uninteresting :: rich

i turned off the ability to comment on my blog entries. spammers were posting links to raise their google ratings. scumbags.

over the past year, nearly every person i know got hooked on friendster at some point or another. for a while i was checking it several times a day. but the site was slow, and eventually the novelty wore off, and now just about all of my friends’ profiles are stagnant. why? the clunky ad-laden interface hasn’t improved. speed is a little better. no compelling new features. they’re promoting “friendster phone” which is just a rebranded pc-to-phone app.

funny how with all that investment cash they can’t figure out a compelling next step. kinda like evite, a site that EVERYONE used, but never figured out how to make a dime except from banner ads. and it’s funny how evite is now trying to become a friendster copycat.

i just called my parents in shanghai for under 3 cents per minute and the call was crystal clear. i’m gonna get my dad to install it on his computer there because pc-to-pc calls are free. you only pay when you want to call to a regular phone.

i just got $108(!) for my old ipod on ebay! the auction was at $36 this morning, but i saw there were 24 people “watching” it, so i had a feeling it would be bid up. but i wasn’t expecting $108.

it’s the original version…3 yrs old…all scratched up…*broken* firewire (of course i mentioned that in the auction). i remember buying it from a guy on CL for $350, when they first came out and were selling for $400.

now, 3 years later, it sells on ebay and recoups over half the cost of my new mp3 player that - surprise - i bought off a guy on CL.

CL and ebay are enablers of my vicious gadget cycle. god bless ‘em.

don’t ask me how i got ‘em, but these are the actual notes President Bush took during the debates.