Slashdot Mirror

Many college professors put courses online. The lower level/remedial college courses would be excellent for junior high and high school aged children.

Here's link to an annotated, java-illustrated Eudlid's Geometry, since it's way cool, and geometry is taught as early as 8th grade in schools.

K-6 material is more difficult to find for free, I agree. Schoolhouse Technologies has a math worksheet factory that we like, available in pay, trial, and free(lite) versions. Another tool we use is StartWrite which also has a trial version. (Google can't find any pages which link to both of those sites. bummer.)

There is probably a lot of print material for the basics which has expired copyright, but is hard to find since it is so old. The historical fiction by G.A.Henty is excellent. Gutenburg has a few, and the rest are being republished at Prestonspeed Publications.

If you want to read about a truly great thinker, check out more on Benny.

How old is The Wizard of OZ, anyway?

First, you should know that we're in the midst of a big Web page redesign. We'll be moving our main pages from http://promo.net/pg to http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg (with virtual domains of course: gutenberg.net and friends). We'll be addressing many of your concerns. You heard it here, first.

Second, I agree our "finding aids" (in library terms) are poor. It's my #1 priority to get this stuff working better, and in fact several people are working right now to put a new database-driven system into place.

Responses to your questions: ascii over html: We take everything, but also try to make sure we have a plain ASCII file in addition to other formats. Most volunteers give us just text, since that's what comes from their OCR of books. In the near future, we will have automatic conversion on the fly into nearly ANY format, starting with Braille, then adding HTML, XML, PDF and others including PDA eBook formats....text too, of course.

small print: Since November 2001 the small print at the start is only 35 lines or so, including the title, author, pub date, etc. The long annoying legalese is at the end now. The automatic conversion process mentioned above will enable us to put the most recent header (with the short front part) on all the older content. As to "why do we need the legalese," read the small print itself, it's pretty clear.

server indirection: this is one of those finding aids problems we'll overcome. A cookie or other configuration would do the trick here...

bibliogaphic information: All the recent (last year or two) texts include this right up top. Even the older ones include a "release date" or something similar. The improved finding aids will let you search by publication date, by the way.

We're actively discussing this stuff on the Project Gutenberg Volunteer's Discussion List, see mailing list subscription info for how to subscribe.

Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
http://gutenberg.net
A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with EIN 64-6221541

Somebody had to be the hero...

I'm parroting a wimpy line here from Eric Eldred--a guy who has "extracted" public domain texts on his website from culled from Barnes & Noble ebooks in Microsoft's Reader format, but of course doesn't know a thing about Tripod's Techodude, and his posted method for pulling .txt from .lit.

Mr. Eldred said to me that he would have let his method be known, but, with the Supreme Court case and all...

Personally, I have too many readers now to get shut down over nothing, ulp, but am I allowed partial credit for convincing Gutenberg to go down under and take advantage of the copyright laws there that say Gatsby and 1984 are public domain?

Nah, I'm just a wuss.

Go get 'em, Bruce!

Pay a lecturer for his/her time, get a non-exclusive license to the tape, and GPL it. I think the idea is that there may be more material out there that's freely available, once we find a cheap way of distributing it without resorting to 5th generation copies.

I'm sure that there are organizations who are acting in the public interest who would release their material for next to nothing, as long as they didn't have to front duplication/distribution costs.

Also, there is material in the public domain, either explicitly, or because it's out of copyright. Someone with an eye (or ear) for conservation should make a master of this kind of material before it disappears (material that isn't owned by any one person isn't usually kept with as much care), and release the master via P2P so that it can be maintained in perpetuity by interested archivists, and be available for download by interested users (ala the Gutenberg project.)

... has been going on for a long time making out-of-copyright works available to the public.

Here you have it: Project Guttenberg

Download a text file from Project Gutentberg You can get a ton of great public domain books there.

(I know the promo.net thing looks suspicious. If you don't trust my link search on Gutenberg in Google. it will come up in the first spot usually)

The Federalist Papers is a book that contains the letters of our founding fathers during the writing of the constitution. In it there are many concerns of what "Seperation of Church and State" actually means.

Sep of Church & State was included, because at the time there were many countries that were actually ruled by the church elders, our founding fathers did not want this, so they added it to the constitiution. It was in no way meant to take all religion out of the government, it was included to ensure that the heads of the church would not rule the government.

I don't know when the press or lawyers or whoever construed it into what it is today. Anyway, don't take my word for it, actually read the book at Project Gutenberg

Aunt Julia and the Script Writer, by Mario Varas Llosa.
This is something I have been meaning to read for a long time but to be honest a radio interview of him tipped the balance.

