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l0ckergn0me posted an entry on Chris Pirillo

Is Having Sex with a Robot Hooker Cheating?

7 hours ago - Link

McFrugal and Marc Dierens liked this

no but it is kinda strange... well, I guess it really depends on if you develop an emotional attachment to the robot. But no cheating is not really tied to that. That's a tough question. - Kris Kelley

Best person to ask is your partner. If they consider it cheating, it's cheating. - Craig Thomler

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you know... i think it has something to do with how "human" the robot is - Kris Kelley

Duh. - Christian Burns

My son says "no, it's just weird." Maryam says "I'm not sure I'd want to be with you if you had sex with a robot." (She meant that if I had gotten to the place that I'd want to have sex with a robot that I'd probably have lost all my marbles and/or found something inanimate worthy of doing that with would make her feel unloved/unappreciated). So, maybe it's not cheating, but it sure would bring discord into this family. - Robert Scoble

Straight out of A.I.! I remember Jude Law playing Joe the robo-gigolo! Is it cheating? No, as long as you're not in a relationship with someone! Do I think its weird? Absolutely! Do I think it will be a thing of the future? Yes. Some people can't get the love of their life, for a few grand, they could. - Michael Forian

Of all the problems that bringing intelligent artificial life into this world will solve, having sex with a robotic hooker and getting away with it on a technicality (technicality hahahaha) is probably what drives A.I. scientists most... - Kamath

I asked my girl and she got worried about me! She didn't know why I was asking. Anyway, she says she wouldn't consider it cheating, but it would be just weird. She also said if she were married to me it would be grounds for divorce because it was so weird. Haha. - Dennis Jackson

Hey Chris - Checked your site but couldn't find the "Unboxing the Robot Hooker" video?? - :) - David W

Yeah, on your computer. No longer do you spend long hours hunting for porn you haven't seen 20 times already. Now you have your robot. Hardly even check your email anymore. - Jack Carlson

have you seen battlestar galactica? Six and three threesome is where it's at! - Ralph Whitbeck

Loic Le Meur posted a message on Twitter

“8438 people follow me on Twitter and 5160 on Friendfeed. Friendfeed seems to be catching up fast. Wondering if I will have more on FF soon?”

10 hours ago - Link

Cyvros/fyc, Susan Beebe, Michael J Cohen, Bryan Landers and 15 other people liked this

Only if you want. - J.T Dabbagian

The question is: how much do YOU follow :) - directeur via NoiseRiver

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pretty impressive, I can't relate to those numbers; i have 49 on Friendfeed and 175 on Twitter - Lou Paglia

in any case thanks for following me! directeur on Twitter I follow 8439 people and about 500 on Friendfeed I think. Friendfeed shows you a lot of content from people you don't follow (if they comment or friends of people you follow) so it's not the same on FF. You can read lots of people you do not have to follow on FF which I like, some people find it's noise. - Loic Le Meur

Loic, I actually share your opinion on the subject :) I was just (how do we say "taquiner" in english btw?) :) - directeur via NoiseRiver

mmm either it is a total coincidence or Michael got this post from my tweet http://www.techcrunch.com/2008... - Loic Le Meur

1880 follow me on twitter and so far 362 on Friendfeed, (but I've only just started really using it properly). Because of this, they are quite different experiences for me at the moment. I'm really liking that you can see different types of content in ff, and that you can see all the comments of a conversation together. I do wish there were more women commenting though, as I mentioned in a Share yesterday. - jjprojects

For me, 1,128 on twitter and 121 on friendfeed - Christian Burns

Having a lot of followers here quickly might have something to do with the fact that followers can quite easily be moved over from twitter to here, do you think? I've found that. Twhirl is another incentive to use ff as well as twitter, Loic :) - jjprojects

I think the real question is whether we are creating an echo chamber. I think not. I find this all very meaningful. - Kris Kelley

2,629 follow here, and 1,288 on Twitter. I don't think Loic follows me on either. :-) - Louis Gray

No offense, but isn't all this numbers-posting stuff (that seems to be the latest A-lister trend) kinda B.S.? How much do you actually read? How much do you contribute? And more importantly, how much is it changing your life for the better? How much are you changing others' lives? Otherwise, heck, it's Friendster all over again. "I have 50 friends!" "Well, I have 500!!!" :P - Adam Lasnik

Adam: you can click over to the right to see how many people and conversations I interact with. This is a LOT different than Friendster. - Robert Scoble

good point Adam, it is not how many that matters, it is who follows you. In this case I was just trying to check the proportions. - Loic Le Meur

Loic: who follows you really doesn't matter. Who YOU follow defines you. Inputs vs. outputs. If you just care who is consuming your outputs you'll soon be a pretty shallow fellow. Me? I want to follow smart people and have conversations with them. Better inputs makes me smarter. - Robert Scoble

except robert thinks anyone not voting for obama isn't smart. - Wolfsbayne

Loic, yep, now I see you were focusing on the ratio. Sorry for being a bit over-snarky perhaps; I've just seen so many threads lately on "Look how many followers I have on [x] service!" And Robert, I see your point, but -- as I've challenged you in the past -- I still haven't been convinced of the "worth" issue. You are splendiforously active online. You follow a zillion people. Zillions follow you. Has it made lives appreciably better, or is it just so much gee whiz, look at the latest? - Adam Lasnik

