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Russellreno posted a link

McCain Names Alaska Gov. Palin as Running Mate - America’s Election HQ

15 hours ago - via Bookmarklet - Link

Mahdi Ebrahimi, Ontario Emperor, Bluesun 2600, Victor Ryden and 2 other people liked this

"“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same,” said spokesman Bill Burton." - Russellreno via Bookmarklet

But, you know, she's a Hockey Mom. - Jason Toney

Show 12 more comments

*screaming inside* why??? - Kamilah Gill

was she at all responsible for the pork re: bridge to nowhere? - anna

@anna according to her speech she told Congress "no thank you" on the bridge - it will be interesting to see questions like these really get vetted in the coming weeks as information surfaces - Marco

I am just WAITING for Bill Clinton to say that people with no foreign policy experience shouldn't be elected Vice President. WAITING. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Stunt casting, first thing that pops to mind. - Bluesun 2600 via twhirl

Whoever said she looked like Tina Fey needs bifocals. I'm just saying. - Cyndy

@Cyndy. hah! it depends on the angle :) http://bit.ly/3LgPX5 - ~C4Chaos

Heard that she came in 2nd in the Miss Alaska in 1984. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... - Bluesun 2600

McCain needs to pick someone that is conservative since most conservatives see him as liberal and only slightly to the right of Obama. - Paul L. McCord Jr.

Re my Bill Clinton comment, Dave Winer went one further. Not only does Palin not have national experience, she doesn't have American experience. (Alaska is kinda weird, you see...) - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Nice teeth. - Andy C

haha! @ontario - Marco

he wants to drill in her yard. THAT'S what it is! - jeneane is in the house

jeneane FTW, hardcore!! - ::Kristen::

@anna - actually, she is responsible for killing the "bridge to nowhere." She is also playing a large and public role in getting the current corrupt congressional delegation from Alaska kicked out of office. The state GOP had no idea what it was getting itself into when it appointed her head of the state oil commission... - Forrest Cox

Andy C posted a link

Football: Man United 1-2 Zenit St Petersburg | Football | The Guardian

6 hours ago - via Bookmarklet - Link

Paul Scholes equalises in the Super Cup to earn MUFC a 2-2 draw. Bizarrely, the 'goal' was ruled out for a suggestion of handball. - Andy C via Bookmarklet

Andy C shared an item on Google Reader

Signs of Life at Jaiku: Does it Matter?

14 hours ago - Link

Probably not but just like Twitter, Jaiku has its own passionate, loyal community. - Andy C

Neville Hobson posted a message on Twitter

“"19% of all [US] internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they could listen to it or view it later." http://tinyurl.com/63c5pr”

15 hours ago - Link

Andy C liked this

Interesting - wonder what % would be for Europe/UK. - Andy C

Yes, I'm wondering the same. No data for UK/Europe, though. - Neville Hobson

Andy C shared an item on Google Reader

500

15 hours ago - Link

The story behind the Oracle forum outage. - Andy C

Tom Raftery posted a message on Jaiku

“New Jaiku interface? What is different? Been so long since I logged in I barely remember!”

yesterday at 12:41 am - Link

Tom, I think it was a big mistake for Jaiku to "re-launch" without some breakthrough thinking or features. - PaulSweeney via twhirl

@Paul +1 Also a mishtake to take 7 days to move the existing platform into a Google data center. It kind of makes you think Google aren't really that committed to Jaiku which is a shame. - Andy C

And what is with the invite thing? Wasn't it open before? - Tom Raftery via twhirl

Was limited invite. Now 'unlimited' invites but still not truly open as you can't just sign up. I predict great things for Jaiku - in 2013. - Andy C

Andy C shared an item on Google Reader

Hello, this is Oracle - we're not in right now

16 hours ago - Link

Back now. Apparently Oracle posted a massive picture of a Badger during the outage. Those guys are really starting to embrace Web 2.0. - Andy C

Britney Mason posted a link

David Duchovny Enters Rehab for Sex Addiction

16 hours ago - via Bookmarklet - Link

Chieze Okoye, Steve Spalding and George Smith liked this

All those years of sexual tension with Scully........ - George Smith

"I ask for respect and privacy for my wife" - I suspect she will just be grateful for the respite. - Andy C

Andy C posted a link

Hacker Gary McKinnon loses appeal against extradition to US | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Thursday at 3:36 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Just looking for info on UFO's, my lud. - Andy C via Bookmarklet

Michael C. Harris posted a message on identi.ca

“I wonder where Habari is going wrong with marketing, when sweetcron can garner such FriendFeed love on the day it releases.”

