Overheard from a CTO at a big tech company: Cloud Computing is used to describe everything, and therefore it's used to describe nothing. - Jeremiah Owyang
Great post, Mark. Being a long time enterprise guy, I'm a bit happy that folks are embracing the overall concept, but the term is about as airy as Web 2.0 these days. - Chris Brogan
I'd say the same thing happens with "Widget" versus "Application" - Nick O'Neill
I disagree with Chris on this. I've seen some very good definitions that make sense to me. - Dennis Howlett via twhirl
@dennis The mangling I've seen jives with what Chris said, and it seems like it's really ratcheted up in the last couple of weeks. There was a pretty clear understanding of it before that, but the usage of the word seems to have grown out of hand lately. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!! - Andrew Feinberg
“It truly amazes me that the French win any medals. Outside of Loic Lemeur they are not exactly the fittest of people. Plus they are not competitors/winners by nature. Except for Loic, but he's not in the Olympics.”
Funny you should mention the French and rowing...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... this is regarded as one of the greatest sprints in Olympic rowing history. Watch the French pair with about 700 meters to go. What they did is pretty much inhuman. - Andrew Feinberg
Loic keeps telling us he's overweight so fit? Maybe not as much as we think? - Dennis Howlett via twhirl
yes, but according to pbaudry.com a motivation in their culture is "to be admired", and winning an olympic medal certainly leads to that. - Steve Follmer via twhirl
Does it work better than Hair Color for Men? - Russellreno
ok so whats the real world app going to be ?? model your face and then get a nip, tuck and a lift ?? Riya and Polar Rose had facial recognizability built into the core. - Peter Dawson
One part of tech that is advancing quickly without any notice from Silicon Valley is the software that will drive the Human Gnome Project. It always starts with the artists, then the military, and then reality. John McCain said he knows where Bin Laden is. Yea, Ill bet he does! I'll bet he *IS* Bin Laden!! - Andrew Baron
I like the first one better because the second one looks fake & a bit creepy. - Mike Cohen
Will probably be very useful among the DATING sites! :-D - Éric Senterre
it seems to be all about head size. Phrenology anyone? - Noah David Simon
Oooohh....she's had her face reshaped....bet that hurt! - Mark O'Neill
@andrewbaron I like the lovely typo in your comment about << Human "Gnome" Project>>. This software will surely "dwarf" any other software development project ;) - Pierre-Philippe Martin
Um, what's wrong with the first pic? If she smiled... - Rick Powell
@Rick, I actually think she looks nicer in pic one, even without smiling. She looks kinda luck a stuck-up beeotch in pic two. - Laura Norvig
The process detects deviations from the archetypal face. If you take the process and apply it in reverse, accentuate the deviations, you essentially have a caricature. You could put hundreds of boardwalk charcoal sketchers out of business! - Rick Wolff
Actually, some of the "enhanced" pictures look distorted. Symmetry is supposedly a vital ingredient of beauty, that and the golden ratio. - Patrick Beard via twhirl
How ironic that this is not a blog post: I have seen a handful of bloggers question their blogging output in light of actively publishing to Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc. but I would suggest it's much more drastic than anyone has mentioned. 'Feels like a ghost town out there. To the near future: Setting aside the top technorati (a little 't' for the name transcends the tool) could blogging be turning into an activity just for journalists where most other forms of information are published elsewhere? - Andrew Baron
Are you sure nope is not the new refuter? - Andrew Baron
Andrew, take a look at the MSM, what are they doing ? their content is moving off both media's air and also the net. CNN /NBC are all cutting blog entries and vlogging too. We , the consumer need that content to be created, else what will we feed of ? Tech sites can only cut inside chatter via blogs, the old style forums are stone age. - Peter Dawson
Did opera die when rock came along? What about radio when TV came in. Baseball... did it die when NFL came about. Why on earth do you think blogging might die just because there are more tools. - shelisrael1
+1 Shel. It's not about either or it's about AND. Things both converge and diverge. But the death meme is oh so vogue. - Dave Martin
Im suggesting that many people who used to blog more often may be blogging much less because they can express the thoughts they want to express elsewhere, like on Twitter or Flickr, or Seismic or Facebook, for instance. Also, consider the first-time publisher: Why would anyone start up a blog that would take forever to gain readership when they could plug right into a place like friendfeed where feedback and response is much greater? - Andrew Baron
