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Adam Shepard

I found the book laugh-out-loud hilarious at some (many) points. Being a developer myself, some of the characters (or should I say caricatures?) were spot-on. When I tried to explain some of it to my girlfriend (non-technical), she said, "I don't get it...what's so funny?" The overall plot was an interesting one, although the timelines were (perhaps necessarily) compressed - a company of 5 people might not actually be able to put together a full-featured government portal like this one, and successfully pitch it as fast as they did.

Triumphantly Jenny

Basically I really liked this book. Like, I missed my stop on the subway when reading it. I thought there was some trail off at the end, and it could use another edit, but especially for something self-published it was great. It was incredibly funny and reminded me of "microserfs" by doug coupland and "Company" by Max Barry. I highly recommend it to anyone who has worked in a techie office.

I would clarify, I think, because I liked the characters so much, any ending would have sucked, you know? Because it's an ending!

Katie Richardson, Buzz Magazine

... it doesn't take a super sci-fi buff to see the potential implications of an Internet superpower and the American government operating out of people's homes hand in hand. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine having a serious love jones while trying to begin a new chapter in the world of technology. With the recent Internet chatter that has been surfacing about larger, more powerful Internet companies the book's message appears to be eerily relevant.

A sampling of a few new reviews ...

Here you go:

- " ... a great writing style, and I always appreciate a dose of subtle cynicism in anything I read."

- "The book was a humorous take on the corporate world, the stress, the relocation, the robot-type of requirement to fit it."

- " ... had me laughing out loud."

There's more on the reviews page!

Mother's Day contest

Are you a working mother who is stuck in a cube all day? Do you know one who is? Sign up to win my books - yes, both Corporate Ties and The Developers - in the Mother's Day contest. Email me, "Like" the Corporate Ties Facebook page or "Like" this post on Facebook to be entered. Do this by Sunday and I'll select a winner early next week.

From the Archive

John Wooden, Ted Allen and ... Ben Woods?

The Purdue University Liberal Arts featured myself and The Developers in its spring issue. I had communicated with a representative in Alumni Relations about sending information for the magazine, but little did I know that they would devote more than a quarter of a page to me. I shared the page with Ted Allen, the cook from "Queer Eye For the Straight Guy," who is also a Purdue grad. On the preceding page, basketball great John Wooden, yet another Purdue alum, is spotlighted for receiving a reward.

G-8 Summit again tries to address global warming

Scotland will be a hot place to be this week, as the The Group of Eight (G-8) leaders of the world's most industrialized countries will meet to discuss important international items, including global warming. So far, the U.S. is the country not currently backing the proposed ideas, which is somewhat similar to the Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified by 141 countries as of February, but not the United States.

Compromise might be in store for Internet radio

The deadline has past, but Internet radio is still on. Maybe it will stay that way for a little while longer.

Negotiations are still rolling since SoundExchange, which is the overseer of recording industry royalty fees, agreed to continue searching for new rates. The biggest issue, it seems, is coming to a suitable compromise between large and small webcasters. It appears that some of the major players, like Time Warner and Yahoo! will have to pay the royalties, just like everyone else.

SimpleTEXT creates a visual symphony

I'll admit that although I consider myself a technophile, I'm not really into cell phone text messaging.

There are a few reasons for this. First, I'm at my computer roughly 46 hours each day (at least, that's what our time management system says I should be doing). So if I want to send a message, I can easily do it via a keyboard. Second, I'm not that fast in typing the letters and words on a phone. Third, I'd prefer to not touch my phone anyway. I have a Bluetooth headset, so I can hit the button to pick up calls fairly easily.

Why the book name change?

You may have noticed that I recently changed the name of my new book to "Corporate Ties." I haven't had a chance to change all of my marketing material yet because, well, there's only so much time in the day, right? After thinking about it and discussing with others, "Polos to Ties" worked great for the local audience, but from a book sales standpoint, a random person might not notice the fashion connection.

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