****The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 23, 2003***
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Over 32 Years*******
Amazon Says They Want To "Partner" With Project Gutenberg [More Info Below]
This Week We Passed Several Major Milestones!!!
1. We Passed 2,000 eBooks For The Year 2003!!!
[2002 was the first year we ever reached 2000!]
[2001 was the first year we ever reached 1000!]
2. We Passed 7/8 Of The Way To eBook #10,000!!!
Imagine the 10,000 books have been separated into 8 stacks of 1,250 each,
we have just now completed 7 stacks leaving just 1 stack to go!!!
GRAND TOTAL #10,000
BOOKS DONE!!!
_____
(__8__( 10,000
_____ _____
(__7__( 8,750 (__7__( 8,772
_____ ______
(__6__( 7,500 (__6__( 7,500
_____ _____
(__5__( 6,250 (__5__( 6,250
_____ _____
(__4__( 5,000 (__4__( 5,000
_____ _____
(__3__( 3,750 (__3__( 3,750 BOOKS TO GO!!!
_____ _____
(__2__( 2,500 (__2__( 2,500
_____ _____ _____
(__1__( 1,250 (__1__( 1,250 (__1__( 1,228
GRAND TOTAL 10,000 BOOKS DONE!!! BOOKS TO GO!!!
We Produced About As Many eBooks In 29 Weeks As In The First 29 Years!
Only 5 Months/20 Weeks/140 Days Until eBook #10,000 I Hope!!!
[December 10th is the 49th Week Of 2003, We Get 53 This Year]
8772 Books Done. . .1228 To Go. . .in 140 More Days/20 weeks!
[The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 3/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 270 Ebooks/Year
And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
We Are Averaging About 300 Per Month!!!
***
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
- Hot Requests For Assistance
- Progress Report
- Flashback
- Continuing Requests For Assistance
- Making Donations
- Access To The Collection
- Information About Mirror Sites
- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
Updates/corrections in separate section
67 New Public Domain eBooks Per US Copyright Law
- "The Future Of Project Gutenberg"
- Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage
- Information about mailing lists
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*** Hot Requests For Assistance
Latin Is A Dying Language???
Latin Library (www.thelatinlibrary.com) died,
and was resurrected recently, bring attention
to the fact that we need to save these files,
find matching paper editions, and be sure the
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*** NEW ADDRESS FOR "PUNCH" MAGAZINE TEAM
If you have, and are willing to scan bound volumes of Punch
pre-1923 please contanct as below. No single issues, please,
unless you have a complete year of them.
Please contact: jonathan_ingram@yahoo.com
*** Progress Report
In the first 6.60 months of this year, we produced 2029 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our first 2,029 eBooks!
That's 29 WEEKS as Compared to 29 Years!
67 New eBooks This Week
77 New eBooks Last Week
361 New eBooks This Month [July]
307 Average Per Month in 2003 <<<
203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<<
103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<<
2029 New eBooks in 2003 <<<
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
8,772 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
5,611 eBooks This Week Last Year
3,133 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months <<<
4,322 New eBooks in the last 18 months <<<
249 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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***
FLASHBACK!!!
2029 New eBooks So Far in 2003
It took us 29 years for the first 2029!
