"Impressive numbers from Facebook on their architecture: 1,800 MySQL servers (900 pairs of master/slave) holding a heavily partitioned data set managed by just 2 DBAs." - Bret Taylor
"Gunmen assassinated the acting chief of Mexico’s federal police early Thursday morning in the most brazen attack so far in the year-and-a-half-old struggle between the government and organized crime gangs." - Bret Taylor
Hey, we just pushed some changes - are you having problems? Email me at btaylor@friendfeed.com or the discussion group (or just reply here). Sorry for any issues. - Bret Taylor
A 12-month chart of monthly vehicle-miles on U.S. highways from 1983 to today. It has flattened out over the past three years. "Maybe the cure for higher prices is higher prices after all." - Bret Taylor
Maybe we've just already driven everywhere we want to go? ;-) - Brian Johns
"Very early this morning, after many voters had already gone to sleep, the conventional wisdom of the elite political pundit class that resides on television shifted hard, and possibly irretrievably, against Senator Hillary Clinton’s continued viability as a presidential candidate." - Bret Taylor
word is she's dropping out on the 15th - MG Siegler
Having run for Governor of Maine (2006) I am well aware that the roles of the media in regard to advocacy can become complex. On the one hand, in the present situation it can be a tool for the party and others to gently (or not so gently over time) put the reins on Hillary a little bit. On the other hand, sometimes the media can also play kingmaker (or attempt to do so), potentially usurping the will and role of voters. - Alex Hammer
A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words “Hillary will drop out by June 15,” but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, “So, Hillary will drop out by June 15,” and he kept saying, “We will have a nominee by June 15.” He stressed what a reasonable person Hillary is.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... - Mike Fruchter
Love the insider information I'm getting on FF! : ) - Carla Thompson
Yeah, but I am disappointed it is June 15, not May 15! - Sheila Taylor
She really is risking an awful lot each and everyday. She is a political joke by June 15th. If she wants to maintain an influential role in the party, she doesn't have that long. - Shellee OBrien
yep sorry, meant june 15, forgot what month it was, what city i'm in... - MG Siegler
You can't imagine how hard I had to fight to have no phone number at Google. The concept was anathema to them. But, I eventually won out and my life was measurably better for it. Amen, Kevin. - Sacca
I didn't check my Google voicemail for my last four years. I was thinking of listening to it on my last day, but I never got around to it. - Bret Taylor
my boss informed me that my voice message was outdated. it was an out of office msg from february - Ontario Emperor
Nice one, Chris. At Google I changed my voicemail message to "Hi. I don't ever check these messages, so if you need to reach me please call my cell or send me an email." Then I put a piece of electrical tape over the voicemail light. I figure if people don't know or can't get my cell number or my email address then they shouldn't be contacting me at work anyhow. - Kevin Fox
Kevin, I did nearly what you did. I left an outgoing messaging urging people to e-mail me instead. - Adam Lasnik
We actually have a policy at my company not to have any voice mail, so I literally don't have a voice mail box here. Basically, all calls go to the secretary during the day and a main voice mail after hours. Otherwise, you call in for me and I'm here, I get the call. - Chris Reed
I hate phones and voicemail and state so explicitly on my website. I tell clients email is the quickest way to get a response. - Diane Ensey
But did you guys get the message from HR about those one-time bonus stock grants in 2006? You had to dial them back with the confirmation code left on voicemail for them to go into effect. - Chris White
You can have your voicemail disabled at Google without much hassle. - Gary Burd
I started using simulscribe - now called PhoneTag - for my cell phone a while back and I love it. I get emailed transcriptions in minutes with voice audio attachment. works great. - David Vasileff
What's the quality of their transcriptions? I signed up for Vonage's (confusingly named) "visual voicemail", and their transcriptions were initially great but are now very poor quality. - ⓞnor
Our voicemail has gotten a lot better ever since they were integrated with our e-mail system as .wav file attachments. Now I can screen calls, but still double-click to not miss any messages. - Louis Gray
Heck, I don't even have a phone at my desk and that's the way I like it. - Akiva Moskovitz
Not work related, but I'm enjoying using iPhone voice mail for dealing with contractors. I can see who has called, pick the most important messages to listen to by speaker phone, and call them back easily. - Chris White
ⓞnor: PhoneTag quality has been pretty good, messages may be slightly off but I usually get the gist. it is poor for things like names or long messages with lots of details. I think the PT greeting says this will be transcribed, leave a brief message, speak to be understood, etc.. most of my msgs fit that. I rarely have to listen to audio and you can ask PT for re-trans but I've never done that. - David Vasileff
I just got back into the office yesterday after 3wks away and this reminded me to check my voicemail ... except some wally has nicked my phone! In no hurry to go find it : ) - Patricia Hanrahan
