GWeekly_December_22.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, December 22, 2004 PT1
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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:
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*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
2 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
59 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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*eBook Milestones
14,768 eBooks As Of Today!!!
11,706 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Now Produced about 3,861 eBooks In 2004
We Are Already 3/4 % of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000
We Are 95% of the Way from 10,000 to 15,000
232 to go to 15,000!!!
We have now averaged ~442 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
We Are Averaging About 340 eBooks Per Month This Year
About 77 Per Week
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
It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 eBooks
*
iPOD eBOOK READER!!!
A new open source project released under the GPL is officially officially up
as of 22 Dec 04. It's called PodReader, an OS X application that takes
electronic documents such as our PG eBooks and "intelligently" parses them
into a series of text blocks that can be read on the iPod. Having a nice
open source product of this type is likely to result in rapid collaborative
development over the next couple of months and result in a great overall
experience for the end users.
Ports to Linux and Win32, interfacing to our PG FTP server, syncing with the
news, weather, etc. and several other nice features are in the works. You
can check it out, get the latest binary and source, or join the project at
http://homepage.mac.com/ptwobrussell/podreader.html
HOT REQUEST FOR UNIX "GREP" EXPERT
Please email hart@pglaf.org
HOT REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
We are trying to start up a Project Gutenberg Russian Team,
and we need someone to translate simple email messages from
members of Project Gutenberg who want to provide a service
to the Russian Team, but who do not know Russian. . .these
people will be helping with scanning, finding books, etc.
The messages will be in MS Word's .doc format in cyrillic,
we need them translated into English, also in a .doc file.
Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck
From NewsScan:
JUDGE SLAMS SPAMMERS WITH $1-BILLION JUDGMENT [More below in Edupage section] A federal judge in Iowa has awarded a small ISP more than $1 billion in damages in what's believed to be the largest judgment ever against spammers. The case was brought by Robert Kramer, whose company provides e-mail service to about 5,000 customers, and who filed suit after his inbound mail servers were jammed with as many as 10 million spam-mails a day in 2000. Citing federal racketeering laws (RICO) and the Iowa Ongoing Criminal Conduct Act, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Wolle ordered AMP Dollar Savings of Mesa, Ariz., to pay $720 million; Cash Link Systems of Miami, Fla., $360 million; and TEI Marketing Group, also of Florida, $140,000. "It's definitely a victory for all of us that open up our e-mail and find lewd and malicious and fraudulent e-mail in our boxes every day," said Kramer, who is unlikely to ever collect on the judgments. (AP/Wall Street Journal 20 Dec 2004) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110349923676804327,00.html (sub req'd) CHINATECH ON THE RISE Journalist Evan Ramstad notes that China's 250 million users (about one-fifth of the country's total population) far surpass those of any other country and that China's technological rise is happening faster than it did elsewhere in Asia: "China passed the U.S. in unit consumption of TV sets two years ago as household penetration of TVs passed 90%, closing in on the near ubiquity of TVs in developed countries. If population trends hold, China is unlikely to be challenged as the world's largest market for TVs until the middle of the century, when India is expected to become the most populous country. And when final figures emerge shortly, we're likely to learn that China passed the U.S. this year as the world's top PC maker, another change unlikely to be challenged for years to come." (Wall Street Journal 20 Dec 2004) http://www.wsj.com EBAY PROTESTS EXECUTIVE'S ARREST IN INDIA EBay is outraged by the arrest of Avnish Bajaj, the Indian-born and Harvard-educated chief of the company's India auction site Baazee.com, in a case involving the sale of a video clip of a teenage couple engaged in illicit acts. EBay says the video clip was never shown on the site and that the seller had merely offered it to buyers with a description of its content, but the law under which the arrest makes publishing or transmitting obscene material in any electronic form punishable by up to five years in jail. (New York Times 21 Dec 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/technology/21ebay.html BATTLE IN BANGALORE: MICROSOFT WINS Microsoft has won a battle against open source software supporters in Bangalore, India, a high-tech hub whose local authorities have selected Microsoft as their vendor of choice software for networking the state's utilities and services in an e-governance project for the 55 million people of Karnataka state. Microsoft sold software at 45 percent of the market price to the private company executing the Bangalore project, a move the company's critics derided as merely a trick to tie large populations to proprietary software. Defending his decision to choose Microsoft, Indian official Rajiv Chawla points out that Microsoft is "quite popular even in villages," and adds: "Let open source become so popular, then we will have no problem using it." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 20 Dec 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10459988.htm AUTOMATED MEDICATION WORSE THAN THE DISEASE? A report from U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), a nonprofit group that sets standards for the drug industry, says that as more hospitals have implemented automated systems for administering drugs the number of errors associated with them has risen. USP vice president Diane Cousins says, "It would seem logical that applying computer technology to the medication use process would have a significant positive impact in preventing medication errors. Yet, depending on the computer's design or user competence, new points of potential errors can emerge." Kenneth Kizer of the National Quality Forum agrees with Cousins: "Technology offers great opportunity to reduce errors, but it's not a panacea. You can't just throw a computerized system in and expect that everything's fixed. It has to be done right. The technology is only as good as the people who use it." (Washington Post 20 Dec 2004) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15178-2004Dec20.html CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' OF GREENER GADGETS The California Energy Commission Wednesday unanimously approved standards to be phased in beginning in 2006 that would require household appliances sold in the state, including televisions, VCRs, DVD players and cell phone chargers, to run on one to three watts. Even when idle, such appliances now typically gobble up two to 10 watts. Commissioners estimate that compliance with the new guidelines will save commercial and residential power customers more than $3 billion over 15 years. (Los Angeles Times 17 Dec 2004) <http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-energy17dec17,1,5732717.story?coll= la-headlines-technology> WHAT PROSPECT FOR CHANGE IN COPYRIGHT POLICY? On the issue of protecting music and movies from Internet piracy, Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT), a songwriter himself, has been the entertainment industry's most powerful ally in Congress, but in 2005 Sen. Arlen Specter (R, PA) will replace Hatch as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Will there be much change? One aide says that Specter "has been a follower rather than a leader on these issues" and therefore might let Hatch keep holding the reins. However, David Green of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) predicts that Specter will rise to the occasion: "Copyright issues are important and they're going to percolate up, and it's really impossible for him to ignore them. He might be right now more interested in something else, but because these issues are important to America they are going to be important to Arlen Specter." (Washington Post 16 Dec 2004) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4003-2004Dec16.html SEARCHING FOR THE FUTURE OF TV The startup search engine Blinkx will allow users to search the Web for selected video clips from 15 television channels, so that, for example, if you type in "Kofi Annan" Blinkx will offer a selection of digitized clips cued up to the point where the U.N. secretary general is mentioned. Coming soon with similar services: Yahoo, Google, and Microft. Blinkx, which has analyzed and indexed 42,000 hours of video, says "fair use" provisions of copyright law allow it to show a clip of up to 30 seconds. But attorney Daniel Harris, an intellectual property attorney, warns: "It definitely sounds like an area where there could be lawsuits." (Wall Street Journal 16 Dec 2004) http://www.wsj.com GEICO CASE AGAINST GOOGLE DISMISSED BY JUDGE A federal district court judge in Virginia has dismissed a key claim in the trademark infringement suit brought against Google by Geico, the auto insurance company. Geico had argued that the Google practice that allows Geico's competitors to buy ads linked to searches for "Geico" and "Geico Direct" confuses Web surfers who are looking specifically for Geico, but the judge ruled that there was not enough evidence the Google practice actually confuses consumers. One intellectual property attorney not involved in the case predicts: "It will not be binding precedent. That's how cases get to the Supreme Court."(New York Times 15 Dec 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/technology/15cnd-google.html?oref=login ANOTHER ROUND IN THE APPLE-VS.