My sister Margaret waving from a cruiseship as it leaves Miami for the Carribean. I won some cruises in Las Vegas before getting banned from 2 casino chains last year. - Mitchell Tsai
You must be a mathematical whizz since I'm ruling out "lucky"! - Alex von Halem
When you can get odds of 101-110+%, it's pretty good! Banned on slot machines both casino chains. I'm ok with my blackjack cover acts - never banned for those. The reality is you don't need much math (calculation-wise), but non-obvious advanced theory helps. - Mitchell Tsai
I was using this post to test someone's suggestion about using the bookmarklet to post blog articles manually WITH a PHOTO. But I had comments before the article was finished, so I just left the blog article in the auto-post. - Mitchell Tsai
lol, apart from that did it work for you? I'm actually thinking about removing my blog from my feed completely, and doing it all manually. - Slippy Lane
I admit I do skim through the occasional articles ;) but I did read through the whole of Sarah's post and it makes a good point. There are distractions admitedly but sometimes after reading through a couple of posts on the same story you know where to jump to the actual authors opinion! - Joe
I do it too. I think it also has to do with the amount of information available. Sometimes I think it's a waste of time reading a long post or article when there are so many other things I could be reading, watching, etc. - Alejandro S.
I skim most articles. I look at headline first , then if that interest me, I'll skim the article, I don't have time to read every article I see in depth - Kim Landwehr
I read the first paragraph of that article, skimmed the rest. :) - Eric Daams
Yeah, I wish there were a way to signal that it's just a great headline vs. actually something you need to read. Heheh. - Robert Scoble
After a while, I find I can pick and choose which items to skim vs. read from who the poster is - some people are indiscriminate and others post only good stuff. My brain is already starting to filter the info from the must reads to the nice to haves that way; it saves time. - Sally Church
Skimming is exactly why it is good to use header tags in your posts. Makes for quick scanning. Sarah hit it spot on. - David Risley
The last few months I've noticed more 'read me' (ie: Sensational?) headlines with almost no content than ever. Some are fairly significant blogs and websites. My reaction? After a while, they come off the 'read list' and they rarely if ever make it to the 'shared read list'. - Charlie Anzman
they have sooo many other avenues to produce income. why that? they need to be more creative. - Josh via twhirl
I wonder how they put them on iGoogle. Honestly, though, a couple half banners surrounding the logo wouldn't really bother me. Everyone's got the right to earn a few billion more. :) - felix
Scoble - don't you hate it when a site gets loaded down with ads? Even after the person said they wouldn't run them? - Dave Hodson
If the display ads from google are every bit as intelligent as the link ads, they'll be fine. I'm disappointed by how this will likely effect the page load times on Google (which are the primary reason I use Google over Yahoo or MSN anyway) - Adam Posey
lets see how this *pushing envelope* ends up... I guess this is classical case of big company taken over by mediocrity step by step, described so many times that it should be recognized without effort - silpol
I guess it was only a matter of time... As long as it's unobtrusive in terms of pageload &&,|| client-side processing I'm fine with it. Could probably add rule(s) to ipfw... - RandaL Hicks
the display ads might be put on Google image search which is all about images anyway, not main .com text homepage - Kevin Gough
If Google manages to get advertisers to clean up their act and create ads that don't slow down/break web pages, then everyone wins. If they let the same ads run on Google that run everywhere else, then Google loses bigtime. - Jason Wehmhoener
Personally, I think the article is trying to stir up unfounded attention. It talks about display ads in general raking in cash for Google, but then the quote from the Google rep talks about ads in image search only. If that's the case, what is the big deal? - Jason Dettbarn
Agree w @Jason and add that people had the same sort of reaction when text ads were introduced. It's not like you're going to wake up one day and it's going to look like the old TW Pathfinder site. - Erik Dafforn
