[joho] JOHO January 14, 2002
- From: "David Weinberger" <self@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <joho@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 15:30:13 -0500
JOHO
Journal of the
Hyperlinked Organization
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January 14, 2002
Editor: David Weinberger (self@xxxxxxxxxxx)
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To view this issue correctly, please use a
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+--------------------------------------------------+
| CONTENTS |
| |
| POSSUM SITES: Sites whose existence proves |
| there's hope yet. |
| |
| A WORLD WITHOUT GRAY: WHY CUSTOMER SUPPORT |
| SUCKS: We know how to help one another, if the |
| lawyers -- and fear -- would just get out of |
| the way. |
| |
| HOW TO TELL A GOOD IDEA: There are lots of ways |
| a good idea can be good without being successful |
| |
| ANALS OF MARKETING: Dumbness from my marketing |
| colleagues |
| |
| WHY SEARCH ENGINES HAVE GOTTEN TOO GOOD: For |
| once we're not whining |
| |
| PHOTOPLAY.: Dept. of Go To Hell and Rowling Weds |
| Scarily |
| |
| TWO END OF YEAR THOUGHTS: A Christmas for |
| Everyone and the Sentimental Existentialist |
| |
| LINKS: Your idea of a good time |
| |
| EMAIL: Your usual fabulous email |
| |
| BOGUS CONTEST: What not to say to a VC |
+--------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------+
IMPORTANT ADMINISTRATIVE NOTICE
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+------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------+
| SMALL PIECES: THE DRUMBEAT |
| |
| This has been a fun week for Small Pieces |
| Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web (my |
| upcoming book) because the blurbs were due in. |
| Since, unlike reviews, blurbs are always |
| positive, I got to live for a few days as if |
| the book isn't going to destroy my career, |
| reputation and ability to reproduce. I am |
| forcing myself to overcome my carefully |
| cultivated false modesty. Here is the blurb |
| that's going on the cover: |
| |
| "In the tradition of Marshall McLuhan, David |
| Weinberger has offered a startlingly fresh look |
| at a new medium. At its heart, Small Pieces is |
| an elegant and ultimately hopeful inquiry into |
| the human condition itself. Once you read this |
| book, you'll see the web - and yourself - in a |
| whole new light." |
| |
| Daniel H. Pink, author of Free Agent Nation |
| |
| It's amazing what you can accomplish through |
| the judicious application of vodka and hookers. |
| |
| Meanwhile, the book is available for pre-orders |
| at Amazon where it currently resides at |
| position #1,956,111, thus edging out such |
| titles as Bryostephane Steereana: A Collection |
| of Bryological Papers Presented to William |
| Campbell Steere on the Occasion of His 80th |
| Birthday (#2,101,446) and Lourdes |
| Gomex-Franca's El Nino de Guano (#2,107,076), |
| but outranked by the popular Burley Packwood's |
| Bird Turd Peppers and Other Delights. Yeah, |
| well, if I wanted to sell out like that whore |
| Packwood, my book could be #1,467,919, too. |
+--------------------------------------------------+
NEWS FLASH: LUUUUUUB .... DUUUUUBYA: See the online
version for breaking news about Dubya's fainting
spell:
http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-jan14-02.html#lub
------------------------------------
POSSUM SITES
A few years ago, I saw a possum creeping along the
sidewalk in the Boston semi-suburb where I live. I
was thrilled beyond reason -- although it's since
occurred to me that it may really have been a large
mother rat having nursing difficulties -- not
because I'm crazy about possums but because it means
it's survived us. The wild has managed to find some
unpaved cracks. I feel the same way about Google.
There are some sites that I love beyond reason
because they have survived the commercial invasion
of the Internet. They have maintained the spirit
that transformed the Net from a fail-safe
information interchange highway into the world of
excess and generosity that makes it so appealing.
Google The Good is perhaps the most obvious of
them all. Beyond its awesome technology --
searching three billion pages in under a second
strips the scales at which human understanding
works -- it over and over again reminds us why
the Web is so cool. From the wry humor that
imbues their voice to the constant innovation to
the straightforward way they handle ads, Google
is just damn cool.
