[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter [resend]
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Thu Jul 28 09:45:25 PDT 2005
Weekly_July_27.txt
**The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 27, 2005 PT1**
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
Resending, as the one I sent yesterday didn't go to "gweekly" email list.
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Please note that we are still in the process of correcting our statistical
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Please note that PT2 of this Newsletter is currently in flux, as we shift
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*
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.
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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
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
47 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
16,800 eBooks As Of Today!!!
13,738 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's 250 eBooks per Month for 54 Months
We Have Produced 1844 eBooks in 2005
3,200 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~482 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 277 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 64 eBooks Per Week This Year
48 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
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We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 06.75 months of this year, we produced 1844 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Aug 1999 to produce our first 1844 eBooks!
That's 28 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 Years!!!
48 New eBooks This Week
56 New eBooks Last Week
167 New eBooks This Month [Jul]
~277 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
1844 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13738 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 54.00 Months!
About 250 books per month
16,800 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,365 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,435 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
463 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
7,189 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php
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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 #203 of 2005
This Completes Week #28 and Month #06.75 [364 days this year]
182 Days/34 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]
64 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 28 weeks of this year, we have produced 1800 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 3/99 to produce our FIRST 1800 eBooks!!!
That's 28 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1680
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]
Jun 1999 The Winter's Tale, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws4011x.xxx] 1800C
Jun 1999 Cymbeline, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws3911x.xxx] 1799C
Jun 1999 Timon of Athens, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws3711x.xxx] 1798C
Jun 1999 Coriolanus, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws3611x.xxx] 1797C
Jun 1999 Antony and Cleopatra, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws3511x.xxx] 1796C
Jun 1999 Macbeth, by William Shakespeare [WL][1ws3411x.xxx] 1795C
Jun 1999 King Lear, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws3311x.xxx] 1794C
Jun 1999 Othello, by William Shakespeare [WL][1ws3211x.xxx] 1793C
Jun 1999 Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare [WL][1ws3111x.xxx] 1792C
Jun 1999 All's Well That Ends Well, by Shakespeare [WL][1ws3011x.xxx] 1791C
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,456,496,299 that would be 16,800 x 64,564,9632 = 1.08 Trillion !!!
With 16,800 eBooks online as of July 27, 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 64,564,9632 x 16,800 x $.92 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,800 eBooks online as of July 27, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.60 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.75 when we had 13,365 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,800 eBooks in 34 Years and 00.75 Months We Averaged
~493 Per Year
41.1 Per Month
1.35 Per Day
At 1844 eBooks Done In The 203 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
9.1 Per Day
64 Per Week
277 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]
SOFTWARE HIDES PASSWORDS FROM PHISHERS
Two professors at Stanford University are set to unveil software
designed to foil phishers by scrambling passwords entered into Web
sites. John Mitchell and Dan Boneh developed the software, called
PwdHash, to deal with the growing problem of Web sites that lure
computer users into disclosing personal information. The software
creates a unique password for each Web site a user visits. If the user
goes to a bogus version of a legitimate Web site, the software creates
a separate password, leaving the operator of the bogus site with a
password that will not work at the real site. Previously, the pair of
professors have written software that tries to identify fraudulent Web
sites and notifies the user when such a site is suspected.
San Jose Mercury News, 25 July 2005
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12218576.htm
PAYING HACKERS FOR BUGS
Computer-security firm TippingPoint has begun a program to pay rewards
to individuals who report computer vulnerabilities. Not unlike similar
programs from other companies, the TippingPoint deal offers a variable
amount of money if a reported bug proves valid. The company will use
the information to update its own protection software and will notify
the maker of the vulnerable product about the problem. David Endler,
director of security research at TippingPoint, said the reward program
is intended to "reward and encourage independent security research" and
to "ensure responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities." Not all security
companies believe in bounties. Internet Security Systems, for one, said
that paying for such bug reports amounts to having hackers do a company's
research for it. An official from Internet Security Systems also noted that
the bugs reported in such programs are typically very low-level problems,
saying that the more extreme vulnerabilities are worth much more when
used for hacking than if turned in to security companies.
