Welcome to BenWoods.com

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.

If you have seen The Developers, maybe you passed over the copyright page, which contains random stuff that every book has. The ISBN is listed, as well as the publisher and a note that explains the book is fiction. Also nestled into this page is a little note that says "To help debug future versions of this book, please send corrections and comments to info@benwoods.com."

Luckily, some people have read this and have sent me minor errors they spotted in the book. I will list them here.

I thought about writing an article about plagarism, then I decided I would first see if I could copy it from someone else.

HA! That was supposed to be funny ... or maybe just sad.

There is a recent report from the BBC saying that the Internet has made copying sources easier. Furthermore, the professor quoted in the story says that the new generation of students see nothing wrong with copying material found online.

We live in a world where we expect things to improve and evolve, like finding cures for fatal diseases, building structures to withstand the fiercest storms and attempting to select a new singer for the band INXS. Yet, despite all of these advances (OK, INXS' original singer wasn't bad), the majority of people on the highway still have no freakin' clue how to drive.

Since the full article is no longer available online, I figured it would be easiest to just post right here.

Ex-Owensboro resident pens humorous Internet novel

By James Mayse | Messenger-Inquirer | 06/11/05

Although Ben Woods has been writing a computer column for years, he didn't spend much of his early years writing fiction. Before moving to Owensboro to join the Messenger-Inquirer and, later, Red Pixel Studios, Woods' last short story was written when he was in high school.

Some of you are probably familiar with the Performance Against Seed Expectations (PASE) metric used with the men's tournament brackets. In short, the metric takes into account how many games a seed is expected to win based on past performances since 1985 (the first year of the 64-team tournament). I use this metric to determine expected offensive statistical totals for the college basketball fantasy league that I run each March.

Hopefully this gets to you before you open your inbox and see that it has been forwarded by 500 of your "closest" friends, including that guy from the gym who always tries to steal your towel.

People have reported receiving emails regarding bizarre sea creatures, apparently trudged up by the recent tsunami disaster. While the message does sound plausible, it is completely incorrect. Check out snopes.com for the full story.

Join me on Saturday, Jan. 21, to check "The Developers" and book signing event. I will be at the Evansville Borders (6401 East Lloyd Expressway) 12-2 p.m. and at Owensboro's Beyond the Brim (Wesleyan Park Plaza) 4-6 p.m. The book is currently available at these locations, as well as other regional bookstores and Amazon.com. It is also now available through Baker & Taylor, a national distributor.

Even if you already have a book, or you don't want to buy one, or you don't know how to read, come out to the locations and say hi!

I remember reading or hearing something a few years ago that said only 10 percent of all books published ever sell 1,000 copies or more. I cannot seem to find exact numbers anywhere, however, I found a boatload of other statistics on the Para Publishing website. The self-publishing numbers are pretty low ... only 3.4 percent of Xlibris copies have sold more than 500 copies, for example.