I will be appearing at the following locations in the near future to talk about and sign The Developers. If you want to check out the book, feel free to stop by, take a look and ask questions. I won't hound you like your mom does to eat vegetables (I've noticed other authors doing that, and it's generally pretty scary.).

I change the radio stations more often than politicians change their minds. On one hand, it's great because I usually hear a large variety of songs, or at least parts of them. On the flip side, however, it's tough to hear all of the lyrics while constantly tuning different stations and wondering where all of the Social Security money is going.

I oftentimes pass along links to other news sites, but I rarely pass along sites you should bookmark. That is, unless you go ahead and bookmark every single site you visit, just to see if you can collect the whole set on the Internet.

But if you want to read interesting technology news, visit The Pulpit, which is the home of PBS' technology writer, Robert X. Cringely.

There are numerous ways to make people work. Some bosses like to give incentives, like days off, bonuses and pony rides. Others like to drive fear into their employees, perhaps with threats of being fired or a whip.

People outside of Kentucky might think it's somewhat bizarre that government officials are now blocking state employees' Internet access to blogs that are critical of Governor Ernie Fletcher.

Unfortunately, it's not that crazy. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

The current administration has made a name of cutting off as much negative opinion as possible, and since June 23, state workers cannot resolve the Bluegrass Report and other statewide blogs.

They say that if you believe enough in something, and have enough persistence to see it through to the end, then regardless of the circumstances, it will be accomplished.

I received an email from Morgan a couple of weeks ago, wondering why I was posing as a global warming expert. The funny thing is, I don't ever recall mentioning I was a global warming expert, although I did write a column about it.

So the other day, I remembered I needed to contact Michelle Branch.

This seemed like a simple goal at the onset, but there were various problems: How would I go about actually doing this? What did I need to tell her? Who is she anyway?

If you're having problems with animals listening to you (Aqua Man, no need to apply), you may want to check out some of the research Chinese scientists have been compiling recently. There are reports that the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology is implanting micro electrodes in pigeons to control their movements.

There's nothing worse than people complaining about a product because it works too well.

For instance, there's glue. Try using that stuff that holds elephants from a trapeze by their teeth. If you accidentally glue the elephant's ear to the swing, the immobile animal will be stuck forever.

Another example is plastic wrap. You try to wrap something in it, but the stuff just clings together. Being persistent, you try to unwrap it. But the static forces that bind the universe won't allow a simple tug to do the trick.