Bill Futreal - Likes

The great thing about Twitter is you can tweet about zombies and then play it off like you didn't.

July 20 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Look, Adobe Acrobat, I understand and appreciate your dedication to updating yourself... but the frequency of such is leading me to believe I have a piece of busted-ass software installed on this computer. Love, Johnny...

July 6 from IM - Comment - Like - Share

Thomas Hawk, Santa CW™, Ho John Lee and 25 other people liked this

If you figure out how to get rid of this POS from running in the background, please share. - jcunwired

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Johnny, can you send the same note to the Windows java distribution folks please? (And also ask them to uninstall previous versions? Thirteen or so installs at 130 megs each adds up.) - Stephen Mack

If on Windows, use Foxit Reader instead. http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf... - Tudor Bosman

@jcunwired Open your regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run delete everything labeled Adobe - Alex Scrivener

The only thing is, these updates are fixing security holes... They piss me off but I think them nessecary considering all the pdfs I handle a day. - Johnny Worthington from IM

Preach on my brother.. - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS

Dave Slusher

Do people like Albert Mohler who deny the existence of evolution also think DNA evidence should not be admissible in court? Do they take prescription drugs? If they get cancer, would they deny chemotherapy? Do they not believe that drug resistant bacteria exist?

February 12 - Comment - Like - Share

Morton Fox, Micah Wittman, Bill Futreal and 8 other people liked this

You should read some of the rants here http://intepid.com/sub... - Paul Reynolds

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I've been itching to use the phrase, "lying sacks of sanctimonious shit" since I read it on his site. ;o) - Paul Reynolds

Define what you mean by creationist. Because a large portion of creationists have beliefs that are completely incompatible with evolution. Actually, they have beliefs that are completely incompatible with reality. - Alex Scoble

Chris White, like saying A == B and A !=B are both right? What are you talking about? - Dave Slusher

Fundamental creationism. The belief that god created the universe, the earth and all that is on it, some 4000 to 5000 years ago. In other words, their beliefs are completely counter to evolution, carbon dating and just about every scientific understanding about the earth, the universe, life, etc. - Alex Scoble

If you don't know what a creationist is then it is inappropriate to be trying to argue points about what they are, don't you think? - Dave Slusher

Goodbye, Chris White. - Dave Slusher

Dave, you are doing yourself a disservice if you block Chris. - Alex Scoble

I have no desire to engage with someone who is willing to assert black is white to me. - Dave Slusher

Face it all religion were born of the need to explain the unexplainable. What is thunder ... must be a god, etc, etc. Man unending need to have a reason for existance. We are not happy if this is all there is, so there *must* be an afterlife, a creator. One cannot just exist then die, there has to be a purpose ... whatever. :) - Robert Couture from twhirl

When one side provides facts and evidence and the other side provides fantasy to support their argument, there is no middle ground. I hate how being fair and unbiased now means treating two sides with the same amount of factual weight when many times one side is so clearly delusional. - Rob Haas

"Black == white, and because I'm so open minded let's agree it is a shade of gray." Wheeee! - Dave Slusher

I can guarantee my religion is. - Dave Slusher

I paid my $30 because of it. You should too! http://culld.us/l4031055 - Dave Slusher

"Fuck em if they can't take a joke" - JR "Bob" Dobbs - Dave Slusher

“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we... more... - Rob Haas

me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.” -- Albert Einstein, The World As I See It. Including more of the quote changes the entire meaning of that one line. - Rob Haas

I believe this may just be another form of Darwin's theory of the weak perishing. :) - Santa CW™

Chris, you are arguing creationism vs science while admitting you don't know what creationism is and demonstrating you don't know what science is. This is why I consider you to be trolling. - Dave Slusher

Heh, you guys gotta figure out if the relationship is worth it, both of you are definitely not trolls though, although, Chris, your comments lack a certain structure. I mean if you don't even believe that reality is real, then it's hard to converse in a common framework. - Alex Scoble

Dude, it's figured out. It has been since comment #6 - Dave Slusher

I believe the stress of my shitty day has driven me insane, and I'm dreaming that the co-founder of Android is telling me what "science" is by using a fuzzy definition that is the opposite of what it really is. Forgive me for having a different point of view of all you "rational" "Friend" "feed" people. - Dave Slusher

When you come from the "scientists think they know everything" direction, it is already off the rails. The reason creationism opposes science is that science is a methodology for asking and answering questions, and creationism denies the questions should be asked. No scientist thinks they know everything. The way scientists make their bones is by proving each other wrong. Scientists LOVE to prove things wrong. - Dave Slusher

If someone's Android phone crashes, is it fair to say it is actually running but they are just perceiving it differently? - Dave Slusher

No, you absolutely have not said anything personal about me. Comment #10 you said this "So, I see areas of gray. I think anything fundamentalist is almost by definition wrong, including scientists." That's where I'm taking what I just said, also the "Dave, do you believe there are things scientists don't know?" Yes, of course. That's how science works. - Dave Slusher

OK, I'm withdrawing my assholishness and switching strategies. IE, much like a scientist getting new information I'm doing a 180. I'll engage and take you seriously and take this as a teachable moment. - Dave Slusher

Since you brought up flat earth, let's go there. You are aware that model of the world started falling apart around the 4th or 3rd century BC. It did it the good old fashioned way, one observation at a time. Greek astronomers noticed that the angle of stars differed as they moved north and south. The simplest explanation for this was that they were moving on the surface of a sphere. That's how it works. Stubbornness of supporters of one model don't magically make new observations invalid. - Dave Slusher

I'd urge you to drop the strawmen "scientists don't change their mind" argument, because that is in fact exactly what creationists and evolution deniers say, and it is demonstrably not true. If you have to go back 2500 years to find cases of that sort of thing, that's a pretty good statement about how it works now, no? - Dave Slusher

I was a chemistry undergraduate at Georgia Tech when Pons and Fleischmann came out with their "cold fusion" paper. There was a brief burst of people trying to confirm and deny it. GT got egg on their face when a researcher tried to duplicate the original experiment and measured an increase in neutrons emitted. Turns out the detector was miscalibrated. It got caught when someone tried to duplicate THEIR duplication. This is a slow series of stacking of data, conclusions and observations on each other. - Dave Slusher

Why I reacted so badly to your putting creationism and evolution on equal footing is that one has no foundation other than one book, and the rest has 170 years of data across many domains. Many mechanisms have been proposed, disproven, revised, re-revised since Darwin's original proposal. The presentation of this as a fundamentalist dogma equal and opposite to that of young earth creationism is not reasonable, fair or true. 100s of thousands of people have contributed data and ideas to this over 2 centuries - Dave Slusher

No one observation is golden. Some turn out to be wrong, and some conclusions are erroneous. Creationists position evolution as a unitary monolithic dogma because since their only tool is a hammer, they see it as a nail. - Dave Slusher

And to get back to WHERE THIS ALL STARTED: since we have been able to sequence genomes fully over the last 10 years (something that was a sheer pipe dream back when I was a scientist) we have more evidence than ever before that evolution has happened. We can show mechanisms that Darwin could only fantasize about. We can almost time out when speciation occurred, we can track changes to gene sequences over time. This is truly the oddest time in history to deny the truth of evolution ... - Dave Slusher

... which Albert Mohler SPENT THE WHOLE DAY DOING! My original post was that if you deny this DNA evidence constitutes substantial proof of evolution, then how can you turn around and accept any value and truth of it? Like in court, like drugs targeted to specific gene sequences. That's what is driving me, pointing out the irreconcilable nature of those two positions. - Dave Slusher

This is why I originally routed you to /dev/troll because I'm talking about how these are logically irreconcilable and you came in with "what if they are both right?" To say they are in fact reconcilable will take some horsepower. If you can do that, I'm all ears. "Scientists used to think the earth was flat" is a dodge, "Scientists don't know everything" is a dodge. A logical argument I will gladly accept, tossing a handful of dirt in the air and saying "can't see so clearly now!" don't do it. - Dave Slusher

I also think "there are layers of reality" is a dodge. It's elevating an arbitrary imaginary reference point to the level of fact. It's logically no different from "we don't know how this happened so obviously God did it." It's just using different terminology. - Dave Slusher

See, isn't it way more fun to be on offense than defense? - Dave Slusher

Note the world "originally" in conjunction with "/dev/troll". That implies it isn't happening anymore. - Dave Slusher

I'm happy to accept any evidence you have for "layers of reality." - Dave Slusher

So then why do you believe it? - Dave Slusher

You started this, my friend. You asked me about my beliefs but you don't want to pony up yours? I anted up. - Dave Slusher

BZZZZT!!!!! Comment #15: "Dave, do you believe there are things scientists don't know? - Chris White" - Dave Slusher

