Divorce is the most expensive thing I ever did.
- Robert Scoble
If this is the case, why do I know two people who initiated this in the last two weeks?
- Paula W
I second Robert. Divorce is expensive. Worth postponing if you can afford to. I'm hoping I'll only ever go through the one in my life.
- Sally: baby flier
true... that much more difficult to negotiate a hefty settlement ! some could be in wait n watch mode i guess :)
- Atul Karmarkar
Atul, it's not just about a hefty settlement. Houses have to be refinanced into one person's name (or sold, perhaps at a loss). Lawyer fees have to be paid, the person who moves out has to pay for housing and utilities in addition to possibly paying half of the mortgage and utilities at the existing home before it's sold. There's a LOT that goes into it...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Tina: in California half your assets get split up. If you have kids the person who makes more income has to pay child support and you have to pay alimony for half the time of the marriage and if you have been married for more than 10 years you have to pay alimony forever.
- Robert Scoble
Yeah, it's one of those things that varies state to state without doubt. Here, assets can be split whichever way is agreed upon by the spouses. If they can't agree, courts get involved in halving everything up. For instance, my sister had to buy her ex out of his half of the equity in her home (plus pay to have it refi'd into her name). Alimony is an option but not automatically included in the decree. Child support is a whole 'nother can of worms...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Been married over 19 years and divorce is one of my all time fears... I would really die from it!
- Susan Beebe
Well, then there IS a silver lining to this black cloud! Ooorah for divorce declines.
- Melanie Reed
I have a coworker who just filed for divorce. He thought twice about doing it because of the financial burden it would become, but his estranged wife is such a freaking psycho (she's the one who's stalking me at the moment) that he decided it was worth the risk of bankruptcy to be able to cut ties with her. Still...what a scary prospect right now. I have a feeling he's going to end up...
more...
- tinypants - Hagitha of FF
Amanda I've been having the same thoughts, but figure its better to just go it alone then deal with a wild card factor of someone else that there is issues with. Guess then next idea is to just sign up for a commune.
- Santa CW™
Well, the study link escapes me at the moment but it has been proven that if you (at what you think is your very worst period) stick it out, they found out that most couples were happy 5 years past that point. Reminds me of the elevator experiment: put people in an elevator and tell them that they can't get out no matter what happens even if stuck. Put the other group in an elevator an tell them that if they begin to feel uncomfortable, they can get out any time they want. Can you guess....
- Melanie Reed
...which group had better stress levels at the end of the experiment and why?
- Melanie Reed
what about marriage rates? do more people get married, or forestall it, in harder economic times?
- .LAG liked that
everyone is shagging to cheer themselves up :o/
- Rob Sellen :o)
LAG: My guess is that marriage rates would go up. Less pressure to rise in the corporation, more time to spend with a partner and think about having a family. Read that people became healthier during the Depression, and actually had poorer health in fat times. So in some ways at least, lean is good.
- Paul Denlinger
Paul, Good insight. I'm filing this one. Thanks!
- Melanie Reed
This is because now women marry for love. :)))))
- Jordi Soler
@Susan, that's one of sad things about divorce. Despite pledging "till death do us part," people don't die when they leave their spouse.
- ComicList
Divorce is a business and part of the American instant gratification ethos. Married 38 years, we took our vows as actual commitments. We had a five year engagement test drive. Neither of our parents had been divorced. A lot of how you end something has to do with how you start it. People are usually much more careful exiting a marriage than entering it.
- Phil Boiarski
Task-dependency would be cool. I wonder if it's been suggested to the RTM guys. I, personally, stick with RTM ;)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Still looking for that ONE single app that can manage all my expectations.. :)
- Atul Karmarkar
I am close to signing up for the PRO account for RTM. I just can't find anything better.
- Amani
What, exactly, are you looking for, Atul? I think between RTM, Gmail, and maybe Evernote, you should be able to make something perfect. It won't be a single app, but it can behave as one :)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
I noticed the "techmeme adds human editor" story was all over my feed reader yesterday. Is techmeme super duper popular? I haven't used it much, am I missing out? Please tell me if/how you use Techmeme.
Amusingly the Techmeme blurb (cloud? what do they call their aggregated stories?) on this event has links to about twenty offsite writeups.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I stopped reading Techmeme ages ago, but all it takes is a handful of people to read it or share it on GReader for it to show up all over FF.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
That makes sense, Tina. I think I must be more interested in ideas and analysis than the news cycle. Newspaper-style aggregation isn't grabbing me these days.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
i sometimes get the feeling Techmeme is going the Technorati way in terms of relevance...
