Unfortunately, discussions here have gone south... Vocal users have moved to twitter, but there discussions are lost. And then, there's facebook -IFAIC, I try to keep it "private"...
- Panayotis Vryonis
Nope, *plenty* of discussion here. It's when you're not around that you miss it.
- Itachi
There was an article about how FF's quality has gotten better recently. I don't see it either, which brings a tear to my eye. We had some great, deep discussions on topics over here. That was Friendfeed to me, it was deeper engagement.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
And I can't give Scoble all the credit but clearly he was part of that...
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Where DID Scoble go?!... things have gotten awful quiet.
- Thom Kennon
He fell in love with Twitter Lists and gave up on FF after Facebook acquired...
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
*wonders if he has transformed into chopped liver*
- Morgan Haley
What kind of discussions are you looking for. We've been talking about the best Robin Hood all morning!
- Jeremy (on vacation)
I agree. Little discussion here and every one I generate takes root elsewhere. I occasionally join one here, but conversation on FF has dwindled in everything I see.
- Ken Camp
See here's the problem I see here: There are people that I have rarely, if ever have seen in this thread. Dave Winer is a guy who is famous in the social media world. People often sign up and follow the feeds of Winer, Scoble, and the like and that's all they see. When Scoble leaves and others, they agree with them for saying FriendFeed is dead. However, to the contrary, it's very much...
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- Itachi
I think for some of these people if you aren't a techie, your conversations aren't that important. That's one thing I've noticed that has changed on FF. There is less of some things, but a lot more meaningful interaction among the people who have remained. The people still here are the ones who value a different type of personal interaction. FF is still very active and alive.
- Junebug (aka Sarah Jill)
dave - everyone moved to social median
- Allen Stern
I think there's a big difference between "tech" and "social media". People like Scoble often mix this up. There is plenty of "tech" discussion on Friendfeed. And I agree, with Junebug on that respect as well.
- Itachi
Maybe we just aren't talking about what you want to see? Your FriendFeed != My FriendFeed :)
- Johnny Worthington
Once again, the color of the speech bubbles are very telling here. Morgan, Micah, Johnny, Allen have blue. People I'm subscribed to. Names I recognize. The rest of you? White. What are you guys subscribed to, exactly?
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Bingo, Rah. The less than active tend to be subscribed to only the A-listers of social media who they are familiar with. And who, alas, aren't active on Friendfeed.
- Itachi
the italian section of friendfeed is quite vocal...
- Alb.
The problem is Dave that many of the tech influentials, CEOs, programmers, journalists, etc spend their time elsewhere now. There are conversations but they are dramatically different than what were happening six months ago.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I think Itachi said it best earlier. The influentials and the like were the common glue (or routers so to speak) that joined various circles together. The routers are now gone, so now we are left with disconnected LANs. Each hold their value to that island but there much fewer bridges any more at least for the technical community.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
There are still some very interesting conversations that happen here - you just have to be subscribed to the right people. Follow some of the OpenID guys (Micah mentioned a few) - there is still a lot of conversation in that area that goes on here. It's a great conversations medium, much better than Twitter.
- Jesse Stay
I would argue many of the developers and programmers who used Friendfeed are still on here. Just because it's not the hot fad of the season doesn't mean it's dead. Slashdot isn't covered much by the social media kings, yet it's still alive and well.
- Itachi
Entries on my home feed with 3 or more comments: http://friendfeed.com/search.... You're welcome to modify the number to come up with your own definition of "discussion"
- Benjamin Golub
my FF has slowed down recently - people I used to have regular discussions with are either not as active, or not at the same time I am... as a result I use it less, and it probably trickles like that
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
I think those people who formed a unique community on FriendFeed are noticing less of a change because their community is staying here. Those whose community exists outside of FriendFeed and merely uses FriendFeed as one channel of communication may find more volatility because it's easy to shift to the latest thing. Dave, as someone deep in the tech industry filled with early adopters (and early abandoners) your FriendFeed may be more adversely affected than others like myself.
- Kevin Fox
Dave subscribes to only 122 people -- maybe he needs to broaden his horizons?
- Brian Sullivan
My feed has never been busier, and I'm getting new subs every day. Of course, I'm not very techy so if you are, our paths might not cross.
- Derrick
Building on Benjamin Golub's search: here's the same thing, but for friends of Dave Winer: http://friendfeed.com/search... Looks like a bunch of discussions, several in the last couple of hours.
- Mark Trapp
I think everyone nailed it on this one... FF is no longer the holy land of social media zealot discussion, but has retained a very real connectivity to it surrounding non-tech and some-what tech individuals. IMO, Scoble and the like are not the celebs of current FF, but true wonderful characters like Derrick are becoming them in their absence. If left alone long enough this place could really be cool.
- SAM
Not all discussions are in the main feed either. There's a ton of active groups.
- Rodfather
Kevin should win an award or something for clarity of thought. And to throw in my two cents behind many of the others here, my feed is nuts. I often have to rely on a subset list along with RSS notices just to keep up. Also, unlike the last few months, I'm starting to see a lot of new subs recently. My guess is that FriendFeed is not dead; it was just tired after a long squawk. Seems to be perking up quite nicely now.
- Akiva Moskovitz
+1 Rodfather. Group discussions don't show up in the main feed unless someone cross-posts to their personal feed. Also, techy discussion is fairly limited these days, for the reasons previously mentioned. Mostly it's discussion about our personal lives, work or some article that may be about tech gadgets, but isn't really a technical discussion.