Comment #19: "So, the consensus of the people on this thread is that all religions are essentially silly human pacifiers for avoiding the inevitability of death without afterlife? - Chris White" - Dave Slusher

Now you are demonstrably weaseling. It's approaching midnight eastern and I'm done for the night. Teachable moment ..... OVER! - Dave Slusher

Because, demonstrably, we both want to have the last word and are willing to wait each other out. You are going to win, I'm nodding off on the keyboard - Dave Slusher

Did Chris White just block me? I accept your surrender, but I had you at the point you said "I didn't ask you what you believe only what you think." CHECK AND MATE! Booyah! - Dave Slusher

BTW, offense is so much more fun than defense that there is no comparison. And with that, good night inkernets. - Dave Slusher

Wish I could've seen the thread before he removed his comments. - Rob Haas

Whoa, Chris not only blocked me but deleted all his comments. I was just coming back to take a snapshot of them in case he did but he beat me to it. That, I believe, says all there is to say about this whole thing. Strike that, I'm not blocked, he just deleted his side of this. Defeat admitted, that's how I score it. - Dave Slusher

Ahh...uhh, yeah. My apologies, Dave. - Alex Scoble

The sinus pressure in my head prevented me from sleeping, even though I'm well and truly exhausted. Laid in bed for 30 minutes and not a hint of sleep. Anyway, I'm a true, stone idiot. I have Chris White's whole side of the thread in my IM history! I just don't know that it is ethical to repost his writings without his consent, which obviously he will not give. Is not spending all evening arguing on FF and then deleting your whole side when you get backed into a logical corner the weakest of teas? - Dave Slusher

Since I don't know what the full thread is, I can't answer. Here's his response http://friendfeed.com/e... - Alex Scoble

Alex, no biggie. You did nothing wrong other than accidentally catalyze. I find it odd that Chris only found this hostile after I started taking him seriously, ceasing to ridicule him and actually engaging with the content of his argument. At which point, he got backed into a corner and deleted his side. I find that highly unethical. Blocking me would be ethical, but deleting isn't. Also, he's lying about me editing my comments to make him look silly. He did that on his own. - Dave Slusher

And the "mischaracterization" is when he'd say "I never said that", I'd repost in its entirely where he said that. I find denying you said something at the bottom of a thread WHERE YOU SAID IT also completely non-ethical. - Dave Slusher

I apologize for accusing Chris White of lying. That was not cool and I don't know he was talking about me. He says he's talking about multiple people at once, and I take him at his word. For the record, I did not do that in this thread. - Dave Slusher

You should apologize for accusing hostility, when there is no way for anyone other than you and I to know the context of the exchange. If you can't stand by what you said it is unfair to accuse me of something like that. - Dave Slusher

For those interested in my views, here is a full hour long, emotionally raw podcast of me talking about my personal journey to atheism, and a lot about my belief system: http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpre... - Dave Slusher

Dave - Im off to listen to that.Thanks. - laprensa66

Thanks, I'm interested in comments, either here or on the original blog post. I was surprised that the clergy who ran across it were so overwhelmingly sympathetic to my viewpoint. - Dave Slusher

no .... wrong on all counts. Dave. evolution and religion are not in contradiction... if you want it to be you can have it your way though. I'd like a french fried agnostic... no atheist bigot served on steamed rice - Noah David Simon

Not at all what I said. Plenty of religion is compatible with evolution. I am saying that evolution and CREATIONISM are in contradiction, not religion. This is by definition. Young earth creationism is the denial of evolution. - Dave Slusher

Also, plenty of Christians find their beliefs compatible with evolution. Albert Mohler spent Darwin day declaring Christianity and belief in evolution incompatible. He is a special case of Christian, thank God. (pun intended) - Dave Slusher

In fairness to Chris, there was a point around comment 20 where I thought about deleting this whole post. i resisted the urge. I predict this will become a troll magnet, but so be it. I just wish the deletions of his comments didn't give this whole thing a creepy Tyler Durden vibe. - Dave Slusher

For the record, YEC's don't deny the existence of evolution... just macro-evolution that calls for a new species to develop from another... so the drug resistent bacteria example is as strawman as a YEC's strawman that we all came from monkeys. - Rob Reed

Fair enough. I'll remove that shell from the bandoleer. However, once you believe in evolution of any kind, I personally don't understand how you can split the hairs between micro and macro. It's the same thing, just on different time scales. - Dave Slusher

Also to Noah David Simon with the love of unicode, I'd like to point out that I'm accusing no one, not even young earth creationists of being bigots. I'm absolutely willing to change my tune given compelling evidence to that effect. Throwing out "atheist bigots" is fundamentally unfair and uncool. - Dave Slusher

A thing worth saying is that while my belief system differs in particulars, a high percentage of the people I most love in this world are Christians. I have no vendetta against a religion or the religious, I'm just asserting my point of view which happens to be opposed to the majority, default American stance. That don't mean I don't love you, baby! - Dave Slusher

Eric Rice

Augmented / Mixed Reality - http://www.flickr.com/photos...

February 4 from Flickr - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Futreal, Sean Dunn and Candace liked this

Louis Gray

So if @kingofthejews is following me, but I am not yet following him, what does this mean for my eternal salvation?

January 27 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Pandu ● IT Optimizer, MikeAmundsen, Bill Futreal and Prolific Programmer liked this

That just means you are actually @God - Jesse Stay

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

I hate it when a perfectly good lighter, full of fluid, stops working.

January 23, 2009 from Gmail/Google Talk - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Futreal liked this

Andrew Baron

Today is a special day because everything in the world is better today than any other day so far this year.

January 1, 2009 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Futreal liked this

Eric Rice

I hope some folks make a new years resolution for 2009 to talk about shit beyond friendfeed and twitter, even if it IS your 'business' or 'industry'... because frankly, it makes you look shallow and uninteresting and well, kinda boring. There's so much more out there if you are willing.

December 27, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Web20Critic, Daniel Andrlik, Marcel Weiß and 31 other people liked this

LIES SPIN LIES!! FF and Twitter are the only places on the Internet!! - Mona Nomura

30 more comments

What about rejaw, or is that so six months ago? - Eric Rice

What I love about FF is that while there are certainly those who use it to discuss "Social Media" and talk, talk, and talk about it, some of us are just USING it. I'm not very techy, and I love talking about movies, and food, and music. It's like hanging out at a coffee shop. And now I must sub to you. - Derrick

I tend to see FF either go toward World News, Movies, or Social Media. Once in a while I'll see some good stuff about gadgets. Same with sports and other subjects. And then there is your actual life. - Tyler (Chacha)

Yes, Gregory. - Derrick

I'm still on Rejaw. LOVE the creators. @Derrick - wise decision. Spin RULES. - Mona Nomura

FYI Derrick, I can be an abrasive, yet charming, prick. Ask Mona <3 - Eric Rice

That's why we love you Spin!! USE AND ABUSE ME THEN CHARM ME YOU ASSHOLE! <3 Hi Justin! :) - Mona Nomura

Derrick, I'll co-sign for you on Spin. I've known this cat personally for a couple of years now, and my man is real. - DYKC?™

OH SNAPS - sean percival

Awesome, cause I'm always down for good peeps. Good looking out, Mona and DYKC. And Spin = Eric? - Derrick

Indeed, Derrick. :) - Mona Nomura

Re: social media. If you wanna see who I am, check my feed and commentary. I put it all out there. My love of food, art, comics, music, photography, nerdy boys, it's all there. WYSIWYG. I wish I knew how to capitalize on it like the A-listers, LOL. - Derrick

There are so many uses for FF, Twitter, FB, etc...It is my learning addiction. Here I am after midnight, while my husband pounds out Rock Band 2 in the basement and my girls are at Grammy's house. I SHOULD be sleeping, but my information-crazed head just won't let me. I learn something new every day from all kinds of people. (So, why am I not smarter? That's a completely different subject). - Jennifer Windrum

Jennifer: Information is not Knowledge is not Wisdom - Eric Rice

Some of my favorite things to read about on Friendfeed: art, design, user experience, javascript, open source, rss, and last but not least, politics. And yes, occasionally you'll catch me talking about social media, I mean after all, "you're soaking in it". - Jason Wehmhoener

I forgot to mention: food porn. - Jason Wehmhoener

Derrick, I never would've taken you for a sub. *ducks and runs* - cecily

YES, and what I love MORE about it, is that Jason is someone who is much more techy than myself, but on more than one occasion, he's had my back in a political issue. We share musical interests, and I owe this man a beer once our paths cross. He's just cool. And social media made that happen. +5 for food porn. :) - Derrick

*Chases Cecily with a stick and Terrence on a leash barking incessantly* - Derrick

