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Simon › Comments

Bret Taylor
FriendFeed Blog: Ben Darnell joins FriendFeed: Ben++! - http://blog.friendfeed.com/2009...
FriendFeed Blog: Ben Darnell joins FriendFeed: Ben++!
Welcome, Ben! - Kevin Fox
Right on! Congrats, Ben. - Micah
Congrats Ben! Also, congrats to FF you are lucky to have him! - Jason Shellen
Watch out, there's a duck over there! ;) - alieb from iPhone
Data storage and scalability rock. :) - Louis Gray
Congrats, Ben! :-) - Kol Tregaskes
Yeah Ben!!! - Rachel Lea Fox
so i finally get my answer to this :) http://friendfeed.com/chris... - MG Siegler
Yeah, sorry I couldn't respond to that one before. :-) - Kevin Fox
well i be darned .... we now can rejoice, since fast paced additions to already good product are surely fastly coming about off the feedpipe ... it'l be a hectic season of finest upgrades ... I'm sure they'l start with keyboard shortcutze. ... I mean Google Reader rules on that. Intelligent to the extreme. ..Google.com, on the other hand - are we sleeping? .. not even "/" ??.. and that... more... - pb:
Congrats Ben! Totally agree with Jason. Our latest project wouldn't have become feasible without Ben -- I'm just so glad we managed to get a fraction of his time before he left! :) - Simon
Congratulations, Ben! You're joining an awesome team. - Anne Bouey
Woohoo! Another Googler :) - Tim Hoeck
Congrats, you are now a "big company"! ;)))) - K.D.
That's not my picture! They got the picture wrong! In fact, I didn't get the letter of hire either. :( Oh, Hi there, Ben...if that's your real name. ;) - Josh Haley
Good luck Ben! With you our preferred service will go more interesting - Roberto from fftogo
you're building a friendfeed army there :-) - Dobromir Hadzhiev
Congrats - Özkan Altuner
Nice, any former Google Reader-er is a friend of mine. - Mike Reynolds
gratz Ben! - timepilot
Welcome Bret! - Michael_techie
So, Facebook...? - Daniel J. Pritchett
Poor Ben Darnell. The last to enter are always the first to leave in mergers. - beersage
Either that or he scored big time with some accelerated vesting. - Ken Sheppardson
Hiring new staff while in secret acquisition talks, not exactly classy guys. I hope Ben knew what he was getting into - Glenn Slaven
Why on earth does he use the Duck Hunt theme? - Vezquex
I don't know.. but it is awesome! :) - Tim Hoeck
Wow, looks like somebody bumped this! - Kevin Fox
I think there were a bunch of spam comments made to some 2009-era posts by FF employees. For some reason even after the spam is nuked, the post stays bumped. - Stephen Mack
Yes, I blocked a spammer that was bumping old posts about FF themes and what not. - Zulema ⋅ spicy cocoa tart
OH HAI! - Eric
Well, let's see this as an opportunity to raise a virtual glass to Ben and FriendFeed-that-was! - Kevin Fox
It probably had something to do with the Tornado 2.2 release. I noticed Ben was the one who posted about the release on HN earlier. Edit: Or it could have just been a spammer. *shrugs* - Jimminy, CoG of FF
I don't think it had anything to do with the tornado release - a spammer bumped a bunch of Bret's old posts today. - Ben Darnell
hello dear my name is Becca, am new to this site and am looking for a relationship. i will like you to write me here with my mail (beccadd15@yahoo.com ) so that i will send you my pics and also tell you more about my life style. reply me here ( beccadd15@yahoo.com ) i will be waiting you in my mailbox ok - becca
Simon
Penis Measuring - Craigslist - http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van...
