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January 25, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

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Robert Scoble

I will discuss why I can never have another Diet Coke here:

January 20, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

David Cook, Nigel Walsh, Cristinella, Inc.©®™ and 101 other people liked this

My dad has a degenerative kidney disease. They don't know what causes it. But he's slowed it down by changing his diet. Today I was diagnosed with the same disease. Turns out I can't eat red meat anymore and I can't have coke or Diet Coke in it either. I'm in early stages, according to doctor, but says changing diet might help, especially since it helped my dad. - Robert Scoble

186 more comments

what happened? - Akshay Dodeja

I think it makes him pee. - Mona Nomura

don't leave us in suspense! - Bryce Roney

Is that brb or brp? - Ed Shahzade /NextInstinct

Sweetener debacle? - Mo Kargas

Remember: not every bathroom comes with a built-in Tweetmachine. - David Feng

This is interesting. Please tell us! - Keith Neisler

I had to quit because it got hard to remember my name! - Reed Porter

That's an interesting thing to entice us with...now where's the finish? - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Cogent with a touch of brevity. - Bill Romanos

Doctor says my kidneys are working about half of what a normal person's is. He's already done tons of tests to make sure it's not some really bad disease. My dad's had this condition for decades. - Robert Scoble

Ow. Whoops. Sorry to hear that. (I think I should cut Coke my end too.) - David Feng

Saccharin makes you vanish? - Jose Castillo

I also should avoid all red meat and many dairy products including ice cream. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

"might" is the dr.'s word for who konws, so enjoy your life and don't worry unless they're definitive - Bob Sonin

A very big change in your eating habits. Good luck, Robert. I'm sure you can do it. - Yolanda

That doesnt sound good at all. Lets hope its not as bad as it sounds. - Akshay Dodeja

Robert - sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Please, take are of yourself. - Mona Nomura

Oh no. Ice cream. My fave during the Summer... (Beijing has this hidden ability to fry people alive come May already. 100F, anyone?) - David Feng

@Robert: I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you are able to find some substitutes for your diet. Switching off meat is possible (ask some vegans) but be sure to talk with a nutritionist to ensure your protein intake remains controlled (one of the biggest problems). Good luck with this. - Andrew Leyden

Anything with lots of protein, like beef, lamb, pork are to be avoided. Anything with phosphorus like nuts, beans, milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and coke/pepsi are to be avoided. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

I knew a diabetic who was sometimes hit by an overwhelming feeling of being deprived...probably more than he would feel if he avoided certain foods by free choice. Does that happen with you? If so and I meet you in person I'll be sensitive to that. - Bruce Lewis

Ahh yeah, since he got diagnosed my doctors have been watching the protein in my urine. I've been on blood pressure medication for a while because of it, which seems to help a lot. Bummer that they didn't catch yours sooner, bro. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

At least you won't get Mad Cow Disease. In all seriousness though, I'm really sorry to hear about that, Scoble. - Dean Gebert

diet soda hasn't really ever made sense to me anyway, just drink something else if you can't have regular soda ya know? well do what you gotta do scoble, its not your life, its your family's - David

Sorry to hear it, my friend. All the best with adapting to this with change of diet. - John McCrea

DO NOT WANT! Yogurt! My absolute favorite! Oh my God I feel so bad and so sorry for you Robert. - David Feng

I'm sorry to hear that, Robert. - David Cook

Sorry to hear about it, Robert. Hopefully, the diet modification will help. - D. Lambert

Avoid ice-cream?! Meat? Please get a second opinion. - Mo Kargas

It sounds mostly harmless but good luck with it! - Andrew

That totally sucks, Robert! I don't think I could live without Coca Cola and meat and dairy products. - Chris Charabaruk

Sorry to hear Robert. At least it is manageable. Good thing is ... you only need about 1/4 of *one* kidney to survive. I should know, my daughter was born with only one kidney. LOTS of research! - AJ Kohn

Robert, it's great that they're catching this now, so you have time to make changes. Food changes will be hard, I'm sure, especially because of restaurant food. Take care of yourself. @LPH is doing a similar type of weaning from meat, soda, etc. but for cholesterol reasons. You can commiserate ;), but I don't suggest following his chili spaghetti - talk to Mom about recipes, not Layne lol - Lora Heiny

Mo: I already have a second opinion. My dad was told by his doctor to avoid the same things. By the way, it's not the artificial sweeteners in Diet Coke that are bad. I can't have regular Coke either. It's made with phosphoric acid which turns into phosphorous. Turns out that's bad for your kidney. Of course I've been drinking tons of Coke and Diet Coke for decades. - Robert Scoble

Best of luck Robert! - Chris Rossini

wow Robert. Sorry to hear about this. Hope you can work around the diet limitations and stay healthy. - Justin Korn

That just seems to leave beer and sushi. Could be worse ;) - Dennis Howlett

Dennis: and Scotch! :-) Oh, wait, that kills your liver. Can't win at this game anyway. Might as well have fun! :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert, sorry to hear this. If the diet has made a difference to your Dad, it made well help you too as these things can definitely be hereditary. - Sally Church

Sally: my dad is worse. He can't eat anything that has lots of potassium, like bananas. - Robert Scoble

Sorry to hear that, but glad to hear that there's something that can help. Also glad that there's every chance you can get a head start on keeping your kids healthier, too. Good luck. - Linda Mills

Yes, all carbonated stuff kills the kidneys. And red meat. Byproduct: you will lose weight. - Francine Hardaway

I'm addicted to Pepsi and/or Coke. Quit drinking it about 18 months ago and have to say there have been numerous health benefits. Still want a coke pretty much every day, but it's just not worth it. I know change sucks but you WILL feel better. Well, wait, I don't know the ramifications of your degenerative kidney disease so I should say I hope you feel better. Keep positive, remember you're loved, and tell yourself Diet Coke is "yucky!" - tracy

Glad this got caught early for you and that you can make a lifestyle change to help address it. Our lives are pretty fragile when you think about it, no? - Kevin C. Tofel

tracy: yeah, I hear you. It's going to be tough. But ice cream? Damn. In-N-Out? I love that stuff! Oh well. - Robert Scoble

