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Aaron deMello › Likes
@Akoha team saved a cat hit by a car today at our offsite. Team project is going to be finding owner, home or humane way to help
Aaron deMello liked this
This is really amazing!
- Aaron deMello
Mondoweiss: Censored by the Huffington Post and Imprisoned By The Past: Why I Made “Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem” - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondowe...
Aaron deMello liked this
"Behind the Israeli view of Obama lies a climate of extremism that exploded into the open when the country attacked Gaza. Today, extremist sentiment hovers well above the surface. A groundbreaking study of Israeli attitudes published in the wake of the Gaza war by the Tel Aviv University political psychologist Daniel Bar-Tal, who I recently interviewed, found that “Israeli Jews' consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering.” Bar-Tal commented to me that the army is the primary vehicle for stoking the nationalism of young Israelis. “Some countries are states without armies,” he said. “But Israel today is an army without a state. There is no civilian institution capable of restraining the army’s influence.”"
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
"Despite the Huffington Post’s rejection of my video report, it has exploded across the blogosphere. Even the rapper 50 Cent posted it prominently on his official website. It two days it has garnered 100,000 views. I hope those who have watched it, especially those predisposed to dismiss it as anti-Israel propaganda or shock video with “no news value,” will at least ask how vitriolic...
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- Sean McBride
It would be interesting to know precisely who at Huffington Post made the decision to censor Max Blumenthal. The decision is a black mark against Arianna Huffington.
- Sean McBride
The Coming Superbrain (The Future of Artificial Intelligence) - NYTimes.com (John Markoff) - http://www.nytimes.com/2009...
Aaron deMello, Barbara and Meryn Stol liked this
"In Dr. Kurzweil’s telling, rapidly increasing computing power in concert with cyborg humans would then reach a point when machine intelligence not only surpassed human intelligence but took over the process of technological invention, with unpredictable consequences. Profiled in the documentary “Transcendent Man,” which had its premier last month at the TriBeCa Film Festival, and with his own Singularity movie due later this year, Dr. Kurzweil has become a one-man marketing machine for the concept of post-humanism. He is the co-founder of Singularity University, a school supported by Google that will open in June with a grand goal — to “assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges.”"
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
Funny, I just posted this on FB. Largely a fluff piece but its good for the general population to read this stuff.
- Aaron deMello
AI for the masses.
- Sean McBride
Twitter Data - A simple, open proposal for embedding data in Twitter messages - Home - http://twitterdata.org/
Aaron deMello liked this
"Twitter Data is a simple, open, semi-structured data representation format for embedding machine-readable, yet human-friendly, data in Twitter messages. This data can then be transmitted, received, and interpreted in real time to enable powerful new kinds of applications to be built on the Twitter platform."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
Yahoo Placemaker: Extract Location Data from Any Text - ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Aaron deMello liked this
ReadWriteWeb rocks, I say, it rocks. It has its finger on the pulse of the most strategic tech trends.
- Sean McBride
I'm ashamed I don't have them in my feed. WIll fix that today.
- Aaron deMello
Governments "contracting out" cyber-attacks to criminal networks - http://www.itbusiness.ca/it...
Aaron deMello liked this
Mercenary botnets are the future of cyberwar... inherently unattributable, I see lots of Agency dollars flowing into China, Russia, and Eastern Europe for stuff like this.
- Aaron deMello
Nancy Pelosi goes to war with "lying" CIA :: Toby Harnden - http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_ha...
Aaron deMello liked this
Nancy Pelosi in free fall, coming apart at the seams.
- Sean McBride
Israpundit » Blog Archive » Obama plans to whip Israel into line. - http://www.israpundit.com/2008...
Aaron deMello liked this
"Obama is moving quickly to create a new axis consisting of Turkey (72 million), Iran (69 million), Syria (20 million) and Pakistan ( 172 million) that will dominate the ME in cooperation with the US. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel don’t like it one bit. Can they come together to protect their necks and neck of the woods?"
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
"DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that their host is fired up to be the first US president in decades of close friendship and cooperation to clash openly with Israel and the bulk of US Jewry. Oblivious to Israel’s claim of US support for its security in a hostile regional environment, Barack Obama is expected to squeeze the Netanyahu government hard for immediate engagement on the...
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- Sean McBride
"US officials in both chairs will intercede with their own ideas to prevent them running into deadlock on disputed issues. DEBKAfile’s sources confirm that the Obama administration will not spare the whip to force the parties into line. The US president and his top advisers are convinced that the Palestinian problem is the main obstacle to accommodations for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq...
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- Sean McBride
Sounds like political suicide.
- Aaron deMello
The Israeli government has Obama hemmed in on all sides from within the White House, so I doubt that is has anything to worry about. Both major political parties are more loyal to AIPAC than to any American presidential administration.
- Sean McBride
Interesting premise, if only for the acknowledgment of Turkey in the mix. Given the well known intelligence of Turkish involvement in Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear capabilities from North Korea and the west - go back and reread all the Sibel Edmonds interviews - it hints tantalizingly of a shared common interest between the neocons and the Turks. Ottoman 2.0?
- Cole Jolley
Cole -- good to see that you are up to speed on the Sibel Edmonds materials.
- Sean McBride
Britain's secret spy-on-every-call-and-email plan already well underway - Boing Boing - http://www.boingboing.net/2009...
Aaron deMello, Rene Wirtz, Hayk H. and Roberto Bonini liked this
Quelle surprise.
- Aaron deMello
The EFF digs deep into the FBI's "everything bucket" - Ars Technica - http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
Aaron deMello and Anthony Citrano liked this
"The idea behind the system, which the FBI has been working on since at least 2002, is that the Bureau can dump all of its information in there so that it can be easily searched and shared. IDW contains more documents than the Library of Congress—a stew of TIFFs with OCRed text, multiple Oracle databases, news streamed in from the Internet, reports and records in various in-house data formats, watch lists, telephone data, and an alphabet soup of smaller databases and records repositories—all accessible as one sprawling system that processes batch jobs, runs queries, and issues alerts. In short, the IDW is an "everything bucket" for the FBI."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
if you like classic video games, the movie "King of Kong" is a winner - http://www.netflix.com/Movie...
Aaron deMello liked this
For the record: Yes, I completely and totally believe that Kraftwerk was a much more important, influential and better talented "band" than the Beatles or The Beach Boys.
Richard Lawler, Kim Landwehr, Baard @ Pixum and 34 other people liked this
TOTALLY. They INVENTED Synth-Pop.
- Gunny doesn't side-hug™
They taught me how to operate a pocket calculator and count to three in several languages!
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
We are the robots
- Morgan Haley
Music. Non Stop.
