*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 28, 2004 PT1*
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6,635 to go to 20,000
We have now averaged 400 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
***
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
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***
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Over Our 33 03/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 400 eBooks/Yr
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About 85 Per Week
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estroy_us_pamphlets/
[below a snippet from that site]
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"withdraw these materials immediately and destroy all copies by any
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355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
2458 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
10303 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
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====
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FLASHBACK!!!
2458 New eBooks So Far in 2004
It took us ~29 years for the first 2458 !
That's the 6.75 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2458
Jan 2001 The Madonna of the Future, by Henry James [HJ #28][mdftrxxx.xxx] 2460
Jan 2001 Trent's Trust & Other Stories, by Bret Harte [#16][ttaosxxx.xxx] 2459
Jan 2001 Sermons on the Card, by Hugh Latimer [srmcdxxx.xxx] 2458
Jan 2001 Stories by English Authors in Italy, Scribners, Ed[sbeaixxx.xxx] 2457
Contents:
A Faithful Retainer, By James Payn
Bianca, By W. E. Norris
Goneril, By A. Mary F. Robinson
The Brigand'S Bride, By Laurence Oliphant
Mrs. General Talboys, By Anthony Trollope
(See also #2359)
Jan 2001 The History of Herodotus V2 by Herodotus/ Macauley[2hofhxxx.xxx] 2456
[Author: G. C. Macaulay] (Note: This is V2, we do NOT have V1)
Jan 2001 History of the Catholic Church, V 2 by MacCaffrey [2hcthxxx.xxx] 2455
(See also #2396)
Jan 2001 The Silent Bullet, by Arthur B. Reeve[AB Reeve #2][sblltxxx.xxx] 2454
Jan 2001 Beyond, by John Galsworthy [John Galsworthy #3][byondxxx.xxx] 2453
Jan 2001 Shavings, by Joseph C. Lincoln [shavsxxx.xxx] 2452
Jan 2001 Caught In The Net, by Emile Gaboriau [Gaboriau #5][cnnetxxx.xxx] 2451
Dec 2000 Boyhood, by Leo Tolstoy/Tolstoi [Leo Tolstoy #8][boyhdxxx.xxx] 2450
Dec 2000 The Common Law, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. [#3][cmnlwxxx.xxx] 2449
Dec 2000 The Colored Cadet at West Point, by Henry Flipper [ccawpxxx.xxx] 2448
Dec 2000 Eminent Victorians, by Lytton Strachey [mnvctxxx.xxx] 2447
Dec 2000 An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen [Ibsen #3][aeotpxxx.xxx] 2446
Dec 2000 Letters on England, by Voltaire [Voltaire #1][ltengxxx.xxx] 2445
.(Note: the filename ltengxxx.xxx is also used for a totally different
.(eBook, #1936 in etext99)
Dec 2000 Oxford [City & University], by Andrew Lang[AL #25][oxfrdxxx.xxx] 2444
Dec 2000 The Story of the Mormons by William Alexander Linn[tsotmxxx.xxx] 2443
Dec 2000 History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson[Pres][hioajxxx.xxx] 2442
Dec 2000 The Burgess Animal Book for Children, by Burgess 2[babfcxxx.xxx] 2441
Dec 2000 The Naturalist on the River Amazons by Henry Bates[notraxxx.xxx] 2440
Dec 2000 History of England, James II Vol. 2, Macaulay[#9][2hoejxxx.xxx] 2439
[Title: The History of England from the Accession of James II]
[Author: Thomas Babington Macaulay] (See also #1468)
Dec 2000 Daphne, An Autumn Pastoral, by Margaret Sherwood [daphnxxx.xxx] 2438
Dec 2000 They and I, by Jerome K. Jerome[Jerome Jerome #23][theyixxx.xxx] 2437
Dec 2000 The Marriages, by Henry James [Henry James #25][tmrgsxxx.xxx] 2436
Dec 2000 The Crimson Fairy Book, Andrew Lang, Ed.[Lang #24][crfryxxx.xxx] 2435
Dec 2000 The New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon [F. Bacon #2][nwatlxxx.xxx] 2434