I'm in the early stages of giving up Diet Coke (which I've been on now for a few years after giving up Coke). It's rough because I do miss the taste and I think plain water just sucks. I wonder how many computer folks really drink too much of this stuff? - Andrew Leyden

Kevin: exactly. My life changed one afternoon when a lady hit my car and my car overturned. Made me realize that every day could be our last. Party hard! :-) - Robert Scoble

Is it called FSGS? Mind sharing the diet with me? I know someone who has FSGS and it sounds like it might help! Thanks! (ann.finnie@hp.com) - Ann Finnie

Andrew: Diet Coke (or Pepsi) is a staple of a majority of geeks world wide. - Robert Scoble

Diet Coke me. - tony

Ann: they don't know what it is. My dad had lots of tests and they couldn't figure it out. - Robert Scoble

Did you ask your doc if a diuretic, like in blood pressure meds, would help? - Francine Hardaway

The bright side: in about 3 months, you'll probably be in the best shape of your life and you'll feel 10 years younger. You may as well go vegan and seek out vegan recipes/foods. - Paul Reynolds

Francine: since my dad was helped with diet changes, I bet that will help me too. My condition is pretty stable, this stuff happens over decades. Anyway, I have low blood pressure and always have. - Robert Scoble

Sorry to hear it, Robert. I switched to Diet Coke years ago and now I'm trying to cut it out as well. Good luck with the diet changes and your health! One of my favorite quotes: Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live. --Jim Rohn - Carmen

hi scoble, sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Diet changes can definitely help esp. if it's early; will slow the degenerative process. Something to consider, you may find qigong beneficial in strengthening your system. Sending you good energy! - Antonia Teixeira

Pfft. I can beat that. You up for a game of degenerative disease top trumps Robert? Stay well in the meantime. - mattpovey

Sucks Robert, take care of yourself, but no red meat? What a life! - Mark Trapp

sorry to hear. best wishes managing your condition - mashable

Robert, this is a shock. How did they find out you had this? Were there any symptoms that clued them in or did they do a ton of tests? i'm a Mountain Dew junkie and eat lots of red meat......and i smoke. But I'm happy. Wish you luck man! - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

Mark, yeah, sucks. I like hamburgers. That's going to be tough to give up. Mashable: thanks. - Robert Scoble

slayerboy: I had higher than normal creatinine levels. My dad said to be on the lookout for that. Then they did a bunch of tests to make sure I didn't have some weird and deadly disease. - Robert Scoble

I HEAR YOU CAN POUR COKE INTO YOUR TOILET, IT MAKES A GREAT TOILET BOWL CLEANER! sorry caps. not shoutin... - Karin Hiebert

I've seen 2 great pointers for those wanting to eat healthier: if your grandmother wouldn't recognize it - don't eat it (strange but true) & do your shopping on the outer rim of the grocery store - fresh produce, bakery, fresh meats etc. Best of luck! - MicahBear78

The question I have is this: Is it better to live a long, healthy life and be miserable trying to be healthy or to live a short, unhealthy life but be the happiest person on earth? Yes, this sucks, but in the end it's all about what makes you happy. Doctors have been wrong before. Obviously if this is causing you pain, it's better to change to healthy stuff so you can live happier. Everyone needs to evaluate what makes them happy, each person is unique. - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

for people curious about food substitutes that Robert is talking about: http://www.kidney.org/atoz... - Lora Heiny

Robert, my prayers are with you. I know from personal experience that it is amazing what diet change can accomplish. We are indeed "...Fearfully and wonderfully made". Be encouraged. And Boca burgers are not bad at all. ;) btw- I wanted to add that I had to be on Macro for 5 years and a 14 day rotation diet before that. You CAN change your body chemistry and organs have been known to heal. In my own case, I came back from jaundice and very bad adrenals which put a hardship on my kidneys. - Melanie Reed

slayerboy: the problem with this disease is it doesn't kill you. It makes you go on dialysis when you're older. So, I have to decide whether I want to take steps to put that off. I do. - Robert Scoble

Really sorry, Robert. They don't know what causes FSGS either, but it scars the kidneys and reduces their function over time. - Ann Finnie

Robert - Soda is a small sacrifice. I don't drink it... quit completely about 15 years ago. Red meat... well that would be more troublesome for me. Take care of yourself. - Brian Roy

Lora: I love the Internet. One reason I talked about this is so you'd all slap my hands if you saw me breaking the rules at a conference. Damn, I love my morning coffee with milk, too. Grrr. I might be grumpy for a while. - Robert Scoble

a blessing in disguise. once you stabilize the change in diet you will never be or feel healthier. the pepsi and cokes of the world are poison. drink water instead of coke and eat sorbetto (sorbet) instead of ice cream...and fall in love with seafood while your at it. mark your weight when you switch up your diet and in a week you will see 3-5lbs shaved off without you doing anything else. - Carlos Ayala

Robert, sorry to hear about your condition here as well. I was diagnosed with GERD several years back, and diet cured it, but I know this isn't anything like GERD. If I can help in any way let me know - you're in my thoughts. Best wishes Robert. - Jesse Stay

So sorry to hear that Robert.A raw food diet could really help. Check out http://thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/ - Gemma Craven

i'm sorry to hear that. you could retain carbonated satisfaction with home-made soda flavored in various ways. there are a few flavors (my secret recipes, but you can have them if you like) i'd take over cola any time! best wishes. - idnan

Robert: lol definitely. You watch out for peanuts in food for me already - now, we watch out for milk products for you :) At least you can have non-dairy creamer -- oooh and popcorn ;) - Lora Heiny

Robert, I can empathise with you and your Dad since I nearly lost a kidney as a child. It still struggles sometimes and also gets sore so yeah, I have to drink lots of water, avoid fizzy drinks and artificial sweeteners etc. No bananas or salty foods is the hardest for me. - Sally Church

robert... positive vibes your direction. my aunt has Coeliac/Celiac disease (she can't eat wheat) and it was tough at first, but your eating habits will become normal to you eventually. Keep your chin up! - Chris Heath

Sorry to hear. Best of luck to you!! - Ted Louie

I'm so sorry to hear this, I don't know how serious that is, but I'm hoping it's something that can be corrected with the change. I'm sympathetic too. Giving up things "forever" is incredibly hard, even when necessary. Too bad there aren't patches or gum to wean you off the D.C. (I have the same addiction). I wish you the best in the new, healthy lifestyle you have ahead of you. - Sarah Perez

