[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed May 11 09:59:49 PDT 2005
GWeekly_May_13.txt
**The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, May 13, 2005 PT1**
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
Note: Several last minute changes were made due to finding some errors in
numbers recorded weeks or months ago, and I managed to change most of them
right now, but not all. I hope to get them all corrected next week. The
changes are small, mostly errors of one or two eBooks counted twice.
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart at pobox.com or gbnewby at pglaf.org
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Please note that PT2 of this Newsletter is currently in flux, as we shift
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is in flux to an even greater degree. Our apologies as we make changes.
*
HOT REQUESTS
Wanted: People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc.
*
Darwin!!!
Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection
and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers.
We could also use some help making some new editions of "The
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "Frankenstein."
This week marks the birthday of Gaston Leroux, most noted as the author of
The Phantom of the Opera. The following are available at www.gutenberg.org
[I note we do NOT have Phantom in the original French, any volunteers?]
Le parfum de la Dame en noir, by Gaston Leroux 15554
[The Perfume of the Lady in Black, Language: French]
Les etranges noces de Rouletabille, by Gaston Leroux 13772
[The Strange Wedding Of Rouletabille, Language: French]
Le mystere de la chambre jaune, by Gaston Leroux 13765
[The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Language: French]
Mar 1999 The Secret of the Night, by Gaston Leroux [GL #3][tsotnxxx.xxx] 1686
Mar 1999 Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux[GL#2][ylormxxx.xxx] 1685
[Contains ASCII diagrams, best viewed with non-proportional fonts.]
Oct 1994 The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux [phantxxx.xxx] 175
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v0.2 version of PodReader is out, and it interfaces to PG. This allows
users to browse the catalog on their Desktop, pick a book, and have it
downloaded to their iPod in the correct format...this is a good plus for
PG users since it makes it a lot easier to get to PG documents.
http://homepage.mac.com/ptwobrussell/podreader.html
*
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!
*
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.]
48 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
16,205 eBooks As Of Today!!!
13,140 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 1250 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~62% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~24% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
3,795 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~479 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 295 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 70 eBooks Per Week This Year
49 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
REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
We are trying to start up a Project Gutenberg Russian Team,
and we need someone to translate simple email messages from
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Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck <JBuck814366460 at aol.com>
*
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 04.25 months of this year, we produced 1253 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1998 to produce our first 1253 eBooks!
That's 17 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 Years!
49 New eBooks This Week
50 New eBooks Last Week
49 New eBooks This Month [May]
300 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
1250 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13144 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 52.50 Months!
About 250 books per month
16,205 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
12,581 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,624 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
436 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
6,758 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
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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.
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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 #126 of 2005
This Completes Week #18 and Month #04.25 [364 days this year]
238 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,795 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
70 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 18 weeks of this year, we have produced 1250 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 2/98 to produce our FIRST 1250 eBooks!!!
That's 18 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1250
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]
Apr 1998 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley[#4][alxscxxx.xxx] 1275
