Well, sites like Twitter still have about a year before true mainstream acceptance. Something like FriendFeed is probably 18 months or more from mainstream acceptance, and it would need more filtering capabilities to get there. Video on a mobile is probably a little closer, but not sure about the publishing aspect. - Rob Diana
Rob: try again. Blogging still is barely mainstream and it's been out for 10 years now. Facebook just got to 110 million users. How many people in the world are there? Six billion? Funny how we consider things "mainstream." - Robert Scoble
Well, if 110 million users isn't "mainstream", then yes, I will change my estimates :) I think twitter (or microblogging) will go mainstream soon because it is so simple, and IM-like. "Real" blogging requires too much work and thought, and that is probably why it took so long. That and the tools have not been around for the full 10 years. Not sure when things like LiveJournal and WordPress really came about. - Rob Diana
LiveJournal was out in late 90s, I remember seeing it 2001 and I'm sure I wasn't early. WordPress came out shortly after that. Probably around 2003. Yeah, microblogging will probably be more popular than regular blogging. I'd agree with that, but it has a long way to go. Twitter has, what, a million or two users, not all of whom are active? - Robert Scoble
What's amazing is it seems that you guys beat the mainstream by days, not hours- for example, Andreesen/Facebook - Dino
LiveJournal, early 1990s? Try 1999, as late 1990s as it gets. ;o) - Fraser Smith
Sorry, I meant early 2000's. I'll fix that. - Robert Scoble
you are talking about heads down researchers from the nihs hp though robert :-p - mike "glemak" dunn
LiveJournal is huge in Russia, apparently. And the biggest search engine there is something called Yonex (useless info 4 the day alert) - john conroy
For me, I've gotten used to think in terms of mainstream for techies and mainstream for the general public. - Joey Lo
@Rob Diana - You're wrong - FriendFeed does not need more filtering to become mainstream. Mainstream users don't filter, they expect it to work and that's it. You're also wrong about FriendFeed becoming mainstream anytime soon. People don't use many services, therefore FF is useless for them. Not even blogging is mainstream, and probably won't ever at a scale like Facebook. Most people haven't got interesting things to tell. - sebmos
I still find it amazing that people continue with Twitter (myself included) despite it's hilariously fragile state. - Jonathan Beckett
I'm no techie, compared to some of the folks around FF anyway. I know "just enough to be dangerous," according to my wife's IT dept. But I rely on posts from folks like Scoble et al. to expand my knowledge of the tech world. FF is invaluable for that, but even though I signed up for it months ago, I didn't really start using it until the last 4-6 weeks. I think new sites and apps take a little getting used to, esp. if you're not really "out there" in terms of knowledge and know-how. - steplow
Interesting tweet Scoble. I wish I could get unlimited data here in Canada so I could Qik. - Granteezy
This says more about the researchers being out of touch than it does about social media. - Sam Pullara
@robertscoble - what you say about mainstream is exactly how I've tried making the point before that not only are services like Facebook reaching less than 10% of active Internet users, but most the world still needs to get connected! when people talk about Twitter going mainstream I want to scream "learn your orders of magnitude" - Julian Baldwin
I use my father and brother as 'touchstones' for mainstream. My dad, at 71 is an attorney who uses the computer for work only, doesn't regularly use email for personal reasons (but does for work) and can use the internet (he tracked down my twitter!) but doesn't see the need for it. My brother, at 44 is a judge who majored in CS & Psych in undergrad. He's a computer geek, but more into gaming than SocMed. They keep me from buying into the 'echo chamber' - yes, we are that far ahead. - Lucretia Pruitt
The Fins sold us the phones. So maybe we're not that far ahead. :-) - Dave Winer
I agree with Scoble,blogs, twitter, friendfeed, plurks won't be mainstream for a while. There is actual nothing in them that would give people a reason to hop on them in droves. E-mail yes, IM yes, static webpages, forums yes. And that's all. - Roland Hesz
I asked a bunch of people I work with regularly about Friendfeed and 1 person knew what it was. I work in the web industry. Maybe I was asking the wrong people. - Kate
Our focus is different. I don't know jack about sustainable architecture, for instance, but my friends who don't give a damn about blogs are all about green energy, sustainable city planning, etc. That's something that a lot of people on FriendFeed don't understand or care about. "Ahead" is a relative term. My dad is on FriendFeed, but he just sees it as another way to follow what I'm doing. My mom barely knows how to use e-mail, but she knows all about advances in wound care that I don't understand, but will be increasingly important as the population gets older and increasingly diabetic. Different strokes for different folks. - Steve Lynch via Alert Thingy
