Have kids? Take a look at this site, http://www.tikatok.com. Just as Apple made it easy to publish professional looking photo books, Takatok is Barnes and Noble’s effort to take your youngster’s story and/or drawings and produce an actual published work. The idea is not new. Lulu has been doing this for years. But the specific focus on children’s publishing by a mainstream bookseller is new and worth a look…
– Dave
Dan Bricklin was at Harvard Business School in 1979 when he and his buddy, Bob Frankston, came up with the very first killer app, the world’s first spreadsheet, VisiCalc. Dan did his undergrad work at MIT. Here’s his Wiki page.
Recently, Dan decided to tackle the art of iPhone Development. Part of his effort was informed by our book, Beginning iPhone 3 Development. I can’t tell you how cool that is for me and for Jeff. Hard to explain how this feels but, suffice it to say, for me, Dan is right up there with Woz, Steve Jobs, Bill Atkinson, Bill Gates, Andy Hertzfeld, etc., as a person who helped get the personal computer to the place it is right now.
Check out the mention in this article:
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2009/12/dan_bricklin_from_killer_app_t.html
Who would you add to this list? Someone who helped shape the personal computer universe…
– Dave
This book is called:
“Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists”
Fascinating! It’s a collection of obsessively specific pop culture lists put together by the writers of The Onion as well as a variety of celebs. The book is very cool, and it’s cheap ($12.24). What could be better? 
– Dave
Interview with Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonze, discussing turning Where the Wild Things Are into a movie. I so hope this movie is great. I love Maurice Sendak’s work. Here’s a link to the HD version of the video embedded below…
– Dave
Our book, Beginning iPhone Development, was a tiny part of today’s Joy of Tech. Here it is:
Thanks to my esteemed co-author Jeff LaMarche for circling the important bits.
– Dave
Are you a published author? If so, you may have received a notice regarding the landmark lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers against Google (famous for adopting the Hippocratic Rule, “First, do no harm” as their motto – I’ve always liked that).
In a nutshell, Google contracted with a number of universities, including the University Library of the University of Michigan, to digitally scan and create a searchable index of a subset of the books in their collection. Sounds cool, right?
The problem is, suppose you are an author of books in that collection. If Google makes the entire collection available on-line, your ability to make money from those books is gone. Thus, the lawsuit.
If you are a published author and are affected by this, you should have received received a rightsholders notice describing the lawsuit and giving you a chance to opt out so you could pursue your own claim against the company. The original notices were mailed out on January 5th, 2009.
The deadline for opting out is coming up fast. The last opt-out day os September 4th, 2009.
Me, I’ve got a number of books in the settlement and I’m staying in. First, I am a fan of Google and I believe in what they are doing. I generally don’t write for the money, and the books in question are old books that I am more than happy to share with the universe.
That said, there are plenty of folks who feel differently. Plenty. If you are on the fence, or just plain interested, here are some things to look at.
Here’s a link to the Author’s Guild resource page, a collection of links relevant to this lawsuit.
Here’s a link to the settlement agreement.
And, finally, here’s a link to Roy Blount, Jr.’s message to the Author’s Guild membership. Roy is the president of the Author’s Guild.
Interesting, no?
– Dave
I am pretty excited. The new edition of “Beginning iPhone 3 Development” just went live on Amazon. And it is starting to sell. eBook too. Nice!
First things first. Here’s what’s changed since the first edition:
The biggest point to be aware of and to pass along to other folks you know (please do!) is that this book does not cover the new stuff added with the release of SDK 3. We did add a Core Data example, true, but that’s the extent to which we cover the SDK 3 addons. That is the job for the new book Jeff and I are feverishly writing, “More iPhone 3 Development”. More iPhone 3 Dev goes into a lot of detail on Core Data (a LOT of detail) and really takes you on a journey through all the new stuff introduced with SDK 3.
Know that Jeff and I really do appreciate your purchases. You are making it possible for Jeff and I to put our consulting gigs on hold and write fulltime. Your support is awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Oh, also, note that I’ve updated the link in the sidebar to point to the new book on Amazon.
– Dave
From @iphonearticles, here’s a pic of our book on the august shelves of the mighty Stamford, CT, Apple Store. Thanks, Jai!
– Dave
Our buddy Jai spotted our book in the Barnes and Noble store in Westport, Connecticut. Thanks, Jai!
– Dave
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