Thursday at 2:17 am - Link

Andy C liked this

Easy: The Mona Effect - Michael W. May (Joffi) via twhirl

Habari doesn't have any moaners. - Andy C

Hey, Mona, would you like to try a new blog platform ;) - Michael C. Harris

Andy C posted a link

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Shropshire | Man's 'pants' password is change

Thursday at 1:54 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Mathew Butler liked this

'A man chose "Lloyds is pants" as his telephone banking password...' - Andy C via Bookmarklet

Saw this story earlier and wet mine. - Mathew Butler

Jonathan Beckett posted a message on Twitter

“Oh dear. I just destroyed by wordpress theme because I was fed up of it being so busy.... http://www.ewows.net”

Wednesday at 7:05 am - Link

Andy C liked this

Not bad. You just need to lose Pages, Categories and the blogroll and tidy up the formatting and that will look pretty good :-) - Andy C

Charlie Anzman published a photo on Picasa Web Albums

Top Ten Traffic Sources (SEO and Tech Daily)

Wednesday at 6:18 am - Link

Bill Sanders, Mike Fruchter, Michael J Cohen, Michael W. May (Joffi) and 4 other people liked this

Nice chart, Charlie. :-) - Louis Gray

Does FriendFeed work ? I don't know. All I see here is a list of Top 10 sources. FriendFeed may have referred 3 people for all I know. I could post my own 'chart' that says identi.ca refers more people to my blog than FriendFeed. Does identi.ca work ? Sure. - Andy C

I have noticed that FriendFeed does drive a good amount of traffic compared to other sites. Definitely keeping an eye on that trend. - Rob Diana

Andy - Your point is well taken in the fact that I am much more active on Friendfeed than any other social network, which no doubt is a big piece of this. - Charlie Anzman

Steven M. Cohen posted a link

“Why are there so many librarians in FriendFeed?”

Wednesday at 6:51 am - via Reshare - Link

resharing - Steven M. Cohen

where? - Grizzled Librarian

Show 3 more comments

http://friendfeed.com/e/03eaf7... - AJ Batac

I think it's your fault - Alan Simpson

Wouldn't that be "on" FriendFeed, not "in"? Just sayin' - Steven M. Cohen

Because our shit is dynamic like that. And classy. ;) - WarMaiden

@Steven - You're either a librarian 'or' a Teacher. - Yuvi

Ssshhh ! - Andy C

Andy Piper had a new status message on Gmail/Google Talk

“jamming gerbils into jars”

Wednesday at 5:45 am - Link

I daren't ask. - Andy C

Akiva Moskovitz posted a message

“I'm having a daughter in January and I'm already imagining torturing the guys who come by to pick her up for her first dates in 25 years.”

Tuesday at 8:52 pm - Link

Kol Tregaskes, joshuabacker, Mitchell Tsai, Marco and 40 other people liked this

Not having her first date until she's 24. Ouch. - Andrew Trinh

Man, you are trying to put it off for 25 years? You really are in for torture. - Tim Hoeck

Show 33 more comments

My Uncle told his daughters they couldn't date until they were 19...I don't want to tell you how they are today (in their 20s) - Candace Holly

My husband did/does the same thing. He'd like to but our daughter in the basement from when she's 10 until she's 30- just to be sure. - Abby Martin

I'd bet you'll be having that problem when she's 16. ;-) - AJ Batac

Congratulations Akiva! I'm sure no guy will match her standards :) - Zee at WeDoCreative

Feel free to call :) ... and suck up every minute. It flies by! - Charlie Anzman

I don't even have a daughter and I think about torturing the guys who come by to pick her up for her first dates in 25 years :) - Rahsheen(isSoAwesome)

Hmmm, perfect age for Milan to date! (He turns 1 on September 14th). Don't tourture him too much. :-) - Robert Scoble

My wife just exclaimed, 'Our kid's gunna date Robert Scoble's kid?!' - Akiva Moskovitz

Wow- Friendfeed as matchmaker! A first! - Abby Martin

When I picked up Rachael up for our first date (12 years ago, wow) My farther-in-law gave me a single piece of paper with a number on it. He said it was the combination to his brother's safe where he keeps his shotgun. He told me (and I remeber the quote) 'This is so you have a fighting chance... but I don't like your odds, be home before 12'... :) - John Worthington

Akiva: that bad, huh? Oh well, Milan will have to turn on his big-eyed charm then. Hint: it weakens the hardest of hearts! :-) - Robert Scoble

@Akiva You're thinking about that in a soon-to-be pointless attempt to distract yourself from thinking about changing dirty diapers. - Jack Carlson