- Gunny doesn't side-hug™
hmmmmmm... the Beatles were pretty damn influential. Even though Kraftwerk obviously influenced many electronic-based instrumentation groups, I don't know that that number can compare to the number of rock artists and groups who have been directly influenced by Beatles songs.
- Nathan Chase
Kraftwerk ? Did you make them up or are they real?
- Brian Sullivan
There are good arguments for this - Beatles and Beach Boys spawned many bands (many of which sound like The Beatles and Beach Boys). Kraftwerk spawned entire genres and movements in modern music (electro, hip hop, detroit techno, synth pop and more).
- Boris Gordon
Brian, yes they are real, must listen. Think: Devo on 'ludes and LSD. But NOT more influential than The Beatles, for certain.
- LogEx
Hyperventillating @Brian: http://www.kraftwerk.com/
- Admiral Anika
I saw Kraftwerk live for the second time this year and I have seen Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys live multiple times. Kraftwerk are probably better now than they have ever been and that's impressive.
- Boris Gordon
You guys are awesome.
- Alex Scoble
Absolutely. Dude I posted "Robots" in my feed ages ago... gonna dig it up now. ;)
- Anthony Citrano
More important? No. The idea of using sequencers and electronic instruments to play rock, later dance was virtually floating in the air at the time (think Tangerine Dream and entire Berlin school movement.) Influential? Yes, absolutely. But tracking influences can go a long way and yield paradoxical results. Kraftwerk were heavily influenced by minimalist music and Stockhausen experiments, would it make a lot of sense to say that Stockhausen is much more important than Kraftwerk and The Beatles?
- andrei_c
Um Beach Boys? Yes. Beatles? No way.
- Kelly W.
You could say whatever you want, andrei, but this is what I believe.
- Alex Scoble
I'll grant that "better talented" is a matter of opinion, but I'll assert that Lennon, McCartney, Wilson, and probably Harrison were more talented songwriters. A song like "Yesterday" or "California Girls" still stands up even if the instrumentation and vocal stylings are completely different. But Coldplay's "Talk" stayed very very close to "Computer Lieb"/"Computer Love" (the only exceptions being less of a monotonic voice, and the use of a guitar).
- John E. Bredehoft
Yeah, it was totally a homage.
- Alex Scoble
In terms of talent, you could even make a claim that Depeche Mode is more talented than Kraftwerk. Obviously Depeche Mode is derivative in a sense, but they are able to perform in a variety of styles, ranging from synthpop to electrorock to grunge to...um...Kraftwerk.
- John E. Bredehoft
Blasphemy! No wait...I think you have a point, Alex, in that they pioneered a specific style of music that ended up being influential and pervasive. However, I know more people who've never heard of Kraftwerk than people who have heard of the Beatles. :)
- Helen Sventitsky
As an electronic musician, I love Kraftwerk, but the Beatles, they belong on another planet. From production techniques to song formats, to name it.
- Deepak Singh
The fact that there's people who know of the Beatles but have never heard of Kraftwerk just solidifies my choice in my mind.
- Alex Scoble
Without Kraftwerk no Beck. Without Kraftwerk no Daft Punk. Without Kraftwerk no Yanni ... wait, strike that :P
- Rene Wirtz
@Gunny "Synth-Pop" was somehow good?
- Phil Boiarski
Uh, that would be no. Kraftwerk probably doesn't make top 10 maybe even 20 influential rock bands. But good mention.
- Steve C
Yellow Magic Orchestra,New Order/Joy Division,David Bowie,Devo,Eno etc..Many Legend-Musicians using electronics were influenced absolutely!
- sakotakanonosue
In my world, yes. In the real world, no.
- Aaron deMello
I truly am old and out of touch -- not only had I not heard of Kraftwerk but most of the "influenced" as well are never heard ofs.
- Brian Sullivan
I purchased Autobahn long before I got Sergent Pepper's
- Antoine Bertier
Electronica esoterica for the cognoscenti: La Monte Young > John Cale > The Velvet Underground and Nico > Kraftwerk
- Sean McBride
this thread is an example of why after we launch Flickchart, for movies, we're going to complete the next big project: Tuneschart, for music
- Nathan Chase
Nathan -- what is the core concept of Flickchart?
- Sean McBride
Umm, yes!
- Alex Scoble
I'm just going to say Foghat and then step away quietly.
- Joe Pierce
Laura Botts thinks so too.
- Jim Hearts FF
It's a bit like trying to compare Robert Johnson to the Beatles, though. Without the delta blues, there would be no Beatles. Without the Beatles, there would be no Kraftwerk, etc. When you are talking different eras and genres which build on each other, you cannot compare directly.
- Michael W. May
oh MWM - You can! I can't wait to have Led Zeppelin vs. Mozart, Eminem vs. Elvis, Madonna vs. Patsy Cline :)
- Nathan Chase
I disagree, most strenuously, that the Beatles had ANYTHING to do with Kraftwerk. You could argue well that without Robert Moog there would be no Kraftwerk, but the Beatles? A better argument, in my mind is that without Brian Wilson there would be no Kraftwerk, as he did some work with synthesizers before them, but the Beatles? No.
- Alex Scoble
Take the Beatles out of the 60s and you alter everything during and after.
- Michael W. May
As long as it changed things so that disco didn't happen, I'm down with that.
- Alex Scoble
Put it another way...if Kraftwerk had never been, my musical life would totally and utterly suck. If the Beatles had never been, I'd be perfectly fine.
- Alex Scoble
Nathan -- you've gone and done it! -- implemented with Flickchart an idea that has been floating around in my mind for at least five years: offering binary choices between two objects of particular types as a tool to sort out one's tastes and preferences. Nice work. This concept should be quickly expanded to include authors, books, music, news sources, news stories, places, terms, websites, etc. (And make no mistake: someone will no doubt use the same approach for ranking porn.)
- Sean McBride
Hey now, disco had it's purposes. Disco + Kraftwerk gets you Blondie.
- Rob Haas
@Sean - yep. all in the works. :)
- Nathan Chase
in 100% agreement with MWM here. you can't say Kraftwerk is the pinnacle of music without acknowledging that they are merely *standing on the shoulders of giants.* possibly *none* of your music would be around today if Scott Joplin had not invented jazz syncopation. just because you don't listen to ragtime or blues doesn't mean your music wasn't built on it. praise the steeple of the church all you like, but don't forget it needed a *foundation* to rest on.
- Karim
Karim+ eloquently said
- Sean McBride
Heh, Karim, I agree. There are plenty of people who wish the last 40 years of music had never happened. I didn't say that Kraftwerk was the pinnacle of music, btw, just that they did more to influence the music I listen to than anyone else. In other words, for me, what band is the most influential, is a very personal question. Kraftwerk is one of my main answers. For others it may be the Beatles, or Louis Armstrong, or early rap artists like Curtis Blow, or Grand Master Flash. Raises a good question though.
