FutureBook

This really feels like a watershed moment, doesn't it?  So, briefly...

1) I'm a bit confused - how is watermarking not DRM by another name?

2) How will you enforce anti-piracy sanctions against offenders?  Will you prosecute?  If not, what use is it, really? Read more »

Those of you with long memories (i.e. capable of reaching back to 2009 - that's a long time in the e-world) may recall that I made a fuss on Sky News about the looming threat of book piracy.  This was in response to a panellist on Litopia After Dark who drew our attention to the easy availability of many top-ten titles on the fledgling Scribd. Read more »

As the post mortem gets under way into yesterday's [insert disparaging word here] defeat of England by Germany's only-average football team - a process that is likely to be at least as ugly as the game itself - let's pause for a moment to consider what life lessons we may learn from the whole sorry schbang. Read more »

“Life is meaningless,” said Ah Wei, his fingernails stained black with the dust from the hundreds of mobile phones he has burnished over the course of a 12-hour overnight shift. “Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here.” Read more »

There are few pleasures quite as onanistically self-validating as basking in the smug glow of hindsight, so please indulge me for a few moments while I reflect on the twelve tumultuous months that have now passed since Apple's messianic launch of what many at the time were optimistically terming the "Jesus pad".

In hindsight, "Judas pad" might have been more appropriate.  But - how were we to know back then? Read more »