Links for 23-10-2007
Snooping on school-kids redux, in praise of the purple cow, authors and markets and jackets (oh my!), the MPAA took my haxxor away, Gaviotas – the Colombian economic miracle village …
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1 – Microchip gives staff the lowdown on pupils
“The devices are used to monitor pupils’ movements and register their arrival in class on the teacher’s computer. Supply teachers can also be alerted if a student is likely to misbehave.” Understandable, perhaps, but still extremely wrong.
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“What does a future world of photovoltaic material look like? How do smart walls, “Watt Torrent” power-sharing networks, and electric hyperbikes sound to you?” Cascio puts on his thinking cap.
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3 – Everything in the music industry is up! (except those plastic discs)
“… it’s a big mistake to equate the major labels and their plastic disc business with the industry as a whole. Indeed, when you stand back and look at all of music, things don’t look so bad at all.” Indeed.
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4 – In Praise of the Purple Cow
“The world is full of boring stuff — brown cows — which is why so few people pay attention. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service.” Seth Godin.
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5 – Marrying authors to their market
“The science fiction and fantasy (SF/F) genre is as complex and diverse as fiction itself, and often, for a publisher in this market, finding new ways to appeal to the correct audience can be a challenge of epic proportions.”
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6 – Exclusive: I Was a Hacker for the MPAA
“Promises of Hollywood fame and fortune persuaded a young hacker to betray former associates in the BitTorrent scene to Tinseltown’s anti-piracy lobby, according to the hacker.” Might make a good movie, this one! lol
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7 – Russia’s Space City Frozen in Time
“Rockets still pierce the heavens in a halo of smoke during launches, and engineers and military men still crack open bottles of vodka to celebrate a successful launch. What has changed are the passengers.”
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8 – This village could save the planet
“How two men plan to extend the ecological miracle that is Gaviotas, Colombia, across the rest of the Third World.” This could be amazing, if nothing goes wrong.
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9 – 7 Can’t-Miss Ways To Kick-Start The Writing Habit
“Write ‘crap’ without feeling guilty … Professional writers write even when nothing but crap comes out because they know that it’s part of the journey to getting the real gems.”
October 28th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Hi Paul–
A belated thanks for the link to CNN’s Gaviotas article. It reminded me of my story “Transcendence Express” in a lot of ways.
Getting back to your review ( http://www.velcro-city.co.uk/magazine-review-hub-issue-2-winter-2007/ ) of that story, you mentioned that:
“My only complaint would be that there is a lack of opposition and conflict to Liona