Thank you Eric ... We definitly need balance and perspective beyond the twitter/FF-sphere!! - Susan Beebe

My whole FF experience would increase 100-fold if you posted more. :) - Admiral Anika

thank you eric. how i have felt for most of this year too... - Terry O'Fee

I agree. I get bored of social media talking about social media. Unfortunately twitter about twitter and ff about ff get the most comments. I guess it's what people have in common. I love to bring up the big issues too. You know, the ones people say mainstream media doesn't cover properly, but aren't talked about much at all in sm :) Having said that, I'm on holiday, so it's back to posting holiday snaps for now. - jjprojects

Hey, I know, LETS HAVE AN ELECTION, ohhhh shit, nm. DAMN. - Eric Rice

Nah let's just try and make this stuff actually be of use in the world sometimes, or something... - jjprojects

Maybe people don't actually want that. Most of the time I think people just want to talk about shiny toys, flirt, chat about nothing and check in on the latest contrived tech industry feud. Sounds like the internet, yeah. - jjprojects

I so agree - Jeremiah Owyang

Hits the nail right on the head. - Joe Buhler

Eric, another thing to consider is that some people here, really aren't that smart or original. So the read their tech stuff, come over here and regurgitate it and beyond that, there's nothing. Lord know, I have more dumb conversations here than any other site. So maybe instead of pleading with people to break out of their circle jerk mode, I'll focus on bringing the smart and interesting people I know to post here. - Admiral Anika

Um... isn't this a thread about social media? But it criticizes itself in so doing. WORMHOLE! - Sprague D

Amen, Eric. Maybe the secret is for everyone to start worrying less about "the conversation" and more about crafting quality content. - Daniel Andrlik

Robert Scoble

At Half Moon Bay brewery where my Twitter followers didn't get me a table any faster.

December 27, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Susan Beebe, Roberto Bonini, Jared Smith and 7 other people liked this

So, apparently there IS something Twitter can't do? - MVB (Grinch of FF)

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Even the popular people have to wait, sometimes, eh? - Julie Anderson

Do they even know what Twitter is? - Gavin

Did you try explaining "I am an important person ON THE INTERNET!"? - Daniel Bruce

Daniel: they answered "you are not Mike Arrington." - Robert Scoble

@Daniel I tried that once. But then someone said, "I actually am, and have never heard of you." I skulked off. :P - Alex Wilhelm (FF BLOWS)

How rude =) - Daniel Bruce

Oh, and they served me cold fries. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

It's a brewery? - how was the beer? - Brian Sullivan

I like their Lemon Drop. Mmmmm... Tasty. & Lemony. - Lisa L. Seifert

http://twitpic.com/x47y - Ed Shahzade /NextInstinct

only because you didn't call a tweetup early enough! ;-) - Bill Sanders

Great Scott!

Indexed » Blog Archive » Dogs! - http://thisisindexed.com/2008...

December 24, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Kenton, Louis Bourque, Aaron Draczynski and 10 other people liked this

Thomas Hawk

Girl from iconic Great Depression photo: 'We were ashamed' - CNN.com - http://www.cnn.com/2008...

December 9, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Mustafa K. Isik, Yuval Atzmon, Andrew Leyden and 37 other people liked this

"MODESTO, California (CNN) -- The photograph became an icon of the Great Depression: a migrant mother with her children burying their faces in her shoulder. Katherine McIntosh was 4 years old when the photo was snapped. She said it brought shame -- and determination -- to her family. "I wanted to make sure I never lived like that again," says McIntosh, who turns 77 on Saturday. "We all worked hard and we all had good jobs and we all stayed with it. When we got a home, we stayed with it." McIntosh is the girl to the left of her mother when you look at the photograph. The picture is best known as "Migrant Mother," a black-and-white photo taken in February or March 1936 by Dorothea Lange of Florence Owens Thompson, then 32, and her children." - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

9 more comments

They lived in tents or in a car. Local kids would tease them, telling them to clean up and bathe. "They'd tell you, 'Go home and take a bath.' You couldn't very well take a bath when you're out in a car [with] nowhere to go." She adds, "We'd go home and cry." She says she'll never forget the lessons of her hard-working mother, who died at the age of 80 in 1983. Her gravestone says: "Migrant Mother: A Legend of the strength of American motherhood." - Thomas Hawk

I grew up 4 miles south of Modesto in Ceres, Ca. - Russellreno

Ceres is great. I shot it a bit last month on a road trip to Fresno and the Central Valley. A very small town. - Thomas Hawk

It is always so interesting and great to get the perspective of the people in the photographs. Captions can do so much and this photo is so well known..I'm sure we all made our own stories for it when we saw it. Fabulous find. Thank you. - Anna Lynn M.

My wife's grandfather lives in Turlock, CA just off 99 before you get to the Taylor Rd exit. He's lived there forever it seems. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

"People live from paycheck to paycheck, even people making good money," she says. "Do your best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Elect the people you think is going to do you good." - Words to live by. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

My father would walk the tracks behind their home each night and find coal falling off the train leaving Boston. Or they'd freeze all night. - Ed Shahzade /NextInstinct

I heard a segment on NPR by the Vietnamese girl burned by Napalm in the famous photograph. Her body was very damaged and she still lives in intense pain. Lived most of her life in anger. http://www.npr.org/templat... - Jeanine W.

I love learning the stories behind some of our most iconic historical photographs. - Thomas Hawk

It's going to be much worse when the next depression hits. - Michael Forian

Robert Scoble

Following the Money vs. Following the Innovators | The World of Startups Outside Silicon Valley | Fa - http://www.fastcompany.com/blog...

December 7, 2008 from Facebook - Comment - Like - Share

Dimitar Vesselinov, Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie), Shannon Clark and 26 other people liked this

What does everybody feel about having an "exit strategy" as a goal? I am more than annoyed with the idea that starting a business should just be about growing, gaining capital, and creating demand so that you can be bought out and move onto something else. What happened to creating something worthwhile that can exist in the long run, and with a REAL purpose too? Hopefully I can convey this mission through my own projects. - Daniel Zarick

24 more comments

Daniel, if an entrepreneur has an exit strategy he/she should have created something worthwhile. Money people are interesting because they are good at making money, and that's useful. I woudn't say that start ups out of the SV are necessarily money companies more than anywhere else just as I wouldn't say there's innovation going on elsewhere more than the SV - except maybe Europe and... more... - Patricia

The whole "exit strategy" thing is a direct result of the VC funded startup mentality. You either want to create a valuable company or you don't. If you create a valuable company the "exit" if you choose it - will take care of itself. VCs talk a lot about exit because that is when they turn their investment into profit. - Brian Roy

@brian agreed. that's what i was trying to say - Patricia

Patricia - What makes you say "I wouldn't say there's innovation going on elsewhere more than the SV - except maybe Europe and Israel". Any evidence to back that up? - Brian Roy

@brian, just from basic monitoring the market. The last great innovation out of europe that i can recall was skype, and back in the day I had a lot of great israeli clients doing innovative things with the web in certain business to business categories. - Patricia

Patricia - OK... I think it is a chicken/egg thing. Many of the great SV startups actually came from outside SV and moved there. The startups outside SV have a harder time attracting attention in the echo chamber (the news makers do a great job with those they know and are near them - not so great with those they don't know are not near them). Check out Limelight Networks (non SV), or Amazon/eBAY (non SV), or GoodBarry (non SV). There are plenty out there... - Brian Roy

@brian, right. i'm saying that i think innovation happens there as much as anywhere else. I really don't think anything is limited to any market these days especially web related. As for the echo chamber, i actually think the great innovators aren't noisy - they're busy working on their businesses. They know the PR will come later. - Patricia

Patricia - ah... Sorry misunderstood. - Brian Roy

Innovators are not really good at making money. Look at Twitter. Still independent and still not making money. They revolutionized the message market yet in the long run need the support of money to keep their customers happy. The free market demands that innovators move aside once their product is established so the product can grow and expand its user base. So, is it only natural that innovators and VCs look for exit strategies. - Bob Blunk

Bob - Nope... don't buy it. Look at the great innovators in history. They were great business people and were more than capable of making money. How many examples do you want: Bezos, Rockefeller, Page/Brin, etc. Innovators solve for exit because capital markets DEMAND it. - Brian Roy

Brian- great points. Love the responses. Patricia - definitely understand, and I partially agree. I like the point made about great innovators being busy working on their idea. Create a great product and the attention will/should come. We know that isn't always the idea, but maybe that is when you move to SV. But my issue is... everybody moves to SV, so the attention there is diffused between a high number or startups and established business. If I stay here in Chicago, I can get my own attention. - Daniel Zarick

