BenWoods.com

August 21, 2010 - August 21 is National Spumoni Day. Did you know that? I seriously doubt it. But who cares? It's an entire day to celebrate Spumoni! If you don't know what Spumoni is, check out the Wikipedia page. Better yet, let me explain why you should care about Spumoni in the first place. Today marks the grand opening of sorts for Spumoni Press, a book publishing/web development/technology company in Baltimore. Right now, it's a couple of guys who share the same ideas about books, websites and, most importantly, ice cream. OK, true, one of the guys is lactose intolerant, but deep down, he loves ice cream, I'm certain. Anyway, back to the important stuff. We're having a contest here. The winner receives a $50 Discover gift card. Entering this contest is about as simple as turning on your computer.

August 18, 2010 - I know I've said this before, but I am getting closer to publishing my new book, "Corporate Ties." There was a bit of foundation work that I needed to construct, edit, tear apart, rebuild, pulverize, stack up, decimate and recompile. Well, the good news is that I'm getting closer to the end. How do I know this? There seems to be a light at the end of each paragraph now.

  In the meantime, I've rebuilt the website and hope to give more updates as we progress toward the actual publication date. Also, there is going to be a BIG announcement on August 21, so stay tuned for it. Let's just say that you are in for a cold treat ...

August 10, 2010 - Google recently made a mildly surprising announcement (at least, to me) that the company is shutting down its online collaboration tool, Wave. Google does a lot of cool, neat and worthy stuff obviously, and I think Wave fits into this category. It's just that the actual marketing of it was rather peculiar.

  First, I've seen a number of stories that claim that Google claimed Wave was supposed to be Facebook, Twitter, email, the Internet and Elton John all wrapped into one. With the exception of "Crocodile Rock" being a decent but annoying Wave theme song, Wave should have never been positioned like that.

July 09, 2010 - The definition of "friend" has been watered down a bit with the advent of online social networking. It seems that now, your friend might be someone with whom you've never met, even someone with whom you've never communicated, with the exception of a simple button click on a website. This can be a good way to meet people, but it's a bit weird to call a person a friend when it's quite possible the individual on the other side could be an enemy, a fish or a hat.

June 01, 2010 - By now, I'm sure that everyone and his or her dog (assuming said dog is on DogBook) has heard the hubbub relating to new Facebook privacy policies. I have to be honest: I haven't read every single story about it, primarily because I don't intentionally publish stuff online that should be private. In general, people rarely read terms and conditions before signing up for something online, but hopefully now, people will check out Facebook's privacy terms and decide whether or not they want to keep their account.

  But what if Facebook, or another entity that allowed you to share info with friends, family and strangers, wasn't so helpful and didn't allow you to opt-out of things you don't want?

September 23, 2008 - I have two more book appearances this month, both during the last full weekend in September. I'll be at both the Baltimore Book Festival and Baltimore Comic-Con.

March 12, 2007 - So, you like music, but you have absolutely no idea what kind of music you truly enjoy. There are a handful of ways to determine your audio preferences: 1. Walk into a music store and say "I'll hav ...

January 16, 2008 - It's easy to blame a computer or program or even a social networking site for all the evils in the world. In fact, the last time I yelled at my computer, and told it to stop screwing up, you know how ...

May 05, 2006 - Some people may think having a job as a website programmer is equivalent to being paid to surf the Web. I have to say to them that they are totally wrong. Or, maybe they are somewhat wrong. OK, they a ...

June 18, 2001 - Here are the answers! ...