Oprah Winfrey enthused about the Amazon Kindle on her show today — it's her "new favorite thing" — and had Jeff Bezos on to announce a $50-off offer good till Nov. 1. A plug on Oprah is ordinarily a sign that a product has crossed over into the mainstream. But her show's audience has been slipping lately, and it's unclear how many cash-strapped citizens will be willing to part with $309 (after the special offer) for a new techno-gadget, for which they then have to shell out more money for DRM-encrusted content.

deuist writes "Several years ago I wrote a book called The Not So Short Introduction to Getting Into Medical School (PDF) and released it online under a Creative Commons license. I have been asked several times to publish the text so that I can make money off of it. The book has become quite famous among pre-med students and is now available from the Princeton Review as a free CD that is given to pre-medical interest groups. My question to the Slashdot community involves claiming this work as volunteering for tax purposes. Have any of you had any success with releasing free software and then writing off your time when April 15 rolls around?"

Eurogamer reports on an announcement from Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs regarding the future of Warhammer Online. Jacobs said the first big content patch will be coming in December, and it will contain two new classes, the Black Guard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun. These are two of the four classes lost to the pre-launch content cuts. A number of other changes are on their way as well. "The Knight of the Blazing Sun is described as a tactical leader using Battlefield Commands, while the Black Guard is simply 'the embodiment of hatred and disdain.' The arrival of the two new careers will mean that every race in the game has a damage-taking tanking archetype. Of the originally planned careers, only the Dwarf Hammerer and Greenskin Choppa, both melee damage-dealers, will remain on the cutting room floor."