- Atul Karmarkar
I used to read it several times a day. Now I read FriendFeed or TwitScoop to find out what PEOPLE are recommending and not just the top 10 or 20 bloggers that the site most closely tracks.
- Wayne Schulz
I while back I unsubscribed to all tech blogs I used to read and now I just check Techmeme once or twice a day. I'm kind of with Daniel in that I prefer ideas and analysis to headlines.... but tech bloggers generally don't have a great signal to noise ratio as that goes, so going this route cut down on the noise immensely and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
- Eric P
Chrome is fast overall, but if I star opening too many tabs, multiple tabs, or start switching between many tabs, there is quite a delay. FireFox is slower overall, but works much better under pressure. I think the Chrome tabs being in separate processes causes them to swap to disk independently. You can see how quickly that can go downhill. I'm torn :)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Does it really matter how fast the browser loads? I mean, if my browser took 20minutes to load up, but everything after that was instantaneous...I think that would be fine. Also, who closes a browser? :)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
My Firefox takes about 0.30-1min to load, I don't care. It's still awesome!
- Kristian Salonen
Love the speed of Chrome,I can't get used to any other browser now.
- Steve Chou
Sean - I did scale back plugins, but still slow. My guess is that there's one plugin that causes 80% of the delay. I need to experiment. Ironically, perhaps it's Google Web Accelerator. Hmmmm.
- Mike Reynolds
Rahsheen - I've tried keeping things open, but my Windows XP suffers from some ugly memory leaks I think. Turns out not to help at all for me.
- Mike Reynolds
I don't really start up Firefox. It's up and running on my MBP pretty much continuously.
- AJ Kohn
You know that web accelerator was discontinued and support was dropped due to numerous problems don't you?
- Rich
from IM
Chrome is simply the best browser on Windows - want a Mac version too!!!
- Dieter Schwarz
Richard - Thanks, didn't get that memo that GWA isn't around anymore. :) Uninstalling.
- Mike Reynolds
About 45s-1min to start Firefox at this end, since I do have a ton of plugins, but that's what makes it all worth it. Of course, on mac = no chrome
- Deepak Singh
Mike - I've been messing with the nightly builds of Minefield (Firefox 3.1 beta 2). Think you'll be pleasantly surprised ... at least so far it looks that way. Still don't recommend it for the 'everyday' box.
- Charlie Anzman
Charlie - I need to add that I'm still using Firefox 2. Held up going with 3 due to reliance on some plugins. Not sure I use those plugin much, so since I've taken the plunge to Google Chrome, perhaps I'll be brave enough to try out FF3.
- Mike Reynolds
Not to be anal, but plugins and add-ons (or extensions, as they used to be called) are not the same thing. Plugins are what handle things like flash, java, and embedded multimedia. Add-ons/extensions are what add new features/functionality, and are what is likely to be slowing down start-up times.
- Tanath
I was actually using Minefield. It works pretty quick, except for the fact that I couldn't login to Remember The Milk or PassPack. Had to ditch it.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Chrome certainly is quick. Maybe you have too many firefox plugins because mine starts way quicker than that
- Michael McGimpsey
from twhirl
"Just like a professional pool cue, these tools of eating wonder are made in parts. The stainless steel upper section is hollow. Pop the top off and slide the white ash lower section out. The wooden tip screws into the upper section using all brass hardware. ... Fun Fact: The white ash used to make the wooden tips comes from recycled baseball bats from local teams in Japan!"
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
from Bookmarklet
While it might not be these, I think I'm going to get a set of portable chopsticks. I'm tired of using the throwaway variety: what a waste of wood =/
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Mike, I think so. Steve plays to our strengths, and adds something unique to the mix as well + I'm looking forward to the first time I can disagree with him in the comments ;-)
- Duncan Riley
Congratulations, Duncan and Steven. Should be fun to watch.
- Louis Gray
honesty, transparency, & equity - nice post
- Scott Moskowitz
Loic, I must commend you on your honest and direct approach to this unfortunate situation. I wish you and the team all the best!
- Jim McCusker
Great work my friend. I only roll with 4 wheels of truth on a chassis of honesty from now on. Its gross how much I had to lie in the past to cover up for our VCs.
- Aaron deMello
Gregory you are stupid. There is only one Segway and it is my personal money. But you are right, I am cutting that too, just nothing to do with Seesmic. You are my first stupid comment of the day if I do not count the trolls. At least you are not anonymous congrats for that.
- Loic Le Meur
from twhirl
Gregory Lent thanks for recognizing you were stupid attacking me because I had a personal Segway by deleting your comment
- Loic Le Meur
Loic, we haven't met, but we know a lot of folks in common. Props to you for handling this so well. Sorry that you had to let go folks; it is one of the great pains of startup life. All the best to you and your team.
- John McCrea
Thank you John, honestly I try to handle it as best as I can, I will have to post more about transparency soon
- Loic Le Meur
from twhirl
Loic, good luck weathering this storm and kudos to you for your transparency
- Mike Doeff
Just wanted to add to everyone's comments here and say as an employee at a start-up, I appreciate your honest and transparency. Best of luck.
- Tsega Dinka
I'm down from ~2 liters a day to 1 can a day.. I'm far more sensitive to caffeine intake now.
- embee
Yes zee I have quit drinking diet coke and replaced it with water instead. After a while you forget what soda tastes like altogether and that bubbly craving goes away. You just feel better, your sleep better, you can focus better, ... etc etc... You should try going without it for a month to see how you feel.
- Brandon
how any 'diet' drink of any kind could be addicting is beyond me since they all taste like shit
- Steven Hodson
@directeur, for her apparently it is. This post reminded me that I once read that quitting diet Coke actually helps you lose weight. http://bit.ly/2AmFGT She's watching her diet so maybe I should show this to her. Personally, I can take it or leave it. I'm fine with drinking tea or coffee for my caffeine.
- Jauder Ho
I had to give it up because I gave up caffeine. I don't even do the decaf diet coke now. I sleep better. I read that caffeine can stay in your body for 20 hours! Also, I eat less. No bouncy blood sugar.
- Christine Cavalier
Directeur - it's more of a habit that forms and any habit can be quite hard to break
- Zee.
I quit Coke (and french fries) for a year. You'll start to notice some changes, especially when you drink water. You'll feel refreshed but not as tired. You also won't go to the bathroom as much. Some feel Diet Coke actually makes you eat more, creating a hunger feeling. I recommend if you do quit, have something in the 'middle' for a bit, like Lemonade or OJ for those times when you get bored with h2o
- Andrew Leyden
@Brandon - yeah may do...something about it just makes me feel unhealthy
- Zee.
@Jauder - if by "she" you mean me...i'm a "he", very much a male :)
- Zee.
@Zee - Heh. I was referring to the gf. I just heard her crack a can open. Off to show her the article. xD
- Jauder Ho
@zee yeah, it is so unhealthy for you even though it's 'diet.' People that are trying to lose weight but continue to drink diet sodas are hindering the process greatly. Cut out all the sodas even if you don't need to lose weight -- you will feel so much better.
- Brandon
always drank a lot of water, swapped my coke for diet coke for the most part now
- Jeff Quinton
@Christine LOL. She is reading this now and laughing.
- Jauder Ho
I haven't drunk soda since I was a kid, and I did try a couple of diet drinks once, and they leave a nasty aftertaste. I probably drink too much (unsweetened) coffee, but I drink lots of water too, just the regular stuff straight from the tap.
- Ian May
a friend of mine thought he had gout.. swelling of his feet and hands.. he stopped drinking diet coke and it went away! He was surprised and is on an anti-aspartame run now..
- Heidi Jeffers Thibodeau
We get led to believe that sugar and saturated fat is bad for us, so we quit regular sugar and butter, and take sweeteners and margarine instead. I often think that the natural versions are probably better than these chemical substitutes.
- Ian May
I've completely given up on fake sweeteners - even things like Splenda. I feel a lot better and some weird allergic symptoms I'd been having went away. They come back the day after I have anything with sugar substitute
- Nine
Yeah, I quit drinking diet Coke about five seconds after first tasting it. :) I don't know how people drink the diet stuff. Now, quitting Dr. Pepper? That would be a feat for me. Keeping it to two cans a day is about all I seem to be able to do.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
My wallet got fatter after I stopped drinking diet coke.
- Mattb4rd
LOL, Jandy...yeah I'd drink Diet Dr. Pepper all day, but the caffeine bothers me. So I stick to teas and water.
- Alex Scoble
Friend of mine drank 2 liters a day, and he stopped cold turkey, lost like 20 pounds. He thinks it was the sodium making him bloated, and just sweetening his tooth- made him crave other sweet things all the time. I'm a non-soda drinker. Just the occasional. Diet drinks seem eerie to me, like, zero calories, how is that possible??
- anna sauce
In 2002, I became overweight. I mentioned it to a physician, and she said, "Maybe you should consider diet soda." I'm no longer overweight, but my Vanilla Coke Zero addiction has nothing to do with that. I think VCZ actually tastes better than Vanilla Coke; I guess the vanilla flavor and the sweetener tone down each other's influences.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Water has zero calories. And I agree, nothing quenches the thirst quite like water. Soft drinks only seem to make me thirstier.
- Alex Scoble
I did and it was to diminish artificial sweeteners' aggravating effects on the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome. One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.
- Akiva Moskovitz
I guess I consider myself lucky that I don't have a sweet tooth, and don't generally add sugar to anything, so I don't need sweeteners either. I quit taking sugar in both tea and coffee many years ago, and I can't drink either with it added now. As for soda, it's all too sweet for me, aside from the fact I don't like the taste of any of it.
- Ian May
Soda is basically overpriced sugar water.
- imabonehead
I quit soda for the most part, I find drinking too much it feels like my teeth are rotting; have switched to vitamin water or mineral water
- clarke thomas
I went from Dr Pepper to Diet Coke to almost always water. I've noticed an improvement in moon stability, highs and lows are more normalized. I sleep better, my teeth like it better, etc. I still start the day with 1-2 cups of coffee, but otherwise its water. Occasionally unsweet tea or spite or fruit juice. I quit just because I knew it wasn't healthy in the long run. I actually can't stand soda now. It's far too sweet. (Quit most sweets too, because I have a massive sweet tooth.)
- xero
Have never liked sodas, prefer espresso or water, but a friend gave up Pepsi max and really noticed the difference in her pocket!
- Sally Church
gave up drinking all kinds of colas/sodas several years ago..
- Atul Karmarkar
I can't remember what it was I quit drinking but I replaced it with drinking Mojitos and never looked back...lol.
- Scot Duke
I used to drink at least 2 cans of Pepsi Max per day. I guess the biggest benefit is healthier teeth.
- Paul Grav
I had nonstop headaches for the two years I drank diet.
- Alix Whitmire
I'm sad. The gf actually said "Diet Coke is important to me and I'm not giving it up". Yeesh.
- Jauder Ho
On Guam (FYI we are USA, look it up on wikipedia) and I cannot see it. It's due to the fact we have APNIC addresses. We have the same issue with the free videos on Sci-Fi, NBC, etc... For the love of God we are Americans give us our free T.V. :)
- bhl
when you click on a post headline in FF - read the post - return to FF only to find the item has disappeared - do you go looking for it so you can like it or comment on it? or do you just carry on?
I never open a link in FF without opening it as a second window. But, if I made a mistake and couldn't find it, I'd just use search to comment or like it.
- Robert Scoble
Opening in current window means the back button should always keep the post on screen.
- Andrew Smith
The recommended strategy I think (assuming you open links in new windows) is to open a comment box -- to avoid refresh. I often forget though in the heat of the moment
- Brian Sullivan
You can come back and *try* to search for a lost post, but it seems FF indexing is too slow so recent items are not available for searching.
- Yuval Atzmon
You can't step in the same FriendFeed twice.
- Karim
I allways open links in a new tab. And if the FriendFeed page was refreshed, I try to find the item... during, say, 30 seconds max (which is too much ;-))
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
I often open the link to the entry then open the link, means I can refresh the comments easily
- Glenn Slaven
A reddit style top frame could be handy
- Glenn Slaven
I open the "Link to this entry" in a second tab.
- Hutch Carpenter
I open it in a new tab so I can keep FF open. I want to comment on both if possible.
- Ben Parr
*All* links always in a new tab, not just on FF..
- Atul Karmarkar
FF links should open in a new window (at least on iPhone) to make it easier to comment - it could be a preference in a user's profile
- Francesco Bertocci
I installed the Greasmonkey script called 'FriendFeed Read Later' http://ffapps.com/readlater/ it ads "Later" to the list if buttons after a post. Click Later and a new tab forms at the top of FriendFeed labeled 'Read Later'. That way I can always find the post even the next day.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Good lord, was that comment spam?!?
- Glenn Slaven
Always come back and find it to like / comment - almost always forget the search feature is there
- Patrick Jordan
I wish there was a setting where I could tell FF to open a new window when I clicked on a link. This would be really helpful when viewing FF with an iPhone.
- Michael Carter
Same as Scoble...open in new tab to read. If it's gone when I get back, I hunt for it or if I am lucky, I would have "liked" it for easy retrieval.
- JA Castillo
I don't have a problem finding the post after clicking through, when I click back the browser brings me back to where I was in the page - right where I clicked the link.
- John Duff
I search for it, forget what I was searching for, get attracted to a new item and its comments, leave a comment, then click the big 'friendfeed' logo at the top to see what's new.
- jeneane sessum
I gave this feedback 2 months back to FriendFeed. Hopefully they will implement a way to read the feed within friendfeed or make a "what you clicked" floating section somewhere so that I can like/hide etc.
- Sumit Chachra
I've gotten in the habit of clicking comment to freeze ff, then middle clicking on the link.
- Phil G
new tab as often as possible, just that my tabbar can go crazy sometimes
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
There is option in FriendFeed, to always open links in new tab. I use it.
- Емил Генов
I changed my wallpaper once in 2 years and it was because IronMan came out and the image was from the movies official site. I did it as a lark.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I've changed my wallpaper when the new NIN album came out, but I've seldom looked at it. It's all covered in windows (er, not Windows), all the time.
- Zio Bonino
Wallpaper images most often come courtesy of the genius of Trey Ratcliffe - Stuck in Customs.
- Stephen Pierzchala
A few times a year. I find images on National Geographic or from movie websites. Right now I have Kung Fu Panda :)
- Rachel Rubin
once a year, usually photos of my family
- Erik
from twhirl
interesting q - i reckon I change it 3-4 times a year once probably in the summer and again in the winter - the other 2 are probably more adhoc
- Riaz Kanani
I don't use wallpaper - just set it to a pleasant color. I'm not sure how different OSes handle it - if they're smart they'd get it stored onto video memory but otherwise it's gonna take up my precious RAM.
- Wil
I change mine almost every day. Most of the images come from flickr wallpaper groups or interfacelift/deviantart..
- Robert Occhialini
I change it every couple of months, using some image I like from my Flickr stream
- Aaron B. Hockley
I don't change backgrounds often, probably once a year or more seldom. Most of the time they're covered in windows (though with transparent backgrounds... with other windows behind), so it doesn't really matter much. My current wallpaper is something my friend drew in Photoshop. =)
- Daniel Bruce
maybe every 2 months or so. I use Images of the Day from Wikipedia typically for my images.
- Tim Cooper
one time a month, with the stunning calendar wallpapers that you find on Smashing Magazine.
- Federico F.
from twhirl
Depends on how often I get bored with my current. Anywhere from once a week to once a month. Often I use pictures I've taken, but currently I'm using one from Hamad's Vista Wallpaper Pack
- Margaret Kerr
from twhirl
Interesting question. About twice a year maybe. Been a fan of http://mandolux.com/ Good to have a nice background for a little personality, but really, I spend more time staring at open windows than I do at the background or screensavers.
- Mike D. Johnson
Weekly or monthly, sometimes they are art for a current project, or a band, game, or webcomic. the Looking for Group desktops are great.
- Eric Dorsett
I change it every couple of months, either at home and at work, and most of them come from deviantart (petercui is one of my favorite wp designers)
- João Almeida
Every 1-2 weeks, using NASA, science or sports images depending on my mood
- Sally Church
I use Comic Book wallpaper (most often from DC Comics) but lately I've been enjoying the Wallpaper Project: http://kitsunenoir.com/blog... - i switched tot he Ryan Cox image just this morning.
- Jason Toney
Havent changed in 6 months. I usually just change when I find a better one. Oh and I use the same wallpaper on all my pcs.
- Roberto Bonini
From ffffound.com... VERY rarely I use a full screen wp. Instead, I center a small image and use the background color to fill up the rest.
- Claudio Cicali ♋
Ok, trying FF as well. Still like twitter and will be sad if I have to leave it
- Lide Winburn
Like Napoleon's army after the defeat in Moscow, straggling west, fleeing the hideous frozen hell, we are moving into the (for me, at least) unknown...
- Dave LaFontaine
It seems to me this is kind of a moot point. You draw those who follow you into your convesation and if someone makes a comment that continually intriques you all you have to do is simply subscribe to their ff. No need to wage a big dick contest with numbers of followers here. Its all about the conversation. Just an observation at this point.. I'm just now starting the migration from twitter to FF myself;-)
- Curtis "Billy" Cross
from twhirl
Just subscribed to you, feel free to follow back!
- KyleM
Hi Jason, thanks in advance for the follow.
- Larry Kless
Yes please - it is a challenge how to parallelize your twitter connections on FriendFeed. They really need a good import interface with automatic notifications via DM back to twitter followers.
- Jed White
Great stuff Jason, fan of your work. It would be great to have a Twitter/FriendFeed contact sync application. I'm sure you know some peeps to make that happen. =D
- Grahm Skee
Just discovered friendfeed. Pretty cool stuff.
- George Gray
I'll simply cite Rob Clark, who so eloquently put it: "I believe you're already subscribed to me, but now you can be double-secret-subscribed..." ;-)
- Carlos Granier-Phelps