*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, May 26, 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
12,760 eBooks As Of Today
7,240 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 2,760 eBooks in August, 2001 to 12,760 eBooks in May, 2004]
***
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
Today, and until we actually GET a new Newsletter editor who want to
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 20/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 390 eBooks/Yr
And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
We Are Averaging About 390 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
93 per week!!!
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In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
- New Site (above)
- Hot Requests (above)
- Requests For Assistance
- Progress Report
- Flashback
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- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
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2 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
58 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
- Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
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*** Progress Report
In the first 3.75 months of this year, we produced 1659 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1999 to produce our first 1,659 eBooks!
That's 20 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years!
60 New eBooks This Week
61 New eBooks Last Week
179 New eBooks This Month [May]
390 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
1853 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
9688 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 40.50 Months!
12,760 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
8,021 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,739 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
359 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
We're still keeping up with Moore's Law!
Moore's Law 12 month percentage = 100%
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FLASHBACK!!!
1853 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~28 years for the first 1793 !
That's the 4.75 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #1853
Aug 1999 The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit [E. Nesbit #7][rlwycxxx.xxx] 1874
Aug 1999 Gambara, by Honore de Balzac[Honore de Balzac #76][gmbraxxx.xxx] 1873
Aug 1999 The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne [Milne #1][rdhsmxxx.xxx] 1872
Aug 1999 The Deputy of Arcis, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac75][arcisxxx.xxx] 1871
Aug 1999 Reginald in Russia, etc., by Saki (H.H.Munro) [#4][rgrusxxx.xxx] 1870
Aug 1999 The Man in Lower Ten, by Mary Roberts Rinehart[#9][tmiltxxx.xxx] 1869
Aug 1999 Penelope's Postscripts, by Kate Douglas Wiggin #12[pnlpsxxx.xxx] 1868
Aug 1999 The Diary of a Goose Girl, by Wiggin [Wiggin #11][gsgrlxxx.xxx] 1867
[Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin]
Aug 1999 North America, Vol. 2, by Anthony Trollope [AT #4][2noamxxx.xxx] 1866
Aug 1999 North America, Vol. 1, by Anthony Trollope [AT #3][1noamxxx.xxx] 1865
Aug 1999 Hero Tales From American History, Lodge/Roosevelt [htfahxxx.xxx] 1864
Aug 1999 From Cornhill to Grand Cairo by Thackeray [WMT #6][crhcrxxx.xxx] 1863
Aug 1999 Tartarin of Tarascon, by Alphonse Daudet [trtrnxxx.xxx] 1862
Aug 1999 An Old Town By The Sea by Thomas Bailey Aldrich #6[ldtwnxxx.xxx] 1861
Aug 1999 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley[Chas Kingsley #8][wsthoxxx.xxx] 1860
Aug 1999 The Works of Max Beerbohm, by Max Beerbohm[Max #6][twombxxx.xxx] 1859
Aug 1999 Plain Tales from the Hills, by Rudyard Kipling[#6][ptfthxxx.xxx] 1858
Aug 1999 Initials Only, by Anna Katharine Green [Green #3][ionlyxxx.xxx] 1857
Aug 1999 Cousin Pons, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #74][cspnsxxx.xxx] 1856
Aug 1999 Ban and Arriere Ban, by Andrew Lang[Andr. Lang#15][bnabnxxx.xxx] 1855
Aug 1999 Catherine de Medici, by Honore de Balzac/Balzac#73[ctdmdxxx.xxx] 1854
Aug 1999 The Ninth Vibration, et. al., by L. Adams Beck #8 [9thvbxxx.xxx] 1853
Aug 1999 Lucile, by Owen Meredith [lucilxxx.xxx] 1852
Aug 1999 The Woman in the Alcove by Anna Katharine Green #2[wintaxxx.xxx] 1851
Aug 1999 Old Christmas, by Washington Irving [Irving #5][oxmasxxx.xxx] 1850
Aug 1999 The Yellow Crayon, by E. Phillips Oppenheim[EPO#5][ycrynxxx.xxx] 1849
Aug 1999 Montezuma's Daughter, by H. Rider Haggard [HRH #7][mzdtrxxx.xxx] 1848
Aug 1999 Songs, Merry and Sad, by John Charles McNeill [sngmsxxx.xxx] 1847
Aug 1999 The Vision Splendid, by William MacLeod Raine [#3][vspldxxx.xxx] 1846
Aug 1999 Zuleika Dobson, by Max Beerbohm [Max Beerbohm #5][zdbsnxxx.xxx] 1845
Aug 1999 The Scholemaster, by Roger Ascham [In Markup] [smstrxxx.xxx] 1844
[AKA: The Schoolmaster, by Roger Ascham]
Aug 1999 Vera, The Medium, by Richard Harding Davis[RHD#29][veramxxx.xxx] 1843
Aug 1999 Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne [Jules Verne #10][strgfxxx.xxx] 1842
Aug 1999 Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #72][zmrcsxxx.xxx] 1841
Aug 1999 The Financier, by Theodore Dreiser [tfncrxxx.xxx] 1840
Aug 1999 Other Things Being Equal, by Emma Wolf [otbeqxxx.xxx] 1839
Jul 1999 A New Voyage to Carolina, by John Lawson [nvycrxxx.xxx] 1838
Jul 1999 The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Twain [MT#14][prpprxxx.xxx] 1837
***
Today Is Day #140 of 2004
This Completes Week #20 and Month #4.75
240 Days/33 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
7240 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
93 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 20 weeks of this year, we have produced 1853 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our FIRST 1853 eBooks!!!
