*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, May 12, 2004 PT1*
*****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971******
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eBook Milestones
We Are Over 1/4 of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
12643 eBooks As Of Today
7357 to go to 20,000
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000
[From 2,643 eBooks in May, 2001 to 12,643 eBooks in May, 2004]
***
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 18/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 390 eBooks/Yr
And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
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In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
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- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
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59 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
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*** Progress Report
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It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1999 to produce our first 1,659 eBooks!
That's 17 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years!
61 New eBooks This Week
96 New eBooks Last Week
70 New eBooks This Month [May]
408 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
1736 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
9581 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 40.25 Months!
12,643 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
7,852 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,791 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
356 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
We're still keeping up with Moore's Law!
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FLASHBACK!!!
1745 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~28 years for the first 1736 !
That's the 4.25 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #1736
Jun 1999 The Winter's Tale, by Shakespeare [1ws4011x.xxx] 1800
. . .
Jun 1999 Henry the Sixth, Part One, Shakespeare [1ws0111x.xxx] 1765
May 1999 Billy and the Big Stick, by R. H. Davis [#17][bbstkxxx.xxx] 1764
May 1999 The Nature Faker, by Richard Harding Davis [#16][ntrfkxxx.xxx] 1763
May 1999 The Consul, by Richard Harding Davis [RH Davis#15][tcnslxxx.xxx] 1762
May 1999 My Buried Treasure, by Richard Harding Davis [#14][mbtrsxxx.xxx] 1761
May 1999 The Man Who Could Not Lose, by R. H. Davis [#13][mwcnlxxx.xxx] 1760
May 1999 The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Marian Keith [bbbrbxxx.xxx] 1759
May 1999 Majorie Daw, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich [Aldrich #4][mjdawxxx.xxx] 1758
May 1999 Cruise of the Dolphin by Thomas Bailey Aldrich[#3][dlphnxxx.xxx] 1757
May 1999 Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov [Checkov #5][vanyaxxx.xxx] 1756
May 1999 Ivanoff, by Anton Chekhov [Checkov #4][vanofxxx.xxx] 1755
May 1999 The Sea-Gull, by Anton Chekhov [Checkov #3][cgullxxx.xxx] 1754
May 1999 Swan Song [& Intro], by Anton Chekhov [Checkov #2][swnsgxxx.xxx] 1753
May 1999 El Dorado, by Baroness Orczy [More Pimpernell][#2][ldrdoxxx.xxx] 1752
May 1999 Twilight Land, by Howard Pyle [Howard Pyle #3][twlndxxx.xxx] 1751
May 1999 Laws, by Plato [#29 and last of this Plato series][plawsxxx.xxx] 1750
May 1999 Cousin Betty, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #66] [cbttyxxx.xxx] 1749
May 1999 Other People's Money, by Emile Gaboriau [E.G. #4][opmnyxxx.xxx] 1748
May 1999 The Red Seal, by Natalie Sumner Lincoln [redslxxx.xxx] 1747
May 1999 New Collected Rhymes, by Andrew Lang [Lang #14][nwclrxxx.xxx] 1746
May 1999 Poetical Works, by John Milton [pmsjmxxx.xxx] 1745
May 1999 Philebus, by Plato [More of Socrates][Plato #28][philbxxx.xxx] 1744
May 1999 Twelve Stories and a Dream, by H. G. Wells[HGW#17][12sadxxx.xxx] 1743
May 1999 Miss Civilization, by Richard Harding Davis [#12][miscvxxx.xxx] 1742
May 1999 The White Moll, by Frank L. Packard [Packard #2][wtmolxxx.xxx] 1741
May 1999 The Flying U's Last Stand, by B. M. Bower [BMB #8][fuslsxxx.xxx] 1740
May 1999 The Black Death/The Dancing Mania,by J.F.C. Hecker[bdadmxxx.xxx] 1739
May 1999 Statesman, by Plato [Plato #27][sttsmxxx.xxx] 1738
May 1999 Facino Cane, by Honore de Balzac [H. de Balzac#65][fcanexxx.xxx] 1737
May 1999 Cromwell, Shakespeare Apocrypha [1ws49xxx.xxx] 1736
May 1999 Sophist, by Plato [More of Socrates][Plato #26][sophtxxx.xxx] 1735