-REAL NETWORKS FIGHT Apple has begun blocking the technology that RealNetworks created to evade the copy-protection shield used by Apple's iPod. When RealNetworks introduced its Harmony technology this summer, it hoped to dissolve some of the barriers created by incompatible, proprietary digital music standards, and said it had reverse-engineered Apple's copy-protection code to allow songs purchased from non-Apple online outlets to be playable on the iPod. To deal with Apple's new move, RealNetworks now says it "will look at the Apple upgrade and see how it'll make Harmony work once again with the iPod." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 15 Dec 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10425219.htm CONROVERSY OVER WIRELESS PHONE DIRECTORY Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wants the cellular phone industry to discard its plans to create a directory assistance system for wireless phone numbers because there are "too many unknowns and dangers and too few protections at this point." But Kathleen Pierz, a Michigan analyst specializing in directory assistance counseling, says there are plenty of safeguards: "This is so buttoned up from a customer point of view, people don't have to worry. Blumenthal fears that a list of wireless numbers would inevitably be sold to telemarketers: "If the lists are there, they will be sold. They are so valuable. No cell phone company will resist the temptation to sell those lists for the huge profits." Pierz, however, points out that there is no marketing value to such lists because of existing federal laws preventing entities from calling a cell phone. (AP/USA Today 21 Dec 2004) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2004-12-21-mobile411_x.htm ACACIA EXPANDS PATENT HOLDINGS [The Speculators Take Over From The Inventors, Yet Again!] Acacia Research, which has made a name for itself pursuing patent infringement lawsuits, has acquired Global Patent Holdings, an umbrella company whose holdings represent numerous high-tech patents. One of Global Patent's companies, TechSearch, has already entered into licensing deals with companies including Sony and Samsung. Previously, Acacia has threatened or taken legal action against a range of companies, alleging patent infringement for technologies that stream media over the Web. Targets of that legislation have included pornography Web sites, the Walt Disney Company, and colleges and universities that use streaming media in online education. Acacia said the new acquisition will expand its patent holdings to cover dozens of technologies, or parts of them, including those related to P2P communication and spreadsheet software. Paul Ryan, CEO of Acacia, said, "We will continue to acquire additional portfolios, as Acacia moves towards its goal of becoming the leading technology licensing company." Analysts said Acacia's business model of acquiring patents and earning revenues through licenses represents a growing trend in the technology industry. CNET, 16 December 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5494119.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 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@NewsScan.com Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html@NewsScan.com NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html *
From Edupage
RICE RESEARCHERS DISCOVER GOOGLE SEARCH FLAW [Google privacy issues, and new upgrades without telling the users] Researchers at Rice University in November uncovered a security flaw in Google's recently released desktop search tool. Google Desktop is a downloadable program that creates an index of material on a user's computer, including e-mail and individual documents. When that user does a Google search of the Web, the application incorporates local resources from the index in the results. In what began as a student project to investigate how Google Desktop works, two students and a computer science professor found that the application could be fooled into sending results from a local index to Web sites, allowing a hacker to see them. The problem would only reveal small portions of information, and no attacks using the flaw have been reported. After being notified by the researchers of the vulnerability in late November, Google patched the flaw and began offering a new version of the search tool in December. In addition, the application includes a feature that allows Google to update the software without user input or even knowledge about the upgrade. New York Times, 20 December 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/technology/20flaw.html ["The Paperless Society. . .at least for the military] ARMY CONTRACTS FOR ELECTRONIC SYSTEM TO ELIMINATE PAPER The U.S. Army has contracted with IBM and several smaller companies to develop an entirely electronic records-management system to be implemented over the next 10 years. Army personnel fill out approximately 15 million forms each year, using as many as 100,000 different forms, for tasks including ordering supplies, keeping medical records, and managing awards and citations. Under the current system, forms