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.
An abridged edition (still substatial enough) I ahve downloaded the full version from Project Gutenberg in case it really whets my appetite. My main interest is curiosity as to whether there are interesting parallels between then and now.

The Growth Illusion by Richard Douthwaite
My impression so far is that it is interesting and it is nice to see someone thinking the same way as me about GDP. It does seem a little lacking in rigour though. Probably more worth reading for digestible data rather than analysis. It is the first book that I have bought purely on the basis of the desription + reviews on Amazon so it is a bit of a test for me of how well that works.

Weekend before last was a long weekend and we we went away. I took two books with me that I thought I would other wise not read but only skimmed them - one on game theory and the other on signals and information theory.

I am still looking for suggestions and if anyone on feels like suggesting a thought provoking/interesting book on programming it is next on my list. I was thinking of the Structure and Interpretation fo Computer Programs (as suggested on ask Slashdot recently) or perhaps Paul Graham's book, ANSI Common Lisp.

This statement got me thinking. It would be an interesting project to connect some sort of laser-etching (or even type-hammering) device to a computer so that Project Gutenberg text can be transferred to thin, metal sheets. These sheets could be specially treated for corrosion. The process could be nearly completely automated, with a binding and packaging step to ensure long-term survival of the information.

You would need to put a considerable amount of time and expense into designing and building the process, but in the end you would create an archive for historians far into the future.

Anybody ever read Terminal Compromise? Novel by Winn Schwartau (1993) about computer security. Many of the 'hacks' mentioned in it were more pheaking then hacking, but it is interesting and available for free from Project Guetenberg.

Download it here (1296 KB text, 583KB zip)

Anybody ever read Terminal Compromise? Novel by Winn Schwartau (1993) about computer security. Many of the 'hacks' mentioned in it were more pheaking then hacking, but it is interesting and available for free from Project Guetenberg.

Download it here (1296 KB text, 583KB zip)

Anders Borg wrote this FAQ from Project Gutenberg. Lots of field-tested advice there, such as a suggestion to scan at 300dpi or better.

Anders Borg wrote this FAQ from Project Gutenberg. Lots of field-tested advice there, such as a suggestion to scan at 300dpi or better.

I bet about half of your books are already online.

Also, for your compression you should NOT use JPEG. JPEG is optimized for smooth tones and will badly blur hard edges like text. On the other hand, JPEG performs relatively poorly at compressing large areas of the same color (i.e. white backgrounds.) [Note for the nit-pickers, both of these JPEG issues will be reduced/eliminated in JPEG2000.]

I scan documents to either compressed TIFF (tend to be large), PNG, or (*shudder*) GIF.

From the Project Gutenberg "Making Etexts from Paper Originals" paper": (You can bet these guys know how to scan...)

A general rule is to store scanned images to JPEG and store computer-generated pictures (like diagrams etc.) to GIF. The exception is if you scan in grayscale, then use GIF. Never scan pictures as lineart. If acceptable from a file size perspective use the highest possible quality setting for JPEG.

Don't know how the duck worked, so I can't help you there. But people can be amazingly clever with the tools on hand.

Enkidu EOT

Books are not searchable by nature so making it easier to find information about a book still leaves the issue of how do we get access to it.

Did I read that right? You mean that title, author, subject, date, and category are not searchable fields? Its impossible to search the contents of a book for patterns? Its not easy to store/index a book's content in the database itself?

Perhaps you typed that wrong, or im misunderstanding you, but that statement sounds profoundly false.

You might want to look into project gutenberg. Because they do that. (If copy restrictions were shorter, they would have tons more stuff too)

Have you ever heard of Project Gutenberg? It is basically doing what you are talking about and has been since the 1970's. They have a pretty good collection, and I would totally suggest anyone interested in an internet book DB to help them out with their cause. Although I see your point that a full index of all books (without content) would be a pretty cool thing to have.

Well, I wouldn't be all that interested by this story except for that mention of time scaling.

I have been using my mp3 players of late (I have a d-link 32 meg thing and a Rio Volt) to listen to Project Gutenberg etexts converted to mp3 with TextAloud MP3 using AT&T Natural Voices speech engine. (You can hear a sample here.

Anyway, with time scaling, I'm guessing I'll be able to choose how fast to listen to my texts. That's exciting because your ability to listen to these things at high speed increases the more you listen. (As blind people can listen to audio books at surprisingly high speed, you will find your ability to listen increases as your practice increases.)

So, this seemingly minor feature could actually revolutionize the way you take in media.

Completely irrelevant. If there were no law to the contrary, I could "take" paperclips from my employer and resell them for a ten bucks apiece. But I would earn just as money doing that as I would selling free software.