+1 Jack :) - Zee at WeDoCreative

Akiva, LMAO, 25 years. It's all in your head man, the future is coming a lot closer than you think... - Pete Delucchi

Akiva, one word: burka - Hutch Carpenter

Robert, it was said in the most positive (yet shocked) way! :D - Rochelle

Hutch, we're Jewish. What areak;fa;g;aGlkAsf;as a omgSJKGA: AOgg - Akiva Moskovitz

I picked up a folder of "Applications to Date My Daughter." It has ten applications, and only one certificate of Permission to Date My Daughter. - Denton Gentry

It starts way early man, my daughter is 2.5 and already has a friend that is a boy... - Bill Pennington via twhirl

Bahahaha. Don't get Jason STARTED, Akiva. Poor Sissy. No bikini bathing suits. No lip gloss. I got her ears pierced while he was in Texas. And the make-up for her first dance recital was a knock-down, drag-out. - Cyndy

I think Jason has the very right idea. - Akiva Moskovitz

Congratulations, Akiva! Cyndy: You guys are going to be doing some MAJOR ass kicking when Pete turns of age. Seriously. - Mona N.

My 6yo godson and his best friend kissed on the bus and now they're married. It starts early, Akiva. ;) - Ayşe E.

You're not goign to let her date till 25? Man. Am I glad my first girlfirends didn't have Dad's like that :) - Soulhuntre via twhirl

25 LOL - ·[•_•]·

when we found out we were having a girl (2002), my husband started investigating convents. - faboo mama

You think it's bad now, just wait until she's born. I'm trying this method for coping: Build her up. Teach her not to take anybody's sh*t. Tell her how beautiful she is every day. Tell her how smart she is every day. Teach her that men are idiots and need to be told what to do. Empower her to make good decisions and be in control of her life...did I forget anything? ;) - Chris Martin

When our first daughter had her first date I was the cool one on the outside because everyone else wasn't so cool. It was very strange for all of us. My youngest went to the window to spy on her sister. - Russellreno

Mona, Pete will have the benefit of two older brothers who will run interference. Sissy is the oldest and therefore, the first-pancake child. - Cyndy

I hope she likes Denny's. I have a coupon that expires in 2030 and I'll be looking for a date :P - Nathan Howell

Indeed, agree 100%. I have a son right now. But if we were to have another child, I'd want a boy. - Mike Reynolds

I have a daughter. I am already over the first date and now torment myself. picturing myself writing out a cheque for the wedding reception. Do you think all the guests (all 7 of them) would be prepared to toast the bride and groom with sparkling water ? - Andy C

Oh jeez. I don't even want to think about footing the bill for a wedding. You guys are killin' me over here! - Akiva Moskovitz

Then this song is for you "Cleaning this gun" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... - Al Degutis via twhirl

having only son's w/ girlfriends myself can say that witnessing the torture is painful but its mostly done by the girls and not their parents ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

Somewhere there is a strapping young boy out there just waiting for that perfect Jewish girl. Give it 16 years and the magic will happen. - Sparky

Louis Gray posted an entry on louisgray.com

10 Suggestions To Improve FriendFeed's Beta

Wednesday at 1:54 am - Link

Roger Chen, Diana Valerini, Voyagerfan5761, Space Cowboy and 96 other people liked this

Well put, Louis - I think you covered all my frustrations - Jesse Stay

2, 5, 7, 8 are my favorites. I'd also like to add the ability to hide certain post that match a keyword, e.g. McCain etc.. - Tibor Holoda

Show 34 more comments

Tibor, you are right. Forgot that one. A rooms directory also seemed to small for a list of ten. - Louis Gray

Feel free to make it 11 point long, it seems everyone's a sleep still anyway ;) - Tibor Holoda

Good points. I'm particularly keen on 1, 2, 6 and 7. Reshared to Friendfeed Beta room btw. - David Young

I commented on it. Mostly love the suggestions. - Robert Scoble

1 and 10 I really like. - John Worthington

#9 is essential. - Mo Jawhari

I'd also like to see Disqus comments to be treated as comments, which by implementing Louis suggestion in point 2, will make more sense i guess. Comments are comments, posts are posts. In case there will be no link to which the comment is added, it could work like posting a link with the Disqus comment under. Btw, @Robert, you don't have Disqus hooked up in FF ;) - Tibor Holoda

Excellent post Louis. You are pretty much spot on with those 10 suggestions. - Mike Fruchter

Tibor: I don't like Disqus pulling in comments here. Often I want different communities to remain separate. I'll manually pull in comments or point out when I've made comments that FriendFeeder's should be aware of. Like I did here. - Robert Scoble

