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Ashwin Bharambe › Comments
RT @bradfordcross: Attacking Jeff & Sanjay = unwise: "MapReduce: A Flexible Data Processing Tool" http://cacm.acm.org/magazin... (via @matt_massie)
Deepak Singh, Daniel Dulitz, Vishy and 5 other people liked this
I kind of wondered about that at the time -- there were some pretty silly assumptions in the original paper that violated the "assume the designers of the system you're attacking wouldn't do incredibly stupid things" principle.
- Joel Webber
Well, the authors of the original paper were mostly looking at commercial database systems, so that principle might not apply.
- Jim Norris
Fair point, Jim :) Although one of the authors is apparently involved in a company *making* a commercial database, so I guess that implies that he assumes himself to be unreasonable?
- Joel Webber
what original paper are you guys talking about? the original map reduce paper?
- Neha Narula
I thought this was it - but now i get a 404. http://databasecolumn.vertica.com/2008...
- kartik vaithyanathan
http://databasecolumn.vertica.com/databas...
- kartik vaithyanathan
oh, the blog post. stonebraker is very entertaining :) i think that whole back-and-forth was a confusion over what the goals of map reduce are, and how they differ from the goals and uses of RDBMSs.
- Neha Narula
I think there's just some confusion over how much RDBMSs suck when you want to do something innovative. They want to control everything, and so of course you can say that that black box "could" be better than MapReduce in some theoretical way, but MapReduce scales from both a data and an engineering standpoint in ways that cause the more intricate and complex foundations of RDBMSs to collapse and beg for mercy.
- Jim Norris
that's because traditional RDBMSs do waaay more. Like joins. and most of SQL. I think old-school db researchers get annoyed because they thought map-reduce like things way back in the 80s, but didn't build them out, and forged ahead to make what you describe as these black boxes instead.
- Neha Narula
Neha, that's fair. What's not is attacking new systems (with pseudo ad-hominems to boot) without putting enough of an effort to understand why they might be useful - perhaps in under different environments than what the old systems were suitable for.
- Ashwin Bharambe
What seems strange to me is that, given how hard you have to squint to make an analysis tool like MR look like a database, that they would bother to attack it at all. Unless they truly believe that data should only ever be analyzed in an RDBMS, which is a pretty absurd stance to take.
- Joel Webber
from BuddyFeed
That's why I say the conflict is really confusion over goals. I definitely have heard people talk about Hadoop replacing RDBMSs, and I'm not even sure what that means. They are two very different tools. I think the authors of the blog post were starting from the premise that people thought that map reduce could *replace* a traditional RDBMS, and they were pointing out why it couldn't....
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- Neha Narula
can't believe how naive the comments are to @cdixon on http://cdixon.org/2009... - chris totally nailed it IMO
Louis Gray, Itachi and Michael R. Bernstein liked this
I think the Hacker News comments are quite good: http://news.ycombinator.com/item... Agree/disagree?
- Matt Cutts
@Matt, its time for google to open source their Ranking Algo's or maybe get bit more transparency
- Peter Dawson
I doubt that open sourcing the algorithms would help spammers as much as people think. It would mainly help Microsoft, which is why Google won't ever do it. I don't see anything wrong with that though -- companies don't have to open source everything. Opening up your competitor's value is a great competitive dynamic though :). Maybe Yahoo can open source all of their search stuff.
- Paul Buchheit
open sourcing PageRank would only help anyone with a copy of the internet + 1000s of MapReduce boxes
- Kevin Marks
I think there would be some academic interest in it Kevin.
- Paul Buchheit
Kevin, why assume that the ranking algorithm is only useful for whole-web ranking? That's like assuming that various NOSQL DBs are only useful if you are running the largest web services.
- Michael R. Bernstein
Funny how some people are using "PageRank" as a shorthand for Google's ranking algorithms. Here's the PageRank paper http://scholar.google.com/scholar... and here's Michael Nielsen's blogpost about using MapReduce to compute PageRank http://michaelnielsen.org/blog... PageRank has inspired much academic research, including e.g. Rada Mihalcea's TextRank http://lit.csci.unt.edu/index... among many others.
- Ruchira S. Datta
What I'd truly like Google to open-source is their *implementation* of GFS / BigTable / Chubby and such :P All of that distributed systems stack is one of GOOG's major competitive advantages.
- Ashwin Bharambe
Agreed (and many of the HN comments aren't much better). Lots of people seem to be reading the post as "Google should make everything open", when what it says is (roughly) "People at Google shouldn't brag about being open when they're not" and "Google's open when it suits them as business strategy, and closed when it's not". Obviously, those are very different things. I'm guessing the...
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- Michael Nielsen
I call BS. So any company that works hard to support open systems, contribute (a *lot*) wherever feasible, to keep user data from being trapped, to be transparent in its use of personal data, but fails to open source a couple of core technologies... is being hypocritical and should never talk about the things it *does* do to support openness? That's just absurd on its face.
- Joel Webber
And I just have to add that the "security through obscurity" analogy is complete garbage. I keep seeing it popping up with respect to this subject by wannabe security dorks who obviously don't understand what it means. Google's ranking algorithms are simply not analogous to the kinds of security problems that phrase is meant to address.
- Joel Webber
My vote is for opening Seti :)
- Paul Buchheit
Security through obscurity is often over applied. It makes sense in protocol designs, or getting eyeballs on code, but spam filters and ranking algorithms are not security protocols, and knowledge of them influences public behavior. Like tests for school children, complete foreknowledge of the test itself can distort the behavior of people by making them optimize their knowledge for the...
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- Ray Cromwell
Paul, that would be way cool. :)
- Ruchira S. Datta
"Tonight google seems to be a little bit less evil again." -comment on EtherPad going open source: http://etherpad.com/ep...
Paul Buchheit, Meryn Stol, Vlado Handziski and 9 other people liked this
Guess we'll take that. : )
- DeWitt Clinton
Yah, I am in complete disbelief over the comments, even over forums like Hacker News. The most polite way you can call them is with the word "jerk". What the fuck are these people really thinking? :/
- Ashwin Bharambe
(I dont work for either Google or Etherpad, btw)
- Ashwin Bharambe
frak you Comcast
imabonehead, Otto, roberto and 10 other people liked this
Works for me (also on Comcast in Mountain View), although I wouldn't put it beneath them to block port-53 traffic to 8.8.8.8.
- Tudor Bosman
Is the font Inconsolata?
- Tudor Bosman
Yup.
- Jim Norris
DISLIKE
- Ashwin Bharambe
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 55.358/60.330/66.758/4.711 ms
- Ozgur Demir
I'd go with a temporary blip before accusing them of blocking traffic.
- Tudor Bosman
Well, if this wasn't happening every night I would too.
- Jim Norris
Tudor, is there any way you could tell if it's really reaching 8.8.8.8?
- Jim Norris
I thought 8.8.8.8 only launched today; had you been using it for a while?
- Tudor Bosman
"nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8" on Windows says that the response comes from "Server: any-in-0808.1e100.net / Address: 8.8.8.8"
- Tudor Bosman
Are you behind a hardware firewall / router? Can you access other DNS servers directly? Is your current DNS server Comcast's, or the IP address of your router?
- Tudor Bosman
I've been trying it previously with opendns and 4.2.2.1. Current DNS is 8.8.8.8.
- Jim Norris
Comcast in Sunnyvale: 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=243 time=54.768 ms 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=243 time=57.743 ms 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=243 time=58.661 ms (round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 54.507/56.512/58.760/1.701 ms )
- Louis Gray
If you can't access any other DNS servers, I suspect that the problem is at your end (your router / cable modem blocking port 53 access). I bought my own cable modem; are you renting one from Comcast?
- Tudor Bosman
Most cable modems have a configuration page at http://192.168.100.1/
- Tudor Bosman
Yeah, it could be my stupid router.
- Jim Norris
WHOA.
- Jim Norris
Tudor, I've never seen that before. Nice.
- Louis Gray
Do you know of a decent non-crappy wireless router? Anyone?
- Jim Norris
Airport Extreme?
- Cristo
WRT600N (Edit: now called WRT610N. http://www.amazon.com/Linksys...) I have the WRT600N and I'm happy with it.
- Tudor Bosman
I hope you posted a link to your amazon affiliate Tudor =)
- Jim Norris
Nope, I never bothered to set up an affiliate account =)
- Tudor Bosman
(Side note: I had the comp open and Matthew clicked share on this item, added the letter H and posted it to my feed. Nice to have the F-bomb on FriendFeed, Twitter and FB with one click.) Delete/Delete/Delete
- Louis Gray
Louis, I was just about to chide you about the reshare :) Not because of the F-bomb, but because I thought you reshared the "Comcast blocks 8.8.8.8" story before waiting to see whether it's true or not. Now I only have to chide Mona :)
- Tudor Bosman
I was wondering about that Louis!
- Jim Norris
It was bound to happen. Might as well be after midnight with you guys! :)
- Louis Gray
So, what's the verdict? bad router?
- Tudor Bosman
Might be flaky router, might be flaky connection, definitely flaky user.
- Jim Norris
Thanks for reccomending that router Tudor. I'm ordering a new router today. My current one is riddiculously flaky. Needs a reboot about once a day.
- Roberto Bonini
Ana Yang, Casey Muller - Weddings and Celebrations - NYTimes.com - http://www.nytimes.com/glogin...
Mahdi Ebrahimi, Jimminy Fuller, Arvind Sundararajan and 87 other people liked this
Congratulations!
- Jess Lee
from Bookmarklet
Congrats!!
- DeWitt Clinton
Cute picture and big news!
- Louis Gray
congrats!
- imabonehead
Congrats!
- Ruchira S. Datta
congratulations, sweet news on the FriendFeed :-)
- Nimaa
Congratulations!!
- Ashwin Bharambe
Congrats!
- Itachi
Congratulations, Ana and Casey!
- Anne Bouey
FFantabulous!
- Johnny Worthington
Whoa - FF Wedding in the Times. Congrats you guys!!
- Charlie Anzman
Congratulations!
