Blog on Laura Lis Scott

Mastodon for comments on a Hugo static site

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:48:55 -0600

It takes just a bit of code to set up

Why Hugo?

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 14:21:13 -0600

Why not? [Please excuse the dust. Thank you for your patience.]

6 best practices for working virtually in self isolation

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

For a decade, I’ve been working from home as part of a virtual team and as a freelancer. So purely in terms of work environment, for me, working virtually in self-isolation during this COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t required much of an adjustment. The emotional burden of the mass suffering, however, can be overwhelming. I’ve found myself in reactive mode, overstimulated by the horrific news every day, and feeling helpless. To maintain any kind of productivity, I’ve turned back to some freelancing best practices that provide a bit of structure or framework for getting things done.

Don't mess with Mabel

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

About 20 years ago, I penned (literally) a short about an older woman who, through a series of misunderstood communications, encounters her nemesis from years before. Alas, I lost those pages in one of my many moves. In 2016, however, the main character revisited me, and I wrote a new story about her—Mabel, an underestimated woman who’s fiercely independent, appreciative of beauty, and tenacious when her sense of what’s right and good is challenged.

Books in my shadow

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine a story about Melody Baker, an unemployed woman living in New York City. She has a PhD, huge student debt, and no professional job prospects. Deborah Ann Woll speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Photo by Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons). (Picture Debra Ann Woll playing her in the movie version. She’d be perfect in the role.) Out of desperation she applies for a research assistant position upstate—and finds herself smack dab in the middle of a political campaign run by cynical operators, eccentric aristocrats, and absurdly horrible partisans and hangers-on, all scheming to elect an unwilling but convenient old-money recluse who has these quaint ideas about integrity, compassion, and justice.

Other authors are not your competition

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Someone said in a Facebook authors’ group that hey, we were all in competition with one another. Yeah, no. That’s zero-sum thinking, and it does not quite work with books and stories — especially now. It’s 2019. Books have shelf life. Scarcity is not ubiquitous Yes, some things are governed by scarcity. For example, people buy maybe one house. They either buy this one or that one. (Let’s not discuss the superrich who buy several houses.

Beautiful multilingual eye examination chart of the early 1900s San Francisco

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

112 years ago, optometry was a growing profession. In diverse cities like San Francisco, however, the eye chart commonplace in western countries today could not suffice. Enter George Mayerle’s multilingual eye examination chart. George Mayerle’s Vision Test Chart (ca. 1907). Via Public Domain Review Public Domain Review writes: The chart was a culmination of his many years of practice and, according to Mayerle, its distinctive international angle served also to reflect the diversity and immigration which lay at the heart of the city in which he worked.

Do you stream like I do?

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How do you stream? I’ve been leery of all the subscription services. I keep seeing reports of how Apple messes with your purchased library. Pandora won’t let you choose what songs to listen to (unless they changed that). And the ’zon seems to have too much market leverage to be healthy for creators over the long run (a self-0interest concern). But I also need a usable way to discover new music.

Watch out for poisonous books

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Though unless you’re a historian with access to rare book archives, you’re probably in the clear. We found that three rare books on various historical topics in the University of Southern Denmark’s library collection contain large concentrations of arsenic on their covers. The books come from the 16th and 17th centuries. — Read on www.popsci.com/poisonous-books

If you want to write a novel that’s literary as fuck

Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Then here are some tips from the fucking great Suzanne Reisman. 6. Why’d That Asshole Do That, Part II A novel that’s literary as fuck needs some baseline plot, even if your character development is fucking amazing and you don’t believe in pedestrian bullshit, like plots. People appreciate a little fucking action. That is why even readers of books who are literary as fuck flock to superhero movies that have almost no character development at all.

How not to blog

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Do as I do: Cover a wide variety of topics. Post sporadically. Write various lengths, from quick dashed-off notions to long think pieces. Get personal one post, professional the next. Take long breaks. Give people the strong impression that your mind runs all over the place. I’m trying to do better, but blogging is not in even the top five of my daily A tasks. Therefore I’m doomed. Don’t be like me!

On Valerian

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This post contains spoilers. It also will come off as negative to the point of sounding harsh. Apologies. I generally don’t like to post negative reviews. What’s the point? So let me say right off that I did not hate Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. But the movie does not really work. As a writer, I want to understand why. Luc Besson’s science fiction I’ve been a fan of Luc Besson’s movies since the 1980s, when I first saw his first feature.

Something I often have to remind myself as a writer

Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

On Quora, someone posted the question: Why am I so intimidated by a blank page staring up at me in my sketch book? Why is it so hard for me to just dive in? My answer goes way back to something I learned getting my MFA, and basically it comes down to this: A book (or short story or painting or movie or any creative work) comes to life and dies several times over.

A firstperson narration aspect often overlooked

Sat, 24 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The story and the telling of the story are two different things. In other words, the narrator and the character in the story are not necessarily the same person. Oh, they have the same name and all that. But the narrator knows the story she is telling, while the character within the story does not. This provides opportunities that few writers explore. I’ll use an old classic movie as an example of what I’m talking about.

Free Mabel!

Fri, 23 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

An early cover for “Mabel and the Yellow Jackets” To outsiders, she may seem like a nice older “woman next door.” But the redoubtable Mabel is nobody’s fool, and she’s anything but helpless. When a horde of stinging insects invades her space, they experience the wrath of a woman who’ll have none of it. My short story “Mabel and the Yellow Jackets” is free—as in free free, not just subscription free—this weekend, February 23–26, on Kindle.

Rediscovering Notes app (and it scans, it scans!)