I like what Steve Lynch replied, re. his friends/other people having a different focus, especially the bit re. his friends "who don't give a damn about blogs are all about green energy, sustainable city planning, etc. That's something that a lot of people on FriendFeed don't understand or care about. 'Ahead' is a relative term." I see that in my own communities of interest, where people are comfortable with forums (ew!), have made tentative forays into FB, but don't get blogs, much less Twitter, FF, etc. - Yule Heibel
@steve - that's a well stated point..I need to spend more time thinking about my understanding of mainstream and how it applies to sub-populations - Julian Baldwin
This discussion is a bit self-congratulatory, wouldn't you say? I would frame it a different way: how out of touch with the mainstream are we? The answer, of course, is very much so. Another question: are we out here on the cutting edge or just hunting snipe? - Juan Aguilar
I doubt Twitter will ever go "mainstream" if we define mainstream as a majority of the people who are online via computers or cellphones. Blogs, wikis, RSS, none of that is mainstream. Browsing, email, SMS...those are mainstream. - wrecks
now that it is mentioned, SMS reached mainstream pretty quick. - Ruben Llibre
@Jua Aguilar Hunting snipe. It's not in any way a cutting edge. It's just a way to pass time. - Roland Hesz
@wrecks: Good point. Maybe it would be better to talk about functionality rather than platforms, then. I'd say that social networking and IM are mainstream. I think real-time video on cellphones (for example) could go mainstream in a few years, but it wouldn't necessarily mean that "Qik" goes mainstream. I think wiki-like functionality will become more common... because it is very convenient. I think the functionality of a lot of Web 2.0 apps will be incorporated into mainstream devices, which is how it will become mainstream.... Torrents and Mp3 sharing was once for tech-heads only.... - Steve Lynch via Alert Thingy
Lots a of great points, regarding Robert's original post I think that online video is finally taking off in a big way thanks to YouTube and that speaks more to the mainstream than any of the social applications we use to create and share content and conversation. Live mobile video broadcasting is still relatively new but video chat with Skype seems to be reaching a mainstream audience thanks to Oprah using it on her show and recent New Earth web casts. How much does the generation gap play into this? - Larry Kless
I just started work at fav.or.it, Nick is working to bring at least blog reading and following to the masses. but its hard work. - Tim Hawkins
R U KIDDING ME!!!!! OMG no wonder HP is not in touch anymore..dang! - Susan Beebe
it was invite only last time i checked. it is superior to twitter in nearly every way, except the community. I doubt it ever will compete with friendfeed... i suspect google has bigger plans for it. - David Petar Novakovic via twhirl
Why the answer to both questions isn't positive is a question that deeply puzzles me... - Rubin Sfadj
It's still in beta and invite only. I just got in there and it seems a lot better than Twitter. It also in some ways reminds me of friendfeed although friendfeed has som unique features Jaiku doesn't seem to have. - Rutger Blom
Does Jaiku require passwords for your added services? - Cyvros/fyc
Jaiku has lost momentum since last year - they where ahead but missed to go public and advance.... now i don´t see any chance for them to compete other then integrating fully into gmail :-) - Dieter Schwarz
Cyvros/fyc, Jaiku is using the public RSS-feed of the different services instead of username/password. - Rutger Blom
@Rutger: Ah, thanks. I remembered hearing about a lifestreaming service that needed username/password and thought it might've been Jaiku. - Cyvros/fyc
I've been using it, I like it, but not many people I know are on it. Apparently it's only being worked on as a 20% project, see this comment on my site: http://blog.slaven.net.au/arch... - Glenn Slaven
I really like it but, as others have said, there's not many people on there. Need a way to invite all my Twitter contacts onto it. I'm surprised Google haven't integrated it - would seem such an easy thing to do. - David Sim
I feel that Twitter is lossing more users to Friendfeed then to Jaiku. Jaiku is nice FF is better. Twitter has the best user base. The question will be will they shape up before they are loosing too many users. - Erno Hannink
I was really impressed with Jaiku when it first came out, but it didn't attract the crowds that Twitter had. I left. They were moving in an interesting "presence awareness" direction with mobile phone integration. Sort of a Twitter meets Brightkite arrangement. Lots of contact integration. These neat mobile things only worked on the Nokia phones though. Android integration for sure. - Sean Brady
Same as Pownce, there is 'nobody' there :( - Alex Barredo
"To be fair the macbook is not sold as games machine. However I tried the creature creator on a basic $400 xp desktop with an nvidia 7600GS card and it runs great.
Plus it will run on the latest macbooks, airs and mini that have Intel GMA X3100 graphics." - Adrian
Well, I'm not a huge fan of pizza, but I really think some people just like weird things. FF3 is still by far the best browser I've ever used, and possibly the only one that gives me power for my pitifully limited RAM. - Erin
Adblock Plus is the main reason I stick with Firefox. Otherwise I'd use Safari. - Ole Begemann
drugs can do very bad things to your brain :( - Adrian via twhirl
if you don't like Firefox 3 why go back in time to IE7, you'll just hate that more. Take a look a opera, its a far better browser than IE7, and many in the opera community are claiming its better than the new Firefox - BCK
I didn't like the look of FF3 on Mac initially but the lack memory leaks alone has made me a believer. - Andrew Smith
FF3 > FF2> Any IE. What am I missing? - Dan Russell
You ignore FF2 and go to IE? Enjoy! Meanwhile, there's Safari, Flock, and Opera to name a few. Oh well. - Bwana McCall
drugs aside, FF3 crashes for me. A LOT. thanks for the opera suggestion, I"m going to wait until FF3 is officially released. - rambn
I cannot comment on this? IE not letting me? jesus. somebody shoot me. - rambn
crashed? how? i'm having no problems with FF3 from beta1 to RC2 on XP and Mac - Josiah Lau via twhirl
ok. I'm DONE with IE. that was an awful, awful experience. thank you all for talking me down. - rambn
Why not try Flock or Opera? Both were stable on my old XP PC. IE sux. - Sally Church
I do like Flock, but the new version is built on FF3 technology. I have slow d/l speed right now, but when I get home I'm going to give it a shot. I really like Flock's media stream. People talk about friendfeed being a great way to browse Flickr, I think Flock is king in that area. - rambn
And that took about 20 minutes from start to finish. Sometimes we all need a reminder why we don't use IE. Glad to see you saw the light :) - Bwana McCall
@Ole Begemann. Have you tried SafariBlock? - Paul Grav
RC2 was very crashy on my machine, with my extensions. RC3, meanwhile, has crashed once so far. - Roger Benningfield
I've never had FF3 crash, I use it about 5-10 hours a day. Plus, tomorrow is the official release of FF3, so FF3 RC3 is pretty much it. - Aaron Myers
I would say that FF2 made me use IE again, but so far FF3 is behaving well - Bill Koslosky
I love the address bar in FF3! It nails what I'm looking for 90%+ of the time. - Frankie Warren
I too, am mystified by this. FF3 is wonderful and I'd rather eat a handful of thumbtacks than use IE. - (steve isaacs)
I would never resort to using IE by choice but FF3 annoys me as they have made the go button only appear when you're typing in the address bar ... IMHO it should be available all the time. Other thing that annoys me is that the 'X' close buttons on tabs seem to disappear sometimes but not sure why. e.g. I have 11 tabs open now and a close button on each ... if I open a 12th tab it seems to lose the x buttons while the 12th is loading. - Joe Breen
Joe, why do you need the go button when you can just press enter? When enough tabs are open and their width gets to a smaller size (due to overall window width) they x disappears so you can see more of the title. Then the x only appears on the currently selected tab. - Delete Me
Scott, I work with basic computer users & from experience it is difficult for them to grasp when buttons are there sometimes & not there at others. It's minor issue but means I will have to get an addon to recreate the FF2 button. - Joe Breen
You use IE, because you dislike FF3? Okay, so good luck, you will need it. - Ryo
I need the "go" button for certain types of web surfing. @Scott My "go" button was my savior for PackRat. I will definitely need to find a way to get it back ;) - Lindsey Smith
"yep Friendfeed is the third hosted/centralised comment system with disqus and intense debate.
Would be great to have all these systems in one place." - Adrian
What do you guys think of MobileMe? Do you think it will be a popular productivity suite when released? - Leon Ho
I'm not sure what it would give me that I don't already get, for free, from Google Apps for my domain. It might be a bit slicker in the interface but that's not worth the extra cost....via feedalizr - Fraser Smith
I agree with Fraser on this one, Not really seeing the benefits. Although toss in Itunes storage and download with this and I would try it!. - Earl E Morningwood
I think its selling point is the push service to iPhone though. So it really depends if you think push service worth the price than syncing it thru USB? - Leon Ho
I don't have an iPhone and, as all my e-mail is web based (GAfyD), I don't think I'd benefit anyway. - Fraser Smith
i hope the push really works and is not as lame as the yahoo quasi-push. it's about time apple did something for .mac folks as this service has been the neglected step child for way too long. - sean808080 via twhirl
The demo of push service looks pretty promising, but never know until we test the actual product. - Leon Ho
If it's true push amongst every device in my home and abroad, then that alone is worth the price for me. - Joel Falconer
I'd like to know if more than one iPhone can "sync" to the same account. - Ben Vaughan via twhirl
With no iPhone, what's in it for us desktop users? - Paul W. Swansen
With regards to fixing .Mac it is a step in the right direct, but not far enough to get lots of people to buy in. I look at it as a very expensive way to wirelessy sync my contacts. - Chris McLean
well, mobileme got me thinking about taking the one-year-subscription - it closes the gap between my mac and "regular pcs" - Christoph Bauer via twhirl
I think this is a ground breaking service... 3 years ago. LIttle benefit unless you have an iPhone and even then i don't know. - Chris McLean
If you are happy using google apps there is no point. However if you are a small business and offline access is critical e.g. planes and trains then this is a simple alterative to exchange for an individual user. If apple add sharing of calendars/contacts plus private/public event invites then it could beat exchange for small businesses that use macs and iphones. - Adrian via twhirl
I am very much hoping this is going to be Exchange Lite for our small project team...fingers crossed. - John Samuelson
Would love some API love (hide and summary specifically) - Benjamin Golub
they just added a new block feature. - Robert Scoble
responsiveness is the name of the game. thanks to getsatisfaction.com folks like seesmic and friendfeed are raising the bar of user satisfaction---> http://tinyurl.com/6jskwr - sean808080
I am not planning to rush out and get the 3G iPhone. I am happy with my first gen and looking forward to the 2.0 software. I will wait for the next update, maybe it will have 32GB. - Rajiv Doshi
i actually don't care about any of they OS and hardware updates. All I *really* care about is well the MobileMe integration is. If I can get wireless calendar sync, then I'm a happy camper. - George Lee
He comments home users will have to pay $10 more, but it's actually $15. Text messaging is no longer bundled, last I read, so you'll have to pay $5 more (on TOP of the $10 for 3G service) just to get the same 200 text messages you're getting now. So instead of an extra $240 over two years for the service, you're looking at an extra $360. Just so you can save $200 on the initial buy. I'm pretty sure I'm NOT "upgrading." - Kevin Hessel
Well, the device is surely worth it, if there weren't the rather expensive data plans. But i'll wait until later this year what apps will show up in the App Store. - derlinzer
Except for IM and cut&paste, the iPhone 3g is better in almost every way than my SK3, which is why I am going to switch to it. I just can't wait for android to finally materialize a phone. - J. Phil
I currently have an old Sprint "mini-brick" with no Internet access. I need a new phone, so the iPhone looks pretty good to me. - Hutch Carpenter
I'm in for the integrated GPS... the first app I'll be buying is TomTom's navigator. - Roger Benningfield
At first I was with Andy, no video no way. After watching the full keynote, I will upgrade for the MobileMe and the App store. I really think the apps are going to be marvelous and only get better with time. - Jennifer Van Grove via twhirl
I'm very disappointed with the new iPhone from what I've read about it so far. IMHO if you already have an iPhone then there are not enough improvements to warrant ditching it and purchasing an iPhone 1.5. If you don't have an iPhone already then it is worth looking into. For those who need a good camera on their phone - avoid the iPhone as it has a terrible camera - and there seems to be no improvement for iPhone 1.5. - Joe Breen
