Internet on Steve Hatch's Blog

Write a Subject line!

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:45:35 +0000

I need to break form my passive del.icio.us link-blogging activities to quote a section from 43 Folder on “Writing sensible email messages”

“You can make it even easier for your recipient to immediately understand why you’ve sent them an email and to quickly determine what kind of response or action it requires. Compose a great Â“Subject:Â” line that hits the high points or summarizes the thrust of the message. Avoid Â“Hi,Â” Â“One more thing…,Â” or Â“FYI,Â” in favor of typing a short summary of the most important points in the message”

Earning Money without Patients

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 17:00:51 +0000

Granted it has been a 15 year vesting period and the payout is a partly $1.2 million or E1 million in comparison to other web pioneers, but Tim Berners-Lee finally gets his due with the Millennium Technology Prize from the Finnish Technology Award Foundation.

Great quotes: “Rather than patenting his idea for the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee and colleague Robert Cailliau, working at CERN (the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva), insisted on a license-free technology. If they hadn’t, Berners-Lee says, the Web wouldn’t be the interoperable linkup that it is. “There would have been a CERN Web, a Microsoft one, there would have been a Digital one, AppleÂ’s HyperCard would have started reaching out Internet roots,” he said. “And all of these things would have been incompatible.” (links via MIT Technology Review and Scripting News)

Domain On Hold

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 17:35:26 +0000

Apparently, the hatch.org domain was erroneously marked as being “On Hold” last night.

So if you sent mail to me @ hatch.org in the last few days it probably bounced.

Although, neither I nor Register.com as been able to determine why this happened (the domain did not expired). The very cordial and responsive Register.com support person told me they have corrected the problem, but since the “On Hold” status has already propagated, it’ll be roughly 24-72 hours before the domain appears active to the net.

Stolen Domain Names

Thu, 20 Nov 2003 11:04:50 +0000

It’s appalling to hear that VeriSign (aka Network Solutions | Internic) is STILL letting people steal domain names!

“…it appears that it is still possible to steal domains with the minimum of effort. We have been contacted by the owner of the valuable domain DVDmovies.com who was amazed, only last month, to find that his domain had been moved and registered with another company, without his knowledge.”

“That the registrar at fault was no less than VeriSign – owner of all .com and .net domains – makes it worse. The fact that the company was also recently chastised by the US Appeals Court and ordered to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the owner of Sex.com for wrongly transferring his domain makes it all the more incredible.”

Disposable Email Addresses

Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:38:26 +0000

I order to protect myself from a potential deluge of spam from suspicious service offerings, I wanted to use a disposable email address.

Of course Google turned up a gem, which I had heard of before, but never used called Spamgourmet

Their service is simple, but clever and best of all free! Basically, after you register a valid email address, you can then create a temporary email address, with a limited message forward limit, at any time.

VeriSign Still Sucks

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 11:09:19 +0000

Is there anything else VeriSign can do to demonstrate its hatred of customers? Oh yeah, it certainly can!

However, the BIND community’s emergency response is definitely a gem!

Creative Commons Flash

Wed, 18 Dec 2002 05:12:30 +0000

I finally spent some time checking out the creative commons “get creative” presentation. Very well done. Although, this kind of “creative sharing” has been going on in the Jazz community for sometime without too much friction.

Web-hosting company to buy Trellix – Tech News – CNET.com

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 03:12:43 +0000

Interland is buying Trellix … I wonder what this means for Blogger?

Spammer gets Slashdotted via snail mail

Mon, 09 Dec 2002 02:12:32 +0000

HA! “West Bloomfield bulk e-mailer Alan Ralsky, who just may be the world’s
biggest sender of Internet spam, is getting a taste of his own medicine“

YourMom Surfing

Tue, 05 Nov 2002 06:11:23 +0000

I found this mini-review of YourMom.com: “One shortcoming is worth mentioning, however. The site can take a while to
load, and the intrigue of what dirty jokes lie under the “Fat” category are lost
in the wait. Perhaps yourmom.com should spend a little less time trying to look
like Yahoo, and a little more time being as efficient as the search engine. ” … I guess the site developer is too busy with your mom :-) Doh!

Nigerian Spam

Thu, 24 Oct 2002 01:10:11 +0000

I think it’s scary that, according to this Slate article referencing that Nigerian spam message that you’ve no doubt seen (and deleted) at least once today, “enough people fork over enough cash to sustain an industry that ranks in Nigeria’s top five” … Wow!

