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I don't want a f%&#ing extended service plan.

http://www.zazzle.com/products/gallery/browse_resu lts.asp?searching=on&searching_search_columns=*&se arching_search_condition=samy

A while back there was a story on the winners of a computer-generated graphics competition. One of them included a link to a Zazzle page where you could buy a poster. Since I had just moved into my new apartment, I ended up going to search several hundred posters more and finally found three I really liked (yes, there's a lot of crap on the site :P), paid for 'em, and they arrived quickly.

Look great. My only complaint is that one is a *little* lower resolution than I would have hoped - some of the details blur a bit. The others are fine though, so I suspect whoever made that poster just didn't do it in high enough resolution.

Recommended.

Here's a link to their license agreement.

http://www.zazzle.com/policy/nonexclusive_license_ agreement.asp

Among other things, by selling anything on their site you give them a "...nonexclusive, worldwide, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable license to copy, crop, reproduce, publicly display, sell, and distribute the Work and a Changed Work (if applicable) in various sizes and in any manner..."

I'd probably be a contributor if it weren't for that irrevocable bit. Why not "until I close my account"?

they've got slashdot junk! there's a whole bunch, search for "slashdot".

they've got slashdot junk! there's a whole bunch, search for "slashdot".

they've got slashdot junk! there's a whole bunch, search for "slashdot".

Try designing a tshirt, select a bgcolor for the logo from the pop-up swatch, then hit "submit" on the right and the app crashes.

Then everything else stops working. This happened in Opera 8 and IE.

Brilliant.

If Zazzle can't even get Your/you're right on a front-facing, high-profile license site, I don't think I really want to trust them with my money.

It seems like they are a true, domestic manufacturer. They are very well known (not necessarily to everyone, but to a lot of people) for their custom image clothing. They say that they can get it to your house in 3-4 days. If they can do this, it sounds like it is not coming on the slow boat from some Chinese sweatshop (Nike, hint hint), but rather good ol' Made in the USA.

I doubt it. They're probably *printed on* in the US, but the blank t-shirts come from whereever. Their "Premium" shirts are Hanes (which is Sara Lee, one of the worst multinationals for fair trade and labor practices -- way worse than Nike. Ask Google.) They don't mention a brand for their "Basic" shirts, probably so they can change it up with whatever is cheapest at the time.

It seems like they are a true, domestic manufacturer. They are very well known (not necessarily to everyone, but to a lot of people) for their custom image clothing. They say that they can get it to your house in 3-4 days. If they can do this, it sounds like it is not coming on the slow boat from some Chinese sweatshop (Nike, hint hint), but rather good ol' Made in the USA.

Cafepress is more broad, without all the buyer customization options. You can changes anything on a customizable piece on Zazzle.

Despite the article's assurance, Zazzle has been around for 5 years, in one form or another. The Copyright on their web page confirms this. Digital Blasphemy used them for posters while they were still in beta back in 2000. While the product selection isn't as broad as CafePress, the customizability of the products is great... Most interesting (IMHO) is the ability to customize a greeting card and add your own text or pictures inside (or outside). There is a good selection of [fairly] reasonably priced options for the posters, too.

Shameless Promotion

Cafepress is more broad, without all the buyer customization options. You can changes anything on a customizable piece on Zazzle.

Despite the article's assurance, Zazzle has been around for 5 years, in one form or another. The Copyright on their web page confirms this. Digital Blasphemy used them for posters while they were still in beta back in 2000. While the product selection isn't as broad as CafePress, the customizability of the products is great... Most interesting (IMHO) is the ability to customize a greeting card and add your own text or pictures inside (or outside). There is a good selection of [fairly] reasonably priced options for the posters, too.

Shameless Promotion

Cafepress is more broad, without all the buyer customization options. You can changes anything on a customizable piece on Zazzle.

Despite the article's assurance, Zazzle has been around for 5 years, in one form or another. The Copyright on their web page confirms this. Digital Blasphemy used them for posters while they were still in beta back in 2000. While the product selection isn't as broad as CafePress, the customizability of the products is great... Most interesting (IMHO) is the ability to customize a greeting card and add your own text or pictures inside (or outside). There is a good selection of [fairly] reasonably priced options for the posters, too.

Shameless Promotion

Won't they have trademark issues with Zazzle.com?

Is it just me, or does the idea for Zazzle seem remarkably close to the idea behind Cafe Press?

This is off-topic: I've followed your link to iUniverse (quite frankly I thought that it was a link to some book by David Brin, posted as a joke). I'm starting to write a book which I am going to self-publish using one of those print-on-demand services. It's a lot of time but I want to be up to date with different options. So far I was considering mostly Lulu or CafePress. Lately I've found also Zazzle which seems nice for printing artwork but there are no books yet. Generally instead of looking for those services myself I just save links to those which I find others using. Could you please tell me why would you personally suggest iUniverse instead of Lulu or CafePress, for both the cheapest options possible as well as standard books with ISBN and everything? Have you used them yourself? Thanks.

