pt1a1.606 pt1b1.606 Weekly_June_14.txt ***The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 14, 2006 PT1*** *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******** * Editor's comments appear in [brackets]. Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com * 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 22 New This Week From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 0 New This Week From PGEu [European Copyrights, Life + 50 and 70] 200 New This Week From PG PrePrints [WAP cell phone compatible eBooks] 49 New This Week To Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright 271 New This Week [Including PG Australia, PG Europe and PrePrints] *Headline News from Edupage, etc. *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones* 19,891 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites 109 to go to 20,000!!! 19,891 Project Gutenberg [+271] Grand Total [Automated] 668 Australian eBooks [+22] [Included in above line] 318 Gutenberg Europe [+0] [Including after July 4] 368 PG PrePrint Site [+200] [Included in above total] 271 Total New Books This Week 19,885 Grand Total of all four sites 19,891 [via our automated program] [Please note we have several counting methods, and they often differ by several book that we have to hunt down by hand to reconcile.] ~99% of the Way to 20,000 ***569 eBooks Averaged Per Year Since July 4, 1971*** 16,823 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 That's ~261 eBooks per Month for ~64.25 Months 1,743 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites 36 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders 8,567 total from Distributed Proofreaders Since October, 2000 [Details in PT1B] [Currently over 36,000 DP volunteers] We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Averaged ~248 eBooks Per Month In 2005 [Including PG Australia] We Are Averaging ~332 eBooks Per Month This Year [Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints] All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 76 eBooks Per Week In 2006 271 This Week 271 This Month [Jun] It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~32 months, from 2003 to 2006 for our last 10,000 eBooks It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~2.8 years from Oct. 2003 to Jun. 2006 from 10,000 to ~19,900 [The above changes due to the opening of Project Gutenberg sites other than the original one at www.gutenberg.org] [Now including totals from Australia, Europe and PrePrints] [Apologies, it will take a while to integrate everything not all statistics may be totally equalized yet] [Daily PGEu stats at http://dp.rastko.net/default.php] [Daily DP stats at http://www.pgdp.net] BTW, we just started a new "PrePrints" site at PG, so if you come across eBooks that aren't ready for primetime, but that should be saved for upgrading, we have a place to put them. [Daily PrePrints stats at http://preprints.readingroo.ms/] Please note that sometimes it takes a few weeks for entire collections to fully appear in the PrePrints Section, thus the count sometimes jumps by a large number when the files are eventually completed and added in. Also note that the PrePrint files are just that, PrePrints, and thus may move later to other locations, including the main collection or The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center, etc. For example, on June 14, 200 WAP compatible cell phone eBooks appeared, and will likely be moved to other collection points later. The entire process of working out the details just to send them to the PrePrints Section took well over a month. Even with the speeded up process of the PrePrints Section, it still takes a certain amount of time to collect and put such a large collection online in a proper manner. * ~75,000 eBooks at the PG Consortia Center [Including after July 4] http://www.gutenberg.cc * ***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. Note bene that PT1 is now being sent as PT1A and PT1B. [Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us: hart@pobox.com and gbnewby@pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.] This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter FREE INTERNET REFERENCE SITE LivingInternet.com provides a 700-odd page reference about the Internet "to provide living context and perspective to this most technological of human inventions", and has received input from many people that helped build the Internet. It currently receives about 3 thousand visitors a day, many from educational institutions. Now in its 7th year of operation. http://www.livinginternet.com/ TEXT TO SPEECH Dolphin Producer is a new software package which will convert a text document into a fully synchronized text and audio DTB at the push of a single button. The DTB can then be played back using Dolphin's EaseReader software player - which is included in Dolphin Producer. The DTB can also be played back on any other DAISY DTB software or hardware player, as well as any MP3 player - The choice is yours. http://www.dolphinuk.co.uk or http://www.dolphinusa.com *Headline News from Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] FREE BOOKS, ELECTRONICALLY Project Gutenberg is organizing a book fair featuring online texts from its own digital library as well as that of the World eBook Library Consortia. During the World eBook Fair, which will take place from July 4 to August 4, users can download free copies of books from Project Gutenberg's collection of 18,000 texts, which are always free, or from the World eBook Library Consortia, which otherwise cost $8.95 each. Organizers hope the event will encourage more people to start reading books electronically, not only on desktop or laptop computers but also on portable devices. Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, said, "We get a lot of people reading Project Gutenberg e-books on PDAs, iPods, pocket PCs, cell phones, etc." Hart said electronic books benefit those who cannot get physical books from traditional libraries, noting that the goal of Project Gutenberg is to "break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy." Daniel Greenstein, executive director of the California Digital Library, said that e-books are typically being used to find facts, not to facilitate "the reading experience that we all know and love." Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 June 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006060701t.htm TWO UNIVERSITIES JOIN MICROSOFT BOOK-SCANNING PROJECT Microsoft has announced that the libraries of the University of California and the University of Toronto will participate in its book-scanning project, known as Windows Live Book Search. The two libraries joining Microsoft's program, which is being run together with the Open Content Alliance, will allow the project to scan their public-domain materials. Unlike Google's similar project, Microsoft's program is only scanning books in the public domain or for which the copyright owners have granted explicit permission. To that end, Microsoft has set up a Web site where copyright owners can volunteer their materials for being scanned and made available online. Google's approach has been to scan books, including those still covered by copyright, unless a copyright owner specifically objects. CNET, 9 June 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6082258.html BEER LOSES TOP SPOT TO IPOD For only the second time in ten years, drinking beer has been relegated to second on Student Monitor's biannual survey of what is "in" on campus, with iPods slotting in at number one. The only other thing to unseat beer: the Internet, in 1997. Eric Weil of Student Monitor said of the latest results of its Lifestyle and Media Study, "We knew iPods were pervasive on campus as a learning and entertainment device, but we didn't see it rating that high." Between spring 2006 and spring 2006, iPods jumped from 59 percent of students saying they were "in" to 73 percent. Rounding out the top ten spots on the survey are Facebook (which tied beer for second), drinking other alcohol, text messaging, downloading music, going to clubs, instant messaging, working out, and coffee. Dan Updegrove, vice president for information technology at the University of Texas at Austin, pointed out that the speed with which "Internet-based phenomena can emerge" accounts for having so many technologies on the top ten that did not even exist several years ago. USA Today, 7 June 2006 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-06-07-ipod-tops-beer_x.htm ITUNES IN TROUBLE IN EUROPE Government regulators in several European countries are taking Apple to court over the way its iTunes music service functions. Norwegian officials have said that Apple's user agreement violates the country's law and that the inability to play iTunes songs on non-Apple devices likely also is illegal in Norway. Specifically at issue are parts of Apple's user agreement that give the company the right to change the terms without notice and that free Apple from any liability for viruses or other harm caused by iTunes downloads. Bjorn Erik Thon, director of the Consumer Ombudsman's Office of Norway, said his office would hear Apple's counterargument concerning whether iTunes songs should be playable on non-Apple equipment, but he added that he expects the office to rule against Apple. Thon rejected an earlier claim by Apple that limiting the songs to Apple devices discourages copyright violations. If consumers cannot play songs they have bought, said Thon, "they will get a download of it free from Napster," increasing piracy. Government officials in Sweden and Denmark are expected to follow Norway's lead in these affairs, and Britain reportedly also shares the same concerns. New York Times, 8 June 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/technology/08cnd-apple.html COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO CALEA EXPANSION [More Big Brother Looking Over Your Virtual Shoulders] A federal appeals court has ruled against a challenge to an expansion of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to cover network traffic. CALEA requires providers of telecommunications services to make their systems available to law enforcement for authorized wiretapping. The FCC has sought to expand CALEA to cover Internet networks also. The appeals court ruled 2-1 that the FCC is permitted to apply CALEA to networks. A coalition representing higher education had challenged the expansion of CALEA, saying