Read the article too; wanted so, so much more. But I am now reappraising my opinion of the e-bubble - anything that hoovers millions from the wallet of Luciano Benetton is not a misallocation of resources. It's just justice. Maybe the dot.com boom was the equivalent of a big fucking asteroid, an ELE (Extinction Level Event) - killed the dinosaurs, wreathed the skies with soot, shook the global Etch-A-Sketch and paved the way for the next iteration of life, i.e., dogs, horses & humans.

If so, will the geological strata from this epoch be as thick as the latest Fast Company, Business 2.0, Industry Standard - or as thin as the latest gaming mag?

"ZEFER has an 'Internet Mojo' that is largely responsible for its client's success in the digital economy," said (Media & Telecommunications practice leader Imran) Shah. "This practice offers clients a package of services that blends this 'mojo' with deep industry knowledge, solid experience in these fields, innovative thinking and true capacity for operating at Internet speed. That's what clients need in order to create and implement the best possible strategy in the best possible way."

Greetings Dack:

Stumbled upon you while researching Web site content suckification and its implication for the offspring of corporate webmasters.

Your mother must be damned proud of you, boy.

Anyway, when you're finished watching the SportsCenter replays of Tiger's 15-shot win at Pebble (you would have needed a large bucket to get around on Saturday), check out the howling, withering, skin-stretching bullshit on OpenMarket.Com and Sapient.Com. These folks give us "closed-loop e-marketing" and "experience modeling." They deserve a little light.

When Huey Long (even dissolute reprobates have read "All the King's Men") overserved himself with the kickapoo joy juice, which he did quite often, he always took off his shoes — no matter where he was. His entourage referred to this as "the Boss got sock-foot drunk again."

All the best,

Brian C.

They're calling it Shops or "S-Commerce" and it's being rolled out in cities and towns nationwide.

"It's a real revelation," according to Malcolm Fosbury, a middleware engineer from Hillingdon. "You just walk into one of these shops and they have all sorts of things for sale."

Fosbury was particularly impressed by a clothes shop he discovered while browsing in central London.

"Shops seem to be the ideal medium for transactions of this type. I can actually try out a jacket and see if it fits me. Then I can visualize the way I would look if I was wearing the clothing."

This is possible using a high definition 2D viewing system, or "mirror" as it has become known.

Shops, which are frequently aggregated into shopping portals or "high streets", are becoming increasingly popular with the cash-rich time-poor generation of new consumers. Often located in densely populated areas people can find them extremely convenient. And Malcolm is not alone in being impressed by shops.

"Some days I just don't have the time to download huge Flash animations of rotating trainers and then wait five days for them to be delivered in the hope that they will actually fit," says Sandra Bailey, a systems analyst from Chelsea. "This way I can actually complete the transaction in real time and walk away with the goods."

Being able see whether or not shoes and clothing fit has been a real bonus for Bailey, "I used to spend my evenings boxing up gear to return. Sometimes the clothes didn't fit, sometimes they just sent the wrong stuff."

Shops have a compelling commercial story to tell too, according to Gartner Group retail analyst Carl Baker.

"There are massive efficiencies in the supply chain. By concentrating distribution to a series of high volume outlets in urban centres-typically close to where people live and work-businesses can make dramatic savings in fulfillment costs. Just compare this with the wasteful practise of delivering items piecemeal to people's homes."

Please allow me to introduce myself.

I am the cancer that has riddled the formerly healthy body of the Web.

Though you have called me many names, there is only one:

Flash

There is a sea of sexually aware and forward-thinking women reading Jane, and I can't fathom how many miles of penis you have probably been associated with in your collective lifetime. But the penis is a potentially complicated piece of equipment, and many of you, while you know how to work it, may still not know how to get the most out of this fine instrument. So please take the time to read this manual before you start your next use of the apparatus.

(Note: article only available at newsstands)

Countries where golf is popular never fight other golfing nations — and don't fight much at all — while countries without golf are strikingly belligerent. Have you ever met an Afghan who golfs? Are there any Serbs on the P.G.A. tour?

Think about the problem that you are trying to solve before you open Flash and start working. Is Flash the only solution for that problem? Is Flash the most effective solution? Can you solve the problem with HTML? Think about the work you do and remember that what you put on the web is not for you, but for your visitors.

"The thick stack of complaints coming into your company's call center is sitting on your desk, silently mocking you. On top of the stack is a yellow sticky with a note from your boss: "Who is responsible for this?" The souped-up, feature-laden intranet application that you delivered to such fanfare a few months ago has turned from a technical triumph into a usability disaster. New users can't figure it out and old ones are becoming nostalgic about the good old days of simple black and white forms uncluttered by graphic controls no one understands and links that lead everyone on a merry chase."

"Amicus Software's aspiration is to build and operate the major channel for delivery of dynamic, interactive content and commerce opportunities across all devices in all markets. By establishing and evolving the internet channel, Amicus empowers individuals with the ability to fully utilize internet and content services."

"There are plenty of lazy people and plenty of slowcoaches, but a genuine idler is a rarity," writes an idling expert Jerome K. Jerome. "He is not a man who slouches about with his hands in his pockets. On the contrary, his most startling characteristic is that he is always intensely busy." Despite the dictionary definition, then, although the idler might not "work" in any recognizable fashion, he is neither shiftless nor lazy. His energies, having been freed from the merry-go-round of the working life, are channeled into the pursuit of wisdom and pleasure.

