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Alex Haar › Likes
Very happy FriendFeed stayed up and fast through the WWDC. Good work, everyone at the FriendFeed HQ!
Zu from AOD, urdumania1, Brent - Yes I am and 130 other people liked this
rock solid
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
Go FriendFeed!!!! EPIC WIN!
- Steve Isaacs
I never had any doubts. Nice job, guys.
- Louis Gray
Love Ya Friendfeed!
- Parth Awasthi
from twhirl
Indeed ! that's was very nice! Have you done anything special about this Bret? (Like twitter's folks)
- directeur
very nice. anyone could guess Friendfeed would make it.
- SolidSmack
from twhirl
We did move a few things around, but nothing temporary - the event inspired us to optimize a few things we had been meaning to optimize anyway.
- Bret Taylor
yay scalability!
- Neha Narula
Bret: Big! Congrats! You've done a very nice job ! :)
- directeur
I guess that I will be hanging out with ya'll for the rest of the day. :)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
FriendFeed FTW!
- mathew ingram
unlike the oh so much stress Twitter will be having FriendFeed will be up and running
- Outsanity
I'd like to second this notion: well done Friendfeed, you guys have your shit together and I respect that.
- ryangraves
Rob (Radez) actually just said the same thing. Good work, guys!
- Gabor Cselle
Even wordpress hosted sites are down! FF is well hosted and manged!
- Lakshman Prasad
from twhirl
Me think FriendFeed cousin Googawl...
- directeur
It rocked... simply the best place for live updates.
- Vince DeGeorge
FF rox!
- anna sauce
This was great! FF had updates faster than the folks liveblogging the event.
- Jennifer Dittrich
ya, man, FriendFeed Rocks!
- Ralph Poole
from twhirl
Kudos..It was your stress test
- Varun Mahajan
nothing beats FF!
- Dieter Schwarz
FriendFeed triumphs yet again
- Shey
can we have some traffic stats please?
- Ivan Pope
from twhirl
well done! friendfeed deserves all the hype it can get!
- Chris Hofmann
Does it count as hype if it's true?
- Amit Patel
pity we cannot say the same for twitter :)
- Photo Larry
from twhirl
Amit: A wise man once said it isn't bragging if it is true.
- Russellreno
brat sana dm atamıyorum!
- aynebilim
aynebilim sen bana sor takmaz o seni :P
- Gökhan. (Guru fasulye)
:D iyiki layklamışım, gece gece kahkaya boğulurum şimdi.
- batuhan icoz
puhahahahhaha
- mehmetkose
#bretbunabak
- @barisunver #beyn.org
adam bunlar kim noluyo falan diyodur şimdi, translate'den çeviriyodur falan :D
- mehmetkose
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh merdaaaa, aaaaaaahhhh mmmmmmerda!
- 1Co
hazır tanış yok diye brat'e yazıyorum..hemen doluyorsunuz yahu peşimden:))) brat seviişelim mi?
- aynebilim
ayn çok ayıp!!!
- gzmozz
filiz'e sorsaydım keşke:(
- aynebilim
haha adam ff'i kapaticak sizin yuzunuzden
- Gökhan. (Guru fasulye)
hiç peşinden dolarmıyız ayıp sana.
- mehmetkose
Happy holidays from the FriendFeed crew! - http://blog.friendfeed.com/2008...
cyrusholiday, urdumania1, berkay sözbilir. and 276 other people liked this
Thanks to Kevin for another great logo...
- Bret Taylor
YAY! Snowmens!
- Yolanda
Cool logo! :)
- AJ Batac (/-_-)
I think they need scarves. They look cold.
- Yolanda
Great logo! Simple and fun.
- Brandon Titus
great :) çok sevdim bu logoyu :)
- Burak Budak
Cool :D
- Pedram
Kevin - that is an awesome logo!!!!!
- Susan Beebe
+102 for Bill Waterson references in picture Kevin or words Sinterclas
- SteVe "Beefy Miracle" C
cute but what happened to festivus this year?
- Laura Norvig
Merry Christmas to the FriendFeed team. You guys rock! FriendFeed reacts quickly and you're adding wonderful features all the time (Thanks soooo much for the "edit" feature.)
- Mitchell Tsai
Happy Festivus!
- ◄ani625Ξ ಠ_ಠ
Happy festive season to you all as well :)
- Niki Costantini
Happy Holidays!!!
- David Cook
love it~
- Sunny
Love!!!
- Bee
Glad you like it! (And glad people picked up on the Waterson influence :-)
- Kevin Fox
Merry Christmas! :D
- Ron
Happy Holidays FF crue -- you've made this an excellent and memorable year for many of us. Facebook couldn't have done it without you! :)
- Christopher Galtenberg
w00t you gave me the best online year in 15 years!!! ;p Thanks a lot, everyone, for what you've done here XD
- Zu from AOD
Merry Christmas to all
- Craig Eddy
Merry Christmas!
- Svein Håvard Djupvik
Haha! I love horrified snowmen. Merry Christmas to FriendFeed!
- Chris Lasher
Joyeux Noel a tout le monde!
- Mathieu Ayel
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
- Anne Bouey
Feliz navidad a ti!
- JA Castillo
Thanks! Happy Holidarys! Merry Christmas!
- Bill Romanos
happy christmas, chanukah and kwanzaa.
- D. Eda Goze
happy chrismas and a happy new year!!!
- ethan meccage
Awwwww sniff
- Kevin Fox
Happy holidays! Take good care of yourselves and... enjoy those days off! <o> \o,
- Zu from AOD
Merry Christmas!
- Ian May
Tks and love you all !!!
- @Renchin@
ahh, the good ol' days.
- MikeAmundsen
Happy Holidays FriendFeers! <superbump />
- AJ Batac (/-_-)
cool!!
- Ferzvladimir
*bump*
- imabonehead
Sigh. Sometimes it is the little touches, like seasonal logos or easter eggs, that mark a site as a living project, and that you really miss when the developers have all moved on to something else.
- Michael R. Bernstein
ای جان چقدر خوبه این
- WALL.E
1 yıl geçmiş üzerinden bretim taylorum vay anasına dimi..
- Taylan GERDAN (Tylolhot)
*You* balance the budget | Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/news...
HealingBrush, yasin ghasemi, Cibeles and 61 other people liked this
“Try your hand at closing California’s budget shortfall, estimated at $24 billion. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Cut spending, raise taxes and/or borrow to get the state out of the red. For each choice -- drawn from proposals from across the political spectrum -- we’ve tried to give some sense of the effects. As you craft your proposal, the Deficit Meter will show your progress.”
- Anthony Citrano
Holy crap...I tried it...raising taxes only gets you about halfway there and then you have to make some pretty painful cuts to get the rest of the way there. California is truly screwed.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
I got them into the green but it took some doing. Interesting that "legalize marijuana and tax at 10%" wasn't an option as a revenue stream. I wonder how quickly the scenario would change if it were.
- FFing Enigma
My only option is to move to florida
- Tony C (Unrated)
from fftogo
@Tina - it is an option (Assembly Bill 390) but not within the current emergency session. @Alex: Yes, but it ain't just California. The state continues to serve as an essential US leading indicator. ;)
- Anthony Citrano
Wow, that is amazing to see. I didn't even manage to get it half way down. My mom is in human services and as a recent college grad with no insurance it was hard to cut anything from education, human services, health or state workers. Poor Cali. :(
- Heather Rantypants
@Earl: Florida, New York, and Michigan are close on California's heels. Try maybe Hawaii instead.
- Ordinarybug Heather
Another 6 months of Obama, and the U.S. will be like California.
- Spencer
That's an awesome visualization. California is pretty fucked.
- Eric P
I fixed it, but I raised the hell out of some taxes to do it.
- Steve Lowe
Here is what I would do.. I'd actually probably do more than just what has been proposed: http://www.latimes.com/news...
- Bill Rawlinson
If you cut everything but the one-time fixes, and don't raise taxes, you are still in the red. California is boned. Can we sell it to Japan? China?
- Andy Dustman
@Spencer: clue up, mon vieux.
- Anthony Citrano
@Andy, Heather, Eric - as I said to Alex: this isn't unique to CA; it's coming soon to a State House near you.
- Anthony Citrano
Yeah, but not to the extent that CA is facing...unless the economy gets worse. :)
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
@Alex - that depends on whether you measure "extent" in percentages or absolutes. In absolutes, of course none are to the extent of CA because it's the largest state economy. But in percentage terms, most state budgets are similarly fucked over the next fiscal session - two if they're lucky.
- Anthony Citrano
I disagree. California is uniquely fucked up because of its constitution and system of ballot referendums (prop 13). Other states are able to adjust and respond more effectively as they go along - obviously they haven't stayed deficit free, but the situation isn't *as* dire elsewhere.
- Eric P
It's important to keep in mind that this is a static tool for what is an inherently dynamic problem. You can raise taxes, sure, but you'll also lose an extraordinary amount of revenue in subsequent years as families relocate. And if you think that won't happen, keep in mind that Cali is already hemorrhaging high-earners. Cali's problem is a spending problem, just as the rest of the...
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- Forrest Cox
Good fun, balance California budget!
- Mike Reynolds
Wow, this is a great visual representation. Totally depressing.
- joey
@Eric P: yes, California has unique challenges. But what I meant was that the core problem - i.e. the state being totally bankrupt - is not unique. Many US states will be right behind it.
- Anthony Citrano
In MO, we had a GOP Gov. who made draconian cuts to balance the budget. It made him unpopular and he only served one term; but we are stable fiscally now.
- Robert Hafer
from iPhone
@Anthony - but not too many other states have an economy roughly the size of France's. A good comparison here is Texas, which is also very large, very diverse, and is in comparatively sterling fiscal shape.
- Forrest Cox
Just legalize our states #1 Cash crop, and the tax revenues from it should go a long way to shoring up the budget permanently. Then repeat for every other state and things might actually start to get better! Imagine that!
- Michael Fidler
The budget "options" are too old. Due to a failure to act before July 1 - some options are no longer available.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
from BuddyFeed
I didn't see an option to cut the salaries of the governor and legislators to minimum wage level.
- John (bird whisperer)
I balanced the budget and have almost $11 million left over without raising ONE TAX! http://www.latimes.com/news... :P (And yes, I'm dead serious)
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
No new taxes? Select the "possibly illegal" cuts and give voters next election a choice: keep more of your earnings and invest in your own futures, or give it all to us and trust us to rain those benefits sufficiently back to you. Do you really have confidence CA can do that efficiently?
- Andrew Skretvedt
After experimenting and looking at the list, any change of less than a billion dollars is barely worth making. Fixing this is going to be painful, but this is what you get for continuously demanding services, at some point they need to be paid for. The "cut the health and dental care for state retirees maybe be illegal and will be challenged in court" is kind weird: if the state goes bankrupt, those won't be paid out anyway. But I guess everyone gets to feel good about not having to cut that.
- Andy Bakun
I also don't get why we're spending money on some of these things. Why are we keeping illegal immigrants in state prisons? Why have they not been deported? Wouldn't deporting them as soon as possible actually be cheaper in the long run?
- Andy Bakun
New constitution.
- anna sauce
That wasn't too hard. I made 14bn in cuts and 16bn in new taxes, giving me a budget surplus of 6.8bn which I will bank for the next two years as the tax base shrinks even more. I gutted law enforcement (over porked as it is), cut hard across community college level (sorry kids, suck it up for a bit and read on your own) but left k-14 intact as well as ALL health and human services.