Sorry to hear that, but at least it sounds like you have time to deal with it. Your hand could get pretty sore from several thousand people slapping it! I think that might be incentive enough! Or tweet slaps, that might crash Twitter! - Chris Mayer

Scoble, I'm sorry to hear about this. Glad that you caught it early and glad that you don't seem to be to down about it. I like your attitude, many people would say F' it and just continue to eat how they were before. So well done. If you blog tweet all your meals for a while it may work as a good support system? I'd yell at you if you want me to when I see cokes or red meats.... :) best of luck my friend. - ryangraves

so sorry to hear about this. i hope the adjustment in diet helps and isn't too terribly difficult to get accustomed to. - mario anima

I'm sorry to hear about this Robert. Thanks goodness those are the only two things they took away from you. It still leaves you with many other options. Better to look at the glass half full. ; ) I hope your new diet helps. - Adriana

Bad news - sorry to hear about that. Early detection/treatment is so important. Be glad you caught it early. Hopefully diet keeps everything under control. - Bryan Duke

Ryan: hah, we all have a death sentence. It does no good to worry about this stuff. In fact, I am pretty sure that worrying makes it all worse. - Robert Scoble

Thank God u found out for starters. Second, there is so much progress these days who knows what info is just around the corner,Three, you have so much energy and will that u bring to life-that is huge. Finally, think about accupuncture as a support. I know that it has helped many people with very serious problems. More positive vibes! - frankiecarl

Awwww that sucks! :( - Brandy Lea

I understand Robert, it seems you've done your research on this. Sounds like a very hard decision to make. I don't think it will be all bad for you though, as Carlos says it may serve to improve your health in the long run. It may even serve to open up your food choices, and help you experience a wider range of foods. Wishing you all the best mate - Mo Kargas

Thanks for helping to cement my decision to eliminate soft drinks from my daily routine. It's been one month as of today. As others have mentioned, it will likely turn out to be a blessing in disguise with you ending up feeling healthier and dropping some weight if you eliminate all soft drinks. - maczter

Mo: I like all foods except for eggplant, so finding something to eat won't be a problem. It's just they took away some of my favorites. I will deal. A lot of people have a lot worse. At least I can still hang out with @garyvee! :-) - Robert Scoble

Just watch that liver Robert ;-) Enjoy what you can, though. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: if I hang out with you and Louis my liver will be fine. My kidney, on the other hand... :-) - Robert Scoble

Once again, FF needs a comment button at the bottom of the comments... I started the year off not eating anything from cow as part of a diet plan. Good luck. Be sure you replace the Iron intake. - Gus

You're being proactive, which is great. I'm reading up on your food list so next time we meet at a conference or wherever we can help keep the food straight. :-) - Loren Heiny

Ok, Robert, not the news you wanted I'm sure. But...at our time of life (well, you have a couple of years on me but we'll let that slide) re-evaluation is a great thing. Do what the doc says and you'll be fine. Just don't switch to bottled water because it's an easy - but ecologically damaging- alternative. You got lots to do yet (*cough* interview *cough*) and when you've digested the news I'm sure you'll be sharing your kidney-health tips with us all - as is you way. Best wishes. - WoH: Minding her Steves

strength to you, Robert. and welcome to Veggie-world (well, the outskirts, anyway<g>). - MikeAmundsen

Mike: I remember talking to you about your vegetarianism back in the 1990s. Wild, huh? - Robert Scoble

I've heard of this. What a blessing to discover it early in your life. Many folks have diabetes as well and don't realized it until it's too late. Thanks for sharing. - Todd Jordan

Robert I was diagnosed in 1995 with degenerative kidney disease (glomerular nephritis). My prayers are with you. Watching your protein intake is important. Did you have a renal biopsy done? @lawain - lawain

lawain: the doctor and I decided not to have a biopsy done because it isn't a weird fatal disease (they've already checked for that) and because it's hereditary and stable. All sticking needles in me would do is cause me pain so I decided against it. - Robert Scoble

Sorry about the news, Robert. I took myself off meat (except fish, like Ari) & I rarely drink coke (but oh is coffee my weakness). I was the biggest Carl's Jr Western Bacon Cheeseburger / IN N OUT / all things steak / bacon...BACON! guy. 5 years ago something snapped & I changed my eating lifestyle. I'm dragging this out just to say I can't explain it, but it wasn't as hard as I would have imagined. After a month I felt real good and I didn't miss it. Keep sharing - it's not called FriendFeed for nothing :) - Micah

Health can catch up on us. I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure a few months back (my Mother also has hypertension) and then less than a week later suffered a stroke at 44. I'm recovering now, and learning to live with a changed diet also. So I have some idea of what it's like for you. Keeping a positive outlook really helps. Best wishes. - John Collis

@R: yep. life is like that. next time we meet, we can share a tasty non-dairy health drink (oxymoron?). - MikeAmundsen

Robert, check out http://www.rawfor30days.com. Amazing film about changing your diet and the effect it can have on your health. Good luck my friend. - John Seiferth

John: a stroke is what killed my mom. Not good at all. Glad to hear you're doing OK. - Robert Scoble

sounds like some alternative SXSW plans may be in order (or at least a lot of bbq chicken - you still can have Chicken?). Good luck with the diet changes - at least you have caught it early and have the positive example of your dad's slowing it down via diet to keep you motivated! - Shannon Clark

Shannon: damn, you reminded me of SXSW. Yeah, Chicken is OK. - Robert Scoble

I don't blame you on the needles...I had the renal biopsy and it was terrible. I had to lie on my back (no movement) for 24 hours...and the pain was not fun. Good luck Robert. Fish Oil supplements are a must. Keeping a good thought for you this night... - lawain

So sorry to hear about your dx, but I'm glad you got it and I'm glad you are acknowledging it. The act of change is hard, but will be worth it in the end. I wish you the best of luck. - Heather Solos

Robert, What a shock for you. Am sorry to hear this news. I cared for my Father, who had same disease along with diabetes.. Am not going into detail here. But if you or your dad need resources or anything at all. Please let me know. Will keep you both in positive thought. (Not sure if they mentioned to you about managing your salt intake and foods with certain perservatives.) Most people do well with disease if they take good care of themselves. Stay grounded, think positive and above all don't worry! - SashaKane

