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March 2005

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PT1 Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
by Michael Hart 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

GWeekly_March_02.txt *The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, March 02, 2005 PT1* *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971****** Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart(a)pobox.com or gbnewby(a)pglaf.org Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart(a)pobox.com HOT REQUESTS EMAIL "HELP" NEEDED One or two people are needed to help answer email inquiries to "help(a)pglaf.org" and a few of our other email aliases. These are general questions about Project Gutenberg and the world of eBooks, sometimes requiring some research. This job usually takes less than an hour per day, but needs attention every day. We can provide you with answers to frequently asked questions, etc. Email Greg Newby <gbnewby(a)pglaf.org> if you are interested. * Darwin!!! Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers. *** I was just wondering if you or might know someone from PG who could help a Linux newbie like me. There are some programs I want to install, but I need step-by-step guidance to ensure the programs compile correctly and so forth. Jared Buck <JBuck814366460(a)aol.com> * Project Gutenberg of Canada needs your help! Please email: pgcanada(a)lists.pglaf.org * v0.2 version of PodReader is out, and it interfaces to PG. This allows users to browse the catalog on their Desktop, pick a book, and have it downloaded to their iPod in the correct format...this is a good plus for PG users since it makes it a lot easier to get to PG documents. http://homepage.mac.com/ptwobrussell/podreader.html * We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections of the Internet Archive for potential Project Gutenberg eBooks. http://www.archive.org Don't worry, many of the numbers listed are out of date, but you should get all the files when you pass through to the original sites. Click on "texts" to get started, feel free to pick up any of the eBooks you would like to work on. Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive! * TABLE OF CONTENTS [Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.] *eBook Milestones *Introduction *Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements *Continuing Requests and Announcements *Progress Report *Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report *Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report *Permanent Requests For Assistance: *Donation Information *Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections *Mirror Site Information *Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks *Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet? *Flashback *Weekly eBook update: This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter Corrections in separate section 8 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 74 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones We Have Given Away ONE TRILLION eBooks!!! Based on getting the average eBook to just 1% of the world population. 1% of the world population is 64,219,651 x 15,612 eBooks = 1+ trillion [Just passed this mark this week. . .1.0026 trillion!!!] With 15,612 eBooks online as of March 02, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$1.00 from each book for Project Gutenberg to have increased the world's standard of living by one trillion dollars. *** This is the 4th Anniversary of The Distributed Proofreaders!!! 6,314 eBooks Contributed To Project Gutenberg!!! Congratulations!!! Many Many Thanks!!! [More details below in statistical section] *** 15,612 eBooks As Of Today!!! 12,550 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Produced 656 eBooks in 2005 We Are ~56% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 We are ~12% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000 4,382 to go to 20,000!!! We have now averaged ~464 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971 ~251 Per month since the start of 2001 We Averaged About 337 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging About 328 books Per Month This Year We Are Averaging About 82 eBooks Per Week This Year 82 This Week It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000 * ***Introduction [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.] [Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. 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Please note that we can only use DVDs which are burnt in the dvd-r format, as we have had some compatibility issues with the dvd+r format. *** Project Gutenberg is seeking graphics we can use for our Web pages and publicity materials. If you have original graphics depicting Project Gutenberg themes, please contribute them! To see some of what we have now, please see: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/images *** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers. We have regular need for intellectual property legal advice (both US and international) and other areas. Please email Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> , if you can help. This is much more important than many of us realize! ***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders In the first 02.00 months of this year, we produced 656 new eBooks. It took us from July 1971 to Sept 1996 to produce our first 656 eBooks! That's 8 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 Years! 82 New eBooks This Week 76 New eBooks Last Week 364 New eBooks This Month [Feb] 328 Average Per Month in 2005 336 Average Per Month in 2004 355 Average Per Month in 2003 203 Average Per Month in 2002 103 Average Per Month in 2001 656 New eBooks in 2005 4049 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 12550 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 50.00 Months! 251 Per Month 15,612 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 11,711 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 3,901 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 422 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia * Please note the new format for this week's report. Including last weeks below for comparison's sake. (Note that this month is the fourth anniversary of eBook production for Project Gutenberg by Distributed Proofreaders. Congratualtions!!! A HUGE Thank You!!! Since completing its first eBook in March 2001, the Distributed Proofreaders team has now contributed 6,314 eBooks to Project Gutenberg. For more complete DP statistics, visit: http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php [So I went to the source listed in the line above and got] Jan 2005 - 248 Feb 2005 - 330 Mar 2005 - 15 593 Total for 2005 Previous reports looked like the one below, please let us know your preferences. *Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on Mar 13th, 2001, the Distributed Proofreaders team has now produced its 6,390th eBook (#14867). Of these are 5,992 unique, brand-new titles. Projects completed during the past year: Mar 2004 - 365 Apr 2004 - 276 May 2004 - 235 Jun 2004 - 232 Jul 2004 - 231 Aug 2004 - 220 Sep 2004 - 182 Oct 2004 - 263 Nov 2004 - 280 Dec 2004 - 287 Jan 2005 - 248 Feb 2005 - 11 (as of 2 Feb) * Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog. eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists. Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs: http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/subscribe-howto or http://www.gutenberg.org/subs.shtml *** *Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report Please note the addition of the Internet Archive marked with <<< below. PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as: Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files eBooks@Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<< Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change Renaisscance Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files =======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files===== Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 Total Files These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of their donors: some are one file per book; some have a file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the overcounting or duplication of numbers. If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~45,714 Unique eBooks If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~34,286 Unique eBooks *** Today Is Day #56 of 2005 This Completes Week #8 and Month #02.00 308 Days/44 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 4,385 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 82 Weekly Average in 2005 78 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] *** Permanent Requests For Assistance: DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES Thanks to very good recent publicity, the Distributed Proofreading project has greatly accelerated its pace. 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Your donations make it possible to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and transfers from any country, in any currency. Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employee Information Number (EIN) 64-6221541. For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to http://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html or email donate(a)gutenberg.org *Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections *Mirror Site Information Mirrors (copies) of the complete collection are available around the world. To find the sites nearest you, go to: http://www.gutenberg.org/MIRRORS.ALL *Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks http://www.gutenberg.org/find allows searching by title, author, language and subject. Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download site (or a mirror) if you know the file's name you want. Try: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs or ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/ and then navigate to the appropriate directory and look for the first five characters of the file's name. Note that updated eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.) *** Statistical Review In the 8 weeks of this year, we have produced 656 new eBooks. It took us from 7/71 to 9/96 to produce our FIRST 656 eBooks!!! That's 8 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 YEARS!!! FLASHBACK! Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #656 Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ### A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright Oct 1996 The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens [CD#12][curioxxx.xxx] 700 Oct 1996 A Child's History of England, Charles Dickens CD11[achoexxx.xxx] 699 Oct 1996 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin, R. L. Stevenson[RLS#33][fleemxxx.xxx] 698 Oct 1996 The Light Princess, by George MacDonald [GM#2] [ltprnxxx.xxx] 697 Oct 1996 The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole [HP#1] [cotrtxxx.xxx] 696 Oct 1996 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Chas Kingsley [glcusxxx.xxx] 695 Oct 1996 Stories from Everybody's Magazine, 1910 [10evmxxx.xxx] 694 Oct 1996 The Autobiography of a Quack, by S. Weir Mitchell [auqakxxx.xxx] 693 Oct 1996 Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Vol X [10jwrxxx.xxx] 692 Oct 1996 Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Vol I [01jwrxxx.xxx] 691 Oct 1996 Proposed Roads to Freedom, by Bertrand Russell[#1][rfreexxx.xxx] 690 Oct 1996 The Kreutzer Sonata, et al, by Leo Tolstoy/Tolstoi[krsonxxx.xxx] 689 Oct 1996 The Goodness of St. Rocque et al, by Alice Dunbar [stroqxxx.xxx] 688 Oct 1996 A Personal Record, by Joseph Conrad [Conrad #11] [aprjcxxx.xxx] 687 Oct 1996 The Treaty of the European Union [Maastricht] [maastxxx.xxx] 686 Oct 1996 The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [abombxxx.xxx] 685 Oct 1996 Worldwide Effects of Nuclear War-Some Perspectives[nukwrxxx.xxx] 684 Oct 1996 The Compleat Angler, by Izaak Walton [tcangxxx.xxx] 683 Oct 1996 Catalan's Constant [Ramanujan's Formula] [Math#15][ctcstxxx.xxx] 682 Oct 1996 Creatures That Once Were Men, by Maxim Gorky [#1] [crmenxxx.xxx] 681 Oct 1996 The Golden Threshold, by Sarojini Naidu [gldthxxx.xxx] 680 Oct 1996 Poems, by Frances E. W. Harper [pfewhxxx.xxx] 679 Oct 1996 The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens #10 [tcothxxx.xxx] 678 Oct 1996 Heroes, by Charles Kingsley [Greek Fairy Tales] [ghrosxxx.xxx] 677 Oct 1996 The Battle of Life, by Charles Dickens[Dickens#10][batlfxxx.xxx] 676 Oct 1996 American Notes, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #9] [amntsxxx.xxx] 675 Oct 1996 Plutarch's Lives, A. H. Clough, ["Dryden's Trans"][plivsxxx.xxx] 674 Oct 1996 Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary [HTML] [pgwhtxxx.xxx] 673C (File Size: 45M unzipped) (Note: The Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (is in a text markup format similar to HTML.) Sep 1996 The Secret Guide to Computers, by Russ Walter [sgcwpxxx.xxx] 672C Sep 1996 Phil, the Fiddler, by Horatio Alger, Jr.