blogging for personal and/or personalbrandbuilding reasons is definitely decreasing and will continue to do so. I think it will come down to a declined frequency on small one-man-blogs compared to todays or yesterdays status quo. might not be true for in-between-tools like tumblr. - marcel weiss
Andrew, more people and more tools = more everything. Your argument boils down to a twist of a Yogi-ism. "nobody blogs anymore, the blogsphere's too crowded." - Robert Seidman
@Robert S., on the contrary I was thinking that perhaps an opportunity is opening up for people who do want to take their blogs to the next level as the competition might be dying down. - Andrew Baron
Andrew, ah. That may be true, although I think still much harder to get to that level in the current environment than it was in 2005. - Robert Seidman
We all need to poke our heads out from our little early adopter/tech world and realize our reality is completely different than EVERYONE else's. No, its not dying, but if the crap of blogging dies good for it. Its about content and right now without blogging not sure how ff is going to help my biz. I can't even put a link in my profile. Content, content, content. - Brad Nickel
probably not but it's changing the way i'm blogging. i wrote a piece yesterday about that - http://www.cosmictap.com/frien... - FF has made me realize that much of what I want to do is curate. The blog can have my thought-out pieces, so it's not going to die.. - Anthony Citrano
@Brad, bloggers were once the first adopters and the term 'first adopter' usually implies that there will be the late adopters and traditionally the late adopters follow en masse. - Andrew Baron
Jeeez, I hope not. I just got started! Y'all're gonna make me think it's my breath or something. - Rick Wolff
I don't think that blogging is dying so much as maturing. One thing that I think Twitter/Friendfeed is killing off is the classic short post which features a link to another post; the recommendation post, of sorts. Easier to jot off a quick Tweet or else post the link in FriendFeed. I think blogging will continue to rule the 140+ character communication realm. - Mark Dykeman
It's official. Phelps is the man! - James via twhirl
Who wants to bet how many Olympic golds Phelps will win before retirement? 20? 30? Maybe we can revisit this thread in 2016... - Mitchell Tsai
He's almost certain to go to London in 2012, but it's unlikely that he'll compete in 2016. In 2012, he'll be 27, which is old for swimmers. He'll not do 8 events in 2012, either. This will definitely be his best year. - Mark Trapp
Does anyone else here think that they have been posting the worst pictures of Phelps celebrating? They don't show his passion, exuberance and joy...they make him look kind of mean. Like he could be a member of Cobra Kai Dojo. - Alex Scoble
One oughtn't judge a book by its cover, but I think it's perfectly normal for our species, when one has that level of testosterone, adrenaline, lactic acid, etc. surging through one's body, to resemble a deranged howler monkey during exultation. He seems humble and boyish enough standing there while the national anthem is being played, and he always acknowledges the role of his teammates in his success. To me that speaks much louder than slapping the water with his fists at the end of a race. - Karim
Louis: the problem is that Twitter is a great place to start a conversation. Moving that conversation over to FriendFeed is impossible. So, now my FriendFeed is littered with Twitter conversations. - Robert Scoble
+1 Louis.. its as simple as that !! convo =ff : Broadcast = twitter. NOt sure how simpler it can be described - Peter Dawson
I beg to differ Robert, Twitter was a great place to begin a conversation and hold it..until FF come along !! -NOTE The "Was" and not "is" :)- - Peter Dawson
I agree with both of you on this one, but I don't have as many followers so I've only noticed the problem when trying to keep up with Twitter conversations on FriendFeed. Only problem is it's too tempting to just reply on Twitter since I use TwitKit. If I used something more practical for both, then it may be different. - Matt Horton
you have to account for us cautious (very slow) adopters - Chris Kim A
would love to remove all @replys from other peoples feeds from ff - adolfo foronda
I think SMS is the key. You get SMS replies and the friendfeed conversation can move to friendfeed. - Jesse Wolgamott
question about twitter - is there away to make sure replies from anyone (not jsut people on my device list) come as an SMS? also, is there a better client than twhirl? It's the best i've found for twitter and FF, but that's not saying much. - Richard Lawler via twhirl
