PGWeekly_November_05.txt *The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 5, 2003* *****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971***** ! I lost touch with someone working on a Project Gutenberg Press Release! Please contact hart@pobox.com. . .my apologies, can't find your email.... eBook Milestones We're 2.25% Of The Way From 10,000 To 20,000!!! 10225 eBooks As Of Today!!! I have the first test copy of our "10K Special" DVD on my desk, more below. [The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments, 2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.] This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter Over Our 32 18/53 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 316 Ebooks/Yr And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!! We Are Averaging About 397 Per Month This Year!!! 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For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to http://promo.net/pg/donation.html or email donate@gutenberg.net *** HOW TO GET EBOOKS FROM OUR MIRROR SITES http://promo.net/pg (aka http://www.gutenberg.net) allows searching by title, author, language and subject. Mirrors (copies) of the complete collection are available around the world. http://gutenberg.net/list.html can get you to the nearest one. These sites and indices are not instant, as the cataloguing needs to be done by our professional Chief Cataloguer. --"INSTANT" ACCESS TO OUR LATEST eBOOKS Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download site (or a mirror) if you know the filename you want. Try: http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 and look for the first five letters of the filesname. Note that updated eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.) *** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? Statistical Review In the 44 weeks of this year, we have produced 3482 new eBooks. It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 3482 eBooks!!! That's 44 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!! With 10,225 eBooks online as of November 5, 2003 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.98 from each book, for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000 [One Trillion Dollars] in books. 100,000,000 readers is only about 1.5% of the world's population! This "cost" is down from about $1.60 when we had 6267 eBooks A Year Ago Can you imagine 10,000 books each costing $.62 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine 10,000 books each costing 1/3 less a year later??? At 10,225 eBooks in 32 Years and 4.80 Months We Averaged 311 Per Year [We do more per than that month these days!] 26 Per Month .85 Per Day At 3,486 eBooks Done In The 301 Days Of 2003 We Averaged 11.3 Per Day 79.3 Per Week 395.7 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 1st was the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended PG's production year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003 at noon. This year there will be 53 Wednesdays, thus one extra week. ***Headline News*** [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] From Newsscan: NINE OUT OF TEN KIDS USE COMPUTERS About 90% of U.S. children ages 5 to 17 use computers and 59% of them use the Internet, according to two new studies released by the U.S. Department of Education. The new data also show that 99% of public schools now have Internet access, up from 35% eight years ago. "Children are often the first adopters of a lot of technology," says John Bailey, who oversees educational technology for the federal agency. "^E Students, by and large, are dominating the Internet population." That's not surprising, given the rapid penetration of computer technology among U.S. homes, says educational technology expert Peter Grunwald. "The dramatic increase in younger kids' use of technology is not disconnected from what's going on with their parents and their families. Younger kids are likely to have younger parents, and it is those parents, especially mothers, who have a much higher comfort level with technology than older parents -- or even younger parents of five years ago." Almost 75% use the Net for help in school assignments and more than half use it for e-mail, IM-ing or playing games. Research shows the digital divide is still evident, however: while almost two-thirds of white youth aged 5-17 use the Internet, less than half of black youngsters do, and slightly more than a third of Hispanic young people log on. (AP 30 Oct 2003) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031030/D7UGGVI00.html CALLING ALL GADGETS: RADIOSHACK SEEKS INNOVATIVE INVENTORS RadioShack recently unveiled its new strategy to carve out a bigger share of the consumer electronics market -- it hosted 250 electronics developers at its Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters to offer them its retail network of 7,000 stores, design expertise and access to financing to get new products to market more quickly. "There are a lot of entrepreneurs who have patents but no manufacturing capability," says RadioShack chairman and CEO Leonard H. Roberts. "We want to match entrepreneurs with money, with manufacturing. That's how we want to be a force in the marketplace." The company plans to devote space in one of its factories in China to developing new ideas and will back innovative efforts with its own money. In its first joint-development agreement, RadioShack is partnering with Mobility Electronics to design a universal system for recharging batteries for cell phones, digital cameras, camcorders, MP3 players and other