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Watch out for the dysentery

If you're close to my age (under 80, but older than 5), you may remember one of the earlier educational games, Oregon Trail. This game possibly accurately depicted random people following Lewis and Clark in their quest for new land, gold and Texas tea. Or, wait, Texas wasn't around yet. Was there tea?

Anyway, the game taught multiple skills, none of which helped you make tea. But they did help kids make critical decisions on how best to outfit a caravan across an unknown wilderness, with food, clothing, weapons, etc.

Instant message me with questions

Because I receive a decent number of questions about a multitude of things, ranging from writing and publishing to computers and programming, I wanted to make myself a little more available to those of you who can't get in touch with me.

Starting today, I will be available on both AOL's Instant Messenger and Google Talk around the clock. So if you have a question or comment, just send it along, and I'll get back to you. It might not be immediate, but I'll try to within a day or so.

AOL screenname: WoodsBenA

GoogleTalk screenname: bwoods43

Recent publicity in the Evansville newspaper

Although this occurred two weeks ago, the Evansville Courier & Press ran a little article about me and my book, "The Developers" just before my signing down there. The paper may do a review at a later date, but I was extremely pleased with Becky Coudret's article. Here it is:

Humor/ tech writer at Border's

By REBECCA COUDRET Courier & Press staff writer 464-7509 or coud@evansville.net

January 21, 2006

Ben Woods calls himself a humor/technology writer - which has to be considered a new genre of literature.

Next stop: Destinations in New Albany

For my third straight weekend, I'll be making a book appearance, this time in New Albany, Ind. I'll be at Destinations Booksellers (604 East Spring Street) at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4. Destinations is a relatively new bookstore, but the place definitely does great work in supporting local authors. And of course, you can find a lot of main stream books there as well.

I will also be introducing my local publicist, Elizabeth Woods, for the first time. Elizabeth is my grandma, one of the main proofreaders for 'The Developers' and an avid bingo player.

Three appearances down, many more to go

I haven't quite made it as far as M.C. Hammer, from London to the Bay, but I have made it to Evansville in Indiana and Owensboro and Brandenburg in Kentucky the past two weekends. I've seen a lot of friends I haven't seen in awhile, and I've also made a few new ones.

Thanks to everyone for coming out to support "The Developers" ... and if I haven't made it to your town yet, hopefully I'll be there soon!

From the Archive

Pluto sent spiraling with new 'name'

Now that it's official, and Pluto has been assigned a number as a dwarf planet, it's important to sort out exactly what happened, and why. And for all you Pluto lovers out there, please, hear me out before attempting to strangle someone with your outdated solar system model.

Book review: "Tales from the Tech Line" edited by David Pogue

As a web developer, I have always heard stories pertaining to the lack of knowledge people have about computers in general. Maybe you have heard the one about the person who called tech support because her computer wouldn't come on ... during a power outage. Or maybe you are familiar with the story about the guy who used his CD tray as a cup holder.

Houston, we have a book signing

My first Corporate Ties book signing is in a somewhat strange place - Houston, Texas. I'll be at Brazos Bookstore at 3 pm on Sunday, April 1 - April Fools' Day!

Ten years

Ten years ago this month, I originally published "The Developers." It's weird to think it was that long ago, and even weirder to think that I started on the book 13 years ago, in 2002. While so much has changed with the Internet, the key tenets of the book seemingly still hold true:

1. The Internet is a social place.
2. Governments and corporations are always watching.

Then again, I guess these items are relevant in real-life situations as well. It's just much easier to track people (definitely as a group but also as individuals) online.

Home(page) Improvement

I'm not going to lie, I'm short on time this week because, well, I'm on vacation. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't give all six of you something to ponder for at least the next eight minutes.

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