I just came across a link to a store where a two-terabyte drive can be purchased for the price of an iPod. Two. Terabytes. !@#$% What the hell?! Arrrrgggg. Wait, uh, let me get into character here...cinch the pants up a few inches—yes, good—put on some flannel, and hunch over...all set.

Seems like only yesterday when Apple unveiled the one-megabyte drive for the Macintosh Plus. It cost way more than an iPod but you could do things like store all your fonts, all your documents (even scanned documents) and Aldus Pagemaker in one neat, tidy place and there was still a vast sea of room left over to store things like the Library of Congress, Ultima II, and China. It was so huge, look, you don't even know how much one-megabyte was. Now, I think my cat's digital watch as more storage space.

Two-terabytes though? I don't get it?!

How is it that a two-terrabyte drive is just another commonly available product available at a low, low price, because the last time I checked I still can't visit Mars. I can't "beam" to the East Coast and have dinner with Ryan and Ethan and then "beam" back home. My car still has tires and requires 1/4th of a dinosaur to commute for a week. Cancer still kills people and every other year I get that damned, knock you on your ass head and chest cold. We still don't know if we're the only humanoids in existence in the universe. NBC still doesn't have a viable strategy for digital content distribution better than what they had with iTunes (The Zune?! Are you kidding me?! And oh hey, 1985 IBM called and they'd like to talk to you about working with Microsoft). The closest thing to having a robot in the house is an upside down bowl that sucks up and it can't tell you the square root of jack, it just runs around until it bumps into something, turns a bit and tries to forge a new path. My cats aren't wearing Astro Boots with that matching glass dome helmet. Newspapers, newspapers, newspapers. And we still have people waiting to be awakened from their frozen slumber into a bright new future where their head can be attached to new cyborg body.

Look, the two-terrabyte drive isn't supposed to exist yet. We're not supposed to have that kind of technology until I can take a pneumatic tube to work. So either someone has found a way to travel into the future (also part of the list of things you're supposed to be able to do in a two-terrabyte world) or we're all getting gypped.

I've come a long way in this business. And by that I mean that I can post an ad for a job without feeling the need to be the exact opposite of conscious, lose my lunch, breathe with complications, drink heavily—smoke heavily, clench my chest in that area it's not such a good idea to feel the need to clench, shave the cat, walk my neighborhood in a bathrobe waving a six-gun (I do this no mater the stress level, it's a Tuesday thing), call twenty-four hour hotlines on the twenty-fourth minute at every hour on the hour, pace back and forth in front of the local Navy recruitment office, pull hair off my head, one clump at a time, Rick Roll hundreds of unknowing, trusting people, shave the other cat, buy a one way ticket to the middle of nowhere, develop a twitch right above my left eye, and/or taste copper.

I'm going to go home and duct tape my house now, but with Scotch tape.

Most of you have, no doubt, seen the few links pointing to a new social network group for web standards designers and developers. Here is a little background.

Week to week I field questions regarding the industry of web design and development by people who create websites in many capacities. I'm happy to provide what I've learned along the way in hopes that others can learn from my mistakes and success (a silly thought if you consider that history has rarely ever prevented another war). The first recommendation is to start talking to as many people who are either industry peers or people who might know people who have money that may want to exchange for the work that you know how to do. I put it this way because most people I meet—no matter where they are in their career—hate the word commonly associated with this activity: Networking.

The only activity worse than networking is known to my people as public speaking and fortunately not many of us are called to run for public office or audition for a spot in the community theatre, or those pursuits that require speaking in front of others. Standing up there, alone, under the heat and blinding glare of stage lights, looking over a sea of people not paying attention to a word your saying, Twittering as if you weren't risking life and limb, soul laid out in front of a hastily re-worked Keynote presentation.

No, networking is not like that.

I'd say a good deal of us are as busy as we want to be, some of us are even busier, and it's a necessity to always be on the hunt for good talent for future collaboration, potential employment, or new fodder for La société pour l'Amélioration d'Airbag.

A little more than twenty-four hours ago, while accepting requests to network on LinkedIn it occurred to me that we, as in industry, really ought to form a closer link to one another. We need to take advantage of that application and start paying attention to those around us who share our abilities; our desire to improve our craft and build a better, stronger industry. That doesn't mean we're all going to become Internet BFF but if executed properly this group can serve as a large platform for improving our craft, beyond the digital tools we use.

The purpose of the Web Standards Design + Development group is to form a strong network of individuals who have taken the initiative to become craftsmen of their trade. I hope you'll join.

Two big announcements from Cameron this morning. Authentic Jobs, the best damn jobs listing site on the whole Internet has added a generous affiliate program and a whiz bang API (you can see an example of this in action over at Jeff's big brown wonder). Anyone who owns a website that speaks to interactive designers and developers would do well to participate in both of these new programs. As someone who has supported Authentic Jobs since day one, it's great to see Cameron's business take this next step.

Now, who wants to start pool on how long it will take 37signals to respond in kind? I'll put money on the squares for 8, 12, 24, and 29 hours.

When I came across Textism for the first time I spent an hour staring at the design and, more importantly, consuming the archives. This style of writing was new to me and I loved it. The range of emotion conveyed through the eclectic array of stories, played out through a small cast of voices...this is what I had been waiting for. I now had proof that writing wasn't an activity set aside exclusively for journalist, poets, or authors and their distinct vehicles of content delivery. Instead, writing, as an amalgam of those three factions of English, made for very interesting and enjoyable reading.

And so, after one hour and one minute, a wall had been breached: If ever I was to to enjoy and savor the process and outcome of writing then I needed to do it for myself, not for family, not for friends, and not worry about bending the rules. Just as it took a 1999 Edna Valley Pinot Noir for me to finally appreciate wine, it took an hour at Textism (I'm a slow reader) for me to be comfortable with a writing style that seemed natural to me.

And then it went away for four years. Yeah, that sucked.

It doesn't matter why, that's Dean's business and none of ours (see explanation), you and I should just thank our lucky stars that he back. And, if the last week-or-so is any indication, there is a neon sign outside the Allen Content Concern LTD. now reads: Open And Kicking.

If writing is a skill that you seek to improve then you would do well to follow the Dean, no mater the topic or time of day.

This morning, whilst reading through a RFP I came across a page with bullet points used to describe the design direction of the project.

The first bullet point read:

• Post Web 2.0

Normally I don't condone this kind of behavior but this client deserves a big fat kiss, on both cheeks—Russian Diplomat '67 Style.

Each week, no matter the condition of the weather, the color of Ethan's mood ring, or the extra hours it will take to meet our deadlines, we call each of our clients. We check in, ask how they're doing, and give them an update on the activities surrounding their project. We call every week throughout the project, and even two to three weeks past the time we've delivered our work—all to make sure the client doesn't have any last-minute needs, or has run into any problems.

That's how we roll. We care like that.

This afternoon, we talked to a client who's been working with our templates for about a week. When asked if they were still happy with the work that we had done, the client replied thusly:

We've been tearing our hair out looking for things that you guys did wrong.

That's always nice to hear.