A Donkey on the Edge

Dave Sifry asks what are your New Years resolutions?

Well, the one I'm most going to struggle with is finding an alternative to Gmail. After last year's Adsense fiasco (The Lecture List was almost forced off the road the Google dogma juggernaught) and the continuing total lack of accountability that Google appears to be able to bask in indefinitely, I'm still struggling to find a commercial alternative.

My theory was that if I didn't trust Google anymore, I could cancel all my Google accounts and pay a supplier for the service. Paying, while a bit of a sting, would give me independence and a level of service. Most importantly, it gave me some level of control over my privacy.

It's now the 2nd of January 2006 and I've been looking to make the change since last October. I still can't find a service that offers the benefits of Gmail! I've seen a few Outlook-based monsters and a whole bunch of terrible unix 'pop wrapper' apps but nothing that works as seamlessly.

Help me out here ok?

Oh, and speaking of resultions, could we have one between Urkarine and Russia like pretty quickly before this gets out of control please?

The Technorati tag: 2006resolutions

Flickr is currently displaying the following header message on all pages:

Is Flickr acting weird for you? That's because the servers are running HOT right now.

Same questions arise as before. We all thought there was now only one way to skin this cat--that webdev was completely commoditised and that reliable scalability was no big deal. Apparently not;-)

It'd be great to be able to read a report from Yahoo/Flickr on the technology they're using and why it goes wrong...

So this is the time of year when we say good-bye to our Christmas trees. I have to say, there is something just a bit depressing about all these abandoned trees. I mean, I know they're not puppies or anything but how can you be indifferent--one minute we're inviting them into our sitting room and covering them with glitter, the next we're lobbing them out the window:-(

Listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast on Guardian Unlimited :-)

So I've been driving past this 48-sheet for a company called "Beyon" every morning this month and every time I pass it I wonder about how totally misguided the thing is...

For starters, the graphic itself--I mean is it just me or is that not a visitor's booth in a prison. Can you not see the guy speaking into his phone and pressing his hand against the glass, prompting his faithful partner to do the same?

And the headline, confidence at work again, am I the only one who thinks the word 'confidence' has mostly negative connotations in this context? You know, as in 'con artist', 'confidence trick' or just plain 'con' in the sense of a prison-dweller?

Anyhoo, it always amazes me what creative teams can get past the client:-)

photo: JCDecaux

Very excited, have just read a piece on pdafrance.com which claims to have found a reliable screengrab app for the Symbian OS :-)

The product is called Best ScreenSnap. I've not tried it yet but can't wait and will report results...

I know I have absolutely no impact whatsoever on the music publishing industry, but I just wanted to confirm that if any record companies are listening, I will never buy another CD from you guys that has copy protection or other DRM nonsense.

Oh, and Steve, just so's you know, I'm not buying another track from the iTunes Music Store until until you remove the machine limitation on FairPlay or JHymn is fixed.

Thank you.

Listening to the old Ricky Gervais podcast thing again. Apparently, after the offhand remark "you could make a dance mix from I could eat a knob at night" the guys received eighty (80!) mix tapes:-)

I'm always on the lookout for interesting examples of bloggers making content together, so was chuffed to see Livejournal users have been creating hundreds and hundreds of Batgirls (thanks Boingboing)

So nice little quilt graphic from Yahoo (Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 years, 100 moments of the Web) for their birthday.

When I see this type of thing I start wondering about what was left out...

I can see two things missing straight away

1. Jenicam
2. Google

Any other omissions come to mind?

Sunday night and Flickr is displaying the above... I'll just repeat my earlier request:

It'd be great to be able to read a report from Yahoo/Flickr on the technology they're using and why it goes wrong...

PodDater adds RSS feeds to profiles. Online Dating Insider:

Un-bloody-believable. Well, I guess it had to happen, video dating moves to the iPod ("view videos of prospective partners on your way to work"). I guess with rss you can build a subscription to only those types you might be interested in.

David Byrne Journal: 1.10.06: DRM

CDs from the big five run the risk of damaging your computer, opening you up to security risks, and you can’t rip the music onto your iPod. Stop buying CDs now. At least until they guarantee us that they will never try this shit again.

I gives me a warm glow when heros behave like heros :-)

Nintendo Breaches the 3-million connections and 500,000-user mark! - Gaming Blog

So is it a medium? A platform? I was thinking of using the DS as a datacapture device by having free-play sessions in shopping malls with a prompt at the end of the session. The devices are networked to a central controller so you could monitor what each person was up to.

I can imagine a new kind of shopping mall interaction. Instead of wearing a silly uniform and handing out fliers, the on-site person could invite shoppers to join a networked play (peppered with suitable calls to action or themed to match campaign).

thanks gamingblog

So the largest distributor of crap burnt coffee is entering the the music biz...

• Starbucks as a serious media player
• Starbucks Eyes MP3 Downloads

(thank you Influx and Labellife)

Don't keep up with my Modern Marketing feed as frequently as I should -- James has always got some interesting stuff to say...

In December, he posted Honda's Inaccessible Dream a nice little flag about the W+K film (the one that starts on a C50 and ends up in a hot air balloon over the Victoria falls) and how while it's a fantastic epic, it doesn't let us join in.

He posted a few links in the time honoured fashion (pioneered by Dean Allen) and I just wanted to publish them here in a more accessible format:

• Its a great car (this one almost feels copywritten?)
• My Honda sucks (so much so he's hired a lawyer)
• Common problems in Honda Civics (very measured and believable)
• Lost confidence in the Honda CR-V after brake failure (customer reviews)
• Honda on Flickr

So yeah, James, I totally agree with you :-)

When your javascript goes wrong it just makes you look sad. I swear no one tests this shit...