I don’t care how much is getting donated from the sale of these objects. I find the thought of marketing the tragedies of 9/11 distasteful.

Hotline Communications announces layoffs due to uncertain economic market.

On 09-21-2001 they “…announced employee layoffs due to the continued, deepening uncertainty in the capital markets.” Here’s the kicker though.

“Hotline has not ceased all operations, and at this time we are pursuing those options left open to us. They include an outright sale of the company, perpetuity licenses for the technology, access to the user base, and an advantageous tax-loss carry-forward position”, said President and CEO Jack Kay.

Access to the user base—I like that one. Does that mean they are gonna sell off user names, emails, etc. to help generate capital? Really makes you wanna sign up for stuff doesn’t it? Your personal information is someone elses asset. I know it’s really nothing new, but I still don’t have to like it.

I’ve been having some fun with vectorpark today. You should too.

It had to start sometime. I got an email today trying to sell me flags, and prey on my sense of nationality, and Americanism. It started like this…

Join Us In Helping Our Friends In New York!

We have American Flags for your Car, Operation Noble Eagle Shirts, Nuke Afghanistan bumper stickers, American Flag lapel pins and more. Show the world your Proud to be an American and proudly display our flag wherever you can.

It’s from an email and website that is somebody’s private server. No public website. Very shabby, very shady. Notice the bad grammar in the last line.

And just now I saw a commercial on MSNBC for the American Freedom Collection, which consists of flags, stickers, and buttons, all for the low, low price of $14.95.

I think I am going to be sick.

Go WaSP!

I’ve decided to patent all my thoughts, and conversations as they happen. That way when when I talk to you, or we discuss something, you’ll owe me money.

slashdot on the W3C Patent Policy – 216 comments as of this posting.

MeFi on the W3C Patent Policy – 1 comment as of this posting.

To quote Abhijeet Chavan who put it simply:

I hope that the deadline for public comment for W3C Patent Policy Framework (RAND) will be extended so that all parties impacted by this proposal have adequate time to study the draft and formulate responses.

This proposal could:

• Weaken efforts to close the “Digital Divide”
• Threaten Open Source Software
• Erode trust in W3C and undermine its mission

I strongly oppose the inclusion of patents in Web standards as proposed in the W3C Patent Policy Framework. I believe this runs against Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the World Wide Web.

And like he, and many others, I support the views expressed in: W3C Patent Policy: Bad for the W3C, bad for business,
bad for users – by Alan Cox.

[via zeldman]