- Cole Jolley
It's amazing how may state funded freeloaders there are in Ca.
- Kenny Elliott
Maybe I didn't see the option, but I wanted to release all non-violent drug offenders, and others incarcerated for victimless crimes. That should've been worth something.
- Dave Roth
This is a wonderful application. It's very easy to armchair quarterback things like budgets. It's good to be able to see options laid out in an interactive fashion like this. Should do it more often, particularly before elections.
- Barry Biddlecomb
from twhirl
My one gripe about the application: It only shows the *deficit*, not the entire budget, and cuts that have been proposed by politicians. This is around $130B if federal funds aren't counted, $200B with federal funds. http://www.dof.ca.gov/budgeti...
- Andy Dustman
Gawd...this is hard to do without cutting much needed programs (I think anyway.)
- Adam C.
California is setting an early example for a wholesale rethink sorely needed in the United States. That is: what should government really be responsible for? As many of you have said, this is an example of free-riding entitlement gone amok. And if you all think this is bad, just wait until we have to take the same approach to the federal budget....
- Anthony Citrano
The thing is, paying more isn't even an option, since the Governator will terminate any bill that tries to raise taxes. Although I wonder how long that stance is going to last.
- Victor Ganata
Teach probability instead of calculus - http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2009...
Space Cowboy, Daniel Dulitz, Mike Reynolds and 6 other people liked this
David Cowan: "Instead of building up to calculus as the epitome of math education, we should instead sequence our lessons so that every high school graduate understands statistics and probability. Calculus is nice for scientists to know, but statistics inform most complex decisions that people have to make both at work and at home. Undoubtedly, Benjamin is right that most people don't understand simple concepts like expected value, which perhaps explains the success of lotteries and casinos."
- Nivi
from Bookmarklet
I think the people who play lotteries understand that the expected probability of gaining financial independence in the next week is zero if they don't play, and epsilon if they do :)
- Private Sanjeev
But if those same people would explore the opportunity cost, they would see that their epsilon could be slightly greater in another investment. but we're human, so we're driven by our short-term emotional satisfaction.
- avlok
Today is "National Remove Losing Political Candidate Stickers From a Vehicle Day!". Winners have until Labor Day. Remind your neighbors.
Alex Haar, Bryan Zirkel, Bret Taylor and 3 other people liked this
But my Dukakis sticker hides a dent.
- Richard Chen
I'm considering a special dispensation for the Minnesota Senate race. Christmas perhaps?
- Jason Shellen
What about my "Don't blame me, I voted for Bartlet!" sticker - can I leave that one on?
- John Craft
Bartlett can stay.
- Jason Shellen
from iPhone
Dot at the end of day - http://1x.com/...
خان دایی سیا, Philip Lei, Ken Morley and 60 other people liked this
Z ?
- ♣ ♣ ♣
زورو در آسمان:دي
- ♣ ♣ ♣
wow
- Alooché
ZORO ....
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
زحل
- Alooché
زحل ??
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
اولین باری که دیدم یاد زحل افتادم خب
- Alooché
ممکنه زحل باشه
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
زحل که نیست. خورشیده ولی من یاد زحل افتادم با اون تیکه ابری که دورش مثل حلقس
- Alooché
این عکس خیلی قشنگیه من خیلی رنگش رو دوست دارم
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
عالیه
- Alooché
this is fantastic
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
الان دقیقا همین حس رو دارم :(
- وارَش
wow!!
- Tatty Gibson
رسیدم به اونی که باید. رونوشت به نوشا :)
- وارَش
وارش جان الان سرنوشت ملت و مملکتم برام مهمتره ممنونم
- Noosha
:)
- وارَش
Kevin, Daniel Rowley, Valley and 127 other people liked this
i love this :)
- Hayk
me too, hayk. :)
- Mona Nomura
Mona :)
- Hayk
geeky comics, i likey!
- imabonehead
heh
- Charlie Anzman
Yar!
- Jay Wiegmann
awesome!
- Harold Green
heck yes :)
- Mona Nomura
*chuckles*
- The Fat Oracle
what an idea
- macro
Sorry for all the bumpage, people. I'm using "search" for the first time ever.
- Mona Nomura
I can't believe the FF office is arguing about whether the Beatles are better, worse, or equal to the Beach Boys.
Alex Haar, Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど, Charlie Anzman and 27 other people liked this
Apples and oranges, no? But Brian Wilson is a genius.
- Laura Norvig
One thing we can all agree on is that the Monkees are better than all of them.
- Paul Buchheit
Next up, Louis Gray vs Lewis Black.
- Kevin Fox
I'm a Believer
- Laura Norvig
The difference is that the Beatles had to use drugs to ... oh wait.
- Akiva
No argument - Beatles were the best.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Paul: That's so true. People think they're just monkeying around, but they're too busy singing to put anybody down. They're just trying to be friendly.
- Kevin Fox
When I was about ten I dreamt that the Monkees faces were carved in a huge rock like Mt. Rushmore and Davey Jones winked at me. Wooo that dates me.
- Laura Norvig
+++++ Paul
- Rachel Lea Fox
Kraftwerk is better than both.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
I can't believe anyone would bother having that argument either. Wow. Too much time on someone's hands?
- Michael Kimsal
Here's another shocker for Alex: I have never liked Kraftwerk. I thought that their music was bland and repetitive (and this is coming from a huge krautrock fan). I appreciate their position in musical history and what they did but I can't stand listening to them.
- Akiva
Akiva, would you say that Kraftwerk was at or near the beginning of most subsequent electronic music, though? A lot of later music in several genres owes them some debt, even if it's a distant one. I realize that this is a separate issue from whether or not you like them, I just wondered what you thought.
- Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)
only in california?
- Chris Lamprecht
Kraftwerk is Camilla's favorite. She's always asking for "robot music".
- Paul Buchheit
I prefer Lewis Black
- Louis Gray
Beatles are the best of those two, by the way.
- Louis Gray
Louis, Duh! (re the Beatles)
- Kevin Fox
The Beatles: at least ten truly great albums; the Beach Boys: one, and at least three of the Beatles' albums exceed the Beach Boys' one in quality. Who's arguing otherwise?
- Mark Trapp
Beatles vs. Beach Boys? Really? I can see Beatles vs. Rolling Stones, or maybe even Beatles vs. Who at a stretch, but Beach Boys? Nah.
- Jandy
I always thought it was Beatles people vs. Elvis people.
- Akiva
Stones.
- Jason (bossin cats)
Kevin: we want video and names, please! Anyone who argues that should be docked some pay, too. :-)
- Robert Scoble
I think the love of the Beach Boys is correlated to the weather. Today's more of a Beach Boys day than Beatles. Honsetly, it's more of a Bananarama day, but that's outside the scope of this thread.
- Kevin Fox
I am a Beatles person, and I would say the Beatles, but the source of this is how the Beatles, Sir Paul in particular, rave about Pet Sounds and how it influenced the Beatles, the Sgt Pepper record in particular
- RAPatton
I just could never get my head around the Beach Boys. It seemed so... brainless. Not that songs like 'Let's Just Do It in the Road' are at the height of artistic intellect. I just can't get in on that California sound.
- Akiva
Elvis
- Rodfather
They both suck. :)
- Anika
1UP Jonathan
- Akiva
Wow...tough call. Prefer the music of the Beatles, but Brian Wilson is amazing. "Pet Sounds" is an amazing album.
- Corey Marthaller
LOL @Kevin.
- Anika
what LPH said.
- Jim the Blatant
Anyone greater than Pink Floyd, Jonathan?
- Kathy Fitch
beatles best by a mile.... ;o) i love pink floyd too. :o)
- Rob Sellen :o)
Jeez this is why I'm spending more time on Twitter these days, at least the scientists and pharma guys argue about interesting things.
- Sally Church
@kevin friendfeed ui exploration, allow voting in feed items :)
- karl dotter
You should compare Rolling Stones versus The Beatles. The Beach Boys versus Beatles is obvisouly won by so much by The Beatles ()
- Martin Añazco
Better .... The most diverse and potentially important band in history (He ducks)
- Charlie Anzman
No contest there, the Beatles are leaps and bounds above the Beach Boys.
- Mathew™ aka Youngblood
Beatles FTW
- patrick
The twitterer behind the cisco fatty incident, @theconnor , blogs her response: "Dear Internet Superheroes" http://www.theconnor.net/
Thomas Ho, Daniel Rowley, Brian and 20 other people liked this
Strange that she's purporting that there's a real persona and a fake twitter persona: the reason she got burned was because she didn't realize her real identity was attached to her Twitter account. The solution isn't to be a fake version of yourself on Twitter, it's to realize you can't say anything on the internet and not expect it to have real-world consequences. Maybe she thinks watching what she says in real life is also being "fake."
- Mark Trapp
I love it. Took responsibility for being dumb first and foremost. Didn't take it personal. Called the internet witch hunt phenom. I'm a fan.
- Bwana ☠
I am mostly a fan of that blog post other than the implied sneer when using the term "internet super heroes". Almost the high road...just didn't quite get there.
- EricaJoy
I'm still conflicted on this. While her words were not ideal for a job seeker, the response outside of a company HR channel from Cisco (assuming this was a Cisco employee retort) wells up many more questions than answers on engagement outside of acceptable (known quantified risk) channels of communication. See also: the Monty Python "sacked" series of slides.
- Jay Cuthrell
Companies are counseled to track their name on services like Twitter, to engage customers (e.g. Zappos, Comcast). Tim Levad was doing exactly what is considered best practice. He happened to catch something a bit different than a customer tweet. Since her tweet was public, what is the best response?
- Hutch Carpenter
Something less antagonistic, probably. It reads like a scolding.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Hutch: Well what was his desired outcome? His question RE who's the hiring manager was certainly rhetorical. He can't have expected theconnor to tell him. He sure wasn't trying to engage theconnor in some sort of constuctive conversation, e.g. find out what wasn't a fit about the position. theconnor wasn't slamming Cisco, really, just stating that the job wasn't a fit. Seems like the only point was to embarrass the original poster.
- Ken Sheppardson
I know this is insane, but one way to handle this situation is not through creating multiple personality disorder, but by changing how we read and react to the different aspects of people's lives. Something like don't let that crazy picture or crazy statement 20 years ago change your judgment of them forever. Be more understanding and caring.
- Todd Hoff
Fair enough Ken. Just generally, if a customer expresses displeasure with your product, responding is key to managing your brand. And responding publicly is part of that. When a someone expresses displeasure with working for you, is there an equivalent need to respond publicly?
- Hutch Carpenter
Companies certainly need someone on channels like Twitter watching for customer issues and providing info, but it's really no different than the way corp reps have participated in forums and chats for years. When reps try to get all hip and edgy and personal rather than simply acting as the voice of the company, they're heading for trouble. Cisco the company didn't call out theconnor, Tim Levad--who happens to be a Cisco employee--did.
- Ken Sheppardson
One thing to keep in mind is she misrepresented her tweet in this blog post. She didn't say "I turned down a job from Cisco, it wasn't a right fit": she said, "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work." Calling her out was the appropriate thing to do: that if she was thinking of joining...
