Agile Billing
My first piece for Smashing Magazine is about different ways of billing for design and development work. Definitely worth a read if you’re a freelancer or run your own shop.
Deep Inside The Social Media Operations Of A Gay Escort Service
Dave’s employer is not, strictly speaking, a pimp. Instead of dealing directly with the trade, the company runs what is, on the surface, an online social network for gay men, shielding itself behind a legal loophole that allows it to profit from the sex trade while maintaining plausible deniability.
His parents don’t know the exact details of his work, either. When people ask, “I’m a consultant for some companies in New York” is his standard cover. He and his coworkers use fake names at work, and he treads lightly when discussing the details of his job. “I try to have a first conversation to see what kind of people I’m dealing with so I can tell them what I do.”
Most people “don’t believe that it exists,” Dave said. Some immediately assume that he works as an escort himself; others find it fascinating, and pepper him with questions. No one seems to know the first thing about how these online escort services operate within the law.
Welcome to the world of rent boys.
In which I take a deep dive into the world of online male escort services. The post is SFW, but some of the links within most definitely are not. Proceed with caution.
The NRA Claims the AR-15 Is Useful for Hunting and Home Defense. Not Exactly.
“A hunter does not need a semi-automatic rifle to hunt, if he does he sucks, and should go play video games.”
The AR-15 is, however, much more of a profit machine than traditional hunting rifles and shotguns.
The Shame Eraser: How To Delete Your Most Embarrassing Old Tweets In 3 Steps
Now that Twitter has made it easy to download our entire tweet archives, the Internet is now faced with the scary reality that the dumbest things we’ve ever said are only a few clicks away. Our early tweets were sent from a time of innocence, joy, and freedom from the realization that one day other people (and we ourselves) might pass judgement on them.
But the time of reckoning has come. And if you’re unable to bear the weight of your shame, this is your way out. Perhaps you had a particularly dark period after a break-up. Maybe your first six months on Twitter were just bad haikus. If you’re the type of person who rips up your old shitty poems, this script is for you.
Merry Christmas.
Why the Instagram debacle just taught every tech company to be shadier than ever
If you’re a lawyer today, you just learned that bad things happen when a hint of clear language invites non-lawyers to read your work. And you’ll react in one of two ways: you’ll either make your contracts so confusing and impenetrable that no one will read them, or you’ll make them so “friendly” and “fun” that no one will read them correctly. Come give me a hug, your contracts with the public will say. Do not mind that I am ruthlessly picking your pockets to sell targeting data to advertisers.
Nilay nails it.
Why Are We Debating “Tablet-Native Journalism”?
My last post got Felix’s attention and he updated his article with a link to my thoughts, as well as Gruber’s take:
The second part I agree with. The Daily’s failure had nothing to do with it being iPad-only and everything to do with the fact that it just plain stunk.
But what’s foolish about publishing on a single platform? I publish only on the web, and Daring Fireball seems to be doing OK. Marco Arment’s The Magazine publishes only for iOS and is doing well enough that he’s already expanded to hire an editor. In fact, I’d go so far as to say The Daily’s success proves the opposite of Salmon’s conclusion: that an iPad-only daily news app could be a success.
First things first: The Daily proves nothing, because it is a single data point, not a representative sample. That said, Gruber and I are likely splitting hairs. But since we just watched News Corp. flush $30M in development costs plus $500,000 a week in operating expenses down the drain, I believe these are hairs worth splitting.
