From hart at pglaf.org Wed Jun 14 09:56:13 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Wed Jun 14 09:56:16 2006
Subject: [gweekly] PT1a Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0606140955470.22217@pglaf.org>
pt1a1.606
pt1b1.606
Weekly_June_14.txt
***The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 14, 2006 PT1***
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971********
*
Editor's comments appear in [brackets].
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org
Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com
*
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
22 New This Week From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
0 New This Week From PGEu [European Copyrights, Life + 50 and 70]
200 New This Week From PG PrePrints [WAP cell phone compatible eBooks]
49 New This Week To Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
271 New This Week [Including PG Australia, PG Europe and PrePrints]
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones*
19,891 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
109 to go to 20,000!!!
19,891 Project Gutenberg [+271] Grand Total [Automated]
668 Australian eBooks [+22] [Included in above line]
318 Gutenberg Europe [+0] [Including after July 4]
368 PG PrePrint Site [+200] [Included in above total]
271 Total New Books This Week
19,885 Grand Total of all four sites
19,891 [via our automated program]
[Please note we have several counting methods,
and they often differ by several book that we
have to hunt down by hand to reconcile.]
~99% of the Way to 20,000
***569 eBooks Averaged Per Year Since July 4, 1971***
16,823 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~261 eBooks per Month for ~64.25 Months
1,743 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
36 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
8,567 total from Distributed Proofreaders
Since October, 2000 [Details in PT1B]
[Currently over 36,000 DP volunteers]
We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Averaged ~248 eBooks Per Month In 2005
[Including PG Australia]
We Are Averaging ~332 eBooks Per Month This Year
[Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints]
All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 76 eBooks Per Week In 2006
271 This Week
271 This Month [Jun]
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~32 months, from 2003 to 2006 for our last 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~2.8 years from Oct. 2003 to Jun. 2006 from 10,000 to ~19,900
[The above changes due to the opening of Project Gutenberg
sites other than the original one at www.gutenberg.org]
[Now including totals from Australia, Europe and PrePrints]
[Apologies, it will take a while to integrate everything
not all statistics may be totally equalized yet]
[Daily PGEu stats at http://dp.rastko.net/default.php]
[Daily DP stats at http://www.pgdp.net]
BTW, we just started a new "PrePrints" site at PG,
so if you come across eBooks that aren't ready for
primetime, but that should be saved for upgrading,
we have a place to put them.
[Daily PrePrints stats at http://preprints.readingroo.ms/]
Please note that sometimes it takes a few weeks for entire
collections to fully appear in the PrePrints Section, thus
the count sometimes jumps by a large number when the files
are eventually completed and added in. Also note that the
PrePrint files are just that, PrePrints, and thus may move
later to other locations, including the main collection or
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center, etc. For example,
on June 14, 200 WAP compatible cell phone eBooks appeared,
and will likely be moved to other collection points later.
The entire process of working out the details just to send
them to the PrePrints Section took well over a month.
Even with the speeded up process of the PrePrints Section,
it still takes a certain amount of time to collect and put
such a large collection online in a proper manner.
*
~75,000 eBooks at the PG Consortia Center [Including after July 4]
http://www.gutenberg.cc
*
***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. Note bene
that PT1 is now being sent as PT1A and PT1B.
[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@pobox.com and gbnewby@pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
FREE INTERNET REFERENCE SITE
LivingInternet.com provides a 700-odd page reference about the Internet
"to provide living context and perspective to this most technological
of human inventions", and has received input from many people that helped
build the Internet. It currently receives about 3 thousand visitors a day,
many from educational institutions. Now in its 7th year of operation.
http://www.livinginternet.com/
TEXT TO SPEECH
Dolphin Producer is a new software package which will convert a text
document into a fully synchronized text and audio DTB at the push of a
single button. The DTB can then be played back using Dolphin's
EaseReader software player - which is included in Dolphin Producer.
