 |
|
| FriendFeed is the easiest way to share online. Learn more » |
Bruce Lewis
Bruce runs a hybrid blogging/photo-sharing site that integrates very well with FriendFeed: http://ourdoings.com
View Out Our Window - http://ourdoings.com/brlewis...
 |
NaHi, Anne Bouey, Kamilah Gill and 2 other people liked this
We're enjoying a beautiful morning, and hope our far-flung Internet friends and relations are too. We made scones for breakfast, and Jessica and I go to Fiddler on the Roof in Boston tonight.
- Bruce Lewis
You're making me miss Boston already
- Jesse Stay
beautiful
- Surachart Opun
Bruce: I took the freedom to download the original of the photograph and hit the auto-levels button and increased the saturation by a notch. Here is the new version: http://ourdoings.com/awalkth... I believe this is what caught your attention. Check your camera settings; I believe you are over-exposing your images.
- Pavan
OurDoings is going down for an urgent disk upgrade. It should be back in a few minutes.
Pavan, Micah Wittman, Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF and 3 other people liked this
Interesting you post this to FF instead of Twitter.
- Maxamad (Amazigh)
FriendFeed is my twitter client. The disk resize has been going for 8 minutes; hopefully not much longer.
- Bruce Lewis
I am so failing at using OurDoings for some of my pics. Especially the ones of the chillens
- Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF
Catching up is easy -- assuming your camera is set to the right date.
- Bruce Lewis
This resize is taking a lot longer than the one I did a few months ago. I suppose I might have anticipated that, given that there are a lot more files.
- Bruce Lewis
Half an hour and still resizing. Sorry about this. At least Europe is sleeping through it. :-(
- Bruce Lewis
Finally back up.
- Bruce Lewis
The Programming Style that Saved my Marriage - http://ourdoings.com/brlewis...
 |
Micah Wittman, Pavan, joey and 2 other people liked this
[photo] Computer programmers are notoriously grumpy about interruptions. This grumpiness is not entirely without reason. At our best, programmers enter a mental zone in which our selves and our environment are entirely tuned out, with all thought locked into the problem at hand. We must be conscious of what the code we're working on is intended to do, and what might go wrong in the course of getting from A to Z. We commonly write programs as a series of steps, thus: A; B; C; ... Z; If I write A and B, then get interrupted, a stack of cards falls down in my brain. When I get back to my work, I have to ask myself, "Where was I going with this?" It typically takes 15 minutes or so to reconstruct my ideas, even for an interruption that only lasts two minutes. Another programming style, functional programming works from the goal backward, thus: (Z (Y (X ...))) If I write Z and Y, then get interrupted, I don't have to ask myself where I was going. All I have to reconstruct is how to get...
- Bruce Lewis
I sure have to read up on functional programming then. Any pointers?
- Pavan
I mean good pointers..
- Pavan
Pavan, I think you're someone who would enjoy SICP. It's the text used at MIT.
- Bruce Lewis
Thx.. Looks like the full text is available online.. That's ++.. Seems like I will be rehashing Lisp.. looked into it 15 years back.
- Pavan
I'm experiencing SUP problems. FriendFeed is reading the SUP feed, but is not immediately fetching the RSS feed.
Kol Tregaskes, Pavan, Micah Wittman and Maxamad (Amazigh) liked this
The RSS feed is http://ourdoings.com/tobedel...
- Bruce Lewis
The SUP validated. I'll post it in a comment with http: changed to p: so autolinking doesn't mess it up.
- Bruce Lewis
{"since_time":"2009-11-04T21:01:03Z","updated_time":"2009-11-04T21:03:13Z","available_periods":{"600":"p://ourdoings.com/sup.json?seconds=600","300":"p://ourdoings.com/sup.json?seconds=300","60":"p://ourdoings.com/sup.json?seconds=60"},"period":120,"updates":[["2ab","1f98"],["2aby","2009-11-04T21:02:58Z"]]}
- Bruce Lewis
fixed, I think.
- Paul Buchheit
fix confirmed. thanks paul.
- Bruce Lewis
We need to buy a new over-the-range microwave oven. Anybody have experience/tips?