Dec 2000 Donal Grant, by George MacDonald [GM #9][dgrntxxx.xxx] 2433
Dec 2000 Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope[Trollope 6][btowexxx.xxx] 2432
Dec 2000 Is Shakespeare Dead? by Mark Twain [MT#16][shkddxxx.xxx] 2431
Dec 2000 Romantic Ballads, by George Borrow [Borrow#7][rmbddxxx.xxx] 2430
Dec 2000 Lost Face, by Jack London [London 90-96][lstfcxxx.xxx] 2429
Contains the following 7 eBooks by Jack London:
The Wit of Porportuk, by Jack London [London #96]
The Passing of Marcus O'Brien, by Jack London [London #95]
Flush of Gold, by Jack London [London #94]
That Spot, by Jack London [London #93]
To Build a Fire, by Jack London [London #92]
Trust, by Jack London [London #91]
Lost Face, by Jack London [London #90]
Dec 2000 Essay on Man, by Alexander Pope[Alexander Pope #1][esymnxxx.xxx] 2428
Dec 2000 The Patagonia, by Henry James [Henry James#24][patgnxxx.xxx] 2427
Dec 2000 The Diary of a Man of Fifty by H. James [James#21][dmnftxxx.xxx] 2426
Dec 2000 A Bundle of Letters, by Henry James [James#20][bndltxxx.xxx] 2425
***
Today Is Day #209 of 2004
This Completes Week #29 and Month #6.75
162 Days/24 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
6635 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
84 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 29 weeks of this year, we have produced 2458 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our FIRST 2458 eBooks!!!
That's 29 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!!
With 13,365 eBooks online as of July 28, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.75 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 $1.14 when we had 8705 eBooks a year Ago
Can you imagine ~13,365 books each costing ~$.39 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~13,365 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 13,365 eBooks in 33 Years and 00.75 Months We Averaged
404 Per Year [We do nearly that much a month these days!]
33.6 Per Month
1.11 Per Day
At 2458 eBooks Done In The 209 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
12 Per Day
84 Per Week
364 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:
TIVO'S EXPANSION PLANS OPPOSED BY COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
[MPAA Is Not Only Against "Time Shifting," But Now Against "Space Shifting."]
In filings with the Federal Communications Commission, Hollywood studios
and other creators of digital content are trying to block the maker of
TiVo television recording devices from letting users watch copies of
shows and movies on devices outside their homes. TiVo wants to expand its
system next year to allow programs to be transferred to registered devices
outside the home -- such as at an office, vacation cabin, or friend's house.
The Motion Picture Association of America opposes this plan, and its general
counsel says: "Our concern is grounded in the fact that the remote access is
not limited to the recipient's summer home or boat or office. The people
that can receive the programming can be totally unrelated in any place on
the globe." (Washington Post 21 Jul 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4042-2004Jul21.html
IBM TO BUILD SUPERCOMPUTER FOR DOD
[Out of Mac and Nintendo Parts!!!]
IBM has been awarded a contract to build the U.S. military's fastest
supercomputer, a 20 teraflop system that will cost about $100 million to
build. The fourth-fastest computer in the world, the system will be used to
produce short-term weather forecasts for Navy fleets at sea and to allow
military scientists to model atmosphere and ocean dynamics for the entire
surface of the Earth. Other uses will be to analyze aircraft material at a
molecular level and to examine the flow of water around submarine hulls to
improve their design. The supercomputer's design calls for 368 of IBM's
high-end corporate servers, using processors from the family of chips that
power Apple's G5 Macintosh desktops and Nintendo's video game consoles.
