I choose subscriptions based on a core-perimeter model. The core are people whose interests I know overlap with my own. But I also try to have a strong perimeter - very high quality information sources across a wide variety of areas. So I read blogs by people like Robin Hanson (economist), Terry Tao (mathematician), Ethan Zuckerman (developing world), etc. Unfortunately, FriendFeed usage still seem to be mostly concentrated in a few areas. - Michael Nielsen
Michael, it will get more interesting over time. Waiting for the synthesizer geeks to show up :) - Deepak
Michael, that is one of the best comments I've seen on FF. - David Gutelius
This is true with most things in life. Your real friends, the sites you visit, etc. Why is this so shocking? Just saying... :P - James Mowery via twhirl
it's not shocking... It's justa useful quote that sums up the service... ;) - Chris Messina
I know, but, it could be applied to every social network: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube. Even forums and such. I'm sure the Bret guy is smart, but I mean... yeah. - James Mowery via twhirl
Yeah, I'm being really picky about what I read on FriendFeed. Trying to master the "hide" functionality like so many have suggested to filter out the not-so-useful stuff. :D - James Mowery via twhirl
What am I missing here? The base is there, there's more content that even Calacanis had hoped for (he's written this), surely the scaling now is only servers etc. Guides aren't expensive, and it's opened up Wikipedia style anyway for even more content. - Duncan Riley
Duncan: Calacanis doesn't have a yacht like Ellison yet, that's what. - Jason Wehmhoener
He's making the Slide/Ning-style pitch for funding before it dries up. Luck to him. - Sprague D
Duncan: It's an entire economy run out of the hamster wheels in Mike Arrington's house. You were expecting logic? - jeneane sessum
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded... -- here's the video - the $50 million comment comes around the 16 minute mark - the video is worth watching - facebook, wikia search also present. (i think the last few minutes got cut off - the video froze) - Allen Stern
At what point do VC's actually ask for a revenue model and business plan? - Jason Carreira via twhirl
over five to seven years that's what it will take probably. of course, the large part of that will come from revenue. remember, we were spending millions of dollars a year building Weblogs, Inc. In fact, over five years at least 15m would have been invested in WIN. - Jason Calacanis
Jason Carreira, in JCal's defense, Mahalo has always been Weblogs Inc built on Mediawiki. It's a content play with ads, proven model...well as long as the Google traffic comes in for him. - Duncan Riley
jeneane, I better not go there...already in trouble today :-) Still, no logic at all. Cost of creating content is relatively cheap...unless he's got something else in mind - Duncan Riley
at least Duncan when I get in trouble I have a little fun:) - Fred Grott
If it's a proven revenue model, why do they need another $50 million? Shouldn't they be generating revenue by now? - Jason Carreira via twhirl
I really like the concept of Mahalo. My question is how what search market are you really targeting? If we talking about generic search(google) its keyword and they index bunch of garbage and present it to you. Then there is Nat lang search, where you are obviously search for meaning for stuff and they try o present you meaning full data. Where does Mahalo fit into this arena? - Akshay
This will sound weird but I tried some bacon flavored chocolate a couple of weeks ago and it actually tasted very good. Gave it sort of a smoky taste. - Mike Doeff
Over the past few years I see a lot of unexpected foods and spices incorporated into chocolates so I wouldn't be surprised. Where did you get the bacon chocolate? I'd be interested in trying it! - Mona N
Mona, I'm forgetting who made the chocolate but we bought it at Whole Foods - Mike Doeff
"Flying chocolate pigs, dressed in what else but…bacon. This flying chocolate pig is filled with applewood smoked bacon, Alder wood smoked salt and deep milk chocolate." Yum! http://www.vosgeschocolate.com... - Lisa L. Seifert
that sounds really great... did you make that?? - Caroline via twhirl
My public Dopplr profile. I used to use Tripit for everything because they did email imports but the Dopplr interface is much easier on the eyes. Now that Dopplr supports email imports I have no reason to not use it. - Benjamin Golub via Bookmarklet
I use dopplr for stuff other people can see and tripit for the details I do not want people to see. besides, I have the feeling the range of details imported by dopplr is not quite up to par with tripit. ;) - Nicole Simon
Velocity was a great (if rough and new) conference, and this provides a good list of slide decks for website performance if you couldn't make it. - Don MacAskill
Oscar-nominated animated short from last year, featuring a 1969 conversation between John Lennon and a 14-year-old Beatles fan. It's totally worth your 5 minutes. - Lon Harris via twhirl
