• The cost of writing fiction versus nonfiction
• Three things to consider when deciding how long your posts should be
• 100 useful web tools for writers
• Slate even has a reading list.
• Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs
• 100 Sites Entrepreneurs Should Visit
• 20+ free press distribution sites
• 16 great personal finance resources and blogs. If you know of good ones from a business POV, please comment. These are hard to find (not interested in stocks).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Cell phones and popcorn… what happens? Watch the video.
• Pipl: Search for folks by name and location. OK, maybe it’s not so fun when you think about big brother… but people will find other ways if it weren’t for this site.
• Budget Travel: Real deals sorted by region and other categories like “girlfriend getaways.” Just makes me want to go somewhere!

• Design of Desire: On Thanksgiving, my daughter was talking to a family friend about her interest in psychology as a college major. We learned from one of the relatives that she knows a psychology who works at a major retailer who studies buying motivations. Fascinating!
• Best cell phone deals from Consumer Reports: I’m ready to terminate my cell phone service as my provider’s data coverage is unacceptable. This article covers options for those who want to terminate early plus other advice.
• The 56 geeks
• Fimoculous lists for 2007: I’ve looked forward to checking out this site every year for the past few years.
• WOWIO: Free books + free minds. Not obscure stuff either. Edgar Allan Poe, Dr. Seuss, Vonnegut, 20,000 Leagues… The books are legal copyrighted ebooks from publishers.
• 15 cool word illusions: Exercise those peepers.
• The Toys of Our Childhood

I wasn’t impressed with the Foleo when Palm first announced the product. The company believed it was introducing a new line of products known as the mobile companion. The Foleo is a $499 laptop for a smartphone. Well, Palm wised up and canceled the Foleo — a move that came a little too late.

Surprisingly, a few third party developers already created applications for the Foleo. If porting to Linux is easy, let’s hope these companies didn’t spend much time creating a Foleo-compatible version of their software.

I’m not against Palm and I hope the company survives the disaster. In fact, I still prefer Palm OS devices to Windows Mobile and am rooting for the company to come out with a new device to take Palm to the next level.

Finally. It took one month, 46 email messages, and two visits to the store to resolve a problem with my Sidekick II. The solution wasn’t complicated, but I can’t honestly say it would’ve worked had I not got a new SIM card.

SMS (short message service) had not been working for months, but I didn’t notice because I rarely sent SMS messages. A friend of mine tried to send me one when we were meeting, but I never got it. I tried sending her a test message and it never went through. So I sent one to Paul who also has a Sidekick II with the same service and it timed out.

I used to get an SMS with the question of the day and that’s what clued me in that I had not received one for months. I thought I had unsubscribed to the service, but it started coming back as soon as SMS worked again.

I emailed T-Mobile about the problem as I figured we could solve it by email and save a trip to the store. The techs (I worked with multiple techs) had me do different things like check the network, manually scan the network, and change the phone number to the service. Nothing worked.

The emails were annoying. Every single one started with major sucking up and yadda yadda about commitment to resolving my problem and how they valued me. I’ve copied and pasted some phrases so you can see they’re overdoing it especially when almost every one of those 46 emails had the same sickeningly sweet phrase.

So they suggested I go to the store and test the SIM card. The store I went to couldn’t do that, so the staff replaced the SIM card and said it would take up to 24 hours to kick in.

Two days passed… I went out of town… came back and almost a week passed and it was not working. I started emailing the service again and it was taking too long to resolve, so I went to the store on Monday. The SIM card number was incorrectly entered into the system. When the staff tried to correct the number, the system refused to take it.

Out with the new and in with another new SIM card. The Sidekick II worked immediately. Still no SMS, though. Everything else was working again. So it was back to square one when all this started. I exchanged a few emails with the techs and finally, we resolved it by deselecting one of the options.

The question of the day started arriving again. I sent SMSes without any problems. Huzzah! 46 emails and one month to break the device, get it working, and fix the original problem.

It must’ve been a bad month for our family as my daughter stupidly dropped her Sidekick II into the sink full of water. Paul’s new Sidekick II carrier (that I bought in my first store visit since his old one was torn) lost its button within a couple of days (he got a replacement yesterday).

The emails with the sugary messages with my comments between each email so you know how much they wrote in one email:

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to assist you with your issue. We understand that you are having issues with your text messaging. We can see how this can be very frustrating but we can help.

[Meryl here, OK that's the first one and it's fine...]

I understand from your e-mail that you have been unable to receive text messages on your Sidekick II. I know how important it is to ensure you have access to all of the features on your device and to further assist you with your request, I have transferred your issue to our Technical Care group. You should receive a response within 24 hours and thank you for your patience.

[Transfer... there were quite a few transfer messages, but at least they acknowledged the reply]

We do appreciate that you took the time out of your busy schedule to write us in regards to not being able to send and receive text messaging from your Sidekick. We apologize for the inconvenience. However, we can definitely help you.

We know that it can be frustrating when you are busy and you are unable to reach your valued contacts, friends and family by text messaging. We know that previous technical representatives have provided you a number of troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately, the problem is still there. We thank you for your patience.

You are a valued customer and we want you to know that T-Mobile appreciates your business.

[By now, I'm getting tired of these...]

I would be more than happy to assist you today however I am unqualified to assist you with your technical needs. To better assist you with your question, we have transferred your issue to our Technical Care group. You should receive a response within 24 to 72 hours. Again I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

[Another transfer...]

Thank you for your patience, and for taking the time to contact T-Mobile about your text messaging problem. It’s a nice phone and we are sorry that you have had to write about this, it can often be quite frustrating. We are more than pleased to assist you.

We have done some work on the server here for you on your message queue. If you are still unable to send a text message to yourself, there are some things we need to know so that we can sort this out.

We appreciate the time you too to write to us for assistance with your text messages. We will assist you to get your messaging working properly, with your assistance and kind reply to this message. You are a valued customer and we are happy we could be of assistance. Keep in mind that we are here to answer any questions or concerns 24 hours a day 7 days a week for your convenience.

[Notice they're getting longer as my problem continued unsolved? I'll stop here as you get the idea.]