Simply put: Thanks.

alternateorg on December 20, 2000

The most simply I can put it to you guys: Thanks. Thanks for reading, thanks for linking, thanks thanks thanks. This site started out modestly (and still is) with the not-so-great yellow-ish design, and about 4 readers, all of whom happened to be coworkers and writers with us.

So we’re happy that the site is growing, but we’d like some of you to have more of an active role in the site’s expansion. We’d like to take this opportunity to invite anyone with a strong opinion on the internet, technology or design to become a writer for us (if only occasionally).

Please send any inquiries to kev, and we’ll talk. Again, strong opinions expected, preferrably with intelligent reasons behind your arguments (although even I sometimes have a hard time with that..), and you don’t even need to have the same opinions as we do, just back ’em up. Thanks.

Great MP3 Article

alternateorg on December 20, 2000

Received from a link on SVN:

Not only is this a great read, but it’s the first article on Napster/MP3/subscription-based services to include a Hotline (the pirate’s paradise) reference:

Ease of use may relieve the pain of paying, but subscription services will always face competition from the free-music underground — Gnutella, Hotline and so on. (Napster seems unlikely to offer music for free in the long run.) As a result, according to Harvard economist William Fisher, such services effectively butt up against a price ceiling — ”you can’t charge very much if your customers can always peel off and get basically the same thing without paying.”

So read it. It’s probably the smartest, most accurate, to-the-point MP3 article written yet.

Short Break in Regularly Scheduled Programming

alternateorg on December 19, 2000

Okay, so of all the places in the world to be the week before Christmas, I’m in Arkansas, doing family-in-law related activities. So this means one thing, which in turn means another thing: My internet access is stripped to a bare minimum over the next 4 days, which in turn means that I, for one, will not be posting before Christmas. So there you have it. 808 or Map might post, so you never know. Ask Tai nicely, and you might get a shiny new survey, though.

Voodoo takes a Doodoo.

alternateorg on December 15, 2000

It seems as though 3DFX, makers of the Voodoo line of video cards, has more or less gone out of business. Get the scoop (er… poop) and post some feedback here.

Its a bummer that the average lifetime of a tech company and/or dot com nowadays is only as long as their first product’s life cycle (usually quite short). Very few companies get to try again… (Although let it be known that 3DFX has been around for a number of years, and have a number of cards under their belt. They were a leader in the industry when they started. -kev)

I think we beat FuckedCompany.com to this one. 🙂

Metallica Stinks

alternateorg on December 15, 2000

Don’t these guys have anything better to do with their time or money? Metallica is at it again. This time the heavy metal “hipsters” are suing Guerlain, a French fragrance manufacturer for trademark infringement. Guerlain is selling a perfume named “Metallica” at fancy smancy retailer Neiman Marcus.

In a complaint filed Friday at the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, Metallica claims Guerlain, the century-old French fragrance manufacturer, causes “confusion, deception, and mistake in the minds of the public with respect to the source and origin of defendants’ goods.”

Metallica accuses Neiman Marcus of dilution, unfair competition, false designation of origin and injuring the quartet’s reputation because–get this–the perfume might mislead metalheads into thinking the band endorsed the product.

I am sorry but these guys need to be shot (I am really happy today). Ban Metallica, these guys really stink!

New Survey

alternateorg on December 14, 2000

So it looks like we’ve topped out at about 76 votes in the poll… not bad for a site that started out with a user-base of 4, and all of us wrote for it.

A new survey will be posted shortly, as soon as I can come up with a new idea for one.

I hate George but love Bush.

alternateorg on December 14, 2000

FUCK BUSH. <—- would make a great t-shirt

This guy has the best name for all the shit talkers of the world, LOL. Comedians are going to have plenty of material about Bush for the next 4 years.