OTOH, kudos to cheapo electronics-maker VTech, of all places, for completely opening up the OS of their up-coming PalmPilot clone, the Helio. It's not shipping yet, but VTech has announced that the OS will be open source, and the compilers and SDK's will be free. Finally, a company that realizes that software sells the hardware!
They are, however, gonna have to drop their price. A couple days ago, I was able to pick up a Windows CE palmtop with twice as much memory for the same price.
I'm starting to figure out Practice of Programming. I finally figured out the audience. Despite being by Addison Wesley, which tends to lean towards the sophisticated design stuff, this is a book for beginning programmers, which explains the overlong explanations of common algorithms. Thinking about it, I figure that this book would've been a great adjunct to my sophomore data structures and algorithms classes in college. As it stands, I find myself skimming over a bunch of stuff I already know to find the occasional pearl, but it's still worthwhile.
If you're in college or are just starting out, this could be a very valuable book.
