Back in the day, Cory Doctorow fans could hit up the Whuffie Bank to check the health of their tweets. The more retweets, interactions, etc., you had, the better a person you were-- from a whuffie standpoint.

Whuffie is a Doctorowian currency in a post-scarcity world. It was introduced in his fabulous debut novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. You do good things or hang with the right people, and you get noticed. Think of Whuffie as a living like button over your head. Get enough likes and you can do the wildest things. Don't get enough and you have to eat in the corner.

But about two years ago, Whuffie Bank showed signs of petering. At the time, I was operating online solely under the shigzeo nickname. Shigzeo never got out of the corner. I reckon he never will.

Perhaps it was Little Brother's sequel, Homeland, that tipped things against the Whuffie Bank, and Doctorow. Sad. Doctorow opened my eyes to modern speculative/science fiction. No one since has interested me. And now I'm running out of Vonnegut and Dick. And the Whuffie Bank, for all its early efforts, effectively is closed.

And I'm back to writing about cameras and audio.