PG Monthly Newsletter (2010-05-21)

by Michael Cook on May 21, 2010
Newsletters

The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter---May 21, 2010
eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971


The 40th Year of PG eBooks Starts on July 4, 2010!!!!!!

Just 1 1/2 Months!!!



40th Year Special Project!!!


Not Whitewashers. . .maybe blackwasher???



Improved Support For Our Project Gutenberg Volunteers


As a tribute to our volunteers we would like to make an
extraordinary effort to thank them for all their effort
over these four decades with a program to make the work
less onerous and more easy to do.

If you, or anyone you know, has any suggestions, of how
we can make the work go more smoothly, more easily, and
improve things for our volunteers in any manner, please
answer this Newsletter and let us know.

As one particular part of this program I would like for
us to create a new kind of "Blue-washers" group for the
specific purpose of helping our volunteers with problem
areas specific to them.  i.e. some volunteers just have
one or two specific production areas at which they balk
at certain procedures that are insisted upon and that's
all the prevents them from being *perfect volunteers.*

If any of you are willing to help me help them overcome
such problem areas, I would be extremely grateful!!!

Sometimes these are a simple as helping someone who has
their margins counted in millimeters instead of inches,
or who simply can't get their mind quite wrapped around
certain details our post production people insist upon;
other times it might just be a language gap where these
volunteers don't quite have the same command of English
as those who are trying to teach them.

If you feel you have the ability to make up for some of
these or other small difficulties that are all the keep
some of our volunteers from really taking off, you will
be more than welcome.


Thank you so much!!!


Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg,
Inventor of eBooks


PS  The term "Blue-washers" is a combination of terms:

"Blue Pencil" is the publisher/editor term for comments
to writers about how to improve various article, essay,
or even book length submissions.

"Whitewasher" is a term I invented long ago to name the
people who supported me in my Project Gutenberg efforts
after I realized I could not continue being the last of
the editors to see each and every book and to put these
all online myself after about #4,000.

NB  Two people, including our CEO tried to help me with
this this for about a month at a time, but each said it
not something they ever wanted to do again.  So, kudos,
and plenty of them, to those who are willing to be last
in the lineup to take the ultimate responsibility of an
eBook's final content, format and appearance!!!

However we should add that Greg Newby and I have always
championed the fact that some of our volunteers should/
would/could be able to have their eBooks published with
no interference from anyone else, rules or not, with an
exception for obvious spelling and formatting errors.

We have always had a few such volunteers that we took a
personal hand in helping through the process, for those
various reasons listed above, or many others.

We have some who submit perhaps one book per month, and
others that take a year or longer between books.

Please let me know if you are willing to help.




We are currently giving away about 100,000 books a week
Just through the one single site:  http://gutenberg.org
About 3 million eBooks per month or 36 million per year


300th Spanish eBook is coming up!!!

Please send in your suggestions for title #300!!!



Please note TWO new Project Gutenberg web pages below--
new features, new search engines, etc.  Please test and
make comments, suggestions, etc.



31 Months to The End of the World Via Mayan Calendaring
on December 21, 2012 [some now saying October 11, 2011]

Leaving 2 years 7 months, 10 1/3 seasons, or 31 months.
[Leaving 1 year 5 months, 5 2/3 seasons, or 17 months.]
[All bracketed figures minus 10 days, of course.]

Not to worry, I will still make long range predictions,
such as that there will be affordable petabytes [2021],
and enough eBooks to fill an entire petabyte around the
same time.  Current long range prediction for drives:
1 petabyte drives in 2025, possibly even in 2022, along
with 1 terabyte solid state drives [SSDs].  1 petabyte=
enough storage for every word ever published, 1 billion
books of 1 million characters each.

May 21, 2010 to December 21, 2012 is 31 Months.

May 21, 2010 to October 11, 2011 is 17 Months -10 days.






Request:

1894 Dr. Johnson Edition of:
The Complete Works of Shakespeare collection.
Missing volumes 2 & 6.  Got all the other volumes for a
couple dollars at a garage sale, but will pay 20 dollars
each for for volumes 2 & 6.