That's 20 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!!
With 12,760 eBooks online as of May 26, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.78 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 $1.25 when we had 7803 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine ~12,500 books each costing ~$.45 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 12,760 eBooks in 32 Years and 10.75 Months We Averaged
388 Per Year [We do more per than that month these days!]
32.3 Per Month
1.06 Per Day
At 1853 eBooks Done In The 140 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
13 Per Day
93 Per Week
390 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was
the first Wednesday of 2004, and thus ended PG's production
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:
SEARCH ENGINE CONTEST ENDS IN A DRAW
[Of course, the most important statistic here isn't commented on at all,
that those who use the search engines only get right about half the time.]
Google is riding high on its reputation as the "best" search engine,
but a new survey by Vividence Corp. suggests that it doesn't necessarily
provide significantly better search results than its rivals. After asking
2,000 Web users to test five popular search engines, the survey found
little difference among the results. For instance, when asked to find facts
such as the leading cause of death for 25- to 34-year-olds, Google users
came up with the right answer 55% of the time compared with 52% to 54%
using Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Lycos. "The search engines all return
roughly the same results," says Vividence CEO Peter Watkins. But despite
the statistical similarities, some users still prefer Google for its clean,
uncluttered design. "I don't get distracted by anything," says one user.
Other users reported greater satisfaction with the experience, even when
they didn't find what they were looking for. Nearly 90% of Google users
described their search effort as a "strongly positive experience," compared
with 68% for Yahoo, 50% for Ask Jeeves, 48% for Lycos and 41% for MSN.
Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy says the study indicates that Google's
claims to technological superiority may be shaky, but that its brand is "a
huge advantage and that matters a lot." (Wall Street Journal 25 May 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108543636197220010,00.html (sub req'd)
[More On Google]
VIRTUAL MISUNDERSTANDING: TOYS "R'" VS. AMAZON
Toys "R'' Us has accused Amazon.com of breaking a contract that gave
Toys "R" Us the right to be the exclusive toy and game seller on Amazon's
site. Since August 2000, when the contract was written, Amazon has shifted
its business model away from such exclusive arrangements and now has
multiple merchants offering the same products (sometimes at different
prices), the same way eBay does. Industry analyst Safa Rashtchy of Piper
Jaffray says, "Amazon does best if its total volume increases. It doesn't
matter if they sell the items themselves or earn a commission from a
third-party seller." Toys "R" Us is asking for court injunctions to prevent
Amazon from selling toys from other vendors and to prohibit Amazon from
posting ads from Google to competing online toy stores. (New York Times 25
May 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/technology/25online.html
VIETNAM ORDERS NEW CRACKDOWN
Vietnam is stepping up its campaign against "bad and poisonous
information on the Internet." Three ministries -- culture and information,
public security, and post and telecommunications -- have been ordered to
regularly monitor online information and punish those who abuse the
Internet, according to the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan. In March, the
government announced new regulations that sharply tightened control over
Internet usage and required people at Internet cafes to present personal
identification information before logging on. Internet cafe owners were told
to document the time each user spends online and prevent users from
bypassing government-imposed barriers designed to block access to sites
deemed subversive or pornographic. (The Australian 21 May 2004) Rec'd from
John Lamp http://tinyurl.com/2y29l
[And in a continuing related story]
CHINESE SURFERS PERSIST DESPITE GOV'T CONSTRAINTS
In China, people are increasingly using the Internet to broadcast their
opinions in public and challenge the government's ability to control news,
information and public debate. One webmaster says: "The party is not a
monolithic block. The police may feel, 'If we can avoid the trouble, let's
avoid the trouble.' No one wants to go out of their way to hurt people."
