One of the things I learned while vacationing in Alaska is that if you're being chased by a moose, you should run around a tree because these types of animals can't maneuver around like that. I guess this horse proves that point.
- Ana
I like how the article includes a picture of Winnie the Pooh with his head stuck in a honeypot.
- Jess Lee
I had to read the article to make sure the horse survived before I could find it cute and funny.
- Rebecca Sun
Not to worry, according to the article Gracie "was left with a dislocated jaw and a few cuts and scrapes from her ordeal ... it is healing up and she can eat on her own again."
- Tom Stocky
A question that has stumped people without 9-5 jobs for years is thoughtfully answered by a man with many answers. How to choose what today when? Comments provide > questions. (note: I still don't know how to answer in forms, at parties, etc. )
- MaryAnn Chick Whiteside
No problem Benjamin, you and Paul opened up a lot of possibilities
- Bwana ☠
APIs are powerful things; FriendFeed (and RSSmeme) both have them and I want more people to understand that it isn't complicated to use them.
- Benjamin Golub
good read though I closed my blog......via feedalizr
- bvs
A lot of folks including myself are intimidated when they hear "API"
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
I never thought the RSS mechanism would work differently with the API. Ignorance I guess. I have some experience working with Twitter and Jaiku APIs and I don't think they did this. I could be wrong.
- Bwana ☠
I just wish there was a general solution to allow everyone to use this great plug-in. I tried having a go to get it to work on my Tumblr blog but it wasn't having any :¬( Good solid HTML widget to add to my CSS is what's needed ;¬D
- CannonGod
Pat Hawks already had a proof of concept for Blogger, I thought?
- l0ckergn0me
I'm working on a php script that merges Friendfeed likes and comments with Disqus comments. Still in early stages, but let me know if anyone would like to take a look (twitter klecu or comment on my blog http://klecu.com/article...)
- Kevin L
When I blogged this (May 28), no Blogger solution existed.
- Bwana ☠
I just went through the process of adding friendfeed to my own site (holgr.com) last week and also found your site. It's a good starting point! Unfortunately the "default" options are pretty scarce and not really flexible. Fortunately - however - the API is so simple that you can create a nice embed yourself using the documentation.
- Holger Eilhard
nice, he could take it to car shows
- Chris Harris
Car shows? Heck, he could take it to a small country and overthrow the government!
- XDpaul
I want to see it in action. "He's flying on rooftops!"
- Michael
One of the best parts is the comments on the page, like this: "So much for the security of anonymity whilst fighting crimes in his small Texas town now that we know his true identity."
- Corie
Or this one: "Not that it isn't cool, it is. This is what happens when you get married. Out in the shop just building shit because you don't dare go inside and mess something up or touch anything. Like your wife frinstance."
- Corie
I didn't realize you could be that old and still be a virgin? Hmph.
- l0ckergn0me
I haven't heard this song in ages, still love it. Thanks V!
- Todd
Ever listened to Minor Threat? One of Ian MacKaye's previous bands. Great band, number 9 on my Last.fm top artists list... Oh, just noticed that the the new Last.fm design is now official, on for everybody. Nice. http://last.fm/user...
- Vincent X
It blows my mind when ever I come across anyone who knows of Fugazi.
- Brendan McCue
great song....ever heard that band one last wish that guy piccioto from fugazi was in before he was in fugazi? they were so great and so sadly forgotten!
- mike
oh man, great song, that brings back some memories.
- Sawyer
Seeing Fugazi play this song at The Roseland actually, seriously, changed my life when I was 17.
- Timothy Shey
Every time I hear this song I end up endangering my hearing and my speakers.
- Jason Wehmhoener
I'm pissed that I grew up in DC and only saw Fugazi one time... what a wasted opportunity. But I did own a leather jacket that used to belong to Ian's brother Alec; and my sister is good friends with all the straight edge crowd -- so that almost makes me cool by affiliation.
- Alan Cheslow
I have a wii so Rock Band felt like a real kick in the pants for the xbox price without the frills. If they can bring the full RB2 experience to Wii i'll probably dive in..otherwise I'm going to wait and see what Guitar Hero World Tour is like.
