Guillotine is a card game but is quick to pick up, quick to play, and very fun. Some of the german-style board games just take too long sometimes (an hour or more, not including setting up all the hundreds of pieces and explaining the hundreds of rules...)
- Shirley Wu
RISK, I agree. Not the rubbish modern version, though. Settlers is good too but disappointingly non-violent... ;)
- Euan
Puerto Rico is my current favorite. Settlers of Catan (w/Seafarers and Cities & Knights) also rocks.
- Don MacAskill
Settlers of Catan! I was "forced" by a friend to learn it on an original German version. I was so lost at first. Then hooked and avid. Then burnt out. Now it's fun again and a classic that my kids always want to play too.
- Micah
In full-blown legalese, Facebook basically told its users that when they posted personal information to their Facebook pages (including photos, the music they were listening to at that moment, or their favorite movies), Facebook owned that information forever and could use it in just about any manner the company wished.
- Leo Laporte
@michael okay - define "use" in view of "ownership" - even format, platform, biz-model ... $300 mil est revenue for 175 mil accts - are you in favor of upside shared with users not just advertisers? What about liability against ID Theft or misuse of information deemed "private"?
- Scott Moskowitz
@michael I'll comment independent of @moskowitz the user has a definite interest in how their information is "used" or "owned" - not everything is viewed in legal terms - trust is "fungible" - look at the banking system. If "rights" are paramount where is "transparency" & "responsibility"? to assert that changes to terms of service are made solely to accomodate a biz model then the expectation of the provider is suspect - suggest the arguments made famous by dan geer> security as insurance
- Wes Schadenfreud
my thoughts on this here: http://www.chuqui.com/2009... -- my future w/ facebook depends on how they fix this. Their new facebook people blog isn't the answer... I've limited what I put on facebook for a while, it's mostly about keeping in contact with other friends on facebook than it is content creation on facebook. they can own my status updates if they want, I won't miss them...
- Chuq Von Rospach
They really need some sort of crossover event. Too late for the Final Five to be Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley and Sun, but I'm sure they could figure something out.
- Ken Sheppardson
Battlestar Galactica was at its worst in mid season 3. the end of season 3 and most of season 4 has been total fan service to end the series.
- Mark Trapp
I've heard Lost is just as bad as BSG. Personally, I think MG is right though--BSG started out immensely strong and has been mostly getting worse since then. However, it has had some exceptionally cool moments along the way.
- thepete
I not giving up on BG. Lost was Lost a long time ago.
- John Flynn
I like BSG this season, last week's episode was a little weak, but for the most part I've been hooked.
- Justin
With friends like these ... Tom Hodgkinson on the politics of the people behind Facebook | Technology | The Guardian - https://www.iterasi.net/public...
From the article: "Facebook is a well-funded project, and the people behind the funding, a group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, have a clearly thought out ideology that they are hoping to spread around the world. Facebook is one manifestation of this ideology. Like PayPal before it, it is a social experiment, an expression of a particular kind of neoconservative libertarianism....
more...
- Ontario Emperor
Facebook investor "Thiel is more than just a clever and avaricious capitalist. He is a futurist philosopher and neocon activist. A philosophy graduate from Stanford, in 1998 he co-wrote a book called The Diversity Myth, which is a detailed attack on liberalism and the multiculturalist ideology that dominated Stanford."
- Ontario Emperor
My opinion - the only problem with the "I won't use this service because I don't agree with the politics" attitude is that if you take that attitude, you're pretty much gonna be a Luddite. For example, Oracle got its start by doing secret work for the Federal government, and the entire Internet itself originated via some work done by the Department of Defense.
- Ontario Emperor
And the author apparently reached a similar conclusion: "For my own part, I am going to retreat from the whole thing, remain as unplugged as possible, and spend the time I save by not going on Facebook doing something useful, such as reading books." Of course, I read the author's article via the Guardian's website...
- Ontario Emperor
of course, the reality is even newsgroups and email were paid for by corporations. or maybe subsidized is the better word. it was more "that way" than you think it was, Jason.
- Chuq Von Rospach
Hmm, what about IRC servers? I'm sure that the largest networks indirectly have corporate sponsors...
- Tyson Key
+1 Ontario, although I've never really thought about the beliefs and politics behind people who run various services, for what it's worth.
- Tyson Key
That's why working from home is nice.
- Jordan Hofker
"ok... i'll wait for spring then..."
- AJ Batac :)
It's only bad for this guy because he didn't move his car for the snowplow... and now he's caught under a snow drift and behind a wall of packed snow. He put himself in this situation.