Adam: does reading the New York Times or watching CNN made lives appreciably better? How could I even try to make such an audacious claim? That said, this morning I had breakfast with a bunch of Twitterers/FriendFeeders and we had a great time. That made MY life better. - Robert Scoble

Personally, I think watching CNN makes folks' lives worse, and I'm less and less keen on the NYT, so not sure those are great examples :P. But yeah, I think pretty much every action one undertakes should make lives better. Simple things: flossing teeth. Reading Digg for hours on end? Probably not so much. Subjective? Absolutely. But speaking as someone who has wasted (yes, wasted) way too much time online at times, I am happy to (somewhat hypocritically) call others out on what I perceive as... - Adam Lasnik

a strongly overinflated sense of the importance of online activity. With that said, using online interactions to make one's real life richer... that's something I agree is awesome :). - Adam Lasnik

Adam: on my best of days yes, I try to make your lives better through my media. But only history can judge whether I actually rose to that level. - Robert Scoble

Fair enough, Robert. And while I fundamentally disagree with a lot of your philosophies and often don't share your (sincere) excitement for many online things, I do think your heart's in the right place :) - Adam Lasnik

I'm not sure if I absolutely understand the direct FF:Twitter correlation. For discussion, tweets are fleeting, FF is permanent. - David Adewumi

My Twitter is more quantative,FriendFeed more qualitative:) - Igor Poltavskiy

David: everything on the Internet is permanent thanks to Google. I get what you are trying to say, though. I call this the "half life of a conversation." On Twitter it's a few minutes. On FriendFeed? More than an hour. - Robert Scoble

imho, tweets about # of followers is major turn-off. i can't count that high. not in English. Not in French ;-) - Andy Sternberg

http://simpl.es/XY9DtE - Alex Andrek

I wonder what the guys@twitter got to say about all this 'end of twitter' talk going on out there.....anything i missin here ? - Jassim

Sincere question: Howdo followers create value for you (from $ to brand, etc.)? Any "before" and "after" analysis? It is great for us all to be talking a lot - I am just starting to pull back and see what the real value is and would love your thoughts! - Tony via twhirl

one thing to consider when comparing FF and Twitter follower numbers is that you don't have to follow someone to see their stuff in FF. For example, I see this thread not because I follow Loic, but I follow Louis Gray and he follows Loic. Unlike Twitter, this makes it much easier for new comers to be part of the conversation in FF. - berkay

@RobertScoble Twitter's traffic more FriendFeed's one though - Igor Poltavskiy

@Loic, See what people are saying about LoicLeMeur on Twist - see trends in twitter ;) http://simpl.es/0E3eNA - Alex Andrek

Wow, FF is catching up with twitter ... cool! - Susan Beebe

don loeb posted a message on Twitter

“my 6 yr old just went absolutely nuts....so nuts, that we now can't wee wall-e tomorrow night. man, i'm bummed...”

Friday at 10:54 pm - Link

joneilortiz, mike "glemak" dunn and edythe liked this

That does suck when you use the nuclear option on something you you wanted to do as well. You do have the option as a parent to change your mind. I hope your move is going well though it sounds like there might have been a small toll. - Jason Shellen

Isn't the nuclear option where you hire a sitter and then go see it yourself alone? - Chris White

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yeah...the packing (thanks for your thoughts btw!) may have just pushed him over the edge :) but, we can't back down now! - don loeb

In 10 years he'll find this in the next version of the wayback machine while searching for stuff about dad. He'll be amused and vaguely remember why he was upset except now, he'll be able o verbalize it like an adult and you'll both laugh and watch Wall-E together again for the 27th time since July 4, 2008. - Erica Baker

Adults can verbalize why they have temper tantrums? I thought we just rationalized our selfishness and used passive aggresive retaliation instead. - ⓞnor

we're paying the price for keeping everyone up for fireworks last night -and we haven't even taken anything away yet. - matt shobe

@ⓞnor whatever. /me blocks you. ;) (j/k) - Erica Baker

erica: like your in 10 yrs comment don: feeling your pain, my youngest (16 y/o now) was constantly "punished" when that age & we never could give in or back down else he would rule us - we figured he'd be a dictator when he grew up, time will tell ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

ok...so, he apologized to his mom this morning and was a very good boy all day, so we went tonight - yes jason, we (parents) can changed our minds! plus,.i neglected to mention that we're moving on thursday and tomorrow is his 6th bday. so, i gave him another chance. :) - don loeb

You're so excited, you went "wee"? - l0ckergn0me

We use many forms of the nuclear option. The funny thing about missing out on Wall E is that the kid is probably going to see that movie 50 times over the next 3 years :) - Christian Burns

He's only 6, unless he committed a capital crime, perhaps forgiveness is in order. And a movie. - Steve Pribut

Paul Buchheit posted a link

Talking Business - On Day Care, Google Makes a Rare Fumble - NYTimes.com

yesterday at 2:10 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

zenya isaychew, Igor Poltavskiy, Kishore Balakrishnan, J.T Dabbagian and 28 other people liked this