Bob - that is exactly the issue, in my opinion. Your thought process is "monetize, monetize, monetize." Twitter is focused on creating a business, a following, and enthusiasm, which they have. Now they have to work on making sure the product can stay. They are doing fine without creating revenue, so why push it? Twitter can't just jump at the first chance to profit off their user base without turning off most of us. They are here for the long term. They know that there is a higher calling than money. - Daniel Zarick

Scoble... any thoughts when you get a chance? - Daniel Zarick

Daniel - I would say that up until now Twitter has been focused on being Popular. They are not a business yet nor have they been focused on being a business/company. It appears they are now because they are shifting from being popular while spending investment dollars to being popular while generating revenue. If you are not doing the latter you are not a business/company. - Brian Roy

@Bob, i don't think it's a twitter issue - it's that ad industry is so messed up, there are far, far too many sites (supply exceeds demand) and generally most businesses refuse to accept that offering premium (paid) services would attract some people because it's proven on other platforms. Tons of message boards (aka social networks) are already doing it. Innovators are great at making... more... - Patricia

@Daniel, I work in all three categories (media, entertainment, internet) and the web players are the only I run into who make things without revenue in mind first. - Patricia

Patricia - I agree with that comment. I study/work in media, entertainment and internet as well and know that is true. That is why I am moving from entertainment/media as my focus to more internet/idea-based businesses. But that is why the media/entertainment industries are having so many issues and internet/technology industries are thriving. I'd argue that even with layoffs, succession, whatever issues the economy is having... technology and internet companies are still doing alright. - Daniel Zarick

While there are some people who love creating and abhor maintaining what they've built, this whole idea that everything must be about making money is the problem. As soon as companies go public or get acquired from another entity with a greed motive they go downhill fast. When the world learns to focus on giving (and for that happen basic water/food/shelter must be available to all) THEN we can build a better world and stop measuring everything with money instead of value. - Internet Strategist

A great user base means nothing if the company fails to grow its assest in order to support it's users. If Twitter cannot afford to operate, own, and maintain the equipment and infastructure then innovation means nothing. - Bob Blunk

Internet Strategist - I agree 1000%. We will have to discuss my business ideas soon. I believe that you will be pretty interested. I would be more than happy to make a large paycheck, but I think that many of our companies have a higher purpose than JUST making the bloated paycheck. - Daniel Zarick

Bob - Twitter has no issues paying its bills. Now in the next 6-8 months they might start having issues, especially if they want to hire new people and if their user base keeps growing like this. The reason they got VC funding was so that they could focus on innovation and not revenue/more fund raising. But at this exact moment there is no reason to knock their model because of a lack of revenue. They are already planning to introduce a revenue model early 09. What do you have without a dedicated user base? - Daniel Zarick

Define "innovator" - Jesse Stay

Internet strategist, the problem with that model is that nobody would have jobs. You can't expect business to be one thing and charity to be the same. Busineses can be charitable but it isn't a hobby, etc. - Patricia

What on earth is that supposed to mean, Gregory? Certainly money indicates some degree of value, as people do seem to still want it. It's just an economic construct to measure things in terms of what you'd pay, everyone knows that actual value is subjective and different. - Mr. Gunn

All that stuff comes out depending on the timescale over which you look at something, which modern economists, at least, now realize. - Mr. Gunn

Dave Slusher

god help me if getting up at 4 AM to go to a store and do shopping ever seems like a good idea. Whatever the day and store and the product and the deal, until the breadlines get really long my self respect still commands a higher price than 30% off a toaster.

November 26, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Futreal, Steve Frick, Ladybug Heather and Morton Fox liked this

Evan Williams

http://sawhorsemedia.com/flickr-... Put your latest Flickr image in your Twitter background

November 11, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Adam Kazwell, Bill Futreal, Jesse Stay and Louis Gray liked this

Andrew Baron

Seinfeld / Bill Gates Microsoft Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

September 4, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Pete Delucchi, Perviz Hacıyev, Daniel Schildt and 23 other people liked this

I became the first subscriber on YouTube for the WindowsVideos account. Just watched the first commercial and it's out of sync. I didnt like the aethetic right from the start and I tried very hard to understand it, but couldnt. I watched it again and tried to get it, but I still am not getting it. Perhaps Im missing something. - Andrew Baron

26 more comments

I don't get it. :/ - Mattb4rd

I rated it with one star for aesthetic and because I still dont get it. - Andrew Baron

Why is it soo long? Someone tell me the point to this nonsense please! - Sarah Austin

i liked it - i thought it was funny. - Morgan

@sarah a lot of these high-end commercials use :90 format for the web and limited runs and then cut it down in to :60 and :30 spots - Morgan

Here is a screenshot of the account the commercial was uploaded. It looks like I stubbled upon it just moments after it went live: http://flickr.com/photos... - Andrew Baron

What the.... This is it? Cripes. This is more damaging to their image than anything Apple have put out. - Andrew

hilarious. it's good to see seinfeld. and gates is awesome to let himself be parodied like that. - Ranjit Mathoda

Yes, my man Bill is funny. No, your man Steve is not. That is all. :) - Randy Holloway

I'm a huge Seinfeld fan, but that was pretty weak. - Matt

Buy Apple stock! Jerry, buy me a MacBook...iConJohn - john coffey

I don't get it either. these commercials will be a miss. Seinfeld is so "I love the 90s". - Alan Le

Andrew, you're not missing anything. There's nothing to get. A bunch of silly nonsensicle halabaloo. Microsoft continues to be completely out of touch with, everything. Ad campaign FAIL! - John Reynolds from twhirl

I like Seinfeld. I'm still disgruntled with Microsoft. - Chris Menning

I thought it was funny, too. Effective as far as selling or promoting anything, probably not, but I liked it as a standalone bit. - abacab

Well, that felt uninspired. Amusing, though, but not the right way. - W. Thomas Leroux

I love that's his jail mugshot on the clown card - joly

I dunno. it was fun to watch. I'm not one who can be convinced by anything MS does to switch back so I guess I can just watch and enjoy Seinfeld do his thing. - Capn' One Eye - adrift

Um. No. Gates IS NOT to Microsoft as Jobs is to Apple. Seinfeld draws painful attention to that fact. - rzklkng

The company with the best comedians wins? - Jemm

I guess the point is that Microsoft wants to remind general public of themselves and that they can be sort of funny, too ;) Or maybe the idea comes clear after few ads. - Jemm

But was it really funny? I think *most* people think it wasnt funny. And it has only two stars on YouTube. I complied a list of headlines here: http://dembot.com/post... - Andrew Baron

it has a "we're one of you, really.. ignore our fortunes, we're *just* *like* *you*" angle to it. I half expected them to have resurrected Al Bundy for the store. I found the windows 1.0 ad with steve ballmer to be funnier! - alphaxion

Oh dear. 3/10. Must try harder Microsoft. And the out-of-sync audio doesn't reflect that well on your brand. - Mike Coulter

No... not this way. Could be just waste of money but after moment of thinking... it's actually working nicely. While it gets negative attention, that is still good for overall ad campaign since it gets people speaking of it. And more time people spend of talking, more closely they remember it. - Daniel Schildt

@Daniel, since when was it out of fashion or too expensive to get people talking about something good? Putting out crap and expecting people to talk about it because its crap is not a very clever option. I cant imagine that they planned to it that way. - Andrew Baron

I don't think the ad is awful and if it came without the microsoft vs apple cultural baggage or the weight of expectations following microsoft's declaration that they were about to unleash the mother of all campaigns on the world I think reaction might have been more positive. I think Loren Feldman has it right - Microsoft don't need to look cool, their stuff just has to work well for the masses. - jeremy ettinghausen

Ed Dale

Day 6 Leak - http://www.flickr.com/photos...

August 5, 2008 from Flickr - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Futreal, EcoAussie and ThisGuyDoug liked this

Master of the Tease - EcoAussie from twhirl

This picture and the word 'leak' should never be associated! Horrible horrible mental image right there. - Matthew Hall

Robert Scoble

The most underhyped Silicon Valley success: Meebo - http://scobleizer.com/2008...

August 4, 2008 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Luca Filigheddu, Nikhil Dandekar, Lynne d Johnson and 30 other people liked this

If they provide a way to export (share) conversation Vs. throwing text into the void then I'm liking the idea. - Czar

20 more comments

Yep. Love Meebo. It just works, and the changes they have made over the last year to integrate others services have been very nice. - Sean Brady

Czar: they record every IM conversation so you can take that text and do stuff with it. But it's not a forum like exists here. - Robert Scoble

Meebo is REALLY convenient, and since it's web based they can take it anywhere - even add twitter. - Ernie Oporto

i've tried it a few times and it never has worked properly for me. Maybe i'm just unlucky with it. - Zee.

