Jeff Scott - Likes - FriendFeed

Robert Scoble

25 ways to get likes on FriendFeed items. Discuss and post yours here:

November 25, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Richard pancakhaus Walker, Daniel W. Crompton, Ladybug Heather and 40 other people liked this

1. Post boob photos. - Robert Scoble

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always include a picture - Carlos Ayala

Have a lot of followers, and then post lolcats. - Rishabh Mishra (p248) from IM

But not manboob photos. Nobody likes manboobs. - Mitch Wagner

2. Write a blog post about FriendFeed. - Robert Scoble

Actually do something interesting. - Alex Wilhelm (FF BLOWS)

3. Call Louis Gray names. - Robert Scoble

4. Blame Scoble. - Robert Scoble

catchy title - Zee.

5. Get blocked by Dave Winer. - Robert Scoble

like other peoples stuff - Zee.

Have Mona post it - Hutch Carpenter

Not be named Anika Malone. ROFL - Admiral Anika

Post in the confessions room...with an anonymous friendfeed crush - Zach Landes

got 4.... not sure about 3. His name says enough. 2 I can do. 1 not going to happen. - Santa CW™

Recursion is key. You simply must recurse up your own rear end and talk about FriendFeed. - Andy C

Title the post "25 ways to ...." - Christine Cavalier

just make it bloody interesting... - Zee.

6. Post ANY reasonable rumors about Apple. - Robert Scoble

No more freakin' booooob pictures!! come on --- GET A ROOM for that :D - Susan Beebe

Post GOOD content with links that work! - Susan Beebe

7. Say anything about Twitter. Extrapoints if you are Kara Swisher. - Robert Scoble

Generate CONVERSATION around a topic and be sure to participate in them, like Scoble does :) - Susan Beebe

Sorry Robert, but likes come with ... LOLCats - AJ Kohn

8. Tweet naked. - Robert Scoble

sympathy pleas. - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE from fftogo

Send Scoble $100 and have him talk about it. - Alex Wilhelm (FF BLOWS)

9. Like other people's posts on FriendFeed first. - Robert Scoble

#7 doesn't always works :P - Kristian Salonen

I am getting a sense of deju vu here -- this subject was covered in a post and comments a long time ago. Anybody have the link? - Brian Sullivan

10. Post news. - Robert Scoble

Include a comment to get the discussion going, and try to take a side (yeah, I'm not good at that part, but it seems that it helps.) Also, continue to comment on other comments, to keep the discussion going. Also, it helps to lead other people from other sites to your posts... Linkage, baby! - Danielle Closs

Or post unreasonable rumors about Apple. - Rishabh Mishra (p248) from IM

don't be %100 businesslike - İbrahim Uzun [ j ]

Even if you feel like no one is listening, keep posting through the bookmarklet. As they say in the radio industry, frequency sells. - Andrew

11. Block a troll and talk about it. - Robert Scoble

I would say pray, alas for my atheist tendencies! - Alex Wilhelm (FF BLOWS)

12. LOLcat photos. - Robert Scoble

n. Have an insane amount of subscribers. - Enrique Gutierrez

Post something that R.Scoble will 'like' =/ - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

13. Rickroll some ALister. - Robert Scoble

On another note, I liked this, because I'm interested in where it may go, and what others may say about it, so maybe also make the item in question a widely controversial or popular topic, that many people will find interesting or amusing and of which they may have an opinion on. - Danielle Closs

13. Unbox some gadget. - AJ Kohn

Be cute and funny. - Nine

14. Get video of Louis Gray drinking vodka. (I have tried to corrupt him and have failed). - Robert Scoble

Be beautiful not handsome and show it clearly. - İbrahim Uzun [ j ]

Do your darnedest to make FF an interesting place, then be embarrassed about it ;) - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

15. Like Steve Gillmor did bash FriendFeed (worth a like) and then praise it later (worth another like). - Robert Scoble

16. Do something unlikeable. - Robert Scoble

Document an A-Lister Slap-Flight (e.g - Riley v Arrington or Feldman v Israel) - AJ Kohn

17. Post FriendFeed items from someplace weird (I am in the lobby of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco). - Robert Scoble

Invite all your friend and tell them giving like helps them to gain Activity Points on Ffhollic. - İbrahim Uzun [ j ]

18. Say Mike Arrington is wrong. - Robert Scoble

Post kiddie pics - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

19. Be Barack Obama (the real one, not the fake one on FriendFeed which is actually owned by a Republican). - Robert Scoble

20. Favorite Thomas Hawk photos on Flickr. Stick in one of a good looking model. - Robert Scoble

...I´m posting this from the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, check it out (combining #17 and #13) http://is.gd/4UWD - peter huesken

22. Post your FriendFeed stars (works best if you have me on your stars. Heheh.). - Robert Scoble

The scary things is that Scoble has probably done all of these things in the last two days. :) - Robert Miller

#20 only works if one has a significant number of followers that adore Thomas Hawk. - Rishabh Mishra (p248)

23. Demonstrate your love of bacon. Or, maybe, your love of Mona). - Robert Scoble

24. Be Bret Taylor or Paul Bucheit and post about a new feature in FriendFeed. - Robert Scoble

25. Post your own list of 25 things on FriendFeed. If you can't do that then be Tad and start a photo meme. - Robert Scoble

I, er, I can't be Tad. He has a noisy bird. I have noisy dogs. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

fluffy bunnies always work for me :-) - Duncan Riley

I thought of something else. Make comments on other people's posts! Spread the love :) This is social networking after all, be social :) - Danielle Closs

Here ya go, comment! - Alex Wilhelm (FF BLOWS)

Be definitive about something you know nothing about - Tomoye Community Software

I think it's a bit rich when the starter of this thread made his name by posing in the shower....I mean, I hadn't heard of him until then I don't think....! - WorldofHiglet

WorldofHiglet: did you click "like" on that, though? - Robert Scoble

erm....I don't remember.....:O - WorldofHiglet

My next blog post is titled, "25 ways to get likes on FriendFeed items" :-) - Mike Fruchter

lol Mike....but I didn't 'like' this one yet..... - WorldofHiglet

SING! - Steven Perez

Gosh... just be interesting enough to read. - Orli Yakuel

This post is awesome!!! =D (Say something nice to Robert Scoble...check.) - David Cook

Post interactive wiki-type questions like this http://friendfeed.com/e... - sofarsoShawn

I think you missed number 21. :) - Daniel W. Crompton

#21 Find a Scoble omission and post it like Daniel did - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Link to a new service using Scoble's data: http://friendshelf.appspot.com/scoblei... - Michael R. Bernstein

Paul Buchheit

FriendFeed Blog: Share your FriendFeed activity on Twitter - http://blog.friendfeed.com/2008...

October 30, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

roel, Jens Christian Freund, Bernie Goldbach and 99 other people liked this

"We want to make it easier for you to share your FriendFeed activity on the web services you're already using. Now you can publish your FriendFeed updates directly to Twitter." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

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This is a fairly big deal. - Dave Winer

sweet - Andre

This is totally rad. Thanks! - Patrick Lightbody

Only thing is that I wish you could make it easier to get my Twitter and FriendFeed list of friends synchronized in two ways: 1) doing a fresh search and/or notifying me when my Twitter friends join FF, and 2) by automating creation on fake friends in Twitter so that I can use FF.com exclusively for all my Twitter tracking. - Patrick Lightbody

fantastical! - Thomas Hawk

I love this feature. You rock, Paul. - Bret Taylor

Works well, impressive. - Daniel Rowley

Thanks! - Kamath (नमः)

so does that mean that friendfeed entries will be fed to twitter and right back to friendfeed again if one's account is part of friendfeed? - Cee Bee

How do you handle the echo effect of GReader => FF => Twitter => FF? - Pras Sarkar

this is great. But I also second Cee Bee's question. - Tsega Dinka

Thank goodness it's all services except Twitter. Otherwise, there might be an infinite feedback loop. - Morton Fox

anyone know how the folks at Twitter feel about this? - Thomas Hawk

We took into account the echo effects/loops. Let us know if you see any issues (we are aware of and fixing one bug at the moment). - Dan Hsiao

Seems cool, but I wonder if it will interfere with my other networks by reposting my Tweets again, and again :/ Testing now! - Michael Forian

Paul this is huge for your team! Congrats! - Jorge Escobar

Greader shared items are not being reposted to Twitter for me. - Pras Sarkar

@Pras, I don't see any Greader items on your FF feed since we launched the feature 30 minutes ago... Have you had any come in since then? - Dan Hsiao

I was JUST sitting here going, man...it would be nice if people on Twitter could see the cool stuff I'm sharing to FriendFeed...ask ye shall receive... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I gots some people on Twitter I don't want to see how much fun I'm having on FF. Appreciate the option, though. - Derrick

@Dan, odd, I don't see my shared items on Greader making it to FF. I'll investigate. Thanks. - Pras Sarkar

just changed my settings to only include the material I post *to* FriendFeed vs. all the comments I make *on* FF. Comments come across in Twitter out of context and for an active FF person would tend to push too much craziness into their Twitter stream. - Thomas Hawk