- Brandon
Questions for people who use two (or more monitors): Are they equal sizes, and do you use them equally? Or is one of the screens your main monitor, and the other one secondary? I have a 24" iMac that's my main monitor, and a 19" second monitor that I use for mainly IM and Twitter.
I do the same thing with IM and such, but I also use the second one for a different view of whatever I'm working on. IM windows pretty much just float on top of that.
- L.J. Leng
I am using my laptop with a second screen. I use one for Email, Twitter, and Skype and the other one for my browser, ustream client, and itunes. I could use two more monitors though!
- Troy Malone
two different sized screens. One for my "main" work, one for things like photoshop pallettes, twitter, IM, etc. A sidecar.
- Chuq Von Rospach
I have two of equal size (23") on a Mac G5. I use the one on the right as my main monitor of focus, and the one on the left for utilities, Tweetdeck (takes lots of room), iTunes, Photoshop palettes, etc.
- Eric Platt
I have dual monitors at work, one's 22" and the other is 20" The main one is for "productivity" (Word, web stuff, etc) and the secondary one holds twitter, trillian, google sidebar, and outlook. Firefox switches between them depending on how much attention I'm paying (anything that requires serious attention ends up on the main monitor).
- Chris Weiss
I have a desktop replacement laptop that goes on the road with me. When I'm home, I have an "outboard" monitor. I tend to use the laptop screen then for email and browsing, and the outboard (better) monitor for design, games, graphics intensive, large format tasks.
- Shava Nerad
I'm about a week from going back to my home grown feed. adsense for feeds isn't worth the trouble.
- Bwana ☠
I ended up dropping feedburner in my blog revamp. One more things complicating things for very little advantage. Stats are nice, but reliability wins.
- Chuq Von Rospach
Mine is Lee Evans. His stand-up shows are pure genius! He's done a few movies and TV series and its not really worked for me but stand-up is where he's king. He latest tour of the UK was the biggest ever.
- Kol Tregaskes
Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller are really great comedians ... and also Robert De Niro when he plays comedy roles such as meet the parents :))) he's really great at any role ...
- Viva Vida
George Carlin (followed closely by Eddie Izzard).
- Akiva
Eddie Izzard is definitely up there as one of the best. Peter Kay?
- Kol Tregaskes
George Carlin. Robert Anton Wilson is my favorite stand up philosopher.
- iTad
Chris Tucker especially on old Def Comedy Jam shows, Sarah Silverman, Huggy Low Down (DC local comedian), Eddie Murphy (Delirious, Raw) and Chris Rock (most of his recent stuff).
- Amani
Dave Chapelle. Kat Williams is pretty high up there for me, Chris Tucker is also hilarious
- Rah-PM 2012
Oh yeah, Steven Wright. Forgot about him. Put him in third place for me.
- Akiva
Oh, and I like Jeremy Hotz. His delivery is one of the best and most unique in stand-up.
- Akiva
Well, they did have that trouble with Treos synching time with cell towers and DST. Hopefully they resolved that issue.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
I used Palm for years--and there are still aspects of it that SMOKE the iPhone. Not the least of which is speed (of internal apps). I won't hold my breath--but I'm kind of rooting for them.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
iPhone heresy hath been spoken (+1), waiting for the daggers to come out (but this is FF, it would be much bloodier elsewhere).
- Micah
Bet Veronica wouldn't be seen dead with Palm
- Marcus Beagley
heh. If Palm can convince Ryan to stop using apple stuff, apple will probably send them flowers...
- Chuq Von Rospach
What would you add to this list of blogger/CMS/commenting 2.0/forum software? WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger, Joomla, Drupal, ___? Disqus, Intense Debate, CoComment, BackType, ___? phpBB, vBulletin, Invision Power Board (IPB), bbPress, PHP-Nuke, EzBoard, ___? What big sites or software did I miss?
django, js-kit, smf. it seems there are more options available so there is better specialization, like wiki and issue tracking for coding projects (trac) or cms designed for courseware (moodle).
- Mike Chelen
I never understood the point of JPG as a print publication. Perhaps they had that marketing issue everywhere.
- Leslie Poston
I was just getting involved with JPG when they purged the editors; it never convinced me to get involved after that. And I agree -- great idea as an online beast, lousy idea as a print publication at a time when print is dying under the best of circumstances and printing costs for doing a GOOD photo pub are high.
- Chuq Von Rospach
"Barnes & Noble released third quarter earnings this morning, reporting a $18.4 million loss compared to a $4.4 million profit the year before. Same store sales fell a whopping 7.4%!"