Alex Scoble, Micah Wittman and Holden Page liked this
The GE Advantium has treated us very well. Microwave, convection, and speed-cooking (refrigerator biscuits cooked in a total of 12 minutes w/ no pre-heating needed, for example).
- Craig Eddy
Looks like there are different Advantium models running from $700 into the thousands. Are they really that much better than the $200 models?
- Bruce Lewis
Considering that it's a microwave, I doubt it, Bruce. :)
- Alex Scoble
We have a cheap LG and it works well enough. Looking at reviews it seems nobody really likes their microwave so we just went cheap and basic.
- Todd Hoff
Re: Backtype takes you where the pain is - http://ourdoings.com/ourdoin...
Kazutaka Ogaki liked this
"You're welcome. Backtype is definitely useful. I use it daily."
- Bruce Lewis
My question about s3fs went unanswered on this page: http://code.google.com/p... Does anybody here know about s3fs and directories? E.g. if I create bucket/dir in s3fs with public-read is there any way an unauthorized user could list the dir contents? I can't proceed without being reasonably sure the answer is no.
Kazutaka Ogaki and Maxamad (Amazigh) liked this
There's nothing in the content of the object. Is there some kind of metadata I can fetch to make sure directory contents aren't there?
- Bruce Lewis
This discussion says metadata is in the HTTP headers, which I've checked: http://groups.google.com/group... Looks like I'm safe.
- Bruce Lewis
We disable listing for all of our S3 dirs by disabling the public read ACL on the bucket and setting it on the files themselves. You can fetch from the buckets, but not list them (ditto for the equivalent cloudfront URLs)
- Matt Mastracci
Cool. Just to be clear, that includes subdirs that you create via s3fs...it's not just the buckets themselves that are unlistable?
- Bruce Lewis
The dirs in S3 are virtual. They don't really exist - the are inferred from the slashes in the S3 filenames. IIRC, s3fs and other programs use a placeholder file to indicate an empty directory.
- Matt Mastracci
That's what it looked like to me, but of course that means that for s3fs to list directory contents it needs to query all objects in the bucket matching a pattern. I considered the possibility they might store the directory contents as metadata on that placeholder object. Now that I've learned that said metadata would be in the HTTP headers (which I've checked) I'm satisfied.
- Bruce Lewis
I really wanted to be sure, because if I was wrong, thousands of non-public photos would become public.
- Bruce Lewis
Yeah, I just confirmed that the S3 browser for Firefox creates virtual directories with the suffix "_$folder$". Listing virtual directory content in S3 is in fact a prefix-search through the bucket.
- Matt Mastracci
Dirty Little Secret of Success - http://news.ycombinator.com/item...
Maxamad (Amazigh), mikepk, Kazutaka Ogaki and 2 other people liked this
"Do you think it can be done without video? To many, the words "upload photos" imply additional work. Is the slogan "Don't think; just upload" a good one?"
- Bruce Lewis
The suggestion given by the person on ycombinator looks good: "You send the pictures, we make the albums". "Don't think; just upload" will not go well with photographers; at least I don't agree with it. I always advice people to edit their photos before upload, at least remove the 'not so good ones'; and perhaps just click on the enhance button..
- Pavan
Like a picture speaks a thousand words.. a good video bringing out the core concept can speak a million.. A bad video can do damage.. so if you go with a video, it better be good.
- Pavan
Pavan, your first comment hits upon the marketing dilemma I'm faced with. Initially I created the site with busy parents in mind, for whom even going through photos to remove the not-so-good ones was too much work. I figured serious photographers were well served by existing sites, and OurDoings would serve a different need. Problem is, the busy people I initially built for aren't going to look at different sites themselves; they're going to ask a serious photographer friend. So I have to please both.
- Bruce Lewis
I agree that usually busy people will upload all photos they take without editing.. but then that is true if they use Flickr or Photobucket or whatever.. then, how does the slogan 'Don't think; just upload' set you apart -- they are already doing that :)).. What sets your service apart is that given a whole bunch of photos, your service will facilitate arranging and organizing them into albums automatically.
