Wanna know why Washington gives us stupidities like Bono and the DMCA? Turns out that while in office Bill Clinton sent just two emails. Not to pick on Clinton. George Bush isn't that with it, either. No, not every supporter of Net-hostile legislation is a Lud, but the Clinton tidbit is a pretty good example of the problem....

OK, let's see how the Luddites respond to this item from CNET:The Dutch firm Philips Electronics said on Monday that it is preparing to mass-produce a slim, book-size display panel, onto which consumers could download newspapers and magazines--then roll up and put away. The 5-inch display can show detailed images and be rolled up into a pen-size holder. If connected to a mobile phone, it can also be used to download Web pages, a book or e-mail.What's more, cleverly designed PDA-phone combos could themselves include such displays.According to Philips, this flat-display tech will reach stores later this year and...

"Linux may become the preferred operating system in a full-featured mobile device and handset market in which 'there is no economic reason to question why growth will not be explosive,' according to Seamus McAteer, senior analyst and managing partner, Zelos Group. 'The mass adoption of full-featured handsets will be disruptive,' adds McAteer." - LinuxDevices.com.The TeleRead take: Will e-books hit it off on full-featured phones--that is, those with relatively powerful operating systems. I see hope here. Multifunction devices will appear that are comfortable to read from. And, with technologies like OLED displays on the way, battery life won't be the...

Early on, Gov. Blogger somehow pushed my BS detector into at least the borderline zone. Here was a guy depicted as A Friend of the Net, as well he should be--given his heavy reliance on money from Netfolks. But not a word came from him against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act or the DMCA. And now it looks as if Howard Dean could be still worse a disappointment. Despite all his noise about privacy, Dean in the past has proposed that ID cards must be inserted into computers before their users can log on the Net. Yo,...

"Justice Department looks into whether group collaborated to quell competing next-generation tech," reads part of a headline on the CNN site this morning. Familiar? A reference to the failure of the e-book business to finish up up work on a consumer-level format to avoid VHS vs. Beta--making use of XML technology? Or support or at least tolerate standards efforts elsewhere? No, the headline isn't about the Open eBook Forum or any of its members, and I'll not assert law-breaking. Just the same, consider the possible implications if "Gold Sponsors" Microsoft, Adobe, and Palm Digital Media won't let the OeBF...

Perhaps one of the best e-book-related bargains of the week is the Sony Clie TJ25 Handheld now on sale at CompUSA for $119.95 after the rebate.It uses a more recent Palm operating system than the PEG-SJ22 and is much faster with a Motorola 200Mhz processor. Plus, it goes for only $20 more than what Staples was selling the older model for. No, I haven't tried out the TJ25 myself, just the older 33Mhz machine, which I own; but it looks most promising. My PEG-SJ22 screen is small but sharp--more so than a Pocket PC's--and I suspect that the TJ25's...

I always wanted to believe that Dick Brass and Steve Stone at Microsoft didn't lie in promising an avoidance of VHS-vs.-Beta--in other words, an honest nonproprietary e-book standard for consumers. Perhaps more powerful corpocrats or The Bill Himself overruled Dick and Steve's vision for the Open eBook Forum, which the two vigorously talked up in '98.As a corporation, however, Microsoft will now have a lot of explaining to do. E-book standards for the OeBF are XML creatures, and the following report has just appeared from CNet:Microsoft has applied for patents that could prevent competing applications from processing documents created...

The New York Times today lays out the differences in the copyright debate. The headline: "The Tyranny of Copyright?" I myself think the Times could easily delete the question mark.The Times article by Robert S. Boynton isn't just about the battle between consumers and entertainment conglomerates. It gives major attention to the creative issues in the writer-conglomerate conflict. And let's also remember the writer-writer one. Congress has been vastly less kind to you if you're a young playwriter, say, interested in adapting The Great Gatsby, than if you're among the heirs of the Fitzgerald estate.The status quo, favoring megapublishers,...

The old-timers at this were right. E-books and treadmills are a natural. I've just done a mile of David Copperfield, with a few more to go today. The treadmill technology is ancient, nothing more than a Vitamaster 7100 from the early '90s, but it's fully compatible in an old-fashioned way with my little cheapie Sony Clie.No need for a tray of the kind that the more modern treadmills come with. I use the cord associated with the Vitamaster's pulse-rate monitor and run it across the "instrument panel" to the forward bar on the left. The PEG-SJ22, via the leather...

Yahoo's restored the RSS feature. Now you can now add the TeleBlog and other Web logs to your MyYahoo.com page and even see us at the top if you want. The keyword "TeleRead" should work fine when you fill out the form. Let us know if there's a problem....

While the eBookMan has been officially discounted, it is, paradoxically, still manufactured. You can buy an eight-meg EBM-901 for all of $39.99 and a 16-meg EBM 911 for $74.99 from Clearanced.Com. The word, too, from Clearanced, is that with a working capacitor or with the unit plugged in, the OS is safe when you change batteries. (Via the eBook Community list.)...

Kodak is laying off a fifth of its employees as it goes digital with snazzy new products. No, this won't happen tomorrow to the conventional book industry, but it is inevitable as e-book tech improves, young e-book fans grow in numbers and distribution becomes more efficientIdeally Random House, S&S and the rest can redirect resources from bureaucracy and paper-era distribution to some rather old-fashioned activities: writing and editing.Modern books are horridly edited and proofed, especially in the typo area, compared to those of the past. In the new era, brands will matter more for the big boys, not less....