A Plan for Spam

Sat, 17 Aug 2002 11:08:31 +0000

Paul Graham has A Plan for Spam … “I think it’s possible to stop spam, and that content-based filters are the way to do it.” Sounds good to me!

Hit Spam companies where it hurts!

Mon, 29 Jul 2002 12:07:09 +0000

Heh … This actually sounds like a good idea … SpamBattle.com : Using cost-per-click search engines to make spammers pay!

Janis Ian speaks out about free music download ;

Wed, 03 Jul 2002 02:07:12 +0000

Interesting article : “Every time we make a few songs available on my website, sales of all the CDs go up. A lot…"

VerisignOff.org : Take back your name from Verisign

Wed, 26 Jun 2002 12:06:51 +0000

What an awesome service: VerisignOff ! — “Network Solutions is a company owned by Verisign that registers and administers top-level domain names for customers throughout the world. These companies engage in a variety of business practices that are, in our opinion, unethical, fraudulent, and calculated to be opaque and unfriendly to consumers. Despite many well-publicized, and in some cases, frankly nefarious, scandals involving these companies, millions of people continue to patronize them as the registrars for their domain names.”

404

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 02:06:32 +0000

File Not Found?

Priceless ;

Thu, 13 Jun 2002 11:06:57 +0000

Ok, maybe you’ve seen this one already, but it’s still “Priceles”

Spamradio

Thu, 13 Jun 2002 06:06:12 +0000

Probably old news, but still funny: “Spamradio: Using a complex arrangement of pipes and funnels we turn the junk mail that we receive into a streaming audio broadcast that can be enjoyed from anywhere on the Internet.”

Will Cable Unplug the File Swappers?

Thu, 13 Jun 2002 05:06:21 +0000

Doh! From BusinesWeek: “New pricing plans for broadband use could make downloading pirated music and movies a prohibitively costly habit”

Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice

Wed, 03 Apr 2002 01:04:01 +0000

Link via MetaKM: “Although communities of practice develop organically, a carefully crafted design can drive their evolution. In this excerpt from a new book, the authors detail seven design principles. The payoff? Knowledge management that works.”

Yahoo Spam Prefs (e.g. Marketing Prefs)

Mon, 01 Apr 2002 02:04:01 +0000

This is a big F-U from Yahoo!

It looks like Yahoo has changed their “Opt-In Marketing Preferences” to assume that everyone wants Spam and phone calls from TELEMARKETERS!

As such, Yahoo has set the “Enroll Me” flag to “YES” on all of your opt-in settings including contacting you via snail mail AND phone (if that information is part of your Yahoo account).

The six degrees of any actor ;

Wed, 06 Feb 2002 04:02:01 +0000

The Oracle says: Pamela Anderson has a Marilyn Monroe number of 3.

Register now to complete your download!

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 06:02:06 +0000

Looks like Download.com is making people register to download … (no more free lunch)

“As a frequent user of Download.com, we recognize that you value the quality and service our site has to offer. In order to continue downloading software for free, we ask that you provide us with some additional information about yourself.”

From: Please Register – Download.com

Network Solutions Love

Tue, 29 Jan 2002 01:01:50 +0000

Rafe Colburn reminisces about Network Solutions “… until I remembered that they are evil, influence purchasing, customer hating, monopolistic scumbags who deserve to be run out of business as rapidly as possible.” Amen Brother!

Today’s Internet Weather

Mon, 21 Jan 2002 02:01:07 +0000

Looks like we’re having a bad weather day on the net …

eBay: The People’s Company

Mon, 26 Nov 2001 02:11:05 +0000

from BusinessWeek: “Meet the People’s Company. Like a democracy, it can be a noisy and unruly place, where citizens sometimes think the folks in charge are numbskulls. But the people’s passion prevails at eBay because the people are firmly in charge.”

Help build a Web Archive of the Sept 11 Attack

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 02:09:01 +0000

FYI: “webArchivist.org is working with The Internet Archive in collaboration with the Library of Congress to identify and archive pages and sites related to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. We want to be sure that there is a solid historical record of this time.”