- Sidney
They could have had a better guitar instead of the lame strat, how about a gibson or flying v or something
- cooper
I bought the Guitar Hero 3 bundle just for the wireless guitar. Sold the game back without leaving the store
- Pat Hawks
I have to many things with battries... 4 wiimotes, balence board, xbox controler... it's getting out of hand
- Stefan Hayden
luckily none of these run on gasoline or we'd be screwed
- cooper
I'll probably toss my wired RB guitar in the dumpster... I hate that thing. That's assuming, of course, that they've *really* fixed the Strat's problems... otherwise I'll just stick to my GHIII Gibson.
- Roger Benningfield
yeah, that thing sux. The drum pedal was worse mine was broken twice and now i'm stuck with trying to fix it since the warranty was only 30 days
- cooper
I disagree with the dis-like suggestion. If you don't like something, make a comment explaining why, IMO. And about the 2-way data sharing, I believe that's up to the blogger. Many people is using a plugin to show the FF comments in their blogs. It looks great.
- Alejandro
Good list, Jeremy. I totally disagree with no. 10, however ("Enable auto-TinyURL in posts - all URLs should get Tiny’d."). TinyURL has a place on Twitter because of the 140 character limit but here it just removes all the meaning and context a good URL provides.
- Ole Begemann
Alejandro, Ole - good comments - I updated the post to reflect making these both optional instead of mandatory...
- Jeremy Toeman
All tiny URLs should also be expandable, so I don't have to click on it to see what it is.
- Kenneth LeFebvre
Re #11: When I create a filter, I should be shown similar filters by other people and asked if I'd like my own filter updated to include aspects of the other filters... similar can mean the name I give to the filter as well as the criteria I define. This same capability to "steal" from the community at large, should be offered to me when I'm updating my filter, in addition to initially creating it (so I can update it over time, to reflect the increasing "intelligence" of the community)
- Kenneth LeFebvre
About what Ole said, Friendfeed shrinks the links itself. No need for tinyURL
- Alejandro
"We just heard that Howard/Baines will be releasing an Adobe AIR application for FriendFeed in the next week or so. So far all we have is the screen shot and a confirmation from Baines that his team is working on it. The application will be called Alert Thingy." I like the name :)
- Bret Taylor
Now if someone could just combine a FF / Twitter Adobe AIR app -- making sure that tweets weren't duplicated -- that'd be super! Otherwise, it's annoying to feel compelled to run both (and no, I cannot convince all my friends on Twitter to sign up for FF, nor do I feel like creating Imaginary Friends for all of them).
- Adam Lasnik
Thing is, I love the simple web-based FF interface. Too slick to make the switch. FF + Fluid + Fluid plug-ins = winner
- Aviv
I don't feel the need to abandon the FF interface. In fact, I see myself doing other activities from within FF - http://ffapps.com/tabs/
- Aviv
Can't wait for this! It's going to be awesome.
- Brandon Titus
Its about frackin' time. What took so long? :)
- Tony Hung
Yes! My continuous partial attention does a little jig!
- Ashton
@Noah: Better than twhirl? I've never had issues with it.
- Voyagerfan5761
Twirl has not has issues, it just happens to rely on the twitter api being up, which is the unreliable part. As long as the FF API can keep up with demand an Adobe Air app that works as good as twirl would be sweet.
- Christian Burns
I'll wait for a non AIR app thank you :)
- Steven Hodson
THX 4 invitatiojn- guess my computerallergy holds me away from all this kind of internet friendship thing. Somehow too much letters...u know what I mean? Maybe it takes some time to come into that stuff. Virtual??? Prefer real air, trees and touch...talk soon NOAH.
- Natascha Engelmann
@possible248 labs.adobe.com/downloads/air_linux.html btw ive been running adobe air through wine for over a month here is how you install it with wine www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2008/03/howto-adobe-air-and-xdrive-desktop-lite.html
- Kyle Weller
@defcon: I'll bet he'll like that link. I pointed it out over Twitter, but you never know; twhirl supposedly has some issues on Linux platforms that aren't fixed yet. Wine might take care of the problems. And BTW, links are automatically, er, linked if you start them off with http://
- Voyagerfan5761
I much prefer my online services to stay in browser windows - it's too confusing for my poor british brain otherwise!
- Slappy Line
@Slippy: I used to think that about Twitter, until I discovered twhirl... But don't let me influence your decision. ;-)
- Voyagerfan5761
@Jeremy: Sweet program! At least, the looks are good and it appears to have all the functionality of the site. I won't pry for a release date. :-)
- Voyagerfan5761
Just got drag and drop image uploading on share... getting real close!! (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
You coders just constantly amaze me with your ability to whip this stuff up!
