Matchbook is a great solution for print books purchased from Amazon... but what about all the books you buy at B&N, Chapters (Canada), your local indie bookseller, the used bookshop around the corner, or that you received as gifts? A Canadian start-up called BitLit (www.bitlit.ca) has developed a solution for print and eBook bundling no matter where you got the print copy. (Full disclosure, I'm one of the founders of BitLit). Simply write your name on the book's copyright page, submit a photo using the BitLit app, and download your free (or discounted) eBook. BitLit is set to launch on Android at the end of the month with select publishers. Feedback on the idea is most welcome.

FWIW real link: BitLit we are looking to launch this summer with a select small group of publishers. Mostly sci-fi and fantasy books. (maybe because they fear the future less?)

There is much discussion about real vs. ebooks, but little about how you could have both formats. There are clearly benefits to real books (you own them) and digital books (search, portability, etc). What if you could have both for the price of print, or the price of print + $0.99 (or some other small incremental cost)? My company, BitLit (http://www.bitlit.ca) has developed a system and is working with publishers to make this happen.

I was the pilot (engine really) of the UBC Human Powered Helicopter project almost 10 years ago. Here's a short video of our attempt. We were grounded by a flex issue that kept derailing the drive chains that connected my pedals to the overhead transmission. Best of luck to the teams going at it today! It's no small engineering nor athletic challenge.

I would argue, at least in the world of books (and eBooks), that DRM has been more useful economically to owners of the content readers (e.g. Amazon) than to the content publishers. The fact that Kindle has DRM on its eBooks means that the average end user is unable to easily transfer their eBook purchases from a Kindle to another eBook ecosystem (e.g. Kobo, Nook, Android, or Apple). DRM on eBooks effectively allows an eBook device vendor to lock consumers into their eco-system and provides about as much protection as a paper-mache helmet. Publishers know this, and in my experience are not the ones insisting on DRM for their eBooks these days...