4 seconds is the new 8 seconds

Jupiter and Akamai's user study finds that surfers give up on a site after a 4 second load delay 75% of the time. Interestingly, just a few years ago a bunch of research papers (cited by our own ROC work) found that 8 seconds was that threshold. We're becoming increasingly attention-impaired, I guess. In other news, today I am proud to be a liberal wiener! Democrats take the House and Pelosi is 2nd in line to become Prez. Wouldn't that be a kick in the teeth for the GOP?

allofmp3, xrost, and stickin' it to the man

A few months ago i discovered allofmp3 and mp3search...legal MP3 downloads for a fraction of US prices (typically 0.10-0.15 per song, $2-3 per album). anyway,the RIAA was pissed about allofmp3 because they were not doing anything illegal according to world copyright law and according to licenses the RIAA itself granted, yet they were undercutting the business of *other* RIAA licensees in the US. since they had no legal precedent to shut down allofmp3.com, they did the next best thing: they convinced Visa not to accept online payments from them. so now you need a "gift certificate" to buy songs on allofmp3.com - you can't just add money to your account with a credit card like before. happily, xrost.com sells "iCards" which are electronic gift certificates valid at a varitey of websites, including - you guessed it - allofmp3.com. so shop away, and though i rarely say this, the RIAA has finally pshed me over the edge: STICK IT TO THE MAN AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this. remember, it's legal or the RIAA would've shut it down already. and if you run into someone from the RIAA, tell them that the darkness and bad smell they're experiencing could be easily changed simply by pulling their head out of their ass.