========
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg 30th Anniversary Weekly Newsletter
From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
To: "Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter" <gweekly@listserv.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 12:43:59 -0500 (CDT)
This is Project Gutenberg's Weekly Newsletter for Wednesday, July 4, 2001
This Is Our 30th Anniversary Newsletter!
We Are On Schedule To Do 1,000 Etexts This Year!
Etexts Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since Before The Internet
[Usually sent the first Wednesday of each month, delayed if by relay.]
Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli, of Rome, Italy
*Check out our Websites at promo.net, and ask me for our FTP servers.*
"When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were
failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work."
George Bernard Shaw
30 years ago today, Project Gutenberg posted the first electronic text
for download on what would eventually become the Internet. . .it was a
simple 5,000 byte file. . .all in CAPS. . .since computers didn't have
lower case yet back then. . .it was the US Declaration of Independence
and one similar Etext was added each year for the rest of the 1970's--
The 1980's saw a great expansion in the size of the Etexts being done,
with two majors works, each 1,000 times larger than the first one. . .
The Bible and The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare.
By July of 1991, there were 17 such Etexts including Project Gutenberg
receiving three major Etexts from outside sources: Moby Dick, Roget's
Thesaurus, and The 1990 CIA Factbook. Along with such classics as The
Adventures of Peter Pan and Alice [Wonderland and The Looking Glass] a
new generation of readers had been born.
For each one of those 17 Etexts that were available in 1971, there are
now over 1,000 Etexts listed in the Internet Public Library alone!!!
Just a few years ago, when there were only 10,000, people said this is
the kind of growth pattern that could not continue, but as you read on
below, you will see that it will not only continue, but that we should
still be able to expect 1,000,000 files by 2010 if support continues.
It's hard to realize that Project Gutenberg has been around as long as
Sesame Street and Big Bird, as long as ABC's Wide World Of Sports or a
variety of other continuing events we think of historically, even such
events as the Super Bowl only came into their own about 30 years ago--
believe it or not, the first Super Bowl, even though it was broadcast,
taped, and filmed by BOTH CBS and NBC, all the complete TV recordings,
no kidding, were tossed out, along with most of the other recordings a
world of television and movies has lost throughout the years. . .
Yet not one word of Project Gutenberg has been lost throughout all the
time since July 4th, 1971. . . .
During that time Project Gutenberg has release approximately 3600 text
and other files, for an average of 120 per year, about 1 every 3 days.
Of course, as with all logathrimic growth, half of our work was done a
much shorter while ago with our 100th Etext not coming until then very
end of 1993, officially released in January, 1994. . .even then we all
tried to be a little ahead of schedule for better proofreading. . . .
The 1,000th Etext would come in 1997, and would be Dante in Italian, a
major effort to include the classics of other languages. . .though our
releases that same day included two English translations.
Our 2,000th Etext would continue this trend, with the Spanish classic,
Don Quijote.
We started a new trend of original translations with Siddhartha, since
the original translations were still under copyright monopoly, but the
original German had just expired under US copyright law. Again we did
both the English and German versions, a trend we hope to continue with
more efforts similar to those of our Etexts #2499 and 2500.
For #3000 we started our collection of Proust, in the original French.
And for our recent #3500, we did Ceiriog, in Welsh.
So far we have released Etexts in 16 different languages, and have our
first Greek Etext in progress, as well as one that will include a text
in translation in at least 77 languages.
It looks as though we will complete 1,000 Etexts this year, and soon a
monthly count of 100.
Welcome to the future. . .
in which we hope to post Etexts in all languages, with sites in nearly
all countries, and through which we hope to give away a quadrillion of
these Etext titles to a billion readers around the world.
***
I give my heartfelt thanks to the thousands of volunteers who bring us
these Etexts. . .
Never in the field of education have so many received so much from so few.
***
Here is a list of the Etexts posted since last Wednesday.
For "instant" access to our new Etexts you can surf to:
http://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02
or
ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02
You will need the first five letters of the filenames listed below.
We have posted a significantly improved 11th edition of:
Nov 2000 Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Goethe V2[Goethe27][7ljw2xxx.xxx]2408
Nov 2000 Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Goethe V2[Goethe27][8ljw2xxx.xxx]2408
Nov 2000 Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Goethe V1[Goethe26][7ljw1xxx.xxx]2407
Nov 2000 Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Goethe V1[Goethe26][8ljw1xxx.xxx]2407
Jan 2003 [ xxx.xxx]3660
Jan 2003 The Rosary, by Florence L. Barclay [rosryxxx.xxx]3659
And these are the 29 new Etexts we have posted in the last week.
Mar 2003 The Entire Memoirs of Madame de Montespan [CM#17][cm17bxxx.xxx]3854
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v7 [CM#16][cm16bxxx.xxx]3853
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v6 [CM#15][cm15bxxx.xxx]3852
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v5 [CM#14][cm14bxxx.xxx]3851
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v4 [CM#13][cm13bxxx.xxx]3850
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v3 [CM#12][cm12bxxx.xxx]3849
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v2 [CM#11][cm11bxxx.xxx]3848
Mar 2003 The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v1 [CM#10][cm10bxxx.xxx]3847
Jan 2003 The Rosary, by Florence L. Barclay [rosryxxx.xxx]3659
Jan 2003 The Prospector, by Ralph Connor [Ralph Connor #7][prspcxxx.xxx]3658
Jan 2003 Wild Beasts and their Ways V1 by Samuel W. Baker#7[wbatwxxx.xxx]3657
Jan 2003 Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879, by Samuel W. Baker #6[cyprsxxx.xxx]3656
Jan 2003 The Parent's Assistant, by Maria Edgeworth [prtasxxx.xxx]3655
Jan 2003 Alfred Tennyson, by Andrew Lang [Andrew Lang #33][alftnxxx.xxx]3654
Jan 2003 The Guns of Bull Run, by Joseph A. Altsheler [tgobrxxx.xxx]3653
Jan 2003 History Of The Mackenzies, by Alexander Mackenzie [mcknzxxx.xxx]3652
Jan 2003 The Square Root of 4 To A Million Places[Math #19][ 4sqrt10.zip]3651
[Due to it's peculiar nature, this number presented in .zip format only ;-) ]
Jan 2003 Selections From American Poetry, by Marg. Carhart [apoetxxx.xxx]3650
[With Special Reference to Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier]
[Author's Full Name: Margeret Sprague Carhart]
Jan 2003 The Dwelling Place of Light /All/Winston Churchill[wc05vxxx.xxx]3649
Jan 2003 The Dwelling Place of Light, V3, Winston Churchill[wc04vxxx.xxx]3648
Jan 2003 The Dwelling Place of Light, V2, Winston Churchill[wc03vxxx.xxx]3647
Jan 2003 The Dwelling Place of Light, V1, Winston Churchill[wc02vxxx.xxx]3646
[This author is a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill the English Prime Minister]
Jan 2003 L'Etourdi, par Moliere [Jean-Baptiste Poquelin][#4[xtrdixxx.xxx]3645
Jan 2003 Vie de Moliere[Jean-Baptiste Poquelin], Voltaire#2[xviemxxx.xxx]3644
[We might need help preserving the accents in these, please email me if. . .]
Jan 2003 Quotations from Albert Paine's Writings, by Widger[dwqabxxx.xxx]3643
[Full: Quotations from Albert B. Paine's Writings, #11 by David Widger]
Jan 2003 The Belgian Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins[Perkins3][bgtwnxxx.xxx]3642
Jan 2003 Who Cares?, by Cosmo Hamilton [caresxxx.xxx]3641
Jan 2003 Literary Taste, by Arnold Bennett [Bennett #3][tastexxx.xxx]3640
Jan 2003 Diary Of Pedestrian In Cashmere & Thibet by Wright[dpcatxxx.xxx]3639
[Full: Diary Of A Pedestrian In Cashmere and Thibet, by William Henry Knight]
[Original Release Date: July, 2002 [Etext #3309]
[RErelease Date: January, 2003 [Etext #3639]
[We accidentally released TWO Etexts #3309]
--=={ WEEKLY UPDATE PROGRESS }==--
Since we started sending out weekly newsletters on 4/11/01, we have posted
253 new Etexts; for those 13 newsletters, we have averaged 19.46 Etexts
posted per week; we need to to continue to average 19.23 Etexts per week
in order to publish 1,000 Etexts this year.
WEEK ##
======== ==
07/04/01 29
06/27/01 22
06/20/01 18
06/13/01 17
06/06/01 20
05/31/01 18
05/23/01 16
05/16/01 18
05/09/01 18
05/02/01 39
04/25/01 15
04/18/01 11
04/11/01 12
============
3 months 253
***
"eTextReader", an ASCII-text reader which can also open zipped txt-files, is
available free of charge at http://pws.prserv.net/Fellner/Software/eTR.htm.
(For Windows, Linux version may follow). Text is displayed in a two-page,
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***
MICROSOFT PULLS CONTROVERSIAL SMART TAG FEATURE
Bowing to a wave of criticism, Microsoft says it will kill plans to include
a Smart Tag feature in its forthcoming Windows XP operating system. The
feature would have allowed Internet Explorer to turn any word on any Web
site into a link to Microsoft's own sites and services, or to a site of
Microsoft's choosing. The company continues to defend Smart Tags in
principle, and plans to work toward including it in a future version of
Windows or Internet Explorer, but group VP Jim Allchin said the decision
was made to remove the Smart Tags because "we got way more feedback than we
ever expected." Although many people view the public reaction against Smart
Tags as excessive, Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg says,
"...Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer browser is like a television
set, or a digital printing press, for the Web. Its function is to render --
accurately and neutrally -- all Web pages that follow standard
programming... Microsoft has a perfect right to produce and sell its own
Web content with its own points of view. But it is just plain wrong for the
company to use the browser to seize editorial control and to steal readers
from other sites." (Wall Street Journal 28 Jun 2001)
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB993679289461737795.djm
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