A Blog About Accessibility, Digital, Marketing, and AI
Is the goverment doing all it can to deal with internet crime?
In extortion e-mail's broken English, someone identifying himself as Tony Martino proposed a classic organized-crime protection scheme. "You should pay $10,000," Martino wrote. "When we receive money, we stop attack immediately." The e-mail even promised one year's protection from other attackers for the $10,000 fee.
Read full article: Internet sieges can cost businesses a bundle
Google comes out to compete with Yahoo and Skype, offering a free, minimalistic IM client that integrates VoIP. Requires a GMail account. Need a GMail account? Anyone that joins LinkedIn and adds me as a contact (search on Stan Shinn with email 
can email me and I'll send you one.
Read more about Google's new software at Google Talk.
Book blogging -- writing books using the blogging process -- is starting to show promise. Note these blog efforts that are making it into print:
Julie Powell's "Julie & Julia" is the season's most unusual memoir -- a writer's efforts to master the recipes of Julia Child -- and a possible breakthrough for bloggers. Based on postings from Powell's blog, the book will be published by Little, Brown and Co. (a division of Time Warner, as is CNN) and stores expect strong interest.
Other bloggers with recent deals include Stephanie Klein, who calls her very personal blog, "Greek Tragedy," and Dana Vachon, an investment banker known as "d-nasty."
Doctorow E.L. Doctorow's "The March" is considered a possible breakout novel. "The criteria signing 'Julie and Julia' were very similar to what we would use for any book proposal: There was a strong voice, there was a freshness, and a novelty to what she was doing," says Little, Brown's Shandler. "This isn't just a blog that has been printed out into a book. People aren't interested in that because they read blogs every day. They need to see if the blog can be transformed. You could say that a great blogger is like an excellent guitar player, but the book is like playing piano. Bloggers have a head start because they know music, but they still have to make the adjustment."
Read more at CNN.com
Should be interesting!
Google is set to introduce its own instant-messaging system, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Such a move would mark an expansion by the Web search leader into text and also voice communications. Citing unnamed sources "familiar with the service," the Los Angeles Times said that Google's instant-messaging program would be called Google Talk and could be launched as early as Wednesday.
Read more: CNET News.com
Don’t let the odd name fool you—this is a nice survey package that is free for limited use. It competes well with other well known survey packages such as Zoomerang.
Survey Monkey offers a free limited account that stores 100 responses. The “Professional” subscription ($19.95 per month) allows 1,000 responses. If you exceed that amount you’ll pay $.05 per response. With a Professional account, you may create unlimited surveys with an unlimited number of questions.
Read more: Survey Monkey
Wikiwyg is a very cool way to add Wysiwyg editing to your existing Wiki frameworks. Check out the demo -- very nice!
This definitely bears watching:
On-line book store Amazon.com,, in what could be a literary equivalent of snacking, is now selling short stories, and even alternate chapters or single scenes from novels, for 49 cents each.
Read more at Reuters.com
I've long used OpenOffice.org's robust Draw tool (too bad they don't have a better name!). Now comes Inkscape, another cross-platform, free, open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the W3C standard scalable vector graphics format (SVG). Some supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports Creative Commons meta-data, node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path, and SVG XML editing. It also imports several formats like EPS, Postscript, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.
Which do you like better?
A very nice article for all those telecommuters out there. My favorite tips:
- Stick to a schedule. Treat your days like a “regular” work day. Many people have found that a 9-5 or 10-6 schedule really helps keep them on track and productive.
- Separate your “work” area from your “living” area.
- Get out and about as often as you can. Take a walk, go outside, meet people for lunch—that kind of thing.
- Get dressed everyday. Don’t wear pajamas all day. It’ll make you feel less work-like.
- Take breaks. Get away from the computer and don’t work through lunch.
Read full article: How To Be Productive Working From Home
A really cool way to showcase the wide audience which visits your site. gVisit.com shows a map of the last few visitors that came to your site.
How it works...