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August 30, 2001 +
I hate Adobe ImageReady.
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August 29, 2001 +
Man, I'm not very good at logos, but even I could have come up with something better than IBM did for their OEM slug.
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August 28, 2001 +
By the end of 1990 I was 23, and had a degree with honors from Harvard, so I can really think of no excuse for believing that there were only two bands in the entire world who'd made better records, in the preceding twelve months, than Iron Maiden and Megadeth.
I am finally, belatedly discovering the joys of The War Against Silence. I don't agree with the musical opinion much, but then, author Glenn McDonald says that isn't the point anyway.
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August 27, 2001 +
Eleven years ago today I was in Nantucket when a radio station, playing in the background as I shopped for clothes, broke the news that Stevie Ray Vaughan had died in a small-plane crash the night before. My friends and I gently mourned the loss of a young and growing talent whose legend only increased after his death.
R&B singer Aaliyah passed away in a similar manner yesterday, and while I am not too into her music, I am aware of her talent and promise. I know how her fans feel today. She will be missed.
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Tired of dotcom job losses but still want to be around the exciting computer industry? Have I got the job for you! In Santa Clara Valley, Cal., Apple is hiring a sushi chef.
Speaking of changing gears, there was a good article on this subject in SF Gate earlier this month. (link found via Ditherati)
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August 24, 2001 +
This page gets about twice as much traffic as the netwert.com home page, so I'd like to take a moment and encourage you to visit the redesigned index and marvel at all the junk I carry around.
And if you enjoy that, head over to my humble design archive for a month-by-month evolution of the works on this site.
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And while we're navel-gazing, happy birthday, Mom!
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August 23, 2001 +
The New York Times weighs in on "hip" company names. Indeed, Accenture and Unifi mean a lot less to the uninformed than Anderson Consulting and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, even with PWC's vanity plate of a corporate handle. Quick: Is Calibra an Internet startup or a new car?
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The death of the cool: An argument that the Standard and Be closing has to do with more than the bottom line. I'd been thinking this but am unsure about its accuracy. (I could make a correlation between the Standard closing -- running out of things to talk about, not just advertising -- and my Web-centric weblog death theory, but that would be equally half-baked.)
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August 22, 2001 +
Things That Should Happen on Customer Service Phone Calls That Don't, volume 1:
If the hotline's automated system makes me type in my account number, and my zip code, and verify me with the last four digits of my social security number, then transfers me to a live representative, shouldn't the system carry through all that data along with my voice so I don't have to restate it for the human rep?
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Things That Shouldn't Happen on Customer Service Phone Calls but Do, Much to the Satisfaction of the Consumer, volume 1:
"Well," said the rep, "I have a Save feature here, and if you lead me to believe that we may lose your business, as a 'last resort' I can use that feature and give you the upgrade."
All customer service reps should willingly manipulate their own systems to satisfy their customers. I am thrilled with my upgrade and the company has retained my loyalty. That's what customer service is all about. (Well, okay, maybe not to the CFO.)
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J.D. Power and Associates reports that high-speed Internet access (ISDN and up) accounts for a full 13 percent of home usage. Slowly but surely, high-bandwidth is penetrating the home. Just like those web pages slowly but surely load on those old-world 28.8 modems.
I miss logging into ddial at 300 baud.
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August 21, 2001 +
Smartest city in America: Houston is preparing to set up public Internet kiosks citywide and give every resident free e-mail, word processing and document storage.
With residental computer sales flattening and prices rarely falling below the $400 level, Houston should be proud that it is truly bringing the Internet to the masses, much the same way libraries and pay phones give a population access to books and the telephone network.
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August 20, 2001 +
"Technology, get outta my way!" SVN's Jason Fried puts into words what I think almost every day when I get someone's voice mail.
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My hometown paper (the West Essex Tribune, Livingston, New Jersey) doesn't have a web site. Which is basically fine, since the yentas who read it aren't about to pay a premium to see it online. But with me in New York and my friends in Boston and Chicago, and our hometown friend on the cover of this week's newspaper (all hail Officer Zielke), wouldn't it be nice for us to see his photo from afar?
That's the essence of cross-publishing to the Web -- giving access to those who need it. One would think there's a missed opportunity nearly every week.