While a thousand variations on enabling
conversations occurred around it, UseNet has
continued to meet the basic Net need to talk in a
semi-persistent space. Thank goodness Google --
yes, them again -- picked up DejaNews' database
so that the persistence of UseNet has gone from
days to decades.
Every time I have a technical question, my faith
in the Net is renewed. For example, at hundreds
-- or is it thousands? -- of sites for
programmers, there are code samples and
discussion boards. Problems that ten years ago
would have taken me weeks to solve I can now
resolve in minutes by reading what someone much
smarter than me has taken his or her time to
write.
Arts & Letters Daily (www.aldaily.com) pulls
together mainstream and obscure sources in a no-
frills way. Aggregation without aggravation.
You undoubtedly have your own favorite sites of this
sort. My point is not to tell you what's on my
favorites list, fascinating though that would be.
Rather, these are sites and services that, for me,
go beyond useful. They stand for something more:
like a possum on a suburban sidewalk, they tell us
that despite our culture's best efforts, some of the
original spirit will always survive.
------------------------------------
A WORLD WITHOUT GRAY: WHY CUSTOMER SUPPORT SUCKS
I called RCN a year ago shortly after they installed
my brand new cable modem account. "Look," I said to
the customer service rep, "I know your support stops
where your wire stops, but I just spent 5 hours
trying to get my Linksys-based home network running
again and I'm wondering if you can tell me if it can
be done."
"Sure," said the rep, cheerily. "I have one at
home."
"Great! Is there some trick to getting it to work?"
"Um, yes, but I can't talk with you about it."
"But there's some one thing I have to do?"
"Yup."
"Can't you just blurt it out?"
"These calls may be monitored."
"Ok, I understand that, and, for the record, you've
been great and have followed the guidelines. Is
there a Web page that talks about how to do it?"
"Not that I know of."
"Can you email me the trick?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to help you with
this."
Obviously, this rep was going out on a limb just by
saying that RCN cable can be home-networked via
Linksys. It was RCN's fault that the call went
wrong. Their message that "This call may be
monitored for quality assurance purposes" should say
"We may listen in to make sure our reps aren't using
their own judgment. Remember, here at RCN Customer
Support, Job #1 is protecting ourselves."
The problem isn't just that companies are afraid of
the legal implications of going beyond the smallest
range of responses. It's that the legal system has
scared the gray out of the system. Had the rep said,
"Look, we don't officially support home networking
and there's nothing in the RCN playbook about this,
but I have one at home, and here's something you
might try..." I would have understood -- from the
words and their context -- that this isn't an
official RCN tip. Our language accommodates
conditionals and qualifiers. Our legal system
doesn't.
Even better, I wish RCN had set up a customer-to-
customer support board. I'd be happy to share the
solution I eventually stumbled across through
brownian motion: turn off PPPoE. And I bet the
support guy would have already logged on from home
with step-by-step instructions on how to get a home
network going.
[PS: As of last week, RCN Support answers questions
about home networking with the Linksys box.]
------------------------------------
HOW TO TELL A GOOD IDEA
"Innovation" is one of those perpetually sunny
words. You can't go wrong with innovation. An
innovative company is a good one. The phrase "He's
too innovative" has never been uttered. Even
companies that are highly successful at what they do
carry with them the impression of being boring if
they are perceived as not being innovative.
But, of course, innovation -- the generating of new
ideas -- is only so universally applauded because
the term itself glosses over the fact that the vast
majority of new ideas are bad. In fact, ideas form a
predictable curve [as illustrated in the online
version.]
Given that the way to have a good idea is to have
lots of bad ones (as someone said, and as was
reported by Tom Kelley of IDEO, author of The Art of
Innovation at a conference I was at recently), the
question is what's the difference between a good
idea and a bad one. Kelley gives one type of answer:
a good idea is one that customers embrace. So,
parade your ideas in front of them and see which
ones they actually like.
