I was reading an incredibly boring requirements document at work today about an upcoming product of ours. Buried in the middle of this documents was a list of project assumptions:

2.1 PROJECT ASSUMPTIONS

Assumption 1 - A flood doesn't come and wipe us all away
Assumption 2 - Microsoft actually ships Visual Studio 2005 on time

Those were the only assumptions!

Last year, Mattel sued "Barbies Shop" for capitalizing on its trademark name Barbie. Mattel argued the store's Web address, barbiesshop.com infringed on its trademark rights and its own Web address -- barbieshop.com.

Barbies Shop owner Barbie Anderson-Walley said the suit has been dismissed and that Mattel doesn't have a case to come back at it. The dismissal shows that "if you're born with a name you can use it for a place of business," she said.

Barbies Shop, which is based in Calgary, Alberta, specializes in selling clothes for "bad boyz and girls," according to its Web site.

Shoppers can buy vinyl corsets and leather studded bras, as well as accessories like bondage belts.

Domain name poppycock.

Mattel says battle against bondage Barbie 'ongoing'

pjammer wrote:
Looks like a link-farming site. A few 'articles' that regurgitate obvious facts, and a bunch of advertising. What is this?! :P

That's because essmeier is a piece of shit link spammer. Memestreams has implemented measures so the Google bot doesn't follow his links, or anyone's links who doesn't have a "good" reputation (ie their memes are read/recommended by others). Link spamming Memestreams does nothing for him now.

Memestreams is constantly improving. Personally I am working on several security issues with the site, and plan to move to enhancing the Memebox. Decius and I have talked in the past about a kind of killfill for Memestreams, where you simply wouldn't see assholes like essmeier. Regardless of whether he ultimately decides to do this, there are 3 simple ways you can get rid of his posts now:

-Don't read anything he posts if you see it.

-Meme nteresting articles, that people will read and thus are placed on the front page. Link spam only gets to the front page when there aren't any more popular stories to display.

-Get more legitimate users for Mememstreams. The more users we have, the more data Memestreams' presentation and recommendation algorithms have to work with. Shit like essmeier will sink to the bottom and you will not see their posts.

Link spammers are the sux.

What you need to make in one city to have the same style of living at a fixed salary in your current city. Atlanta is cheap!

Cost of Living Calculator

] Six-figure zip codes
] Here are the U.S. communities with the highest percentage
] of six-figure income earners, according to OnBoard LLC,
] which created this list based on statistics collected
] from government and commercial sources.

Highest income zip codes

] But that%u2019s exactly what Google%u2019s IPO threatens.
] By moving to an auction format with Google executives
] guaranteed, by the terms of the offer, access to the
] books so they can judge demand for themselves, the Google
] IPO shifts the balance of power toward the company and
] away from the underwriter. The auction format is designed
] to get Google the best price for its shares and to leave
] as little money as possible on the table. There will be
] no guaranteed post-IPO appreciation for investment
] bankers to pass on to favored clients. The auction
] process indeed goes a long way to eliminate the very idea
] of favored clients since the deal will be dominated by
] individual investors who set their own price and demand
] on the Internet. And as if that%u2019s not enough to kill
] any prospects at a post-IPO bounce, if Google sees
] evidence of more demand than expected, the company has
] reserved the right to increase the number of shares in
] the offering.

IPO's and Google

] The job market may not be booming. But for many in the
] college class of 2004, it won't be quite as dismal as it
] was for last year's grads.

Some good news...

its good to be CmpE

Most lucrative college degrees '04 - Feb. 5, 2004

] In the interest of fair play, you might point out that you are
] friends with the guy

In the Interest of fair play, I should point out that inignoct, Rattle, ryan, Elonka and others had no idea who I was at the time, and many still haven't met me. The only Memestreamer who knew me was Decius, who I met at the conference. I won't pollute my ego and think I can cause so many people to react to something a certain way. I think the numbers of people who reacted to what BB did and the strength at which did they speaks more about what occured then I could.

] BTW, I'm a former Blackboard employee. Worked there four
] years. Am I proud of everything Blackboard has done over the
] years? Nope. But it's a good company populated with plenty of
] decent free-thinking people. Particularly the techies, some of
] the most fiercely independent and idealistic folks I've ever
] met, and a group with whom your hacker friend would probably
] fit right in.

I concur you shouldn't fault the whole company. I'm sure there are cool folks there. However the executives, not Bill the Engineer or Sally in accounting made the choices on how to react, and executives have the most to gain from an IPO. For that reason I hope it fails. The lawsuit changed me very much: certain beliefs I've always had about motives and conduct were completely destroyed. After several talks with BB executives, I still cannot fathom these people's greed. It and it alone drives their actions, and that utterly sickens me. A failed IPO would deny they what they want, because believe me, they care nothing about Sally or Bill.

RE: Blackboard Looks Likely To Go Public