Fri, 23 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How do you take notes? I prefer to use my bullet journal. But what about when I don’t have it handy? When I’m just relaxing is when I might get a great idea. Or stumble across a fabulous resource. Or see a pithy quote I want to save for later. When relaxing, I’m usually reading a book, browsing around on my iPhone, doodling on my iPad, or watching a TV show or movie.

Merged-ish

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What was rarepattern.com is no more, though some of it lives on here. If you followed a dead link, try search. Apologies, I did not migrate the comments.

Nothing that can’t be solved with a little bug spray

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

When you believe in independent publishing as a political act, start wondering about alternatives to sending out that odd, non-genre 5200-word short story for more submissions—especially to pubs with loooonnnnngggg response times. Especially when you have all the knowhow to publish a valid and properly formatted ebook. Especially when you think the story really is actually pretty fun. Especially when you have the fabulous Katherine M. Lawrence editing. So you decide to throw it out there…

Writing update

Sun, 29 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been writing science fiction and a bit of fantasy. One story is out for submission. A couple others I need to look over before sending out. Right now I’m working on a weird transhumanist tale with four-eared humans and eight-legged aliens—which in turn is an interstitial project between rewrites of the epic space opera I’ve been reworking for a couple of years now. (I think it’s close.) Some people have asked me about the next Maid book.

Six notebooks compared: Leuchtturm1917, Rhodia, Midori, MUJI, Northbooks and Moleskine [updated]

Sat, 28 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A while ago, I got interested in bullet journaling. Eager to get going on it quickly and discover how I would use this freeform style of journaling and personal planning, I initially went with the popular bujo favorite, the Leuchtturm1917. But I was immediately frustrated when I saw how much ghosting I had on the reverse sides of my pages. I needed to find the best bujo notebook. Bullet journaling, at least in my mind, demands a higher standard.

How is the author-editor relationship affected by who hires whom?

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

That’s a question I explore in a guest blogpost over on Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.

Guarantees

Tue, 26 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll be an entrepreneur … if you pay me to do it. I’ll paint the picture … if you will hang it. I’ll write the book … if you will sell it. I’ll take the test … if you promise to pass me. I’ll take the exam … if it says I am healthy. I’ll tell you I love you … if you love me. I want to live a life where all my dreams come true.

Announcing A Spy in Stilettos: A Comedy of Manners, Politics, and Sex

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My new book. So this happened this week. The book (as in my book) is available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle. (Other ebook platforms to come later.) I’ve actually been in something of a state about this all month. And last month, too. As a classic Type B personality, I tend not to show it. I didn’t even see it, myself. Not very observant of me, was it? I’m not very good at touting myself.

And now Prince

Fri, 22 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s just agree that 57 is too young.

In which a serialized novel is mentioned

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This blog has been too quiet. I’ve been typing words elsewhere. This changes now. So a couple of years ago I wrote my first novel It was intended to be a comedic political satire. Many of my readers liked it. Some didn’t. One or two just didn’t get it. As I learned from one of my editors, comedy is a matter of taste (or lack thereof). I had no perspective on the text, and life at that moment was getting a bit too interesting, so I put the manuscript into the metaphorical drawer for a while, shifted gears, and wrote a science fiction adventure (which is another story—more on that soon).

Bowie

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

When I saw the news on Twitter that David Bowie had died, I started to cry. It was the middle of the night, but I couldn’t sleep anymore. I tossed and turned with “Heroes” echoing in my head. Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all. pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m — Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 11, 2016 Here it is, three days later and I’m still trying to process it.

Porcupine

Fri, 22 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

She trundles across the grass, not fast, going by hope (as much as poor sight) that she might not smite the black cat who bats his paw more out of play than of malice but comes away nonetheless with spines teaching regret, or the happy love-hunting hound whose nose bears scars from quills. She, in turn, so small behind her coat, trembles at their approach for causing nothing but pain. She trundles across the grass, not fast, alone.

Bother me less (or: I don't want your notification's nose under my attention tent)

Fri, 03 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Apple Watch seems to be inspiring a lot of uninspired thinking. Things like all the news that fits on the wrist. I for one cannot imagine why I would spend hundreds of dollars so a device can annoy me with yet more notifications. I certainly don’t need to have my work/flow/conversation/meeting/meditation/relaxation interrupted with news about people I don’t know in places I’m not. That crap can wait until I’m ready to lean back and browse the headlines.

On ergonomic keyboards again

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Following up on my review of three ergonomic keyboards last year, I pass along now Marco Arment’s review of the Matias Ergo Pro Keyboard, which he’s liking. From the features he describes, it sounds similar to the The Goldtouch Go!2 keyboard I’ve been using, but with some differences, including one that would drive me crazy. [T]he Ergo Pro’s two halves are physically separate and connected by a cable. This is a mixed bag: it provides flexibility, but it’s also frustrating to have no way to lock in your preferred setting, leaving you to figure it out again whenever it’s moved.

Building a better superego

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This year I make no resolutions.

Who is the woman hero?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This is a question our culture seems to be still trying to figure out. Yesterday Kate Lawrence explored this question in a blog post about her books’ main character, Yamabuki, a historical woman samurai in 12th-century Japan.

Home on Lagrange

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I first came across Lagrange Points many years ago in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel A Fall of Moondust. It boggled my young mind, picturing satellites orbiting in seemingly static positions around the Moon! Of course, in fact they were orbiting Earth and the Moon, affected by and in balance with both gravitational sources. (This is what I think some of the best science fiction does: explore scientific concepts, even in passing, within a fictional story.

No, NoNaNo

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I am not participating in NaNoWriMo this year. Last year, I took some rather timid steps into NaNoWriMo — which is to say I signed up on the site. I didn’t provide a name (Did I want to use a pseudonym?) or project title (Which did I want to write?). I did, however, start writing. I did not reach the officially sanctioned 50,000-word target, but I did put down some 7,000 words or so.

