Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter--Oct. 21, 2009 eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971 38 Months to The End of the World Via Mayan Calendaring on December 21, 2012 [some now saying October 11, 2011] Leaving 3 years 2 months, 12 2/3 seasons or 38 months. Not to worry, I will still make long range predictions, such as that there will be affordable petabytes [2021], and enough eBooks to fill an entire petabyte around the same time. Headline News [and lots of it!] Cell Phone Figures for Q3 of 2009 are out 1.2 Billion Cell Phones Sold in Last Year 20 Million iPhones versus 1.3 Million Macs We are going to need a new site for cellphones!!!!!!! WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO CREATE http://www.gutenberg.org/mobile [Footnote: If we presume 4.8 billion total cellphones accounts in operation in the last year. that means 1/4 of all cellphone users got new phones last year. This constant upgrading is something I predict will keep us on a rapid increase in cellphone functions, including, but not limited to, books, calculators, browsers, etc. I heard on NPR this week that more persons read eBooks on cellphones than on computers or anything else.] 1800th eBook From Project Gutenberg of Australia 400th eBook From Project Gutenberg of Canada 35,000th Project Gutenberg eBook From All Of Our Sites As you know, two Newsletters ago we announced 25,000th in our collection of eBooks in English then last month we announced our 30,000th in all languages": counting those created or distributed under U.S. Copyright Law. This month we are are announcing the 35,000th eBook of all the various Project Gutenberg sites worldwide, and this includes Australia, Europe, Canada, etc., and the PrePrints section, which still has ~2,000. In addition we are announcing our 1,500th French eBook which is coming out at any moment, and de Toqueville's major work on "Democracy" is the one we have chosen. [At the moment of this writing the last polishing work is being done on all four volumes, and we have 1493 in our French collection already, so any moment now.] Previous details on these are included below. eBook Milestones Redux We just released our 25,000th English Project Gutenberg eBook as "Merriam-Websters Unabridged Dictionary, 1913" about a month ago, and we are now coming up on 30,000th in all languages, under U.S. Copyright Law and 35,000th created by all Project Gutenberg sites worldwide. This is not counting any of the ~75,000 eBooks available via http://www.gutenberg.cc which have been donated by many eLibraries outside the Project Gutenberg systems. In addition, Project Gutenberg of Australia is about to post its 1800th eBook, and we are coming up on #1500 of our eBooks in French. Last month: Project Gutenberg posted its 25,000th home- grown eBook: home-grown means not including eBooks given by the various Project Gutenbergs that are springing up, including Australia [approaching 2,000], PG of Europe is approaching 650, PG of Canada's approaching 500 and many more such events are taking place around the world. All in all, adding up all the Project Gutenberg sites in toto, not discount duplications, there are 100,000+ book titles, along with music, movies, audiobooks, etc. All in all the original Project Gutenberg has produced a total of 29,660 at the time of this release, meaning the their total in all 50+ languages they have produced will be turning 30,000 in about a month. This larger total includes nearly 1,500 books in French, about 600 in German, 500 in Finnish, over 400 in Dutch & Chinese, about 350 in Portuguese, and 250 in Spanish and the list goes on and on. If it is languages other than English that interest you: http://www.gutenberg.cc where there are over 100 languages represented in a wide variety of languages and subjects, with about 75,000 all total, approximately half of which are non-English. /// Our 30,000th eBook created under U.S. copyright law is a beautiful volume on birds, lavishly illustrated. Thanks!!! Michael /// We Recently Published Our: 200th eBook in Italian 250th eBook in Spanish 400th eBook in Chinese 500th eBook in Finnish 600th eBook in German and our 400th eBook on PG of Canada and 1800th eBook from Project Gutenberg of Australia Our 1500th in French is expected next week. Our All Time Hottest Requests!!!!!!! FLASH RAM I am looking for the earliest flash RAM possible. The ideal piece around which to center this collection is one of the 8 megabyte USBs. The very earliest were PCMCIA cards, such as used for the Poqet computer, etc. The earliest USB flash drives were