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Kol Tregaskes

Eco-Friendly Van Meets All-in-One Mobile Home | dornob #shareit - http://dornob.com/eco-fri...

March 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

maja (lord settings), FIR ☂, Cloud and 144 other people liked this

"The Volkswagen Microbus is a classic - even to those of us born after its time. Arguably unlike the newly remade Beetle, this remake of a VW classic is remarkably true to the original on the outside - but on the inside it is a bio-diesel hybrid stuffed full of high tech gadgetry and eco-friendly innovations." - Kol Tregaskes from Bookmarklet

47 more comments

*swoon* - Ňicķ

sounds awesome. live the hippie dream, only it probably costs about $50,000 or something. - Thomas Hawk

It's kinda cute. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Not a fan. Then again, didn't like the original ;) - Mo Kargas

Afraid not Thomas, $129,000 - Steven Cains

Super cool VW Bus making a comeback... - Walt Ruppar

First of all, I'll cop to wanting one of these. That being said, Jason is right. This is for rich hippies (who probably aren't hippies at all). The VW microbus became the darling of the Flower Power crowd because it was cheap, easy to repair, and big. You could camp in it. Is there a car today that fits this bill? - Chris Baskind

wow, you can buy an awful lot of pot with $129,000. - Thomas Hawk

I don't know a self-respecting hippie that would prefer this over a really nice indoor greenhouse. ;-) - Chris Baskind

@Chris, Most cars today aren't as simple, but with the wealth of knowledge online, it just takes more time. The minivan/SUV can become a camper van with a few mods. They'll never take the place of the VW, but they're an updated version of the 70s panelvan conversions (hopefully without shag carpeting & a disco-ball). - Steven Cains

Nope: there will never be anything that simple again. That's not all bad: I can't imagine a 1960s VW Minibus would satisfy *any* federal safety standard these days. You're right. A used minivan might be the closest thing. - Chris Baskind

Very Cool. You can't drive your house but, you can sleep in your Van !!! - Eric Logan

Want. - Ken Sheppardson

Want!! - Sarah Perez

Very intriguing. How much steel is in that thing? Chris, that would be my next question after fuel consumption: how safe is this thing? And I agree, when we can go back to making transportation that costs less than a small home, we may have achieved something amazing. ;) - Melanie Reed

However, I have heard (and I'm not remembering where at the moment) that there has been a movement growing of people seeking alternative housing and substituting things like this as the new "mobile" home. - Melanie Reed

AWESOME! - tomit

@drewdomkus ... you need this for your move! - tomit

So wanting one! Cute ^__^ - Nia

Hehe, it's dinky, isn't it? :-) - Kol Tregaskes

lovelovelove! - esther ♥ ♫

-) - Kol Tregaskes

It looks like it could almost fly in the first pic. ;-) Well, maybe not. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Looks a bit different than the 76 Kombi @imbutafool and I owned several years ago - ThePicMan

Oh, shit, it's so beautifull! - Igor Kuzmin

Everyone is loving this! We should have an FF one and use it to travel to all the FFers around the World (like Pea seems to be doing ;-)). Hehe. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

cool idea, kol. the ff-stream of this tour would be alltheawe. just imagine the photos. - esther ♥ ♫

Look it is my retirement home. - John Flynn

Oh no, don't say that, John. That puts me right off it. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

I want one! - TranceMist

I've owned 5 VWs, two of which were split window vans. I'd love to have another, this is awesome! - Rick Bucich from twhirl

I have had more VWs than other cars...starting with a 71 Superbeetle, and a Split Window Microbus. I would LOVE to have something like this. - Kreg Steppe

Good for grandparents to visit grandchildren and children through the European continent (or another one as well)...nomadism-revival! - Isabelle Ayel

wow i posted this a while back and now can't seem to find it for some reason. friendfeed's search function really sucks! - Cee Bee

Want. Cannot afford. - Jules

So after reading this article yesterday, I found myself this evening in front of a local place that specializes in reconditioning old VWs. It was closed, but there's an awesome red and white microbus out front with a For Sale sign on it. Ugly, underpowered -- and probably dangerous, by modern standards. Want. ;-) - Chris Baskind

Cee, really? I find FF search is pretty good. - Kol Tregaskes

I love this Mobile...owned a few Vdubs, lived in a VW camper, but this is off the hook..I would become a true nomad with this... - bcultral

It's just so cute, LOL! - Kol Tregaskes

love it - chance

Perfect for the recession :-) - Richard A.

I'd like to have something like this, something small. What do you really need? A bed, perhaps a TV and room for your computer. Then you can live anywhere you like, in theory. - Kol Tregaskes

so cute ;) - sakura

Richard, agree. No council tax bill, no utility bills, just petrol I guess? - Kol Tregaskes

I Love this - Nima

Who is this Canadian designer Alexandre Verdier? Seems like he is on Facebook, Linked In but I can't seem to find anything else about him. - Brian Sullivan

We had a wesvalia built Micro when I was a kid. I loved that thing. It was a little flimsily built; but boy it was perfect for my family of campers and road-tripping warriors. Too bad this one is so pricey - Bill Rawlinson

Bumping some old good posts. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Robert Scoble

Why Facebook has never listened to you and why it should NOT start now: http://scobleizer.com/2009...

March 21 - Comment - Like - Share

Robert Clockedile, Ann Hudspeth, Michael Kacer and 88 other people liked this

I think you're right on the money about Zuckerberg: just imagine if Apple started listening to the peanut gallery. I don't think having companies try to pitch us every time we make a move online is the answer, and I think companies already know it (which is why you weren't contacted, among other reasons): if anything would cause a mass migration it would be that. People cannot stand... more... - Mark Trapp

41 more comments

Glad to see someone gets it. It's not about early adopters now for Facebook. - Mike Seidle

Yeah, Apple does some really anti-user things once in a while. Rocky just got his new MacBookPro and said "where's the firewire 400 port?" Anti user. But, in the long run, probably the right thing to do. - Robert Scoble

Mark: friendfeed is showing how to do the "better search" part. Already I can tell friendfeed "show me all items that have the word 'stroller' in them that have two or more 'likes'". That's not yet possible on Facebook, but I bet it will be by the end of the year. - Robert Scoble

Brilliant article; right to the point. - Pavel Senko

Similar to this is the story about Google currently testing around 50 shades of blue. It might seem crazy, but when you have Google's traffic volume, a miniscule change could significantly improve the user experience, even if only subconscious. Nightmare for a designer perhaps. But in the larger scheme of things, a good move. - Graham English

Zuckerberg is smart. An insightful business machine with clarity! Excellent listing of the 7 phases of FB. It's easy to see the growth thus far and where the potential is. Thanks Robert! And congrats to you and Maryam! - Amy Flynn

If Facebook did listen then nothing would have ever changed. - Mathew™ one of a kind

By the way, Facebook hasn't listened to me, either. If it did, I'd have more than 5,000 friends. :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert: if they do that, then they have it made. FriendFeed is nice, but its missing the information about who I am as a person, instead favoring to define me by what I do or like online. After a year of using FriendFeed, I'm not sold on that being the best approach, especially when things like "like" require other people to feed the engine. I'm really into philosophy of language,... more... - Mark Trapp

I get why people don't like the new layout on facebook but I actually like it. It seems more interesting. It seems like a lot more people on my friend list are engaging with it and sending out more missives. There is more of a stream of stuff. And I like that. - Aidan Mann

Mark: yup, and I've told the friendfeed team they should let me skin my profile and add more data to everyone. Facebook is way ahead there and I'm not sure friendfeed will catch up. Friendfeed, though, is far better for creating public conversations and I don't see Facebook going there and Twitter has no leadership willing to piss off its current users to go there. - Robert Scoble

Aidan: have you ever wondered why Twitter is getting more hype than Facebook despite Facebook growing in #s of people far faster? I have. Easy: Facebook doesn't yet allow public entities. IE, celebrities, news organizations, etc. That's going to change pretty quickly. Then what will happen to Twitter's hype machine? It will shut down. - Robert Scoble