- Phil Ashman
can't wait to see the final product - you don't need some more beta testers by any chance, Jeremy? :)
- Frederic
@Frederic: I considered asking, but figured the answer was obvious. @Jeremy: So, do you? :D
- Voyagerfan5761
Those lucky enough to be at the adobe AIR Tour - London yesterday would have seen a demo of the app plus a demo of a couple of bugs we need to fix :). The launch is currently being held up by thawte who we are waiting on to issue our digital certificate! Once that is done we are good to go. Thanks for all the offers, we have enough beta testers on windows and mac for now, but would be interested in anyone running AIR on linux! (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
...and if you want to follow me and the kinds of apps we build then please subscribe to me or follow me on twitter (jeremybaines) (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
@Jeremy: Will all comments posted via Alert Thingy have that tagline? Oh, and I believe @possible248 on Twitter (and here) is running AIR on Linux.
- Voyagerfan5761
@Voyagerfan5761 yes they will. We think it's ok to ask for a bit of PR if we are giving you an app free. What do you think? It would be nice if there was a proper place to put the "via...." link, like on twitter, but the guys at FriendFeed have not provided anything like that for us yet! Bret.. are you listening??? (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
I would prefer to have the "via Alert Thingy"-tagline independent from the comment itself. I second that request.
- sebmos
Ok that is 2 of us - Is that enough to change the API Bret? How many votes do I need? :)
- Jeremy Baines
Of course, some of us might feel that reading a few words of advertising along with each comment is, you know, not exciting.
- j1m
Adding the source to entries and comments from the API makes a lot of sense. I will think about it and take a look at what Twitter does, and come back with something.
- Bret Taylor
@Jeremy - would be happy to try it out on Linux :)
- Frederic
I seriously seriously want this! but agree w/Adam - combo app would ROCK
- Sarah Perez
Regarding the attribution for comments, how about adding a conditional "from %APPNAME%" tag wrapped in <small> tags after the name? It would be displayed only if there was a valid source for that comment. Thumbs-up? -down?
- Voyagerfan5761
Just installed! Could do with customizable opacity, but otherwise it's just figuring out how to use it right now. w00t! (And making Enter save the comment...) (via Alert Thingy)
- Voyagerfan5761
Is there a central location for feedback/suggestions? (via Alert Thingy)
- Bwana ☠
you can send us email - help@alertthingy.com (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
Yeah, seriously way too transparent with no settings control. Other than that looks great.
- Marston Alfred
We hear you on the opacity thing. Good point about scroling up when writing a comment (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
Anybody for marking items as seen, a la twhirl? It seems that would be useful for keeping one's place.
- Voyagerfan5761
tried it out; seems just like a web browser... NEEEEDS functionality for me to re-consider using it
- The Product Guy
It is cool. But: turned off sounds and they are back. Window scales, but not the text size. very small! oh, and while I was writing a comment in a tiny box an update came in and my comment so far just vanished... (via Alert Thingy)
- Alex von Halem
@ Alex von Halem thanks I have added those to my list :) (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
@Jeremy Baines thanx. restarting stopped the sounds (perhaps just a note, that saving settings is not enough). Liking it more and more. Just a wee thing: when you hit the "comment" button: shouldn't your cursor start flashing in that field instead of having to click into it as well? Keep it up, it's going to be a winner! (via Alert Thingy)
- Alex von Halem
Also good! they make the list ;) - not actually sure when we will have time to finish everything on the list! but nice to have one so we know what needs doing ;) (via Alert Thingy)
- Jeremy Baines
Just installed it. I don't like it (alert thingy)... much prefer the FF interface. But kudos to you on the "remote key" -- solid idea.
- Michael Leggett
I don't think it hides the entries set to be hidden on FF. Anyone else can confirm this?
- Turker Keskinpala
@Turker: I wrote about that this morning, so yeah, I can confirm. It's still showing my hidden stuff as I type this. I think the fault lies with the FriendFeed API, though. So far as I know, there's no indication of hiding status available.
- Voyagerfan5761
Turkey and Voyagerfan5761: I will work on this today. We are not passing the "hidden" bit through to the API properly.
- Bret Taylor
@Bret - can you look at the hide issue.. we are getting the hidden stuff showing in the API
- Jeremy Baines
Thanks Bret. FF web interface is so fast and usable that it is not easy to switch to a desktop application. Nevertheless, good work Jeremy Baines.