(Washington Post 26 Jul 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16518-2004Jul26.html
MOBILE-PHONE WALLETS
In Japan "smart cards" for making consumer purchases may soon be replaced
by virtual-wallet technology. A series of cellphones going on sale this
summer in Japan, for use on NTT DoCoMo's wireless network, are the
world's first with an embedded computer chip that you can fill up with
electronic cash. To pay you simply wave your cell phone within a few inches
of a special display found in stores, restaurants and vending machines
around Japan. Unlike infrared or other mobile payment schemes that require
clicks on the handset, you don't even need to open your phone. But whatever
money is stored on the phone is like cash, so if you lose your wallet you
lose your money. Just like the good old days. (AP/USA Today 22 Jul 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2004-07-22-wallet-phone_x.htm
44 MILLION TELECOMMUTERS
A study by In-Stat/MDR predicts that 44 million US workers will be
telecommuting this year, either full-time or working from home on a
part-time basis. The number of telecommuters is expected to grow by 2008 to
51 million, with 14 million working full-time at home. The report notes that
the rise in telecommuting has fuelled growth in high-speed Internet by home
users: "Companies too are supporting this movement, with some firms going so
far as to subsidizing the equipment and service expense to allow their
employees to work from home." (The Age 21 Jul 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089195849.html
GOOGLE IN ITS YOUTH
Google is being sued for age discrimination by a 54-year-old terminated
manager who says he was told that he didn't fit in with Google's culture of
"youth and energy." The company prides itself on being an enlightened
employer, but the lawsuit alleges that Google purposely avoids hiring older
workers. Google denies the accusations. (San Jose Mercury News 24 Jul 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9229359.htm
VIETNAM STEPS UP CONTROL OF INTERNET
[In the interest of "National Security"--see earlier story about China]
[Similar efforts in China this month blocked access to Google]
Vietnam has stepped up efforts to control the Internet, instructing
Internet service providers to terminate contracts with cyber-cafes that
allow customers to access pornographic or anti-government sites. The
directive, issued by Minister of Post and Telecommunications Do Trung Ta, is
the latest in a string of measures unveiled in recent months to prevent "bad
and poisonous information" being circulated online. This latest regulation
requires the communist nation's seven state-owned Internet service providers
to disconnect cyber-cafes if they allow clients to access forbidden sites.
Cafe owners are also instructed to monitor their customers' use of the Web
for any violations of government regulations, such as distributing viruses
and accessing pornographic sites or those that "threaten national security."
(The Age 21 Jul 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089201081.html
CHINA GOES IT ALONE ON HIGH-TECH STANDARDS
[More about China's truly remarkable growth plans]
DVD? China's trying to do it one better -- with a technology called
EVD. CDMA? The digital cell phone standard is so 2003, the Chinese say. Give
TD-SCDMA a try instead. Intel's Centrino and Microsoft's Windows? If you're
doing business with Beijing, better bone up on WAPI and Red Flag Linux, too.
These days, China's dominant message is this: We'll embrace the world -- but
on our terms. And nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of high
technology, where behind the acronyms is a battle of standards that could
have global repercussions. Pushed by their government, Chinese firms are
shunning technological protocols invented abroad and developing their own.
They want Chinese-made video discs to run on Chinese-invented players, and
they want Chinese consumers linking up with China-developed mobile gadgets.
(The Age 23 Jul 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/22/1090464788166.html
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan:
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class
organization making significant and sustained contributions to the
effective management and appropriate use of information technology.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
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***
>From Edupage
DUKE FRESHMEN TO RECEIVE IPODS
[Can eBooks on iPods Be Far Behind?]
Duke University has announced a plan to give each of its 1,650 incoming
freshman this fall an Apple iPod as an experiment to see how the
devices affect teaching and learning. Each iPod will come with
orientation information and an academic calendar installed. Duke will
set up a Web site from which students can download course materials,
lectures, audio books, and other academic content to their iPods.
Although the project is not designed to discourage copyright
infringement, according to Tracy Futhey, vice president of information
technology at Duke, having "an easy-to-use legal alternative" could
provide students with an incentive to limit illegal file trading. The
project is estimated to cost Duke $500,000, and students will keep the
iPods. After the school year is over, school officials will evaluate
the educational benefits of the program.
Wired News, 20 July 2004
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64282,00.html
[and even more open source and open competition]
IBM LOOKS TO COMPETE WITH MICROSOFT FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS
A new initiative from IBM aims to offer alternatives to Microsoft
products in academic settings. Because Windows computers are so common,
many academic programs focus on teaching software development using
Microsoft's operating system and development tools, according to Haym
Hirsh, chairman of the computer science department at Rutgers
University in New Jersey. Hirsh added, however, that "we don't want
our students to come out knowing only one way to do things." Under
IBM's new program, interested colleges and universities will be given
access to software and development tools, including open-source
products as well as proprietary IBM products such as the DB2 database
and WebSphere Internet software. Institutions will also have access to
course-development assistance from IBM's in-house training programs.