May 1999 Secret Places of the Heart, by H.G. Wells[HGW #16][spothxxx.xxx] 1734
May 1999 The Red Cross Girl, by Richard Harding Davis [#11][rdcrgxxx.xxx] 1733
May 1999 The Schoolmistress, et al, by Anton Chekhov [AC#1][tschmxxx.xxx] 1732
May 1999 Sister Songs, by Francis Thompson [F. Thompson #3][ssngsxxx.xxx] 1731
May 1999 Michael, Brother of Jerry, by Jack London [JL #71][mcjerxxx.xxx] 1730
May 1999 The Deserted Woman, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac#64][dswmnxxx.xxx] 1729
Apr 1999 The Odyssey, by Homer, Butcher & Lang Tr[Homer #3][dyssyxxa.xxx] 1728
Apr 1999 The Odyssey, by Homer, Trans by Butler [Homer #2][dyssyxxx.xxx] 1727
(See also: #348, Collection of Hesiod, Homer and Homerica)
Apr 1999 Theaetetus, by Plato [More of Socrates][Plato #25][thtusxxx.xxx] 1726
Apr 1999 Heart of the West, by O Henry [O Henry #5][hrtwsxxx.xxx] 1725
Apr 1999 Finished, by H. Rider Haggard[H. Rider Haggard #6][fnshdxxx.xxx] 1724
Apr 1999 Cow-Country, by B. M. Bower [B. M. Bower eBook #6][cwcntxxx.xxx] 1723
Apr 1999 Martin Luther's Large Catechism, Bente & Dau, Trns[lrgctxxx.xxx] 1722
Apr 1999 The Trees of Pride, by Gilbert K. Chesterton [#12][trprdxxx.xxx] 1721
Apr 1999 The Man Who Knew Too Much, by G. K. Chesterton #5A[mwktmxxa.xxx] 1720
(Note: From a different source than our February edition of this.)
***
Today Is Day #126 of 2004
This Completes Week #18 and Month #4.25
237 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
7357 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
97 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
41 Only 41 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 18 weeks of this year, we have produced 1736 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1998 to produce our FIRST 1736 eBooks!!!
That's 18 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
With 12,643 eBooks online as of May 12, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.79 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 1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.27 when we had 7803 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine ~12,500 books each costing ~$.48 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~12,500 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 12,636 eBooks in 32 Years and 10.25 Months We Averaged
385 Per Year [We do more per than that month these days!]
32.0 Per Month
1.05 Per Day
At 1736 eBooks Done In The 126 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
14 Per Day
97 Per Week
408 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
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starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was
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year of 2003 and began the production year of 2004 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
***Headline News***
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
TAPSCOTT SAYS INNOVATE OR DIE
Rebutting business analysts who preach about the "commoditization" of
information technology and says that IT doesn't matter anymore, technology
guru Don Tapscott rejects the commoditization thesis as just plain silly:
"In fact, nothing in the universe is as diverse as a byte of data, which can
carry information ranging from baby pictures to a digitally signed
million-dollar bank transfer. It's like saying that Shakespeare's works are
a commodity because he uses the alphabet just like everybody else." Tapscott
says that those who advise companies to spend less and suggest that they
follow rather than lead in technology are drawing a blueprint for failure;
his own prescription is: "Cut fat, not your company's nervous system.
Ultimately companies face a choice. They can innovate in IT -- a resource
still in its infancy -- to enable new business designs that help them
differentiate in the market. Or they can yield to the pressures and cynicism
of a difficult business environment. Punishment is already proving swift for
those who make the wrong choice." (CIO Magazine 1 May 2004)
http://www.cio.com/archive/050104/keynote.html
[Here is the story that one replied to:]
INFO TECHNOLOGY IS JUST ANOTHER UTILITY
Nicholas Carr rocked the IT world last year with his article
published in Harvard Business Review titled, "IT Doesn't Matter."
Techno-mavens such as Steve Ballmer hollered, "Hogwash!" but Carr has now
responded to his critics with a full-length book, "Does IT Matter?".
