I saw a comedian once who said he wonders if pigs lick themselves to see what the fuss is about. It would kinda suck to know that everyone loves you as much as people love bacon. - Trish Robinson
And misplaced quotation marks. Right after 9/11, I saw a sign that said God "Bless" America. I doubt they were being ironic. - Carla Thompson
Carla, yeah, I see that a lot: people who think that quotations implies emphasis. I think this says a lot more about the poor quality of an American education than anything else. - Akiva Moskovitz
Evan Williams just put away his checkbook from the summize deal but needs to get in touch with these guys! THIS is what twitter.com needs to look like! Good stuff. - paisano
oh Orli - this gives me hope! With the auto-refresh we might even be able to have a half-decent conversation on Twitter! Do you know what it's using under the hood for the real-time updates? Ajax? Keep us posted on this please!! - Matt Hooper
Thanks for the positive comments everyone. Our team is really dedicated to providing the best twitter experience possible via the web. There are a few bugs left to work out, but we're hoping to get those ironed out over the weekend and do a soft launch next week. - derek
Oh, and follow @tweenky for the latest updates with the application. Matt, this application uses the Summize & Twitter APIs, and heavily uses ajax (jQuery). - derek
Whats going on with this people! Is IE secondary ?? "It looks like you are using Internet Explorer. We are still in early early early beta and haven't had the chance to properly test in IE yet. In the meantime, go download Firefox! =)"................. - Jigar Mehta
Jigar, Ugh... IE is such a pain in the ass. we're hoping to get IE7 support, but really, we're targeting power twitter users, and they don't use anything but Firefox & Safari. Right now we're at 4% of our traffic is IE users so not sure it is vital to get working during a beta launch. - derek
Sounds interesting. Would love an invite. Thanx! - Barbara K. Baker
Alright derek, any idea where to get invite from?] - Jigar Mehta
The screenshots look really nice. Would love an invite. Thanks! - Sudar
No invites... but hopefully Tweenky will go public soon. - Orli Yakuel
I need something looking like gmail like I need a hole in the head - James Tenniswood
@derek - Thanks for letting us know a bit more about it - can't wait to have a closer look! - Matt Hooper
Wow! it's so cool to see that lots of people liked Tweenky. Really something that worth waiting for. - Orli Yakuel
This is it exactly: "I think that Loren is angry. I think he's an angry guy. He didn't start out being angry at blacks, but he is now based on the response he's gotten. He also seems to have a racist fan base in there, and he feeds off that as well." Very calm and thoughtful interview. - Mark Trapp
Hank, you've just found yourself a fan. Level headed, reasonable, informative analysis + I just subscribed to whydoeseverythingsuck.com. - Duncan Riley
Hank does a great job, not just on his personal site, but on the Silicon Alley Insider. Glad to see Cyndy and Duncan recognize it as well. - Louis Gray
Of all of the people I've met in NYC over the last year, Hank ranks right up there in the top few. I always enjoy our conversations. Note that before Hank went to SAI, he used to contribute on CN - so like Roi, Kristen and others, CN makes them then they go sign the big money deals elsewhere :-P (I am hoping Matthew doesnt leave!) - Allen Stern
Hank's last response puzzles me greatly - Feldman himself comes from a minority who has a rich history of pain and suffering. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Mark, that was my edit. Hank did say that would have been the only other group that would have the same type of discriminatory history. To me, that makes this whole thing all the more curious. - Cyndy
@rizzn: I like the "his little corner" bit. If that's not a certain modicum of arrigance, I'm not an evil squid-demon-thing, and believe me, I know arrogance. The real issue is that no matter the group Loren decided to use to mock the tech-crowd he'd be branded a racist or sexist. Unless you're telling folks that white people and mainstream culture are bad, you're a racist, a sexist, and probably a pervert, because otherwise people don't get to feel sufficiently victimized. This is a First World Problem, in the sense people with REAL discrimination, bigotry and trouble don't care. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
Why is it such a shocker that when someone sets out to stereotype and mock a group of people it's treated with offense? Negativity breeds negativity. You're not highlighting some core issue when you set out to be an asshole to a group: you're just being an asshole. You're not funny, you're not clever: you're a prick. The fact that Loren won't realize this and exacerbates the issue by making these videos makes him a racist prick. - Mark Trapp