I agree. It's so easy to fire up Meebo as an IM client on any computer with internet access and a web browser. I use Digsby on my own computer, and Meebo over VPN and on any other computer. Meebo has been cranking out features and deals. I believe they are actually making money compared to Twitter. I want to see more integration with online media and SNS. - Hao Chen

Just installed it - Ian May

I've been using meebo on the go ... great IM client, very customizable and love the group chat feature - Jay from twhirl

@Ian ... What exactly did you install? :P - Hao Chen

Meebo Rocks!! Love it!!!!!! - Susan Beebe

@Hao Chen. I installed a meebo chat room on a site of mine... http://eyebeemania.com/meebo... - Ian May

I got a friend in there, and he thrashed me alive at Marbles... LOL - Ian May

Yep that's the only drawback of its immense popularity: they started blocking it at school and work firewalls :P - Mohit

Agreed. Just used it on the iPhone today - worked like a charm. :) - l0ckergn0me

Being a college student, I can't get enough Meebo! When I'm in class and I dont' have my laptop to jump on Digsby, I hit up the Meebo.. in fact the whole Computer Science department uses it. - Aaron Myers

I use it at work and really like it. - Corie

I had no idea they were actually making money. They have a great service I have been evangelizing at my agency for a while now for our use on out clients' sites. Now they may actually be a viable source for ad buys as well. Thanks so much for this article Robert, it really put the company in a new light for me. - Devlin Dunsmore from twhirl

while i like hte aim, msn and google talk parts, the one thing that i'm really missing is irc. i use irc a ton for work i do for Ubuntu and while that is most of the time blocked at client's sites i miss a lot of things that happen. - Jonathan Jesse

also do they still have problems with the igoogle gadget? that's when i stopped using it - Jonathan Jesse

you should work a link to http://meebo.com/ in that article somewhere :) - Tim Hoeck

meebo is hands down the best im and no install, glorious - adolfo foronda

meebo is good because it's web based and works from behind firewalls, and because they had this wonderfull ideea of enabling logs in the conversations. The chat conversations are also cool. Dislikes: I do not want to have a tab open in my firefox browser when I use it. Aka, when I get the messenger window out of the browser I want to be able to close the main window. ebuddy.com has that. Also, I want to be able to log in as invisible by default with all protocols. - binic

Louis Gray

Twitter Spam: What Can We Do? - http://www.stoweboyd.com/message...

July 9, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Nikpay, Bill Futreal, Rishabh Mishra (p248) and 4 other people liked this

Is it really a problem to be followed by a spammer? How does that help them? - Jason Carreira

5 more comments

Yes it's a problem! Bogus email notifications is just needless spam (x10) to my inbox each day. Turn off notifications? Then you miss out on genuine followers... - Czar

If anything, it makes people look more popular/interesting/Following-worthy. - Andrew Meyer

Jason, the end-game for the spammers is getting pages (tweets with links to splogs, affiliate pages, etc.) indexed by Google in a very round-about way. The theory is that being linked to thousands of friends/followers will allow them to build up some Google juice. Plus as CDP said the new follower email gets them into your email inbox. - Mike Doeff

Sounds like dubious value for them to me... I'd say let them play themselves out... when they figure out they're not making any money from the activity they'll naturally stop - Jason Carreira

Jason, I suppose one's perspective may depend a bit on how one uses Twitter. For those that use it primarily to promote their blog or business, it might (??) be less bothersome (assuming they're using filters for noise). For those that use it more as a tool for communicating with friends (esp if profile protected), why would you want some unknown spammer gathering a profile of your comings/goings, interests, habits, etc.? - Casey

Louis, thanks for sharing this story, helpful to learn Twitter is taking some action on the spammer front. I was definitely annoyed by increased spammer activity & requests to follow happening around the time of the frequent outages, seeing some spammers putting up ridiculous numbers at a time of scalability growing pains. I was definitely one ready to abandon the platform out of frustration, instead giving them bit of a timeout to sort stuff out. This insight gives them another shot (later) in my book. - Casey

Thomas Hawk

July 8, 2008 from Zooomr - Comment - Like - Share

Mrsth, Larry Kless, Bill Futreal and Anna Haro liked this

Steve Rubel

I am getting 5-10 friend requests per day on Facebook. I turn down 80% of them because I have no idea who they are!

July 6, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

@baratunde, Darren Barefoot, Danilo da Silva and 19 other people liked this

I have been receiving invites from a lot of people i dont know on LinkedIn .... - Jassim

32 more comments

I feel like I'm missing a central "address book" for all these services and each service requires I follow all the same people all over again. - Sergio Cruz

What's Facebook? You mean that social media site that was popular in early 2008? - Jason Theodor

this is because of their recommendation system...happens to many of us - Ouriel Ohayon

I get LinkedIn contact requests from people with Yahoo.com addresses. Twittermarkerters try to Follow me everyday, so now feedless folks want to jump into Friendfeed. - paul mooney

Vicious cycle of socnets ...augh! I get some weird folks trying to "friend" me up on FB - run, Nooooes!!! - Susan Beebe

Maybe they are Alien Zombies who want to clone you? LOL - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

I don't see a problem. It takes me two seconds to research someone on the Internet and find out if they're interesting... If so, I'll gladly be their 'friend' - I've met a lot of great people this way. - Vince DeGeorge

Steve - Have to agree with Vince. 30 seconds to see if someone can be a benefit, interesting or just fun. Of everyone I've green lighted, I only had to stop two. You never know who has the next interesting story or product. - Charlie Anzman

Illustrates the circles of friend-ness in the mediums - following on Twitter/FF/Digg is viewed to be not as intimate as a being connected in Facebook where LinkedIn is just a research system for a job... - Todd Bremner

Agreed - Jennifer Leggio

There are some people who are simply stretching out, following new folks for new influences. They're not all spammers and stalkers. - Chris Baskind

I recently felt weird about that too, but instead changed my strategy for how I use Facebook. Instead of denying contacts, I've just changed/deleted my personal info like my street address and private data, etc. SO now I can participate with anyone there that wants to participate with me, without worry. - Andrew Baron

@AndrewBaron - That's a great point. Though there is a strange dichotomy between the site as a friend book or a networking site ... - David Weiner

I have a limited view friend list and if the person seems reasonable, ie a non spam mer, and like they have a reason to want to link, I will add them in that category. means there is not that much to see, tho. For me FB is a good contact manager for less professional associations than linked in. - susan mernit

What would it take to make this "centralized address book" that Sergio talks about? will something on top of OpenID do it? - jonathan

I started a conversation about Facebook Friend selection criteria: how do you choose? --> http://friendfeed.com/e... - Susan Beebe

I reserve Facebook for people I know. I turn down a lot of FB requests. But if they are a FOAF or someone interesting, I include a note explaining how I use FB and suggest we connect on Twitter or FriendFeed. - Ryan Kuder

Steve, those of us who experiment w/ all these platforms need to discuss how we're using each. I'm like you, I don't follow via FF as many as I do other ways. But at times find it redundant to twitter. I'm still trying to figure out exactly where I want to stamp out redundancy and where redundancy makes sense. - Rex Hammock

it would be much better if they actually wrote a brief note in the friend request and told you why they wanted to be your friend and a bit about themselves. Just because you don't know them does not mean you should not. ;) - Rodney Rumford

Since when do you have to know someone to friend them on a social network. That's just crazy talk. - Bwana ☠

LOL @ Bwana's comment ;*) - Susan Beebe

I think it's that Facebook doesn't allow you to "subscribe" to people you don't know, so you have to "friend" them instead to see what they're up to. Steve, you're just popular and people want to know what you're up to and they're just not early enough adopters to know about friendfeed. Come to think of it WHY ISN'T FACEBOOK API'd into FF? - Chris Aldrich

I use the same rule on Facebook and experiencing several friend req's per day as well. If I don't remotely know you I don't accept you on FB - James Andrews

ask for a fans page like I did, they can just add you, you don't have to add them - Loic Le Meur

I find that sort of reasoning a little odd...the whole point of all of these networking tools is to broaden your network. If I don't know someone, I let them prove their worth to me. It's easy enough to delete a contact or block a follower later on. - Justin Whitaker

I turn down many because I DO know who they are... - Tim Wright

Whatcha gonna do with the Great Unwashed? ;-) - Chris Baskind

I don't have a problem with strangers, but I really do not like it if they pollute the newsfeed. They can do that on Twitter/FF, potentially, Facebook is reserved for the people I know. - Vincent van Wylick from fftogo

A stranger walks by and says hello. You ignore them because you don't know them. Is that social? - LPH™ and his dog P™

@LPH In NYC yes because 9 times out of 10 they're either going to try to rob you, beg from you, or scam you. I think the same rules can be safely applied to the internet. - EricaJoy

The rule for Facebook used to be: if you walked by the person on the street, would you say hello? Yes, they are your friend. No, reject. People seem to have lost that as the site scaled and now think it is MySpace. - Nicholas Molnar

Just an interesting question here! How can you know if someone is interesting or not if you have blocked them on Friend Feed not based on your interaction with them, but just because a power user has bocked them? Can you answer this for me? - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Many people who request to add me as a friend I really don't know personally but we've met on some social sites and I only know their nicknames over there which are often not their real names (that they are presented with on Facebook). So when I send a request to such a "social network" connection myself, I invariably add an explanation like "It's Svetlana, we are connected on..." - and I expect the same courtesy from others. I don't think it takes much time to add a short note. - Svetlana Gladkova

l0ckergn0me

Is Having Sex with a Robot Hooker Cheating? - http://www.asylum.com/2008...