- Mona Nomura
from iPhone
Congrats!
- SAM
"Ms. Yang and Mr. Muller met in May 2008 while working at FriendFeed, a startup social networking Web site in Mountain View, Calif." / Congratulations, guys!
- 'Like' robot (frɐnc)
Wow, in the NY Times!!! Congratulations!!!! :)
- niniane
Congrats Ana and Casey! Terrific!
- Hutch Carpenter
Congratulations! :-D
- Kol Tregaskes
Congrats, Ana!
- Darren
Wow, what a great story you guys have!! So happy for you!! :)
- Susan Beebe
Congratulations to the two of you! May you enjoy many blissful years of marriage!
- Skye Miller
Wow, congrats Casey & Ana!
- Gabor Cselle
Congrats!
- Stephen Mack
Congrats, guys!
- Shannon Jiménez
Congrats
- ★ Soner Gönül
aw, "immersion romance"
- anna sauce
Congrats!
- AJ Batac
Congratulations! :D
- Anna Haro
Best wishes you guys, you're awesome.
- Kevin Fox
Congratulations, Casey and Ana!
- Mark Trapp
The first and only FriendFeed wedding!
- Sheila Taylor
There have been other FriendFeed weddings, but no double-FriendFeed weddings! And yup, this'll be the last one (unless Prop 8 falls and there are a couple other big surprises!).
- Kevin Fox
Kevin wins the thread. :)
- Louis Gray
Congratulations, Casey and Ana.
- Roshni
Awesome! Best wishes for a great life together...
- Mitchell Tsai
Don't berate someone in 140 chars unless you're willing to write 14,000 more later on to back it up.
Itachi, raphaeL, Kol Tregaskes and 12 other people liked this
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I'll have more to say on this later.
- Jim Norris
we have a comedian here with us. :)
- Jim in Real Time
+100 Jim
- Ashwin Bharambe
What an awful excuse for a joke, Jim Norris. If I had a nickel for every time Candleja--
- raphaeL
Google Chart API can generate LaTeX equations - http://moultano.blogspot.com/2009...
Adriano, katherin Muñoz gonzabay, Burak Çelebi and 52 other people liked this
love!
- Ashwin Bharambe
Quite useful for some. :)
- Daniel Schildt
Yay!
- Simon
Am I the only person who absolutely despises Knuth's "Computer Modern" font? I don't know what it is about it, but it just looks awful to me. And I'm one of those people who used TeX for everything including drawing finite automata and analytic tableaux back in college.
- Jim Norris
I'm with you, Jim. That's why, following the book _TeX Unbound_, I used other fonts in my LaTeXed thesis. From the colophon: "I used mathinst to make a mathematical font family of Monotype Bembo Semibold (from Agfa-Monotype), MathTime (from Y&Y), Chantilly (from Softmaker, similar to Gill Sans), Typewriter (from the Electronic Font Foundry), and a few others, with which I typeset this dissertation."
- Ruchira S. Datta
I always had \usepackage{times} in my LaTeX documents.
- Tudor Bosman
Times is almost as bad though. At one point I figured out how to use Adobe Garamond, but it was kind of flaky.
- Jim Norris
I didn't like Computer Modern or Times. I used Century Schoolbook for my stuff, I think (\usepackage{newcent}).
- Amit Patel
Almost nobody understood my earlier webapp idea, so I'll try again. Imagine you were looking at a website such as FriendFeed and you wanted to create a near pixel-perfect copy but in a way that you could move things around, adjust shadows, etc. I want a tool that makes that easy.
Itachi, Meryn Stol, Charles Ying and 27 other people liked this
And without taking screenshots or copying the html, since the point is that it should have the power to quickly create something that looks just like our current ui. Also, it should be web based, because then fonts, etc will be right, and also I hate installing things. My previous attempt at explaining this: http://friendfeed.com/e... (Balsamiq is not what I want). It does not need to produce html though, so it can cheat anyway it likes.
- Paul Buchheit
So you wanna something like "html to png/psd"? Editable graphical interface with layers and stuff?
- Selim Yoruk
No, not at all. My point is that you could look at the the FriendFeed ui (with your eyes) and then create something that looked just like it.
- Paul Buchheit
Fireworks is pixel perfect, correct font sizes and previews image in browser. Yes/No?
- Toby Graham
Are you looking for something like what is mentioned in this article - http://www.labnol.org/interne...
- Atul Arora
Are you want something like web-based rich page editor which works with objects in manner the human see them and want change them?
- водка и актимель
I guess it's difficult to explain something that doesn't exist :(
- Paul Buchheit
thats piracy!!!
- Arjun
Paul, I like the idea, it's got merit. There's plenty of tools that do half the job, that is, snip the page. The second part, i'm not overly familiar with the tools out there. The manipulation. I guess you could snip the page, and embed into your tool a js library, like scriptaculous, and attach special event significance to the controls/tags, for moving, dropping, dragging.
- Stu Andrews
I think I get what you mean now and I agree. That's not very helpful but hey. In the mean time you could edit the page live using firebug maybe?
- Toby Graham
It seems to me like you want the Visual Studio Win Forms designer for web apps hosted and served to designers as a web app. Drag and drop elements onto the page and adjust their properties in a property grid. Then send a link to others so you can share your concept.
- Eric Schoonover
For this, I use simple vector graphics editing app, like Xara or InkScape - I just make screenshots and use them as raw building blocks - usually I cut out from them small elements like controls/text-blocks/images/etc... In vector graphics enironment managing such kind of blocks is much more easier than in photoshop.
- Phil Smirnov
remembers that this idea has been described by David Siegel in 1997 in his book : Creating Killer Web Sites (http://tinyurl.com/5skw63)
- Oaksun
Paul, i think the edit-page command on ubiquity with the ability to: visually edit css and publish the changes is close to what you are describing.
- Ian
Eric pretty much nailed the description of the dream tool that I think Paul was asking for. In my dream the web app is truly collaborative and has an active GUI. So you can adjust those properties using a mouse or tablet and anyone else on your design team can watch as you do it so they can make suggestions and modifications as you work.
- David Muir
Let's say you want to make a mockup of FriendFeed called "FriendFood". You want it to generally have the same layout, only the top blue bar will actually have a background made of lasagna and a font that is made of French fries, and what shows on the page is everything people write about food on the regular FF, like "pasta OR bean OR potato OR steak". But you'd like someone to be able to do that from the web and without messing into much coding. Is that it?
- Rodrigo Jaroszewski
I use OmniGraffle for this purpose.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Could you achieve it by using Firebug and tweaking the CSS?
- Shakeel Mahate
So something with the usability of say, omnigraffle, but that only used webkit for its rendering. With text controlled and positioned by actual css so that line spacing etc were correct, although again with a simpler UI than CSS has.
- Robin Barooah
Paul - I _just_ came across a site that did exactly that. Unfortunately, Safari's browser history is failing me and I can't find it anymore. Doh!
- Patrick Lightbody
Paul, not sure if you're still reading, but are you looking for interaction design changes as well, or just appearance?
- Mark Trapp
Did you try "PENCIL" an add-on for Firefox http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/
- Francois Lamotte
I had never heard of Pencil, but it sure looks a lot like what I think Paul is describing.
- Jason Wehmhoener
I use ScrapBook Firefox extension to capture the page as is, and then edit that using Firebug.
- Jughead
Paul, I totally got you first time - anyone who thinks it's not a good idea has plainly misunderstood :-) It's the next step up from sketching out your UI on paper, n'est pas?
- Slappy Line
Thanks @Francois. Pencil looks quite promising...
- Ashwin Bharambe
Firefox Webchunks? Does only the snipping part though. Perhaps an add-on to webchunks that will let us use all those chunks together.
- Vamsee
it'd be kind of like pushing edit on a wiki, right. like, firefox would have an edit button then you could visually redo the page
- Coleman Foley
There's also Axure RP, something I found a while ago. http://www.google.com/search...
- Jauder Ho
Dosen't ASP.Net do that already???
- Roberto Bonini
One quick tip in Photoshop is to turn off anti-aliasing and use your various web fonts (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, etc.) and use your preferred font size in pixels/points... This will provide you with screen accurate font appearances and sizes. The biggest problem with a "pixel-perfect" browser rendering is that it will never be consistent from browser to browser. They all render ever...
more...
- Nathan Chase
Russell - http://imgur.com/LogId
rowlikeagirl, Kol Tregaskes, j1m and 12 other people liked this
Is that Facebook? I think I saw him in the cafe.
- Paul Buchheit
He has the github cat/octopus on a badge!
- Benjamin Golub
Super awesome
- niniane
paul: yep, that's frank cho from facebook
- Ashwin Bharambe
Embarrassed and ashamed to be an iPhone developer after reading about the Eucalyptus rejection. Feels like I work for the government.
Toby Graham, Josh Bancroft and Christoph Studer liked this
What's eucalyptus?
- Ashwin Bharambe
haha, i swear i tried. but i just did not try those keywords. on hindsight, that was just dumb of me. thanks, karl!
- Ashwin Bharambe
yeah, hope that wasn't too snarky, I was recently lmgtfy'd and can't resist doing it to others now :)
- Karl Rosaen
KARL I LOVE YOU, first time i've seen that!
- Toby Graham
And Joe is right thats
- Toby Graham
the { buckblogs :here }: Coming home to Vim - http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2008...
Textmate style file directory navigation for vim.
- Ashwin Bharambe
from Bookmarklet
Is there any better software out there for money management other than MS Money or Quicken? Need suggestions.
Business Blogger【ツ】™, Morton Fox, John Flynn and 2 other people liked this
mint?
- Alfredo
And I don't mean something like Mint, I use that but it doesn't allow manual entry of items. I like to plan my budget ahead of time.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
LOL, sorry Alfredo, try again. :D
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
i like both, but now I use my own model in MS Excel.
- grant fox
Yodlee.
- Alex Scoble
yikes, grant. How long did it take to set up that spreadsheet?
- Chieze Okoye
That's what I'm wondering.. I'm trying to think of how to do mine and i'm already overwhelmed
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
from IM
Yodlee.