That's the 29 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to 29 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2029
Jan 2000 Dickory Cronke, by Daniel Defoe [Daniel Defoe #7][dckcrxxx.xxx] 2051
Jan 2000 Old John Brown, by Walter Hawkins [ojbrnxxx.xxx] 2050
Jan 2000 Liber Amoris, or, The New Pygmalion, by Wm Hazlitt[nwpygxxx.xxx] 2049
Jan 2000 The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by W. Irving #5[sbogcxxx.xxx] 2048
Jan 2000 Stories of Modern French Novels: Scribners Ed. [sbmfaxxx.xxx] 2047
(This is part of Julian Hawthorne's Lock and Key Library)
Jan 2000 Clotel; or, The President's Daughter, by Wm. Brown[clotlxxa.xxx] 2046
(Also see our previous release, based on a separate source edition:^ )
(Apr 1995 Clotelle; or The Colored Heroine, Wm Wells Brown[clotlxxx.xxx] 241)
Jan 2000 My Memories of Eighty Years, by Chauncey M. Depew [depewxxx.xxx] 2045
Jan 2000 The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams [eduhaxxx.xxx] 2044
Jan 2000 Stories by Modern American Authors: Scribners Ed.[sbmaaxxx.xxx] 2043
(This is part of Julian Hawthorne's Lock and Key Library)
Jan 2000 Something New, by P.G. Wodehouse [P.G.Wodehouse#2][smtnwxxx.xxx] 2042
Jan 2000 The House of the Wolf, by Stanley Weyman[Weyman#3][hwolfxxx.xxx] 2041
Jan 2000 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, de Quincey [opiumxxx.xxx] 2040
[Author: Thomas de Quincey]
Jan 2000 Evangeline, by Henry W. Longfellow [Longfellow #6][vnglnxxx.xxx] 2039
[Also posted accented text in vnglnxxi.xxx] (Also see #1365)
Jan 2000 Stories by Modern English Authors: Scribners Ed. [sbmeaxxx.xxx] 2038
[This is part of Julian Hawthorne's Lock and Key Library]
Jan 2000 Novel Notes, by Jerome K. Jerome[JeromeKJerome#19][nvlntxxx.xxx] 2037
Jan 2000 Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon, by Samuel Baker[8yearxxx.xxx] 2036
Jan 2000 Stories by English Authors: Orient, Scribners Ed.[sbeaoxxx.xxx] 2035
Jan 2000 Waverley, by Walter Scott [Walter Scott #10][wvrlyxxx.xxx] 2034
[Title: Waverly, or 'Tis Sixty Years Since]
Jan 2000 The Unknown Guest, by Maurice Maeterlinck [ungstxxx.xxx] 2033
[Author: Count Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck]
Jan 2000 Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard/Eleanor Farjeon[mpnaoxxx.xxx] 2032
Jan 2000 Lock and Key Library, Magic & Real Detectives [#2][2lckyxxx.xxx] 2031
(This is part of Julian Hawthorne's Lock and Key Library)
Jan 2000 Legends of Babylon and Egypt, by Leonard W. King [behebxxx.xxx] 2030
Jan 2000 Lahoma, by John Breckinridge Ellis [lahomxxx.xxx] 2029
Jan 2000 The Yellow Claw, by Sax Rohmer [Sax Rohmer #5][yclawxxx.xxx] 2028
Jan 2000 Tartuffe, by Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere [#1] [trtffxxx.xxx] 2027
Jan 2000 The Coming Conquest of England, by August Niemann [tccoexxx.xxx] 2026
Jan 2000 My Lady Caprice, by Jeffrey Farnol [lcprcxxx.xxx] 2025
Jan 2000 Diary of a Pilgrimage, by Jerome K. Jerome[JKJ#17][dypgmxxx.xxx] 2024
Jan 2000 Malvina of Brittany, by Jerome K. Jerome [JKJ #16][mlvbtxxx.xxx] 2023
Jan 2000 Angling Sketches, by Andrew Lang [Andrew Lang #21][angskxxx.xxx] 2022
Jan 2000 Nostromo, by Joseph Conrad [Joseph Conrad #24][nstrmxxx.xxx] 2021
Jan 2000 Tarzan the Terrible,Edgar R. Burroughs [Tarzan #8][tzntrxxx.xxx] 2020
Jan 2000 The Bat, by M. R. Rinehart & Avery Hopwood [MRR13][thbatxxx.xxx] 2019
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
Dec 1999 The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes [tldgrxxx.xxx] 2014
Dec 1999 The Pit Prop Syndicate, by Freeman Wills Croft [ptprpxxx.xxx] 2013
Dec 1999 The Children, by Alice Meynell [Alice Meynell #8][chldnxxx.xxx] 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
Dec 1999 Sonnets from the Portuguese, by E. B. Browning[#1][snprgxxx.xxx] 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
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
Dec 1999 Paradise, Divine Comedy, Dante, Tr. by Norton [3ddcnxxx.xxx] 1997
Dec 1999 Purgatory, Divine Comedy, Dante, Tr. by Norton [2ddcnxxx.xxx] 1996
Dec 1999 Hell/Inferno, Divine Comedy, Dante, Tr. by Norton [1ddcnxxx.xxx] 1995
***
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Today Is Day #203 of 2003
This Completes Week #29
167 Days/24 Weeks To Go [We get 53 Wednesdays this year]
1229 Books To Go To #10,000
140 Days To December 10, 2003
[Our Goal For eBook #10,000]
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
Week #67 Of Our SECOND 5,000 eBooks
70 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
39 Only 39 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
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*** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 29 weeks of this year, we have produced 2029 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our FIRST 2029 eBooks!!!
