I'll admit, I've taken creative license with the headline, Seth Godin didn't call anyone an egghead. He did reprise a bit he wrote several years ago titled, On self determination, however. And is there anything more eggheaded than sitting in a box, incapable of independent action or decision?

Late in 2009, I was compelled to get back into working with Amazon Web Services. I hadn't touched them for several years, but felt like I had to get "hands on" again after spending most of my vocational efforts on the political and managerial aspects of technology. That, plus I'm too cheap to spend $55 for an annual subscription to Carbonite and figured I could home brew a solution on the cheap!

ePub sounds fancy, bleeding edge even, doesn't it? Who ever knew it was just a bunch of XHTML and CSS in a Zip archive?

Well, that's all it is. If you'd like a sample ePub I marked up using vi (yes, the UNIX text editor!) and some old data about 19th century Prussian military units stationed in Potsdam, help yourself! It's hosted using Amazon S3, so availability shouldn't be an issue.

"This specification defines the OEBPS Container Format (OCF). OCF is a general-purpose container technology. This specification describes the general-purpose container technology in the context of encapsulating OEBPS publications and OPTIONAL alternate renditions thereof. It is however anticipated that the general-purpose container technology described herein will ultimately be used in other bundling applications."