- Jason Huebel
Oh, and for one, I would like to see more tech-oriented discussions here. Sure, I'm all about the hyper-hangout that FriendFeed has become but I also miss the hardcore geek-outs that used to occur here. And I just seriously can't get my head around people having the same quality discussions about tech on Twitter that we used to have here.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Yeah, it's not possible to have a discussion on Twitter. I've posted some tech-oriented things recently and I'm beginning to move more toward geeky stuff in general, but a lot of my geekier discussions are in groups that don't make it into the main feed.
- Jason Huebel
I actually think the conversation streams and peeps have diversified from more hardcore tech to more cultural, art, cooking! not a bad thing. just a different tone and nature of the conversations. i still like that quote from a FF denizen who said "Facebook is where i hang out with people i already know. FriendFeed is where I hang out with people I'm getting to know." Speaking of FB -...
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- Thom Kennon
Dave, let's back up here... Looking at your feed, 99% of your posts are just imports from other services (mainly Twitter). Then you hop over to FriendFeed and say "why doesn't anyone discuss anything anymore?" It's because you aren't participating here. Gotta give something to get something. Commenting on your own Disqus imports isn't participation, either. I think the fact of the matter is that people don't feel an obligation to feed the geekeratti egos now that they've all but abandoned the service.
- Jason Huebel
The last reply you made to a post that wasn't your own was back on December 1st (http://friendfeed.com/chrisme...). Two weeks ago! And you haven't even replied to this post, which you made 3 hours ago.
- Jason Huebel
I also appreciate the fact that a large majority of users are having discussions in languages OTHER than English.
- Johnny Worthington
It's an elegant social network for a more civilized age.
- Goran Zec
Because it counters the thinking (or lack of thinking) of a few social media experts that places like FriendFeed and Twitter and other social networks only exists in western, English speaking countries...
- Johnny Worthington
Not everyone has an iPhone, not everyone can watch Hulu, not everyone can play Foursquare, not everyone has unlimited (uncapped) bandwidth, not everyone wants to know the news the second it happens, not everyone cares who someone reads and not everyone wants to talk tech 24/7. I like it outside the bubble :)
- Johnny Worthington
Maybe I do need to follow more people, but with the same number of followers there used to always be something interesting in FF to read about and comment on.
- Dave Winer
I also love the non-English. gives the place both a global feel - and reality. I have peeps, clients, etc. around the world and FriendFeed is our agreed great leveler.
- Thom Kennon
People you used to follow here have moved on to Twitter. Not many techies around these days. This leaves the rest, regular guys talking about regular stuff. But maybe this kind of discussions don't interest you.
- Jordi Soler
It's like a garden, if you don't tend to the garden bed, weeds will grow. If you don't prune your roses, you just have dead twigs.
- Johnny Worthington
@Thom and Johnny, I participate in the non-English posts fairly often. It's easier with FF Translate, even though I can only reply in English (and hope they can read it). Hey Micah, any chance you can make a translate thingamajig that goes the opposite direction? Translate my English to the language of the post?
- Jason Huebel
Jordi there are still a lot of Techies - follow Dewitt Clinton, myself, Chris Messina, Dave Recordon even some times participates. Then there's Paul, Bret, Benjamin, Kevin, etc. of the FF Team. Cristo's a techie. I could go on and on...
- Jesse Stay
In fact I probably participate with more techies than non on here.
- Jesse Stay
There are a ton of conversations here and some are tons more interesting than others. This one is interesting. The question is though if you are not having a conversation here - where are you hanging out lately?
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
Dave, I've been following you since at least 1995, and long before Friendfeed and Twitter. It was because of you that I heard about and joined Friendfeed and I regret the fact that it's lost its momentum since being absorbed into Facebook. There is still no substitute for what FF used to be. But the circus has left town now and there is no way of bringing it back. FF will continue and...
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- Tim Ostler
@Jesse: Perhaps I don't follow the right people then. Anyway, it was not a complaint, it was just a theory of what has happened to Friendfeed recently. More international content (myself) and more "social" posts. Which does not mean that there aren't any techies left. I'll follow your recommendations, thanks!
- Jordi Soler
I blame Facebook for all problems related to any lack of participation over here (j/k)
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Although "blame" is a harsh word, the Facebook acquisition was a significant turning point. Whether that's a downturn or not is debatable, but that's when most of the tech-elite skipped town. I admit to feeling down-in-the-mouth occasionally because I miss the technical involvement of the FF devs. But there is still a lot of good discussion here. It's just not as technical in nature.
- Jason Huebel
Discussions are not missing. They're just harder to find.
- Louis Gray
Jason, it's worth a good hard think and discussion. Posting translated text is a thornier issue (thinking form the POV of the tool maker). It commits to record an imperfect source, with any successive translations further degrading the signal (copy of a copy). Maybe I'm overly concerned about it, but like I said - needs more discussion. Thanks for getting the ball rolling :)
- Micah Wittman
@kr8tr tried to hold a 30 min real-time Q&A yesterday via Twitter on "What's it like to be Scoble's boss". I bailed because little way to follow. Twitter search on "@kr8tr" kind of worked but you had to keep refreshing. Google search a little better. But it would have been ideal had he announced it on Twitter (where everybody is) and then pointed to Friendfeed for the Q&A. Not sure there's a better platform for that kind of rt discussion.
- Nick in Manila
Another prob with Twitter in above context is everyone is using different Twitter apps that regurgitate the firehose at different rates so some people see comments much later that others. On Friendfeed, the sequence is at least consistent across participants.
- Nick in Manila
Dave, you might need to broaden your interests.
- zeroinfluencer
Nick: I agree. One little datapoint, though. Since Facebook bought FriendFeed I've gained 14,000 followers on Twitter. That is more followers than all but five people on FriendFeed have. The reason Twitter is popular is, well, it's popular. I'm sad that FriendFeed lost out, but it did. Oh, and Facebook has similar threading to FriendFeed only you have to refresh the page to see new...