Done!

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Its done! Not done done, but done—a “first draft.” Not an actual first draft—I revised it so many times I lost count —but it’s the first I actually sent to anyone who wasn’t a friend or alpha reader. Now I wait. And start on the next book, which is going to be something completely different. Different genre. Different “person.”

Digital: ephemeral

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

What happens to this blog when I die, when I no longer pay the monthly bill? What happens to my emails when my card no longer covers the autopay on the account?

Scrivener to Word

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Note (26 Feb 2018): This post was written some years ago about Scrivener 2. It does not apply to Scrivener 3, which has happily addressed these gripes. This shouldn’t be so hard. I’ve reached the point where it’s time to compile my manuscript from Scrivener into Word format, in preparation for The Great Editing. Now, the Compile part is easy. (Well, I say “easy” in that it’s pretty complicated, but in a Scrivener way, and after you’ve been using Scrivener for a while, well, you eventually become something akin to a taxi driver in London; you eventually learn where those dead-ends and obscure addresses are.

For getting things done

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It’s nice to have an office.

In which words flow, but not where I need them

Fri, 27 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The place: The Facebook website thingie. The time: A moment of weakness (escaping from my manuscript). The assignment: “Exercise!!! 250-500-100 words (some kind of narrative). No “to be” verbs!” The inspiration: This great photo (above). My jotted whatnot: Without Sole Has anyone seen my sneakers? They walked off with my soul, and now I wander the earth, barefoot and in mourning, experiencing a life bereft of meaning. Who knew shoes could take so much merely through their absence?

The pain and suffering of Scrivener exports to Word

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Note (26 Feb 2018): This post was written some years ago about Scrivener 2. It does not apply to Scrivener 3. As a writing tool, I love Scrivener. Unfortunately this comes with some hindrances: Scrivener is not a standard format, so you have to compile and export anything you do to to anything with it. Microsoft Word is a standard format in publishing—obviously people in publishing are a bunch of masochists—but Scrivener’s exports to Word are unstyled.

Entering creative space (Morning Check-Up for Artists)

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Time to close the browser.

Jay Lake, Remembered

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I never met Jay Lake. I stumbled across Green when it came out in trade paper in 2011, and loved it. Aside from reading the sequels and other books by Jay, I started following his blog. It was at times heartbreaking to read about his travails with cancer. Yet he was also inspiring with his battling spirit (always with a degree of cheer, even when it must’ve been bravado). When he crowdfunded the sequencing of his genome and registered for NIH drug trials—the NIH loved that he had the sequencing done, what an opportunity!

Mahlerficent occasion

Sun, 18 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by me. Last night, on impulse from a friend’s suggestion, I had the immense pleasure of attending the main concert for this year’s MalherFest. Historically I haven’t been the biggest Mahler aficionado, but last night did about all that’s possible to make me a convert. The orchestra itself, comprised of mostly local musicians with a few flying in from around the country, was quite wonderful. When I lived in Chicago, I went several times to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Nebula reading

Sun, 18 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re a science fiction fan like I am, here’s a new reading list: Novel Winner: Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Nominees: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood) The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review) Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island) A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer) The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)

Facebook will remind you how fucked up you are and also try to make money off of it.

Fri, 16 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Because Facebook wants you to be dysfunctional.

Piggies for tomorrow

Fri, 16 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Piggies are for saving! My piggy is Instapaper, Pinboard and Evernote, where I bookmark all the things that my ADD head says, “Oh I’ll want to read this later.” But when does later come? I think it’s tomorrow, and when I realize that, I figure heck! What was I worried about? I can look at that tomorrow? So when does tomorrow actually arrive? And then I realize that it never comes.

Second screen (because the first screen is inadequate)

Sun, 11 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It’s not that we need a second screen, it’s that we have an inadequate first screen. If we’re watching a great movie, we’re engrossed, swept away. We’re not even thinking about the phone in the pocket or purse. We’re not wondering what’s happening on Facebook or Pinterest. We’re not even thinking about that. That’s the point, isn’t it?

P is for Priorities

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t been blogging the A to Z Challenge these past few days because they were blocking me from getting the necessary things done—namely writing my novel, editing Kate’s novels, and preparing books for publishing (and other life obligations). I’ve been blogging for well over a decade, and love it. I’m not stopping blogging altogether. It’s just that, given the day job, trying to wedge in the A to Z Challenge as well was turning out to be a burden.

K is for Keyboard

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Regular keyboards give me a pain — a pain in the wrist, specifically. It makes a huge difference when you’re typing a lot for emails, blog posts, proposals, articles … and novels. In the ’90s, I used an ergonomic Microsoft keyboard, but by today’s standards, it was a mushy experience. I couldn’t just adapt that old thing. I needed to find a modern solution. So I tried three different ergonomic keyboards.

J is for Jot

Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

If you have nothing to say, jot it down. If you have something to say, jot it down. Just jot it down, and sort it out later.

H is for Ho Ho Ho Hee Hee Hee Ha Ha Ha

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It’s one thing to know formal English, but this is not all that’s required for the subtleties of communication. Consider these monosyllabic grunts—and their variants—that begin with H: Ha! (That’s funny!) Ha! (I don’t believe you.) Ha! (Go away, critter!) Aha! (I see!) Ha–ha! (That’s very funny!) Ha–ha! (That is not funny.) He… (Who?) He (Helium) HECKa–BBBBBB! (I’m making a hip TV reference you probably don’t get.) Hee! (Made me giggle.

I is for Iambic Pentameter

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

To what domain should I devote my pen? To verse where I betray my ignorance? For I to put these words on blogging, sense Is strained by hackneyed turns of phrase—what then? Oh Muse! Betray me not! This dalliance Is but a metered post occasioned when The A to Z endeavor strikes again A block on all my words. And so I hence State: I am giving up writing iambic pentameter.