University of California, Berkeley professor Hal Varian says Carr's point
is well taken: "At one time information was so expensive and so difficult
to manage that companies could make large amounts of money simply by being
able to make systems work. (Think IBM.)" Companies that failed to manage
their IT assets suffered in comparison. But Carr argues that in today's
world, IT has become a utility, just like telephone service or electricity.
That may be true, says Varian, but that doesn't mean that technological
innovation stops -- "Once products become commodities, they can serve as
components for further innovation," says Varian. "In the 19th century,
American manufacturers created standardized designs for wheels, gears,
pulleys, shafts and screws. As such standardized parts became widely
available and could be purchased 'off the shelf,' there was an outpouring
of invention." Perhaps information technology is like those standardized
parts. Desktop PCs, Web servers, databases and scripting languages have
become components in larger, more complex systems. As these components have
become more standardized, the opportunities to create innovations have
multiplied." Varian ends by noting that companies cannot afford to ignore
IT, but should be thinking about how to use it to improve operations and
cut costs, and in the process open up new opportunities for innovation.
(New York Times 6 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/business/06scene.html
ASIA-PACIFIC TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
IT spending in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan should grow 10%
to $88 billion ($AU120 billion) this year, thanks to a recovery in regional
economies. This represents a sharp acceleration from the 3.4% growth seen in
2003, says industry research firm IDC: "Infastructure upgrades and business
oriented initiatives are driving IT demand for 2004." The director of
information technology spending research at IDC says that 58% of more than
3,000 company executives recently surveyed across the region plan to
increase IT spending this year. Only 2.5% indicate that their technology
expenditures will decrease. (The Australian, 6 May 2004)
http://tinyurl.com/36j3e Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin University
EDUCATED (BUT UNEMPLOYED) IN INDIA
In spite of the fact that U.S. and European outsourcing has immensely
benefited India's economy (and although the country is now "shining,"
according to a government publicity campaign), there are still nowhere near
enough high-tech jobs to be had for a well-educated population. In the
Hyderabad area, about 60,000 jobs in information technology have indeed been
created -- yet many have gone to young Indians from across the country, even
though the region has 350,000 English-speaking graduates. The head of one
placement agent in Hyderabad says it's very difficult to place engineers,
because "no country has as many engineering colleges as this state." By the
end of 2002, the state had about 2.6 million educated unemployed residents.
(New York Times 6 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/international/asia/06indi.html
AUDACITY, FUN, AND WORK AT MIT
MIT's new Strata Center -- which will house CSAIL, the Computer Science
and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory -- was designed by renowned architect
Frank O. Gehry to foster creativity and out-of-the-box thinking: walls lean
and tilt like stacked building blocks and staircases seem suspended in air.
MIT president Charles M. Vest says, "We hope that it's going to be a
building that will inspire people, make them think a little bit, and will
frankly show a little bit of the audacity and fun we have at MIT, as well as
the hard work we do." Architect Gehry, whose designs include the acclaimed
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, admits that the building "does take a
step into another realm, of innovation, and a bit of a sense that it doesn't
take itself so seriously, as some modernism does. It tends to have a sense
of humor, and I think that is attractive these days -- I hope so anyway."
The building is packed with technology, including a holodeck that
researchers will use to create three-dimensional environments. (AP/San Jose
Mercury News 6 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8605714.htm
CHINA SHUTS DOWN 8,600 INTERNET CAFIS IN 3 MONTHS
Chinese authorities say they have shut down more than 8,600
unlicensed Internet cafis in the last three months in their latest campaign
to bring the communication channel under tighter political control.
Ostensibly, the crackdown is to protect teenagers from long Internet
benders playing combat games and the like. The case of two middle school
pupils in Chongqing, who fell asleep on a railway line and were run over on
March 31 following a 48-hour interactive gaming session, is being cited.