Just curious Robert, since it seems like you are always on the move do you pack snacks with you to keep you going or just hold out from meal to meal. I'm a snacker myself...weird question I know, but thought this was a somewhat relevant time to ask. - Tyler Brownfield

I'm glad this was caught while you can deal with it with diet changes. I've been working on diet changes myself (mostly getting rid of refined sugar and white flour and, well, as much "manufactured" food as I can). It's a lot more work for me, but the health benefits are well worth it. Take care! - vicster

Scoble, sorry to hear about your diagnosis. But I'm glad you've caught it now. My boss read the book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman: http://tinyurl.com/8sh23u and was impacted by it so much, that he decided to cater salads and a health conscious kitchen for us every day at work. We don't consider enough that what you eat really affects your health. Check it out, hope it helps. - Marcus Kwan

Red Bull makes an awesome all natural cola. No phosphoric acid, no high fructose corn syrup, good stuff. Maybe you can drink that.. Disclosure: I work for Red Bull but honestly, the stuff is awesome and NO phosphoric acid. - Kevin Doohan

I cut out soda. It wasn't so hard to do. Plus, you can save money just asking for water when you eat out. - Morton Fox

I have a relative who is on a restricted diet because of a medical condition. Restrictions can be frustrating. Good luck. - Ontario Emperor from fftogo

ok, i don't eat meat, but still drink soft drinks occasionally. if Robert is giving them up, then i will, too. no more phosphoric acid for me! - MikeAmundsen

Nothing to say, but feel better, and soldier on! - James Ostheimer

Sorry to hear it, Robert. Best wishes, hope diet will help. Chinese medicine is a great remedy as well....just a suggestion. - Moushumi Kabir

Hey Robert, I guess they will come up with a cure very soon - so you may be having ice-cream sooner than you think! - Rahul Deodhar

Good luck with it Robert - cjmart

Robert, what is it about coke that aggravates your condition? The carbonation, the caffine, something else? Just curious as to why that in particular is an issue. - Lindsay

all the best robert ... sounds like action now is the smartest medicine. - Toby Forage

Good luck Robert. I was diagnosed with a heart condition a few years back, and had to give up chocolate and caffeine (although I still occasionally sneak a coffee in). It's very difficult to change diets at first, but you'll get there and I wish you the best. - Brandon Mendelson

Sending you good wishes for the future, Robert. These will be hard changes to make, but you may find yourself feeling better as a result. I hope you're doing okay. - Matt Cutts

Right, Ryo, because of the phosphorous and also the potassium...Means he also has to limit his intake of salt, broccoli and a bunch of other stuff. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

all soda? just the coke products? cola? dr pepper? 7up? Ginger ale? - rob friedman

Mostly the dark ones. But really he should limit himself to herbal teas and water for most of his fluid intake. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

What about seltzer/carbonated water? I was thinking of switching to that because of the texture of soda carbonation that water doesn't do much for me - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

Have the real stuff, I never liked diet coke - Michael McGimpsey from twhirl

He has to avoid the real stuff just as much as the fake stuff, Michael. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Ryo, impossible.....you do know what was in ORIGINAL Coke, right? dDon't think that's legal in the US lol - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

Again, no, he can't drink coke at all, nor root beer, nor pepsi, nor anything with much salt in it or potassium, which a lot of stuff has...means coffee is right out as well. Imagine my dad, a guy who drank 2 pots of coffee for 30 years, having to give up coffee...well he did. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Ryo--can you imagine how much Scoble will be on Twitter/FF etc, if he switches to Red Bull? - David Thomas

I'm sorry to hear that you found out you have kidney disease. Did your docs recommend a kidney biopsy to get a diagnosis, or are they just watching and waiting? You *can* eat/drink things with phosphorus if you eat enough calcium to bind it, but obviously it would be best to discuss that with your physicians. If things are still early on, the protein load isn't as crucial, it's actually more important to eat *enough* protein to replace any protein you're losing and to prevent catabolism. Good luck! - Victor Ganata

drink HONEST TEAS -- they are awesome - can get them at Whole Foods - Maneesh

Your diet changes will make you feel much better long term anyway. My daughter is diabetic and when she gets low I tell her because of her healthy eating and close monitoring she's more likely to live to a ripe old age than most others who eat trash. Good luck Robert and a long and healthy future to you. - Nicola Quinn

Man, sorry to hear the news. Diet coke is terrible for you, so you'll be doing yourself a world of good. Glad they found it early. B - Ben Metcalfe

Robert, I'm so sorry to hear about this illness. You may indeed be able to control its severity and you will improve your overall health by not drinking soda or eating red meat. I'm sure your doctors will tell you more, or a good nutritionist will. Even though it's hard, you now have an opportunity to eat and live in a more nourishing way. My best thoughts to you and your family. - Cathryn Hrudicka

So sorry to read that. Ganbatte, as they say in Japan, Robert! - Paul Papadimitriou

Robert, yoga is supposed to help significantly. I'll connect you to a yoga guru if you like. Are you sure its the diet coke and burgers and ice-cream? Sure it isn't the facebook and friendfeed and twitter? :) - Amit Pradhan

Robert, listen to your doctors. Renal failure is not a good thing and getting dialysis sucks. Learn to love fresh lemonade but best yet just simple water. Learn to love life in the process of this diagnosis. - Janet

I'm really sorry to hear that! The diet sounds like a big adjustment, but worth it if it helps to keep you well. - Kate

Well, that sucks. I've dealt with food allergies/things to avoid previously. You get used to it relatively quickly once you've made the effort to find out all the alternatives. But good luck staving off the dialysis and dysfunction. I'll consume a burger in your honor this weekend. - Kevin Leroux

I am really, deeply sorry to hear this Robert - I follow your posts and tweets with great interest and can't begin to imagine that such a big name could suffer. Famous people don't get ill!! My real sympathies. - Peter Curd

I am a Diet Coke addict and I thank you for reminding me that drinking it is not healthy nor is it good for our bodies. Changing your eating habits may be difficult at first, but it will soon be second nature. Take care of your kidneys! - Rachel Baker