- Pavan
Google keywords is another important tool to use. You'll have to put money carefully on keywords so that people who are looking for such a solution will immediately find your service. For instance, if I search for "Photos blog arrange", your site should show up in google's sponsored links.. I remember a time when I searched around the web for something like that and didn't find anything.. I actually thought of writing my own scripts for doing just that..
- Pavan
Let me be frank here. After I first visited your site though one of Robert Scoble's photos, it took me quite a while to understand what it was all about.. But something registered in my mind that I really need to check this out.. I visited a couple of times after that and then I got it... Okay.. there I exposed myself.. I'm dumb.. but then you would want the message of your site to be glaringly clear to whoever visits your main page..
- Pavan
Another distinction is that you can do the choosing after uploading. Or some other interested party can (e.g. grandparents). This is less useful for serious photographers. Making what the site's about concisely clear is not easy. Automatic scrapbook might be the right description.
- Bruce Lewis
Autumn Ride on the Peabody Rail Trail - http://ourdoings.com/brlewis...
 |
"Flo14wer", Pavan, Kazutaka Ogaki and 4 other people liked this
Our family ride on the newly opened trail was great, aside from me blowing out a tire. It was 18 years old, so not a big surprise.
- Bruce Lewis
This should have posted sooner. SUP doesn't seem to be working for me. But I'll have to look at that tomorrow. Good night, FriendFeed!
- Bruce Lewis
Good night! I'm headed out, too. Seems unusually quiet on here tonight... Where is everybody? Anyway, see everyone tomorrow.
- Kamilah Gill
Re: How To Use Modern Web Sites: Do The Dumb Thing - http://ourdoings.com/ourdoin...
"Flo14wer" and Mike Chelen liked this
"There's a tradeoff to be made between transparency and simplicity. I'm thinking about an advanced settings page and/or a wiki."
- Bruce Lewis
I've looked at various lightbox (slideshow) plugins for jQuery. Keyboard navigation is a must. I'm leaning heavily toward prettyPhoto - http://www.no-margin-for-errors.com/project... - but does anyone else have another favorite?
alfred westerveld, Mike Chelen and Maxamad (Amazigh) liked this
She started it, but it wasn't her fault. The drama unfolded like this:
Mike Chelen, vicster, AJ Kohn and 17 other people liked this
1. Aden hesitatingly posted that she felt bad about being liked for her personality and not for her looks. She touched on how people posting pictures of themselves brought out those feelings, but I read it as much more about her than about them.
- Bruce Lewis
2. Well-meaning commenters tried to make Aden feel better by saying "pretty" people have problems/insecurities of their own, and things like that.
- Bruce Lewis
3. Women who had overcome their own insecurities to post pictures of themselves took offense, mostly at the commenters, but also to Aden.
- Bruce Lewis
4. The last comment I saw from Aden was "I wish I never posted this."
- Bruce Lewis
The people at each stage didn't anticipate the next stage. Everybody meant well.
- Bruce Lewis
I really appreciate the summary.
- Victor Ganata
Sometimes the road to hell truly is paved with good intentions
- Mo Kargas
Thank you for the clear summary. I'm saddened by the whole thing.
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
from iPhone
True, Mo. We're only human.
- Bruce Lewis
Appreciate the summary, but I'm still like WTF
- Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF
That really sums it up well, Bruce.
- ha3rvey (doink doink)
Thank you, Bruce. We hope you come back, Aden.
- Micah Wittman
That's not how I saw it happening but everybody has their own interpretation I guess.
- Lindsey is Fierce!
I'm not sure that I agree that people took offense with what Aden posted though I will readily admit that I may have missed some posts. To my knowledge there was only one post as a response to the comments posted on Aden's thread and that post in no way was intended to diminish Aden's feelings. I'm sad that she is having a hard time and I hope the time away helps.
- pea ♥ fierce as a woozle
Thanks for the summary, Bruce. My two cents is people can get bent out of shape because they think the person is talking about them, when they aren't and they get all huffy over it. It's tough online to distinguish who someone is talking about or if they are just talking about general things. I have done that before and got into flame wars over stupid things because of what someone...
more...
- Mol, Time Warping
Lindsey - I'm curious. How does your interpretation of the narrative differ?