"A friend of mine and I have been having a long-standing argument about whose penis is larger. [...] I don't want to see his penis and he doesn't want to see mine. I don't want my girlfriend looking at his penis and he doesn't was his looking at mine. So... We just need a girl to look at both of our penises (individually) and then to both of our faces say which one is bigger. We can't pay much. $50." - Simon from Bookmarklet
I hope a gay guy responds to the ad. - Jack&Cleo
Penis boyunu uzatmak için tamamen doğal içeriklerle hazırlanmış ve hiçbir yan etki içermeyen Vpills ürünlerine http://www.vpillsmarketi.net Penis Büyütücü sitesinden ulaşabilir, hatta dilerseniz satın alabilirsiniz. - İrem Melek
Steve and 3 other people
From the horse's mouth. :)
Screenshot-1.png
Heh. - Stephen Mack from iPhone
*sobs uncontrollably* - Laura Norvig
Wait, where's the context? - Kevin Fox
That's what I was wondering myself... - Georgia
I know, I know, maybe taken totally out of context. Sorry. - Steve and 3 other people
Ahh, that's right. It was because G+ natively supports animated gifs. - Kevin Fox
If Google+ had a "minus" button, I would be clicking it in relation to Kevin's declaration, well, obviously I'd need access to G+/- as well, but anyway. - Slippy
Even Google knows I simply mistyped: http://fury.com/assets... - Kevin Fox
-11 - AJ Kohn
-111 - AJ Batac :)
-1^1 - ryan from iPhone
I'm still here. - Josh Haley
I want to "like" Kevin's latest comment! - Simon
i'll be here until FF gets unplugged. - Joe The Sausage
You guys know my comment was tongue-in-cheek, right? - Kevin Fox
Right? - Kevin Fox
Right. *side-eyes Kevin* - Jimminy, CoG of FF
++Simon - Ruchira S. Datta
I still hang out here. Better not be dead or I would be a zombie or something. - Martha
Me too. G+ is nice when I want a taste of the big world. FF is home. - Auntie Buttinsky Botts
Hopefully the fact that I respond to these comments within 15 minutes shows how much I hang out here. :-) - Kevin Fox
We need to down to 30 seconds by game day, K-Fox. - Micah
Fast enough? - Kevin Fox
That's the way, CHAMP! - Micah
Kevin Fox
Devoid of context, this looks like the setup for a sic-fi movie or Infocom game: http://yfrog.com/h3f4ftp
Devoid of context, this looks like the setup for a sic-fi movie or Infocom game: http://t.co/sgdwbRm
Similarly for: "Make Your Android Battery Last Longer!" - Simon
Paul Buchheit
New head shots. Which should I use?
_MG_4103_YC.jpg
_MG_4098_YC.jpg
_MG_4094_YC.jpg
#1, then #3. Not #2. - Louis Gray
1 - Johnny
What Louis said, "#1, then #3. Not #2." - Jimminy, CoG of FF
I like the third one. - Derrick
I vote # 3 - djchuang
#3 - pala
#2, you look thoughtful and trustworthy. - Stephen Mack
#3, #1 looks too mug-shotish and #2 looks a bit ... smug. #3 says you're an amiable confident guy. (Or that's what *I* see FWIW) - AJ Kohn
Love the smile in #3! - vicster
I'd have to say none of the above. I guess I'm officially an old fogey now, but I'd button the shirt. - David desJardins
3. i like 3. - Roberto Bonini
3 is the best. 2. looks a bit too i-made-him-an-offer-he-couldn't-refuse and 1 is all sign-up-for-my-newsletter-for-tip-on-gaming-the-google - Rah-PM 2012
What Louis said, in that order. - manielse (Mark Nielsen)
#3 - Corinne L
#3 - Kevin L
#1 - Jérôme
#1 looks like a badge photo. #2 makes you look like you're smug and cocky. #3 is the winner. Friendly and open. - EricaJoy
I like the first one. I think you look friendly - Julie Parker
3 - tab from BuddyFeed
#1 = everything looks just right, #2 = too pompous, #3 = 笑点低 (so easy to be amused) - 我是真砂!
I think you should use your FF profile picture, but barring that, the third one is my favorite of the three above. - Vicarbott
I thought you only wanted to use the original one you used back in the day at google. BUT 3. - Ru Viljoen
3 - Bren
That's a big brainy meditative dome. :) Lots of cogitation going on there obviously. #3. - Sean McBride
3 is more interesting. Not 2. - Louise Alcorn
i vote 3. 2 looks like somebody opened some limburger cheese in your presence :-) - tiffany
#3, then #1. - Ruchira S. Datta
I've always been partial to http://img.labnol.org/images... especially with you being an angel and all... - Kevin Fox
Third one - AJ Batac :)
I like #3 the best... - Lisa L. Seifert | FHG™ from Android
do you have any of brad pitt? hee hee....just kidding.... - Morgan
3 has the best smile and looks the least posed. - Bruce Lewis
I love 'em all. :) - April Buchheit
While I am thinking of it: why I really like Paul Buchheit? He has given the world some amazing, innovative and elegant software, much of which I have used with great pleasure. Thanks, Paul! - Sean McBride
#1 - Vishy
#3, but it depends if you want to be in commercials or the theater: http://www.headshots101.com/commerc... :) - Simon
#3 if you don't go with Kevin's suggestion - Anne Bouey
#3 - Shevonne
Not 2. You look either uncomfortable or inauthentic or both. The other pics are both great. - Laura Norvig from iPod
I like 3. There is unfortunate distortion caused by your glasses in 2 and 3 but your smile is best in 3. - Benjamin Golub
#3 - didn't look at comments before I answered, but I was tempted! Never met you in person but either #1or #3 seem the most like the person I *think* you are. - Liza + = ?
Now looking at comments - this is a very cool game! We draw so many conclusions when looking at a photo! - Liza + = ?
3, angle + smile = win - Todd Hoff
Definitely the third one! - Technogran
Third - Martha
third - Comics Forge
I like the third one. A class portrait view. The first is too standard. The second not smiling enough. :-) - Kol Tregaskes
Yes, No. 3! Extra points for multiple buttons unbuttoned. SKIN TO WIN!! - Harold Cabezas
1 and 3rd 2nd one is a bit odd to atleast - testbeta
where 'd you get that black shirt btw? - testbeta
What about using the Friendfeed avatar vs. #3 - now that is A/B testing. - Liza + = ?
#2 or #3. I like #2 - Imabug
#3 - Surya
What's the headshot for? I vote #1. #3's great too. - Dan Hsiao
#1 - Ashish
#2 is like Politician #1 like normal guy #3 looks like advertisement for Tooth Paste. - Suresh S
Victor Ganata
Thinking about Gödel's conclusion that you cannot formulate a formal logical system that is both consistent and complete, it makes me imagine that if a logical system could somehow be plotted in two-dimensions, it would form a fractal: rules would project outward, while exceptions to those rules would be invaginations...
...and this pattern would be visible at every possible scale. - Victor Ganata
Victor, you're in good company: http://books.google.com/books... - Simon
Jim Norris
RT @AdamSerwer: King might be better off focusing on radicalization of engineering students than U.S. prisoners. #justsaying http://www.slate.com/id...
"[In 1984] 46 percent of the (male American) engineers describing themselves as both conservative and religious". - Simon
Simon
"Abnormal Returns Of U.S. House of Representatives" by Alan J. Ziobrowski, James W. Boyd et al. - http://www.bepress.com/bap...
"A portfolio that mimics the purchases of House Members beats the market by approximately 6% annually" - Simon from Bookmarklet
I read somewhere they are exempt from insider trading charges. - Private Sanjeev
Wow, I didn't realize that they were exempt: http://online.wsj.com/article... - Simon
Amit Patel
DUBAI | The Pentominium | 1,693 FT / 516 M | 120 FLOORS - SkyscraperPage Forum - http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthr...
DUBAI | The Pentominium | 1,693 FT / 516 M | 120 FLOORS - SkyscraperPage Forum
"The Pentonium in Dubai will become the world's tallest residential tower" - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet
I can't believe Dubai is still doing so many huge projects! - Amit Patel
Is land particularly scarce there? One of my elementary school friends is a partner at Fosters and was a main architect for the Index Tower -- one of the tallest buildings in Dubai. Must have some really interesting problems to solve! - Simon
It doesn't seem like land would be scarce but they seem to act like it. I suspect desirable land, which has a view of water instead of desert, might be scarce… - Amit Patel
"All public areas will be crystallized by Swarovski," huh. Pretty sure Dubai's skyscrapers are a prestige thing, not driven by economics. The city doesn't look like a dense packed downtown; it looks like medium-rise sprawl with the occasional mega-skyscraper poking out. The emirate of Dubai itself only has a land area around 1500 mi^2. - ⓞnor
The Ghost of Library Past
Mr. 11 has a Bacon number of 3. http://oracleofbacon.org/ Love this database.
I have a Bacon number of 4, so Mr. 11 is most impressive. - Zamms
That's cool. What were you in? - The Ghost of Library Past
I have a Bacon Number of 2. - Kevin Fox
Thanks to Joe prompting me to do some research, I've learned that I'm a 2 as well. :) - Rollin' in the LB
I knew you were in Ms. Daisy's Crazy Driving Machine, and figured it would have a direct link. I tried Laura Botts, but that must not be the name you used way back then. - The Ghost of Library Past
LOL. I didn't have a credit. :) - Rollin' in the LB
If you bend the rules to include photo film credits then my Bacon Number is 3, Erdos Number is 4 (and Erdos-Bacon Number is 7) - Simon
Simon
God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost : Discovery News - http://news.discovery.com/history...
"God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar." - Simon from Bookmarklet
I bet they broke up when she found out about Jesus. - Private Sanjeev
Simon
Sharing Information Corrupts Wisdom of Crowds | Wired.com - http://www.wired.com/wiredsc...
Sharing Information Corrupts Wisdom of Crowds | Wired.com
"certain conditions must be met for crowd wisdom to emerge. Members of the crowd ought to have a variety of opinions, and to arrive at those opinions independently. Take those away, and crowd intelligence fails." - Simon from Bookmarklet
Kevin Fox
Rolling Stone Mobile - Politics: The People vs. Goldman Sachs - http://m.rollingstone.com/entry...
A fascinating, and infuriating read. - Kevin Fox from Bookmarklet
A great quote: "To recap: Goldman, to get $1.2 billion in crap off its books, dumps a huge lot of deadly mortgages on its clients, lies about where that crap came from and claims it believes in the product even as it's betting $2 billion against it. When its victims try to run out of the burning house, Goldman stands in the doorway, blasts them all with gasoline before they can escape, and then has the balls to send a bill overcharging its victims for the pleasure of getting fried." - Simon
I wonder why Morgan Stanley and Basis Capital didn't understand what they were buying from Goldman though? It's not as if they did not have their own teams of analysts to do due diligence. And surely Basis Capital also understood the concept of CDO squared assets. - Simon
April Buchheit
Fake smiling makes you miserable - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...
Fake smiling makes you miserable - Telegraph
"Researchers found that walking around with a forced smile and faking happiness simply led to people feeling gloomier. So, putting a brave face on your woes could actually be counterproductive. The research found that women suffered more than men when pretending to be happy. Psychologist Dr Brent Scott, who led the study, said employers should take note because forcing workers to smile when dealing with the public can backfire. He said: "Smiling for the sake of smiling can lead to emotional exhaustion and withdrawal, and that's bad for the organisation." Dr Scott said the research showed customer-service workers who 'fake smile' throughout the day worsen their mood and then withdraw from work, so their productivity drops." - April Buchheit from Bookmarklet
c.f.: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article... "Smile! It Could Make You Happier" - Simon
Andrew C (✓)
Paper Tigers: What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends? - http://nymag.com/print...
"It is a part of the bitter undercurrent of Asian-American life that meritocracy comes to an abrupt end after graduation." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet
"“Sometimes people have perceptions about us and our communities which may or may not be true,” [LEAP president] Hokoyama told the audience. [...] Hokoyama argued that it was not sufficient to rail at these unjust perceptions. In the end, Asian people themselves would have to assume responsibility for unmaking them. This was both a practical matter, he argued, and, in its own way, fair. " - Andrew C (✓)
"[Tim Wu: ] Someone told me not long after I moved to New York that in order to succeed, you have to understand which rules you’re supposed to break. If you break the wrong rules, you’re finished. And so the easiest thing to do is follow all the rules. But then you consign yourself to a lower status. The real trick is understanding what rules are not meant for you.”" - Andrew C (✓)
This is a most excellent article. One--I think--most middle-to-upper class black people could definitely relate to a lot in the article. I know that growing up, one thing that me and my mostly Asian classmates in the gifted programs could related to was how we were raised. This was both illuminating and cringeworthy. I know that it drives my Asian friends bonkers when I get... more... - Anika
My favorite part: "Rather than strive to make himself acceptable to the world, Huang has chosen to buy his way back in, on his own terms. “What I’ve learned is that America is about money, and if you can make your culture commodifiable, then you’re relevant,” he says. “I don’t believe anybody agrees with what I say or supports what I do because they truly want to love Asian people. They like my fucking pork buns, and I don’t get it twisted.”" <---*nods vehemently* - Anika
For some reason the article didn't really resonate with me or my experiences much at all. Some of the stereotypes seemed a little alien. Perhaps I just lucked out, or perhaps it's because I was raised in England before I came over to the US. - Simon
It's definitely an interesting article, but I don't think it's universal. Growing up in an area where there *are* a lot of people who look like me, I don't think I developed the same depth of self-loathing that the article seems to convey. I think there's a lot of middle ground between letting parental expectation and cultural tradition stifle you, and buying in wholesale into American corporate culture and total and complete assimilation. There are a lot of ways to be successful. - Victor Ganata
this article seems totally unrelated to all the Asian-Americans i know...about 2/3 of my friends (and their kids), IOW. #Stereotypes - Joe The Sausage
Victor, as an outsider (clearly) it seems to me that a lot of my friends wound up reinforcing this. Last night, discussing the article, so many of them felt affinity for the lady who said that once she got out in the world, she had no idea how to interact. A lot of my friends resisted--um, rebelled?--in their 20s. Many dropped out of college. These were students who were in the top 5%... more... - Anika
Hm. I'm going to have to let this article sink in a bit. I'm kind of wondering why there's so much focus on striving to be somebody. - Rodfather
I don't think I can really relate to much of the people involved in this article. I'm a 3rd generation Japanese American who grew up on the West Coast in a town with 80% hispanics. - Rodfather
I'm not saying I haven't met people who exhibited a lot of the issues talked about in the article, I just think it's a limited perspective. I actually think the end of the article gets closer to my, my siblings, and a lot of my friends' experiences: we're doing fine, if people have a problem with us, that's their issue. - Victor Ganata
Paul Kedrosky
Karen Wickre
Adam Rifkin
Bill Gates was Windows. Mark Zuckerberg is Walls.
Who is Floor? - Kevin Fox
Either way, I don't do them. - Laura Norvig
Google is Cloud - Kevin Fox
Yeah, but who's gonna raise the roof? - caj needs a haircut
Sennheiser? - Jimminy, CoG of FF
Who is Door? - Laura Norvig
Apple is a fruit. - Brian Sullivan
Open (source) is Door. - Laura Norvig
Who is skylight? - Julian
I love lamp. - Mark Trapp
Oracle is Tables. - Simon
Kevin Fox
Nice Reddit question: "Non-American Redditors, what are some things you LIKE about Americans?" http://origin.reddit.com/r...