Government local authorities often look the other way when cafe managers
fail to record customers' names or install surveillance software, as long as
they pay taxes and fees. An observer notes: "There are more and more of us
mice, but the cat, for various reasons, is less interested in its work. The
cat is too busy making money." (Washington Post 23 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50496-2004May23.html
TERROR DATABASE NAMED 120,000
[120,000 is about 1 out of 2,500 people, thus the average town will have
over 2-3 dozen people on this list. . .is there one right next door?]
Before helping launch the criminal information project known as Matrix,
a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000
people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists. The "high
terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the
involvement of the database company Seisint in the Matrix project. Public
records obtained from several states show that Justice Department officials
cited the scoring technology in appointing Seisint sole contractor on the
federally funded $12 million project. (The Australian 21 May 2004) Rec'd
from John Lamp http://tinyurl.com/29o4s
[And in a related story. . .$12 Million vs. $15 Billion]
[For $15 Billion, you could endow a University such as Harvard]
SYSTEM FOR TRACKING VISITORS TO U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security is getting ready to award a very
large contract (perhaps worth as much as $15 billion) for a network of
databases to track visitors to the country before and after they arrive. The
system will attempt to show where the visitors are going and whether they
pose a terrorist threat. The three companies vying for the contract, which
is called US-Visit, are Accenture, Computer Sciences, and Lockheed Martin.
Visitors arriving at checkpoints will face real-time identification to
confirm they are who they say they are and to make it possible to track them
while they remain inside the U.S. Asa Hutchinson of Homeland Security says,
""This is hugely important for the security of our country and for the wise
use of our limited resources. We're talking here about a comprehensive
approach to border security." Civil libertarians are alarmed that the
databases could, despite assurances from the Homeland Security department,
be used to monitor American citizens. (New York Times 24 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24VISI.html?hp
[And even more. . . .]
SEE (AND PHOTOGRAPH) THE USA
Imageos Inc. has built a van on which 13 digital cameras have been
mounted so it can photograph 50 million buildings in the country while the
van moves along (taking pictures every 15 feet). The van's drive-by
snapshots will then be matched against GPS satellite positioning data and
aerial photographs in a database, so that police, insurance agents and
others can call up overhead and street-level views simply by entering an
address. (AP/Los Angeles Times 25 May 2004) http://tinyurl.com/3x4q2
MICROSOFT QUESTIONED ON E-MAIL DELETION POLICIES
A federal judge in Baltimore has ordered Microsoft to search for evidence
that would confirm or refute a charge by a company suing Microsoft that
"Microsoft as matter of institutional policy has decided to destroy e-mails
in anticipation of litigation." The order directs Microsoft to search a
legal department computer, a server, and backup tapes, as well as question
Microsoft lawyers about e-mail from one of its executives allegedly urging
employees not to save their e-mail for more than 30 days, telling them "Do
not archive your e-mail." Microsoft says the evidence will show that the
executive's instructions were "consistent with a policy that is responsive
to any legal requirements and consistent with a policy of efficient
management of corporate e-mail." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 24 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8725934.htm
IF YOU SEND IT, WILL THEY READ IT?
DidTheyReadIt.com, a new service costing $50 a year, allows a sender of
e-mail to secretly track that e-mail to see whether anyone opens it, how
long the recipient keeps it open, how many times it was opened, and where
geographically the recipient read it. The whole process is invisible to the
person who receives the message. Mitchell Kertzman of the technology
investment firm Hummer Winblad says the service "violates our electronic
space in a way that's as uncomfortable as someone violating our physical
space. Add this company to the long list of people who are making the
Internet a less attractive place to live and work." Technology expert Esther
Dyson predicts that the service "will freak people out," but Case Western
Reserve University professor Youngjin Yoo thinks people will be of two
minds: "You will want to know how others treat your e-mail messages even if
you don't necessary want others to know how you are treating theirs."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2004-05-20-email_x.htm
CORPORATE EXECS BLAST TECH INDUSTRY FOR SHODDY PRODUCTS
The Business Roundtable, a trade group for executives of 150 large
U.S. corporations, has launched a lobbying campaign to make technology
companies accountable for software that they say is vulnerable to hackers
and overly complex to use. The group is urging tech firms to improve
software design, make software easier to manage, and to continue tech
support for software products that have been superseded by newer versions.