- Katy S
I agree with Lindsey. I think it's interesting how so many of us saw the same text but understood it and interpreted in different ways. I'm sure there's some psychological or sociological commentary in there somewhere.
- Rochelle
I kind of saw it like Bruce but I think I missed a bunch.
- Dragon Goldmaple
Well I wouldn't say she "hesitatingly" posted it. She out and out said it. There wasn't a lot of feet shuffling going on there. And the narrative omits her anger at pretty people, that they suck and they should just get bent. Those aren't just idle thoughts of pity for your own situation. That hatred is directed at a specific kind of person. The summary also omits the assumptions made...
more...
- Lindsey is Fierce!
ok, yeah when I read it I pretty much knew who she was talking about, in a general sense. It was kind of mean spirited and I think that kind of thing is best in your private offline journal. That would be like if I posted, Oh I hate people who draw better than me and they draw on their FF every day and everyone comments and loves them but when I post something no one likes it woe is me. Everyone would know then who I hate.
- Dragon Goldmaple
And I felt like she HAD to know it was going to cause some drama because the person would see it and be hurt. I meant I saw it chronologically like stated in the post but felt like I was missing something else that happened because some people just seemed to shocked about the reactions and I was like, well duh.
- Dragon Goldmaple
very sad, but not the first time she'd nuked her account over something like this (I believe this is time #3). She'll be back, as she has been in the past, and it'll all be hunky dory. Rinse, repeat.
- The Archangel ωαřмaiden
I think the "hesitatingly" part comes from a post she'd made earlier in the day about being not sure if she wanted to post something or not. Several folks encouraged her to post whatever was on her mind and get it off her chest.
- Alix Whitmire
I must have missed that post Alix but my interpretation of a move like that is: She knew it was inappropriate to post that so she was seeking a green light to post it by giving vague details so that the end result would not have been her fault.
- Lindsey is Fierce!
Ok - I can see/understand both readings of the situation. I think it was the English teacher in me, in part, that was curious about the differences. I had seen the early post and comments, but ultimately I don't know her and haven't had much interaction with her, so I feel somewhat distant from the whole thing.
- Katy S
Andrea, that's interestiing, I did not take her post as being about a specific person at all. And she quite specifically said that she knew it was ridiculous to feel angry towards "pretty people", and she hated herself for feeling it. It was a complex emotion that I totally understood. I can't believe it all came down the way it did. Oh well.
- Laura Norvig
I thought the people in her thread were VERY nice to her, but I'm sorry, she had to know that saying that everyone who is prettier than her and got more attention ON THE INTERNET FROM STRANGERS than her could "Get bent" was going to get some negative responses. I think lots of people occasionally feel insecure but the answer to that is not to try to make other people feel shitty as...
more...
- Dragon Goldmaple
I also thought Aden was really popular (way moreso than me) and it sucks she felt the need to delete her account, but you can't just walk into a crowded room and yell out what she posted. That's shit you save for your therapist.
- Dragon Goldmaple
I didn't take it as strongly as Lindsey. What I saw go down was 1/2way between how Bruce saw it and Lindsey saw it. But let's be honest. The myspace photo syndrome is alive and well on FriendFeed and always has been. There are ways to avoid it- don't subscribe, and hide- and I do those liberally.
- anna sauce
What is the myspace photo syndrome?
- anna sauce
It's that overhead, cute angle of big eyes and cleavage, that all myspace girls age 13-17 do, loneygirl-esque
- anna sauce
apparently the overhead angle hides a double-chin and accentuates cleavage. as if i needed my man boobs accentuated!
- Joe Silence is not dead
Joe, a subtle one does, but doesn't require cleavage.
- anna sauce
I actually don't see a lot of those types of photos
- Lindsey is Fierce!
I'm pretty vigilant about hiding them- they're not meant for me anyways- Lindsey you only follow 100 people, a 10th of those who subscribe to you. I subscribe to about 90% of my subscribers.
- anna sauce
I've also noticed that the myspace-photo-syndrome is a phase. And I've seen women go through it. They like the attention, it entertains them, then for some reason they stop after a while. Someone skeazy comments? They get tired of the photos? Not sure.
- anna sauce
i tend to just do the 3/4 view and be done with it.
