Link clearinghouse, longer articles edition

I meant to post this back when it was new, but why do things on time?  An analysis of the melt-down of the american auto industry, and why the Japanese industry seems to be doing fine in the same financial world.  The author's thesis, boiled down to two words: Labor Relations.

How Detroit Drove into a Ditch.

Also: an article on Ars Technica about why e-books area actually awesome, and why no one seems to notice or care, and why that doesn't matter, because e-books are inevitable.  I enjoyed this article immensely, not the least because I agreeed with everything the author said, and still disagree with his final conclusions.  My overly simplified rebuttal, offered preemptively: Yes, but ebooks, unlike, say, an MP3 playter or movies on an iPhone, are the only media where the digital version is *less* convienent, as opposed to more.

The once and future e-book.

Finally: If Programming Languages were religions.