Category: Internet
08/20/09
New Technology-Related Books Worth Reading
Courtesy of the Business Blog...
 Free: the Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
Summary: In his revolutionary bestseller, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates niche markets, allowing products and consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. Now, in Free, he makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company's survival. The costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate. Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long...Yet this is just one engine behind the new Free, a reality that goes beyond a marketing gimmick or a cross-subsidy. Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of Free; and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you're trying to sell.
Note: You can download the book for free as an audiobook through iTunes or at the following website http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/mf_freer
 Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes by Mark J. Penn
Summary: Mark Penn, the man who identified "Soccer Moms" as a crucial constituency in President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, is known for his ability to detect relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture-microtrends that are wielding great influence on business, politics, and our personal lives. Relying on some of the best data available, Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the way we live.
Among them:
- People are retiring but continuing to work
- Teens are turning to knitting
- Geeks are becoming the most sociable people around
- Dads are older than ever and spending more time with their kids than in the past
Note: If you are interested in learning more about microtrends and Penn's work, you might want to check out his website http://www.microtrending.com/
11/25/08
How to I Survive Today's Technological Advancements?
I'm sure the above question has plagued each and every one of us at some point. Hence, this new book looks to be very fascinating...
 iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan.
Product Description: Their insights are extraordinary, their behaviors unusual. Their brains—shaped by the era of microprocessors, access to limitless information, and 24-hour news and communication—are remapping, retooling, and evolving. They're not superhuman. They're your twenty-something coworkers, your children, and your competition. Are you keeping up?...While high-tech immersion can accelerate learning and boost creativity, it also has its glitches, among them the meteoric rise in ADD diagnoses, increased social isolation, and Internet addiction. To compete and thrive in the age of brain evolution, and to avoid these potential drawbacks, we must adapt, and iBrain—with its Technology Toolkit—equips all of us with the tools and strategies needed to close the brain gap.
08/27/08
The Daily Candy Lexicon: Words that don't exist but should by the editors of DailyCandy.com
Product Description from Amazon.com:
The experts on all things cool and of-the-moment offer a glossary of the cleverest words you’ve never heard.
Women the world over have been nursing a powerful addiction—to DailyCandy.com. A daily email newsletter covering absolutely everything (from lacy bras that actually fit to restaurant openings to children’s museums), it’s the ultimate insider’s guide to what’s new and undiscovered. It’s like having a great conversation with a girlfriend—a girlfriend who tells you where to get your eyebrows threaded (and anything else that might need it), who knows when the best sample sales are, and who can make you laugh. Really hard. Beloved as much for its witty, edgy writing as it is for its far-reaching information, DailyCandy has also grown into the go-to site for how to talk about it all, every day offering up a round-up of the latest in hip expressions. Always the trendsetter, DailyCandy has defined and invented words and terms that just are becoming popular—or should be. Smart, funny, and sassy, The DailyCandy Lexicon is a compilation of these definitions, invaluable whether you’re a “girleen” (a young sassy woman) or a “SoDeeWah” (socialite/ designer/whatever). Accompanying the listing is a behind-the-keyboard narrative of how the DailyCandy staff came up with the entries.
Maybe you’re tired of talking the way you’ve talked for years (please stop calling things “dope”), or maybe you’re embarrassed that you didn’t know what your cubicle-mate meant by “desk burn” (it’s an injury sustained during in-office sex). Either way, you need a dose of The DailyCandy Lexicon:
· Tart fuel: n. Girlie drinks. e.g., cosmos, kirs, or anything that tastes like Kool-Aid.
· Teenile: adj. Used to describe someone who is way too old for what she is wearing. (“That 45-year-old woman is wearing low-cut jeans. Is she crazy or just teenile?”)
· Kama-suture: n. Aid for injuries sustained during aerobic bedroom exercises (particularly by non-aerobic types).
· Crapas: n. One of the many bad versions of the “small plates” craze.
· Apathy hour: n. What happy hour usually feels like.
Tee Hee! I like new words! Especially new words with definitions!! This book as lovely little number from the dailycandy.com for all you hip chicks out there who want to keep up-to-date on all the hottest slang! Oh, and it's pretty hilarious too if you need a good laugh!
--The Library Technician
03/05/08
The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs compiled by Rebecca Gillieron and Catheryn Kilgarriff (2007)
From Amazon: As more and more bloggers write about books and with some of their Web sites receiving thousands of hits a day, this is an easy-to-follow guide to the top, book-related blogs.
With the current craze for blogs, the phenomenon of book blogging is of interest from an objective standpoint as well as to those keen to read book reviews. How much influence do these bloggers have? Is there any kind of censorship or quality control? Are booksellers aware of them? Does Oprah Winfrey take note?
Many people develop a real fondness for book bloggers who write reviews for love and not money. Taking in small, quirky Web sites like Book Slut, dovegreyreader, Bluestalking Reader, and MoorishGirl as well as large, well-known sites like salon.com, this book will show readers how to investigate literature from distant lands, to find the sites of authors who are yet to be discovered by the mainstream, and to find the pages of book industry pundits who have opened their daily lives to a wider world. Welcome to the honest world of book blogs.
Catheryn Kilgarriff and Rebecca Gillieron are editors at Marion Boyars Publishers, and Meryl Zegarek is a book publicist of many years standing. All three have seen the book industry from the inside and are happy that blogs are now opening this world up to ordinary readers.
ReviewThis is a nifty little number for those who love books, are new to exploring blogs and blogging and want to discover new authors and books.
Each compiler has taken turns writing sections of the book. The nice thing is that they sign their names at the end of their section so you get an idea of what kind of person is writing which section and you can compare their views.
Unfortunately there was no mention of the RPL blogs to be found in this little gem!
--The Library Technician
12/22/07
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