The Twouble with Twitters

The Twouble with Twitters

It makes me glad I don't twit.

MacBook Wheel

MacBook Wheel

"I'll buy almost anything if it's shiny and made by Apple."

Computers are our future

This 1969 informational video predicts integration of computers and the Internet into home life.

And predicts that gender roles will still remain firmly in place.

And even predicts multiple monitors and handwriting recognition tools (though I don't see any typewriter-style keyboards anywhere).

Audible.com and David Sedaris

Last night, I went to audible.com to look for David Sedaris's new book, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames."

It wasn't there.

I searched for keyword, "David Sedaris".

Audible returned a long list of episodes of "This American Life," the book that he edited, " Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules" and several installments of something called "All Stories Are Fiction" by Mike Daisey.

I went into "My Library" and located "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and clicked on the book title.

Audible returned a "This title cannot be found in our database" error.

Apparently, Audible no longer carries David Sedaris's audiobooks. Not even the ones that they sold a couple of years ago.

That's not happy....

At least the book on CD is relatively cheap (e.g., $21 at Amazon, $24 at Barnes & Noble online store). It costs slightly more than the hardback, but there's no real substitute for hearing David Sedaris read his own writing.

[UPDATE: How thoroughly strange. I just clicked on my own link above, and all the older catalog titles were there. Then I went out and came back to that link again, and they were gone again. I guess maybe Audible is doing some maintenance.]

[UPDATE: Well, after doing a little more poking, it seems that the difference is whether you're logged into Audible or not. If you're NOT logged into Audible as a user, you can see Sedaris's books. If you ARE logged in, you do NOT see his books. And, as I said, if I go into my library and find the Sedaris books I've bought in previous years, Audible returns an error message that reads,"That product was not found in our database." However, Audible is the audiobook source for iTunes, and all his books except his newest one seem to be available through iTunes. So go figure...]

[UPDATE Friday 6/6/08: Guess what showed up on Audible.com today as the featured new release? And all the older titles appear to have returned as well. Oh, we of little faith.... (or is that just "Oh, me of little faith"?)]

OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!?

I've been noticing this ad popping up a whole lot recently (especially on "Huffington Post") featuring Amy Sedaris. It's a four-minute video ad for Microsoft(tm) Office(tm) 2007(tm).

Amy Sedaris. And a bunch of bunny rabbits. And a cupcake bakery. And Microsoft(tm).

As I said, "OMGWTF?!"

On Microsoft's website for the ad, there are a whopping two (count 'em, TWO!) user comments:

"I love Amy Sedaris. Yay!"

and

"It's amazing how different she looked in 'Strangers with Candy'."

Both comments were posted, coincidentally, 48 days ago on the very same day that Microsoft first posted the ad. Yep, they sound just like Amy's fans, and NOT AT ALL like ad writers trying to start the comment ball rolling.....

Amy's fan-club's website includes this interview with her about the ad (near the bottom of the page - the top part is about her role in the movie, "Snow Angels"). In it, she is quoted as saying:

"They paid really well, and it was an opportunity, and I mean, I love shit like that. I would love to do commercials and things like that. I think they're fun--as long as you have control. Because you think they're fun, and then you get there and their idea is queer or they want you to do something stupid. But if I could have creative input like that, I would do a lot more--If they guaranteed that I could have a little bit of control."

Webby Awards

The winners of this year's Webby Awards were announced today.

The Webby Award for "Online Film & Video: How-To and DIY" and the "People's Voice" award for "Online Film & Video: Comedy: Long Form or Series" went to one of my personal favorites, "You Suck at Photoshop." The series really and truly provides good advice on using Photoshop, but the narrative style of the lessons is funny in its own right.

So you can watch this series of instructional videos simply as an amusing videos, or you can watch it and pick up some cool tips for using Photoshop.

Onion News Network also picked up several Webbies.