GWeekly_January_19.txt The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, January 19, 2005 PT1 *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971***** 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 HEADLINE NEWS Project Gutenberg of Canada needs your help! Please email: pgcanada@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 http://www.archive.org Don't worry, many of the numbers listed are out of date, but you should get all the files when you pass through to the original sites.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 59 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 15,094 eBooks As Of Today!!! 12,021 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 <<< We Have Produced 138 eBooks in 2005 We Are ~51% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 We Are ~02% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000 4,906 to go to 20,000!!! We have now averaged ~449 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!! We Are Averaging About 299 eBooks Per Month This Year 69 Per Week in 2005 It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~32 months, from 2001 to 2004 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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That's 2 WEEKS as Compared to ~23 Years! 59 New eBooks This Week 79 New eBooks Last Week 138 New eBooks This Month [Jan] 299 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 138 New eBooks in 2005 4049 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 12032 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 48.50 Months! 15,094 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 11,044 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 4,050 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 406 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia *Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on Mar 13th, 2001, the Distributed Proofreaders team has now produced its 6,281st eBook (#14729) Of that total there are 5,895 unique, brand-new titles. Projects completed during the past year: Feb 2004 - 421 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 - 150 (as of 19 Jan) * 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 Professor Mao's Chinese eBooks 300 eBook files Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files 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 #14 of 2005 This Completes Week #2 and Month #00.50 350 Days/51 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 4,985 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 79 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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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 2 weeks of this year, we have produced 138 new eBooks. It took us from 1971 to 1993 to produce our FIRST 138 eBooks!!! That's 2 WEEKS as Compared to ~23 YEARS!!! FLASHBACK! Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #138 Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ### A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright Jul 1994 The Republic by Plato, Jowett, Wiretap [repubxxx.xxx] 150 Jul 1994 The Lost Continent, by Edgar Rice Burroughs[ERB#2][lcontxxx.xxx] 149 Jul 1994 The Autobiography of Ben Franklin [bfautxxx.xxx] 148 Jul 1994 Common Sense, by Thomas Paine [Paine #1] [comsnxxx.xxx] 147 Jul 1994 A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett[#3] [lprssxxx.xxx] 146 Jul 1994 Middlemarch, by George Eliot[#1] [per PBS series] [mdmarxxx.xxx] 145 Jul 1994 The Voyage Out, by Virginia Woolf [vooutxxx.xxx] 144 Jun 1994 The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy [Hardy4][mayrcxxx.xxx] 143 Jun 1994 The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)142 Jun 1994 Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen [Austen #3] [mansfxxx.xxx] 141 Jun 1994 The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair [junglxxx.xxx] 140 Jun 1994 The Lost World/Arthur Conan Doyle [Challenger #2] [lostwxxx.xxx] 139 Jun 1994 Biography of George Sand, by Rene Doumic [sandbxxx.xxx] 138 Jun 1994 Sara Crewe by Frances Hodgson Burnett [Burnett#2] [saracxxx.xxx] 137 Jun 1994 A Child's Garden of Verses, R. L. Stevenson [#3][childxxx.xxx] 136 May 1994 Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo [In English] [lesmsxxx.xxx] 135 May 1994 Maria or the Wrongs of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft [mariaxxx.xxx] 134 May 1994 The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic #1[dwarexxx.xxx] 133 May 1994 The Art of War, by Sun Tzu [Tr. by Lionel Giles] 132 Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? With 15,094 eBooks online as of January 19, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of $1.04 from each book. 1% of the world population is 64,112,028 x 15,094 x $1.04 = $1+ trillion With 15,094 eBooks online as of January 19, 2005 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.66 from each book, This "cost" is down from about $.91 when we had 11,044 eBooks a year ago. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! Can you imagine ~15,094 books each costing ~$.25 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine ~15,094 books each costing 1/3 less a year later??? At 15,094 eBooks in 33 Years and 06.50 Months We Averaged 450 Per Year [We do about 3/4 that much per month these days!] 37.5 Per Month 1.23 Per Day At 138 eBooks Done In The 14 Days Of 2005 We Averaged 11 Per Day 69 Per Week 299 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 [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] FBI AXES CARNIVORE, EATS INVESTMENT The FBI has abandoned its custom-built Internet surveillance technology, dubbed Carnivore, and is now using commercial software to eavesdrop on computer network traffic during investigations of suspected criminals, terrorists and spies. In addition, it's asking Internet service providers to conducting wiretaps on targeted customers, when necessary. Carnivore initially was developed because commercial tools available in 2000 were inadequate, but FBI spokesman Paul Bresson says the Bureau moved a while ago to using popular commercial wiretap software because it's less expensive and has improved in its ability to copy e-mails to and from a specific Internet account without affecting other subscribers. "We see the value in the commercially available software; we're using it more now and we're asking the Internet service providers that have the capabilities to collect data in compliance with court orders," says Bresson. The FBI didn't disclose how much it had spent on Carnivore, but outside experts estimate expenditures at somewhere between $6 million and $15 million. (AP 18 Jan 2005) <http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050119/D87MS3CO0.html> GPS EVERYWHERE The rules about the use of GPS devices are widely varied: whereas a federal judge in New York has ruled that police have a right to place tracking devices on vehicles without a warrant (since the drivers should have no expectation of privacy on public roads), California has restricted car rental companies' use of GPS to track customers (a law adopted after a company fined customers $3,000 because their GPS system indicated the cars had crossed the state line into Nevada in violation of the rental agreement). But the fact is that GPS is here to stay: David Gilmore, the court-appointed transportation administrator for D.C. Public Schools, says of the use of GPS to monitor school bus drivers in that jurisdiction: "As uncomfortable as this might make them, they are now being watched by satellite every minute of their workday, like it or not." (Washington Post 14 Jan 2005) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10788-2005Jan14.html> WILD WEB JUSTICE Ohio trial court judge James L. Kimbler has set up a personal Sony digital camcorder in his courtroom and using it to post online video of people being sentenced for robbery, rape and other crimes. Kimbler says, "It's all public record anyway. If the general public and law students know what we do it increases their understanding." Lloyd Snyder, a professor of legal ethics, predicts: "This is coming. With 'Court TV' available, people are getting used to having things like this out there, and it's also entertainment. It is the right of the defendant to be tried in the open. There is no correlative right for a defendant to have a private trial." (AP/USA Today 18 Jan 2005) <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-01-18-sentenced-online_x.htm> APPLE SUES STUDENT FOR DIVULGING SECRETS [Another article on this is below in the Edupage section] Nicholas Ciarelli launched what has become one of the most influential Apple-focused Web sites when he was 13 as a hangout for fellow Mac enthusiasts, but his penchant for posting trade secrets has gotten the now-19-year-old Harvard student, who publishes online under the name Nick dePlume, in hot water. Apple filed a lawsuit Jan. 4 against ThinkSecret.com and its unnamed tipsters, charging: "Apple is informed and believes that Defendant Nick dePlume is an individual who uses the pseudonym 'Nick dePlume' but whose true name and identity cannot be confirmed at this time." Apple, known for its highly secretive culture, says it believes ThinkSecret obtains its information by illegally soliciting information about unreleased Apple products from individuals who violate their confidentiality agreements. In fact, on Dec. 28 the site correctly predicted Apple's debut of its $499 Mac Mini and a low-cost iPod. In response to Apple's accusations, Ciarelli replies, "I didn't do anything wrong. My reporting practices are the same that any journalists use. I talk to sources, I confirm details, I follow up on tips and leads that I get." It will be difficult for Apple to prove that Ciarelli's coverage has violated its trade secrets, says an intellectual property attorney, noting that trade secrets usually refer to the formula behind products, not simply the details about their release. (Wall Street Journal 14 Jan 2005) <http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110566157500825906,00.html> (sub req'd) [Here's the related announcement] NEW MAC TARGETS LOW-END MARKET Apple Computer's new, stripped-down Mac Mini is priced as low as $499, reflecting Apple's strategy to position the Mac as an entertainment and communication device designed for today's digital household, which views the PC as simply another appliance. The move is fueled in part by the company's success with its iPod digital music players, which has reached mass market proportions with 10 million sold over the last three years. "I wish I had a nickel for every time people have suggested that we do this," says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "We want to price this Mac so that people who are thinking of switching will have no excuse." Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says most consumers won't give up their Microsoft PCs, but may consider buying a Mac as an additional computer for entertainment. "It's not about switching but adding. People may still need a PC because of work activities, but this is for doing multimedia activities and searching the Internet." In addition to the low-cost Mac Mini, Apple also debuted a $99 iPod Shuffle, which comes without a screen and can hold about 120 songs, compared with 5,000 on a standard iPod. (New York Times 12 Jan 2005) <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/technology/12apple.html> SQUEEZING MORE OUT OF JPEG Allume Systems, based in California, says the new version of its StuffIt compression technology can reduce JPEG files by an additional 28% without loss of quality. The announcement met with some skepticism among compression specialists, but researchers have previously suggested that significant improvements -- perhaps as high as 30% -- were possible by enhancing certain aspects of the JPEG technology. Data compression is achieved by finding replicated patterns in data and encoding them so that they can be represented by a smaller amount of data. Allume would like to see its new StuffIt Image Format (SIF) replace JPEG as the dominant method for storing files, noting that it could save significant storage space for those with very large digital image collections. But some experts point to the new, improved JPEG2000, which could provide comparable benefits. "It is not only technically advanced, but is royalty and license-free as well," says Mike Reddy, a compression expert at the University of Glamorgan in Wales. (New Scientist 12 Jan 2005) <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6876> WIRELESS HOTMAIL IN INDIA [India will be following in the steps of China, worth watching. Of course, due to a less repressive government, in some areas India will surpass China very quickly, but slower in others.] Microsoft has inked a deal with two Indian wireless carriers to deliver e-mail and instant messages via text messaging. BPL Mobile and Airtel launched two new services on Thursday -- Mobile-mail and MSN Messenger over SMS -- but have not released details on whether or how much they plan to charge. Microsoft is not the first to offer Indian consumers such services -- Yahoo already has similar arrangements with wireless carriers serving India, including Orange, Hutch and Airtel. (CNet News.com 13 Jan 2005) <http://news.com.com/Hotmail+goes+mobile+in+India/2100-1036_3-5535294.html> PAINT ON A LITTLE WI-FI SECURITY Tired of worrying whether your wireless hotspot is hosting "drive-by" users? Force Field Wireless has developed a do-it-yourself DefendAir paint "laced with copper and aluminum fibers that form an electromagnetic shield, blocking most radio waves and protecting wireless networks." One coat of the water-based paint "shields Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth networks operating at frequencies from 100 megahertz to 2.4 gigahertz," while two or three applications are "good for networks operating at up to five gigahertz." Force Field Wireless warns that the paint must be applied carefully -- too little, and the radio waves will "leak"; too much and you risk hindering the performance of radios, televisions and cell phones. And while the only color available is a dreary gray, DefendAir can also be used as a primer so you can paint over it with your favorite hue. (The Register 13 Jan 2005) <http://www.theregister.com/2005/01/13/wi_fi_paint/> SECURITY I: VANDALISM OF COLLEGE NETWORKS [In other words, your computer has to be vulnerable to ours, before we will let you in. . .what happens when one secure system of this type tries to contact another one. . . ? ] Early this month an intruder penetrated a central computer at George Mason University and attempted to access GMU's 130 other servers -- which hold such information as grades, financial aid, and payrolls. In the past two years, similar attacks have occurred at the universities of Georgia, Texas, Missouri, and California. To resist such attacks, some schools are beginning to use software that scans individual computers before they are allowed to connect to campus networks, and other institutions are setting up multiple smaller networks that house sensitive data, keeping them separate from the main networks. (Washington Post 12 Jan 2005) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5188-2005Jan12.html> SECURITY III: THE CRIMINAL CLASS In an interview with journalist John Markoff of the New York Times, security expert Bruce Schneier suggests that the problem of Web vandalism has fundamentally changed in the last several years. Previously, hackers were mainly kids, engaging in hacking as a kind of intellectual challenge or a sport, but more recently hackers are coming mainly from criminals "in Third World countries, from Africa, South America, Asia, and the former Soviet Union" -- a development that makes life much harder for security officials. Schneier, whose latest book is "Beyond Fear," is founder and chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security. (New York Times 13 Jan 2005) <http://tech.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html> SECURITY IV: NEW FBI SOFTWARE NOT USABLE [Another article listed in the Edupage section below] A new FBI computer system called Virtual Case File, designed to help agents share information to ward off terrorist attacks, may have to be discarded because it doesn't work as designed. The agency will be soliciting proposals for new software from outside contractors for new software. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee, calls the development "a stunning reversal of progress" and adds: "If the software has failed, that sets us back a long way. This has been a fits-and-starts exercise, and a very expensive one for a very long time. There are very serious questions about whether the FBI is able to keep up with the expanding responsibility and the amount of new dollars that are flowing into it. We have fully funded it at its requested levels." Science Applications, the company that developed the system, says it "successfully completed" delivery of the initial version of the Virtual Case File software last month. (Los Angeles Times 13 Jan 2005) <http://www.latimes.com/ technology/la-na-fbi13jan13,1,2171776.story?coll=la-headlines-technology> 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
OPERA BROWSER FREE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION Opera Software said this week that its Opera browser will be freely available to any university worldwide, in an effort to protect higher education from flaws in "more vulnerable browsers." The company also touted its browser's customization features, which would allow colleges and universities to personalize the browser for their own campus. Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said his company's browser is "fully standards-compliant and offers extensive administration possibilities for network configuration." Institutions including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Oxford University have reportedly already taken Opera up on its offer. CNET, 12 January 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5533666.html IBM OFFERS PATENTS TO OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS IBM will begin allowing the use of 500 technologies covered by patents it holds by developers working on open source projects. While IBM will not forfeit the patents, it will seek no licensing fees from groups that use them on projects that meet a definition by the Open Source Initiative. Despite past donations of intellectual property to open source groups, the new program is seen as a fundamental shift in the company's approach because unlike those donations, this one does not hold the potential to harm IBM's competitors. The 500 patents that will be available involve 14 categories of technology and do not target any specific open source project. IBM said it hopes to create a "patent commons," including the initial 500 as well as other patents, that other companies could join. IBM's new approach to managing its intellectual property, however, has not diminished its pursuit of new patents. IBM, which is the world's largest patent holder, collected 3,248 new patents in 2004, 1,300 more than Matsushita Electric Industrial, which had the second-highest tally for the year. New York Times, 11 January 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/technology/11soft.html APPLE UNVEILS PRODUCTS FOR WIDER MARKETS At the Macworld trade show in San Francisco, Apple Computer cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs presented several new low-priced products targeted at a broader group of consumers than current products. Notably, Apple showed its Mac Mini, a very small computer with a starting price of $499, and the iPod Shuffle, which will sell for as little as $99. The iPod Shuffle, which is the shape of a pack of gum, has no screen and uses flash memory, like that in digital cameras, rather than a hard drive. Apple's entry into the digital music market has been a boon for the company, with consumers buying 4.5 million of the current iPod models during the 2004 holiday season. Some analysts believe Apple may be able to capitalize on interest in its music products to appeal to consumers who previously would not have been likely to consider purchasing an Apple computer. Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, said it would be an "intriguing" goal for Apple to "convince traditional PC users to make the Mac the center of their creative, digital work." Reuters, 12 January 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7300623 FBI'S NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM ALREADY OLD A complete overhaul of the FBI's computer system following the September 11 attacks may prove to have been wasted effort, according to the agency. Criticism was leveled at intelligence agencies following the attacks of September 11, with some arguing that, had information been freely shared among the agencies, the attacks might have been prevented. The FBI undertook to replace all of its systems at one time, which agency officials said was the wrong approach. One official compared the initiative to "changing wheels on a car that is going at 70 miles per hour." Such an overhaul, he said, should be done in stages. Critics faulted the old system for being largely paper-based, preventing agents in the field from accessing needed information or from filing reports electronically. An application called Virtual Case File was supposed to fix many of those problems, but after numerous delays, the software that was finally delivered last month is largely unusable. Reuters, 13 January 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7324403 APPLE SUES HARVARD STUDENT Apple Computer has filed a lawsuit against the operator of a Web site that revealed information about upcoming products before the company publicly unveiled them. The ThinkSecret Web site posted