Hrm...I hope people don't put stuff like Digg/Stumble/Identi.ca/Greader. Anything that gets bundled up in FriendFeed probably has NO business being piped into Twitter... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

interesting...what about enabling this for identica as well? i only post to identica, which then feeds into twitter...since the apis are essentially the same, it should be easy to hook up... - Trent Olson

I don't have a fucking clue how I feel about this. - teh Dork Knight aka Kenny

@Pras, since we crawl for updates, they usually come every 30 min or so. You can always manually refresh to check for updates from your profile page (select the service icon, then click the Refresh link that shows up) - Dan Hsiao

you can pick and choose which services get routed over to twitter. pretty cool - Cee Bee

This is so great. Posting to Twitter was feeling like a bit of a digital chore, frankly. Just wanted to keep my presence happening there, not much more. This makes it so I can be here 100% of the time. Well done. - Steve Isaacs

Wooo hooo!! You guys rock again!! yeah! - Susan Beebe

Awesome feature ... thanks guys! - Jay

This is awesome! Now I can spam all my tweeps with my Friendfeed activity! More bending, splicing, and tuning of the firehose. Most excellent. UPDATE: Holy crap. This is a POWERFULLY dangerous new feature. Look out Twitter. UPDATE2: Wow. Just. Wow. That's a scary powerful feature. I did find a minor issue when you comment on a twitter post and check send @reply to twitter - results in duplicate post. user best practice to not check @reply I guess. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

big deal, indeed - trying to figure out what the micro-blog equivalent to power grid "kilowatts" - alas, transforms made possible power grids - yet innovative data tranformations are subject to weak argents concerning "useful[ness], concrete[ness] and tangib[ility]" ... bet they do a telecom split at some point >>> a step in the direction of "willingness to pay" for bandwidth ... Don't understand? You probably aren't paying my bills ;-) - Scott Moskowitz

They will need some native iphone and android g1 apps now. FF not best first comment first engine. - Patrick Moorhead

Brilliant Stuff!!!!!!! - Toby Weston from twhirl

Great stuff. - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

Go ahead & acquire Ping.fm and then this news goes nuclear:) - Roney Smith

Very impressive, I will try this out now to see how it displays... - Joe Dawson

Thomas Hawk - same here. I had to go back and tweak my publish feed settings to NOT include all the comments I make *on* FF; just send a tweet to twitter for only the stuff I *post* on FF - Susan Beebe

Potential loop: FF > Twitter > Facebook > FF? - Raphael, Raphael

That is some wicked integration. WTG, gang. - Pete Delucchi

I would use this feature but I usually just post via Ping - Outsanity

Mutual penetration: FriendFeed & Twitter.:) - Igor Poltavskiy

How do I get this to work with identi.ca or other OpenMicroBlogging providers? - Michael R. Bernstein

Wow, how did I miss this. Post FriendFeed updates on Twitter. Cool. Testing now... - Mike Reynolds

This works, the circle is complete. Sweet! - Mike Reynolds

What about a "Reshare/Retweet this entry" option? - Jens Christian Freund

I hope this helps me use Friendfeed more! - tomit

Dave Winer

Congress Must Demand Bush and Cheney Resign - http://www.democrats.com/resign#

September 21, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Patrik Tschudin, Dror Shimshowitz, Tsega Dinka and 5 other people liked this

"Before Congress gives the Bush Administration one dime of taxpayer money for financial bailouts, Congress must demand the immediate resignation of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Henry Paulson and the appointment of Speaker Nancy Pelosi as President until our next President is sworn in on January 20, 2009." - Dave Winer from Bookmarklet

Leo Laporte

Lil Wayne sez: "Safe sex is great sex, but better wear latex, because you don't want just laid text, that 'I think I'm late' text." Werd

June 30, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Marshall Bose, Sean Oliver, Marcel Weiß and 38 other people liked this

Clearly Lil Wayne is all that and a bag of chips. - ComicList

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Lil' Wayne has a problem with the lean. I can point you to some rappers that actually make sense. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Perhaps this is also some form of Old English???? - Kevin Shannon

It's probably just my translation. - Leo Laporte

word - Grant

If it gets more people to wear condoms, I'm all for it. - xero

Lil Wayne... the man, the myth... the linguist. - rykos from twhirl

Lil Wayne also sez: "Gangstas and pimps, Love lobsters and shrimps, Kool-Aid and chicken, Flashy things and women. " - These are a few of his favourite things. - Johnny Worthington

a better sermon than my pastor's - Andrea Baker

I actually thought you meant to type "weird" cause in my head that made more sense. - Ryan Cates

He drinks cough syrup all day, babbles incoherently on a mic, and people eat it up like he's the best rapper ever. It's amazing. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

women and chicken! excellent off rhyme! - edythe

Not gonna lie, the man says some awesome stuff. I hadn't realized 50 was that important as a rapper...HAH. I avoid radio/videos though, so what do I know... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Favorite rapper. 2nd best to Jay-Z. He says things that are just...GENIUS! Love him. - Corvida

So many nuggets of knowledge built into Tha Carter III, Leo. This is one of many, my friend. - Liz

andrea: ! :) - edythe

I'm still a BTH man myself, but then again I most listen to rock/alternative. - xero

That's considered incoherent babbling? o_O hahahaha - Bob from Alert Thingy

Leo foshizzle! - Jim Bednarz

That's a misquote. It's really: "Safe sex is great sex, better wear a latex / 'cause you don't want that late text, that "I think I'm late" text" - Hashim Warren

One for true techies: "I got game like EA, but I wanna let you play." - Sean Quinn from twhirl

@brian norwood - Leo got the line wrong...Hashim corrected him. It makes plenty of sense and it's promoting safe sex. Not sure why that's worth ignoring? - Angel Smith

Thais pretty fly, Leo. - Mike Lewis

Yeah, I mean. Sometimes I do feel like kicking Wayne in the chest...watch him fall into a bottomless pit...but that's just me :) - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

It's just depressing how much money he'll make from this... - Brooks Guthrie from twhirl

ACtUALlY liL WAYNE SAYZ 'SAfE SEX iS GREAt SEX; bETteR WEAR A lAtEX kCAUSE YUh dONT WANt tHAt lATE tEXT tHAT i THiNK iM lATE tEXT !!' dUhh ACtUALlY liSTEN tO thE lYRiCS. ANd YES liL WAYNE iS thE bOMb LiKE tiCk tiCk(= - Dawny

lmfaooo u don't know what your talkin about. i agree with dawny. that is what he says - gef

damn if yall gonna make fun at least quote the lyrics correctly...... - tae chills

l0ckergn0me

Why I Hate Salespeople: AT&T Pisses Me Off http://xrl.us/kkqts

July 12, 2008 from Ping.fm - Comment - Like - Share

Ed Ryan, Helen Sventitsky, Peter Ghosh and 13 other people liked this

i was waiting for this explanation due to your tweet last night. they tried doing the same to me. i decided against it! - Vincent Guerrero

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Chris- It was like you mic'd me yesterday. I had the EXACT same experience in Redmond Town Center. In the town I grew up in this would have never happened. You'd see that salesperson at some point later. AT&T has proven Apple's original instincts, strategic partnering is HARD...it's damn near impossible. AT&T has failed this launch and this generation. Bloggers unite! Create a place WE own. I AM - Ryan

Ryan, this must've been a decree handed down from on high - because http://ericgonzalez.wordpress.com/2008... had the exact SAME experience. I don't have half the pull of other bloggers out there, so this isn't likely to get much attention past the few of us who were stupid enough to ignore our own instincts. - l0ckergn0me

When will companies and their employees ever learn? - James Mowery from twhirl

This is only an indication of how bureaucratic some companies are. They'll ampute a leg just to cut their toenails:( eBay & Facebook are proud members also. - Roney Smith

I was given the exact same line at an AT&T store in Alabama, specifically he said every AT&T in the southeast was sold out and the only way to get one was to place an order. I declined and found out later (via twitter), the apple store had plenty of stock for sale the next day. Plan on buying one from them when things settle down. - Charles Dick

They are sleazes. I had a sales person at one of the corporate operated stores promise me a rebate on activation for my wife's Razr. After it didn't show up after a few billing cycles, I complained to the sales person. She apologized and said she'd taken care of it. I don't think it ever went through. - Erik S

Wow. We need a platform to express our opinions, be heard. Something more influential. It's not FF. - Ryan

me and AT&T go way back. had a bill about seven years ago, before Cingular. I ran up $500 because I went to Pittsburgh for about a week (phone kept on ringing and the damn phone kept picking up and charging me roaming fees). I told em that I wouldn't pay it. they wouldn't negotiate. five years later I'm told I owe thousands of dollars. I negotiate them to $3000 and they agree. I pay the $3000 and a year later they call me back and say I still owe the money. credit is a fucking joke. I'm not playin - Noah David Simon

Don't be so sure. AT&T's executives and PR people are reading here. - Robert Scoble

so if you think I'm getting an iphone?... HELL NO! - Noah David Simon

if there are any AT&T people here reading... you can suck my BILL! - Noah David Simon