I'm not sure how I feel about this...I mean, if Google can display ads that are in fact relevant to me, then I might be interested. I also think that while this idea does suck - it is important to remember what Google is...a public company that has to make profit. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding where all their money comes from....(i.e. who clicks on all those ads anyway?) - Elliott
I also agree with @Jason. The reference to Google.com is like saying "Google.com properties" - (i.e. Image Search). - Elliott
Is Google trying to be the next Yahoo!? Do not like. - darnell
He could have linked to a Seagate site. (j/k) Actually, the conversation will fragment whether we like it or not. - Ontario Emperor
Exactly. Those who want control will rarely find what they are looking for. You gain control by giving it away. - Robert Scoble
Scoble, right or wrong is "authentic", Risley, not so much. - Robert Seidman
"Those who want control will rarely find what they are looking for. You gain control by giving it away. " Scoble is right here. When people are proprietary about things, photos, the conversation, comments, it will always backfire. Robert is one of the most popular bloggers out there. It's like karma. - Thomas Hawk
He wanted the Google Juice that comes with a link directly to the post. Me? I didn't want to give it to him. That's the snobbery. - Robert Scoble
Very well said, Thomas. Robert, I like the "No Scoble Google Juice for you!" thinking. - Robert Seidman
Blood and ashes, this is turning into junior high. We have the right to discuss a post wherever we darn well please. If I post to my blog, and find a discussion about that somewhere else, I say "Cool!" not "They really should be discussing it on my site." - Brent Newhall
If we can perfect the technology so that it's easy to find all of these conversations, then most of the objections to conversation fragmentation will go away. - Ontario Emperor
Don't care about the Google juice, Scoble. Just surprised you did. - David Risley
Hmmm i use Google email, reader, docs, Search, Picasa, so no it would be a pain migrating all my stuff to diffrent services. - John Spencer via Alert Thingy
s spam filter for my oldest mail adress and GReader for all my RSS needs - Hannes Müller via twhirl
Not since I use GMail as spam filter for my oldest mail adress and GReader for all my RSS needs. - Hannes Müller via twhirl
@Haim: Very well put. I only really use Gmail, Docs and Search nowadays. Gmail's backed up, most of the important Docs are also on my compy and I can always use somewhere else for search. Now, if only I could figure out exactly where that "somewhere else" is... - Cyvros/fyc
I could live, but I wouldn't be happy. I think the contribution of Google is that of the car and telephone. - Vince DeGeorge
google services just like any other technologies are for more convenience or improving the economic & life. Not having it could just make the life harder then :) - Nikpay
I could live without google as long as I have friendfeed. I find anything I need here anyways :) - Kyle Weller
Of course, as this conversation continues, Google has been very slow for me this morning... and is definitely impacting my day. - Vince DeGeorge
if i go offline for a week on my vacation, then yes i can, it's not so hard. but if i got my laptop and i was able to connect to the internet, then it would be little hard to do, but possible. now we have many other way to connect people or get information without searching. - "31oooooooo5"
No. Mail, documents, reader, and various other things are wrapped up in what I do and future plans. - Lisa Thompson via Alert Thingy
live without greader and gmail ? not a chance - Chris Jones via twhirl
No. Not at the moment no. Internet are to valuable right now. - Svartling
Oh yeah, definitely. I really only use the Google search engine, and have recently been running my searches through Mahalo. Even the stuff I search for is fairly obvious; PHP functions, little tutorials, etc. And Google's magic ability to go straight to the best result has fizzled in the past few years, so they're not massively better than the other search engines now. - Brent Newhall
No, and to be honest search engines that are aimed at being 'semantic' like Mahalo really miss the point: convenient and effortless search. If Google, went away my internet use would decrease 99.9 percent. The remaining .1 would be askjolene.com - jon
Not me. From my blog to my RSS reader, I'm all Google all the time. - Mike Lewis via twhirl
Maybe it's just me, but I dislike being that dependent on a specific piece of tech to get all information. Domain-specific search--like pulling a cookbook off a shelf--returns better results than a one-size-fits-all solution like Google. Especially in the modern days of SEO, where most of my Google results link to linkfarms. - Brent Newhall