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- Robert Scoble
Robert, with the 14,000 new followers, is that a spike or did it follow natural upward trends?
- Johnny Worthington
Johnny: it's definitely going up faster lately due to new list feature.
- Robert Scoble
So do we assume conversations are "dying"? (Hate the word, every once in a while something "dies" in the internet...)
- Jordi Soler
It would also be helpful to evaluate the level of conversation that was here and has now left. Quantity != Quality
- Johnny Worthington
from iPhone
For each of us it depends who we are following and who is following us, and whether people with interests in discussing certain things overlap in time sufficiently with you to get a conversation going - I guess I need to change my follow profile
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
There's 59 comments and 32 likes on this thread. What are you looking for exactly? That said, I tend to read only the 1st and last comment in these long threads.
- Vincent van Wylick
Vincent you got me there. Of course I knew there would be 33 likes and a zillion comments on this when I posted it. I am such an unreasonable person and you could see that! Your mother must be so proud of her little Vincent. :-)
- Dave Winer
thats why i am out of here and spending my time in boredom ,reading or sleeping
- ffcode
Vincent, the reason there is so much activity on this thread is because the topic is Friendfeed, specifically lack of activity on Friendfeed. People will flock to a topic if they can prove it wrong.
- Jason Williams
from iPhone
@Jason, that's a kind of cynical view, don't you think? This is a topic that's of common interest to everyone on FF. Most other posts are only interesting to smaller groups of people. That's not a bad thing. I think there is just a wider array of topics to talk about on FF now that tech evangelists have moved on. So the activity is spread out.
- Jason Huebel
And again, looking at your feed activity, you spend very little time interacting with others on FF. Most of your activity is importing from Facebook. So your experience isn't going to be as good as someone who actually shows interest in the posts of others here.
- Jason Huebel
I wasn't saying there aren't conversations to be found but I'm talking about his experience. He wasn't seeing any interactions on his posts until he posted about FF. Make your own conclusions.
- Jason Williams
Which is why I said "again". Dave Winer's interaction with other people's posts is minimal as well. He comments on his own posts all the time. But you'll never start a conversation if you only talk to yourself.
- Jason Huebel
Dave has obviously not visited the Life Scientists room :)
- Deepak Singh
it's a hard sell when you can't engage with your own content, for sure. I'm trying to be better at adding commentary as to why I thought it important enough to (re)post what I (re)post rather than leave it to a bunch of bots to aggregate/shovel it out.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
But he did start a conversation, it's just that it was about Friendfeed so others joined in. Go look at best of day at any time and you'll find multiple items about Friendfeed. It doesn't bode well for a service if the most popular activity on that service is about said service. If you looked at Twitter and saw half of the trending topics looking like (Twitter fail, twitter is dead,...
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- Jason Williams
Jason, I don't comment on my own posts. That's the second time you said it, and you're wrong. I hooked up my Disqus feed to FF so you're seeing my comments there echoed here. Stop being such a wiseass, you're not half as smart as you think you are.
- Dave Winer
I'd love FriendFeed discussions. You can't have them on Twitter because of the lack of threads and you can't keep track of everyone's message. One of my biggest issues with Twitter.
- Patrick
from twhirl
Ah, nice. Name calling and insults. But you've just proven my point. The "comments" are also coming from somewhere else. You expect to have people interact with you but you invest very little time in FF yourself. If you put even a small percentage of effort into FF that you do other services, you might actually see results. It's no longer good enough to import one's feeds into FF and expect people to pay attention. That ended when many of the tech elite left the service back in August.
- Jason Huebel
The truth is, the people left here on FF are mostly "little fish" when it comes to tech. So one really can't expect to get 1000 likes and 2000 comments on a post anymore. None of us have a "fan base" that can support that.
- Jason Huebel
I don't expect anything -- I asked a question.
- Dave Winer
I think Friendfeed is evolving into something quite different of what some people predicted a while back. But it's not dying, no way.
- Jordi Soler
Except when I'm addressing the issues I've pointed out with your feed, when I say "you", I'm using that as people in general. I can change all the you's to "one", if that will clarify. (Done.)
- Jason Huebel
Jordi, what is your definition of dying? Is it different than people leaving en mass (with the exception of non-english speaking countries) and the talent behind the service bought up by a mega-site all the while people arguing weather the service is viable/dying?
- Jason Williams
Good point. Dying as in "Geocities dying". But I see people talking about many things everyday. Just not the same topics there used to be.
- Jordi Soler
OK wait, Dave. First you claim that there are no discussions on FF. Then you say you don't comment on your own posts. The way I was brought up was that a discussion is when you say something, then other people respond, then you respond back, and so on. FF, like most anything else in life, is what you make it. If you don't interact with people here, then you have little basis for complaining (sorry, _observing_) that there are never any discussions here.
- vicster is...
I don't understand why people think the convo on friendfeed has gone down hill. It is the same if not better then it was before. If you don't like the discussions from the people you are following then find some new people to follow.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
i dunno about other people, but my FF is jumping so fast lately that i can barely keep up...and now it's mostly things i DO want to read about.
- Joe Silence
vicster+++ I just skimmed, but this dude sounds like he hasn't been skiing for three years and says "how come no one ever skies anymore?" If you came to the FF mountain once in a while, you'd see my crazy ass every freaking day. I use FF more now than I ever have, more than I ever dreamed I'd enjoy. Now maybe you think the mountain has been taken over by hooligans, and that may be a fair point, but the caliber and content of my discussions do not make them non-discussions.