I did the same thing. I've repeatedly checked the order status website on the receipt and it can't find any record of my order. I did not get the email confirmation the sales guy promised. Hoping they'll have it in the 5-7 days the guy promised. - Ekedstrom

Seth Godin has blogged on the Apple AT&T created mess. http://tinyurl.com/5wfyo5 - Dave Martin

This is an interesting theory. While it's highly probable, iPhone is in 4th place with respect the Smartphone race. I'm not sure scarcity is a great way to rapidly penetrate a market you don't own...yet ;) - Ryan

Dave Martin: I am not sure this is of any use for Apple. The iPhone fiasco can not be fixed with marketing. What the AT&T brand has done is a long term fiasco. They are squeezing the blood from rocks... and people will revolt. It starts with the pay system, and not marketing. Seth Godin is wrong. I don't care about the fools that wait on line to be first. They are fools and Apple should not cater to them. What I would like to know about is that roaming fee AT&T is after me about from ten years ago. - Noah David Simon

@Ryan. Exactly. Further, his point about how the best customers are treated is spot-on. No respect = no loyalty. - Dave Martin

Marketing has it's place, but with a cell phone you are talking about a long term service. The gizmo is just the start. Maybe Seth Godin has lost his touch. I have worked for many companies as a marketing person (unlike Seth Godin who mostly worked for H&H Bagels). H&H Bagels I talked into advertising into a Yellow Page for instance. It is the year long experience that really matters... not the morons that were zealous and waited in line for "Episode One". Those people will always be disappointed. - Noah David Simon

Any bets on Chris's sales person not being a iPhone or AT&T user/customer? - Paul W. Swansen

How can Apple really justify raising the price of service? Blackberry looks very appealing right about now. - Noah David Simon

@noahdavidsimon: Are you kidding? I'm no iPhone fan, but I'd go with that before BB. My users love the BBs, but those things usually give me activation fits before I can hand them off. Oh, and NOTHING gets between me and my Exchange server. I have no idea what 3rd-party apps (free and otherwise) are available for BB. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF from NoiseRiver

like I said "activation" is the tip of the iceberg. it is the long term service at AT&T that I have problems with. Moment I heard the it was going to be a "cingular" monopoly I knew the iPhone was not for me. I'm typing this on my Mac laptop PowerBook g4 that I love, but I'm not spending on a service that betrayed my trust so many times over. AT&T is a criminal enterprise that can not be trusted. - Noah David Simon

I will take retro technology over being bamboozled. The nerve of those jerks making me pay roaming fees that I didn't owe them, then tracking me down seven years later. Then after I paid them they claim it was never paid. I'm still not out of the red from AT&T. They will not cooperate and never have. Parasites - Noah David Simon

a bad service is like racism. you can't judge Loren Feldman over one video... and you can't judge AT&T over one instance. It is the pattern that really matters and AT&T is a pattern of swindling. The context is so important. Unfortunately it is the one instance that people react to as Richard Jewell found. - Noah David Simon

@noahdavidsimon: Are people judging LF over one video? I thought there were at least four. For me, it started with one and became five. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF from NoiseRiver

I don't care if it is 1 or 5... it is about a lot of context that we don't know. this is about a group of people that have been playing "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" for some time now. Racism accusations are just so out of place at the point they were at. They used Race like a smokescreen and it was disgusting. - Noah David Simon

AT&T it is about context of bad service. It is about how you made hard working people hurt. I spent my paycheck on AT&T service and they were tyrants. - Noah David Simon

Dave Winer

New blog post: Obama's FISA screwup. http://www.scripting.com/stories...

July 12, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Jonas Anderson, Jeff Scott, Don Rogers and 5 other people liked this

"I no longer believe there is a cause to Obama other than getting Obama elected." Duh. - tallglassofmilk

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He'll still try to get your money. Come fall, you will receive urgent messages saying that McCain is out of the mainstream and the US will fall apart if Obama isn't elected. And McCain will send a similar message to his potential donors, warning about Obama. Ironically, both candidates are classified as "reformers." Yup, they'll re-form the old "I'm normal, he's crazy" fight. - Ontario Emperor from fftogo

I called Obama a False Prophet! He just wants to be an Alister! We do not care if you are popular or not, just be humble and respect the people! For the people by the people! Which Obama is not! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Yah Obama wants to hang with International A-Listers like Klaus Schwab, Joi Ito, Robert Scoble and Loic Lemeur. He wants to ride home from Davos in the Google jet with Dave Sifry and Mike Arrington. - Dave Winer

Dave, Obama is the worst choice, he will say anything to get the job, and will do anything to keep the job! Fake 100% - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Maybe the Dems could convince Bob Dole to switch parties then it could be Dole vs McCain. I'm not sure which one I'd vote for. Hmm. - Dave Winer

Igor: and that's different from any other politician in the same situation how exactly? - Scott Jarkoff

I can't believe this guy is trying to start a serious disussion with someone named Igor The Troll. Hello. Cluetrain calling. Your clue is ready sir. :-) - Dave Winer

Jarkoff, Dave. I mean Scott. - Oldengrey (Jay)

Thanks Dave the Troll ;-) Every politician just wants to get the job, very true! But they should have integrity and believes! Obama does not! Or he is not willing to stand up for them! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Obama denounced Reverend Wright. He and Nancy Pelosi, sold us out on FISA! What is next? If the Saudis will bring the price of oil back to 20 usd a barrel will Obama dissolve the State of Israel? It just makes one wonder what Obma is willing to compromise! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

l0ckergn0me

Why AT&T's iPhone 3G Launch Failed: http://ericgonzalez.wordpress.com/2008...

July 12, 2008 from Ping.fm - Comment - Like - Share

Elliott Ng, Jeff Scott and Jay Wiegmann liked this

Thomas Hawk

Welcome to Drobo 2.0 -- Two Times Faster and Now Offering Firewire Support - http://thomashawk.com/2008...

July 7, 2008 from Thomas Hawk's Digital... - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Sodeman, Ryan Brenizer, Mack D. Male and 29 other people liked this

Ok, well there was supposed to be an 8:35 a.m. embargo on this news but since Engadget's already running the story here's my article on Drobo 2.0. This looks hot! - Thomas Hawk

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Thomas, the Drobo 2.0 looks great, but did they mention when we might see a unit with integrated ethernet? That is really what is stopping them from getting my $$$. Nice post. - Jordan

Jordan haven't heard anything about ethernet. - Thomas Hawk

When on earth are they gonna add GigE on this and finally make it useful? NAS is far more useful than DAS. :( - Don MacAskill

the ethernet connection is named droboshare, but on version 1.0, does not have good reviews: http://tinyurl.com/67wq2p - hector juarez

Thanks for sharing Thomas! I was really hoping they were going to upgrade the DroboShare as well. Seems that the USB connection between the share and the Drobo itself would be a bottleneck (though I am speaking out of ignorance as I don't have one). - Justin Korn

Can someone explain to me whey you don't need 1:1 drive space for replication? I'm a total ignoramus in this area. Thanks! - Matt

Matt: Read this about RAID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) - Justin Korn

Now if only they could make it more affordable for the rest of us. - cecily

Ok, thanks! So based off that, the Drobo is essentially a RAID 5 array wherein any one disk can fail and data be retained. Thomas said, "four 750GB hard drives in a Drobo gives you effectively 2TB of replicated storage". I assume that calculation is 4 x 750GB = 3TB x 3/4 = 2.25TB. That's pretty cool. Sorry I'm such a RAID moron. I'm one of those guys that's been hoping his hard drives don't fail (until I signed up for Amazon S3 last week). - Matt

Matt: No worries. I *think* Drobo does something similar to RAID 5, but not exactly since, with the Drobo, you are able to use different size drives. Technically, with RAID 5 you can only use the the same size drives or else the larger drives will not be used to their full capacity. - Justin Korn

Okay, i understand the need of backup and so I solved a small Math Problem. If one has two hard drives (in my personal case my MBPs hard drive and a WD MyBook, my backup) each with a Million Hours as the MTBF and 3% as the AFR (most claim 1% but CMU says 2 to 4%; so I'm taking 3). These figures give me - assuming a Gaussian Curve for the MTBF - insignificant probability that both the drives will fail simultaneously. Aren't 8 discs (in 2 Drobos) seriously Over-kill? The probability will never be zero anyways - Parth Awasthi

Parth, yes, it's probably pretty likely that 8 drives in 2 drobos won't fail. But don't forget about the probability of things like getting robbed or having your house burn down. By keeping one drobo at your home and another offsite somewhere you seriously diminish risk by theft, fire, natural disaster, etc. - Thomas Hawk

@ Parth: Thomas is a Photographer. Each one of those thousands of images are unique - will never happen again quite simply becuase we can't travel back in time. In a word, they are priceless. Is 8 drives overkill, probably. Piece of mind? Priceless. (with thanks to Mastercard for the phrasing :) ) - Roberto Bonini

Thomas: I Understand completely the reason for distributing them in two places. my point of over kill was 8 drives; probabilistically speaking, we are good with two drives over two physical locations. Again, just a thought; by no means questioning your backup suggestion. Roberto: Agreed, peace of mind over all else; I understand the value of each of those brilliant shots of his, totally agree that it is only natural to desire as many measures as possible for safety. - Parth Awasthi

I'm getting one also. - Alexandru Savu

Vaguely annoyed because I bought a Drobo the day before this came out. Annoyed that the sales rep hasn't managed to get back to me in two days, but I understand. Would be extremely annoyed if I couldn't return my still-unopened Drobo 1.0, since it was still in the mail when they came out with the new one. - Ryan Brenizer

Still no XP64 support - ThePicMan

RAID helps improve reliability but does not address recoverability should one entire Drobo fail. That's how I usually make the distinction to people. - Jauder Ho

@Thomas, with you storing your photos in RAW, how full is your Drobo? How many are you going to need for a million images? - Bryan Clark

@Bryan Clark - Assuming each RAW is ~10MB, a million images should be around 10TB. - Jauder Ho from twhirl

Dave Winer

Jesse Jackson said he wants to cut Obama's nuts off. So? I've had the same thought today after the FISA thing. Maybe more than his nuts.

July 9, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Mark Edwards, Brandon Wood, Stefan Hayden and 21 other people liked this

Makes me homesick for Chicago. - Oldengrey (Jay)

39 more comments

Lol, Jesse Jackson is one crazy ass mofo. - Andrew Fielding

Keith Olbermann had a good one on Obama and FISA. In case you missed it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id... - Alexei Tolkachev

What's next on Obama's agenda over the next four or eight years, after the FISA thing -- inquiring minds want to know. - Sean McBride

Turley had some great words about it on MSNBC last night... in my recent feed. - Anthony Citrano

Jesse doesn't do cowering either. ;) - Oldengrey (Jay)

you're joking, of course - however don't be surprised if you're contacted by secret service for this "threat"... :-) - Andy Green

Anyone who has seen the content of the unwarranted wiretaps has fully supported them.... not saying that makes it right but it does make them necessary. - Aaron deMello

Aaron -- can you document your statement about the content of unwarranted wiretaps? - Sean McBride

Nothing makes them "necessary". What's happening now is exactly the type of oppression the sons of liberty revolted against. - Adam Turetzky

Even if _everyone_ "supported" the wiretaps based on the content, Aaron...the point is that it's not good enough. We have laws. - Ken Kennedy

@Sean McBride - the tricky part is getting into specifics, which I can't. I am in the surveillance biz (or was, rather) and the ugly aspect for law enforcement is that the 'bad guys' (for lack of a better term) are better armed - with PGP, HushMail, stenography, casual SecondLife or Habbo meetups, etc. Makes it almost impossible to trace their convos. For all the $ in the world I would not want the job of an analyst following up on a FISA warrant. - Aaron deMello

@Ken Kennedy - great name, btw - I agree in principle but data is like fishing - you catch it when its there in front of you, or you kiss it goodbye. The sons of liberty have a very hard time trying to find the balance between protecting our rights and exploiting technology for their goals - which protect our way of life. The FISA laws worked well in the past but today - rest assured that the guys we are looking for are far more adept at exploiting the tools than we allow our boys to be. - Aaron deMello

@Aaron...don't take this the wrong way, but spare me. If it's against the law, you kiss it goodbye. You and I both know that the FISA law as (it was at the time) written allows for "catching it when it's there"...it's just more of a pain. It's DESIGNED to be a pain. We're not /supposed/ to be spying on people without warrants. Once upon a time, we (rightly) condemned other countries for doing this. *sigh* - Ken Kennedy

And please, no movie plots. kthx. *grin* And thanks for chatting, btw. Seriously. We need to have these discussions out in the open; it's important for our society. - Ken Kennedy

@Ken Kennedy - sure, they are designed to be a pain. I just don't think its fair that we have to play the very same game under extremely different rules. Should our lofty ideals be preserved in the name of security? That is the question that will be debated for the next few generations but personally I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to those charged with tackling the problem, rather than us - the peanut gallery. - Aaron deMello

@Aaron...you laid that out rather well, thanks. And we disagree (which is ok) on alot. *grin* Probably the most important difference to me is actually at the end there; the peanut gallery comment. We're not the peanut gallery, Aaron...we are where those "charged with tackling the problem" derive their power from. This is no divine right monarchy; we're a cantankerous republic where the people ultimately run the show. Good questions, though! - Ken Kennedy

OMG, what a dumb-ass thing to do for a seasoned media guy like Jesse. FAIL! - John McCrea

If it was a Republican folks woudl be screaming racism. Apparently Jesse gets a pass. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

Had a flash on Obama and FISA. When he's elected Pres he uses FISA authority to legally eavesdrop on George Dubya Bush without court oversight, Private Citizen and ex-president, and leaks the juiciest bits to Olbermann. Puts him on the terror watch list, and while you're at it puts him in Guantanamo. Gives paparzzi full access. - Dave Winer

@Ken Kennedy - agreed. I believe in the end, perhaps not the means. - Aaron deMello

Aaron: How many terrorists have been convicted of terrorist activities in the United States as the result of warrantless wiretapping? How many cases against alleged terrorists have fallen part? How many times have neoconservatives accused their political opponents of being "terrorists"? How many despotic and state terrorist regimes throughout history have used the threat of "terrorism" to acquire and protect their power? So many interesting questions on this issue. - Sean McBride

@Sean - all those are very interesting questions and there are many more. My sentiment is that we are severely outclassed in the war on terror given all the legal restrictions that are not shared by the enemy. Even the simple act of getting a warrant to expose the phone calls of a unidentified pre-paid SIM card can be a living nightmare. How can one get a warrant when you don't even know if the subscriber is a suspect? These and other complex issues are the ones facing the intelligence community today. - Aaron deMello

Dave, I owe you an apology. I was sure you had made up that comment about what Jesse Jackson said. I think Jesse just threw himself under the bus. When is the last time he was relevant? - ha3rvey (just a friend)

I thought the fact that Obama voted for the FISA would be indicative that he was already neutered? - Vidar Andersen

Aaron: history proves that the most dangerous terrorists in the world are state terrorists, like the Nazi, Stalinist and Maoist regimes, which collectively murdered more than 100 million people in the 20th century. State terrorists typically define all their political opponents as "terrorists," and then proceed to spy on them, torture them and murder them without any legal restraints.... more... - Sean McBride

Aaron: If I don't break into your house to find the dismembered bodies, how can I prove that you're an axe murderer? - David Worrell

Aaron: focusing on the first question: to the best of my knowledge, no one has been convicted of being a terrorist or being involved in terrorist activities as a result of warrantless wiretapping. Do you agree? I don't think it's worth trashing the Constitution and Bill of Rights to promote police state methods that were pioneered by Stalin and Hitler and that have produced such meager results. - Sean McBride

Ron: Obama's position on FISA demonstrates that he is politically tone deaf and may well not get elected. What made him a viable candidate was the enthusiasm of his base, which he has now destroyed. Most Americans do not support the FISA bill -- it's not even a "center" issue. It's a hard right neoconservative issue. Check out the discussion of this controversy on On Point Radio today <http://tinyurl.com/6crxv6> and especially note the exchanges between Tom Ashbrook and Glenn Greenwald. - Sean McBride

Ron, respectfully: I don't think it's right to 'play politics' with a bill that undercuts the constitutional balance of power itself. I'll still vote for him. But this makes him just another 'lesser evil' to me. - Madsimian

Dave Winer makes an important point: once a police state machine and culture is installed in any government, it will be used by any political faction that acquires control of it to destroy the political opposition. The American Founding Fathers were acutely aware of this problem, and that is why they created the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Bush 43 and the neocons are perhaps... more... - Sean McBride

Harvey, he's relevant to the companies he's shaken down for money and donations for percieved abuses. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Sean: we will never know the answer to that question, which is the entire purpose of the warrant-less wire-tapping program. The results of the program were never going to be used as evidence, at least not in a public court. Like I said before, there are always challenges in a democracy where the need to balance public safety with personal privacy becomes a very gray area. As to the effectiveness of the program, this is something else we will never know, since we have no idea how many attacks were prevented. - Aaron deMello

Aaron: any totalitarian dictator anywhere in the world, following in the footsteps of Stalin, Hitler and Mao, could use some of the arguments we have seen here to construct a terrorist police state that is completely unaccountable. Neocons like John Yoo, David Addington and Alberto Gonzales really don't get America and the thinking of the American Founding Fathers, in my opinion. They are paranoid authoritarians by temperament who fear a free and open society which encourages political dissent. - Sean McBride

some say Jackson has a point?! not! http://www.slate.com/id... - ~C4Chaos

Sean: Paranoia does play a part in it, and some paranoia can be healthy. At the same time, I'd rather have hawks than doves protecting my freedoms, and will grant them the wiggle room necessary to do what they feel must be done. What did you think of the voting numbers? 69 to 28? - Aaron deMello

Aaron: any political movement which thinks nothing of trashing the Constitution, while labeling its mainstream American political opponents as "terrorists" and "traitors" (yes, the neocons have done this repeatedly -- check out the log of these events on Media Matters for America), is only interested in destroying our freedoms, not protecting them. The neocons are the last people in the... more... - Sean McBride

As has been pointed out to me, it's not the fault of the telcos that Bush and company failed to get the necessary warrants (which they can legally do after the fact). So there's good reason to protect the telcos from civil trials. Remember, it was Bush who broke the law. Don't make this about Obama. He didn't violate the 4th Amendment. That was the President, who's sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution. - phil.gs

Based on the FISA vote, there's nothing to cut. - Michael Markman

speaking of FISA, according to Lessig, "Obama has not shifted in his opposition to immunity for telcos" check it out http://lessig.org/blog... - ~C4Chaos

The main effect of Lessig's annoying taunt will be to further alienate what was once Obama's base. Lessig just doesn't get it. On the other hand, McCain is such a weak candidate that there is very little Obama could do at this point to lose the election. Word is that the McCain campaign is seriously demoralized. - Sean McBride

Thomas Hawk

Yahoo and Getty Strike Deal to Sell Stock Photography Through Flickr - http://thomashawk.com/2008...

July 8, 2008 from Thomas Hawk's Digital... - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, RAPatton, Mitchell Tsai and 66 other people liked this

SeattlePi: "Flickr users, many of whom are amateurs, will be paid in the same manner as professionals if their images are used commercially. Getty customers usually pay between $29 and $200,000 for an image, depending on how freely they may use it. Photographers receive 30 percent to 40 percent of the licensing fee if the customer's rights to use the image are limited in scope or time, or 20 percent if the image may be used with fewer restrictions." - Thomas Hawk

41 more comments

Sounds good to me, would be nice to make a little bit of money... Being that my current income is somewhere around nothing... - Grant Bierman

i guess we'll hear more complaints from "pros" about having more competition and how hard it is to make a living. - moogs

@grant bierman : don't count on it though. you'll be competing with bajillions of other flickr users, in addition to the seasoned pros. your photo really has to stand out. - moogs

I'll be curious as to how seriously Getty markets the "Flickr" collection. The cynic might say that Getty is simply locking in Flickr away from competitors, especially #2 Corbis which is 100% owned by Bill Gates (which would make for an interesting play if MSFT acquired Yahoo). Whether or not Getty seriously markets these images or is simply playing lipservice remains to be seen. - Thomas Hawk

Current Getty photographers are probably pissed as hell about a new bunch of amateurs joining their ranks. Getty has always put a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between their Pro work and the "substandard" work of amateurs who have all been directed to iStockphoto where they can sell their image for $1. It will be interesting to watch how they finally handle the admission that many amateurs are in fact just as good as the Pros. - Thomas Hawk

i doubt this leads to much for either group. yahoo doesn't own the world's largest collection of images. they own the best site for image sharing. we own our images. yahoo/flickr can't make a deal to sell our images. they can make a deal with getty to give getty better access to our images and our data. getty still has to talk to us about getting permission to sell our images. and what... more... - sam b-r

@ramil Yeah I know, it's best pretty much treat it as a lottery. You might win, but there is a whole lot of other players, so just enjoy the ride and not worry about it. - Grant Bierman

Sam, very good points. I too wonder how seriously they will take this. And I also wonder how this will sit with the Flickr community when a few get selected to make money and most do not. Still, I'm excited about the potential of the deal and think that if it's done right this could be a great avenue for Flickr photographers to begin earning money from their photos. So much is still to be determined. I hope it's not lip service or hot air. - Thomas Hawk

I'd prefer that flickr just roll out a feature that a) lets me mark which of my photos I want to and CAN sell (have the appropriate releases, resolution and such). b). exposes a tool/service/whatever so that other people can easily query flickr for photos c.) handles payments for me. - moogs

ramil: I agree. I don't understand why Flickr hasn't rolled something out like this already. - Justin Korn

Ramil, Flickr's not equipped to handle the administration of the stock photography business and Yahoo likely would not be willing to take on the liability. Also Getty is ahead of anyone else as far as marketing stock photography goes today. They are the 800 pound gorilla. Partnering probably makes more sense. - Thomas Hawk

I don't mean that they'll handle marketing too. Just that, the tools they're exposing to Getty could be exposed to other stock photo companies as well.......I guess that is indeed a nightmare to manage. - moogs

I agree with ramil but Tom is right. Flickr, to me, might not have the ways to do stock photos. - Outsanity

I wonder how much of Getty's decision to partner with Flickr was defensive, i.e. if MSFT were to get Flickr #2 Corbis which is 100% owned by Bill Gates would probably be better positioned to do a deal with Flickr than a Yahoo owned Flickr. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas: Is there any mention of who approached whom and when? I'm assuming Getty initiated it and if so, is there any reason to believe it was NOT a defensive move? - Justin Korn

pick me - Andrew Smith from fftogo

@Thomas "I wonder how much of Getty's decision to partner with Flickr was defensive" That sounds quite plausible, in which case, I'm skeptical that Getty will take this venture seriously, or only go through the motions to get their toe in the water so to speak. I'm also a little concerned about the rather low 20-40% cut that the photographer will receive. If that is the case, I would expect a significant amount of marketing and management services to be provided by Getty. - Jeff P. Henderson

Justin, no way to know. But I'm sure Getty and Flickr have been talking for years. When I met with the Getty BD people up in Seattle two years ago they told me about meetings with Flickr even way back then. My guess is Yahoo/Flickr was the hold out more than Getty. There was a rumor for a while that Yahoo was trying to buy their own stock agency. Could be that Getty sweetened the deal enough to keep Flickr out of the hands of Corbis, especially in light of a potential MSFT YHOO acquisition. - Thomas Hawk

What worries me about the deal is that it has the potential for Getty to make a deal and then just put it out on an island and not market it in order to appease their current stock pros who might jump ship and go to Corbis, etc. Plus I'm sure Flickr gets a cut and so they may make less money selling Flickr images than other Getty images. Who knows though, this is all total speculation. It will be interesting to see how it plays out though and I'm excited about the news and potential. - Thomas Hawk

I've always believed that Getty bought iStockphoto purely as a defensive play and purposely marketed it miles away from their Pros or fair prices for photos. it was giving lip service to the growing ranks of weekend warrior amateurs while keeping a potential serious competitor out of the business. - Thomas Hawk

What is funny is that iStockphoto in fact did steal business away from Getty's more lucrative high end core business. So their defensive move ended up shooting them selves in the foot so to speak. What photo buyers realized is that there were just as good quality photos in IStockphoto for a fraction of the cost. If Getty tries to categorize the Flickr photos into their high end portfolio, it may be a defensive move to try to gain back the high end market share they lost to iStock. - Jeff P. Henderson

Here is more details about what the licensing model may look like. http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008... - Jeff P. Henderson

I think this would make more sense if the majority of the accepted Flickr photos are sold through iStock. Otherwise, I feel the stakes are to high for Getty. The old pros could jump ship as Thomas writes. To appease the pros, Getty might see an opportunity to pay the Flickr photographers less than the old pros, and increasing their earnings. It's hard to predict how the different categories of people (pros, Flickr photogs, customers etc) will react to this deal. - Henrik Johansson

Thanks for the extra info on this deal Thomas, you've answered a few of the questions I'd posted elsewhere on another FF thread on this subject. Do you know if Getty is looking to boost its creative or editorial business with this or both. Do they see this as an answer to the Yahoo/Reuters iwitness style deal that was recently announced or more as a way to cut costs and boost their creative/illustrative businesses? - Jon Dillon

Do I have to relicense my photos, or does Getty want to pick ones and purchase them from me? - Andrew Feinberg

OH! how i wish for that future world you painted for me thomas, of zooomr's {original} "marketplace"... a real website where users had the power to take on stock image companies... for a second i thought that was what might be happening at flickr, but i'm still holding out for that ideal world.... i daydream about it sometimes.... - djp

Jon, I think this is a win for Getty largely because it will increase their breadth. Flickr has so many more images. When Choice Hotels licensed my Grand Lake Theater photo they did that directly with me because they found the image on Google Image search. Do a search for Grand Lake at Getty and you get nothing. This allows more meaningful search at Getty which will solidify them more as a first choice to look for photos with image buyers. - Thomas Hawk

@Henrik, Getty would be shooting themselves in the foot even more if they were to market Flickr photos though iStockphoto. It would further cannibalize their high end business. If you read the link I posted above it indicates that they will be selling Flickr photos along side their existing high end pro photos with a similar or the same pricing structure. What they are trying to do is keep from loosing sales from customers who are going directly to Flickr photographers instead of to Getty. - Jeff P. Henderson

Andrew, not sure how the relicensing might work. Details will be coming out in the next few months though I suspect. djp. yeah, Zooomr's original marketplace idea was a pretty good one. Photrade has a similar one in beta right now. Photographers get 80%. But neither Photrade nor Zooomr have the marketing clout of Getty in this business. I'm not saying one's better than the other. Much of it might depend on how well Getty ends up marketing this collection. - Thomas Hawk

My guess is that Flickr has a significantly larger selection of images in many categories. Savy Getty customers know this and go to Flickr to find what they want when they can't find it at Getty. Getty is smart to try to leverage this. I'm sure Getty knows better than anyone else where their collection is lacking and will be looking to Flickr to fill the voids. A smart move on their part. If they are doing this to fill voids, it should not piss off their existing pro photographers too much. - Jeff P. Henderson

Thomas: You underestimate istock far to much. If you look at sales volume, istock outranks Getty sales. While some photos are amateur, some are as professional as any at Getty. Each has their own niche. - CJPhoto

@Jeff: But what about those photos subjects that are already well serviced by the pros. Is there going to be some way of filtering out Flickr from your Getty search? If I search for the Effiel Tower on Getty, I get some great shots... Search on Flickr and you get some fairly average ones. Is Getty in danger of diluting it's photos catalogue and therefore souring their reputation for high quality? - Johnny Worthington

Marketplace was the reason why I originally choose Zooomr rather than Flickr. Now that Photrade has started it will be interesting to see if they ever get the numbers to make it a viable. Why doesn't Flickr just do it themselves? You don't need the marketing clout of Getty when you are Flickr! - CJPhoto

@CJPhoto, This is precisely why I believe that Getty will market Flickr photos along side their existing high end line and not through iStock. Buying iStock was a defensive move that ultimately hurt Getty's bottom line. - Jeff P. Henderson

CJ, iStockphoto has huge volume but never made any significant money. The real money at Getty was always made by their core traditional business. Getty kept the two as far apart as they possibly could. I agree with you though many of their photos are just as good as Getty's Pro stuff. - Thomas Hawk

@John, my guess it that Getty will be very selective as to what photos they choose from Flickr to add to their collection. Your example would suggest they already have an adequate number of Eiffel tower images, so they would not be looking for any from Flickr. This selective approach will not dilute their exiting catalog, but will only fill in where they have voids. - Jeff P. Henderson

While Flickr could "do it themselves" with a Photrade model, my guess is that they simply don't want to do the work or build the infrastructure necessary to compete in what is largely seen as a declining business. They probably also were afraid of the liability associated with screw ups and looked at Getty as the best in the business at this after coming to the conclusion that they didn't want to buy or build themselves. - Thomas Hawk

Getty likely gets to fill in holes in their library, add much greater depth to their search, and they probably have a contract that locks Flickr into an exclusive deal keeping them out of the hands of Corbis in the event of a MSFT buyout of Yahoo. - Thomas Hawk

These deals are rarely useful to the photographers. The trend is usually, sell your image for dimes with exclusive rights for ever and ever. - Mário Pires

I would like to point out that you will be very unlikely as an individual to make a lot of money if one or many of your images are selected, assuming of course this rumour does turn out to be real. In most cases rumours involving Getty turn out to be true as over the years they have aggressively taken over many picture libraries and indeed press agencies, including my old agency Wireimage and Filmmagic. So the news of Flickr getting involved disturbs me. - Nick Lewis

The explosion of "professional" photographers is driving the supply of product to record levels while the demand is rising modestly. The same could be said for blogging and journalistic product. Its not so easy to make a dollar any more at some very traditional jobs. Photography is one of those. - Robert

More details on the deal here: http://friendfeed.com/e... - Thomas Hawk

Paul Buchheit

If Viacom wanted the names, addresses, and rental history of all of Blockbuster's customers, would that be a big deal?

July 3, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Alex Barbara, Cait, ivanandersson and 19 other people liked this

Maybe, but then sould know what they are renting. But a youtube link can be anything. Remember people are still getting rick rolled. - Grant Bierman

18 more comments

If this were a police state it would. Or if it were Iraq and you were renting Christian videos. There was a segment on 60 Minutes this week about how the 1 million Christians in Iraq were either killed or exiled. Almost all are gone. So yes, if we value our freedom, that kind of information must be protected. Try asking a librarian for that info, they'll say the same thing. - Dave Winer

Yes if they plan on mailing me anything. My name and rental history. I don't care. I just don't want any spam from them - Corvida from twhirl

yes - Steven Hodson

I'm all for wanton outrage, but isn't the scope of the order to determine a very specific question: that Youtube is, in fact, benefitting in large part due to copyright infringing content? Viacom wants to prove to the court that most of what's watched on Youtube is copyright infringing content; to do that you need to see all the records of everything that's watched. I would imagine that in order for them to sue individual people, it would require a separate court order. - Mark Trapp

Mark, if that's all they wanted, they could make do with anonymized data. - Paul Buchheit

if viacom wanted name, addresses, rental history, credit card numbers and birthdays as well; would that be worrisome? what line of data being crossed is teh distinguisher for cause to worry? - Nathan Eckenrode

Actually, the judge would deny the request the same as it was denied for a similar request in the current ruling. - Dennis E. Hamilton

@DaveWiner interestingly enough, the best place in the middle east to be a Christian is Syria - Prolific Programmer

@Mark Trapp: It is not enought to say that Youtube is benefitting, whatever that means. There is a statutory protection against an intermediary being responsible, so Viacom wants to show that YouTube's algorithms promote the pirated content out of proportion to other content, so that they can show inducement. The judge ruled against them when they wanted some over-broad discoveries. - Dennis E. Hamilton

Dennis, right: so while I'm sure, yeah, Viacom would love to use the data they're going to receive to do other nefarious things, they can't. Or am I missing something? - Mark Trapp

Yet another way our civil liberties are being eroded in the name of capitalism and protecting big business. - Nick Dynice

I'm much more disappointed in a legal system that would grant Viacom access to the info. Why isn't the outrage pointed at the system, instead of something that takes advantage of the system? - Robert Seidman

Considering that Viacom owned Blockbuster up to a few years ago, it would probably not be a big deal. I doubt Blockbuster would have a problem parting with the information now. - Gabe

Paging Judge Bork... - Andrew Feinberg

I didn't know about the prior ownership, which makes it an odd example I guess. There are actually special privacy laws that apply to video rentals though: "The Act forbids a video rental or sales outlet from disclosing information concerning what tapes a person borrows and buys, or releasing other personally identifiable information without the informed, written consent of the customer." - http://www.privacilla.org/busines... - Paul Buchheit

@Mark Trapp - some data they are not allowed to have, whatever they say they want it for. In the case at hand (http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/2008...) , the Judge ruled on 8 motions and three were granted: (1) to see the schema for the video content database, (2) to see the information from the logging database for each time a YouTube video has been viewed from... more... - Dennis E. Hamilton

Maybe the fault lies, in part, with YouTube for not anonymizing log files after a certain point? - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Is Viacom covertly networking with any intelligence agencies? What are the politics of the people at the top of Viacom? What are their social networks? - Sean McBride

Who says they don't already have this info? Certainly if they wanted it bad enough they could pay the going rate and get it anyway. - Brian Sullivan

Ryan Block

So many OS X TiVo apps out there... what do you like for grabbing off Series3 ? TiVoDecode Manager? TiVoTool? NowPlaying? What else?

July 3, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Phil G and Jeff Scott liked this

You should ask Louis Gray, he's both a Mac and Tivo fan! @louisgray - Phil G

The only thing I have found that can pull video from a TiVo S3 is TivoTransfer from Roxio. - Jeremy Brooks

l0ckergn0me

Watermelon May Have Viagra-Effect - http://agnews.tamu.edu/showsto...

July 1, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott, Jacob Burke, PonziPirillo and 8 other people liked this

I don't even want to know what I have to do to a watermelon for that effect...that's what the story says right? I haven't clicked. - Mark Krynsky

12 more comments

shot in the dark with this but, i'm guessing you eat it. call me crazy... - Outsanity

Actually my father in-law who lives near Puerto Vallarta Mexico swears by Yaca if anyone is truly interested. http://banderasnews.com/0501... - Mark Krynsky

I've heard "maca" has similar effect. You can buy the powder at any health food store. - Lisa Lee from fftogo

maca and yaca? and watermelon? - edythe

At least the story isn't about bananas. :) - Morton Fox

:-) - Mitchell Tsai

So the little blue pill is being replaced by the big green melon? - Tim from Alert Thingy

Walnuts are supposed to be good too. - mentaleffluvia

maybe that's why it's the national fruit in China, and served with every meal? - clarke thomas

Gives new meaning to the phrase "nice mellons" - Ralph Whitbeck

"The little blue pill is being replaced by the big green melon" that made me spew tea across my desk! ROFLMAO - PonziPirillo

I wonder if my wife read about this. There is half a watermelon in the fridge that was not there yesterday. - JA Castillo

saw that on the news - problem is - it's the RIND you have to eat. You know, the gross green part? And no idea how much of it. Although apparently they're working on a genetically 'improved' watermelon with the chemical factor in the red part. :\ - Lucretia Pruitt

Chris Messina

BTW "failwhale" is now officially a verb. As in "George Bush failwhaled the economy." #fwh

July 3, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Hassan Ibraheem, Amie Gillingham, фыр and 19 other people liked this

hope the next step of "failwhale" is not "farewell" - K.D.

Alan Cheslow

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU - http://www.vimeo.com/993998

July 3, 2008 from Vimeo favorites - Comment - Like - Share

Joseph Rodgers, Jeff Scott, Igor The Troll יִצְחָק and Kevin Devin liked this

Wow. That is too cool! - Kevin Devin

Steph Mineart

reading about the Boing Boing unpublishing scandal.

July 2, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott liked this

Steve Rubel

Google now offers Google Talk on the iPhone! http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2008...

July 2, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott, Bryan Landers, Mohamed J and 4 other people liked this

Leo Laporte

Horrible thought. What if "The Website Is Down" is a viral marketing ad for Monster.com? It's things like this that keep me up at night.

June 30, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

edythe, Tanath, Dave Roth and 15 other people liked this

It's actually so good, so professional.... Right down to the voices and the near-perfect screen-capture resolution and stuff. - john conroy

17 more comments

Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum. The system is down. The system is down. - StrongBad - Stephen Pierzchala

Maybe a little too good.... - Hao Chen

:-D - Gnanasekaran Thoppae

Now where is my website icon? Where! Your kidding ... - Nick Bristow

Perhaps it's a viral ad for UGLY.COM? - David Newman

LOL @ Stephen for the Strongbad quote :) - Iain Baker

we should try and time the website downness so they happen when we are asleap .........yah right :-p - Matt

I am right there with Stephen and Iain, when I saw that I thought of Strongbad and Homestarrunner walking out in the middle of the screen with the 404 error. - Andrea Baker

Leo - now you got us to use friendfeed how do I stop seeing EVERYBODY! who responds to you ? it's too much. WHERE IS THE OFF SWITCH? - James Carroll

just click hide - Matt

It's definitely professional, but if even if it's some viral ad, who cares? that was one of the awesomest things I've seen all year! :) - Sarah Perez

Yeah! Where can I buy The Website Is Down T-shirts and coffee mugs?! - Hao Chen

That was one of the funniest videos I have ever seen...I could not stop laughing...My wife thought I truly had lost it. - Bert DuMars

"What if 'The Website Is Down' is a viral marketing ad for Monster.com?" - then job well done and kudos to Monster. - Adam

the hijacking of viral videos is just... ummm... pathetic. - Jason Calacanis

Might be a marketing tactic for Netflix. - Jacob

Love the Strongbad reference too. Here's a video for those who don't http://www.youtube.com/watch... also you can check out more awesome Strongbad videos here: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail... - Mark Krynsky

http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com - Margaret Kerr from twhirl

Thomas Hawk

Miami-Dade cop accuses photo-taking college professor of being Al-Qaeda - http://carlosmiller.com/2008...

June 30, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Farrugia, daniel the cuban, Dave Roth and 37 other people liked this

During the confrontation that took place on Jan. 30, 2007, Hanna suggested that Missick could be a member of Al-Qaeda, according to the report. He also demanded to know where Missick was born. Missick, a Miami native, was offended by these questions and comments. “It was a very tense situation,” Missick said after last week’s meeting. “He was somewhat imposing and very aggressive.” - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

27 more comments

Double Dumbass on you. - Kreg Steppe

As you well know Thomas, this kind of abuse happens too often. It has happened to me and I am sure to a lot of other photographers. One of the most effective ways to combat this mentality is for you to keep on making others aware of this anti-photography trend. Which I might add you do very well. - Michael Tefft

Thanks Michael. I'm hoping that as awareness is heightened, those in authority will begin to better train cops and security officers that deal with the public. Until we see more serious consequences beyond simply negative PR though, I'm afraid bad cops and security guards will continue to see photographers as a way to express personal physical power over other human beings. As more of these cops lose their jobs though and departments pay out civil judgments and settlements, hopefully things can improve. - Thomas Hawk

Scenes like this make me wish I had a camera with a tazer built in. :) But seriously, these loons need all of the bad publicity we can pile onto them. These guys need to be fired, sued, and then fired again. - ha3rvey (just a friend)

Where do they dig these whackjobs up from? It scares me to think of the guy carrying a gun. - Karoli from twhirl

This Cop looks like a Black Panther Radical. Maybe he is on payroll of Louis Farrakhan. Come on you can accuse and label anyone with anything. WTF is wrong with Amerika? Is it like paranoia on top of paranoia. McCarthy is laughing in his grave. Soon Amerika will be sending all undesirable immigrants to Guantanamo Bay! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

You don't need a camera, just look like me, and see how you're treated at a US airport. - Prolific Programmer

Miami cops have always been stupid. They have an IQ test that you need to take to accepted. It must be bellow 90 or you do not qualify. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

You guys better hurry up before it is too late. But I think America is on Self Destruct! America is a Fascist State! http://www.igorthetroll.com/blog... - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Disgusting behavior. I'm glad I haven't had any of these kinds of experiences, but I'm just waiting for it to happen to me, especially since I am not caucasian. - Cheryl Jones

Why don't we Digg, Stumble, and what ever this guy! Let him be all over the Net. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Rachel was taking photos of people at the Denver airport yesterday while camped out in one spot and I was just waiting for security/police to come by and tell us we were doing something wrong. - Kevin Fox

Little-minded people with enough power to make your life miserable. - John Samuelson

Maybe his wiffy aint giving some and his kids call him asshole! So he takes it out on others. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

I wonder when this would end?! I think we take rule enforcement to an extent where it is encroaching upon the lives of people it was designed to protect - Shivanand Velmurugan from twhirl

Digg it up: http://digg.com/people... - Jeremy Brooks

Dugg and shouted out as "Civil Disobedience!" - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Looks like this guy might be flipping burgers soon! We ge him on page one of Google for "Miami Cop" Power of Social Media http://www.google.com/search... - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

That is F##%ing absurd! Officer Hanna ought to be fired for impersonating a Homeland security officer, failing to provide his name and badge and his general lack of understanding and respect for the several laws he broke with his actions and threats. - Jeff P. Henderson

World is becoming paranoid and crazy!!! - Arjun

That's for sure and it will get even worse. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Igor, Thats a scary thought - Arjun

@Igor btw following u now :) - Arjun

Thanks Arjun. The world is becoming Fascist. And America is a leading cause of it. It is nothing new in American history, but unfortunately the information race makes it amplified. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

@igor, sometimes i feel its the price of development which we are paying...need to more and more things...but I firmly beleive in development...but there shud be some rationale - Arjun

A lot of police departments in the U.S. have a test you have to pass. If you score too high on the intelligence scale, they can't hire you. Seriously. They want sheep as cops. - Stephan Miller

Its bad in the UK as well. http://thomashawk.com/2008... . @Thomas Hawk keeps a running commentry of stuff like this. And TWIP just did a podcast on Photographers rights that is really good: http://twipphoto.com/index... - Roberto Bonini

i know that dude who runs the site, nice guy - daniel the cuban

Steve Rubel

Laptops lost like hot cakes at US airports - http://rss.macworld.com/~r...

June 30, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Justin Yost, Jeff Scott, Tyler (Chacha) and 3 other people liked this

"The FTC recommends people treat laptops “like cash.” " - No kidding!?? - Roberto Bonini

5 more comments

"Close to 10,278 laptops are reported lost every week at 36 of the largest U.S. airports, and 65 percent of those laptops are not reclaimed, the survey said." Yikes, 65% are unclaimed? If I lost my laptop at the airport, you can darn well bet I'm going to try and find it. - Michelle Martinez

Has anyone here been subject to laptop theft at an airport? Just wondering. - Phil G

I don't even use my Laptop in an airport for this very reason. But I have to say having to take it out the bag going through security is one easy way to lose it. - Roberto Bonini

*Close to* 10,278? What's that supposed to mean? I would prefer "Slightly more 10,256 laptops are reported lost every week..." - Ole Begemann

Laptops are the keys to the corporate world. Why hack into the corporate network, when you get all you want with 1 laptop ? Its not about the laptop , its about industrial espionage and wealth accrual via information forensics performed on the laptops hardware.. freaking hell do you really think that is about a laptop.. thats petty crime !! - Peter Dawson

patricia..lol that would be an interesting data point- think of the poor bugger who has to complete the poll and goin around and asking/polling airport travelers .. "have you lost hot cup cake in the last 24/48/1wk ??" - - Peter Dawson

Jeff Bonforte

Twitter web site is not responding for me. - http://twitter.com

June 30, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott liked this

Jeremy Toeman

New California Headset Requirements Law is Political Baby-Kissing at its Finest - http://www.livedigitally.com/2008...