But preventing customers from gaining access to "unhealthy information
online" is also a concern behind the drive against unauthorized public
Internet venues, which was launched in February and will run until August,
says the agency that licenses Internet cafis. Preventing anonymous access
to the Internet from cafis has been one prong of Beijing's drive to squelch
the Internet's political power for the past 18 months, although the excuse
has always been the fire risk and protecting juveniles from abuse. (The Age
7 May 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin University
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/07/1083881475636.html
[And in the related mental health version]
THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHINESE YOUTH
China has shut down more than 8,600 Internet cafes in the last three
months, many of them for illegally admitting juveniles. The official Xinhua
News Agency warns: "Any such place allowing juveniles to enter or allowing
unhealthy information to spread through the Internet will face rigid, severe
penalty." The Chinese government agency for industry and commerce has
decided that Internet cafes that admit minors "have brought great harm to
the mental health of teenagers and interfered with the school teaching."
Last month an Internet cafe in the city of Chongqing was fined after two
teenagers spent more than 48 hours playing an online video game, then fell
asleep on a railroad track and were killed by a train. (AP/Washington Post 6
May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6356-2004May6.html
DSL INTERNET ACCESS OUTSTRIPS CABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME
For the first time, U.S. local phone companies have signed up more
high-speed Internet customers than cable companies have -- a sign of the
increasingly important role that broadband will play in telephone
companies' future profits. As many younger phone customers abandon their
wireline phones for wireless handsets, the phone companies say DSL has
become the hook that they can use to lure local service customers. "If you
can get DSL into the bundle, the customer will not leave you," says Verizon
CFO Doreen Toben. Cable companies had started the broadband access race
with a huge lead, outselling DSL 2 to 1, but with average rates hovering
around $40 a month versus DSL's cheaper $26, many customers are making the
switch. However, with broadband subscribers providing as much as 20% of
cable revenues, cable companies seem disinclined to compete with the telcos
on price -- a strategy that may spell trouble in the future, says a
Deutsche Bank analyst, who warns they must respond "in reasonably short
order." (Reuters/Los Angeles Times 5 May 2004)
http://www.
latimes.com/technology/la-fi-dsl5may05,1,3289458.story?coll=la-headlines-tech
nology
[Once Again, SONY Takes The Narrow Point Of View]
SONY AIMS TO CONNECT WITH NEW MUSIC SERVICE
Sony has launched its Connect online music download service, offering
users a choice of more than 500,000 songs from major and independent record
labels. Like Apple's iTunes, the songs are priced at 99 cents per track,
with entire albums going for $9.99. The songs are sold in ATRAC3 format,
which will play on Sony's audio devices but are incompatible with iPods and
other some other digital players. By tailoring its music service to its own
brand of players, the electronics giant hopes that Connect will do for its
audio players what iTunes did for Apple's iPod. "Apple did an excellent job
in cultivating this new market," says a Sony spokesman. "We believe we can
expand the market to a much broader audience with a broader line of devices
and an easy-to-use service." (BBC News 5 May 2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3685907.stm
[Correct me if I am wrong, but don't iTunes play on nearly anything?]
[More below, in the Edupage section. . .that confirms iTunes DO only
play on iPods. . .but I called their format letting the users make
a number of different CD mixes. . .can these ONLY be used on iPods???]
[At the time of this writing, I had heard rumors that an 18 year old
had already been arrested for this in Germany, now confirmed below.]
AUTHORITIES TEAM UP ON HUNT FOR SASSER CREATOR
Security experts in the U.K. are teaming up with U.S. law enforcement
officials to track down the author or authors of the Sasser worm and are
investigating the theory that the creator is part of a Russian group
calling itself the "Skynet antivirus group," which also was responsible for
the Netsky e-mail virus outbreak. A message found in the code of a recent
Netsky variant claimed responsibility for Sasser, but the reasoning behind
this latest Internet assault is still murky. "With Sasser, the author seems
to be showing off his coding capabilities, but otherwise I have no idea
what the motive is," says Raimund Genes, European president of antivirus
group Trend Micro. And while Microsoft has yet to decide whether to offer a
reward for information leading to culprit, most experts agree if the
originators are linked to criminal groups, a bounty offer will have little
effect. "If the person doesn't disclose his identity, we will never know
the author of this worm or the author of those worms that have caused
global epidemics in the past," says Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of
Moscow's Kaspersky Labs. Over the past six months, Microsoft has offered
three separate $250,000 rewards for previous outbreaks, but with no
results. (Reuters/Washington Post 5 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3086-2004May5.html?nav=headlines
[More]
SASSER CREATOR TURNED IN FOR THE REWARD
The German teenager who created the computer worm Sasser was identified
by acquaintances seeking a $250,000 reward from Microsoft. The young man was
arrested in the village of Waffensen, near Bremen, and appeared shaken by
the extent of the damage his program had caused around the world. He faces
charges of computer sabotage, which under German law could mean his
imprisonment for five years. If the teenager is convicted, Microsoft will
make good on its pledge for the full $250,000 reward.