It's very frustrating. I find that I simply miss my Twitter replies because I don't spend much time scanning Twitter anymore. The lack of development in the area of threaded discussions is what I respect least about Twitter. Oh - and the whale watching. - (steve isaacs)
I have nearly stopped checking Twitter. I wish that all my friends would move over, but it is unlikely that that will happen. - Monique
if twitter had threaded conversations this conversation would be moot. but i've had full-fledged convos on twitter. - Lynne d Johnson
It's also theoretically possible to follow conversations via timecoded videos of multiple smoke signals. I guess that's unfair now that "twitter has bought summize!" - Richard Walker
Louis - Think Twitter is a lot more than a broadcast medium. I prefer to 'hang' here too and get more accomplished (and possibly have more fun :) but feel what Robert is saying too. Now keep Twirl open when I'm here and using Twitter and Identi.ca more and more. Continue to think Identi.ca will break out in a big way. - Charlie Anzman
I have often had convos on Twitter, even groups ones, where some are on cellphones via SMS, and some on computers. That the one thing I have always really liked about Twitter - it's seamless between the phone and the PC - Ian May
FriendFeed has to become more accessible for it to be a success. People in my opinion stay on Twitter because it's accessible & easy to use. Friendfeed has a long way to go before it can reach those to points. - Chris Rodgers
I think twitter is sort of short and shallow; good for short, snappy broadcasts, that can reach a long way. FriendFeed has more depth, more detail, more connections. Some of my friends are on plurk, but I find that to be full of chatty conversations, without the peripheral information that is all around FriendFeed. I never would have followed this conversation on twitter. - Chris Loft
I agree, it is much easier to follow a conversation on FF, plus FF has the all important Spell Check. - Scot Duke
I may have jumped into this conversation a bit late, however, I completely agree with Louis, well said! Twiiter is a broadcast medium while FriendFreed is a conversion medium. I do find however, that sometimes it's easier for me to keep up with the millions of messages on my Twitter as opposed to anything off the front page of my FriendFeed. Things move down the page and off very fast on FriendFeed, so any help with that would be greatly appreciated!!! - Niall Connellan
@Louis - When Twitter is thought of simply as a broadcast medium it loses a lot of value in my opinion. I'm not a radio station with passive listeners dying to know what bar I'm at in the marina or what blog post I'm retweeting. I'm letting folks know this information to engage them in a dialogue. People that use Twitter as a solely a megaphone tend to be less interesting to me. - Morgan
Twitter is more bare bones conversation, where Friendfeed is a sharing medium and space. - Todd Jordan
I like Twitter for broadcasting what I'm doing or like little news updates. As far as huge discussions? No way. I've never found anything on twitter really interesting, unless it was breaking news. But never had any good conversations. Friendfeed is the way to go for that. I'll stick to updating my fans or local friends with what I'm up to on Twitter. People who don't know me might not care what I'm doing, but I mainly use it for friends anyway. - Dennis Jackson
Perhaps experiences differ due to where the majority of cohorts are. Twitter folks also seem less tight than here on Friendfeed. Followers and commenters don't fall out of trees here on FF. - Todd Jordan
"Whale watching"? I don't think I have seen that term in relation to Twitter before. I am pretty sure I know what it means but I wonder if someone might be willing to give a quick definition to confirm? Thanks! - Frank Valletutti
I like @Louis comment about broadcast vs. conversation. since it's natural for broadcasts to evolve into 1 or more conversations in an always connected world, I'd say Twitter will either build out conversation functionality or FF will improve broadcast and mobility capabilities. "winner" is first whichever one fills their gap fastest. Maybe? - Jon Price
@Dennis - "I'm wqith you Robert" -explain why ? - Peter Dawson
@Peter Dawson: if you spend time understanding what Robert is about then you''ll understand his position. No rocket science required. - Dennis Howlett via twhirl
@dennis, no I don;t understand and am asking you to clarify and that was pretty clear. not rocket science to ask " explain why" ?? However, u go back to root sq1 of Roberts equation, but I am still asking you why do you go back to that analogy !! Explain why ....:)- - Peter Dawson
Lots are coming over to identi.ca - come join us Robert! - Jesse Stay