- Joe Silence is not dead
*checks own photos for MySpace symptoms* >.>
- The Bohemian Penguin
We Love Pumpkins - http://ourdoings.com/brlewis...
 |
 |
 |
 |
"Flo14wer", Iván Abrego, Mike Fruchter and 7 other people liked this
OurDoings screencast take 2: http://screenjel.ly/G8zJxzA...
Vipul Rawat and Pavan liked this
This has stronger audio and explicitly follows the outline Pavan suggested.
- Bruce Lewis
One more suggestion.. you would want to do something on the screen that goes with what you are saying.. for instance.. you first start saying that we generally have a lot of photos lying on our computer.. show a folder with a lot of photos ranging from now to a couple of years back.. then say that OurDoings can organize them for you.. start zipping them up.. fast-forward to after zip up...
more...
- Pavan
You would require a tool which doesn't cripple you with 3min recordings.. Then use the video tool to stitch cut-scenes from several screencasts together.. do a voice over after that.. add some music.. you have a professional video.. :)
- Pavan
Hope I'm not being creepy with all these suggestions..
- Pavan
Not at all; I'm delighted. Helping me figure out how to make a good screencast is a long way from creepy. I can imagine if I came to your house and found a secret room where the walls were plastered with marketing ideas for OurDoings, then...hmm...actually I'd still be delighted. :-)
- Bruce Lewis
ICC profiles in JPEGs uploaded to OurDoings will now be propagated to thumbnails, etc.
Mike Chelen, Pavan, Kazutaka Ogaki and NaHi liked this
Colours seem good..
- Pavan
Here is a before/after comparison http://ff.im/aN8qn
- Pavan
I've updated OurDoings' Picasa uploader to count items it thinks it's about to upload. If it's fewer than you thought, look for non-JPEGs.
Mike Chelen, Kazutaka Ogaki and Jesse Stay liked this
Unchecking the "publish immediately" box will give you more control. I'll make a note that we need better options.
- Bruce Lewis
Proof-of-concept OurDoings screencast using screenjelly: http://screenjel.ly/9LP_zwn...
The basic msg for an intro video: 1) There are lots of your photos that need to get on the web 2) You don't need to organize them into albums 3) Just dump them into OurDoings and all the organization is done for you starting from when you started taking photos to now. The advanced features can go into follow up videos.
- Pavan
cool - the audio was on the quiet side (but clear)
- Dan Freeman
The audio sounded a lot louder when I did local playback. Playing from this link sounds really quiet.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
Between Pavan's advice and screenjelly's 3-minute limit, I should be able to cut this down to a concise, clear message.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
I'd say 3 mins is a lot to give one clear concise message... anything more than that and you will start loosing people.
- Pavan
Ppl have shot attention spans.. that includes me okay.. :)
- Pavan
might think of the 3 minute format as if it were a song - establish a rhythm, repeat a chorus - and leave the audience wanting more. The sense of rhythm can help cushion transition from one screen to the next (which can otherwise be disorienting for the viewer) - can also establish a consistent cue: "now I'm going to open the ..." then a moment of silence as the mouse moves ...
- Dan Freeman
@AskScreenjelly What's usually the problem when it won't stop saying "Buffering. Please wait"?
The problem goes away when I switch to full-screen view, and comes back when I switch back. This is on Ubuntu 9.04 with Firefox 3.5 and the latest Java/Flash.
- Bruce Lewis
Played fine for me on the Mac
- Pavan
Could Robert Scoble Be More Wrong About FriendFeed? - http://ourdoings.com/ourdoin...
chaz2b, David Hall, Bindu Reddy and 20 other people liked this
Yes. He could be much more wrong. He is very much correct in how he is seeing this. That doesn't mean the site goes away or that the tech doesn't show up somewhere else, but his observations are right.
- Louis Gray
He made a lot of observations, some of which may be right. But to say being left out of a search engine deal makes FriendFeed niche is wrong.
- Bruce Lewis
Also, to say his feed has less interesting stuff in it as evidence of a decline? I just see it as FriendFeed being used for more mainstream purposes. If he doesn't like the mainstream items he can work on his subscriptions/hides until it looks more techy again.
