follow me on Twitter

My Blog Log

Google Friend Connect

Recently at Bainbooks.com

• Ugh.
• A Thing about Love
• Rainyday | An Excerpt
• Recently Written
• Blogger
• Before he left for work on the Monday morning
• How to Know if the Tennis Ball is Yours
• Jenny Bent
• Untwittering
• Tweets Digested

Bainbooks.com Archive

∴ archive ∴ August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 January 2010

• You Are a Dog
• We Are the Cat
• twitter
• tumblr
• facebook
• cafepress
• zazzle
• flickr
• dreamstime
• iStockPhoto
•  feed

New Amazon Widgets Features a Cure for Smoking

So I was just glancing at my email headings and I was pretty sure for a second there that one of the new features on the Amazon widgets was its ability to cure your smoking habit.

This, apparently, after much detailed review, is not actually the case.

I suppose it could have been worse. Not all of my SPAM is quite so g-rated. (Please note, this message has not been reviewed or approved by the MPAA or its affiliates... I use the term 'g-rated' in the most widely-understood way... so that you know that this message contains no actual reference to inuendous or otherwise fancypants materials). That is all.

Oh. Except maybe to show you the widgets, which I think I'll put at the bottom of this here page so as not to interfere with my textual thoughts (which are many and very nearly random).

[[oops... accidentally posted the widgets here the first time around... sorry about that... see what I mean by random?]]

The new features are these, in case you were wondering.

• Shuffle Products: While building 'My Favorites' and 'Slideshow' widgets, you can now select the Shuffle Products option to show your products in random order each time the widget is displayed. You can also go to My Widgets and enable this option in previously saved widgets
• Default Search Term: With the new 'Use default search term' option in the Search widget you can specify a search term that will be used to populate the Search widget when it is first displayed. Remember, you can always add a default search term to previously saved widgets by going to My Widgets and editing your saved Search widgets
• Delete Widgets: Is your My Widgets page cluttered with widgets that you no longer use? Use the delete icon besides each widget on the My Widgets page to permanently delete unused widgets
• Tracking Ids: Monitoring your widgets with custom Tracking Ids has never been easier. You can now easily change the tracking id associated with each widget by locating the widget on My Widgets and clicking the change link in the Tracking Id column.

See that? Not a single mention of smoking. But you know what? If it can be done, I bet you Amazon will be one of the first to do it. Maybe they'll set it up as part of their Mechanical Turk program.

Blessings. And, as I said, widgets:

Labels: Amazon.com, widgets

Preview Off

I've tried just now to turn off most or all of the weird preview garbage that was cluttering up my site here.

You know. Snap shots and Amazon link enhancers and all that goodness. So now fewer popups, hopefully, to infuriate you. Let me know if you still see things popping up, and where you saw it, because I don't think I like 'em anymore. I just want to be able to have text and links and you can decide to follow or not follow. Or you can read whatever I have to say without fear of a bizarre link appearing that I didn't even intend to link, but someone thinks you are going to wan to buy a shower cap because I happened to mention "gee your hair smells terrific." Of course I reserve the right to change my mind again. But until such time as I do, enjoy the silence.

Golden.

Labels: blogs, widgets

Insightfully Random House

Now that Random House has gone all widget-friendly (with a service they call "insight"), I totally want them to widgetize (er, insight-ize) my books (they are available and searchable on the RH website, but currently I can't widget them so that they can be pasted into pages like this here one by Mr. Katz that will have to serve as a lovely replacement for now so I can futz around with it). So. Random House? Please?...

Labels: booklinks, books, widgets

My Favorites Amazon Widget

Coolish newish widgetish from Amazon.com that shows your favorite Amazon.com stuff on your blog or webpage. I didn't go all nuts on the favorites, but wanted to see how/if it worked, so here I am sharing it with you. I have only to ask, how many widgets does one boy need? A person will have to start trimming them soon, methinks. Strangishly, I can't seem to get the newish widgetish coolish Amazonish to workish. Maybe it will and maybe it won't. Why is nothing a breeze anymore? Etc.

Later, it's still not working, but I'm going to leave the post here with a big blank space in it for posterity. If it ends up with a groovy widget there someday, just assume that it's fixed, okay? Okay.

Labels: Amazon.com, widgets

Dipity Timeline