"Under the new plan, parents with two kids in Google day care would most likely see their annual day care bill grow to more than $57,000 from around $33,000. At the first of the three focus groups, parents wept openly. As word leaked out about the company’s plan, the Google parents began to fight back. They came up with ideas to save money, used the company’s T.G.I.F. sessions — a weekly meeting for anyone who wanted to ask questions of Google’s top executives — to plead their case, and conducted surveys showing that most parents with children in Google day care would have to leave Google’s facilities and find less expensive child care." - Paul Buchheit via Bookmarklet

Strangely written -- hard to believe this is in the NYT: "Faced with this dilemma, Google decided that the way to solve the dual problems of a too-long wait list and a too-large subsidy was — are you sitting down for this? — to get rid of C.C.L.C. and make the Kinderplex more like the Woods!" - Paul Buchheit

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wow. - edythe

Sergey Brin comes off as a real gem. Looks like 'don't be evil' is morphing to 'let them eat cake'. Amazing what a 40%+ drop in share price can do. - Peter Simard

I found it odd that NYT quoted Sergey multiple times but each quote was disputed by Google PR after the fact. Seems like their PR folks are trying to do some "damage control"? - Alex Barbara

$57,000 just for someone to watch your kid? Remind me to not have kids for a while.. - Alex Barbara

Slowly but surely the shine will finally come off of Google and reality will set in. - AJ Kohn

The sense of "entitlement" is pretty stunning to an outsider who is an occasional visitor. It's pretty obvious (to me) that the "gimme" attitude is going to be an albatross around Google's neck when the time comes that their stock price returns from the stratosphere and settles around something reasonable and in line with the true value of the company. - Jason Wehmhoener

Geez. I don't know one solution that didn't generate new problems as a result of its having solved an old problem. Can't win no matter what in the eyes of the media. Also, this is news-worthy enough to be in the Times? - Ginger Makela

I have no thoughts on the day care issue in and of itself but people changing "don't be evil" into "do no evil" makes me grind my teeth. http://www.google.com/search?q... - Erica Baker

@Paul, agreed -- it's a strangely written story. The writer's bias is clear. Using heresay from employees then vaguely referring to the official statements. - Sprague D

$57,000 was for two kids... and after the price reductions, it won't be that expensive. - Michael Leggett

The author feels that employee-provided day care should be a requirement just like health insurance (not sure I agree), but fails to applaud Google's effort to make it available to those that want it. A 700-child waiting list (over 2 years) is unreasonable as is Google paying a $37,000 subsidy per child. I love working at Google... and I want them to stay around. Paying that large a subsidy is irresponsible to its employees and its shareholders. - Michael Leggett

You could argue that they should just lower costs then... but the main cost is the teachers (as it should be). Google believes teachers should be paid more and I'm proud that they are putting their money where their heart is by doing just that. If you don't want to pay so much, you can always find day care else where, right? Am I missing something? - Michael Leggett

When I visited HP I noted that they don't have the coffee carts anymore that they used to have. The employees noted that other benefits had gone away too. When the high profitability phase of a company ends, the benefits usually go away. At Microsoft they tried taking away things too, like towels in locker rooms, and the employees rebelled. - Robert Scoble

wonder what is average daycare costs there, in area? - silpol

It's absolutely incredible that day care would cost more than the mean national income ($48,201 according to Wikipedia). I understand that this is Silicon Valley, and therefore not applicable to the rules of the rest of the country, but still...it's astounding. - Spinn

We were paying $21,000 a year for two kids and that was top of the line in Charlotte. In theory I like the idea of company sponsored childcare but in reality I don't want my employer to have any influence over my kids. - Lori Reed

I posted this to reddit and got on the front page :P - Bjorn Tipling

probably I have to stop bitching about local tax - I pay monthly for not-full-day at kindergarten in about 100 meter from my house about 130 EUR, for full day it might reach 200 EUR/month max, i.e. annually 2400 EUR (~3600 USD)... hmmmmmmm - silpol

"Google can’t just have low teacher-child ratios — it has to have the lowest of anybody." - Shouldn't it be high teacher-child ratios? Unless they want more children to less teachers. - nadim

I had a hard time believing this was a NY Times article when I first saw it. Talks about child care at the beginning, then references a blog post talking about how Google is not a good place to work and then goes on to detail the child care issue. - Turker Keskinpala

@Michael -- $57G's .. not expensive? ... I don't even make that much in 2 years anymore .. - Steven Hodson

"If Google had really wanted to do something path-breaking about its day care crisis, it would have spent less time creating elitist day care centers and more time figuring out how to “scale” day care for everybody no matter what their salaries." - Gabe Schaffer

Even $33k for 2 kids seems like a lot -- at $16/hr it seems like you could just hire a babysitter for 8 hours a day to watch your two children. For $57k you could just hire a child psychologist full time. - Gabe Schaffer

@Steven I didn't mean it wasn't expensive. It is expensive. I meant it won't be as much as $57k. Maybe I'm not being fair... but I thought the article was bias (not invalid). It does raise some interesting issues... are companies responsible for providing child care? Something seems backwards with how we live when we work so much that we expect our employer to take care of our children. I don't know the answer... but good things to think about. - Michael Leggett