- Bruce Lewis
Scoble has valid points. But "less interesting stuff" is a vague term but his perception is his choice. I see "less interesting stuff" (or at least it's hidden between noise) in Twitter myself but apparently I'm missing something that others see. I really love FriendFeed, how it flows and the deep conversations on topics but I would leave as well if the content wasn't interesting.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
I think he's most interested in tech news. He made the comment about "less interesting stuff" in the context of saying there was a geek exodus.
- Bruce Lewis
Haven't seen much of Robert on anything but Twitter in the last few days. I'd love to see more of him on Facebook - he's right about FriendFeed in many ways. It's down to the core community here now.
- Jesse Stay
I tried to think a way to determine whether FriendFeed is down to the core community or not. What i came up with is Likes, since posts and comments can be automatic. Here's proof that Jesse is wrong. Just don't look at it too long because it probably overloads the server: http://friendfeed.com/search... Does that look like "down the core community" to you?
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce, not sure that really shows much. It just shows that thousands are using it. That's nothing compared to Twitter or Facebook where the masses are. I think that could still show that it's down to the core community. I don't have access to FriendFeed's numbers though.
- Jesse Stay
Thousands are enough to find conversations on any topic you want. NYC doesn't become boring just because another city has more people.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce, I agree there - I'm just sharing Robert's perspective. I'm still here and find value. Although I do admit it would be easier if I could convince more to join me on Facebook.
- Jesse Stay
The more they make Facebook like FriendFeed, the easier it will be to convince me to spend more time there. That's going to take time, though.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce, it's not far
- Jesse Stay
agree totally with Louis
- ffcode
I want interesting people I don't know to jump into my Facebook conversations.
- Bruce Lewis
The reason I wrote my letter came out of a exchange I had with Robert. He still loves FriendFeed but realises is does not fit into his current plan. He is asking us as a community to take control of our own service, evangalise from grassroots level and build a community. He fears it may be for naught but we should at least try. FriendFeed is niche, like it or not. It's our job to lobby...
more...
- Johnny Worthington
from iPhone
Bruce, just friended you - be sure to fan me here as well and I'd love to jump into your conversations: http://facebook.com/stay
- Jesse Stay
Probably.
- Derrick
i am also not a facebook guy ;) this place is great but from development point of view it is standstill
- ffcode
ffcode, the Facebook platform, especially Facebook Connect is the best platform out there right now for developers.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, I've met you IRL so I'll friend you on Facebook. But following interesting people I don't know is still a FF thing.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce, you should take advantage of Facebook Fan pages. Do you have one? That's the FriendFeed equivalent, IMO. (and has the potential to be so much more powerful)
- Jesse Stay
I don't have a FB fan page. What's the best intro to those?
- Bruce Lewis
reading Johnny's comment - interesting & good to know. Sort of casts FriendFeed in a "Field of Dreams" light ("if you build it, they will come.") Well, now it's already pretty well built. And here we are.
- Dan Freeman
Bruce, just go down to the footer of Facebook, click "advertising", and then you'll have the option to create a Fan page there. Or just visit mine and on the left there's an option to create your own.
- Jesse Stay
I always feel it's easier to dip in and out of here than Facebook. No, I'm not interested in everything here of course, but I don't have any issue with skipping past what I don't want to read. Friending is different here. I friend people here according to interest, whereas on Facebook it's family and people I now, and although it can be useful for sorting out a meet up, or a beer at a...
more...
- Ian May
There is a difference between Niche and Mainstream on the front of the wave and Niche and Mainstream in the long tail. On the face of the wave, buzz and names and cutting edge technology often trounce a strong core community... That's why Twitter is eating our lunch. The problem comes when you reach the top of the wave. Some will have enough mass to simply drop of the back and ride the...
more...
- Johnny Worthington
Johnny, what's our case?
- Bruce Lewis
Our case is that we are a great platform for communication and discussion... but we have relied on the same A-List Bloggers to do the promoting for us. Twitter and Facebook are winning cause they have a high rate of people joining because of their friends. I don't see the same adoption here. We need to do a better job of showing how good we are.
