Allen Hutchison › Likes

I could swear I just read that bit about the perfect being the enemy of the good yesterday. ;-) - EricaJoy from IM

Define substantively and relevantly and better use :-). I kind of like the UDRP process ("The domain name registration is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or a service mark in which the complainant has rights; AND The registrant has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; AND The domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith."). - John μller

I can't. Google kills projects as a pass time :-( - Richard A.

Blogger could be one that has worked out - BCK

Writely - Bwana ☠

Google Earth? / Keyhole - Shawn Farner

I love this service, im really hoping they continue development, any insider info? - Kyle Weller

Writely + XL2Web + TonicSystems -> Google Docs, Keyhole -> Google Earth/Maps, Urchin + MeasureMap -> Google Analytics, JotSpot -> Google Sites, Zingku -> Google FriendConnect, Android -> Android, DoubleClick -> DoubleClick, Feedburner -> AdSense for Feeds (in-process); sorry about Dodgeball. - Jeff

... and David Pogue's comment after the post gets it right -- a new version on new infrastructure will be coming soon. Apologies to anyone who has run into issues on the legacy version. - Jeff

BTW, for folks who don't know, the Jeff posting on this thread is Jeff Huber, SVP of Engineering @ Google. Very cool that Jeff is hanging out here, IMO. - Kevin Scott

Jeff: Will the new version be open source, ala Jaiku? ;-) [Thanks for the list, btw.] - Ken Sheppardson

Forgetting Feedburner? Typical. - Bjorn Stromberg

...or just not trying to give an exhaustive list. I was just asking for one, after all :-) - Ken Sheppardson

Great! And I use this for my local phone number here in Florida. My cell number is still from Kentucky. - tomit

@Jeff thanks for commenting, you have revived some long lost hope in Grandcentral ;) Any more news would be awesome, update the gc blog ;) - Kyle Weller

I'm like tomit. I use GC as my local number, as my cell number is still a Chicago area phone. - Adam C.

Thanks for stopping by here, Jeff. :) - Matt Cutts

It's great news that Grand Central is still alive; I use my GC number as my primary number, and I've been getting nervous not having heard anything from Google about it for so long. I'd love to see it integrated into GMail/Google Talk. - Chris Johnson

I still have to wonder why it took a post like mine to get Google folks talking about GrandCentral again. I don't want them to promise what they may not be able to deliver, but a post every now and then on the blog teasing what we may expect in the next version...and assuring those of us who count on the service that it's still viable would be nice. That folks have to read comments on blog posts and FriendFeed to get official word is ridiculous. - Judi Sohn

@Judi I wonder the same thing. Google wouldn't give away any state secrets by just saying, "Hang tight--we're still committed to Grand Central, and there's a new version somewhere on the horizon," especially as they were announcing the demise of some other services and people were getting antsy about Grand Central. - Chris Johnson

This article seems sensationalist. I'm seeing improvements in GC and can't wait to start paying for it. Their communication seems to be lacking for sure and my trust in Google will take a severe hit if this service were to falter (I don't think it will), but the conclusion of this article is plain silly. - coldbrew

Quite surprising to hear that Google keept a project like GrandCentral apparently deep sixed like this while performing a total overhaul on the infrastructure. - Samuel Bishop

@coldbrew, I really didn't mean it to be sensationalist. With absolutely no public word for nearly a year, and Google's history of ignoring their acquisitions to death, what else was I (or anyone else) to think? - Judi Sohn

Google does not care about a community. They just care about selling their ads. This is why what Google touches FAILS - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Tesla won't get grants until they can show they already a workable plan for creating a 20k electric car. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

It'd be a great strategy to let tons of his constituents lose their jobs, right? - J T. Ramsay

If they fail, it would almost destroy the automotive industry in the U.S. The economy would be in much worse shape than it is now. - pcnerd37

I tend to agree, but I'm worried about the short and mid term economic damage it could cause. Is there such a thing as letting them fail gracefully? - Matt Pfefferle

Unfortunately I think that a collapse of the big three would be too sudden a shock to the system at a time when we can ill afford it - a million jobs lost would have a ripple effect that makes an already bad situation that much worse. The government shouldn't let that happen, but at the same time these companies need to be punished - I'd like to see a revival of anti-trust enforcement. Break the big three up into the medium thirty. Then the failure of any one won't matter nearly as much in the future. - Eric P

