GWeekly_September_22.txt The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 22, 2004 PT1 *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******* This newsletter is being sent in the last few minutes of summer, the autumnal equinox is at 12:30 PM CDT. 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, including Distributed Proofreaders *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 4 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 43 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** This week we have many new additions, from Tesla to Beethoven, see PT2 of the Newsletter for a complete listing *eBook Milestones We Are Over 92% of the Way to 15,000!!! 13,848 eBooks As Of Today!!! 1,152 to go to 15,000!!! 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At 13,848 eBooks in 33 Years and 02.60 Months We Averaged 417 Per Year [We do nearly that much a month these days!] 34.8 Per Month 1.14 Per Day At 2941 eBooks Done In The 265 Days Of 2004 We Averaged 11.1 Per Day 79.5 Per Week 342.0 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. *Flashback!!! 2754 New eBooks So Far in 2004 It took us ~30 years for the first 2654 ! That's the 7.75 months of 2004 as Compared to ~30 years!!! Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2754 *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
From NewsScan:
MUSIC INDUSTRY SHOULD CHARGE LESS, SELL MORE The music industry is fighting a losing battle, says Newsweek columnist Steven Levy, who says the RIAA's legal tactics make about as much sense as trying to sue a hurricane: "Technology generates its own form of nature, a set of conditions that enforce an artificial, yet equally unstoppable, reality~E For the longest time, the labels viewed digital music as something that could hurt them with hurricane force but made no efforts to adjust to this new reality, let alone exploit it." Levy notes that Real Networks' experiment with sharply cutting prices for digital music -- to 49 cents per song -- was a losing proposition because they still owed 70 cents in royalties for each song sold. But what's impressive is that Real sold six times as much music and took in three times as much money as when they had prices pegged at the industry's 99-cent standard. Levy says that if labels and artists would agree to smaller royalties, everyone could get richer quicker: "Behind Door One is the money you can make by selling a million copies of a tune. Behind the other door is the money to be reaped by selling 6 million copies at half the price. Do the math, guys!" Not only that, but lowering prices significantly might just stamp out the scourge of pirated music -- and that's what the labels say they want, right? (Newsweek 27 Sep 2004) <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6037780/site/newsweek/> STEAL THIS MUSIC The editors of Wired magazine have compiled a CD whose contents are meant to be shared, copied, remixed and sampled in an experiment aimed at supporting the Creative Commons concept of intellectual property licensing. About 750,000 copies of "The Wired CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share" will be mailed along with Wired's November issue and the disc will also be distributed to audience members at a benefit concert headlined by David Byrne, whose "My Fair Lady" appears on the CD. Other artists include the Beastie Boys, Zap Mama and Gilberto Gil. "The artists were relatively easy to get on board," says Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. "The labels have different priorities. Some of them, once briefed, got it, and some of them never really saw the advantages." Anderson says he approached 50-60 artists in order to come up with the 16 featured on the CD. (Wall Street Journal 20 Sep 2004) <http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109563044896921709,00.html> (sub req'd) PATCH DEALS FAVOR BIG BUSINESS Microsoft has quietly begun giving some of its largest customers early warning of what types of security patches it will be releasing. Under the free program, some customers are receiving three business days' notice as to how many security fixes Microsoft plans to release in its regular monthly bulletins, and which Microsoft products are affected. Customers also can learn how severe a threat the flaws pose several days before the general public gets that information. Microsoft began testing the program last year, and expanded it in April. It has not been widely publicized, and Microsoft has been offering the service to some customers individually through sales representatives. (The Australian 17 Sep 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U. australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10792467%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html FTC OKAYS CASH BOUNTIES FOR SPAMMERS The Federal Trade Commission has given limited endorsement to the idea of offering cash rewards to people who help identify spammers, noting that although technology buffs can often pierce the technical camouflage used to disguise spam's origins, it's far more difficult to gather the kind of information that would lead to successful prosecutions. The idea of offering cash for outing spam-mongers has been around for awhile, but gained credence last year when Stanford University professor and cyberlaw expert Lawrence Lessig told Congress he was so confident that such a system would produce results, he would quit his job if it failed to do so. The FTC noted in its report that in order to be effective, such a law would need to concentrate on rewarding whistleblowers and others close to the operation, and that cash amounts would likely have to be in the $100,000 to $250,000 range -- an amount that Congress would need to fund because it exceeds any damages likely to be won in court. Meanwhile, the FTC warned against taking any steps that would divert resources from enforcement efforts. "A poorly designed reward system would not only fail to achieve its purpose," but also result in significant costs to the commission." (Washington Post 17 Sep 2004) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27220-2004Sep16.html> INTERNET ATTACKS JUMP SIGNIFICANTLY THIS YEAR The semiannual Internet Security Threat Report, which is based on monitoring by computer security firm Symantec, indicates that in the first six months of 2004 there were at least 1,237 newly discovered software vulnerabilities and almost 