dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

Kauko: Remotely control design in real time.

A coffee shop where the seats, tables, lights and sound are controlled through a social app. Watch the little videos, try not to smile too broadly.

Guardian.UK: Self-published ebook author becomes Amazon’s top seller.

“This time last year, I hadn’t even started writing Locked In and now I have a No 1 bestselling book in the Kindle Store, outselling many authors that I have grown up reading.”

The Atlantic: The Amazing High-Speed Rise of the App Economy.

I’d wondered when someone was going to get around to measuring this. Up next, “froth” in the system.

IRA Analyst: Facebook ‘Jumps the Shark’ Interview with Michael Whalen.

“The media seems to believe that the valuation of the company is based on the “personal data” of the 800 million + subscribers of Facebook. I disagree — the valuation of the company MUST be based on their ability to actually MAKE MONEY inside of the paradigm and the environment they invented. So far, I am not impressed.” Via JY on FB.

Macworld: Bookle brings ePub reading to the Mac.

Nice, but don’t overlook the Swiss-Army Knife of ebook reading, Calibre. Calibre gives you complete control of your virtual reading investments, IMHO.

Globe and Mail.CA: Indigo joins growing boycott of books published by Amazon.com.

“Although Barnes & Noble claims to sell 300 million books a year, Amazon surpassed the traditional chain’s share of book, e-book and media sales in North America five years ago. The online retailer’s current annual revenue of almost $50-billion dwarfs the $7-billion in sales made by Barnes & Noble, which continues to lose money despite the collapse last year of the Borders chain, formerly its main competitor.”

And B&N;is thinking of spinning off Nook? Good lord. I suppose I’m not surprised - the software’s dreadful.

RCA: USB Charging Station Wall Outlets.

When I redo our offices this summer, I just might install one or two o’ these.

Discover: Ebooks - More Boon to Literacy Than Threat to Democracy.

Another opinion countering Franzen’s interview of a day or so ago.

Macworld: If you use iOS, you need VIPOrbit.

Sounds intriguing, but if you call for a PC version, you need to ask for Android as well. 

ReadWriteWeb: 91% of Gen-Ys Use Their Phones in the Bathroom.

Like hell I’ll ever touch your phone, kid.

NY Times: Does Technology Affect Happiness?

“Among the crucial questions that the researchers were not able to answer is whether the heavy use of media was the cause for the relative unhappiness or whether girls who are less happy to begin with are drawn to heavy use of media, in effect retreating to a virtual world.” This article will be the subject of many conversations, I suspect.

Rob Galbraith DPI: Q+A with enlight photo’s James Madelin about ioShutter.

Remember this? Hooks your iOS device to your DSLR. There’s been a lot of buzzing interest about this. The whack is the price of the cable, not the app.

technology review: One eBook Platform to Rule Them All.

Signed up ages ago, I think I’ve received two emails. Perhaps they’re more prepared now.

SF New Mexican: Damaged cable disrupts Internet service.

“Internet was inaccessible to CenturyLink customers in most of downtown Santa Fe and Tierra Contenta ...” I’m on Comcast. Redundancies, folks?

NY Times: Police Use of G.P.S. Is Ruled Unconstitutional.

“Law enforcement is now on notice [snip] that almost any use of GPS electronic surveillance of a citizen’s movement will be legally questionable unless a warrant is obtained in advance.” Good.

Pew Research: Tablet and Ebook sales over the holidays.

Tablet and E-Book users almost double.

Day One: Mac Journal Application for iPhone, iPad and Mac Desktop.

Hmmm. They should purchase, and integrate Momento. It not only is a writing environment, but also catalogs all your weblogging and social media activity, as well.

Monolith: Wood iPhone back panels.

Spare that fragile backside.

Macworld: Ebook library borrowing hits record pace.

“… some publishers still won’t provide borrowing licenses to libraries for new ebook titles.” This is a huge problem at smaller libraries. They get access to *one* copy of a new ebook title, whereas they can get a dozen or more print versions. Getting on an ebook waiting list is a joke, oftentimes.

Macworld: Holding out for an ePub hero.

Interesting overview. Never heard of Sigil before.

RWW: Why Apple, Why Does it Have to Be Like This? The Cold Cynicism of the iBook EULA.

“What a terrible thing to do to a book; to brand it forever constrained for sale by a single vendor only.” Well, that puts a distinct damper on my excitement over the announcement.

The Atlantic: Average Kindle Book 6 Times More Expensive Than Self-Published Titles.

“In 2010 there were zero self-published titles among Amazon’s top 100 bestselling books. In 2011 there were 18. What is drawing customers to these books in such large numbers, many of which are from new authors? Price, says a new report ...” I suspect a section of the market just wants a lot o’ good-lookin’ covers in their book reading app.

Speaking of which. Nosing around on someone else’s tablet or smartphone currently has the cachet of snooping in a medicine cabinet while visiting a friend. Noone admits doing it, but everyone does it. I hand mine over to a client or friend to show a particular item, that interest lasts for 15-30 seconds and then the snooping starts. Seems to be as natural as breathing for just about everyone. I’m going to squirrel away some real doozies on mine, just to scare the hell out of snoopers.

Android Design.

Most of the apps I hit on Android are very nice, but there are a couple of skanky ones. Perhaps this site will help.

Karolinska Institutet: No increase in brain tumours in the Nordic countries.

“The present study shows that there has been no increase in glioma in the Nordic countries since the introduction of mobile phones, and that the risk increases reported in a few individual studies are inconsistent with the cancer statistics. The paper is an update of a previous study on the incidence of glioma in the Nordic countries. The analyses now cover the years up to 2008 and still show no sign of an increase in the disease in the age groups that have been using mobile phones.” You can take off the foil hat now.

Nieman Journalism Lab: Simplifying publishing could mean a flood of new content.

“There’s a long list of tools that try to make ebook creation easier, from big names (Apple’s Pages, Adobe’s InDesign) to smaller ones (Scrivener) to open source alternatives like calibre. But it’s still a complicated enough business that there’s a healthy ecosystem of companies offering ebook conversion services.”

I’ve discussed the idea of a Hypercard for book publishing, but I doubt we’ll see a program with HC’s sheer Swiss-Army-Knife practicality. As with web design and development, there are forces that want the publishing process to be complex. All the new ebook formats are circling around HTML5 and CSS3. This will bring print software closer to web development IDEs. How simple is HTML5 and CSS3? *cough* Sure, there may be a half-dozen ‘simple’ e-book apps ... but their features will be limited, and the path to more complex authoring will be well-trodden. So, want a *decent* ebook published? Expect to pull out your wallet.