Easily, at this point for what I search for I can't tell a difference between google and live. - Chris Patterson via twhirl
without google how would I spell anything correctly? - Anthony Farrior
i could live - in the dark - without search though i don't really care who is serving it as long as it works and is easy/good (i.e. goog for now) - Morgan via twhirl
can we live without oxygen? for about three minutes, so yeah, temporarily - Julian Baldwin
I tried it for a week while my ISP was having troubles. It was nearly impossible for me to get any work done. - Diane Ensey
I probably could...but Google Search is such a habit. Breaking it would be tough. - Chris Rossini
Without Google, I would probably become a constant Yahoo user. Wouldn't be too difficult to switch. - possible248
“Yesterday, I was with someone from a large oil corporation, there are predictions that a barrel of oil will reach $200 soon, it's at 121 now”
Thursday at 5:26 am
I mentioned this to my wife, and she reminded me of her simple policy: "I don't believe big numbers like that when I hear them." :-) - Ray Grieselhuber
Wasn't very long ago people were saying gas could never hit $100. - Diane Ensey
I vote yes. Must at least give the artist's vision and intent an initial listen. Unless we're talking the Jonas Brothers or something. Can't imagine they put much thought into song flow. - Carla Thompson
Agreed with Carla here, if the artist is of any value, songs are ordered for a reason. After first use.. mix as you please! - Matt Harwood
I agree. Why spend money on someone's artistic vision if you aren't even going to attempt to enjoy it the way the intended you to, at least ONCE. After that shuffle all you want. - jon
Ooh, that's a fun thought: what albums must always be listened to as produced? NIN's The Downward Spiral immediately comes to mind. Dark Side of the Moon of course.What else? - Carla Thompson
I imagine a giant fire hose where a giant mass of reader heads are flowing out like marbles. Louis Gray has this fire hose in his hand and points it at your site with an evil grin on his face. I should make this a comic, but I can't really draw :( I need more coffee. - Bwana McCall
It's fun to read something like this, but what do you mean? And what does that look like as far as impact for your blog? - Louis Gray
Louis, you have taken over as the one people look to when they want new stuff. After your 5 bloggers for May post my RSS item usage on Feedburner doubled and subscribers are increasing steadily so thank you. - Colin Walker
Colin, that's great to hear. I'm glad you're getting success. And it's not because of me. It's because you're a good writer and blogger. If I can help expose more people like you doing a great job, then I'm happy. It's what I like doing. - Louis Gray
Louis you are like Will Smith (Hitch) but for Bloggers! - Joe
I've recently jumped on the Louis Gray bandwagon, and its been a fun ride so far. I can see why there's all this positive energy around any mentions of LG! - Shafqat
Seriously, in two days my subscriber count has increased 25%. Not bad at all. - Rob Diana
Louis Gray got me onto FriendFeed and my life has never been the same since. - Robert Scoble
This is cool. I add spam callers to my address book in a group called spam. My cell phone is set up not to ring for anything in the spam group. Saves me a lot of grief. - Diane Ensey
You can't imagine how hard I had to fight to have no phone number at Google. The concept was anathema to them. But, I eventually won out and my life was measurably better for it. Amen, Kevin. - Sacca
I didn't check my Google voicemail for my last four years. I was thinking of listening to it on my last day, but I never got around to it. - Bret Taylor
my boss informed me that my voice message was outdated. it was an out of office msg from february - Ontario Emperor
Nice one, Chris. At Google I changed my voicemail message to "Hi. I don't ever check these messages, so if you need to reach me please call my cell or send me an email." Then I put a piece of electrical tape over the voicemail light. I figure if people don't know or can't get my cell number or my email address then they shouldn't be contacting me at work anyhow. - Kevin Fox
Kevin, I did nearly what you did. I left an outgoing messaging urging people to e-mail me instead. - Adam Lasnik
We actually have a policy at my company not to have any voice mail, so I literally don't have a voice mail box here. Basically, all calls go to the secretary during the day and a main voice mail after hours. Otherwise, you call in for me and I'm here, I get the call. - Chris Reed
