Archive | February 14, 2004

Cory Doctorow, a talent writer of sci-fi and a technology fan, presented “Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books” at O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology conference. Cory observes some of the up- and downsides of ebooks and makes some predictions on their future.

Software Development magazine features an article this month titled “Free as in Freedom” that describes the progress of free software and features a table of “27 Players Ready for Primetime.” Check out their website and you can view the article online with a free registration

Slashdot reports Amazon.com Pierces Reviewer Anonymity — a goof-up at Amazon revealed that “A reader from Chicago” was, in fact, the author of the book he praises.

I went shopping for some new books this weekend, and was astounded by the trash heap the reviews have turned into: zero-star comments mercilessly trashing a book and five-star gushing praises so over the top that no one could believe them. It’s obviously turned into popularity contest and a mechanism easily exploited. It’s disappointing.