Monthly Archives: October 2006

Call Nightline!

Get.rich.quick, Pals, Save.the.world

My friend Nikki pointed out the MIT Nightline for me and neither of us can get over how good this idea is. I love the idea of a number in your phone that you can call for anything. It’s staffed with volunteers.

I think you could set up a non-MIT version of this based off of free labor.

Step 1. You sign up and list what you can be called about. “I can talk to people about finances, computers, snowboarding, general whatevers”

Step 2. You sign up for a time that calls can be relayed to you. “I volunteer for 6-7 pm this wednesday.”

Step 3. You are now able to call in about any problem and get someone to talk to.

Your cost is mainly the servers, bandwidth, pbx system and phone time.

The trick is to balance the commitment that folks have to give versus the demand.

I think a good name for it would be to steal from Warren Ellis the name “Global Frequency”.

when I think of the past, the twitches come back

Dev, Software

The Daily WTF – MAKEing Fools’ GOLD:

“Paul’s company develops financial software that’s used by major stock markets. In his brief tenure, Paul was witness to millions of dollars in loss as a direct result of their software. “

I am proud to claim Paul as a friend and former coworker. He was one of the lights in an otherwise Kafkaesque experience. I’m pleased to see in the comments shoutouts from other former coworkers, one of whom I’m guessing was Eric.

I still talk to folks who work there. They are a working hard against a very discouraging culture, and I’ve heard recent reports of progress.

That said, I still tell stories about what went down there.
It’s the only place I’ve worked at where multiple people put holes in the walls in anger without getting let go.

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