- Alex Scoble
Think I should try Yodlee, Alex? :D
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Yes. :) It might be what you are looking for and it's free.
- Alex Scoble
wow, didn't know Yodlee was still around..they probably have some of my expired credit card #'s.
- George Dearing
a wife
- Josh Haley
LOL Josh. Wouldn't she just spend all the money then? *ZING* *ducks*
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Well, you have setup the configuration properly
- Josh Haley
@Chieze: unfortunately, not too long. i spend WAY too much time with excel/VBA.
- grant fox
LOVE MS Money. Quicken is HORRIBLE
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
I used to Shey, I've used it for almost 10 years but the last version pissed me off, wouldn't let me use my existing Money file and had to start over. (It was Money Express)
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
you want a local program? i interviewed a couple folks at SxSW that had web based services.
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
I'd use an online program if it allowed me to enter in manual transactions, schedule reoccurring bills, etc. Yodlee does this, kinda, but it's still wonky.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Here were my writeups at Inquisitr: http://www.inquisitr.com/20311...
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Define wonky?
- Alex Scoble
Buxfer, Mint, Xpensr....you could also get Gnucash if you like desktop stuff
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
I just looked at GnuCash. Could they possible have made that program any uglier?
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
I don't think that's the right link, Mark?
- Alex Scoble
Is there any open source alternative?
- Business Blogger【ツ】™
Haggis: try Buxfer. It provides automatic bank sync, but at the same time allows you to manually input transactions (or via CSVs etc) and look at projections...
- Ashwin Bharambe
I beleive I have Money Plus Home & Business -- not the strongest accounting features for business purposes, but great for my needs
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
Twitter Quitters Post Roadblock to Long-Term Growth | Nielsen Wire - http://mattmaroon.com/2009...
How did Nielsen measure this, though? Did they take into account the fact that many users rarely come back to the main Twitter website once they are hooked to the desktop / mobile clients?
- Ashwin Bharambe
Frickin' GNU Emacs. Its explanation for why it doesn't have a horizontal scrollbar is "you don't really want that". This attitude is why GNU/Linux has no traction with consumers.
Chris, Taskerrific Guy, Akiva Moskovitz, mjc and 6 other people liked this
If someone really wanted it bad enough, there would've been a patch already :)
- Victor Ganata
don't be ridiculous -- emacs-type classic unix apps haven't been the face of linux (gnu/ or otherwise) for years now. for example, if you double-click a text file in gnome, you get gedit, which definitely has horizontal scrollbars and looks and feels nothing like emacs (it does sort of resemble notepad or textpad through). emacs is for people who want emacs.
- ⓞnor
I remember when that assertion was originally being made. 20 years ago. When the last meaningful emacs product development was being done. The reason why consumers don't like emacs is because emacs' entire history predates consumer computers.
- j1m
I would like a horizontal scrollbar in emacs, but not bad enough to write a patch myself.
- Bruce Lewis
FWIW, Apple / Steve Jobs has the same exact attitude and yet...
- Ashwin Bharambe
If you're missing a feature in proprietary software, all you can really do is whine and hope the vendors listen to you. If you're missing a feature in open source software, you can always code the functionality yourself or hire someone to do it for you.
- Victor Ganata
Yes. To continue the analogy, the pieces of software that comes on a modern mac or windows machine are like cars of various sorts -- useful, but hard to modify. Emacs is like a 16th century carriage. Sure, it's deficient in way after way after way after way, but it's open source, so if you're so inclined you can attach different kinds of horses to it, or manufacture your own wheels or axles.
- j1m
"you don't really want that" is true, but you have to understand how Emacs works in order to see *WHY*... simply put though, wrapping > scrolling two ways
- mjc
You can scroll horizontally in emacs, it's just not with a scroll bar. But what can you really expect from a program that pre-dates the invention of the GUI?
- Victor Ganata
Ashwin: Yeah, Jobs and friends have the same attitude, but at the same time they look at things from the user's perspective, not the developer's. That's why their tools suck ass, but mundanes love their crap.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
It's things like this GNU bullcrap that makes me more willing to deal with Apple (despite my undying, extreme hate) than deal with FSF. They're all assholes, but at least Apple isn't so priggish about it.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
But at least with the FSF you could (theoretically) do something about it. With Apple, you're SOL if they don't have a feature you need.
- Victor Ganata
Yeah, you can make a fork and try to excise all their horrible decisions made in the name of "purity" from the code. If you have enough time and patience, or enough people to help you out.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
That you can simply take the code and do what you want with it is a myth for all but those who have the resources to actually pull off a fork and maintain it. Otherwise, you might as well be using a Microsoft or Apple product, for all the good the source does you.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
Obviously it requires you to be able to code (or afford to hire someone who can code), but if you have the ability, you don't actually have to fork it. You could always submit your changes and try to get it integrated into the trunk so that you don't have to do any maintenance.
- Victor Ganata
But most of the open source software I've used don't even require you to be able to hack the actual source. Most of them are far more customizable than anything proprietary I've ever used, although the customizations are usually more involved than just clicking through some menus.
- Victor Ganata
"if you double-click a text file in gnome, you get gedit" - I don't reckon that Linux gets a prize for having features that were available in Windows 15 years ago, particularly not when so many parts of it are still poorly documented and/or provide poor UX and/or smugly require you to adapt to it instead of the other way around.
- Benjy Weinberger
mjc: "you don't really want this" is *not* true. It may be that I can get by without horizontal scrollbars, but why should I have to change the habits of 15 years? I don't want wrapping, because it breaks the visual alignment of the file. I want lines to extend beyond the visual boundary and to be able to scroll across them. It seems perfectly reasonable.
- Benjy Weinberger
"you can always code the functionality yourself or hire someone to do it for you"... Erm, this, again, is why there is no consumer adoption of this stuff. 99.9% of potential users do not have the capacity to hire someone to program for them, let alone do it themselves. This is a preposterous suggestion. If GNU want to create software to be used only by cognoscenti, fine. But they should stop spouting conspiracy theories about why commercial software dominates. It's pretty clear why...
- Benjy Weinberger
benjy, I'm not saying gedit should win any prizes, I'm saying that arguing about the usability of emacs means that you're about 20 years out of touch with where gnu/linux/free desktop software is at. yes, linux on the desktop still faces a lot of challenges, but the usability of emacs is not one of them, because nobody except old school hacker types even runs emacs in the first place. it's seriously like you're stuck in the mid '90s or something.
- ⓞnor
seriously, there are a lot of people working hard on desktop usability for linux. they're miles and miles away from the written-by-hackers-for-hackers type of command-line software like emacs and vi and the shell and so on. if you're going to argue about the usability of free software, you should critique what you actually get when you run a modern ubuntu, not what happens when you muck around with archaic editors. what will you do next, criticize windows vista based on running edlin?
- ⓞnor
It's true that I am stuck in the mid 90s in many ways, but emacs was merely an example of a mindset that still all-to-often says "If I give you a free box full of parts from which you can build an awesome car, that's superior to selling you a decent car". And if my last Ubuntu experience is anything to go by, you can keep it...
- Benjy Weinberger
True, "code it yourself or hire someone to do it" is only realistic for the enterprise, not for individual end-users. But the enterprise seems to be who benefits the most from open source software anyway. That's how IBM, Red Hat, Novell, et al make money from open source: deploying and maintaining open source solutions for the enterprise. Sure, Linux as a consumer-grade has a ways to go, but the end-user is not really who uses it the most.
- Victor Ganata
And I don't see how I can get Microsoft or Apple to adapt to my own usage habits. Do you have any tips?
- Victor Ganata
Official Gmail Blog: Updates to attachments: multi-select and progress bars - http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009...
HealingBrush, Todd Jackson, 老佛徒㊣™ and 43 other people liked this
Attach multiple files at once, and see how fast they're uploading.
- Keith Coleman
from Bookmarklet
'Bout time!!! (also, awesome!)
- Paul Buchheit
yes! finally! yihu!
- Eren Emre Kanal
I've already been making heavy use of this as I'm working on a paper and my co-authors and I have been sending lots of files back and forth. It's super-awesome!
- Ruchira S. Datta
yeah, this is pretty bad ass. i'm glad we finally shipped this thing.
- Dustin
Love it.
- Caleb Elston
wait, are linux users not supposed to use this?
- Ashwin Bharambe
pretty good news
- qian
I still think the new default GMail theme is ugly as hell (the BORDER!!) as compared to Classic
Paul Buchheit liked this
user testing be damned, somebody has to dictate taste every once in a while!
- Ashwin Bharambe
Tv's cobweb: Git for Computer Scientists - http://eagain.net/article...
Mahesh CR, Robert Felty, Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie) and 4 other people liked this
Useful visualizations for git
- Ashwin Bharambe
from Bookmarklet
Congratulations, Paul & Jessica!! Welcome to the world, George!
Ethan Herdrick, J.D. Zamfirescu, Robby Walker and 27 other people liked this
Born at 04:44 on Saturday, 1/24. 8lbs. 10oz.
- April Buchheit
That's a big baby!
- Paul Buchheit
Yeah! That's almost twice Thomas's birth weight and 7lbs. more than Camilla's.
- April Buchheit
Congrats!
- Daniel Ha
Congratulations, Jessica and Paul! Its a great, fun ride :)
- Toby DiPasquale
Yay! Congrats!
- Akshay Dodeja
Congratulations!
- Gabor Cselle
Congrats!!
- Ashwin Bharambe
Congrats!!
- Danish Khan
Congratulations!
- Paul Boehm
Congrats!
- Robby Walker
EnigmaCurry » 256 colors on the Linux terminal - http://www.enigmacurry.com/2009...
On your linux desktop, open up your favorite terminal emulator. Enter this command: tput colors What number do you see? 8? 8 stinking colors. That's what my terminal is capable of displaying. It's 2009 folks, and my terminal can only display 8 stinking colors.
- Ashwin Bharambe
from Bookmarklet
Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Send & Archive - http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009...
Adam Kazwell, Igor Poltavskiy, Matt Cutts and 11 other people liked this
Written by our eng manager in Zurich!
