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How Seanan McGuire Perfected Her Fictional Zombie Virus

I finished reading “Blackout” earlier this month. Highly recommended. The three novels aren’t zombie stories per se so much as they’re thrillers set in a world where zombies are a fact of life. Look under the name Mira Grant for “Feed,” “Deadline” and “Blackout.”

How Seanan McGuire Perfected Her Fictional Zombie Virus

Always consider what you’re training your email recipients to do with the mail you send them…

Always consider what you’re training your email recipients to do with the mail you send them. Whether it’s “ignore most of what we send you” or “don’t worry if you see something from us that’s at a random domain, we send using different domains all the time.”

Training Recipients – Word to the Wise

Want to see a WWF style smackdown? Put a marketer and a delivery expert in a room and ask them to discuss frequency and whether or not more mail is better. The marketer will point to the bottom line…

Want pain? Try loading today’s websites over dial-up

Ouch! It’s worth remembering that not everyone has a high-speed connection, and that all those images and scripts add up. This isn’t just for the minority stuck on dial-up, but with the rise of mobile computing, a lot of people are on spotty connections that might be high-speed one moment, then dog-slow the next.

Want pain? Try loading today’s websites over dial-up

Even today, in 2012, some people don’t have broadband Internet connections, relying instead on phone lines and those good old dial-up modems. By today’s standards, those connections are extremely slow…

It’s not just taking a break while working on a problem…

Why great ideas come when you aren’t trying

According to this study, it’s not just taking a break while working on a problem, but taking a break to do something else, as long as it’s something that lets your mind wander.

On a related note, this reminds me of an article I read while back on how the lure of a smartphone can cut down on creative downtime. It’s hard to zone out if you’re catching up on Facebook during your break.

On Facebook

Always remember: your public information really is public, and even if no one creepy is looking for you specifically, there's always a possibility they could be looking for someone like you.

Always remember: your public information really is public, and even if no one creepy is looking for you specifically, there’s always a possibility they could be looking for someone like you. (Remember the “please rob me” site that reposted location-enabled tweets?)

Be sure you understand your privacy settings, especially with anything that tells the world where you are right now.

This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy

On Facebook

Facebook opposes the practice of prospective employers asking for your password. “As a user,…

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/03/23/1623255/facebook-legal-action-against-employers-asking-for-your-password

Facebook opposes the practice of prospective employers asking for your password.

“As a user, you shouldn’t be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job. And as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job.”

On Facebook

Remember the faster-than-light neutrinos reported last year? It may have just been a bad fiberoptic connection…

Unconfirmed rumor: FTL neutrinos may be due to a faulty GPS connection

Remember the faster-than-light neutrinos reported last year? It may have just been a bad fiberoptic connection on the system doing the timing.

The scientists who reported the results in the first place were 99% certain there was *something* wrong with them (though it would have been revolutionary if the results had held up), but they couldn't find the error, and made the announcement mainly to ask for help tracking it down.

On Facebook