Salutor

Life ongoing

Before bed. Watch disc 2 of the third season of Deadwood, the most densely written, brilliant television series ever produced.

Going to bed. Trying to explain to Kim what Edward Tufte is all about and why I have requested the book Beautiful Evidence for Father's Day. Also just finished reading a very funny NYT piece on sperm.

Leaving the house. Lula clambers  up into my lap in order to roll her "googly guy"-- one of those sticky, stretchy, rubber hand toys -- through my hair. Eye-level with her diaper, I note aloud that she needs to be changed. "Noooo," she says, eying me mirthfully. "I'm not poopy. I happy, Papa."

On the way to work. Hear a duet on WKNC between Lucinda Williams and Flogging Molly, a band that invites comparison with the Pogues in their heyday. My college days.

At work. Wondering if I should buy an iPhone next month.

Holy smoke: The New Yorker online!

Thanks to a sidebar link on mistersugar, I now know that The New Yorker -- up until now possibly the most technologically backward major magazine in circulation --  has finally launched web site worthy of the label.

I should explain that I am a longtime New Yorker reader -- fanatic, even. For the last few years the magazine has been virtually the only offline media I've touched. Its lack of sophistication on the web has bothered me, as much from a disgruntled marketing sense as for any other reason.

Even before now there have been signs something was afoot. First they made available incredible DVDs containing the magazine's first 75 years with scanned page by page archives complete with the original advertisements. Then they updated the offering and bundled it all on a portable harddrive. That proved to me someone at the magazine was thinking about the big picture. Now, finally, a web site with an RSS Feed (look for it soon in the Salutor sidebar) and the promise of an upcoming inclusion of searchable archive. I am floored.

I have always suspected that the real problem lay with CondeNast, the half-witted corporate parent of The New Yorker. Small signs of their vast incompetence remain:

1) I am not only a New Yorker subscriber of fifteen years, but have volunteered my email address to them on more than one occasion. In the past, providing my email address to The New Yorker website has led, not to receiving stimulating New Yorker related material and advertisements, but to spam for other CondeNast  publications like Glamour. Why on earth would they not, by mail or email, find some way to announce to me that they have a new website?

2) In my haste to test their new marketing smarts, I attempted to (re-)give the new New Yorker site my email address. In the screenshot below, note that on the first page (left) of the site they offer a single form-field newsletter sign-up (note that this is an email marketing 'best practice'), but that when I fill it out and click enter I am taken to a second page (right) with a number of required fields -- one of which is MY BLANK EMAIL ADDRESS.

My guess is that the smart web team designed the first page, and the imbeciles at CondeNast got the hand-off on the second page.

[I plan to re-post this on the business blog, by the way.]

Blooker Buzz Gets Louder

The news about the Blooker shortlist announced earlier this week has started to trickle out, most notably (surprise, surprise) in the UK, where the only thing they love more than a new literary prize is a good pun:

TechShout!Lulu Blooker Awards honour the best ‘Blook’, a Book based on a Blog
TechShout!, India - 4 hours ago
One such award is the “Blooker” prize, which is an award that is aimed at honoring the best books based on blogs. In fact, last year’s winning ‘blook’ was ...
Blooker Prize 2007 shortlist announced Blog Herald
Blooker prize honours best blogs BBC News
all 3 news articles »

But as the week ends the news has also seeped across the blogosphere:

2007 Lulu Blooker Shortlist

7 hours ago by Fadereu  I'm judging the Lulu Blooker 2007 prize, with a very distinguished cast whose company I probably do not deserve: Arianna Huffington, Julie Powell, Nick Cohen and Chair of Judges — Paul Jones. Now I'm not going to write about what my ... AlgoMantra 2007 - http://algomantra.blogspot.com/index.html

Lulu Blooker Awards honour the best ‘Blook’, a Book based on a Blog

4 hours ago by Administrator  Blogs may have started out as a casual way of expressing one’s opinions and even to reach out to the rest of the world. But now, Blogs have taken a turn for the better and the status of blogs in... [[ This is a content summary only. ... Tech Shout! - http://www.techshout.com

The 2007 Short-List

11 Mar 2007 by BlookerPrize  Crashing The Gate by Jerome Armstrong - www.MyDD.com and Markos Moulitsas - www.dailykos.com $12.95 (Chelsea Green) Buy it "This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic ... Lulu Blooker Blog - http://lulublookerprize.typepad.com/lulu_blooker_blog/ - References

Bloggers line up for the Blooker Prize

13 Mar 2007 Turning your popular blog into a book is happening more and more - and they've even got awards to prove it. Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog - http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/ - References

Blooker Prize 2007 shortlist announced

15 Mar 2007 by Andy Merrett  The shortlist for the Blooker Prize 2007 - the award that honours published books based on blogs - has been announced. The 15 nominees have all found real-world publishing deals thanks to their passion for blogging. ... The Blog Herald - http://www.blogherald.com - References

Lulu Blooker 2007 Short List Announced

13 Mar 2007 by Paul  The shortlist is out on the Blooker Blog (see there for details). And check out this brief list:. Non-Fiction. “My Secret: A PostSecret Book” by Frank Warren “My War: Killing Time In Iraq” by Colby Buzzell ... The Real Paul Jones - http://ibiblio.org/pjones/wordpress - References

Interview With... Zach Miller (again)

11 hours ago by Mike  It's been a while since we actually interviewed anyone, but now the Lulu Blooker Prize is upon us and the short list has appeared, the same name as last year has graced its pages. So we quickly grabbed Zach Miller and got the low-down ... Webcomics in Print - http://webcomics-in-print.blogspot.com/index.html

Lulu Blooker Prize Finalist!

13 Mar 2007 by Rosemary  Congrats to Dean and John Eddy, Methuselah's Daughter is a finalist in the fiction category for the coveted Blooker Prize. One of the judges is Arianna Huffington. Cool beans,... The Queen of All Evil - http://www.qoae.net/ - References

IT Sector - Blooker prize honours best blogs

14 Mar 2007 Blooker prize honours best blogs. IEE News Feed - Information Professional - http://www.iee.org/oncomms/sector/informationpro/

The 2007 Blooker Prize Short-List12 Mar 2007 by CBFTW 
by Tertia Albertyn Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language From the South of France by Kristin Espinasse The Lulu Blooker Prize is the world's first literary prize devoted to "blooks"-books based on blogs or other websites, ...
MY WAR - http://cbftw.blogspot.com/index.html

Secrets, Zombies, and Cancer Comics: Blooker Shortlist Announced

Any surviving readers of the blog that previously occupied this space will share my excitement at the announcement of the 2007 Shortlist for the Blooker Prize (the world's first literary prize for blooks, or books based on blogs).

Once again this year the list is really interesting, including:

 

In nonfiction "My Secret," from the fascinating PostSecrets.com.
In fiction "Monster Island," by David Wellington, a delegate of the Internet's lurching trend of zombie-related fiction (www.thirteenbullets.com).
In comics, the laconic "Mom's Cancer," by Brian Fies from www.momscancer.com.

The judges, chaired this year by the esteemed Paul Jones of iBiblio and including celebrity blogger Arianna Huffington, have a tough task before them picking an overall winner. What fun.