eBay Shane Pinnell writes: “As with most sites, eBay requires a valid e-mail address, but what eBay does a little differently is that when you reach the page that says ‘Please check your e-mail for verification’ they actually provide a button that opens up your email, assuming that is that you use a web based e-mail client like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc…Very nice!”

Berkshire Hathaway Scott Meade writes: “A company like Berkshire Hathaway clearly does not have to rely on its website to attract investors and instead spends their energy on tasks providing true ROI. Not fun, exciting, enticing or interesting. Is efficient (e.g. no wasted words, full of content, empty of noise).”

Apple Angela Welchel writes “Apple’s system preference pane for Universal Access: takes into account the probability that users needing assistance seeing information on the screen would most likely appreciate larger, bolder text on that pref panel. Considerate.”

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

New from Coudal: The Sixteen Straight Tee. It’s a shirt (+ marker/pin) that lets you check off Bears’ victories: “Show your faith while we run the table. The Sixteen Straight Tee is created and printed in Chicago for Chicago.”

Clever. See, Chicago is a football crazy city. And the Bears have a really good team this year. And the team’s schedule over the next few weeks is stocked with patsies plus a bye week (the next time they play a team with a winning record is November 26). Mad local PR seems like a good bet.