- Alex Scoble
Alex, you seem to be qualifying your statements a bit to say that "influential" means "influential to you personally." de gustibus non est disputandum. i took the original statement to mean that Kraftwerk was more influential on music in general -- a statement which i assume you meant to be contentious, since you also called them "more important" and "better talented." :-) my main point...
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- Karim
the Beatles contributed to psychedelic rock, which incorporated classical and experimental music, rejected the verse-chorus-verse structure, etc. -- which led to progressive rock, krautrock etc., which led to Kraftwerk. would Kraftwerk have used the Moog if not for other groups like the Beatles who had used it years before? i'm not trying to minimize the contribution of Kraftwerk to modern music, but rather to point out that they were building on what others had done.
- Karim
Everyone builds on what others had done.
- Alex Scoble
The Beatles: "Tomorrow Never Knows" (Revolver, 1966) Early electronica. "Turn off your mind, relax / and float down stream / It is not dying / It is not dying / Lay down all thought / Surrender to the void / It is shining / It is shining / That you may see / The meaning of within / It is being / It is being" http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Sean McBride
I'll grant you Beach Boys, but not Beatles.
- Tudor Bosman
so i am trying to reconcile "Everyone builds on what others had done" with "I disagree, most strenuously, that the Beatles had ANYTHING to do with Kraftwerk." :-D
- Karim
Kraftwerk has explicitly acknowledged a debt to The Beatles in some of their interviews.
- Sean McBride
Karim is my anchor man *smile*
- Michael W. May
"Call Them the Beatles Of Electronic Dance Music" (The New York Times, 6/15/1997) "It has been argued in the press that Kraftwerk is the most important music group since the Beatles. Less debatable is the fact that what the Beatles are to rock music, Kraftwerk is to electronic dance music. The band laid down a blueprint for the music's future, developing an automated, impersonal sound...
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- Sean McBride
I disagree with NYT article because I don't think The Beatles were all too important for rock either. My votes are: Elvis Presley, The Velvet Underground, and maybe Dylan.
- andrei_c
Alex - I disagree, most strenuously, with your disagreement that the Beatles had ANYTHING to do with Kraftwerk. The Beatles did make an important contribution inasmuch as they resisted all efforts to convert them into Johnny and the Beatles, rather than the Beatles. A somewhat atypical stance in rock - even the Four Seasons and the Supremes, who started out with equal billing, changed their minds later. Without "the Beatles," you never would have had Kraftwerk - or the Residents, for that matter.
- John E. Bredehoft
I disagree with your disagreement, John. :) I don't see how the Beatles influenced Kraftwerk at all.
- Alex Scoble
However, what's funny is that at least one member of Kraftwerk has said that they were heavily influenced by The Beach Boys. Ahh, irony, how I <3 thee.
- Alex Scoble
I once saw an AWESOME musical ‘family tree’ - showing influences, styles, bands, cultural movements, etc... i'll see if I can dig it up..
- Anthony Citrano
Well, Kraftwerk was good, but not as good as The Beatles.
- Baard @ Pixum
If you're going to dissect The Beatles, though, you have to ask if it's pre-LSD Beatles or post-LSD Beatles? They were a totally different band after they did acid.
- Anthony Citrano
What's also funny is that Kraftwerk have had a much longer career than The Beatles.
- Alex Scoble
I'm going to have to go with pre-LSD Beatles, Anthony. Post LSD Beatles sucked harder than a Hoover vacuum.
- Alex Scoble
I need to go back and listen, then. I don't know a lot about them and was never a fan. But to my mind they were better after the acid, because they were doing a lot more experimentation and moving away from the simply constructed, teeny-bop bullshit.
- Anthony Citrano
was that even a question?
- Richard Lawler
"Many of these groups began their musical careers with little or no awareness of (or interest in) rock and roll: exposure to the increasingly radical and innovative music of the Velvet Underground, the Silver Apples, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles, for example, led members of groups like Can or Kraftwerk to embrace popular music for the first time." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Karim
+1 Bredehoft. Mmm. Phrased differently: what you hear today, influenced by Kraftwerk. HOW you hear, built by the Beatles and to a slightly lesser extent, The Beach Boys.
- Cole Jolley
As for invention of electronic music or "synthpop", Walter (Wendy) Carlos' release of Switched On Bach in 1968 predates Kraftwerk by 2 years and is considered the more seminal influence. Prior to that, the advent of electronic music owes more to Stockhausen and John Cage.
- Cole Jolley
Cloudera Hadoop & Big Data Blog » Blog Archive » Configuring Eclipse for Hadoop Development (a screencast) - http://www.cloudera.com/blog...
Amund Tveit, Aaron deMello and Deepak Singh liked this
deepak, was thinking it would be cool to have emr integration from eclipse. drop me a line if you guys would be interested in hacking it up!
- jeff hammerbacher
Jeff .. agreed. Let me ping the team on this
- Deepak Singh
The Road to Area 51 - Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/la-mag-...
Ninh Nguyen, Louis Gray, OnuRC and 32 other people liked this
"And the quintessential Area 51 conspiracy—that the Pentagon keeps captured alien spacecraft there, which they fly around in restricted airspace? Turns out that one's pretty easy to debunk. The shape of OXCART was unprece-dented, with its wide, disk-like fuselage designed to carry vast quantities of fuel. Commercial pilots cruising over Nevada at dusk would look up and see the bottom of OXCART whiz by at 2,000-plus mph. The aircraft's tita-nium body, moving as fast as a bullet, would reflect the sun's rays in a way that could make anyone think, UFO. In all, 2,850 OXCART test flights were flown out of Area 51 while Slater was in charge. "That's a lot of UFO sightings!" Slater adds."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
Great article.
- Bo Stern
I wonder why anyone would automatically believe or disbelieve their testimony without further digging. That is the first thought that came to my mind. This is a field that is brimming over with misinformation and disinformation. Smoke and mirrors galore.
- Sean McBride
that and I wish people would cut the link between "UFO" and "alien craft" since anything flying that *you* cannot identify is a UFO. It's like the term weed, anything that is growing where you do not want it to is classed as a weed, it's not a specific type of plant.
- alphaxion
When you think about it, about the only UFO's you'll find at Area 51 are the ones that flew directly over it, and got shot down ( shoot first, reverse engineer later ).
- Wallace
Time has come to ditch my 140k miles 1998 Mercury Tracer. Think I can get crowdsourcing to help my decision?