"Up until now, the IT suppliers have deflected criticism and redirected
criticism to end users^E We would challenge the software industry to create
products that are easier to use, where security is a default component of
the software. It shouldn't require somebody with a technology degree to
manage a home computer," says a Roundtable spokeswoman. The Roundtable's
complaints mirror those made by some consumer groups and security experts,
but were met with skepticism by technology representatives. "Cybersecurity
is everybody's responsibility, including the vendors, the users,
enterprises and government agencies," says a spokesman for the Information
Technology Association of America. "No serious commentary will say that the
user has no responsibility. We all have responsibilities to lock our doors
in our homes and to buckle up when we get in cars." (AP 19 May 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040519/D82LK4RG1.html
DELL AND HP SHOULDER MORE OF THE RECYCLING BURDEN
Dell and Hewlett-Packard are taking steps to assume more
responsibility for recycling discarded computer equipment, relieving
individual consumers and local governments of the financial burden
associated with proper disposal of obsolete hardware. Currently, both Dell
and HP operate programs that pick up and recycle old computers for fees
ranging from $13 to $30. The two companies ranked at the top of a recent
report card generated by the Computer Takeback Campaign, which has been
urging companies to set up their own recycling facilities -- something both
Dell and HP have done. (New York Times 19 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/business/19compute.html
SKYPE INKS DEAL WITH TWO TELECOM CARRIERS
Skype, the VoIP brainchild of Kazaa co-founder Niklas Zennstrom and
his partner, has signed agreements with two telecommunications companies
that will enable Skype phone calls to be made on standard handsets anywhere
in the U.S. Up until now, users of Skype's software had to make and receive
their free long distance and international phone calls on their computers.
The basic Skype service will remain free for Internet-based calls, but the
company will offer two premium services -- one that allows Skype users to
place calls to anyone outside the network, and a subscription-based service
that includes features such as voice mail and a geographic-based phone
number so that users can receive calls anywhere. These latest moves pit the
spunky startup against industry giants such as AT&T, as well as smaller
rivals such as VoicePulse and Vonage. Skype's biggest advantage is the
power of its peer-to-peer architecture, which relies on users' computers to
form the network rather than investing in expensive telecommunications
gear. Zennstrom says 12 million people have downloaded the Skype software
in the past nine months and about one million use it regularly. Jupiter
Research predicts that Internet telephony will become a major source of new
revenue for broadband ISPs, generating $6.36 billion by 2009.
(San Jose Mercury News 19 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8701585.htm
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan:
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***
>From Edupage
SENATE HEARS TESTIMONY ON EFFECTS OF CAN-SPAM ACT
The U.S. Senate this week heard testimony from various sources about
the effectiveness of the CAN-SPAM Act, which went into effect about six
months ago. Several witnesses, including at least one bulk e-mailer,
praised the law, noting that it lays out specific requirements for mass
e-mail to be considered legitimate. Timothy J. Muris, chairman of the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said government officials were in the
process of using the new law to put an end to the actions of several
dozen spammers, though no charges have yet been filed. Jana D. Monroe,
assistant director of the FBI's cyber crime division, echoed Muris's
comments, saying the law gives law enforcement needed tools to pursue
spammers. James Guest, president of Consumers Union, offered a
different perspective, saying that the onus on users to opt out of
unwanted messages has made the law ineffective. Guest called on
Congress to enact a do-not-spam list, which the CAN-SPAM Act charges
the FTC to investigate. Representatives from spam-filtering companies
testified that since the law was enacted, the overall percentage of
spam to the total volume of e-mail has risen. Antispam company Postini
estimates that spam now represents 83 percent of all e-mail, compared
to 78 percent at the end of last year.
Washington Post, 20 May 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43622-2004May20.html
BILL CALLS FOR FEDERAL PRIVACY OFFICERS
Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and Rep. Jim Turner (D-Tex.) this week
introduced a bill that would create a government-wide chief privacy
officer position, as well as a similar position within each federal
department. Meek and Turner are both members of the House Select
Committee on Homeland Security. Under the bill, federal privacy
policies would be coordinated under an appointed position at the Office
of Management and Budget, and a Commission on Privacy, Freedom, and
Homeland Security would investigate privacy issues stemming from the
fight against terrorism. According to Meek, the government needs to
address privacy issues proactively, rather than wait "until we have a
mountain of examples of individual privacy violations." Some privacy
advocates have said agencies that do not deal with personal data would
not need privacy chiefs, and Meek said if a determination is made that
an agency does not need such a position, it could be rolled back.
