I did the same thing but on my Kindle. When I heard about the new book, I was interested (since I enjoyed The Art of Deception), and got the sample for my kindle. When I was finished with the sample, I quickly clicked the link to purchase the whole book.

I really enjoyed it. While I'm fairly knowledgeable about computers, I know very little about the phone system. He did go into some technical detail, but I never found it difficult to follow. I think people without a background in computers may find some of the technical details to be a bit much, the rest of the story is enough to keep anyone entertained. I really found his descriptions about social engineering to be fascinating. I thought it was funny that people would tell him that they were not supposed to do something because of this hacker that was causing problems, but then they would go right along and give him the information anyway.

I manage people who have to do money services, and social engineering is still alive and well. People have to go into all kinds of training on what not to do, and how not to get tricked into sending money fraudulently, but people still do it all the time.

First, your definition of a market in regards to monopoly power is to narrow. The market would include all ebook readers. You have the nook, the ipad, as well as other readers with a smaller user base. If amazon got to greedy, publishers could stop catering to them and sign contracts with their competitors. Without content, people wouldn't buy as many kindles...they would buy nooks, ipads, or some other device. This is competition, and what makes it so amazon does not have a monopoly.

Second, they don't control all distribution to the kindle. Yes, they control whispernet...because they are paying for it. However, they don't control the wifi connection, or the USB connection. On the kindle 3 you can use other programs (including my favorite...calibre) to put books or periodicals on your kindle. You can subscribe to the economist, or the WSJ and have calibre download it automatically every day. You can then have it sent via wifi (on your kindle 3) automatically for free as long as your have your kindle hooked up to your wifi network.

As for your distribution comment, you do have more of an argument when it comes to the ipad. Apple has it locked down tight. You can't install other apps on it, and they even prevent publishers from setting lower prices if they wish to set up subscriptions outside of the app store. I think apple is making an error in judgement with their current requirements. I think it harms both the publishers and the users of the ipad. However, the kindle doesn't suffer from the same problems. While whispernet is the most convenient way to get content on the kindle, it is not the only way.

I'm with you on that. I enjoy games, but at 30 I have a very busy life and only have so much time to play games. I work 50 hours a week, have a girlfriend (who will play rock band and guitar hero, but thats about it), and friends that want to go out. I just don't have the same amount of time to play games that I did 10 years ago (or at least I don't prioritize the same amount of time to gaming anymore).

I find myself playing games that I can pick up for 30 minutes at a time and put down. If it has a save system that I can save anywhere I'm more likely to play it. I really enjoyed the bioshock games, though it took me ages to beat them because I played them in short spurts. If a game has a checkpoint system where I have to get to a certain place before saving, I can guarantee that I won't keep playing it.