But there's another type of answer. We can ask what=20
ideas are good *at*. Some ideas are good, even=20
though customers would hate them, because they lead=20
to other ideas. Some ideas are good because they=20
break a logjam of thought and enable a roomful of=20
people to strike out in other directions. Some ideas=20
are good because they are superb elaborations of a=20
bad idea, and in thinking through how the idea went=20
wrong, we identify an assumption that was stumping=20
us. And some ideas are good because they're so=20
obviously bad that they save you the bother of=20
wandering down a dead end.
When a company claims to value innovation, the=20
telling question is what they count as a good idea.=20
If the single criterion is that the idea is embraced=20
by customers, then the company doesn't really value=20
innovation; it really only values success.=20
------------------------------------
ANALS OF MARKETING
Ah, just in time to close out the old year I get
this brilliant bit of marketing from FHM, one of the
burgeoning NNN ("Naked, No Nipples") men's
magazines:
You've been chosen as one of the select few to
receive this exclusive invitation...
Why you? Because we've gotta pretty good hunch
you're just the kind of man we're looking for.
Someone who loves beautiful women. Loves great
clothes. Loves new gadgets. And loves getting the
most out of life.
Why not come right out and say it: "Our research
shows that you're a serious masturbator."
Sorry, pal, but if I want dirty pictures, I know a
newsgroup or two that'll pitch in for free.
----
From http://dpsftp.sourceforge.net/about.html:
=20
DPS-FTP is a multi-threaded FTP client for GNOME.
It was originally called Kevlar FTP, since its
interface was inspired by Bulletproof FTP, and
Kevlar is bullet-proof. But DuPont actually sent
me a notice telling me that I can't use their
trademarked product names in my product name. They
were generous enough to allow me to say that my
product contains Kevlar, however. After explaining
to them that, being software, my "product" does
not contain Kevlar, and that I'm not making any
money from the "product", they still would not let
me use it. So, I renamed the program to DuPont
Sucks FTP, or DPS-FTP.
[Thanks to T. Byfield for pointing this out on a
mailing list.]
------------------------------------
WHY SEARCH ENGINES HAVE GOTTEN TOO GOOD
1. RECURSIVE SEARCHING RECURSING
Doc Searls writes:
Dave points out how a Google search for
"intelligent Weblogs" goes to an "interesting
place." So I thought I'd search for "smart
weblogs" and hit the "I'm feeling lucky"
button. At first I though there was some kind
of problem, but it turns out I really am lucky.
Incredibly lucky, in fact. And I mean that
literally.
Dave then blogs Doc's blog:
Doc discovered how insightful Google can be.
Not!
I then go to Google and try Doc's search string --
"smart weblogs" -- to see what the fuss is about and
hit the "I'm feeling lucky button." Where does it
take me? Back to Doc's blog entry where he talks
about how amusing it is if you enter "smart weblogs"
at Google and hit the "I'm feeling lucky button."
2. GOOGLE THE GOOD, PART WHATEVER
John Loverso has found an undocumented command that
lets us ego-search UseNet while excluding our own
messages:
loverso -author:loverso
Another correspondent on the mailing list where John
produced this info, Anton Sherwood, refined it so
that you don't exclude messages from other people
named "Loverso":
loverso -author:jloverso@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Note to the Dumb: This works with names other than
Loverso.
------------------------------------
PHOT0PLAY [Deferred Version]
1. DEPT. OF THANKS A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT
Go to the online version to see a screen capture of
an XP help screen that is no help at all.
2. ROWLING WEDS!
Go to the online version to see some startling tell-
all photos of J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry
Potter series, and her new husband.
------------------------------------
TWO END OF YEAR THOUGHTS
1. A CHRISTMAS FOR EVERYONE
Christmas is too cool a holiday to confine it to
Christians. We ought to reformulate it as a secular
two-day holiday, Dec. 24-25. On the 24th, we'd all
decorate our homes with lights, reflect on peace,
get together with the family, exchange presents,
drink eggnog, kiss strangers under mistletoe, etc.,
simply because those are fun things to do near the
Solstice. It'd have nothing to do with Jesus,
mangers or myrhhhhh. Then, on the 25th, the
Christians could celebrate Christ's birth by going
to church, praying, and engaging in activities more
spiritual than whining about misfired gifts before
heading out to an afternoon movie. The rest of us
would have a second day off.