@itafroma: Or it just means that he doesn't think he's being a prick, there are people that find him funny, and he's not, actually, being an asshole. Being short psychic powers this week, I find it impossible to say, but I do find it possible to say that offending people is not inherently bad. Nor is being offended, though it doesn't actually earn any of my respect. That Loren keeps producing things that mock / reference stereotypes doesn't make him racist, pointedly. It makes him not blind. He didn't MAKE UP the stereotypes, after all. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
Very well said Hank, you hit the nail right on the head. - Shey
Cyndy, this is a great post and interview. Thank you for sharing - Mona N
@duncan thanks, glad to have you aboard - Hank Williams
I'm bitchy today too. Thursday is the new Friday. - Carla Thompson
What? The bitchmeme is the day of the week we start them on? Or did I have a stroke of genius somewhere? I'm still annoyed that no one gets what's going on at Android and therefore, ignored my article. - Cyndy
Oops. I forgot to not skim read. Mea culpa. Wait a sec. Bitcherati don't apologize, they just biatch. :P - Mathew A. Koeneker
Okay, this is officially my favorite room now. I did ignore your article, Cyndy, and hate it when people do that to me. I'll go read it right now. - Carla Thompson
Here's my bitchmeme: People who haven't contributed to open source should shut the fuck up about it... Yes, I'm looking at you Dave Winer. The total lack of understanding of what open source is, what it's good at, and more importantly, what it's NOT good at is, frankly, appalling. - Jason Carreira
Can we incorporate that no matter how nicely or clearly I explain "just a little mustard" on my turkey-bacon-cheddar, the local deli always dollops it on? Is overuse of mustard killing sandwiches, twitter? - Mark Trapp
The gloves have been dropped....get ready to rumble. :) - Mathew A. Koeneker
I'd really like the fast food industry to find some balancing point between "no condiments or napkins unless you ask (and even then we might forget)" and "condiments? napkins? sure open your trunk and i will toss in a case of each" - Marco
Oh, I didn't mean you guys. Just saw another InformationWeek article on how HORRIBLE Google is being to the whiny babies on their dev list. Yes, that's right. I said it. - Cyndy
This thread has almost erased my bitchiness. I'm laughing like a loon here. How to go from Dave Winer to mustard in three easy steps... - Carla Thompson
Spicy or regular as that is what defines a true savage. :) - Mathew A. Koeneker
It would appear the we have that silly 6 degrees of separation beat . ;) - Mathew A. Koeneker
Racism kills another thread in its prime - Jason Carreira
Yeah, I was really wanting to see where the mustard argument went. Oh well. Another day, another condiment. - Carla Thompson
Change of heart, I'll apologize and we can pretend that never happened. - Shey
Mayo is for the weak. Mayo is only considered a condiment in and around Minnesota. - Jason Carreira
You know, the guy who dolloped on the mustard did look awfully familiar. I bet it was Loren Feldman. When is that guy not a prick? - Mark Trapp
@Jason this could get ugly. So long as you don't also insist on calling Little Debbie Swiss Rolls "Ho Ho's" I can agree to disagree and walk away ; ) - Marco
Oh, those are definitely ho-ho's.... I'm from the South, ya know. I haven't tried it, but I bet even those would be better with mustard. - Jason Carreira
ok if I do one thing in life it will be to convince people that Swiss Rolls are NOT Ho Ho's. There is nothing wrong with Swiss Rolls in their own right but Ho Ho's are FAR superior in taste. Swiss Rolls does not = Ho Ho's, Chex does not = Coke and if there is any one absolute in the universe it is that Miracle Whip does NOT = mayonnaise - Marco
oh dear... just watched the video Mark links above... not sure what to say - Tad Donaghe
Oh my god. I can't find the words. I do not know how to describe or explain this. At least with the other video you could just say bad satire. After the past week, how can you release this video? - Rob Diana
You know how some toddlers do very bad things because they feel they aren't getting enough attention- and negative attention is better than no attention? This is like that only much, much, much uglier. Ugh. - Abby Martin
Yikes. That passes my litmus test. Whether truly a rascist or just acting out for attention, that is putrid stuff. - Mathew A. Koeneker via fftogo