portable devices. "We're metamorphosing the company to be more of a leader than a follower," says Andy Berman, VP of new business development. "We've got to get closer to the technology." (Wall Street Journal 30 Oct 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106746401981805700,00.html (sub req'd) AMAZON TURNS OVER A NEW LEAF ON BOOK SEARCHES Amazon says its new "Search Inside the Book" feature does not allow users to print pages from within books, allaying authors' fears that unscrupulous readers might use it to print out recipes, hotel recommendations or other such reference material. Amazon VP Steve Kessel refused to confirm that Amazon had changed the feature to prevent such abuses, citing security concerns, but acknowledged that 15 authors had requested their books to be removed from the Search the Book database. Up until Friday, according to Authors Guild executive director Paul Aiken, the Search Inside the Book tool allows users to search the complete text of a book for words or phrases and print out pages where the phrases appeared. That feature appears to be disabled, said Aiken, who praised the feature but said "we just think it needs a little work." (AP 31 Oct 2003) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031101/D7UHG5SG0.html FCC FINES AT&T FOR VIOLATING DO-NOT-CALL REQUESTS The Federal Communications Commission is planning to fine AT&T $780,000 for continuing to make telemarketing calls to consumers who had placed their numbers on AT&T's own do-not-call list. (This is separate from the national list, and is maintained by individual companies told by consumers: "Take this number off your calling list.") FCC Chairman Michael Powell said, "Today's enforcement action demonstrates our resolve in the fight to protect consumers from unwanted and intrusive telephone calls. This puts telemarketers on notice that we will take all measures necessary to protect consumers who chose to be left alone in their homes." AT&T doesn't believe there have been as many violations as have been alleged, and says it has "been cooperating with the FCC over the past several months in investigating claims that date well back into 2002." (Wall Street Journal 4 Nov 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106788078474158700,00.html?mod=technology %5Fmain%5Fwhats%5Fnews (sub req'd) GOOGLE AND MICROSOFT? Google, which is now preparing to issue an Initial Public Offering, has recently been exploring a partnership with Microsoft, after Microsoft made overtures that included the possibility of a takeover. In its forthcoming IPO, Google will be selling a 10-15% stake to the public to raise more than $2 billion to be used to invest in the business and create wealth for its employees, venture capitalists and early investors. (New York Times 31 Oct 2003) http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/technology/31net.html WHITE SPOTS ON POWERBOOK SCREENS The new 15-inch-screen PowerBooks have unexplained white blotches showing up on the LCD screens. Some customers say they sent their laptops in for repair, only to see the spots reappear when the systems came back. A statement from Apple says: "The new 15-inch PowerBook has been a big hit with customers since its introduction last month. However, some customers are reporting the appearance of faint, white spots on their displays after using the system for a short period of time, and Apple is investigating these reports right now. Any customers experiencing this problem should contact AppleCare." (San Jose Mercury News 31 Oct 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7148746.htm [Let's Say There Are 10 Million People Who Subscribe To Verizon This Year. $100 From Each And Every One Will Go To Pay Off This Advertizing Campaign] [One Hundred Dollars x Ten Million People = One Billion Dollars] THEY WANT YOUR BUSINESS (OR DO YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS?) The wireless companies are now engaged in one of the most expensive advertising wars in American business history. Verizon Wireless alone will be spending nearly $1 billion on advertising this year, and the wireless industry as a whole has already spent $1.7 billion in just the first half of this year. What are the wireless companies selling you? Your life. Neve Savage, marketing and communications VP of AT&T Wireless, has revived AT&T's famous slogan, "Reach out and touch someone," to inspire the company's new "Reach Out" campaign; she says, "It's one of the great slogans of all advertising. There's a huge amount of advertising in this industry, and a lot of it focuses on rates, rate plans, equipment and so forth, but people don't buy that. They buy the ability to reach out." Savage thinks that wireless communication is ultimately "about relationships. Verizon can't reach out, Cingular can't reach out, T-Mobile can't reach out. It's ownable by us."... Well, maybe they can't reach out, but they sure can spend money on advertising. (Washington Post 30 Oct 2003) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44465-2003Oct30.html "They said it couldn't be done but sometimes it doesn't work out that way." Casey Stengel, All Time World Series Winner as Manager of New York Yankees. 