Found a reference to Amazon selling 1000 Xbox 360s for $100. Which is what one would be worth to me. So I showed up and tried it, figuring that I wasn’t going to get one of these: However, I was interested in how the process worked and also wanted one of the alternate items. I was logged in to my Amazon account on both Internet Explorer 7 and FireFox 2. Things worked fairly normally until about 10:59, when the system became totally non-responsive for about 10 minutes and not very responsive (meaning I got 1 session to work but none of the others) for 15. ...

I’ve dealt with my local phone company for many years. From the roll-up of Pacific Northwest Bell into US West and then the merger with Qwest, prices have gotten higher and higher and the reliability has gotten a little worse. At some point my wife or I will decide that we don’t really need the land line and it will go away. The thing that’s most annoying about them is the amount of advertising they’re doing. They’re constantly on the radio, TV, billboards, in the newpaper, ads on the internet and direct mail pieces. It seems obvious that they’re not getting a lot of takers. Why not? Well, they could start with the big disclaimer on every ad. Anything that they’re promising on the front, they’re taking away on the back. ...

Nisan Gabbay has an excellent analysis of the site at HOTorNOT.com Case Study: Mixing free and premium services My wife and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary a few months ago. I’m happily married, so I haven’t visited HotOrNot in years. I was fascinated by the description of the dating service, which I don’t think they offered when a friend first told me about the site. “Thus HOTorNOT was able to fill some pretty basic human needs in a way that no other online service had before. This would later translate into financial success once HOTorNOT offered its premium dating service because their cost of customer acquisition was so low - zero. The largest cost associated with operating a traditional online dating site is the cost of customer acquisition, which even for successful sites can be 50% (or more) of revenue. Because HOTorNOT attracted users with its free rating service, it could offer its dating service for the low price point of $6 per month. This is a price that traditional dating sites can’t compete with because it generally takes $15-$30 to acquire a subscriber for a traditional dating service.” ...

There’s an excellent summary of how FaceBook came to be and what its possible valuation might be at: Facebook Case Study: Offline behavior drives online usage - Startup Review Blog

Snippy is a neat tool for capturing parts of images. From the description: How often have you carefully selected some text from a Web page and copied it to an email message? Snippy makes this a snap! Simply click on the little Snippy icon in the taskbar notification area, and mark out the region of the screen that you want to copy — that’s it, you’re done! The cut-out image will now be in your clipboard, and you can paste it in another application." ...

As somebody who’s spent his fair share of time putting together desks and bookcases and children’s toys, one of the most powerful quotes was (paraphrased) “that things should be cheaper - we’re making them ourselves”. In a post on “Is it tech rage or customer service rage?”, Techcrunch talks about how many stories at “tech rage” are but asks whether they’re really caused by awful customer service. I certainly think that’s the case. When I see a guarantee from companies like Qwest or Comcast, I immediately discount it down to 0. I’m sure that whatever the guarantee is, there’s something in the fine print that will prevent me from collecting. Assuming, of course, that I have the patience to persist in reaching a person. ...

This is an easy way to convert images (photos or pictures) in Windows XP using the paint.exe program from Microsoft itself. It takes 3 steps per picture, so it’s not the fastest way to do this. But they’re really easy steps. But it also means that you don’t have to download any additional tools. That’s good if you’re concerned about viruses. Or maybe you’re using somebody else’s computer and you don’t want to download something onto their machine. ...

Today is election day. There’s an [article](https: “//replay.waybackmachine.org/20061110231606/https://techdirt.com/articles/20061106/201138.shtml) today in Techdirt referencing a movie about the problems with Diebold (not Deibele) election machines. " I have to admit that I do miss a little bit the tradition of going to the local school or church and voting. Seeing the volunteers, seeing the other people who were motivated enough to make the time to vote. Stepping into the voting booth, drawing the curtain and putting the completed ballot into the box. ...

Regal Cinemas is testing giving somebody a wireless device that summons an usher. In exchange for being the eyes and ears, you get a free bucket of popcorn. Seems like a reasonable deal to me. Thanks to: Techdirt: Ever Wished You Could Push A Button To Remove A Disruptive Movie Watcher?

It’s good to see that MyPages is changing to be more interactive. Portland Yellow Pages and Portland, OR Guide by MyPages.com Something neat is the ability to link to specific businesses: BodyAware Massage - MyPages.com