I hate phones and voicemail and state so explicitly on my website. I tell clients email is the quickest way to get a response. - Diane Ensey
But did you guys get the message from HR about those one-time bonus stock grants in 2006? You had to dial them back with the confirmation code left on voicemail for them to go into effect. - Chris White
You can have your voicemail disabled at Google without much hassle. - Gary Burd
I started using simulscribe - now called PhoneTag - for my cell phone a while back and I love it. I get emailed transcriptions in minutes with voice audio attachment. works great. - David Vasileff
What's the quality of their transcriptions? I signed up for Vonage's (confusingly named) "visual voicemail", and their transcriptions were initially great but are now very poor quality. - ⓞnor
Our voicemail has gotten a lot better ever since they were integrated with our e-mail system as .wav file attachments. Now I can screen calls, but still double-click to not miss any messages. - Louis Gray
Heck, I don't even have a phone at my desk and that's the way I like it. - Akiva Moskovitz
Not work related, but I'm enjoying using iPhone voice mail for dealing with contractors. I can see who has called, pick the most important messages to listen to by speaker phone, and call them back easily. - Chris White
ⓞnor: PhoneTag quality has been pretty good, messages may be slightly off but I usually get the gist. it is poor for things like names or long messages with lots of details. I think the PT greeting says this will be transcribed, leave a brief message, speak to be understood, etc.. most of my msgs fit that. I rarely have to listen to audio and you can ask PT for re-trans but I've never done that. - David Vasileff
I just got back into the office yesterday after 3wks away and this reminded me to check my voicemail ... except some wally has nicked my phone! In no hurry to go find it : ) - Patricia Hanrahan
One would have thought this would have happened a long time ago, rather than to keep going on and exhaust both parties both mentally and financially. - cmiper
I find it hard to believe HRC will concede until the DNC at the very earliest. Her self-interest needs outweigh the Democratic party at-large. - Scott Jarkoff
As an outsider....she looks a bit mental doesn't she. That forced smile creeps me out. I'm sure she actually very nice....but eeegggghhhh. - Chris Nixon via twhirl
Yes Chris, the media always picks the *best* photos the can find to represent her. ;-) - cmiper
This just makes me very sad today Right now I only see 1 way I will not vote for McCain in November - sorry, there is just something about Obama I do not trust, and I hope in the next few years I'm not sitting here saying, at least I didn't vote for him just like I didn't vote for his predecessor. :( And, I can assure you I am not the only one who feels this way. - Paula
I know what you mean Paula. How can you trust someone who refuses PAC and special interest money, has the courage not to pander to voters with a bogus gas tax repeal, and opposed an immoral war from the very start. This guy sounds dangerous. He might actually do something in office. - Leo Laporte
Love the sarcasm, Leo, allows me to see you in a new light and reinforces to me that I've been right all along to keep my viewpoints to myself. So sorry to have gotten involved in this HRC bashing. :( - Paula
Obama is the only one I trust to do the right thing. HRC will just say anything to get the vote, but she'll continue the same failed politics. McSame will just give us 4 more years of Bush's politics. - Mike Cohen via Alert Thingy
Mike, I see your point with McCain, but in my eyes it is him or throw my vote completely away on Nader.... Those same failed politics you are speaking of worked very well in the 1990s - for those of you old enough to recall, who did we all say was running the White House at that time anyhow? I was working with the federal government during this time, and I recall the amazement at the budget simply balancing! In an article that I read summarizing Obama's appearance on Meet the Press over this past weekend, the first point that was made was that Obama claimed he has the DNA to be the better president, because he is descended from both Caucasion and African ancestors. What kind of crap is that? I couldn't read any further. I only stopped to read it because I knew I needed to get used to the idea that he was going to beat HRC - but no, I can't vote for someone who is going to say that their ANCESTRY makes them a better candidate. - Paula