- Lo
My conclusion, based on this thread, is that there is indeed some discussing going on on FF. Mostly of the "Neener neener" variety. :-)
- Dave Winer
You can't base your conclusion on one thread of conversation with a topic like this. Why don't go and look for other people to follow and you'll see some activity.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
Well, sure. You called us out. So there's going to be a bit of that. But in all honesty, there's a lot of good people here with a lot to talk about. You just have to seek it out.
- Jason Huebel
@Dave: "Neener neener" is the response your comments require lately.
- Joe Silence
Of course you don't see any conversations taking place...you aren't even subscribed to me.
- Alex Scoble
When I said "Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?" I was (in case it wasn't totally obvious) looking for suggestions not lectures. I'm now following Alex Scoble. I check FF many times each day.
- Dave Winer
Woo! I finally hit the big time! Seriously, though...thanks for the subscription, Dave. Much appreciated.
- Alex Scoble
If the FriendFeed community were not so oversensitive, one of the 100 comments above would have answered Dave's question by pointing him to the advanced search form, specifically the "at least _ comments" field and the saved search feature. Then he could quickly find discussions on his favorite topics every visit.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
Bruce: That was the 23rd comment, from Benjamin Golub. How more/less oversensitive does that make us? ;-)
- Ken Sheppardson
Good point, Ken. I searched for "advanced", "comments" and one other term, but didn't find that one. It makes the community 34.7% less oversensitive.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
Friendfeed and Twitter lack the depth and breadth of Facebook, no matter which way you slice it. Gather the best minds of our generation, in many fields and areas, on Facebook, and you will not have to complain. Friendfeed and Twitter are, however, useful as secondary feeds into Facebook.
- david beckwith
FriendFeed still saves my stuff, unlike Facebook where my posts are lost in the ether, but I do miss the more active FriendFeed of times past. I think once "best of" became a standard feature, FriendFeed shifted to more family, personal life, etc... discussions rather than "tech" stuff (for better or for worse). Even for techies, new/lost jobs, new/old romances, etc... generated more feedback & discussion than most tech topics.
- Mitchell Tsai
I love the fact that we had an after party and and after after party. Not quite Tracy Jordan/30 Rock style, but pretty good for a guy who's normally to bed by 9:30. :)
Hah. Our after party was us having a little dinner and then going to sleep.
- Akiva Moskovitz
I saw the pix on Dotcom's and Griz's facebook pages. You really had a good time.
- Bryan R. Adams
I love it, Alex. There are only so many opportunities to have the people you love in the same place. I think I'd rather celebrate with my friends than try to have a 'traditional' wedding night with all of the cultural expectations that entails after what must be an exhausting day. I'll probably do what Akiva did, though.
- joey
Pulleeze.. people.. I'm with Joey and Alex. Party with family and friends.
- Uncle CW™
We spent the better part of the week leading up to the wedding with family and friends. The wedding and wedding night were all about *us*.
- Bren -- feeling merry
from iPhone
Yeah, unfortunately because the fact that most of our family was from out of town and this was a winter wedding, we didn't have that luxury. The honeymoon will be all about us.
- Alex Scoble
from IM
If one or both of you are virgins, then what Johnny said. If you've already well-debugged each other's code, and interfaced with all the addons the API affords, then what joeybean said.
- Matthew DeVries
I was, of course, being facetious with my first comment. I'm really glad you guys got to enjoy your family and friends, and the wedding went off well!
- Bren -- feeling merry
from iPhone
IMO, there is no wrong way to do it as long as you're still married at the end of the night ;)
- joey
I don't mean to be crude but... Now that you are married, Alex, you will come to know there are few times when it's a lay down misere... Know those times well and take full advantage :P
- Johnny Worthington
In order for you to be crude, Johnny, I'd have to know what you meant hehe
- Alex Scoble
from IM
"A Misere bid usually indicates an extremely poor hand, hence the name. An Open or Lay Down Misere, is a 500 bid where the player is so sure of losing every trick that they undertake to do so with their cards placed face-up on the table. Consequently, 'Lay Down Misere' is Australian gambling slang for a "dead cert"; a predicted easy victory."
- Johnny Worthington
Is that a bridge thing, Johnny?
- Alex Scoble
from IM
"Since a whole lot of right-wingers gleefully trumpeted George Monbiot’s article in which he called for CRU head Phil Jones to resign, I wonder if they’ll be equally eager to promote his latest article — which documents the enormous amounts of money the climate denial industry is spending to trick people into believing there’s no threat from global warming: The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it’s working. I’m guessing … not."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
Skeptics view here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news... The reality is that scientists and commentators should be calling for Phil Jones resignation regardless of where you stand on the debate disinformation is prevalent on both sides.
- Eric Logan
... Because Jones doesn't like people who lie about his life's work? What in those emails is worthy of his firing?
- Andrew C
Andrew, Try this one on for size from May 29th 2008 well after the FOI requests ===> From: Phil Jones To: “Michael E. Mann” Subject: IPCC & FOI Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008 </MANN@XXX.EDU></P.JONES@XXXX.UK> Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to...
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- Eric Logan
Eric: "Another reporter asks Mann about reports that Penn State has opened an investigation into Climategate. He also asks about an e-mail that CRU's Phil Jones wrote to Mann, requesting that Mann delete certain e-mails. Mann replies, "There is no investigation. Penn State is simply reviewing the evidence out there to determine if there is any reason for an investigation." He adds that...
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- Andrew C
"to my knowledge, nobody acted on it," and, "I did not delete any e-mails and I felt uncomfortable receiving that request." He should feel uncomfortable, Phil Jones is asking him to commit a criminal act. Lets assume that Mann is telling the truth. What about Jones himself, Briffa or Gene ?