or FriendFeed, "It's what your friends are thinking about." - Chris White
"View the web through your friends' eyes." - Bret Taylor
I like Ana's. It might also be good to have a tagline that showcases the other half. "All the stuff you put on the web in one place." - Kevin Fox
All right, two more: 1) "FriendFeed, it's about your friends." and 2) "FriendFeed, share the web." - Chris White
"FriendFeed: you bring the friends, we bring the benefits" (from Ana) - Bret Taylor
Um, is this some kind of reference to friends with benefits, cause I'm not really gettting that vibe from FriendFeed. :) Maybe there should be more pictures. - Chris White
"What your friends are up to online", "Follow your friends' online activities", "Stalk people", "Discover interesting news, photos, blogs through friends" - Jess Lee
Keep up with what your friends are doing and sharing on the web. - peter
Hmm, I kind of like, "Good things from your friends", though I'm looking for a quick explanation more than a slogan. - Paul Buchheit
Web services aggregator and friend tracker - Louis Gray
Also, ideally it would be comprehensible by regular people. The basic activities that drive FF, sharing and discussion, are very normal. For example, my most recent FF entry (http://friendfeed.com/e/2b600e...) came from my aunt (via email). - Paul Buchheit
FriendFeed: go ahead and feed the wild animals - Huy Zing
PS: Wonder if one day Friendfeed grows to the point where even the harmless word "feed" is too technical and it will be just friend.com :) - Philipp Lenssen
"Bread crumbs for the mind." - Think of the bread crumbs from Hansel and Grethel and friendfeeders leaving trails of their online activity :) - Mustafa K. Isik
To further elaborate on terebaby's comment: Friends feed friends' FriendFeed - April Buchheit
Heh, I come back to this post, weeks after the fact with "A web of friends (and their feeds)." You can have that. That's free. Put it in your pocket, take it out at lunchtime. Show it to your friends.Draw flowers round it if you like. :-) - Slippy Lane
information mining of of being redundant - fiorano
why can't we like comments? would be awesome here - paulm
Experience the artistic process of inspiring online journalists :-) You guys rock! Do you know how much time you guys are saving me from having to personally check out all these 1000s of apps and websites? Priceless! - Mitchell Tsai
Ha, very clever, I didn't even think of doing that! - Glenn Slaven
(I think that the "Comment" and "Like" links need to be moved below the existing comments. I scrolled all the way down, back up, and down). Slogan: Friendfeed: Web 2.0 Made _Smaller_ - possible248
FriendFeed is a center for store ideas. - accesine
High Tech playground - bounce around your ideas, stuff with your friends! - Susan Beebe
"The price of major appliances has been flat over the last year. Furniture is 1 percent less expensive. A decade ago, a basic four-door Toyota Corolla LE cost $16,018, according to the company. The 2009 basic model costs $16,650, and it’s a safer, more powerful, more fuel-efficient car than its predecessor... To top it all off, most people don’t buy any of these items very often. “People tend to remember things they do frequently,” says Stephen Cecchetti, an economist at Brandeis University who studies inflation. “And what do you buy more frequently than gas and food?”" - Bret Taylor
I had a long discussion with the TA of an econ class in college about how CPI actually overstated inflation (because consumers would adjust their basket of goods to favor cheaper items). I remember this mainly because I had a crush on her -- really smart, and hot too! If you're reading this, Miss TA, email me! I'll buy you a basket of goods! - Jim Norris
Jim: A basket of the quality goods, or the cheaper items? - Kevin Fox
"The reason you need to care is that gap in the middle. Every day, millions of businesses get stuck in that gap. They either move to the right in search of the masses or move to the left in search of authenticity, but they compromise. And they get stuck with neither.... A delta blues guy who plays for tiny audiences in Memphis is in the sweet spot of the passionate. John Mayer is in the sweet spot of pop. Both are great guitarists, neither is too edgy or too trite. Both made a choice. But there are a thousand guitarists who are neither. They're afraid to embrace one curve or the other and end up with neither." - Bret Taylor
Pound for pound, Seth is the smartest guy on the Internet and a great guy, too. Even though he doesn't allow comments on his blog, he is actually ALL about the conversation... - Robert Seidman
Same could be said about Green Day, I read an article about them in NME and they constantly look for the authenticity. Searching for the passion, the sound that gives them the authenticity. Yes they have their loyal fan base that will buy two million but in going back to rediscover themselves with side projects and groups they come forward with popular sound that appeals to the masses! - Joe
Thanks :) But Neal and the rest of the team did most of the work while I was off traveling, so they're the ones that deserve a real congrats! - Evan Parker
congrats neal, evan, et al! death to bernie's hideous sweater! - ƃuɐʞ
I am still seeing the old one :( I cleared my cookies, so is it my Google Account of Firefox beta 3 or what? - Bret Taylor
I am still seeing the old one, too :( - Sheila Taylor