That's 29 WEEKS as Compared to 29 YEARS!!!
With 8,772 eBooks online as of July 23, 2003 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.14 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100,000,000 readers is only about 1.58 percent of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.78 when we had 5,611 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine 8,700+ books each costing $.64 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine 8,700+ books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 8771 eBooks in 32 Years and 00.60 Months We Averaged
269 Per Year [About how many we do per month these days!]
23 Per Month
.75 Per Day
At 2028 eBooks Done In The 196 Days Of 2003 We Averaged
10 Per Day
70 Per Week
307 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks of
production, each production-week starting/ending Wednesday noon,
starting with the first Wednesday in January. January 1st was
was the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended the production
year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003 at noon.
This year there will be 53 Wednesdays, thus one extra week.
***Headline News***
[Editor's Comments In Brackets]
From Newsscan
U-TEXAS PUTS GUTENBERG BIBLE ON THE WEB
The University of Texas has digitized its entire two-volume Gutenberg Bible
and posted portions of it on its library Web site:
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/ . While other
copies of the famed Bible have also gone digital, officials at the
university's Harry Ransom Center say their copy is the best of the lot,
because it was in use in monasteries in Southern Germany as late as the
1760s, and was heavily annotated by monks who scratched out some passages
and corrected others. Other sections were highlighted for reading aloud or
for use during Mass. "Our copy is the most interesting in the world," says
head librarian Richard Oram, and Paul Needham, of Princeton University's
Scheide Library, agrees: "This is probably the most extensively annotated
and corrected copy surviving. This is a very great treasure." The
digitization project began in June 2002 and the finished product gives Web
viewers 7,000 images of the unique manuscript. (AP 23 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030723/D7SF4NEG0.html
["Total Information Awareness" Was Vetoed In the US, Exported To Mexico]
IMPLANTABLE MICROCHIP STRIKES A CHORD IN MEXICO
Palm Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital Solutions, maker of the implantable
VeriChip, is targeting consumers south of the border, where people see the
tiny devices as a possible new way to thwart crime. The microchips, which
are available in the U.S. as well, are implanted under the skin and can be
used to link to information on identity, blood type and other information
housed on a central computer. In Mexico, citizens hope the tiny devices
could prove one more weapon in the arsenal needed to combat a rising wave
of kidnappings, robberies and other crimes. The Mexican company in charge
of distribution says it hopes to implant 10,000 chips in the first year and
ensure that 70% of all hospitals contain the technology necessary to read
the chips. Company officials say they are working on developing a similar
technology that would use satellites to locate people who've been
kidnapped, an application that is popular with Mexicans, but has raised
privacy concerns in the U.S. (AP 18 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030718/D7SBU7D00.html
[More Total Awareness]
SKY-HIGH SURVEILLANCE HITS AIRLINE INDUSTRY
Southeast Airlines is pioneering an in-flight surveillance program that
will use digital videocameras installed through the cabins of its planes to
record passengers' activities throughout the flight as a precaution against
terrorism and other threats. The charter airline, based in Largo, Fla.,
says it may use face recognition software to match faces to names and
personal records, and plans to store the digital data for up to 10 years.
