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 Founding editor: Michael Hart hart@beryl.ils.edu Newsletter editor: Alice Wood news@pglaf.org Project Gutenberg CEO: Greg Newby gbnewby@pglaf.org Project Gutenberg website: http://gutenberg.net Project Gutenberg Newsletter website: http://gutenberg.net/newsletter Hosted by iBiblio, The Public's Library at http://ibiblio.org Radio Gutenberg: http://www.radio-gutenberg.org Distributed Proofreaders: http://www.pgdp.net Newsletter and mailing list subscriptions: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml ============= [ SUBMIT A NEW EBOOK FOR COPYRIGHT CLEARANCE ]============== If you have a book you would like to confirm is in the public domain in the US, and therefore suitable for Project Gutenberg, please do the following: 1. Check whether we have the eBook already. Look in http://gutenberg.net/GUTINDEX.ALL which is updated weekly. (The searchable catalog at http://www.gutenberg.net lags behind by several months) 2. Check the "in progress" list to see whether someone is already working on the eBook. Sometimes, books are listed as in progress for years - if so, email David Price (his address is on the list) to ask for contact information for the person working on the book. The "in progress" list: http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html 3. If the book seems to be a good candidate (pre-1923 publication date, or 1923-1988 published in the US without a copyright notice), submit scans of the title page and verso page (even if the verso is blank) to: http://beryl.ils.unc.edu/copy.html You'll hear back within a few days. 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] QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG A. Send a check or money order to: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation 809 North 1500 West Salt Lake City, UT 84116 B. Donate by credit card online NetworkForGood: http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541 or PayPal to "donate@gutenberg.net": https://www.paypal.com /xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.net&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of volunteers over more than 30 years. Your donations make it possible to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and money transfers from any country, in any currency. Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) 64-6221541. For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to http://www.gutenberg.net or email gbnewby@ils.unc.edu 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. Mailing list information For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists please visit the following webpage: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml Trouble? If you are having trouble subscribing, unsubscribing or with anything else related to the mailing lists, please email "owner-gutnberg@listserv.unc.edu" to contact the lists' (human) administrator. Please note the email address spelling. If you would just like a little more information about Lyris features, you can find their help information at http://www.lyris.com/help Please note that the newsletter staff do not have access to the mailing list email address list, so they are unable to subscribe / unsubscribe you themselves. They can however, give advice if you have trouble following the procedures on the webpage. 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.
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