must be printed out, hand-signed, and moved manually through all applicable authorizations. The new system, part of the Army's Forms Content Management Program, will eliminate much of that paperwork and save large amounts of money. According to Jim Acklin, the director of the project, the Army will save $1.3 billion a year in "cost avoidance." In addition to IBM, the project includes services from PureEdge and Silanis, two Canadian companies. Reuters, 17 December 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7126627 GOOGLE PARTNERS WITH LIBRARIES TO DIGITIZE CONTENT Google has announced agreements with major libraries to digitize books in their collections and make them available online. Google is funding the project, which is said to have strong support from founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who said that such dissemination of information has always been one of their goals. Under the arrangements, Google reportedly will scan all of the eight million books at Stanford University's library and all of the University of Michigan's seven million texts. For the others involved in the project--Harvard University, Oxford University, and the New York Public Library--only portions of the collections will be scanned. For books whose copyright remains in effect, Google will scan the entire text but make available only selected portions online. Books whose copyright has run out will be available in their entirety. The announcement follows similar programs from the Library of Congress as well as Amazon to digitize content of books. New York Times, 14 December 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/technology/14cnd-goog.html JUDGE HITS SPAMMERS WITH $1 BILLION FINE A federal judge in Iowa has issued fines totaling $1 billion against three spammers, marking what some observers believe is the largest judgment handed down to spammers. The ruling came from a case filed by Robert Kramer, operator of a small Internet service provider in eastern Iowa. Kramer, whose company serves about 5,000 customers, filed suit against 300 spammers, alleging that they send his subscribers upwards of 10 million spam e-mails per day. The judge ordered three of the defendants to pay damages under a state law that allows for fines of $10 per spam message, and those amounts were then tripled under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Cases against other defendants are still pending. In his ruling Judge Charles R. Wolle ordered Arizona-based AMP Dollar Savings to pay $720 million, Florida-based Cash Link Systems to pay $360 million, and TEI Marketing Group, also based in Florida, to pay $140,000. No attorneys for any of the defendants were present during the trial, and the plaintiff's attorney conceded it is unlikely his client will ever collect any of the damages. Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2004 (sub. req'd) 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@educause.edu To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** TECHNOLOGY REVIEW *Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK TIMSS = Third International Mathematics and Science Study Two weeks ago nearly every new service had positive comments about the improved U.S. students' TIMSS test scores that come out every four years. Only one source I heard had the nerve to say that the scores didn't really show any improvement, while the rest seemed to reek of jingoism. However, in reviewing the scores, it seems obvious that the U.S. test scores in question, the 8th grade math scores, were basically unchanged, moving up less than 1% from the 1999 score of 500 to the 2003 score of 504, out of 800. This represents a change of 1/5 of 1% per year, which I seriously doubt is within the statistical parameters of the TIMSS testing methodologies. Much more likely is the fact that the U.S. ranking has been changed more by changes in the other countries, both in terms of the changes the countries chosen for the 2003 tests, and the performance changes of those countries that stayed the same. For example, some score changes in the top 10 of 1999: Country 1999/2003 Change Singapore 643/605 = 38 Korea 607/589 = 18 Japan 605/570 = 35 Hong Kong 588/586 = 3 Belgium (Fl) 565/537 = 28 Slovak Republic 547/508 = 39 Netherlands 541/536 = 5 Slovenia 541/493 = 48 Average 579.63/553.00 = 26.75 Thus we see that that most other countries changed much more than did the U.S., which changed very little. It would appear that the U.S. didn't really move on the charts so much as other countries moved up and down past the U.S. In addition, it appears that the science scores were not mentioned in these news reports, nor were the scores for students in the lower grade classes. I will have to dig them up to let you know more about them in later issues. *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. To subscribe to any (or to unsubscribe or adjust your subscription preferences), visit the Project Gutenberg mailing list server: http://lists.pglaf.org If you are having trouble with your subscription, please email the list's human administrators at: help@pglaf.org ***