Dwight Silverman

A popularity contest

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(Last updated 10:49 am CST February 8th, 2022)Who is the most popular fictional character of all time? And how do you measure that popularity? Gene Park, who writes about video games and game culture for the Washington Post, said on Twitter that it’s “arguably” Spider-man. I replied, asking him what he based that on, and suggesting it maybe it’s James Bond, given the books and the longevity of that film franchise. Now, neither of us had done any research, and I was just throwing Bond out there as an example. But I apparently stepped on a fanboy landmine in the … Read more

Iconic Houston store Electronic Parts Outlet struggles in ‘survival mode’

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In Houston, the go-to place to snag hard-to-find electronic components has long been Electronic Parts Outlet. Founded in the mid-1980s, it’s legendary for its parts selection and for its inventory of vintage, even antique, tech. When I set out to do a story about it for the Houston Chronicle, I was amazed that no other media outlet had really covered it in depth. And since I’ve been covering tech in Houston since the early 1990s, a big part of that is my fault. I’m happy to correct that oversight with a story posted online today and scheduled to appear in … Read more

Building a freelance infrastructure with Authory & Spark [Updated]

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(Last updated 3:17 pm CDT October 14th, 2022)Even though I’m kinda retired, I’m still doing some freelance writing. That’s what my resurrected Houston Chronicle column is, and I’ll also be writing occasional, standalone pieces for the paper. Since most of my writing has been for publications, I never spent much time building up an infrastructure for freelancing. Now, I’m fixing that, and I’ve come across a couple of products that help with that. The first is Authory, a paid service that generates a portfolio by pulling your content from all the places it lives on the web and organizing it … Read more