FriendFeed is a lifestream aggregator and I use it to aggregate all my various 'outputs'. Disqus comments are just one category of my 'outputs'. Therefore, Disqus comments are perfectly valid and *do* belong in my FriendFeed stream The fact, that such comments may be out of context to people bending FF into a Social Media Forum is an unfortunate consequence. - Andy C

11. add user definable font size. the new beta makes me squint :) - h1ro

#9! I hide things liberally and it does bug me, when I click on page 2, I'm seeing page 1 all over again. - Yolanda

Free booze?? - john conroy

Great suggestions Louis, I would also add: The Ability to Hide Specific RSS Feeds and Search All Entries by URL - Shey

and go-faster stripes, a background of babes in bikinis, and intermittant embedded hilarious fart noises. - john conroy

I have to so that FF has been growing well with the current feature set. Like all areas of activity contraints can sometimes be helpful. FF needs to innovate itself, rather than copy straight from Twitter (DM's), Facebook (profiles) etc. 2,4,10 are most important. The issue here is not so much what features we want as how can FF grow into a mature platform. - Roberto Bonini

Robert: I see your point, but i still think it would be a good thing to handle Disqus comments as comments, not as posts. User decides, if he wants them appear in his FF stream or not - like in your case. - Tibor Holoda

Great List Louis! #2 is my favorite one. - Peter Hoffmann

Tibor, I agree with you (Robert, when are you going to enable Disqus on your blog?). For the blog owner it's much easier to consolidate into one place if they can tie your comments straight to the FriendFeed post itself instead of an entirely new post. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

One more suggestion - tagging. I want to be able to tag individuals, both in my posts, *and* my comments if I'm talking about them or something they might be interested in. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Excellent list. My top priority though, isn't on there - (as per Shey) renaming or separating "Blog" posts, so individuals can hide your blog vs. another "blog" .. I'd also like it easier to determine which services I am/am not showing per individual. Just give me some enable/disable checkboxes on the users page. Strands did this right. - Tim Hoeck

Great suggestions Louis. One clarification on #4 -- most people never see this "default" list because they were either invited by another user, or they import friends from email or facebook. The recommendations are then based entirely on who their other friends are, and will make a lot more sense. - Paul Buchheit

Indeed some good suggestions. My guess is that the reason that #2 (duplicates) has not been implemented yet, is that it is very tricky to do right. If they do manage to implement it and get it right, I will be very impressed. I would not be too surprised though, since Friendfeed has some really sharp people working there. - Robert Felty

Excellent List and some good suggestions in comments as well. I really would like to see 2,3,5,6, & 10. The share on FF bookmarklet should be more like Tumblr's. I would also like to be able to filter my feed to prevent duplicates. I would like to cross post my tumblr to my main blog and twitter but in doing so I create more noise for my FF stream. If I could filter out posts from blog or twitter that started with "XYZ" then I could cross post freely without worrying about FF noise. - tsudohnimh

@Paul, thanks for the comment. I did test by signing up to just one individual, as if they had invited me, and by changing the one person I subscribed to, the recommended friends did change. That said, if you check out recommended friends in Facebook, there's the option to "X" out people you don't want and provide more. Plaxo also does this well. - Louis Gray

Re: #1 and #8 I would like to see profile information that I can search, so I can find FF folks who are geographically near me or who are in my profession or who share a common interest with me. Great post - thanks! - Courtney McGough

Pownce should worry about #10. FF will soon have to worry about cannibalizing its data suppliers, and what that means for ongoing openness. #! & #2 are the big ones with me, and I just don't see why FF enabled fake followers. - Logical Extremes

being 1st or 2nd is all that matters in that particular field.... 3rd placings and below would normally whither away - Mark L via twhirl

I am really getting confused. I just commented on the post. Now I see the comments here as posts. Totally agree with Tibor, messing posts together with comments, be it from Disqus or anywhere else, does not increase transparency. - Jan Horna

#7 - want to make sure i understand that concept of "fake follow" - home feed contains all friends by default & you can then add them to a list/grouping to subdivide them for easier readability - to remove them from the home feed you have to actually de-select them when you add them to a list and then never go to that list again - is that what "fake follow" is - if so, way to much work for no return and only lame*ss self absorbed status mongers will be doing it - imho of course :) - mike "glemak" dunn

#5 - My thought would be to make an invitation-only private room. Wouldn't this solve the partial-distribution problem? - Mitchell Tsai

Mitchell, it could, and some do, but that's a room, and not a feed. Unless the room data permeates the feed, it could get missed. - Louis Gray

I like your list. One other feature I'd like to see is to filter by service in whatever view I am in. - Jeff P. Henderson