It's a tough call. The reprocussions of an allowed failure are much deeper than you may realize. When they collapse, they take entire associated industries with them—thousands upon thousands of jobs on a global scale. I'm not fore rewarding bad business practices like the auto industry big wigs any more than I wanted to see Wall St. scumbags and EvilCo Banks get billions to go on more... more... - Bob M. Montgomery from twhirl

This is a national security issue as much about the economy — check out Gen. Wes Clark's essay in the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2008... - Michael Pinto

Free market principles have failed. The bailout will happen. - Victor Ganata

When did the "free market" guarantee success, or eternal success? - ComicList

And when did it become the job of the federal government to bailout industries or companies? It's all absolute nonsense. - ComicList

Interesting statements, yet the Fed. Gov't gave the auto makers a bailout about 3 or 4 years ago and no one batted an eye then. - Admiral Anika

Obama will give them money for four reasons. 1. He doesn't want to be the president who lost the auto industry. 2. He owes the unions 3. He believes "smart" people like him can centrally plan the economy. 4. He truly believes govt. bailouts can save the economy - Steve Olson

I agree. However, I think he needs to do it to save the workers. Afterwards, he needs to bust some Corp and union ass. Force them to join the next century. - Charlie Wilson

Part of the problem is Tesla doesn't provide vehicles to the military as GM does. It would take years to replace them. - Steve Gillette from twhirl

Unions kinda did join the 21st C. by being beaten to a pulp in the 20th. Maybe it's time for unions to, um, fight back already? - J T. Ramsay

We should see it as opportunity. The money should have strings to force a greener industry and less dependency on carbon-based fuels. - Phil Boiarski

One of the prerequisites being floated in order to get a bailout from taxpayers is a major shakeup in management at GM. Perhaps reorganizing the top would create a much better company worthy of the bailout dollars? - Ryan Twomey

I would rather see our bankruptcy laws be adjusted for the current financial environment than have the federal government (politicians!) try to fix what may not be fixable with a bailout, strings attached or not. - scott anderson

I agree Jason, But PLEASE keep the Corvette alive! Maybe Tesla could buy the Corvette division and put an electric drivetrain in it. I'm too fat to fit in a Tesla if it is based on a Lotus Elise. - Tokyo Dan from twhirl

just wrote about that: http://blog. Stealthmode.com - Francine Hardaway

agreed. let them flop. - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

They cant keep up with Toyota http://www.npr.org/news... look at the side by side comparison. We need the Tuckers of America to rise up. I want to see 25 new car companies that run Lean and innovate like crazy! - Christian Burns

If they do end up getting the aid, why not make it on condition that they use it to ramp up hybrid and electronic product lines... - Juho Tunkelo

I actually that idea of splitting the company up into its natural divisions. That strategy could be beneficial all around, boosting competition and innovation, reducing the effect of a failure by a small producer on the economy as a whole and ultimately providing better vehicles. Wonder if this sort of idea is anywhere near the table. - Bob M. Montgomery

letting 'em fail is not a solution at the moment. due to the lack of any kind of regulation in US industry and economy, you people of US created this very crisis cooperatively. now you have to cure that cancer without an amputation and make sure to get appropriate precautions to ensure it's not happening again soon... letting your ridiculously poor managed companies fail means giving them away to Chinese, Russian and Arabian dollar billionaires for free. do you really want this? - Berk D. Demir

that and you'll be able to sell your corvette for a pretty penny if you garage it for the next 50 years - Paul Stamatiou

i want my change to happen in 4 years: if they bail out auto-industry - i expect in 4 years auto-industry too: 90% of there fleet be non-gas, 90% of overseas work force back into USA = if not pay gov back money! - shayne catrett

Although... the general population can buy Chevy, Buick, Pontiac and Olds - not many can spring for a Tesla or many other 100K+ autos. Not that I care, personally - I don't like GM... I'm a Dodge fan. LoL - Ian Maffett

@ Shayne Well said. History shows (British Leyland) that mere subsidies are harmful. We should demand goals and targets, dates and benchmarks. - Phil Boiarski

@Phil: the govt. has done this with many things. most of those goals, targets, dates, and benchmarks are worthless for the most part. - Aaron Eaton

If they fail millions could loose their jobs. In places like Michigan there is no other industry for those workers to go to. - Matt Farina

@ Aaron, I guess it irks me that we heard none of this when spending 4 times as much on AIG, Wall Street Millionaires. Save the guys who helped sell Mortgage Backed Secuirties and got big bonuses for doing it. We can throw millions of Joe Sixpack out on the street but God foribid Godon Gekko not get his share. - Phil Boiarski

