Spam of the Day

File under Phishing, but I just received a relatively smart spam email:

Your history shows that your last order is ready for
refilling.

To visit ://fake.url.of.no.provenance

Please visit the site to complete your order. Because you have
ordered from us previously, your prescription is pre-approved.

Thank you,

Lidia Joyce
Customer Services

If a Web site I do business with frequently sent me this email, it might have been of actionable interest. Take note, Minimus and Delivery.com. But as it is, it's just not recognizable or clickable.

To the phisher's credit, they're reflecting an activity that frequent online customers want, need, and would act on. If only it were for real.

Happy Birthday to Media Dieticians XXV

My sister, who's on dial up and an old iMac, couldn't get her birthday e-card to work, so I'd like you to check it out.

Make with the clicky!

I played the card for her, holding my mobile phone up to my laptop speaker. Then I described what happened in the card. Surreal.

What kind of computer and Net connection doesn't support this kind of Web activity?

Classy Eyed

I recently signed on as an adjunct instructor to teach a course on blogging this summer at NYU.

You can learn more about the class -- and follow it as it goes -- in my new class blog Enter the Blogosphere.

Also, I encourage you to sign up, if you're local. Should be a kick.

What If Ads Were Content?

Here's the brief presentation I gave at PodCamp NYC this weekend.



Let me know what you think!

Top Shelf Fire Sale

From ye olde in box:

To celebrate Top Shelf's 10th Anniversary in publishing, and also to announce (and prepare for) our 2007-2008 publishing line, for the next ten days -- from Monday April 9th thru Wednesday April 18th -- Top Shelf is having its biggest web sale ever. When you visit the site, you'll find over 125 graphic novels and comics on sale, with fifty titles marked down to just $3 (!), twenty-five titles marked down to just $1 (!), and a slew of other key titles just slashed! All we ask is that you hit a $30 minimum on sale and/or non-sale items (before shipping). It's a great opportunity to load up on all those graphic novels you've wanted to try, but just never got around to picking up. Get 'em while supplies last!

They're good people; so make with the clicky!

Your Assignments, Should You Choose to Accept Them

1. Get on a bus and ride it to the end of the line, or as far in one direction as you can possibly go. Recommendation: the M15 downtown toward Battery Park.

2. Ride a bus down a long stretch of street at night so you can see all the streetlights strung out like Christmas lights into the distance, rising and falling with the lay of the land. Recommendation: the B75 north toward Atlantic Avenue.

3. Cook a simple dinner. Recommendation: fry a steak in butter, boil some new potatoes and sprinkle with dry rosemary, and serve with some short-boiled green beans. Put a slice of lemon in your water glass.

4. Call your parents or a close family member from a public place like a bus or train station. Recommendation: the Staten Island Ferry terminal.

5. Listen to music you've never heard before.

Event-O-Dex XXVII

Sunday, April 8: Graphic Novelists Night at KGB featuring Jon Lewis, K. Thor Jensen, Miss Lasko Gross, Tom Hart, and puppets by the Heather and Ben Show. 85 E. 4th St., New York City, 7 p.m.

Speaking Rules of Engagement II

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to speak at PodCamp NYC. My talk is slated for 5 p.m. ET in the Herald Square room of the host environment, and it's sure to be a doozy.

After the event, I'll be sure to upload the presentation to SlideShare, my most recent favorite Web app. Already, my brief SXSWi intro has gotten more than 100 views, and a presentation I never even gave has gotten 69.

Squidoo, where I used to work; and Oddpodz, Revver, and BrainJams, where I have friends and acquaintances, are all sponsoring the event.

That means it's Quality.

Separated at Birth

Lest anyone do this before me...

Versus

A Note About the Bubbles

Active Media Dieticians may have noticed a new aspect of the blog:

Bubbles. And link previews.

After meeting Jason of Snap at SXSWi and a follow-up conversation, I decided to add their Preview Anywhere tool to the blog.

If you like it, let me know. If you don't, let me know.

Content Is a Crime

New Year's Eve 2006, I stayed up until sunrise teaching myself Keynote -- and making a presentation deck fated never to be used.

The inspiration? My "date" that evening and the 2006 Reboot gathering in Denmark. I didn't end up going to the conference even though I'd been invited, and I didn't end up using the presentation anywhere -- other than a quick run through with some folks I worked with at Squidoo. But I thought the ideas might be worth sharing.

Let me know what you think.

Tag, You're It II

This is the brief presentation I used to introduce the panel I organized for and moderated at SXSWi this year.