxxx.xxx] 2007
Dec 1999 A Fair Penitent, by Wilkie Collins [Collins #23][frpntxxx.xxx] 2006
Dec 1999 Piccadilly Jim, by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse [#1][pccjmxxx.xxx] 2005
Dec 1999 "Pigs is Pigs," by Ellis Parker Butler [pgpgsxxx.xxx] 2004
Dec 1999 Spirits in Bondage [Lyrics Cycle], by C. S. Lewis [spbndxxx.xxx] 2003
[Title: Spirits In Bondage, A Cycle Of Lyrics]
[Author Note: C. S. Lewis writing as Clive Hamilton]
Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 2002
Dec 1999 [Reserved for 2001, by Arthur C. Clarke] [ xxx.xxx] 2001*
Dec 1999 Don Quijote, by Cervantes in Spanish .txt & .htm [2donqxxx.xxx] 2000
[Language: Spanish]
Dec 1999 Crome Yellow, by Aldous Huxley [Aldous Huxley #1] [crmylxxx.xxx] 1999
Dec 1999 Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche #1 [spzarxxx.xxx] 1998
[Tr.: Thomas Common]
Dec 1999 Paradise, Divine Comedy, Dante, Tr. by Norton [3ddcnxxx.xxx] 1997
[Tr.: Charles Eliot Norton]
Dec 1999 Purgatory, Divine Comedy, Dante, Tr. by Norton [2ddcnxxx.xxx] 1996
[Tr.: Charles Eliot Norton]
Dec 1999 Hell/Inferno, Divine Comedy, Dante, Tr. by Norton [1ddcnxxx.xxx] 1995
[Tr.: Charles Eliot Norton]
Adventures among Books, by Andrew Lang 1994
Dec 1999 Told After Supper, by Jerome K. Jerome [JKJ #15] [tldspxxx.xxx] 1993
Dec 1999 Travels in England, and Fragmenta Regalia [trvfgxxx.xxx] 1992
[Title: Travels in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth by Paul
[Hentzner, AND Fragmenta Regalia by Sir Robert Naunton]
Dec 1999 Old Friends, Epistolary Parody, by Andrew Lang[18][oldfnxxx.xxx] 1991
Dec 1999 The Bedford-Row Conspiracy, by Thackeray [WMT #11][bdfrcxxx.xxx] 1990
Dec 1999 The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz [fldctxxx.xxx] 1989
Dec 1999 History of Tom Thumb, etc. Edited by Henry Altemus[thumbxxx.xxx] 1988
(Includes: The Stories of the Cat and the Mouse; Fire! Fire! Burn Stick!)
Dec 1999 The Outlet, by Andy Adams [outltxxx.xxx] 1987
Dec 1999 Life and Death of Mr. Badman, by John Bunyan[JB#3][badmnxxx.xxx] 1986
Dec 1999 Men's Wives, by William Makepeace Thackeray[WMT10][mnwvsxxx.xxx] 1985
Dec 1999 [Reserved: George Orwell's 1984/Did it come true?][o1984xxx.xxx] 1984*
Dec 1999 Monsieur Beaucaire, by Booth Tarkington [BT #8] [mbeauxxx.xxx] 1983
Nov 1999 Rashomon, by Akutagawa Ryunosuke [in Japanese] [rshmnxxx.xxx] 1982
[Language: Japanese]
Nov 1999 The Right to Read, by Richard M. Stallman [of GNU][tychoxxx.xxx] 1981C
[Language: French] (French version in:) [tychoxxf.xxx]
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,460,779,861 that would be 16,960 x 64,607,796 = ~1.1 Trillion !!!
6,460,779,861
64,607,796
With 16,960 eBooks online as of August 17, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.91 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,607,796 x 16,960 x $.91 = ~$1.1 Trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,960 eBooks online as of August 17, 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 13,538 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,960 eBooks in 34 Years and 01.50 Months We Averaged
~497 Per Year
41.4 Per Month
1.36 Per Day
At 2004 eBooks Done In The 224 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
8.9 Per Day
63 Per Week
267 Per Month
If you are interested in the population of the world or of the U.S.
you might want to know that these numbers, official as they appear,
are just just estimates, and perhaps not as accurate as we hope.
Recently the U.S. Congress, pertaining to district reapportionment,
who gets to vote for which Congresspeople, decided that many of the
districts were undercounted by 5%, perhaps then later deciding that
all districts had been undercounted by 5% [can't recall details].
However, I just this moment heard a news item that made me wonder a
bit more about the accuracy of the U.S. Census. A "Special Census"
is taking place in Normal, Illinois, that is expected to count more
people, by a factor of 3,000 or 3,400, depending on which source.