G is for Grindstone

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Apply nose.

F is for Fear

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I confess! I have many fears: fear of death; fear of illness; fear of embarrassing myself; fear of letting people down; fear of heights; fear of spiders; fear of being stupid; fear of intimacy; fear of ending up alone; fear of the dark; fear of food poisoning; fear of ridicule; fear of failing…. They’re all irrational, and many are contradictory. That’s the nature of fear. It fucks with you. It makes you hesitate.

E is for Education

Sun, 06 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

“The problem with the School of Hard Knocks,” they say, “is that the final exam comes first, and then the lesson comes after.” I am a student of this school. No, don’t ask for an ID card. No cards are necessary in this school. We enroll ourselves, and if we flunk, that’s on us. How do you flunk? You fail to learn the lesson. What about the exam, you ask?

C is for Cromulent

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

So often our language becomes so bland it feels like it’s been diluted with chicken milk. Or expelled from one’s dupa. It’s enough to make you schmerf. Supposably, with a blurp of inspiration, language can be epicaltastic and embiggen one’s imagination. “Fantabulous!” people will cry as they bow to your prose. Irregardless, one must be careful, or risk embodying obnoxity, which may result in ginormous embarrassment and leave friends flustrated.

D is for Dry

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes the cupboard is bare. Sometimes the tissue is gone. Sometimes the tank has no gas. Sometimes the milk is done. How does one take the end of supply? Does despair find respite in a good cry? When the dry well just mocks us as it breaches our trust, can we let go of attachments to wishes and musts?

B is for Blocked

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

What do you do when you’re blocked? I freewrite. That’s what I am doing here. I just keep my fingers going, typing on the keyboard, spitting out words, not stopping for anything. I don’t kow what my next sentence is so I keep typing. Why am I blocked? Why? There are a lot of B topics I could blog about. I could blog about blogging. I could blog about beauty.

A is for A

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A is a word, too. Pity a. A gets no respect. A gets taken for granted. A gets trotted out and used—and often misused—by writers every day, without any thought or consideration. Can you search for a on most websites? No. A, for all its graceful brevity, is deemed unworthy—too short to index. A does not even seem to merit clarity on preferred pronunciation; and when you consider that one way is to pronounce it as “uh,” you begin to realize the cavalier disrespect society has for this first among all words.

Pride, Perfectionism and Anger---Confessions of a Recovering Jerk

Sat, 29 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Forgiveness is still my challenge. I’m pretty good at not letting things get to me; I focus on how to move forward, rather than placing blame—perhaps to a fault. (I let too many people walk all over me.) But when someone acts out of malice, like the Godfather says, “This I do not forgive.” Of course, the offender doesn’t care and goes on his merry way, being an asshole. But my holding on to that resentment, that hurt, that anger only damages me, leaving me unhappy, closed off, suspicious, bitter, and sometimes a jerk.

A to Z is for Audacity to Zen

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The Blogging A to Z Challenge: Blog every day in April, except Sundays, each day dedicated to a letter. When your days are not your own, it’s just a little bit audacious to take on a daily blogging challenge. But you only live once. I’ve decided to give it a shot. No, I have no idea what I’m going to write about. That’s not for lack of trying, though.

Serialization

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking about this.

As I was tweeting to St. Ives

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Seven years ago I signed up for Twitter. It was different back then, not the spammy marketing-dominated firehose it has become today. Back then it had more of a community feel. We were still figuring out what Twitter was, what it could be. People on the outside would sneer at us. “I don’t care what you had for breakfast!” As if that really was what most fascinates geeks. No, people just didn’t grok Twitter.

A mentor by any other name

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Who decides who’s a mentor? Today in a Facebook writing group I saw someone talk about how the “mentors” have come to the group to teach and impart wisdom. Who are these mentors? By the statement to this group, the mentors are the ones who’ve decided to mentor others. To me, there’s a distinction between a teacher and a mentor. A mentor is more than a teacher. A mentor is almost a friend.

Writing lessons from the (Acting) Method

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

When we write, we’re sharing a piece of ourselves, as transformed through our novel or short story memoir or even non-fiction book. Often it can get emotional, and that’s not always an easy place to get to. Our performance on paper (or in the word processor—you know what I mean) requires us to be ready to get to that place, mentally, emotionally. And in this, what we do on paper is not unlike what actors do on stage and in film.

Stephen Fry takes on language pedantry

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I confess, I love language. I love grammar. I enjoy well-written prose that demonstrates creative elegance while still conforming to the rules. Even so, Stephen Fry truly nails it here in a rebuttal to people who are far worse than I am (I think). via Hillary Kelly, The New Republic

The noise and discovery problem

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

As a reader, how do you find a good book among all the choices out there? As a writer, how do you get your book noticed by readers? Photo by Madhava Enros (Creative Commons) A couple of days ago, Chuck Wendig posted a long expletive-rich rant about the proliferation of low-quality books—which he blames on self-publishing’s lack of gatekeepers—and how that makes it harder for everyone because the signal (quality books) is being buried in the noise (poorly written/edited/packaged books).

There’s a chimp on my platform

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

MailChimp is one of the good guys of the online marketing services. Photo: SeeMidTN.com aka Brent (Creative Commons) Every now and then, I do a little bit to build my “author platform.” Today I signed up for MailChimp and configured my newsletter, to which people can now subscribe! I don’t actually know what I would say in a newsletter, but I figure when I have a book coming out or something, this will be useful.

The community of 500 words

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

As a writer, I am fortunate to have a best friend who happens to be a wonderful author. She reads my stuff, gives me notes, helps me see clearly my story, and listens to my whining when I’m stuck. And I do the same for her. And this helps make the solitary endeavor of writing a bit less lonely. Beyond her, however, I have had no writing colleagues with whom to share.