Apr 1998 Martin Hyde the Duke's Messenger by John Masefield[mhydexxx.xxx] 1274
Apr 1998 The Autobiography of a Slander, by Edna Lyall [autosxxx.xxx] 1273
Apr 1998 Riddle of the Rhine/Chemical Strategy, by LeFebure[rrhinxxx.xxx] 1272
[Title: The Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical Strategy in Peace and War]
[Author: Victor LeFebure]
Apr 1998 Bygone Beliefs, by H. Stanley Redgrove [byblfxxx.xxx] 1271
Apr 1998 In Defense of Women, by H. L. Mencken [ndwmnxxx.xxx] 1270
Apr 1998 Soul of a Bishop, by H. G. Wells [H. G. Wells #15][sbshpxxx.xxx] 1269
Apr 1998 The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne [Verne #6] [milndxxx.xxx] 1268
Apr 1998 Kai Lung's Golden Hours, by Ernest Bramah[Bramah3][klsghxxx.xxx] 1267
Apr 1998 Lavender and Old Lace, by Myrtle Reed [lvolcxxx.xxx] 1266
Apr 1998 Queen Victoria, by Lytton Strachey [qvctrxxx.xxx] 1265
Apr 1998 Wheels of Chance/Bicycling Idyll by H.G. Wells #14[wchncxxx.xxx] 1264
Apr 1998 The Glimpses of the Moon, by Edith Wharton [EW#9][tgotmxxx.xxx] 1263
Apr 1998 Heritage of the Desert, by Zane Grey[Zane Grey #6][hdsrtxxx.xxx] 1262
Betty Zane, by Zane Grey 1261
Mar 1998 Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte [#7 by Bronte's] [janeyxxx.xxx] 1260
Mar 1998 Twenty Years After, by Alexandre Dumas [Pere #4] [3muskxxx.xxx] 1259
Mar 1998 Ten Years Later, by Alexandre Dumas[Dumas Pere #3][2muskxxx.xxx] 1258
Mar 1998 The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas [Pere #2][1muskxxx.xxx] 1257
Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand 1256
[Language: French]
Pending / Unfilled 1255*
Mar 1998 Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand [In English] [cdbenxxx.xxx] 1254
Mar 1998 A Simple Soul, by Gustave Flaubert [Flaubert #1] [ssengxxx.xxx] 1253
Mar 1998 Le Mort d'Arthur, by Thomas Malory Volume 2[TM#2][2martxxx.xxx] 1252
Mar 1998 Le Mort d'Arthur, by Thomas Malory Volume 1[TM#1][1martxxx.xxx] 1251
Mar 1998 Anthem, by Ayn Rand [Alice Rosenblum][Ayn Rand #1][anthmxxx.xxx] 1250
(Slightly different format in:) [anthmxxa.xxx]
Mar 1998 Anthem, by Ayn Rand [Comparison of anthm10 & 10a] [anthmxxz.xxx] 1249
Mar 1998 Last of the Great Scouts, by Helen Cody Wetmore [bbillxxx.xxx] 1248
[Title: Last Of The Great Scouts, The Life Story Of Col. William F. Cody
"Buffalo Bill", As Told By His Sister Helen Cody Wetmore]
Mar 1998 Second April, by Edna St. Vincent Millay[Millay#2][aprilxxx.xxx] 1247
Mar 1998 The House of Dust, by Conrad Aiken [Aiken #1][hdustxxx.xxx] 1246
Mar 1998 Night and Day, by Virginia Woolf [Woolf #2][nidayxxx.xxx] 1245
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 16,206 eBooks online as of May 11, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.96 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,408,278 x 16,209 x $.96 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,206 eBooks online as of May 11, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.62 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.79 when we had 12,642 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,205 eBooks in 33 Years and 10.25 Months We Averaged
~479 Per Year
39.9 Per Month
1.31 Per Day
At 1250 eBooks Done In The 126 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
10 Per Day
70 Per Week
295 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]
MOVING BEYOND LISTS FOR SEARCHING THE WEB
Supporters of non-text-based representations of Web search results got
a boost this week as Groxis, the makers of Grokker, released a version
of the software that runs as a Java plug-in for browsers. Previously,
the software, which returns search results in a circular "map," was
only available as a separate, $49 application. The company will now
depend on revenue from advertisements placed next to search results by
search engine Yahoo. For the past nine months, 2,000 students and
faculty of Stanford University have been testing the Grokker software,
which has earned a strong following there. Michael A. Keller,
Stanford's head librarian and an adviser to Groxis, said the
application allows users to find appropriate information more quickly.
Another company, Vivisimo, is developing a search engine that, while
still text-based, displays groups of folders next to ranked lists of
results. The folders give users another method of sifting through
search results for useful resources.
New York Times, 9 May 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/technology/09yahoo.html
STUDENT SHUTS DOWN BLOG AFTER THREAT FROM SINGAPORE
Chen Jiahao, a graduate student in chemical physics at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has shut down his personal blog and
issued two apologies after an agency of the government in Singapore
threatened to sue Chen for defamation. A*Star, the agency in Singapore
dealing with science and research, accused Chen, who is from Singapore,
of libelous statements that "went way beyond fair comment." The agency
demanded a public apology but said Chen's first apology was insincere
and insisted on another. A*Star said it welcomes various opinions and
perspectives, but many in the journalism community rejected that claim.