I must second the motion...
defying the popular vote wasn't intended to allow for just random dissent among the electors, I thought it was to prevent a total nutcase from being elected, should there be some kinda bizarre fluke where they get the most popular votes through ballot stuffing, etc.
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I hope I don't get in trouble for this. WTF bush shirt:
http://www.zazzle.com/products/product/product.asp ?caching=on&product_id=235339798071835797&inde x=1

Remember how Radio Shack used to always ask for your name/address/etc. whenever you bought anything? I could buy a germanium diode for $1 and get asked the same thing as if I bought a $1000 computer. Registration for news content is like making people key in their address to buy a newspaper from a vending machine. It's just completely ridiculous and unnecessary.
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new t-shirts

...but this site also empowers the user. I go to a twice a year german board game convention. I am not very good at the games I play so I decided I needed a T-Shirt to help folks figure out ahead of time that I am the "weak" player.

I was looking for a place to make the T-Shirt when I came across http://www.zazzle.com/. What a great site!

If you want you can see the shirt I made.

BTW, I do not work for, nor am I affiliated with Zazzle.com (other than the T-shirt I made).

...but this site also empowers the user. I go to a twice a year german board game convention. I am not very good at the games I play so I decided I needed a T-Shirt to help folks figure out ahead of time that I am the "weak" player.

I was looking for a place to make the T-Shirt when I came across http://www.zazzle.com/. What a great site!

If you want you can see the shirt I made.

BTW, I do not work for, nor am I affiliated with Zazzle.com (other than the T-shirt I made).

I also stand-by your "really cool about email" comment. One of his works' wasn't available in his gallery, I emailed him; and he got back to me when he did a high-res render and published it!

If you want to support this guy, he sells his work through zazzle

The government isn't really spying on you, per se.

Of course not.

They are taking all the public information out there, and data mining it to potentially flag and catch criminals and terrorists.

And it won't flag and catch me by mistake. They'd never make an error like that. This technology only affects bad guys.

This actually should be wonderful news for me. I made $92 off of Poindexter's stupid Total Information Awareness program last year by selling this T-shirt protesting it: "I gave up my essential liberties to obtain a little temporary security, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!" [Disclaimer: I might make money off you if you click that link and buy one, but I have a job, honestly don't need your money, would forward it to no worthy cause, and am just showing off my shirt design and bragging about the fact that I made $92 off of Total Information Awareness.]

The crowd here turn into luddites as soon as technology is used by the government, but I think this is a great use for it. The 9/11 hijackers were in plain view, but because of the different agencies and bureaucracies, they fell through. This could be a tool to find the next 9/11 and I am all for it.

Well, let's not get too presumptive about 9/11. It hasn't been demonstrated at all that the only way to prevent this attack would have been to implement a massively connected database with an extensive electronic dossier on each one of us. In fact, it hasn't been demonstrated at all that the attack could not have been prevented simply by people doing their jobs like they were supposed to.

Once the 9/11 commission finishes its report, maybe we will see what improvements can be made short of creating an unAmerican police state.

We got that covered

Rights can be forfeited. That's one thing you're free to do with liberty- you can squander it, and give it away. Once you've done that, it's gone, and it's difficult to say why you still deserve it. Which is sort of the point- its an unwise trade.

The Franklin quote is cited in every privacy story. There sure seem to be more and more boneheads every day who need to hear it. It seems that most people really don't mind a tyrannical snooping government as long as they're taken care of.

I gave up my essential liberties to obtain a little temporary security, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

What advantage does THC confer upon the marijuana plant anyway? It doesn't look like an insecticide. Maybe it prevents some animal from eating it?

(Posting as an AC so John Poindexter doesn't find me.)

Not quite.

The initial askind for ID is more like the Product Key - making sure you have the right to use the product.

The Activation is like being asked for your ID every time you open the bottle of liquor in your house.

I understand their motivation. Most people don't frig around with their computers enough to be bothered by this, and it helps them prevent some level of misuse.

(I know I'll get responses to this one...)
I dare say that more people were angered because they couldn't steal the software as easily than because they were serious upgrade fiends.

It does negatively affect people who have legal copies of the software and like to upgrade their computers. I would be in that group if I didn't still use Windows 98 for my PC.

Are we at a point where companies are expected not to do things in their best interests? DRM, if implemented well, could be a painless thing. Now I agree it's not implemented well, and shouldn't been pushed on people until such time. But then, if we held to that theory, no one would be using half the stuff out there. WPA, it's not too painful - (among other things the telephone part could be better - transition the alpha-numeric code into simple sentances or something easier to deal with...) and yet we still scream about Microsoft being manipulative bastards.

Well, yes, they are. And it's not reasonable for Microsoft to want to know what's in my computer (hardware-wise) at any given time. But there are millions of people using Windows who have never seen a Windows CD out of it's box, much less touched a Genuine Microsoft CD.

What Microsoft should really do to increase legal customer base is offer an amnesty period to people who have illegal copies of Windows. They should offer a downloadable program (something like WPA) that specs your computer and allows the purchase of one copy of Windows for $100. And that should be tracked, quite well, to catch offenders.
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Some of the things I've said may not apply to you.
Some of the things I've said may offend you.
But no matter who you are,
You MUST REMEMBER this ONE THING:
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My Other Shirt Is An Armani

Really?

Looks
pretty good to me.

Sure, it's hard to compare a ray tracer and a scanline renderer, but with enough patience you can do amzingly beautiful things.

They're still in beta atm, so use the "backdoor" to check them out instead.

I do question their 12% royalty though -- I'd rather they be more upfront about their costs so that you could figure who is getting the shorter end of the profit stick.

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They're still in beta atm, so use the "backdoor" to check them out instead.

I do question their 12% royalty though -- I'd rather they be more upfront about their costs so that you could figure who is getting the shorter end of the profit stick.

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