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Charlie Anzman, Bindu Reddy, Lisa L. Seifert and 46 other people liked this
As you likely saw, my 1998 Mercury Tracer, which I've had since 2000, is finally on its last legs. The transmission is toast, and would cost around $4k to replace. The car is maybe worth $1k. I bought it for less than $10k just out of college.
- Louis Gray
My wife has the family car for the twins (Toyota Rav-4). In theory, I just need a car for me, and most of what I do is commuting to work, errands, and occasionally driving to San Francisco and the East Bay.
- Louis Gray
Peer pressure (from work and the Valley itself) is to finally break out of the Ford/Mercury niche and move upscale to a BMW/Audi type of car... but we're not exactly flush with cash. My wife's not working, and while we have no debt, it's not like the stock market has been good.
- Louis Gray
you could get two of those tato nanos for the repair cost! http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investi...
- sean percival
Budget?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I've been tempted to go the route of a used BMW, but they tend to run above $20k. There's a 2003 model with 70k miles for $16k at a nearby dealer, but that's a little old and a few too many miles. What should I do?
- Louis Gray
If I put my nose high enough in the air, I don't want to end up with a Camry/Prius type, or a basic Honda. They say to dress the way you should for the job you want not the one you have, and cars should be the same way. But I am not interested in anything over $25k...
- Louis Gray
bmw with 50K+ miles on it is probably asking for trouble. walk into the dealership, ask how much, tell them you'll pay $200 less per month. make them give you twice the value on the broken car if needed. we just did that, its a good time to haggle with these guys. :)
- sean percival
If I were you, I would probably check CarZen :) http://is.gd/prlx it's time to get something new, cheap and hip lol
- Ahmed
Nowadays, if it's a decent brand, 70k miles really isn't that much. How long do you intend to keep it?
- Jesse Stay
I own 2 BMW's. If you buy one, buy one in warranty. You'll thank me. And even then, that's all I drive.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
@Sean, I see your comment. Thanks. And @Jesse, I expect to run it into the ground, just like my current one. If I have it for 5 years, that'd be great.
- Louis Gray
I am a Vehicle Wholesaler with owner contacts all over the Valley. If you are going to buy a slightly used car. Which do you really prefer ?
- Eric Logan
Eric, what I really "prefer" is a BMW/Audi type, but being realistic, I might settle out of that. Your LinkedIn says you represent the big 3 automakers. How much access do you have outside of the USA dealerships?
- Louis Gray
It's a buyer's market.If you buy used, be patient. The perfect one will pop up. Look at a bunch of them & ask questions. By the time the right one presents itself, you'll know exactly what your looking for. I suggest buying used. Let someone else own the depreciation! If you don't rush into it too fast,you'll find one with low miles and at the right price.I'm on my 3rd one, and they're great cars.If you have money to throw away,buy a new one! I still wouldn't do it. It can go 300,000M if you take care of it
- Michael Fidler
On your third what, Michael?
- Louis Gray
Find a nice MB E or BMW 5 and go for it. Just keep in mind the maintenance on them is quite a lot more and more money than a Ford or a Honda.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
My wife's 1992 Acura Integra with 123K miles is still going strong. Japanese baby!
- Hutch Carpenter
If you are buying a used car they are all sourced the same way. I wholesale to car dealers I can not sell directly to the public but, I can help you by utilizing my network of owner operators who have been buying from me for 15 years. Sean is right BTW not sure about his formula but, the premise is correct.
- Eric Logan
Hutch, I can in theory keep driving my car... but not for much longer. It's at 140k miles. American, baby!
- Louis Gray
Louis: we are selling our 2006 BMW 325i with 56,000 miles. Make me an offer. Well maintained and fun to drive.
- Robert Scoble
Louis make him an offer he can't refuse...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Robert, if I bought your car, people would start talking. :) (And how does the Bank of Scoble accept payments?)
- Louis Gray
That's a great offer from Robert and it's coming from your friend! I agree with Mark.
- Michael Fidler
Louis - from what I understand, Scoble's car comes with LCD's in the ceiling that show Friendfeed and Twitter in real-time
- Allen Stern
Allen, I heard that too. But I may have to change the license plate: "IMSCOBLE"
- Louis Gray
Louis, in case you're not familiar with it: http://autotrader.com
- John Craft
Yeah I'm guessing Robert and Maryam are pretty good about maintenance/repairs, Louis. At least go look at it. You'd be remiss if you didn't.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
LOL @ "Bank of Scoble"
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
He wants something new shinny and cool. Don't torture him.
- Todd Hoff
I talked to Scoble. It's actually a real possibility. Blue Book on their car is in the right range. And Todd, it's not torture. The first car I ever bought was very cheap ($3k - all I had). The second I bought by dropping off the old car at a Ford dealer and saying I was leaving with something else. This would be the first time I could look around a bit, so I admit to being somewhat clueless.
- Louis Gray
buy japanese if u plan to run into the ground. as much as I like my german cars, they don't get the same lifeline as the japanese
- clarke thomas
I love my 09 Civic but if I were in the market right now for a new car I'd be getting the new Insight: http://automobiles.honda.com/insight...
- Benjamin Golub
Are you going to use Hunch to make this decision?
- Head Ov Metal
I can't argue except having been an undergrad in LA in the early 90s everyone had to have a BMW so I had to resist the urge. When we lived in New England and the Mid West, my wife and I opted to go the Audi route due to the all wheel drive. We haven't been sorry although there's clearly less need now. I guess I'm partial to German, I've owned 4 pre-1969 VWs, a 70 BMW 2002, and 3 Audis. Sounds like the Scoble offer is a good one, but I'm clearly biased.
- Rick Bucich
Mazda RX 8 one of the more fun cars I have owned, if you want a sporty car that does not cost an arm and a leg, and performs as good as the BMW in handling (and racing not that I know this right?), might want to test drive one.
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
The "buy used" argument is generally a good one, but in today's economy isn't as good an idea as it used to be. The demand for used cars is actually up, while new cars pile up on the docks. You might actually get a better deal on a new car.
- DGentry
A friend of mine had been considering selling his 2006 E46 M3 with really low mileage. Under 20000 miles I believe. If you really want a fantastic covertible, it'd be hard to beat. I can ask him for $ if you'd like but I suspect it's going to be close to $30K if not a little more.
- Abbas Haider Ali
Excellent point Denton, but even though demand is up, unfortunately so is the supply as more people are forced to unload their expensive vehicles in favor of more practical transportation in order to make payment's on the roof over their head etc.
- Michael Fidler
Mark is right. We changed oil twice as often as factory recommended. BMW says to change oil every 15,000 miles. I always thought I would keep the car awhile. But family plans change. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Robert's offer is as good as anything else we are considering. I picked up my car from the shop today, so it's not dead yet, but it could "just stop" at any time, I was told.