Flash, like chocolate syrup on ice cream, is a wonderful adjunct. However, if the application is overdone, web sites - like the ice cream - can and do become sickly sweet. Flash is nothing more than a tool; thus it should be utilized as such, when and where needed. For awhile, when DHTML was the budding rage, all kinds of cute tricks were making their way to the web. Then Java applets were the vogue. Now, it's Flash in full flower. Next, we'll have an epidemic of LiveMotion. Moderation of usage is the key to the issue... the taking of the middle path.

Your past actions regarding the "Love Bug Virus" and its variants have demonstrated that you are incapable of responsibly using modern computers and specifically email. You have demonstrated that you (1) do not read virus bulletins from technical support, (2) have no knowledge of Internet news, and (3) are unable to protect yourself or others from rogue software.

As a consequence, all your messages to me are now being automatically rejected via an email rule. No further messages will be accepted regardless of the subject or contents until further notice.

If you feel that your privilege to correspond with me via email should be reinstated please leave me a voice mail at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Your voice mail should include your name, email address, and three reasons why you are now responsible enough to correspond with me via email.

It is embarrassing that an employee of a technology company could be duped into running unverified software — this reflects poorly on you as well as the company as a whole.

Microsoft has decided to take all of the worst parts of Quicktime 4 (awkward, non-standard interface) and Real Player (marketing, marketing, marketing) and mush them together into an awkward, ungainly duckling they want to make the "universal" media player.

We start with paper; we start with pencil. If a designer uses Photoshop too soon, the work becomes decoration instead of structure. It is really important for the writer and designer to organize the information together—to create a clear vision of what the site will accomplish. You have to plan, map and organize.

Today's user is no longer even remotely comparable to the designer in skill set, aptitude, expectation, or in almost any attribute that is relevant to the design process.

Road rage in part is due to a person being separated from the outside world by being in a car, being part of a machine. All the other people on the road become cars, and regarding them as such makes it easier to do nasty things to them. I think people spending their lives behind computers is a similar phenomenon. The lack of personal and physical interaction leads to a debasement of how people regard each other.

(On why he's building his company's new site in Flash) "The users never previously went to our website mainly because it was boring and just filled with information."

"I am currently working on a Flash website for the company I work for and the Boss was exited to hear that the company logo was now going to be able to jump to life and talk to the users in our company."

Every now and then a book comes along that is so fatuous, so egregiously full of itself and just plain bad it makes you want to watch "Shoah" for fun. "Roger Black Web Sites That Work", written by Sean Elder is such a book.

(Note: "Shoah" is a 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust.)

regarding your post about the talk magazine article -- It's definitely true. I have friends that discuss their husband's/boyfriend's "good gay qualities." A sample of the ones they desire in a man is: gossiping, taking pictures, talking to their family a lot (but not too much with their mom -- that's spells trouble), and shopping for shoes. So, women are very selective about the gay qualities that they want. Examples of bad gay qualities..... scoping out other guys, being prissy, etc.

Speak on brother. The ignorant lemmings that latch onto Flash as "the solution for producing and delivering high-impact web sites" can lick my proverbial left one.

Wrt the morons who claim that it's an idea whose time has come, please get a rope. Flash has been annoying us for the past couple of years, if you think that it's a new or novel idea you need to get out more often.

Flash enables designers to annoy those of us trying to get at our content; it's not indexable by search engines and hardly provides a consistent interface or user experience. There are enough people out there still struggling with the concept of the back button that the "flash experience" leaves them looking even more foolish than they started out.

Keep Flash in the toolbox and playgrounds of the artf*cks who can indulge in their mental masturbation while the rest of us responsible for the providing networks and infrastructure to deliver their colorful ejaculation get real work done.

Keep the Flash wank juice off my screen, or at least let me decide when I have to look at it.

The final unforgivable sin of web design wankery is to provide the Flash splashscreen/navigation with no backup for those of use that don't want to participate in this web design circle jerk.

Steve Ulrich
sulrich@botwerks.org
(He'd love to hear from you!)

I love the Web economy bullshit generator. I actually had the pleasure of attending a Goldman Sachs conference on E-tailing (here we go!) a week ago, and came across these beauts:

"need states"
"leverageable"
"habituated"
"age compression" (from a Toys R Us exec, describing how kids outgrow their toys at a much faster rate)

I actually counted one guy use the term "monetize" 12 times in 45 minutes. Whew!

Love will make you drink and gamble, make you stay out all night long
Love will make you do things that you know is wrong

— Billie Holiday, "Fine and Mellow," one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century (according to NPR).

Dear Mr. Ragus,

God Bless you and God Bless Michigan State.

What a lovely way to start the day. Thank you for bringing such joy to my life.

Mr. Duren

There is something ... tragic about testosterone. It can lead to a certain kind of male glory; it may lead to valor or boldness or impulsive romanticism. But it also presages a uniquely male kind of doom. The cockerel with the brightest comb is often the most attractive and the most testosteroned, but it is also the most vulnerable to parasites. It is as if it has sacrificed quantity of life for intensity of experience, and this trade-off is a deeply male one.