So, my new bumpersticker is: "Let's get the Christ
out of Christmas." In fact, let's call the new two
day federal holiday "Mas." Got the Spanish
connection and everything.
2. THE SENTIMENTAL EXISTENTIALIST
Being your completely predictable liberal, humanist
type of person, my initial reaction to the article
in the Boston Globe listing the notables who died
in 2001 was: How terrible to have your life reduced
to a single phrase! For example:
* "Robert Rimmer raised eyebrows with 'The Harrad
Experiment,' a novel about contemporary sexual
relationships."
=20
* "Christopher Hewett played 'Mr. Belvedere.'"
=20
* ..."actor-puppeteer Lewis Arquette..."
What rich lives are thus reduced to a short string
of words. How sad! How wise and compassionate a
person I must be to be bothered by this! Yada yada
existential yada.
Of course, what's really bothering me is that I
haven't done enough with my life to be able to
reduce it to a four-word phrase. Yes, I'm suffering
from a classic case of Obituary Envy.
------------------------------------
LINKS
The folks behind Media Grok have reemerged with
Media Unspun. This is from their FAQ:
What is Media Unspun?
=20
It's a new newsletter published by the team
that produced Media Grok for the Industry
Standard. Now, as then, our goal is to keep our
readers up to date on the most important
business news, show how different news outlets
interpret the same information in different
ways, and, if we're lucky, entertain you.
The first two articles in this weekly send are about
the Democratic probe of Enron and the media's sudden
enthusiasm for Nasdaq. In March, it will become a
daily
for-pay publication. I'll be subscribing.
Welcome back! You've been missed!
----
Tom Matrullo has a superb piece on journalism and
weblogs:
http://doc.weblogs.com/2001/12/31#howManyBloggersCanDanceOnTheHeadOfALin
k
Tom is replying to a thread begun by the Weblog
King of Questions, Mike Sanders.:
http://keeptrying.blogspot.com/2002_01_01_keeptrying_archive.html#840252
6
----
RageBoy, in an email, points to an entertaining book
review by Jim Holt in the NY Times. The book,
Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a 10-Minute
Argument Between Two Great Philosophers by David
Edmonds and John Eidinow, provides the context for a
famous encounter between Wittgenstein and Karl
Popper in 1946. The book sounds excellent, the
review is very well done, and -- as Chris points out
-- be sure not to miss the snarky last line.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/30/books/review/30HOLTLT.html
----
Jack Vinson writes:
So, I was listening to our local college radio,
where they talk too much and play good music. The
particular duo I enjoy are Michael Stephen and
Producer Nick. Michael has his own cheesy
website, and they were joking that Producer Nick
doesn't have his own site. As it turns out, there
is a producernick.com. He is apparently a Berklee
music student who really likes Britney Spears.
Check out his "hit song": "I Want to Be Britney
Spears' Boyfriend."
http://www.beherboyfriend.com/
I found it quite amusing for the first 1.5 minutes
and then it degenerates into a repetitive techno-
groove (or whatever the kids today would call it).
But I do enjoy people declaring their songs hits
regardless of how many people have heard them. (Um,
JOHO also is now a huge hit. Huge! Big pat on my own
back!)
----
Chris Pirillo's Lockergnome (www.lockergnome.com)
recommends a compelling download: Anti Mosquitoes
v1.10b, a 261K app that causes your sound card to
emit a sound mosquitoes find repellent.[Insert your
own joke here about whatever musical group you don't
like.] Chris hasn't tried it and neither have I; as
Chris says, this is "for those of you who've already
downloaded everything."
http://download.thaiware.com/program4/antimos.zip
By the way, Chris's blog is as spunky as he is.