- Keith Coleman
from Bookmarklet
Go Pal!
- Arvind Sundararajan
" I'm planning to add undo support" would be awesome (undo the send part, that is :-))
- John μller
Next: archive + next :-)
- Bay Chang
So cool!
- Ashwin Bharambe
Bay, they already added that as [ and ]. I like to see my email after sending it though (don't see the mistakes until after I hit send), so I don't plan to use this new feature :)
- Paul Buchheit
Is it called snarkive?
- Jim Norris
David Letterman’s Top 10 George W. Bush Moments - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
  |
Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty, Ashwin Bharambe and Manas Tungare liked this
OMG so so so funny
- Rushabh Doshi
Hilarious!
- Ashwin Bharambe
can someone make it so I can plug my iphone in and run it on my desktop?
Atul Arora, Peter Fedin, Marshall Kirkpatrick and Bret Taylor liked this
I want to be able to respond to text messages and stuff with my keyboard when I'm on my desktop. Why not?
- Michael
Neat idea.
- Scott Ludwig
if you jailbreak it, you can do some of it by using 'veency' - it runs a vnc server on your iphone.
- Ashwin Bharambe
sounds like a doable app
- Michael
weird, josh and i were talking about this today. this doesn't help you, but you might be interested to know blackberry has an app for text messages.
- paulm
On Apple, FriendFeed, and Techmeme | Mark. - http://marktrapp.com/blog...
Frederic, Meryn Stol, Robert Scoble and 21 other people liked this
This "dumb comments" issue is interesting. We currently highlight comments from your friends with a light-blue bubble, but I've wondering if we should do something more dramatic to separate the "comments from friends" vs "comments from random people". I have not yet thought of a nice, simple ui for that though.
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
That'd be a great feature. I guess one way to handle it would be an option in the account settings that could be "turn off everything from people who are not my friends:" it could include an auto friend-of-a-friend hide, and removal of non-friend likes and comments from one's view. Almost like a global block, without actually precluding people you don't know from posting on your stuff.
- Mark Trapp
Paul: I subscribe to almost everyone. What I'd like instead is people who I rate highly by giving them lots of "likes" to get a special bubble. That's a lot more important to the quality level than whether I'm following them or not. Or, if you want to do the following thing, people I've put in a specific list are far more relevant to me than my general list. I don't think either things matter, though. Here's something that would: give me 10 "best" pins to hand out to great comments every week.
- Robert Scoble
Let everyone hand out these prizes to "best comments." That way best comments would stand out and you should be able to filter on those as well.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, comment rating of any sort seems like a slippery slope down into the craziness of Digg land. FF seems to have avoided that level of inter-personal competition by this point, and I think for the best.
- Ňicķ
Robert --- Ooooh I like that idea a bunch!! VOTING stars applied to COMMENTS! woo hoo!!
- Susan Beebe
Please don't do that. I know that these techy people who like to talk to themselves may enjoy that, but for someone like me it would bbe useless. I think if that guy thinks there's dumb convos here, then he can alter his feed so people who agree with him can be there. Whenever I think FF is being run over by stupid, I block or unsub to people. Why can't that guy?
- Admiral Anika
One possibility is adding a "mute" option while viewing the comment threads (kinda like Gmail's). The mute option can be per-thread, or could be for some time (like Pandora). It's not like I really hate some commentators, but they can become annoying in some threads. Blocking or unsub'ing them is what I do right now (as Anika suggests), however that feels extreme since it is quite likely they will have interesting content to post, and their comments in other contexts can even be insightful.
- Ashwin Bharambe
I simply want to be able to "like" a comment. Many times I don't care about the actual feed item very much, but someone comes and makes a fantastic comment.
- Eric Florenzano
Agree with Eric. Would be great if you could "like" comments.
- Rutger Blom
I'm also with Eric ++
- Joe Dawson
It would be easier if they were threaded then I could hide threads that don't involve someone I know.
- Sam Pullara
make comments rateable like at DIGG..then let us filter by rating,..done.
- Chris Hofmann
+1 for threaded comments (and likes on comments... and rating...)
- minus-one
The important thing to realize is that ratings like Digg are community wide, whereas here what one sees is individually determined for each person, based on their friends. The critical thing to avoid is letting non-friend ratings influence what you see, because that way lies Digg-style gaming and the associated nonsense.
- Mr. Gunn
can't agree more :)
- abdellah
there will alawys be some social imitation, people enjoy to agree with leaders
- abdellah
This "people should be talking about the biggest stories" is a odd metric. FF somewhat discourages people posting duplicate content/links, and all/most of the conversation takes place under relatively few entries. How big of an echo chamber do we need? After one person posts a link about Steve Jobs's health, do we all need to? I seriously hope that after an hour, we, as a society, have moved on from discussing the health of someone who most people have never met. This is Internet Time, people.
- Andy Bakun
...maybe the Internet is growing up and people are starting to realize that if they saw it on popular site X, so did everyone else, so there's no need to publicize it again.
- Andy Bakun
What I like most about Friendfeed is the freedom. You are free to post almost any type of content, regardless of format or source. You can subscribe or block any person's posts. you can hide individual posts and categories of posts. It's all about how I control the view. likes/comments bumping a post to the top borders on gameable mob behavior, adding scoring/rating would make that worse. If any scoring happens I want it to be *my* score. Rather than a subscribe/unsub/block, could I score another user?
- Jason Wehmhoener
Rather than "like", could i score a post, not for the benefit of others, but as a way of contributing to a rank of what I personally prefer to see? (people have long said "like" is not a flexible enough verb for the many ways one could react to a post, so that's something else to consider). Finally, forget about good/bad scoring, how about "this is a great post about photography" or "i love to see these kinds of posts about javascript". directeur likes to mention APML for that purpose...
- Jason Wehmhoener
anyway, I like my personal freedom and control, and I'm less interested in mob rule or popularity contests.
- Jason Wehmhoener
All of which, by the way, are reasons why Google Reader is such an addictive experience... (Techmeme? snooze!)
- Jason Wehmhoener
Paul, you could use a different shade, background or italicize. That should be sufficient different to be able to discern at a glance. The blue comment is too subtle, I did not notice until yesterday.
- Jauder Ho
Jauder, I've create a userstyle that deals with that. You might want to check out this script http://userstyles.org/styles...
- AJ Batac
Cool, I'll check it out.
- Jauder Ho
Jason++
- Sean McBride
I'm in favor of comment voting. It gives another way to filter. I'm not so sure about threaded comments. I think that a new "thread" is better.
- Meryn Stol
Facebook’s traffic growth leaving rivals in the dust - http://venturebeat.com/2009...
Oh yah, baby! :D
- Ashwin Bharambe
If Canada were shelling Seattle, damn right we'd attack. But there's a reason they're not shelling us. We aren't occupying their homeland.
Laura, Phillip Stewart, raul and 34 other people liked this
Bingo. A no-brainer.
- Sean McBride
agree - and to say so is to be called anti-Israel
- William Harryman
William, they can call you whatever they want. Frankly, I'm fairly anti-Israel myself. I don't know why people are willing to put up with so much nonsense from them.
- Dave Winer
What if Canada decided the parts of ND and MN ceded to the US by GB in 1818 was illegal because Canada was independent and GB had no authority to do so? Even though several other nations in the world thought the land belonged to the US, Canada would have good reason to say otherwise. Or if all of the remaining indigenous peoples of Mexico rose up against those with Spanish heritage because many years ago their land was stolen from them and they want it back.
- xero
It's really simple -- states shouldn't engage in the wholesale slaughter of civilians, women and children. There is nothing to argue about on this.
- Sean McBride
As American taxpayers, you fund their actions.
- Aaron deMello
Israel does not occupies Gaza anymore. Israel pulled out from Gaza two years ago - that's a history fact and I have no idea why the media keeps saying Israel occupies Gaza - they don't bother to change their bias (but who cares anyhow).
- N.G. Gordon - RadarSync
N.G., international law is pretty clear - if you control the borders, the airspace and the money and openly reserve the right to enter at any time for any reason you see fit, it's an occupation. That's international law, not opinion.
- Boris Gordon
Even if Israel weren't occupying Gaza, they occupy the West Bank. If Canada only occupied Seattle/Washington does that mean that the people of California have no right to resist with their fellow Americans?
- Boris Gordon
A country/state can only occupy another if the military is doing the occupation...
- xero
Who do *you* think is occupying Gaza and West Bank? The Israeli Chess Club? The Seniors Knitting Circle? Of course it's a military occupation.
- Boris Gordon
Do you think Israel *wants* to occupy these places? If Canadians lived there, we'd be out in a heartbeat.
- Dror Shimshowitz
Maybe Israel should let the Palestinians sell cigarettes and run the casinos.
- Bill Seitz
"Do you think Israel *wants* to occupy these places" - well apparently so, as all evidence suggests that they've been steadily settling greater and greater amounts of Palestinian land ever since 1948. Shall we draw some fine distinction between some tiny sliver of Bantustan left to the Gazans and the rest of Israel then? Is that what you mean by "these places" - the leftovers after the all good bits are forcibly colonised?
- Scot Mcphee
It's easy to chatter from far, when you live in a peaceful area without the need to face fear and horror. FYI Canada supports Israel cause stated only yesterday that Hamas (or what was left from it) should be blamed for the Palestinian tragedy. I don't really think any of you care, since i haven't seen any complaints when hundreds are getting killed in Iraq every month or while...
more...
- Nir Ben Yona
Peter Simard: isn't it about time for you to admit that you know very little about the founding of Israel, the history of Zionism and the history of Mideast politics in general? You are repeating simplistic propaganda talking points from one side -- the Israeli side. If Americans violently resisted the violent creation of a Zionist state on their territory, would they be considered terrorists?
- Sean McBride
From the standpoint of the residents on the land which Russian and European Zionists seized by force, Zionism was an enormous provocation.
