my impression is that mr. noring would like to
knock michael hart down a few notches, and
that's why he's doing his "historical research"...

still, those of us who were promoting e-books
back in the '80s know who was leading the pack.
it was michael hart.

and not only was he not getting any _credit_ then,
he was actually derided as something of a kook...

which he _is_, of course, but the kooks are often
the people who end up transforming our world...       :+)

so to try and strip him of his credit here, now that
we finally have come to realize his genius, well...
it is downright cruel.  small-minded and cruel...

with due respect to the dreamers who came before
and handed to us the _idea_ of electronic-books,
including alan kaye, h.g. wells, and douglas adams,
there is no question who _invented_ the e-book,
by virtue of sitting down and actually entering one:
it's michael hart...

as one of the greatest inventors who ever lived said,
only 1% is inspiration, the other 99% is perspiration.

plus michael hart gave us something even better --
the concept of "unlimited distribution" of e-books...

compared to the _commercial_ e-book efforts,
which somehow noring wants on equal footing,
look how many more riches _that_ idea gave us.

-bowerbird

p.s.  along these lines, consider this from alan kaye:
>   "We're running on fumes technologically today,"
>   he says. "The sad truth is that 20 years or so of
>   commercialization have almost completely missed
>   the point of what personal computing is about."