- Eric Logan
I would prefer to wait for the evidence. (I'm going to assume that Jones et al are scientists and not IT wizards and don't have access to the email backups.)
- Andrew C
"Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars and beer. According to Nielsen, 46 percent of viewers 18 to 49 years old for all four networks taken together are watching the commercials during playback, up slightly from last year. Why would people pass on the opportunity to skip through to the next chunk of program content? The most basic reason, according to Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, a media buying firm, is that the behavior that has underpinned television since its invention still persists to a larger degree than expected. “It’s still a passive activity,” he said."
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
wow, people *really* still watch commercials? I find this hard to believe.
- Thomas Hawk
Are people watching these are simply letting them pass over them and taking the opportunity to grab a drink or similar?
- Rob Brammeld
I zip through the commercials every time as I get very little time to sit and watch my favourite programmes as it is! If I need a drink or break that's what the pause button is for :)
- Russell G
I zip through the commercials myself, but also when the programme is one that I am not 100% into I will run it at up to 3x the normal speed until something that looks good comes on. =P
- Travis Koger
If a commercial is good enough I'll rewind and watch it again and again.
- teh Dork Knight aka Kenny
I'm still not sure why they aren't running towards online delivery. You can't skip the commercials. Isn't that what you want?
- Todd Hoff
Todd: I'm sure someone will then market a box that plays (and records) online shows, allowing you to bypass commercials.
- Steve Dorsey
Maybe Steve, but it's not really worth it. The commercials are short so going around them is more trouble than it's worth. Plus it's in the video stream they control using a player they control, so what I would do is make a player that checked if certain commercial signs were seen and if they weren't I would stop playing the video.
- Todd Hoff
@Jill, sometimes I forget I am watching live TV and then scream when I cannot skip the commercials and no amount of clicking the skip button will make the commercial go any faster dammit! ;)
- Travis Koger
when the dvr can automatically jump threw the commericals then that will be one hell of an invention
- VAL D. Zone
In the UK there are advert indicators that pop up as a little swirly square pattern in the corner. Can't be too hard to interpret those.
- Rob Brammeld
Rob the player could too and if it didn't see them it would know something going on. Just adding checksums into each frame would be enough.
- Todd Hoff
This article is so biased it's unbelievable. Neilsen (who gets paid by the Networks) calculates whether or not a commercial is watched in 60 second increments. What this means is that if you catch the last two seconds of a commercial as you're going into your program, they count that as you watching two 30 second ads. If the headline was that 50% of consumers aren't hitting the sweet...
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- Davis Freeberg
Interesting comment there Davis. That would make *far* more sense to me. Even if I'm watching live TV, I'll typically pause it, go do something else for a few minutes and come back only to have that buffer in place to skip commercials. I can't imagine 50% of people actually watch them. That number felt way too high.
- Thomas Hawk
It seems like if that's the case that the NY Times should have pointed that out. Sloppy journalism.
- Thomas Hawk
Sloppy indeed, they get an industry exec who sells advertising to say that ads are good and then don't even mention the problems with Neilsen's data. Two years ago, the NYTimes ran an almost identical story using the same data. http://www.nytimes.com/2007...
- Davis Freeberg
I have owned Tivos (series 1&2), a DirecTV HD DVR (currently), and I have build a few of my own (MythTV and BeyondTV). Aside from the difficulty of setting up a homebrew system, BeyondTV was AWESOME because it actually sensed when commercials were being recorded and allowed you to skip past ALL OF them with one button press. HEAVEN!!!
- Steve Dorsey
I always skip commercials. (My thumb is nearly self-programmed to hit the 30 second skip button about 4-8 times.) Before DVRs, I routinely muted sound during commercials. Passive viewing my butt.
- Andrew C
"I learned about Aardvark a week ago on FriendFeed. No idea what it is at first but I'm instantly hooked. For a long while now I have been using http://ask.metafilter.com to get answers, but these usually take a long time. And a while back MeFi decided that they are getting too much traffic and they set a limit to 1 question per day. Not good. foldunfold Table of Contents About the service Example 1: My question about Creative Commons Example 2: My question about Copyright Law Example 3: My question about the origin of != Conclusion More Tools on SML Wiki About the service So what is Aardvark, you ask? Aardvark is a web app that taps into your Facebook network to find answers for you. This btw is also the first time I've signed up for any services using Facebook Connect! flickr:4022557094 When I click the join using Facebook Connect button, the site asked my permission to import my profiles, and the based on my interests on Facebook, automatically added categories where I may have...
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- See-ming Lee 李思明 SML
from Bookmarklet
This is the house of a college roommate. Luckily he purchased in 1997 at the bottom of the 1990-97 housing crash in Los Angeles, so he picked it up for ~$200,000 (it was a foreclosure, so he saved ~$50,000). But boy you would have been in MAJOR trouble if you bought this house last year.
- Mitchell Tsai
In Los Angeles, we saw a 50% drop in some houses' values during 1990-97, so we were already prepared for over-valued housing markets. Some of my friends sold their houses 2-3 yrs ago, and started renting, since they figured the market was already over-heated. (See Economist's full-issue on the housing bubble 2-3 years ago).
- Mitchell Tsai
Houses in our old neighborhood were about $259K when we moved in in '98. By the time we moved away in '06, they were averaging about $975K. Just read the paper this morning that that zip posted -14.2% drop in house prices, so now the average home is about $1.24M. Keep in mind these are 1500 - 1800 sf homes on small lots.
- Admiral Anika
Anika: You can type in your old address to see the Zillow estimates. People who purchased before 2004-2006 are probably ok, but if you purchased an inflated house - whoa....! This house is back to Jan 2004 prices (Santa Monica home is back to Jan 2005, and Beverly Hills home is only at Jan 2007). My parents home in Ohio is 2,032 sq ft (with full basement) on a 1/2 acre lot for only $168,000. Los Angeles prices are nuts...
