In the McSweeney's June update I received today in my inbox:

As you may know, it's been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney's included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000 -- actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn't hit right away, but it's hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there's really no way to absorb a loss that big.

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Are Subconscious Files the origin of Tag Clouds?

This is what the Wikipedia entry for Tag Cloud suggests.

From Douglas Coupland best-seller Microserfs, what could be the first tag cloud, ante-litteram.

My computer's subconscious files continue still to surprise me. Who would have known that these are the words my machine wanted to speak? Well, actually, I know that it's me speaking through the computer, sort of like those really quiet guys who go all nuts when you give them a wooden puppet - ventriloquists - and these aspects of their personalities you didn't even know existed start screaming out.

The first Tag Cloud?

• Welcome to Macintosh
• Carl's Jr.
• Gore-Tex®
• gray metallic Saabs
• Barry Diller KISS
• mini-bars ads for pearls outer space
• manufacture dungeons
• magazine scent strips
• Bell Atlantic
• phone jacks
• F-16
• Calvin Klein
• bourgeois decay images
• Upload
• Sparkletts
• frequent flyer points Oscar de la Renta minimum wage
• flame broiled
• switchbox
• the DMV
• MiG-29
• Han Solo
• Download
• Drive
• Tori Spelling
• Advil
• Rosslyn You jerk
• Kotex
• Langley
• Lee Press-ons

Microserfs
Douglas Coupland. Harpercollins, 1995.