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August 17, 2001 +
Kudos to the Industry Standard's journalistic integrity for producing evenhanded coverage of its own demise. Methinks thestandard.com's remaining staff should pull the "Get 4 Issues Free" pop-up off its home page, though.
Did you know that in 2000 the Standard set a publishing industry record for advertising pages, with 7558?
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Fun piece by Nick Hornby in the New Yorker this week dissecting Billboard's top ten albums. Notable not just because it's good fun but also because it proves how different and essential web writing is versus print. This piece is probably a much more comfortable read on paper.
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August 15, 2001 +
Now I know what netWert lacks: faceless photos of its readers with its URL scrawled across their chests. Yeah.
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Have you noticed that weather.com's local forecast displays now include a "feels like" gauge? Hmmmm....
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August 14, 2001 +
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the print periodicals' watchdog organization for proper statistical reporting, has publicly posted traffic reports for many of the major media web sites. Tired of oddly skewed Media Metrix user data? Take a look at these numbers, which are tallied by the sites themselves, then certified by ABC Interactive for accuracy.
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August 13, 2001 +
Nice reporting in the Times on the increasingly quick drop-off in movie revenues. The article cites the proliferation of movie screens and Hollywood's obsession with opening-week numbers. Or, as Amy* puts it, "Word of mouth is getting around that this summer's movies just suck."
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* Amy is my movie- and advertising-loving girlfriend, and an Ideapad reader (hi sweets!), who is increasingly a source of inspiration for the running commentary that appears in this space. She's been showing up in the journal for a while now.
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August 7, 2001 +
Well, hell, if Metafilter can go on vacation, so can I. I'm off for some quality time with my family. More fun and games in this space Monday, August 13.
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August 6, 2001 +
Fun Google Search Results for "David Wertheimer" That Have Nothing to Do with Me
> ... David Wertheimer (b. 1739, d. 24 August 1817) married his cousin Eleanora Werthheimer (b. 1766): ...
> David Wertheimer Chairman & CEO. (See Bio in Management Team).
> ... Wegen diverser Gerüchte bezüglich StarTrek-Homepages im Internet sah sich David
Wertheimer verpflichtet in seinen einigen Worten die Handlungen von Paramount ...
> ... Dave Kennedy, Dave Olsen, David Brady, David Gallahger, David Johnson, David Wertheimer, Dean Fourneir, Dennis Conte, Denny Fleenor, Derek, Derek Watts, Diana ...
> Here he smiles his appreciation as SPD officers Lou Eagle, Donna Tringsted and Ruben Lopez receive their awards from David Wertheimer. ...
> Privately held Solunet said the office will be run by David Wertheimer, a veteran
sales professional, and brother of chief executive officer Mike Wertheimer.
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Many thanks to the many readers who wrote in to tell me "Well done, grasshopper" comes from David Carradine's "Kung Fu" television series. Well done, grasshoppers.
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August 4, 2001 +
If your email address is stanley.elnora@gte.net you have, and keep sending me, the Sircam virus. Take care of it.
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Help! I have been completely unable to find the origin of the phrase, "Well done, grasshopper." Perhaps an Ideapad reader may know where this line began. Please please tell me.
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August 3, 2001 +
I had AOL Instant Messenger installed and customized, yet the latest Windows upgrade forced its way onto my desktop with a pair of shortcuts (one to try AOL now!) and into my Internet Explorer favorites menu. Yes, AIM, that's exactly what I wanted, for your upgrade to clutter up my computer after I had cleaned up your mess just a few months ago. Makes me want to switch to Trillian for good (or just stick to my Mac).
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August 2, 2001 +
Industry-wide brush-off of the day: "The number of Internet companies ceasing operations during a given month declined dramatically in July, presumably because there are increasingly fewer companies left to go out of business." Hah. (fourth item)
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August 1, 2001 +
This is old and cliche, but I've never done it before, so indulge me while I post some of the search results that led people to netwert.com in July:
combatting laziness (good luck)
how do I clean my bathtub
blowjob techniques (try this, kids)
fixing sprinkler problems
Nike air terra humara (which I now own, by the way)
beat the mets sound file
what it feels like for a girl
how to download porn via FTP (how 1993!)
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So I noticed this guy linked to me with this image:
I didn't make that GIF, but it's kind of nice. Hey, free ad. Feel free to swipe it for off-site links.
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Last month
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