The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter December 24, 2003
eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Since 1971
Part 1
In this week's Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter:
1) Editorial
2) News and Comment
3) Notes and Queries, Reviews and Features
4) Mailing list information
Editorial
Hello,
Ah, well, here I am ready to relax into another issue of the
newsletter mince pie in hand and mulled wine gently simmering away in
the kitchen. As per last week we are only sending two parts again this
week, you can find some of Michael's comments in the roundup section
below. Here at the newsletter we wish you a happy and peaceful
holiday.
Happy reading,
Alice
send email to the newsletter editor at: news@pglaf.org
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Newsletter editor: Alice Wood news@pglaf.org
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2) News and Comment
Roger McGuinn's Folkden Recordings
Coming through to Project Gutenberg this week are a series of
recordings first started in 1997 by Roger McGuinn. Roger has set up a
website on ibiblio where he gives away one new song a month. Actually,
when we say new, we mean old. Roger's intention is to help preserve
traditional folksong by giving away traditional tunes and new songs
developed in the folk tradition. On the website Roger explains how the
songs are recorded for internet use. He also includes the songwords
and guitar chords and tuning, so that you can sing and play the songs
yourself, and thereby help to keep the folk tradition alive.
The folkden website is at www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/index.html
and the songs are available for download as audio files from Project
Gutenberg.
Alice
How much have we given away?
Only a few years ago, we received the first report
that one of our Project Gutenberg sites had given
away a million eBooks in a single year.
Just now I received a note that says gutenberg.net
will likely hand out over TEN million eBooks in the
coming year.
gutenberg.net is a VERY noise-free site, with only
about 2.6 hits taken to generate each downloaded book!
More details on request.
Michael S. Hart
hart@pobox.com
Other news of interest from NewsScan and EduPage
GLOBAL INTERNET USE LIMITED BY LANGUAGE, ILLITERACY
According to the International Telecommunication Union, about 70% of the
world's Internet users live in countries that make up only 16% of the
world's population. To address the problem of population illiteracy,
South Africa is developing speech recognition, text-to-speech and
other voice technologies, starting with Zulu. Bulgaria, South Korea
are amongst many countries producing government sites in native
languages. The Canadian government is looking at adapting its
internal search engine to include materials in Inuktitut, the Inuit
language, as well as French and English.
(AP 19 Dec 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031219/D7VH9OPO0.html
NORWEGIAN APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS ACQUITTAL
A Norwegian appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling acquitting
Jon Johansen of copyright violations. The seven-judge panel agreed
unanimously that Johansen did not violate copyright laws of Norway when
he broke the encryption for DVDs and then posted his code on the
Internet for others to use. The appeals court ruled that under
Norwegian law, circumventing the copy-protection mechanism to make
personal copies of legally purchased DVDs is acceptable, even more so
than making copies of a book would be since DVDs can become scratched
and unusable. Prosecutors have two weeks to decide if they will appeal
the case to Norway's supreme court.
Reuters, 22 December 2003
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=4032179
Project Gutenberg and Plucker
A PDA always seemed an unnecessary gadget which I would never need,
until I went camping with Lord Jim. Now Conrad and other great books
from Project Gutenberg have made my Palm PDA totally indispensable; I
really can't imagine being without it, and if I leave the house or
office without it I feel as if I've lost a friend.
I use a Palm IIIxe, which is getting antique, but with a PC-connecting
cradle it costs about $50 on EBay, runs for three weeks on two AAA
batteries, and has 8 Mb of RAM so can hold a good number of
ebooks. For example my pocket library today includes: Daniel Deronda
(PG), Three Men in a Boat (PG), The Magic Door (PG), Emma (PG), Pepys'
Diary 1660 (PG), Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Doctorow), and
several technical books.
Although holding a book is more pleasurable than holding a PDA, there
are compensations, such as being able to read in the dark using the
PDA backlight (which doesn't wake my wife, and is excellent for
camping); and being able to carry a dozen or more ebooks in my shirt
pocket. At first I imagined that the small screen size would make for
difficulties, but my experience has been that the Palm is just another
Magic Door.
There are many ebook readers for the Palm, but my favorite is Plucker,
a free, open-source reader that includes the tool to make your
ebooks. Plucker is a free download (though the developers appreciate
any monetary encouragement you can give) from
http://www.plkr.org/index.plkr
The Plucker web site has a link to a helpful online mailing list for
any questions.
