Joe Wikert's DisruptorFest

Life Hackers – New York Times Magazine

Here’s an interesting article by Clive Thompson that recently appeared in the New York Times Magazine. I found it intriguing because, like most people, my workday is constantly being time-sliced by far too many activities and interruptions.

This article really touched a nerve with me. I’m definitely the guy with all the Post-It Notes spread across his desk. I’m also the one who uses multiple monitors in an effort to widen my virtual workspace surface area. I only hope Microsoft does indeed start building some of these pie-in-the-sky ideas into Windows…

Bookscan -- Week Ending 10/30/05

Here’s a breakdown of the top 750 titles in the computer/tech category for the most recent week:

1. Pearson/Penguin            30%
2. Wiley                             29%
3. O’Reilly                          18%
4. Microsoft Press              12%
5. Osborne/McGraw-Hill        5%

Comparing that to my last Bookscan post for the week ending 9/18, Pearson is down 3 points, Wiley is flat, O’Reilly is up 2 points, Microsoft Press is up 1 point and Osborne/McGraw Hill is flat.

Out of the top 20 titles for the week, Wiley had 9, Microsoft Press had 4, Pearson and O'Reilly each had 3 and Osborne/McGraw-Hill had 1.

Office (and individual Office application) topics remained strong, representing 8 of the top 20 titles.  Programming is next with 3 titles, followed by Windows, QuickBooks and Photoshop, all with 2 each and Mac, PC Hardware and eBay each had 1 title.

A closer look at the Office list shows that Microsoft Press and Wiley each have 4 of the top 8 titles for the week.