"From a security standpoint, this provides a great advantage to assure that
there is a safe environment at all times," says Southeast's VP of planning.
The airline says that while such security measures are not required by the
FAA, it expects other airlines will adopt similar systems soon. That
prediction alarms privacy advocates who especially question the need for
retaining the video after the flight is over. "What's the point of keeping
track of everyone when nothing happens on the flight?" asks Lee Tien,
senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who points
out that the video system could record conversations between passengers as
well as capture the titles of passengers' reading material.
(Wired.com 18 Jul 2003)
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59652,00.html
MICROSOFT FLAW: A NEW STAGE OF DELIRIUM
Microsoft has acknowledged a critical vulnerability in most versions of its
Windows operating system software, including its latest Windows Server 2003
software. The vulnerability (first pointed out by researchers in Poland
known as the "Last Stage of Delirium Research Group") could be used by
network vandals to seize control of a victim's Windows computer over the
Internet, stealing data, deleting files or eavesdropping on e-mail
messages. The Server 2003 software was sold under the highly promoted
"Trustworthy Computing" initiative launched last year by Microsoft founder
Bill Gates. The company urged customers to immediately apply a free
software patch available from Microsoft's Web site. Internet Security
Systems, an Atlanta-based computer firm, characterized the Windows flaw as
"an enormous threat." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 17 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6318125.htm
YESTERDAY A MICROSOFT FLAW, TODAY A CISCO FLAW
Cisco, which makes communications routers and switches, has found a flaw
in its software that could be used by network vandals to cause widespread
outages; the company has released a free patch to fix the flaw in its
Internetworking Operating System. No vandals have exploited the
vulnerability up to this point, and Cisco says: "We literally have people
working around the clock right now to get this situation taken care of."
According to the company, the vulnerability could only be exploited by
sending a "rare sequence" of data packets to a device running IOS, the
equivalent of Windows for routers and switches. (AP/San Jose Mercury News
17 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6324946.htm
WHY ARE SPAMMERS BACKING SPAM-CONTROL LAWS?
Bigtime spam-mongers and junk-mail proponents like the Direct Marketing
Association are backing proposed antispam legislation, while consumer and
public-interest groups, almost without exception, oppose the bills. What's
going on? "It's a sign of who benefits from these bills and who doesn't,"
says a spokesman for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email.
"When you see some of the biggest spammers in the country backing
legislation that is allegedly antispam, you really need to wonder about
what these bills actually do." The answer is that rather than banning all
unsolicited e-mail outright, as many consumer groups wish, they legitimize
spam, as long as the perpetrators adhere to certain rules, such as using
accurate subject lines and valid return addresses, and allowing recipients
to opt out of future mailings. Two bills are currently making their way
through Congress and a variant of thereof is expected to pass
overwhelmingly and be signed into law later this year.
(Wall Street Journal 18 Jul 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105848273351539900,00.html (sub req'd)
[I Think He's Shooting Himself In The Foot With Such A Quick Draw McGraw]
[Wouldn't They Sell MORE Of These Magazines At The Stores If They Were On
The Shelves When People Read Them Online And Decided They Wanted A Copy!]
WEBVAN FOUNDER LAUNCHES ONLINE MAGAZINE ARCHIVE
Webvan founder Louis Borders is launching an online newsstand that makes
back issues of 140+ magazines available for browsing and downloading for a
flat fee of $4.95 a month. KeepMedia, as the new venture's called, will
post issues only after they expire on the newsstand in order to avoid
cannibalizing print sales. Borders, who also co-founded Borders Books, says
he believes that online users are finally changing their "information must
be free" attitude: "We feel we're right on the cusp" of a mass audience
willing to pay for digital content, he says. In 2000, media entrepreneur
Steven Brill launched a similar effort called Contentville, which charged
users a couple of dollars to download articles from more than 600
magazines. Brill's operation burned through $6 million to $8 million before
shutting its doors in 2001, but he says the concept is still valid. "The
Internet and electronic delivery is far and away the best way to do it.