CNET, 24 July 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-7350_3-5802411.html
COMMITTEE MAKES PROGRESS ON HIGHER ED ACT
The House Education and the Workforce Committee met again Thursday to
review legislation to renew the Higher Education Act, the law governing
federal student aid and other higher education programs in the U.S.
Education Department. The group adopted a plan to let student borrowers
who consolidate several loans choose between a fixed and a variable
rate, but retained a maximum interest rate of 8.25 percent. An
amendment reduces funds for lenders and guarantee agencies by
decreasing the amount of government reimbursement to those companies
when students default on their loans. The maximum offered through Pell
grants was left unchanged.
Inside Higher Ed, 22 July 2005
http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/22/hea
SENATORS TO ADDRESS SHORTAGE OF SCIENCE GRADS
U.S. Senators said they will propose a bill next week to increase
federal funding of multidisciplinary research and support for
"revolutionizing" manufacturing technologies and processes. The
legislation will also increase spending for the Technology Talent Act,
which provides grants to colleges and universities to increase the
number of science and engineering graduates. The proposed legislation
is based on the 2004 National Innovation Initiative Report released by
the Council on Competitiveness. That report calls for creating 5,000
new federally funded graduate fellowships, reworking immigration laws,
and building 10 "innovation hot spots."
Internet News, 21 July 2005
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3521851
BRITAIN TO TRACK, CONTROL TERRORIST WEB SITES
Following recent terrorist attacks on London's public transit system,
the British government announced plans to tighten oversight on people
who run Web sites inciting terrorism. In speaking to Parliament on July
20, Home Secretary Charles Clarke acknowledged that the government
would have to "tread carefully" around free speech in instituting
changes to the national security policies. Clarke said he intends to
draw up a list of unacceptable behaviors, such as preaching, running
Web sites, or writing articles intended to provoke terrorism. The
Foreign and Commonwealth Office and intelligence agencies will be
instructed to build a database of people who provoke terrorism.
Immigration officers will have access to the database, and the
government is planning changes to the law to make it easier to deport
religious extremists whose behaviors meet the revised policies.
ZDNet, 22 July 2005
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5798787.html
LEGAL ONLINE MUSIC ON THE UPSWING
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
(IFPI), more than 180 million songs were legally downloaded in the
first half of 2005, with Apple's iTunes the clear leader in the
market. Apple recently announced that it had sold 500 million
downloads. Subscribers to legal music services reportedly have
increased from 1.5 million in January 2005 to 2.2 million by midyear.
Although that number doesn't indicate how many songs subscribers have
actually obtained, the subscription model is based on monthly fees of
$10 to $15. Apple sales are expected to continue increasing as sales of
its iPOD music players continue to grow.
The Register, 21 July 2005
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/22/ifpi_download_stats/
MCAT, GMAT GO ELECTRONIC
[Of course, this eliminates any possibility to essay questions,
as were recently decided MUST be includes in the SAT]
Officials with the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and the
Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) announced that both tests
will move to electronic-only format. The electronic version of the MCAT
is being offered on a trial basis in selected locations currently and
will be available widely in 2007. The GMAT has since 1997 been offered
as a paper-based or computer-based test, but the paper test will be
discontinued next January. The Association of American Medical Colleges
said the electronic format of the MCAT will streamline the process,
both for those taking the exam and those grading it. The check-in
process will be faster and will include security measures to prevent
individuals from taking the test in place of someone else. The
electronic GMAT is an adaptive test, giving test takers a harder
question after they answer a question correctly or an easier one if
they answer incorrectly. Officials with the entrance exam for law
schools have no plans to switch from their paper-based exam.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 19 July 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/07/2005071901t.htm
PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUMS DEVELOPING ONLINE DATABASE
[Prediction: the higher resolution pictures will cost money]
Two prominent photography collections have announced a joint project to
create an online database of images from both collections. The George
Eastman House and the International Center of Photography said the
Photomuse.org site will contain nearly 200,000 images when it is
launched, which is projected to be in the fall of 2006. Between them,
the two organizations have some of the most complete archives of
photos, including work from the early days of cameras. Photos in the
database will be assigned a range of keywords so that users can locate
images by more than simply photographer's name or title of the photo.
