Is it possible that a lack of good design had something to do with an Internet startup's failure?

That's Scoble, as in Robert Scoble, the guy who once exclaimed that ugly design (anti-marketing design) is key to Internet fueled success:

Kids, next time Uncle Touchy Touchy tells you that bad design equates to big success just remember there are at least seven million reasons why that's a load of horse pucky.

Proof that while the cat is away the mice will play. And, apparently, they play very well...

A little Campfire tomfoolery provided by Mr Warkentin and Mr Caver.

I can't believe this made the news. Gore endorses Obama? What a load of crap:

Wow, that took a lot courage—come out after it's clear Obama won the nomination and then throw support behind his candidacy. I appreciate that Al may have his head elsewhere (no comment) but given his prominence in our political system and in the Democrat Party, I expected way, way more from him and he failed to deliver, once again.

If this is to be the way Old America choses to run things at the DNC then they may as well crown McBush president and save this country the huge cost of running a federal election.

I'm not sure what all the brouhaha over 37signals' Declaration of Independence from Adobe is all about. They design safe, bare-bones, boxy, Volvo-esque web based applications. Hell if all I had to do was make boxes all day for my own products then I'd drop Bloatshop in a heartbeat.

If your design aesthetic is similar to that of the boys in Chicago—and clients are willing to pay you really good money for the Boxy but They're Good Chique—then I'd certainly heed their advice, otherwise why should any of us care what a box factory says when we're in the landscaping business?

I suppose when you agree to subsidize the cost of a popular consumer product it buys you a little leverage in how said product is sold. That's the only reason why I can think that Steve allowed for AT&T to end home activation of the iPhone. This isn't a small step backwards, it's an orbital free fall. From here on out, every new purchase of an iPhone will require ten to twelve minutes of quality time with an expert who will rip out your soul, give it to AT&T, and then press the phone's on switch.

Ten to twelves minutes, per phone! Does anyone remember bread lines?

Whereas standing in line for a new Apple product in the past usually only took a few hours, this arrangement will usher in a new era of Soviet style queueing. Nevermind that last year I was able to activate it in three minutes in the comfort of my own home. Tens of thousands of us did this without any problems, but maybe that was just a fluke. After-all none of us are fully trained expert technicians who are skilled in the ways of turning a phone on for the first time. Only AT&T can provide that kind of experience and know-how.

I used to hate AT&T for all it's dropped calls and day-late text messages and voice mail delivery, now...well I don't know what you call bile inducing rage against stupidity.

The cats have been given their baths and all claw wounds have been properly patched up with antiseptic and bandages (the kind that is flexible and matches skin color). My best suit has laid out along with socks that match, swanky cuff links and a pocket square. The hair not quite so perfect, I really should stop cutting it myself and go see someone more qualified—and by qualified I mean being able to see all of my head without obstruction—but it will do for today. The house has been cleaned and a single scented candle has been lit while the windows have been opened to allow the slight ocean breeze to saunter in and help freshen things up. The champagne is chilled and the spotless flutes wait patiently.

Now if someone could just give me an idea when Hiliary is going to end her campaign today that would be great. Simply recording this moment on Tivo will not do.

I just came across a link to a store where a two-terabyte drive can be purchased for the price of an iPod. Two. Terabytes. !@#$% What the hell?! Arrrrgggg. Wait, uh, let me get into character here...cinch the pants up a few inches—yes, good—put on some flannel, and hunch over...all set.

Seems like only yesterday when Apple unveiled the one-megabyte drive for the Macintosh Plus. It cost way more than an iPod but you could do things like store all your fonts, all your documents (even scanned documents) and Aldus Pagemaker in one neat, tidy place and there was still a vast sea of room left over to store things like the Library of Congress, Ultima II, and China. It was so huge, look, you don't even know how much one-megabyte was. Now, I think my cat's digital watch as more storage space.

Two-terabytes though? I don't get it?!

How is it that a two-terrabyte drive is just another commonly available product available at a low, low price, because the last time I checked I still can't visit Mars. I can't "beam" to the East Coast and have dinner with Ryan and Ethan and then "beam" back home. My car still has tires and requires 1/4th of a dinosaur to commute for a week. Cancer still kills people and every other year I get that damned, knock you on your ass head and chest cold. We still don't know if we're the only humanoids in existence in the universe. NBC still doesn't have a viable strategy for digital content distribution better than what they had with iTunes (The Zune?! Are you kidding me?! And oh hey, 1985 IBM called and they'd like to talk to you about working with Microsoft). The closest thing to having a robot in the house is an upside down bowl that sucks up and it can't tell you the square root of jack, it just runs around until it bumps into something, turns a bit and tries to forge a new path. My cats aren't wearing Astro Boots with that matching glass dome helmet. Newspapers, newspapers, newspapers. And we still have people waiting to be awakened from their frozen slumber into a bright new future where their head can be attached to new cyborg body.

Look, the two-terrabyte drive isn't supposed to exist yet. We're not supposed to have that kind of technology until I can take a pneumatic tube to work. So either someone has found a way to travel into the future (also part of the list of things you're supposed to be able to do in a two-terrabyte world) or we're all getting gypped.