Someone will get this right." (Wall Street Journal 21 Jul 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105873917397247200,00.html (sub req'd)
SMILE, YOU'RE ON CLOSED CIRCUIT TV
In Cambridge, England, RFID technology will cause a CCTV camera to take a
photo of anyone taking a package of Gillette Mach3 razorblades from the
shelves of supermarket chain Tesco Ltd.; a second camera then takes a
picture at the checkout and security staff then compare the two images.
"Customers know that there are CCTV cameras in the store," said a spokesman
for Tesco, and says that the purpose of the pilot project is to provide
stock information rather than provide security. However, the manager of the
Cambridge store says he has shown the police photos of a shoplifter. Civil
libertarians says that the so-called "spy chips" are an invasion of
consumers' privacy, but manufacturers point out that the chips can be
disabled simply by having the data erased at checkout when a consumer
leaves the store. (The Guardian (UK) 19 Jul 2003)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1001211,00.html
WOZNET: APPLE COFOUNDER COMES BLAZING BACK
Beginning with an interest in finding a way to track his lost dogs, Apple
co-founder Steve Wozniak developed location-monitoring technology using
electronic tags and designed to help people keep track of their animals,
children or property. The new company, Wheels of Zeus, is touting WozNet as
a simple and inexpensive wireless network that uses radio signals and
global positioning satellite data to keep track of a cluster of inexpensive
tags within a one- or two-mile radius of each base station. Its low-power
network will complement rather than compete with other wireless
technologies such as radio-frequency I.D. tags used in stores and factories
and higher speed Wi-Fi and cellular data networks. WozNet, with data rates
of no more than 20,000 bps, will be able to transmit a very small amount of
digital information even through environments subject to radio
interference, and will be able to location information from global
positioning system (GPS) satellites. (New York Times 21 Jul 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/07/21/technology/21ZEUS.html
ADIEU TO 'E-MAIL'?
France's Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of the word
"e-mail" in all government ministries, publications or Web sites and is
encouraging French Internet users to adopt the term "courriel" when
referring to electronic mail. Courriel is derived from "courrier
electronique" -- electronic mail -- and, according to the General
Commission on Terminology and Neology, the term is "broadly used in the
press and competes advantageously with the borrowed 'mail' in English."
However, some Internet industry experts disagree with that assessment: "The
word 'courriel' is not at all actively used^E Protecting the language is
normal, but e-mail's so assimilated now that no one thinks of it as
American," says Marie-Christine Levet, president of French ISP Club
Internet, who adds that her company has no plans to switch its terminology.
(AP 19 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030719/D7SCS9201.html
OUTSOURCING: IT'S 11 PM, DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE SUN IS?
Debashish Sinha of Gartner Inc., a research and consulting firm, calls the
outsourcing of high-tech jobs "a very important, fundamental transition in
the IT service industry that's taking place today," and characterizes it as
a "megatrend in the IT services industry." But Phil Friedman, a software
executive for a U.S. company, fears that once high-tech jobs leave the
country "they will never come back," and predicts: "If we continue losing
these jobs, our schools will stop producing the computer engineers and
programmers we need for the future." But the immediate problem faced by
businesses is how to get the work done and get it done at the best price;
Stephanie Moore, vice president for outsourcing at the Forrester Research
firm, explains: "You can get crackerjack Java programmers in India right
out of college for $5,000 a year versus $60,000 here. The technology is
such, why be in New York City when you can be 9,000 miles away with far
less expense?" On the other hand, many executives insist that the goal is
not to cut costs as much as it is to provide more and better services.
Oracle executive David Samson says: "Our aim here is not cost-driven. It's
to build a 24/7 follow-the-sun model for development and support. When a
software engineer goes to bed at night in the U.S., his or her colleague in
India picks up development when they get into work. They're able to
continually develop products."