- Mitchell Tsai
Oh, I Iived in an apt.so I wouldn't have been impacted.
- Admiral Anika
Darn, Anika! I thought you cleaned up nicely on your house... :-(
- Mitchell Tsai
No, my husband firmly believed that paying more $100K for a house was ridiculous, so we didn't. Not that I mind, I really didn't like living in that area.
- Admiral Anika
Adjusting for inflation (CPI-U), this house was purchased for $306,000 (in Nov 2008 dollars), so it's still about 116% too high (possible bubble). The Santa Monica house is 101% too high, and the Beverly Hills house is 71% too high - assuming that the original prices weren't already inflated (bad assumption) - so lots of room for the housing bubble (aka Ponzi scheme) to fall further.... Unlike companies, houses don't produce anything. Year 5000, these houses will be dust (but the land may have value).
- Mitchell Tsai
There were some interesting articles (~10-20 yrs ago) on how the advent of the "2-career" couple put upward pressure on house prices - pricing many homes out of range of the 1-career family. Real estate is a funny cross between the "problem of the commons" (overgrazing community property) and a "ponzi scheme" (pay the old owners with money from the new owners) - especially since the prize might be a better school district for your kids. Tough problem.
- Mitchell Tsai
Just priced out the home I grew up at in Huntington Beach, CA and it was now valued at $571,000...big drop...it was up to $896,000 about 4 years ago. My parents bought it for about $70,000 in 1975. They used to own 10 or so homes, but sold them 1 by 1 for cash
- Susan Beebe
Susan: Adjusting for inflation http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2... $70,000-75,000 (June 1975) is $277,000-297,000 (Nov 2008), which says your old Huntington Beach house could still be 92-106% too high...
- Mitchell Tsai
holy cow...that's not good! I cried when I wanted to buy a house in OC...not a chance
- Susan Beebe
Mitchell how far do you think prices will really drop though? that's the tough question to answer
- Susan Beebe
I think the drop depends on the economy & jobs. Remember how Texas houses got super-cheap after the oil bust in the 1980s? Los Angeles apartment rentals in 1993-95 got super-cheap after CA could pay it's bills, and UCLA tripled it's tuition (2 bedroom for $500-600/month!). I hear that a LOT of people are buying first homes now due to the lower prices & banks needing to resell the homes (e.g. that's how my roommate got his house so cheap in 1997 - a $50,000 discount from the fair value from the bank).
- Mitchell Tsai
Right... I do remember the TX housing bubble. Of course I graduated from UCLA in 1992 and the prices were NOT cheap (drove in from Ventura everyday... PCH was great commute! :)
- Susan Beebe
Popular estimates in the press - another 20% drop? But it really depends on your neighborhood.
- Mitchell Tsai
Susan: You're lucky you didn't buy in 1992. One of my UCLA friends bought a house in 1990. Around 1997-99, he declared bankruptcy because he was upside-down on his mortgage, and I helped him buy a car after the bankruptcy. Imagine that you are 21 yrs old, and for 7-10 years (age 21-31) your house is going negative. So his accountant suggested that he sell. If he had waited 5-10 more years (2002-2007), the house would have started skyrocketing... but that's a long wait (and due to the internet bubble).
- Mitchell Tsai
Wow, that's quite a story...poor guy. Housing costs was one of my pet peeves about CA living...just too dang costly. Eventually I left in 2000 and have since owned beautiful homes in NY that would have easily cost 10x as much in CA
- Susan Beebe
Awesome! My parents house in Ohio ($168,000) would be ~$4-5 million in Beverly Hills ($4 million for the 1/2 acre of land, and $500,000 for the house).
- Mitchell Tsai
Right ...my current house would easily be 4+ million if it was in BH. I live right off the Irondequoit Bay (near Rochester Canoe Club) where I can walk down to the water in about 10 minutes down the hill. Fabulous home on 1/3 acre land with fabulous expansive views of the bay (all rooms but 3 see the bay), plus we got a great home with a low price tag$! :D
- Susan Beebe
[Update 10/15/09] House has risen to $743,000. Value has been going up since Jan 2009's low of $658,000.
- Mitchell Tsai
Are u kidding me? They Gave You the Nobel Peace Prize? Really? Sorry to ask Mr. President, but Do you even know the definition of the word "Peace" sir? Just Look At Your Face In The Mirror And Ask Yourself how often you Really Think About Other People in other Countries? You Can't even Get Your Troops Out Of Iraq and the whole world is wondering whether you guys are just staying there 4...
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- +Holy Killer+
Especially when you know he is responsible for the murder of Hundreds of My innocent Brothers And Sisters… Just Because You're preoccupied with the Oil in Iran And Fear they might make an atomic bomb one of these days and pass it on to Hamas & Hizbollah to use against Israel doesn't give you the right to remain silent. You know what Mr. President? I Don't Believe in your Audacity of...
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- +Holy Killer+
Totally agree with Holy Killer. now that you have won the prize, you can at least start doin somethin to show you deserve it.... and that somethin better be good Sir ;-) you see... the world needs to be reassured...over and over again!