Project Gutenberg has all of Burrough's works available in electronic format.

Princess of Mars

Or maybe you'd prefer some free and legal MP3s.

Just because you don't pay for using your neighbor's broadband via 802.11 doesn't mean that they don't pay for it, or their telco/cable co.

WTF??? Where was it mentioned in the parent post that the wireless network was going to be used in this manner? If your neighbors set up their networks so that anyone on a nearby wireless hub can access their ISP's service, then they are complete dumbasses! (for several reasons) Why do so many incompetant idiots instantly believe any new technology will be used only for some illegal purpose?

If wireless networks live up to the promise, they can replace ISPs--not burden ISP's backs. It's true you wouldn't be able to access a site on the other side of the planet, or maybe even on the other side of your state, but you could IM, play games or fileshare with nearly anyone in your city.

...and when I say fileshare I mean legally distribute files--such as programs that you are allowed under the license (as BSD, 'freeware', LGPL, and etc.) or audio/video/picture files that someone created and wants to give away free. What's that you say? If I take a picture of a stray cat, record myself farting, or videotape a roadtrip I take, then the copyright is owned by the MPAA/RIAA? Yeah right!

Freedom of information doesn't mean information is free. Just 'cause you can legally read the book doesn't mean you don't have to buy the book.

I don't have to buy the book to read it if the book has entered the public domain (check out Project Gutenburg) or the author has authorised it to be distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

I don't know if you're aware of this, but you quoted
the license terms for Adobe ebooks quite precisely:

No printing is permitted on this book.
This book cannot be given to someone else.
This book cannot be read aloud.

These are actual terms in the license for the ebook version
of 'Alice in Wonderland'. This is even more strange because
the original text is by now in the public domain.
You can get a free, legal copy at Project Gutenberg.
It has even been suggested that the text of the ebook version was
actually taken from the Gutenberg archives.

Here's an article that a quick search retrieved.

For those interested in reading the original, the text is available online here (ASCII text) or here (same, zip'ed), courtesy of project Gutenberg.

Consider this the ultimate spoiler.

If eBooks are the beat-all end-all, why are Mark Twain's works still selling for as much as $70+ when the Gutenberg Project exists? Sure, they're vanilla-formatted, but you could pay thousands for physical versions of everything they have there.

If nothing else, they're smaller. I bet that collection of 1500+ books is a real bastard to move. I did it recently with my own collection, and it wasn't fun.

There's a reason "books" have survived for over 500 years.

The first reason that came to my mind: there's never been an alternative. Even now, the hardware and distribution model for e-books still leaves something to be desired. Give it some time to mature.

"BTW, can anyone actually imagine reading Proust as an e-book? etc etc...

Yes. I like paper books as much as the next guy, but e-books are not that hard to read. I've spent a lot of time reading books one after the other on my Palm lately, and even that little thing is suffient for casual reading. A real e-book reader would be much better (especially for formal study), but I can't afford one at the moment.

As for those authors you mentioned, try Project Gutenberg for a copy of Melville's works. Faulkner's stuff hasn't made it yet, but there are many excellent authors in the list. Give it a shot before you lambast it.

Besides, when you find a place that will give you a $15 book like Melville for FREE, let me know... LOL!

If nothing else, they're smaller. I bet that collection of 1500+ books is a real bastard to move. I did it recently with my own collection, and it wasn't fun.

There's a reason "books" have survived for over 500 years.

The first reason that came to my mind: there's never been an alternative. Even now, the hardware and distribution model for e-books still leaves something to be desired. Give it some time to mature.

"BTW, can anyone actually imagine reading Proust as an e-book? etc etc...

Yes. I like paper books as much as the next guy, but e-books are not that hard to read. I've spent a lot of time reading books one after the other on my Palm lately, and even that little thing is suffient for casual reading. A real e-book reader would be much better (especially for formal study), but I can't afford one at the moment.

As for those authors you mentioned, try Project Gutenberg for a copy of Melville's works. Faulkner's stuff hasn't made it yet, but there are many excellent authors in the list. Give it a shot before you lambast it.

Besides, when you find a place that will give you a $15 book like Melville for FREE, let me know... LOL!

But... Melville?

Why the linux kernel???

Why not start reading from the Project Gutenberg files instead, something that would support 'open' and 'free' concepts, but at the same time be useful and improving...

Er... have you ever actually visited Project Gutenberg? It only offers books which have fallen into the public domain, which means, in practice, books older than about 1923. You certainly won't find any Douglas Adams books there.

Er... have you ever actually visited Project Gutenberg? It only offers books which have fallen into the public domain, which means, in practice, books older than about 1923. You certainly won't find any Douglas Adams books there.