This same guy also wrote the weird 'open letter to Jerry Yang' the other week: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06... - j1m

So basically by having my wife stay home and do a superb job of taking care of the kids and the house during the day she is worth about $90,000 a year. Thank you babe! You are awesome! - Christian Burns

But what about people who don't have kids, should Google pay them because they are saving the company money? And what about those people who want to have kids, but can't meet the right person, should Google pay for dating services? Google is an awesome place to work, and sometimes they go overboard. Witness the swimming in place pools with lifeguards that almost nobody used. Let's agree to compare them with other companies. It's only fair. - Chris White

hmmm... let's see, four years ago, i was making $45 000 a year before i quit to take care of my daughter full time while my wife continued her job; because it made more sense than spending my entire salary on a nanny just so i could go to work. plus i get to hang out with my kid(soon to be kids) all day and do cool stuff like help them learn the alphabet, count, play their first casual computer games, go to the park, swim, museums, etc. there's always that option. - Nathan Eckenrode

It seems like everyone has ideas on how to do this at a lower cost than Google. Maybe someone should open a competing "google" daycare near the Google campus -- from the sounds of it there would be hundreds of eager customers. - Paul Buchheit

I'm interested to see if these kids actually turn out to be uber-smart. How many of the Googlers went to intense, research-driven, daycares like these?We'll see in ten to twenty years, but at times, one has to wonder how people ever became intelligent without having the latest and greatest learning craze forced down their throat. A better indicator of their intelligence will most likely be how much learning is re-inforced (deep breath here) at home by their parents, instead of video games and TV. - David Adewumi

Aaron Brazell bookmarked a page on del.icio.us

re: Civics

9 hours ago - Link

Igor Poltavskiy and Marco liked this

I wonder if the Left could see past Bush's sins as a President to see that he too is a patriot and might have something to offer after his term is over. - Aaron Brazell

I think I just heard Erin throw her computer against a wall, pick it up and block you ; ) qos! - Marco

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Kotecki can #suckit :) - Aaron Brazell

GW Bush can build a library. Of course, it will need to be a picture book library. - Michael W. May via twhirl

Damn, mwm :) - Aaron Brazell

I think he has a lot to offer - on the front-line in Iraq... you know, fighting for what he believes in... he does believe in it still, right? - Lucretia Pruitt

@michael may ok that was funny - Marco

Ouch, Lucretia.... - Aaron Brazell

#1 Kotecki has had company and a friend who like to pour wine all day. #2 Bush is a Patriot, but he's a very dumb one. #3 you all can #suckit - Erin Kotecki Vest

Oooooh... a violent drunk, Mrs Kotecki is. :) - Aaron Brazell

Heyhey now... let's what where we're flinging those #suckits queeny-bay-bee... I proposed sending Shrubya to Iraq... surely you see the beauty of my solution!? ;) - Lucretia Pruitt

Well, we're working with a very loose definition of patriot here. - Summer

At least we haven't descended into "omg that jerkface stole my baybe and sent him to get shot at. Death to Bush" - Aaron Brazell

that's Mrs. Kotecki Vest to you - Erin Kotecki Vest

My favorite Bush quote on this topic: "I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed… It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks." http://snipr.com/2u5qx - nathan

Bush can #SUCKIT fucking frat boys - Erin Kotecki Vest

Erm, Erin? Folks, I think Erin is trying to say "I think Bush would do a fine job but I think he should probably worry about other things that retired world leaders worry about after their terms are over. Like, I think he probably should polish up his golf game a bit" - Aaron Brazell

we should send Bush, Blair, and everyone who still supports them to Iraq as part of his "surge", then we may finally accomplish something :) - Prolific Programmer

Thanks brand manager - Erin Kotecki Vest

He is totally going to retire to the ranch and cut brush and drive his truck around - Christian Burns

Sure, after he retires, he will remain a patriot and applaud every republican president who attacks other countries in the world just because that country's president peed on Bush's daddy's vehicle. - Krish

more importantly, the National Review is kinda creepy - Erin Kotecki Vest

Is it also too late to point out that Bush would have to understand a HS Gov. Class in order to teach it....ohhh. come on... - Erin Kotecki Vest

If only we could honor all ten amendments in the bill of rights. Not just the convenient ones. - Christian Burns

Leo Laporte posted an entry on TWiT.TV - Netcasts you love from people you trust

Jumping Monkeys 53: Homeschooling

13 hours ago - Link

Michael Zitek, Matt Rider and Nick Takayama liked this

I am homeschooled :D ! - Matt Rider via twhirl

I was homeschooled out of necessity for a few years, but was happy to get back to regular schooling. Being able to bounce ideas of others, have some healthy competition, etc, are all good. - Deepak

I have been and will be homeschooled for the rest of my 2 years of hs - Matt Rider

Will listen. We are going to homeschool our kids. - Christian Burns

There's more to school than education; it's about learning to interact with other people. I went to a rough-as-guts, inner-city state school in the north of England and turned out (I think) just fine. - Neil Saunders

Evan Williams posted a message on Twitter

“@wholefoods have you considered an ad campaign around "Better-looking people shop at Whole Foods"?”

