I enjoyed the story of a giant grease fire that could have been. Though, I was curious as to why milk.com was owned by a computer company, and not, say a milk company or organization. I read the explanation[0] and enjoyed it as well.
The owner behind the website has also cataloged some of his correspondence with people who failed to realize milk.com was not dairy-related[0], some of which are very entertaining.
I used to have microsoft@<isp> as an email address, and would occasionally get complaints about blue screens or other Windows related issues. People did not know how email worked in that time.
Some are funny, but it shows how 'trusting' some people are. It seems like mailing is a kind of harmless game (they actually shared addresses with strangers).
I hope/think most people are more cautious nowadays :)
Thanks! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the internet has grown up, and it's been a long time since someone has sent bona fide misdirected mail to the site.
Imagine being so fortunate in life that you can sit on your website for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, simply because you "like the name". That's life changing money for me.
I mean, I really would sell for $10MM. But I think I'd be giving someone a real steal for (much) less. Like, sure, I could use $100,000, but does that mean I should sell a more-valuable asset that I happen to own for that little? If so, why?
To answer that question, ask yourself if you would buy milk.com for $100 000. Probably not, I'd wager. The only reason to not sell is the hope that you might get more for it in the future.
I also wouldn't buy milk.com for $2000. Does that mean I should sell it for $2000?
In any case, there is also a time / hassle reason to not sell: It would mean the loss of the only personal email domain I've used since 1994, and that would make for a _lot_ of updating (and crossing of fingers hoping I didn't miss something important).
Yes. I used to live near there. Palo Alto has occasionally struggled with their underground transformer vaults. They make the streets look nice, but they're high maintenance. Many were submerged in the 1998 flood.
The "DEC data center" is of historic importance to the Internet. It's an old telephone company building, and was the home of AltaVista. It's now an Equnix data center, and says "PAIX" (Palo Alto Internet Exchange) on the front. [1]
DEC built the AltaVista search engine as a demo for DEC Alpha 64-bit computers, to show what they could do. Having thousands of identical machines in racks was a new thing then.
Because it was in an old telco building, with high ceilings, high racks, and ceiling cable trays from the electromechanical switching era, AltaVista was built like a telephone central office - tall racks of computers, with the cables overhead. Before this, data centers were usually raised floor construction. This is where telco-like data centers started.
As the "Palo Alto Internet Exchange", around 1996, it was the main peering point for the Internet in Northern California. One of the first big carrier-neutral peering points.
Also, I think the "1MW transformer" for the data center was actually above ground in the alley. It, or a successor, is still there, and you can see it in the aerials, but there's a cinderblock wall in front of it now. It used to be out in the open on a pad.
I really appreciate you and your site. I am in my 30s now and have enjoyed the weirdness of milk.com since I was a teenager. It is really nice to see a pre-web-2.0 / internet classic site still up and running. It's also great to see it on a domain name like 'milk.com' not being owned by a massive company.
[0] https://milk.com/value/