Ruth: why not ask all these people why they love Friendfeed, too? Love's a really strong word for what FriendFeed is. But my issues (and others' issues) with FriendFeed are mostly all here: http://friendfeed.com/e/6eead1... - Mark Trapp
Funny enough @ Mark@ Allen, you guys have a shitload of comments and likes but still you don't like FF, i don't want to know how active you guys would be if you did LIKE it:P - Gordon Swaby
Gordon, at one point I was infatuated with FriendFeed: my likes were touching on 1,300 in a week, comments were hitting about 600 in a week. I like Friendfeed, I don't love it. I don't think it's the best answer to the information overload problem. At one point, I thought it was, but now, it's just another avenue of information. I like Google Reader more. - Mark Trapp
Yes, of course. And Mark, over-using a product is one thing. Using it to a level that makes sense is another. Find your pace. And there's nothing wrong with Google Reader and FriendFeed love. I do love both. - Louis Gray
I'm with Mark Trapp: for the time being I like Friendfeed, but much prefer Google Reader. Friendfeed has tremendous potential if it evolves to include much more intelligence for managing and customizing news streams. For now, Friendfeed is degraded by too much noise, too much redundancy, too much chaos, too much groupthink, and too much herd mentality. A few carefully selected traditional blogs and RSS-ized searches on news and blogs produce more bang for the buck. - Sean McBride
Louis, the overuse argument doesn't really do it for me. For one, my current usage is equal to or less than people who say they love FriendFeed. If they have the same activity, why do they love it and I don't? When I was a top user, I had the same issues I currently have with it. Beyond that, if a product wasn't meant to be used over a certain activity level, why allow it to be used that way? The issues with FriendFeed are systemic, not activity based. It's a nice tool, a great place to have a conversation, and I do like it, but it's not really love-worthy: I think we'd all manage really, really well if FriendFeed wasn't around. - Mark Trapp
It seems silly to say too much noise and redundancy when you control what you see.... Splain me please. - Brad Nickel
Brad: let's say I'm subscribed to 50 people. Each person shares 90% content I like, but they all share 10% content I don't like. The content bridges all services. How do I remove the 10% content I don't like? I can't. Keyword filters like N0iseRiver are a superficial solution: for topics I don't want to see, I have to block every keywords and variation of keyword associated with that topic. It also doesn't get around popularitism, where people want to get noticed, so they emulate popular people by oversharing the same content. Or when someone discovers a new site or person and overlike or overshare that content because it's new to them (even if it's not new to me). While I like seeing trends, that's not the most enjoyable part of knowledge gaining for me. I don't care about memes: I care about interesting content only once and move on. FriendFeed fails tremendously with that. - Mark Trapp
I don't see how anyone can compare friendfeed and Google reader. Friendfeed is far more interactive. They are in two different zones when talking about interaction between new and old friends - Gordon Swaby
like, not love- Honestly conversation wise I could take it or leave it, I do enjoy most of the content from people I have subscribed to, though. @ Mark, There is bound to be redundancy in any social media that connects several services. I try to be honest when I'm reposting something I really like off of a FF person and indicate the from; I only repost because there are people on each of the services NOT on FF who could benefit or enjoy from the information (esp design related info) given. - Gina K
Gina: I don't think you should have to justify why you shared something; the tool, in this case FriendFeed, should allow you to share in the manner you wish while allowing me, who may have already seen the content, the luxury of not having to see it again merely because you found it later than me. Something like "Mark this topic as read" that's smarter than just a keyword list. The hypothetical tool that I'd love would allow both of us to use the tool in different ways without a dichotomy of annoyance vs. ease of use. For me, I'll love a tool that actually solves the information overflow problem instead of just shuffling around the terms. I don't think it's a simple case of "there will always be crap you don't want to see." Someone's going to figure out this problem: I just don't think it's FriendFeed, at least not yet. - Mark Trapp
@Mark what's really needed is very smart content analysis, grouping, and personalized ranking. It needs to index the content, extract the key concepts and keywords, and have a personalized weighted keyword vector to give it a score for you. Normalizing the data so that all of the shares of the same content are grouped would be required to get good results as well. Unfortunately that's a very difficult problem and it would be expensive (computationally and financially) to implement... - Jason Carreira
@Mark, I did not mean any harm. excuse me if short today sick. I really just wanted to see discussion regarding pros/cons. esp since i am not a techie my knowledge of social web is basically twitter which i don't like and FF. In fact, I love GR but the seemless intergration with FF is part of FF's charm for me. OK back to medicinatoin and sleep i guess. - Ruth Ferguson
No. I like it, I respect it, I use it, but I don't LOVE it. Now I do have a love (and sometimes hate) relationship with last.fm. - Ontario Emperor
via fftogo
“FriendFeed experiment please participate. Please post your bookmarking rss feed. It can be from Delicious, Diggo or any boomark service that gives you an rss feed of your links.”