Joe - where the iphone camera is concerned.. you obviously haven't seen many pictures taken with a sidekick 3. they are seriously crappy. - J. Phil
Jennifer - I'm convinced that hold on video support is purely so MobileMe can establish it's own video-uploading community and then, i wouldn't be surprised if Apple goes as far as to ONLY allow video from iPhone to upload to the proprietary MobileMe depository. - Andy Sternberg
Or try the photo output from a Treo. You fancy-pants iPhone early adopters don't know how good you've got it! :D - Roger Benningfield
Sadly, I've decided that I can't justify it over my current setup. As much as I want to, the lack of 5MP or better camera is disappointing. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
J. Phil ... no haven't seen shots from a sidekick 3. They must be pretty bad if worse than iPhone 1.0. :/ I think the best news coming from WWDC last Monday was the MobileMe idea and applications. That is going to be pretty sweet. And I guess is Apple's way of bringing Enterprise onto using the iPhone so they (Enterprises) won't have to use iTunes on Windows to sync. - Joe Breen
Joe: http://www.poweredbydanger.com... and that's a *good* picture, in the daylight. Indoor shots invariably are so noisy you can't make anything out. - J. Phil
J. Phil: Yup, fairly poor quality. It's a shame with the iPhone ... Apple are so close to having an unbeatable device ... they just need to add about 10 things and nothing will come close to it. 1 other thing I would add to the list of 7 above is being able to lock whether the screen flips or not ... sometimes you don't want it to flip. :) - Joe Breen
Heck why not...better iPhone, half the price...what's not to like? Well I guess the lack of a real keyboard, AT&T, and... - John
I think 3G and the GPS make it a worthy upgrade. Plus I can give this old one to my wife. - Joe Mac Stevens
Absolutely! With the 1st iPhone, it was only for people with "money is no object" mentality. The new iPhone is now priced right and very affordable. The more reason we should all buy one. - 4dluvofmen
the iPhone's camera sucks less than about 95% of cell phones - Mike Cohen
There aren't very many compelling reasons to get me to upgrade right now. I think I'll hold out for 3.0. - Brandon Wood
Definitely not standing in line as I did for the first one. I could care less about GPS. 3 G, though is good. - Francine Hardaway
Definitely. The original allowed me to get rid of my iPod. Now I can get rid of my tomtom. :-) I am waiting for the iPhone-Toothbrush next year. - giovanni gallucci
"Friendfeed comments are different to disqus comments. Most people on friendfeed are just commenting on the title without having read the post ! No threading. Long comments get ignored. Authors less likely to respond. Only FF users see the comments there. Friendfeed has an API so it should be possible for disqus to display FF comments too or at least a link to the FF post." - Adrian
I'll start: MATRIX 1 because of the interesting use of effects, esp 'bullet time' and amazing sound. Sadly, I could have done without Keanu, but oh well. Trinity is amazing, great outfits. And any movie that ends with Rage against the machine has to rock. - Jeremiah Owyang
Matrix 1 and Minority Report. Only one! Ugh lol umms.................................Matrix 1. - Corvida
An oldie but a goodie - War Games. The concept of a learning computer - WOPR - in 1983 was pretty cool. Plus, I had a crush on Ally Sheedy :) - Bryan Hunter via twhirl
Minority Report (like idea mother of MS Surface) : ) - Erhan Erdogan
The underrated Sneakers..... And for old school, War Games.... - Chris Reed
My two favorite movies are Ali and Spaceballs, and Ali can't be defined as a tech movie. So I guess it's Spaceballs, although it's more of a business movie (promotions) than technology. - Ontario Emperor
Star Wars... if you count LightSaber as "Tech". Matrix too, albeit I would tend to say it is more philosophical than tech. - Parth Awasthi via twhirl
The First Matrix cuz, for some reason, the technology in it seemed plausible and the Operator desktop with all the scrolly crap reminded me of my Linux setup - Rahsheen Porter
2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL, but also the gorillas with bones and spaceships. Man becomes dependent on tools. - Jason Kaneshiro
war games for it's accurate depiction of phreaking in the early 80s, tron since it got me into 3d animation as a career, and BBS: the documentary (http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/) because it's brings back tons of memories. - Doug Brooks