Loren Feldman is either a racist or is choosing to use racist humor to create a firestorm of commentary that results in links, traffic, and personal reputation. Either way, he is not deserving of any mindshare or attention. Lets just ignore and BLOCK him and move on to more important issues. - Elliott Ng
The conversation is building again: "Ignore him, he's a sorry excuse for humanity" or "Those who ignore him are just as guilty." I tend toward the former but another commenter the other day implied that meant I had no morals or ethics. If nothing else, we can all agree that he's pathetic and needs to climb back under his rock. - Carla Thompson
I had never heard of him until reading this, so I'll just move on and forget his name in thirty seconds. - Rob Reed
You know, I've really liked a lot of Loren's stuff in the past -- most of it actually. I think this video though is sad. It's not at all funny. It's meant to be inflammatory without any redeeming quality that I can find. Even though it's humor, even though it's a puppet, I find it racist as well. That's too bad. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas: Sorry that you like or liked Loren's stuff. I have always thought him a bit of a slimeball - Brian Sullivan
I'm sure he'll continue to argue he's not a racist, but whether he is or not doesn't matter to me. Being as painfully stupid and unfunny as he is, should be a crime of some sort. - Richard Lawler via twhirl
Like Thomas, I really a like a lot of his stuff (his puppet interviews with people in the tech industry were great among other things), he's very smart and talented, but I always kinda imagined him as reincarnated Nazi officer or something like that. The whole 1938 thing, his theme song, his looks and voice. Makes me think of World War II. It'd sure be interesting to have a talented psychic do a reading on him! I have nothing against him though, and look forward to see what he has in store. - Vincent X
yeah I really do wish that people who insist on linking to him, even if just to point out his racist jackassery, would use either nofollow, or title="racist asshole" - Ross McKillop
Vinny, I think Feldman might be able to pull something like that off if he did it right in part because he's Jewish. In the same way that Chris Rock can pull some of his humor off because he's black. You have to be careful with racial sterotype stuff though. I think that this video 1. is not funny or intelligent and 2. is racist and alienates a whole bunch of people for no discernible reason that I can tell. It's a bad move and bad for Loren and his show. - Thomas Hawk
oh he's at it again.. he did this earlier in his career too (da N video @podtech) .. he's pushing the envelope again. once is a mistake , twice means he's stupid ! - Peter Dawson
Just watched it because of the comments... Don't like it, not funny, won't spend more time on 1938media... Perhaps pointing me to it isn't that bad after all ;) - SocialTechArts
Feldman strikes me as the kinda guy who would pound his thumb with a hammer thirty times in a row just to prove that he actually meant to miss the nail the first time. - Roger Benningfield
I didn't even really get the appeal before, but now... It's like he wants to be known as a racist. - Sarah Perez
Don't feel bad, Kevin. Mine is Target. I try so hard to assert that I'm *not* a yuppie suburban mom, then Mint bites me in the ass. - Carla Thompson
Mine is Costco. I get gas and household supplies there. - Alan Le
On a somewhat related note... I was slightly disturbed to have received a postcard from Discover Card telling me that I could have earned $15.00 in rewards from my last purchase at Target if I had been enrolled in their program. - Erin
Well-done post.... Watching a new society form..... interesting... - Chris Reed
Thanks Chris! It is interesting to watch this collection of hugely disparate people jockey for attention. I'll love to see how it evolves. Or perhaps devolves. ; ) - Carla Thompson
It's a place to promote the bitcherati agenda against the covert blackops a-listers. I would not be opposed to people ranting about things. - Mark Trapp
My bitchawesomeness? There's a topic. Discuss. ;) - Cyndy
feel free to be a bitch - as much and as long as you feel necessary ;) - silpol
Michelle Obama joins BlogHer.com as a contributor! - Erin Kotecki Vest
this is great. really. congrats to Michelle for stepping up and i look forward to reading her thoughts about the upcoming election and related issues. - Harrison Wise
Sadly, the inaugural post is pretty lame. Nothing but campaigning for her husband. - Alexei Tolkachev
One of the many reasons I'm such a fan of the Obamas - they are so ready and willing to engage on every possible level with voters. Can't wait to read more. - Carla Thompson
@Erin: Never heard of her... Who is she? - Chris Reed