July 1, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

susan mernit, PonziPirillo, Raphael, Raphael and 5 other people liked this

Uh, I don't know. Ask Ev and his wife: http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Josh Bancroft

18 more comments

It is cheating: With advanced technology, having sex with a robot hooker is too much like really cheating. For all intents and purposes, you're having sex with another woman. Plus, what if you want to buy your own robot hooker and keep her in the closet at home? It's a thin line between robot hooker and robot girlfriend. - Russellreno

Is having sex with a robot gigolo cheating? - SciFi Ranter Girl

good question. probably not. - Josue Salazar

No different than a dildo, unless the robot is sentient. - mentaleffluvia

:-) - Mitchell Tsai

no. - Duncan Riley

Reminds me of the anime Chobits. - Oliver Ortega Chua

We don't have a lot of robot hookers in our town. You city people amaze me. - Chris Baskind

I see a movie developing here... - Justin Korn

It is cheating, not because of the realism of the robot, but because of your intentions. - Morton Fox

Morton, what intentions? Is masturbation cheating? - mentaleffluvia

um... do men not care WHAT they have sex with? If the sex is BECAUSE it is a robot hooker then that is a kink yeah? I say no, not cheating, inanimate objects should not be an emotional threat. - Allison

Chris B - Check with your mechanic. You'll be surprised. - Russellreno

Until you can leave your SO to have a emotional relationship with said robot, no. - Dana Franks from twhirl

depends on how long it lasts. I'd like to see that one CHEATERS! - Eric Truman

Only if you get caught. - Jonathon

I think the robot would have to pass the Turing Sex Test before it could be considered cheating. To pass the Turing Sex Test a reasonable person wouldn't be able to tell if they were having sex with a machine or with a human. Of course, what if, at some point robots surpass humans in satisfying sexual desires? - Chrimmus Tad

Only if you didn't get the one I told you to get... - PonziPirillo

I'm going to watch *that* Futurama episode tonight - Bwana ☠

Andrew Baron

List of problems solved By MacGyver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...

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

Mark Derricutt, Miska Lahti, mike "glemak" dunn and 3 other people liked this

Loic Le Meur

How To Create Your Own Seesmic Widget Video - http://www.loiclemeur.com/english...

June 25, 2008 from Loic Le Meur Blog - Comment - Like - Share

Tom Landini and Bill Futreal liked this

I tried using Seesmic in my blog's sidebar but couldn't get the size right - it kept giving me just a portion of the screen. Seems like this will be a good work around. - Tom Landini

I got the widget working check it out ... http://www.johnbv2point0.com - John Blanton from twhirl

John cool! Tom tell me if we can help - Loic Le Meur

Thomas Hawk

All You Can Get - http://thomashawk.com/2008...

June 25, 2008 from Thomas Hawk's Digital... - Comment - Like - Share

Vera Yu, Jeff P. Henderson, Bill Futreal and 4 other people liked this

Beautiful bridge shot. I love the colors of the highway and car lights versus the blue waters. How did you get the shot? Aerial? Zoom from a building? - Mitchell Tsai

shot it from the top of One Rincon Hill, the new skyscrapper that they are building in SF. At 60 stories high it will be the highest residential tower in San Francisco for now. Did a blog post on the building here: http://thomashawk.com/2007... Flickr set of the building here: http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Thomas Hawk

Stunning photo - Bill Futreal

Mark Trapp

Are you a blogger? Are you short on cash this week? Follow four easy steps: 1) Write a blog post about how, in some way, Friendfeed (choose one: sucks/is stealing/is killing conversation/killed my father). 2) Mention Robert Scoble. 3) Count your pageviews. 4) There is no step 4.

June 15, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Teeg, Marco(aureliusmaximus), mr-mojo-risin and 34 other people liked this

Do I have to put ads up, or does money just come through in another way? - Louis Gray

19 more comments

Can I work the word "Obama" into the post? - Ontario Emperor from fftogo

That's the beauty of my fool-proof system: by merely mentioning how bad Friendfeed is (and how Robert Scoble is part of the conspiracy), the ads populate on your page themselves! - Mark Trapp

I'll subscribe to that theory :) - Mike Fruchter

Sprinkle Twitter downtime for a chaser - Bwana ☠

Nope... did it and... no, wait. Yep, that was my top post for hits today. Yep. Add in Techmeme FTW. - Cyndy

I found that mentioning Louis works better than mentioning me. For bonus points work him and Gillmor into the same post. :-) - Robert Scoble

FriendFeed *is* my father?? NNNOOOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!!!! - felix

With Mark Trapp's patent-pending technology, I'm not just the President of GetBlogResultsNow, I'm also a member! As proof of my award-winning strategy, in just 12 short minutes, this feed has skyrocketed to #3 on my Best of Friendfeed summary! - Mark Trapp

I can visualize the youtube video of this - Bwana ☠

:)) - Shandiz

This is soooo Last Week 1.0. The big money will be in Disqus-slamming. Toss in Lewis Gray's name instead of Scoble. That's the cutting edge of hit trolling. - Chris Baskind

... wondering what damage I could have done had I worked Miley Cyrus in there, too. - Cyndy

I am carefully not writing any FriendFeed entries. I dunno, I kinda feel like I had a hit with my most recent FF article, and now I have to move on to other topics. Doesn't mean I'm giving up using FF thought, no way. - Phil G

It's starting to seem like the Twitter vs. Friendfeed debate (and all the derivative topics of how Friendfeed lets the terrorists win or Twitter should be brought up on war crimes in the Hague) is the blogger equivalent of attempting to write the great American novel. It's an act of hubris to think that a single blog post, carefully constructed, is going to convince everyone the error of their ways and shift from one side to the other. - Mark Trapp

Wow Mark, glad I did Saturday's post before you posted this ?! Agree with Robert - Mentioning Louis is still 'safe'. You never know what Robert's gonna say in the next 15 minutes (or what country he'll be in?). Somehow, after reading a little FF tonight, I'm glad I did a 'computer off - 100% family Fathers day today :) - Charlie Anzman

Sidenote to Louis: Noticed a couple of bloggers take shots at you today. That's it my friend. It's confirmed. You made the A-list before the new arrivals ... arrived ... Congratulations - Charlie Anzman

i think anything alarmist at all about Friendfeed is pageview bait these days. - edythe

I write about industry issues all the time but I never see any peak in traffic so this isn't a certainty to work. - Joe Dawson

Joe, I would beg to differ, I see a peak in my traffic today!! LOL http://www.tech-linkblog.com/2008... - Paul

There was ANOTHER blogger taking shots at Louis? Where? When? Who? How did I miss it? - Cyndy

Thomas Hawk

June 11, 2008 from Flickr favorites - Comment - Like - Share

Iain Baker, Kevin Porter, Hannes BrandstätterMüller and 8 other people liked this

The toilet thing just doesn't do it for me. Attractive young lady though... - Chrimmus Tad

11 more comments

I've seen a lot of this Bathroom Adventures series before. Now I feel like I've seen them all. - Michael Hocter

...peculiar to say the least! - JA Castillo

I thought the other day... "hmmm better be careful what I favorite on Flickr" ;-) - Darren Mak

very attractive.. I like her tattoo.. - Leandro Ardissone ⍨ from twhirl

Bordering on Brazillian-- I mean German-- Scratch that; Japanese!! All the same, not the average Flickr shots that run through my feed! - shanebe

Man, people have some odd kinks... though I suppose this is relatively tame compared to some. - Fa La La La Lindsay

does Flickr have "Private Favorites"? - Frederick Johnson

Love them all! - Parth Awasthi

@Frederick. No flickr doesn't have private favorites. If someone wanted to privately fave though they could create a second account and use that one privately. B Adventures is an interesting concept, a different twist on the photo a day sort of thing. I admire the commitment and endurance to a project and art like that. I thought she'd do it for a few days and then stop, but she's been at it for a while now. - Thomas Hawk

This woman spends a lot of time self-absorbed in the toilet. - TranceMist

I followed her for a while, but after about 100 bathroom shots, it lost its luster. - jerry

I love these :) - Iain Baker

Thomas Hawk

How to Better Manage FriendFeed for Relevance - http://thomashawk.com/2008...

