Category Archives: Technology

Simon Dumenco’s latest post at AdAge.com offers a provocative title: A blogger is just a writer with a cooler name. Leaving aside the “cooler” question (I happen to like thinking of myself as a writer, thankyouverymuch [which may prove Dumenco’s … Continue reading →

There’s an interesting discussion going on over at if:book about Amazon Author blogs. (Actually, it’s a rather short discussion, but I think the commenter Bowerbird brings up some thought-provoking points in her/his two posts.) It’s always been fascinating to me … Continue reading →

I originally wrote this post for Word Munger, but I talked with Greta about it and we decided to move it over to Cognitive Daily. I do think Word Munger readers will be interested in it as well — it’s … Continue reading →

Here’s a rumor I definitely hope doesn’t come true: A 13.3-inch iBook with a resolution of 1280 × 720. Let me get this straight: the new iBook is going to have a shorter screen than my current iBook? I already … Continue reading →

Attention North Carolina residents: Now is your chance to influence how votes are recorded in this state. Visit Verified Voting and fill out the form letter to let your local officials know why paper ballots are better than electronic ones. … Continue reading →

Siva Vaidhyanathan has written a Google-bashing article for the Chronicle of Higher Education (via if:book), taking a contrarian view of the impact of Google Print (actually now called Google Book Search). Far from simply extending its renowned search engine to … Continue reading →

MacRumors has picked up on the story that Steve Jobs offered to donate Mac OS X to the $100 laptop project. Of course, the $100 laptop folks turned him down flat. Why? Isn’t Mac OS X a much better choice … Continue reading →

CNN has a poll on computers and TVs (scroll down to see it): As you can see, I voted for “10 years.” At the moment, I’m one of the tech-pessimists. More people said less than 10 years, and a surprising … Continue reading →

Ben Vershbow of If:book has taken a look at Google Print and doesn’t like what he sees: This is not an online library, it’s a marketing program. Google Print will undeniably have its uses, but we shouldn’t confuse it with … Continue reading →

Jakob Neilsen has a new Top Ten list. Now, what do we think of his recommendations? 1. No Author Biographies I have to agree with this one. People want to know who you are. If you’re an anonymous blogger, give … Continue reading →

Okay, this site is super cool: Library Thing. You enter in your book collection, then you can see who out there has the same books as you. I’ve only entered 7 or 8 books, but I’ve already found several kooks … Continue reading →

My trusty Treo 2700 died the other day, prompting me to take a long, hard look at my cell phone usage. I don’t make many calls at all — generally only two or three a month. These tend to be … Continue reading →

Around here (near Charlotte, NC), Google is nearly always portrayed as the Noble Innovator, constantly coming up with new ideas that make Life Easier for the Rest of Us. In just the last few months, they’ve come out with Picasa, … Continue reading →

I know I’m a little late to this party, but I did want to say something about the Author’s Guild’s suit against Google. If you haven’t heard about this yet, the basic premise of the lawsuit is that Google is … Continue reading →

I just took a look at Google’s new blogsearch tool, and I have to say, it’s quite impressive. Search for perceiving attractiveness and it puts yesterday’s Cognitive Daily post right up top. And check out the advanced search: it’s all … Continue reading →

Scott Esposito links to an interesting collection of snippets about the use of e-mails in writing biographies. While some writers seem to think their e-mails might be of use to future biographers, others are more skeptical. First of all, there … Continue reading →