"Say "our huge penises", please say "our huge penises."" -- Benjaphar, 10 hours ago. - Simon
Simon
"LG Electronics has claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. “We consider that Apple copied the Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”" - Simon from Bookmarklet
Simon
BBC News - Pensioner in Georgia cuts Armenia off from internet - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news...
BBC News - Pensioner in Georgia cuts Armenia off from internet
"The country found itself offline for hours on 28 March after cables linking Georgia to Armenia were damaged. A 75-year-old woman had admitted damaging fibre-optic cables while scavenging for copper. She has been charged and reportedly faces up to three years in prison." - Simon from Bookmarklet
Excellent Hack :)- - Peter Dawson
niniane
RT @RKHilbertSpace: Q: How to generate a random string? A: Put a fresh student in front of vi and tell him to quit.
And, as with some other random sequence generators, I suppose you'll have to discard the first several characters as they are likely to be biased. - Simon
Emacs has graphical menus. - Bruce Lewis
Kevin Fox
I think one of my hard drives is going bad and I'm actually excited because I have a full Time Machine backup. Take that, entropy!
Just make sure your backup really does work. One of my complete backups was also bad but fortunately, in my paranoia, I had kept two staggered backup copies on separate drives. - Simon
Embarrassingly, I think it was actually just my DVD drive spinning up for no reason. - Kevin Fox
Simon
A special report on the future of the state: California reelin' | The Economist - http://www.economist.com/node...
A special report on the future of the state: California reelin' | The Economist
"Lessons from a place that combines most of the shortcomings of the modern Western state" - Simon from Bookmarklet
Simon
"Yahoo! will be closing AlltheWeb on April 4, 2011, as we focus on other features to improve your search experience." - Simon from Bookmarklet
Simon
Anyone know what this symbol means? I think it might be Farsi.
IMG_20110313_210715.jpg
It might be upside down. - Simon
Simon
You say "tomato" and Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn say "tomato".
Do a significant number of Americans still pronounce it "toe-mah-toe"? I've only ever heard it pronounced "toe-may-toe" since I've been here. - Simon
Matt Cutts
I *love* pwn2own! Safari and IE8 were cracked on the first day, but not Chrome. Read more: http://www.eweek.com/c...
Chrome wasn't pwned because the contestants didn't show up, not because it's more secure. - Mark Trapp
Like - for Mark's comment. - Space Cowboy
Ditto. - Micah
Anyone know why the Chrome contestants didn't turn up? I assume you would try to turn up if you thought you had a decent shot, particularly given the extra prize money. - Simon
Simon: there's been some confusion about what was allowed on the day of the contest this year. Chrome was patched last night (last week?) in preparation for Pwn2Own, so there's some speculation it was that, but the machines were supposedly locked down last week (which is why Safari 5.0.3 was pwned, not 5.0.4., which was released today). Ars Technica has a more thorough run-down than... more... - Mark Trapp
Also, it's a bit disingenuous to say Safari was cracked within seconds (as some are reporting) or that it only took the maximum of 30 minutes to pwn a computer: one of the requirements to win is that you can't use a disclosed vulnerability so these exploits are the result of weeks and months of testing. It's the final demonstration that only took 5 seconds to deploy. That's one of the really dumb parts of Pwn2Own: they incentivize not reporting vulnerabilities in order to win the yearly contest. - Mark Trapp
Simon
Microsoft Makes Apple Refile "App Store" Brief Because the Font Is Too Small - http://gizmodo.com/#!57802...
"The document Apple submitted was not only too long, according to Microsoft, but also "printed in less than 11 point font," an apparent violation of court rules which require letters of a reasonable size." - Simon
Simon
[2007] Apple - Thoughts on Music - http://replay.waybackmachine.org/2010032...
"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat." - Simon from Bookmarklet
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