- Sean McBride
Nir Ben Yona -- Americans are not bogged down in ethnic and religious conflicts of the kind with which Israel is afflicted, because America is a modern Western democracy, not a messianic ethno-religious nationalist enterprise building settlements on the territory of our neighbors. Give up the ethnic and religious nationalist militancy, and those kinds of conflicts will go away.
- Sean McBride
@Sean actually America is indeed bogged down ins uch conflicts haha - Iraq and Israel
- Chris Saad
Chris -- the main reason we are bogged down in both conflicts is -- you guessed it, I am sure.
- Sean McBride
I know the reasons - just kidding around
- Chris Saad
A lot of comments seem to be dancing around the core issue: for Hamas, there is no part of Israel that is not an occupation of their homeland. It's not about what Israel does in Gaza or the West Bank. It's fundamentally about opposition to the existence of the State of Israel.
- Michael Markman
Hamas is an extreme reaction to a real problem. Focusing on them is like focusing on a rash instead of the virus
- Chris Saad
Chris, you talk as if the Hamas is not the ruling body of Gaza.
- Amit Morson
Dave, they've got their fucking land, their a bunch of terrorits holding the Palestinians to ransom. There's a reason the US is 100% behind Israel, because they're on the same side. Dave why don't you join your local Hamas club, that's right you an't because there a terrorist orgaization and can't recruit in the US, so get off your ass and head to the middle east and sign up for their "cause" if that's what you think.
- Donovan Slennon
@Sean IMHO America is more conservative and religious than you might think. Not bogged? for decades you've been dealing with slavery and ethnic debates between blacks and whites UNTIL TODAY isn't it? Many of us would like to see a separation between "religion and state", however the other side lives according to religious rules and you can't ignore it. PS: FYI, Peter is damn right about the routes of the Israeli concept
- Nir Ben Yona
Attacks on Americans by pro-Israel activists and militants: Donovan Slennon's post is an excellent example of the genre. They are going to backfire in the long run.
- Sean McBride
Israel has been out of Gaza for two years. What are you talking about?
- Ouriel Ohayon
What I find astounding is the total absence of any kind of outcry and protest over the thousands of rockets fired into Israeli cities and towns before this incursion. There are children living in those cities and towns too and the fact that Israelis may be more accustomed to taking refuge in shelters built for this purpose doesn't change the heinous nature of Hamas' repeated attacks.
- Paul Jacobson
from twhirl
Nir: Israel is an ethno-religious nationalist state, which much more closely resembles white South Africa than the United States. America is not organized around the interests of any particular ethnic or religious group. America would be like Israel if it were a militant Anglo-Christian state which brutally discriminated against Jews and other ethnic and religious outgroups.
- Sean McBride
Sean, no attacks on Americans here, just an attack on a bad argument that happens to be made by an American. Israel and America are busom buddies because they've got the same DNA, they are not wild.
- Donovan Slennon
Paul Jacobson: how many Palestinian civilians has Israel killed since its founding? How much territory has it seized from Palestinians by terrorism and force? And why in the world should Americans get sucked into the middle of foreign ethnic and religious wars, when Americans have worked so hard to get beyond ethnic and religious conflicts within their own borders?
- Sean McBride
Donovan: by this time, many Americans, from presidents on down, have run out of patience with hearing any more violent rhetoric from any side in Mideast ethnic and religious wars. The non-stop hysteria becomes intolerable after a point. The whole point of modern Western democracies is to rise above these kinds of petty and self-destructive conflicts and focus on more productive issues.
- Sean McBride
Michael Markman -- if the United States redefined itself as an Anglo-Christian state, would enormous conflict and violence ensue? Of course. Ethno-religious states tend to generate tremendous conflict, and especially when they are implanted by terrorism and force on the territory of other ethnic and religious groups. There is a simple solution: get beyond the primitive identity politics.
- Sean McBride
Peter -- would Americans, Europeans, Canadians, Russians, Chinese or any other major population groups agree that Israel has a right to exist on their territories? Of course not. Where is your sense of realism? Even David Ben-Gurion understood that Arab resistance to the creation of Israel was perfectly reasonable.
- Sean McBride
David Ben-Gurion: "If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"
- Sean McBride
Btw Palestinians =! Muslims - There is/was Christian, Jewish and Islamic Palestinians
- Chris Saad
@Sean If you ask me, America is involved because: 1) Oil 2) afraid the Middle East conflicts will reach its front door (September 11th anyone). IMO this is just the beginning since 30M Muslims live in Europe and it looks like a ticking bomb that is about to explode any second. But what do i care, I'm just a gadgets fanatic.
- Nir Ben Yona
@Sean In Re: Running out of patience. I think you make an interesting revelation here. I know I feel this way. Perhaps many people either are sick of the non-stop bickering or have become desensitized to the news of this area of the world. Maybe the US should just keep arming both sides and let them fight it out once and for all. Hey,at least we'd get a little profit...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
@Chris Saad: the problem is more complicated since we have internal Muslim Shia-Sunni wars.
- Nir Ben Yona
Mark -- most Americans are smart enough, and sane enough, to realize that you don't push your ethnic and religious hysteria front and center in your relations with others! :) It is difficult to imagine behavior that is more self-destructive than this. The backlash is going to be something to behold when it finally comes.
- Sean McBride
Sean, your distorted perception of Israel at it again...
- Amit Morson
Let me emphasize, by the way, that this isn't about Jews and Muslims. Many Jews and Muslims get along in multicultural societies and modern Western democracies, and haven't the slightest interest in getting sucked into religious wars. Quite the contrary.
- Sean McBride
You are occupying the native american’s homeland, now get the fuck out of northern america. No wait, it is a dumb argument.
- Andre
Amit -- I offer you as Exhibit A for the problem which we have been discussing.
- Sean McBride
Did everyone see this today? "UN Says No Hamas Fighters Were in Bombed Gaza School (Time.com)" http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailyne... "Investigation refutes claim by Israeli military that it was "returning fire" from Hamas militants when troops shelled an elementary school, killing 40 civilians."
- Sean McBride
I do like the way you phrased it: "Non-stop hysteria." May I use this (with proper attribution)?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Be my guest. :) A perpetual shrill shriek in the ears. If you want a really heavy dose of it, check out Atlas Shrugs http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
- Sean McBride
Sean, when you say UN, you mean Palestinian representatives of the UN, subtle difference. On the other side, Israeli intelligence knows exactly who was there. Contrary to your perception of Israel and Hamas own philosophy, no Israeli soldier shoots at a schools just for fun.
- Amit Morson
Ow. That hurt my eyes and my brain all at the same time!
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Amit -- don't you understand yet that Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza are badly damaging Israel? How much do you want to bet that the Israeli government won't produce a shred of evidence to back up its claim that the school was inhabited by armed terrorists? And why are you harassing Americans about your ethnic and religious conflicts?
- Sean McBride
Mark - Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) is the quintessence of everything that has gone wrong with Israel. She is quite a phenomenon. Shriek doesn't begin to cover it.
- Sean McBride
Everyone understands attacks on civilians are badly damaging Israel, thats why the Israeli army tries to avoid it and Hamas militants carry human shields with them. And that proves my point exactly!
- Amit Morson
What are the world media saying about Israel's attack on an elementary school? Google News has it covered: http://news.google.com/news...
- Sean McBride
I'm being controversial here, but I know! <sarcasm>Let's send a load of US and British troops over there to die, and slowly watch the economy tank even more in the process, just like Iraq.</sarcasm> Sigh...
- Tyson Key
Close Tyson. Let's send a bunch of US and British weapons over there for each side, and have them only call when it's either over or they've run out of bullets. Then I won't have to listen to this crap any more.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I predicted months ago on here on Friendfeed that Barack Obama would be totally distracted and consumed by the Mideast Horror Show from the first day he took office, and that he wouldn't be able to effectively focus on domestic economic issues and the American interest. I got that one right.
- Sean McBride
Citation needed.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
@Sean, Damaging? do you listen to yourself? As bad as it may sound, do you really think the world will remember any of those clashes in couple of months? are you familiar with the US image across the Arab world? Do you know how much hatred is been channeled towards American citizens and American establishments? Can you remember that only months ago American troops bombarded a wedding in Iraq, killing more than 70 innocent Iraqis? Trust me, no one cares, this is just a piousness.
- Nir Ben Yona
Nir - you are attacking an American, me, about your foreign ethnic and religious conflicts. Not smart.
- Sean McBride
How to follow the unfolding story about the Israeli bombing of a UN elementary school on Google News, with most recent stories first: http://news.google.com/news...
- Sean McBride
Mark, that's not a joke but the middle east was a testing ground for American and Russian weapon systems for years.
- Amit Morson
Sean, just because the media say it's true doesn't make it so. Do you believe everything you read in the papers? You do realize that 90% of the reporters in Gaza are Palestinians. And that's exactly that kind of coverage you get as a result.
- Amit Morson
@Amit I wasn't joking. If it were me I'd turn the entire area in to a plate of glass. That seem to be the only way to end this.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Amit - I have to be honest and say that I regard you as a lost cause. I am not even going to make an effort to cut through your mental fog. If you had been a Bernard Madoff investor, you would have bet the farm on his veracity. I trust the world media much more than I trust the Israeli government on matters of fact and truth concerning Israel.
- Sean McBride
Mark V - not sure if you were requesting a cite from me about my prediction that Obama would be consumed by Mideast politics from his first day in office. I began to focus on the Obama/AIPAC connection back in June http://friendfeed.com/search... My predictions are scattered among the comments.
- Sean McBride
Sean, why do you acknowledge that Palestinians' have the right to define themselves as a nation, but not Jews?
- Michael Markman
Michael -- I never said that. In fact, I would prefer to see an American-style one-state solution in the region, with ethnicity and religion wrung out of its Constitution and Jews and Palestinians sharing power on an equal footing. But what do you make of the David Ben-Gurion quote above?
- Sean McBride
@Sean i can say the same things vice versa (attacking me). If you really believe the media than 1) http://bit.ly/OrSL 2) http://bit.ly/159UZ (taken in 07 and exemplify the Hamas launching from the same perimeter).