“We are asking for volunteers to help us identify any web sites or pages that have information or content about the Sep11 Attack. We are especially interested in finding sites by individuals — that record their feelings, experiences or opinions. We are also especially interested in finding non-American sites.”

Terrorism: Web Communities Offer Support

Tue, 18 Sep 2001 12:09:01 +0000

from Utne Reader: “If you ever doubted that online communities can legitimately be called “communities,” the last couple of days should erase any uncertainty. In the wake of Tuesday’s shocking terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, millions of people around the globe have turned to the Web to reach out to others, share their analysis, their anger, and their anguish."

Hybrid E-Mail Worm Loose

Tue, 18 Sep 2001 02:09:00 +0000

FYI: “This worm, named W32/Nimda.A-mm, is dangerously different than virtually all e-mail borne viruses: It can infect a computer when a user simply clicks on the subject line in an attempt to open the innocent-looking e-mail, or visits a Web page housed on an infected server.” “the only workaround is to “Disable Active Scripting” in the Tools/Options/Security menu, which can be accessed from within Outlook or Explorer.” http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,46944,00.html

Comcast and Cox say “See Ya!” to Excite@Home

Fri, 31 Aug 2001 12:08:00 +0000

ouch! this just gets worse! what will our broadband options be?

Excite@Home … “announced today that it has received formal notification
from Cox and Comcast that they will exercise their rights under their
existing distribution agreements with the company to terminate those
agreements effective June 4, 2002. The company is continuing to engage in
discussions with Cox and Comcast concerning alternative arrangements for the
continued provision of the company’s broadband Internet service to
subscribers of Cox and Comcast cable systems. However, there can be no
assurance that such discussions will result in such alternative commercial
arrangements.”
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010831/sff018.html

Anything is possible at Zombo Com!

Fri, 31 Aug 2001 03:08:00 +0000

life is complete now that i’ve found: http://www.zombo.com/

Morpheus Out of the Underworld

Mon, 30 Jul 2001 05:07:09 +0000

this is old news to those in the P2P space, but MusicCity’s Morpheus has already eclipsed Napster on the number of simultaneous users …

From: OpenP2P.com: Morpheus Out of the Underworld [Jul. 02, 2001]

Damn, the Internut never ceases to amaze me

Thu, 26 Jul 2001 03:07:01 +0000

currently you can buy a Webvan stock certificate for $510 on eBay! more here: “Webvan, Drkoop stocks winners–on eBay”

Those annoying X10 Pop-Under Ads

Fri, 08 Jun 2001 01:06:00 +0000

Turn them off here ! (well, only for 30-days, but hey it’s better than nothing)

Doing a Guitar Solo With the Web Playing Backup

Thu, 03 May 2001 02:05:00 +0000

cool! time to dust-off my old sax …

“For frustrated musicians, the convergence of the Internet and cutting-edge technology is offering another dimension of convenience. The Web is home to hundreds of music courses, ranging from play-by-numbers piano lessons to personalized, interactive master classes.”

from: NY Times “Basics Doing a Guitar Solo With the Web Playing Backup” [free reg required]

Online Communities Endure

Mon, 30 Apr 2001 11:04:58 +0000

a good article about how online communities have endured despite the shortage of service offerings.

some good quotes:
“For every story about Internet addiction leading victims to ignore their families and become withdrawn, anti-social, and depressed, there is a countervailing example of a person who has found a support group, employment prospects, or a community of like-minded topical enthusiasts through the ’net.”

“If broadcast, run by large entertainment companies, takes back some of the mindshare that had been gained by interactive media, we risk a tilting of our focus back towards the mindless television watching that threatens to turn our brains to sauerkraut.”

HandsOffMy.org

Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:03:50 +0000

this is ridiculous … Web Sites Using .org Fear Eviction

Study tracks Net’s social implications

Fri, 23 Mar 2001 02:03:00 +0000

A three-year study, conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project, has some interesting results … like, “People worry about online privacy but easily give it away” and “57 percent of the people still without Internet access have no intention of getting it” … change is hard :-)

FuckedCompany Cashes In

Tue, 20 Mar 2001 02:03:32 +0000

“Philip Kaplan, the wizard behind the curtain of FuckedCompany.com, has decided to monetize his online deadpool of failed dot-coms by charging for subscriptions to “premium features” of the site.”