- Johnny Worthington
http://friendfeed.com/holdenp... - well then Johnny, lets start discussing how we can grow this community, assuming that is what the current community wants
- Holden Page
Johnny & Bruce - I'm curious to know if either of you have noticed science researchers and educators encouraging students to use FriendFeed - for example AJ Cann - http://ff.im/ahBwQ - "How I Learned to Love FriendFeed"
- Dan Freeman
Indeed. I saw that :)
- Johnny Worthington
I didn't notice, Dan. Thanks for pointing that out!
- Bruce Lewis
there may be a lot of potential long-term adopters getting attached to FriendFeed "under the radar"
- Dan Freeman
Yeah. If somebody has a need and FriendFeed fits, why not use it?
- Bruce Lewis
For me I'm finding it less and less effective to comment on threads here. Not as many people are checking FriendFeed any more, so it's best to contact them elsewhere. That's not the case for everyone, but it is for a lot of those I'm following that used to be active.
- Jesse Stay
I've only seen that with Mona and Scobleizer, and I still find it easiest to follow Scobleizer here.
- Bruce Lewis
It's the case with most I'm following now - they just don't respond on FriendFeed any more.
- Jesse Stay
Another point is that I simply prefer the UI here. I simply tolerate the Facebook one,
- Ian May
Jesse, I have seen that too, but only on certain topics. The Tech Set probably has left...
- Johnny Worthington
hey new, the tech set is still here... ok, maybe just me. But damn it all lol
- Holden Page
from IM
Here's a question I have no way of knowing. Are there more currnt FF survivors or Pownce users when they gave them all of 15 minutes to get their stuff and get out?
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, what would you do with that info if you had it?
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
If the number is one way, make a point, if the number is the other way, cower from the proceedings.
- Matthew DeVries
Bruce.. saw this post on your blog and recreated my FriendFeed account.. will give it another shot.. been out of here for too long..
- Pavan
Pavan, great! I hope it works better this time. But if it doesn't, please don't delete. Just set your notification prefs to email when people comment on your stuff, and leave the account in place.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
Alrighty... to add to the discussion.. I actually agree with Scoble that FF is becoming a fringe player.. that's not to put down the great engine FF has.. it's still the coolest around.. but the coolest to a nerd might not mean much to the vast majority of people.. I still think FB got that balance right.. Previously I tried getting people with a non-nerdy mindset into FF and they were...
more...
- Pavan
I'm holding out hope that once FF usership dwindles enough, Paul et al will close it down to those of us that remain, we then use it for what it is, Facebook's beta test ground, and pays us for doing what we do to test the new stuff they invent for facebook.
- Matthew DeVries
Facebook must have seen something good in FriendFeed to pay 150MM for it.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
i've noticed in the last few weeks more intergration with external websites like youtube etc and facebook. no joke, all the options aren't there yet but i'm seeing a lot more less mucking around to get all the same things i can add here on facebook as well.
- Terry O'Fee
FB is getting owned by their users, the users are mass rejecting the Freindfeedly goodness, at the same time people are turning schizophrenic having a private FB feed and a public FB feed. con-fusion is social media, FF used to fuse but now the future uncertain it is
- Robert Higgins
friendfeed and facebook i still use as discussion and hubs, personally. i love having everything, like photos, links etc on seperate sites. even if either of these things die (which i very much doubt), my stuff is still out there, waiting for the next big thing to bring it all together again..
- Terry O'Fee
.. or FB is making sure that a potential live feed rival can be kept in check for a paltry sum of 150M
- Pavan
I haven't used FF for long but I love it. I think there is a compelling case for a niche social network that is small and only used by early adopters, the tech savvy, etc. One if its biggest strengths is its smallness, intimacy, not mass market, not hyped, signal to noise ratio is high. Scoble is maybe right for what he cares about, which is a megaphone, and that it will never compete against FB or Twitter, but some of us might view that as the best thing about FF and that needs to survive in some form.