13 hours ago - Link

Bjorn Tipling, Eric Schlissel, Adam Turetzky, Dean Terry and 5 other people liked this

Yeah, I never shop there...or go on a date... - Kamath via twhirl

Because some vegans often look gaunt. ;) - l0ckergn0me

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I had the idea of a t-shirt for threadless that says "ugly people just aren't that like-able". Feels the same to me... - Tim Wright

Whole Foods has a twitter? Very nice. - Aaron Myers via Alert Thingy

Wow, as a Whole Foods addict I have to say, I approve this message! (shooter McGavins in the mirror!) - Adam Turetzky

Where Would FailWhale Shop? - Andrew Feinberg

The rich do look better on average. - Christian Burns

as my friend Larry calls it "WholePaycheck" but yeah on average people probably do look better when they don't live on a diet of bleached flour and corn syrup... - Darren Daz Cox

Aaron Brazell posted a message on Twitter

“Nuclear option approved. Going to move in with in-laws. Break lease, save money hopefully. Let's see if marriage survives THAT”

12 hours ago - Link

edythe liked this

Doing what is necessary for survival is a good thing. - Christian Burns

Oh, Aaron, hugs to you and your family, I feel your pain. Joel and I can tell you many stories about money let me tell you. Bless your heart. - Michelle Martinez

michael arrington posted a message

“At super backwater Bellingham airport waiting for flight to Seattle. And you know what? They have free and open Wifi. Best frickin airport in the world as far as I'm concerned. Oh, xray security guy freaked out about my Macbook Air. Said "We got an email about these, haven't seen one yet." ”

18 hours ago - Link

Kishore Balakrishnan, possible248, Jon-Paul Bussoli, Bjorn Tipling and 4 other people liked this

That is a perfect small airport story. - Ryan Stewart

I did mention to the xray guy that the Air is a piece of crap, too. - michael arrington

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Send me some producw when you get toPike's Market ! - marshal sandler via Alert Thingy

Is it? Gonna need a laptop down the road, interesting to hear your POV on the Air. - Hutch Carpenter

What's crappy about the Air? - Bjorn Tipling

you should think about taking kenmore air (seaplanes) to lake union and then cabbing to seatac. much better than sitting in airports in B-ham - Christian Anderson

That is not a backwater Airport :) just a nice laid back one. I didnt know you were in town. I was at the Swinomish Reservation just off of Hwy 20 last night getting some last minute fireworks at 9:45 pm. - Christian Burns

Michael, the Air is the highest seller on Apple.com for weeks now yet bloggers are really hating on it. What gives? I haven't used one beyond a few minutes I played with it during Macworld. Should I wait for rev2? - Adam Jackson

Had a friend driving down a couple of hours ago you wouldn't have had to wait at all. - Arne-Per

Ah, Bellingham. Grew up in that town. Learned to fly at the airport. Good to see it still has that small-town feel. - LizardWisdom

@Adam Jackson: _Always_ wait for Rev. 2. Rev. 1 is what the A-List is for! ;D - Garrett Guillotte

And I was also at that Airport on Thursday delivering coffee to the espresso stand there. Small world - Christian Burns

Louis Gray posted an entry on louisgray.com

TinyURL Adds Custom Alias Feature To Shortened URL Service

yesterday at 2:55 am - Link

GlennIsaac, Majento (Sharon Rudich), Hassan Ibraheem, Sasha Kovaliov and 25 other people liked this

Grab your name while you can. - Steve Rubel

Or if you've a short name, enjoy the lottery of finding out where it leads :) Fortunately, mine was SFW - Edd Dumbill via twhirl

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Hmm.. Sounds like it's going to attract all the problems that domain names have. Except you can't edit the redirect.. Hope it doesn't bring about loads of unused/unusable redirects. - Chris Chua

So cool!! I linked http://www.tinyurl.com/stevenc... to the G8 summit protests. ;-) - Steven M. Cohen

This will be fun until the good short URL's run out -- like now. - Wayne Schulz

That's why I use http://qlnk.net/ http://christianburns.qlnk.net... - Christian Burns

very nice addition to the service! - Nice Fish Films

I linked http://tinyurl.com/steverubel to my Friendfeed. They better stay around now! - Steve Rubel

If you're looking for persistent redirects, you should go to purl.org -- much better for long-term assurance and maintenance - Edd Dumbill via twhirl

i got a dollar bet that jeremiah makes this into a social media post :) - Allen Stern

I got a dollar bet that your response makes Techmeme and mine doesn't. :-) - Louis Gray

It's all Matthew - he's the social media king! I am so glad I won the bidding war over that other tech blog for his services and locked him into a 30 yr contract. - Allen Stern

l0ckergn0me posted an entry on General

National speed limit pushed as gas saver

22 hours ago - Link

Mike Cohen, Bjorn Tipling, Czar Derek Peterman, Voyagerfan5761 and 6 other people liked this

"The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon ... this Fourth of July weekend, gasoline averaged $4.10 a gallon nationwide, with oil hovering around $145 a barrel. " - Wow, that puts it in perspective. - Gary Bacon II

