November, 11, 2004 archives

fast company has a list of 101 ideas, people, and trends to watch in 2005 (via jason kottke). max barry’s next book makes the list at #8. the navigation of the section is annoying (no “next” links on each page, so you have to keep bouncing back to the index).

sxip is looking for a lead web developer.

this livejournal from the spouse of an electronic arts employee raises the too-many-working-hours issue that i’ve mentioned before. it is an interesting (and ugly) dynamic in the games industry (and internet startups, in my experience) that allows companies to get just-out-of-college employees to work absurd hours.

the eff is looking to hire a webmaster.

these stories from the last original nullsoft employee and the developers of audion are fascinating. good reading for small tech business owners.

the rules for charitable deductions on donated cars, boats, and planes are changing, in case you were thinking of doing that. better do it this year!

this is a great article from the columbia journalism review about how “balanced” reporting gives undue weight to fringe claims. i think the reaction of anyone i have known who was ever directly involved in an incident that makes the news, or is interviewed for a news article, is that they are shocked by how out-of-whack the final coverage turns out.

electronic arts is being sued over overtime, a case which sounds like it has been ongoing, but only came to light after the livejournal posting from the spouse of an ea employee. it makes me wonder what is happening the knowledge adventure employee who is (was?) suing his employer over the same issue.

here’s one passing thought on the ea_spouse thing. where does the author say they’re female (or married)? i haven’t dug through the comments, but the text of the main post itself manages to not say it explicitly. (and the gender genie guesses that the author is a male.) it doesn’t matter, of course, i just think it would be funny if all the press it has generated that says “wife” turned out to be wrong.

the aside on john lim’s php weblog about the “wintermute” nickname makes me laugh. i always treat it as shorthand for “someone who can be safely ignored because they thought they were clever for using a nickname from a classic cyberpunk book.”

the outdoor skating rink at pershing square in downtown los angeles opens next week. because of the lock-out, it’s not sponsored by the kings this year. (and i won’t be taking advantage of it. i grew up in minnesota and never learned to ice skate. go figure.)

this entry from a livejournal user about someone paying for a year-long paid subscription for someone else is an example of the livejournal folks being smart. this way their users don’t have to set up dropcash-style fundraisers, well-wishing users can just swoop in and give the money to livejournal directly. blogger’s free blogspot hosting used to do something similar to remove the ads. sites like flickr would be smart to roll out similar systems. (the one thing not addressed by livejournal is doing the payment dropcash-style, where multiple people pay into the account, but i can see why it might be desirable to avoid that — what do you do with partial payments?).