It's true. The great Business prof and writer Clayton Christenson always says one of the worst things you can do is listen to your customers. They will drive you right out of business. If they listen to their customers' demands they will leave themselves vulnerable to what he calls "disruption from below" ie, in this case FriendFeed and Twitter. - Stephen Pickering

Apple does anti-user stuff MOST of the time, not some of the time. - Matthew DeVries

Steven, I don't think Christensen said that at all. You aren't vulnerable to disruption from below until you've actually risen, and you don't rise far if you are always chasing new sales and ignoring your current customers. The mistake is only listening to your best customers at the expense of marginal customers. That cedes fertile ground to upstarts. That doesn't mean that it is smart to alienate much of your existing customer base, as FB seems to have done, trying to crush an upstart. - Erik S

No offense to anyone :-D but the comparisons to Apple? I mean, come ON. Apple is *visionary.* Jobs said "I see a smartphone that people enjoy using," and lo, it was done. Jobs said "I see a day when music will be DRM-free," and lo, it came to pass. That's *vision.* Facebook is *imitative.* They are borrowing from Twitter and Friendfeed. Imitation is in their DNA, going back to Facemash... more... - Karim

I don't agree with part of what you say in your post, Robert. I think Facebook does listen to what its users say even if that doesn't always translate into doing what those users want. The terms of use issue is a great example of this as is its promise to incorporate user feedback if enough people demand a particular change to its future terms of use. Where I agree with you is that Zuckerberg must press ahead with what he and his team feel is the best direction for Facebook despite minority protest. - Paul Jacobson

"Then what will happen to Twitter's hype machine? It will shut down" That is pretty bold :-) - Edwin Khodabakchian

Great food for thought. But I strongly disagree. The previous changes to FB added to the site's functions, but in many ways the latest round of changes have changed the fundamentals of the way FB works. It smells to me of a company desperate to find a real revenue stream ... the ad network just doesn't work effectively, the applications and API are all but dead, and now the useful tools like events and groups have been pushed into the background in favour of a suite of copycat Twitter-alike functions. - Toby Hede

I strongly disagree with you on this topic Robert. I have been a part of social networks in Turkey for a very long time now and I have seen why and how the trend shifted from one network to an other. The reason people settled on Facebook was because it was mainstream and appealed to the casual user. You and I can filter a massive feed from networks to see only what we need to see but the casual user can`t. Many will switch to an alternative if Facebook insists on its new model. - Tuna

I actually think the outrage over this new design is less than the last time... and I hear everyone always threatening to leave if they don't switch back... please, it may happen one day but the very nature of facebook keeps them safe from people just leaving... people will whine, they'll threaten to leave, and then they'll get over it... - Shawn Duffy from twhirl

how to eat a big cake?!!a part at once. this is what FB are making they are trying to make the user adapt to change in a progressive way, many change are to come personally I enjoyed robert post, it is very instructive, and I agree at a point you may not listen to your costumer, but there is no reason to say it to them. leader some time have to keep some observation for themselves, and to not comment on any thing. - abdellah

Google figured this out a long time ago. What users actually DO online far outweighs what they say they do. Hence, initiatives like Google Labs - Jim

@Jim: I wish I could bottle that motto and make sure everyone understood it. Too many take qualitative research and let it guide decisions and then become confused when the product isn't effective. - AJ Kohn

Because in the end it is about making Mark Zuckerburg (even more) rich off of our information. Recording each and every like, click, and post to better help target our eyes towards a bunch of useless garbage and trying to own our images, thoughts, and ideas along the way. I suppose knowing that might help avoid being played. - Tim

I will wait. I like that you predict such nice things, but I am not sure that a bad user interface is what will bring in the business. On the other hand, I am still waiting for the revolution predicted in Naked Conversation and the Long Tail to happen, so a bit more wishful thinking won't hurt. I agree that FB has to move forward and they should go the way they want to go, otherwise it will end up in a mess. - Roland Hesz