(Washington Post 9 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11160-2004May8.html
'DEAR JOHN' NOTIFICATIONS SHIFT TO TEXT MESSAGING
Nine percent of Britons say they've broken up a relationship by
sending their partner a "Dear John" text message, and among the younger
crowd (ages 15-24) the figure rises to 20%. One 15-year-old said using text
to dump a boy- or girlfriend is common among teenagers because it's "easier
to talk by text." Meanwhile, about one in three British adults said they'd
sent a love note via text and 44% used the medium to flirt with a love
interest. For the suspicious-minded, cell phones have proven a new source
of potentially incriminating evidence, with 45% of women admitting they'd
secretly checked the messages on their partners' phones compared to 31% of
men. The numbers come from MORI, which conducted the poll on behalf of
Sicap, a messaging services provider based in Bern, Switzerland.
(AP 4 May 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040504/D82BQ1P80.html
NEW MICROSOFT WINDOWS SECURITY FLAW
Microsoft has identified and released a Windows software patch for a
new flaw that could allow hackers to take control of a PC by luring users to
a malicious Web site and getting them to take certain actions there. The
security flaw affects the latest versions of Windows, including Windows XP,
and software for networked computers such as Windows Server 2003. A user
would be vulnerable to the security flaw only by visiting the attacker's Web
site and performing several actions there. (Reuters/USA Today 12 May 2004)
http://
www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-05-12-ms-patchtime_xhtm
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>From Edupage
SONY INTRODUCES ONLINE MUSIC SERVICE
Sony has entered the online music market with its Sony Connect service,
joining ventures such as the relaunched Napster 2.0 and Apple
Computer's iTunes service. As with the iTunes service, whose songs
only play on Apple iPod devices, Sony's music service sells music in a
format that is restricted to Sony portable players. Michael Goodman,
analyst with the Yankee Group, said Sony's entry into the market is
late and that the company has to "play catch-up on two fronts, on
selling their audio players and getting people to use their music
service." According to Goodman, Apple's iPod currently controls 80-90
percent of the market for devices that can play legally purchased music
files. A spokesman from Sony Connect said the company believes the
market is still developing and that Sony "can expand the market to a
much broader audience with a broader line of devices." Sony Connect
offers more than 500,000 tracks that can be purchased for 99 cents per
song or as albums starting at $9.99. Sony Connect also allows users to
copy songs onto CDs that can be played in any CD player.
Wall Street Journal, 5 May 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108371679078002274,00.html
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More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media
GLOBAL WARMING STRIKES GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
"Going to Glacier? You Should Hurry: The glaciers in Glacier National
Park are melting, and not at a glacial pace, but so quickly that
scientists from the United States Geological Survey predict that there
won't be any left by 2030. ..." New York Times 10 MAY 2004
"But one thing that's hard to see from anywhere along the road is a glacier."
The glaciers in Glacier National Park are melting, and not at a
glacial pace, but so quickly that scientists from the United States
Geological Survey predict that there won't be any left by 2030.
Sneaking a good peek at those that remain is a challenge to relish for
its sheer difficulty and the bragging rights that go with it.
"At one time, this was the place to see glaciers in North America.
In the late 1800's, 150 glaciers" were catalogued in the park.
"Today just 27 glaciers remain, covering about 12 square miles, many of
them so small they are tough to distinguish from surrounding snowfields."
"By definition, glaciers are moving chunks of ice that carve and shape the
landscape as they go.) You can glimpse the largest, Blackfoot Glacier,
and its offshoot, Jackson Glacier, which was split from it by melting
about 60 years ago, from an overlook on Going-to-the-Sun Road. But
most of the glaciers are hidden in small valleys."
