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I’ve been following the development of electronic book readers with some interest. I love to read and probably go through three books a month on average. My problem is that my bookshelves are overflowing and I’m running out of space. This is after donating several boxes of books. What is a space-challenged reader to do?

An electronic book is the obvious choice, but it’s hard to beat books at the optimal technology for reading. E-readers have been expensive and clunky and had a lack of content. At least until recently. Now there seem to be three major players, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony. I’ve read about each though I’ve only touch Amazon’s Kindle in person.

Kindle and B&N’s nook have the same price point and similar features. The nook seems to have software that isn’t quite there in terms of quality and performance but uses more open standards than Kindle.

I’d probably get a Kindle in a heartbeat if it weren’t for one thing. The Kindle’s DRM locks me into Amazon. I don’t want to buy books that lock me into a single hardware vendor. The Kindle has some great features but the DRM implementation is onerous and I don’t trust any single company to keep my best interests at heart. If we must have DRM then let’s have interoperable DRM and the EPUB standard seems the best bet for this. Unless Amazon switches to an open standard, I’m not very likely to buy a Kindle even though it’s arguably the best reader on the market with the largest library of material of likely interest to me.

The nook has the advantage of supporting EPUB but the performance is so sluggish that I’m not sure I could live with it. Hopefully that will improve. Yesterdays firmware update (v1.1) seems to help some, but it’s yet to be proven that the hardware platform is up to the task. I’m pretty sure that nook2 will be much improved but will this nook ever live up to it’s hype?

Sony’s readers look nice. They support EPUB. The UI looks good. The touchscreen models suffer from glare from the video’s I’ve seen and the low-end,  non-touchscreen model uses a screen that’s just too small.

Because B&N uses a DRM model that is different than Sony, the advantage of EPUB for interoperability is largely gone. A nook can read Sony’s DRM but, at least for now, a Sony can’t read nook’s DRM. That may change, but for now EPUB isn’t living up to it’s promise.

So, I sit back and wait and my bookshelves continue to overflow.

This interface has been sold. It is no longer available.

This is a two year old Alesis IO/26 firewire multichannel audio interface. I had 8 analog and 16 digital inputs and can run up to 192khx at 24 bits.

Included are the unit, power supply, firewire cable, driver cd, manual and original box.

It is in working order and in great shape. Works with both Mac and PC and would make a great addition to any audio enthusiast looking to record multichannel audio.

The monitor has been sold. It is no longer available.

This is a 19″ 4×3 monitor that runs at a native resolution of 1280×1024.

It has DVI and VGA inputs and is in working order.

Included are the monitor, power supply, DVI and VGA cables and original box. I do not have the original manual.

Asking $60.

The keyboard has been sold. It is no longer available.

This is an 11 year old Roland A-90EX midi keyboard. It is a full-size 88-key keyboard with piano key action.

The unit is in good shape except for the two lowest black keys which have fallen off the mechanism that holds them up and therefore they can’t be played. This should be fixable though I’m not certain what would be involved. Other than that, the keyboard is in working order.

It includes the manual and and foot pedal and a stand. A bench will be included at no extra cost if you want it.

Though I have the original box, it’s not in good shape for shipping. I am willing to meet within a three hour drive of Washington, DC to deliver the keyboard.

Please contact me if interested. Asking: $200. The keyboard sold for $900 when new.

The player has been sold. It is no longer available.

This is an Oppo DV-980H Universal DVD Player. It plays DVD’s, CD’s, Super Audio CD’s, and DVD-Audio discs. It upscales video to 1080p.

It’s a fantastic player and is in excellent condition. The only reason I’m selling it is that I bought the Oppo Bluray player so this one became superfluous.

It includes the player, remote, power cable, hdmi cable, analog a/v cables and manual. All are the pieces that shipped with the unit.

Asking $75. Please contact me if you have questions or are interested.