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There is no doubt that all media is going digital. And while I think it will remain possible quite far into the future to curl up by the fire with a good book, it will be much more likely that it will be some form of electronic book reader that will be keeping you warm instead. If you've not seen these, think of them as .mp3 players for words and illustrations, and many can also play those .mp3s. A few examples of products available now include the Sony Reader Digital Book, Amazon's Kindle, and Hanlin's eReader.

By settling a lawsuit with book authors and publishers this week, Google is looking out for itself and has avoided fighting for and possibly establishing a positive legal precedent for copyright fair use on the Internet.

Melbourne-based publisher SitePoint has released the second edition of its beginner's guide to Ruby on Rails, Simply Rails 2.

If you'd like to get started with Ajax, I highly recommend Ajax Construction Kit by Michael Morrison. It's terrific. Morrison's writing is clear, strong, and informative. The sample projects are practical applications that make great starting points for real-world applications. He thoroughly explains the stuff you need to know and doesn't get bogged down in the stuff you don't. Plus he includes just enough humor to keep things light and fun.

No Starch Press has released Building a Server with FreeBSD 7 which aims to be a modular guide to building a FreeBSD server with step-by-step directions for installation and configuration.

Three books illustrate -- in fiction and nonfiction -- lessons that business executives and IT managers should learn. Find out why Mesh Collaboration, Business Focused IT and Service Excellence, and the original In Search of Excellence should be in your "To Be Read" pile.