- AJ Kohn
from Bookmarklet
They push the membership because it has been a huge win for them. Yet, I think they're reaching a diminishing returns on it now. And yes, Amazon and ... nearly any other retailer is cheaper. B&N is selling a book buying 'experience' and too few now are willing to participate.
- AJ Kohn
they cut way back on their magazine racks, and that reduced incentive to go in the store in the first place. and if I know what I want, amazon is cheaper, and with prime, convenient. I'm trying to think the last time I was in any bookstore -- and can't, other than digital guru. and Im' a book geek.
- Chuq Von Rospach
I have a feeling stores like Half Price Books will be getting most of the book reader traffic due to the economy, or you will see a rise in Library cards.
- Wizetux
@Chuq: It's odd that they cut back on the magazine racks because that would get you in the store and their mission is to keep you there as long as possible. The thinking being - longer stay = higher probability of purchase.
- AJ Kohn
@Wize: HPB could get more for sure. (The $1 bins are loaded with treasures for readers and booksellers who can turn around and sell them for *a lot* more.) And I very much hope Library usage does go up. That would be a great side-effect of all of this.
- AJ Kohn
I still like visiting a bookstore and scouring the shelves for something that looks intersting. Thats a discovery method that amazon can't beat ( seaarch dosent even come close to it). There is something to be said, still, for the physical over the digital.
- Roberto Bonini
@Roberto: I'm definitely with you there. I still love going to the store, though I seek out independent stores whenever possible because they have more interesting and diverse stuff. The one thing I can say is that LibraryThing has helped me find stuff I might not have found as quickly or at all. I'd love a mobile LT app that told me related authors or titles based on an ISBN I provided.
- AJ Kohn
@AJ would you want to be able to take a picture of the barcode on the book, or just type in the ISBN?
- Wizetux
@AJ you would just need a wrapper app for the ISBNdb.com site.
- Wizetux
@AJ Kohn @Wizetux - this is the stuff that makes having an iPhone so good. if we could get somthing like that, it would be heaven. Even a B&N app wouldn't be so bad.
- Roberto Bonini
@Wizetux: I'd be okay with either format (photo or typing). ISBNdb is good and a few others do have mobile price apps. What I haven't seen is the related data ... that if I like Jonathan Lethem's The Wooden Sea, what else might I want to search out in the store.
- AJ Kohn
Are you sure that is not Jonathan Carrol's "The Wooden Sea"? Also, isbndb.com has a whole section on "Similar Books"...
- Wizetux
@Wizetux: Oh crap, yeah, that is exactly what I meant. (Was deciding between Carrol's Sea and Lethem's Girl in Landscape and mixed it all up.) And does isbndb have similar books? Interesting. Is it actually good? User directed like LibraryThing? Gotta make it an easy mobile app!
- AJ Kohn
They have been able to make cool product names, but they all die when they leave R&D. Silverlight and DeepZoom have been the only recent products to keep a cool name.
- xero
I don't see this tech causing a large shift in the cellphone market. The only thing you can do with it is scroll or drag something. Pressing buttons still has to be done on the screen, otherwise you end up with the classic ATM button/screen parallax problem. Sure it might make scrolling easier, except when your fingers are in the way...
- xero
Apple doesn't need to "worry," but it is an idea worth exploring. That's what research is all about.
- Loren Heiny
"i use all these tools. blogging, tumblogging, twittering, facebooking, flickring, disqusing, etc, etc each is good for something unique and worth doing if you've got the time and inclination and that's not going to change anytime soon"
- Fred Wilson
carry a bus powered portable drive. Superduper a clone to it. that way, at the least, you have something you can use on a friend's mac.
- Chuq Von Rospach
via Scott Mattoon -- good presentation on cloud, including definitions
- Boris Mann
from Bookmarklet
good overview, but as any IT person will tell you, "buy electricity, not generators" is false. you buy both, because you need backups for when bad things happen. Cloud computing doesn't change that, it simply changes (and in many ways complicates) the redundancy issue.
- Chuq Von Rospach
We have to evolve from a Alexa site visits and pageviews set of metrics to engagement as a measure for measuring media (all media, social and otherwise). -- exactly.
- Chuq Von Rospach
Not a shadow of what it once was. They need to start over, again.
- Dave Martin
Technorati's relevance may be limited, but it's still a tool that can help you see who's linking to your blog or to you in general
- Mark Dykeman
@Mark, Yahoo has better tools than Technorati for that. They just don't have the venerable Authority ranking but after so many revisions of that tool, I don't care to use it anymore myself
- Roger Kondrat
@Mark Dykeman I use sitemeter & googla analytics for referrer links, not technorati. its always slow and 1-2 days old!
- anna sauce