I read an article before which said at $4/gallon, every 5 MPH over 60 MPH essentially adds 20 cents to the price of gas. - Scott Watermasysk

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Funny thread comment re: the constitution in there. I can hear Jimmy Carter's energy crisis speech now..."by 1981 this nation will be free of it's dependence on foreign oil..." Er, I think not. - BISQ

In the words of Sammy Haggar, "I can't drive 55." - alanoakes

Is 55 some magic number? None of the changes in engine technology or whatever in the past 30 years affects that point of efficiency? Just curious and a little surprised. - felix

Want some real perspective? My 2000 Pontiac Grand Am averaged 26 MPG. The Model A Ford... 26 MPG. Figure that one out. - Brian Norwood

55 is actually a magic number, felix. Actually 60mph. In wind tunnel tests, most cars' fuel efficiency drops off severely over 60mph. - J. Phil

The national speed limit was repealed in 1995 because the US House was controlled by Republicans for the first time since 1954. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U... - Christian Burns

Just from watching the consumption screen, the Prius gets the best mileage between 55 & 60. - Mike Cohen

Fred Wilson posted a message on Twitter

“checking out tweetdeck. i love that i can have my timeline, my replies, my summize searches, and my top follows all on one screen.”

20 hours ago - Link

karen2, Bjorn Tipling, Christian Burns , Gabriel N. and 2 other people liked this

Sure, is a great tool! Also the first Twitter tool where followers are listed in alphabetic order when creating a group: great! - Jeroen De Miranda

Fred, cool to go to Europe with enough time so you don't have to be a tourist every day. See what it's like to live there. - Dave Winer

@davewiner i am working about 1/2 of the time, being a tourist about 1/3 of the time, and just living here the rest of the time - Fred Wilson

The summize search is the track function that we want so bad for twitter to return. Did you read Steve's post about the Crown Jewels? - Christian Burns

I agree, TweetDeck has made twitter fun again - Bjorn Tipling

Twitter: Vincent X posted a link

Saw this a few moments ago, it reminded me of the Twitter fail whale. Maybe at some point in the future once it learns to fly on its own.

18 hours ago - via Reshare - Link

Tom, Mohamed Imran Ali, Anthony Farrior, microwalrus and 9 other people liked this

So maybe hancock can save twitter - Christian Burns

That scene in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was just hilarious :D - Horst Gutmann

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in the movie of "Hitchhiker's" anyone know who played the voice of the Whale and the Patunas? - Noah David Simon

It's from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Haven't read the book or seen the movie. - Vincent X

someone photoshop some birds into that thing - Michael Narciso

"Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me? Hello Ground!" - dario agosta

I laughed like crazy when I read this in the book. A whale and petunias! Only Douglas Adams could think that up. - Rahul Das

@Michael Narciso - Tweets would have to be disabled for the fail whale to be that strong. - exador23

still wondering who was the voice of the whale in the movie. Anyone know? Anyone? this isn't a test. I really want to know the answer..... and it isn't 42 - Noah David Simon

Veronica dugg a story on Digg

Conservatives on WALL-E: 'Fascist, Fear-Mongering Nonsense'

Wednesday at 10:54 am - Link

Richard Galvan, michael parks, Bjorn Tipling, Ralph Poole and 10 other people liked this

Oh man, this cracks me up. - Daniel Andrlik

When are these idiots going to finally get it? Oh yeah, when we all DIE because of their incompetence. - Dillon K. Hoops

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Yeah, that whole "humans produce a lot of trash" stufff is just liberal nonsense. We've got a swirling mass of plastic bags circulating the Pacific Ocean cause that's how we like it! - Lon Harris via twhirl

Well, the website is called "thinkprogress.org". Ya think there is a little left bias there? - John Denver

Some people have to get a life, and not take everything so seriously. - Patrick Minze

John, bias or no, those comments they posted are just laughable. My personal favorite is : "I can’t wait to teach my kids how we’ve destroyed the Earth. … Pixar is teaching. I can’t wait. You know if your kid has ever come home and said, “Dad, how come we use so much styrofoam,” oh, this is the movie for you." Like, really? That's a tough question for him to answer? - Veronica

But read what the writer/director says about his film... everybody's wrong: http://www.christianitytoday.c... - Sean McCune

Veronica, I agree with you completely. My point was only that "news" that comes from sources with a bias to either side have to be taken with a grain of salt. I always tune up my BS filter when reading items from NPR or Rush Limbaugh equally. ;) - John Denver

Funny they ignore an "anti-socialist" message of the second half: Big Business & Big Government are indistinguishable. The end of the world comes with that merger as government provides a free, Utopian life with no incentive to work, and uniformed citizens lose all personal identity. They decide they'd rather go home to a mess, till the soil, raise nuclear families, enjoy wholesome entertainment (hoe-downs, "Hello Dolly"), and rebuild a free society than live their government-provided lifestyles. Right? ;) - Kevin Hessel

http://www.christianitytoday.c... - Sean McCune

FF mangled the first URL. The writer/director of Wall-E talks about the film and basically has gone in a whole different direction from anything being talked about by right or left regarding this film. - Sean McCune