If FriendFeed is going to truly replace Twitter or Identi.ca it needs messaging - the ability to both publicly and privately send a message to a particular individual. SMS is also a huge selling point for Twitter - being able to tell anyone, "just send 'follow jessestay' to 40404 on your cell phone" to get updates about me without them having to join Twitter is powerful. - Jesse Stay
If I'm starting a conversation on Twitter, people unfollow me immediately.. here, they don't mind me talking so much... - Orli Yakuel
I agree...Since there's no good web based way to view Twitter threads, at least not that I'm aware of...and Friendfeed is thread based, this is a much better way to have conversations - Alex Scoble
There is nothing wrong with Twitter or FF so I'll keep using both. - Mathew Ballard
Not as much as I think about the fact that I wish I lived closer to some of them because I have a feeling we WOULD be good meatspace friends... - Lindsay Donaghe
while it's probably true, that's the great part about online friends - they often can become meatspace friends as well. - Morgan
I guess I should clarify. Location aside, you may have never connected with certain people if not for the internet. Due to lifestyle or cultural differences and things like that. I find it quite interesting. Making friends online pretty much lets you cut through a lot of social bull - Rahsheen Porter
Rahsheen I agree with you. @Lindsay, lately, I've been wishing I live closer to certain people. I honestly do believe I would be great buddies with some FFers, and like Morgan said, they CAN become meatspace friends as well. :) Now that's a reason to leave my computer and house--go meet FFers! ;-) - Anna Haro
Yes, but mostly because of location and circumstances. And you're right about the social bull Rahsheen. Sometimes that stuff can be off-putting. - JMS
yes, no, maybe? I think perhaps not sometimes because of politics. I'm very low key on that, but I have my opinions. I don't find differing religious or political beliefs a reason to not be friends, but I believe it's a pretty common break point. - Todd Jordan
yes. online friendship easier to form because there is less of the "social bull," as Rahsheen calls it. gender can still be tricky, but culture and skin color matter so much less. Well, and appearance in general, obviously. :p - edythe
Rahsheen I agree - you get to know the people for who they are not what they look like, which is the beauty of this medium. - Morgan
It's one of the reasons I like doing Gnomedex. :) - l0ckergn0me
you need to get out more :-) A lot of my local online friends have become my meatspace friends. - Duncan Riley
It's also possible you would have simply never been in a position to meet. Those common social situations where you meet new people would just have never happened. - Rahsheen Porter
I wish more people in Oklahoma knew what the internet was. - Geoff Schultz
Honestly, many online friends most likely won't regardless of locality. Just call me a hermet. - RaAusar Powers
I'd like the idea of FF meet-ups but I don't know of many people in KS who are close to me. Although I'm willing to drive to somewhere like Lawrence, especially if we went to Free State - JMS
It is easy for those whom live in a big city to meet. I live a fairly small town, and very few are on Twitter, so I would say there were almost nil on FF. - Michelle Martinez
Meatspace, I like that. :) The meats that I meet are still using MySpace. - Kevin Etter
I wouldn't call my real life "meatspace." That's the term me & my RL friends use when we refer to MySpace, because so many people on there are just looking for booty calls. lol - Louie
I didn't know either till I saw it like 50 times today. - Geoff Schultz
meatspace sounds so icky. Like the deli counter or something. Meetspace is marginally better. But anyway, I'm ignoring my concern over the fact that I like it better here. :) - Yolanda
I think it's a little like friends you have because of other arranged circumstances, like friends because you were neighbors, friends because your parents were friends, friends because you have a mutual friend, and so on. If I'm honest, I don't think I'd reach out to a good portion of people I interact with online, but since I'm interacting with them anyway every time I use Twitter or Friendfeed or Google Talk, it's easy to make a claim about friendship stronger than it probably is. Although, those relationships are counterbalanced by others who I'm glad to have the opportunity to meet, and while the circumstances behind first interacting them are not the normal fare, I probably would reach out to as I would any other friend: I consider it the new pen-pal. - Mark Trapp
haha...I guess it's all about control. I can take as much or as little of FF as I want. Contrary to meatspace, where it's much harder to block or hide your friend's date she met at an improv comedy driving school (he was the instructor). Interacting and engaging here is at my convenience, my leisure; FF serves at the pleasure of ME. - Chris Kim A