June 11, 2008 from Thomas Hawk's Digital... - Comment - Like - Share

Edd McArdle, Dan Byler, RyanEs and 64 other people liked this

really like the idea of being able to rank friends so that you don't miss out on stuff from less 'popular' users - Frederic

58 more comments

Interesting thought Thomas. So maybe the ranking you apply to a user could be a multiplier against the FriendFeed algorithm that determines the "best of" sequence. Higher rankings will drive these users higher on your "best of" pages. - Hutch Carpenter

that's it exactly Hutch. It would be pretty simple to do (I think) and I'd be surprised if the FF folks haven't already thought of this. Ranking users on a scale from 1 to 100 would be your own subjective filter into their "best of" system that would result in a far more engaging and engrossing "best of" discovery page. - Thomas Hawk

similar attention profiles? http://friendfeed.com/e... - Erhan Erdogan

When you apply it to search it becomes the most powerful of all. It's going to take FF a few years to really index the web through their social filter in a meaningful way, but in the end FF could be far more powerful as a search engine than a social network or social media aggregator. - Thomas Hawk

Erhan, APML focuses on topics, not people. What Thomas is suggesting is that a person, regardless of their content, could be ranked higher than another person. It's up to you, as a subscriber, to determine how interesting that person is. - Mark Trapp

I read a comment on a previous post here on FriendFeed mentioning that more than a third of discussions on FriendFeed probrably are _about_ FriendFeed... Most of the items where there are a lot of replies have something to do with FF. I wonder if this service is going to become way less interesting when people finally get bored of talking about the service. What happens when you run out of "nothings" to say? - Jonathan Sterling

Yes, right! IMHO APML is by far more interesting than "ranking" people with notions like karma or such. I'm on the Internet because I want/like/hate/need stuff and it's about these stuff, it's about me first. Then may come other things like friendship and sociability. I'm not against teh "Social" word, of course. I'm for the "me" word that tends to disapear a little bit... :) - directeur

Jonathan, you're following the wrong people (as curt as that sounds). If you expand who you follow to people outside the social media echochamber, you find a lot of posts about a wide range of topics. - Mark Trapp

directeur, we all have relationships with people, not topics. Dehumanizing social media doesn't solve the issue. - Mark Trapp

@Thomas: Interesting. Sounds a bit like a souped up StumbleUpon or Del.icio.us. Different ways at attacking the question of how to bubble up the best of a topic. The time element is the bit that always makes it difficult IMO. - AJ Kohn

Mark: I'm with you, I really do. But what defines "friendship" is our common interests, don't you think? I'm not about dehumanizing the web :) - directeur

Jonathan that's the thing though. Those are the most popular discussions based on likes comments etc. but not the most relevant. Allowing people to rank users would filter more of the most popular out and bring more of the most relevant in. I might not care what 99% of my contacts had for lunch today. But I might care about what my wife did even though it's not popular or more broadly generally interesting. - Thomas Hawk

Directeur, Interests are what might lead to a friendship, but friendship is not completely defined by one's interests. I might meet a friend at a great italian deli, and we hit it off. A few years down the road, he tells me, "Man, I'm tired of italian food." He doesn't suddenly stop being my friend. There's a link between us, after the friendship has been established, that transcends any list of interests. - Mark Trapp

Do you propose this simply for the "best of" or for your actual feed as well? - Frankie Warren

@Mark,@Thomas I don't think like you. I said similar content followers/like'rs/commenters are owners of your best points in Thomas's idea. This will be possible with creating real attention profiles with all your interests in FF. - Erhan Erdogan

Frankie, it would be the algorithm's job to sort out ranking and relevance. But your subjective rank for a person would be a very significant component that went into the algorithm. Think about it this way. Your brother twits, "I just bought a new car." Most people are not interested in this but you probably are. Even more than the 18 popular posts about twitter, google, apple and FF. By letting you rank your brother 100, you ensure that you see that ahead of the other stuff. - Thomas Hawk

Mark, yes that's true, but it's only because you have other "interests" that keep your friendship alive. The day where you don't have no, and I mean NO interest that connects you, that day will be the end of your friendship. Moreover, online friendship and real-life one are a little bit different. We may define those interests, maybe we just can't express them, but they still are here - directeur

Erhan, APML does not solve a very real problem people have: they have a bunch of friends and people they find interesting they want to follow, and are inundated by an inability to say "I like this person more" or "this person is more important to me." If you look at MySpace or Facebook: who are most people following? Their friends. That's what people care about. I think Thomas's suggestion happens to be a good one to help solve that problem on Friendfeed. - Mark Trapp

I have a kind of "manual" friend ranking system. I subscribe to the ones whose posts I most often click through, like or comment. Other users I find interesting but who I don't want in my main feed get their feeds subscribed to with Google Reader. On top of that, I have a few folders on my bookmarks toolbar, each containing a list of links to friendfeeders' feeds pertaining to a field of interest or set of relationships. I call it efficient stream absorbtion - Slappy Line

directeur, I don't know what to tell you. A friendship on that superficial level isn't a real friendship. I'm not interested in dehumanizing people into a list of interests: people are ends in and of themselves, not means for me to extract information. - Mark Trapp

Some good ideas in there. It would be nice to have a hand in "what is relevant to me". - Joel Gray

Mark: Maybe ULML (http://userlabor.org) may do this, but for interests -the things that mostly gather us- nothing equals APML I think. - directeur

APML does not solve the filtering problem: people don't reduce everything into a list of interests. It's a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. - Mark Trapp

Mark: i'm speaking about the programs, the software we use... I think you got me wrong. In real life I don't rank my friends, I even have friends that don't share any interests with me. I'm talking about programs, about apps like FF or other social web apps. these apps need a formal way to know who you are, and who I am, because, for that app, I should be what I like/hate - directeur

@Mark : ) I really don't care about contents are my friends' or not. And don't want to share with my all other followers. For this focus should be content. I think you need a niche FriendFeed like BestFriendFeed.com ;-) - Erhan Erdogan

Mark: me I do, If my best friend *here* talks about Britney Spears, I won't like to comment, click, or "Like" it. I just don't care. Period. But if an unknown person talks about Coltrane, or Dizzy, I'm here to say loudly that I LOVE them :) - directeur

When you are online or offline, you're dealing with human beings. That fact doesn't simply just become irrelevant when you use software. When I hang out with my friends at a bar or whatever, they are the same people there as they are when they message me on Facebook or Twitter or Friendfeed. I want to know what they are up to, moreso than what you're doing or what Robert Scoble's doing or anyone else, even if they are talking about the same thing your'e talking about. What they say has more value to me. - Mark Trapp

Mark: we're a little bit different. That's not to say that I don't have friends or that I don't care about them... No, but I'm a coder (just like you I guess) and whatever we say, we always need formal ways to (re)define things that we borrow to the real life. - directeur

directeur, you could still rank non friend people of interest highly. It would be entirely customizeable. If a stranger consistently blogged about things of interest, you could always rank them 100 too. It would be up to you to apply ratings as your relevance filter. I'd be very interested, for instance, in a pro photographer if they posted lots about photography even though they were not my best friend. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas think this is a great idea although "technically: I can't contribute to the conversation. Blindly hoping algorithms are my friend :D - Mark Forman

Thomas: Exactly, that's a big advantage of attention profiling. I'm a jazz lover, So I'm very likely to be a friend for other jazz lovers, and filters like these will help me find such "interesting" people. Not that others are not worth my consideration, but we may exchange a lot more when we have the same interests - directeur

APML is like discovery for interesting information: like Thomas, he's got an APML profile which weighs pro photography very high. Feeds it into a service and it tells him a bunch of people who he might match (like Toluu, for people). He says "man, John Doe is really cool. I'm going to subscribe to him." That's where APML leaves off. John Doe isn't merely defined by pro photography, but that's what got Thomas interested in him. But now that he's interested in him, he wants to know more about John Doe. - Mark Trapp

This is a brilliant idea -- personally weighted "best of" summaries. - Dewald Pretorius

So APML's solution is to say "forget everything about all my friends other than my interests:" It's not that simple. I hate car talk, so I'd rate the keyword car really low. My friend just got a new car: I want to know about that, but I won't because my interest in cars is low. It doesn't solve my original filtering problem. - Mark Trapp

Yes Mark, we agree on this, and that's what I just said too... BUT we discover future online-friends through the _content_ they share/publish or are interested in. - directeur

If you agree with me, I don't understand why you and your feedego team try to push APML every time filtering comes up. It doesn't help filtering subscriptions _I already have._ - Mark Trapp

Wouldn't it be possible to get around all this and create a personalized list of items that are personalized according to a ranking system. But at the same time keep a river of news view. That way we keep our subscriptions while allowing a second view of the same information through the prisim of our ranks. FF already does some of this through their best of sections and their rooms. So... more... - Roberto Bonini

My interest in new cars are very low as well. In fact I could care less if someone got a new car. But if my *brother* bought a new car I'd be interested, even if mildly. But in general we are more interested in some people than others for a myriad of reasons, family, friend, common photography passion, romantic involvement, whatever. The point is by ranking them you could better assist an algorithm in discovering and searching that content. - Thomas Hawk

Fun! I will create a new google docs file :p We must go on there - because we want to draw something and write a little longer :-) - Erhan Erdogan

Mark: Feedego is NOT a social thing. It's really about ego. There's no friendship in feedego. I agree with you on the fact that APML helps you *discover* interesting future friends. I advocate APML in general because I do belive in it, and filtering IMO is a concrete example on what APML may serve. Don't you think? - directeur

Roberto, exactly, "best of" by relevance would not *replace* the current "best of" river by sheer popularity. It would just be another optional view. Same goes with search. But i think it would likely be more interesting and relevant than the current best of. - Thomas Hawk

Directeur: No, it's not! You yourself agreed: APML solves filtering in the discovery phase, it does NOTHING for the content I'm already getting. Take the car example: how does APML not fail, spectacularly, when handling that? - Mark Trapp

P.S. I'm the only feedego guy on Friendfeed btw :) People talking about APML aren't members of feedego, they just like APML, like I do :) - directeur

I'm in directeur :( So bad - hearing such a thng like this from you :-) - Erhan Erdogan

Mark: I've never said " it does NOTHING for the content I'm already getting" ! I told you That ME "directeur" am not like you "Mark" and I won't care about anything about "Britney Spears" be it a content submitted, loved or whatever by my best friend. We're different on this Mark - directeur

At this point, I'd love to have an APML profile just to block every time someone mentions APML. - Mark Trapp

Erhan: I meant you aren't in the feedego staff :) - directeur

Mark: Ah! see? - directeur

@All :-)) Thanks for discussion. But this is end of our comment limits ;-) @Mark all of the things would be together ;-) - Erhan Erdogan

Mark: sorry to annoy you, I really didn't meant that. But a last example for the road: See? Me and you have had many misunderstandings in others discussions... That's it... wer'e human... But the next time I'll see you talking about APML I'll be interested, because you have an objective point of view, maybe different than mine, but I'll be interested in what you'll have to say. - directeur

You could achieve the same by collecting and analyzing a person's clickstream data without asking that persons's personal ratings for his/her topics of interest. My guess is that that is what Google is trying to do with the clickstream data of its users who opt for the option of complete Google "personal history" record. It is a scary thought to let Google know about every click one... more... - Javed Alam

Big point Javed and yes APML supports this already, that's called "implicit concepts", the others are "explicit" ones. And yes, an application may smartly create a profile from your behavior, but implicit concepts can't be really reliable without something explicitely given by the user. - directeur

@Javed That's all good for conjunction between APML and Thomas's point alg. ;-) But as you said we should see datas after researches ;-) - Erhan Erdogan

I like this notion of relevance. I imagine the "best of" stream could also be re-ranked based on your personal stats of who you find interesting, negating the work of manually ranking your relationships. - Andrew Smith

Mark: take it easy man! I didn't started the thing with APML, Erhan did :) And I'm not shoving APML down everyone's throats. You still say "we", "everyone". You're free to do this of course, but I personally never use "we" online. That's maybe the main difference between us, and that's indeed what separates our points of views, but still, I never see you as a woe... You're a guy who has his own opinions, I have mine and it's okay. (Even when you delete the comment to which this one is a reply) - directeur

@directeur Okayyy. I'm boomer ;-) Heheh! You're funny ; ) I subscribed to Mark - see you in his new comments - we will always punish you ;-) - Erhan Erdogan

Great idea Thomas. It reminds me a bit of how I started to organize my RSS feeds into categories based on levels of interest rather than topics. That way, I could do a better job of keeping up on the blogs that were important to me. - Jeff Smith

Great idea. I study within artificial intelligence and I can definitely say scoring and quantifying this data is the way to a more effective and efficient network. Another question though, do you find it depressing that you're blog has no comments - but FF has over 53? - CannonGod

Great post. Also see an earlier thread I started discussing more or less the same concept - http://friendfeed.com/e... - Aviv

Eric Rice

One thing that occurred to me is the idea of meta-guilding with a database architecture, in order to create a M-mmorpg.. A massive massively multiplayer environment, where the MMO is all the places you roll.

June 10, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Opensource Obscure, Phil Wolff, Steve Lynch and 5 other people liked this

Essentially, the Saijo City project fits into this model (on the game side), where shared social experiences are coalesced into a single model. - Eric Rice

20 more comments

One challenge is building a scalable street address system for an MMO. Think Liberty City and all of its streets. How can you 'live' there, and 'move' into other locations based on personal preference or performance. Rules of a society as it were. - Eric Rice

All of the blogging, podcasting, and vlogging before this was simply training in how to create multiple forms of media. They are meta in and of themselves to any kind of life. - Eric Rice

Like the FriendFeed version of gaming? - Clay Newton

Are you describing virtual real estate? How is this idea different from SL? - Jason Wehmhoener

Ok, repeat all this slowly please... I understand fast when people explain slowly :) - directeur

check out the carfree city refernce design for a possible addressing and transport system. - Trevor F. Smith

Okay, so repeating s l o w l y. ;) And yes, Trevor, part of this is why Og is interesting. - Eric Rice

Ah! Thank you :) - directeur

Meta-guilds or meta-clans are basically a group that exists in many places. Guilds and Clans are familiar to many gamers. It's essentially a group. I want my group to be able to exist across all realms that enable me to make a guild or group. - Eric Rice

Re: street addresses that scale. (It really helps to understand things like SL, Kaneva, WoW, Halo, GTA, etc all at the same time). If you created a city/world and enabled people to live in it, how do you make an infinite supply of streets and addresses (just like in real life), that can scale conceptually and VISIBLY. It's kinda rough to design a visual place like Azeroth and keep adding on and on and on to the land mass. It's a teeny bit like SL except no one has built a world there. LL just dumped dirt :) - Eric Rice

So, is it SL with the addition of governance and urban planning? and Steven K said in chatterous that it's cross-world, ie: addressable space regardless whether the "dirt" is in Kaneva, SL, GTA, etc. is that right? and which is more important, urban planning (which would seem to disqualify some worlds as appropriate "dirt") or cross-world (which would seem to be so meta that I don't see how it could ever be visible)? - Jason Wehmhoener

No, not SL-like at all. The key difference in worlds (and I include games in the same breath as non-game worlds) is the policy on user created content. - Eric Rice

So, what you're describing is a set of policies that could be applied anywhere? - Jason Wehmhoener

Not so much a policy but a different approach to grouping. If you roll in Spinclan (lol at that) then that includes a shared set of activities, relationships, events that exist in various places. The other issue is just code. How to make an addressing system for an infinitely growing city (within reason). It's like QUICK, add 1,000,000 new residents to SF Right Now, then show me the map. :) - Eric Rice

Addresses don't scale? What's the problem here? Have you looked at urban planning schemes? - Steve Lynch from Alert Thingy

You go high-rise, obviously. :-) The map would look something like this http://www.nytimes.com/imagepa... and addresses are at least three dimensional. You can also add layers to increase the numbers of dimensions beyond three. Navigation involves panning and zooming. I'm picturing something very google earth like, at least for the external views. - Jason Wehmhoener

Reminds me of Rupture - cross gaming presence and performance reporting. DataPortability for virtual worlds. - Phil Wolff

Steve: Addresses scale, and they certainly do in a generic database, but there's a 'world' component to it. How do you 'visually' represent that infinite scalability? - Eric Rice

Jason: GREAT illustration. Yeah I've toyed with a skyscraper model with various levels and various 'grades' of units. Corner units have more weight than simple hall units. Clusters of buildings can exist around a core (or topic or faction, etc). - Eric Rice

Are you trying to show cross-world proximity in addressable space as well? - Steve Lynch

@Steve no, I kinda merged two thoughts into one post, heh. - Eric Rice

MG Siegler

T-Mobile sues Starbucks over AT&T Internet deal - http://www.reddit.com/goto...

June 6, 2008 from Reddit - Comment - Like - Share

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Eric Rice

Fury - http://www.flickr.com/photos...

June 2, 2008 from Flickr favorites - Comment - Like - Share

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