I kinda liked X-ville. It was 3d, it was cartoony.

It wasn't entirely original ...

Yeah, it was of the behemouth, which has always been an easy target. But visually, it was ahead of its time.

No, it was behind its time. DVP was a CD-Rom developer, and that's pretty...

But visually, it was ahead of its time. A web site – a portal, no less – which dared to eschew the conventional banner cross the top, headlines down the middle, nav marks down the left side.

That's the problem – it was all nagivation and no content.

I was...

I was working at Xtra back then.

You realise that this obliges you to make at least one substantial and amusing post to this thread about the crazy old days @Xtra?

I look forward to reading it.

Telecom directories business, is in the process of acquiring Finda. I'm not sure what their plan would be

Maybe they've bought it because the Finda search engine seems to work, as opposed to the new Yellow one.

Or maybe they bought it to shut it down so they don't look...

Surely in starting Finda an acquisition by the incumbent dominant player was always near the top of the exit-strategy options?

Likewise with Trade...

and that its not a secret?

That's my understanding too, I heard the official line is they will continue to operate as seperate entities for the forseeable.

But then management always say that to start with don't they....

OK... Why does the concept of sticking to your knitting (which presumably made the company worth buying in the first place), don't try and re-invent the wheel, and expand in baby-steps rather than jumping off a cliff to your expensive doom so hard to grasp? Really. Not getting it.

Normally...

DVP was a CD-Rom developer, and that's pretty much the style. Designers stopped using client-side image maps like that years ago.

Well, it was years ago.

The Second Coming could have happened and it would be just another day in X-ville.

Bliss.

sticking to your knitting (which presumably...

]]> Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:32:13 +1300 http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1640,hard-news-trading-trade-me.sm?p=91237#post91237 James Littlewood* Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:33:31 +1300 http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1640,hard-news-trading-trade-me.sm?p=91238#post91238 Julian Melville

Watching Trade Me go nuts while your book becomes a paper weight's gotta hurt.

I'd like to see a TradeMe prop my door open or keep my monitor at the right height.

What, there's phone numbers inside that thing?

]]> Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:38:40 +1300 http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1640,hard-news-trading-trade-me.sm?p=91240#post91240 Paul Campbell Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:43:08 +1300 http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1640,hard-news-trading-trade-me.sm?p=91241#post91241 Robyn Gallagher

You realise that this obliges you to make at least one substantial and amusing post to this thread about the crazy old days @Xtra?

Crazy old days was more Ihug. I started at Xtra in 1999 (almost exactly 10 years ago!), and by then Xtra was kind of stuck between...

It all seemed very sensible and well run compared with the 'Hug – "Wow, they have an actual health and safety policy!" "Wow, they do performance reviews!" "Wow, the boss isn't insane!"

Ah yes. You missed the boss-is-insane era at Xtra.

The boss then would've been Bill Birch lookalike Bob...

...the introduction of the #003399 and #ffcc00 portal.

This is quite possibly the geekiest sentence I have seen in my life.

I now want to meet Robyn and see if she uses that in irl conversation.

trademe? I see John Key is going to auction his cast on that site. Do you think he is going to sign it?

Is it all his own work?

I now want to meet Robyn and see if she uses that in irl conversation.

You know the people who do air quotes with their fingers? Robyn does the same thing, except she mimes the xml notation.

trademe? I see John Key is going to auction his cast on that site. Do you think he is going to sign it?

Is it all his own work?

We shall have to ask Graeme about the legal ramifications of such behaviour.

trademe? I see John Key is going to auction his cast on that site. Do you think he is going to sign it?

Is it all his own work?

Yes, and he's going to offer to drop it off to the winner in an illegally speeding police motorcade.

Yawn.

The Trade-me question will be what eBay does with it? They're only buying the name (they have the technology themselves) so the question is are they buying it to turf it (and introduce ebay.co.nz) or buying it as a portfolio play to continue to run as it stands with the...

I now want to meet Robyn and see if she uses that in irl conversation.

Um, yeah, I do. Only #ffcc00 and #003399 are the only colours I know (apart from #000000 and #ffffff).

We shall have to ask Graeme about the legal ramifications of such behaviour.

Has he declared his cast as an asset?

