…excerpt from: blankbaby.typepad.com…

Wow. I didn’t expect to be on the list at all, but still I find myself disappointed to have fallen from position 1,150,012 to 1,331,301 in the space of the last 24 hours! Merry *sniff* Christmas. ;-)

PubSub LinkRanks
LinkRanks are a measure of how many pages link to each particular site, with more weight given to fresher links and to links from a wider variety of pages.

Update: And this graph is even more depressing (not). Goes to show how many new weblogs come online every day (about 8,000 at last count; or was it 5,800 *shrug*).

From 43 Folders: Hack your way out of writer’s block. Lots of useful tips. While it’s geared towards fiction, many of them would apply to non-fiction as well.

…excerpt from: www.backupbrain.com…

I got the following from a family member today:

Starting Jan 1, 2005, all cell phone numbers will be made public to telemarketing firms. So this means as of Jan 1, your cell phone may start ringing off the hook with telemarketers, but unlike your home phone, most of you pay for your incoming calls. These telemarketers will eat up your free minutes and end up costing you money in the long run.

According to the National Do Not Call List, you have until Dec. 15th
2004 to get on the national “Do not call list” for cell phones.

It turns out that this one is mostly an urban legend. Snopes.com…, the Urban Legends Reference Pages, has this one covered. Snopes is great for checking the veracity of alerts like this that you get via email. Plus, it’s a fun read for all sorts of urban legends.

According to the Snopes page, here’s the gist (I’ve edited for length):

“So…it is misleading in stating that such a directory will “soon be published”…and in directing readers to sign up with the The National Do Not Call Registry. The latter step…is premature…and largely unnecessary…because FCC regulations already in place block the bulk of telemarketing calls to cell phones.

Adding one’s cell phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry (even if currently unnecessary) won’t likely have any adverse effect, but customers should be aware of exactly what that action will or will not accomplish.”

…excerpt from: www.backupbrain.com…