- Ed Millard
FB $$/stock for FF, however much it was exactly, definitely a lot more than Google paid for Jaiku! hopefully that's a good sign (btw some interesting perspective on acquisition from Jaiku dev, now recently ex-Google http://ff.im/aDtkp )
- Dan Freeman
I don't even see how FB or Twitter can innovate. They get backlash from a hundred million users with any significant change plus they risk a major meltdown. Would seem to me like FF or a successor should be the lab where innovation in social networks occurs. It has to be small, its users have to be savvy and forgiving, not joe sixpacks, and it can make changes and really innovate without being pilloried by half the planet and all the press.
- Ed Millard
FB & Twitter can innovate the same way Apple does: with an iron hand and superb taste. Neither of those companies seem to have that ability, as is the long proven case with Microsoft.
- Douglas Hopkins
Ed, Facebook has made radical changes in the past. Users make a lot of noise, but they don't leave.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce, but do you think it motivates the developers when millions of people start complaining, forming groups against the change, etc. Can't help but discourage the next idea. For twitter lists they rolled it out to a small number of people, and it annoyed everyone else since they couldn't use them, by the time I got them everyone had stopped talking about them. Not very good marketing.
- Ed Millard
You should all be asking yourselves this question. Can an application or service stay viable if it remains just for the use of a few niche users such as yourselves or is it doomed? Can a service or application only become viable (and therefore worth pouring your time into (i.e updating, enhancing etc) if it is used by mainstream users such as myself?
- Sandra Large
I don't know how motivated the developers are. I just know that the kind of user protest you describe has happened over and over, yet they still don't hesitate to make big changes. As an organization, I think they only care when people start to leave.
- Bruce Lewis
Sandra, niche products can certainly be viable. But I don't see FriendFeed as a niche product, and I don't think Facebook did either.
- Bruce Lewis
Facebook's valuation of Friendfeed may have been based to a large extent on potential value to another competitor. I hope they acquired with intent to improve their own product, but even just owning the option to keep FF's "ready to go" superior UX off the market may have been enough to drive their decision. That said ... looking to the future, what reasons might make sense for FB to support continued development of standalone FF? Not a rhetorical question, but no obvious answers come to mind yet ...
- Dan Freeman
... Just thinking about other random examples of acquired tech persevering, loose parallels at best. For example, Netscape acquired by AOL, emerging as Mozilla.
- Dan Freeman
Everybody recognizes that Facebook valued the talent they acquired along with friendfeed.com. As long as that talent is getting value from friendfeed.com, why would Facebook tick them off by shutting down the service? I think as long as we see the former FriendFeed team active around here, we don't need to worry about it shutting down.
- Bruce Lewis
More Wrong..?
- ★ Soner Gönül
agree, seeing recent activity from FF insiders has been reassuring, and FB should recognize value in keeping their new talent "gruntled" ... Still, would be good to see a broader "portfolio of motivations" for FB to appreciate benefits of supporting a healthy, standalone FriendFeed - more positive reinforcement if possible.
- Dan Freeman
Jesse: facebook is still a far cry from friendfeed or even twitter in terms of user interface, how long before it can finish catching up?
- Mike Chelen
Walking Tall - http://ourdoings.com/brlewis...
"Flo14wer", Mike Chelen, Louis Gray and 5 other people liked this
Very cute..
- Pavan
How To Use Modern Web Sites: Do The Dumb Thing - http://ourdoings.com/ourdoin...
Mike Chelen and Jorge Escobar liked this
Linode having some issues - http://news.ycombinator.com/item...
"Guess I lucked out. My linode in Fremont was unaffected."
- Bruce Lewis
How I built my minimum viable product - http://news.ycombinator.com/item...
"All important points I'll keep in mind. I'm not thinking too much about business models yet, but patterns of adoption are important."
- Bruce Lewis
US Dept of Homeland Security wants to control Internet access during a pandemic - http://www.reuters.com/article...
Mike Chelen liked this
"Private Internet providers might need government authorization to block popular websites, it said, or to reduce residential transmission speeds to make way for commerce."
- Bruce Lewis
from Bookmarklet
Since TCP/IP slows down automatically in response to congestion, this smells a lot like information control.
- Bruce Lewis
Startup News - http://news.ycombinator.com/item...
"I hope your side note is representative of many people, since those are the problems I've solved."
- Bruce Lewis
Other ways to read this feed:
