Idea: a little Web-app or browser plug-in that follows me around while I’m surfing, caching pages along the way, either on my local machine or preferably somewhere on the Internet like X:drive (up to 100 Mb of online storage, free!), and then allowing me to search/sort those pages by keyword, date, domain, &c. That way, I’ll never lose track of those bits of information that seem insignificant at the time, but which are important at some point down the road.

“Consumers have been putting up with bug-ridden software for one simple reason: They don’t realize there is an alternative. And once they find out, commercial software vendors are going to lose a big slice of their business. Where’s my evidence for this claim? History. I’m sure you’ve heard the famous Santayana quote: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (No, that’s not a typo; it’s Santayana the philosopher, not Santana the guitarist.) If you’re looking for an example, I’ve got a
doozy for you. According to Mark Minasi, author of a very fine book entitled The Software Conspiracy (McGraw-Hill, 2000), the U.S. commercial software industry is making exactly the same mistake that U.S. auto makers once made, and the results could prove catastrophic to the U.S. economy.”

“Whenever I talk to a band who are about
to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them
in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet
wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with
runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good
friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this
trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other
end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.

Nobody can see what’s printed on the
contract. It’s too far away, and besides, the shit stench is
making everybody’s eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody
that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract.
Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to
get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin
wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other
under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there’s
only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey
says, “Actually, I think you need a little more development.
Swim it again, please. Backstroke.”

“One, many people don’t realize we have one of the best telecommunications infrastructures in the country — maybe the best, in terms of high-speed Internet access, digital switch networks, (and) fiber optics — all the pieces that go to making a really good telecommunications infrastructure.

We have high-speed Internet access in towns of 2,000 people. I like to say that New Sweden, Maine has better Internet access than Manhattan. And that gives us a real opportunity for any kind of telecommunications-based businesses.

The second thing is we have great people. We have a very long tradition of a really good work ethic, going back 100 years, 150 years. Maine was one of the early pioneers of the Industrial Revolution — textile mills, shoe factories — and there’s a carry-over work ethic that’s really good.”

“1.Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush a lot about how wonderful it is to find kindred souls).
2.Evangelism (people moan about how few folks are posting to the list, and brainstorm recruitment strategies).
3.Growth (more and more people join, more and more lengthy threads develop, occasional off-topic threads pop up).
4.Community (lots of threads, some more relevant than others; lots of information and advice is exchanged; experts help other experts as well as less experienced colleagues; friendships develop; people tease each other; newcomers are welcomed with generosity and patience; everyone — newbie
and expert alike — feels comfortable asking questions, suggesting answers, and sharing opinions).
5.Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens to quit if *other* people don’t limit discussion to person 1’s pet topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & 2 to lighten up; more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed).
6.Finally:

1.Smug complacency and stagnation (the purists flame everyone who asks an ‘old’ question or responds with humor to a serious post; newbies are rebuffed; traffic drops to a doze-producing level of a few minor issues; all interesting discussions happen by private email and are limited to a few participants; the purists spend lots of time self-righteously congratulating each other on keeping off-topic threads off the list).

OR

2.Maturity (a few people quit in a huff; the rest of the participants stay near stage 4, with stage 5 popping up briefly every few weeks; many people wear out their second or third ‘delete’ key, but the list lives contentedly ever after).”

“While the content of this issue will be familiar to longtime FEED readers — a group of essays and
conversations organized loosely around a theme, in this case the theme of the city — we have decided to experiment more with the design and the technology of the special issue format, which means tinkering with the “user experience” of the issue, as they say in the software world. We wanted to make “Street
Level” as fun to explore as it is to read (not unlike a city itself) — and to make it a launching point for other urban explorations. ”

“As California’s tech-savvy businesses and households plug into an increasingly wired economy, the
state’s power system is sputtering like a frayed electrical cord.”

“Computers consume about 13% of the nation’s power, according to EPRI Corp., a Palo Alto research and development group that studies the utility industry.

The Internet’s borderless community also is taxing U.S. power suppliers because about 80% of online traffic comes through this country.

To handle all the Internet action, businesses are turning entire offices into warehouses for the powerful computer servers and peripheral equipment needed to navigate networks. These so-called ”server farms” consume 10 to 12 times more power than the traditional office building filled with human workers. ”