- Nir Ben Yona
Nir -- am I bugging you about MY ethnic and religious issues? Attacking you about them? I am not. To do so would be rude, uncivil and antisocial. You are just not getting it.
- Sean McBride
I think if I had grown up with my basic rights constantly annihilated, seeing my parents humiliated and in fear, knowing if have no prospects for decent development, that soldiers (or settlers) could come trash my place any day for nothing I have done, I would be angry. And if i had grown up in the fear of rockets or some crazy person blowing up the local marketplace or a bar, for nothing I have personally done, I would be angry too. But repeating the pattern is not the solution.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Actually, it looks like Obama is going to be consumed by Israel's problems *before* his first day in office. I doubt that he will ever again have an opportunity to come up for air or to get focused on America's economic crisis. Apart from the Gaza mess, AIPAC has big plans to use Obama as a tool to attack Iran. Obama will have to go along or else.
- Sean McBride
Sean, I dont think that is a likely scenario. I think the moderates will win this one out
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
@Sean: aight !
- Nir Ben Yona
Sean: The only part I haven't quite figured out is when. The way I see it, the US will move troops out of Iraq into Pakistan (you know, because of the unrest there, wink wink nudge nudge) which gives them easy access to Afghanistan and Iran, plus a closer position to Israel without moving too far from Iraq. I just don't have the date pinned down.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Joelle -- "moderates" like Rahm Emanuel, who attacked the Bush administration from the right for being too soft on terrorism? Moderates like Hillary Clinton, who raised the prospect of "totally obliterating" Iran? Obama will not be able to stand up to pressure coming from AIPAC.
- Sean McBride
Mark V -- they will need another major terrorist attack to push the Mideast wars to the next level, and no doubt it will occur. Possibly even the nuclear attack which Ehud Barak described in detail recently.
- Sean McBride
@Sean I agree. The Mumbai effort really went poorly to try to establish cause. Another, larger attack is necessary.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Mark -- Barak even described the exact methods that would be used for the attack. :) "Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Iran would attack the United States if it acquired 'even a primitive nuclear weapon.' He said if Iran 'built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America.'"
- Sean McBride
i think i'm out of my depth in this conversation now...
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Sure we are... Essentially everything north of Boston was Canada (england) at one time... Texas was Mexico... Alaska was Russia... And frankly it all really belonged to the American Indian. So if you get knifed by an American Indian I guess you had it coming... you should say you are sorry.
- Brian Roy
Joelle, always look for the reason behind the talking head. The Mumbai incident, for example: how did any terrorist group benefit from the attack? None did. So then begin looking for other reasons. Strategically Pakistan is a good place for the US military to set-up. How to get them there? Prove to the world that the US is needed there... Can you think of a better explanation of what happened in Mumbai?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Dave - There is an enormous amount of non-sense on BOTH sides of this. I'm anti-non-sense. So I guess that makes me anti-Israel and anti-hamas. What I don't understand is when people become unbalanced and condem one and not the other. There are no "good actors" here.
- Brian Roy
dave here see this post ... this is why we arent attacking you http://friendfeed.com/e...
- johnpiercy
All above occurring on the Promised Land. Hell on Earth.
- Mark Edmondson
@Nir and all pro-Israeli dudes: Why won't anybody respond to the Ben-Gurion quote Sean quoted? Is that too inconvenient to respond?
- Ashwin Bharambe
You know, I have brought up the David Ben-Gurion quote quite a few times now, and haven't received a single response from pro-Israel activists. Not one. They keep trying to pretend that the quote doesn't exist. (There is much more Ben-Gurion material on this subject which I am prepared to discuss.)
- Sean McBride
I have a friend that lives in Israel, his family is an arabic christian one and the horror stories of terror they have to live with at the hands of IDF and Israeli police is disgusting. On his fathers birthday police broke through the doors and kidnapped his dad. No reason, no recourse. They released him several days later after beating him up. This happens across Israel to non-Jewish citizens yet it never makes the news. There is *so much* going on that fuels this hatred in perpetuality.
- alphaxion
alphaxion, I don't know who your friend is or were he lives in Israel, but a police officer who will break into someone home without a court order will face disciplinary action just as in any other lawful country.
- Amit Morson
Sean McBride is exactly right - Israel is founded on concepts of ethno-religious discrimination and keeps those aspects of it's state organisation *to this day*. Settlers in the West Bank steal Palestinian land as a matter of course. But we are asked to compartmentalise these problems ("we don't occupy Gaza"), and it is a false dichotomy. Israel is reaping the seeds of 60 years of victimisation of Palestinians, and asks us to believe the cure is even more victimisation.
- Scot Mcphee
@Ashwin: The respond is very simple - back at the time (when he said that) the Arab world was unified under the decision to wipe out Israel from the map. The religious leadership in those countries was willing to send their armies and fight the small country that has managed to build the Zionist Vision in the Middle East against all odds. Ben Gurion, wisely understood that any Arab leader that will make peace with Israel would be considered as a dead man...
- Nir Ben Yona
...and will carry a death penalty along with a collective boycott from the Arab world. Therefor, Ben Gurion, literally said he didn't want to be considered a DEAD MAN. Needless to say, the situation is totally different nowadays, as the vast majority of the Arab countries seek for any sort of relations with Israel (official or unofficial) and under the table ask for an Israeli umbrella (sort of protection) from the Axis Of Evil (AKA:Iran), in regard to the Sunni-Shia wars.
- Nir Ben Yona
As for @alphaxion, gimme a break will you, stop bringing partial stories just because it's trendy to attack Israel. You don't really understand what's happening here and clearly you would prefer leaving in here rather than in Iran. As for @Scot Mcphee, a reminder, Australia is an immigrants country that supports Israel. Wondering which lands you personally had stolen from the Aborigines who demand their territories back for decades. when you speak about a rip off you don't come with clean hands.
- Nir Ben Yona
Again, there is a key pattern to observe here: pro-Israel activists and militants tend to be aggressive, bullying and obnoxious towards anyone they disagree with (this behavioral pattern is especially strong among neoconservatives). One suspects that they they believe that all Americans, Europeans, Australians, etc. are untermenschen, to be treated, like Palestinians, with a brutal and high hand. One would expect no less from messianic ethno-religious nationalists. it's easy to see where this is going.
- Sean McBride
I'm just saying what he told me. Also, here in the UK we have plenty of police raids under abuses of terror laws in order to harass people. Happened recently to one of our politicians. And I'm not "joining in on Israel bashing", I have commented for the past decade about this very thing - I do not dispute that Israel faces some incredibly nasty attacks, but I refuse to ignore the nasty crap Israel itself gets upto. I have said time and time again that BOTH sides are the problem! Sadly the citizens suffer.
- alphaxion
This is what I am talking about, concerning bullying aggression, from Youtube: "British film crew threatened by jewish settler in Hebron" http://www.youtube.com/watch... For how much longer will the Western world go on supporting this enterprise? Oh: and check out the insane and violent interactions in the comments section -- the fruits of ethnic and religious nationalism.
- Sean McBride
Israel shouldn't have an army.
- Meryn Stol
Nir didn't come close to answering the content of the Ben-Gurion quote.
- Sean McBride
@Sean, clearly you had a bottle of vodka before your last comment. Next thing, you'd probably ask to deprive our rights to respond to any attacks from ignorant people who feel they will advance their social affairs by officially bashing Israel (Do I need to feel apologetic? NOT) @alphaxion. Thank You !
- Nir Ben Yona
Sean, you keep on getting the same observation wrong, the nutjobs settlers in Hebron are not Israel, they are not even the moderate Israeli right. They are their own breed of messianic lunatics. Many of them, by the way, are Jewish immigrants from the US.
- Amit Morson
Nir - you still don't get it. Attacking ethnic and religious outsiders in a fury about your ethnic and religious problems and conflicts is a losing game. The more you attack, the more you lose and the deeper the hole in which your dig yourself and your cause. Do you really understand so little about human behavior?
- Sean McBride
Grief and Rage at Stricken Gaza School - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2009... This operation continues to turn into one of the worst public relations disasters in Israeli history.
- Sean McBride
Amit Morson - the settlers have been given full support by the Israeli government, and especially under Labor. The Israeli government is responsible for all their actions. And the rhetorical style of this particular obnoxious religious fanatic is indistinguishable from that of many pro-Israel militants on the net. Many American leaders have many stories to tell of suffering similar assaults, repeatedly.
- Sean McBride
Sean, wrong again, the Israeli government has been trying to deal with the Hebron nutjobs for years, but "unfortunately" Israel is a lawful country and even the government can't do anything it wants.
- Amit Morson
Sean, try to get over your bias, you might learn some great things.
- Amit Morson
World opinion on the blogosphere is running overwhelmingly against Israel in the current crisis. Check it out for yourself: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsea...
- Sean McBride
Amit -- your insulting and poorly informed posts aren't doing much to help Israel. It is really quite amazing that you would even get into these self-destructive discussions with Americans. If Israel can't deal with ideological settlers as effectively as America deals with neo-Nazis and KKK members, there is something seriously wrong with the Israeli government and the nation of Israel.
- Sean McBride
@Sean honestly, you're making me laugh. First, i had a feeling you are a member of the KKK (and i'm not sure i'm wrong). Second, if you think this war is a PR thing you clearly have no idea and my advice for you would be to get down to earth from Mars. Third, don't lecture us about attacking ethnic outsiders since you're doing exactly the same thing. Fourth, you dig yourself a hole, last time i've checked i'm on a flat and stable ground.
- Nir Ben Yona
Sean, unfortunately your bias doesn't let you learn the real facts. Things that do not fit to your perception of the truth turn into "poorly informed". You should open your eyes and get over your bias.
- Amit Morson
Fifth, do i need a permission to go out and attack your very own interests? ABSOLUTELY NOT. After all, we prevent those terrorists from getting into US doors. Six, wondering what would have happened if Putin was here instead of Israel. Obviously he was flattening the entire area like he did in Chechnya and you'd probably praising him. Seven, do you really think the blogsphere can stop us from protecting ourselves? there are 1 billion Muslims and only 7M in Israel...statistically they have the advantage.