watched it before, I'll watch again, thanks for sharing Lon - Jeff Hoard via twhirl
Did they leave those things up on the poles? I guess so, there is no compelling reason to take them down and no salvage value to speak of. - Denton Gentry
I had one of those. Downloaded betas of Windows 95 several times on one. - Robert Scoble
I had one for my Newton MessagePad. Never used it that much. Did think a lot about apps that I could build for them. - scott anderson
Metricom made no provisions for taking their equipment down when they secured the mounting rights for their network. Thus, when they went belly up, there was no budget to yank their old equipment. Cities around the country learned their lesson. Now, pretty much every pole attachment agreement you encounter will include a "Metricom/Ricochet" clause that requires the radio removal to be ensured by a bond. - Sacca
Memories... I remember when they first started... - Mitchell Tsai
I still have my old Ricochet modem. There was talk among city services types here in SF that it might come back as a utility - since the city now owned all the equipment. Fortunately they figured out that municipal wifi is smarter. Still hope it happens. - Hillary Hartley
back then you'd tell people "wireless internet, it's the future!" and they'd just look at you funny. - Karim
I had a repeater on my roof and got free service. - Jay Tannenbaum
96kbps and all the Hamster Dance you could stand. Thems were the days. - Leo Laporte
Brings back memories of my dual twisted pair 56kbps ISDN lines from USWest. Circa 1997 - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Leo, I believe it's spelt "Hampster Dance" :-D - Karim
Leo: 96kbps? On my Ricochet I was happy to get something close to 19kbps. Usually I only got 12. - Robert Scoble
I remember driving to work with my laptop on the passenger side, sending IRC messages saying "I'm chatting in the car!!!" while at stop signs. Probably one of the dumber things I've done, but I was in awe of such a cool device :) - Patrick Lightbody
cradlepoint + verizon 3G evdo card = personal mobile wifi cloud. very powerful. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Still have my Ricochet USB modem! Ah, the memories. :) (I have a Sprint card now) - Erica Douglass
Scoble: The second version of their service, which they had rolled out to limited service areas by the time they died, had a theoretical bandwidth of up to 128kbps or something like that. - ⓞnor
I had Ricochet service back in ~2000-2001. I used it on my laptop as well as my pocket PC. It was great at the time, and I was so disappointed when they went belly up. I was getting 200-300 kbps download speeds, which was pretty good at the time. I drove from Foster City to San Jose once with my pocket PC connected the whole time just to prove I could... - Jeff P. Henderson
Ricochet is why I never connected to the internet on a dial-up modem. When I was young, I only had internet access at work or school, where we had a fast connection. Later, I had internet access with a cable modem. In between, when everyone else used dial-up, I used Ricochet. - Amit Patel
This technology should be reused rather than taken down. However, I'm sure there's lots of legal stuff that needs to be cleared before that happens... - Franklin Naval
I loved Ricochet service, but the lesson I learned from Metricom failure was much more valuable. I got an access to a certain insider report proving Metricom will never reach profitability for one simple reason - Ricochet network would collapse before the number of users could make it profitable. Sure thing, one would use this insider info to profit by shorting the stock, right? Of course the stock eventually reached zero. The only problem was that on it's way from $40 to zero it touched $200. He-he. - Eugene
From the article: “People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes... too many companies believe that hiring the best and the brightest from top-flight schools guarantees corporate success...the problem is that, having been identified as geniuses, the anointed become fearful of falling from grace." - Ginger Makela via Bookmarklet
Hire people who can get things done. Not Geniuses. - Muthu Ramadoss
"Society is obsessed with the idea of talent and genius and people who are ‘naturals’ with innate ability,” says Ms. Dweck, who is known for research that crosses the boundaries of personal, social and developmental psychology." - Hutch Carpenter
Piece is so true. Doubtful that most recruiters do it. Sad - Charlie Anzman
reminds me of this Po Bronson article about praising kids for intelligence versus effort. “When we praise children for their intelligence, we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.” http://nymag.com/news/features... - David Vasileff
GE, Xerox, and IBM are unconvincing examples. The iPhone example is about selecting for people excited by risk and opportunity, which doesn't confirm anything about "believing in the power of talent". We've all met prima donnas who think they're superstars and mostly spend their time avoiding challenges (look at all those people pissed off by technical interviews which ignore their years of experience) but does it take "three decades of painstaking research" to figure out those people are bogus? - ⓞnor
