February 23, 2003
GNR Launches VC Fund and New Registrar Marketing Support Initiative
GNR seems to be kicking their PR into gear with this release.I wonder when they will be providing the rest of ICANN's accredited registrars with details concerning their new venture capital fund and cooperative marketing programs. What do I mean you say? Well, GNR has made specific guarantees to ICANN that they will treat all registrars equally. Based on this, one must assume that GNR is willing to provide similar seed capital and marketing support to more than just PersonalNames. Or perhaps ICANN will reverse this terrible precedent and set an appropriate standard that actually promotes competition.Transcending ASCII?
MediaSavvy: Text must (and can) transcend ASCII says Barry. While I completely understand the point that he makes - and agree with it to a point, there must be a stronger emphasis placed on useability. Software generally sucks, interfaces continue to be confusing and *using* takes too much *learning*. While interfaces, content what have you, need to look good, they also need to work good. Far too often, they don't. Until they do, I'll settle for ugly and hope that more attention gets paid to function.Imports done...sort of.
So, most of the importing is done. There are a few days that won't import no way, no how - but I've lost interest in the chore. Its really just the last week of December 2002 that is being a pain the ass. If you really want to browse back, you can always use the Radio archive and start filling in the blanks starting on the 20th. A few more cleanup items that I need to do, but I have to pick up Amanda in 10 minutes so it will have to wait.Tweaks
Made a ton of small tweaks to the front page. Mostly around the vibe of the layout - I wasn't crazy happy with the way things looked so drasticly different from the old site in terms of look, style and feel. At least some of the old feel is back. I'm still struggling with weather or not I actually want to go to the trouble of reviving the old look and feel.Today's tweaks have given me a much greater appreciation for working with CSS - something that I've never really done before, so I might tackle it. Even with the new knowledge, it will take quite a lot of time to make a change that drastic, so I might just wait a bit until I have some more time on my hands. It might just be easier to import the old site into the new look and feel.
I still want to get the insta-blog feature that I was referring to last week installed. Still haven't quite figured out how to do it, but I've got a general idea. I've also got a few more ideas for more closely relating posts and comments inline as opposed to their current organization. This will be my next job, and I might even get to it today.
But not now, time to hop in the shower, take some movies back and get some feed into the belly.
Back
Well, I made it back in one piece. Barely. I was supposed to have been back on Friday night, but it took Alan and I almost an hour to get through traffic to the airport. We only had 30 minutes to make the flight when we finally got there. I had thought about staying an extra night, so I elected to pay for the cab and let him run ahead. It took me a few minutes to find the ticketing desk - I went downstairs, they were upstairs, so I figure Alan had a ten minute head-start on me. The nice woman at the ticketing desk kind of laughed at me and offered to book me on the first flight the next day instead of playing the (bad) odds that I could make it through security and get to the gate with the time I had left.Heading back to the hotel, I hooked up with a bunch of folks that had remained behind after the meeting which ed ti a lot of pints being collectivly being consumed and a healthy mix of rhetoric, braggadocio, debate and brainstorming - too bad that there wasn't some sleep in there. To make a long story short, I managed to trundle off from the hotel around 5:00 to make my flight and actually boarded this time.
I've got a ton of notes to pore through and digest before they get put up - huge storm today, so I'll likely get it done and posted later today....