The DTB can also be played back on any other DAISY DTB software or
hardware player, as well as any MP3 player - The choice is yours.
http://www.dolphinuk.co.uk or http://www.dolphinusa.com
*Headline News from Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
FREE BOOKS, ELECTRONICALLY
Project Gutenberg is organizing a book fair featuring online texts from
its own digital library as well as that of the World eBook Library
Consortia. During the World eBook Fair, which will take place from July
4 to August 4, users can download free copies of books from Project
Gutenberg's collection of 18,000 texts, which are always free, or from
the World eBook Library Consortia, which otherwise cost $8.95 each.
Organizers hope the event will encourage more people to start reading
books electronically, not only on desktop or laptop computers but also
on portable devices. Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg,
said, "We get a lot of people reading Project Gutenberg e-books on
PDAs, iPods, pocket PCs, cell phones, etc." Hart said electronic books
benefit those who cannot get physical books from traditional libraries,
noting that the goal of Project Gutenberg is to "break down the bars of
ignorance and illiteracy." Daniel Greenstein, executive director of the
California Digital Library, said that e-books are typically being used
to find facts, not to facilitate "the reading experience that we all
know and love."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 June 2006 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006060701t.htm
TWO UNIVERSITIES JOIN MICROSOFT BOOK-SCANNING PROJECT
Microsoft has announced that the libraries of the University of
California and the University of Toronto will participate in its
book-scanning project, known as Windows Live Book Search. The two
libraries joining Microsoft's program, which is being run together
with the Open Content Alliance, will allow the project to scan their
public-domain materials. Unlike Google's similar project, Microsoft's
program is only scanning books in the public domain or for which the
copyright owners have granted explicit permission. To that end,
Microsoft has set up a Web site where copyright owners can volunteer
their materials for being scanned and made available online. Google's
approach has been to scan books, including those still covered by
copyright, unless a copyright owner specifically objects.
CNET, 9 June 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6082258.html
BEER LOSES TOP SPOT TO IPOD
For only the second time in ten years, drinking beer has been relegated
to second on Student Monitor's biannual survey of what is "in" on
campus, with iPods slotting in at number one. The only other thing to
unseat beer: the Internet, in 1997. Eric Weil of Student Monitor said
of the latest results of its Lifestyle and Media Study, "We knew iPods
were pervasive on campus as a learning and entertainment device, but we
didn't see it rating that high." Between spring 2006 and spring 2006,
iPods jumped from 59 percent of students saying they were "in" to 73
percent. Rounding out the top ten spots on the survey are Facebook
(which tied beer for second), drinking other alcohol, text messaging,
downloading music, going to clubs, instant messaging, working out, and
coffee. Dan Updegrove, vice president for information technology at the
University of Texas at Austin, pointed out that the speed with which
"Internet-based phenomena can emerge" accounts for having so many
technologies on the top ten that did not even exist several years ago.
USA Today, 7 June 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-06-07-ipod-tops-beer_x.htm
ITUNES IN TROUBLE IN EUROPE
Government regulators in several European countries are taking Apple to
court over the way its iTunes music service functions. Norwegian
officials have said that Apple's user agreement violates the
country's law and that the inability to play iTunes songs on non-Apple
devices likely also is illegal in Norway. Specifically at issue are
parts of Apple's user agreement that give the company the right to
change the terms without notice and that free Apple from any liability
for viruses or other harm caused by iTunes downloads. Bjorn Erik Thon,
director of the Consumer Ombudsman's Office of Norway, said his office
would hear Apple's counterargument concerning whether iTunes songs
should be playable on non-Apple equipment, but he added that he expects
the office to rule against Apple. Thon rejected an earlier claim by
Apple that limiting the songs to Apple devices discourages copyright
violations. If consumers cannot play songs they have bought, said Thon,
"they will get a download of it free from Napster," increasing piracy.
Government officials in Sweden and Denmark are expected to follow
Norway's lead in these affairs, and Britain reportedly also shares the
same concerns.
New York Times, 8 June 2006 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/technology/08cnd-apple.html
COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO CALEA EXPANSION
[More Big Brother Looking Over Your Virtual Shoulders]
A federal appeals court has ruled against a challenge to an expansion
of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to
cover network traffic. CALEA requires providers of telecommunications
services to make their systems available to law enforcement for
authorized wiretapping. The FCC has sought to expand CALEA to cover
Internet networks also. The appeals court ruled 2-1 that the FCC is
permitted to apply CALEA to networks. A coalition representing higher
education had challenged the expansion of CALEA, saying that the law
was not written with data networks in mind and that such an expansion
would impose considerable costs on higher education for compliance.