It's never too late to grow and learn new things. - Bjorn Tipling
I think there is natural ability, but one should try to grow and improve on themselves anyway and become the best that *they* can be, which may or may not be better than others. I feel like I want to fullfill my potential, whatever it may be. I am not discouraged by smarter or stronger people, because it is about me, and not about how I compare to others. - Bjorn Tipling
I feel like in my industry I'd much rather have an army of people who give 100% instead of just a few geniuses aiming low with a sense of entitlement about what intelligence owes them. - Jason Lowe
Pretty interesting. I was just reading Josh Waitzkin's book "The Art of Learning" and he cites Dweck's research (of "entity" vs. "incremental" intellegences) as well. - Jake
sounds like fun. you forgot the beer. - Nathan Johns
I do miss my baby :( Hopefully will be able to pick her up over Christmas (along with one of these - http://line6.com/pocketpod/) My piano too. Miss her, despite the cracked soundboard, broken sustain pedal and dampers that didn't. When sad - play the piano, happy - play the piano, anxious - play the piano, petulant - play the piano. Best thing to do whatever mood descends. - Patricia Hanrahan
""The magnitude of the pollution in Beijing is not something we know how to deal with. It's a foreign environment. It's like feeding an athlete poison," said a respiratory expert assisting American marathoners." - Ana via Bookmarklet
There were obviously concerns before the L.A. games about pollution but proved to not be an issue. Athens also had its pollution issues four years ago. Tibet is the biggest potential for disaster as I guarantee a medal winner will make some sort of podium protest a la Tommie Smith's black power salute at the 68 Games. - Chris Reed
They're already making excuses for their lack of medals?!? Wow... Usually that happens AFTER the games. - Prolific Programmer
It's hard to parse out when a story on China's environment is being sensationalized from the standpoint of an American journalist who is used to clean air but it is also hard to overstate the pollution in Beijing. No, you're not going to die after breathing the air for a day but for us pampered waiguoren, you may be uncomfortable (and a bit dirty.) - Jennie Lin
I lived in Beijing for 2 months 6 years ago... I didn't find it any more polluted from an air quality standpoint than the valleys in LA, New Delhi, Sacramento, etc. But it does get muggy and humid in the summer... - Roshan Vyas
Just you wait till London gets them! WE WILL OUTDO EVERYONE (especially if Boris remains mayor) <g> - Prolific Programmer
I am looking so forward to the London games and plan to be there... - Chris Reed
Beijing's air is much worse than Los Angeles or Sacramento. Delhi gives it a run for its money, though. For example (from a couple years ago): http://www.iht.com/images/2006.... People notice different things, and the air varies from day to day and week to week, so subjective impressions vary. - ⓞnor
am i the only one who finds a kitten about to be fork stabbed disturbing? not. cute. imho... - Mona N
Like when we were in North Vietnam, and my wife (who is Vietnamese and loves dogs) says to the taxi driver, "Oh, look at all the dogs on the porches of this town.", and he says, "They are food." - Chris White
btw I'm Japanese, not Chinese.. we'd eat your pets too but goldfish sushi? do.not.want! - Mona N
Chopsticks would clearly be the more appropriate utensil here. - Chris White
Reality check-many pets are food or pets then food in other cultures. Disturbing maybe. People that eat animals for food are kind of fascinated on how pet lovers spend so much money on an an animal. Not saying either side right or wrong just different. - Mark Forman
Mark: The live fuzzy kitten about to be forked stabbed is disturbing.... not the choice of delicacy <-for lack of a better word =\ - Mona N
totally got a cool idea for new schwag... two items: for new Moms, a friend feed shirt with slots for easy feeding of infants... and for new Pops like Louis, nipple with bottle attachment inserts with one nipple coming out of the first f and the second nipple coming out of the second d... saweet! - Rob Reed
FF schwag and twins! best picture of the day! - Sarah Perez
Mega awesome ;) Congratulations to you and your family, like the Friendfeed t-shirt ;) - Mario Olckers
Tiny... little... eentsy... lumps of yum. There, my estrogen has officially shown itself. - Carla Thompson
No way - they have FF onesies??? How do I get my hands on one of those? - Jesse Stay
The Gray family Babies!!!! Sarah and Mathew look sooo cute in your arms! and sooo tiny my goodness!!... still LOL @ Rob's wacky comment..whoa! - Susan Beebe
I've been buying the microbe ones for my gf, she's a microbiology grad student. She loves them. The particle ones aren't quite as fun, but still amusing. - xero
The Antiproton looks kinda like Meatwad. - April Buchheit