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms capable of compromising computer security. The numbers represent a dramatic increase over the same period in 2003. Even more troubling was the sharp rise in the number of "bot," or robot, networks, which comprise a large number of infected PCs that can then be used to distribute viruses, worms, spyware and spam to other computers. The survey notes that in the first half of 2004, the number of monitored botnets rose from fewer than 2,000 to more than 30,000. The botnets, which range in size from 2,000 to 400,000 "zombie" machines, are often "rented out" to commercial spammers who use them to distribute junk e-mail while concealing their identities. E-commerce was the industry most frequently targeted for attacks, accounting for 16% of the total, and report authors note that phishing scams are responsible for pushing up the numbers in that category. "We're seeing a professional hand in development that was pretty startling in terms of malicious code," says Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering for security response at Symantec. The report's findings mirror those of recent government-supported research. (New York Times 20 Sep 2004) <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/technology/20secure.html> SASSER CREATOR HIRED BY SECURITY FIRM A German teenager accused of creating the Sasser worm that infected millions of computers around the world is being trained as a security software programmer, the company that hired him said on Friday. Eighteen-year-old Sven Jaschan has been taken on by the Securepoint computer firm based in L|neburg, in northern Germany, and is being trained to make firewalls to stop suspect files from entering computer systems. "He has a certain know-how in this field," a company spokesman said. Jaschan has been charged with computer sabotage, data manipulation and disruption of public systems for allegedly hatching the Sasser worm. (The Age 20 Sep 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U. <http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/20/1095532209897.html> HACKERS SEEK TO SAVE AMERICA Jason Larsen types in a few lines of computer code to hack into the controls of a nearby chemical plant. Then he finds an online video camera inside and confirms that he has pumped up a pressure value. "It's the challenge. It's you finding the flaws," he says when asked about his motivation. "It's you against the defenders. It comes from a deep-seated need to find out how things work." Larsen, 31, says his goal is not to wreak havoc, but to boost security for America's pipelines, railways, utilities and other infrastructure, part of a project backed by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Idaho lab launched a new cyber security center last month where expert hackers such as Larsen test computing vulnerabilities. Spread across 890 square miles (2305 square km) in a remote area of eastern Idaho, INEEL gives experts access to an entire isolated infrastructure such as the one Larsen hacked into. "I don't think people have an understanding of what could be the impact of cyber attacks," says INEEL director Paul Kearns. "They don't understand the threat." In recent months, U.S. security officials have warned that the nation is not prepared against cyber terrorism. (The Age, 17 Sep 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U. <http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/16/1095221724884.html> AOL OFFERS SECOND LEVEL OF SECURITY AOL has become the first major U.S. online business to offer customers a second layer of security, which it will make available to subscribers for $1.95 a month in addition to a one-time $9.95 fee. The system uses a matchbook-size device displaying a six-digit log-on code that changes every minute; it requires that the second password be entered in order to check e-mail or access such services as calendars, stock portfolios and AOL's Bill Pay. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan estimates that no more than 5-15% of AOL subscribers will sign up initially but says that "you have to start somewhere." (AP/Washington Post 21 Sep 2004) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37700-2004Sep21.html> CELL PHONES TRACK DOWN WI-FI HOTSPOTS If you're in the U.K. and you're looking for a Wi-Fi hotspot to download e-mail, you're in luck. A Web site called Totalhotspots.com, which offers a list of global hotspots, has teamed up with Mobile Commerce, a phone services company, to enable users to consult the Totalhotspots directory via cell phone while on the go. The user simply sends a text message consisting of the word "hotspot" to the 84140 SMS short code number, and the name, address and telephone number of the nearest Wi-Fi location will pop up on the screen. "It's like making a directory enquiries call," says Mobile Commerce exec Dan Jelfs. Currently, the system works only with the UK's GSM networks (Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile) but compatibility with future third-generation networks is planned also. (BBC News 17 Sep 2004) <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3665382.stm> THUMBS UP ON 'THUMB DRIVES' Thumb drives -- those tiny gizmos also known as USB flash drives, jump drives or keychain drives -- have been the "must-have" gadget among techies for the past couple of years, but now they're gaining popularity among students and business people who are replacing their recordable CDs used for transferring data from one computer to another. The thumb drives come in several guises -- Victorinox, maker of Swiss army knives, offers one squeezed in next to the nail file on its Swissmemory model -- and memory capacity has risen from an average of 64 megabytes in 2001 to 256 megabytes today. Meanwhile, during the same period prices have dropped from about $100 to about $40 and a Gartner analyst predicts the stand-alone versions are getting so cheap they'll soon replace coffee mugs as giveaways at corporate events. "It's a great low-tech solution. I used to have to carry a bunch of disks around. I don't have to do that anymore," says one banking executive. (Wall Street Journal 17 Sep 2004) <http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109537053772020139,00.html> (sub req'd) CHICAGO'S NEW SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM Chicago is installing a network of surveillance cameras that Mayor Richard M. Daley has