Speaking for the majority, Judge David Sentelle said the FCC's
interpretation of CALEA to cover data networks was reasonable. Judge
Harry Edwards, who dissented in the opinion, said the FCC discounted
an exemption in the law for information services.
San Jose Mercury News, 9 June 2006
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14781403.htm
To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to
You've been reading excerpts from Edupage:
To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to
LISTSERV@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
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
What happened to the $25 million reward for Al-Zarqawi?
*
Dr. Susan Molchan, formerly a clinical researcher at the
National Institutes of Health said, under oath, that the
spinal fluid samples given by thousands of patients from
enduring the procedure known as a "spinal tap" vanished,
just disappeared from her scientifically cooled storage,
where they were kept for Alzheimer's research.
A Congressional investigation is now underway to find if
her boss, Dr. Trey Sunderland, gave those samples valued
at millions of dollars, to pharacom giant Pfizer who has
a new Alzheimer's drug coming out.
Apparently Sunderland gave Pfizer "access" to 3200 vials
of spinal fluid valued at six million dollars, for which
he reported received a commission of just under $300,000
or about 5% of the value of the missing items.
Pfizer's new Alzheimer's drug is reportedly bringing the
company a whopping $1.6 billion just in one early year--
making it already the #1 such drug in the marketplace.
*DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
"Mission Accomplished" May 1, 2003
"This will not end the war." June, 2006
"It will take time." June 13, 2006
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"The latest thing in technology is Open Source."
Tom Friedman, author of The Earth Is Flat, last
night as Charlie Rose made his return.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
The Iraq War, like most others, will last as long as
it is politically feasible and financially rewarding
to those running the war.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
80% of men say they would marry the same woman again
if they had it to do all over again.
50% of women say they would marry the same man again
if they had it to do all over again.
*
A Kentucky Fried Chicken 3 pieces extra crispy meal,
with sides contains 15 grams = 1/2 ounce of transfat
which is more than is recommended for an entire week.
This is as much as is in 30 McBurgers.
Source: Lawsuit against KFC, CBS News, etc.
*
By the way, for those interested, the official U.S. population
estimates just passed 298 million, though many say estimations
of this nature leave out as much as 5% of the population, with
the obvious exclusion of the 11-12 million immigrant workers
now being mentioned so much in the news.
Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries.
[This one is getting a little out of date, as the US population
is obviously no longer 6% of the world. In fact, rounding to the
nearest percent, the US will soon fall from 5% to 4%.]
"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 America
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.
*
Correction, the last stanza of this poem was missing last week.
Poem of the Week
by Simona Sumanaru
My Book Of Sounds
You, to me, are like a book of poems.
I am so very lucky to have found it one day
on the dusty shelf of this old book store
in which the air is hot and a little humid
like spring this year - who would have thought
spring could last that long-
The store keeper is a little old lady
with violet-grayish strands
her hands like those of a piano player
- one would expect butterflies of sound
to be taking flight from right under her fingertips-
every time she touches a book
she takes these deep breaths and closes her eyes
for a little while
as if to memorize the feel of the cover
on her music-filled finger tips
it was a first edition, it was a romance,
it was a motivational book that father read to son
before football practice
or maybe it was a family saga mother read to daughter
before the curtains of night fell down
and thoughts drifted away
into womanhood and married life
She knows them well: pages torn, pictures missing,
tiny scribblings at the end of every chapter
where a student in international politics
boldly put in his own ideas,
or maybe an educator to be sneaked in
her most affectionate considerations
before she decided to turn on the page
towards the next soul to be molded.
The old lady stops. Her eyes so wide, her hands so wise
are playing with the butterflies of air.
The buzzing sound of the old fan
standing tall in one corner
becomes the music of poetry.
That's where I found you.
(C) 2006 Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart
*
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@pglaf.org
pgweekly_2006_06_14_part_1a.txt
If you liked this post, say thanks by sharing it.