so much to chat about, i'll have to go outline:

1.  agility=ability for zen markup viewer-apps
2.  sloppy thinking lumps donations with ads
3.  #3 of "monday morning quarterback" is up
4.  thanks for the support, brent, but stay low
5.  i've just posted another demonstration-book

***

1.  because the format of the z.m.l. format is
so very transparent, it's easy for apps to grok it.
and to manipulate it.  and to slap it into output.
thus the programs will become especially _agile_.

100k of script, 90k boilerplate, so you write 10k
just do the specific job you want done right now,
and you're debugging, with the whole wide world
(if you want) to help you find and fix that mistake.
the job gets done, and you're off to the next one...

your xml programs, however, will be bloatware,
with that heavy-markup requiring complex code
that'll be a nightmare to try to modify on the fly.
and thus improvements will be slow in coming...

and, as usual, the race goes to the swift.

the truth of the matter will be that the abundance
of the _zml_ viewer-programs, not the _xml_ ones,
plus their _agility_, will be the defining features that
tips things _to_ me (and not _away_ as you suggest).

***

2.  ok, i will explain how donations differ from ads.

a donation is a _reward_ giving a stamp of affirmation
signing a relationship whose past has _proven_ worth,
a firm avowal of underlying root in a _gift_economy_.
it says, "job well done, my friend, thank you very much."

an ad-sale is an _exchange_ that sets an expectation
that the relationship will _deliver_ worth in the future,
and becomes a symbol of foundation based on _barter_.
it says, "ok, i'd better get my money's worth out of this."

to the greatest extent possible now, the world needs
relations built on a cornerstone of _gift_, not _barter_.
project gutenberg is one of the leading lights in that
move to future that is gift-based, not barter-based...

and besides, in an organization that runs so completely
on volunteer labor, a little money would be a bad thing.
a terrible thing.

the only person who can reasonably expect _anything_
out of project gutenberg is michael, and even for him,
it's only due to all the years he spent in the wilderness,
not for being on a now-heavily-populated bandwagon.

***

3.  issue #3 of "monday morning quarterback" is out.
this one is short and sweet, focusing on just one point:
==================================
each scan you make should have, in its filename,
the _page-number_ of the page which it pictures.
==================================

>   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bpsuper/message/7
>   http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/bowerbird/mmq/mmq03.txt

***

4.  while i appreciate your agreement with me, brent,
there's no real need to speak.  you'll only draw flames,
and it's better just to let these lying dogs die peacefully.
we're past the debate stage, anyway, and eating pudding.
hey, i'm gonna use something like that as my slogan --

           we _would_ eat our own dogfood,
               but we don't _make_ dogfood;
                    we make _pudding_, and
                         we _love_ to eat it! 
                              it's _good_!

***

5.  another demo-book went up today, this one
titled "the hacker manifesto", by mckenzie wark.
wark is writing a new book in public, via a blog,
a test of the institute for the future of the book:
>   http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/

the u.r.l. of my demo is:
>   http://www.greatamericannovel.com/ahmmw/ahmmwc001.html

i think i've forgotten to remind you so far that
it's a better overall reading experience if you
go into full-screen mode to do your reading.
(or hide all the toolbars if that's all you can do.)

not only does it remove unnecessary distraction,
allowing you to immerse yourself in the material,
but it also means the type and scans can be bigger.

(no one should complain e-books are hard to read,
because they can easily make e-books _easier_ to
read than paper, just by making the type _bigger_.)

also, if you hadn't noticed yet, clicking the image
"turns the page" to the next page.  (clicking the
left image on the 2-up interface "turns back to"
the preceding facing-pages spread in the book.)

as i said before, on a fast pipe, where scans
take less than a second or two to download,
you can speed through a book fairly quickly.

anyway, that's 5 demo-books up now:
>   http://www.greatamericannovel.com/mabie/mabiep001.html
>   http://www.greatamericannovel.com/myant/myantc001.html
>   http://www.greatamericannovel.com/tolbk/tolbkp001.html
>   http://www.greatamericannovel.com/sgfhb/sgfhbc001.html
>   http://www.greatamericannovel.com/ahmmw/ahmmwc001.html

pudding is served.

it's the beginning of the end for heavy markup...             :+)

-bowerbird