The Developers

I will be at the Elizabethtown, Ky., Waldenbooks in Towne Mall 5-7 p.m. Aug. 4 to discuss and sign my latest book, The Developers. The humor-fiction novel mixes the insane and obscene with technology, romance and pop culture. But while the book's web development group tries to make its mark on the virtual world, it encounters pre-eminent issues that will soon be shaping the Internet of the future: Are individuals losing their remaining privacy due to the World Wide Web? Will online social interaction eventually replace in-person gatherings as a necessary means?

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 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.).

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.

It's not every day that a highly acclaimed author specifically asks for your signature. And no, I wasn't just signing a check for one of his excellent books.

Palahniuk was in Louisville on June 8 during a book tour for his latest book, "Haunted." You may not recognize the name, but you may know him as the author of "Fight Club." Many of his other works are also in the middle of movie deals, including my favorite, "Choke."

If you're a fan of "Fight Club" or "Choke," you won't want to miss Chuck Palahnik's appearance at 7 p.m. June 7 in The Clifton Center Reception Hall (2117 Payne Avenue). Carmichael's Bookstore is hosting the event, but due to the expected crowd, the venue has been moved just down the road. Palahniuk will be reading from his new book, "Haunted," and will be signing books as well.

I owe a bit to Palahniuk because after reading "Choke," I realized that maybe I could write "The Developers." Not that my stuff is as good, but it's a similar style ... at least, I'd like to think so.

I finally have an RSS feed for my site available. In the near future, you will notice an RSS button just below the navigation on benwoods.com as well as thedevelopersbook.com for The Developers. For now, however, you can also pick up the feed by clicking here.

How easy would it be for the United States government to keep tabs on people via the Internet? Soon, Congress could call a vote against Net Neutrality, which would allow ISPs to deliver partner websites faster than others. While this would be disruptive to the World Wide Web as a whole, this still wouldn't give access to data logs from all ISPs.

In another move toward 1984, Congress continues to endorse ISP snooping, which could attempt to keep tabs on everyone's online activities.

As reported on CNET, government officials are working toward determining how best to aid investigations into child pornography on the Internet. Allowing ISP snooping, however, would leave open the possibility of the government to track everyone's information.

It turns out that the first paragraph of my book is a fraud! You would probably think this is a bad thing, but it seems to keep the media running toward Dan Brown and Kaavya Viswanathan, so maybe I should try to publicize this as well. The only problem is that I didn't lift passages from my favorite author or pretend to invent a biblical conspiracy. I just made up something that never happened on "Andy Griffith."