Imagine how bad John Key's cast will smell when it comes off.

It will smell of victory. Or sweat, I guess.

There were also compulsory Friday afternoon drinks which you had to attend and be all social and shit. You weren't allowed to go home early. You had to stand around and drink a beer, a wine or an orange juice with the accountant.

Such wank – that would get me...

It will smell of victory. Or sweat, I guess.

I thought victory smelt like napalm? Or is that just in the morning, maybe in the afternoon it smells like sweat... If so, what does it smell like by late evening?

Has he declared his cast as an asset?

John should talk to Cynthia plaster caster.

It will smell of victory. Or sweat, I guess.

I thought victory smelt like napalm? Or is that just in the morning, maybe in the afternoon it smells like sweat... If so, what does it smell like by late evening?

Ashes?

The eBay interface is awful!

Not that bad, in my opinion. The TM interface is certainly better in most respects, but there are certain things about the Ebay interface that I think are better.

The biggest problem I have with Ebay is that the NZ/AU market is too small and...

comes to mind

And unlike ihug there was – at least on my floor – no sex, drugs or other crazy times, which was a tad disappointing.

I've got a great anecdote along those lines regarding when Chris Heazlewood from King Loser worked at Ihug in the late '90s.

For obvious legal reasons,...

I've got a great anecdote along those lines regarding when Chris Heazlewood from King Loser worked at Ihug in the late '90s.

Whoa, Heazlewood used to work at the 'Hug! Arrgh!

There were a surprising number of musicians/actors/indiecunts who worked at Ihug. Some of them were brilliant (behold the direct...

The Herald site may well look good and be very useful, but... it hangs my brouser

Try adblocking everything and/or uninstalling flash. A lot of those animated ads grab CPU.

It's getting better but ebay has a much better search engine, especially for completed items which is what I use it for 50% of the time.

Whenever I am selling something collectable it goes on...

TradeMe is often full of cheap-ass tyre kickers

Hmm, its a bit of both this and people who have an over inflated sense of what they think their goods are worth.

Whenever I am selling something collectable it goes on ebay US without a thought.

What I meant to add, is that TradeMe is often full of cheap-ass tyre kickers.
ebay is where the real buyers are at.

I'm sure you're right, but I was very pleasantly surprised at what TradeMe's...

I remember losing the end of a knitting needle down my cast and...

However, one of the reasons US sellers only ship inside the US is to avoid scams.

Mostly, I think it's because they don't actually know how to send stuff overseas. (Just a tad bitter.)

a couple of WWII vintage Fun Ho! toys

I went to the Fun Ho! museum in...

This is quite possibly the geekiest sentence I have seen in my life.

You can buy – or rather, people can – doormats with
'There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1'
written on them.

Admittedly – thankfully? – I had to guess what that one was about.

'There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1'

Ohhh, that's funny on just one level. But funny nonetheless.

There are at least a decent number of people who know what 127.0.0.1 is. Memorising RGB codes, that's true, er 'class'.

As for shipping from the US – it's not that much if you know your postal shizz.

However, with the falling exchange rate, it's really easy to go over the $400 limit and be hit with tax and duty. I guess it's better with a back street eBay vendor who...

Memorising RGB codes

What? Memorise? What's to memorise? One sees a value for red, green, and blue, and it is a simple mental operation to take the three hexadecimal values and convert to a colour.

One of my workmates was a bit crook a few weeks ago and sent around...

Whenever I am selling something collectable it goes on ebay US without a thought.
The only site to sell 'proper' stuff (that you can mail).

As for shipping from the US – it's not that much if you know your postal shizz.
Likewise from here to there.

It sounds like...

Try adblocking everything and/or uninstalling flash. A lot of those animated ads grab CPU.

True that. In the past the problem at the Herald site has been with DoubleClick's ad-serving code, which conflicted horribly with Safari in the Mac and some other configurations.

"Rich media" ad creative in general is...

Memorising RGB codes

I saw a t-shirt the other day that read:

"Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All of my base
Are belong to you"

I suppose that to some people, that will be the most romantic thing they have ever heard.

My sister gave me this one for my last birthday:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/69e3/

Has no-one put Trademe up on TradeMe yet?

