Shoestring Theory

Kevin Kelly over at The Technium put forward an argument that artists on the interwebs really just need to develop 1,000 True Fans to make a living (and avoid ending up at the end of the Long Tail). It’s certainly related to the repeat customer business model, but tailored to artists in the digital age […]

Classy folks, real classy. So normally I despise the celebrity gossip/rumor mill, but this one intersected with two of my favorite sites, Wikipedia and eBay. The St. Petersburg Times is reporting: It’s war of the Web roses between St. Petersburg’s Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and his ex-girlfriend, Rachel Marsden. She claims he dumped her […]

I had known this was coming, but eBay sent out a notification to buyers today announcing that complete user IDs will no longer be displayed on any auction format listings. Soon we will no longer display the complete user IDs of people bidding on any auction-style listing. Instead, we’ll use asterisks such as x***y to […]

Looks like eBay has agreed to fork over some money to MercExchange and finally end the long patent battle over eBay’s “Buy It Now” feature. The San Francisco Gate is reporting: As part of the agreement, eBay will buy three patents for e-commerce from its adversary, along with some additional assets. Financial terms of the […]

Many years ago, I pissed away a golden opportunity. The University of Kansas, private organizations and assorted government agencies heaped money on me to go to school (hint: NMS). Who knew, brains actually can pay off. But, being young, foolish and a little lost, I dropped out, giving up all that money. Twelve years later, […]