The absolute killer feature for me would be, if FF will recognize languages of the posts, or at least to differentiate between english vs. non-english and allow filtering. Would that even be possible or did my brain just farted? :) - Tibor Holoda

(sorry for cross posting) Firstly, I'd like to add to Louis' list the capability to search rooms and then to search inside rooms. Secondly, I must confess that support for a basic profile would be useful. But as always I'd encourage the reuse of data (so importing it from whatever source the user decides). DMs might be usefull, but I haven't felt the need for them so far. - Alex Popescu

I usually don't like to speak about things that are not ready, but this post was catchy. I currently have a prototype that deals with de-duping the resource links. I haven't looked into de-duping pure messages, but my gut feeling is that this might be even easier. I hope to find the time to deploy this app sometime soon. - Alex Popescu

About private messaging: at first I thought this was a silly idea for ff, until I realized that the private messages could just show up where ff items normally show up, e.g. private comments. - j1m

Jeremiah Owyang posted a message

“Some bloggers apologize for not posting, and I know one blogger that deleted his whole blog for not posting after a few months. Why the anguish? Do or don't do.”

Wednesday at 2:21 am - Link

Bill Sanders, Melanie Reed, Denton Gentry, Andy C and 18 other people liked this

I guess it's because of the (erroneous) advice given to new bloggers that they have to blog regularly. There's perhaps a slight drop-off in traffic during silent weeks/months, but what matters most for traffic is quality, not quantity (speaking of the non-pro-blog here). Also, since blogging is essentially an introspective activity, exposure to comments can be overwhelming, even induce guilt at times (I experienced that the first 6 months or so). I don't think extroverts get that all the time. - Vincent van Wylick

I think the apologizing is something that belongs to the time pre-rss when you had to visit the page every day to get the updates. If there were no update you wasted your time. Today bloggers and news sites should apologize for posting too much rubbish instead. - skivan

Show 8 more comments

But when blogging for a couple of years I can feel a responsibility both to my blog and to my readers. The blog sometimes can be a prison too. Use to say to the people I educate in blogging that the fatigue is coming and giving ways to cope both with the bad concious of not blogging and the responsibility to the readers. It's like having a paper - of course would you tell that "now we won't publish for some days but we're not dead" - Niclas Strandh

They are holding themselves to unnecessary, unwritten standards. There is no quota, and it's not a race. - Louis Gray

99% of bloggers start out blogging for themselves, as a release. Too many forget that once they start getting readers. Nice as they are, readers come and go - stay true to yourself and why you blogged in the first place. - Michael W. May (Joffi)

I wish I could Like individual comments on Friendfeed as well as posts (one to add to your list Louis?), these are gold... - David Young

When I started to blog, years ago, I was basically writing a digital diary and didn't expect to have readers. My blogs were notbooks for myself. Still I feel that the audience comes second. Blogging is a learning experience for me. I blog in three languages: English, Swedish, and Finnish. Frequent writing has helped me to improve my language skills. I learn a lot from other bloggers. Social media and its implications on how to virtualize business operations is my present curiosity focus. http://kknetwork.ning.com/ - Helge V. Keitel

I keep wanting to start a blog but I either can't think of what I want to talk about or when I do I don't have any way to write my thoughts down to save for later. It's nice to know I don't have to blog a regurlarly. - Colide81

Easy to fall into the trap. Like many (personal dear-diary style, unprofessional) bloggers, I did it myself. Lessons learned - don't be afraid of radio silence, never, ever post mind numbing, tedious, boring posts like 'I'm not going to be posting for a while 'cos I'm real busy right now'. Some of the worst, banal, contrived, worthless posts I ever conjured up were those when I sat down and thought 'Right - it's Thursday so I need to blog something. Now'. - Andy C

Any blogging 'rules' are dumb. Period. - Chris Selland

I have 2 blogs, one is a "private" one that is mostly written to keep familly uptodate on the happenings, the other contains my lifestream, so that it gets updated, because I rarely blog on it.. don't understand people who think you have to blog daily, it should be a diary type thing, not a job type thing - Pascal

I have six blogs, one I update daily Iuse that as a diary, another is a lifestream so I dont't have to post on that one... and the other four are about my hobbies... and I post when I feel like it on these four... - Aline

@Chris Selland if any blogging rules are dumb, then what about grammar? I thought one of the rules of blogging is to always have good grammar. However, I don't have the best grammar and when ever I write a post I wonder is there something I can do to improve my grammar in my post? But as I said my grammar isn't the best so I am afraid I may miss something in my proof reading. - Colide81