Put yourself on your list of things to take care of. - Phil Boiarski

Robert - With all the flying and running around you do, it could be worse. You've got more energy than the Energizer bunny. - Charlie Anzman

Good luck Pal. Sorry to hear about his. You'll come out just fine though. You've got lots of people who love you and support you around you and you might find some brand new foods that you never even knew you loved. - Thomas Hawk

Sorry to hear. :( - Tyson Key

So are you allowed Pasta? What about Fish - Marcus Beagley

After I re-installed Windows Vista three times on my dekstop it was finally stable, enough to the point where I could use it. - Patrick from twhirl

Very sorry to hear that - any threat to kidneys or liver must be taken very seriously, but we can be thankful that there is so much we can do within our own control, through diet. Been having to tiptoe around my kidneys since I was a kid (but thankfully I can eat almost everything in moderation, but I had years salt-free and it could change again - salt free seriously complicated life!). There is plenty of great foods you can still eat, and do learn to like new things faster than we realise. - Iphigenie

Robert, very sorry to hear that. Changing a diet is difficult, but I am sure you can work through it. Good luck. - Rob Diana

Robert, I am so sorry. Giving up Diet Coke sounds to me even harder than giving up Big Macs. Take care of yourself, please! - Betsy Devine

I have been against diet drinks for a very long time. Good for you to do this! - Martha

I know Tofu and Textured Vegetable Protien are pretty decent in terms of what you can do with it and the taste. - Stephen Lecheler

First month hard to give up , but by third month it will be much easier and by then you will be able to tell a difference in the way you feel. More than your kidneys will thank you. Overall fitness/wellness program may help too. Best of luck! - Tracy Benham

I gave up Coke and French Fries from one whole year. It was surprising how that also basically meant I gave up hamburgers as well (you wouldn't order that without the other). Wife is nagging me to give them up again. - Andrew Leyden

Robert, take care of yourself and stay healthy. - Paul

robert, sorry to hear about your illness praying for you and your family - Jonathan Jesse

thats not good. Take care of yourself. - Venky Chinnathambi

Take care of yourself! By chance, is it polyarteritis nodosa? My mom has it and I've long suspected it was caused by her...unhealthy consumption habits. - Phoenix

Drink water, lot's of water and your kidneys will love you - paul mooney

Diet pop to me has a really bad after taste, I avoid pop when I can, but if my mom buys it I drink it. Other then that I drink water - Patrick from twhirl

Drink water, but don't drink too much if you have chronic kidney disease. You'll swell up. - Victor Ganata

I myself prefer regular - sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>

I'm not sure if you've discovered the wonderful world of loose-leaf tea yet, but I recently did and it's a wonderful alternative. Check out adagioteas.com. Good stuff! - Rob

Lose-leaf tea is simply the best tea you can get; I've been drinking Darjeeling Second Flush for many years now and don't ever want to miss it. - Donald Townsend

"I knew a diabetic who was sometimes hit by an overwhelming feeling of being deprived." - these times inevitably come because it's for the rest of your frickn life. The good news is the feelings go away and you realize life is still good. It will suck, but I have confidence you can make it through. Life will be different, but it will be just as good, maybe even better. - Todd Hoff

Robert, sorry to hear you have the same disease, but making the decision to stay away from diet drinks and red meat will be good for you in lots of ways. Your heart and arteries will thank you too. Be sure to encourage Patrick and Milan to adopt the same limitations, since it's hereditary. - Karoli

Robert I know you'll be able to manage this disease. I wish you the best of success in keeping it from impacting you enjoying your life to the fullest. I just found out last year that I have diabetes, totally changed how I'm supposed to eat, live, etc. I haven't done a great job with it - but I just remember how stunned I was when i found out and how it seemed to change how I look at everything, from my own mortality to priorities, to family to everything else. - Morgan

Sorry to hear that. Robert :( - Shey

Sorry to hear that, but it's great it was seen early. Hope you discover lots of good juices and thing to replace the sodas. And hope the BBQ at SXSW doesn't drive you nuts :) - Patrick Jordan

For your cold beverage + caffeine fix, the South (yes, I'm speaking for the region) recommends Sweet Tea. *Real* sweet tea with sugar. Not that weird raspberry tea stuff they pass off in California. - Paul Reynolds

Whole Foods 365 Cola has no phosphorus, no corn syrup and tastes pretty good - RAPatton

He can't have ANY cola...as they all have potassium. He has to avoid salt, potassium and phosphorous like the plague. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Alex: I can have potassium. That only matters in later stages of the disease. But I can't have phosphorous. Some sodas, like 7 UP are OK. Any that have phosphoric acid aren't OK, though. - Robert Scoble

If you say so...although 50% is the middle of it...should definitely avoid salt and keep your blood pressure low as that has an effect on the kidneys as well. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

7-Up -- it takes the ouch out of grouch. And it's Lithiated! http://www.flickr.com/photos... Sorry about the kidney issues, no fun. - Paula W

Thanks everyone for the very kind words! Unfortunately iced tea is on the list of things I can't have. I don't know why. So is beer. These foods have phosphorous which is bad for my kidneys (yours are OK, so you don't need to worry about these limitations). They don't know what is causing our kidney disease. - Robert Scoble

Sorry to hear about this, as someone who doesn't drink tea or coffee (so lives on Coke), and is addicted to red meat, ice cream and beer! Just glad to hear you've found out about it at a time when you can make some changes. If it helps, I'm about to give quitting smoking another go, so I'll be having my own withdrawal problems! - Badger Gravling

I'm a bit late, but sorry to hear about this. It sounds like you're still able to keep it under control by changing your diet. One of my uncles was on dialysis and it's not fun. Since it's hereditary, is there any chance Patrick & Milan could also develop it? - Mike Hussein Cohen

Am from India here. Seen enough veggie, teetotalers. Welcome to the club (partly at least! ). It's not that hard, will be tough initially but as your friends,colleagues learn and understand, it will become much easier later as nobody is going to offer you foods you r not supposed 2 take, so less temptation. Switch to soya (ask doc 1st of course). Heard soya has lots of stuff which you would otherwise miss out due to severely reduced meat intake. - Akshay Kini

My dad had kidney disease and was on dialysis for 15 years back when it was less efficient and more problematic. I am sorry your dad is struggling with it too. We never were clear on what the triggers might have been with my dad but environment was a likely factor as he spent a lot of time in old print newsrooms and aerospace manufacturing facilities. - sean808080

Lindsay

What's a reasonable price for secure off-site (ie, "in the Cloud") storage/backup of your files? Quoted either as monthly or yearly per GB... What would YOU be willing to pay? Free doesn't count... we all want it to be free (remember you get what you pay for).