- Miss Self-Abort
Hey Mr. President! I'm not agree with Holly Killer and the others. Now would you grant me a green card for being nice and supportive? :D
- AutoBioFeeder
حاج مهدی سلام . خوبی شما؟ به انگلیسی از اوباما بپرس جریان اختراع دینامیت رو می دونه یا نه :دی
- وانا
آن که نامش بود باراک ، هست بی عرضه و با چاک
- وانا
بچهها ببینم میتونیم یه کاری کنیم که جمیعا از اینجا پرتمون کنن بیرون و بلاک حتی :دی خیلی علاقه دارم از جانب یه سیاستمدار برنده جایزه نوبل بلاک شم حتی :دی
- Miss Self-Abort
Interesting that the vast majority of the discussion in this thread concerning an American president's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize is in Farsi.
- Itachi
يعني يه سيخ و منقل هم پيدا نميشه! اينا كه كلي ادعا دارن...! شام هم كه ندارن! حالا نگفتيد باراك چه كاره است؟ تو مايكروسافت كار ميكنه؟ اسمش آشناستها...
- hadi kh
that's cause Iranians are a huge majority on the net Mohomed ;-)
- Miss Self-Abort
Mr President when ever you want to answer me just call me and tell my secretary you won Nobel !he will let you go through my private line!
- موسوی phouzhanمیر
Hi Mr President, I am great Iranian political analyst and I want to help you.(One of my works is predicting Iran election that you can find it on my blog). My mother say I one day become a great person and I think that day is come. for more information make comment in my blog. I will contact with you.
- Darieh
I wonder, do people actually think President Obama reads their comments here?
- Stephen Mack
oh sir!i need to have an american greencard..oom..so you know,we are now friends in friend feed..dear barack can you help me? :D
- "lefthanded"® as buddha
میشه دوستام رو هم بیارم؟البته اینا بر میگردن،اما من می مونم،میشل جان خوبن ضمناً؟!بچه هم قد ما هم نداری ازدواج کنیم! می دونی ازدواج یه ارانی تر تبار با یه آمریکایی آفریقایی تبار باعث میشه بچه اینا با هیچ کدوم از این نژاد ها نجنگه!تو فیلم روبان قرمز می گفت به خدا!//جناب مترجم کبابت می کنم اگه سانسور کنی!
- "lefthanded"® as buddha
بعد اینکه من می دونم این پیام منو پخش نمی کنید! اما ما از مدیران آب و فاضلاب شهرستان هردنبیل آباد می خوایم به آب و فاضلاب اینجا رسیدگی کنن،آسفالت هم نداریم،من هم ی کارم!
- "lefthanded"® as buddha
تجمع اعتراضآمیز به همدستی رژیم اشغالگر نروژ با استکبار جهانی فردا 10 صبح از روبهروی منزل آقای شریعتمداری به سمت دفتر کیهان برگزار میشود
- Darth Farhad Sama
دوستان کارمون تمومه فید اوباما رو خراب می کنید فردا بهمون حمله می کنه اون موقع باید احمدی نژادی بشیم :دی
- Lord hozeh
Don't be shy, step up and support your leader.
- Joe
the majority of Iranians hate A.N. and that's why we don't think President Obama deserved this noble cause he closed his eyes to all recent incidents in here
- Darth Farhad Sama
We didn't close our eyes to anything - only Iranians can change their government - not us.
- Joe
ای ملت رئیس جمهور ندیده :)))) بابا اکانت توییترش را کسی اضافه کرده به فرندفید حالا ملتی به شما می خندند که اینها چقدر جدی گرفته اند
- farzaam
then stop negotiating with our criminal government!
- Darth Farhad Sama
فرهاد جون عالیه...بحثو به جای منم ادامه بده
- blind_owl
Stop complaining and continue to attempt make a change in your own country.
- Joe
@فرزام: چقدرم ملت جدی گرفتن!!! بابا دهن فید رو سرویس کردیم با این مدل کامنت ها!
- علی آقا
Stop looking around for someone else to do what your society needs to do on its own.
- Joe
We're already doing that Joe, risking our lives going to streets and protest in every available event! what else do you expect? start an open war with 100000 fully armed IRGC military force with near 2.500.000 Basiji militia?!
- Darth Farhad Sama
u r in the road that carter was before
- Liquid Soul
Hey joe what's wrong with you? Hah?
- Mr.Chocolate
Thank you PEOPLE of America! but we're not talking about people ! it's your President who is now helping A.N boasting about major political victories and helping our government divert the point of attention away from the Crisis at hand
- Darth Farhad Sama
You are talking about the person we elected to represent us.
- Joe
OK. Obama is so much better that Bush... but the question is: does he really deserve the noble prize?
- علی آقا
The question is : does he deserve all the disrespect people have shown him on this thread?
- Joe
so do we of ours for Mousavi and Karoubi! it's our lives at stake here and your elected president started a peace talk with a criminal and illegitimate dictatorship government!
- Darth Farhad Sama
Obama did nothing to bring the peace to the world? He just talked about the peace... but what happened? are the U.S Troops out of Iraq and Afghanestan now?
- علی آقا
دمت گرم مستر شکلات عزیز...داری با طرف بحث میکنی که نوبل حق کروبی بود:)))
- blind_owl
اي بابا... ولي خودمونيمها، اين جايزه نوبل مسخره تر از اين حرفا شده! حتي حيفه كه به يكي مثل كروبي اين جايزه رو بدن! همين كه به يكي مثل اوباماي تازه كار دادن، خودش حسّابي اين جايزه رو خز كرده!
- hadi kh
یا االله ... یا الله . خانوما چارقدشون رو سر کنن ، حاج آقا جنت مکان اومدن واسه سخنرانی
- وانا
خداييش ديگه اين يارو مترجه "چارقدر" رو نميتونه ترجمه كنه! =))))
- hadi kh
DrHussein you Arzeshi bros are always amazing! although I support Palestine too it doesn't mean you have to kill someone to support another! stop with your 30 years of nonexistence enemy of IRI already!
