i@m.fm

Just came accross: BookCrossing – Home – FREE YOUR BOOKS!. Basically the idea is to drop off your books someplace They actually do the tracking as to who picks up the book etc… Neat idea…
They are financing thiis project by selling related stamps and stickers, but I think the whole project better should remain non-profit. Ron Hornbaker conceived the idea while looking at sites like PhotoTag and Where’s George (money tracking in the US, the Canadian version is Where’s Willy).

In Seth’s Blog: My note to Susan he points out that our current approach to online marketing could be more sophisticated and yet cheaper. Even if it means taking more time to develop campaigns and microsites, I think it’s a good approach and worth the effort.

On Tuesday we made two dishes for Kim to bring to her employer, for a
country competition they were hosting at her work. We thought it turned
out great and there’s even still some left. The other dish we made was
Rotkohl, which is red cabbage with apples, onions etc. Turned out nice
too, but the Rote Grütze definitely is my favourite.

In the CNET interview entitled The cultural divide and the Internet’s future VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos still considers sitefinder an innovation and would like to “go commercial” with the root servers. What ever that exactly means – I am sure I don’t really want to know.

I just updated my little introduction to the demoscene site at http://www.scenesight.org/ recently. It now also includes links to related events and tutorials – suggestions are very welcome.

(OK, this post here is a little late)
As per this post blogware is now an official product in pre-release state. To find out about the features, check Blogware: What we do best!. Also my colleague Accordionguy has posted a nice Introduction to Blogware: Introducing…Blogware.
Also there’s already some offical resellers of the product, so why don’t you Get your own! I might add this to my reseller account too at one point, but maybe later
Need to know more? Check out: What is a blog and what is it good for? A guide for beginners

I already have a password protected online picture site, but I figured it would make more sense to eventually migrate the pictures to this blog here. I actually haven’t been using pictures too much here so far, so it’s about time I start Hower I will keep some of the pictures accessible to certain users only – for privacy reasons. Also, a new digital camera should be bought soon.

Another eBay scam fishes for bank details – News & Technology – CNETAsia – I just got one of those to my Tucows Account… Which is not registered with eBay at all, so that’s how my suspicion was caught.
Interestingly enough the HTML mail was protected by putting a link on the entire text, which of course does not lead to the prentended eBay URL, but rather to an IP assigned to APNIC… APNIC in turn assigned it to the Korean NIC, KRNIC.
Interestingly enough that a lot of scams like this are often run from Asia, just like credit card fraud seems to concentrate in certain regions.

VeriSign to Sell Network Solutions Business to Pivotal Private Equity. We were waiting for this, but is this the type of buyer we expected? I certainly didn’t…
Let’s hear the community’s comments:
from a mailing list (not sure about the author):

