Author Monica Valentinelli shares an essay about the value of social media and how its presence and absence affects her writing. I have discovered pretty much the same things whenever I've taken a break from LJ/FB/Twit/etc, and I bet I'm not the only one. Unless you're seriously addicted, I don't think you need to go cold-turkey as Valentinelli did ( Read more... )

Remember how someone posing as Anonymous announced war against the Phelpses, and a day later Anon said, "We didn't post that," then the Phelpses immediately replied by mocking Anon and got lots of media attention etc? The prevailing theory is that the Phelpses posted the initial letter (calling for war against, um, themselves) in order to draw fire ( Read more... )

Do you use Twitter? I'd like to know why. Seriously - I'm not being a smart-ass ( Read more... )

Today, the Google eBookstore makes its bow. They're working with 9000 publishers big and small, and they let publishers choose the price - starting at $9.99/book.

Here's a good analysis of what Google's up to ( Read more... )

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make LJ readable again? I'm going blind with this new, blurry, skinny font. It's not just IE, either; also in Chrome.

Ugh!

Chris

Starting yesterday, I can't hear things on YouTube (or other Flash videos) anymore; seems Flash is doing something that's blocked by my firewall, I guess. IRRITATING. Doesn't matter what browser I'm using.

Anyone have info on how to fix this? I've allowed Flash to let 3rd parties download crap to my computer, but that didn't fix it....

Chris

Hi folks ( Read more... )

This is a really neat tool: GodMode for Windows 7. Here's how it worksYes, I finally bought a new computer, my first since... geez, the 1990s, I think. (Shut up.) I've been using an ancient computer my mom gave me after viruses fried the hard drive and memory, and a work laptop for mobile computing, upgrading their memory and video and everything ( Read more... )

Last night, I was testing links to various SF magazines, and some time during those clickings I downloaded a file called "check.exe" that wrecked my operating system and prevented it from rebooting once I realized what was going on. Awesome ( Read more... )

In this essay, Mike Selinker strikes a sad note in England's history, when they killed national hero and genius Alan Turing, thereby relegating themselves to the dustbin of history. It's a must-read ( Read more... )