Re:How to sperad the word... (Score 2, Interesting)

I wasn't listing the final specifications for a device in detail. Yes, it would have HTML support, and CSS would be useful to have as well. With HTML, people are going to want images supported, that means a few different libraries there as well.

Ok I'm gonna tone myself down a little... this should be a little less of a rant so hang on. The point I was trying to make is that I think HTML should be the one technology an ebook reader should be able to support unlike even standard desktop browsers. I'm not sure it would be such a strech to see the "web browser" condensed into a hardware-streamlined product. SGML support would be great but to implement SGML we must first master HTML, and if we can't deliver an machine dedicated to rendering HTML then how much chance would we have in implementing a technology with less sample-base? It's hard to match HTML in terms of demographic penetration at least in so far as actual text-based content... contrast with postscript, pdf, and the like which (for the most part) do not have human-readable source -- essential for "debugging" our ebooks.

Yeah and the pdf reader for WinCE needs, uhh, "work". It is by no means comparable to its desktop cousins... a cheap knock-off from a huge company complaining about the limitations of PDAs. IMHO, avantgo is a considerably better "ebook reader" that's easier to code for and is far more compatible. HTML 3.2, that's it... can't go wrong. Visit my site and you'll know what I'm talking about: popnt.com Keep in mind my work is still beta, but anyways.

And about permanent media.. well.. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that print cannot truely be compared with your examples.. although I do in all seriousness appreciate your debate. Just for the sake of argument, what distinguishes print from (at least) the three examples you listed (and please I hope this does not escalate) are the following:

1. Stone tables were never mass-produced in the same way as books (or paper media) were: sure there were sandscript, but specifically what distinguishes print as breakthrough was its potential for industrial mass-production via inventions like the printing press.. ubiquity made the press permanent in many ways.
2. Music (and movies): due to the very recent inventions of the gramophone and that which makes up a motion picture (the camera, film, etc), I'm not sure these can be compared to print media, specifically because of their very recent introductions to society.. note that I am not saying music is a new introduction, rather recorded music.. so in that light, and given the whole MP3 hoopla we're having with the RIAA et al, I think the music/movie industries would have a lot to learn from the print industry -- not the other way around. Also, the music and movie industries themselves use a concept very closely tied in with books in that they are given data to process. I'm not sure music/movies can really compare, in all seriousness to books.. in all honesty, I'm not sure there is much out there that even CAN compare to the print industry. These are secondary industries which require processing that print-media does not. Print is unique in that respect and is therefore again really tough to beat! Even braille is a form of print which requires nothing whatsoever, not even a light-source! What makes print so permanent is its ubiquity -- the sheer volume of static copies whose content and information cannot and will not change over time. No other industry has this power.