(New York Times 22 Jul 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/07/22/technology/22JOBS.html
AMAZON'S TRIBUTARIES: SOFTWARE, SEARCHING, MUSIC, AND ...
Revenue for Amazon, the Internet's largest retailer, reached $1.1 billion
this quarter (up 36%). Although books and other media account for more than
78% of that revenue, the company is rapidly expanding into areas far beyond
its bookseller origins, with new projects in software, searching, music,
and international markets (where it's 2nd quarter results showed a 81%
year-over-year gain to $397 million). With regard to searching, Amazon has
been developing a search engine that will allow consumers to search the
entire text of books (rather than just the titles or summaries).
(USA Today 23 Jul 2003)
www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techearnings/2003-07-22-amazoncom_x.htm
[Also see Amazon article from Edupage]
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From Edupage
[Does Anyone Have The URL For This Search Engine?]
MIT DEVELOPING SEARCH ENGINE FOR GLOBAL POOR
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) argue
that existing Web technologies cater to "Western" users, who are
"cash-rich but time-poor." Users in poor countries, they say, where
phone lines can be hard to come by and many Internet connections are
extremely slow, are in a very different boat: little money but lots of
time. To address this gap, researchers are developing a search engine
that sends requests by e-mail to MIT, where computers perform searches
and return e-mail lists of filtered results the next day. The premise
of the system, according to MIT's Saman Amarasinghe, is that
"developing countries are willing to pay in time for knowledge."
Because those who could benefit from the search engine have only very
slow Internet connections, the software is being distributed on CDs to
users in developing countries.
BBC, 15 July 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3065063.stm
GROUP AT SYRACUSE TRYING TO SAVE RESEARCH TOOL
Researchers at Syracuse University are working to preserve the popular
research tool AskERIC after the Department of Education decided to stop
funding for the tool. AskERIC is a Web site that provides online access
to educational resources and to experts who can help users sift through
the range of available resources. Syracuse already operates the AskERIC
site, which is run by the Clearinghouse on Information and Technology
of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). ERIC now
comprises 16 clearinghouses, though the Department of Education is
working to combine them into a single database. Officials at the
Department of Education said the new structure will make a service such
as AskERIC unnecessary. Many long-time users and operators of AskERIC
disagree, however, and are working to secure funding from Syracuse and
other sources to maintain AskERIC in its current form.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 July 2003 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003071701t.htm
MICROSOFT SETTLEMENT APPROVED
A California judge has accepted the terms of a settlement with
Microsoft under which the software maker will offer vouchers to
individuals and businesses who bought certain Microsoft products
between early 1995 and the end of 2001. Microsoft had been accused of
overcharging for its products. The vouchers range in value from $5 to
$29 and will be good for hardware or software purchases from most
vendors. The maximum value of the settlement is $1.1 billion, though it
could be less depending on how many vouchers are claimed. Two-thirds of
unclaimed money will go to California schools; if all the vouchers are
claimed, however, the schools will get nothing. The claim period, which
will begin in two months, will last 60 days and will feature
advertisements and various other measures to notify potentially
eligible consumers.
CNET, 21 July 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-1027598.html
[Amazon Has Asked For Our Help With This, What Do YOU Think We Should Do?]
AMAZON TO ADD TEXT-SEARCHING FEATURE
Amazon.com is working on a new program to offer users the ability to
search thousands of nonfiction books. In the Look Inside the Book II
program, users would not be able to view the entirety of any text but
could search for words or phrases across many thousands of texts. The
results would show the sentence where the term appears, and users could
expand that sentence to see several pages before and after the term.
Amazon is currently negotiating with many large publishing houses to
make content available in the program, which Amazon argues will be an
incentive for customers to buy more books. Most of the publishers
Amazon has talked to have reportedly been interested in the program,
though they are concerned about exposing too much of their material.
Users who were able to see just a few pages of reference books and cookbooks,
for example, might see all they need to see and not buy the book.
New York Times, 21 July 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/21/technology/21AMAZ.html
[Also see Amazon article from Newsscan]
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