The
play on the words “made-to-order” in an arts and entertainment
article reminded me of a once-popular practice that got temporarily
scuttled by the same play on words.
At
one time, having things "made-to-order" distinguished both
the buyer and the businesses that catered to individual tastes.
Many companies took pride in advertising products
"made-to-order" for the discriminating customer.
Then, one unkind day, a less-than-respectable outfit advertised
"maid to order" and the game of distinguished tastes was up.
A
similar play on words appeared in an article by William Arnold headed
"Made-to-order for J-Lo" in the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer.
The article reviewed the film "Maid in Manhattan"
starring Jennifer Lopez (often referred to as J-Lo).
Intrigued
by the reversal, I wondered if anyone currently offered made-to-order
products or services.
I typed the phrase in my favorite search engine and,
J-Lo-and-behold, I found several pages of goods and services offered
under those key words.
To
start with, Nature had an article on "Living Tissue Made
to Order".
Some of the other "made-to-order" headings involved
"IBM Think Research", "Linux" (computer operating
system), "Chinese Furniture", "Stylus Sofas",
"It Figures" (custom clay caricatures), "Dream
Catchers" and "FantasyLand" (etched glass from
Thailand).
An
amazing variety of made-to-order products and services appeared on the
first few pages of the Google
search:
vacations in Canada, cancer vaccines, smart materials, birth
announcements, quantum states, gene expression programs, SAT aids,
caftans, morning coats, books from Microsoft Press and a speech to
speech universal translator.
One
particularly intriguing item was headed "Freshman Publishing
Experiment Offers Made-to-Order Newspapers", dated March 9, 1994
and originating at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
The
article starts off with "Imagine turning on a computer, punching
in a few commands, and accessing a newspaper filled with articles on
the topics you're most interested in...". Their purpose was to
explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a personalized newspaper.
In
nine years, that made-to-order idea has multiplied and spread in
several exciting directions.
Not only can you receive personal news as frequently as you
like, you can subscribe to ezines
(electronic magazines) and newsletters that provide the latest
information related to your interests.
If
your interests involve Internet research, you can subscribe to a Daily
Newsletter called "Search Day" and to the weekly
"Search Engine Report".
Search
Engine Watch publishes both, and they keep their readers informed
of the developments involving search tools.
One
could go directly to the Web site for the same information, but the
format and the regularity of the ezine sent via email has an appeal.
You can skim through the headlines, then read particular items
of interest and pass over the rest.
For
similar interests in reference sources, a weekly publication called
the Scout
Report, which is a newsletter published by the University of
Wisconsin, offers a selection of new and recently discovered Internet
resources to researchers and educators.
An
interest in health issues could lead you to subscribe to a "Health
Sciences Institute" letter and to Dr W.C. Douglas's
"Daily Dose".
At this point, you may wonder how one can read all those (and
more).
You don't.
Scan the headlines for topics related to your interests and
concerns, and skim those for relevant information.
Several
other ezines and newsletters provide useful material for
those
concerned with world politics.
Two political newsletters—BuzzFlash
and the Institute for
Public Accuracy --come with headlines that are easy to scan.
With an interest in Middle East politics, you’ll find these
newsletters particularly revealing.
Many
who edit, design or own websites subscribe to a newsletter called Site Pro News.
They publish a daily article and have many tips for Webmasters
and Web page owners.
Getting the news you want without having to go through pages of
irrelevant articles and advertisements can be a great time saver.
The
World Wide Web has enjoyed an unprecedented information explosion.
That along with the technology to make it readily accessible
has made the acquisition of knowledge possible with both ease and
speed.
The made-to-order features aid with the delivery and
organization of the available information.
I
subscribe to two establishment newspaper services and three
independent news sources, and scan all the major headlines at Google's
News Service while waiting for my email to download.
Google has an automatically constructed news summary page that
identifies the most important new stories of the moment and clusters
together articles from different publications.
As
you might expect, the Web has a number of sites with lists of
newsletters that you can subscribe to, creating your own made-to-order
suppliers of information.
Before going on, however, a warning is in order:
make sure that the newsletters you subscribe to have a privacy
policy.
Unless
newsletter publishers guarantee the privacy of the information you
give them, including your email address, you can easily become the
victim of relentless spam campaigns.
If that happens, you'll find your email clogged with so much
unwanted spam that you won't be able to differentiate many of the
newsletters from the spam.
If
you do get spammers' messages, the only solution is to download and
install a program like mail
washer (it's free).
This nifty little program not only keeps a list of blacklisted
addresses, which you can add to, it bounces spam back to its origins
making the sender think he has a bad address.
A
way around this problem is to set up a separate mail account for your
newsletters.
Most of the services, like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Mail.com,
allow you to set up accounts under different aliases.
That way, if you start getting spammed at one address, you can
change accounts for your newsletters.
Most
newsletters have a place at the bottom of their pages for subscribing
and unsubscribing.
If you're changing mail accounts, subscribe to the new account,
and then unsubscribe from the old, simplifying the operation.
You can do this as the newsletters arrive at the mail account
to be discontinued until you’ve re-subscribed to those you want to
continue receiving.
This
advice is especially useful in the event of spammers hijacking an
email newsletter list that includes your email address.
Reported by Caroline White in Dot Journalism in October 2002,
this sort of thing happened to over 20 lists with more than 2 million
email addresses.
Now
for the lists of newsletters:
One
of the most comprehensive archives of newsletters was maintained by NewJour,
a joint effort of academics from several different universities.
Unfortunately, their last update was in December 2002, so some
of the newsletters may no longer be published.
However, more than 90% of the list should still be active.
The
Web has a number of specialized lists of newsletters.
For instance Internet.com
provides an extensive list of newsletters related to Internet
subjects.
You can choose to receive these newsletters in either text or
HTML.
Another
example of a specialized list of newsletters is one for physicists at
the High Energy Physics Information
Centre. Other special interests also have comprehensive lists
available.
To
find the newsletters in your particular field of interest, go to Google
and type in "newsletter chemistry" or "newsletter
history".
I couldn't find a single field, from archaeology to linguistics
to psychology to zoology that didn't have several pages of newsletters
listed.
I've
purposely avoided listing newsletter sources, like Topica, that
basically have product sales in mind.
While many of these newsletters offer useful information, their
overwhelming goal is to sell.
I
have some skepticism, for instance, about one of the health
newsletters that I receive.
While they provide useful, well-researched information, their
choice of material is biased by their own affiliations with
alternative medicine.
Though I believe in alternative medicine, newsletters that
regularly berate the medical establishment while selling alternative
products arouse a certain amount of skepticism.
Keep
in mind that advertisers support the newsletters and make it possible
for us to get plenty of free information.
I have occasionally bought products advertised in newsletters.
Of course, those products or services offered something needed
or wanted.
It’s also pleasing to be able to help support the information
sources that have been so valuable.
They were made-to-order.
The
maid to order play on words may not be so far fetched after all.
Think of the newsletter source as the information hotel and of
the Web as the maid delivering your food for thought.
