GWeekly_February_16.txt The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, February 16, 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 HOT REQUESTS I was just wondering if you or might know someone from PG who could help a Linux newbie like me. There are some programs I want to install, but I need step-by-step guidance to ensure the programs compile correctly and so forth. Jared Buck <JBuck814366460@aol.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 http://www.archive.org Don't worry, many of the numbers listed are out of date, but you should get all the files when you pass through to the original sites.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 3 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 85 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 15,454 eBooks As Of Today!!! 12,392 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Produced 498 eBooks in 2005 We Produced About 4,164 eBooks In 2003 We Produced About 4,049 eBooks In 2004 We Are ~54.5% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 We are ~9% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000 4,546 to go to 20,000!!! We have now averaged ~460 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!! We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging About 332 books Per Month This Year We Are Averaging About 83 eBooks Per Week This Year 88 This Week 118 This Week [correction from 117] [And it may actually be 119] 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 6 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 Years! 88 New eBooks This Week 118 New eBooks Last Week 206 New eBooks This Month [Feb] 332 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 498 New eBooks in 2005 4049 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 12392 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 49.50 Months! 15,454 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 11,435 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 4,019 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 416 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia * Please note the new format for this week's report. Including last weeks below for comparison's sake. PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE: Since completing its first eBook in March 2001, the Distributed Proofreaders team has now contributed 6,184 eBooks to Project Gutenberg. 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PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as: Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files eBooks@Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<< Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change Renaisscance Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files =======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files===== Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 Total Files These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of their donors: some are one file per book; some have a file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the overcounting or duplication of numbers. If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~45,714 Unique eBooks If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~34,286 Unique eBooks *** Today Is Day #42 of 2005 This Completes Week #6 and Month #01.50 322 Days/46 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 4,546 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 83 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 6 weeks of this year, we have produced 498 new eBooks. It took us from 7/71 to 8/96 to produce our FIRST 498 eBooks!!! That's 6 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 YEARS!!! FLASHBACK! Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #498 Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ### A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright Apr 1996 From Twice Told Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne [#3][2talexxx.xxx] 508 Apr 1996 Adam Bede, by George Eliot [#2] [Mary Anne Evans] [adambxxx.xxx] 507 Apr 1996 The Shuttle, Frances Hodgson Burnett [Burnett #8] [tshtlxxx.xxx] 506 Apr 1996 Warfare of Science/Theology, Andrew Dickson White [hwswtxxx.xxx] 505 Apr 1996 The Fifth String, by John Philip Sousa [strngxxx.xxx] 504 Apr 1996 The Blue Fairy Book, A LARGE Collection [Fairy#1] [blfryxxx.xxx] 503 [Edited by Andrew Lang] (#1 in our series of large fairy tale books) Apr 1996 Desert Gold, by Zane Grey [Zane Grey eBook #2] [dgoldxxx.xxx] 502 Apr 1996 The Story of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting [dolitxxx.xxx] 501 Apr 1996 Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi/Lorenzini[pnocoxxx.xxx] 500 Apr 1996 Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders, V. Appleton[#20][20tomxxx.xxx] 499 Apr 1996 Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggin[snybkxxx.xxx] 498 Apr 1996 Tracks of a Rolling Stone by Henry J. Coke [trlstxxx.xxx] 497 Apr 1996 The Little Lame Prince, by Miss Mulock [lamepxxx.xxx] 496 Apr 1996 Amy Foster, by Joseph Conrad [Conrad Series #6] [afostxxx.xxx] 495 Apr 1996 To-morrow, by Joseph Conrad [Conrad Series #5] [2mrowxxx.xxx] 494 Apr 1996 Falk, by Joseph Conrad [#4 in our Conrad Series] [falkxxxx.xxx] 493 Apr 1996 The Art of Writing, Robert Louis Stevenson [RLS22][artowxxx.xxx] 492 * Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? With 15,454 eBooks online as of February 16, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$1.02 from each book. 1% of the world population is 64,112,028 x 15,454 x $1.02 = $1+ trillion With 15,454 eBooks online as of February 16, 2005 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.65 from each book, This "cost" is down from about $.87 when we had 11,435 eBooks a year ago. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! At 15,454 eBooks in 33 Years and 07.50 Months We Averaged ~460 Per Year 38.3 Per Month 1.26 Per Day At 498 eBooks Done In The 42 Days Of 2005 We Averaged 11.9 Per Day 83 Per Week 332 Per Month The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks' production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon, starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 5th was the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. *** *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] CHINA'S CRACKDOWN ON INTERNET CAFES Chinese authorities shut down more than 12,575 Internet cafes in the last three months of 2004 to create a "safer environment for young people in China," according to the Xinhua News Agency. With 87 million people online, China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users (after the U.S.), and the government actively promotes Internet use for business and education. However, communist authorities block access to Web sites they deem pornographic or subversive and Internet cafes are banned from operating near schools. (AP/Washington Times 14 Feb 2005) <http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_INTERNET_CRACKDOWN?SI TE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME> 'THE NEW FORMAT IS NO FORMAT' Music lovers may well be wondering why it is they're required to buy the same song over and over again in different formats (think vinyl, 8-track, cassette, CD, etc.) and one music industry veteran predicts that cycle is coming to an end. "The new format is no format. What the consumer would buy is a data file, and you could create whatever you need. If you want to make an MP3, you make an MP3. If you want a DVD-Audio surround disc, you make that," says George Petersen, editorial director of Mix magazine. The numbers seem to support Petersen's prediction: during the second half of 2004 more than 91 million digital tracks were sold, compared with 19.2 million in the same period in 2003 -- an increase of 376%. And Apple, which reports total iPod sales between 10 and 11 million since its launch in 2001, notes that 8.2 million of those sales took place last year. Meanwhile, record labels who predicted digital music would be the death of them are seeing CD sales up 2.3% last year, compared with 2003. Petersen says music merchants need to capitalize on the digital trend and should consider offering services for customers who might not have the latest technology at home, such as burning CDs for them and offering high-resolutions graphics for a jewel case. "Why aren't record stores using the Internet? If you keep things old-school, you are going to die." (Washington Post 13 Feb 2005) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19831-2005Feb12.html> [Two stories: "Big Brother WILL Be Watching YOU."] [Of course, the secret police won't be carrying these. The reason they will give is that they are SECRET police. You can't have pictures of them, their fingerprints are not in the databases, voiceprints, DNA, etc., are all secret.] 'SMART' DRIVER'S LICENSES A TROJAN HORSE? A move by Congress to endorse a Republican-backed measure that would compel states to redesign their driver's licenses by 2008 to comply with standards for making them electronically readable has critics questioning government's motives, saying it gives the Department of Homeland Security carte blanche to do nearly anything "to protect the national security interests of the United States." Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) says, "Supporters claim it is not a national ID because it is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make nonpersons out of its citizens. They will not be able to fly or to take a train." Proponents of the Real ID Act say it reflects the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and will help in the battle against terrorism and efforts to identify illegal immigrants. But Paul says, "In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: our constitutionally protected liberty." (CNet News.com 14 Feb 2005) <http://news.com.com/From+high-tech+drivers+licenses+to+national+ID+cards/21 00-1028_3-5573414.html> [and on a related issue] CONTROVERSIAL USE OF RFID TECHNOLOGY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Brittan Elementary School in rural Sutter, California, is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification (RFID) badges that can track their movements in order to simplify attendance-taking, curtail vandalism, and improve student safety. But civil libertarians are alarmed, and ACLU representative Nicole Ozer warns, "If this school doesn't stand up, then other schools might adopt it. You might be a small community, but you are one of the first communities to use this technology." Angry parent Michael Cantrall, who alerted the ACLU to the school9s decision to use RFID technology, which is also used to track merchandise, says: "There is a way to make kids safer without making them feel like a piece of inventory. Are we trying to bring them up with respect and trust, or tell them that you can't trust anyone, you are always going to be monitored, and someone is always going to be watching you?" Each student is required to wear identification cards around their necks with their picture, name and grade and a wireless transmitter that beams their ID number to a teacher's handheld computer when the child passes under an antenna posted above a classroom door. But the IDs have been welcomed by some parents, such as one who notes: "This is not Mayberry. This is Sutter, California. Bad things can happen here." (AP 10 Feb 2005) <http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050210/D885RJD81.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

SURVEY PREDICTS SLIDE IN HIGHER ED IT SPENDING A recent Market Data Retrieval survey of IT officials at more than 1,400 two- and four-year colleges and universities suggests a decline of 4 percent in IT spending this year compared to last year, itself a decline over the previous year. Analysts at the research firm said the decline is likely a result not only of tight budgets overall but also of increased performance of hardware, allowing lower costs for some investments. The overall drop of 4 percent is the net of a 13 percent slide in investments at public institutions and a 28 percent increase at private institutions. Private institutions continue to significantly outpace their public counterparts on IT spending per student, spending an average of $553 per student versus $203 at publics. The survey also found slightly lower rates of distance education offerings, down from 67 percent to 64 percent, and an increase in wireless networks, rising from 70 percent last year to 79 percent this year. Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 February 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/02/2005020903n.htm 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 Last week's prediction read: The results of the Iraqi elections will be held up for so long that no one will care who was elected, or how many voted. . . the fact that elections were held at all will called victory. By now it must be obvious that there is a LOT going on "behind the scenes" of the Iraqi elections, that took place January 30. The media headlined a 57% turnout among eligible voters, but a report on voter registration of Iraqis in the US was at 7% just a day before extended registration periods finally closed. In other countries around the world it was reported a bit higher, but nothing on the order of even half the 57% headline numbers, which would have been about 8 million voters. Even the most literate, or numerate, reporters have now started to question the reliability and validity of these reports, and note that Iraqi election officials are becoming more and more hesitant to answer questions as the vote count proceeds, rather than having more to say as the count is more completed. I know I often test the memories of our readers by asking them to remember previous events of a similar nature, but it is now obvious that the media should be comparing these new election reports to previous elections in countries the United States supposedly was saving from corrupt dictatorships and military threats to world peace. The 1967 Viet Nam elections should be coming to mind, as should the 1984 El Salvador elections, both with similar initially high voter turnout headlines, which had to be "adjusted" to lower and lower figures until it became all too obvious that the initial figures were purely propaganda. If the voter registration figures in Iraq at all resemble those in all the other countries where Iraqis were registered to vote, then it would be quite surprising if even 1/2 of the the 57% of the initial voter turnout reports actually had registered, much less successfully cast ballots. The real question for us, locally, is why our media is not out there asking questions about what is happening, but simply not doing anything but reporting what they have been told to say? Of course, if you really analyze just one week's worth of news, you'll find just how much of the major media tells you is just straight from the mouth of government officials, rather than a "fair and unbiased" investigation into what really happens. Initial reports of strong Sunni voter turnout have now proven to have simply been pie in the sky to encourgage such turnout, but it never caught on, even with the aid of such propaganda relayed by many media sources who said those who reported more truthful turnout figures were incorrect at best, and liars at the worst. Interesting when the liars call the truth tellers liars. . . . When things go wrong, the current plan seems to be to muddy the waters so badly that no one can tell what is happening, and then reports are delayed so long that no one cares. "That report is no longer operational," is what the Nixon media people would say in such cases. I wonder how that technique actually worked out in a historical perspective? Worldwide press seems to be doing a little better, with at least one of the major wire services quoting a high placed Western diplomat as saying that voter turnout in the large Anbar province was "quite low". . .but you probably never heard that from the Western media. Carlos Valenzuela, United Nations Chief Elections Expert in Iraq said that predicted Sunni turnouts were so very low that even if they proved to be too low that the real turnout would still be low. But this hasn't been getting much air time in the U.S. The New York Times may have been one of the only sources to actually report some hard figures, stating that their sources reported "somewhat more than 50,000 of Mosul's 500,000 estimated eligible voters" had turned out in a vote that had been 60% counted by February 3. Yet this is not being used as a basis for other media stories. There is a lot more to be said here, this merely touches the tip of the iceberg. Some are questionning the actual population figures for Iraq, other question those of real voting age, etc., but there don't seem to be hard figures, something the media has had a few years to come up with. *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK "GI Joe was apparently captured and beheaded by terrorists in Iraq, as the pictures previously released have now been identified as the diminutive U.S. soldier of great fame." *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK A new DVD will become available that will be able to hold nearly every word in every book in the Library of Congress. [Details available on request] *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK Blogs are becoming the latest successor to the Gutenberg Press, as they become the predominant fact releasing tool for the public. [see Charlie Rose, 2/15/05] * "If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be: 57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south 8 Africans 52 would be female 48 would be male 70 would be non-white 30 would be white 70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States 80 would live in substandard housing 70 would be unable to read 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education 1 would own a computer I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date, as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer then there would be only 60 million people in the world who owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States households have computers, out of over 100 million households. Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in the United States. I just called our local reference librarian and got the number of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at: 111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports. If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million, and that's counting just one computer per household, and not counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc. I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate given above, and would like some help researching these and other such figures, if anyone is interested. BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old. This means that basically 90% of the world's population would never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they can receive more per year, but because they will live more years to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in. *** *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. 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