Federal Computer Week, 20 May 2004
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0517/web-privacy-05-20-04.asp
DELL AND HP INCREASE SUPPORT FOR RECYCLING PROGRAMS
Computer makers Dell and HP have announced increased support for
computer recycling programs, easing the financial burden for consumers
and local governments. Their announcement coincided with the release of
a report from the Computer Takeback Campaign, a project that rates
corporate environmental responsibility. HP and Dell received the
highest marks on this year's report card from the project, which is
part of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Both companies offer
recycling of consumer products for between $13 and $30. HP has been a
vocal critic of a recycling law set to take effect in California that
requires consumers to pay a recycling fee to a local government when
they purchase certain computer devices. Control over recycling
programs, according to HP, should remain with computer makers.
Officials with the Toxics Coalition agreed. Executive Director Ted
Smith said, "[C]ompanies have to set up these systems, not
governments."
New York Times, 19 May 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/business/19compute.html
YAHOO DEBUTS NEW ANTISPAM TOOL
Yahoo this week released a new e-mail standard called DomainKeys that
aims to limit spam by preventing spammers from spoofing return
addresses. The problem of spam has grown to the point that large ISPs
block as many as 2.5 billion e-mails daily that are identified as spam,
much of it pretending to come from a legitimate return address that did
not send the message. Yahoo's approach would embed an encrypted key in
outgoing e-mail messages that matches a key on the server that sent the
messages. E-mail providers could easily check to see if the keys match,
and, if not, those message could then be blocked. The DomainKeys
standard could also help fight "phishing," which tricks computer users
into divulging personal information by sending e-mail that pretends to
come from an online retailer or service, such as Citigroup or eBay. The
messages tell recipients that the business needs certain information,
such as credit card numbers or Social Security numbers, to complete an
order or update its records.
Wired News, 18 May 2004
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63513,00.html
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More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media
CHEAP STORAGE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY 'ENOUGH!'
"There is very little reason for anyone to throw anything away,"
Microsoft research head Rick Rashid told participants at this week's
World Wide Web conference, referring to the confluence of the latest
Internet software, cheap memory storage and networked communication.
Rashid said Microsoft is examining how to use personal "memory
landmarks" to enable users to search for documents through various
emotional connections a person may associate with them. One such
project is called "Stuff I've Seen," which allows Web surfers to label
and annotate all useful Internet content that they come across and then
return to it later and find their annotations still intact. Rashid said
a terabyte of data storage costing about $1,000 would enable consumers
to "store every conversation you have ever had, from the time you are
born to the time you die." With that much storage, users could snap a
180-degree fish-eye view of their surroundings for every minute of
every day for the rest of their lives. Microsoft researchers in the UK
have built prototypes of just such a life-recording device called
SenseCam, and are gearing up to shrink the photo capture system to no
bigger than a necklace pendant. "Obviously this raises a whole
lot of issues about privacy and the control of one's personal
information," said Rashid. "But this is where we're going. It's already
the case that kids are walking around with camera phones taking a lot
of pictures. This is just an extension of that."
(Reuters/CNet 20 May 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5217502.html
^^^[From Newsscan]^^^
***
[Remember Previous Mention Of RFIDs For Humans??? Hee hee!]
Clubbers choose chip implants to jump queues
NewScientist.com news service
Clubbers in Spain are choosing to receive a microchip implant instead of
carrying a membership card. It is the latest and perhaps the most unlikely
of uses for implantable radio frequency ID chips.
The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona offers people signing up for VIP
membership a choice between an RFID chip and a normal card. VIP members can
jump the entrance queues, reserve a table and use the nightclub's VIP
lounge.
"The RFID chip is not compulsory," says Conrad Chase, managing director of
the club. But he says there are advantages to having it. The obvious one is
that you do not have to carry a membership card around with you, but also
it means you can leave your wallet at home. This is because the RFID can be
used as an in-house debit card, says Chase.
***
DEBATING PROS, CONS OF FINGERPRINTING
from The Washington Post (Registration Required)
Matching fingerprints involves judgment, skill and training and is
extraordinarily reliable when done properly, its proponents say.
Critics charge that fingerprinting is far from infallible and is prone to
more error and bias in the criminal justice system than is ever
acknowledged.
The fingerprints of Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon lawyer mistakenly linked to
the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, may just have been very similar to
those of an Algerian man who Spanish authorities ultimately determined is a
true suspect, said Simon A. Cole, a skeptic and author of "Suspect
Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification."
http://snipurl.com/6njd
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pgweekly_2004_05_26_part_1.txt
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