I’ve provided a translation inline.
on Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 01:37:16PM -0400, Network Solutions, Inc. wrote:
> Dear Valued Network Solutions(R) Customer,
We have this email in a database somewhere (I haven’t been a customer of
NSI since 1999).
> Today VeriSign, Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive
> agreement to sell Network Solutions to a new entity formed by Pivotal
> Private Equity.
Verisign has sold the least valuable part of the monopoly to a bunch of
golf course builders (no, really: see the executives’ biographies on their
site: http://www.pivotalgroup.com/executives.html) in order to allow us to
focus on the real money, milking the monopoly on the .com/.net registry.
> Please be assured that Network Solutions continues to be committed to
> providing superior products and customer service to our more than 4
> million customers. You have seen evidence of this commitment in the
> numerous enhancements we have introduced over the last 18 months.
…after several years of legendary failure to provide even subpar
service, out of our lackadaisical approach to customer service,
technical excellence, and basic human decency, we have finally done a
mediocre job which seems vibrant in comparison. (They still seem to
think that I am “el jefe”, the name under which Zeldman registered the
Web Standards Project domain, even though I’ve transferred the domain to
register.com; attempts to correct this misperception have been ignored,
as did all the other attempts to inform them of their broken PGP and
notification system over the years).
> This commitment remains strong today in our 600 employees, each
> focused on providing you with a superior customer experience.
…for two hours daily except for odd days, when we hire trained macaws
to answer the phones and say “I’m sorry, I will need your Network
Solutions-issued account ID in order to help you transfer your account
to another registrar, even though you’ve blocked all mail from all NSI
owned domains after they spammed you to hell and gone for the past four
years or more.”
> Today’s announcement will not impact the service you receive from us.
> Network Solutions is the industry’s first and largest domain name
> service provider with over 8 million domain names under management. We
> will continue to support and enhance a full range of affordable Web
> related services, including domain names, Web sites, business e-mail,
> and more.
“impact” isn’t a verb. But it’s true – it won’t affect the level of
service you receive from NSI, because you don’t currently receive any
service from NSI, as you are no longer a customer, anyway, having had
the good sense to switch away screaming back in ’99.
> As to the transaction itself, the buyer, Pivotal Private Equity, is a
> provider of equity for middle market corporate acquisitions. Pivotal
> focuses on companies in the telecommunications and Internet services
> industries, among others.
…including lots and lots of golf courses.
> The purchase agreement is subject to certain closing conditions, which
> we expect to be completed in the fourth quarter.
This is the part that scares me.
Basically, Verisign just sold the whois database to a group that builds
or buys golf courses. I’m sure our privacy is safe now.
> To view today?s press release and to get
> additional information go to:
> http://www.verisign.com/corporate/news/index.html .
[...]
> We remain committed to providing high quality services to meet your
> online needs and thank you for choosing Network Solutions.
But you’re /not/ meeting my online needs, and I /didn’t/ choose NSI.
In fact, you’re trampling my needs out of a blustery ignorance of the
core protocols that run the entire Internet, because you can make a
buck on selling advertising to people who can’t type. Repeat after me,
Verisign – “the Web is not the Internet”. “The DNS is not the Web”.
“RFCs are there to be followed, for the greater good of all”.
> Sincerely,
*splorf*
> Network Solutions Customer Service
> Please do not reply to this message. For
> Network Solutions customer service inquiries, contact us
> at mailto:customerservice@networksolutions.com.
This message was sent from an email address whose incoming mail we delete
without reading or bounce with some obscure error.
> (C) 2003 Network Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

One of our resellers also has his own interpretation of the Verisign mail.

On Thursday I was working from home, since the builder was coming to fix some more items in our home. Also two trades dropped by – the painters (they only did some exterior stuff) and Prima Air to add a missing duct run. Talking about all of this reminds me that I need to let Phil from the builder know that some of the items on his list have been taken care off as well.
At one point there were about 5 people from Mattamy in and around our house, since the on-site customer service guys were also making their rounds. Doug, the 90 day customer service manager, had the unpleasant task to talk to me about the on-going kitchen story (more about this in detail later) and the issue of our showerhead upgrade in the ensuite bathroom.
In any case, almost all the work they had on their list (which I still have to compare to my original list) has been completed. The main item is the garage man door, which still needs to be set straight.
In a survey they also asked me what they could improve about their 90 day service, and I wrote that it would be much better, if there weren’t as many items left to start with
In general the homebuying experience has been a rather unpleasant one, but I would not expect it to be too different with other builders. Their highest priority is to get you to the closing quick, and a lot of trades are not paid by the hour or by the quality of their work, but simply by completion. This is turn does not really lead to the best quality. So Mattamy does not really live up to their marketing promises.
Gettting them to complete their work, is almost a fulltime job, and the best way to get them to do something is to document it with a fax, which should be sent to the New Home Warranty Program as a copy. If you are not on top of them, things will not get done – they even lost my Pre-Delivery-Inspection list.
I am consdering to set up a site with tips for first time new home buyers, so others can learn from the experiences we’ve had. I am hoping to get some more people to participate in creating the content.