Officials from IBM said the program involves more than simply the
promotion of IBM hardware and software, responding to demand from
academic interests to have a broader range of options for teaching
computer science.
Wall Street Journal, 20 July 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109027258344267723,00.html
[and yet more open access]
BRITISH GOVERNMENT PUSHES OPEN ACCESS
Less than a week after a Congressional committee in the United States
called for open access to government-funded research, Britain's
Science and Technology Committee has issued a report with a similar
recommendation. Like the U.S. report, the British report does not
require open access but strongly encourages scholarly publications to
be either posted on public Web sites or published in "author-pays"
journals, in which authors pay a fee to have their research published,
thereby eliminating fees for subscription. The report also calls on the
government to subsidize author-pays fees for scholars and encourages
academics to retain copyright over their published works, rather than
signing copyright over to the journals that publish them, which
typically happens today. The British Office of Science and Technology
may issue new regulations based on the report this fall. Meanwhile,
Reed Elsevier, the largest publisher of scientific journals, last month
announced that authors of its publications would be allowed to post
copies of their work on institutional Web sites. A spokesperson for
Reed Elsevier said the publisher welcomed the report, though it
believes "some of the concerns expressed in the report about government
policy on scientific publishing to be overstated."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 July 2004 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/07/2004072002n.htm
SCHOOL PROJECT LEADS TO CHEAP MOBILE-PHONE DETECTOR
[Is it cheating they want to catch, or just to know what you do/say?]
A team of secondary-school students in New Zealand has created a mobile
phone detector for a business competition at their school, St. Thomas
of Canterbury College in Christchurch. The device, which the students
named CellTrac-r, can detect radio signals that cell phones use when
transmitting or receiving either calls or text messages. When activity
is detected, the device illuminates a series of lights that indicate
that activity and how far it is from the detector, which can monitor
distances up to 30 meters. Similar devices are currently available from
electronics makers, but the one developed by the students is
significantly less expensive than those available today. The students
have sold all 20 of the first batch they made, for NZ$39.95. Linda
Roberts of the University of Canterbury said she plans to test the
devices during university exams at the end of the year in an effort to
prevent students' cheating with cell phones. "People could be texting
away in an exam of 400 people and it would be hard to detect," said
Roberts. The devices will also be tested in a local prison to detect
unauthorized cell-phone usage within the prison.
BBC, 20 July 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3890959.stm
REALNETWORKS MUSIC TO PLAY ON APPLE IPODS
RealNetworks has announced software that will make music downloads from
its online music store compatible with any portable media player,
including Apple Computer's iPod. Until now, RealNetworks music played
only on the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra MP3 player, and the iPod
has supported only digitally protected songs that carry restrictions on
their use and are purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store. The new
Harmony software reportedly will make ReanNetworks songs compatible
with FairPlay, the digital rights management standard Apple uses to
protect songs from unauthorized copying.
MSNBC, 26 July 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5518136/
BLOGGERS GET PRESS CREDENTIALS
[Will the Republicans do the same?]
Several dozen Web loggers have received press credentials to cover the
Democratic national political convention this year in Boston, and
organizers of the Republican convention in New York have said they
intend to issue credentials to 10 to 20 bloggers. The chosen bloggers
face a new situation in having access to primary sources for their
blogs rather than, per their usual practice, ferreting out information
from multiple sources or providing commentary based on news coverage of
events. The bloggers expect to cover niche issues and behind-the-scenes
events rather than the larger issues that typically attract the
mainstream news media. Some media experts have expressed reservations
about the shift in the definition of "journalist" to include bloggers,
arguing that journalists should be credentialed professionals.