A photo of an immigrant couple, for example, will be included in search
results for terms such as "immigration," "Italian-Americans," or "Ellis
Island." Photos in the database, all of which will be publicly
available online, will be of modest resolution, though
higher-resolution images will also be available. Organizers still must
sort out copyright questions for photos not in the public domain.
Owners of some photographs are happy to have the exposure from
including their work, while others are concerned about potential lost
revenue if their work is included.
New York Times, 20 July 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/arts/design/20east.html
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Announced this 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.
*
Robert Novak, whose article "outed" CIA operative Valerie
Plame, was grilled on CNN last week, but still refuses to
even say if he as even been asked to testify in the case
that has now sent Judith Miller to jail for not revealing
her sources on a story she never even wrote.
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
Daniel Shorr comments:
"The public no longer respects what we do," referring to
journalists in general. He reported that he felt "very
depressed" about the current situation, and mentioned a
public outcry on his behalf that helped save him from a
similar contempt charge in 1976, this time by a House
Committee, so it was "Contempt of Congress," when he was
refusing to reveal his sources when he revealed a secret
Congressional Report about the CIA.
"Today they would send me to jail without a murmer."
*
Judith Miller, herself, commented on CNN that this case
was not about the issues at hand but rather about "whether
there could be a Deep Throat today," a spectre she referred
to as being "positively Orwellian." [1984, by Geo. Orwell]
*
" 'The problem is, however, that we here at The Post believe that
reporters are not above the law,' he added. Frank Sesno, a special
correspondent for CNN and former Washington bureau chief for the
network, said journalists should probably expect the case to affect
their daily working lives - though maybe not as profoundly as some
have suggested.
" 'Will it have a chilling effect? Yes,' said Mr. Sesno, whose
network, like Time, is owned by Time Warner. 'Is it going to take
anonymous sources out of our orbit and blast them into a distant
galaxy? No.'
"Just look at the way Newsweek handled the Rove-outed-Plame story in
this week's edition. The editors obviously knew they had a hot story
and could have pushed it hard. Instead, it's clear that they lawyered
it within an inch of its life -- a bunch of legal eagles with faint
hearts removing any juice and most of the meat from it."
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
Civil Servant = Civil Master
When the White House comments on their previous comments,
or refuses to, the real meaning of what they are saying:
Inoperative = Untenable
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Only the not guilty of releasing information about CIA
Operative Valerie Plame will to to jail.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Estimated Book Publishing Industry Sales [United States]
2004 $23,715,410,000
2003 $23,420,576,000
2002 $22,397,072,000
1997 $17,220,710,000
1992 $9,463,386,000
[2005 Bowker Annual, p527]
*
By the way, if you estimated the value of each book lost from
the public domain by the 1998 US Copyright Act at one penny
for an entire lifetime of 100 years, the loss would be greater
than the entire sales of ALL books in the United States per year.
The public domain will always been at least a million books
smaller as a result of the 1998 copyright act, removing some
50,000 books per year from the public domain for 20 years.
A million pennies is $10,000.
Divided among 100 years of a long lifetime = $100 per year.
$100 per year for 300 million people = $30,000,000
Much higher than the total books sales reported above.
*
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
The Demon of Poetry
poetry has become a demon
harrassment is its game
thoughts upon thoughts of
perfectly shaped fertile colorful rhymes
incessantly harrass my spirit
and then lose strength, meaning, and color
as soon as I grab my pen to pin them down
my thoughts, like caterpillars
my words, like butterflies
the mirror shows a wrinkled forehead
and dark, unrested eyes
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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