45,386 was the population as per the 2000 Census, so 3,000 added to
this would be an increase of 6.6%, and 3,400 would be 7.5%, above a
possibly automatic increase of 5% as per the same terms above but I
presume this is in addition to previous adjustments.
Of course, we should consider that we would have to double figures,
perhaps to 15% from those above, if are considering the normal time
between censuses of 10 years, these are for 5 years' growth.
In previous news I heard about the U.S. Census, no mention was made
about the annexation of various nearly locations as a cause of this
normally unexpected growth, but it is mentioned at the site I found
on the subject of the current Special Census.
If annexation is the primary cause of such increases, country wide,
then we should not be expecting a huge rise in the 2010 Census, but
rather should expect something more along the norm. However, if it
is not annexation, but more actual people on the average, then this
might be an indicator that the population of the U.S. may have seen
300 million go by some time ago.
For more details, see: www.normal.org/WhatsNew/Census.htm
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]
IBM DONATES ACCESSIBILITY CODE TO FIREFOX
This week, IBM said it will donate code to the Firefox browser that
will make the application more usable for people with visual or other
types of disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, as
many as one billion people worldwide have a speech, vision, hearing,
mobility, or cognitive disability, and legislation in at least some
countries sets requirments for accessibility of information for
individuals with disabilities. Expected in the 1.5 release of Firefox,
the code from IBM will allow Firefox users to manipulate and navigate
Web pages without a mouse or with reduced numbers of keystrokes. The
code also facilitates "rich Internet applications," which are designed
for individuals with specific disabilities. Previously, IBM has helped
the Mozilla Foundation, the maker of Firefox, make the browser
compatible with Microsoft Active Accessibility, a widely used standard
for accessibility tools such as screen readers.
ZDNet, 15 August 2005
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5833354.html
GOOGLE MODIFIES LIBRARY PROJECT
Google has announced some changes to its Library Project following
vocal criticism from a number of publishers. Under the terms of the
project, Google made arrangements with five major libraries to scan
some or all of their books, posting at least a portion of each book in
an online repository for public access. Publishers complained that
making such electronic copies of copyrighted works--regardless of
whether they are put online--violates the rights of the copyright
holder. Google now says it will not scan any book that a publisher
specifically asks to be exempted, and it will not scan any copyrighted
books until November, giving publishers time to review titles they
might want excluded. Publishers appeared unmoved, however, with the
Association of American Publishers (AAP) saying that Google's new plan
"places the responsibility for preventing infringement on the copyright
owner rather than the user." Peter Givler of the Association of
American University Presses echoed the AAP's dissatisfaction with the
changes to the project. He was glad that Google is trying to address
publishers' concerns but said of the new policy that it "doesn't seem
to me that it gets us very far."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 August 2005
http://chronicle.com/free/2005/08/2005081201t.htm
LINUX GOES TO FRENCH SCHOOLS
A Linux group in the Auvergne region of France, working with the local
government, will distribute CDs with free and open source software to
students in the region. In September, every student in Auvergne between
15 and 19 years of age will receive two CDs. One includes
OpenOffice.org software, as well as the Firefox browser and GIMP image
software. The other is a Linux Live CD, which will allow the users to
experiment with a Linux operating system without installing it on their
computers. Nicolas Spallinger, a member of the local Linux group, said
the idea is to let students try Linux without committing to a
particular version. If they are sold on Linux over other operating
systems, they can then install their preferred variety of Linux.
Organizers of the program hope it will encourage students and their
families to consider free and open source applications as an
alternative to proprietary software.
CNET, 11 August 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5828644.html
COLLEGE BOOKSTORES TEST ACCESS TO DIGITAL TEXTBOOKS
Ten colleges and universities are participating in a pilot project of
selling electronic texts through the campuses' bookstores. Previously,
electronic textbooks typically have only been available from individual
publishers or online. Organizers of the project hope that by making the
texts available from the campus bookstores, they will be able to
accurately gauge student demand for the technology. Each participating
institution will offer 25 to 30 texts electronically, though the books
will also be available in paper form. Electronic texts will be priced
at one-third less than hard-copy textbooks. Students who choose the
electronic option will download a copy of the text to a computer, where
they can read it, print it, search it for keywords, or listen to an
audio version of it. The electronic text will have restrictions,
however. The text cannot be transferred to any other computer, it
cannot be printed in its entirety at one time, and it will only be
available for five months, after which point it cannot be sold back to
the bookstore.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 August 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/08/2005080901t.htm
UNIV. RECEIVES FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR VOIP TRACKING TECHNOLOGY
The National Science Foundation has given researchers at George Mason
University a grant of more than $300,000 to develop a technology that
would allow limited eavesdropping on voice over Internet protocol
(VoIP) phone calls. Xinyuan Wang, assistant professor of software
engineering at the university and principal investigator, has shown
that his method can successfully trace VoIP users without their
knowledge. As VoIP service has become more common, law enforcement
officials have pointed out that they have no way of tapping such phone
calls, potentially resulting in a "haven for criminals, terrorists, and
spies," according to the Federal Communications Commission. The
technology that Wang and his colleagues are working on does not decrypt
conversations. It tracks packets as they move from one user to another,
allowing authorities to see who is talking to whom, but not to see what
they are saying. Wang conceded that "from a privacy advocate's point
of view, this is an attack on privacy," but he also noted that "from a
police point of view, this is a way to trace things."