June 30, 2008 from Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott, Frankie Warren, Robert Scoble and 2 other people liked this

You know... I've been THIS close to writing something on how the hands-free law is doomed. Now that you've done it, I'd just look like a copycat. - Louis Gray

8 more comments

Unfortunately, I don't think the law itself is doomed, at all. Until we get some politician pulled over for it. :) - Jeremy Toeman

This law has been in place, for nearly a decade, in New York, and for years in other states. This is just lawmaking catchup. You'll get used to it in a couple of months. - Mark Trapp

@Mark - i know, hence the blog post. give it a read... :) - Jeremy Toeman

Jeremy, I did: the same arguments that you and several others today have presented are the same arguments that New Yorkers presented in 2000 and 2001 (of course, we cited local municipalities instead of states), and it all was all superficial political posturing. After 2 months of the law being enacted, everyone went "what's the big deal?" and moved on with their lives. Every other state who's had the same law enacted went through the same thing. Cheer up Californians, you'll forget about this soon enough. - Mark Trapp

One thing I've found is that even with the small fine (here it's $50), people still don't want to be pulled over, so they stop being crazy with their cell phone. It's not the fine; it's the disruption in your travel. - Mark Trapp

@Mark - gotcha, fair points! I guess I look at the issue differently: why isn't my government putting a law in place that we *know* will make a difference? passing laws is expensive and time-consuming, and while this ranks higher than baseball-steroid investigations, it's still bad governing IMHO. - Jeremy Toeman

The problem with representative democracies is you can't please all the people all the time. You may say it's an ineffective use of time, and either it shouldn't have been written at all or it should be much harsher, others see it as the government taking an important first step in at least acknowledging there's a problem. At least with this, it's not going to affect you too much no matter what side of the issue you stand on. - Mark Trapp

@Mark again, I go back to the *data* NHTSA possesses on the problems with drivers using stereos, and I can't help but question the focus on cell phones, a device category that's not well represented through data. - Jeremy Toeman

lol! that picture is worth the click through. Do you guys think the increased revenue from all these 20 (then 50) dollar tickets will be significant? - Frankie Warren

Major Nelson (Larry)

Reading the press release on Rock Band 2. One cool thing: Backwards compatibility with Rock Band downloadable music content.

June 30, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott liked this

Hao Chen

Friendfeed scripts – Userscripts.org - http://userscripts.org/tags...

June 28, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Tina K.J, Jeff Scott, Dorai and 6 other people liked this

Great Greasemonkey scripts to enhance your Friendfeed experience! :) - Hao Chen from Bookmarklet

Good post, Hao. - Jonathon

Dave Winer

The First Amendment says you have the right to say (almost) whatever you want. But it doesn't say anyone has to listen.

June 26, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

siavash, shelisrael1, Mark Edwards and 42 other people liked this

Amen to that! - Robert Clockedile from Alert Thingy

19 more comments

Just curious....why did you say "almost"?....The first amendment doesn't use that word. It simply says "or abridging the freedom of speech." - Chris Rossini

Second amendment says I can carry a gun in D.C. - Matt

God Bless America. - Thomas Hawk

I think the almost is because there are things you can say that can be hurtful to the reputation of another. I think they call it libel? - Mike Wills

Or anywhere else for that matter. http://x.newsjunk.com/0CY - Dave Winer

huh? speakup please! I can't hear you! - Marc Canter

It also doesn't provide a right to venue, or say that free speech ='s anyspeech. You can say what you want, but it may get you in trouble. - Scott Bannon from twhirl

of all forms of speech, satire has perhaps been given the widest berth of all. Satire even trumps copyright law which is why Weird Al Yankovic can make a song like "Eat It." Even though it clearly steals from the original artist. Libel is an exception to free speech as you mention Mike, but satire is typically protected even from libel suits. Satire may be the most free speech of all. - Thomas Hawk

but Dave's right, doesn't mean anyone has to listen. And an awful lot of people tune out Howard Stern for what he has to say every single day. - Thomas Hawk

Why not listen? It is good to hear differing ideas, even if you don't agree. Not listening is a form of arrogance as far as I am concerned. If you don't listen, how can you judge the merit of anything? - Michael Tefft

... along with Don Imus... or should be. - Mike Wills

Of course, we should try to listen when we can. But that's the best you can do. And if people try to offend or abuse other people, there's no law that says you have to listen. Yesterday Jason raised the First Amendment -- there was no need to, no one said these guys don't have a right to say what they want. But no one is forcing us to listen either. That's an important part of the discussion as well. - Dave Winer

It's a free marketplace of ideas; everyone's free to ignore you. - Ryan Sholin

True that, BUT listening might alert you to who's ready to take over in the middle of the night after falling asleep wearing those noise-canceling gadgets. - phil baumann

this might be true Mel, but the chaos of over-stimulation can be a powerful inspiration to make and create art. And for me, creating art is perhaps the highest calling of all. Sometimes out of chaos comes the best art of all. - Thomas Hawk from fftogo

The text doesn't have an "almost" - nor does it have an if, and, or but. In fact, the constitution is rather black and white on whether I should be able to say "Shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits" on the radio - but the Supreme Court has magically found those exceptions every time it's ruled on obscenity though. Slander/Libel/shouting "fire" are a different sort of case because it directly infringes on others' rights and does quantifiable damage. - Eric P

Yes, what Thomas says... - Mary Anne Davis

Pinned to Jack Kerouac's wall to inspire his writing: "Art is the highest task and the proper metaphysical activity of this life."-Nietzsche - Thomas Hawk

You bastards with a written constitution. No fair! - Chris Nixon

Jason raised the First? Why? Has Congress threatened to get involved? How is the First relevant in any way? - Anthony Citrano

Thomas Hawk

“One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.” Dorothea Lange

June 26, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

RyanEs, Kevin Reed, Robert Felty and 30 other people liked this

Any idea what the citation for that quote is? - Kirk Kittell

2 more comments

Kirk, I found it here on the Getty's website. http://www.getty.edu/art... I recently went down and shot the Getty. It is an amazing museum with a fantastic "photography allowed" policy. Admission to the Getty is also free which I think is just beautiful. Here's a few of my Getty images from my shoot there: http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Thomas Hawk

One of my favorite things to see at the Getty was a painting done by the famous photographer Walker Evans. Although Evans is very well known for his photography, I'd never been aware that he painted as well. Here's a photo of one of his paintings. http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Thomas Hawk

Thanks, Thomas. I'll ask them, see if they know the citation (looks like it's from an autobiography). In the age of teh internets, mis-cited and incorrect quotations drive me nuts. I don't think you're getting it wrong, but I wanted to copy the quote myself... - Kirk Kittell

Louis Gray

Jared Fogel, RIP - Featured on BuzzFeed - http://buzzfeed.com/scott...

June 26, 2008 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff Scott, Rod Bauer, Jared Smith and 3 other people liked this

Doesn't anybody check Snopes any more? That stupid rumor has been going around for ages. People in the TWiT Live chat rooms were telling me Jared was dead all day yesterday. A valuable lesson to learn about Twitter "news." It can be as ill-informed as email spam. More so. - Leo Laporte

4 more comments

"It’s been a while since a death rumor spread so far. Speaking of, has anyone seen Gary Coleman recently?" - i did chuckle at that RIP Gary! LOL - Chris Harris

BREAKING!!!!!!!! Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. - Chris Reed

In college, my friends had a thing called "The Church Of The Undead Celebrity" which one was involutarily inducted into when you propagate news of a false death. I was convinced Chris Rock committed suicide at one point. Someone else thought Piers Anthony was dead, and another thought Alan Ginsberg was (you achieve blessed rank within the church when your celebrity actually dies). Yesterday was a good day for the church... - Madsimian

Leo, people hardly have heard of Snopes !! heres a thread wrt to 10cc naming ! http://friendfeed.com/e... - Peter Dawson

Louis Gray is dead? - Pat Hawks

Scott Beale

wow, this is totally fucked up, Google just told me that I am not allowed to shoot a photo of their both

April 23, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Joe Dawson, Sam Purtill, Katrin and 17 other people liked this

I say shoot the photo anyways. Google don't own the air -- not yet anyways. - Thomas Hawk

13 more comments

I smell a photomob at Google forming. Scott, when should I meet you there? - Robert Scoble

lol @thomas hawk - Gavin from Alert Thingy

Oftentimes Google engineers like to post unreleased code on display booths at consumer tradeshows. This could be a huge security breach. Never can be too careful. </snark> - Jason Shellen

Hmmm... maybe if you drove in there with a van with cameras on the roof they would let you? ...via AlertThingy - Nathan Manley

That's pretty hypocritical of them. After all, they're going around taking street-level photos and invading people's privacy. How can they disallow photos of their booth with a straight face (and with impunity)? It's wrong. - Raoul Pop

On what legal grounds? Do they own the venue? Push the issue and shoot anyways. - Thomas Hawk

'Do no evil' lest it be photographed and someone gets into some serious trouble. - Akiva Moskovitz from Alert Thingy

Interesting - Adam Gershenbaum from Alert Thingy

Forget that... get Scoble or somebody over there and Qik it. Michael Moore style, but live. And send me a link. =D - Rex Pechler from Alert Thingy

Big deal. At least you was not detained and tortured like the vlogger http://www.youtube.com/user... - Robert S. Robbins from Alert Thingy

Just posted a tweet to @micromedia2 asking all to take pictures of their booth. Will show up on display in hall. - Jeff Scott from Alert Thingy

Raoul Pop's comment is to the point! - Ontario Emperor

I looked into this a bit ago. The Googlers were being (over)cautious, and it's not Google's policy to prevent folks from taking pics of the booth. So a couple of us contacted Scott to apologize and let me him know that it's fine to take pics of the booth. - Adam Lasnik

Hooray for Adam. - Amit Patel

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