- Turker Keskinpala
It really is a nice piece of work, but I find the whole dark/translucent thing too hard to read. I also miss the collapsing of long comment threads (like this one). In fact, I didn't realize how nice a feature that was until I didn't have it and had to scroll and scroll to get to a new comment.
- Chris Johnson
Can someone explain to me, in 42 words or less, why an app like this is better than just accessing FF over the web? Color me seriously confused. I'd try it myself, but I get an error anytime I try to download it (and yes, I have Air installed).
- Adam Lasnik
@Adam Lasnik - Firefox can't handle a lot of tabs (non beta) and I'd rather use Alert Thingy or bTittleTattle then leave FriendFeed open in Firefox. (via Alert Thingy)
- Corvida
@corvida ahh but, FF3 beta is solid and handles a wealth of tabs with great aplomb. :) I've got my eye on AT, but for now it taketh more functionality than it giveth. I suspect with all this attention, though, it will soon giveth a lot more!
- felix
Corvida, or you could do what I do when I want to keep one or two tabs open persistently and easy-to-switch-to (e.g., Pandora): open them in Internet Exploder. What I was hoping to hear was that this Air app offered intriguing / helpful "extras" that one doesn't innately get in the web version. For instance, I use Twhirl because it aurally alerts me to direct messages AND displays all messages to me in chron order on one scrolling page -- something not offered on the Twitter web page.
- Adam Lasnik
@Felix I FF Betas crash on me way more than FF2 and that's more important to me. @Lasnik I don't have IE installed =P Don't want to keep 2 browsers open anways, it's defeating the point in a way. I'm still wasting resources, though I think Alert Thingy is less of a waste.
- Corvida
Okay, just tried it on another computer. Not for me. I find it much harder to read/scan stuff on it vs. the web page.
- Adam Lasnik
Restart your copies of AlertThingy v1.1 is here! ...via AlertThingy
- Jeremy Baines
search not working for unicode content? o_O ...via AlertThingy
- minus-one
Nice, but my hidden stuff's showing up in Friendfeed so all the duplicate twitter action is annoying me. ...via AlertThingy
- brad sucks
Yup! that is anoying! But a FreindFeed API issue not AT ...via AlertThingy
- Jeremy Baines
i love this application and can't live without it. ...via AlertThingy
- Kevin
Alertthingy's coming along nicely! I'll post a couple of suggestions on your site. ...via AlertThingy
- Phil Ashman
Thwirl now offering FF integration on AIR
- Steaprok
Just installed Twhirl 0.7.9 with FF support. Anyone care to tell me why AlertThingy is better? I'm kinda Twitter centric which is why I choose Twhirl.
- Elliott Ng
Personally My social i am finding great on my laptop just having it all there in front of my and not haing to swap spaces to see what Alert thingy is doin ...via AlertThingy
- John Spencer
I moved onto alerthingy from friend feed, stricly based on aesthetics. ...via AlertThingy
- Osize Om
I had never seen the first two. They look interesting. How are the data sets edited and updated? Freebase doesn't interest me from what I can tell. They seem more focused on the relationships between data items than the data itself because of all the "semantic web" stuff, and most of it seems to be relatively uninteresting data from IMDB and other existing web sources.
- Bret Taylor
Unfortunately they rarely get updated and most data sets cannot really be used reliably. theinfo.org is essentially an indie scraper's paradise and the intended use is controlled lab experiments. Perhaps a fresh, well-publicized effort will stand better chance.
- Aviv
Google already has access to at least 5 of the data sets you listed... sure, licensed and all, but at the end of the day shouldn't face great difficulties bending arcane usage restrictions. Let developers play with the data inside the cloud...
- Aviv
Right. The big obstacle would still be the whole issue of usage restrictions and copyrights, and as you said in your last point, it won't work without the backing of big companies. Developers can have access to such valuable data sets today - simply by scraping. It's far from ideal, but it works, and it can be kept up-to-date with extra effort. But then how do we go about using the data - and actually telling people about it? :)
- Aviv
@Bret you should talk to Freebase. This is precisely what they're trying to do. It may not look how you want it to now, but I think a conversation between the two companies makes a whole lot of sense.
- Carla Thompson
"The most important part of an environment that encourages innovation is low barriers to entry. The moment a contract and lawyers are involved, you inherently restrict the set of people who can work on a problem to well-funded companies with a profitable product. Likewise, companies that sell data have to protect their investments, so permitted uses for the data are almost always explicitly enumerated in contracts." -what memories ;)
- David