GENERATION CHANGE

I got a book this week called "Generation Change," that
lists "150 Ways We Can Change Ourselves, Our Country,
and Our World."  Most of these 150 items come with some
suggestion of sites to visit on the Internet.  #1 is:

PROJECT GUTNBERG!!!!!!!

"Generation Change" is available from:

http://www.skyhorsepublishing.com





Help create the  "http://m.gutenberg.org"  web pages!!!

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devices, and to do our web pages to the same degree.

Let us know if you have any of these and can test them,
or would like to optimize for any other devices.

There are 4.5 billion such devices in the world, versus
only 1.15 billion computers, and more and more readers,
in spite of what the pundits say, are surfing, reading,
and everything else on such mobile devices.

More and more such devices will ONLY surf to "m" sites
such as "m.gutenberg.org"



In Our Own News Bin


New Project Gutenberg Web Pages


We have two new Project Gutenberg web sites up for testing.

I think you will find some interesting additional searching
and expanded lists of other eBook sites worth trying out:

http://gutenberg.trulymail.comi


and another new effort at:


http://domainunltd.weebly.com/

Details:

The goal I'm aiming at with this initiative is twofold.

I'd like to provide as much useful information as possible
about e-books (freely) available on the web, where to find them.

And secondly, to offer people the opportunity to help out,
producing e-text for PG, in first instance by doing a first
round of proofreading on texts I deliver.

People who want to do more are welcome to and can count on help
in going through the process from start to finish.

Experienced proofers who enjoy working on a complete book
are also very welcome.

Marc D'Hooge
marcdH at belgium-mail.com






APPROACHING NEWS. . . .


ONGOING U.S. COPYRIGHT EXTENSIONS

U.S. COPYRIGHTS TO BE EXTENDED TO 115 YEARS,
DECADE BY DECADE FROM THE ORIGINAL 14 YEARS!

THE SUPREME COURT SAYS IT NEVER HAS TO STOP!!!

Suggestions are more than welcome how to publicize this
upcoming event before it even starts to happen!!!


Apparently everyone is keeping silent about the various
copyright extensions coming up in Canada and the U.S.

In just a few years yet another bill will be introduced
in the U.S. Congress to extend copyright that has quite
literally been extended from 14 years to 115 years.




Here's Why We Need To Start Before The Issue Arises!!!



When the last Australian Copyright Act was discussed in
Parliament, they passed a resolution stating they would
NOT extend copyrights.

Really.

However, just three years later, under economic warfare
from, shall we just say, outside sources, they crumbled
to the pressure and gave in.


The Canadian Parliament is currently in that position--
and while some tell me they have enough signatures from
those against any extensions, I will bet you lunch that
they, too, crumble before it is over.

I would gladly lose every one of those wagers!!!



Further Information


As you may already know, any time the copyrights in the
characters Winnie the Pooh [1926], or The Mouse [1928],
start coming close to expiration The U.S. Congress will
be sure to start a very quiet frenzy of copyright bills
that are designed to go into effect before anything can
happen to those two copyrights.

As I understand it, Disney(R) made a huge lobby effort,
successful, to create the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act; paid
as a result an additional $200 million for the right to
another 20 years of Winnie the Pooh, and still made the
fabled laughing trip to the bank as a result, since the
effective date of 1978.

As a result I have to imagine their sales of The Mouse,
Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, etc., must have been predicted
to be so terribly large as to devour Avatar's gross.

Given that next bill passed right in the middle of what
must have been the busiest day in Congress for the last
few decades, the impeachment of President Clinton, this
means we should expect something of equal secrecy quite
soon, as the current copyright extension runs out 2018.

Usually they would make an effort to pass the new one a
session or two early, such as in 2016, but given that a
snag or two has hit before, we should probably look out
starting in 2015, though it will be hard to see.

Why?

Even during the election just before the last extension
I went to ask televised press conference questions on a
new U.S. Copyright Act I had heard about, but candidate
responses were uniform. . ."I know nothing."

I would have to expect that even if the big anchors ask
the same question in 2015 they will get that answer.