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 FOUR NEW DMCA EXCEPTIONS Officials at the Library of Congress are required periodically to review the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The latest review has led to four new exceptions to the DMCA's prohibition against circumventing electronic copyright protections. Under the new exceptions, copyright protections can legally be broken to access lists of Web sites blocked by Internet filters; computer applications protected by broken or obsolete copy protections; applications that use obsolete hardware or formats; and e-books that do not allow disabled-access tools such as screen readers to function. Many DMCA critics complained that the new exceptions are fairly narrow and called again for exceptions that would allow users to break copyright protections in order to play files on various devices and in other formats. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, said that his office does not have the authority to grant those kinds of exceptions and that such requests are typically made by individuals who do not understand copyright law. CNET, 28 October 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5098639.html [Would Someone Please Graph The Predicted Growth At This Rate?!?!?!?] MORE DATA, BUT NO LESS PAPER A study by the University of California at Berkeley shows that during 2002, 5 billion gigabytes of data was generated around the world. That amount, which is the equivalent of about 800 megabytes per person, is enough to fill 500,000 U.S. Libraries of Congress. The university conducted a similar study in 1999, and the new results indicate a 30 percent rise since the first study in the amount of stored information. The amount of data stored on hard disk drives was up 114 percent from the earlier study. According to Peter Lyman, a professor at UC Berkeley, those involved in the 1999 study expected that use of film and paper would drop as users moved those media into electronic formats. Although film-based photographs have dropped 9 percent since 1999, paper documents, including books, journals, and others, have grown by as much as 43 percent. Lyman said that much of the content is accessed on computers, but users print it out. Reuters, 29 October 2003 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3713686 U.S. TO USE BIOMETRICS TO SCREEN FOREIGNERS Beginning early next year, those entering the United States on tourist, business, or student visas will go through a biometric screening process designed to improve national security. Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security at the Department of Homeland Security, this week unveiled the equipment to be used in the new screening procedure, which includes fingerprinting and photo tools. Visa holders will be screened when they enter the country to verify they are not on terrorist watch lists, and when they leave the country to keep a record of whether they have overstayed their visas. Despite a General Accounting Office report expressing skepticism that the system can be implemented efficiently and calling it "a very risky endeavor," Hutchinson said the system will cause few delays and will provide a strong boost for national security. The system will be installed at 115 airports and 14 seaports. Wired News, 29 October 2003 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61010,00.html MICROSOFT EYES GOOGLE MERGER Microsoft reportedly approached Google within the past two months about the possibility of a merger. Google--the leader among search engines--generates significant ad revenues. Google, for the moment, appears to have rejected Microsoft's overture, focusing instead on its recently revealed intentions to pursue an initial public offering (IPO). Microsoft might still consider a merger after Google goes public, however, according to one source. Plans for Google's IPO remain undecided. Google's founders reportedly have considered an auction-style public offering, avoiding using financial institutions to underwrite the IPO. Many banks are continuing to bid for the IPO, however, believing that Google executives will ultimately opt for a traditional approach. New York Times, 31 October 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/technology/31net.html LEGAL DOWNLOADS OUTPACE CD PURCHASES A new report from Billboard magazine shows that online music purchases have surpassed sales of CD singles. According to the report, 7.7 million songs were purchased online since the end of June, compared to 4 million CD singles. Some argued that these numbers are misleading because relatively few songs are offered as singles on a disc, whereas around 500,000 songs are available online from legal music services. Several online music services are working to provide a legal alternative to illegal file trading taking place over the Internet. Phil Quartararo of EMI Music said, "Any way we can drive a consumer to purchase music as opposed to taking music is a win for the industry." BBC, 3 November 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3237021.stm 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 Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media A new European Union poll reveals that Europeans believe the countries that are the largest threats to world peace are: 1. Israel 2. The United States 3. North Korea 4. Iraq [Source: BBC] *** Anti-war activist charged for 'misusing phone' to protest to US http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067233349746.html>http://www.smh. com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067233349746.html An Auckland peace activist who sent an e-mail to the US Embassy objecting to the war on Iraq has been charged with misuse of a telephone. *** Potential Stumper Question: How did Lord Nikon get so many passwords so quickly? *** About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter: [Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. 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