Jason, Tesla cars are way too expensive. I understand that you are in love with them, but that's because you can afford one. Give grants to car companies that want to promote 'green-friendly' cars and can afford to give us cheaper options. - Fleagle

At least lawyers will have a job to do in this otherwise tanking economy. - Victor Ganata

The constitution of California is supposed to protect the minorities against tyranny of the majority, not allow the majority to strip away rights they already have... unfortunately we'll be back in to fights, and there will be loud screams, about activist judges (from people that do not understand laws any more than they understand fairness and equality) if the judges act in in deciding that (wonders upon wonders) the majority of the people that voted do have to adhere to the law of the land. - David HC Soul

Starring the always-feisty Dennis Herrera - j1m

"If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our constitution" - j1m

I like the Onion's: http://www.theonion.com/content... - Casey Muller

The first map looks like a phoenix to me. - Rachel Lea Fox

…or a pigeon slaughtered mid-flight, inappropriately. - John Lam

Again supporting the theory that proximity to oceans and/or large population centers breeds democratic party members. - Bill Strathearn

I <3 Mark Newman. - Clare Dibble

I second Clare. In addition to making cool maps, he plays some mean piano - http://thejcats.com - Robert Felty

@Bill - I think this makes sense. The democratic platform tends to favor public projects like education and mass transit, which make more sense in densely populated areas. - Robert Felty

education makes less sense in the country? - j1m

also, health care, another unnecessary item in rural areas. - ⓞnor

I am overjoyed to say that I don't care one whit about Sarah Palin today. Have fun in Alaska reachin' across all those bridges you've now burned. - Carla Thompson

Obama spent over $700,000 in campaign money on stage lights in Berlin. What's a bigger waste of money? - Spencer

Nice. "One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family — clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy... more... - Paul Buchheit

Well, it was pretty clear John and Sarah didn't get along when you saw them up there at the end of his concession speech. Can you say icy? - AJ Kohn

Spencer: that $700,000 was for the stage, lights, sound, etc. Large productions require lots of staff and equipment, so they're expensive. Palin just went on a massive shopping spree. And the biggest reason people are complaining is because the Republicans mocked Edwards's $400 haircut in the last campaign. - Gabe

What Palin allegedly did was wrong but come on anyone that pays $400 for a haircut deserves what ever anyone said about him. Besides I don't think that was the only trim he was getting - gfurry

Details about the $400 haircut(s!): http://www.slate.com/id... - Stephen Foskett

Can we get over the stupid things both sides have done this last election and move on?!? You know, post-partisan, post-racial, post-sexist and all that? - Robert Worstell

Boo is a cutie! - Ragani Harris

You need a kitty Ragani? He is a super sweet little boy! If we didn't have our permanent cat quota full I would keep him. - Rachel Lea Fox

Fail at image posting. :) Or did you take the photo in a mirror? - Ken Gidley

I'm guessing Rachel didn't choose the "Auto Flip New Photos" option in Photo Booth. - Benjamin Golub

Oh, I didn't know that photo booth had an auto flip. - Rachel Lea Fox

!oot amabO rof detov I - Cyrus Lendvay

!emosewA er'uoy suryC - Rachel Lea Fox

Boo emailed me that he really really loves the neighbors of his current foster parents. - Lyndsey McGrath

ایول رابرت , شیره هر کی بهش رای دادی :دی - Mil∂d

whoops, missed a bit of the square. VOID - Andrew Smith

I took the same pic (with the same candidate) and uploaded it to facebook. Just received an anonymous email telling me it's illegal to take a picture of your ballot. WTF? - shaun mclane

yes, in most states it is illegal... why? I don't know for sure... but they take the privacy of the booth very seriously - Shawn Duffy from twhirl

It is illegal and will be posted on the wall before you enter. - Richard Gallo

Driving 69mph on the freeway is illegal too. Sue me. :-) - Robert Scoble

Good to be so forthcoming to share that, surprised that it is so secret when the elections are so public. - Raymond Marr aka Knatchwa

It may be illegal in some places, but I am sure it's not illegal to take a pic of your sample ballot filled in. - April Russo (app103)

obama ftw! respect Robert! - Apostolos Papadopoulos

it's not illegal to photograph your ballot. that's nonsense. I photo'd mine and uploaded to Flickr. - Karoli

I believe in some jurisdictions it's illegal to take photos at the polling place, as it has implications RE intimidation, tampering, etc. Photographing your individual ballot however? Eh. - Ken Sheppardson

