The World Birthday Web is one of those left-over sites from the heady days of the WWW's infancy, whose genius lies in its simplicity. People can sign up to list their homepage and e-mail address under their birthday. It used to be huge, with hundreds of names listed on each date. Every November 3^rd I would get dozens of e-mails from individuals and organizations wishing me a happy birthday (most notable was a greeting from the Klingon Language Institute). Then in 2000 the World Birthday Web shut down for reasons which are still unclear to me (besides the obvious spam harvesting potential). But earlier in May of 2003 they re-opened with a blank slate and new spam-deterrent methods, and naturally I listed myself. Discouraging but expected, the popularity of the relatively unsophisticated World Birthday Web is in the dumps. Lo and Behold though, I have eight messages in my mailbox this morning, about double the normal number--because half of them are birthday greetings! Thank you World Birthday Web.

For the technically inclined, I just noticed, the top November 3^rd birthday on the list in 1996 was 3 november: Jamie Zawinski jwz@mcom.com, of jwz, Netscape and Mozilla, DNA Lounge, etc fame.

I mistakenly thought I blogged this, so here it is for future reference:

mann tracht und gott lacht - "man plans and God laughs" or "man proposes and God disposes."