Stanton's take on the issues raised by the film is interesting. But it doesn't make those with alternate interpretations "wrong." That's the beautiful thing about art - it can mean different things to different people. Certainly, a film can have subtext and meaning beyond what the director lays out to a magazine. - Lon Harris via twhirl

Lon: Sure it doesn't make them wrong if they interpret the movie differently. But it makes them wrong if they decide that Pixar or Stanton or whoever is "teaching" something that they explicitly deny. Of course, then the conspiracy theorists will just claim they're lying. :-) - Sean McCune

Sean: Yeah, I think we ultimately agree. The film has a surprising amount of depth, so a variety of potential takes on it could be offered, but it's clearly not intended to indoctrinate children into any kind of liberal conspiracy to save the planet unnecessarily, or whatever these loons are claiming. - Lon Harris via twhirl

It's well known that the left coast leans left. Take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the damn movie!! - Hal Rottenberg via twhirl

What a twisted interpretation of little fun movie. - Ralph Poole

I think we are more likely to destroy the planet with our solution to climate change than with too much carbon output. - Christian Burns

Like George Carlin said " the planet will be fine, we're in trouble. - Robert Hafer via fftogo

Clearly this is going too far in what is basically a fun nice animated romantic comedy. That said there are a few "liberal" underlying messages in the film but, come on enjoy the movie for what is truly intending to be. Did anyone else notice or like all the inside Mac jokes? - michael parks via twhirl

These are some of the stupidest comments I have ever seen - Richard Galvan

michael arrington posted a message

“anyone actually use voicemail anymore? necessary evil? turned it off completely?”

Friday at 7:04 pm - Link

Igor Poltavskiy, Art, Jack Littleton, Gavin and 28 other people liked this

I don't find it so bad now with the iphone. In the UK, orange used to have a service where a human operator would take a message and txt it to you. That was great. - Robin Barooah via MojiPage Bot

It all just rolls to my email inbox (and my mobile), so still has value. - Norman Guadagno

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It's a must for me. I spend too much time in meetings not to have it since I'm an IT Consultant/Systems Integrator. For some people, I suppose it's not really useful anymore though. - Jason Huebel

only use it as an answering machine now... email has crushed it as a medium for group informing IMO - Tim Elliott via twhirl

I use YouMail, which sends me an email, sms and transcribes it. Yes, I use it. - Vince DeGeorge

YouMail++. - Hao Chen

Anymore? I have successfully avoided using it for many years. I never liked it to begin with. - Tom Harrison

Almost 100% email - why leave a voicemail when most people are instantly connected to email throughout the day. - Wayne Schulz

Voice mail is essential, because the most useful feature of a cell phone is the OFF button. - Dewald Pretorius

I find it most useful when I'm out and about in an area of poor coverage - Robin Barooah via MojiPage Bot

I have a friend who has forwarded his phone to his wife and lets her be his voicemail. He has done this more than once for weeks at a time, and loves it very much. - Tim Wright

@Dewald I couldn't agree more with you. Cellphones are electronic leeches. Voicemail allows us to disconnect ourselves from them when necessary. - Jason Huebel

I use it on my mobile phone. We don't have landlines at the office anymore. I also have it on my home landline, but that's hardly ever used now. People know the best way to get me is via mobile - voice or text, or even twitter DM, which goes to sms anyway. IM is another good way to get my attention. - jjprojects

completely turned it off and I tell people not to leave me a voice mail. been like this for years. - Loic Le Meur

does YouMail have ads or anything? I have a account but not sure if I want to switch?? - Aaron Myers

Coverage is so bad in south Louisiana that I can't go without it or I'd miss too much. - Garrett Guillotte

i use spinvox, i believe you covered it - converts voicemail to text messages & email - Zee from WeDoCreative

Visual Voicemail has made it bearable again but generally I try to avoid it all together. - David Recordon

Call my phone and you will get your answer: I hate voice mail. - Robert Scoble

I hope all the voice mail naysayers aren't the same rude people taking calls in the middle of a face to face conversation, or in a restaurant or any of the other places where calls annoy everybody around? - Brian Sullivan

my voice mail tells you to send me an email. :-) - Robert Scoble

I don't usually use the word 'never', so we'll just say that I 'hardly ever' listen to vm. - Sonciary Honnoll

No one actually calls me, although I might add that I don't personally like leaving voicemail messages. I e-mail people and people e-mail me - so much easier. - Cyvros/fyc

It gets emailed to me as an mp3. If I don't have your number in my phone, or you use Skype that comes up Unknown Numer or 0000012345 - you go to VM and I'll get an mp3 a minute later. - Aaron Brazell

Love YouMail. Let's you customize message to specific caller, as well as choose from many vanity messages, also selectable by caller. I spend at least 50% of my work day in meetings or conference calls so I have to have VM. - Kevin Shannon

You people are sad ;) Don't you have family members that call you? Doctors confirming appointments? The car repair place? The kids' school? I mean really, I'd prefer to talk to my grandparents on the phone, and if I didn't have voicemail (or if they didn't), I'd miss a lot of things... - Gabe Wachob via twhirl