New York Times, 26 July 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/26/politics/campaign/26blog.html
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***
More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media
U.S. RAIL SYSTEM TRAINS RUNNING WITHOUT ENGINEERS ONBOARD
For at least the second time this month there has been a
remotely controlled train derailment involving hazardous
materials [HAZMAT].
Last night a remotely controlled Norfolk-Southern train
derailed in the St. Louis area near Alton, Illinois,
spilling hundreds of gallons of liquid fuel which HAZMAT
teams are cleaning up. Norfolk-Southern refused comment.
I also called another prominent railroad line to find out
how many trains are run for what distances without anyone
on board, but got a long silence. When I said "thank you"
and prepared to hang up, I was shuffled to a voicemail.
Just this past week, on July 22, it was revealed that the
Union Pacific derailment in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on the 9th,
was also of a remote control train.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET)
has made repeated warnings concerning these trains, without
apparent effect. [See BLET quote below]
Most of the publicity about these remote control trains is
designed to indicate they are used in railyard switching,
but the Union Pacific train was a full train, consisting
of over 100 cars, which ran through a Jonesboro, Arkansas
checkpoint and crashed into a hazardous materials train on
the main line, derailing 11 cars.
The remote control was being operated by two junior workers
hired only this year.
It would appear that the Union Pacific railroad did not report
the fact that the train was remote controlled to either the
National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] or local media,
which covered the accident.
A previous Union Pacific crash in Arlington, Texas involved a remote
control train that an eyewitness told the Ft. Worth Star Telegram
repeatedly rammed another train until it derailed right into the
path of another oncoming train. A Union Pacific spokesperson told
the Star Telegram that the remote control operator was out of the
position in which he could that he was hitting anything. Further
Union Pacific comments in the same article indicated that the fault
was "human error" not the fault of the remote control system,
as if repeated crashing would happen with an engineer on board.
There are failsafe devices installed to prevent these crashes,
but other researchers indicate these were overridden on purpose
to speed up the trains to increase profits.
Donald M. Hahs, National President of the BLET was quoted as saying,
"The railroads, which are the nations largest carrier of hazardous materials,
continue to take shortcuts with training employees, properly manning
locomotives, and implementing needed safety precautions."
July 27, 2004
www.teamster.org/04news/nr_040722_1hn.htm
also see:
www.ble.org/pr/news/pf_newsflash.asp?id=3905
***
TEFLON/SCOTCHGARD FOUND IN WILDLIFE AROUND OVER WORLD
Teflon and/or Scotchgard, while providing "non-stick" surfaces to keep
human homes and food cleaner, are turning out to be sticky commodities
in terms of the world's environment, from Polar Bears near the Arctic
to Japanese seabirds, and Mediterranean sea creatures.
These compounds, related to chorofluorocarbons such as Dupont's Freon,
are now being found in the the Great Lakes, which supplies the drinking
water for perhaps 10% of the U.S. and Canadian population.
*
SCIENTISTS LEAVING UNIVERSITIES
As governments continue denying economic recession and/or depressions,
the continuing cutbacks in grants are driving scientists out of their
academic settings and into the streets.
Most of these used to survive on salaries no better than the median,
not only spending four years as graduate researchers, but then yet
another four to eight years in various post-doctoral positions that
still have have salaries at about the median level.
Most of these would prefer to keep doing research, but with grants
and academics both becoming serious hassles, more and more of them
are heading out into the "real world."
One such example was Craig Venter, who rose to fame by re-entering
the Human Genome Project fray to set the world on its ear after 6
years of living as a surfer, but who rapidly eclipsed the work of
Nobel laureate James Watson, of Watson and Crick fame.
Experts admit that Venter's work was "spectacular" and that in his
efforts he took genetics to the next level, years ahead of where a
previous lock-step approach was being enforced by the governments
and academics.
It just makes you wonder how many more years we would be ahead if
Craig Venter had been encouraged, rather than held back for years
and then forced completely out of the system for 6 more years.
***
SIMPLE SOLUTION OF THE WEEK
Nothing for this week. eBooks?
***
ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
HMO's are allowed to charge more than the median family income.
*
The average American woman has 6 pairs of black pants.
***
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pgweekly_2004_07_28_part_1.txt
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