Singapore has long had a reputation for using tactics including
lawsuits to silence critics. Organizations including the Committee to
Protect Journalists and Reporters without Borders have decried
Singapore's threats to Chen and journalists. "Chen criticized some of
A*Star's policies," said Julien Pain, head of Reporters without
Borders' Internet freedom desk, "but there was nothing defamatory in
what he wrote."
Reuters, 9 May 2005
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8422422
APPEALS COURT REJECTS BROADCAST FLAG
A federal appeals court has struck down regulations passed by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to control unauthorized
dissemination of digital broadcasting signals. At issue was a
"broadcast flag," a technology that would be added to digital signals
that would prevent them from being distributed over the Internet. The
FCC's regulation would also have required makers of video-recording
equipment to modify their products to support the broadcast-flag
technology. The American Library Association filed a case arguing that
the regulation would impose undue restrictions on libraries, preventing
them from distributing digital content to online classrooms. Consumer
groups had also opposed the regulation, arguing it would drive up costs
of electronic products and would keep consumers from making legitimate
copies of digital works. In its ruling, the court said flatly that the
FCC had overstepped its authority in issuing the regulation.
Wall Street Journal, 6 May 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111539047987326903,00.html
DARTMOUTH NEARS COMPLETION OF NETWORK CONVERGENCE
Dartmouth College expects this fall to complete a project begun in 2001
to converge the school's phone, cable, and wireless systems into a
single network. When finished, the network--described as the first of
its kind at a U.S. university--will give students and faculty wireless
access to the university's online services, including cable television
and telephone, from anywhere on campus. In addition, the network will
allow users to create individual "channels," which can include various
forms of video content with a cable-quality signal. Channels could be
set up, for example, to let students view video snippets of lectures
when choosing classes. Having a network that allows students to watch
cable programming any time, from anywhere on campus, including during
class, has some worried about keeping students focused on studies, but
university officials are optimistic that the network will offer
compelling tools for professors to hold students' attention. Dartmouth
said it saved more than $2 million by installing its new network when
old systems needed to be replaced, and the network reportedly saves
close to $1 million each year on maintenance and other costs.
New York Times, 4 May 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/technology/techspecial/04zezima.html
APPLE WORKS FOR SCHOOL IBOOK DEAL
A tentative deal between Apple Computer and the Cobb County School
District in Georgia could see as many as 63,000 iBook computers going
to teachers and students in the district. The school board has already
given its approval to the purchase of 17,000 iBooks, for all teachers
and for students at four high schools. If approved, the program could
be expanded to include all students in the district. Apple's efforts
to persuade school districts to provide a computer for every
student--what it calls its one-to-one solutions--are aimed at regaining
ground in the education market that has been lost to companies selling
Windows-based products, most notably Dell. In 2001, Apple signed a
four-year deal with the Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia, only
to see that contract given to Dell last week when it came up for
renewal. Officials of Cobb County said they were aware of the situation
at Henrico when they selected Apple but that the problems with that
contract had been overcome. Henrico wanted the Microsoft Office
software suite on their computers and didn't have it, according to Jay
Dillion, a spokesperson for Cobb County. "We ... required Apple to
pre-load Office on all our iBooks."
CNET, 2 May 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-7342_3-5692363.html
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
General Kirkpatrick was busted to Colonel for Abu Ghraib events.
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"The mainstream media is giving equal weight to fact and spin."
Jeaneane Garafolo
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
It turns out that government and military officials knew
sat on the knowledge that that NFL star Pat Tillman been
killed by "friendly fire" for weeks, waiting to figure
out the best time, place and manner to release the data.
*
Given court rulings and new bills signed into law, it is
now easier for corporations to declare bankruptcy to get
out of their pension plan responsibilities, but in great
reversal, it is now harder for bankruptcy to be declared
by an individual or family.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Graphical representations of search data, see above,
will become a major information tool.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
10 years ago 40% of workers were covered by pensions.
Today it is only 20%, and half of those are underfunded.
*
The divorce rate in the U.S. passed 1/2 some time ago,
and is now about half way to 2/3.
*
You've probably seen something like this statistic:
"A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate Washington spends it."
Then:
"This may have been true a half a billion seconds ago, too,
but now they're spending faster, so it doesn't take so long.
It's less than five hours."
And lately:
"It's 3 hours, 30 minutes now, for the feds to spend a billion USD,
not counting some off-budget expenditures."
*
"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.
***
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