“Sarah Palin-mania could begin again - Marketwatch” plus 4 more

Sarah Palin-mania could begin again - Marketwatch
Book reviews - Green Valley News and Sun
Teens get a voice in how Dakota County libraries can serve them - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Microsoft trims MVP benefits, allows shareholders say on executives ... - ZDNet Blogs
Book Review: The Vampire Book - Monsters and Critics

Sarah Palin-mania could begin again - Marketwatch

Posted: 30 Sep 2009 08:45 AM PDT

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By MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Get ready for Sarah Palin-mania, part two.

Her first chapter, in national politics, exploded then fizzled when the former Republican vice presidential candidate unexpectedly retired as governor of Alaska in July. Now, Palin is back, as her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life" has been moved up by the Harper imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Harper Collins and The Journal, like MarketWatch, are units of News Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!nws/quotes/nls/nws (NWS 14.14, +0.16, +1.14%) ).

The book has been moved up to Nov. 17 from next spring. The publishing house said it is distributing 1.5 million copies of Palin's book -- an enormous commitment -- and it will cost $28.99. The electronic edition won't be ready until Dec. 26.

AM Report: Timing the Fed's Next Hike

The News Hub panel discusses the Fed's mixed messages on upcoming rate hikes, and what's at stake for Sarah Palin after her book is delayed.

What's noteworthy here is the commercial potential of Palin's aura. Yes, her conservative followers flock to her political rallies and fundraisers. Sure, the national media can't get enough of her. "Saturday Night Live" /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 16.61, -0.10, -0.60%) thrived last year when Tina Fey did an uncanny job of lampooning Palin's eccentricities.

If the book flies off shelves at the stores, we will know -- for sure -- that Palin has commercial appeal, too. That's when you'll see the media lining up to ask her to host television and radio programs. And Palin-mania will once again go full throttle.

For Palin, the reward could come in benefits that go beyond the satisfaction of favorable book reviews. She could use this forum as a springboard to her repair her image, which suffered when she surprised Republican followers by departing from the political scene a few months ago.

Palin hopes for a win-win scenario. Don't bet against her.

-- Jon Friedman

Book reviews - Green Valley News and Sun

Posted: 28 Sep 2009 12:29 PM PDT

Game Over, by Gary Isaacson

Flying Fish Books, 2007

$7.99, 252 pages

This is a first novel and it's worth reading. If you are a Desert Diamond casino gambler, it's almost required reading. The author spins a complicated story of international intrigue that starts with irregularities in the casinos and escalates to multiple murders with both Chinese and U.S. intervention. It has all of the necessary chase scenes, gun attacks, helicopter rides and a final paramilitary operation launched by a secret U.S. hit squad.

Isaacson gives the reader lots of hints that might increase the odds of winning in the casinos. In addition, much of the story takes place in the thinly disguised Green Valley favorite, the Desert Diamond Casino, called the Gold Casino in the book. Of course, the book is fiction so take the tips at your own risk.

The author describes the hero, Alexander Timken as a worldly, middle-aged iconoclast with a high-tech background and a deep understanding of television studio production especially as it related to HDTV. I read him more as condescending and angry, as he seems to have something bad to say about everyone. His put-downs occasionally make it hard to concentrate on the story. On the silly side, in an early scene he meets a young server in a casino bar, and from the first, creative, "Hey, Doll, isn't this a school night?" opener, it takes him less that 150 words to convince her to spend the night. This thread seems extraneous although perhaps he was trying to show the protagonist as a master salesperson.

Teens get a voice in how Dakota County libraries can serve them - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 30 Sep 2009 03:15 AM PDT

Bell Myran is full of ideas.

The Rosemount teenager talks of reading to younger kids and teaching senior citizens computer skills at the local library. She chats enthusiastically about establishing a Web page of book reviews written by and for local teens.

"If they want to read a book, and they want to know how it is, they can read the review and see if they'd like the book or not," Myran, 15, said.

The Rosemount High School student is a member of the fledgling Teen Advisory Group at the Robert Trail Library in Rosemount.

At a time when teen interest in the libraries is surging -- Dakota County saw its young adult circulation numbers rise 11 percent this year, even when excluding the new Robert Trail Library -- the county library system launched the Rosemount group and two others in August. The goal: to build even more interest among teens by giving them a voice in decisions about book selection, programming and even interior design.

"We want their input on how the library can help teens," said Kalla Kalloway, teen services manager for the Dakota County libraries.

In addition to the Rosemount group, others meet monthly at the Farmington Library and the Wentworth Library in West St. Paul.

In Minneapolis, similar teen discussions led to the creation of Teen Central in the downtown Central Library. That's a teen-only space with distinctive red shelving, a study lounge vibe and an array of books selected, in part, by the teens.

"The only way that you're really going to plan things that kids are interested in is to get them involved," said Teen Central librarian Christy Mulligan.

Linda Braun, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, said teen advisory groups are as helpful to teens as they are to the libraries.

"A lot of it has to do with engagement and fostering creativity and empowerment and self-esteem," Braun said.

Microsoft trims MVP benefits, allows shareholders say on executives ... - ZDNet Blogs

Posted: 21 Sep 2009 02:18 PM PDT

Microsoft trims MVP benefits, allows shareholders say on executives' pay

Posted in:

Azure
Corporate strategy
Management tools
Red Dog
Utility/cloud computing
Windows client

Instead of trying (and failing) to do full blog posts on the many different Microsoft news bits I've read recently, I decided to do a quick link list. Here are a few new items that might be of interest: Microsoft is trimming some of the benefits it is offering to participants in its Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program, no doubt due to cost-cutting measures affecting the company overall. In a note to MVPs (posted on the ActiveWin.com site), Microsoft claims to be "expanding our investment in the MVP Award Program" with a new online MVP portal coming next year. But in the same note, officials acknowledge that they are cutting a number of the "less significant" benefits, as of October 1, including Company Store (MVP Bucks), E-Academy, E-Reference Library and MS Press Book Reviews. The worldwide MVP conference is not cancelled; it's on for mid-February 2010 (but in Redmond/Bellevue, not in Seattle). Microsoft is allowing shareholders to have a formal say about its executives' compensation. In Microsoft's case, the "say on pay" input will be collected once every three years. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just got a 4 percent raise for fiscal 2009, by the way (not counting bonuses). Microsoft is one of a growing list of public companies adopting the say-for-pay provision. The first nonbinding vote on executive compensation happens in conjunction with this year's shareholders' meeting on November 19. Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky is slated to release a book later this year, co-authored with Harvard management professor Marco Iansiti that will offer insights into how to make a large organization not just survive, but thrive. The book will be published by John Wiley & Sons. Think of it a detailed analysis of Microsoft's Windows client unit -- which Sinofsky reorganized and pruned in order to get Windows 7 done in a timely way and to create the groundwork for future Windows releases. (TechFlash's Todd Bishop found a Barnes & Noble listing for the forthcoming title, -- tentatively named "One Strategy!" and due November 28. Microsoft has made available another piece of its Azure cloud platform puzzle: The Azure management API. The API is meant for developers who need to deploy and manage the compute and storage components of the Windows Azure operating system. The Azure management API is REST-based and will allow developers to code against in their toolset of choice to manage their services.

posted by Mary Jo Foley
September 21, 2009 @ 11:10 am

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