Louis Gray posted an entry on louisgray.com

My Google Reader Leaderboard: August 2008

Tuesday at 9:52 pm - Link

Mike Reynolds, David Young, Erhan Erdogan, Charlie Anzman and 8 other people liked this

Narcissism gone mad. I can sort of understand pimping your own posts in every medium available but surely how can you honestly post a Top 40 list and keep yourself at #1. - Andy C

Andy, I agree, but it's only reporting what's there. Reader won't show who is #41 if I take mine out. Should it be a top 39? - Louis Gray

Louis Gray'ed again. The man is a genius (and has great taste :) - Charlie Anzman

Some great reads I wasn't familiar with/subscribed to in here, thanks - Mo Kargas

Thanks for compiling this Louis. I need to blog more consistently. I dropped 5 spots compared to the previous month leaderboard. - Mike Fruchter

Josh Bancroft posted a message

“Dear FriendFeed followers: Who in your network have you created "imaginary" friends for? I wish I could automate it, somehow, so I can read people who don't use FriendFeed yet. But it's a slow, manual process. Who should I start with? Who was worth the effort for you?”

Tuesday at 1:10 pm - Link

I only have jkk so far. http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/ I'm not using RSS readers anymore. - Rodfather

Ooh, jkk would be a good one. Does he Twitter, or write anywhere besides his blog? - Josh Bancroft

Show 7 more comments

I don't think so. Blog, youtube, and IM - Rodfather

I've created a few imaginary friends to suck in folks photo-related content (Flickr, blogs) when they're not on here. - Aaron B. Hockley

I've done it for Flickr contacts that I like to follow. - Eric

I just a made a couple for developers I follow - Craig Hockenberry, Daniel Jalkut, Wolf Rentzsch, etc. And of course I had to make an "Imaginary" list to put them in. I'm having way too much fun with the new FF beta. :-) - Josh Bancroft

many of my favorite Flickr/Zooomr photographers who haven't found their way to ff yet. - Thomas Hawk

So far, just flickr contacts... - JA Castillo

There's a new FF beta? I've been mostly offline during my vacation and don't see anything different on the iPhone page. - Cheryl Jones

Cheryl, the iPhone version is unchanged, AFAICT. But on the desktop, go to http://beta.friendfeed.com. Check the FF blog to see what's new. Friends Lists and some rearranged layout are the big ones. - Josh Bancroft

Cool, I'll check it out when I'm home. - Cheryl Jones

Twitter. No. - Andy C

Robert Scoble posted a message on Twitter

“It's so nice to come to Europe and have the person driving us in saying positive things about an American politican. You can guess which one”

Tuesday at 7:09 pm - Link

Mark Douglass, Sally Church, melmcbride, Sean McBride and 19 other people liked this

Ted Stevens? - Mark Trapp

Is it John McCain? It's John McCain isn't it. - Geoff Schultz

Show 57 more comments

You guys are funny. - Robert Scoble

Gotta be Larry Craig... they love the gay sex scandals - Jason Carreira

Did you tell him Jerry Lewis isn't a politician? - Adrienne Van Houten

i can certainly relate to that. when i was in Ireland, i talked to a cab driver who who follows the U.S. election and rooting for this politician. go figure. - ~C4Chaos

Rofl, Jerry Lewis. - Geoff Schultz

When the whole world wants a politician to win in a US election, doesn't that make you a bit nervous about what sort of leader that would be? Has no one else watched an episode of Weakest Link? Your competition wants you in the weakest position possible. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

@Mark, we're already there and they want to see us get better... the world is smaller and more tightly coupled than ever, and when we screw ourselves up, it screws them up too. - Jason Carreira

let them bash all our politicians when they should be thanking us that they don't speak German now - Jeff Quinton

Mark: that's bull. The rest of the world doesn't pay for defense. If there's a weak America they are gonna need to spend that bill themselves. But Bush didn't get to this reputation because he's strong. Far from it. If America is strong why did I only get 60% of a Euro for one of my dollars? It used to be that I got almost two Euros for a dollar. "No new taxes?" Yeah, right. I'm paying your "no new taxes" with the Bush dollar. - Robert Scoble

Maybe it's because the world wants us to be in harmony with the world instead of trying to control it. When you have a part of your body that's growing faster than the other parts, it's called cancer. I'm sorry to say, but that's how the world views America under King George. - Oliver Ortega Chua

Wait, I thought you were at the DNC? You must have just teleported. Scoble, you're able to be in twelve places at once. That's incredible. - Pete Delucchi

Heck, even most Americans don't remember Harold Stassen. Glad the Europeans are giving him his due...Seriously, I wonder how Europeans would react if a bunch of Americans started to say, "You should elect this person to run your government"? - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Pete: I'm not at the DNC. I'm sitting in a hotel in Berlin, Germany. Nice hotel, too. The Grand Hyatt. - Robert Scoble

Haha, Jason! - Ayşe E.

