Nothing is sacred. Now twitter has phishing, coming as direct messages. Details of twitter-scamming techniques are linked in the above article.

The speculative fiction universe contracted a bit. Gordon Van Gelder's The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is switching to bimonthly publication. 'Rising costs -- especially postal costs -- and the economy put us in a position....

Open source software is, as the software developers say, free, as in free beer and freedom to change yourself. Here is a nice list of software tools for writers. I think many readers will find a treat or two there too. Some easy choices from the list are Open Office Writer, a Microsoft file-compatible word processor (Windows, OS X and Linux). Open Office Calc is an Excel file-compatible spread sheet, though not mentioned, useful for tracking subs).

I've seen much praise for the first item in the list, but haven't tried, yWriter a word processor for writers (Windows only, but I may try it under OS X with VMware Fusion). Another on the list that I know by its good reputation is Scribus (for desktop publishing, Windows, OS X and Linux). NVU (web publishing, Windows, OS X and Linux), seems to be a frozen project, but a bug-fixed version is here at KompoZer.

Also see the earlier post on EtherPad, for collaborating on the web. In the comments you'll see that FFO's artist-in-residence and writer, Richard Ware, found this useful in one of his writing collaborations. This is not open-sourced, but is free to use, presently.

You really ought to be reading Buttersafe. Really.

The NY Times has this article about the transition of NASA to Obama.

No, not naughty words...words and phrases that, according to Lake Superior State University, have been so overused that editors consider them trite. New to the list this year is an emoticon that I must admit I'd never seen: <3 (a heart or love). It looks like less-than 3 to me, but I don't travel often in the emotisphere.

Happy new year from Flash Fiction Online! Some random stuff:

• Wired magazine's 2009 movie guide.
• The website at the end of the universe offers its annual calendar of pulp magazine covers with bikini'ed space babes imperiled by leering space aliens.
• Media predictions about what won't happen.
• Technology predictions for 2009.
• Flash Fiction Online readers' psychic predictions. (No link needed; you know this already.)
• Old Farmer's Almanac long-range weather forecasts.
• Want more stuff? Google had 3,990,000 links for "2009 Predictions."