California quarterback finalists: Hey, why are we letting out-of-staters choose our California Quarter Design?Some of these are hilarious. Apparently Davis will pick one from the top 5 vote getters.... (Miscellany)

Textism preparing to release Textpattern: Dean Allen announces that he is almost ready to release Textpattern, his long-promised web writing tool (or, if you prefer, CMS). While I'm afraid it will not enable me to write as well as he does (his predictions for 2003 are microstorytelling at its finest), Textpattern offers a feature set that... (Best Practices)

Ethics for software developers: Dave Winer's First Essay of the Year sums up some of the themes he has refined over the last year, partly in discussion/debate with Larry Lessig. One passage that particularly caught my attention was a brief discussion of the ethical issues involved in software development: I strongly believe there are ethical... (Memes)

Killer serial: (Just realized I drafted this on 12/15 but never posted it till today.) Dylan Tweney reports that Stanford is re-publishing facsimiles of the original broadsheet serialization of Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations. A new edition comes out every Wednesday. It's retro tech! Read it or subscribe on Stanford's Dickens site.... (Miscellany)

2003 Bloggie nominations open: Have a favorite undiscovered blog you think deserves more recognition? Nominate it for a Bloggie. I've submitted my nominations. I must say, though, the name of the award is terrible (as is Webby). I like the system used in the entertainment world, wherein the trophy is named after some luminary from... (Weblog Concepts)

Sleepless Planet's call for submissions: Warren Ellis announces SLEEPLESS PLANET in his die puny humans blog, calling it "a one-year-long nonprofit webmagazine about creativity and activism on the web and any other bloody thing I feel like. It pays no money. It provides only the opportunity to show what you do to a wider audience and,... (Miscellany)