Thursday, September 08, 2011

R.I.P.: Michael Hart, Inventor of ebooks, Founder of Project Gutenberg

Michael Hart, who invented the ebook (then called in full, as electronic books) and founded the Project Gutenberg has died at the age of 64. What Wikipedia is to the availability of free knowledge, Project Gutenberg is to the availability of free ebooks. It does so by digitizing all the books in the public domain and making them available for distribution. Project Gutenberg has 36000 books in its collection so far.

This is what Michael Hart said about ebooks in July this year:
One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job." 

His obituary

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Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Will the Arab Spring turn into an Arab Winter?


I know most of the countries in the chart above are outside the immediate Arab world, but case for a similar reality in the lands that have seen the 'spring' this year still stands.
Chart via 

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