More clearly than anything, it represents a real crisis in North American universities today: people think of them as valuable only insofar as they provide job training and a career boost.

Gutenberg has txt's of, beowulf and the icelandic sagas iirc..

If this project becomes a centralized point of distribution or access (ie: SourceForge,) this could really help the open-knowledge community.

For example, many people run out to buy expensive assembler books when the best resource is available online. Or, they run out to buy expensive Linux device driver manuals when the best resource is available online.

Open-source software mainly helps people write new software that uses key techniques / algorithms from open software. Open-source documentation, on the other hand, helps impart the foundations on which the open-source programs get created.

Ideally, this openscience approach would spread -- and students wouldn't need to spend $500 per semester on textbooks. And unfortunately, the Project Gutenberg idea to import books as their copyright expires (50 years after the author dies) would never fly for technology-based books.

As a side note, this index of online books has a lot of good information.

Machiavelli's 'The Prince' is a happy favorite. Or Adam Smith's 'Wealth Of Nations' is a fascinating (and useful) read.

Machiavelli's 'The Prince' is a happy favorite. Or Adam Smith's 'Wealth Of Nations' is a fascinating (and useful) read.

http://promo.net/pg/
Useful for older texts, so no cutting-edge genetics or nanotech here, but this collection would round off your education in general, especially the classics if you're that way inclined.

Yep, yep... I looks about right... I found an article that claimed that 66 WPM was 50 BAUD. This was at 5 bits/ char, with 1 start bit and 2 stop bits == 8 chars/second... The calculations come pretty close to the 300 baud == 300WPM calculation that comes from 6 characters/word. (that 1 WPM/baud rule also strikes a memory cord in my mind).

That's what I saw here, on every human's face while they waited for their computers to figure out what to do next.

You'd think they'd at least have had a foosball or ping pong table or something. If I ever get into something like that, I'll remember to bring a copy of War and Peace.

Try this link.

If you are looking to replace current novels, this isn't for you. The selection of eBooks is limited, and they are often more expensive than their "normal" counterparts. If you are looking to read a bunch of classics, this might be for you.

I bought it, and use it, for reading technical materials off-line. You can import HTML, but lots of things, most notably frames, really confuse the importer. Fortunately, this still leaves me lots to pick from, even if it often doesn't cover what I want. There are rumors in the documentation about this getting better over time, as well as PDF support, but I'm not holding my breath. Physical eBooks (readers) are aimed at making money from eBook sales. They don't want people to just buy hardware.

Pros

• Much better battery life than a laptop.
• Much cheap than a laptop.
• Much more portable than dead trees.

• It is difficult or impossible to import things.
• Doesn't run PalmOS. This matters to me, because it limits my import options, and forces me to carry 2 devices.

The various formats do suck (I'm up to seven now with two or three more in the works)--

But it's not quite that simple: Gutenberg gets millions of visitors each month to their main site and various mirrors, while UVA, myself and a few others are in the hundreds of thousands.

People don't mind reading free books online, as long as the content's there (and you keep adding).

Bigger problem is, the market for printed books is predominantly female, while the market for online books is heavily male, so things like the old Rocket eBook (which was popular) were destroyed when the company that bought 'em said: screw it, we'll sell this thing on Oprah and dump the free library.

They're--the amorphous 'they'--not going to be shipping much in the way of hardware this year, either. (Franklin's eBookman was a failure that may result in the company's demise...)

But the number of people who read online does continue to grow rapidly. They're just not going to pay a lot for it (and they shouldn't... the public domain belongs to everyone, while authors should expect greater-than-hardback royalties on books sold at a less-than-paperback price.)

The only eBooks I'm interested in are those from Project Gutenberg.

So what's the value added here? OK, so it's in digital form. Maybe they have some nice layout/font/presentation going on, but that's about it.

Since a few Agatha Christie titles are available here at Project Gutenberg, I assume her works have passed into the public domain by now. So aside from the fact that they actually entered this particular text into a file (by OCR or some other way), edited out the typos introduced in the process, and formatted it, what's the point?!?

So what's the value added here? OK, so it's in digital form. Maybe they have some nice layout/font/presentation going on, but that's about it.

Since a few Agatha Christie titles are available here at Project Gutenberg, I assume her works have passed into the public domain by now. So aside from the fact that they actually entered this particular text into a file (by OCR or some other way), edited out the typos introduced in the process, and formatted it, what's the point?!?

Moby Dick, by Hermen Melville, may be freely downloaded as zipped ASCII text at ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext91 /moby.zip, courtesy of Project Gutenberg. Enjoy.

Project Gutenberg has been around since 1971, and is considered to be an open source electronic library.