alt concepts

Our Publications

News

December 25, 2021 — alt concepts has relocated to Canada! Our websites, publications, and ownership remain the same. For all the details, see the Take Control blog.

May 23, 2018 — We've completely revamped our privacy policy to address GDPR requirements and reflect our current business practices.

April 1, 2018 — After an extended hiatus of 10 years, Interesting Thing of the Day is back, with a redesigned website and new content, starting today. For more information, read Interesting Thing of the Day Turns 15.

May 1, 2017 — alt concepts is delighted to announce that we have acquired Take Control Books from TidBITS Publishing Inc. After writing more than 50 books in the Take Control series, alt concepts founder Joe Kissell has upgraded his title from Author to Publisher. To learn more about this acquisition, read Take Control Books Acquired by Joe Kissell and the Take Control Transition FAQ.

About Us

alt concepts is a digital publishing company run by Joe Kissell and Morgen Jahnke, who share a passion for language and ideas.

Joe is a best-selling author of books and articles on technology topics. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Linguistics, and managed commercial software development before moving into writing and, later, publishing. Joe is a contributing editor of TidBITS and a senior contributor to Macworld. Morgen, our Director of Marketing & Publicity, has many years of experience working in the nonprofit world as a grant writer and event planner, and holds a B.F.A. in Creative Writing. Joe and Morgen lived in Paris for five and a half years, and then in San Diego for nine years, and now reside in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada with their two children and their cat.

About the Name “alt concepts”

Our company name was suggested by our domain name, alt.cc—not the other way around. Back in 1999, Joe was looking for a domain name that was short, easy to pronounce, and easy to spell—and “alt.cc” fit the bill nicely. The other cool thing about “alt” was that it evoked the alt.* hierarchy of Usenet newsgroups—that is, a catch-all for miscellaneous topics that didn’t fit into other categories. Strictly speaking, “alt” isn’t short for anything, and since it is never capitalized in its newsgroup sense, we don’t capitalize it either.

Contact

alt concepts
419 8B-3110 8th Street East
Saskatoon SK S7H 0W2
Canada

+1 (306) 400-6887

Contact Us by Email

Affiliate disclosure: alt concepts is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.