We're running the new UI as an experiment, so only a small percentage of users see it. If people like it better than the old UI then we'll launch it to all users after cleaning up the bugs and incorporating any changes based on feedback from the experiment. Unfortunately there is no way to opt into the experiment, so if you don't see it you'll just have to be content with screenshots until we launch it to everyone. Sorry Bret and Sheila! - Evan Parker
Hey folks, remember your FriendFeed comments are public. The article was just updated to mention that "Evan Parker says it's only an experiment" and links back to this FriendFeed entry. Self referential! - Thai Tran
No worries Thai, I worded the comment carefully with the public in mind :) - Evan Parker
Evan's comment looked pretty official and I thought it was useful for those who wondered why they don't see the update. - Ionut
From Ionut's screenshots, I think I like the new UI very much. Full roll-out++ - Voyagerfan5761
FriendFeed now imports Google Reader notes... Testing it out. - Bret Taylor
Facebook now imports Google execs... - hunter walk
@hunter - comment of the night right there. - MG Siegler
Lots of cool importing going tonight ;-) - Susan Beebe
now that's the power of FF comments. new features appear on-the-fly! well done Bret! - Brian D. Eisenberg
This is agile development folks! i love it!! customer driven design -- sweet! thanks FriendFeed for listening to your "friends" (customers) and for providing lightening fast code (i.e. new features) to satisfy emerging customer needs!! - Susan Beebe
So, now it is finally closer to features parity with del.icio.us, could be useful to start a conversation in FriendFeed faster, when the reported problems will be gone. - Alberto Saavedra via Alert Thingy
I wish the comments would come into FriendFeed. Also, why am I seeing TONS of duplication? Plus, why is FriendFeed not putting all similar items into one cluster? This stuff all sucks. - Robert Scoble
Robert this stuff takes a bit to sort out. Between FF and Reader I expect them to have it sorted out about 10x faster than most companies. Give them a little time. - Jason Shellen
Robert: thanks for the feedback. You are not alone in your complaint, and we are working on ways to group similar items. - Bret Taylor
duplication has been one of the few problems with FF - the way I understand it is that it's a pretty hard problem to solve, because every single FF user sees a different version of the site, depending on who your friends are - so you would have to generate a new cluster for every user every time they reload the page. But I have faith in the FF team that they will sort this out over time. - Frederic
Scoble, relax. These guys are launching early and often. I think what they have accomplished in the short time they have been working on this is pretty sweet. Google Reader put out a new feature today and you expect FF to have it fully integrated already? I am confident it will happen eventually. Just take a deep breath in the meantime. :) - Sacca
Saaca this feature is VERY poorly implemented. But, I'll revisit after they fix the bugs. It's pretty clear they should test this with major users before releasing. I'm the #1 Google Reader user in the world (according to Google). Why didn't they have me in to test these features before releasing? Just to ship fast? Why, is FriendFeed taking too much market share? - Robert Scoble
Robert, the Google Reader team is strong, but small. They do a lot of testing internally, as you can imagine. I think them opening up new features to people like you and me goes against their corporate ethos, but as individuals, they would like to, I bet. - Louis Gray
I think traditional RSS readers (Google Reader included) will eventually face a simple problem: offerings such as FF will begin to attract the mainstream audience (thanks to the social aspect and overall friendlier feel and apparent ease of use) - and by doing that eliminate their need to experiment with RSS and other buzzword technologies, something that RSS reader products/services have long hoped for. - Aviv
Yeah, reading through the page-after-page of items, it's like a real history. I wish I was able to select this four-hour period and save it as a permanent record of how we all reacted to the news. - Robert Scoble
So, let's Digg it and/or Link to it from your blogs so it gets on Techmeme. Then the circle of life would REALLY be complete! :-) - Robert Scoble
I believe they call those infinite loops? I could be wrong. - Colby Olson
Pretty amazing conversations Robert. It's the true power of micro socnets. Pure magic. I too wish we could rewind the meta for this conversation. I've got an idea for an engine to address this, but I haven't got the time to build it. - Brian D. Eisenberg
“call as many Google people as you can” days - Clickry
If they added time periods to the advanced search, it could be possible. I didn't know advanced search results lagged so bad too. - Bwana McCall
@bwana - yup. The time lag in search results feeds is a disappointment. I hope they can speed up their indexing process. - Brian D. Eisenberg
I am looking into the search latency now - this is a bug, normally it is almost real-time. Sorry for the mishap, folks. - Bret Taylor
Thanks Bret! I also like @bwana's idea of adding time-based search. Then we can get conversation stream snapshots as feeds. Think of the mashup possibilities of that! - Brian D. Eisenberg
“I am writing a new FriendFeed feature, and I am load-testing it with fake data. The fake comments, constructed by randomly string words together, are oddly fascinating.”