January 17, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Mathew™ aka Youngblood, Rob Sellen :o) and 26 other people liked this

Amazon S3? - directeur

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Amazon's offering might be a good baseline - here's there FAQ type page, that includes cost info: http://aws.amazon.com/s3... - Patrick Jordan

Amazon S3 .... - Brandon

So you're all happy with Amazon's rates? Think it's worth what you're getting out of the service? - Lindsay

Lindsay, to be honnest, I never tried it myself (I wish I could though) but from what I've read since its first days, I think it's the best - directeur

I'm asking because the hardware for data storage is SO cheap now... but those price cuts don't seem to be reflected in online-storage service rates. I use Amazon S3 but I think it's a bit pricey, especially considering how much data I would LIKE to store, but instead have to choose only those 100GB or so out of near a TB of files that are "most important" to me to back up. - Lindsay

Lindsay, what about a home storage server? You can use an old machine with some good disk and a linux distro. That'd be cheap and fun to use - directeur

Well, you can get several GB of critical data free into a Google account. Mozy will give you 2 GB free or unlimited for $5/month. Carbonite unlimited is $50/year. But I think it's important to weigh these against offsite sneakernet too (not only price, but functionality). - Tinfoil 2.0

You're missing the point, directeur :) I'm not really looking for an alternative... I'm trying to find out where people's price points are... there's a point where it's cheap enough that people who haven't considered it before would. How much SHOULD it cost? I don't think there's a service out there right now that offers a honestly good price for my tolerance... is there for anyone else? - Lindsay

@LE - I have close to a TB of data I should back up... 1-5GB of free space isn't going to help much... Carbonite I have avoided because I've heard that unlimited isn't REALLY unlimited... I want it DEAD SIMPLE an automatic for me to have my stuff backed up, so sneakernet isn't really an option. - Lindsay

I haven't used any of the online solutions, haven't found one yet that suits my needs. I prefer the capacity, speed, control and trust I can achieve with local backups and offsite physical media. - Tinfoil 2.0

Lindsay - I haven't used S3 myself either and I don't have storage needs as large as yours I think ... - Patrick Jordan

Ok, I'll throw a price out there to focus this discussion more... I could not resist a service that gave me storage for $1/GB per year. I might go up to $5/GB/year as irresistible. Is that too little? Why does it cost any more than that now? - Lindsay

Lindsay, I think they'll charge per badwidth use too? - directeur

Hard drives are now $0.10 per GB. With 5 year warranties and redundancy, it's still way cheaper than $1/GB. But yes, it is more work than fully automatic. I'm not using the warranty period as a proxy for data integrity, only to illustrate that you could buy new drives for a redundant config every year or two and still come out well ahead. - Tinfoil 2.0

That's my point, LE... if it's only $0.10/GB for hardware, then companies should be making 90% profit on that space by offering it for $1/GB (and if I pay for more than one year at that rate, it's more gravy for them). @directeur, bandwidth is also cheap... Taking it out of the $0.90 profit should still give them a ton of money. - Lindsay

I would pay $20 per month for 1TB - Mitch

I now manage just over 30TB of data for a client on Amazon S3. The prices are the best for the availability and throughput of the service (up and down). We researched the cost of Akamai and many others ... at the time, though, their prices were almost 8 times higher. We have yet to find a better more reliable service for the cost than S3. - Brandon

And I would like the cost per month to "ramp up" from 0 to 20 until I reached a full 1TB - Mitch

@Brandon - I know S3 is currently the most competitively priced on the market... But do you feel that it should cost as much as it does considering the fact that the hardware is SO CHEAP now? I know there is value in the fact that it's Amazon and trustworthy, but I'm just asking if you think that the price is really a fair one (regardless of being the current best). - Lindsay

@Mitch, so about $240/~1000GB/year huh? Yeah, that's a good bit less than it would take to tempt me. :) But I would definitely bite at that. - Lindsay

This may or may not miss the point, but Mossy consumer is 5$/month per computer with unlimited storage. When looking around, that was my price point and they won. - Robert Miller

@Spidra, what's a reasonable price per GB/year for energy/security development effort/customer service then? Do you think it would be more than my spare $0.90 out of a $1 minus hardware costs? Realizing that some of those costs are 1-time things and after the second year it's gravy (hardware installation and development efforts). - Lindsay

@Robert - I am very wary of any service offering "unlimited" storage... it's usually not actually the case after you start trying to upload a large amount (40GB seems to be a magical limit). Then you're "abusing" the service and asked to remove your files. I've had it happen to me and I've heard about it happening to others. Not specifically with Mozy, but I've been burned and don't want to waste my time uploading stuff to a service that's going to do that to me. I would rather have limits outright. - Lindsay

I can't read the AbdO's comment! :( - Lindsay

Amazon s3 + coudfront are excellently priced - mjc

So you think it's fairly priced, Michael, even with hardware being as cheap as it is? I guess that seems to be the consensus... and I use S3 myself, but I still think it's overpriced. - Lindsay

I haven't jumped into S3 yet myself because I think it's overpriced. Physical storage is just too inexpensive right now. I would love to (and really do need to) have offsite storage but when compared to the price of physical storage it's just too much. - Robert DeBord

Right, Robert. So what would be the tipping point for you? What would make it inexpensive enough for you to consider cloud storage vs a new physical drive for backup? - Lindsay

Well, I'd definitely be on board with the $20/1TB/month ramp up plan. I expect a new drive to last more than a year and 1TB drives are down between $100-150 now so I would be ok with paying roughly double that per year for the convenience of not having to worry about dragging a drive off-site with me everyday. - Robert DeBord

Personally, I think Carbonite is awesome for unlimited storage. - Tamar Weinberg

Tamar, how much do you store in Carbonite? @Robert - agreed! - Lindsay

@Lindsay. I think Amazon's prices are fair. Obviously if you can operate in the Economies of Scale you are going to benefit greatly with reduced pricing. If we're talking about the average consumer -- then I think most would say the price is too high. But for a company like SmugMug, that tears through TeraBytes and beyond each day -- It's an affordable solution. - Brandon

That makes sense, Brandon... I'm just thinking there's a average consumer market out there that is being ignored... And I'm wondering why that is... if there is really more cost to it that it seems like there should be, or if it's just companies being greedy because they have enough "big customers" already. - Lindsay

Great Post Lindsay, I have the same pain point. I use S3 but I don't store as much as I'd like b/c fixed cost too high. S3 seems to be a great fit on the two ends of the spectrum - WIN: a consumer's essential documents/small photo archive ===> MIXED: Power users - large photo/video catalog, project files, and everything else ====> WIN: Small/Medium business critical data. - Micah

I agree Brandon, for businesses Amazon makes total sense. Just not for *me* as an individual. The difference in cost between buying the backup drives on newegg and doing it myself vs using Amazon is still to great to take advantage of. - Robert DeBord

And I also agree with you Micah, it seems great if you're only backing up a small, critical group of data. My concern with that is I don't want to have to decide what is or isn't worth the risk/cost of backing up. I want everything backed up and I'll figure out what I need to pull back down when I need it. - Robert DeBord

i've started playing around with S3 + JungleDisk and I think it might work for me. Time Machine is cool and all, but it doesn't help me if I have a fire, flood, earthquake, or whatever.... - Anthony Citrano

@Lindsay I know that the hardware is cheap but that's not the only thing that makes S3 function. There are many costs associated with running a cloud. Yes you need the hardware... but you also need people to maintain the cloud so that it remains stable. I really don't think Amazon is being greedy ... If they could charge less, I think they would. - Brandon

@Micah - I think you have it spelled out well. I'm in that Power user group that would like to take full advantage of S3 but can't justify the cost. And it's for the reason Robert pointed out. I don't want to have to decide what's "worth" backing up... I just want to back it all up. I want a consumer priced service that I trust that doesn't do a bait and switch on me. I'd love to hear from anyone who uses Mozy or Carbonite and stores 100GB or more of data on it. - Lindsay

@Brandon - I know there are other costs beyond the hardware... That's why I asked if someone could name how much that should also be worth. I like Amazon (I am even a stock holder), but it feels to me that they could offer a consumer service that wasn't so geared toward developers (who need a lot of hooks and special features) and offer something more targeted toward a crowd who just want an economical way to backup the large amounts of data they collect/create almost daily now. - Lindsay

Again, I use S3 myself, mainly because, as a developer, I can figure out how to get my data in an out of it and because it's the cheapest out there. But I still feel like I'm being taken advantage of when hardware is SO CHEAP now. I do have to make the call of "for this data, the convenience of storing it in the cloud isn't worth the money" and I don't want to... I just want all my stuff backed up in the same place. - Lindsay

I used JungleDisk when it was free, Chris. But haven't been able to make myself pay for it. I use Super Flexible File Synchronizer and S3Fox (FireFox extension) for S3 most of the time now. SFFS isn't free either but it lets me sync with other servers besides S3 (including our local network) so it was worth more to me than the single-purpose JungleDisk. - Lindsay

You don't have to convince me of the merits of the cloud, Chris. :) I am a believer. I've thought about doing the VPN thing with my mother, but just having one hard drive store my backup makes me uneasy, because, as you say HDs aren't exactly super dependable. My father once had his RAID, backup drive and offsite backup drive all die at the same time in a weird synchronicity. That's why I prefer the cloud.... if I can afford it. - Lindsay

Glad I could help. Been using SFFS for almost 2 years now. It's a great, simple, dependable program that does what it should. - Lindsay

How much is fair to you Lindsay for S3 services? - Alex Sauceda

I'm really happy with Sugarsync.com $100;/yr for 100 Gig. - bill giltner

Lindsay, honestly I have no idea - probably not hundreds of gigs, but I bet I could if I needed to. - Tamar Weinberg

@Alex - well, a TB of storage on Amazon is about $1800/year and that's not counting fees for bandwidth of $100 initial transfer and regular monthly transfer I'll lump into about $100/year... so about $2K a year for me to put as much data as I WANT to up there... ain't gonna happen. I can't afford much more than $50/month max ($600/yr) and that's equivalent to buying 3-4 hard drives a year and would only get me about 300GB on S3. Mitch proposed $20/mo/TB. That would be awesome... I would pay $50/mo/TB. - Lindsay

Seriously. Dreamhost? I maintain an account there for storage and occasional access, and a server in China for a similar price and distributed redundancy (China is cheap regarding hosting, though many companies fly-by-night). - AlexBowman

@AlexBowman, Dreamhost was the company that suspended my account because I tried to actually use the "500GB storage" they offered. Read the fine print... it's only for "web hosting related files". I wasted days uploading stuff only to have to delete it all so they would unsuspend my account and let my hosted websites be active again! Details: http://macrolinz.com/macroli... - Lindsay

@Lindsay Luckily I seem to be under their radar. Distributed storage is useful. Here in China, some video websites (similar to YouTube) are using Internet Cafes as local nodes to cache content (China's kinda big, and Internet cafes are everywhere, with desktops, spare disk capacity, good bandwidth). Basic systems but very smart application. Of course, bandwidth through the Great Firewall is capped ~50kBs. - AlexBowman

@AlexBowman - I know there are places I could store my data online, but I want a single, reputable, secure place to store my data... not somewhere that could disappear overnight or that I am storing data on against their policies and could lose access to at any minute. I don't want that risk or wasted time (it takes lots of time to upload hundreds of GBs of data). - Lindsay

@Chris - A post on Zumo drive is actually what inspired me to post the original question... They give you 200GB of space but it's expensive, AND they're a startup, so would I really trust them with my data? - Lindsay

@LOGIX - I agree, security is a big issue... and that's one reason I would rather go with a big name that I trust because a lot of other people trust them as well. There's nothing foolproof, but I'd rather have backed up data that _might_ be compromised than no backup at all. There is a bit of safety in obscurity... someone would have to know what they wanted and how to find it among the many GBs of data I would upload. Is it worth _their_ effort to figure it out... - Lindsay

I'd pay $10/GB/year. However, my conditions are these - it needs to be cross platform, dedicated, Web and iPhone clients, with sync options per file/directory. - teleken

@Ekim - Yeah, I had started naming some of my external drives after techniques... ikkyo, nikkyo, etc... Kiku is one of my older drives that's named after a Temari patten (Japanese embroidered thread balls, a craft I was into heavily for a while) and means "chrysanthemum". - Lindsay

I won't use the cloud. Too me I don't feel right storing my stuff on some random server somewhere. I want to be able to see the device my stuff is being stored on. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

does anyone use Apple Mobile Me? www.me.com - Eren Emre Kanal

@Matthew - how do you handle backups and make sure you're not losing your data on device failure or loss? - Lindsay

1 PETABYTE for FREE!! - iTad

WHAT!? 1 Pedobear for free? - Tinfoil 2.0

S3 isnt a bad price... and the new Mosso based CloudFS is also a great option but less convenient. The combo of S3 and JungleDisk really makes it a no-brainer. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

To echo your comment by the way - the last thing you want is to trust an unknown or brand new company with this. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

S3 would cost me $2K/yr for the amount of data that I want to store. It's just too expensive for me as a "consumer" (and I don't think I'm the only one out there looking for a good solution for around a TB of data). I understand that they have operating costs but I really don't think it should cost that much. - Lindsay

@Lindsay - as for the price - the real issue is not "what does it cost them" it is "what is it worth to me". Since I could not do what S3 does for me for anythign like the same price it is worth it to me. I don't need service providers to operate on thin margins - only that their prices make sense to me, the consumer, for what I get. S3 involved hardware, software, distributed data... more... - Soulhuntre

I understand your argument, Soulhuntre, but I think they are missing a market that they could cater to... It's the only real game in town, so I will play it to what I can afford, and then I'm back to deciding which of my data it is "worth it to me" to store. I would like to not have to make that distinction... I would like for the price to be reasonable enough that I can store all my data that way. Currently I have about 200GB of data on S3 and I could probably go up another 100, but the other ~700 is SOL. - Lindsay

Paul Denlinger

Survey hints China in face of possible baby boom - http://english.people.com.cn/90001...

January 16, 2009 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

AlexBowman liked this

With a bad economy and few jobs, let's do the two-backed animal and make babies! - Paul Denlinger

It's actually very hard to find an apartment with three bedrooms unless it's in a more luxury estate or above 80m2. Contrast with HK public housing where 3 bedrooms can fit in 35m2 and home a family of 6. Next big thing? Small city apartments with more rooms, maybe. - AlexBowman

Loic Le Meur

What WAS Privacy? -preparing my Davos session want to help? http://www.loiclemeur.com/english...

January 11, 2009 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

CJ Guest, Kenneth Chu, Will Higgins™ and 6 other people liked this

I will be there. What night is this so I can put it on my calendar? Privacy is my bedroom. And even there it isn't totally private. Milan didn't come from nowhere. Other things that are private: my bank account. Although right now it's pretty thin. My medical records. Nothing to write home about there. My calendar, which is half public (you can see whether or not I'm booked, but not... more... - Robert Scoble

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hi Robert, sure we'd love to have you there for dinner with us! Save January 28th from 8 to 10 PM, feel free to help me prepare it too, I'd love to start with the contributions from our communities. - Loic Le Meur

mmm I linked my FF comments to my disqus but now the conversation has started on the tweet so it is not copied on disqus on my blog. Tough. - Loic Le Meur

Note to self: find a way to get these comments over this blog post: http://is.gd/frXj with ff2disqus. - Carter ♥ HTML5

Privacy is only dead for those who choose to have none. An overview: http://logicalextremes.blogspot.com/2009... - I post a lot of privacy-related links on FriendFeed here: http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Tinfoil 2.0

a Google team will present http://bit.ly/privsocnet in May at the Web 2.0 Security and Privacy meeting -- excellent examples and recommendations. Loic, good luck on your presentation at Davos. - Adriano

Privacy was a nice enlightenment idea whose time has passed... in the network world the old model of privacy simply does not work, but we do not yet have anything to replace it with and are therefore exposed and frightened. - Bill Thompson

it still exists - you still have the right to stop sharing the info, just cause you're giving the data out doesn't mean it is dead. - alphaxion

Privacy was a right that everyone thought they had 50 years ago. Bill Thompson is right, it just can't work in today's ultra-connected world. If someone isn't on Facebook then I am suspicious of them. Wanting privacy seems a bit odd. - Robin Yellow

How ironic that Robin Yellow has a private feed. - Tinfoil 2.0

You got me there Logical Extremes. I have made my private feed public. By the way, "Extremes" is a really unusual surname? - Robin Yellow

Yes, Extremes would be an unusual surname, but then I'm the one who believes that privacy is an essential human right, to be exercised along whatever axes, and to whatever extent, each individual chooses. - Tinfoil 2.0

Paul Denlinger

Economy made few gains in Bush years - Washington Post- msnbc.com - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id...

January 11, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

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Why am I not surprised? - Paul Denlinger from Bookmarklet

Chris Amico

News Mixer: How Can We Improve Comments on News Sites? - http://www.knightblog.org/news-mi...

January 6, 2009 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

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Chris Amico

Tools for News - http://chrisamico.com/work...

January 6, 2009 from Chris Amico: Journalist - Comment - Like - Share

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Paul Denlinger

The Elephant In The Room - http://www.chinavortex.com/2008...

December 16, 2008 from The China Vortex - Comment - Like - Share

Elliott Ng and AlexBowman liked this

An interesting post. I'd like to make a couple of comments: One is that I don't really agree Economics is concerned about productivity, as much as it is concerned about utility in productivity - i.e. what is made from such productivity gains - which really only reinforces your points above. The second, about IT in productivity - IT strides, the origin for much focusses in the US, are... more... - AlexBowman

Alex: Thank you for your comments. Very cogent. Comments should not be turned off. I just upgraded to WP 2.7 one week ago and they were working up until then. Just checked the admin panel and there was nothing to show that comments were turned off. - Paul Denlinger