I found this article directly on Louis' blog. It did not appear to be shared by anyone when I read it in Google Reader. Please share, add your name, and keep all the original text. -Andy Tinkham - Andy Tinkham
Alan takes Steve Martin's progress as a stand up comedian and applies it to growing as a software tester. I think the progression probably applies to a lot of fields. - Andy Tinkham
Nope. I will be sticking with my Blackberry 8800. - Matt Donders
It'd also be interesting if y'all can elaborate a bit, why or why not? - Jason Kaneshiro
i did in the comments on site, but i am because i'm addicted to the current one and this one is faster with GPS - MG Siegler
@Jason -- I currently own an iPod Touch and I carry that and my Blackberry with me. No need to consolidate devices and the Blackberry keyboard is the best out there, IMO. With the update of the iTouch to allow for WPA2 Wi-Fi I have everything I need in both devices. - Matt Donders
No, but I was able to upgrade My Verizon LG VX9900 to a new LG Voyager for $50 today :-) - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I'm hearing that the overage charges could kill you if you really use it. I'm thinking about not getting one if that's the case? - Jim Kukral
via twhirl
On the fence ... but they are beautiful. - Scott Wamsley
@Matt I am using WPA2 Wi-fi on my iphone. You sure its not the same with the touch? - Akshay Dodeja
@Akshay -- Sorry WPA2 Enterprise. My school uses certificates to login to the wireless and from what I understand this 2.0 software update will allow me to login to these secured networks. - Matt Donders
This is interesting. I'm refraining from any analysis, just collecting yes's and no's and reasons. - Jason Kaneshiro
I will probably get it but may not be on day 1. I'll try the firmware upgrade first and go from there. I think Apple made a bad call in releasing it this Friday instead of last month. I would have gone and bought it without the pros and cons simmering in my head. - Arlan Koizumi
You can have mine, as I'm not getting one. - Paul W. Swansen
@John Frost: 3rd party sites like ColorWare (http://colorwarepc.com) will do that if you send them your phone (or wii or computer or whatever). I got a painted iPod long ago from them and the paint wore really well. - Andy Tinkham
@Hao I have to make some peanut butter chocolate chip first for my wife, but this will get made soon & I'll add a comment as to how it comes out. - Andy Tinkham
I do a lot of this! Used to be that I read. Like, actual books. Now more magazine articles and teh interwebs. But wait, I'm translating this as "time to myself" for some reason. Free time also means dinner, etc. w/ friends. I do that as often as I can. - Ayşe E.
Reading, writing, canoodling, manicuring, yoga-ing, music listening, dancing and eating copious amounts of chocolate. - Samhita
Walk, watch the Mets, hit the hot tub, listen to podcasts, overdose on Friendfeed. - Kevin Shannon
Internets obviously, reading, photography geekery and thinking. If I had more people to write to I'd like to spend more free time on written correspondence. - Michelle Jones
eating, climbing, hanging out with friends, movies, travelling, yelling at toll brothers and no shortage of internet activities. - felix
Internet, eating out, working out, going to basketball games, making moony eyes at my girlfriend, traveling. But a lot of my internet time I do not consider to be free time, so... meh. - Erica Mauter
I read a lot, spend time with wife and kids, cook, and tinker with electronics. Oh yeah, and I do some internet stuff, too. - ha3rvey
Why 19? That excluded me. I can't answer! Maybe because all my time is free time? - Yuvi (has IRL friends!)
