Kanye epitomises the arrogant, overhyped, modestly talented, entertainment diva that makes up much of the culture.

And he's a crybaby.

The screen itself feels pretty sturdy but I have no idea how much pressure the screen can take before it can no longer be "bended".

I always keep my Kindle in the included "bookjacket". It is sturdy and will protect the screen from scratching and at least some degree of focused pressure damage. The Kindle cover may not be pretty but then I have never cared to use my gizmos as fashion accessories so I couldn't care less what the frick it looks like.

#4 says:

"I think anyone who reads BoingBoing would be saddened that someone who worked for the RIAA is getting any sort of gainful employment, and not being tarred feathered and thrown to a pack of rabid dogs to be dismboweled by."

h grw p!!

I assumed anyone that reads BoingBoing would not be given to such smpl brsh behavior.

Guess I was wrong snc thr r mny cmmntrs ttrng smlr nfntl sttmnts.

Apparently The Huffington Post and BoingBoing have one thing in common - thy bth ttrct shr f smpltns.

RE: #26 posted by Father Brown

"It really frightens me that so many people on this little message board know so much about fighter planes, weaponry and war."

Why does that frighten you? The people that know the most about weapons and warfare and the destruction that can result are also usually the ones that are least likely to want to actually use them in a real war.

It's cool tho to use them in a video game.

Instead of thinking that these weapons are designed to kill - think of them as being designed to help keep you from being killed.

RE: #29 posted by bricology

"That's worth more than a bucket of tail-stands."

Those tail-stands might prove pretty damn useful tho when you're trying to shake a missile that has lock on you.

There is a book (Manual of Surgery - 6th edition circa 1921) containing similar clinical images that is available on the Project Gutenberg site:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17921

The html version has the photos. The pictures in this book make no pretensions to art - they are strictly clinical photos for the edification of physicians that may encounter patients with such afflictions.

Follow up for Michael R. Bernstein:

I snagged a copy of Mysterious Island (the 2005 "edition") off amazon and dragged it off my Kindle and it does appear to be a locked file (unlocked azw files can be dragged off the Kindle onto your pc and by changing the file extension to prc they can be read by the Mobipocket Reader).

The Kindle version I bought does appear to be a match with versions available on mobipocket and Project Gutenberg.

I am not aware of any open source tools for prc file creation but I vaguely recall a German website that allowed users to paste text into a box and the site would then create a prc file for you. The Mobipocket Creator software may run under Wine which might allow you to avoid installing Windows.

You might hit the mobilereader.com forums - that might lead to some other solutions for file creation.

In post #66 Michael R. Bernstein is curious:

"...do those features really work for *all* file formats as you imply"

Those features work for all the files I have tried (I have not played with any of the graphical file types yet). I didn't have any straight text files onboard when reading your latest post so I fired up the Kindle browser and grabbed a book off of Project Gutenberg. It downloaded straight to the Kindle home page and I was able to do all the previously discussed things with it. One thing I did notice though with the text file from Gutenberg was that on the Kindle it had some odd line feeds inserted in the text. Don't know what's up with that. The same file from Gutenberg was fine on my pc. I'll send the file to amazon and let them convert it and send it to the Kindle and see if the same problem exists.

I did send a couple of Word files to the Kindle before the holiday but deleted them after I read them. I know that the doc would re-open wherever it was last open but I didn't try to make any bookmarks, etc. so I can't promise that would work on those but I can't imagine that it wouldn't since amazon is likely converting them to either azw or mobi or prc.

It's not surprising that the Kindle offers direct support for un-DRM'ed mobi and prc files since amazon bought Mobipocket a couple of years ago. My guess is (and this is strictly wild speculation on my part) that the azw file format is basically a riff on the mobi and prc file format.

I agree that the Kindle being able to natively support un-DRM'ed mobi and prc files is a definite plus as that opens up a lot of free existing books to ready use on the Kindle and makes it easy for others to convert files into an unlocked format that can be used by the Kindle and many other platforms/devices.

I agree the price of the device is a bit much but at this price I'll be sure to suck up as much bandwidth as I can using the Kindle browser .

In post #66 Michael R. Bernstein asks:

"Do mobipocket files have feature-parity (ie. reopening on the last viewed page, bookmarking, clipping, etc.) on the Kindle with the .azw format?"

Yes. It seems those features work regardless of file format.

In post #63 Michael R. Bernstein wonders:

"I'd still like to know if you can use the built-in browser to download and read un-DRM'd mobipocket files."

The answer is YES!!

Using the Kindle browser I just downloaded the mobipocket version of Down and Out and it placed it on the Kindle home page with all the other books/documents. The file even includes the cover art which is displayed by the Kindle.

I think Cory is missing/mistating a couple things.

Right now I am looking at a "copy" of Eastern Standard Tribe on my Kindle.

How can that be?????

The Kindle is not a DRM locked box. It is a box that supports the DRM of locked Kindle files.

So Cory rejected amazon's offer to offer his books in Kindle format. No biggie!!

The Kindle supports text files and mobi files and prc files natively. It supports Word files and HTML files and PDF files via conversion.

I was able to simply plug my Kindle into my pc and drag a copy of his book in prc format right into the Kindle documents folder and shazaam I have an ebook version of the novel readily at hand.

I also sent an HTML version of his book to my Kindle email address and a few minutes later it automatically appeared on my Kindle.

I don't like DRM any more than Cory but I am pragmatic enough that I recognize the current reality of the situation of commercially produced intellectual property.

Also, if I want to share a book with a friend I could simply register their Kindle on my account. That is a bit of a kludge cuz they would then temporarily lose access to their books until they re-registered their Kindle back to their account.

My bet is that in the not too distant future amazon will convince publishers that it would not be a bad thing to allow folks to de-register a book from one device so it can be sent to a friend and registered on their device and then "returned" when they have finished reading it.

As some others have suggested I too would love for amazon to take the Netflix approach and offer the all-you-can-read buffet for a set monthly fee.

Time will tell.

Anyway, after only having my Kindle for a few days I love the thing and look forward to future iterations of the hardware/service.

Anya - the manual is online so YES you can read it beforehand.