Reread the post, and yes, I am positive that the current user interface mess up has not much to do with the bring in the business. Making it harder for people to find anything will make it harder to move forward I think. But it Zuckenberg's toy, he should do it the way he wants. Probably has a long range plan. - Roland Hesz

Robert, hadn't actually stopped to think why twitter was getting so much hype. I have a touring bicycle. It's inspirational to get tweets from Lance Armstrong. How this will translate to Facebook in the future will be interesting to say the least. My daughter works as a graphic designer, is more a myspacer than a facebooker, she tweets but mainly as a device to communicate with me. Her comment to me recently was that she has noticed business everywhere including twitter handles. Congrats by the way! ;] - Aidan Mann

just think people don't like changes, so that's why they keep arguing bout the new design. Even if the changes are for good, people dont like it so they complain... not leaving, but complaining all time. - Dani Martínez

Henry Ford said "if I'd given customers what they want, I would have invented a faster horse." - Tom Landini

I'm not getting the "objects in the social graph" part of the later phases in Robert's post. Can someone provide an example? How about where to find out more? - Tom Landini

people didnt like the fb change, yes, including me. After reading above blog i came to know the intent & agreed also. So, people could be making opinion just based on UI changes, without knowing the reason, like me? Was it possible for fb to handle it better? - Roshan Ramachandran from twhirl

Tom, I took that to mean things like, "You are now following @MarsPhoenix," "The U.S. Government is now following you," "You have a new friend request from the 2nd Floor Break Room Coffee Pot." - Karim

Will Facebook listen to the public and change it's frontend, probably not until user numbers vastly drop. Do I like the new look? No. Will I stop using Facebook? No. Why? Well I know how facebook works enough that I can get the information that I used to get from the frontend other ways. It's just harder to get. It's for this very reason I believe the users will carry on using Facebook. They don't like it, but they can get by. Hence facebook will think the majority like it & it's the minority moaning - Paul Bainbridge

@Karim: Thanks. So that means the US Gov't and the Coffee Pot can see all my posts etc. on Facebook, I guess. But if it also means I can see all of the stuff on their networks, that opens things up pretty wide. And I guess I can see who's been drinking coffee on the 2nd floor when I'm away. - Tom Landini

sadly, the US Government almost never posts pictures from that wild party where it got drunk and destablized a foreign government. also, the Coffee Pot just tends to whine a lot about how you haven't refilled it lately (despite location awareness showing you were in the same room twice today), and it complains when you don't fill it up with the "right" brand of expensive coffee and then gets all petulant and moody because it thought you and it were friends. - Karim

Pity people without Facebook; they never know what the gov't is doing and have to suffer the coffee pot's silence. Hey, wait and minute .... - Tom Landini

....They get news from other places? Facebook seems useless from my point of view. - ralphsaunders

@Karim - The Poor Coffee pot, will it ever learn? ;) - Tyson Key

@Karim - i'm fairly certain the gov't can see what you're doing whether on FB or not. wave to the g-men! - .LAG liked that

ErikS Facebook hasn't risen already? Are you kidding me? If nothing else he simply couldn't stand still while everyone was spending their time on Twitter or his business would die. He had to shake things up, even if it were just for the sake of shaking things up. I like it. Competition is fun and healthy and gives us more valuable products and services. - Stephen Pickering

Stephen,are you kidding me? You said that "Clayton Christenson always says one of the worst things you can do is listen to your customers. They will drive you right out of business." That's a mischaracterization, I explained why. Taking it on your own terms, you're suggesting Facebook got as far as it did without listening to customers? I don't buy it, given that there are multiple examples to the contrary. True, sometimes businesses have to risk alienating customers. We'll see how it turns out this time. - Erik S

Thomas Hawk

‘Star Trek’ Fans Put Kirk’s Command Chair in Their Homes - NYTimes.com - http://www.nytimes.com/2009...

March 19 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Gale Stafford, Kyle Judkins, Ryan and 17 other people liked this

"THERE is nothing particularly unusual about the living room of the two-story town house that Scott Veazie shares with his wife in Washougal, Wash., except for one piece of furniture in a corner: a full-size replica of the captain’s chair from the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, as seen in the original “Star Trek” television series." - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

3 more comments

“The closet command-chair Trekkies have come out of the closet,” said Keith Marshall, 45, an unemployed phlebotomist, emergency medical technician, corrections officer and firefighter whose uncompleted chair, currently sitting in his brother’s garage, is slated for his own living room in Bonney Lake, Wash. “For a lot of people in the last few years,” Mr. Marshall added, “the pieces have... more... - Thomas Hawk

It doesn't even look particularly comfortable to sit in though... - Eric P

You never sit in it long. Job description requires you to stand up suddenly at random intervals and growl, "Khan!" - Chris Baskind

Engage.... the bbq - Peter Renshaw

Angela Siefer

Interesting beta social network for community organizing and development funded by MacArthur Fdn. http://communitycollab.org/pages....

March 2 from Facebook - Comment - Like - Share

Erich Broksas liked this

Loic Le Meur

Facebook's Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover - BusinessWeek - http://www.businessweek.com/technol...

March 1 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Erich Broksas, Bill Romanos and Moses Kpetigo liked this

The social network intends to grow during the downturn, but Facebook's imprecise and illiquid stock valuation limited its appeal to Twitter. - Loic Le Meur

Jeremiah Owyang

Who thinks Scoble dominates the "best of day" (and beyond) for Friendfeed? I do.

February 23 - Comment - Like - Share

Morton Fox, Jeff P. Henderson, cathycracks and 36 other people liked this

Provocative, thought-inducing posts + comments combined with thousands of followers. Yup. - Hutch Carpenter

32 more comments

Always tons of comments / likes because it's generally great content/insight - andy brudtkuhl

I'm glad he leverages his giant Twitterbase to create conversations on FriendFeed. It's usually more fun than a blog post! - Daniel J. Pritchett

Without a doubt. I'm glad someone is able to instigate so much discussion. - coldbrew

I look at best of the day and I only see one or two items from me. That's hardly domination. - Robert Scoble

Way to get yourself up on the best of day Jeremiah: http://friendfeed.com/e... - Hutch Carpenter

Scoble is on 6 of my best of day feeds. Not two. - Jeremiah Owyang

3 for me - Hutch Carpenter

Mona N. dominates my best of day just as much as Robert does, currently. - Alex Scoble

Well Chris - I like your contributions too, even if you think I live in an odd part of (non) San Francisco. - Hutch Carpenter

Jeremiah: that's because you have 268 friends and are VERY heavy on geeks and techies. Those people participate in my items a lot more than, say, Alex's friends do. Remember, Best of Day is different for everyone and is based on your friends and what they are engaging with. - Robert Scoble

I'm just razzing you Chris. You know, one of these days we should subscribe to one another. But let's not be hasty. - Hutch Carpenter

It's what Robert says plus a very good reason: he is very good at what he does and is appreciated as such - Alexandros Georgiadis

If you (generic) aren't happy with the content you see, or don't see, on Friendfeed, then change/add people to whom you are subscribed, or look at what you are and are not filtering. Also, take a look at FFholic.com; look at who is most active instead of who has the most followers. - MVB (Grinch of FF)

That makes more sense Robert. - Jeremiah Owyang

Scoble is only on my "Best of" twice ... same as Owyang. - Beebo Wallace

Right now I have two items from Scoble and two from Jeremiah (because Scoble commented on them ;-) - Ken Sheppardson

I miss a lot on Twitter with just @scoblelite Mostly it's noise, however. - A Mitchell

just two Scobles for me - but one of the best things I did was to take R. Scoble and a few other hyper-FF users out of my FF homefeed and into their own group (sorry Robert - just had to be done). I get to see more interesting stuff now than every before and FF doesn't feel quite as cliquey anymore - Frederic