said will make Chicago citizens much safer. Chicago official Ron Huberman says, "What we're doing is a totally new concept. This is a very innovative way to harness the power of cameras." Emergency center dispatchers will be able to tilt or zoom the cameras to watch suspicious people and follow them from one camera's range to another's. But ACLU spokesman Edwin C. Yohnka worries: "With the aggressive way these types of surveillance equipment are being marketed and implemented, it really does raise questions about what kind of society do we ultimately want, and how intrusive we want law enforcement officials to be in all of our lives." Huberman's response: "The value we gain in public safety far outweighs any perception by the community that this is Big Brother who's watching. The feedback we're getting is that people welcome this. It makes them feel safer." And Mayor Daley notes: "We're not inside your home or your business. The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the alleys." (New York Times 21 Sep 2004) <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/national/21cameras.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
ATTACKS ON WINDOWS MACHINES ON THE RISE Computer security firm Symantec said that the number of viruses and worms that target Microsoft's Windows operating system jumped 400 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year. In all, nearly 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms were identified between January and June. Symantec's report echoed a warning from MessageLabs in August that spammers and computer hackers were working together to take advantage of weaknesses in the Windows operating system. According to Alfred Huger, a senior director at Symantec's Security Response team, hackers are increasingly selling illicit access to computers to spammers, who are having greater difficulty getting their messages past e-mail filters. Reuters, 20 September 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6281135 [A little more about China] CHINESE ACADEMIC CALLS FOR SITE REOPENING A law professor at Peking University, He Weifang, has written an open letter calling on the government to reverse a decision to shut down the Yita Hutu bulletin board, commonly referred to as YTHT, its Web address. Last week, government officials ordered that the site be permanently shut down and quickly afterwards prohibited discussion about the closure in other online groups. YTHT was created in 1999 by a graduate student and reportedly grew to comprise more than 700 discussion groups with more than 300,000 registered users. Many of the topics covered on the YTHT site were banned from state-run media coverage, including human rights issues and questions about Taiwan. In his letter, He said the site was "an important source of information and a channel for discussion for tens of thousands of netizens around the world, including the teachers and students of our university." Xiao Qiang, the head of the China Digital News project at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, supported the importance of the YTHT site, calling it "the most politically provocative online community in Chinese cyberspace." Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 September 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/09/2004092004n.htm PHISHING RIFE ON INTERNET Phishing scams are proliferating on the Internet, and some are sophisticated enough to fool even seasoned Web users. Phishing scams use bogus e-mails and Web sites designed to look like those of legitimate companies to trick users into revealing personal information, such as credit card numbers, that can then be used in any number of other crimes. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, Citibank has become the most popular ruse, with nearly 500 separate scams designed to fool Citibank customers into divulging sensitive information. Scams directed at Ebay users totaled 285, according to the group. Lawrence Hefler, vice president of e-business and strategic alliances at Hilton Grand Vacations and the chairman of the Direct Marketing Association's Internet committee, was fooled by one of the fake Citibank messages. As Hefler noted, most of the more deft phishing scams, including the one he fell for, make a point of talking about security issues and the potential for identity theft. New York Times, 20 September 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/technology/20phish.html ATTACKS ON WINDOWS MACHINES ON THE RISE Computer security firm Symantec said that the number of viruses and worms that target Microsoft's Windows operating system jumped 400 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year. In all, nearly 5,000 new Windows viruses and worms were identified between January and June. Symantec's report echoed a warning from MessageLabs in August that spammers and computer hackers were working together to take advantage of weaknesses in the Windows operating system. According to Alfred Huger, a senior director at Symantec's Security Response team, hackers are increasingly selling illicit access to computers to spammers, who are having greater difficulty getting their messages past e-mail filters. Reuters, 20 September 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6281135 UT DALLAS CONCEDES STUDENT ACCESS POINTS [This article doesn't mention that the student's network was working better than the university network, and at no direct cost to either the university or to users. More details available on request.] Administrators at the University of Texas at Dallas have withdrawn a policy that banned students from setting up Wi-Fi access points on campus. The policy was implemented to help deal with interference from 802.11b and 802.11g access points (802.11a access points were not banned) that some students had set up that were causing interference with the university's own wireless network. Students who disagreed with the policy noted that the Federal Communications Commission in June had issued a statement that supported individuals' right to operate access points using the Wi-Fi spectrum. University administrators conducted a review and decided to withdraw the policy because it was not clear that the university had the authority to enforce it. According to Steve McGregor, a spokesman for the university, the growing number of access points is causing interference in some areas of the campus, but the university will not try to regulate the access points. "Folks will have to figure it out individually," McGregor said. CNET, 16 September 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-7351_3-5369921.html AOL DROPS MICROSOFT'S ANTISPAM TECHNOLOGY Following a new rift between Microsoft and the open-source community over a standard to fight spam, America Online (AOL) decided it will not adopt Microsoft's Sender ID tool. Sender ID is designed to identify spoofed return addresses in e-mail, allowing ISPs to reject those messages. Although Microsoft has said it will not charge royalties on Sender ID, the software company does hold patents for some of the technology on which the tool is built. Those patents have led to the recent dispute between Microsoft and advocates of an open-source approach to an antispam standard. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) rejected the Sender ID standard, and a statement from AOL released shortly after that decision said that the company "will now not be moving forward with full deployment of the Sender ID protocol." A spokesperson from Microsoft said that despite the IETF's decision, "It's still going to be one standard, there's just going to be two flavors." Reuters, 16 September 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6258496 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 *** More Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media 60 Minutes Not Aired In Major Metropolitan Markets In Swing States The last two Wednesdays, the CBS show 60 Minutes was not aired to many who would normally be in the audience, and perhaps even more who might have been tuning in for the latest on President Bush's National Guard service record. Various reasons were given by stations from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennesee, to Ft. Pierce, Florida, according to searches using "60 Minutes," "pre-empted," and "not aired." These reasons were listed as being from saying they thought 60 Minutes was going to be a rerun, to power outages that seemed to last only the hour 60 Minutes was scheduled to be on the air. More than one station ran a Billy Graham sponsored movie in place of 60 Minutes, at least one of which stated that this movie had originally been scheduled weeks ago. Most or all of the stations said they aired the 60 Minutes program later around 1AM or 2AM. Many calls and emails to the news media suggested that these stations did not want to run 60 Minutes until after they knew what was going to be said in advance, even though it is strict policy of the news media never to allow anyone to know this information or the questions that will be raised before the interviews take place or are aired. The locations named above were not the only ones missing 60 Minutes. If you find any others, please advise. * At least one of these stations aired Dan Rather's apology three times, in just over one hour, before, during, and again after the program, once even before it even aired directly on the CBS Evening News to their viewers. * Further research on the reported scheduling of the Billy Graham movie reveled that schedules provided to the local media television listings indicated that 60 Minutes was scheduled to air at its normal time, even though a station spokesperson indicated the Billy Graham movie had been on the schedule for several weeks. It would appear there is still more to this story than is apparent, but it seems unlikely that we will ever find out the ultimate source[s] of the information presented by 60 Minutes, and there have been rumors that Dan Rather may end up stepping down as a result. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 90 Million More Africans In Poverty Now Than In 1950 A highly placed African source has reported that Africa is worse off now than it was in the last colonial days, citing that the colonial powers at least invested in an assortment of fundamental African projects, whereas the current rulers have taken all the capital OUT of Africa and invested it with the major world banks or companies and thus destroyed the African economy by displacing it from the Third World to the First World. Additional sources also cite the clear-cutting of their traditional rain-forest sources of water as causing the permanent drought in Ethiopia and other countries. * Antarctic Glaciers Now Moving To The Sea 8 Times Faster World scientists studying satellite photographs of very new data from areas surrounding the South Pole reported that the Antarctic ice pack is falling into the ocean a record 8 times faster than it was just two years ago in response to the destruction of major ice shelves due to global warming. The effects are not only a massive proliferation of the navigational difficulties due to 8 times as many of the traditional icebergs, but as far away as Hawaii reports indicate their world-class beaches are shrinking due to increased sea-levels and related beach degradation. [See: ICE COLLAPSE SPEEDS UP GLACIERS] from BBC News Online, http://snipurl.com/992f * Zhores Alferov, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000 for his work on fast transistors, laser LEDs, and integrated circuits, was supposed to be addressing a major symposium in Berkeley today, but is stuck in Russia, after a U.S. consular official could not get a grasp on Prof. Alferov's work when he asked, and the Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Science apparently gave an answer that was beyond the comprehension of the average junior diplomat level, and couldn't come up with a simple enough description to get his visa stamped to get on the plane to the United States. http://snipurl.com/990c *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK Chicago Mayor Daley said, "We're not inside your home or your business. The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the alleys." [Referring to citywide surveillance project. See story further above.] *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter: Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various different relays will get it to you at different times; you can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how, or to subscribe directly by yourself, go to: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml and About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter: Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. 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