top || fun | art | media | issues | net | tech | science | history | search | shop
This page was initially drafted on 31 July 1998 as a selection of the best links from the Robot Wisdom Weblog archives. A few layers of refinement have been added since then, with the aim of gradually constructing a concise introduction to net.literacy on each of these topics. So stay tuned!
cdnow
deja search fs forsale
product info finding company site good luck finding product page anti-sites
support
security scams
mmf
In the same way the Web makes every webmaster a potential editor, it will likely make every website a potential boutique, earning referral fees for every product it successfully promotes.
PC Mag's favorite shopping sites and auction sites
The greatest web-shopping success story is the online auction-house, eBay. Great backgrounder. Sociology, ditto
Comparison shopping for books: http://www.acses.com/i2b.htm
Excite's "Jango" product-finder does a creditable job of searching the Web for reviews of specific products, and claims to also offer price-comparisons. Here's a comparison of Jango with other shopping agents. A critique of the shop-bot concept.
Customer feedback on online computer stores: http://www.sysopt.com/cgi-bin/reseller/vendrank.cgi
Overview of web classified ad sites
Detailed background on Amazon. Ditto. Expansion strategies. Microsoft Investor on Amazon. And a disgruntled Amazon employee vents
Various categories get Amazoned
The future of online music sales
Web grocery review: http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-470.html#lnk2
used-books shopping guide,
Bibliofind,
Interloc
If you hate your job, you'll probably enjoy the extensive archives of Disgruntled magazine. Here's their interview with the publisher of a related zine called "Temp Slave"
I'm really enjoying Art Kleiner's "Age of Heretics" about 60s experiments in corporate reform. His webpage is here but this page gives a more interesting snapshot of how he thinks
Pournelle's column includes an interesting look at 'credentialism'
Be a drug-test guinea pig
At least one person lives by publishing a free email newsletter
How they broke all the rules marketing Beanie Babies
Bootstrapping a business without venture capital: http://www.forbes.com/Forbes/98/1228/6214090a.htm
Professional complaint-letter writer:
http://www.foxnews.com/news/national/1226/d_ap_1226_19.sml
A knowitall called the Cyberchef answers a zillion questions about cooking procedures
Learn2.com continues adding more online life-skills tutorials (These are multipage, but if you skip to the last page there's sometimes a hidden single-page version, for printing.)
Use web prices to enhance your haggling offline: http://www.forbes.com/Forbes/99/0405/6307132s1.htm
Behind the scenes at a great snail-mail-order bookstore Now online too: http://www.daedalus-books.com/
Seven MS tricks for market domination. And an overwhelming catalog of their acquisitions. And the technologies they plagiarised.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reveals more Microsoft marketing schemes
And Microsoft's poisoned-by-Bill value system
An anonymous Mac-fan shows how Microsoft corrupted NASA
Bill Gates's 1977 mugshots (for speeding)
How the PalmPilot folks beat Microsoft
Why NT is delayed:
http://www.forbes.com/Forbes/98/1228/6214055a.htm
Convert currencies:
Chris Byron does the best net.stock research, but his columns for the NY Observer don't seem to get archived: http://www.observer.com/pages/envelope.htm
The reason there hasn't been much consumer-price inflation is because all the inflation has been directed to the stock market... where it's redefined (falsely) as prosperity.
Play the market for free with virtual money: http://quote.yahoo.com/t0?
NetSkink on net investing
Economist Paul Krugman summarizes my doubts about Wall Street
A lucid inquiry into the current Wall Street bubble. And how high prices follow from small floats.
Did Alan Greenspan protect his own?
Seven fallacies of the big fund managers
Village Voice piece on e-trading
Forbes disses the Motley Fool
Yahoo stock-chat controversies
Tips for researching via EDGAR
A basic moral principle: don't loan money to the greedy and selfish, no matter what interest they promise you. Cf 'microcredit'
PBS has a great two-parter on micro-credit: http://www.pbs.org/toourcredit/
Scary corporate attitude to tax avoidance:
http://www.forbes.com:80/Forbes/98/1214/6213198a.htm
top || fun | art | media | issues | net | tech | science | history | search | shop
[Robot Wisdom home page] (Feedback)