Classic! Who says newspapers are dead? New York Daily News delivers some of the best tabloid headlines/covers anywhere.
Nighty Neko
The sleeper awakes.
Age of Context
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are this week’s tech media darlings, with release of their book Age of Context. Robert sent me an advanced PDF copy, which obliged an Amazon review (gladly given).
I reserve the punchier comments for here, if you want to skip past the block quote.
My first Kindle ebook gets a Face Lift
Last night I republished This Book is not a Kindle Single [The Rejected Essay] with the originally-intended title (The Principles of Disruptive Design) and major content updates. The preface and afterword are gone (as they pertained to the gimmick title) and there are updates throughout, the most considerable to the first section.
The updates deal directly with Apple iPhone 5s and 5c nd questions about Apple innovations, or lack of them.
'Comic-Con Heroes' One-Day Sale
My cat wants to know: Why haven’t you grabbed a free copy of my new ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, before the promotion ends at 11:59 p.m. PDT? […]
My Second ebook publishes
Yesterday, I finally published Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth to the Kindle Store. For San Diego Comic-Con 2013, I interviewed attendees and chose a dozen to profile. Their stories say much about the roles we play and who are the Con’s real superheroes.
I wrote the full-text using Google Docs on Chromebook Pixel, which combined is the best writing platform I have ever used.
The Problem with Moto X
I remain concerned about Motorola’s choice to launch Moto X with AT&T—the carrier that failed with HTC First (the Facebook phone), like Verizon did with Microsoft Kin, which were targeted at similar audiences. I don’t have Moto X. Motorola graciously provided BetaNews with a review unit, and my colleague Brian Fagioli has that one. A second isn’t available, which is perfectly reasonable.
So my only experience is the AT&T store, yesterday. The sales display impresses. There is a demo phone, iPad with flashy sales info, and selection of back covers so buyers can see exactly what they get if choosing to customize. Cards for the 16GB and 32GB models are there. Grab, pay, and go to Moto Maker site to personal and order the phone.
This is How Free Speech Dies
“The foundation of Groklaw is over. I can’t do Groklaw without your input”, Pamela Jones writes today. “It really was a collaborative effort, and there is now no private way, evidently, to collaborate”.
She responds to recent revelations that the U.S. government reads your email: “The owner of Lavabit tells us that he’s stopped using email and if we knew what he knew, we’d stop too. There is no way to do Groklaw without email”.
Conspiracy of Debt
We’re doing the worst thing people can do: lying to our young. Nobody, not even this president, who was swept to victory in large part by the raw enthusiasm of college kids, has the stones to tell the truth: that a lot of them will end up being pawns in a predatory con game designed to extract the equivalent of home-mortgage commitment from 17-year-olds dreaming of impossible careers as nautical archaeologists or orchestra conductors.
One former law student I contacted for this story had a nervous breakdown while struggling to pay off six-figure debt. It wasn’t until he tapped into one of the few growth industries open to young Americans that his outlook brightened. ‘I got my life back on track by working for a marijuana delivery service in Manhattan’, he says.
Matt Taibbi
Google+: Subliminal is sublime
Google+ reminds subscribers all about birthdays in the stream, and in sending wishes to someone from Nexus 7 FHD this morning, the default message, “Happy Birthday, +person’s name!”, lit up my synapses.
I wonder about the hidden, subliminal positive connotations of Google using a plus-sign before all subscribers’ names. Does seeing it make us feel happier?
Facebook uses “Like”, which is loaded with positive connotations, and Google copied the approach with +1, which makes sense for a company where numbers are so important—from the math behind search to all the data associated with the search keyword business model.
My First Kindle ebook: Trials, Tribulations, and Triumph
Yesterday, my first ebook published to Amazon, with the strangest of titles, having nearly nothing to do with the contents. In May, I submitted “The Principles of Design” to the bookseller for consideration as a Kindle Single. Singles are curated, short-form works, between 5,000 and 30,000 words. Amazon acts as editor and publisher. Four weeks later to the day, I received a rejection letter, without any explanation.
That put me squarely down the self-publishing path, which is exactly where I didn’t want to be for this first work. Books are a strange frontier to me, a vaguely familiar landscape but alien—like Mars is to Earth. I wanted Amazon to walk me across this domain. Besides, to start, I plan to write mostly shorter non-fiction essays, which look to be perfectly-suited for Kindle Singles. But the rejection email, and realization that editorial approval takes up to a month, changed plans.
Take Back the Facts
Wow, All Things D’s Kara Swisher sure has some advice for Jeff Bezos as he takes ownership of the Washington Post.
I think her real point is this:
To me, the most important trick is to deeply inculcate the joy of Internet journalism, without losing (actually restoring to some degree, after recent cutbacks) the great editorial values and breakthrough journalism of the Post. Fusing the old-media storytelling and news-integrity values that I learned at the Post with the Internet values of speed and personality—and, well, some level of fun at the right times—is critical.