Imposter Syndrome

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Social scientists working on a decades-long population study have recently concluded that every single living resident of the United States suffers from a condition known as imposter syndrome, a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments, except for you, an actual fraud who is almost certainly on the verge of being found out by the people who only think they love and respect you any day now.

Blank page: 2014

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It all seems rather arbitrary to say today is a new start, tomorrow is the 2nd day, and so on. Every day is a new day, “the first day of the rest of your life,” and all that. Right? And yet here we are, all of us, looking at this new year full of hopes and intentions and goals and resolutions. The rhythms of the year, of the holidays, of the seasons lend themselves to this.

Writing and editing status: 1 January 2014

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I thought I’d document what non-blog writing projects I have been working on sporadically this past year, where they stand now, and where they might be going. Please forgive me, my one and only reader, for using acronyms—they reference working titles only, for my own use. The final titles, which for me always come last, are TBD. Fiction writing RTFT—A scifi/fantasy/comedy that I started four days ago, this is an adaptation of a very silly farcical screenplay about aliens visiting Earth I wrote back when computers still had floppy drives (with the floppy disks that were truly floppy).

Cold Saké, our first book, available on Kindle

Tue, 24 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This was what took me off of the NaNoWriMo path, but has been a very rewarding experience. It’s a privilege to work with Katherine M. Lawrence. This first novelette is but the beginning. Cold Saké.

Rummaging through the writing box

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Now that I’m writing again, I’ve started thinking about the things I wrote before. Last night, that took be down into the (water-damaged) basement to see what I could find. I wasn’t quite sure what was there, because over the years I’ve lived in at least twenty-four different places, and when you’re moving that much, boxes of stuff become these sealed nodes of wonders and troubles, with old bills and old love letters and old photos and old magazines and old what-the-hell-did-I-keep-that-for kinds of stuff, and after enough moves you really just stop looking in them because it’s so much easier to drag them along from place to place, knowing only that there might be something in there you might want…someday, but not today.

Scrivener’s learning curve

Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Update 26 Feb 2018: This post was written about Scrivener 2 some years ago. While there is still a Scrivener 3 learning curve for anyone new to the application, the particulars are different in important areas. Overall, I think Scrivener 3 represents a huge improvement. For my writing—and editing, and prep for publication—I’ve been using Scrivener. It’s not an intuitive app by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it feels like something of a patchwork of basic functionality with miscellaneous add-ons.

NaNoWriMo, without grades

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

No, I did not reach the 50,000-word floor that NaNoWriMo puts out there as a goal for sprint-writing in November. I didn’t come close. (4,286 is the count, to be exact.) But I don’t care, for two reasons: I spent much of my writing time editing the manuscript of someone else’s novelette. (More on that soon.) Writing is about process, not about distance. I embraced the NaNoWriMo endeavor not so much to see if I have the right stuff to blast out 50k words in 30 days.

Why WordPress?

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This: Why Wordpress?.

Writing. Editing.

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

They’re two different jobs. I’ve been doing a bit of both this month. On the one hand, NaNoWriMo isn’t really happening for me. On the other hand, I’m helping a novelette get published, and I think it’s pretty good work. So that’s good.

NaNoWriMo as motivator

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been writing for decades, but I haven’t turned a sustained effort towards fiction in ages. I guess blogging and work and other things have kept me busy enough. But they don’t satisfy me like writing. So I’ve been turning some of my intention towards writing a novel I have in mind. That’s why I created this blog here. And I created it on Wordpress.com so I won’t get distracted by designing and developing this blog itself.

Why WordPress?

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 06:19:21 +0000

Why not???

The wave

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

It’s coming.

Why Wordpress?

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Why not?

Delivered overnight to your doorstep: Boxes, boxes and more boxes!

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I confess, I’ve been sucked into the Amazon Subscribe and Save program. I hate having to battle parking lots and fight the crowds at Target just to buy toilet paper and tissues. It’s so much easier to let the regular staples come to me once a month. I also do the same with miscellaneous other items – books, the odd tool. (Between Netflix and AppleTV, I’ve cut way back on Blu-rays, and 99% of my music purchases are mp3 downloads.

The view from space

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This video struck me in a profound way. Only a few hundred people have been in space, but they share an experience that changed them, changed how they see the world. Maybe we need to send into space more people, from every culture, every nation, so they can bring home what they’ve seen, what they’ve experienced – not the technology, but the perspective. The overview effect. h/t Upworthy, via Patricia Tallman.

Binge viewing? It’s called “watching”

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When Netflix published the entire first season of the Americanized “House of Cards,” it was considered a radical act. Netflix has recognized how people recently have been “indulging” in “binge viewing” of old TV series, opiners said. At the root of this phrase is a Puritanical attitude that television is supposed to be watched piecemeal, in dribs and drabs. You’re not supposed to watch an entire season at once, you heathen!

Why I’m voting for whom I’m voting for in the Drupal Association election

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

An old mechanical voting machine, via RadioFan. I served on the DA Board in 2010-2011, and was on the Governance Committee that developed the new structures. Before that I was in the General Assembly. I’m currently on the Advisory Board. But I share my opinions here as a long-time member of the Drupal community who cares about the future of Drupal. Criteria: more than good intentions Last year, the Nominating Committee (on which I served) considered many aspects when evaluating potential candidates for the Drupal Association Board, including (in no particular order):

Design lives

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Time was, design was something of a blueprint. You drafted up the poster or magazine or brochure. You knew the materials that would go into it. You knew the printer’s color process. You knew the paper stock you’d be using. You knew the tolerances of the machinery involved. And you could design for it, accommodate and adapt to the limitations and contingencies, design for the essential result. This font in this point size in this color positioned right here on this stock cropped just so.

Regarding “myself”

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Okay, so I have to say something about silly things people say, like “myself.” Joe, Nancy and myself drove to the store. Doesn’t that just sound weird? Yet I year people say crap like this all the time. I think they do it because they’re lost as to whether to say “I” or “me” in a sentence. Of course, it should be: Joe, Nancy and I drove to the store.

Forking or collaborating: the mix of open source ethics

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to Open Source software, forking is a feature! Anil Dash said it well: There are several related technical concepts that can answer to the name “fork”, but the one I reference here is the dramatic moment when a software project undergoes a schism on ideological or technical grounds. Instead of merely taking their ball and going home, those who forked were taking a copy of your ball and going to a new playground.

7 essential elements to create amazing top 7 lists!

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In my years as an interwebs information consumer, I’ve gleaned great insight into one of the mainstays of online content: The top (n) list. Here are some essential tips to creating amazing top n lists that will thrill and excite your readers: Pick a number, any number, ideally the one that takes the least amount of work to fulfill. Top 5 foos, Top 100 bars, doesn’t matter. If you want to cover, say, online apps for a making lists and you have 100 of them to cull through, forget that grunt work and just list them all.

Recovering contrib Image module’s content in upgrade to Drupal 7

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Once upon a time in the Drupalsphere, there was the Image module, which was the preferred image solution for all Drupal sites. It dynamically resized images for display, so you could upload one image and get other sizes. But it was limited to one image per node, which made it hard for situations where you wanted to insert several images into one article. All kinds of workarounds emerged, but it was all a bit kludgey.

Death

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This is a post about death and dying. “There’s nothing to see here, folks. Move along, move along.” • I didn’t plan on looking at the body, but when my sister and mother did, I had to. It wasn’t him. He was done with that shell. The body that had betrayed him. He had left already, with his last breath — that had been hard to witness, had left me kind of numb.

Crying lessons

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I need crying lessons. I don’t know how to cry. I don’t cry like the doyennes in the movies. My cries are blubbery, snotty, croaky things. I gag and cough. My blood presses against my head. My face hurts. My eyes burn. My tummy flip-flops. Even after sleep I’m still a wreck. My body is rubber. My brain just aches. My throat is raw. I need a more sustainable solution.

Samsung or iPhone? A screenshot worth a thousand tweets

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

So last night, I saw that John Gruber had favorited one of my Flickr photos from 2008: a screenshot of the Google Maps app on the iPhone. Hmm, what was that about? It turns out quite a bit. I found Gruber’s Daring Fireball post pointing out what appears to be Samsung’s alteration and reuse of a screenshot image I created in 2008. Samsung’s alteration and reuse of a screenshot image I created in 2008.

The theming firehose (NB for designers & front-end developers new to Drupal)

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

You theme with the mark-up you have, not the mark-up you’d like to have. That’s the essential truth that designers and front-end developers new to Drupal need to understand. You don’t get to construct your pages from scratch, building out essentials, never a wasted div, never an extraneous class. No, you have to flip the entire process around. With Drupal you’re getting markup shot at you from a firehose, and as a themer you need to sop it all up and make it pretty.

Hat brain

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Do you ever get hat hair? You know, what happens when you’ve been wearing a hat or visor and you take it off and your hair is all dented and messed up? I get hat brain. It comes from having to change hats so often during the work day. Designer hat. Project manager hat. CEO hat. Coder hat. Community member hat. Marketer hat. So many hats! And I have to wear many of them each and every day.

Browsers don’t matter? Look at the longer view

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I love my apps! I have an iPad and a Droid. I used to have an iPhone (before I decided I wanted my phone to also be able to make calls). I love apps! They’re efficient and fast. Websites on mobile browsers can be difficult to manage. The apps can connect with internet data, but do it with a much improved user experience. No doubt. When it comes to mobile at least, a well-designed app beats a well-designed website 99% of the time.

What’s your brand? Do you have a brand? (Do you want one?)

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Brands have a way of happening whether you want them to or not. It's not about selling. It's about perception.

Did your website end up doing the wrong job?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

What job does your website do? Is it doing the job that you initially set out for it? With all the excitement happening online, all the buzz, all the enticing opportunities, and all the fabulous tools standing ready at hand, it can be tempting to just dive in to building a site — design it and launch! The barriers to entry seem so low — the how often seems to be in such easy reach — you just grab it and go, without ever considering the questions of what you want to launch.

What is Open Source really about?

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This question has me pondering the broader values behind open source: openness to inspection, openness to revision and improvement, working together in a commons, not in a doctrinaire centralized system but rather in an informally organized (if at all), decentralized coming together based upon common interest. That’s not to say there aren’t rules. Scientific research has traditionally been open source. I recommend James Burke’s Connections for some wonderful perspectives on this subject.

HP Velotechnik Street Machine Gte to complement the Rans Stratus XP

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A crazy thing happened in Fort Collins, and I now own two recumbent bicycles: a HP Velotechnik Street Machine Gte, which is short, and a Rans Stratus XP, which is quite long indeed. HP Velotechnik Street Machine Gte short-wheelbase recumbent bicycle. I got the Street Machine last weekend, purchased at my “local” recumbent bicycle shop that’s 50 or so miles away in Fort Collins: Spring Creek Recumbents. While recumbent bicycles are not exactly unknown or unseen in the bicycling mecca of Boulder, there isn’t a single bike shop that sells recumbents.

Battlestar Galactica returns with Cylons galore

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Warning: Spoilers! If you’ve been like me, wondering where the hell Battlestar Galactica has been going, the return of the show this weekend has (will) probably answer(ed), and with some excitement and a few huge revelations. Yes, I’m going to talk about them here. That’s why the spoiler warning above. Revelation 1: The planet — presumably Earth, though we have seen no real objective proof, no half-buried Statue of Liberty…

Getting the right things done Franklin style (almost) using OmniFocus

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Task management can be a challenge](/blog/how-translate-new-years-resolutions-actions) if you have a lot of stuff going on. “Urgent” things are always distracting you: the phone rings, colleagues interrupt you, a client asks for help, emails, newsletters, snail mail, IMs, Tweets… You could be buzzing like a bee, getting a whole lot of things done, but not getting done the right things. I would love to be using a Franklin-Covey Planner program on my Mac, but they don’t make one for Mac.

The Man Who Fell to Earth, starring David Bowie

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The Man Who Fell to Earth movie poster. I never had the opportunity to see The Man Who Fell to Earth in a theatre, and the existing video versions were pretty murky when it came to the shadowy dark scenes. This movie is very unusual and requires some patience to settle into its pacing, but once you do, you’re in for a ride. No longer. This Blu-ray transfer is excellent.

In Brother, Beat Takeshi shows LA hoods Yakuza style

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Brother is very. Very interesting. Very dry. Very understated, for all the violence. Beat Takeshi Kitano directed this movie, his first outside of Japan. Photo of Takeshi Kitano, in black suit and dark sunglasses. Still from his film Brother. Takeshi Kitano aka “Beat” Takeshi in Brother. (If you don’t know Beat, you may still recognize his face.) Wikipedia currently remarks: Brother (2001), shot in Los Angeles, had Kitano as a deposed Tokyo yakuza setting up a drug empire in L.

“Hancock” flies on Will Smith’s super talent

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Hancock probably could not be considered anything more than a halfway decent scifi/fantasy movie if it weren’t for Will Smith. The concept is interesting enough, but the storyline ends up falling a bit short, even compared with your basic superhero movies. Yet with Will Smith’s performance, you almost don’t notice. Without spoilers, I feel safe noting the premise of the movie: Hancock (Will Smith) is a sloppy, careless guy with superhero powers.

How to translate New Year’s Resolutions into actions

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Resolution time. It’s the occasion to institute changes. Or at least resolve to change. It doesn’t always work out, does it? The diet gets dropped. The fingernails get bitten. The cigarettes get smoked. The exercise gets blown off. And that’s that. Right? Maybe not. If you’ve ever had trouble shaking an addiction or behavior that ends up not serving your needs, you might find some hope (and results) in this analysis of addictive behavior, courtesy of Hyrum Smith, founder and creator of the Franklin planning system.

Godfather on Blu-ray: Where’s the resolution?

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been watching The Godfather on Blu-ray, and have been rather disappointed just how muddy the image is. Credit where credit’s due: the rich high-contrast nature of Gordon Willis’ astounding cinematography is well captured for the most part. The shadows are as black as they were in the theatre. You can really appreciate the control of light, especially as characters emerge from darkness and disappear back into it. But the high definition image resolution just isn’t there.

Apps that make the iPhone and iPod touch game-changers in tech

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The introduction of apps have changed the iPhone into more than a phone with a touchscreen. The online world changed for me this year. I discovered the handheld — or rather what the handheld promises to be. I had a Palm 700p before. It was a good phone. Qwerty keyboard. Great reception. Worked just about anywhere. But after more than 2 years with the Palm, I just had to try the iPhone, the multitouch interface, the motion sensor.

Rode my Rans

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Labor Day weekend was simply gorgeous in Boulder. Lots of sun, not too hot, blue skies. It was a perfect weekend for getting to know my new Rans Stratus XP. The long wheelbase required an extra-long bicycle mount, one designed for tandem bicycles. Earlier in the week, I picked up a Thule rack and a RockyMounts R4 rack that could handle the 65" wheelbase of my Rans. The bike fit perfectly.

How free is free?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Is the future really free? It seems we’ve entered an age where there’s a land-grab happening for personal data and attention time. Look at all the web start-ups backed by venture capital. They aren’t investing out of philanthropy. There’s value there. YouTube is “free” but Google paid over a billion dollars for it. Why? Here’s a hint: It’s not about the Tube. Chris Anderson’s Wired article was quite bold in its proclamations:

Email etiquette: 9 best practices and things to avoid

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This morning I was going through a working group’s internal documents about best practices, procedures, etc. for coordinating communications between all of the group’s members, who are scattered worldwide. At one point, on the topic of email netiquette, there was a recommendation to follow the rules of a rather emphatic post, “How to correctly quote e-mails and news posts,” which is “[p]artly written by Tom Sommer.” I think it was the “correctly” part that got me going here on this blog post.

The anti-priority dogma—er, canon—of GTD and OmniFocus

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

So I’ve been playing with OmniFocus alpha to see if it can work for me as a personal productivity/task manager, but as I noted before, the system lacks a way to prioritize tasks. It seems rather obvious to me that you want to identify the important must-do items before you start filling in your day. I could spend all day answering the phone, reading and writing emails, catching up on my feeds, having meetings, doing conference calls … and not getting done the things that need to get done.

Marilyn Monroe is now in public domain

Fri, 18 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to post-mortem publicity rights, this decision is BIG: The Southern District of New York has just issued a bombshell decision in this area. In Shaw Family Archives v. Marilyn Monroe LLC, it held that Marilyn Monroe’s heirs cannot claim post-mortem publicity rights because she died before the enactment of the statute that creates them in California (and, for reasons that are not important here, Indiana). So, according to this Court, her image, likeness and persona are all in the public domain.

How to use open source (and how not to)

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The open source path can be a delightful and cost-effective way to go for a web-based project. However, if you don’t understand the primary dos and don’ts of open source, a “free” open source website can quickly become a costly and difficult bear to manage. As open source software becomes more popular and more relevant to the needs of non-tech-minded people and organizations, we thought we’d offer some basic background on how to use – and not to use – open source for a web platform.