Time? Free? Where can I take advantage of this wonderful offer? - Chris Nixon
via fftogo
On the Internet, with my family and children, watching sports! - Joe Dawson (beta)
Interesting responses. I knit, hang out with my dogs, spend time with my husband, read, watch movies, surf the web, and other stuff. And is time really free? - Jill, Superhero Librarian
Reading, Taking Photographs, Watching Movies, Exploring back roads, Visiting with friends. - Diana LeRoi-Schmidt
Lately a lot of friendfeed, but I also read books, watch movies, and play games. - Kyle Hebert
Participating in library, technology, and Harry potter communities on the internet, trying to see new things, reading. - Andrea
I'm a multi-tasker - I consume ridiculous amounts of media (TV, Film, Music, Words on Paper). I'm friendfeeding a lot lately. I ride my bike. I enjoy drinks, singing, and dancing with my friends. I'm traveling a lot more. - Jason Toney
I'm 56-95: Photography, snacking, read the paper, tv, people watching, internet. - Russellreno
24. 75% internet: social media, social networking, gaming, coding / 10% watching movies / 5% console gaming (wii ftw) / 5% outdoorzy stuff / 5% other (including my poor girlfriend) - Hao Chen
I drink beer and practice tattoo art on my kids. - Chris Baskind
I'm not sure what "free time" is, but I try to balance business & being online with creative writing, composing music, sound design & video projects, photowalks, creative arts, cultural events, reading *gasp* books, travel, being with family and friends, pets, good food, gardening, hiking, outdoor activities. I spend very little time on TV, mostly PBS or a few genuinely informative programs. My life has become so much richer and fuller since I made a real, committed, ongoing effort to keep it balanced. :-) - Cathryn Hrudicka
I generally read, cook, take photos, pet the cat, nap, hike, internet (a new verb!), go to museums, hang out with friends, eat cheese. - lisa-k
Reading (both online through Google Reader and Friendfeed and offline), photography, a little TV, games (video (on the Wii) and board), trying restaurants, baking/cooking/making ice cream. This week has more free time than normal, and I hope to hit some museums and do some genealogical research as well. - Andy Tinkham
Baking! How could I forget to add baking in as a free time activity? - Michelle Jones
kids, photo/walking, music (not playing), internet... but free time iis darn scarce - silpol
Watch TV, read when I can, go out to dinner and movies with friends whenever possible with crazy schedules. I volunteer at too many things, but I don't consider that "free time" cuz they're obligations, too (however pleasurable). I also travel to see distant friends when I can. Chicago in 2 weeks! Can't wait. - Louise Alcorn
When I'm not spending time outdoors with Planet Wifey, then I usually get down doing BMX freestyle with rest of the 30-35yo cats I know, photography, read Comics, play video games, and see just about every movie that remotely looks interesting (and all of that before midnight) -- after midnight is my creative time for writing, drawing, podcasting, etc. - Do You KNOW Clarence?
Easy experiment with an interesting hypothesis behind it (they ask participants to not describe it to other people who might participate, but describe it once you complete the experiment). - Andy Tinkham
While this article is written to be about commenting on photos, I think it generalizes pretty well to commenting on pretty much anything - in Friendfeed, on blogs, or wherever. - Andy Tinkham
"Your childhood chocolate was a kiss or a chunk, a drugstore bar or a bunny at Easter. Like you, chocolate’s all grown up and is far more interesting now. We tested the confections for you (no need to say thanks!) and recommend these greats." - RAPatton
via Bookmarklet
The L. A. Burdick store in Walpole, NH (1st on the list) is a great place to visit, too. We got some chocolates there last Christmas for family. Definitely highly recommended! - Andy Tinkham
Bell's = ze bomb. Two Hearted Ale is pretty much a food group of my diet. - Ian Wilker
via twhirl
When I lived in A2, MI I drank so much Bell's. One of the best and most unheralded micro breweries in the United States. OMG thanks for the memories! - James
Matt, I'm not at the brewery, but I would love to visit some time. I always pickup Bell's when I see it since I don't come across it on the west coast. - Scott Beale
Oh yeah! I'm back in Michigan now, I can drink myself silly on Bell's now - l.m.orchard
via twhirl
absolutely one of the best breweries in the US. That reminds me, I'm driving through Michigan very soon and may need to make a slight detour! :) - Mike Marusin
Well when you ARE at Bells, stop by Coney Island after. Down the street a block. Hotdogs. Good stuff. - Ken Sheppardson
Bell's is delicious stuff. They stopped distributing in Chicago a couple years ago. People were very upset. Here's the story. http://www.chicagoreader.com/f... - geoff
We WERE upset in Chicago. Hearing the name Bell's is like hearing the name of a girl who dumped you. I miss her so much... - Jason Phillips
When I heard the name Kalamazoo I assumed you were in Australia. Newcastle Brown is a good ale-- I'd recommend it. - john conroy
I've loved every Bell's beer I've had (except for the Cherry Stout). Oberon, Celebrator Doppelbock, Two Hearted, Third Coast Old Ale, all good. I've almost always got bottles of something of theirs in the the fridge - Andy Tinkham
via twhirl
"Instead, the verb is relegated to the end, and Goldin-Meadow thinks that this is because objects are more easily represented in the brain than actions. They exist in their own right, while actions depend to some extent on the relationships they create between different objects. The upshot is that it might be less mentally challenging for people to first highlight the objects involved in an event, before describing the actions that link them. That's a bit speculative, but there is plenty of other evidence that the SOV [Subject Object Verb] order is indeed the fundamental one." - Andy Tinkham
Interesting. My running assumption has been that verbs -- at least imperative verbs -- were more natural to human beings, probably because they developed earlier. Pointing to something and saying "Food" is less mission-critical then yelling "RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!" when you see the tiger. My only support for this is the fact that we seem to have more difficulty remembering nouns than verbs. Of course, this article seems to be talking about transitive verbs, which depend on a noun-based context. - Robert Fischer