Plucker is designed to be an offline reader for HTML, so can be used
for downloading and viewing Web pages as well as for reading
ebooks. This has a slight disadvantage that Project Gutenberg texts
need to be converted to HTML before Plucker can use them, but it can
be a simple single-step process, and has already been done for many PG
texts. Using HTML as input is also an advantage, because it allows
book layout to be preserved, and chapters to be accessed directly. (In
other ebook readers it may be necessary to page through the whole text
to reach a given chapter.)
I have avoided using most of the commercial ebook readers (which
usually incorporate digital rights management,) so it's possible that
there may be good products among them, if you don't mind being locked
in.
Beyond Project Gutenberg, sources for Plucker ebooks are easy to find
using Google. The University of Adelaide Library Ebook Collection at
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/ has a good set of PG texts
converted to HTML which Plucker can easily "pluck" directly.
Alan Sinclair
Radio Gutenberg Update
www.gutenberg.net/audio
channel 1 - Sherlock Holmes "The Sign of Four"
channel 2 - Robert Sheckley's "Bad Medicine"
Both are high quality live readings from the collection.
Testing of Radio Gutenberg audio books on demand is currently taking
place.
Improved Service
In a bid to make the newsletter more helpful to readers who may be
using screen reading software. We are able to offer the booklisting in
a different format to make your life a little easier. An example of
the changed listing is given below. If you would like either a daily
or weekly version of this list please email news@pglaf.org, and state
which version you require.
{Note to the unwary: this is an example.}
34 NEW ETEXTS FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG US
A Complete Grammar of Esperanto, by Ivy Kellerman Mar 2005[esperxxx.xxx]7787
The Female Gamester, by Gorges Edmond Howard Apr 2005[fmgstxxx.xxx]7840
[Subtitle: A Tragedy]
A Primary Reader, by E. Louise Smythe Apr 2005[preadxxx.xxx]7841
[Also posted: illustrated HTML, zipped only - pread10h.zip]
The Rise of Iskander, by Benjamin Disraeli Apr 2005[?riskxxx.xxx]7842
[7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7risk10.txt and 7risk10.zip]
[8-bit version with accented characters in 8risk10.txt and 8risk10.zip]
[rtf version with accented characters in 8risk10r.rtf and 8risk10r.zip]
[rtf version has numbered paragraphs; txt version has no paragraph numbers]
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3) Notes and Queries, Reviews and Features
Newsletter Cookery Club
This week we are focusing on festive drinks. All the recipes below are
drawn from the 1837 Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches,
by Eliza Leslie
[http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05/8cook10.txt].
The preface of this cookery book notes:
"The success of her little book entitled "Seventy-five Receipts in
Cakes, Pastry, and Sweetmeats." has encouraged the author to attempt a
larger and more miscellaneous work on the subject of cookery,
comprising as far as practicable whatever is most useful in its
various departments; and particularly adapted to the domestic economy
of her own country. Designing it as a manual of American housewifery,
she has avoided the insertion of any dishes
whose ingredients cannot be procured on our side of the Atlantic, and
which require for their preparation utensils that are rarely found
except in Europe. Also, she has omitted every thing which may not, by
the generality of tastes, be considered good of its kind, and well
worth the trouble and cost of preparing."
This text includes numerous recipes for beverages, including the
following selections:
EGG NOGG.
Beat separately the yolks and whites of six eggs. Stir the yolks into
a quart of rich milk, or thin cream, and add half a pound of
sugar. Then mix in half a pint of rum or brandy. Flavour it with a
grated nutmeg. Lastly, stir in gently the beaten white of an egg.
It should be mixed in a china bowl.
MULLED WINE.
Boil together in a pint of water two beaten nutmegs, a handful of
broken cinnamon, and a handful of cloves slightly pounded. When the
liquid is reduced to one half, strain it into a quart of port wine,
which must be set on hot coals, and taken off as soon as it comes to a
boil. Serve it up hot in a pitcher with little glass cups round it,
and a plate of fresh rusk.
PUNCH.
Roll twelve fine lemons under your hand on the table; then pare off
the yellow rind very thin, and boil it in a gallon of water till all
the flavour is drawn out. Break up into a large bowl, two pounds of
loaf-sugar, and squeeze the lemons over it. When the water has boiled
sufficiently, strain it from the lemon-peel, and mix it with the lemon
juice and sugar. Stir in a quart of rum or of the best whiskey.
