But the resulting book is not just unfailingly readable: it is also a provocative, enlightening and welcome riposte to the cyber-utopian worldview.

ECONOMIST: Why dictators are going digital

When faced with a collection of quite thick, perhaps intimidating novels, Banville's is very accessible - easily readable and not too weighty.

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Unlike the One Laptop Per Child Project, the Aakash does not feature any sunlight-readable displays, or any other cutting-edge, MIT-developed technology.

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This may not mean the end of all locks on books readable on Sony's device as the ePub format has an option to implement copyright controls.

BBC: Sony to back open e-book format

The International Civil Aviation Organisation deals not just with air travel, but will also help the new government issue machine-readable passports.

ECONOMIST: How to start a nation: Trappings of state | The

Highly readable tour of the world's markets, explaining how they work, why they sometimes do not, and how they are evolving.

ECONOMIST: Acknowledgments

In finance, standards can take years to define as working groups from banks, securities firms and depositories meet repeatedly to hash out what needs to be in a message and ways to make it machine-readable so the communication can be handled by computers with straight-through processing (STP) and not require any expensive, time-consuming and error-inducing human intervention.

FORBES: Connect