i said:
>   >   it is relatively easy for a programmer to "embed"
>   >   shared annotations into an e-book

marcello said:
>   >   How would you know?

um, because i've built a number of prototypes that do it.

of course.

before i make bold assertions, i've done years of research...

didn't i post a message saying i could do a demo-app for david,
to show how simple it is?,  and didn't david say, "ok, go ahead",
and didn't i say "ok, i will, you can expect it by thursday, i'd say?"

just a minute, let me check...

ok, the first two messages did indeed post ("i can do it", "ok, do it"),
but i never got around to sending the third one this morning, sorry...

i'll send it first thing tomorrow, since i think we've had enough for today...

still, this is fairly easy to program.  here's the code that sends out a note:
>   dim abcd as dictionary
>   dim socket1 as new httpsocket
>   dim lec as integer
>   abcd=new dictionary
>   abcd.value("myname")=editfield1.text
>   abcd.value("myemail")=editfield2.text
>   abcd.value("mycomment")=editfield3.text
>   socket1.setformdata abcd
>   socket1.post "http://users.aol.com/cgi-bin/guestbook/bowerbird/bbb.html"

that's it.  all the code you need.

that's a real-live form, on the web right now, found at:
>   http://users.aol.com/bowerbird/bbb.html

you can post from the page itself, filling out the form right there,
using any web-browser on any internet-connected machine...

or you can compose your comment on your own machine, and,
using the program that contains the code listed above, post that
comment to the website.  (the downstream app is interacting with
the code that runs the guestbook script on the .html page, so you
will find the same variable names as above if you look at the code
that creates the .html form on that page.  fairly easy to figure out.)

***

and here's the code that fetches the text of the webpage and
puts it in an editfield.  this is realbasic source-code, by the way.
>   dim http as new httpsocket
>   readit.text=http.get("users.aol.com/bowerbird/bbb.html",30)

open another window in the app on your machine, and the two-line
function above loads and displays the comments from the webpage.

well, _that_ was certainly simple, wasn't it?

and those are our two functions, one to post, the other to read.

***

ok, wrap a g.u.i. around it, and you've got the demo app, pronto.
with what?, a dozen lines of code?, all copied from the manual?
like i said, pretty elementary.  realbasic does all the heavy lifting.
your mileage, using your language and your compiler, may vary.

so, from my vantage-point, yes, this is dirt-simple.

do you have any questions?

-bowerbird

p.s.  marcello, thanks for creating my shrine.  i can point to it
in the future as holding a good number of my prognostications,
not to mention my phat and sassy attitude, donchajustadoreit?
thank goodness for the internet archive, right?  brewster rocks!