Sometimes I wish I could hide certain things about my RL friends: for instance, I wish I could hide anything a certain friend says about his PSP. - Harvey Simmons
The biggest bummer about having online friends that you don't have in meat space is virtual beer is no where near as good as real beer. I'd buy any of my FF friends a beer. Any time you're in/near Phoenix, let me know and me and Lindsay will have dinner with ya and buy you a beer. - Tad Donaghe
I think it's better this way :P It would be interesting to see though - Shey
Not much different than meeting someone over the phone in business over time. When you do meet them, it's gonna go one way or the other. Usually, a huge plus for those making a living on the Net to do a few meet-ups, conferences, etc. Networking takes on a whole new meaning. The problem? Most of them are overpriced ... locking out a lot of great people. - Charlie Anzman
I like having friends in both realms. Take 'em as you can, I say. - Josh Haley
Thats what makes it so great. Our social circles have expanded beyond creed, family, tribes, guilds, and states. - Ernie Oporto
Rahseen, I used to think of the two spaces as separate but increasingly my online and offline friend circles are one in the same. The sphere is larger online, obvs, but I've found that those who I connect with strongly online first, are also quite awesome offline people and cool to hang with and walk through life with. In the past year, I've spent much time in the bay area hanging with my mostly online community. I took a trip to Seattle solely to hang with "online" friends and... - Jason Toney
online friends have come to visit LA and more will come soon. The line that demarcates the two worlds is fading for me and will soon be completely gone, I think. - Jason Toney
I'm not just a piece of meat!.....in space! - Josh Haley
I have met some really cool people by way of the internet. It's a beautiful thing. I would use the "love" button on this if i could. - Monique
Shit how many of the online friends are you friends anyway? As soon as some shit hits they run for cover! Friends to Spam friends? - Igor The Troll
LOL, you made me Google "meatspace".. I just usually use IRL.. but I know there are some ppl I know IRL (or at the meatspace deli counter) who are completely different in cyberspace - they're funnier, more confident and more outgoing online than I have ever known them in the 5 years that I've worked with them.. - Kim via feedalizr
I would have used IRL, but I didn't want to look like some old fogy from IRC. I haven't seen anyone use that term around here....LOL. - Rahsheen Porter
haha! so now I look like an old fogy from IRC - ok I'm busted! :) - Kim
LOL, I think we're both busted now. At least we can claim to have wisdom...or something :) - Rahsheen Porter
i'd be down to meet up and have a few drinks with some local ny'ers on FF and i'd totally meet up with people across the country or welcome them when in nyc. i'm always open to expanding my circle of friends and associations. it's nothing - Cee Bee
I have been very lucky that most of the people that I have interacted with and even become on-line friends with have been just as nice in person or the RW. - Mathew A. Koeneker
It's the opposite for me. Several people I have met online ARE my friends IRL now. I think it also depends on how you use the internet. - Trish Robinson
so they are not allowed to make money now? - Jamie
You fail to understand my qualm, Jamie - I take no issue with app developers who charge for their wares, it's when they release an app for free to boost ratings / rankings, then switch to a paid version and land themselves in the top X list instantaneously. It's just as janky when the App Store launched and developers were renaming their apps to appear at the top of the list. It's just *BAD MARKETING* that pisses me off. - l0ckergn0me
Well, good marketing, because it works. But bad ethics. It's basically figuring out a way to lie without actually doing it. Anyway, it's manipulating their way to higher rankings. - WazNeeni
Chris, could you share the app names? - Akshay Dodeja
What you're pointing out is that these "Top" lists are too simple to be useful to you in a highly competitive environment. Any system is going to be gamed. Think about it: my guess is the tallies are going to be biased towards early developers too. A good system will have to avoid this too. - Loren Heiny
Loren...how 'bout Sales (not d/l's) per Month. That would wipe out both of those issues. - WazNeeni
I noticed an app or two doing the same thing. I immediately uninstalled their app. I don't support such gimmicks. - Corvida
I haven't paid for an app yet on my iPod touch. Figured I'd let the market mature a bit. - Bill Sodeman