CNET, 9 August 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-5825932.html
STUDENTS FACE PUNISHMENT FOR COMPUTER TAMPERING
[Legal action for looking the other way through the one-way mirror,
and, they gave the students the administrators' passwords. Does the
term "attractive nuiscance" ring a bell?" Perhaps law enforcement
should be looking the other way?]
Thirteen high school students in the Kutztown Area School District in
Pennsylvania face felony charges of tampering with computers after
defeating security measures on laptops issued to them by the school
district. The laptops included Internet filters and an application that
allowed district administrators to see what students did with the
computers. The 13 used administrator passwords--which, for unknown
reasons, were taped to the backs of the computers--to override the
filters and download software such as iChat that the district policy
forbids. The students also modified the monitoring program so that they
could see what the administrators did with their computers. The
students and their parents argued that the felony charges are
unwarranted, but, according to the district, students and parents
signed acceptable use policies that clearly state what activities are
not allowed and that warn of legal consequences if the policy is
violated. The students continued to violate district policies for use
of the computers even after detentions, suspensions, and other
punishments, according to the district. Only then did school officials
contact the police.
SPAMMER SETTLES WITH MICROSOFT
Microsoft has reached a settlement with Scott Richter, a man once
described as one of the top three spammers in the world. Efforts by
Microsoft and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2003 resulted
in the collection of 8,000 e-mail messages containing 40,000 fraudulent
statements sent by Richter's company, OptInRealBig. Richter earlier
agreed to pay New York State $50,000; under the new settlement, Richter
will pay Microsoft $7 million. According to Bradford L. Smith, chief
counsel for the software giant, $5 million would be used to "increase
our Internet enforcement efforts and expand technical and investigative
support to help law enforcement address computer-related crimes," while
another $1 million will be spent on improving computer access for the
poor in New York State. The settlement also requires Richter to comply
with state and federal laws governing e-mail and to submit to oversight
of his company's operations for three years.
New York Times, 10 August 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/technology/10spam.html
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
If you have questions or comments about Edupage,
send e-mail to: edupage at educause.edu
To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to
LISTSERV at LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
and in the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName
or
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings,
or access the Edupage archive, visit
http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639
***
One more item from alternate sources
[More on DNA, and, of course, this new rice will likely be patented,
and in the same vein as GMO corn, any DNA that accidentally ends up
in "normal" rice, will be considered an actionable offense.]
SCIENTISTS CRACK DNA CODE OF RICE
from Associated Press
NEW YORK, (AP) -- An international team of scientists has deciphered the
genetic code of rice, an advance that should speed improvements in a crop
that feeds more than half the world's population.
It's the first crop plant to have its genome sequenced, which means
scientists identified virtually all the 389 million chemical building
blocks of its DNA. Certain sequences of these building blocks form genes,
like letters spelling words.
The advance will help breeders produce new rice varieties with traits such
as higher yield, improved nutritional content and better resistance to
disease and pests, said one of the project's leaders, W. Richard McCombie
of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
http://tinyurl.com/ccor7
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
China booted out of Unocal purchase by hostile U.S. Congress,
but Congress seems to have no idea of the "virtual" deals in
China's financial portfolio. Just look at Yahoo! China deals
and the Ali Baba deals. "A billion here, a billion there and
suddenly you're talking about real money."
[The vetoed Unocal deal would have been about $20 billion.]
More on China's Energy Policy
CHINA TO BUILD OFFSHORE WIND POWER COMPLEX
from Associated Press
SHANGHAI, China -- China plans to construct its first offshore wind power
complex next year in hopes of easing chronic electricity shortages, the
official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
The complex, to be built in the Bohai Sea off the northern province of
Hebei, is designed to have a generating capacity of 1 million kilowatts
when
completed in 2020, Xinhua said.
An initial phase to begin construction late next year will generate 50,000
kilowatts, it said, citing Gao Xihai, a vice manager of the Huanghua Port
Development Zone which is promoting the project.
http://tinyurl.com/anfu4
*
Remember that $67 million dollar bank robbery in Brasil?
