GWeekly_December_15.txt The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, December 15, 2004 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 Comments on "Project Googleberg" as friends have dubbed it, in other email. 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 1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 57 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 14,707 eBooks As Of Today!!! 11,645 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Now Produced about 3,800 eBooks In 2004 We Are Already 70% of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000 We Are 96% of the Way from 10,000 to 15,000 293 to go to 15,000!!! We have now averaged ~440 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!! We Are Averaging About 340 eBooks Per Month This Year About 78 Per Week It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 eBooks * HEADLINE NEWS!!! AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT CHOOSES TO CHANGE COPYRIGHT RULES [Depite a resolution passed to the contrary three years ago. . . . This is what is known as "economic warfare," and, as in warfare in general, it is the public who loses the most.] The final element of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has passed through the Australian federal parliament. Copyright changes in last-minute talks are designed to: 1. Enable people other than copyright owners to force ISPs to remove materials allegedly infringing copyright. 2. Take effect on January 1, 2005. 3. Extended Australian copyright 20 years to now reach 70 years past the lifespan of the author. *** On the other hand, Project Gutenberg is getting great PR from: THE DA VINCI CODE "For their generous assistance in the research of the book, I would like to acknowledge the Louvre Museum, the French Ministry of Culture, Project Gutenberg, Bibliothe`que Nationale, the Gnostic Society Library, the Department of Paintings Study and Documentation Service at the Louvre, Catholic World News, Royal Observatory Greenwich, London Record Society, the Muniment Collection at Westminster Abbey, John Pike and the Federation of American Scientists, and the five members of Opus Dei (three active, two former) who recounted their stories, both positive and negative, regarding their experiences inside Opus Dei." *** eMusic In our efforts to further the digitization of sheet music, Project Gutenberg also recommends the Mutopia Project. The following was contributed by the project team leader, Chris Sawer: "The Mutopia project consists of a growing online collection of sheet music, all of which may be freely downloaded, printed, copied, distributed, modified, performed and recorded. It has just celebrated its fifth year online, and now has nearly 500 works, ranging from simple pieces for solo instruments, to large orchestral pieces and even an entire opera. Composers from Bach to Vivaldi are featured, along with some early jazz, and some modern pieces which have been released under a free license by their composers. Visit our website to see what we've got - and maybe contribute some music yourself!" 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Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3800 Feb 2003 The Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza [Spinoza #11][ethicxxx.xxx] 3800 [Full Latin Title: Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata] [Trans: Elwes] Feb 2003 Landholding In England, by Joseph Fisher[Fisher#2][lndiexxx.xxx] 3799 Feb 2003 Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, by Captain Gronow[grnowxxx.xxx] 3798 Feb 2003 In the Days of the Comet, by H. G. Wells 3797 Feb 2003 Rilla of Ingleside, by Lucy Maud Montgomery[LMM#7][rillaxxx.xxx] 3796 Feb 2003 Under the Lilacs, by Louisa May Alcott [Alcott #9 [ullcsxxx.xxx] 3795 Feb 2003 L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits, by Aubrey Stewart [bnftsxxx.xxx] 3794 Feb 2003 Joseph II. and His Court, by L. Muhlbach [LM #8][j2ahcxxx.xxx] 3793 Feb 2003 Capitola The Madcap, by Emma D. E. N. Southworth [mdcapxxx.xxx] 3792 Feb 2003 The Reign Of Law, by James Lane Allen [rolawxxx.xxx] 3791 Feb 2003 Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw[G. B. Shaw #22][mjbrbxxx.xxx] 3790 Feb 2003 Preface to Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw[#21][pmbrbxxx.xxx] 3789 Feb 2003 Haydn, by J. Cuthbert Hadden [Master Musicians] [hhmmsxxx.xxx] 3788 Feb 2003 Nature And Art, by Mrs. [Elizabeth] Inchbald [naartxxx.xxx] 3787 Feb 2003 Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Henry Kingsley[hmlynxxx.xxx] 3786 With 14,707 eBooks online as of December 15, 2004 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.68 from each book, for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000 [One Trillion Dollars] in books. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! This "cost" is down from about $.94 when we had 10,069 eBooks a year ago Can you imagine ~14,707 books each costing ~$.26 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine ~14,707 books each costing 1/3 less a year later??? At 14,707 eBooks in 33 Years and 05.40 Months We Averaged 440 Per Year [We do about 3/4 that much per month these days!] 36.6 Per Month 1.20 Per Day At 3800 eBooks Done In The 343 Days Of 2004 We Averaged 11 Per Day 78 Per Week 340 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. *** *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]

From NewsScan:

GOOGLE CUTS DEAL WITH LIBRARIES TO DIGITIZE HOLDINGS Flush with new wealth after its IPO last summer, Google has offered to underwrite the cost of digitizing library collections at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, the University of Michigan and the New York Public Library. Although company executives declined to comment on the total funding amount, one estimate pegs it at $10 for each of the more than 15 million books and other documents covered in the agreement. The announcement comes as a number of other library digitization projects are underway, including one at the Library of Congress to put selections of its best holdings online and one at the University of California to create the California Digital Library. In addition, the Library of Congress and a group of international libraries from the U.S., Canada, Egypt, China and the Netherlands say they're planning to create a publicly available digital archive of one million books on the Internet. The trend toward online libraries and virtual card catalogs has publishers scrambling to respond and libraries rethinking their central mission as storehouses of printed, indexed material. "Our world is about to change in a big, big way," says Daniel Greenstein, university librarian for the California Digital Library. Instead of devoting time and effort to maintaining physical collections, libraries in the future can focus on gathering information and making it accessible online. (New York Times 14 Dec 2004) <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/technology/14google.html> CONCERNS ABOUT GOOGLE'S ONLINE READING ROOM Google's new plan to digitize the collections of leading research libraries to establish a massive online reading room causes some librarians to fear the commercialization of their institutions. Duane Webster, executive director of the Association of Research Libraries, explains, "There is anxiety about whether the student researcher, scholar or citizen will be guided into the free public access rather than being lured into a purchasing relationship with the publisher." Webster suggests that to allay those fears, free, open access must remain an option. However, he also makes clear that the greater good of expanding the public's access to resources outweighs the eventual possibility that ads would be attached to library materials. Brewster Kahle, founder and president of the Internet Archive, comments: "The public domain belongs to the public and should be publicly accessible without running only into commercial interests. There's room for both, and I hope that we do not evolve into an either-or situation." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 15 Dec 2004) <http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10416638.htm> MOBILE PHONES TO OUTNUMBER LAND LINES Cell phones are expected to generate more revenue this year than traditional land line phones in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to a new report by the International Telecommunication Union. Just four years ago, fixed-line phone revenue was nearly double that of wireless, but mobile phone use is growing rapidly, especially in developing countries where wireless networks are much cheaper to install than traditional terrestrial ones. "Virtually all the global growth in the telecoms service sector over the last decade has come from the mobile sector, broadband and other data services," says Susan Schorr, one of the authors of the study. "Taken together, the value of mobile and other non-voice services is now greater than that of the traditional fixed-line telephone service, which had been the mainstay of public telecommunication operators since the late 19th century." Since 2000, four-fifths of all growth in mobile phone sales took place in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. "The developing world is where most of the potential for future growth resides," says Schorr, who adds that broadband is catching on in those countries as well, with China expected to overtake the U.S. this year as the world's biggest broadband market. (AP 10 Dec 2004) <http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041210/D86SR8GO0.html> U.S. AND TIME WARNER: LET'S SETTLE UP [AOL Finally Bites The Bullet] Time Warner has agreed to settle with the government in two separate cases: the Justice Department's investigation of whether AOL's advertising deals with smaller Internet companies were used to exaggerate AOL growth, and the SEC's investigation into accounting irregularities at the company. Time Warner is expected to pay $500-600 million to settle all civil and criminal accusations with the two agencies. (New York Times 15 Dec 2004) <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/business/media/15media.html> DISSIN' CHINA [Not all news coming out of China is positive] Law enforcement authorities in China have banned the new British computer game "Football Manager 2005" because it refers to Taiwan as a separate country, contrary to the mainland government's insistence that Taiwan belongs to China. The government is searching for the game online and in computer software markets, cybercafes, and places that sell pirated software. A spokesman for the game's developer, Sports Interactive, says it's working on a Chinese version for release in China that will comply with local requirements: "We will follow the correct submission and approval process within China and look forward to feedback from the Chinese authorities on any modifications that may be required." Last week China also banned a Nike television commercial it says is disrespectful and blasphemous toward Chinese culture. The ad features NBA star LeBron James in a mock video with a kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese attire, and a pair of dragons. (AP/9 Nov 2004) <http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041209/D86S32RG0.html> IT'S OFFICIAL: IBM STRIKES DEAL TO SELL PC DIVISION [IBM goes back to being monolithic, leaves PC world for Big Business] [N.B. the price is 1/8 as much as Oracle paid for PeopleSoft!] IBM is selling its PC business to Chinese computer giant Lenovo Group for $1.25 billion in cash and stock. As part of the deal, IBM will own an 18.9% stake in Lenovo, which will be allowed to use the IBM brand for five years, as well as other trademarks on PCs and notebook computers. The sale vaults Lenovo to a solid No. 3 slot in the global PC market, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. In a message to IBM workers, chairman Sam Palmisano (who once headed the PC business) said the move was part of the company's strategy to focus on making products for large government and industry customers. "The PC business is rapidly taking on characteristics of the home and consumer electronic industry, which favors economies of scale, pricing power and a focus on individual users and buyers," wrote Palmisano. (Wall Street Journal 8 Dec 2004) <http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110247027599793998,00.html> (sub req'd) MICROSOFT UNVEILS DESKTOP SEARCH TOOL Hot on the heels of Google's Desktop Search launch two months ago, Microsoft has rolled out its competing MSN Toolbar Suite that enables users to search for keywords in a variety of types of files, from e-mails to instant messages to PDFs. Google's Desktop Search does not support searches in PDF files but, unlike MSN Toolbar, it does record all Web pages visited. Both products are still in beta stage, but meanwhile the competition is heating up with Yahoo's announcement last week that it will launch a desktop search product in January, and AOL's plans to join the fray sometime early next year. (AP 13 Dec 2004) <http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041214/D86V2VP00.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

PENN STATE URGES MOVING FROM IE Officials in the Information Technology Services department at Pennsylvania State University have sent a notice to students suggesting that they switch to a browser other than Internet Explorer (IE) to increase the security of their computers. Recent reports in the media about IE vulnerabilities, as well as warnings from the Computer Emergency and Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University, prompted Penn State's recommendation that students look at browsers including Firefox, Safari, and Opera. A spokesperson for the university said, "We're not telling people to wipe off IE, because you need IE to do operating-system updates." As part of a two-month campaign to increase computer security across campus, however, the university is urging students to examine other browsers and to consider the benefits they might provide for increased protection from malicious code. Also included in the security campaign are reminders for students to install firewalls and antivirus software, to keep those applications updated, and to install operating-system updates regularly. CNET, 9 December 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5485834.html IPOD REQUIREMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL The Brearley School, a private girls' school in New York, has instituted an iPod requirement for about 300 students in grades 7 through 12. Some higher education institutions have similar requirements, including Duke University and Georgia College and State University, but this is reportedly the first such program at the secondary level. Students at Brearley will use the devices primarily for foreign languages and classics. Students can use their iPods to keep audio diaries, practice speaking foreign languages, and download and listen to lessons and other course content. Although the educational value of the technology remains an unknown quantity, teachers at Brearley noted that the "wow" factor of the iPods for teenage girls would likely benefit the initiative. At Duke, which issued iPods to 1,650 incoming freshmen this fall, the devices are also used in foreign language classes, among others. Lisa Merschel, who teaches Spanish at Duke, said she does not "necessarily see a correlation between using the iPod and an increased fluency in the language." Still, said Merschel, the iPods "helped me to see how [the students] were progressing as a class." New York Times, 9 December 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/09/technology/circuits/09ipod.html IBM SELLS PC UNIT TO CHINESE COMPANY Following news reports (see Edupage, December 3) on the possibility, IBM has agreed to sell its personal computer unit to China's largest PC maker, Lenovo, for $1.75 billion in cash, stock, and debt. IBM will assume a 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo. The IBM PC business will continue to be run by its current management team and be based in the United States. Although based in Beijing, Lenovo plans to establish headquarters in New York. IBM will continue to handle technical support, financing, and warranty coverage for its former PC division. New York Times, 8 December 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/technology/08computer.html PEOPLESOFT BOARD APPROVES SALE TO ORACLE After 18 months of wrangling, legal actions, and regulatory review, the PeopleSoft Board of Directors has approved a buyout offer from Oracle. The deal is valued at about $10.3 billion, or $26.50 per share, despite Oracle's insistence that $24 per share was its best offer. The higher price came after Oracle executives gained access to PeopleSoft's financial statements and determined the target company was more profitable than Oracle's earlier estimates. Oracle has promised strong support for current PeopleSoft customers, as well as those of J.D. Edwards, which PeopleSoft acquired during the takeover efforts by Oracle. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said development teams from both PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards would be retained and would operate independently. Ellison said updates to applications from both companies would be developed in the next year or two. Pending legal action over the merger will be suspended until the transaction is completed, at which point litigation will be dismissed. The deal is expected to close at the end of January. CNET, 13 December 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-7343_3-5488298.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 *** TECHNOLOGY REVIEW SPACE STATION CREW ENDURES FOOD SHORTAGE [You spend billions on space programs, but no one counts how many sandwiches?] from Houston Chronicle A food shortage on the international space station means its two crew members must eat less until a Russian supply capsule arrives Christmas Day, NASA officials said Thursday. Supplies are so low that if the usually reliable Progress spacecraft missed its delivery, American Leroy Chiao and Russian Salizhan Sharipov would be ordered back to Earth by mid-January, halfway through their six-month mission. "This Progress is critical, there is no question about that," NASA space station program manager Bill Gersteinmaier said Thursday. http://snipurl.com/b9o8 *Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media Elderly and Retired Being Called Up To Active Military In Middle East Some of you heard about the 55 year old woman called up by the army, but that has now been eclipsed by at least 100 over the age of 60, and at least one 70 year old has been called up to Afganistan. "My first reaction was disbelief," the Florida retiree said. "It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old." The Department of Defense would not provide exact figures as to how many senior citizens had been called up. REPORT CONCLUDES LINUX HAS FEWER FLAWS [From Newsscan] A four-year research effort by code-analysis firm Coverity has concluded that Linux has significantly fewer software bugs in it than most commercial counterparts. Coverity uncovered 985 flaws in the 5.7 million lines of code that make up the Linux core operating system, compared with the more than 5,000 defects typically found in commercial software of similar size. "Linux is a very good system in terms of bug density," says Coverity CEO Seth Hallem. Though Coverity's report doesn't contain any specific data about the frequency of glitches in Microsoft's Windows operating system, it's likely to add fuel to the debate over which system -- Linux, Mac OS or Windows -- is most secure. One recent report found that Red Hat Linux contained fewer critical flaws than Microsoft Windows, while a Forrester Research study (sponsored by Microsoft) unsurprisingly favored Microsoft. (CNet News.com 13 Dec 2004) <http://news.com.com/Security+research+suggests+Linux+has+fewer+flaws/2100-1 002_3-5489804.html> [Since I used to live in San Francisco, this jumped out at me] TREMORS ROCK EARTH DEEP BENEATH SAN ANDREAS FAULT from San Francisco Chronicle Mysterious tremors deep beneath the San Andreas Fault near the quake-prone town of Parkfield are shaking the earth's brittle crust, far below the region where earthquakes normally strike -- and scientists say they can't understand what's happening or what the motions mean. Seismic researchers are monitoring the strange vibrations closely. But whether the faint underground tremors -- termed "chatter" by some seismologists -- portend an increased likelihood of a major quake in the area is an unsolved puzzle. Robert Nadeau, a geophysicist at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, has charted more than 110 of the faint vibrations since they were first detected by the lab's High Resolution Seismic Network in Parkfield three years ago. What concerns Nadeau and his colleagues is that the epicenter of the great 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, whose magnitude has been estimated at 7.8 to 8, was located almost exactly where the deep tremors are now occurring -- beneath the San Luis Obispo County village of Cholame, some 17 miles south of Parkfield. http://snipurl.com/b9mz ESKIMOS SEEK TO RECAST GLOBAL WARMING AS A RIGHTS ISSUE from The New York Times (Registration Required) The Eskimos, or Inuit, about 155,000 seal-hunting peoples scattered around the Arctic, plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the United States, by contributing substantially to global warming, is threatening their existence. The Inuit plan is part of a broader shift in the debate over human-caused climate change evident among participants in the 10th round of international talks taking place in Buenos Aires aimed at averting dangerous human interference with the climate system. Inuit leaders said they planned to announce the effort at the climate meeting today. http://snipurl.com/bdtn *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK About "Google Print" "This is the day the world changes." John Wilkin, University of Michigan "Within two decades, most of the world's knowledge will be digitised and available, one hopes for free reading on the internet, just as there is free reading in libraries today." Michael A. Keller, Head Librarian, Stanford Ronald Milne, Acting Head Librarian, Bodleian Library, Oxford, said that this was as important an event as the Gutenberg's orginal invention of the printing press. [Does anyone have the exact quotation. . .I was taking notes from three nearly simultaneous reports] [BTW, didn't we hear that a major portion of the Bodleian was now confortably ensconced deep within a salt mine? So how is Google going to scan those?] "Our world is about to change in a big, big way," Daniel Greenstein, California Digital Library *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK Project Gutenberg will be the first eBook collection to offer $1,000,000 worth of eBooks at 2005 hardback retail prices. Project Gutenberg will be the first eBook collection to offer 100,000 eBooks. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO HAS RECORD DIOXIN LEVELS "the concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the second highest ever recorded in human history," Prof. Abraham Brouwer, Toxicologist, Free University in Amsterdam * We keep hearing annoucements that high school graduates make $1.42 for each $1 made by high school dropouts. They never mention that education makes for better people, or for a better country or a better world. . .just that it is likely that you will make more money. . . . "Greed Is Good" seems to still be the watchword. . . . ["Sponsored by the Ad Council and the U.S. Army."] *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 ***