You drive 69 out here Robert and you get passed, 75 on many of our freeways :) - Bob Schwartz

in italy is highly illegal (immediate arrest) - Danilo Paissan

might give some punks a reason to invalidate your ballot. THAT would be hilarity - Daniel Morgan

My mom remembers seeing him water the roses in front of his house on YBI - he was nice to all the kids who came by. :) - Karen

Was there trick or treating on the island? Or did they all go over to the base on Treasure Island? - Kevin Fox

N.S: "My wife Carla is a popular singer, and a former hot top model, and she so hot in bed (...)" S.P: "Oh my Godness, I didn't know that!" - Jérôme Flipo

Here the documentary Sarkozy references to: http://hustler.com/mansion1 (NSFW!) - Jérôme Flipo

If one voice can change the world for Obama, one Viagra can change the world for McCain! - Andrew Trinh

I'm not sure if he said "From my ass I can see Belgium" or "From my house I can see Belgium". - Jess Lee

I agree Chris. I don't think it was that funny. Sal or Richard from the Stern show could have done a better job. - PC Easy from twhirl

I still can't believe this is real. I mean, she must have figured it out... she can't be that stupid... can she? - Tudor Bosman

It's definitely real, her camp issued a statement in response today. "Governor Palin received a phone call on Saturday from a French Canadian talk show host claiming to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie." - Vincent X

It was just taken down from youtube. I wonder what the reasoning for that was. - Robin Barooah

Still works for me. - Vincent X

interesting - it's back up - Robin Barooah

This is filled with wow... - Anthony K. Valley ©

that was epic - imabonehead

it's all over youtube if this one is down: http://www.youtube.com/results... - Robert Stevens

"Special American advisor - Johnny Hallyday". ROFL - Paul Grav

Boy would I like to hear these audio tapes. I bet they're a hoot: "Starting with persistent phone calls to Alaska, [Marc-Antoine] Audette said it took the duo -- which also includes Sebastien Trudel -- about four days of phone calls to Palin's handlers to finally get in touch with her." http://www.ctv.ca/servlet... - Robert Stevens

Ahhh those stupid guys (Justiers Masqués) pranked also alot of other people. I'm from Montreal, and I listen to them once in a while. This prank is very well timed. It's a good one for them! :-) - Éric Senterre

"From my house I can see Belgian too." - Mai

Thank god for comedy. - Will Higgins™

Lol just watched this from my g1, wish frienfeed had a g1 iface - Kyle Weller

amazing!!!!! *loool* - Dieter Schwarz

There were a couple of funny moments in there as well, where they mixed languages in a slightly tricky way. When talking about hunting, they said something like "we could tue some baby phoques" (kill some baby seals). Then later he says that his wife Carla wrote a song for her called [something I couldn't quite follow about "rouge a lèvres sur un cochon" (lipstick on a pig)], which he then translates as [something about Joe the plumber]. - Joel Webber

And the bit about her "edgy" documentary "Nailin' Pailin"? Classic! - Joel Webber

http://www.elbot.com/ (I don't think it's the full competition version.) - Simon

I tried out elbot, and he seemed very much like a robot. - Gabe

I thought he was more like a politician, very evasive. - Philipp Lenssen

He is very evasive! Also, don't lie to him the first time you tell him your name... He still thinks I'm Brian.... - Ross Miller

He keeps talking about being a maverick too... - Jim Norris

lol Jim. "but the dead giveaway was when I asked it about the border between Iraq and Afghanistan, and the reply said there was no such border. that's how i knew it was a computer!" - Karim

"within 5%" sounds impressive. "fooled 3 out of 12 judges" less so. - Karim

It's interesting data. I just took a quick look, so I could be half-cocked, but I think the methodology for that one particular graph is somewhat problematic. It measures importance of religion by asking people how important they think religion is -- self-reporting. Also, in the "advanced" countries, polling was done over the phone, but was face-to-face in the "developing" countries. In the U.S. -- this should be of interest to you -- the poll excluded cell phones. Imagine how this might skew U.S. results. - Chester

@Chester I see you praying into your cell phone all of the time... - Christopher Sacca

America is religious when necessary. In a word, hypocrisy. - jcunwired

Not arguing with the general conclusion of the study, as it intuitively seems to make sense. But it's not as rigorous as it could be. And the general conclusions are also problematic because, while Japan -- for example -- may not be "religious", there are strong "traditional values" that may mirror some impacts of religion. Consider, for example, extremely restrictive/xenophobic Japanese citizenship policies... - Chester