Mark: Leader Of The Free World is not just a snappy title on a business card. We tried 8 eight years of a meat puppet and that has worked soooo well. My home loan intrest rates are going through the roof here in Australia because of the US Sub-Prime Loans crisis. Everything you guys do has a flow on effect to the world. Comparing world politics to a TV show is bushish at best. We don't want the weakest, we actually want the best. I certainly hope that is the goal in US as well... - John Worthington

Frankly whether the rank and file European likes our president isn't the most important issue in my mind. I am sure they like Barack... he is just like mose European leaders - far left, not used to thinking in terms of being a global power and big on anti-US policy rhetoric. But he still isn't qualified and he is still not able to commit to a policy position. That he is "popular" won't change that. - Soulhuntre via twhirl

And thats too bad - because I would LOVE to be able to vote for a worldly popular leader for the US. It would kick ass. It just isn't something I can do this time. - Soulhuntre via twhirl

As pointed out by John. We in the US may be the shareholders with the most vested interest in the United States doing well but the rest of the world are it's Stakeholders and have a significant economic interest in our country prospering. Our companies employ their people, our forces protect a lot of major trade routes, we are the largest consuming nation, and people all over the world are invested financially in our economy. Why would they want us to fail. - Geoff Schultz

Soulhuntre: I almost called you an idiot but then I realized you wouldn't get what I was trying to say and, so, I'll save that name calling for someone who'll understand. Obama big on anti-US policy rhetoric? Wow. "Isn't qualified?" Yeah, and Bush was hyper qualified and look at what he did to our country. - Robert Scoble

Soulhuntre - so why is McCain more qualified? - John Worthington

cuz he wuz p.o.dubya - Geoff Schultz

Hey Robert - call me names if it makes you feel better ::shrugs:: apparently that's what social media is about right? You do see the difference between :anti-US" and "anti-US policy" right? I was pretty specific not to trot out some weird patriotism attack. I mean, we can agree that Obama thinks current US policy is bad... because he sure says it often enough. So clue me in on the idiocy part there. Or am I not supposed to say anythign true about the guy now? - Soulhuntre

'Anti-US Policy' or 'Anti-Your-US Policy'? - John Worthington

Hey Soulhuntre, US policy IS bad right now ... we're in sad shape after 8 years under Bush. - tj hanton

@John Worthington - personally? I think it usually takes more time in government at the federal policy level than Obama has to make a good president. Obama simply doesn't have the experience. If he had been Hillary's VP I would have voted for them in a heartbeat so he could bring idealism to her pragmatism. The experience he does have is weak in my eyes. McCain has much more experience at the federal level. Anyone can decide that doesn't matter - and that's fine but it is a simple reality. - Soulhuntre

The reality is that, once in office, McCain's and Obama's actual policies will be somewhat similar. Not identical, but similar enough to parts of the world. North Korea and al-Qaeda won't notice any appreciable difference, and the auto worker in Grand Rapids who expects Obama (or McCain) to return the auto jobs from Mexico can keep on dreaming. And if you truly think the McCain-Obama election will be a historic choice, just ask Cindy Sheehan or Bob Barr. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

@Soulhuntre, Federal policy level experience isn't essential. Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter had no such experience, and the Roosevelts and Lincoln had very little. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Great to hear that. When I was there just a year ago it was far different. As a matter of fact, I would start most conversations with "Bush is an idiot...." and suddenly people were friendly... go figure. - Steve Sebestyen via twhirl

Soulhuntre: one reason I almost called you an idiot is because you think you have sole control of the truth. That's OK, I have the same disease. :-) - Robert Scoble

@Ontario Emperor - a good point, and why I left a "usually" in my comment to account for the truly exceptional folks. I don't happen to think Obama is one of those. Look, despite the PR hype this is pretty much the usual anti-incumbent rap. Things are bad, we need to be saved, no more of the same, give us power we'll change everything. Some folks will agree, others won't. What it isn't is fresh, new or unique. - Soulhuntre

Soulhuntre... Thank you for your answer. You are one of only a few who could give me an answer that wasn't 'Cause he is not the other guy'. While I may disagree with you, it's nice to talk with someone who considers the issues. - John Worthington