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- Mark Trapp
Hutch: Assuming Levad's not in HR, he should simply have brought it to their attention and let the people involved with hiring handle it.
- Ken Sheppardson
Mark - I noticed that too. Her tweet was one of being in the middle of deciding. Not "I have decided".
- Hutch Carpenter
Ken - I'll bet there's a mix here. Maybe Tim's public response could have been something like, "That's too bad to hear. Work at Cisco is actually quite stimulating". While privately, he lets HR know about her tweet.
- Hutch Carpenter
Let's not forget, she admitted the tweet was a stupid thing to do, we all agree on that.
- Bwana ☠
Yeah Bwana - I saw that too. That was stand-up of her.
- Hutch Carpenter
Does anybody know how this originally got widespread coverage? Was it because somebody with 45 followers said something dumb or because a Cisco rep called her out?
- Ken Sheppardson
@Ken: Levad called her out, Hutch (who subscribes to Levad on twitter) blogged about that, influential bloggers picked it up from Hutch on FF and/or Twitter, Hutch made it to TechCrunch, TechMeme, and WordPress.com. Getting from there to TV was just a matter of good luck.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
It was both combined with the headline: "Be careful what you tweet"
- Bwana ☠
Ken - explanation here: http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2009...
- Hutch Carpenter
Hutch, I spent a lot of last week pondering the value of your cool hunting and spinning it into a generalized E2.0 case study for my blog but I eventually killed it because it felt too meta.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel - oh yeah? :-)
- Hutch Carpenter
Yeah, it boiled down to "I know this guy on the internet who knows a guy and he found something and told his friends who told their friends and now its on youtube and wouldn't it be nice if your coworkers could share information with each other virally?" I felt like I was trying too hard.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Now I get it. Just read your post, Hutch, and checked out timmylevad's feed. I'd been left with the impression he was some sort of official Cisco twitter rep, but from his profile and feed it just looks like he's some guy who also happens to work at Cisco. At least there's so much non-Cisco noise in his feed I sure wouldn't consider him an effective rep, if that's what he's supposed to be doing. Ah well. People saying dumb stuff. What's new.
- Ken Sheppardson
Daniel, Now you can quote youself off your FF comment and order of magnatude the meta up to geta :)
- Micah
People need to remember that if their timeline is not protected, it doesn't matter that they only have 45 followers. They're tweeting to the world!
- Morton Fox
@Morton and even with protected timelines, always assume that what you put on Twitter could be potentially read by the world
- Jorge Escobar
These days it seems simpler just to assume everything you say is heard by the world. :-)
- Ken Sheppardson
It would be really nice if Twitter search respected tweet deletes. I realize that the internet remembers everything you do, but taking old tweets out of Twitter search would help a lot in terms of damage control.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
After reading through all this FF... I still come to the conclusion that a single Cisco employee gave me a data point that compounds my conflicted feelings on this. What is the net result of all this for Cisco? For the Cisco employee that elected to use an open and public channel to call out someone in HR related matters? Is this rogue? Is this accepted? Is this scalable?
- Jay Cuthrell
Daniel - what's interesting is that @theconnor's original tweet is no longer in the search results. Someone removed it...I assume "someone" means a Twitter employee. Probably had a bit of mercy on her.
- Hutch Carpenter
That sounds like an odd step to take, Hutch. I imagine no one short of a founder/CEO would feel they had the authority to delete tweets from the stream like that. Honestly I'd be more likely to believe there was some quiet legal threatening involved. Maybe I'm wrong and the whole "summize never forgets" thing is a known bug that they just haven't bothered to correct. If that were true, then deleting a tweet upon request would make sense.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
@qthrul my guess would be the employee community of the company (Cisco in this case)--from top to bottom--will consider the call-out a net positive (what their PR move projects is another matter). If the default assumption today is that a big co. under-values loyalty, and highly transient employees have responded in kind, then affinity with the Cisco employee’s reaction is a backlash to the general climate of cynicism of the employee-employer relationship.
- Micah
When you mark your feed as private (as @theconnor did) does that make all your past tweets private as well, and therefore invisible in search?
- Ken Sheppardson
Ken - search.twitter.com makes any tweets made from a public account accessible. Here's the pre-private tweets of @theconnor: http://search.twitter.com/search...
- Hutch Carpenter
I always wish posts like this had a "let me summarize the situation in two sentences" paragraph for the people who tune in mid-meme.
- Matt Cutts
+1 Matt Cutts; classic!
- Lou Paglia
Matt, it's not two sentences, but Hutch had a good summary post of the original incident and the reaction afterwords: http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2009...
- Mark Trapp
@mattcutts preferably available in gzip format as well
- Jay Cuthrell
Goodbye Google | stopdesign (Douglas Bowman) - http://stopdesign.com/archive...
Mike Chelen, Nimaa, Kyle Weller and 107 other people liked this
"When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions. Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such miniscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Also, I was the first "real" engineer at Google ;) (not really, of course)
- Paul Buchheit
Has the decision making process been proven or is it simply an unquestioned assumption?
- Todd Hoff
Wow, interesting read - that would suck, no wonder he left.
- Susan Beebe
It sounds like a challenging environment for a designer, and it doesn't sound like it suited him, but don't those little details get magnified into significant effects when you are at Google's scale? Having said that, I don't love many of their designs anymore so perhaps there is something wrong.
- Robin Barooah
Would it be trollish for me to say that FriendFeed seems to have this design-skeptical culture as well? Thanks for the link, btw.
- Ethan Herdrick
great insight, enjoyed his website, IMO: Google's consistency across products increases usability over Yahoo, MSN....though ASK and Mahalo are very engaging now
- shayne catrett
I've always found that grouping designers, usability people and coder together is sort of like playing rock paper scissors.
- Dean Clark
Huge loss. I can feel his pain.
- Andrew Smith
Not sure where the _debate_ comes from if they have the data and the culture of following it. Just put 3,4,5 pixel versions out and look for the one that works best. Strange.
- xekc
I understand the frustration, but am also fascinated by the minute details analyzed by google.
- RicardoSilva
Chris: There were several interaction and UI designers at Google prior to Doug's arrival, but he was the first person hired specifically to be a 'Visual Designer', with a focus on visual layout and style rather than the broader job of visual and interaction design. Lots of visual design was done before Doug's arrival, and continues to be done by the interaction designers, but Doug was...
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- Kevin Fox
"I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case."... Been there, still cringe at the thought. Nightmarish.
- dario
Yikes. Those endless philosophic discussions...I could only hang in for a little bit and keep a straight face. Fun to come up with the stories, but once I realized people took it seriously, it just got creepy. Guess I knew it going in, but had to check it out. But, RE Google: I've always appreciated the simple, utilitarian approach that appeared to be focused on function as a central design feature. Thematic consistency across products would be nice, too.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
I read somewhere that he's gone to Twitter. Given that FF already has a great UX/Visual designer from Google, I guess Twitter was the next logical choice.
- no name
Interesting juxtaposition of the above article with this http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Shakeel Mahate
If the 3,4 or 5 pixel line discussion is for a line on the Google home page. I would think it is justified. Small changes make a significant change to traffic/revenue. Also, data and experiments are the most reliable thing to go by if there are many different valid subjective views on a particular topic
- Bindu Reddy
Agreed, Bindu. And from an artist's perspective, 3 or 5 pixels can make a real difference. Though I can understand that it's frustrating when the decision is someone else's and their rationale is from another perspective. But doesn't that go with the territory of design? At least Google has a process, not just going by moods.
- Rebecca Lasley
There are so many projects at Google with really loose and creative design methodologies. Many of them would have been happy to have him on-board. I don't think Doug is being honest with us or himself when claiming that this was his only reason for moving to Twitter.
- no name
Similar, but more lucid: http://adamhowell.org/2009...
- j1m
I've been reading Donald Norman's "Emotional Design", and in it, he notes that where his previous book championed exhaustive usability testing and essentially design-by-committee (and he still stands by that), that is best for what he calls 'behavioral design'. By contrast, both 'visceral design' and 'reflective design' need something more in the line of a single designer with a vision. ... Also, thanks for that link, j1m.
- Andrew C (✓)
I love these Google "inside baseball' discussions on friendfeed.
- Zaki Manian
Obviously, there are crucial systems where every cycle counts, and very important pages where every shade of blue counts. What I'm saying is that engineering usually gets the autonomy to balance what needs to be measured and what just needs to get done. UI designers are always second-guessed, leading to frustration. Plus, UI design has a much higher emotional component, so everyone, managers included, think they understand it just because they feel strongly about it. And people revolt on Facebook.
- Joey Liaw
Not everybody is Apple ! which excel on technology and Design Both.
- KARR 4.0
Apple = Design Dictatorship, Google = Design Democracy, MySpace = Design Anarchy?
- Lasse Johnsen
Apple is a dictatorship because, as far as i know, the one who always has the final word on design is Steve. Google is a democracy because they seem to base most of of their design decisions on user testing, so indirectly the users are choosing the design in a sort of democratic way.
- Lasse Johnsen
Interesting input Chris, so its not as radical as i thought :)
- Lasse Johnsen
My teams run these kinds of experiments (link color, etc.) and with all respect to Doug, data is just a description of reality. He implies data is a "crutch" used by people who "can't make decisions." No, data describes the effects of your decisions. The constraints of reality make good designers great.
- Daniel Dulitz
This is sort of like watching McCoy argue with Spock. :-) If you guys are not familiar with Gerd Gigerenzer, I highly recommend the book "Gut Feelings." (http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Fee...) Malcolm Gladwell used some of Gigerenzer's research in the book "Blink." The gist of his research shows that two core beliefs held by our culture, and by...
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- Karim
Experts often make "gut decisions." The outfielder catching a pop fly does not solve a set of differential equations describing the trajectory of the ball. (Unless he works at Google?) The outfielder doesn't think much about it all. His brain *unconsciously* runs a simple heuristic (described in Gigerenzer's book) that allows him to be where the ball is going to land. If you asked the...
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- Karim
Data is a crutch in that if you're NOT an expert, you need to justify the decision; you have no idea which color to use. Depending on where you are on the autism scale (like Spock, or a lot of programmers), you might not be able to imagine what color OTHER people would like, so you depend on data even more. You end up making things that look like Android and saying "but it tested well...
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- Karim
The problem with experts is that 99% of them aren't any good. This is such a strange argument though that I don't know where to begin -- it's all straw-men. For one, I'm pretty sure there's no data showing that the Android interface is anything other than confusing :)
- Paul Buchheit
Maybe the Android interface is a result of trying to minimize the risk of being sued by Apple. :)
- Ray Cromwell
I hope I wasn't implying that there is something magical about the word "expert" -- experts can over-rely on data, too. Gigerenzer made that point by describing a contest in which the performance of stock portfolios picked by "experts" using massive amounts of data and complex criteria woefully underperformed a portfolio picked by a random hundred pedestrians in Berlin. The point is not...
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- Karim
There are day traders who rely on intuition and they end up losing big too. A better example might be Poker. :)
- Ray Cromwell
Yeah, strange argument. Data is but a small influence on any but the most well-used interfaces; it's an optimization method, not an imagination method. I guess the real point is that Doug didn't feel that his imagination was valued or useful at Google, and that's sad. @Karim, the point of data is that it describes what other people like in ways that no intuition can determine, expert or no. It's like perspective in art. Good designers use the data they have or can easily get.