I'm sorry you see my post as "Hillary bashing." In fact, it is not. I am sad to see HRC go. I would have gladly voted for her had she won the nomination. My real problem is with the notion that since, for some undefined reason you "don't trust" Obama, you would consider casting a vote for McCain. Set aside McCain's self-professed ignorance on the economy, and hawkish position on Iraq. The next president will fill at least two, maybe three Supreme Court seats, giving him or her a huge and lasting impact. - Leo Laporte
Paula, I think you misunderstood the statement. Obama is in a a unique position to change the face of the Presidency because he's been on 'both sides of the fence' and could unite the country like no other. To me, that's very attractive because that's exactly what this country needs... A leader that people can rally behind. I just happen to agree with his political stances as well, with lobbyist being the scourge of progression. HRC is 'old politics'... McCain is really old politics. - Vince DeGeorge
I wouldn't vote for HRC if she got the nomination. She's every bit as bad as McSame. In that case I would stay home on election day rather than vote for either of them. - Mike Cohen via Alert Thingy
Paula let's get it right: "You know, I'm somebody who is born to a white mother and a, and an African father. It's in my DNA to believe that we can bring this country together and that the people are the same under the skin. And that's what I've been fighting for all my life, and, you knowto a large degree, everything that I've done as a community organizer, everything that I've done as a state legislator and a United States senator embodies those ideals that we can get people who look differently or speak differently or come from different experiences to recognize what they have in common. - Leo Laporte
Paula, I think it's pretty obvious now that you're a crypto-Republican, misquoting Obama to fuel racist mistrust on McCain's behalf. I expect we'll see a lot more of that through November. If you really are a HRC supporter, I would hope you would chose this time to start talking issues and stop feeding these specious doubts. - Leo Laporte
Good point, Leo. It's great for everyone to have their own way of looking at this race, and some people will, unfortunately, decide to vote against their best interests for whatever reason - hell, middle-class Republicans have been doing it for years - but the idea of putting words into Obama's mouth simply in order to try to bash him with them and, as you point out, fuel racist mistrust, is frankly despicable, if not downright Rovian. - Brad Farris via Alert Thingy
Very interesting to see this much discussion on this topic. I'm in a very conservative state, (ND) and many Republicans here are looking to Obama as a chance. Most don't trust McCain and they surely don't trust HRC. Every time anyone has ever asked me why Obama I've said. "It's a difference in how they conduct politics." HRC and McCain represent old Washington politics. Honestly everything I've heard from my friends involved in the Democratic Party they are suspecting this will get drug out to the National Convention. I really hope that is not the case as the sheer amount of negative press that each side is stirring up is giving more easy fuel for the GOP. - Bryan
WOW I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never a Republican or a crypto-Republican. I said I read an article discussing Obama being on TV, I did not watch the show, I did not read the article any further, but I know that the post I was reading was written by someone who has staunchly supported Obama for the past several months. Call me names if you must. I hope it makes you all feel better. - Paula
Vince, wanted to make sure I thank you, from the direct quote, yes, I must have misread something, or something was miswritten. And, I just wanted to add, that no one has even bothered much to give me a reason to want to vote for Obama, just to not associate with most of you involved with this conversation. - Paula
Paula, the most important part of this whole affair is discussion. It's fantastic to see people "talk" politics and really be involved. No, name calling is not necessary in any case. If this election has taught us anything, it's that people, when pushed, are VERY passionate about what they believe in. This debate, no matter which side you stand is very healthy and much better than the apathy that resulted in Bush's re-election. I urge everyone to go beyond the "media" and really look. - Vince DeGeorge