But you are assuming that THAT is the SOLE reason they switched to paid. How do you know? Maybe the app got popular, and they thought, I could make some money from this instead of giving it away. Should they have instead waited until it was no longer popular, off the Top list, and THEN switched it to paid? :P - Andru Edwards
Andru, c'mon - even you're not so naive to believe that "Crazy Lighter" was worth free two days ago, with other ezone apps going for .99, then suddenly ezone saw the light (no pun intended) and raised the price right at the moment it could outseat the #1 paid app? That's a slimy tactic. - l0ckergn0me
He's gotcha there, Christopher. Maybe they wanted to test the waters to see if *anyone* would want it, with the plan of being a paid app the whole time? - WazNeeni
I dont misunderstand your qualm Chris. I just don't think its valid. Is it taking advantage of a loop hole in the AppStore? Sure. Is it *wrong* to do so? Hell no. Its great marketing and a chance for the dev to make money on his app. Are you honestly saying you would not take advantage if the same situation applied to you? Its effectively SEO what is taking place here. And something as trivial as changing the price of an app is entirely within his rights as the developer. Blame the game, not the player. - Jamie
Jamie: "Is it *wrong* to do so? Hell no." Are you ethically bankrupt? Clearly , no need to answer. No one is saying that he shouldn't make money on his app. Of course he should. I feel like I'm watching a presidential campaign ad that is taking what someone said and spinning it.The bottom line is he's taking advantage of a loophole and gaming the system. Certainly not illegal, but certainly not ethical. Apple should close this loophole by resetting the counter or creating a new counter for paid downloads. - Greg
I agree with you completely .. business or not .. it's just plain shady - Todd Loren Sinclair
@Jamie @Andru @WazNeeni - Looks like Apple agrees with me. The Top 100 list doesn't include "Crazy Lighter" anymore. It must've been removed at some point this afternoon. Hopefully, they've set it up so that when an app goes from free to paid (or vice versa), it also loses its rankings / ratings for that app type. - l0ckergn0me
Bravo Apple. Ethical business practices prevail in spite of those who live off the scraps. - Greg
It seems to be fixed for me. (Canadian iTunes store) - Granteezy
@Chris: sometimes you are birlliant, sometimes you're a donut - this is one of those occasions. - Dennis Howlett via twhirl
@Chris not quite - I admitted its a loophole which Apple needed to close. But thats a separate issue. What I am arguing is that a developer taking advantage of that loophole by simple changing the price of *his* app really isnt that big of a deal. Hes just trying to make money. And to be labelled slimy and talking about shame is a bit over the top. @Greg - I can do without the character judgement from yourself thanks. - Jamie
@Jamie if you base your arguments on ethical issues and then give your opinion you can't then take my ability to offer my opinion off the table. Anyway...on we go. - Greg
Excuse me - but isn't this what Web 2.0 is BUILT on? Release something for free, get traction, user base and good will then transition to a paid model? - Soulhuntre
@ Greg you are completely missing the point. Lets just say that Apple fail to close the loophole; you are effectively saying that a developer can't ever raise the price of his product without being labelled slimy. If by not supporting that notion, that makes me "ethically bankrupt", then so be it. But wow @ folks thinking its that serious. There's much more to worry about in the world of 'gaming' web services than one devs right to adjust the pricing of his very own product. - Jamie
Just to clarify, I am talking in general, not specifics. If this ezone company is taking advantage of it specifically for that purpose, sure, I am against that. I am just saying, I don't see anything wrong with RANDOM COMPANY putting out a free app, then seeing it shoot to, say, #3 free app, and then saying - wait, I can charge $2 for this and can be making a killing. So they do. I am all for it. Now, if a company is doing it JUST to be at the top of the paid apps list, I find that to be dicey. - Andru Edwards
Hi Simon from ezone here. For the record, we're not trying to 'game' the system and land the #1 paid spot (but of course we aren't complaining!). If/when Apple plugs the loophole we will continue to give away all our apps for free for the first couple days to build awareness and then revert to paid. We've never been featured in itune's picks, new, hot, etc., and offering free apps is a way to get heard above the noise. How about supporting us small devs rather than labelling us unethical slimeballs. - Simon Edis