Mhm... Spain ranks low in importance of religion? and that close to France? something's wrong with that data, at least from what I've experienced living and traveling around here for the past year. - Juan Pablo González

Chris: The body position of someone perpetually tapping into his iPhone is an almost comical approximation of someone clasping hands in prayer. And the study really is problematic...especially for you, given your recent highlighting of landline-only polling. And there's no detail on the time of day they called. Imagine they only polled Americans who own landlines and are home during business hours. Given the study's own findings regarding a gender gap in "belief", that's a problem. - Chester

I know it's impossible to collect the data now, but I'd love to see this as trends over time. Is the US disproportionately religious because of it's relative youth? I wonder if nation age is a factor as well as prosperity. - mikepk

I also wonder if the states were considered independently, how would the data look. - mikepk

Michael: 1) The US isn't particularly "young". 2) The study finds that lower age correlates with lower importance of religion. 3) In the study, there are very "young" countries that are very religious: India and Indonesia, for example. 4) Conversely, despite older populations, Germany and Japan are, supposedly, very non-religious. - Chester

Chester, I didn't mean age of the population, I meant time of existence of the country as an entity. The US being only 230 years old as compared to some of those European nations. I was wondering if history + prosperity = less religiosity. - mikepk

I think trying to express memes like religion with a simplistic equation is quite impossible. We can find any desired correlation between any two parameters by polling appropriate audiences. - Shivanand Velmurugan

Which of these countries have a state church and state-owned economies? I'd expect that a state church would be less efficient, less competitive, etc. than privately owned churches, and thus less effective at keeping people religious. If the church is run by the state but businesses are private, then businesses will outcompete the church. But if the church and businesses are both state-run, or if the church and businesses are both privately run, then the church doesn't have the same disadvantage. - Amit Patel

Michael: Ah, I see now. Well...if history + prosperity = less religiosity, then Australia would be closer to the USA than to the UK. I agree with Shivanand -- that the very idea of "religion", as well as what it means for religion to be "important" to oneself, is far too complicated to be sufficiently and accurately gauged through a single variable, self-reported question. - Chester

One possible explanation: "Americans have the highest income inequality in the rich world..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.... If there are a large number of poor people, and lack of prosperity increases religion then there would appear to be a link there. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Nick Lothian

Nick: Data doesn't bear that out, either. Great Britain and Australia have significantly higher Gini coefficients than, say, Germany, which rates much higher in the study's religiosity data. Again: before trying to base conclusions off the data in this study, try examining the methodology of the study itself. The one in question was devised in a way that undermines its validity. - Chester

@Chester - I think that the data does bear that out. I hesitated in including the Gini coefficients link because it isn't obvious how significant a 10% difference is. Australia is around 35, the UK around 36, and the US around 47. That really is a significant different. Gini has to be looked at along side average income or purchasing power, too. - Nick Lothian

@Chester - what problem do you see in the methodology? - Nick Lothian

Nick: Comparing AUS/UK vs. the US, inequality correlates with religiousness. But with AUS/UK vs. Germany, there's negative correlation. And how is one to square Indonesia and Poland being between AUS/UK and France in Gini coeff. but being super-crazy-religious? As for methodological problems, I list a bunch in previous comments. Beyond issues of methodology, what does it mean to for "religion" to be "important in one's life" in these different countries, respectively? Does that mean the same, globally? - Chester

WRT Indonesia vs Poland, as I mentioned you need to look at absolute average income or purchasing power, too. Indonesia is a much poorer country. I do agree that there are problems with the income inequality argument, though. I disagree that there is a major methodological problem, though. Look at the "How often do you pray" question - there's a good correlation between that and the importance of religion answers. - Nick Lothian

What searches did you try? I admit I tried my name and friendfeed :) - Benjamin Golub

[airport security], [ubuntu], [high price of gasoline], [y2k], [wikipedia], [coke zero], [bush], [navigator], [webvan], [click fraud], [adsense], [mccain] (check #4), [bailout], [the ring], [wordpress], [america online] - John μller

Funny http://www.google.com/search... - LPH™ and his dog P™

Wow! When I googled myself (Shannon Taylor at the time) I got my web page from college. I had totally forgotten about it: http://web.archive.org/web... - Shannon Jiménez

LOL, here's bwana.org from 2001. http://web.archive.org/web... I wrote my own blogging engine back then. Previous version: http://web.archive.org/web... - Bwana ☠