[On a related note:
9 December 2003
Antarctic Glaciers Speed Up
Glaciers surrounding the Larsen B Ice Shelf.
More news easily found via a Google search on:
global warming ice shelf glacier national park year
***
STUDY EXAMINES GOVERNMNET WEB SITES FOR TERROR
WASHINGTON - The overwhelming majority of federal
Web sites that reveal information about airports, power plants, military
bases and other attractive terrorist targets need not be censored because
similar or better information is easily available elsewhere, a
taxpayer-financed study found.
The Rand Corp. identified only four Web pages that might merit the
restrictions imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It urged government
officials to consider reopening public access to about three dozen Web pages
that were withdrawn from the Internet in the name of homeland security.
"It's a good time to take a closer look at the choices that they made at the
time," said John Baker, principal author of the study that was funded by the
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the government's intelligence
mapping agency.
Advocates of open government said the report shows the Bush administration
acted rashly after the suicide attacks when it scrubbed numerous government
Web sites.
"It was a gigantic mistake, and I hope the study brings some rationality
back to this policy," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of
American Scientists' project on government secrecy. "Up to now, decisions
have been made on a knee-jerk basis."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/
[And in a related article]
U.S. SHOULD REOPEN MOST WEB SITES SHUT DOWN AFTER 9/11
The overwhelming majority of federal Web sites shut down after the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks should be reopened because the sites pose
little or no threat to homeland security, according to a study by the Rand
Corp.'s National Defense Research Institute. The Institute identified 629
Internet-accessible "geospatial information" databases provided by 30
federal agencies that contain critical data about specific locations, but
only four of those -- two containing information on pipelines plus one on
nuclear reactors and one on dams -- were worth restricting. None of those
was available to the public anymore. In many of the other cases, the
information deemed potentially risky is available elsewhere, in some cases
in superior detail. "It's a good time to take a closer look at the choices
that they made at the time," says John Baker, principle author of the
study, which was funded by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the
government's intelligence mapping agency. (AP/Washington Post 11 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15750-2004May10.html
***
OHIO TO USE E-VOTING MACHINES IN 31 COUNTIES
Ohio lawmakers have authorized 31 counties to switch to electronic
voting machines in time for the Nov. 2 election. The law also requires
that by May 2006 e-voting machines be redesigned so that they issue paper
receipts confirming to voters the choices they made. Ohio's Secretary of
State will have the responsibility for making sure that those design
changes are made. (San Jose Mercury News 7 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8616084.htm
[I'm sure we will also be hearing that that these "paper receipts
confirming to voters the choices they made" will be an issue soon,
perhaps even before these changes are implemented, as this should
provide an easy path for political insiders to know how you voted.]
***
WHAT THE BLANK IS THE MISSING WORD?
An Irish graduate student and her research adviser in Luxembourg have
developed a computer technique for identifying words in a document that have
been blanked out for security or privacy purposes. The program counts the
number of pixels blocked out, then determines the pixel length of words when
written in the specific font used in the document, then reduces the number
of possible words to just a few by using semantic guidelines and the
grammatical context. The researchers say that agencies could foil the
technique by to using OCR technology to rescan documents and alter fonts.
(New York Times 10 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/technology/10crypto.html
***
WIMAX: A TECHNOLOGY IN SEARCH OF A MARKET
Known formally by its technical standard 802.16, WiMax is a muscle
version of the 802.11 wireless protocol that transmits Internet signals as
far as 300 feet to provide WiFi hot spots at coffee shops, airports and
hotels and for personal networks at home. Sean Maloney, general manager of
Intel's communications group, says: "We're facing an incredible next five
years. It's the broadband wireless era, as interesting as 1994-99 was with
the explosion of the Internet." A single WiMax transmitter could serve a
corporate headquarters, a college campus or even a city. But there are
plenty of doubters. Jeff Thermond of Broadcom Corp says "For all the places
with nomads and camels it's great, but WiMax is a technology in search of a
market." (Los Angeles Times 9 May 2004) http://tinyurl.com/yqj4r
[Of course, no one is mentioning the security problems inherent in wireless.]
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