- Daniel Dulitz
Daniel, I don't think it's a question of "using the data" so much as whether the data has *primacy.* With technocrats, the data always has primacy -- even if the data is wrong, misleading, applicable to novice users but not expert users, inaccurate, imprecise, incomplete, or statistically insignificant. And I'm not sure how Douglas was supposed to feel "valued or useful at Google" by...
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- Karim
I just wanted to point out that Android was designed by these people: http://www.tat.se/site... Notice that they're designers not engineers.
- Adewale Oshineye
TAT came out of the Scandinavian "demo" scene. While it can be argued that demos involve at least as much as engineering (coding) as they do design, or that demo skills don't translate into interactive design skills, the point is not to criticize TAT. The point is to criticize the use of *data* (qualitative research) as the sole criterion on design decisions. Ignoring a chief designer's...
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- Karim
Karim, Doug never said _he_ was testing 41 shades of blue. I think primacy is a great way to look at it, and Doug's post takes aim at data's supporting role. Also, where did the "novices vs. expert" meme come from? Experts don't like it when their gut feelings end up being testable? The question is which gut feelings to test and which not to.
- Daniel Dulitz
Daniel, I didn't mean to imply that Douglas was upset because *he* was the one who had to do the testing. The "novices vs. expert" thing was my way of describing expertly mastered skills, or automaticity. When you are really good at something, you can do it quickly, with a low error rate, and without *thinking* about it. When you are learning to drive a car, you burn a lot of CPU...
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- Karim
I agree that "the question is which gut feelings to test and which not to." Douglas' complaint made it sound as if *too many* gut feelings were being tested ("each decision," "every decision"), and I can see how that could suck the fun out of things.
- Karim
I had a lot more to say than would fit in this comment box: http://fury.com/2009...
- Kevin Fox
there is an interesting example in the case of recently announced picasa face recognition http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2009... in comparing google's computational method for photo metdata with something like facebook where shared user entered data is the primary source
- Mike Chelen
Overly Judgemental Internet Explorer 6 Splash Pages - http://laughingsquid.com/overly-...
urdumania1, Chris Messina, ian kennedy and 96 other people liked this
Hey, I posted this yesterday! [sulks]
- Michael R. Bernstein
How about "I'm not a good enough designer to support IE6 and I don't want your business because your IT department makes you use an old browser."?
- Andrew Smith
Honestly if your IT department still makes you use IE6 they will likely insist you buy the Microsoft / IBM / Oracle / etc. enterprise solution anyway, so a small web dev's unwillingness to develop for IE6 is a wash.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
@Andrew it's funny. laugh.
- mjc
Sorry, should have just passed on this. More designers need to read this http://boagworld.com/persona... and stop regurgitating what the cool kids say. </end rant> The Fear T-shirt thing is funny :)
- Andrew Smith
Join the cause: http://www.bringdownie6.com/bring-d...
- chrisofspades
Why is "Get Fucked" an insult? The proper response should be "Thanks! I'd love to."
- Sprague D
Funny!
- Robert Scoble
Application attitude.
- Jack&Cleo
That is funny. I love the No Fear tshirt reference
- Keith - @tsudo
can also read: "if your workplace or you can't or won't pony up a few hundred to buy a new computer, you shouldn't be looking to hire me in the first place". Aw, have a laugh, man!
- dario
love it
- sean percival
I love these splash screens. That is just so funny!!!
- Sullivan
Pew's State of Media 2009 is Out - http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2009...
Daniel Rowley, RAPatton, chaz2b and 10 other people liked this
"Some of the numbers are chilling. Newspaper ad revenues have fallen 23% in the last two years. Some papers are in bankruptcy, and others have lost three-quarters of their value. By our calculations, nearly one out of every five journalists working for newspapers in 2001 is now gone, and 2009 may be the worst year yet. In local television, news staffs, already too small to adequately cover their communities, are being cut at unprecedented rates; revenues fell by 7% in an election year—something unheard of—and ratings are now falling or are flat across the schedule. In network news, even the rare programs increasing their ratings are seeing revenues fall."
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
Perhaps least noticed yet most important, the audience migration to the Internet is now accelerating. The number of Americans who regularly go online for news, by one survey, jumped 19% in the last two years; in 2008 alone traffic to the top 50 news sites rose 27%. Yet it is now all but settled that advertising revenue—the model that financed journalism for the last century—will be...
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- Thomas Hawk
Perhaps the bleakest news came in for the American weekly news magazine. According a survey, less than a quarter of American adults said they read a magazine of some kind the day before—down from a third in 1994. Of the eight publications that PEJ tracks as news magazines, circulation dropped 4.8%. One stalwart – U.S. News & World Report – announced it would no longer be a news weekly, converting instead to a consumer guide focused on its popular rankings of colleges and other topics.
- Thomas Hawk
In newspapers, stock prices fell 83% in 2008. Hearst announced it would have to sell, close or reorganize papers in Seattle and San Francisco. E.W. Scripps closed its paper in Denver. The Tribune Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection even though most of its papers and television properties still generated operating profits; it was just not enough to cover the debt left over...
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- Thomas Hawk
From the article: "When newspaper executives met this winter to talk about how to create a way for consumers to design their own ads, the discussion focused on doing so for print editions, not online." Seems, as an industry, they are bent upon their own destruction.
- Cole Jolley
YouTube - Twouble with Twitters - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Susan Beebe, Andrew Trinh, Alex Haar and 3 other people liked this
Wow, a lot of work went into this. Guess they knew it had a good chance of spreading through twitter, ha.
- jjprojects
Getting By On Just $53,826 A Week - March 19, 2009 - http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...
mjc, Susan Beebe, Kol Tregaskes and 37 other people liked this
"David, pictured at right, is a former chief executive at United Technologies worth more than $325 million. His wife is a former banker who has been described as a Swedish countess. Below you'll find a financial affidavit filed three months ago in Hartford Superior Court detailing how Douglas-David spends $53,826 every week. Maintaining several homes (including a Park Avenue apartment and a year-round Hamptons rental) and dropping $4500 for clothing, $8000 for travel, $1000 for "Haircare/skincare," and $650 on dry cleaning bills every week has a way of adding up. Apparently. Douglas-David's affidavit also, sadly, reflects the sorry state of the newspaper and magazine business. She only spends $30 per week on publications, or just .055735147 of her weekly nut."
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
This makes me sick. Starting in April, I will have to get by on CA state unemployment, and my wifes 3-day-a-week paycheck. GRRRRRR
- Neil Bernhart
Obnoxious. I feel like I work JUST to pay off my student loans, and I honestly don't know how I've gotten by paying that. /broke
- Derrick
but why is that wrong, unless he stole the money a la Madoff, AIG, et al.?
- grant fox
Not only does it make me sick that this woman feels like she needs that much money a week to live, it makes me sick that she's a gold-digger who's taking her husband (more than twice her age) for every penny he's got. Not to defend his inordinately high salaries, but it does appear he actually worked for his money.
- mike fabio
Sick. :-(
- Ordinarybug Heather
grant, I didn't say it was wrong, I just said it was obnoxious.
- Derrick
oh I agree nobody needs to live like that and it's crass, but to each their own as long as their hand isn't in my pocket.
- grant fox
you know. If you taxed estates above $5 million at a 90% tax rate you'd eliminate a big part of this problem and be able to distribute an awful lot of this type of wealth back to lower, middle and upper middle class. The problem would still exist during people's lifetimes but at least it wouldn't transfer inter-generationally.
- Thomas Hawk
these people are the new villains by the way. The super rich would do well to be far less obvious and ostentatious with their wealth over the course of the next few years.
- Thomas Hawk
I know if I had that much money, I'd hide it in my mattress or something, or spread it around, or push some into buying currently low cost stocks... I definitely would not be flashing it around, that's for sure...
- Danielle Closs
these people are probably pretty bummed that this is on The Smoking Gun today.
- Thomas Hawk
Click through a few pages to find out that she spends more on her horse ($1570/wk) than my family has to spend on three people and a dog. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive... Oh, and here's Chamaco's competition record: http://www.sport-horse.org/cgi-bin...
- Daniel J. Pritchett
By estates he means inheritance. IOW, first-generation earners live like kings, their children inherit $5M or less rather than billions.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
yes I mean estate as in inheritance. I think the cost of passing on billions of dollars to subsequent generations is too high a cost. When someone is born into wealth they are given every advantage. The best schools. The best standard of living and medical attention. That and about $5 million or so ought to be fair and sufficient for them. They of course can use their advantage in life to earn more on their own. Simply to give billions to heirs though is too high a cost for the rest of society.
- Thomas Hawk
Interesting how far the pendulum is swinging from the "greed is good" aesthetic. Personally I don't favor such limits. I'd like to keep the capitalist dream of building a dynasty alive. I want my kids or grandkids to inherit billions and do great good with it.
- Stephen Mack
Lindsey, We must have a different understanding of the definition of "earned". Having Daddy give you money doesn't really seem all that much hard work.
- Jeff Jones
there should be some penalty for inherited wealth. don't ask me what is should be, that statement isn't well thought out.
- grant fox
Jeff, but SHE earned it, and it shouldn't be taxed twice.
- Stephen Mack
Were I a gajillionaire with a desire to pass my money on to my kids for philanthropic reasons I'd set up a foundation and put them in charge of it. If you *really* want them to do good things with the money, I see no reason to just cut them a check for the full amount.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
It's a complicated issue, especially for family farms. It's less and less possible for farm transfers to allow generations to remain on the farm, especially with mis-assessments of farm land as either development value or some other incorrect classification. A relatively small farmstead with a few hundred acres, a barn, a house, a couple outbuildings and any sort of natural feature...
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- Bob M. Montgomery
from twhirl
Like Matt, I see no reason to give that check to Washington instead, taxing legitimate income twice.
- Stephen Mack
Given the limited amount of real estate on the planet and the ever-growing global population, is it really reasonable to expect a plot of land purchased in 1900 to stay in the family for eternity? That plot's relative share of the planet's bounty increases with each passing generation.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
The problem is not in spending... the problem here is she tries to milk her former husband for more and more. 53K per week is not a limit, she could spend a million, if there were such money available. It seems, this is another case of "will divorce for money".
- Pavel Senko
Conversely, Daniel, the food producing capability of that plot of land should be held in higher value as the population increases. However, that's not the case: it becomes over valued because it's being assessed as 100 acres of quarter acre plots to live on, not 100 acres of food producing resource.
- FFing Enigma
@Pavel: She dropped out of the workforce six years ago in a mutual decision. Surely she is entitled to some fraction of the total growth in their net worth in the last six years. Whether or not her current lifestyle exceeds that fraction, I can't say based on the TSG PDF.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
the rationalization for taxing estates is easy. What if I told you by taxing the top 100 estates in the United states over $1 billion that you could save the lives of millions of children all over the world. Is it moral to allow people to keep more money than they can possibly spend in their enitre lives when the cost to the rest of society is so high? One child is born in Africa. Another 12,000 miles away to a billionaire. Is it moral that one hordes money and the other dies by the luck of birth?
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas, you're justifying your means with an end. Thinking of starving children in Africa doesn't necessarily excuse whatever taxation plan Senator Robin Hood comes up with.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Here is a good site on the issue of the estate tax: http://www.responsiblewealth.org/tax_fai...