- Nir Ben Yona
Saying Israel supports and encourages radical settlers in the west bank, is like saying the federal government supports Nazi organizations by the mere fact that they exist within it's borders and rally in American town. Do you comprehend the absurdity?
- Amit Morson
And by the way, why does it matter if the discussions are made with Americans, French, Thai, Brazilian or whatever. Why do you think there is a difference?
- Amit Morson
Who is subsidizing the settlements, Amit?
- Sean McBride
Nir Ben Yona, your attempt to equate the situation in Israel and Palestine and dismiss it by airly waving at the genocide of Australian Aborigines is pure sophistry. I am not defending those crimes. And whatever policy failings that Australia currently has towards Aborigines, they are nowhere near the scale of the ongoing occupation and confiscation of Palestinian lands that exists inside Israel *today*. And Australian law fully recognises native title to land.
- Scot Mcphee
Amit -- you are attacking ethnic, religious and national outsiders in an obnoxious and poorly informed way about YOUR ethnic, religious and foreign nationalist agenda. If you don't understand why that kind of behavior is alienating and self-destructive, you are missing a key organ of human cognition.
- Sean McBride
Rich American neo-cons
- Amit Morson
If Canada was shelling Seattle, we would be getting another new quarter in 2009 because Canada would become the 51st state
- Morgan Haley
Israeli settlements are being developed as a matter of official Israeli policy. Much of the settlement activity is being funded by wealthy American neoconservatives, like Irving Moskowitz, but the Israeli government is responsible for the policy. And the Israeli government is also responsible for the fanatics and extremists who inhabit those settlements -- including the delightful specimen in the Youtube video.
- Sean McBride
Sean, wrong again. Other than development of new neighborhoods within Jerusalem, which might be controversial, depending on your point of view. A new settlement wasn't built in the west bank for years. Any new settlements are illegal and have been or deemed to be destroyed.
- Amit Morson
@Scot Mcphee, aight, but don't forget the Aborigines are less violent comparing to the Palestinians. After all, The Hamas is an official UN-declared terror organization and as far as i know the Australian natives have no militant groups. @Morgan, Damn right.
- Nir Ben Yona
"Children make up third of Gaza dead: medics - Yahoo! News" http://news.yahoo.com/s... These are the appalling policies and activities which the pro-Israel contingent in this thread is defending, and for which it will be held fully responsible by the world. There are consequences to getting on the wrong side of historical trends of this magnitude.
- Sean McBride
Nir Ben Yona, you haven't addressed the issue of Israel's discriminatory nature, at it's very core. Yes, Hamas are bad. But that doesn't justify Israels treatment of the *Palestinians* - treatment that pre-dates the formation of Hamas, and maybe, just maybe, contains some responsibility for it. A reality you've consistently shown unwillingly to confront or even admit. Meanwhile all you have is hair-splitting, and ad-hominem and logical fallacies of various kinds. I will not respond further. Good day to you.
- Scot Mcphee
And this is why there are civilian Palestinian casualties http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Amit Morson
Does anyone know of any online grassroots organizing to protest against this?
- Meryn Stol
Meryn, If Israel didn't have an army all Jews there will be slaughtered. Is that what you want to happen?
- Amit Morson
Gee, reading all these comments almost gives one the impression that this is a highly-complex, emotionally charged issue which does not have any single answer, let alone one *correct* answer. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
- Bill Jackson
from twhirl
I've got a single and simple answer: ethnic and religious nationalism is a losing proposition in the contemporary world.
- Sean McBride
Bill, you're just crazy.
- Amit Morson
Amit, no, the international community would defend the Jewish people OBVIOUSLY. Look at what America did with Saddam Hussein without much ground to stand on, now think what happens if an actual army would touch the Jews.
- Meryn Stol
@Sean, wrt "there are consequences", no there won't be coz the bully wins as it has continued to for the past 60 years. In fact, in time, the bully will not even be known as the bully but will be painted as the victim. This latter part (all the self-righteousness) is what's most unsettling.
- Ashwin Bharambe
Meryn, you do realize that what you say is totally ridiculous..
- Amit Morson
I personally consider the Israeli government to be childish. Therefore they shouldn't be allowed to have an army. Certainly not nukes. I'd say even Bush is more sensible.
- Meryn Stol
Ashwin - white South Africa should be an object lesson for how these kinds of projects turn out. Watch and see.
- Sean McBride
I have nothing against Jews or the people living in Israel btw. It's just the government (and those supporting these insane actions) that I'm against.
- Meryn Stol
Meryn -- many Jews around the world are appalled by these developments, and the Jewish tradition as a whole is much bigger and wiser than any Israeli government. Always try to keep that it mind.
- Sean McBride
@Sean even if you might suffer from megalomania, you don't represent the WORLD, but your very own personal opinion, so no one buys your pretentious ideas. Once you deal with Putin's actions in Chechnya and Georgia i will treat you as a non biased figure. @Scot, every country has its own discriminatory nature, I have never claimed we are clean concerning this matter, but again, a government is one of those systematic forms. Most of the Arab world have monarchies. I prefer democracies.
- Nir Ben Yona
Sean, I know. I was trying to make that distinction. I'm against the current government (or rather this specific behavior) and its direct supporters (or rather, their support).
- Meryn Stol
Meryn -- don't worry; your basic decency comes through clearly in your posts. All I feel coming through the posts of some others here is raw hatred, motivated by ethnic extremism.
- Sean McBride
Ashwin, now who is the bully here, the 7 armies who attacked the army-less Israel on the day it declared independence? or the the ones who massed troops on all three fronts in 1967, or the ones who attacked Israel by surprised on the holiest day to Jewish people, or maybe the ones who blow up buses and shoot rockets at cities?
- Amit Morson
My prediction: Israel will be the first country who will be forced to do away its nukes. They're not nuke-worthy.
- Meryn Stol
Amit - how would Americans react if Zionists from Russia and Europe had tried to build a state by force and terrorism anywhere on American territory? Go back and read the David Ben-Gurion quote above: he understood clearly what motivated opposition to the creation of Israel on Arab lands.
- Sean McBride
The answer to the preceding question is, of course, that Americans would have responded with massive and crushing force.
- Sean McBride
The big difference is that Israel was never a Palestinian territory. So the analogy falls apart right here. Israel was proclaimed in the void created by the disintegration of imperial powers after WW2.
- Amit Morson
Amit - you are indulging in doubletalk. Zionists exerted enormous pressure on the West to go along with its program. The fact remains that Israel was imposed by force and terrorism on the native inhabitants on this territory. Go back and read the David Ben-Gurion quote, and make an effort to understand what he is saying.
- Sean McBride
You know... In some way... quite strange, this conflict is still Hitler's legacy. Amazing. We wouldn't have this situation without Hitler.
- Meryn Stol
I am going to repost the quote: David Ben-Gurion: "If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"
- Sean McBride
I think Hitler's legacy is the reason the West is still defending Israel. That is, the people in charge.
- Meryn Stol
No one is denying the struggle over the land. The fact that Israel won, doesn't make the losing side right. And may I remind you that the division plan offered prior to the establishment of Israel was accepted by the Jewish inhabitants and rejected by the Arabs. If the Arabs would have agreed to the division plan non of this vicious cycle of violence would have never occurred.
- Amit Morson
=> The fact that Israel won, doesn't make the winning side right.
- Meryn Stol
Would Americans accept a similar division plan on their territory? Would Russians? Europeans? Anyone? Ben-Gurion certainly understood why the plan was unacceptable to those whose land was being invaded and carved up by outsiders.
- Sean McBride
Maybe so, but the fact is, that all of Israel governments all along it's history were willing to negotiate peace with all it's neighbors. As we all know, those negotiations started only after it's neighbors realized they can't win by war. Unfortunately many lives were lost along the way.
- Amit Morson
But we keep missing the bigger picture: how is it in the American interest to become bogged down in foreign ethnic and religious wars of any variety? How is doing so consonant with basic American values, which prize treating all ethnic and religious groups with equal respect and status? America is the exact opposite of an ethnic or religious ghetto, thank God.
- Sean McBride
Sean, you make the same mistake again, Americans, Russian and Europeans are nations, Palestinians were never nation. Not before and not after the establishment of Israel, The term "Palestinian people" was coined by the Arab league after the 1967 war.
- Amit Morson
Amit - David Ben-Gurion cuts through your sophistical meanderings like a knife through warm butter.
- Sean McBride
You just witnessed the second of only two occurrences of "sophistical meanderings" on all of Google. :) http://books.google.com/books... (Don't ask me why this kind of language behavior fascinates me; it just does.)
- Sean McBride
Sean, you sound like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . Your provocations will always stay on the paper, Israel is a fact whether you or some other radical extremest like it or not. Do you have problems, you think you can remove me from my land, come and get me. You should start researching the ways other countries were established; in all cases wars and bloodshed were primary ingredient. Reality fractures your false theories one by one, since the Arab world eloquently expressed its desire to make a valid peace with us
- Nir Ben Yona
I'm amazed at your ability as an American citizen to be outraged when it's not about yourself. Israel has caused 300-500 civilian deaths as of my comment here. In a few years of war the US has caused untold (some say 1 000 000) civilian deaths in Iraq. Meaning, you should focus in fighting your authorities.
- Nir Ben Yona
How many Americans and Europeans at this point have been attacked, abused, bullied and threatened by pro-Israel activists and militants who couldn't care less about American and European interests and values?
- Sean McBride
And vice versa.
- Nir Ben Yona
Nir -- you've missed the point. Most Americans and Europeans don't want to become involved in Mideast ethnic and religious holy wars. They are quite willing to leave you to your own devices. Please leave us alone. This is your game, not ours.
- Sean McBride
Are Nir and Amit paying close attention to the flow of evolving world opinion on Israel's Gaza operation? Google News search: Gaza http://news.google.com/news... Do they know how to do content analysis? Do they understand what is happening?
- Sean McBride
Sean, If this is your attitude than stop interfering. Mind your own business ;-)
- Amit Morson
All those media sources are Palestinians living in Gaza, can you imagine what Hamas operatives will do to them if they don't paint this distorted image of events?