Or non-answer.

>From what I have heard there is an ever larger movement
to keep everything copyrighted permanently, and to make
all media as pay-per-view as possible, to the points of
making all broadcast television pay-per-view on a first
viewing premise [except public stations].

We are very likely to see a dissolving out boundaries--
cable products showing up on network television and the
opposite direction as well.

What else CAN we expect when Comcast cable has been the
allowed buyer of NBC?

If you think programming won't leak over:

Consider what happened when Disney took over ABC.

Not only did Disney flood ABC with their own programmed
output, but they killed off the best of all cartoons.

Anyone remember Reboot?


I can put you in touch with many copyright experts, and
I fear that all of them underestimate the power working
to make copyright permanent, in spite of the fact words
"limited time" are the U.s. Constitution's description.

However, the U.s. Supreme Court decided that limited is
really unlimited in "Eldred v Ashcroft."



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Project Gutenberg is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization in the US.



Our All Time Hottest Requests!!!!!!!


FLASH RAM


I am looking for the earliest flash RAM possible.

The ideal piece around which to center this collection is
one of the 8 megabyte USBs.

The very earliest were PCMCIA cards, such as used for the
Poqet computer, etc.

The earliest USB flash drives were DisgoDizgo, M-Systems
and these were OEMed by IBM, HP, etc. They are particular
in a recognizable fashion because their snapon connectors
resemble the connectors of jigsaw puzzles.

We received two examples of RAM actually labeled "Flash,"
for the H-P 95 pocket DOS machine from 1991, and a sample
of Fairchild bubble memory, as well, from down under.

Thank you, Mate!



POWERPOINT


We need someone who can do PowerPoint illustrations.

One in particular, building a 3-D box of 1,000 dominoes.





Additional Newsletter Services


In addition, we will provide the PG Canada Newsletter and
totals from PG of Australia, Europe, PrePrints, etc.

These totals do NOT include 75,000+ at

http://www.gutenberg.cc

Where there are eBooks representing over 100 languages.



The Project Gutenberg Statistical Report
[As of about noon Central Daylight Time]



Various totals from the ~31,000+ at

http://www.gutenberg.org

and our other Project Gutenberg Sites


Week up to May  21

      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Fri 2010-05-14 |   8
 Sat 2010-05-15 |  20
 Sun 2010-05-16 |   7
 Mon 2010-05-17 |   7
 Tue 2010-05-18 |  12
 Wed 2010-05-19 |  25
 Thu 2010-05-20 |  19

Weekly total    =  88


week up to Apr. 21

      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Wed 2010-04-14 |  14
 Thu 2010-04-15 |  11
 Fri 2010-04-16 |  12
 Sat 2010-04-17 |  19
 Sun 2010-04-18 |  12
 Mon 2010-04-19 |  19
 Tue 2010-04-20 |   7

Weekly total    =  94


week up to Mar. 21

      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Sun 2010-03-14 |   9
 Mon 2010-03-15 |  16
 Tue 2010-03-16 |  11
 Wed 2010-03-17 |  12
 Thu 2010-03-18 |  16
 Fri 2010-03-19 |   6
 Sat 2010-03-20 |  11

Weekly total    =  81


Week up to Feb. 21

      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Sun 2010-02-14 |   5
 Mon 2010-02-15 |  12
 Tue 2010-02-16 |  10
 Wed 2010-02-17 |  16
 Thu 2010-02-18 |  11
 Fri 2010-02-19 |   4
 Sat 2010-02-20 |   4

Weekly total    =  62


Week up to Jan. 21st:

      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Thu 2010-01-14 |   8
 Fri 2010-01-15 |  13
 Sat 2010-01-16 |  16
 Sun 2010-01-17 |   8
 Mon 2010-01-18 |  12
 Tue 2010-01-19 |   5
 Wed 2010-01-20 |  11

Weekly total    =  73


Previous Month  12/09


      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Mon 2009-12-14 |  11
 Tue 2009-12-15 |   4
 Wed 2009-12-16 |   4
 Thu 2009-12-17 |  10
 Fri 2009-12-18 |   7
 Sat 2009-12-19 |   7
 Sun 2009-12-20 |   9


Previous month: 11/09


      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Sat 2009-11-14 |   6
 Sun 2009-11-15 |   4
 Mon 2009-11-16 |   6
 Tue 2009-11-17 |   9
 Wed 2009-11-18 |   3
 Thu 2009-11-19 |   6
 Fri 2009-11-20 |   5

Weekly total    =  39


Thanks to Marcello Perathoner for these figures!