Gretchen Pirillo's blog is also worth reading; she
and Chris are wife and husband.
http://chris.pirillo.com/
http://gretchen.pirillo.com/
----
From Ted Anderson, perhaps in response to our
article on Andrew Clark's book Being There: Putting
Mind, Brain and World Together:
Yesterday I found "Creation: Life and how to Make
it"[0] by Steve Grand[1] at the library and
started reading it. Steve is apparently the
creator of a popular (at least in some circles?)
game for growing critters, A-Life style[2]. I know
nothing about the game, but this book is about
some philosophical thoughts he had along the way.
Seems pretty good so far, but I'm only 50 pages or
so into it. He is pretty definite that
intelligence does not not come from knowledge
representations.
[0]
http://www.cyberlife-research.com/people/steve/creation.htm
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/GRACRE.html
[1] http://www.cyberlife-research.com/people/steve/
[2] http://www.creaturelabs.com/
----
Gary Stock writes, pointing us to an article called
"50 things we'll be glad to see the back of in
2002":
Half of these I just don't get.
Half of the remainder are not funny.
Half of the remainder are sort of funny.
Half of the remainder are really funny.
The remaining half-dozen are very, very funny.
http://www.observer.co.uk/2001review/story/0,1590,625747,00.html
Gary, who really should start his own weblog, also
refers us to the first review at Amazon of the
children's classic, The Story of Ping:
"...As good as it is, The Story About Ping is not
without its faults. There is no index, and though
the ping(8) man pages cover the command line
options well enough, some review of them seems to
be in order. Likewise, in a book solely about
Ping, I would have expected a more detailed
overview of the ICMP packet structure..."
Gary points out that the review is not only helpful,
it's durn popular: "4412 of 4511 people found the
following review helpful..."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140502416
------------------------------------
EMAIL, BASELESS ALLEGATIONS, AND CRUMPLED ENVELOPES
FROM CAVES
A former West Pointer who wants to remain anonymous
writes our article praising the Point's
collaborative feel:
Although I wasn't IN the Army, I was an Army brat
for 21 years, and can support your findings on
the team orientation. 'Lone wolves' (Patton &
Macarthur being exceptions) are generally not
rewarded. Smart leaders make decisions based on
team input -- I think we're seeing some reports
of that on SF operations in Afghanistan, where
rank isn't as important as
function/skills/talents.
Someone who signs himself Tom Sawyer writes:
I read with interest your article re: West Point
as I am an 1986 graduate and my wife is a 1988
graduate.=A0I am occasionally disappointed with the
reputation that West Point and the military gets
because I sense that that reputation is more a
result of Hollywood anachronism or lack of
knowledge/exposure.=A0 When I was at West Point, I
was amazed by the amount of respect that I got
from those that outranked me and that experience
continued in the active duty military. Rank
definitely comes with perks but it also comes
with responsibility, and that fact was never lost
on me.=A0 For example, as an active duty infantry
lieutenant, I always ate last when we were out in
the field.=A0 That way if we ran out of food, I
knew that my soldiers were well fed.=A0 As a
leader, I was taught that the soldiers welfare
always came first. While you make a good point in
your message board about now extrapolating your
West Point experience onto the entire Army, much
of what happens at USMA carries through to the
rest of the Army.
I'm assuming that Tom Sawyer is a pseudonym,
although of course I could be wrong. After all, I
met someone named Bonnie Lass last week. That's her
real name. I'm less certain about a mailing I just
received from the head of a site for West Point
alumnae, cadets and their families. His name is Dick
Breakiron.
----
John Carrow isn't afraid to use his real name
however, and he's CIO of Unisys:
...As a 1966 grad of West Point, I can tell you
that despite the issues of Viet Nam that divided
the pacifists from the patriots in uniform, the
style of cooperation and sharing of ideas to
create a better outcome is fundamental to the
West Point and military life.=A0 I do think that
rank and position has been established for
control, but ideas and collaboration are rank
neutral.
----
Tom Armour (now there's a name for a West Pointer!)
didn't much care for the Clinton speech I
recommended:
So, you thought Clinton gave a hell of a speech the
other day, eh? I read it...most of it anyway...and I
think it was shallow and tedious.
