I recently received my first issue of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine.  But guess what?  It didn’t show up in my mailbox.   It showed up in my inbox.  I hate paper, and this magazine knows that, so I have subscribed to their digital magazine.

I haven’t read through all of the articles yet, but I absolutely love the digital format.  It’s laid out on my screen looking just like a magazine.  I just click the upper right corner to “turn” to the next page, or the upper left corner to “turn” back.  Brilliant!

Also, I love the advertising in the magazine.  There are a few full page ads, just like you would see in a regular outdated print magazine, except some of these are video!  Wow!  Try that, print mags.  And, the entire issue is interactive.  When I get to an ad for the classified ad section of the mag, when I click on it, it opens a new window with all of the classified info.  Super slick.

You should go check it out.  What do you think?  Can you ever get used to reading online?  I think my readers know my opinion about the daily newspaper (barely worth the price of the paper just to wrap my valuables before a move), but what do you think about online magazines?  Personally, I love it.

A while ago I wrote a post talking about ScrubIt…a free DNS service that works as a filter for home and office.  I’ve really been enjoying the service, it’s free and it works well.

Then morning when I logged in at home and went to my home page (Google), I got a message that the page had been scrubbed.  Hrm…I think maybe they are taking this filtering business a little too seriously.  Sure, people speculate that Google collects too much personal information that will one day damage society, but hey, do they have to be scrubbed already?!?

Today is the big day, I feel like bringing The Internet down to the local eatery, having the wait staff put a silly hat on it and sing it "Happy Birthday".   Wired online wrote a short but informative article describing the birth of the internet, starting with the first RFC.

Of course there are those that feel that the internet wasn’t really "born" until 1983.  So maybe the 1969 date is more of a "conception".  Hrmmm….inquiring geeks want to know.

I’ve been talking to the fine folks at SpinVox, and they are giving me more free accounts to give away! I’ve been talking to them about how their company came to be, and where they are going in the future. It’s really exciting stuff! I think they are doing a great job of getting the word out about this service. Part of their marketing push is to give away accounts, no strings attached.

Somebody was in my office a couple of weeks ago, and they said something along the lines of "Free? I don’t get it, what’s the catch? Nobody gives things away for free, there has to be a catch". Well, there isn’t. The account is free. It’s not an introductory 3-day trial, it’s not a stripped down version forcing you to buy up to a "real" account…it’s the full deal, for free. Why?

It’s a new economy. Giving away time-expired subscriptions may have worked well in the 1990s, but it doesn’t fly today. Free is the new standard. It’s like this…perhaps you can give out a thousand 30-day trials and then HOPE that some of those people buy into the program, but a better strategy is to give away a thousand subscriptions for free and then hope for tens of thousands of paid customers in return. That’s a better strategy, and in this new economy, it’s the only thing that will fly.

So stay tuned this coming Tuesday, I’ll make the big announcement about how you can get a free account for you and a friend. It’s going to be through the direct sign up page at SpinVox.com, not just by sending them an email like last time. And guess what folks? There are more than enough to go around. Starting Tuesday, I will be working with SpinVox and giving away 1,000 free accounts. I can hardly wait! See you Tuesday.