(Oldest item in the email inbox) Way back on June 6th, I noted JobVent Takes Dirt Dishing To a Broader Audience and earlier this week, TechCrunch returned to the genre with New Forum Site To Gossip About Work. I’m not that interested in this class of sites except for the name JobVent. My one early foray into starting my own site back in the late 1990s with a friend was dubbed iVenting, now nicely squatted on by DomainSpade, per DomainTools. Unfortunately, archive.org never caught our short-lived live efforts in 1998 or 1999. Oh well. Our efforts were not focused on jobs or the workplace…just complaining. No surprise, a half-assed effort went nowhere. Lesson: part-time effort isn’t enough.
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Gallery of standards-compliant website designs. I liked this one, although nothing particularly relevant to current needs. Breeze is attractive. And their service might even be useful in the future.
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Back on July 3rd, CNET News.com reported that AT&T offers DSL subscribers free Wi-Fi, but the story didn’t include the critical link to the details. I’m a customer, although my DSL started back in 1998, with PacBell. Through the transition to SBC and then on to AT&T, I’ve stayed under the radar because (a) I didn’t want the Yahoo stuff forced on me (I use it directly, where appropriate) and (b) I got a static IP address way back when. If I start asking questions about new services, I suspect my account will be ‘reviewed’ and that might not be progress. However, I would like more speed and it burned me to pay for Wi-Fi in an airport the other day (T-Mobile). We’ll see.
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Anil Dash pointed out that “Bottled Water Is Still A Scam,” in reaction to the Fast Company story in the July issue. San Francisco’s water supply may be fragile, but it is tasty. Good reminder.
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Steve Yelvington alerted me to another crowdsourcing effort, aimed at astronomy. Reminded me of PhishTank.
If you design a system that accepts the fact that some people will make mistakes, and others may be vandals, but you allow the larger number to define the outcome, then you accommodate the realities of human nature.
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Marc Andreessen delivers the truth in The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 5: The Moby Dick theory of big companies. Nice literary/business mashup, in an enjoyable essay. I’ve been Ahab at least once.
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I haven’t played Tilt SCREAM Pong on my MacBook yet, but I certainly need to download it and try. Via Tim Bray, who also points to a visual definition of The Elephant in the Room. Nice!