babul

http://www.wolfram.com/company/scrapbook/page02.html#1988_St...

Those who want their sites/products to go mainstream without ridicule (ExpertSexChange.com/ExpertsExchange.com is a popular example) or false negative impression/bias. This is why people often spend a lot of time to choose a name carefully, especially when you consider the long-term branding and marketing.

"Mom can I go on pwntube to get a video for my homework?" "WHAT?!?! PORNTUBE!?!? NO!!!"

;)

If the offer was e.g. $500M cash, "we're not for sale" would simply become "sale".

It is psychologically reassuring to think you will be able to call if you have a problem.

Given how much money it makes, I doubt it will happen.

Chris Sacca writes it in his own words why... http://www.whatisleft.org/lookie_here/2008/03/thanks-to-auct... ...and elsewhere.

Basicially, to me, it reads because they were passionate about what they were doing (passion), would not let anything stop them (ambition), were able to hack/get things done quickly and efficiently and had some great previous accomplishments (talent, focus, customer care), and were smart.

So, if you possess these qualities, and have a likable-personality, then chances you could woo the Bucheits and Saccas et al of the world (if that is what you desire). Why not?

Otherwise, just get on with building your things, and if it is really something people want, then A) you will get attention this way and B) hopefully make enough cash too to not care about wooing others (maybe I am wrong, but to me it seems people woo only when they want cash/advice/similar rather then pursue friendships because you like each other etc.) :)

Many of them earn a LOT more than that after a couple of years, even now, even with bonuses having been cut back due to the current financial crisis.

(I recall reading Kulveer saying this in own words in his blog, www.kulveer.co.uk, along with the advice PG gave them to keep going and not sell yet, but his blog seems to be down or has a problem so unfortunate I cannot add the source as a reference).

But $500K in a year is still good.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/26/technology/26spend.ph...

Most individual (or very small businesses) would use...

BIS - Blackberry Internet Service (http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/internet/) which is also generally available as a cheap (<$10 p.c.m.) bolt-on by your service provider (atleast in the UK) on most pay-as-you-go/contract phones and requires little or no setup effort.

The name change was due to trademark issues (http://www.hswn.dk/hobbiton/2008/11/msg00123.html) ...not sure Gandalf would aprrove, but it keeps lawyers happy.

It reminds me of when I used to work in Holland and would cycle to the train station to commute to the office.

The train stations in most large cities have HUGE bicycle-carparks, literally bikes as far as the eye could see, so people would generally get in the habit of parking in the same spots.

Anyway, I had a fairly decent bike compared to most others around i.e. I bought it new from a shop so it had yet to get beatup and was given a huge cycle lock like this.

My colleagues used to say there was little chance of the bike being stolen.

One day I came back from work and returned to my bike only to find someone had broken the padlock (and it was a tough padlock) and stole the security chain leaving the bike.

I told my colleagues the next day and they laughed saying this was not unusual, often the chains are desired more than the bikes.

I didn't know how to feel as I kinda thought it was bad my bike was not stolen, given it was a decent new bike (and worth more than the security chain). I was told there is a certain etiquette where it is ok to "borrow" old, beatup bikes (especially if it is a cold night and you need to get home and live far away) and many people do it, but taking a new bike would be "stealing", the thief however probably "needed" and nice big chain for his new bike.

I like to think there is a certain truth to that (atleast for the place and time I was there) and to this day it is one of my favourite memories of that country.

Anyway, remember having a big chain is useless without a very good lock!

The first of many kids hopefully (assuming you want many kids, that is).

I have a 500GB IDE Hitachi Deskstar drive (was originally in an external USB caddy, but now taken out) that I think has suffered overvoltage. Even though there are no visible burn marks on the PCB, when connected directly via IDE to any PC I try, the PC will not powerup let alone POST, which indicate some short-circuit perhaps? This happens even if IDE cable not connected, which leads me to think of overvoltage damage (could be wrong).

Replacing the PCB with one from an identical drive does not work due to the fact on most modern drives the PCB microcode is unique to the specific unit itself (swapping PCB with an identical unit [make, model, batch, MLC, all same] results in drive spinning but no detection in BIOS or even by the manufacturers own drive fitness tools).

I was intrigued by the idea of making a universal backup/synch client based on rsynch.

Twitter gives a good flavour http://twitter.com/paulcarr.

Build a portfolio of passive income assests.

Ideally you should have been doing this while you had those 38hours per week "free", but it is not too late to start.

Tip #1: Empower your team.

Tip #2: Go Real-Time & User IRC (Talk to each other in real-time in a searchable medium).

Tip #3: Go Semi Real Time (Use their prologue tool, or twitter to communicate).

Tip #4: Get Together (Have real world meetups).

Tip #5: Open Source your projects (Get others involved, increases your product shelf life).

Tip #6: Obsess over metrics (experiment, collect data, analyse).

Tip #7: Break down projects into bytesize tasks that can be worked on individually.

League tables are always a good idea, so good to see that. Plus having community forums would be good too. It would help if you allowed feedback on games as an indication to new visitors what is popular or fun.

Also, for new visitors, why not try something different but fun such as a quick personality test that can be used to then recommend some games.