DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I had to laugh at this job posting. I think this company needs more help than they realize.

The ad boasts that Kanisa transforms a company’s e-service web site from a source of customer frustration to a source of customer satisfaction! And yet Kanisa’s own e-service website is apparently so poorly executed that in the same message, the hiring manager goes on to warn candidates: do not send resumes through the www.kanisa.com web site - they will get lost!

This story is hilarious and explores one of the risks of growing a company too quickly. The text below was written by Bruce Schneier in his monthly e-newsletter Crypto-Gram. If your interests include computer security, privacy, or cryptography, you should read Schneier’s stuff — see the Crypto-Gram archives.

from Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram, 12/15/00

Social engineering at its finest: The Nov. 27 issue of The New Yorker has a story written by someone who quit his job to write, but discovered he never got anything done at home. So he strolled into the offices of an Internet startup and pretended to work there for 17 days. He chose a desk, got on the phone list, drank free soda and got free massages. He made fake business phone calls and brought his friends in for fake meetings. After 6 PM you’re supposed to swipe a badge to get in, but luckily a security guard held the door for him. He only left when they downsized almost everyone else on his floor — and not because they caught on; he went around saying goodbye to everyone in the office and everyone wished him well.

I’d bet most domain owners fantasize about the altavista.com guy or the business.com guy… folks who made a lot of money selling high-exposure domain names. For a short time I thought I’d be one of those guys.

I got an email in the Fall of 1998 from an unremarkable aol.com address, inquiring whether my domain name was for sale. Picturing an adolescent at the other end with a terrible garage band called Debris, I sent back a terse refusal and quickly resumed with my life.

Three or four months later, I received another email from the same address. Unlike before, this message was remarkable, because it mentioned a dollar figure: $3000.

Time passed, emails were exchanged, and ultimately I was offered about $7500. I believe I countered at $12000, figuring to finance a drum studio I wanted to build, but ultimately I decided that I’d rather have the domain for personal use than see it used for some commercial enterprise.

The folks who wanted the domain are still in business, although I can’t say I understand the model.

P.S. I ended up building the drum studio anyway.