Oh come on Alexei. It's her first post. Many more to come. I know I've changed from my first post-haven't you? - Erin Kotecki Vest
@alexei Beg to differ. Campaigning to get Obama elected is topic A. You don't have to be a kool aid drinker to know we need a regime change. - Michael Markman
I was just hoping it would be more personal and fresh than that. Could have talked about the New Yorker cover, what sights she expects to see in Europe, how the kids are coping with the pressures of the campaign, anything. I will wait for the follow-up patiently. - Alexei Tolkachev
Exactly, Alexei. A speechwriter could've written that post for her it was so impersonal. - Vincent Ferrari
She wrote it. She will also be chiming in on comments. She plans on being a real part of the community. - Erin Kotecki Vest
I don't think anyone said she didn't actually write it, though. - Vincent Ferrari
@alexei why talk about the new yorker cover? stirring mud is stirring mud. her post was a goo dintro if you didn't know anything about her, other than she's the wife of the democratic president nominee. - keif via twhirl
hmmm two threads - one by Aaron one by Erin - whose will receive more "likes" and comments? hehe - Marco
This is fantastic! BlogHer continues to be an amazing, positive event year after year. Good stuff! - Nathaniel Payne
I look forward to Michelle Obama's thoughts on the campaign/her life. She's a huge asset to Obama's campaign, and I hope her posts won't be too constrained by campaign needs. I'd really love to hear from *her*. - Ayşe E.
@Erin - I originally read as "Michell Malkin." Head nearly exploded. - James Joyner
i hope she will continue posting after her husband was elected :) - Timo Heuer
I don't want to give Erin a +1 on our little impromptu FF competition. But... I agree with both sides. It was a piss poor post (really)... full of campaign speak... but it is her first post, and people do get accustomed. I for one believe that it's really her writing these posts, but frequency of posting will determine that. Plus... if posts only are written around strategic events, then it will play like a political ploy where readers are the baited. - Aaron Brazell
Let's not forget she is trying to get her husband elected. I suspect it will be a bit of both. I do believe she is committed to engaging though. Which excites me. I mean, you are the guys who went nuts over a few congressmen twittering. They were working on getting a message out too you know. - Erin Kotecki Vest
Yeah but only one of those Congressmen are actually Twittering. The rest is their staff. I'm only excited about Culberson. I feel like I'm being played by Ryan, Burton and Blunt. That is what I think most people are referring to. In Culberson's case, he's actually talking to people, and yes he can get partisan - but he's talking. - Aaron Brazell
i've said it before but its worth repeating: its also a little unfair that people demand more impromptu expression for political figures but then jump all over the slightest error in phrasing that is bound to occur. I promise you that candidates are always looking for ways to express themselves more clearly but when anyone can take a 5 second sound bite with no context whatsoever and turn it into a salacious and viral you tube video it gives candidates a huge incentive to stay "on message" - Marco
@Erin: Which congresspeople are twittering? Any senators? - Alexei Tolkachev
@aaron and so is Michelle. So I'm excited...lol. #suckit - Erin Kotecki Vest
Sounds good but left me feeling they were not her own words. Like she was speaking what we wanted to hear rather than what she really feels. It's too bad Mrs. Obama hasn't been posting on her own blog regularly and instead chose to be a contributor at Blogher to share these messages. Too bad she couldn't reference past posts written on her own blog BEFORE she was on the campaign trail. That hurts her credibility somewhat in this instance, I'm afraid. - TDavid
@tdavid she wasn't a blogger before this. We approached her to become one. And now she is. So I am confident like many of us learned how to blog, she will as well. - Erin Kotecki Vest
Erin - I know, that's my point. She should have started her own blog first and she would sound a heckuva lot more believable. - TDavid
I trust you will point her in the direction of a perfect laptop :-) - Richard Binhammer
I really liked this post. It is great to hear about this perspective from someone so deep in the trenches. This insight is very helpful to understanding the current landscape of blogging. - Mindy Koch
A lot of valid points that I agree with. - Adrian Nadeau