=20
This isn't:=20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28472-2001Dec26.html
The article Tom points to -- "Finding the Koran's
Truth" by Kevin Hasson -- swings at relativists:
"The truth about man is that man is born to seek
freely the truth about God. It is this truth -- and
not some metaphysic of doubt -- that bestows on us
the dignity that guarantees our freedom."
But this glides over the hard part: Either Jesus is
the Messiah or he isn't. Either the way to God is
through Jesus alone or it isn't. Either
non-Christians roast in hell or we don't. One can
say "The truth about man is that man is born to
seek freely the truth about God" as loudly as one
wants. And I won't argue with it. But when the
modernist chest-beating is done and we're feeling
all dignified and everything, we then face the
question: So, what is this truth I've heard so much
about? When two religions freely embrace
*different* truths about God, what do we do? Do we
say that one group is wrong and thus follows a
lesser religion, one that keeps its people from
seeing the light that leads to goodness and eternal
life, and maybe a jihad or a crusade would really
be in the best interest of the heathens who don't
even know they need to freely embrace the true
truth?
This is obviously a hugely hard problem. But the
Post article buries the problem by going up a level
where religions can seem to agree on a meta-truth:
"Well, at least we all agree that humans are on a
spiritual quest." Ok, but that isn't sufficient to
enable us to share the planet if religions are
universalist, that is, if they claim to know truths
that hold for all humans... and if you disagree,
then you're wrong, unenlightened, heathen, and
doomed.
I am now officially over my head, but let me point
to what I understand to be the Jew's way out of this
dilemma. (I am not religious. My wife is orthodox.)
First, rather than talking about relativism, which
in most formulations works out to conflating truth
with belief, Jews talk about revelation as an
historical event granted to particular people at
particular times: God revealed Himself one way to
the Jews at Sinai and in another way to the
Christians through the life of Jesus. (Yeah, I know
there were no Christians at the time.) Second, we
treat revelation as a process: revealed texts cannot
be understood without disputatious human
interpretation.
This allows each religion its own views without
reducing any to mere belief (for the views are based
on divine revelation). Of course, since it is
monotheistic, it doesn't permit there to be
contradictory revelations: If a religion comes along
with commandments that say that it's good to rip the
hearts out of the innocent, I suppose Jews would
have to claim that it's based on a spurious
revelation. But the optimistic claim is that the
world's true religions are compatible ... if they
would drop their universalist claims.
[Ten points extra if you can spot where I beg the=20
question in that final paragraph.]
----
Amos doesn't like the following bit from a previous
issue:
...First, hyperlinked teams form among like-
minded people -- for better or worse. Thus, the
strong beliefs of individuals are likely to be
shared. Second, groups form among people who
already like and trust one another -- for better
or worse. Thus, disagreements don't have to
escalate to the "my way or the highway point.
Amos responds
How damned boring and uncreative that the
resolution to the contradiction is getting folks
together who already think alike. Why get them
together -- they already know the answer! And
this doesn't help at all the REAL issue of
working on teams where you've got to deal with
people you don't like and don't agree with and
don't respect, and this is not just a matter of
knee-jerk slamming of hierarchical top-down
imposition that doesn't get It. (God, whatever It
is...)....
Touting these hyperlinked organizations they way
you have only promotes isolation and does nothing
to address this fear of others. In fact, it
reinforces behavior that engenders the fear.
I take issue with the "only" in Amos' last sentence.
My use of the phrase "for better or worse" was
intended to recognize that there are drawbacks to
letting teams self-organize. That's something teams
need to deal with it. (I.e., Amos is right.)
----
Peter Merholz, writer of the damn fine peterme blog
(http://peterme.com/), points us to a better-than-
mine discussion of the question of teams vs.
individuals, and then throws in a few more excellent
links:
So, a couple of your pieces lead me to send you
some links of which you're likely already aware,
but p'raps are not...