that the law was not written with data networks in mind and that such an expansion would impose considerable costs on higher education for compliance. Speaking for the majority, Judge David Sentelle said the FCC's interpretation of CALEA to cover data networks was reasonable. Judge Harry Edwards, who dissented in the opinion, said the FCC discounted an exemption in the law for information services. San Jose Mercury News, 9 June 2006 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14781403.htm To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to You've been reading excerpts from Edupage: To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName or To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA What happened to the $25 million reward for Al-Zarqawi? * Dr. Susan Molchan, formerly a clinical researcher at the National Institutes of Health said, under oath, that the spinal fluid samples given by thousands of patients from enduring the procedure known as a "spinal tap" vanished, just disappeared from her scientifically cooled storage, where they were kept for Alzheimer's research. A Congressional investigation is now underway to find if her boss, Dr. Trey Sunderland, gave those samples valued at millions of dollars, to pharacom giant Pfizer who has a new Alzheimer's drug coming out. Apparently Sunderland gave Pfizer "access" to 3200 vials of spinal fluid valued at six million dollars, for which he reported received a commission of just under $300,000 or about 5% of the value of the missing items. Pfizer's new Alzheimer's drug is reportedly bringing the company a whopping $1.6 billion just in one early year-- making it already the #1 such drug in the marketplace. *DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK "Mission Accomplished" May 1, 2003 "This will not end the war." June, 2006 "It will take time." June 13, 2006 *QUOTES OF THE WEEK "The latest thing in technology is Open Source." Tom Friedman, author of The Earth Is Flat, last night as Charlie Rose made his return. *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK The Iraq War, like most others, will last as long as it is politically feasible and financially rewarding to those running the war. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 80% of men say they would marry the same woman again if they had it to do all over again. 50% of women say they would marry the same man again if they had it to do all over again. * A Kentucky Fried Chicken 3 pieces extra crispy meal, with sides contains 15 grams = 1/2 ounce of transfat which is more than is recommended for an entire week. This is as much as is in 30 McBurgers. Source: Lawsuit against KFC, CBS News, etc. * By the way, for those interested, the official U.S. population estimates just passed 298 million, though many say estimations of this nature leave out as much as 5% of the population, with the obvious exclusion of the 11-12 million immigrant workers now being mentioned so much in the news. Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries. [This one is getting a little out of date, as the US population is obviously no longer 6% of the world. In fact, rounding to the nearest percent, the US will soon fall from 5% to 4%.] "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 America 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 think this is now much greater] 1 would be 79 years old or more. Of those born today, the life expectancy is only 63 years, but no country any longer issues copyrights that are sure to expire within that 63 year period. 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. * Correction, the last stanza of this poem was missing last week. Poem of the Week by Simona Sumanaru My Book Of Sounds You, to me, are like a book of poems. I am so very lucky to have found it one day on the dusty shelf of this old book store in which the air is hot and a little humid like spring this year - who would have thought spring could last that long- The store keeper is a little old lady with violet-grayish strands her hands like those of a piano player - one would expect butterflies of sound to be taking flight from right under her fingertips- every time she touches a book she takes these deep breaths and closes her eyes for a little while as if to memorize the feel of the cover on her music-filled finger tips it was a first edition, it was a romance, it was a motivational book that father read to son before football practice or maybe it was a family saga mother read to daughter before the curtains of night fell down and thoughts drifted away into womanhood and married life She knows them well: pages torn, pictures missing, tiny scribblings at the end of every chapter where a student in international politics boldly put in his own ideas, or maybe an educator to be sneaked in her most affectionate considerations before she decided to turn on the page towards the next soul to be molded. The old lady stops. Her eyes so wide, her hands so wise are playing with the butterflies of air. The buzzing sound of the old fan standing tall in one corner becomes the music of poetry. That's where I found you. (C) 2006 Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart * 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