I once worked on a site for a large financial company that was internally split into two top-level departments. And I mean split — if you phoned one side and asked about a product covered by the other then they’d know nothing about it, wouldn’t be able to forward your call, and probably wouldn’t even know the right number.

So there were some tensions when it came to funding and managing the web site as a unified online presence. One side provided most of the budget and was mostly in control, but when representatives of both sides were in the same meeting it could quickly degenerate into childish squabbling, especially over shared elements such as the home page.

One day they tentatively proposed a solution, an end to the wrangling, a fairer way to give each side their say. The big idea was to split the home page cleanly in two, with the precise position of the dividing line determined by the proportion of the budget supplied.

In the end, common sense prevailed and the split didn’t happen, but it was another reminder of the external insanity that can arise from internal politics.

When referring to examples of successful internet-related businesses, people naturally tend to look to the big players throwing big money around, but I’d like to suggest a less obvious candidate. The MetaFilter Network supports its owner and a few employees, has no need for venture capital or pushy ‘internet entrepreneur’ types, and hosts a thriving online community that directly and indirectly generates revenue. Oh, and there’s stuff like helping a bereaved member pay hospital bills.

Isn’t that enough to aim for? Isn’t it the kind of bullshit-free business a lot of us always hoped the web would permit? MeFi is a far more inspiring role model than the hype-laden nonsense that gets its 15 minutes of fame on TechCrunch.

I was just about to finish writing about this when I read that MeFi owner Matt Haughey had been hospitalised, initially seemingly for flu but later turning out to be a brain tumour. I can’t claim to know Matt (we’ve exchanged emails, but only because I inadvertantly caused him some minor hassle years ago; oops), but he’s one of the internet’s Good Guys and it’s great to hear that the treatment options seem promising. Get well soon, mathowie.

Party Pooper Mode

Another sad (but understandable) concession to humourless people who try to squeeze the fun out of everything.

Lou’s Pseudo 3d Page

A geeky run-down of the tricks and techniques used in old driving games.

WhiteHouse.gov Goes Drupal

As Tim O’Reilly says, it’ll help promote wider use of open source.

Piracy and the App Store

The speed and scale is quite surprising for a device that isn’t jailbroken by most users.

Sudtipos

Some really stylish fonts I’ll have to remember to consider for future designs.

Google Groups is Dead

No spam filtering or anti-spoofing measures? Wow.

Pay-What-You-Want Birthday Sale Wrap-up

I would’ve bought World of Goo when it came out, except the demo was actually too generous and left me feeling I’d played it enough.

Weird Toilet Paper Roll Sculptures by Junior Jacquet

I’d have linked directly to the artist’s site if it didn’t consist of only a single page made from images and a huge PDF catalogue.

Taykt

Instantly set up a UK SMS shortcode (so you can say things like “Text MYTHUMBACHESFROMTYPINGTHIS to 82958”). Could be useful for some offine projects, especially as it allows you to retrieve any info submitted following the main word.

Comic strip mashups

Is there a Garfield spoof that doesn’t improve on the original?

Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries

I still don’t think that fonts should have special treatment, but it seems a compromise format is needed.

Podcasting Equipment Guide (2009)

Clear recommendations for different levels of user.

Yesterday I realised that this blog has just turned five years old; hardly ancient, but not bad going (also realised it’s 20 years since I first got online at university, blimey).

In honour of this uneventful event, I’ve added an area to the weblog home page highlighting entries from a year ago and five years ago, so I can remind myself of all the horribly wrong predictions and misguided ramblings.

If you’ve taken some iPhone/iPod touch screenshots (by pressing Home and Sleep together), you might want to show them off superimposed on a device.

This Zip file of iPhone images simply contains PNGs sized so that the screen area perfectly matches 320x480 screenshots, avoiding any need to faff about resizing things to fit. Included are portrait and landscape pics on white with minimal shadows (no reflection), plus a shadow-free cutout.

1. Most people aren’t particularly good at what they do.
2. Most things aren’t as difficult as they may seem.
3. It’s usually better to have a go at something yourself than rely on someone who isn’t particularly good.