TEAMS VS. INDIVIDUALS I don't know if you read
Phil Agre's Red Rock Eater, but he's been talking
up a talk given at the last P2P conference by
Nelson Minar:
http://www.nelson.monkey.org/nelson-talks/oreilly-centralization/
that begins to move away from the ideological
extremism of centralization-
bad/decentralization- good.
I don't know if you're familiar with a fellow NPR
contributor, Geoffrey Nunberg, who does short
snippets for Fresh Air on the current state of
language.
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/Nunberg.html
He's recently done a piece on blogging:
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/blog.html
(sadly, not giving me credit for coining the
term... sigh) and has done a piece on the word
"like," that your "so," piece reminded me of
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/like.html
----
Craig Allen comments our piece on the use of So as
a way to start an oral discourse:
...always though the 'so' verbal tic was a NYC
Jewish cultural artifact that I picked up back in
the 70s when I lived in Park Slope.
I think that must have been the translation of "Nu."
----
An anonymous commenter weighs in on our article
about the Web being horizonal, whatever the hell
that means:
ya know, i completely agree with them horizontal
stuff, but feel strongly that it should be "a
Hegelian."
Are you sure you want to raise this issue? This is
exactly how the Crimean War started.
----
But Anonymous is beaten by a guy from New Zealand
who wins the Nitpick of the Month award:
Just a note about the Strongest possible terms
online article - the 100 families ""in New
Zealand"" are actually in South Africa -
http://www.news24.co.za/News24/Letters/0,1113,2-122_1094392,00.html
Ah, are you sure you're not from New OverZealand?
------------------------------------
BOGUS CONTEST
I was on the road, making the rounds of local
venture capitalists, helping to get a start-up
funded by saying all the right things ... you know,
the things VC's love to hear:
+--------------------------------------------------+
| "There's no marketing slide in this PowerPoint |
| presentation because the product is viral. It |
| sells itself." |
| |
| "This'll be the new new thing." |
| |
| "The product will be really simple for mom and |
| pop to understand. It just requires a paradigm |
| shift." |
| |
| "As this 2x2 shows, we have no competition." |
| |
| "The death of dot coms has been greatly |
| exaggerated." |
| |
| "It's a billion-dollar market. All we have to |
| do is get 1% of the market." |
| |
| "People are just waiting the chance to switch |
| office application suites. Word, PowerPoint, |
| Outlook, Excel ... they're so yesterday." |
| |
| "Then the network effect kicks in!" |
| |
| "Good point, with a free product there's no |
| revenue. But if you amass the names of millions |
| of visitors and track their behavior on your |
| site, that's gotta be worth millions to |
| marketers!" |
| |
| "Microsoft's never been good at this type of |
| software." |
| |
| "Our success in the market will be our defense |
| against Microsoft." |
| |
| "Microsoft is too focused elsewhere to notice |
| this market ... and by the time we penetrate |
| it, it'll be too late." |
| |
| "Could you please hold your comments? The slide |
| isn't done animating." |
+--------------------------------------------------+
Your own contributions would be appreciated.
-----------------
CONTEST RESULTS
Israel Orange responds to our request for
embarrassingly pointless corporate Flash greeting
cards:
While hunting down some drivers for a friend's
flaky hardware wandered onto NEC's website a few
days ago, and the flash animation they threw at
me struck me as "tedious, pretentious, empty and
boring" as you say. Also completely unbearable
and totally hideous and all kinds of other
negative appellations. My god. They truly and
really oughtta shoot the suit that thought this
was a good idea. I volunteer. Meantime, check it
out:
http://www1.nec-online.com/NEC_Computer/NEC/FR/card/devnec.htm
Wow, that's some bad corporate shite! It looks like
it was assembled out of clip art using the My First
Flash kit.
And speaking of hastily assembled shite, it looks
like it's time to close another issue. But remember,
the issue continues, with new postings every day, at
my web log: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger. As they
might say on a cutey-pootey corporate Flash holiday
card: Dew Drop Inn ... to hear the Dude Rappin'?
[Please say this aloud until you discover how durn
clever it is.]
--------------------------------------------------
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