PANTONE The 20th Century in Color looks to me like a great Christmas gift for anyone interested in colour and history: graphic designers, interior decorators, costume designers, website builders, Renaissance geeks. Authored by Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker and published last month, it’s a view of the last century with a focus on colour. Of course, it inserts the relevant Pantone colours allowing you to recreate colour schemes from the past to great effect.

The blurb says, “Pantone, the worldwide color authority, invites you on a rich visual tour of 100 transformative years. From the Pale Gold (15-0927 TPX) and Almost Mauve (12-2103 TPX) of the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris to the Rust (18-1248 TPX) and Midnight Navy (19-4110 TPX) of the countdown to the Millennium, the 20th century brimmed with color. Longtime Pantone collaborators and color gurus Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker identify more than 200 touchstone works of art, products, decor, and fashion, and carefully match them with 80 different official Pantone Color palettes to reveal the trends, radical shifts, and resurgences of various hues. This vibrant volume takes the social temperature of our recent history with the panache that is uniquely Pantone.”

Hyperbole aside, I think this will be fascinating look back through the past century and will be more than just a coffee table book: it’ll be a source of inspiration for when you want to get that “period feel”. It’s on my Amazon wish list so with luck, I’ll be able to bring you a review in the New Year.

(You’ll just have to forgive the twin spellings of colour and color in this article.)

O.K. – Check out this Onion article – Man’s Facebook Status Given Book Deal

Now check out this article on WSJ – S—mydadsays Lands TV Deal

Can someone say “Irony?” Little did the Onion know, they were reporting a “Close to news” story. And it happened in the same week.

I heard about this Twitter account a few weeks ago. An old codger saying things that just make you laugh. Here are a couple Twitters:

“You look just like Stephen Hawking…Relax, I meant like a non-paralyzed version of him. Feel better?… Fine. Forget I said it.”

“Son, no one gives a s— about all the things your cell phone does. You didn’t invent it, you just bought it. Anybody can do that.”

“The baby will talk when he talks, relax. It ain’t like he knows the cure for cancer and he just ain’t spitting it out.”

“Just pay the parking ticket. Don’t be so outraged. You’re not a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement. You double parked.”

Of course, the Twitter profile is run by Justin, a 29 year old who lives with his 79 year old dad. The Twitter profile is full of profanities, so you might want to not show the kids. But you can get a chuckle out of it.Then check out the CBS schedule, because that is who gave Justin the sitcom.

Oh yeah, there is also talk of the Twitter having a book deal, too.

I am not a lawyer, but as much smack as I talk about the RIAA, their is no way in this world that I would play music that any of the major license holders could come back on me and say hey guess what buddy you have violated my copyright and you owe me some money.

If you haven’t read my book, and if you are playing around with fire in playing music that you have not personally been given explicit written permission to play, and you are positive that the music is not licensed by ASCAP, BMI, RIAA and a handful of other acronyms you better be careful!

In the referenced article I am not familar with the song but Brag Gibson points out a concern over music he found on the Podsafe Music Network, and looking at what he has to say makes me wonder if some people are putting a lot at risk.

I have not taken the time to look at the agreement that the podsafe music network makes their artist sign, but I am sure some music that should not be their has likely slipped through the crack. [bradfordgibson.net]

This is one of the reasons why podcasters still need a clear cut licensing model! I sure would like to play some ACDC on my show from time to time.

Last night I and others here in Hawaii were honored in an awards ceremony. I was very humbled to have been picked to receive a Hawaii High Tech Leader Award for 2005. I received a certificate from the Governor of Hawaii and one from the Mayor of Honolulu. My wife wasted no time trying to find a place in the office for them. Personally I kinda hate I love me walls. She deserves credit more than I do for putting up with me working 24/7.

She had the digital camera out and was snapping up pictures. I’ll get those posted on Flickr tonight, I am not sure when the official photos will be available but getting a picture next to the gorgeous Miss Hawaii was nice.

The food and music were great and although many large companies were honored it was nice to see a small company like ours compete in the big leagues. The award was a result of several items primarily my book on podcasting, what is going on with Podcast Connect and the information we provide via Geek News Central get recognized.

Quite seperately I logged into the Author site at Wiley this morning and was very pleased with the book sales. I want to thank each and every one of you as sales are still going gang busters, and it continues to move real good on all the online sites. I am truly surprised by the numbers!

If you attended last nights event and we did not get to chat please drop me a line geeknews@gmail.com

It’s nice to see my book being a featured Book of the Month at NetLibrary additionally it was also a Featured book at Barnes and Noble. Pretty awesome if you ask this first time author. I had heard that it was going to be a featured book at Barnes and Noble but did not know when.

I am hearing sales are still very strong, nice to see the work get some more recognition.

NetLibrary eBook of the Month

Another review of my book is out and I am quite pleased with the commentary. For an Independent review check out this review by Neville Hobson and he even made a podcast about it which is available on the linked site. [webpronews.com]

One of the first full reviews of my book is out and I do want to point out several points that he was concerned about. I went to great lengths to define acronyms as the entered the conversation and sometimes diverging from the train of thought to make sure people understood what specific acronyms meant before resuming the conversation.

And certain topics he thought I covered to deeply but I felt it was important for people to see examples of the structure of RSS as enclosures are the glue that has allowed Podcasting to be unique in the content delivery.

Overall though good review. [reviews.geekstreak.com]