I really don't follow ebook formats because pdfs have always been my portable format of choice, and I have no ebook reader. I skimmed the article, but I could not find any points on what makes this superior to a pdf file. What advantages does the Kindle format or epub format offer which a pdf cannot do?

I saw some mention of audio and video and javascript, but pdfs can support that. Why recreate the wheel? From reading the article (where perhaps the author doesn't know what he is talking about?), it sounds like it's trying to do everything HTML can, but not be HTML.

Can anyone please clarify this for me?

Open source != patent free.

I'm not saying that it is patent encumbered, but just pointing out the flaw in your assumption. So long as there is a guarantee that it will be free to use forever, I see no reason why modern browsers shouldn't implement it. What's the downside?

A new Tektronix oscilloscope will work as well. When I was an undergrad my colleagues were convinced that you need analog ones to make proper measurements, but I've had great success using digital ones. I actually prefer them.

Without a definition of what "good" means or what your needs are, I don't think that anyone can give you any sort of advice. I personally would never use one that had to be controlled through a PC. Having to drag a laptop or something all around the electronics of an experiment would be a major pain. (I've only used them in the context of the detector and apparatus signals in physics experiments.)

If the general public sees no difference and doesn't care, why is one superior to the other?

Parent obviously didn't read the summary. But that said, the code written in NeHe's tutorials are ported to like 20 or more platforms, and you might find that to be useful.

I learned OpenGL by buying a copy of the Red Book, and then used Allegro (a cross-platform gaming library) to set up a rendering surface. This could also be accomplished by using the SDL library, but I do not have any experience using it.

(Regarding Allegro, the 4.4 series is a completely different API from the 4.9 series in development, but both can create a window for rendering OpenGL. I would personally suggest using the 4.9 series.)

since the advent of the long-playing record as the popular music medium, many artists have been making music that flows for 20 to 45 minutes, not just music that lasts for 3 or 4 minutes . . . The advent of itunes killed this.

People have always been interested in the songs they hear on the radio, and don't tend to care as much about the "filler" songs on the albums. I'm not sure that I personally know anyone else who listens to entire albums. Back in the day it was not uncommon to see tape players which could hold two tapes. That way you could dub the songs you like onto your personal mix tape, and forget the rest of the album. iTunes did not invent the single.