[pittendrigh]

I've been away for several days. Sick as a dog. Flu. Almost human again.

Recap:
I'm a 67 year old retired software developer. Recently bought a tablet and started reading ebooks because my eyesight is going South, and with tablet I can increase font size.

I find the current crop of ebooks disappointing. No multi-media. I'm a web guy. I want embedded video, expandable photographs, auxiliary image galleries all wedded to the chapters and pages book concept.

I made some server side (written in PHP) software that displays what looks like a book. I have an always on top Table of Contents plus next previous and goto page buttons. But because it's a website I can embed sound and video. Each chapter can have auxiliary materials, like an image gallery illustrating something. I can click and burrow down into that image gallery but the "Next Page" button still takes me from page 12 to page 13.

You cannot do that with ebooks. Epub3 supports the concept but the ebook readers are still years behind. Ebook readers are a bad idea, I think. They will never (never ever) be able to keep pace with web browsers. Ebook readers are supported by a handful of developers. Browsers are supported by armies of developers.

So. Where are we now? Ebook readers are limited. Browsers are more powerful. But browsers need a web server. I already have software that displays what looks like a book on the web.

In the course of this discussion I have learned and realized it is now possible to install a simple, lightweight web server on a phone. Some packages include PHP and mysql. Although they aren't really necessary for what I'm talking about.

If you want to read a public domain ebook that includes multi-media now it isn't really possible. I have the software to do it as a website. I'm working on a python utility to transoform any epub into the HTML file fragments I need for my web server display. Soon you will be able to read an ebook that includes multi-medial. Using any browser.

What if you aren't always network connected? An app install link could put a simple lightweight webserver on your phone. Then you could download an ebook. The app you previously downloaded would punch it into HTML format. You might be white water rafting but if your batteries aren't dead you can now watch a multi-media ebook, because it's really a website (that visually looks and acts like a book). In this case it's a website entirely (client and server) installed on your phone.

DRM is not something I'm particularly interested in. But it would be relatively easy to paste onto this idea. DRM now is ugly. If you buy something in Kindle format you can't read it in other readers. All that would go away with ebooks as websites. If it's a website any browser can read it. And yet you could STILL make it impossible to read, if the current client has not paid for an encryption key.

I don't care about DRM but others might. All I'm saying is it would not only be possible with the HTML idea, it would be better, because it would work with all readers.