DisgoDizgo, M-Systems and these were OEMed by IBM, HP, etc. They are particular in a recognizable fashion because their snapon connectors resemble the connectors of jigsaw puzzles. We received two examples of RAM actually labeled "Flash," for the H-P 95 pocket DOS machine from 1991, and a sample of Fairchild bubble memory, as well, from down under. Thank you, Mate! POWERPOINT We need someone who can do PowerPoint illustrations. One in particular, building a 3-D box of 1,000 dominoes. Additional Newsletter Services In addition, we will provide the PG Canada Newsletter and totals from PG of Australia, Europe, PrePrints, etc. These totals do NOT include 75,000+ at httpwww.gutenberg.cc Where there are eBooks representing over 100 languages. As you may have noticed, I cheated by a few days on the date of this Newsletter so I could include #25,000 so I should warn you that the monthly totals will be larger, this month, and smaller next time. The Project Gutenberg Statistical Report [As of about noon Central Daylight Time] Various totals from the ~30,000 at httpwww.gutenberg.org and our other Project Gutenberg Sites day | cnt ----------------+----- Wed 2009-10-14 | 6 Thu 2009-10-15 | 8 Fri 2009-10-16 | 8 Sat 2009-10-17 | 6 Sun 2009-10-18 | 2 Mon 2009-10-19 | 10 Tue 2009-10-20 | 14 Thanks to Marcello Perathoner! Here are the current language totals for languages with 200 or more eBooks. Grand total for today: 30194 25408 English en 1493 French fr 613 German de 515 Finnish fi 449 Dutch nl 402 Chinese zh 361 Portuguese pt 267 Spanish es 217 Italian it Total increase: +251 Grand total for last month: 29943 25197 English en 1486 French fr 606 German de 515 Finnish fi 447 Dutch nl 402 Chinese zh 354 Portuguese pt 260 Spanish es 216 Italian it Total increase +281 Previous month: Grand total: 29662 25002 English en 1454 French fr 597 German de 513 Finnish fi 441 Dutch nl 402 Chinese zh 344 Portuguese pt 253 Spanish es 203 Italian it Total increase +294 and Previous month +287 All Reported Languges Not counting PrePrints, Canada, Australia, PG Europe Thanks to Greg Newby! ////// And From Project Gutenberg Sites Worldwide 30,194 up 251 PG General Automated Count 1,808 up 9 PG of Australia 656 up 9 PG of Europe 2,008 dn 1 PG PrePrints, Reserved [42] 410 dn 40 Posted #400 on October 10 [No additional news from PG of Canada] [Note previous estimate was 50 too high] ====== 35,076 up 278 [Including correcting above estimate] Last Month 29,943 up 281 PG General Automated Count 1,799 up 13 PG of Australia 647 up 3 PG of Europe 2,009 dn 12 PG PrePrints, Reserved [42],etc. [PrePrints was down when I checked, sorry] 450 up 25 PG of Canada [Est. since End of June] [This estimate was at least 50 too high] ====== 34,848 up 310 Grand Total Last Month Before That 34,528 up 359 Grand Total Previous month 34,179 up 347 Grand Total Up from previous month's 33,832 up 320 Grand Total Note There are perhaps 100 eBooks not listed here that are already in circulation from Project Gutenberg. Note PG Canada includes English, French, and Italian. /// Here is how we ended 2008 27,616 PG General Automated Count 1,726 Project Gutenberg of Australia 554 Project Gutenberg of Europe 225 Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated] [202 up to December, no current report] 2,431 PrePrints [Counting the 307 Chinese eBooks +111] ====== ====== 32,552 Grand Total [Counting those PrePrints] Here is how we ended 2007 The combined PG projects had produced a total of 26,161 titles. The most number of books posted... ...in one day was 65 on the 26th December ...in one week was 151 in Week 18 (week ending 9th May) ...in one month was 477 in November We averaged 338 per month [Over 4,000 for the year] 78 per week 11.13 per day 99 titles were newly REposted to the new filing system, bringing us almost to the 2,000 mark. Here is a small selection of project milestones; TOTAL Original Project Gutenberg eBooks equals about the number of books in the average U.S. public library 32,500 on 20082121 [Counting the 307 Chinese Preprints] [And presuming 3 after official count] 32,000 on Calculating 31,500 on 20081021 [not an error, 1,777 PrePrints] 30,000 on 20081021 29,500 on 20080919 29,000 ~~ Calculating 28,500 ~~ Calculating 28,000 ~~ 20080516 27,500 on 20080405 27,000 ~~ 20080229 26,500 on 20080126 26,000 on 20071224 25,000 on 20071012 24,000 on 20070710 23,000 on 20070415 PG-AU 1,700 on 20081010 1,600 on 20080208 1,500 on 20070407 PG Canada 175 on 20080930 100 on 20080325 110 on 20080417 /// Many thanks to all who have helped us reach our 39th year! Michael S. Hart Founder Project Gutenberg