///


Here are the current language totals
for languages with 200 or more eBooks.


May 21st

Grand total for today: 32366

1  27176   English en
2   1598   French  fr
3    680   German  de
4    527   Finnish fi
5    479   Dutch   nl
6    433   Portuguese      pt
7    405   Chinese zh
8    287   Spanish es
9    242   Italian it



Apr 21st

Grand total for today: 31975

26832   English en
1590    French  fr
674     German  de
526     Finnish fi
476     Dutch   nl
424     Portuguese      pt
405     Chinese zh
284     Spanish es
236     Italian it

N.B.  Portuguese added as many as any other language,
up to the top two, of course, tied for third.

What do we need to do to get Spanish up and running?



Mar 21st


Grand total for today: 31616

26540   English en
1568    French  fr
662     German  de
524     Finnish fi
472     Dutch   nl
410     Portuguese      pt
405     Chinese zh
283     Spanish es
235     Italian it


Feb. 21st


Grand total for today: 31234

26241   English en
1557    French  fr
647     German  de
521     Finnish fi
470     Dutch   nl
405     Chinese zh
395     Portuguese      pt
275     Spanish es
234     Italian it


Jan. 21st

Grand total for today: 30935

25995   English en
1547    French  fr
628     German  de
518     Finnish fi
459     Dutch   nl
405     Chinese zh
391     Portuguese      pt
274     Spanish es
230     Italian it


Compared to the last month:


Grand total

25757   English en
1520    French  fr
618     German  de
515     Finnish fi
453     Dutch   nl
405     Chinese zh
376     Portuguese      pt
270     Spanish es
220     Italian it



Compared to previous month's:


Grand total for today: 30399

25587   English en
1498    French  fr
614     German  de
515     Finnish fi
451     Dutch   nl
404     Chinese zh
371     Portuguese      pt
268     Spanish es
218     Italian it



Previous increases:

+214
+205
+254
+281
+294
+287


All Reported Languges


Not counting PrePrints, Canada, Australia, PG Europe


Thanks to Greg Newby!


///


>From Project Gutenberg Sites Worldwide

[Don't forget ~75,000 at http://www.gutenberg.cc in .pdf]


May 21st

Grand totals for today:


32,366 up from 31,975   up   391  PG General Automated Count
 1,851 up from  1,845   --     5  PG of Australia [Vacation]
   712 up from    704   up     8  PG of Europe
 2,008   --     2,008   --     0  PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
   536 up from    521   up    17  PG of Canada
======
37,473 up from 37,053   up   421  Grand Total  [found lost one!]



Apr 21st

!!!!!Grand total for today:

31,975 up from 31,616   up   359  PG General Automated Count
 1,851 up from  1,845   --     5  PG of Australia [???]
   704 up from    699   up     5  PG of Europe
 2,008   --     2,008   --     0  PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
   521 up from    504   up    17  PG of Canada
======
37,054 up from 36,672   up   386  Grand Total  [off by 1, ooops!]


700th PGEu eBook Posted!!!
Serving over 2,000 users in 24 hours.



