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I'm taking a little vacation this weekend, but I won't be stopping the book tour just yet. I'll be at the Barnes & Noble in Baltimore's Inner Harbor 3-5 p.m. Sept. 1 for a little book signing and discussion about "The Developers."
I was going to be in the area because I'm going up there to see my beautiful girlfriend. So I figured, well, I might as well try to sell some books while she's finishing up with her kindergarten class for the day.
Most people know of the Internet only from the mid '90s on. But actually, the Internet started long, long ago, in a galaxy, well, that you live in.
I recently came across a page on UCLA's website that showed the first words uttered on the Internet. The day was Oct. 29, 1969, which also happens to be my mom's birthday. The researchers sent an "l" and an "o" before the system crashed. Apparently they were trying to login, and, much like any old computer I've used, it crashed almost immediately.
Is it possible to obtain someone's personal information online? There's a site that proclaims this is the case ... for a price.
As reported by Snopes.com, ZabaSearch.com will tell you everything the site can find regarding a particular person. Snopes coughed up $20 and received some personal information, but nothing that couldn't be found already through public records.
Nine-year-olds care about winning baseball games. Just ask Peter Smith, Maurice Robinson and Billy Rogers.
Peter has been to many Washington Nationals games this year, and he just recently started keeping track of the team's boxscores. Maurice listens to Baltimore Orioles games and his great-grandfather, who tells tales of John McGraw, Babe Ruth and Frank Robinson. Billy never seems to come inside until after dark, usually because he is in front of his house, playing baseball with the neighborhood friends.
I'll be heading back to familiar territory this weekend as I host a book talk in Crawfordsville, Ind., at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Crawfordsville Public Library. A little later in the day (3 p.m. CST), I'll be at the Champaign, Ill., Borders.
I lived in Crawfordsville in 1998-99, working at the Journal Review during my time there. I will be discussing writing and publishing at the library, as well as explaining the process of putting together my novel, The Developers.
It's election time again, and this is a big one. I'm not just talking about the Big Mac/Whopper taste test (Who won that vote anyway?). Americans will elect a new president in 2008, and the caucuses have already begun. But there's another way that you, a citizen of the United Internets of the Galaxy, can participate.
I thought that maybe fewer people would drive since gas seems to be more expensive than an average vehicle. But I'm still waiting in traffic all over the place, on the way to and from work. Hasn't it occurred to anyone that we are all paying close to twice as much for gasoline as we did a year ago? Wouldn't they be interested in knowing how to conserve their fuel?
Just when you thought you understood something as simple as concrete, it has now been changed.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed bendable concrete, which according to an article on the university's news service, is 500 times more resistant to cracking and 40 percent lighter in weight.
Sometimes we take for granted our ability to type in domain names in our native language. It's true that the most of civilization accepts English as the way of the Internet, but researchers agree that it doesn't necessarily have to stay like that.
Of course, this means that in the near future, you might be able to type accented letters, Chinese characters and even cave paintings into your web browser.
"Star Wars" has been in theaters for two days now. Is anyone still counting? Die-hard fans have probably already memorized the movie and are currently petitioning for title roles in the next installment.
The rest of us, "Star Wars" fans or not, have moved on with our lives. The movie was good, the special effects and sound were excellent, but there are other things to do, like clean the bathroom or raise porcupines.