Frederic: that's how I'd use friendfeed. I suggest creating a list called "noisy assholes" and putting me on it. There is SOME value to my like feed ( http://www.friendfeed.com/scoblei... ) but it can overwhelm other people, so should be kept separate until you figure out whether or not you are getting any value from it. - Robert Scoble

Robert, quit calling yourself an a-hole!! Noisy, we all can be but an a-hole you are most certainly not!! >:( - Mona Nomura

Robert - absolutely - lists are probably one of the most underused features on FF (wouldn't call you a noisy asshole, btw - you just produce a hell of a lot of content on any given day - and that's a good thing :) - Frederic

Mona: thanks, very kind of you, but being an asshole is memorable. I saw the guy who runs http://radio3.cbc.ca/ talking about how they want to build an even crappier website at Northern Voice on Saturday. I thought that's funny because it's a very cool website. Then it hit me that I've been thinking about his speech for the past three days. By saying they do a crappy job I've been arguing with him in my mind for three whole days! :-) - Robert Scoble

I think Scoble pays $1000 / day to be on that list (just teasing) - Bastard Operator From FF

Sean: it costs more than that! :-) - Robert Scoble

Scoble: I was shocked this was 10 hours old and no one took that shot.. I had to, it's too easy - Bastard Operator From FF

Robert, I thought you were going to be spending less time on these services, or have you found a way to turn it into an income earning activity - Bob Sonin

Intresting thing about that. Scoble dominates YOUR Best of Day. Mine, not so much. The Best Of Day feature is soley for your feed and those you choose to subscribe to. Also to, Scoble doesn't really dominate it, the poeple who comment and participate in the discussions he sparks cause it to be so. - Johnny Worthington

Bob: I was hardly on the past five days. And "maybe." :-) - Robert Scoble

Not usually, I usually see a lot more of other people's stuff. - Mathew™ one of a kind

@Robert: I could tell you weren't active (actually posted about it). That says a lot about you as a person and about the power of FOAF. - AJ Kohn

Blame Scoble --- scoblefeed! :) I like Robert so I don't complain, but yes he's HUGE Louie! - Susan Beebe

In the last few days, I've noticed that personal items (stuff from real friend with few followers) were in higher place in my "best of". - Jérôme Flipo

I've actually not got a lot of Scoble in my best of week. - Chris Nixon

Duncan Riley

Let the Twitter backlash begin: Times calls Twitter users narcissistic - http://www.inquisitr.com/18622...

February 22 from The Inquisitr - Comment - Like - Share

Warner Crocker, Dan Morrill AKA Techwag, Erich Broksas and 23 other people liked this

I'm not sure you will find anyone who will disagree with this. - Thomas Stromberg

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The Times, or the post? :-) They're not inaccurate about the some of the latest wave, but it's poor targeting that they presume everyone, such as us before the surge, are all the same - Duncan Riley

Nice one - Seriously journo's should not be aloud to write about Twitter unless they have used it for +6 months :P - Stephen Edgar

Narcissistic is only a fraction of twitter but more of sharing, socialising, networking, contacts on a global scale. Major news items now pass through the social media first with the actual people involved before the middleman. The mainstream media like the Times who are slow to adopt social media are rather insecured. - Moses Kpetigo

Tim Bray has a great new post about why it's ok that we have story after story (after story) about twitter and friendfeed and facebook http://www.tbray.org/ongoing... - Brian Hendrickson

lol.. very well put, Duncan. I also really like the way you end the article.. kudos :) - Asfaq

Wait, does this imply there are other users on Twitter than myself? Is that what the whole Following thing is about? - Kevin Leroux

What? people are STILL using Twitter? - TranceMist

Generalized social chat: a strong argument could be made that it is mostly an extraordinary waste of time. One can find a much higher level of discussion on blogs and forums that are dedicated to particular issues, research fronts, areas of expertise, etc. For instance, compare the quantity and depth of discussion on Glenn Greenwald's blog compared to that on generalized social chat... more... - Sean McBride

Twitter is a message board. Nothing new except it's device agnostic. - Patricia