- Michael R. Bernstein
If you were sitting with a mother holding her dying child and had a choice to save that child right then and there saving the child and their mother immeasurable sorrow if it meant that Paris Hilton only got to keep $999 million instead of $1 billion would you do it?
- Thomas Hawk
You can also turn up some very interesting interviews and articles by googling 'bill gates estate tax'.
- Michael R. Bernstein
or would you let the child die arguing that Paris' dead father's right to not have his money double taxed was the greater good?
- Thomas Hawk
...New York magazine is all over her for her spending (http://bit.ly/iAFbR) too.
- JA Castillo
Come on Thomas, that's a weak emotional appeal. Why aren't we debating "If you were sitting with a mother holding her dying child and had a choice to save that child right then and there saving the child and their mother immeasurable sorrow if it meant that [famous person] was ground into sausage and used to feed the poor would you do it?"
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Stephen, Money is taxed twice ALL THE TIME. I earn a paycheck, taxed, I buy a product with that money, taxed, let's say I have a lawn service and pay them, taxed again, they pay taxes on it too, then when THEY pay their workers it's taxed yet again. So why should money inherited be treated any differently?
- Jeff Jones
To me, the issue is pragmatic: When the USA recycled it's elites ruthlessly, we got incredible economic growth and a more egalitarian society. When inherited wealth accumulates, we get rising economic inequality and economic stagnation.
- Michael R. Bernstein
Michael, I agree. I think the problem with our economy and with wealth inequality is that we don't buy enough pitchforks and torches in this country. Metaphorically speaking of course.
- Jeff Jones
"The Tree of Economic Growth must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of Aristocrats and Enraged Peasants."
- Michael R. Bernstein
certainly Paris Hilton, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates etc. ought to be given an opportunity to redistribute the wealth. And I can say I think Gates and Buffett are doing an admirable job at that. I see nothing wrong with allowing an individual to earmark what worthy societal improvement their estate dollars go to. But if they won't make that decision then I think it's Govt job to look after the greater interests of society and do it for them, the cost to not do so is too high.
- Thomas Hawk
of course, there is the massive problem of governments forever expanding their spending. If they taxed their friends and cohorts that much do you really believe it will go on clandestine projects or would it just go back into their friends pockets or used to blow up other countries? Fix corrupt and bloated governments first, then address this issue afterwards. Surely slicing down the budget requirements for running the country then cutting the tax would benefit the poor orders of magnitudes more.
- alphaxion
Matt, part of the point for a high estate tax is that it creates a huge incentive to give the wealth away to whatever they consider a worthy cause. This actually is a pretty efficient allocation mechanism that bypasses the inefficiencies of government.
- Michael R. Bernstein
Yeah, anything is more exciting than just leaving it all to the kids. Why not invest it back in the family business or stand up a charity or any number of things - you can still put your kids in charge of those things and at least they get to be involved rather than just rich and bored.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Thomas, the greater interests of society only work when society has as much of a say in it as possible. Why does no one see that the free market is made up of people, including you and me? The only real change we will see is when we decide where our money immediately goes (and to whom it goes!) and not think "Oh well, it can wait four more years." Government bureaucrats are not the answer--they do not serve the greater interests of society, they serve the interest of getting reelected :)
- Michael Ryan
@Matt, interesting to see someone in Govt. call the University of Florida the best academic school in the U.S. I think some might disagree with her. ;)
- Thomas Hawk
Michael, the point is that if you put a 90% estate tax on estates over $5 million this would encourage almost everyone with such an estate to give much of it away on their own without Govt. To make it even easier you could craft tax credits for giving it away during their lifetime if you wanted it to happen faster. The cost to let people create estates worth over $5 million exacts too high a toll on the rest of society.
- Thomas Hawk
Here's a 2007 report putting UF as the #2 value for the student's public education dollar, so that's something: http://www.unc.edu/news...
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel, probably, but I think that if people don't give it away then you turn it over to the bureaucrats of Govt. it's certainly better for people to do it themselves though but sometimes they need a carrot and a stick to do the job if they won't do it voluntarily.
- Thomas Hawk
So children should be forced to sell a farm or business to pay the taxes because the inherited asset isn't cash? And if the economy happens to be doing poorly at the time they are forced to sell and they only get half what they should? What good reason is there to say that someone who worked hard to build a business and paid taxes along the way shouldn't be allowed to have their children continue to work and grow that business?
- Tinfoil 2.0
I just want to know how you spend $481 per week on a cell phone? How many minutes do you get for $2,000 per month?
- gfurry
By the way, a business worth $5 million typically generates only a small fraction of that as income for the owners.
- Tinfoil 2.0
gfurry, they are either calling internationally or they are travelling abroad and using the phone outside the US.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
LE, your hypothetical seems to assume that the children don't have the cash to pay the taxes outright. There ought to be a way to pass along the cash required to pay the estate taxes without having to carve up the illiquid assets. I know of some folks who gifted their family business to their children bit by bit for years in their 60s and 70s. Once they died the estate taxes were presumably less onerous than they might otherwise have been.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
The moral hazard is you forcing people to give up their property for your own purposes at gunpoint. They are pumping a full years salary or two back into the economy every week. Someone makes those clothes, flies their planes, maintains their houses. You'd have the government strip them of their own property because you know better how their wealth should be spent better than they do? The government would squander the money and put it into their buddies pockets and put all those people out of work.
- John Rubier
My guess on the phones is paying $100/mo. for 15 phones issued to staff, plus a fancy new phone every month for someone or other.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
She's not the only who's this high maintenance - why is she getting all this publicity?
- Mona Nomura
Daniel, I know there are good ways of estate planning to avoid that scenario in many cases, but should it be so difficult? Why shouldn't it be OK to do just what I outlined? Also, it's probably not safe to assume that someone with a $5 million business has another $5 million laying around in cash to pay the inheritance tax.
- Tinfoil 2.0
Thomas: What is the toll? That we are not getting wealth we did not earn? (I am going under the presumption that all money earned by rich people was done honestly, but our "too big to fail" government isn't set up that way at all) All I see it doing is destroying incentive to work with us, to not earn capital out of rational self-interest. Taxes usually do that, and a 90% tax would especially do that. :\
- Michael Ryan
LE: Certainly not, but do you want the law to err on the side of redistribution of wealth or protection of a descendant who might only be getting $1.25M to keep at the current rate?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Mona, because the smoking gun and other publications like page views and advertising dollars and the fact that a divorce is a legal proceeding makes these kinds of documents public when the more rational of the wealthy arbitrate privately behind closed doors maintaining their privacy. it's not every day that you get this kind of glimpse into the world of the wealthy to gawk. It's like a bad accident on the freeway, you can't help but look.
- Thomas Hawk
@Daniel, You are right. My assumption was based on a fact that they have reached $43 mil agreement before (means, she was aware of her lifestyle and expenses and decided that $43mil would be enough), and now she just wants more.
- Pavel Senko
I'd err on the side of letting the core of hard-earned and already-multiply-taxed money to stay where its owners want it. I'd be more amenable to a graduated inheritance tax rather than some arbitrary cut-off. It's like the $250k figure that gets used for everything these days. If you make less, you're poor, if you make more, screw you.
- Tinfoil 2.0
"I consider myself ungodly lucky. I won the lottery. You people in this room are lucky. You ahd a 1-in-30 chance of being born in the U.S. In 1930, when I was born, I had a 1-in-50 chance of being born in the U.S. I had a 50 percent chance of being born male. And I had a 1 percent chance of being born male in the United States. My friend, Bill Gates, said if I'd have been born 1,000 years ago, I would have been some animal's lunch." Warren Buffett.
- Thomas Hawk
Michael, the toll is death, starvation, malnutrition, under educated populations, etc. This is the toll for allowing billionaires to pass along wealth the way that they do. That money could be redistributed to help so many more people. Bill Gates has saved an enormous amount of lives through his philanthropy. How many children have been saved from malaria because of the money that Bill Gates has been spending to try and eradicate the disease entirely?
- Thomas Hawk
What is the higher good? That Paris Hilton inherits a billion or that malaria is eradicated?
- Thomas Hawk
And the government, arbiter of all good on Earth, will eradicate malaria? Thomas, don't get me wrong, I want most of the same ends as you...just not the same means.
- Michael Ryan
Michael, the tax is a disencentive towards oversized inheritances, not a plan to take the money of the rich and redistribute it. Again, set up a foundation like Gates or donate to one like Buffett. Just don't try to keep it and give ten billion to your kids.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
...Mostly because those means don't tend to work. A group made up of people who act out of self-interest don't miraculously become selfless simply because they call themselves "government." Instead, you have pooled a large portion of money that could be up for the taking if you win an election or strike a deal. And even if they do have the best intentions (good people do exist, I admit :P) government just can't run things as efficiently as individuals.
- Michael Ryan
So preemptively give the money to someone other than the government or your children.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel: Or just an incentive to try to find a tax loophole. Or evade the tax. Or move somewhere where you don't pay the tax.
- Michael Ryan
Very little evidence exists that accumulated wealth is a serious problem for our country as a whole. Remove the "fairness" or "class-envy" arguments and the issue goes away. Redistribution of wealth happens everyday though market forces. Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Berkshire as examples. Force the issue and we end up with Central Planning and the USSR. No one has an incentive to work under Socialism, and the country our Grandparents worked so hard to create is gone.
- Robert Kenney
Daniel: And if they don't? Who will take the money? Who will distribute it for them?
- Michael Ryan
No one has an incentive to work if their estate is capped at $5M? That's an odd implication. I think nearly all of us work for less than $5M already. Ryan - the government, if they choose not to redistribute it in their own chosen way. We could always set up laws redirecting inheritance taxes to public works or something.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel: Public works are run by government :\
- Michael Ryan
Michael, Daniel's point exactly. Most people would rather redistribute their wealth themselves rather than leave it to the Govt. Bill Gates of course is the model example for what billionaires ought to do with their wealth. The tax is an incentive to help them do the right thing with their wealth. If you wanted to ensure people did even more you could give them greater tax credits for doing it while they were alive.
- Thomas Hawk
Right, so these efficiency genius multimillionaires will probably be able to set up a foundation that handles the wealth better than the government does. If they don't, then the government will have to suffice. I'm not seeing the issue here other than "if your plan in any way involves the government potentially having access to money I am against it". Edit: Whoops, I'm getting out of sync with comments being pushed up before I finish typing mine.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
That's a bit of a conundrum, Lindsey. Legislation, judicial interpretation, and police enforcement are what make things "legal" or "illegal". Certainly Thomas and I aren't directly responsible for the perpetuation of the justice system but as citizens of a representative democracy we are surely welcome to debate the pros and cons of the system.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
see, the thing is this. Look at the way this woman lives. What if you took half of what she spends and saved 1,000 kids a year. Would society be better off? I think it would. If Govt is the wrong vehicle to do it then build greater incentives to force people to do it. Bump the charitable deduction to 110% for instance instead of 100%. There are little ways we could make progress with this utilizing the U.S. tax laws but I'd like to see more steps in this direction towards redistribution.
- Thomas Hawk
Daniel & Thomas: That is my plan--government, a body we delegate the use of force to, shouldn't use that force to "create incentive" for people. That doesn't sound like creating incentive, it sounds like violating individual rights.
- Michael Ryan
I look at it like taxes on cigarettes. The government disapproves of your habit and they levy some hefty taxes when you insist on practicing it. Smoking is unpopular with enough of the electorate that the taxes stand, even if they might be considered unfair. At least the government's left you the option to smoke if you really want to.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I usually don't quote her, but: "The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others." Ayn Rand
- Michael Ryan
Tax credits are the opposite side of that coin: The government rewards people for buying hybrid cars and having children. These rewards might not completely offset the cost of the aforementioned practices, and they might not be fair to all segments of the populace (i.e. non-parents of all stripes), but they are out there and they do help to encourage "desirable" behavior.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Certainly, Michael. All you've got to do now is to convince everyone that >$5M inheritances and unfettered transfer of property are "rights".
- Daniel J. Pritchett
And what happens when they stop becoming desirable? Well, you have to propose a bill. And the bill goes to committee. And if it passes committee, which can take months, it goes to be scheduled on the House calendar. They vote on it--it might be rejected. You have to cut a few deals, keep a few things in to get it passed. It gets sent to the Senate. They reject it. The process goes on until it goes to the President. He may veto it, starting the whole thing over again. Government was not meant to be the
- Michael Ryan
...leader of morality, it was meant to slow down the possibility of tyrrany.
- Michael Ryan
well Michael all taxation is a violation of someone's rights to property, no?. So then under that logic all taxation would be a violation. Are you saying no income tax or sales tax or estate tax at all ought exist? We're really only arguing degrees of taxation here.
- Thomas Hawk
The crux of this debate is that some of us believe that the government should be allowed to interfere with the property of citizens and others of us do not. The rest - specifically our recent foray into incentive structures - is economics. Edit: Thomas works in finance, I don't. Beaten again ;)
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel: There's tons of people who already believe that you have a right to the wealth you create. We created the country to protect that right.
- Michael Ryan
Ryan: Sure, we can agree to that in a broad sense. Then we've got to determine rights of succession. Do all of your descendants fit under the heading of "you"? Can you claim sole rights to the creation of all money you get your hands on? Does the society or government infrastructure get some credit for your successes? How about the minimum-wage support staff at your office, day care, and diner?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Thomas: Hm. Maybe. I don't think so at the moment, because government is meant to provide for national defense and to protect our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are necessary public goods that we create government for.
- Michael Ryan
But the very definition of "obscene" has to be arbitrary, Lindsey. Say you agree to focus exclusively on the percentage of net worth for your definition of obscene, and set it at anything over 50%. Now take a look at the percentage of net worth various income brackets spend on room and board versus the percentage of net worth they're spending on further wealth generation. A dollar means different things to different people. So too does "50% of my net worth".
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Lindsey, I think a 90% tax on estates above $5 million is just the sort of stick the Government needs to force people to follow the examples of people like Buffett and Gates and redistribute their wealth voluntarily. I think our entire population would be dramatically better off for it while doing very little to reduce a very high standard of living for both the wealthy and their heirs. But I'd rather see heirs fly first class instead of on private jets if it meant saving thousands of lives.
- Thomas Hawk
In other words, Thomas is very slightly cramping the pursuit of happiness for ten people while saving the life and liberty of a thousand others. Edit: At least that's the theory ;)
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel: Not if you've taken bailout money :) But if you have made a voluntary contract with the people you work with, you have seen something of value owned by another, you have agreed with him or her to do something for it, and if everyone benefits from this exchange, then wealth is created. But when the exchange is forced? Not quite. To take away that money is to stop recognizing the good of voluntary exchanges, those contracts between two people.
- Michael Ryan
Daniel: Fine, we'll start with you. :) Anyway, it's been fun, but I have AP English homework to do. Ta ta!
- Michael Ryan
I think we're repeating ourselves again - both of the two comments above are effectively arguments against taxation. Edit: ok, the two above the one above this one. I think it's time for me to get back to work. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this with me, folks.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Ok, I'm a billionaire and a 90% inheritance tax is passed. I don't agree with it and want my kid to have all of my money when I go. Don't I just move to another country sometime before I die?
- Tony Miller
Yes, but then you have to deal with various other tariffs and taxes, I imagine. I've personally never tried to transfer funds offshore.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
@Tony, I'm pretty sure there was a law passed in the 70's that slaps punitive taxes on people trying to take their wealth to another country.
- Joey Gibson
Some people do leave the U.S. as it is now Tony, yes, you'd lose some to that. John Dart renounced his citizenship. But most people don't and I think the net positive would still be towards philanthropy.
- Thomas Hawk
actually it was Kenneth Dart not John Dart and it appears that simply moving out of the U.S. to avoid estate taxes isn't as easy as you'd think. http://www.azstarnet.com/sn...
- Thomas Hawk
This Ad could generate business!
Andrew C (✓), Melanie Jagolino, Éric Senterre and 14 other people liked this
for funeral homes?
- Josh Haley
for crime scene / accident clean-up crews?
- Jandy
business for AXN Fear Factor
- vijay
Josh, Yea, it's for Funeral Homes.
- Michael Fidler
WIN
- Shey
awesome! That's a great sense of humor right there.
- Chieze Okoye
Very dark humor then.
- Meryn Stol
Thinking this giant sunglasses trend is going to look pretty funny in 5 years. #sxswmusic
Matthew Gifford, embee and Alex Haar liked this
Anger as Pope Benedict XVI says condoms make Aids worse - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news...
nfan12, Will Higgins™, mjc and 37 other people liked this
"Aids, he said, "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems". It is believed to be the first time that the Pope, who will also visit Angola during his week-long trip, has uttered the word "condom" publicly."
- Jim Norris
from Bookmarklet
Unbelievable. Shameful.
- Bret Taylor
Gak!
- Rachel Lea Fox
How would he know?
- Ian May
Wow...that's screwed up
- Rahsheen the Dream
What. The. Fuck.
- Louis Simoneau
Why hasn't anyone informed him on the possible repercussions?
- Mona Nomura
if i'm gonna get advice on matters of sexual health, why would i take it from someone who hasn't had any experience in that "field?" it's one of the things that's baffled me somewhat
- Cee Bee
Ah, yes. Despite all (very good) evidence to the contrary, he still believes that failing to teach disease prevention will cause people to have less sex. It hasn't ever worked that way (in fact usually having the opposite effect and spreading disease at the same time), but that's not going to stop the church from trying.
- Jennifer Dittrich
How come the Pope gets so much attention, here and elsewhere? Catholics don't do what the Pope says, as we learned in Italy when the divorce ballot achieved a landslide victory while all the bishops where campaigning hard, including the one in Rome. That was 30+ years ago and we got only more secularized since.
- Antonio Piccolboni
Cee Bee, and I believe in Santa
- Antonio Piccolboni
Antonio - there are a lot of countries, third world in particular, that still abides by the Pope's words.
- Mona Nomura
He said Aids "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems." That's not saying that the act of using a condom makes Aids worse, but that the distribution of condoms promotes promiscuity, which in turn increases Aids infection rates. I disagree with this opinion and don't think the facts support it, but it's not nearly so heinous as saying that condoms themselves enhance the disease vector.
- Kevin Fox
Unfortunately Mona's right and it's not just third world countries it's politically powerful peeps in all parts of world. :(
- SteVe "Beefy Miracle" C
The pope should be excommunicated. ;)
- Meryn Stol
"someone who hasn't had any experience" - I'm biting my tongue on so many priestly promiscuity jokes right now . . .
- John Craft
Is this from the MySpace photo meme?
- Jason (bossin cats)
@CeeBee, Why would the Pope's sexual experience have any impact on his knowledge of sexual health? You either have knowledge about sexual health or you don't, your sexual history isn't part of the equation (unless you are perhaps explaining EXACTLY what erupting genital warts feels like). The Pope in this case either lacks said knowledge or (more likely) he is putting politics before said knowledge.
- Soup in a TARDIS
I would totally tap that ass! If only I could use a hood.... :(
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
perhaps i could've worded my remark better, but it strikes me as odd to heed these kinds of myopic words from a person who's been chaste all their life -- someone who demands how others should go about their own business in such a narrow-minded manner. it's like me telling someone what they should and should not do next time they go paragliding.
- Cee Bee
@CeeBee, well as far as the heeding goes, it's sort of part of the whole Catholic package. It's one of the key things that makes Catholics different from the other breeds of Christians. But I think more and more people are starting to reject the idea of submitting so wholly because of statements like this that seem equal parts blind innocence and willful ignorance.
- Soup in a TARDIS
Ahh Cee Bee, welcome to organized religion as far as i can tell.
- SteVe "Beefy Miracle" C
Pope just made himself irrelevant.
- ✔ ǝuǝƃnǝ
Just...?
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
What else would you expect from Darth Sidious? I mean, Pope Benedict?
- Chris Charabaruk
What a sad thing to say....
- Frode Stenstrøm
Just another attempt to bend reality to fit religious dogma.
- Amit Morson
Pope = Obsolete.
- ursi
I've heard that the Pope makes AIDS worse.
- Rich
Has he any scientific documents about this claim?
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
FAIL
- Carmen
Time to Poke the Pope!
- ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift
@The Other Brian (Norwood) You ever run with scissors? May want to take that up as a hobby.
- ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift
Brian, in the sense that sex with condoms is less safe than absolute abstinence, yes he's correct. However absolute abstinence is a very rare thing is this world and is typically the result of a particular sect of religious influence. In parts of the world that don't espouse that particular religion the options are sex with condoms or sex without, in which case sex with condoms is without doubt the safer choice.
- FFing Enigma
I understand that the pontificate has to toe the line and advocate the Church's stance on things but it seems like a dangerous thing to be so rigid on this. The reality is that like it or not people are having sex against the rules of the Church either out of ignorance of or apathy towards those rules and they really should be educated against the risks/rewards of using condoms.
- matthew john ernisse
@Brian, A life of celibacy until a monogamous, uninterrupted would of course assist in the AIDS crisis and in that sense the Pope is 'correct'. However the frustration the Pope's most recent statement is inducing surrounds the way he chose to word it and WHERE he chose to utter it. He's traveling through very poor nations with very low levels of sex education announcing that condoms (which are already outrageously $$ in the region) cause AIDS. The politics of his statement may not be heard by everyone and
- Soup in a TARDIS
+ there is is a good chance some people will think "Wow, I guess I shouldn't spend money on those AIDS-causing condoms." There is also frustration because while the Church's position on Life has been unimpeachable for the unborn (the Church's actual objection to condoms is based on their tendency to prevent pregnancy) in recent months the record on Life of those already living has been spotty as best (AIDS, both Brazilian events, etc). It's not just post-modern snark about celibacy (and I agree, its not
- Soup in a TARDIS
+ that hard to keep it on your pants), it's about the failure of the Pope to develop and craft a message that deals with the economics and education levels of the region he's swanning into, pontificating in, and then moseying off from for the next 5 years.
- Soup in a TARDIS
Who says? GOD?
- deerstep
It's too bad the Pope's a retard, with so much influence he could actually do good instead of being such a detriment to the world
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
actually he is trying to play against Darwinian selection game whole dedicated Catholic community -- and they will go that path for sure ;) nice to see how they breed out most survivable against AIDS -- probably Catholics soon will be AIDS-resistant lmao
- Отборнейший бред
or, le'me re-phrase for clarity -- mincing machine or meat grinder, it is all same, when YOU turn wheel and someone else shall jump in ;)
- Отборнейший бред
good to know where he stands.
- Rob Schonberger
Someone should put a condom over his freakin head. Clearly: the pope actually aggravates the HIV problem. What an ass.
- Clay Newton
Yeah and suffocate him!!!
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
sofar: We already tried to assassinate the one before this douchebag. Useless. They don't die. Too bad they are well protected by the will of god :(
- deerstep
@onur we'll have to try harder: I'm ordering a hitman
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
:p I was kidding, pope is a douchebag anyways
- deerstep
& it's always timely (cool and fun are a bonus) to speak about offing religious nut jobs
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
Matthew, It is actually funny/ironic for me, because I've spent my childhood reading about Pope's assassination. Then they also assassinated the author (Ugur Mumcu) who wrote that books. That was unfortunately quite popular in Turkey at that time.
- deerstep
Or we just lump Mo & Kim into the "axis-of-evil" F#CK YEAH! - that's one classic movie where it was fun/cool
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
The new Pope, turning his religion into "LOLCatholics"
- Will Higgins™
There's seriously (and sadly) nothing new here. The other pope said the same stuff.
- Andre
Condoms can lull people into a false sense of security .. it says right on the Trojan packaging that it won't prevent the spread of H.I.V .. so I would have to say the Pope is right on
- John Blanton
from twhirl
True, it's even losing it's shock value despite the fact it's such an ignorant, destructive statement, especially considering how many people will obey like in areas of Africa where Aids epidemic.
- sofarsoShawn <Pop-Rocks>
it's pretty obvious from the picture of the pope that there is a manipulation of the media on this one..
- Alex Ksikes
When Expediency Meets Ethics (Dilbert) - http://dilbert.com/strips...
Tyson Key, Frode Stenstrøm, Chris Farrugia and 31 other people liked this
rofl
- Geoff Schultz {TF}
Oh, so true, so true.
- Mike Nayyar
Dilbert strikes again! ROTF-LMAO!
- Russell Wagner
What's completely funny about this is that we are in the process of buying an enterprise Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) management tool at work.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
HAH we just got new Risk Management charts to put together this morning
- SteVe "Beefy Miracle" C
I do project management for a living and these Dilbert comics always crack me up! So on point!
- Susan Beebe
Two Guys Who Spend Too Much Time Together - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Jeff Eddings, Alex Haar and Kevin Fox liked this
Seems the funny bone runs in the family!
- Jeff Eddings
Think Progress » Columbia Journalism School professor: ‘F*ck new media.’ - http://thinkprogress.org/2009...
Jesper Kjær Hansen, Alex Haar, Glenn Batuyong and Thomas Hawk liked this
interesting.
- Thomas Hawk
bellowing dinosaurs observe the incoming comet...
- Glenn Batuyong
The man's a visionary.
- Sean McBride
iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, March 17th - http://www.engadget.com/2009...
Thomas Frütel, Jérôme, Josh Haley and 41 other people liked this
"We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It's going down March 17th. Apparently, we'll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we'll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog. Apple's calling this an "advance preview of what we're building," so we're not expecting anything ready to go as of the 17th, but hopefully this will allow developers to start building toward future functionality (hey, how about some push notifications?), and presumably users won't have too many months to wait after that for the real deal."
- Susan Beebe
from Bookmarklet
I am curious what features are in this next release?! Anyone know yet?
- Susan Beebe
great! i just upgraded my jailbroken phone to the latest one like two weeks ago and it was a pain in the ass. hope they have flash, hope they have cut and paste, hope i'm able to run apps in the background, etc...
- Cee Bee
This came out of left field for me. Wow. I'm expecting video recording, new Mobile Safari, maybe built in iChat?
- Mike Nayyar
yeah a better browser would be nice too
- Cee Bee
Cee Bee - yes, Safari crashes way too much!! Perhaps add cut / paste - please!
- Susan Beebe
Better browser?! Tough crowd. http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Paul Reynolds
I'd settle for copy and paste. I don't have a need to cut and paste very often but I want to copy and paste all the time. ;)
- Anthony Citrano
sweet. I hope they tighten up the Exchange Active Sync stuff. Kinda craptastic right now
- Jeff (Team マクダジ )
I'd settle for drag highlighting!
- alphaxion
Browser stability please. The rest is secondary to me
- Bwana ☠
Some level of background apps, video recording, an ability to manage apps / home screens sensibly (via iTunes, via 3rd party apps, don't care how), copy&paste of course, and an application launcher (again from Apple or just an OK for devs to offer these) - all these would be a good starting point IMO ...
- Patrick Jordan
How much is it going to cost on my iPod?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I'm just saying 2 years ago, having a *mobile* browser that even remotely rendered pages like their desktop counter parts was unheard of... much less one that handles most of the AJAX/Javascript shenanigans we have now. I have minor quibbles with the iPhone OS. But Mobile Safari isn't one them. You're paying _AT&T_ $75/month ($100 for me), I wonder if Apple gets a cut of that.
- Paul Reynolds
I hope the browser is improved too with less crashing, copy/paste, more speed, flash. Another feature I'd like to see in the OS: video recording,streaming support.
- Loren Heiny
I vote copy/paste, video, flash, background apps (and ability to close apps better to free up memory without rebooting), and push notifications. In that order.
- Jandy
I'm betting that iPhone OS 3.0 will be underwhelming on the phone side - I'm just hoping for more bluetooth and background apps. But it will include lots of under-the-covers stuff that sets the stage for a September intro of a new iTablet/MobileMac/Newton (hah!) running the same code!
- Stephen Foskett
Where's the "love" button for things like this?
- Sonya Smith
Where's the app that counts down to March 17? hah
- Sonya Smith
I hope it does Palm Pre emulation... (half joking)
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Pandora Rocks the Casbah - http://thomashawk.com/2009...
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Holger Eilhard, Mark, Ontario Emperor and 18 other people liked this
a pretty detailed write up I did about the company Pandora. I visited them and photographed their offices last week.
- Thomas Hawk
Thanks for taking us inside Pandora. Just switched back after an unsatisfactory stint with Last.fm.
- amzam
Pandora is on FriendFeed as well here: http://friendfeed.com/pandora...
- Thomas Hawk
I like your taste in music Thomas. Nice read.
- Simon Wicks
I really liked Pandora when I could get it. Unfortunately they've since stopped the service outside the US due to licensing reasons. I'm using Spotify now which is also a great music service and you have complete control over your playlist (but not as good recommendations).
- Niklas Morberg
Great write-up Thomas, thanks... I was amazed to read that they actually buy and rip their own CDs. For non mainstream stuff (and the music from India, as in your post) I could understand this, but you'd think that for a large percentage of music it would be more efficient (and cheaper) to buy and download on-line.
- TranceMist
TranceMist: Bandwidth costs, maybe????
- Roberto Bonini
I think ripping the songs probably is the fastest and easiest way to deal with them. They have bar code scanners that pull all the information down. By ripping them themselves they probably ensure quality high bit rate copies. They use customized software that they wrote to do this and it's probably part of their inventory system as well.
- Thomas Hawk
Hi everybody... Thomas, thanks for stopping by last week it was great to see you and the post turned out really great. @TranceMist believe it or not the license attached to downloads typically precludes you from using them in any commercial setting.
- Tom Conrad
Progress: A Graphical Report on the State of the World | FlowingData - http://flowingdata.com/2009...
Mike Reynolds, Alex Haar, Steve Koch and 3 other people liked this
No iPods, iPhones allowed in Gates household - http://www.appleinsider.com/article...
Thomas Power, The Way Things Are, Susan Beebe and 8 other people liked this
This is precisely why Zune will never be as good as the ipods. You have to use em to realize how much your product is lacking!
- Shivanand Velmurugan
So true.
- Roberto Bonini
This thread has more discussion on the above subject. http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Shivanand Velmurugan
I get a kick out of this
- Susan Beebe
Your Taste in Music Can Reveal How Smart (or Dumb) You Are - http://www.labnol.org/interne...
David Holmes, Dan Liebke, Craig Deakin and 126 other people liked this
"Written by Amit Agarwal on February 24, 2009 Text Size beethovenVirgil Griffith, popularly known for the Wikipedia Scanner that detects where the Wikipedia edits are coming from, maintains another very interesting project that maps musical tastes of college students with their intelligences levels (determined by their SAT score). The x-axis represent the SAT score while the colored boxes indicate the music genre and the artist / composer. Fans of Lil Wayne’s music scored the lowest in SAT while listeners of Beethoven’s work were among the highest scorers. The full chart is available at Music That Makes You Dumb. To come up with this chart, Virgil used Facebook to determine the "Favorite music" at different colleges in US and then combined it with the average combined SAT scores of students from these colleges. He has done a similar exercise for books as well.
- Cee Bee
from Bookmarklet
Lulz in general, though the hip hop / rap break is thrown an interesting curveball here. I'd love to know how they broke that down.
- Richard Lawler
Im a smart cookie!
- Shevonne
Most of my music isn't even on the big chart.
- RAPatton
So you are off-the-chart genius! ;)
- Shevonne
OR, they are so low, they can't even make the floor
- RAPatton
I wasn't going to say it. hahahha
- Shevonne
counting crows though? it's like that? ha
- Cee Bee
I wish the list was bigger or more diverse. I'm surprised by Jazz. Also that some of the list is specific to an artist (i.e. Beck) and others are an entire genre (rap). Where would your favorite musicians fall?
- JoEllen
i find this chart amusing.
- Carlos Ayala
Don't even get me started on this BS
- Shey
+1 Shey
- Louis Simoneau
Apparently my husband and I are real idiots.
- Michelle M
Right there with you, Shey.
- Jared Smith
Me too Michelle
- Shey
LOL. Yeah, how did they manage to separate rap and hip-hop?
- Victor Ganata
This is retarded. I got a 1370 on my SAT's an listen to a variety of stuff across this chart.Besides the fact that I don't think SAT scores are a good indicator of intelligence.
- Rahsheen the Dream
@RAH ++++++ They're not
- Shevonne
ahhahah I can't get over Counting Crows being so far to the smart side.
- Carmen
Heh, I guess ALL smart Black people are outliers huh?
- Shey
@Christopher I'm just ticked that someone would come up with something so blatantly full of prejudice.
- Shey
There is data here that's probably useful for something, but the test is whether or not you're dumb enough to think that the title is even close to accurate.
- Richard Lawler
Ridiculous.
- Jen (SquirrelGirl)
Apparently people who score >1400 don't listen to music at all? So listening to *any* music makes you dumb!
- Victor Ganata
I'd assume there aren't (any/enough?) colleges with an average SAT score of 1400.
- Richard Lawler
+2 Shey. I guess Jazz is for dummies? But Jay-Z is "smarter" LMFAO ...
- Amani
In other words, this study doesn't measure what it says it measures.
- Victor Ganata
I bet that if you actually did this study properly, by obtaining individual SAT scores and weighing each individual's favorite music, this graph would look entirely different. Of course, it still wouldn't mean that SAT scores actually measure intelligence.
