I love those chatty holiday newsletters. The things I discover! We just got Dave and Keri Doering’s year-end missive. Without it, I might never have discovered that Dave has an online radio show, “It’s Never Boring with Dave Doering.”

I knew Dave leads an interesting fannish life. He has been a collaborator and supporter of Keri’s fabulous masquerade presentations. He co-chaired Costume-Con 23 (2005). I’ve covered these things in File 770 over the years.

Now I’ve learned he contributes a broadcast to the “Computer Outlook ‘Radio Talk Show'” distributed online. He covers the computer industry. His next installment is scheduled for January 28. Or click this link and expand the December 2008 archive header so you can reach his December 17 “Industry News and Reviews.”

Dave also has a blog with the same “Never Boring” title. It has only a couple of entries, but I recommend reading his post “Yes, You Can!” for an always-welcome jolt of stfnal optimism:

So when I face the challenge every day about our future–my personal future and our shared future on this planet–I look for the possibilities. Read today’s headline that the end of our civilization is upon us. I say “Yes, there’s challenges and we will overcome these challenges.”

Why? Because despite the appearance of statistics or data to support their positions, naysayers are blinded by three flawed beliefs:

1. Yesterday defines tomorrow.
2. Man is the mistake.
3. We don’t have the resources.

Dave has been a prolific online columnist, too, and Emedialive maintains an archive of Doering columns. Some are intriguing even to a computer novice like me:

Some have questioned the existence of this “long tail,” but recently Universal Music actually demonstrated this effect with music downloads. They selected a mothballed catalog of European recordings (from as far back as the ’60s) and placed them online starting in February 2006. By October, they had a quarter-of-a-million downloads from dedicated fans.

Repurposing older content then has to move from being an interesting idea to part of our mainstream commercial effort.

Isn’t the long-tail effect something the Crotchety Old Fan is harnessing, with his gallery of pulp magazine covers attracting readers to his site?