@Aaron, there is a small ad with the email and transcript - at least I think - it's small enough or non-intrusive enough that I couldn't say for sure. For the voicemail portion, there are no ads that I've ever "heard." I've always been 100% satisfied with it - though please stay away from the corny greetings they offer and do your own. - Vince DeGeorge

Gabe if one of those people calls I call them back. No VM needed. - Robert Scoble

@Vince Some of the vanity messages are OK. I'm partial to the one with Pam and Michael from "The Office". I was considering the one that says "Due to the recent earthquake this call can not be completed", but it might scare the cr@p out of my mother.. - Kevin Shannon

We don't have a concept of voicemail in India.. and I hope VM doesn't catch up here. - Muthu Ramadoss

Of course I use voicemail. It's becuase I don't pick up the phone. - Gerard Barberi via twhirl

Text messages. They are faster and I get them when I'm in meetings. - Travis Murdock

I do have voicemail on my phone but everyone knows I never check it. They text or e-mail me if they really need me. I think I check my voicemail when I realize that I have about 10. - Candace Holly

I use email but a few of my clients still use my Grand Central number. - kre8 via twhirl

I don't mind voicemail, most people don't bother and text me. Trick is to stay on top of it and not let them pile up, unified messaging is nice. Visual Voicemail is one iPhone feature I did appreciate, when it worked. - Andrew Feinberg

I am completely off of voicemail at work and home, but still access it on my mobile, of course - John McCrea

I use youmail for my cell phone. I would use GrandCentral more if more people called me. - Christian Burns

I stll have it on cell and office but office forwards to email. Cell vm, I forget to check so most people don't bother. - Karen Swim via Alert Thingy

I use CallWave, works great. - Alex Sauceda via fftogo

Using PhoneTag (was Simulscribe) so just get emails and sms with transcript. Hardly ever need to listen to them and they just come in with the rest of my comms. Saves a heap of time. - Jed White

Likewise - Rolls to my inbox. Instantly screened .... delete ... delete .... :) - Charlie Anzman

I hate hate hate voicemail. Waste of time. Interface sucks. - Andy Wibbels

I get voice mail now and then and it sort of annoys me. I find email so much better for leaving messages. There's a place for phone conversations but voicemail ... I dunno. - AJ Kohn

I am trying to push people towards sending me text, but - Gabe Wachob via twhirl

Pinger makes it better. - Jay Tannenbaum

Rarely does anything go to voice mail any more. Reading these comments makes me wonder why mine are note forwarded to my inbox. I need to do that. - Sal Distefano

I HATE voicemail, but it is a necessary evil for me. Visual Voicemail on the iPhone 3G should make things easier to manage for me, but I look forward to a voicemail-free future someday soon. - Granteezy

I don't use voice mail, I have a hearing difficulty... - Jack

I use voicemail but simply for work purposes! - Joe Dawson

i hate voicemail - why can´t people just send me an email? - Dieter Schwarz

i find it very useful with skype and also enjoy my cellular provider's free vm service. let's my buddies async messages pretty much like e-mail. greatly reduces callbacks on missed calls. time and money saver for me. - Berk D. Demir via twhirl

I use VM at work so little that I have to "refresh" my memory of the system. Consequently, I usually have about 18 or so messages in the hopper. Anyone important emails me. Most of the VM are from sales or recruiters - Robb via twhirl

if a person is not reachable, send SMS/email.. never felt the need for voicemail! - Rakesh

All my voicemail messages ask people to email me, as I'll be slow in responding to email. - Jeremiah Owyang

haha jeremiah - re-read what you wrote :) - Allen Stern

It sounds like Jeremiah is telling callers/emailers -- "Piss off I don't want to talk to you" ? or is it a typo ;-) - Brian Sullivan

all my friends know not to leave a msg and just hang up. We can see who called and if we want to know why, we will call back. - Jack Scalfani

iPhone and SpinVox are both great solutions. but truthfully I hate voicemail. - Sam Pullara

GrandCentral was a great concept but Google doesn't seem to have done anything with it since they bought it. A combination of their web-based voicemail and iphone-style voicemail would be ideal. - Charlie via twhirl

I use GrandCentral with email notifications that someone called me. If they're in my address book, it tells me who it was and I just call them back. I rarely actually log in to listen to the voicemails! - Kenneth LeFebvre

Come to think of it, I haven't used voicemail in months. - Carolyn

Visual Voicemail on the iPhone actually makes it very efficient for me. - James

for years now I have switched off voice mail and asked everybody I know to so the same, for two reasons: (1) it always ends up making users pay for more phone time: leaving the message + reading the message + calling back. Also, when a friend calls you and you are using voicemail, they are transferred to voicemail: more money for the phone company, less for your friend. And (2) with the existance of email and (if you want to pay extra) SMS, it just doesn't make sense to use voicemail anyway . - µnauta

I hate voicemail - Nick O'Neill

Christian Burns posted a link

TweetDeck: A Different Twitter Client - ReadWriteWeb

Friday at 8:18 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

"The major difference between TweetDeck and other Twitter clients like Twhirl, Snitter, Twitteriffic, and AlertThingy, is that it displays mor

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