- Victor Ganata
This Virgil guy went to my high school (a few years after me) and he's a smart cookie. Before lambasting the article I recommend you skip straight to his analysis - it's grounded in reality. http://www.virgil.gr/44 It's well known that white students historically perform better on US standardized tests, and no one honestly believes that means they are innately smarter. There is simply some lingering cultural bias in the construction of the tests as well as in our education system.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
"Do people with SAT >= 1400 just not listen to music? No, they do listen to music -- just look at those high-tier school's facebook profiles! *Averages* are being plotted. So even though high-scoring schoools are included in this average, the average is pulled down by the less selective schools."
- Daniel J. Pritchett
"Counting Crows is an usual one near the top of the list. However, when UPenn Princeton, Duke, Williams, and Upenn make up ~20% of the weight you'd expect a high score." Counting Crows is from Berkeley, so it's understandable that they'd easily relate to students at top-tier schools.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Also realize that the guy is doing his best to extrapolate this information without having access to individual's preferences or test scores. (Methodology here: http://booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr/) Multiplying one aggregated top 10 list of favorites against another averaged standardized test score and then weighting them by population against similar numbers from other schools is...
more...
- Daniel J. Pritchett
But why bother doing it if it won't reflect reality at all? There's no need to talk about correlation ≠ causation when you haven't even established correlation properly.
- Victor Ganata
I scored a 1300 on my SATs, and I enjoy plenty of the music in the 1000 range. I think this study is more of a correlation than casuation. Lower SAT scores --> Poorer quality education --> Lower economic standing --> differing tastes in music.
- Mike Nayyar
Victor - I imagine the author is doing this for the impish self-satisfaction of seeing the reaction generated by the chart. This also gets him some national press, something he seems to have been generating every year or two (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) for most of the decade. At this point I imagine that he's doing it on purpose and has a goal that involves being semi-famous on the internets and in tech academia.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
He's doing it to get attention, hence the name.
- Richard Lawler
Exactly, Richard. He's gotten pretty good at that and he seems to be enjoying himself enough to keep it up with new "discoveries" every so often.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
But it's not even correlation. As Daniel notes, you're measuring aggregates against averages. The data. It means nothing!
- Victor Ganata
Daniel, LOL. I imagine you're right. Why do I always get duped into thinking people actually care about anything vaguely resembling the truth?
- Victor Ganata
I'm curious about the process and schools used. Not too many "young "people listen to the music with the higher scores... Seeing Jazz so low is hurtful too. Did they mean smooth jazz or Bebop?
- Anthony Farrior
“Soca” isn’t a band. It’s a form of music from the West Indies. More importantly, soca is from an area that leans toward Great Britain and Europe. Listeners of this music usually speak more than one language so I find it funny to believe they aren’t as intelligent b/c they score low on American tests…
- Anthony Farrior
Anthony - Notice that all of the genres are between 800 and 1000. All that tells us is that the subset of colleges with Facebook pages and publicized SAT scores average out to ~900 on the SAT. Virgil points out in the FAQ that not all schools have listed Facebook pages or published SAT scores. You can imagine that schools would self-select out of those pools for various reasons.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
re: jazz/ soca--Doesn't this chart simply indicate that listeners of these 2 genres don't frequent FaceBook? or do I really need to 'wise-up' and put away my MIles Davis records and listen to Blink 182/ Ludacris. FAIL!!
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Yeah, it would be nice if—like a "real scientist" (to use his own words)—he would list the reasons why this methodology doesn't work very well, but that's probably asking too much.
- Victor Ganata
I'm not an expert on raw data integrity but maybe the Non-US genres should've been omitted...
- Anthony Farrior
Cool, so if I had ever taken my SAT, I would have scored high. :)
- Grant Bierman
While I'll gladly accept the label "outlier", sung to the tune of "Lowrider", I have some real problems with this study.
- Ha3rvey (F please!)
from fftogo
This so called "study" is basically crap, yes.
- ⓞnor
That map lost all credibility we me as soon as I saw it indicates that Counting Crows fans are among the smartest - I have no idea why but I dislike that band more than any that has ever existed...in all of time and space...of course I may just be an idiot
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
From what I hear Google already looks for 3.5s from "top tier" schools or something similar as their default hiring criteria. Woof.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Creativity seems more important than IQ for "old-school success" after IQ > 120. But what does it mean for "new-school happy-with-life fulfillment"? College GPA/SAT correlations http://gradeinflation.com GRE/SAT-IQ Estimator http://iqcomparisonsite.com/GREIQ... (e.g. snobby Mensa wants top 2% = IQ 130-132, 1995-2006SAT=1295-1320 1974-1994SAT=1250-1270 1932SAT=1190-1210) and yes the pre-1974 Mensa scale is messed up.
- Mitchell Tsai
Yeah... because people who listen to country are WAY smarter than people who listen to jazz or rock...
- Brandon Titus
SAT rescaling/recentering occurs often http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Current scores are 0-2400. Even on the old 1600 pt scale, when SAT recentered in April 1995, scores inflated ~80-120 pts (70-80 verbal, 10-40 math), which made them 1/3 as useful for us working Harvard admissions. http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-re... P.S. Harvard has no minimum requirement - some people with 400s & 500s are admitted. I haven't seen any admissions with 300s, who knows?
- Mitchell Tsai
My guess is that people at smarter schools want to portray an image that they're smarter, thus they list only "smart" bands + genres on their Facebook. GW has a 1240 avg. SAT and the musical tastes here are definitely more to the lefthand side. FWIW, I really like Radiohead and Shins, though. Plus, Ben Folds played a show on campus last week.
- James O'Malley
Mmmm... Mongo like Jazz...
- Kevin Johnson
I like Beyonce, Gospel, Hip Hop...also U2, Counting Crows, Bob Dylan, so I guess that makes me schizophrenic...both 900 and 1200. Interesting stories about musical talent/IQ abound. Some speculate that Mozart had extremely high musical talent with low IQ, thus the technical simplicity of his pieces. Others say that the most interesting music for people is the stuff which pushes their edge (thus, country music listeners are less intelligent). What a way to be controversial!
- Mitchell Tsai
Pop can be a road to financial/career success for musical talents. I love the texture of a lot of Debbie Gibson's songs (and many here have commented on my lack of musical taste... :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... She was a classical music prodigy when young, and I enjoy the multiple lines of melody/harmony/sounds in some of her pieces. I'm not much into boring basslines and thumping bass. My life is pretty good, so I often don't connect with pieces with too much anger/angst.
- Mitchell Tsai
I said this in Sarah's thread but my SAT scores isn't on the X axis and I listen to Weezy.
- Mona Nomura
There's some serious racial effects at play here. But Jazz?!?
- Dror Shimshowitz
Kang pretty much spells it out earlier. One of the things the SAT is good at measuring is your socioeconomic status. In the U.S., SES is tightly coupled to race. It looks like 1076 is roughly the line that splits white artists from artists of color. I guess the only thing up in the air is whether people are more likely to prefer (although not necessarily exclusively so) music performed and/or created by artists of similar ethnic/racial background. Then you've got your chain of causation.
- Victor Ganata
*cough cough* Junk science *cough*
- Mo Kargas
Of course, it's not the chain of causation the article title claims it is.
- Victor Ganata
With all due respect... seeing generic "jazz" in leftmost column is insulting :)
- andrei_c
++Andrei- Also I'm all over the chart and a big bunch doesn't even make it.
- InPerpetualMotion(Gina k)
As most of the studies that appear nowadays on the net, completely stupid, but fun.
- Jordi Soler
I remember something like this from last summer when it was confirmed my musical schizophrenia wasn't subject to music alone.
- Michael W. May
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2... personality and musical taste http://www.peopleintomusic.com/ for the research site.
- Michael W. May
I just want to know if I should start listening to Guster or not.
- Jim the Blatant
+1 for CC
- Dave Q
Where does Frank Sinatra fit on this scale?
- Rosalind Hancroft
2010 Honda Insight: Look Ma! I made a Prius! - http://www.motivemag.com/pub...
Erick Jimenez, ✔ ǝuǝƃnǝ, jjprojects and 27 other people liked this
I mean, seriously.
- Kevin Fox
from Bookmarklet
It looks more like a station wagon to me. All I can say is a hybrid under 20k, more like 16k I'm thinking, is awesome! So proud of Honda bringing the hybrid to the general public.
- Georgia
it's not bad looking at all
- Cee Bee
If my old car hadn't broken down months ago I'd be purchasing this car. The price sounds right and I've always liked Hondas more than Toyotas. I read the reason it looks so much like a Prius is Honda independently came to this design while trying to lower the drag. Apparently the Prius still has a slightly lower Cd (drag coefficient).
- Benjamin Golub
To clarify, it's probably a great car, and I love the geeky dashboard layout. I'm really happy this car is coming out and it may be better than the Prius, but the design is so strikingly similar to the car it seeks to depose that it has to be called out.
- Kevin Fox
Kevin: I hear you, but it could be argued the Prius borrowed pretty heavily from the CRX, and I suspect this is pretty much what you get when you take a standard 3ish-box compact hatchback package, stick it in the wind tunnel and try to tweak it to minimize drag. I think this is the generic profile we're just going to have to live with for the next few decades.
- Ken Sheppardson
I've seen two of them on the road. They're smaller than the Prius and VERY cute.
- Nine Ferdinand
It's got the Hofmeister kink, so it must be snazzy: http://bit.ly/gSFms
- Ryan Kuder
From the article: "Yes, the steering is a bit rubbery off-center in that typical Honda way, and yes, the car's torsion-bar rear communicates wheel impacts with a skosh more harshness and tire slap than do the front struts." Wait, what?
- Dylan Parker
Dylan: Translated = "the handling is squishy and the ride is harsh" :-)
- Ken Sheppardson
+1 Ryan </car_geek>
- Derrick
I love my 2007 Prius, but as soon as I can upgrade to something awesomer I will. :) It's nice to own a car that's worth more than what I owe only a couple years later!
- iTad
Ken +1. I can't help but think of the CRX whenever I see a Prius. A giant, overinflated CRX, but still.
- Andrew C (✓)
At least they made an uglier Prius.
- Ryan
It's... a Toyonda... Or is it a Hondota? ;)
- Tyson Key
You know the joke about turning a Pirus by sticking your hand out the window?? hehe
- Roberto Bonini
Looks like a Ford Focus :p. Doesn't surprise me these cars will look the same. It must have good aerodynamics
- Rodfather
You do know they desgined the Pirus to resemble a boxfish?? (no joke)
- Roberto Bonini
Eventually all cars will look like boxfish, right? http://www.engadget.com/2005...
- Amit Patel
*sigh* Another bubble-butt car.
- Brian Chang
Isn't the reason why they look so similar (and the Volt too) is the fact that this is the most slippery shape and thus helps fuel efficiency?
- Johan
Having already considered the Prius in spite of its expensive price here in Barcelona, Spain, we are now eager to see the coming of Insight announced for next spring. I wish the price was just an equivalency to USD! :-O
- Maria Jose
Looks better than a Prius. The more hybrid choices the better!
- jjprojects
YouTube - The WTF Blanket (Snuggie Parody) - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Steven Bryden, Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど, Jonathan and 10 other people liked this
"Well morons, now there's hope, with the WTF Blanket, the blanket that will ruin your sex life... Basically, it's a robe that you wear backwards."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
I saw the Snuggie commercial on late night television, and thought many of the same thoughts...
- Bret Taylor
If I was a legislator, I would force TV channels to show YouTube parodies after every info-commercial. There's no better way to improve purchase decision.
- Jérôme
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