September 2001

Amazing—from the Microsoft Frontpage 2002 User Agreement:
You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia or their products of services, infringe any intellectual property or other rights of these parties, violate any state, federal, or international law, or promote racism, hatred or pornography. source: mspur.pdf found via google by way of ev and infoworld.

If the intelligence services of the USA were so surprised by the events of 11 September, how can they so quickly draw conclusions about who is responsible? Is this a rush to judgement? No doubt Bin Laden is a bad fellow, but what if we destroy him and his network and are still left with a terrible world security problem? Reading the link below will make you think.

Within minutes, and certainly hours, of the events of Tuesday, our learned intelligence officials began to assure us that Usama Bin Laden is the most likely culprit; but it is wholly unclear as to precisely how this conclusion has emerged, since little or nothing could have been learned in those minutes and hours that was not known before and that could have been examined for veracity.

—Benjamin Zycher ;Senior Fellow;
Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy ( via IP )

Any worthwhile thought I’ve had about web applications came from exposure to Philip Greenspun. Read this, and then check out his new textbook in progress, and visit his home page.

Another quote from DC2000: “The user is the content. There is is a total transformation of the user by the interface.”

Quote from Mark Cuban @ DC2000: “The minute you think you’re smart—you’re toast.”

Quote from a Digital Coast 2000 panel on Venture Funding: “Have more than a powerpoint and some people—have an executive summary and a business plan”

Re: Blade Runner – one possible for title was Dangerous Days – this I got from the presentation at Comic-Con 2000 given by Paul M. Sammon (author of Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner.

An effort to standardize the methods for comics grading: ComicGrader.com

Fun Fact: existing comics grading standards (Mint, Near Mint, etc) are derived from the coin collecting market. After all, you don’t mint a comic book, you print it. Coins are minted.

Quote from another panel from Comic-Con 2000: “Are you making a high tech comic book, or a low-tech cartoon?”

At at Comic-Con 2000 panel entitled “Online Comics,” Kyle Baker’s “Letitia Lerner, Superman’s Babysitter” was mentioned as a great online comic. Truth of it was, it was simply a comic that DC would not publish, but that leaked onto the net. It has subsequently been published in a collection called Bizarro Comics. You can also find it out there on the web, but the collection is worth the pricey price.