Mar 21st

31,616 up from 31,234   up   382  PG General Automated Count
 1,845 up from  1,842   up     3  PG of Australia
   699 up from    684   up    15  PG of Europe
 2,008   --     2,008   --     0  PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
   504 up from    486   up    18  PG of Canada
======
36,672 up from 36,254   up   418  Grand Total



Feb 21st

31,234 up from 30,935   up   299  PG General Automated Count
 1,842 up from  1,834   up     8  PG of Australia
   684 up from    680   up     4  PG of Europe
 2,008   --     2,008   up     0  PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
   486 up from    462   up    24  PG of Canada
                                  Posted #400 on October 10
                                  July: 14 (Title 349 to 362)
                                  August: 16 (Titles 363 to 378)
                                  September: 17 (Titles 379 to 395)
                                  October: 13 (Titles 396 to 408)
                                  November: 9 [up to November 21]
                                  December: 19[up to December 21]
======
36,254 up from 35,919   up   335


Jan 21st

30,935 up from 30,613   up   322  PG General Automated Count
 1,834 up from  1,830   up     4  PG of Australia
   680 up from    664   up    16  PG of Europe
 2,008   --     2,008   up     0  PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
   462 up from    436   up    26  PG of Canada
                                  Posted #400 on October 10
======
35,919 up from 35,551   up   368



Previous month:

35,551   up   240  [Not including Canada's illustrations]


35,311   up   235  [Including correcting above estimate by 2]



Note  There are perhaps 100 eBooks not listed here
that are already in circulation from Project Gutenberg.

Note  PG Canada includes English, French, and Italian.


///

Here is how we ended 2009



      day       | cnt
----------------+-----
 Wed 2009-12-30 |   9
 Thu 2009-12-31 |  12
 Fri 2010-01-01 |   6
 Sat 2010-01-02 |  10
 Sun 2010-01-03 |   2
 Mon 2010-01-04 |  21
 Tue 2010-01-05 |   5

Weekly Total       65



Grand total for today: 30761  from automated in house counter

25866   English en
1531    French  fr
625     German  de
517     Finnish fi
455     Dutch   nl
405     Chinese zh
384     Portuguese      pt
270     Spanish es
225     Italian it
etc.



30,761  Up 3,145  From  27,616  PG General Automated Count
 1,830  Up   104  From   1,726  Project Gutenberg of Australia
   675  Up   121  From     554  Project Gutenberg of Europe
   468  Up   243  From     225  Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated]
 2,008  DN   423  From   2,431   PrePrints [Subtracted 307 Chinese eBooks]
======   ======
35,742  Up 3,190  From  32,552   Grand Total [Counting subtractions]


  9.825 eBooks Per Day
 68.773 eBooks Per Week
297.850 eBooks Per Month




///


Here is how we ended 2008



27,616   PG General Automated Count
 1,726   Project Gutenberg of Australia
   554   Project Gutenberg of Europe
   225   Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated]
         [202 up to December, no current report]
 2,431   PrePrints [Counting the 307 Chinese eBooks +111]
======   ======
32,552   Grand Total [Counting those PrePrints]




Here is how we ended 2007

The combined PG projects had produced a total of 26,161 titles.


The most number of books posted...
 ...in one day was 65 on the 26th December
 ...in one week was 151 in Week 18 (week ending 9th May)
 ...in one month was 477 in November

We averaged
338 per month [Over 4,000 for the year]
 78 per week
 11.13 per day

99 titles were newly REposted to the new filing system, bringing us almost

to the 2,000 mark.


Here is a small selection of project milestones;

TOTAL Original Project Gutenberg eBooks equals about
the number of books in the average U.S. public library
  32,500 on 20082121 [Counting the 307 Chinese Preprints]
                     [And presuming 3 after official count]
  32,000 on Calculating
  31,500 on 20081021 [not an error, 1,777 PrePrints]
  30,000 on 20081021
  29,500 on 20080919
  29,000 ~~ Calculating
  28,500 ~~ Calculating
  28,000 ~~ 20080516
  27,500 on 20080405
  27,000 ~~ 20080229
  26,500 on 20080126
  26,000 on 20071224
  25,000 on 20071012
  24,000 on 20070710
  23,000 on 20070415

PG-AU
  1,700 on 20081010
  1,600 on 20080208
  1,500 on 20070407

PG Canada
  175 on 20080930
  100 on 20080325
  110 on 20080417

///


Many thanks to all who have helped us reach our 39th year!


Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg

pgmonthly_2010_05_21.txt

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