- Darth Farhad Sama
جناب هادی خ @ دست کم نگیرید این ملت جاسوس را . اینا حتی میدونن برو خونتون کنایه از چیست . مثل ما نیستند که برای علافی فرفرگردی کنند
- راحیل
اوباما جایزه صلح نوبل میگیرد، دقیقا بعد از اینکه تصویب میکنند نیروهای آمریکایی فعلا در عراق و افغانستان بمانند :) / چه جايزهي مسخرهاي، چه جايزهگيرندهي مسخرهتري!
- hadi kh
فحش ناموس هم می شه داد؟ سلام منو به دختر خانوم کلینتون برسونید
- مرحوم محمدمسيح
آلفرد نوبل زمانی که برادرش لودویگ فوت شد، روزنامهها اشتباهاً فکر کردند که نوبل معروف (مخترع دینامیت) مرده است. آلفرد وقتی صبح روزنامه ها را میخواند با دیدن آگهی صفحه اول، میخکوب شد: "آلفرد نوبل، دلال مرگ و مخترع مرگ آور ترین سلاح بشری مرد!" آلفرد، خیلی ناراحت شد. با خود فکر کرد: آیا خوب است که من را پس از مرگ این گونه بشناسند؟ سریع وصیت نامهاش را آورد. جملههای بسیاری را خط زد و...
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- hadi kh
It's funny how an Iranian is counting himself among the Americans and referring to them as us....
- Miss Self-Abort
But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build -- a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.
- Buddy press
آخه این چه رفتار زشتی بود که با جو داشتین آخه .می خواستم جورش کنم بیاد منو بگیره که دور بعدی بتونم به میس تر پیس -اسپلش:پی آی دابل اس - رای بدم.. نامردا خدا ازتون نگذره!
- Mahsa
ما بازم دیر رسیدم ولی دریافت جایزه نوبل رو به جناب اوباما تبریک عرض میکنم و البته من هم با آقای متکی موافقم! دریافت این جایزه برای آقای اوباما زود بود و بهتر این بود که این جایزه رو به احمدی نژاد می دادن به پاس جنایات و فجایع قبل و بعد انتخابات
- Mohammad Mirzaie
I just like this writing but i do not understand what they mean! cool but atleast i can read and understand f.ahmadinejad, which is funny. hey! visit my site http://www.vinonagroup.com
- VinonaGroupServicesUSA
آقا مبارکه Congratulation Sir فقط but لطفا pls حمایت کن از دموکراسی support democrasi :D:D
- Jan Valjan
Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama - good. Now the goals --- 1. stop Iraq devastating costly colonial occupation war. --- 2. stop Afghanistan occupation war. --- 3. Cut US military budget of $1 trillion to $300 billion a year. http://costofwar.com. China military budget is $60 bill a year .. China has a surplus of $2 trillion, US, by wild capitalism de-investing and industries...
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- Petr Buben
Wow. "The eager young men at Conservapedia are p.o.'d that the Bible might be seen as too liberal. So they've come up with the Wiki-style Conservative Bible Project, to make sure the Lord doesn't go all wobbly on us. Excerpt: 'As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:[1] Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias [2] Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity [3] Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level [4] Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop; defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle" ' etc. etc."
- Christopher Chung
from Bookmarklet
Dreher, a conservative Christian Republican, continues: "More seriously, the insane hubris of this really staggers the mind. These right-wing ideologues know better than the early church councils that canonized Scripture? They really think it's wise to force the word of God to conform to a 21st-century American idea of what constitutes conservatism? These jokers don't worship God. They worship ideology."
- Christopher Chung
That is something else. I thought I had seen it all.
- Chieze Okoye
"For example, the conservative word "volunteer" is mentioned only once in the ESV, yet the socialistic word "comrade" is used three times, "laborer(s)" is used 13 times, "labored" 15 times, and "fellow" (as in "fellow worker") is used 55 times." - from the Conservapedia entry. ROFL.
- Andrew C
The talk page has a comment that links to Conservapedia's Law: "Conservapedia's Law is the observation that conservative insights increase over time at a geometric rate, as in 1-2-4-8-16-etc." ... OK, half the people there are jokers winding up the other half, right? That's gotta be it.
- Andrew C
Pretty ridiculous. These "believers" have explicitly made the faith a tool of politics.
- Christopher Chung
I would just like to say there are a lot of Christians who would look at this and want to sock these people in the faces.
- Jeannie Choi
Actually, a major socking already occurred in American history -- the US Civil War, which pitted Christian progressives in the North (anti-slavery) vs. Christian fundamentalists in the South (pro-slavery). Looks like the South is still stewing and looking for a rematch.
- Sean McBride
OK... So after 1/2 hour... I have a chub, not a full blown fanboi erection.... But these demos are rarely the finished spec anyway. I'll still buy it though :P
- Johnny Worthington
It's ridiculous how much action I'm getting on Xanga for posting this image (via Posterous). People are friending me and commenting left and right. I never really get any action over there. Wow. LOL.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
"Tornado is an open source version of the scalable, non-blocking web server and and tools that power FriendFeed. The FriendFeed application is written using a web framework that looks a bit like web.py or Google's webapp, but with additional tools and optimizations to take advantage of the underlying non-blocking infrastructure."
- Mike Chelen
from Bookmarklet
Out of my favorites, this is the one I'm keeping in my FF background until I change it to a scenic fall one in October or so...
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
A Mississippi high school football player is being hailed as a hero for saving a school bus full of elementary and high school students from a gun-wielding girl. Surveillance camera footage on the Yazoo County school bus on Tuesday captured 18-year-old Kaleb Eulls tackling the 14-year-old girl while the children evacuated the bus.
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
from Bookmarklet