Sorry dude. I just assumed you would.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/generic/8f52/

"At home sick with #b3770099 coloured bile."

alpha channel.. thats awesome! that's total design meets code geekiness. hex me baby.

Robyn, i'm surprised you didnt remember #cccccc and then #eeeeee the lightest legal grey you could have back then for subtle designy type design stuff whilst busy making pages under...

Has no-one put Trademe up on TradeMe yet?

I've brought some surplus electrical equipment from an old timer in Onehunga. They call him Harry Harbor bridge, due to his fraudulently trying to sell the Harbor-bridge, during the late seventies. I'd heard the harbor bridge story over the years. So meeting...

. . . eccentric warehouse filled with monumental components that drive city infrastructure, such as huge transformers, pumps and heavy-duty other really grunty things that look like they came from under the road . . .

Sounds like the bastard who caused the blackout of '98.

Sounds like the bastard who caused the blackout of '98.

If I where an undertaker, I'd decline dealing with him. burying radio active materials is not permissible under the RMA.

I recognize the jokes on the t-shirts, and I have begun to LOL, OMG!

I'm just glad to see them turning up outside of 'ones I have had shipped her and put on my friends'. xkcd has cheaper shipping than thinkgeek. I'm just sayin'.

xkcd has cheaper shipping than thinkgeek. I'm just sayin'.

That you know that is testament to ... something.

Nobody I talk to ever seems to understand what Yellow is doing.

Thats because you don't speak the language of the black gloves:

"umm-bid-dlbb-lee-doo-bee-deeb-ly-deebly-dum-diddle" says it all really.

oops "That's"

That is remarkable. I did not previously realize that thats is a nonexistent word.

I did not previously realize that thats is a nonexistent word.

Oh, but it isn't. I could say for instance that if you use to many thises or thats in a sentence, it's bad style.

I bought Bishop Berkeley's doormat on TradeMe. It says "there's no place."

See, I get that one, as well as the geek jokes. Finally my MA in Philosophy is earning its keep.

That is remarkable. I did not previously realize that thats is a nonexistent word.

These days I figure, so long as it's clear, does it actually matter? It's so common to break all the rules of grammar now, and being pedantic is so damned time wasting. Fair enough if you're...

... doormats with 'There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1' written on them.

What, "There's No Place Like loopback"? I'll have "There's No Place Like ~"

Shakespeare would never have got one play past a proofreader.

And Shakespeare didn't have to cope with pedants, at least not in the modern sense. In The Taming of the Shrew there's a minor character identified simply as "a pedant". I was initially a little puzzled that he didn't do...

But consider that it also takes longer when you're just pissing people off by being a pedant

Does is not also take longer when you're just pissing people off by being an anti-pedant? ;)

Robyn, i'm surprised you didnt remember #cccccc and then #eeeeee the lightest legal grey you could have back then for subtle designy type design stuff whilst busy making pages under 50Kb.

I remember it now! Oh, it's all coming back. Very soon I'll be able to create a turn-of-the-millennium-style webpage...

There are just 10 sorts of people---those who read binary and those who don't.

I have that t-shirt.

There have been quite a few puzzled looks from people who are just a little bit too nervous to ask.

... doormats with 'There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1' written on them.

What, "There's No Place Like loopback"? I'll have "There's No Place Like ~"

Ok. How about 192.168.1.X

I always wanted a shirt with "403" on it.

I can get you close...

Heh. In that configuration I'd rather have the 200.. :)

Dude, I said I could get you close .

Um, Ben, I agree with your argument but in this case it was Rachel correcting herself.

I wasn't ragging on Rachel. But internalizing pedantry to the point where you feel the need to make follow up posts just to correct something that is patently obvious, to preempt anyone else doing...

internalising pedantry

I hadn't thought of that.

I'm accused (by you, as I recall) of being overly wordy, but my excuse is that I don't like to be misunderstood, so I say the same thing in several ways.

I can't imagine that that was me. Plenty of things far more worthy of complaint. Besides, I kinda like...

"Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All of my base
Are belong to you"

I suppose that to some people, that will be the most romantic thing they have ever heard.

Weeell...not quite the most romantic thing ever, but if it were on a cute, geeky, Rachel Maddow-type I'd prolly...