[Alger #8][phidlxxx.xxx] 671 Sep 1996 The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary [XZ][pgwxzxxx.xxx] 670C . . . Sep 1996 The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary [AB][pgwabxxx.xxx] 660C Sep 1996 Paul The Peddler, by Horatio Alger, Jr. [Alger #7][ptpedxxx.xxx] 659 Sep 1996 The Fall of Troy, by Quintus Smyrnaeus [400 A.D.] [ftroyxxx.xxx] 658 Sep 1996 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Trans. by James Ingram [angsxxxx.xxx] 657 Sep 1996 Life of Robert Browning by William Sharp [shabrxxx.xxx] 656 Sep 1996 Life and Letters of Robert Browning, by Mrs. Orr [orrbrxxx.xxx] 655 Sep 1996 Grace Abounding to Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan[gacosxxx.xxx] 654 Sep 1996 The Chimes, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #8][tchmsxxx.xxx] 653 Sep 1996 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, by Samuel Johnson#2[rslasxxx.xxx] 652 Sep 1996 Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll #5[fntsmxxx.xxx] 651 Sep 1996 Pictures From Italy, by Charles Dickens[Dickens#7][picitxxx.xxx] 650 * Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? With 15,612 eBooks online as of March 02, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$1.00 from each book. 1% of the world population is 64,219,651 x 15,612 x $1.00 = $1+ trillion [Just passed this mark this week. . .1.0026 trillion!!!] With 15,530 eBooks online as of February 23, 2005 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.64 from each book, This "cost" is down from about $.87 when we had 11,573 eBooks a year ago. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! At 15,530 eBooks in 33 Years and 07.75 Months We Averaged ~462 Per Year 38.5 Per Month 1.26 Per Day At 574 eBooks Done In The 49 Days Of 2005 We Averaged 11.7 Per Day 82 Per Week 332 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 5th was the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. *** *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage NewsScan is ceasing publication for at least a while as of today, we send our best wishes. [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] [India will be following in the steps of China, and then will come Indonesia, and "suddenly" half the world's population will no longer be "Third World" or "developing countries." This is obvious to anyone paying attention, but we will find that some very important people, institutions and countries have been keeping their heads in the sand.] BRAIN DRAIN CHANGES DIRECTION Whereas a few years ago the "brain drain" of Indian talent to the West represented a $2 billion annual loss to India, the recent growth of the tech industry in India is bringing home as many as 45% of the Indian high-technology workers abroad. Some engineering schools are already claiming a 50% decline in the number of students leaving the country, and V. Kalyanaraman of the prestigious engineering school IIT in Madras says: "Students are finding interesting and challenging jobs in India. The pay is also better than it used to be, and they find that they can have a good quality of life." (USA Today 24 Feb 2005) <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/2005-02-24-indians-tech-wave_x.htm> 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 of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages (i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to: Text version: Send message to NewsScan(a)NewsScan.com Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html(a)NewsScan.com NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html * >From Edupage EDUCAUSE PUBLISHES FIRST WEB-ONLY BOOK EDUCAUSE has published its first Web-only book, "Educating the Net Generation," edited by Diana Oblinger, vice president of EDUCAUSE and director of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, and James Oblinger, chancellor of North Carolina State University. The e-book is available in PDF and HTML formats, with Web-only resources (further reading, video, podcasts, and useful links) listed on its home page. A file of the complete book is available for download and printing. EDUCAUSE, 25 February 2005 http://www.educause.edu/books/educatingthenetgen/5989 You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html or send e-mail to: edupage(a)educause.edu To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV(a)LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA Recent revisions to SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Tests] were not successful, so even more revisions are being added. *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK "They both thought they were above the law." [re: Howard Hughes and President Nixon being involved in the Watergate scandal] Nixon will be elected "under our sponsorship and supervision every step of the way." Howard Hughes *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK India will will be following in the footsteps of China in terms of industrial development, then Indonesia. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK If you put your hand over the portion of the globe that represents China, India and Indonesia, etc., half of the world's population lives in the area represented. * "If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be: 57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south 8 Africans 52 would be female 48 would be male 70 would be non-white 30 would be white 70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States 80 would live in substandard housing 70 would be unable to read 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education 1 would own a computer I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date, as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer then there would be only 60 million people in the world who owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States households have computers, out of over 100 million households. Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in the United States. I just called our local reference librarian and got the number of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at: 111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports. If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million, and that's counting just one computer per household, and not counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc. I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate given above, and would like some help researching these and other such figures, if anyone is interested. BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old. This means that basically 90% of the world's population would never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they can receive more per year, but because they will live more years to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in. *** *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. 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