From: Business 2.0

Take Back the Net Day

Thu, 08 Mar 2001 12:03:51 +0000

April 3rd: “Take Back the Net day and Buy Something Online” … yeah sounds great! … but no one has any money!

New Virus Alert: My baby pic!!

Thu, 01 Mar 2001 12:03:40 +0000

How it works
Myba arrives as an e-mail with the following:

Subject: My baby pic!!

Body: It’s my animated baby picture !!

Attachment: mybabypic.exe
[quoted from ZDNet]

Gnutella worm

Thu, 01 Mar 2001 11:03:16 +0000

it had to happen sooner or later … “Security firms are warning about a proof-of-concept Internet worm which tries to spread malicious files via the Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing system.” [more here]

Real Community is Possible

Tue, 27 Feb 2001 01:02:06 +0000

stating the obvious, but nonetheless it’s a refreshing read … “The Internet has to be about allowing people to collaborate and work better together” [more here]

404 funny;

Thu, 22 Feb 2001 03:02:15 +0000

i got this one from john: the best 404 page

Jaron Lanier on Napster

Tue, 06 Feb 2001 03:02:00 +0000

Jaron illustrates the downward spiral of the courts decision … “The alternative to allowing free file sharing à la Napster is to enforce a frightening level of control of information movement.” [more here]

The Two-Way Internet

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 07:01:00 +0000

“The 2X Internet has the power to transform the mediocre experience of the Web into a vibrant, rich experience that drives customer adoption of the Internet as the preferred way of doing business.” [more here]

Paperless Novel Installments via Web

Thu, 10 Aug 2000 05:08:35 +0000

internet week’s Question Of The Week

By offering a paperless novel in installments on the Web, will Stephen King change the publishing industry?

US Postal Service Email

Mon, 31 Jul 2000 07:07:49 +0000

from Slashdot referencing an MSNBC article about the US Postal Service’s plans to offer “free e-mail addresses to all 120 million of the nation’s residential addresses.” … great quote, “the most efficient spam delivery tool ever created.”

Yahoo Acquires eGroups

Wed, 28 Jun 2000 11:06:49 +0000

wow! “Yahoo! to Acquire eGroups” … here’s an interesting quote from the press release … “The acquisition combines the Web’s largest online community with a leading provider of email group communications.” … hmm, the web’s largest community? i wonder if AOL could dispute that statement …

MP3.com Shares

Fri, 03 Mar 2000 08:47:43 +0000

i’m not sure i understand why … shares of MP3.com rose 15 5/8, or 95 percent, to 32 … but, wow!
.

Napster the Internet’s latest one-hit wonder

Mon, 28 Feb 2000 23:20:08 +0000

i love stories like this … “19-year-old Fanning and his company, Napster, have become the Internet’s latest one-hit wonder” … shows that it’s still anyones game!

beamIT Competition

Tue, 22 Feb 2000 14:28:03 +0000

looks like mp3.com’s beamIT has some competition from myplay.com, which i’ve been told was founded by some x-musicblvd people …

DoS for My Yahoo

Mon, 21 Feb 2000 14:13:18 +0000

looks like another DoS for my.yahoo.com … sucks.

Web-Based Long-Distance Phone Service

Sun, 20 Feb 2000 22:37:32 +0000

wow! a slick web-based long-distance phone service [dialpad] it actually works! however, it’s best with a head-set.

MP3.com Files Against RIAA

Fri, 11 Feb 2000 00:24:49 +0000

wow … this must be a great time to be a lawyer … MP3.com files countersuit against RIAA … so, that’s why they have the inflated market cap … legal fees!

i-Hatch?

Mon, 07 Feb 2000 14:16:34 +0000

ha! i wonder if they would be interested in hatch-ing an onclave :-)

beamIT Update

Mon, 31 Jan 2000 01:13:40 +0000

update on beamIT … 751 songs and counting … or should i say, “humming” … how long will it last?

Out of Control

Thu, 20 Jan 2000 10:23:40 +0000

kevin kelly has released his book Out of Control to the web … i’ve only briefly looked at it, but the chapters on Bees do it: distributed governance and The collective intelligence of a mob seem very relevant.

MP3.com’s BeamIT

Fri, 14 Jan 2000 22:44:47 +0000

wow. i just stated playing with BeamIT at MP3.com and so far it’s pretty cool. i’d like to see a collaborative CD collection develop.