- Amit Morson
The very same neoconservatives who got the Iraq War disastrously wrong, the Lebanon War disastrously wrong, and the Georgian War against Russia disastrously wrong now think that they are going to get the Israeli war against Gaza right. Consider the odds.
- Sean McBride
@Sean you are a fascist - No Doubt - You seem to be involved all over the place, spreading lies and defamation. Once your family will be held in a life danger and terrorists will blow your children mind you'll have a standing, so far you don't, Clearly you're motivated from hatred. It won't help you, we were here before you were born and we'll be here long after.
- Nir Ben Yona
More hate-filled attacks from pro-Israel activists and militants against Americans who are worried about the trillion-dollar costs of the never-ending ethnic and religious holy wars in the Mideast. When you read their posts, you begin to understand why the wars will never end and why they are eternally self-perpetuating. Nir smears me as a "fascist," despite the fact that I have...
more...
- Sean McBride
Nir -- are you an American citizen? Of what nation are you a citizen? You have not mentioned the American interest once in any of your posts. One only sees concern about the Israeli interest in your posts, most of which seem to be bitter personal attacks on others.
- Sean McBride
Sean, ooh I see, you're worried about the cost.
- Amit Morson
Amit -- so you think it is a big joke that Americans are dumping trillions of dollars down the hole in the pursuit of failed policies in the Mideast? Are you an American, by the way? There are other concerns: America's reputation has been badly damaged around the world in recent years, and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights have been severely undermined as the result of getting involved in the never-ending Mideast Horror Show.
- Sean McBride
The fact that even republicans turned a cold shoulder to Bush says it all really. I hope you are not linking the Bush family personal vendetta against Saddam to Israel. Soon you'll say it;s Israel fault too.
- Amit Morson
Amit -- the neoconservative wing of the Israel lobby was the chief ringleader of the Iraq War. Any number of reputable books have dissected the methods they used to push the United States into going to war against Iraq. Most of the key cheerleaders of the war in the mainstream media, and especially on the oped pages of the New York Times and Washington Post, fit your political profile.
- Sean McBride
Amit - of what nation (or nations) are you a citizen?
- Sean McBride
Oh man, whats next? Let me guess, ... the 9/11 attack was staged by CIA agents, ohh, and the Madrid and London bombings too....
- Amit Morson
Why my citizenship matter? Would it make a difference if I'm a resident of Israel, Denmark, US, Australia or any other country?
- Amit Morson
When I, as an American, am being attacked by fanatical partisans over Mideast politics, I am curious to know the motives of the attackers. What is your citizenship, Amit? Since this is an ethnic and religious conflict, what is your ethnicity and religion? What are your personal stakes in the conflict?
- Sean McBride
Can you point me to any reputable books on the origins of the Iraq War which don't put the primary blame on neoconservatives? Try Googling {clean break israel} to get into the heart of the discussion.
- Sean McBride
You think I'm a "fanatical partisan"? That's pretty insulting. What we (me and you) have here is a clash of point of views and not an ethnic and religious conflict. I hope you understand that, and just getting carried away in the heat of the argument. I'd bet that on most other subjects we'll find ourselves on the same side.
- Amit Morson
You come across to me as someone who is emotionally excited about the Mideast Horror Show to an conspicuous degree. What's your stake in the mess? Ethnicity? Religion? Are you an Israeli citizen? You haven't mentioned the American interest once in your posts so far -- I doubt that you are an American citizen. In fact, you ridiculed American concerns about losing several trillions of dollars in Iraq.
- Sean McBride
Only because I find your point of view very disturbing. You are basically undermining Israel's right to exist and I that's something I'd expect mostly from antisemitic people.
- Amit Morson
As for the Iraq war, I didn't think it was necessary back then and as we all know it turned out to be a colossal mistake. Actually, back in the days I thought Bush should use the Iraq-Iran conflict to bring Iraq closer to the west.
- Amit Morson
Amit -- what you find disturbing is discussion by Americans about the American interest in foreign policy and Mideast politics. Your point of view of 100% Israel-centric (I am guessing that you are an Israeli, not an American citizen), and your gut instinct is to smear anyone as an antisemite who puts his or her own interest above those of Israelis. That won't fly. You are going to piss...
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- Sean McBride
In all of this discussion I've said nothing about American interests, only about the participants point of view. You either didn't understand what I've said or you confuse me with someone else.
- Amit Morson
You've said nothing about American interests because obviously you couldn't care less about them. You only care about the Israeli interest. We can safely draw the obvious conclusions, I think.
- Sean McBride
You're so engulfed by it you miss the obvious. I didn't say anything about American interests, because it has nothing to do with the current Hamas-Israel conflict.
- Amit Morson
Hacker News | Ask HN: Favorite Books or Articles about Economics? - http://news.ycombinator.com/item...
Vishy liked this
A bunch of good comments about economics texts...
- Ashwin Bharambe
from Bookmarklet
“I love this headline. Stupid facts, always ruining our market!” - http://friendfeed.com/e...
Jérôme Flipo, Michael W. May and Paul Buchheit liked this
Paul's comment / title is hilarious!
- Ashwin Bharambe
Curious - Do you use more than 2-3 apps on the iPhone apps on a regular basis? If so which ones?
edythe, Susan Beebe, Jamelle and 3 other people liked this
I just play Scrabble and use the web browser :)
- Bret Taylor
Camera / Camera Bag / Comic Touch / Evernote / RF08 / Google Apps
- Johnny Worthington
Safari and SMS. Tweetie and FieldRunners.
- Rom Feria
For me no apps get daily use, browser for about 8 different things though daily.
- Ben Hedrington
Brightkite, Night Camera, Mail, Mobile Fotos and Safari.
- Håkan Dahlström
Remember the Milk / Google / Mobile News / Weather Channel
- Ken Norton
BeeJive IM, SMS, Tweetie, Byline, Facebook
- Brian Roy
Downloaded apps - Favorites, Wurdle, Twitterific. Apps it came with - Safari, Clock, Weather, Stocks
- Adam Kazwell
I only use the web browser, but have played around with Tap Tap, Tweetie, Facebook, Yelp, Google. I find it easier to use the browser so am wondering how big iPhone app usage is...
- Bindu Reddy
Brightkite, Maps (all the time), TouchPhysics, Twinkle, Google (a lot), Everynote, Camera
- Deepak Singh
twinkle for twittering, pandora, last.fm, facebook, Simplify (shares your itunes library with other simplify users), snatch server (turns it into a mouse pad), handshake (send pics and info to other iphone users over wi fi), joost -to watch streaming videos/tv, disk aid - for file transfers between my mac to the touch. i have a ton more that i don't use on the daily, like palringo, brightkite and other im apps.
- LizMoney
Excluding the builtins (SMS, Mail, Safari, Maps, Clock, Weather), I only use downloadable apps to entertain my kids these days. I find the lack of ability to run apps in the background frustrating for many of the chat/network apps.
- Ray Cromwell
Twitterfon, Just Update, Facebook, RTM
- Mark Philpot
Use more than 100 apps but then again its not normal :)
- Ashwani Kumar
Twinkle/Yelp daily, Taxi and Showtimes a fair amount.
- Neha Narula
I still enjoy the first game I downloaded – Cube Runner.
- Amit Patel
Facebook, Pandora daily, without fail.
- Ashwin Bharambe
Google (it's one click less than opening a new Safari tab to search), Google Maps (for driving directions & GPS nav), Flixster/Movies (for showtimes & quick access to RottenTomatoes ratings), and Shazam (for identifying music on the radio). I'd actually prefer to do everything through Safari instead, but it's actually faster to complete those tasks with the apps. Also, Safari crashes when I have too many tabs open.
- Jess Lee
On my iTouch at least, I regularly use Twitterific, Facebook, and Google.
- Jamelle
See this post with LOTS of apps recommended here on FF ---> http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Susan Beebe
Google, stanza, evernote, last.fm, Air sharing
- Kamath (नमः)
Safari, email, BeeJive IM / SMS client (no SMS charges!), facebook, Google verbal search, Maps, WiFinder, Night Camera, AirSharing, Weatherbug, Alarm, Brightkite, LinkedIn, NY Times, YouTube
- Susan Beebe
i use the weather channel app and the flixster movies app.
- peter
GitHub Pages — GitHub - http://github.com/blog...
Mitchell Tsai, Karpuscul, John Lam and 10 other people liked this
"GitHub Pages allow you to publish web content to a github.com subdomain named after your username. With Pages, publishing web content becomes as easy as pushing to your GitHub repository. If you create a repository named you.github.com, where you is your username, and push content to it, we’ll automatically publish that to http://you.github.com. No FTP, no scp, no rsync, nothing. Just a simple git push and you’re done. You can put anything here you like. Use it as a customizable home for your Git repos. Create a blog and spread your ideas. Whatever you want!"
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
i've kind of become addicted to git.
- Neha Narula
Indeed I find myself less inclined to checkout source of a project if I have to use svn.
- Emil Sit
git-svn clone FTW :)
- Ashwin Bharambe
Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Turn an email into a Google doc - http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008...
Igor Poltavskiy, Dan Hsiao, Zoltan Szendro and 9 other people liked this
The new "g-w" keyboard shortcut to create a Google doc saves me so much time.
- Keith Coleman
from Bookmarklet
This thing came out of left field. I hadn't seen or heard about it until now. Love how fast we're moving lately. Woo hoo!
- Michael Leggett
I found out about it when I was looking thru the code and saw an experiment with a useful sounding name. We'd talked about adding something like this a while ago -- thank you to Jeremie for just doing it :)
- Keith Coleman
I love these Gmail Labs addons, but I really wish non-Googlers could write them. :)
- Ray Cromwell
The Gmail platform, when it arrives, is going to be amazing :)
- Ashwin Bharambe
Who was it that said all software expands until it supports email?
- Amit Patel
But now it's "until it supports Google Maps"
- Bay Chang
@amit, Jamie Zawinsky, but he didn't say anything about email supporting word processing
- Ken Norton
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