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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.
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.
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.
As you have probably noticed, I haven't been writing as much on here lately. There is a reason for that: There are a few exciting things in the works over here, but I cannot divulge all of the information yet. Let's just say that besides a new book coming out, there's an entire foundation behind it, meaning a real publishing company (with books from people other than me!). We're still working out all of details, so I'll keep you posted!
While the United States Post Office seems to be losing money each month, at least one Baltimore branch has decided to take matters in its own hands - by charging extra postage at random intervals.
The Waverly branch of the Baltimore United States Post Office charges an additional 17-44 cents for an article of mail that can be sent from the USPS Hampden branch for just 44 cents. It's pretty shocking that one would receive a different rate from various post office branches. Before compiling this story, I had to check with my own eyes to make certain this was accurate.
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.
Host: Ben Woods
Location: Ben Woods' House
(contact me for details)
When: Friday, July 28, 5:00pm
Objectives (What's the point?):
- Kick off five-state book signing tour
- Preview next book (Spoiler: It's about the place I worked last summer, until everyone relocated to Cincinnati without me.)
- PARTY PARTY PARTY
Goods (What we'll have):
- FOOD and DRINKS
- GAMES (Adults AND Kids)
- DOOR PRIZES
Schedule (What's going on):
5-Dusk: Outside activities, games, raffles
DUSK-?: PARTY TIME
I'm not aware of any buying frenzy across the nation with "The Developers." However, if one should occur, there are locations in place to handle the load.
While I'm not positive of every single bookstore that carries my book, there are at least a handful that I do know about. Those stores are listed below:
Atomic Books (Baltimore, Md.)
Books Inc. (Burlingame, Calif.)
The Bookshelf (Louisville, Ky.)
"The Developers" book tour is almost over, at least, for now. I will be signing and discussing the book 12-2 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Evansville Barnes & Noble (624 S Green River Rd). He will then make his final stop 4-6 p.m. at the Owensboro Books-A-Million (4606 Frederica Street).
These cities will be the 10th and 11th during my tour. I have had a lot of fun and have met a lot of people, many of whom are totally insane. At least I have pegged my audience correctly!
It's apparent how much of a stronghold social networking has on U.S. society when a story about Facebook changing its terms of service appears as the main story on baltimoresun.com. That would be equivalent to seeing a story about a credit card company changing the fine print in its terms and conditions, or your favorite cereal changing the order of ingredients on its new packaging.