- Louis Gray
LOL Robert. $2K for brakes a little bit ago, too.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Louis, I missed your question earlier. I’m on my third BMW right now. One piece of advice; get any used car checked out by your mechanic, without exception!
- Michael Fidler
We just bought a new Highlander. Got it for under invoice. Louis: the BMW has new tires, too.
- Robert Scoble
I just walked by a brand new BMW M3 coupe on my way back from dinner. Silver with the black carbon fiber roof. Tres nice, the flared fenders and hood bulges are nice accents without looking over the top. Way rich for my, and probably most people's blood.
- Derrick
Kyle, the Tesla is a tad expensive, and my car isn't going to wait. Could die any day. Like the idea though. Hope they don't be unsuccessful and not crash out before getting momentum.
- Louis Gray
I have a BMW 330xi (x stands for 4WD) http://www.flickr.com/photos... - great four door sedan even in Rochester NY winters! Love BMWs!! I picked it up after a 2 year lease - 18K miles, now 36K, great car ... fabulous drive!!!
- Susan Beebe
how does a 2006 325cic sound?
- Lazworld.com
@Scott, I like your last name. :) And @Laz, it sounds good, of course, but the above conversation shows we're price constrained. Do you think a 2006 325cic would come in at equal or less the price of Scoble's car?
- Louis Gray
I wouldn't forget to look at cars like the Acura TSX or TL - If I were buying a car right now it would be a Subaru Legacy GT (GT only!) but to me the AWD and turbo are top wants... Just chiming in from the midwest... gotta diversify that point of view out of the valley ;)
- Ben Hedrington
Ben? I don't follow. You're saying there are people in the midwest now?
- Louis Gray
Hey I want this, too :)I)
- Alp
Do NOT buy a used BMW - they are expensive to maintain and fix. (parts / labor) The beauty of Bimmers are only when they're brand new. The warranty is what people shell out the $$$ for. Oil changes, even wiper blades are covered. If you're looking used, go Japanese. They're the most reliable. :)
- Mona Nomura
You might try Enterprise leasing to buy used. Their cars have been driven hard but also maintained; should have most of the bugs worked out.
- Robert Hafer
the BWM cabrios jujst dont look tight to me go for a A4 personaly i think the Audi A3 Black is a nice looking car
- Maurice Walshe
This post is making me wish I was a German car mechanic.
- Alex Scoble
This post is making me wish I had money.
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
Did that station wagon make a trip to Wally World?
- Peter Ghosh
This post makes me happy that I'm a civic hybrid owner.
- imabonehead
Keep it, do not get rid of it. I still have my 204,000 miles Honda Civic 1993. Soon to be collection.
- Jeremy Chone
Louis! I'm here by myself, one guy + internet connection... ;) Oh and Mona++
- Ben Hedrington
I saw Scoble's car tonight. WANT. :)
- Louis Gray
Louis, did you make him an offer he couldn't refuse?
- Anne Bouey
Anne, when he and I talked Saturday, he gave me guidance. I reported back on what that guidance said would be a good price. We'll see. :)
- Louis Gray
I can just hear Robert: I said I would see you, Louis, because I heard you had a serious offer. But I must say no to you, and I will give you my reason...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Hope it works out for you!
- Anne Bouey
This post has reawakend my deep craving for a Bimmer. sigh.
- Leslie Poston
You want to croudsource an M3 convertible? Well, at least it's the old model...
- Mirco
Louis - do it, buy Scoble's BMW. I love mine. And that car probably still has 1 more year of factory warranty, plus the new tires seal the deal dude! Go for it!
- Susan Beebe
What car did you end up getting?
- Phil G
So far, I have not gotten a new car yet, Phil. I've been driving around my wife's old Honda Civic. The best option thus far is to take the ScobleMobile off his hands at the end of May. I've already seen it.
- Louis Gray
I'm sure you could do worse.. much worse :)
- Phil G
Louis after the Highlander incident Robert and Maryam may not be selling. Perhaps youshould inquire about lease options on the 330 or the C350.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Mark, I saw Robert on Friday. Things are a go. The issue with the Highlander was a bad battery. :)
- Louis Gray
See if you can get a new Accord, which is what I just got after a lot of research. The technology on it is great, and Hondas run forever. I'm a firm believer in new cars with warranties if you can. I've had BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, etc and they are very expensive to fix. And if you have kids, you don't want a car that's always in the shop.
- Francine Hardaway
Louis, with 10 years as a new car sales manager, I would happy to help with (friendly) negotiations.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Louis, without going through each message - BMW will easily go 250k miles with proper upkeep, and a heck of a fun drive. The only thing I have ever enjoyed driving more than my BMW is my Alfa Romeo (NOT recommended as a family car!)
- jcunwired
get new Fiat 500 :] ... http://images.google.com/images...
- Petr Buben
I have the exact same car in the "I Want This" pic, but a different color. GET IT!
- Roshan Vyas
I have a 92 318convertible, bought it with 175K miles on it...didn't have a lick of trouble with it while I was driving it (I left it on the west coast when I moved to NY) It's got at least 225K on it now. Expensive to repair if something does go wrong, but ifyou get the right one, they're Awesome cars. I would buy another well used beamer in a heartbeat. If you can get on under 100K miles, you'll be such a happy camper.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Pope calls for Israel-Palestinian peace (Reuters) - http://news.yahoo.com/s...
ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0, and Aaron deMello liked this
"Pope Benedict called in his Easter message on Sunday for a renewed push for Israeli-Palestinian peace just weeks before he travels to the Holy Land for the first time as pontiff."
- Sean McBride
Pope, when not blundering and not being completely and utterly insensible to religious subtleties, always calls for Israelo-Arab peace! It is partially his job to air the status-quo point of view. Unfortunately, his calls, as all the others, do not go further than words..
- Hayk H.
The sole effect of the United States, Europe, the Vatican and other major world powers in promoting the Mideast peace process as a unified front will probably be to fan the flames of paranoia, rage and hatred among Israeli hardliners, who will view this as further proof of the ineradicable evil and perfidy of their universal and eternal enemies. One is already picking up this vibe loud and clear from the neocon/Likudnik-oriented blogs.
- Sean McBride
The ability of a leaf to follow the sun (heliotropism) to gain optimal light exposure can be replicated in a machine, but only by using a fairly sophisticated computer chip as a brain. - http://fredwilson.vc/post...
Ravi Sohal, Aaron deMello, Jeffrey Marsh and 2 other people liked this
The scope of this article is pretty amazing. Well worth clicking thru. Thanks for sharing.
- Jeffrey Marsh
When Sensors and Social Networks Mix - ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
ǝuǝƃnǝ, Bill Sodeman, Aaron deMello and 5 other people liked this
"Emerging Trend: Integrating Social Networks and Sensor Networks | Sensors have become much more prevelant in mobile devices over the past few years. This means that when we talk about sensors, we're not necessarily talking about the microchip embedded in your fridge door. Increasingly sensors are attached to a human via their mobile phone. Both the Apple iPhone and the Nokia N95 contain GPS and accelerometer sensors. Sensor data is transmitted via GPS if available or via Wi-Fi positioning techniques."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
The problem is sensors cost so dang much that unless you piggy back them on an already expensive product it's hard to use them.
- Todd Hoff
Anyone here have a pointer to a best taxonomy of sensor types? Thanks.
- Sean McBride
Nice find -- in the ball park for what I was looking for.
- Sean McBride
"Sensor data is transmitted via GPS if available or via Wi-Fi positioning techniques." am I the only one who find this clause slightly journalist-ish?
- A.T.
This is useful: Wikipedia: List of sensors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Sean McBride
Wikipedia for Spies: The CIA Discovers Web 2.0 - TIME - http://www.time.com/time...
Shriram R, Frank Davis, George Hall (Australia) and 11 other people liked this
"There's a quiet revolution underway at the CIA and its sister agencies. A new generation of analysts, determined to drag their Cold War–era colleagues into the world of Web 2.0 information-sharing, have created Intellipedia, a classified version of Wikipedia they say is transforming the way U.S. spy agencies handle top-secret information by fostering collaboration across Washington and around the world. Rolled out in 2006 to skeptical veterans at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., Intellipedia has grown to a 900,000-page magnum opus of espionage, handling some 100,000 user accounts and 5,000 page edits a day, according to the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
A Space : the 'Facebook for Spies' - "Like many social-networking sites, each analyst will create an online personal profile, and colleagues can see what others are working on and the A-Space workspaces that they are using. In addition, much like Facebook, users can also post notes on one another’s profiles." [http://fcw.com/Article...]
- MikeAmundsen
"Its advocates claim Intellipedia is not just a sign of change at the agency, but that it is also producing results. The first time chlorine was used in an improvised explosive device in Iraq, someone created a wiki page asking what intelligence officers and others in the field should do to collect evidence of the usage. "Twenty-three people at 18 or 19 locations around the world chimed...
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- Sean McBride
"A-Space will go live on the government’s classified Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System Sept. 22, the program's designers said today at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s Analytic Transformation 2008 conference in Orlando, Fla. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sponsored the effort, and the Defense Intelligence Agency is overseeing it....
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- Sean McBride
of course, this is the stuff we 'know' is out there, right<g>?
- MikeAmundsen
So now we have the interesting prospect in sight of data mining and profiling the entire content of Intellipedia and A-Space. :)
- Sean McBride
RIght -- the obvious out-in-the-open stuff, which is just the tip of the iceberg. The not-so-obvious stuff? Data mining and profiling the entire *private* content of the Internet (Google, etc.), plus telecommunications companies (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.), plus credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, etc.), plus all federal, state and local records, plus commercial data services like Choicepoint, Intelius, Acxiom, etc. Building a single GGG (Giant Global Graph) from the data.
- Sean McBride
"Intellipedia's godfather is CIA analyst D. Calvin Andrus, who wrote a paper in 2004 titled "The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive Intelligence Community." For decades, the U.S. intelligence system had been structured to answer static Cold War–era questions, like how many missiles there are in Siberia. What the U.S. needed after Sept. 11, Andrus argued, was something that...
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- Sean McBride
"After three years, Intellipedia is humming. It operates in three spheres: unclassified, secret and top secret, with top secret being the most active, boasting 439,387 pages and 57,248 user accounts. Intellipedia is largely managed by volunteers and patrolled by "shepherds" who keep track of individual pages in their areas of expertise. Like Wikipedia, articles are created instantly — a...
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- Sean McBride
Breaking out the key topics: A-Space, D. Calvin Andrus, Defense Intelligence Agency, Don Burke, Greg Treverton, Intelink, Intellipedia, Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, ManTech International, National Intelligence Council, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Rand Corp. Center for Global Risk and Security, Sean Dennehy, Tom Fingar.
- Sean McBride
it just dawned on me; all makes sense now, Sean works for the intelligence apparatus! he's been setting me up! wait, is that a knock on my door? gotta go...
- MikeAmundsen
Hahhaa, he's a mole!
- sofarsoShawn
Something I've noticed: those who get too bogged down in the "intelligence appartus" mode of thinking tend to suffer from a narrowing a vision, from an inability to look at the world from a larger perspective, outside the intelligence apparatus. Truly independent minds are wary about getting sucked into that matrix, even though they will be curious about it and make an effort to...
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- Sean McBride
In sum: once you get inside this system, many lines of interesting intellectual investigation become forbidden. Consider: the highest members of the Bush administration had this entire "apparatus" at their disposal, and yet they managed to get everything almost entirely wrong. Their minds operated within certain narrow grooves, with little creative or original thinking, or even solid rational analysis of real world conditions and situations.
- Sean McBride
@Sean: spoken like a true apparatchik<big LOL>. anyway, i think you're right. org/systems have a self-defense to maintain status quo. takes quite a bit of energy from the outside to overcome the inertia. this is most likely very true for 'closed' systems like intelligence where it's assumed that you must operate in isolation (for security, etc.). lots of atrophy. w/ the speed of infotech in general, must be a very hard probl to continue evolving intel systems.
- MikeAmundsen
Just an imaginative finger exercise: 1. intersection Friendfeed users, Intellipedia users 2. intersection Friendfeed users, A-Space users 3. intersection Friendfeed users, Intellipedia users, A-Space users
- Sean McBride
Sean -- Provide any proof of your "In sum" declaration. The reliable of the written record widely contradicts this popular polemic and shows the actual situation to be the exact opposite...the apparatus had the administration at their disposal, and they were given narrow-minded mis-information. Fortunately for our security, intelligence stays secure and never gets evaluated on that highest of intellectual platforms, the internet.
- Douglas Hopkins
Douglas -- from my understanding, Dick Cheney and his neoconservative associates dominated the intelligence process during the Bush 43 administration. They especially applied heavy pressure on the CIA to warp and distort reality to conform to their ideological beliefs and agenda.
- Sean McBride
Sean. Yeah, sure. You just can't accept the reports, including last week's authoritative, that the CIA & FBI were simply incompetent. Not comprehensively, but certainly on the question of 9/11 and ensuing terrorism. You didn't read the book or even last week's PDF from the Inspector General.
- Douglas Hopkins
Douglas -- are you aware that the FBI was in control of the terrorist cell which bombed the WTC in 1993? Try Googling "Emad Salem." There are important implications in that fact about the quality of the intelligence process vis-a-vis terrorist actors.
- Sean McBride
Sean - The connection between WTC 93 & 9/11 speaks to me of both incompetence and liberal legal restraints placed on law enforcement. Incompetence meaning gov bureaucracy not rogue agents doing self-motivated dirty stuff. Individual FBI personnel are 99.99% professional and patriotically dedicated, not to mention legally educated.
- Douglas Hopkins
Douglas -- do you fully understand the Emad Salem story?
- Sean McBride
"Their minds operated within certain narrow grooves, with little creative or original thinking, or even solid rational analysis of real world conditions and situations." [Agree strongly, Sean]
- Anthony Citrano
Since one of the tag lines for my novel is "How NOT to do a covert op", someone should forward intellipedia a copy.
- George Hall (Australia)
After a couple of tequila shots the Twitter fail whale starts looking pretty damn cute!
Amy Flynn, Manuel Arroyo, Jassim and 32 other people liked this
?????
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
ha
- MG Siegler
Keep it up.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Wha....?!
- Victor Ganata
where are the FF goggles? (when you need them)
- Christian Collins
That fail whale has been after me all day!
- Joe Lima
And now I just remembered rule #34. *shudder*
- Victor Ganata
fail whales...today??????? No way. Robert, have another Tequila (or is that what was wrong for me all day?)
- Richard Binhammer
Damnit Victor, you just made me lose the game.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
It is not a Hump Whale, Scoble. And please, do NOT plug the blow hole.
- Aaron deMello
spooked when the site ate my avatar. put on a mask. hammerhead ale just makes the comments dimmer.
- bob phillips
My friend @joshhighland likes it so much he'll get it tattooed if he gets enough followers. LOL http://twitterink.com
- Henrik Joreteg
Alex, come get your brother. ROFL
- Admiral Anika
same as your avatar!
- Loic Le Meur
after a couple of tequila shots, your damn ugly avatar is starting to look cuter!
- arthur park
BustedTees - someecards: I'd fuck me - http://www.bustedtees.com/fuckme#...
Mahdi Ebrahimi, winckel, Oleksandr Rakovets' and 65 other people liked this
That's a great t-shirt :-)
- Richard A.
I love it because all I can hear is Buffalo Bill's voice now
- Lindsey is Fierce!
I like that color of green. Also, the shirt is pretty rad too! :)
- Jon, the Beartato of FF
Nice one.
- Amit Morson
Well, YEAH. O_o
- Derrick
is it too forward for me to say of the pic on the right: i would TOO! O_o
- .LAG liked that
It's ok LAG . . . i figured someone would
- Lindsey is Fierce!
Me too LAG, me too. :)
- AJ Batac
I was refraining from saying something about the pic on the right, but I concur with LAG. :)
- Jon, the Beartato of FF
Me three LAG. :D
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
@Lindsey: honesty is the best policy. .LOLz!
- .LAG liked that
Happy Birthday @AJB!
- .LAG liked that
Want!
- David Cook
I digg it
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
I'm telling Jesus!
- david beckwith
Think of the kittens
- Alastair Montgomery
such a silly, but happy t-shirt!
- Aslı Gokdere
the really had to use a pretty girl this time cuz if they used an ugly person, no one would buy the shirt
- Alfredo
Love yourself in public, just don't LOVE yourself in public, if you know what I mean.
- Aaron deMello
[SC08] SGI Designs Atom-based Supercomputer -- Tech-On! - http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english...
Aaron deMello and Sidharth Shah liked this
Apparently, Intel Atom has become really popular. MSFT, SGI every one is betting on it.
- Sidharth Shah
Since I heard about the Rackable acquisition, I've been hounding the guys there to make this a reality!
- Aaron deMello
$5 billion to end up in the hands of Canadian entrepreneurs, nothing less! - http://montrealtechwatch.com/2009...
Aaron deMello liked this
"I agree with Karim"
- heri
i am dying to try the @kogibbq short rib taco
Korean Short Ribs | Kogi - http://fredwilson.vc/post...
 |
Aaron deMello liked this
My Manhattan Project: How I helped build the bomb that blew up Wall Street: http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt... Great piece on the ethics of software.
Aaron deMello, Andrej Kyselica and MikeAmundsen liked this
At the end he still doesn't get it. He's Proud that he helped build these systems in an environment with no risk controls; systems that over simplified processes so that a blow up was the only possible outcome, and yet he is proud of his efforts in putting the tools in the hands of those that didn't know how to use them safely and in fact had no concern for society as a whole. He has...
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- David HC Soul
Britney Spears Passes Obama for Most Followed Human on Twitter - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
Phillip Stewart, Aaron deMello, Mike Fruchter and 16 other people liked this
Kill me.
- Graham English
Have we colonized another planet, yet? This one's collective head is emptying at an alarming rate. I want off.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
No.
- Kamilah Gill
Sweet baby infant jesus....
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Why is that a surprise? Obama might still be #1 if he had posted more than 3 updates after Nov 5. As it is, he is not worth following on Twitter.
- Styx Bernhard
'Member that chat we had about number of followers representing some level of quality?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
OMFG!!! who cares anyway...
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
i call bait
- Allen Stern
seems the twittersphere is running on empty of relevant stories to cover
- BCK
@Allen, if it's bait, it's not good bait. The story is relevant, factual and timely. And @BCK, if there's a measurement out there to rank folks, people tend to note who's on top. Last night, who is on top changed. My guess is that other blogs, had they written it, would have been more widely distributed.
- Louis Gray
So tired of this story being linked to.
- Richard A.
from fftogo
The neocon signature facial expression: a sociopathic and predatory smirk. They all have it.
mjc, bcultral, Steven Perez and 2 other people liked this
And they are all ungrounded in reality and tend to be dumb as rocks. Prime example: William Kristol.
- Sean McBride
Hahahahaha. I see you haven't given up on your characterizations of neo-cons. Are you making a list? I'd love to see it. ;-)
- Aaron deMello
I think Obama has a bit of that as well
- Brian Sullivan
Aaron -- actually, I've constructed a semantic model of their belief system -- it is quite simple to do, since their algorithm is so primitive.
- Sean McBride
Brian -- you're right! :) Obama has got that smirk thing going on. Always a bad sign.
- Sean McBride
Or maybe -- like like Leno & Letterman -- they don't spend their lives practicing in the mirror. Let's move along to an established science, phrenology. I thought by complexity Friendfeed eliminated the 13 year old and under crowd from posting. C'mon people, aren't you college graduates?
- Douglas Hopkins
@Sean: Do you watch Lie To Me?
- Rene Wirtz
It's interesting: quite a few people have also commented on Bernard Madoff's smirk, for instance: "Bernie Madoff is destroyed and disgraced, yet his smirk endures" http://www.nydailynews.com/money... We may be looking at a psychological archetype or syndrome here. Of course, George W. Bush is renowned for his inappropriate smirks. The neocon network: an aggregation of sociopathic smirkers who have wrought havoc on the world.
- Sean McBride
Rene -- I haven't watched any episodes, but I think I understand the premise. There is a science to interpreting these facial expressions. Douglas Hopkins is underestimating just how important these tells can be as clues to character and intent.
- Sean McBride
Sean -- As my Hollywood-oriented buddies would phrase it, I love you [and your neo-Irish gift of gab] to death, but this subject is total BS. It is Saturday; go out and get some sunshine. C'mon over and kayak in the back yard with me.
- Douglas Hopkins
I sneer in your general direction.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Malcontent: one who is chronically discontented or dissatisfied. Sean has it.
- Mattb4rd
Sean, you should publish the algo. I have a good friend working in distributed image processing for facial recognition. We could build a neo-con identification app!
- Aaron deMello
@Mark V -- There's quite a collection of views here, who sneerest thou on?
- Douglas Hopkins
Oh at Sean's original post.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
@Aaron, that's actually a very astute technique, used in other fields. I'll have to pull the relevant info up to share. A theory proposed is validated -- or not -- with real-world visual data. Problem is in this case we have a ethno-political-racist proposal. The resulting & obvious lack of proof won't be accepted by the proponents. Britney has that same sneer, caused by tabloids. The individuals mentioned here are from hemorrhoids.
- Douglas Hopkins
Wasn't there a smurf that smirked?
- Phil Boiarski
"Ethno-political-racist proposal"? Huh? It was specifically pointed out that George W. Bush was also renowned for his smirking, as was Dick Cheney. Ethnicity has nothing to do with it. This is about a certain universal psychological type.
- Sean McBride
@Sean: The TV series is loosely based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.... And yes, facial expression and body language are universal and they can be explained. I like the fact that the TV show splices images from real life into showing the different emotions. And yes, the neo-cons rank quite high in the smirk/disdain category.
- Rene Wirtz
@Matt: I think there is a difference between malcontent and reality :P
- Rene Wirtz
Rene -- great pointer to Paul Ekman and his work. People here who are not taking seriously the science of body language and facial expressions are missing the boat on a fascinating research front, I think. I introduced this topic of neocon smirking with all seriousness -- it bears looking into. One curious pattern: the more more they are proven wrong and backed into a corner, the more...
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- Sean McBride
Rene -- I am going to download some episodes of Lie to Me and check it out. I'm also a fan of Tim Roth.
- Sean McBride
Wikipedia on Paul Ekman: "Paul Ekman (born 1934) is a psychologist who has been a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He is considered one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century.[1] Ekman takes a developmental approach, in that the development of human traits and states over time is the background to his research (Keltner,...
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- Sean McBride
"... are universally recognized."
- Sean McBride
What are the neofascist or neomarxist signature facial expressions?
- Dave Roth
@Sean: I am a big fan of Tim Roth too, the main reason I watch the show. And the show turns out to be pretty interesting too.
- Rene Wirtz
Aren't neoconservatives a mix of neofascists and neomarxists? Your question has already been answered. :) Lots of smirking, sneering and snarling, with occasional eyeballs rolling back up into the head combined with rapid eyelid fluttering.
- Sean McBride
Loved Tim in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs (when Quentin Tarrantino still knew how to make movies)...
- Sean McBride
Wow -- over 110,000 Google search results on Bush's smirk: http://www.google.com/search...
- Sean McBride
@Sean: If you can get your hand on a copy, watch Little Odessa too.
- Rene Wirtz
Rene -- I saw it -- good film, and great Tim Roth performance.
- Sean McBride
Holy mackerel -- just thought to do a Google search on William Kristol and smirking (Kristol is the main smirker who triggered this post) and came up with almost 40,000 hits: http://www.google.com/search... Many people have been ticked off no end by the damned smirk. A most peculiar cultural phenomenon.
- Sean McBride
Are Cloud Based Memory Architectures the Next Big Thing? | High Scalability - http://highscalability.com/are-clo...
Bob Hitching, BuzzNova, Melanie Reed and 16 other people liked this
While the memory based part is good, Jim Starkey seems to fall in the dead category as well in several places. The following two quotes seem to stand out: "Web scale databases like BigTable and SimpleDB make simple things difficult." and "Developers are used to SQL and are comfortable working within the transaction model, so the transition to cloud computing would be that much easier."...
more...
- Knut
I'm a developer and like SQL. I waist a lot of time trying to manipulate the OO layer, when many times writing my own queries would be much easier and more efficient.
- Chip Ramsey
I'm not saying SQL and RDMS is always wrong. I have done my share of SQL and as you say, I always ends up writing SQL myself instead of using OO layers. I developed a tagging server (http://sourceforge.net/project...) using SQL directly. When you need more than two way relations, key-value stores aren't as well suited. I am currently using CouchDB for a project and the API and map-reduce views are sweet.
- Knut
Knut those were my quotes and come from experience developing on those systems, following forums, and talking with developers. Many things in apps are simple gets/puts of structured objects. But many times you also want to know simple things like sums, averages, counts, top 10, etc while not having to do all the heavy lifting in application code. SQL is not the only option. MS has DryadLINQ, for example. But the point is scaling can't be complexity shifted to developers if adoption is to be wide.
- Todd Hoff
If you look at CouchDB, you will see that you can do counts etc with map-reduce. You can write them very easily in javascript and you will have access through the same API you use to access key-value objects. Needless to say, you can to the same with map reduce on bigtable as well. As for scaling, I still don't agree. RDMS system are hard to scale and companies have traditionally hired database admins to tune them. I don't get how that should be harder with key-value stores. My experience is the opposite.
- Knut
On who's cluster are you running the map-reduce jobs Knut? Interestingly enough map-reduce isn't part of Google App Engine. And this is more of declarative-compiled-into-map-reduce-etc is good versus hand-coding-the-same-thing-all-the-time is bad argument than RDBMs are great if you just give them a chance argument.
- Todd Hoff
CouchDB uses map-reduce internally for views. You write the mappers and reducers (if needed) in javascript. In other words, you don't actually run the map-reduce yourself, you add in a similar way to a stored procedure and you can actually do this in Futon, the CouchDB admin interface. Which cluster you run this on doesn't really matter much as long as it can run CouchDB. Google App...
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- Knut
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