1st Comment -- hilarious Mark++ - Nicholas Kreidberg

@tj hanton - the relative merits of US policy is probably best left to another thread. My point was that being heavily critical of US policy is a free ticket to popularity in much of Europe right now - so it is not at all surprising Obama is popular there. I am not sure how that comment is even controversial, let alone a sign of idiocy but any comments that call Obama into question tend to be met with anger these days. - Soulhuntre

Regarding the 'weakest link' argument, does it then follow that you want Putin, Medvedev, or someone equally as divisive in the Kremlin, or someone more interested in peace? If you want someone more interested in peace and international diplomacy, does that therefore mean that the Russian populace would be stupid to vote the current regime out? - Kevin Fox

@Robert Scoble - that's ok! even when you are mean to me my Google juice goes up 10% :) - Soulhuntre

>being heavily critical of US policy is a free ticket to popularity in much of Europe right now. TRANSLATION: "being heavily critical of Bush is a free ticket to popularity in much of the world right now." True! (Even at home in USA). - Robert Scoble

i seriously envy these discussions about the US election. In our country, the candidate who has the most celebrity endorsers and has hidden the most scandals wins. - ramil

heh, heh, Obama is "far left". We're going to have to start inventing new terms. - Michael C. Harris

Why the translation? The president often sets the tone of policy - so obviously I mean Bush's policies. And social media aside, things domestically are not as clear cut as all that - McCain is about even in the polls. While on the internet insulting Bush is the same thing as being popular out in meatspace it isn't so assured. - Soulhuntre

@Michael C. Harris - obviously Obama is only fairly far left by US terms. That makes him moderate to right wing in Europe but they can live with that :) - Soulhuntre

Soulhuntre: it's all about how you say it. You didn't say "Bush" policies. You said "anti-US" policies. I'm not anti-US. I'm anti-Bush. That dude has done more to hurt America and its interests around the world than any president since I was born in 1965. - Robert Scoble

Soulhuntre - have you ever felt a sense of deja vu all over again as you looked into your synchronistic, Jungian, collective unconscious eyes and saw yourself thirty years younger looking back wild eyed yet startlingly perplexed like a deer caught in the headlights? - Sean McBride

@Robert Scoble - my intention was to comment about his disagreement with US policy. Not that his disagreements constituted an anti-US policy :) Again, it is clear that Obama considers current US policy to be deeply flawed - this is not in dispute. There is no separate US policy and Bush policy - there is only US policy, as shaped by Bush. - Soulhuntre

can someone watch this and still vote for McCain? http://bit.ly/1eCbAh not because McCain is Republican, but because McCain still hasn't admitted the mistake that is the FUBAR Iraq War. - ~C4Chaos

@Sean McBride - actually my 12 year old self would pretty much agree with me as I am now. My core values were shaped by then and I almost always act in accordance with those. For good or ill while I have grown a lot in my life what was important then is still what I consider important now. Namely, having the most Micronaughts. Thinking about it though, he woudl covet my Xbox 360 and Wii. And a hard drive - ANY hard drive. At 12 I was rockin'g a TRS-80 Coco with tape storage ::shudder:: - Soulhuntre

So what your saying is experience means nothing..... you see where I'm going right? - Geoff Schultz

@Geoff Schultz - I am aware of how this consistency can be interpreted as a flaw - but I am not going to be dishonest about it. Experience has helped me find the best ways to achieve, protect and live up to my values... it has not changed them. I am sure for some others their life experience has shaken what they consider to be their core values and hopefully that has been a growth experience for them. My core values have stood the test of time fairly well and for that I thank those who helped me find them. - Soulhuntre

@Soulhuntre Did you realize that the following presidents never served in Congress? Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Taylor, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and G. W. Bush. I'm willing to bet that you'd think a few of them were qualified for the office, eh? - Jim McCusker

@Jim McCusker - did you miss the part up there where I answered a similar comment and pointed out the "usually" in my thoughts? To answer you more directly yes - some of those people were qualified as president, many were not who I would have picked. - Soulhuntre

Having lived in a foreign country for an appreciable amount of time, I hear ya, Scoble. :) - Steven Perez

Wherever I go in Europe, I meet people who want to know why they never meet any Americans who voted for George Bush. *shrug* That's neither the end nor the beginning of an argument, but it is telling. - Rick Powell

JFK ? - Andy C

suprised how redneck mark rizzn hopkins is becoming in his old age - gregory lent

@greg Possibly redneck, whatever that means in this context. I still hold to the original statement. To go with the example given in one of the responses (it's up there, scroll up for it), a peaceful vs. warmonger president of Russia (if I were russian) doesn't play into the decision making process. What plays into it is who is going to lead the country to a strong position of leadership. This is really hard to boil down to a metaphor in this tiny little box, but living in "harmony" with the world does .... - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins