The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter--Feb. 21, 2010
eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971
REMINDER: We still need a probate lawyer!!!
A famous author wants to will us his entire works!!!
However, he has moved to France from the United States,
so there might be international implications.
34 Months to The End of the World Via Mayan Calendaring
on December 21, 2012 [some now saying October 11, 2011]
Leaving 2 years 10 months, 11 1/3 seasons or 34 months.
Not to worry, I will still make long range predictions,
such as that there will be affordable petabytes [2021],
and enough eBooks to fill an entire petabyte around the
same time.
HEADLINE NEWS
APPLE SEEMS READY TO ANNOUNCE EREADER/TABLET
We are working on making all our eBooks optimized to do
their best on iPads, iPhones, iPods, etc.
Let us know if you have one of these and can test them,
or would like to optimize for any other devices.
BIG TROUBLE IN TERABYTEVILLE!
BIG PORTABLE POCKET USB DRIVE RECALL!
The listings for my pocket USB drive did reappear and I
received one less than 48 hours after ordering it. The
drive looks great, works fine, a shiny black lozenge as
if out of Neal Stephenson's Neuromancer [read it!!!].
For those who had heard somewhere you could only get to
3/4 of the terabyte, no, it appears I have it all, with
about 999.5+ gigabytes after their software partition.
In Our Own News Bin
We are about to do our 400th Portuguese eBook.
Suggestions???
OLDER NEWS. . . .
ONGOING U.S. COPYRIGHT EXTENSIONS
Can anything be done to stop the next U.S. extension?
or
If not stop them, at least publicize them a little?
Suggestions are more than welcome.
I should add that this is probably a losing battle even
if it looks as if we are winning.
Here's why:
When the last Australian Copyright Act was discussed in
Parliament, they passed a resolution stating they would
NOT extend copyrights.
Really.
However, just three years later, under economic warfare
from, shall we just say, outside sources, they crumbled
to the pressure and gave in.
The Canadian Parliament is currently in that position--
and while some tell me they have enough signatures from
those against any extensions, I will bet you lunch that
they, too, crumble before it is over.
I would gladly lose every one of those wagers!!!
Further Information
As you may already know, any time the copyrights in the
characters Winnie the Pooh [1926], or The Mouse [1928],
start coming close to expiration The U.S. Congress will
be sure to start a very quiet frenzy of copyright bills
that are designed to go into effect before anything can
happen to those two copyrights.
As I understand it, Disney(R) made a huge lobby effort,
successful, to create the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act; paid
as a result an additional $200 million for the right to
another 20 years of Winnie the Pooh, and still made the
fabled laughing trip to the bank as a result, since the
effective date of 1978.
As a result I have to imagine their sales of The Mouse,
Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, etc., must have been predicted
to be so terribly large as to devour Avatar's gross.
Given that next bill passed right in the middle of what
must have been the busiest day in Congress for the last
few decades, the impeachment of President Clinton, this
means we should expect something of equal secrecy quite
soon, as the current copyright extension runs out 2018.
Usually they would make an effort to pass the new one a
session or two early, such as in 2016, but given that a
snag or two has hit before, we should probably look out
starting in 2015, though it will be hard to see.
Why?
Even during the election just before the last extension
I went to ask televised press conference questions on a
new U.S. Copyright Act I had heard about, but candidate
responses were uniform. . ."I know nothing."
I would have to expect that even if the big anchors ask
the same question in 2015 they will get that answer.
Or non-answer.
From what I have heard there is an ever larger movement
to keep everything copyrighted permanently, and to make
all media as pay-per-view as possible, to the points of
making all broadcast television pay-per-view on a first
viewing premise [except public stations].
We are very likely to see a dissolving out boundaries--
cable products showing up on network television and the
opposite direction as well.
What else CAN we expect when Comcast cable has been the
allowed buyer of NBC?
If you think programming won't leak over:
Consider what happened when Disney took over ABC.
Not only did Disney flood ABC with their own programmed
output, but they killed off the best of all cartoons.
Anyone remember Reboot?
I can put you in touch with many copyright experts, and
I fear that all of them underestimate the power working
to make copyright permanent, in spite of the fact words
"limited time" are the U.s. Constitution's description.
However, the U.s. Supreme Court decided that limited is
really unlimited in "Eldred v Ashcroft."
Welcome To Our Newest PG Mirror. . .In Africa!!!
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Provider: Polytechnic of Namibia
Url: http://gutenberg.polytechnic.edu.na
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Our All Time Hottest Requests!!!!!!!
FLASH RAM
I am looking for the earliest flash RAM possible.
The ideal piece around which to center this collection is
one of the 8 megabyte USBs.
The very earliest were PCMCIA cards, such as used for the
Poqet computer, etc.
The earliest USB flash drives were DisgoDizgo, M-Systems
and these were OEMed by IBM, HP, etc. They are particular
in a recognizable fashion because their snapon connectors
resemble the connectors of jigsaw puzzles.
We received two examples of RAM actually labeled "Flash,"
for the H-P 95 pocket DOS machine from 1991, and a sample
of Fairchild bubble memory, as well, from down under.
Thank you, Mate!
POWERPOINT
We need someone who can do PowerPoint illustrations.
One in particular, building a 3-D box of 1,000 dominoes.
Additional Newsletter Services
In addition, we will provide the PG Canada Newsletter and
totals from PG of Australia, Europe, PrePrints, etc.
These totals do NOT include 75,000+ at
http://www.gutenberg.cc
Where there are eBooks representing over 100 languages.
The Project Gutenberg Statistical Report
[As of about noon Central Daylight Time]
Various totals from the ~31,000+ at
http://www.gutenberg.org
and our other Project Gutenberg Sites
Week up to Feb. 21
day | cnt
----------------+-----
Sun 2010-02-14 | 5
Mon 2010-02-15 | 12
Tue 2010-02-16 | 10
Wed 2010-02-17 | 16
Thu 2010-02-18 | 11
Fri 2010-02-19 | 4
Sat 2010-02-20 | 4
Week up to Jan. 21st:
day | cnt
----------------+-----
Thu 2010-01-14 | 8
Fri 2010-01-15 | 13
Sat 2010-01-16 | 16
Sun 2010-01-17 | 8
Mon 2010-01-18 | 12
Tue 2010-01-19 | 5
Wed 2010-01-20 | 11
Previous Month
day | cnt
----------------+-----
Mon 2009-12-14 | 11
Tue 2009-12-15 | 4
Wed 2009-12-16 | 4
Thu 2009-12-17 | 10
Fri 2009-12-18 | 7
Sat 2009-12-19 | 7
Sun 2009-12-20 | 9
Previous month:
day | cnt
----------------+-----
Sat 2009-11-14 | 6
Sun 2009-11-15 | 4
Mon 2009-11-16 | 6
Tue 2009-11-17 | 9
Wed 2009-11-18 | 3
Thu 2009-11-19 | 6
Fri 2009-11-20 | 5
Thanks to Marcello Perathoner!
///
Here are the current language totals
for languages with 200 or more eBooks.
Feb. 21st
Grand total for today: 31234
26241 English en
1557 French fr
647 German de
521 Finnish fi
470 Dutch nl
405 Chinese zh
395 Portuguese pt
275 Spanish es
234 Italian it
Jan. 21st
Grand total for today: 30935
25995 English en
1547 French fr
628 German de
518 Finnish fi
459 Dutch nl
405 Chinese zh
391 Portuguese pt
274 Spanish es
230 Italian it
Compared to last month:
Grand total
25757 English en
1520 French fr
618 German de
515 Finnish fi
453 Dutch nl
405 Chinese zh
376 Portuguese pt
270 Spanish es
220 Italian it
Compared to previous month's:
Grand total for today: 30399
25587 English en
1498 French fr
614 German de
515 Finnish fi
451 Dutch nl
404 Chinese zh
371 Portuguese pt
268 Spanish es
218 Italian it
Previous increases:
+214
+205
+254
+281
+294
+287
All Reported Languges
Not counting PrePrints, Canada, Australia, PG Europe
Thanks to Greg Newby!
///
And From Project Gutenberg Sites Worldwide
Feb 21st
31,234 up from 30,935 up 299 PG General Automated Count
1,842 up from 1,834 up 8 PG of Australia
684 up from 680 up 4 PG of Europe
2,008 -- 2,008 up 0 PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
486 up from 462 up 24 PG of Canada
Posted #400 on October 10
July: 14 (Title 349 to 362)
August: 16 (Titles 363 to 378)
September: 17 (Titles 379 to 395)
October: 13 (Titles 396 to 408)
November: 9 [up to November 21]
December: 19[up to December 21]
======
36,254 up from 35,919 up 335
Jan 21st
30,935 up from 30,613 up 322 PG General Automated Count
1,834 up from 1,830 up 4 PG of Australia
680 up from 664 up 16 PG of Europe
2,008 -- 2,008 up 0 PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?]
462 up from 436 up 26 PG of Canada
Posted #400 on October 10
July: 14 (Title 349 to 362)
August: 16 (Titles 363 to 378)
September: 17 (Titles 379 to 395)
October: 13 (Titles 396 to 408)
November: 9 [up to November 21]
December: 19[up to December 21]
======
35,919 up from 35,551 up 368
Previous month:
35,551 up 240 [Not including Canada's illustrations]
35,311 up 235 [Including correcting above estimate by 2]
Note There are perhaps 100 eBooks not listed here
that are already in circulation from Project Gutenberg.
Note PG Canada includes English, French, and Italian.
///
Here is how we ended 2009
day | cnt
----------------+-----
Wed 2009-12-30 | 9
Thu 2009-12-31 | 12
Fri 2010-01-01 | 6
Sat 2010-01-02 | 10
Sun 2010-01-03 | 2
Mon 2010-01-04 | 21
Tue 2010-01-05 | 5
Weekly Total 65
Grand total for today: 30761 from automated in house counter
25866 English en
1531 French fr
625 German de
517 Finnish fi
455 Dutch nl
405 Chinese zh
384 Portuguese pt
270 Spanish es
225 Italian it
etc.
30,761 Up 3,145 From 27,616 PG General Automated Count
1,830 Up 104 From 1,726 Project Gutenberg of Australia
675 Up 121 From 554 Project Gutenberg of Europe
468 Up 243 From 225 Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated]
2,008 DN 423 From 2,431 PrePrints [Subtracted 307 Chinese eBooks]
====== ======
35,742 Up 3,190 From 32,552 Grand Total [Counting subtractions]
9.825 eBooks Per Day
68.773 eBooks Per Week
297.850 eBooks Per Month
///
Here is how we ended 2008
27,616 PG General Automated Count
1,726 Project Gutenberg of Australia
554 Project Gutenberg of Europe
225 Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated]
[202 up to December, no current report]
2,431 PrePrints [Counting the 307 Chinese eBooks +111]
====== ======
32,552 Grand Total [Counting those PrePrints]
Here is how we ended 2007
The combined PG projects had produced a total of 26,161 titles.
The most number of books posted...
...in one day was 65 on the 26th December
...in one week was 151 in Week 18 (week ending 9th May)
...in one month was 477 in November
We averaged
338 per month [Over 4,000 for the year]
78 per week
11.13 per day
99 titles were newly REposted to the new filing system, bringing us almost
to the 2,000 mark.
Here is a small selection of project milestones;
TOTAL Original Project Gutenberg eBooks equals about
the number of books in the average U.S. public library
32,500 on 20082121 [Counting the 307 Chinese Preprints]
[And presuming 3 after official count]
32,000 on Calculating
31,500 on 20081021 [not an error, 1,777 PrePrints]
30,000 on 20081021
29,500 on 20080919
29,000 ~~ Calculating
28,500 ~~ Calculating
28,000 ~~ 20080516
27,500 on 20080405
27,000 ~~ 20080229
26,500 on 20080126
26,000 on 20071224
25,000 on 20071012
24,000 on 20070710
23,000 on 20070415
PG-AU
1,700 on 20081010
1,600 on 20080208
1,500 on 20070407
PG Canada
175 on 20080930
100 on 20080325
110 on 20080417
///
Many thanks to all who have helped us reach our 39th year!
Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg
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