Author: spierzchala

Read a Trademaerk Attorney’s opinion. [here]

Scoble and I have had our differences of opinion before, but I agree with him on this one. [here]
SmartTags == AutoLink == B-A-D

HeirSon turned 6 yesterday…yikes!

Gutter guys coming…it’s -15C and they want to sell us gutters?

Other than that, should be quiet…

eWeek
I still think that, despite the protestations to the contrary, this is an intrusive attempt by Google to embed itself more firmly into your life.
Sound Familiar?

The andrewsaluk.com is now a live server hawking online casino gaming. Oh, and it appears that the domain has been relocated to China; was previously in South Korea.
Looks like these morons are slamming a lot of sites. Thankfullt b2evolution has very effective anti-spam tools.
Someone else is posting on this. [here]
Oh look! Someone has come up with a nice .htaccess hack to nuke these bozos! [here]

Steve Rubel.
Darren Barefoot
Jeremy Wright
Travis Smith
Susannah Gardner
Tim Bray.
And, of course, THE SCOBELIZER
All at Northern Voice.
Damn. I have to work…say hi to everyone.

Looks like eBay is still seeing extreme fallout from their fee hike decision. [here and here]
Now the SFGate/SF Chronicle story does remind us about eBay Seller whining over the years, but this is still a business whose entire existence depends on keeping their sellers and the sellers’ buyers happy. eBay is an intermediary; and intermediaries can and have been replaced before.
I am not saying that eBay will fall soon. However, imagine if Google decided that it could provide an auction clearing/payment system at a much lower cost? Or Microsoft? Or someone else?
eBay has the benefit of a near monopoly position. This makes the battleship slow to turn around when nimbler competitors appear.

As a consumer of SSRIs [here], this piece of news REALLY concerns me.
Antidepressants increase risk of suicidal behaviour: study
Suicide, depression, and antidepressants
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and suicide in adults: meta-analysis of drug company data from placebo controlled, randomised controlled trials submitted to the MHRA’s safety review
Suicidal Behaviour Caused by Antidepressants “Cannot Be Ruled Out”
Thanks GSK….

More. [here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here]

I just got an invite to join GMail (have an account already…thanks!) that originated from filling out an interest form when GMail went live last year. Guess they are trying to get everyone in now.
Beta going poof soon.

SOGrady posted the email we have all received. [here]

SOGrady notes that a number of the large bellweathers in Tech are announcing hiring. [here]
I have noticed that, after a 3 year absence, my inbox is seeing slow trickle of recruiters, mainly those looking for low-hanging fruit in tech-support and junior development positions. *YAWN*
If recruiters actually took the time to read my resume, instead of the work and education experience areas, they might notice that I am so far from what they want that asking me if I am interested in a position like that lowers their company’s brand in my opinion.
I would love to see some quality enquiries; not because I want a new job, but because it shows me that someone took the time to find out about me before contacting me.