rumors of a sub-$500 Macintosh computer and an iPod that uses flash memory just days before those products were announced at the Macworld show. Apple has a reputation for being one of the most secretive high-tech companies concerning new products, and it alleges that the information posted by ThinkSecret was obtained illegally. The operator of the site, however, which many industry analysts regard as one of the premier rumor sites about Apple, turned out to be 19-year-old Nick Ciarelli, a freshman at Harvard. Ciarelli, who started the site six years ago, said he has done nothing wrong in collecting material to post. "My reporting practices are the same that any journalists use," he said. "I talk to sources, I confirm details, I follow up on tips and leads that I get." Intellectual-property attorney Robert E. Camors said it will be difficult for Apple to prove harm in the case because the information revealed does not constitute trade secrets as traditionally defined and because the information was not revealed sufficiently ahead of company announcements for competitors to benefit from it. Wall Street Journal, 14 January 2005 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110566157500825906,00.html 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 *** *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA Tsunami death toll reaches ~200,000 [details below] Official US aid to tsunami victims being scaled back, often at the request of the local governments who are defensive about having armed US troops on their soil. Troops now requested to return to US ships at night, and to leave permanently no later than March 31. * From: The New Yorker "The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon Can Now Do in Secret" US intelligence and military officials quoted as saying: "The next strategic target was Iran." Seymour Hersh's comments about the US having plans to include Iran along with Iraq in efforts to clean up the Middle East are receiving denials, even those "non-denial denials" made famous by Nixon concering the Republican financed break in of the Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate. All sides seem to be keeping an extremely low profile on this issue, as both US and Iranian officials agree there is little to be gained by saying very much. Official US sources would not deny that they had such plans for Iran, but rather focused on attacking the article as being "riddled with errors," but not false in its statement concerning their plans for Iran. * Spec/4 Charles Graner Jr. was the first US soldier convicted of prisoner mistreatment [read torture] in Iraq, yet what they don't report is that every one of Graner's superiors refused to appear or to give written testimony. . .no involvement at all. In case you are not familiar with US Army ranks, a Spec/4 is not quite the lowest rank, but close. Lower are those a single stripe, or no stripe. Thus you can safely presume that most of those at Abu Ghraib prison were his superiors. Graner said he was willing to serve his time, even though he was obeyin orders, if they would allow him to continue to serve. However, after his sentence is concluded, he will receive a dishonorable discharge, forfeit benefits, and be unable to re-enlist in any service. If you believe what the prosecution is saying, the entire Abu Ghraib scenario was conceived, planned, and carried out by the lowest ranking personnel of the US Army, and no others even had any idea it was going on. *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK "I'll bet our cumulative IQ isn't as high as it was fifty or one hundred years ago." Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes, CBS 1/16/05 *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK More than the 100 blocks officially announced will be blocked off from "civilians" during Bush's inauguration. People with anti-Bush signs and anti-war signs will not be allowed within viewing distance. . .they won't see Bush, he won't see them. I'm sure they won't be able to hear each other either. Various colored badges, all too reminiscent of the color coded terrorist threat levels, are being issued to those who are officially invited to attend, and apparently no others will be allowed inside this 100 block radius, in which no vehicles other than police will be allowed. How is it that the United States is becoming more and more like our enemies, and less and less like our friends? By the way, I'll bet there is a decent likelihood that the 100 blocks will be augmented to even greater numbers at the last minute, if protestors manage to figure out a way for their opinions to be seen or heard by President Bush. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 1/4 of the new Iraqi Congress must be women. In how many other countries is this true? * Why the dramatic new increase in the tsunami death toll? The official death toll from the tsunami of December 26th has now reached 200,000, after literally falling from the news reports for a few days a week ago because the figures were topping out as they passed 150,000. However, Indonesia has finally admitted that the current death toll from their own internal losses is officially much greater than the previous listed total for all of the affected countries. . .now listed at 166,000. Those listed only as "missing" up until now, 3 1/2 weeks after the disaster, have finally been listed as "missing and presumed dead." *** *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