Battlestar Galactica is back in space

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a little astonished — and I suppose I should be embarrassed, but I’m not — by how I behaved watching Battlestar Galactica this past Friday night. Exodus: Part 2 was one of the most exhilirating and most moving episodes of the entire series so far. It was one of those episodes that makes the exceptional pilot miniseries — which I just saw again last night showing it to a friend who was a Babylon 5 fan but she never had seen any Galactica — almost pale by comparison.

13 Going on 30 Redux; or: Happy Girls Don’t Do Careers

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

So last night I saw 13 Going on 30 on DVD, and while I enjoyed it, the movie left me in something of a funk. It took me a little while to figure out why. After all, the movie was funny, Jennifer Garner was really terrific – what a shock that this is her first big comedic leading role in a feature! – and the tone at the conclusion was uplifting.

Battlestar Galactica getting Lost?

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Warning: Spoilers After last night’s season 3 opener, I’m a little concerned about my favorite show on television, Battlestar Galactica. The show is starting to resemble “Lost,” which from my perspective is not at all an improvement. I’m not just talkling about the tents and stress monkeys in the jungle. It’s the whole arbitrariness that comes across in sequence after sequence of surprises with very little tension. The show used to be terrific at building tension.

Women kicking button in “Aeon Flux”

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Warning: Spoilers. (Not much, but hey, I warned you.) So I saw Aeon Flux on DVD the other night. Given the mediocre reviews and lack of box-office love the film, um, enjoyed, I really didn’t expect much. I wanted to see it mainly because of the production design I saw in the commercials. And because of Charlize Theron. And (okay okay) because I’m something of a scifi nut. What I didn’t quite expect was the heart of the story being driven by female characters.

Star Trek: Stale special effects? Or gay soap opera?

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This little gem turned up as the top video in Technorati this morning. Hardcore fans will recognize the episodes, but compiling it all here adds a new dimension of whimsical fun. Do I really think Star Trek: TOS has a “hidden homosexual agenda”? Of course not. (I hope not. William Shatner is just too cute in the 1960s.) But given Paramount’s tassled-loafer inspiration of re-doing all the special effects in the classic series, they’re almost begging for slashy take-offs.

Special effects: The Final Frontier

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Why is it that the studios cannot leave enough alone? Apparently, Star Trek: The Original Series (ST:TOS to Trekkers and Trek_kies_ out there [I’m of the latter, thank you very much]) is getting a makeover, not only being remastered for HDTV but also getting all the effects shots redone. There’s no direct link to the email update I received, so I will simply quote from the SciFi news page the entire PR blurb:

On itch scratching, hitchhikers and growing within the interactive ecosystem

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The story goes like this: A couple hundred years ago, Scottish chemist Joseph Black was approached by some Scotch distillers. With the explosion of coal power, they wanted to know exactly what techniques they should use to replace their wood-burning distilling processes with coal-fired methods. Black did some experimentation and developed for them the appropriate method. But his calculations reportedly inspired some new ideas in his colleague, James Watt, who took Black’s ideas of “latent heat” and used them in the development of a new steam engine.

Looking back at 2005

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This past year has brought about many changes. Early in 2005, when we started up pingV, Katherine and I had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve in five years, ten years…. Those plans are still there, still in the works. But wasn’t clear back then was how we ourselves would work our own ways down both the internet and television paths towards the inevitable convergence, when interactive television — the medium combining the hyperlinking freedom of the web with the full-motion video of television — becomes a reality.

Sony temporarily halts use of crippleware, but Homeland Security still is not pleased

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Nothing like lawsuits to get a response, if only for the moment. Stung by continuing criticism, the world’s second-largest music label, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, promised Friday to temporarily suspend making music CDs with antipiracy technology that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers. Sony defended its right to prevent customers from illegally copying music but said it will halt manufacturing CDs with the “XCP” technology as a precautionary measure. “We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use,” the company said in a statement.

Is there really so little talent in the world? (And does Hollywood have it all already?)

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

In doing some catch-up on the Web 2.0 conference that happened a couple of weeks ago, I came across Kaliya’s round up, where she remarks upon the rather inane statement made by television mogul Barry Diller: Dumbest thing said on the stage: Bary Diller dismissed the idea that citizens with blogs and video editing software were major threats to the entertainment industry. “There is not that much talent in the world,” Diller said.

When a website is a car, not a taxi

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This may sound kind of like a sales pitch, but it seems that many people do not understand the difference between a static website (aka “brochureware”) and a dynamic website. So I thought I’d explore the question: When is a brochure more than a brochure? I think vlado put it quite simply: “If you have more features, you’ll pay far more” Well, Laura seems to favour exactly the opposite – quote the customer a brochure site and deliver them an ever expanding, flexible website.

Mainstreaming Chaos

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

People love “Top” lists – Top 100 Movies of All Time, Top 100 Novels, 100 Most Powerful People, 100 Richest People, Billboard’s Top 100 Songs, Top Grossing Blockbusters … In a mainstream culture, being in the “top” is something of an honor. On the web, there have been recent “Top” lists, too. Two in particular have received a lot of attention: the Technorati 100 and, more recently, the Feedster 500.

Which is really the bubble? (And is it bursting?)

Sat, 28 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

So are blogs just a passing fad, as Kevin Maney claims? His USA Today column stirred up a minor tempest in business blog circles, mainly for assertions such as: So, yeah, blogs are cool. Anything that gives people a voice benefits society and makes us all better and smarter - and, as bloggers have proved, makes established information outlets more accountable. But blogs don’t seem to be the second coming of the printing press.