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In December 1999, File 770 reported on the latest high-tech venture coming out of fandom: "Collectingchannel is an affinity portal on the Internet. Barry Friedman and Steve Sanford had the idea of doing for collectibles what Yahoo does for sales generally. ... Joyce Worley Katz was hired in 1998 as the site's first content-writing employee, and as editor. She writes the daily 'front page' articles. Another early hire was Las Vegas fan Marcy Waldie, as a content writer. Arnie Katz joined the company's Editor-in-Chief of site content last December. ...He hired Andy Hooper to handle Toys, including action figures and die-cast models. Tami Springer deals with Antiques, including glassware and collectible pottery. Ted White has double-barrelled responsibility for Music and Comics. Bill Kunkel handles TV and Movie collectibles. Victor Gonzalez quickly advanced from being an assistant channel manager writing about music to handling the high-profile Treasures in Your Home site which supports the daily show aired on PAX cable. ... Working for the site is like joining a virtual family reunion. They brought in Steve Stiles to write about comics every day. Stu Shiffman, A.P. McQuiddy and Bill Bodden work for Andy Hooper on Toys. Tom Springer covers Sports and Outdoors. Aileen Forman is writing about antiques, pottery and glassware. Craig Steed is a researcher. rich brown has become Managing Editor. And Ted White wrote in November, 'My old buddy -- my oldest friend in fandom -- Bhob Stewart, has joined the Movies/TV Channel. You may or may not know that in the 60s TV Guide had him spending his days in a little room watching a ton of old movies; Bhob is the author of all the brief descriptions of old movies which TV Guide has been running ever since. Bhob is a movie database all by himself.'"
It was acquired in November 2000 by Sales OnLine Direct, Inc., which seems to have nearly survived the dot-com bust, but is last heard from online in 2003, considering suing Yahoo! over patent infringement.
While some fool named Henry Walden was off trying to prove the ridiculous idea that an airplane could fly with only one pair of wings, chemist Leo Baekeland received his patent for the first synthetic, moldable plastic: Bakelite.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was sacked for at least the second time in its existence in 1009, this time being the turn of Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. (The previous looters had been Persian, and the Byzantines had earlier torn down a temple of Venus on the same site.) It would bounce back with major reconstruction starting in 1042.
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