And as a non-alcoholic choice, we offer the author's instructions on how
TO MAKE CHOCOLATE
To each square of a chocolate cake allow three jills, or a chocolate
cup and a half of boiling water. Scrape down the
chocolate with a knife, and mix it first to a paste with a small
quantity of the hot water; just enough to melt it in. Then put it into
a block tin pot with the remainder of the water; set it on hot coals;
cover it, and let it boil (stirring it twice) till the liquid is one
third reduced. Supply that third with cream or rich milk; stir it
again, and take it off the fire. Serve it up as hot as possible, with
dry toast, or dry rusk. It chills immediately. If you wish it frothed,
pour it into the cup, and twirl round in it the little wooden
instrument called a chocolate mill, till you have covered the top with
foam.
Tonya Allen
Project Gutenberg eBook, Two Centuries of Costume in America by Alice
Morse Earle
This is a book first posted to the PG Archive in November. It comes in
fourteen volumes and on the fascinating scale it hits a big ten. The
first volume is the explanation for the illustrations in the other
volumes giving the background and context for the illustrations
themselves as well as the costumes portrayed. Now, when it comes to
this kind of thing in museums, I am usually the person at the back
being Bart Simpson, you know, looking in the things you're not
supposed to touch and generally goofing around. This set of books
though is in a different realm, it really is interesting to see how
people used to dress and why. You can find the book at
http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/1/1/10115/10115-h/10115-h.htm#I
I think this is one case where the HTML version is essential.
Alice
Answers to the Christmas Quiz:
1. Christmas Banquet, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05/haw5510.txt
"I have here attempted," said Roderick, unfolding a few sheets of
manuscript, as he sat with Rosina and the sculptor in the summer-
house,--"I have attempted to seize hold of a personage who glides
past me, occasionally, in my walk through life.
2. The Abbot's Ghost, Or Maurice Treherne's Temptation: A Christmas
Story, by A. M. Barnard [AKA: Louisa May Alcott]
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05/8abgh10.txt
How goes it, Frank? Down first, as usual."
3. The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/magi10.txt
One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
4. Christmas Eve, by Robert Browning
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/chmsv10.txt
Out of the little chapel I burst into the fresh night-air again.
5. Snap-Dragons--A Tale of Christmas Eve, by Juliana H. Ewing
[In Junior Classics, V6, Edited by William Patten]
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/jrcl610.txt
Once upon a time there lived a certain family of the name of Skratdj.
6. Christian Gellert's Last Christmas, by Berthold Auerbach
[In Stories by Foreign Authors: German (V.2)]
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/s4fg210.txt
Three o'clock had just struck from the tower of St. Nicholas, Leipzig,
on the afternoon of December 22d, 1768, when a man, wrapped in a loose
overcoat, came out of the door of the University.
7. The First Christmas-Tree, by Henry Van Dyke
[In Short Stories for English Courses]
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/stngc10.txt
The day before Christmas, in the year of our Lord 722.
8. Beasley's Christmas Party, by Booth Tarkington
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/bslcp10.txt
The maple-bordered street was as still as a country Sunday; so quiet
that there seemed an echo to my footsteps.
9. Old Christmas, by Washington Irving
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext99/oxmas10.txt
There is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell
over my imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and
rural games of former times.
10. The Birds' Christmas Carol, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext96/tbscc10.txt
It was very early Christmas morning, and in the stillness of the
dawn, with the soft snow falling on the housetops, a little child
was born in the Bird household.
11. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/carol13.txt
Marley was dead: to begin with.
With many thanks to Tonya Allen for the quiz, Tonya will be back in
the New Year to make us scratch our heads once more and click on the
Gutindex.
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Credits
Who to thank this week?
Well, everyone of course. Brett, George, Joe, Greg, Michael, and
everyone who chips in volunteering with the stuff that keeps the
wheels of PG turning. Everyone here at the newsletter, Gali, Tonya,
Brett, George, Thierry, me and Suzy the newsletter cat. All those
people who have sent in suggestions this year and have programmed
stuff to help me out. The nice people who provide entertainment as we
type, which includes a couple of CD collections and BBC Radio,
particularly BBC 6Music which is available via the internet and well
worth listening to (this isn't advertising as I have paid my licence
fee), Roger McGuinn and everyone else who has donated something to PG
this year. 'And anyone else who knows me'
Here's hoping you have a pleasant holiday.
pgweekly_2003_12_24_part_1.txt
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