I just got back from COMPUTEX 2009, and I managed to dig a few nuggets out of the slag. ASUS refused to show me the Android laptop. This is unsurprising but still disappointing. After seeing all of those annoying "It's always better with Windows" messages everywhere -- yes, the reports are true -- it would have been nice to have seen ASUS thank the Linux community a little for all Linux gave them. Before someone tries to challenge this point, it would be well to remember the OLPC project created the netbook/UMPC market by forcing vendors to compete...

Mary Lou Jepsen has a new entry on her blog over at PixelQi. In her latest post, she links to an image of the new display connected to an Aspire One with the backlight turned off next to a Kindle. As usual, it looks pretty impressive. So, who wants an e-book reader / computer that can do this and color and video? UPDATE: Blech!! It is running Windows. New technology should not use an outdated OS. Note: Thanks to LuYu! I’ve moved this post up because of its importance to many TeleRead community members. Also, see a...

I am rereading John Perry Barlow's seminal The Economy of Ideas, and I cannot help but be struck by the almost backward orientation of his take on history as it applies to intellectual monopolies. While Barlow has always been considered an advocate of Freedom on the Internet -- and I certainly so consider him -- The Economy of Ideas is written with the implicit assumption -- that Jefferson did not make in the quote Barlow supplies -- that copyrighted works are a form of property and that the Internet is changing something that has always been true. Neither...

Moderator's note: Thanks to LuYu for sharing personal views. Speak up, whether you agree or not! Meanwhile let's remember the Open Inkpot project, from which I'll repo the image below. As for formats, keep in mind ePub, already readable on recent Sony Readers. - D.R. A while back, I wrote a TeleRead post about ideal e-book hardware. I was surprised to find that most of the responses seemed to say that the hardware was pretty much already available. So, if the hardware is already where it is supposed to be, and e-book readers are not where they are...

I have created a new blog entitled Stealing Speech: A Commentary on the Long History of Publishers' Attempts to Restrict Free Speech, and I was hoping the Teleread community would not be too incensed if I crossposted here. Most of my posts will be quite relevant to Teleread as David Rothman's vision would obviously have come true by now in the absence of copyright. I have been doing something recently which has given me a great amount of pleasure but will not be repeated frequently -- or perhaps ever -- because of copyright. When the remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth came out, I thought I should go to the trouble of reading the book (I saw the older movie a long time ago and therefore am familiar with the story). Jules Verne is without a doubt an interesting author. He was one of the founders of western science fiction and a singularly imaginative person. His books have enough suspense and unexpected, even miraculous, events that all but the most die hard action junkies should be entertained. If that were not enough, his books are also an excellent source of information about how the world appeared through the eyes of a 19th Century western scientist....

Moderator's note: Thanks, LuYu---you've flattered all of us. Briefly, here's my own thinking: Hardware dev would be too complex, too expensive even with a fund-raising campaign, but I love the idea of  stepped-up open source efforts to code user-friendly software, not just for reading but for creation in, say, .epub. Perhaps NAEB-style groups could work with programmers to offer software customization help to the more open-minded hardware companies. - David Rothman By LuYu With all this recent debate about Kindle and its strengths and weaknesses, I think the time has come to say, "Put up or shut up." This is...