Three movies popped into my head before I read any comments. Others have mentioned them all.... War Games, Tron and Sneakers. I think we've defined a new move genre. "Tech Films". I guess perhaps, "Metropolis", although considered sci-fi really spoke to what would happen with advanced technology. Maybe we could also add Chaplin's "Modern Times" to the list. One last film that may qualify, "WestWorld". I'm sure there are many more that I'll think of with a few hours to ponder. - Kevin Shannon
iron man! ok, i just saw it but still... - Frankie Warren
Sneakers was good. I kinda like Swordfish and many of the others already listed. Untraceable (recently released on DVD) was ok as well. I think the main thing is we always find fault with the ones that try to be accurate but aren't. I find myself saying "you can't do that..." or "thats not a real mail application". - Delete Me
Wait William... you mean Hackers wasn't real?? I guess you think Sandra Bullock's movie "The Net" couldn't happen either!? - Yolanda
First Matrix, bar none. Nothing else competes. @Jeremy Johnny Mnemonic was GOOD? You did read the book first, right? - Cyndy
While I really like Short Circuit, Matrix is definitely my favorite. Those who know me, know that my "in game" name is Trinity. - Becca
Matrix does do an example job of bringing up issues that I think are important. How far are we willing to become dependent on technology? - Leif Hansen via Alert Thingy
The Thirteenth Floor. Better than Matrix, in my opinion. Wargames for sentimental reasons... I actually had my younger brothers convinced for years, that Matthew Broderick was me... (I used a stage name because it was a secret from Mom & Dad that I was acting!) - Kenneth LeFebvre
Totally random, but I love Lawnmower Man - Kevin Cuneo
"Sneakers" - Best Line "It's about who controls the information..." a movie before its time. - jyamasaki via twhirl
@cyndy - was being sarcastic, the first examples were all terrible. By the way, I'd add in "Enemy of the State" for cool surveillance tech - Jeremy Toeman
c'mon...The Fifth Element? Anybody? Totally what the future will be. - Marc Vermut via twhirl
While I'm partial to War Games and The Last Starfighter (hey, I went to see TLS *musical*...) I have to say that none of 'em top Real Genius. - felix
Hackers - it was the movie that first got me interested in computers. I have yet to meet a developer that looks like Agenlina Jolie though ;) - Devlin Dunsmore via twhirl
many favs: Matrix 1, Paprika (anime), and Minority Report - Carolina Velis via twhirl
Are documentaries allowed? Startup.com. They could have swapped out govworks.com with any dot com i worked in pre-bust and it would have been the same storyline. - J.J. Toothman
Wow, no one mentioned Blade Runner? Loved the 5th Element, Marc. Real Genius, great. Sneakers. Matrix 1. Star Wars. War Games, god this list is great! I can't decide. I hope you blog it somewhere for reference. If anyone ever wants to learn about our geek culture, we can link them to the post! - Christine Cavalier
Hell yeah War Games, Real Genious, Fifth Element and Swordfish all great. I am so watching War Games tonight. That totally got me into BBS too. I remember the first time I logged onto a BBS I felt like I was about to hack into something like in war games. I can't remember the name of the movie but it had these robotic bugs that injected people and poisoned them. Well it looks like the military will now be using robotic bugs in less than six months: http://streetknowledge.wordpre... - Adam Gershenbaum
The Last Mimzy. Not the best movie, but we get a glimpse of what Intel can power waaay in the future. - Nathan Hull
What no votes for "Weird Science?" Can you imagine making Kelly LeBrock!! err...well making <insert your fav., I'd have to say Jolie> - Snay Trivedi
I'll have to go with Bladerunner. Except for the replicants, I think that will be very much our future - John Frost
Hackers. Loved the part where they are drooling over the laptop with the built-in 56k modem. - Richie Escovedo
What, no Terminator? I"m sure someone out there is building Skynet as we go about our business. When they finally make Ender's Game into a flick, then we'll have something to talk about! - Marc Sirkin
When The Matrix came out, I was working in IT as a network administrator. It felt great to see computer geeks portrayed as kung fu badasses. - Wade Rockett
@Matthias 06:34 Euclid Predicts: Pi will remain the best 06:35 Press RETURN ;) - Mario Olckers
definitely Office Space. no tech show-off, cheap effects and hackers. pure tech