It now appears that the taxpayers will get billed for it!
*
Global Warming Refuters Now Refuted
ERRORS CITED IN ASSESSING CLIMATE DATA
from The New York Times (Registration Required)
Some scientists who question whether human-caused global warming poses a
threat have long pointed to records that showed the atmosphere's lowest
layer, the troposphere, had not warmed over the last two decades and had
cooled in the tropics.
Now two independent studies have found errors in the complicated
calculations used to generate the old temperature records, which involved
stitching together data from thousands of weather balloons lofted around
the world and a series of short-lived weather satellites.
A third study shows that when the errors are taken into account, the
troposphere actually got warmer. Moreover, that warming trend largely
agrees with the warmer surface temperatures that have been recorded and
conforms to predictions in recent computer models.
http://tinyurl.com/7pmgc
[and, in a separate story]
WARMING HITS 'TIPPING POINT'
from The Guardian (UK)
A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that
could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists
warn today.
Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area
of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France
and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed
11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is
the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws,
it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times
more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
http://tinyurl.com/93equ
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
"Since December 2000 employment in U.S. manufacturing has fallen 17%,
but membership in the National Association of Realtors has risen 58%."
The New York Times
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
What does the above mean? It means there is a scramble going on to buy
and/or sell real estate as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
A bit more on real estate from Edupage:
RESEARCH CENTER COMING TO NEW YORK
A real estate company based in California will build a research park in
New York City with the hope of attracting scientific and biomedical
companies that are routinely spun off from colleges and universities in
the city. The city's academic institutions consistently produce
start-up companies in biotech fields, but few remain in the city,
instead settling in less expensive areas such as New Jersey and
California. Despite years of efforts at creating such a research park,
previous proposals have been abandoned because developers were
reluctant to commit to such a project without guaranteed tenants.
Officials from Alexandria Real Estate Equities said projects like this
one rarely have tenants before the facility is built. Construction is
expected to begin next year, and companies can start moving into the
research park in 2008.
New York Times, 11 August 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/nyregion/11bio.html
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
China will continue bidding for, and buying, more and more
of the world's infrastructure, to the sad detriment of U.S.
Congress' inability to veto purchases in other countries.
Even the New York Times appears to know what is going on:
August 11, 2005
America's Summer of Discontent
"Yesterday, Unocal shareholders agreed to be bought by Chevron for about
$18 billion in the biggest oil acquisition in years. The deal brought to
a final close a sad hostile takeover fight in which a Chinese
government-owned company, Cnooc, was effectively blocked from the game
by a hostile United States Congress.
"When analysts and economic historians look back, this summer may well
prove to be the turning point in Chinese-American relations, the time
when America chose short-range paranoia over rational behavior."
*QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too."
Heinrich Heine
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Worldwide, only 1 person in 100 reaches the age of 79,
but in some countries that is the average lifespan.
The average lifespan for the world is 63, much shorter
than the duration of the average copyright.
*
CBS was one of those pillars of society who rejected women's
right to wear pants and required skirts or dresses, but they
finally gave up forcing women to give the men a chance to do
some looking up their skirts. Recently, CBS counted women's
choices of clothing as they reported to work one morning and
the result was 90 to 11 in favor of pants.
Source: 60 Minutes, Andy Rooney, August 14, 2005
*
99% of the United States goverment, the President, Senators,
Congresspersons, etc., required to pass and sign a new law--
NEVER EVER READ IT!!!
*
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 think this is now much greater]
1 would be 79 years old or more.
Of those born today, the life expectancy is only 63 years,
but no country any longer issues copyrights that are sure
to expire within that 63 year period.
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 three 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."
Tonight
Tonight is hard to get in touch with my thoughts
as my eyelids are heavy with a dreamless sleep
in which I feel I am floating like a feather
detached from the wings of a mother swan
who once knew about a lake,
and how the vivid waters felt to the touch
but then she got bored, took off
and learned about the lightness of air,
like the angels who sit on my eyelids tonight
Alas, I must be dreaming of flight
while I cry myself to sleep under the starry skies
of your eyes.
Copyright 2005 by Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart
Please send comments to: simona_s75 AT yahoo.com & hart AT pobox.com
***
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists,
including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters:
and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists:
The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the
first Wednesday of the month.
To subscribe to any (or to unsubscribe or adjust your subscription
preferences), visit the Project Gutenberg mailing list server:
http://lists.pglaf.org
If you are having trouble with your subscription, please
email the list's human administrators at: help at pglaf.org
More information about the gweekly
mailing list