I loved the post. Friendfeed is adding a lot of exposure to our digital identity. Do you feel there is a need for a new social netiquette? I.e don't post your "I have a new blog post: domain.com/post " on twitter if you already linked friendfeed to your twitter account AND to your blog? I would love to hear your opinions about that - Marcello Del Bono
Just noticed the same. When I started blogging I always asked myself: Should I post this story on my blog or try to sell it to a magazine or newspaper. Now it's increasingly the question if I should blog it or post it to Twitter or FriendFeed. - benedikt
And what about non native english speakers (like me). I blog, twit and post in friendfeed both on italian and english language. is that annoying for non-italian speakers ? I often post the same news on my italian language blog (in italian) and on my english language blog (in english). they are both linked on friendfeed. Is that correct? Is that annoying? I don't have the answers... - Marcello Del Bono
Marcello, it is not annoying, it is just shows a need for filtering for languages. People will ignore things that they cannot read, so let them filter it. - Rob Diana
Rise of rapid yet drastic increment of the socialization on the web might be causing this confusion, I guess. "Time is a cure." - Kenichi Matsumoto
@Kenichi: Will there be a time when we can socialize on the web without having to take care of different languages? Going beyond Babel in social networking? - benedikt
benedikt, I made a confusion here. sorry! I meant to comment on the original post. btw, I'm having the same problem as Marcello pointed out above. I'm a Japanese. - Kenichi Matsumoto
For someone who recently started blogging and use friendfeed, I find this post enlightening - Laurent Rozenfeld
Unless your blog is quite unsuccessful, or you've got an enormous social media following, I'm not sure how this works. 20 times the people will read one of my blog posts vice a Tweat or FF blurb. And, of course, I can actually develop a coherent thought (theoretically) in a blog post. And monetize it. - James Joyner
I think I understand Kenichi. I just wrote a post about the points I see in this thread. http://marcello.delbono.eu/200... Is it correct to link my blog post on this thread? I wrote it on my blog since I have more space there, and I can also use images and formatting. But is this kind of cross-referencing correct? Is it noising? Is it value adding? ... - Marcello Del Bono
Excellent post, Louis. Your brain is in no way suffering from sleep deprivation! - Carla Thompson
Thoughtful post. I wish I could whip up a post in 30 minutes flat. - kamla bhatt
Louis - I thought you said, "that's why I invented him" below. lol! ;-) Thanks for your kind words though. - Jesse Stay
Marcello I don't think there are enough FriendFeed users yet to completely forgo Twitter as an additional platform for sharing content. I still have twice the friends on Twitter as I do FriendFeed. - Jesse Stay
Marcello I think the only standard is that you be yourself - if you get criticized, certainly be courteous, but don't worry too much about any set "rules". You'll be fine. :-) - Jesse Stay
Jesse that's true. Twitter is stil much more mainstream, and growing than FF. But the value proposition of the tools is different: FF is the provider of a social me, a creator of digital identity from your digital fragments around the net, enriched with blogging and social functionalities. Twitter is a microblogging app, istead. So they are two different tools, with different purposes - Marcello Del Bono
"The plot took about 16 hours to generate. The computation required 18 computers (52 cores) using the Hadoop implementation of map/reduce. We printed it as 20 sections, each 24x36 inches, each taking about between 1 and 2 hours to download to the printer and print. Both the computation and printing have significant room for speed improvements. We later reprinted it as 5 sections, each 24 inches wide and about 10 feet long." - Kelly Fox via Bookmarklet
With this map, I can rule the world...... Or just send a whole bunch of spam posing as a Nigerian prince.... - Chris Reed
"Astronomers analyzing the first images captured by the new Hubble Space Kaleidoscope, which went online Tuesday, announced that they've acquired the first concrete evidence that the universe is in a constant state of total weirdness." - Kelly Fox via Bookmarklet
"Are you kidding me? I wrote this article. I don't work for a PR agency - I work for Mashable, a technology blog. Trust me, I think I'd know if I was getting a payoff under the table. And the headline would be a lot better - something like Steve Jobs is Jesus or I'm Going to Marry My iPhone. Something. Did you read the article? As I stated, I don't even own an iPhone - I'm basing my analysis on larger trends and user response." - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