It's like YouTube, but with a better vocabulary. - Paul Buchheit
ROFL .. sounds like Jerry Yang's speech the troops come Monday <snicker> - Steven Hodson
Sandosh, I only can tell you one thing: Profounder costarred resolver Pianola's anticyclone's Byelorussia's opiates Cochabamba Gehenna's dolt's genteeler despot's inconsiderable releasing imbibes flatfooting - Bret Taylor
I think you can stress test it right now... You might even get more accurate results. - Gadiel Rivera
That's gotta be the same algorithm used by spam bots these days. Is there a dict you could import from the White House Press Corp? - Jay Cuthrell via twhirl
“Combination of insufficient sleep + new FF hovering mini-profile boxes led me to keep my mouse over a FF entry link waiting for a pop-up preview of the article...”
Hrm, not sure there is a way to fix the URLify here...if you guys make the change so ) doesn't end the link then the next ) would also be included....computers are tricky. - Benjamin Golub
Does this make a measurable difference? What was the crawler doing if it was using (non-trivial amounts of) CPU? Compression? - Tudor Bosman
@Tudor maybe it's just wishful thinking but it seems to be working. Technically the crawler could be getting gzip compressed data that would need to be decompressed and XML parsing is somewhat CPU intensive. - Benjamin Golub
feedparser is extremely inefficient. I wrote a custom parse for FF using a more efficient XML library and much simpler feed code because our crawl workers were becoming CPU bound. - Bret Taylor
There's our answer then :). Universal Feed Parser is nice because it "just works" but it is a hog. When will FriendFeed go open source so I can use your parser? - Benjamin Golub
"Mukesh Ambani, the fifth richest man in the world, is having a new house built in Mumbai. Mukesh made his money as head of Mumbai-based petrochemical company Reliance industries. His net worth is over $43 billion and he, his wife, and 3 kids currently live in a 22-story tower (the whole thing)." - Bret Taylor
Anyway, it's a HECK lot of money in a house. - Cesar Cardoso
It is misleading that there will be only 5 people in the house. Ambani's have a huge extended family, lots of uncles, aunts, cousins. And don't forget the servants. - Shakeel Mahate
Bret, maybe this pad on sea cliff ave in nw san francisco is more in your price range - its a steal at just $22 million! ha -ok I guess its still better than $2 billion http://apr.com/Default.aspx?pp... ...the views are pretty amazing though - Michael Mayer
There is a term for this style of house. It's called "a fucking hotel." - peter
"In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car." - Bret Taylor
if this spells the end to stretched Hummers, maybe it was worth it. - Gary Fredrick
We should have learned our lesson in the 1970's. - Mike Reynolds
Do you guys get Smart cars there in America? - Joe via Alert Thingy
Just checked online and you do so ignore the above question, I personally couldn't see myself driving something that small. Firstly as I have children and I don't think the boot is big enough. Secondly it just looks like an odd car to drive about in! - Joe via Alert Thingy
Woohoo! Bring on that $10 per gallon gas, baby! This is music to my ears. - Piaw Na
as Mike points out the 70's were pretty bad. Long lines to get gas that was supposed to be coming from the last few drops of oil on earth. Suddenly ten thousand dollar Vista Cruiser station wagaons with hoods the size of a tennis court were sold by owners for one thousand dollars. Odd and even plate numbers got gas if they could on their given day. Have a look at the first car Honda sold in the US - Gary Fredrick
@joe My mother uses a smart car. Costs about $17 to fill up and lasts about 500KM. I'm always asking to borrow it now..;). I'm just itching for car from the likes of Tesla motors to become mainstream. - Phil Ashman
"An amusing WWW 2008 poster by Joshua Blumenstock, "Size Matters: Word Count as a Measure of Quality on Wikipedia" (PDF) found that a very simple measure of "quality" of article on Wikipedia, the number of words in the article, performed nearly as well as much more complicated classifiers. Word count with a simple threshold achieved 96.5% accuracy in the classification task. The other more complicated techniques ranged from 81-98% accuracy." - Bret Taylor
