While weblogs and e-books may be seen as personal publishing to some, there is still a large market for publishing-on-demand books. Gayle Feldman of the New York Times takes a look at new ways book publishers are focusing on smaller authors for publishing-on-demand. For $499 the Borders Professional Publication will get you an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), a listing on Amazon, and 5 copies made available on Borders' shelves....
Robert Scoble would like to be the top result for Microsoft tech blogger. Don Park is a phishing researcher. I have not given it much thought, but I will set up a Feedster ego feed now....
Last night I met Scoble for dinner at Jing Jing in Palo Alto. Don Park and Al Nevarez were also in attendance. Interesting conversations about the past and future of weblogging. Many people seemed to have tried out the trend, but the quality writing seems to have decreased. We discussed better methods of peer review and aggregation. Micah Alpern joined us at University Coffee Cafe. We talked about ways eBay should be preparing for Windows Longhorn. Reputation came up again, this time related to service reputation linked to a friend of friends or community. Does a weblog add eBay reputation?...
The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) announced today that it has approved plans for expansion to Stockton, California. MISL teams play 162 games in 6 months....
Apple's new flagship San Francisco store opens tomorrow morning at 10 A.M. Since May 2001 Apple has opened a new store every 13 days. An average of 1000 people visit each Apple retail store daily. Over 50% of purchases are from first time Mac buyers. Employees are trained for 3 to 7 weeks before they come to an Apple store. Apple had 1,352 applicants for the San Francisco store, and hired 70. 35 of these employees are trained in Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and similar software. 20% of the people who come into an Apple store visit the Genius Bar....
Ben & Jerry's has a new ice cream flavor for everyone caught up in the Atkins craze: Chocolate Carb Karma Ice Cream. It uses Sucralose (Splenda® Brand) instead of liquid sugar, more water than milk, and adds polydextrose, sorbitol, glycerine, carob Bean Gum, acesulfame to its ingredients list. Sounds very scientific and not the natural Vermont's Finest I am used to....
Democratic Underground Forums has a list of senators who will vote against a constitutional marriage amendment, gathered from press sources and the senators' press releases....
Showa Shinzan International Yukigassen, the de facto world snowball-fight championship, takes place yearly in Sobetsucho, Japan. Sebastian Moffett profiles the tournament on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal. Players wear white jumpsuits and strap on a helmet for protection from the regulation snowballs between 2.56 and 2.76 inches in diameter. The game is combination dodge ball and capture the flag. Some teams practice year-round....
How would you redo the Google interface? Artists Joshua Davis, Jenny Holzer, Shepard Fairey, and Ideo all gave Wired Magazine their thoughts and drawings. I like Fairey's the best....
Steven Johnson writes in this month's Wired Magazine about the battle over content spam in weblogs. "[S]pammers weren't trying to win the attention of the bloggers or their readerships. They were trying to win the attention of Google, like the high school bully beating up the class nerd to impress the homecoming queen. The nerd feels violated, but the truth is that it isn't really about him at all."...
Niall Kennedy is a web technologist in San Francisco, California in the United States. I am very interested in the world of... MORE »