Thanx Vince. In all seriousness, I have waited 8 years for HRC to run, and dammit, I'm pissed as hell that she has blown it the way she has. I know she is better than these silly 'faux pas' she has been making over the past several months. I also know that it is time to accept that HRC has blown it, I accepted that fact before the PA primaries. :( Since then, I have tried to read positive blog posts about Obama, but I keep finding things like http://online.wsj.com/article/... - Paula
I like you Leo, I do. You work hard and your a good guy and you do a lot for new media. But honestly, you have to be kidding. I didn't realize anyone really used the term "crypto-anything" as more than a punchline for paranoia. Sadly it just adds to the growing impression I have that your biases really do cloud your commentary on technical (and now political) issues. - Soulhuntre
As an Obama supporter.Odd as it may be, I actually appreciate the "intense" campaign HRC ran. It served to prepare him for the assaults he will likely be the target of all the way until November. Not only that but it gave us, the voters, the opportunity to see him operate under pressure and address some of the most volatile topics in American society. So for that, hats off to her. That being said, it's time to step aside and work towards unifying the Democratic Party. - Geoff Schultz
Paula completely misquoted Obama. He didn't say his DNA would make him a better president he said: "You know, I'm somebody who is born to a white mother and a, and an African father. It's in my DNA to believe that we can bring this country together and that the people are the same under the skin." Completely different than what you heard. I don't understand when people say they don't like Obama, and have no reason to back it up. BTW, transcript is here from meet the press: http://blogs.suntimes.com/swee... - Patrick Binder
Patrick, it's a feeling. Can't help it. We all have feelings and we all have our right to feel whatever it is that we feel. Great thing about living in America is that we have the right to express those feelings as we wish. Thank you for the direct quote again, someone else beat you to the punch and slapped me down for misinterpreting a third party review of the interview. You want something to discuss, please see the Wall Street Journal link I gave above. Or, give me a reason YOU like Obama over HRC.. - Paula
I don't need a soundbite reason to distrust someone... humans make judgments on many, many factors. Tone of voice, cadence, word choice, facial expressions, eye movement, body language.... further, we refine those judgments the more we see of someone. There is also the totality of integrating all that into all the knowledge we have of someone. - Soulhuntre
My feelings about Obama including my distrust come from the totality of my experience with him, not a sentence or a soundbite. Just like many who find him charismatic do so from the totality of their "Obama experience". Fortunately few people judge someone only on the words they actually say - or we would all be trivially easy to fool. - Soulhuntre
Paula: Obama seems to get it. He talks about and I hope he could deliver the ability to unify this nation because it is severely fractured. Who knows if it could be done, but atleast he is willing to try. That is the big reason. I also like that he is running a more clean/positive campaign than HRC. His campaign is also being run very well. AND he doesn't have his hands as deep in lobbyist's pockets. - Patrick Binder
Who the hell am I kidding...I am actually basing my vote on the best looking website...and Obama is clearly ahead of the competition. HRC's website is better now, but is still too cluttered. THESE are the real issues ;) I like HRC, but her campaigning tactics have turned me away. - Patrick Binder
Maybe it will help Twitter's servers, but I don't think this is really a problem for users. In Twitter and FriendFeed, someone can only spam you if you let them. Spammers can subscribe to you; you don't have to subscribe to them. - Hutch Carpenter
Cool. I can't believe 10 of my first 24 followers were spammers. :-) - Mitchell Tsai
Good - when an account is so obviously spam it's customer service to ban 'em. Hopefully they can use the number of blocks as a filter to then have a human check out - Jason Kaneshiro
basically they are not saying dropping but deleting. imagine you want to go on twitter some day and find out "you are a spammer, everything in here is gone, go away" - how would you feel? do you have a backup of your tweets, of your friendslist, of your dm? - Nicole Simon
Nicole, according to the Jesse Stay post, Twitter will contact the accused first, thus theoretically ensuring that a Scoble/Facebook-like issue won't recur. - Ontario Emperor
I'm the complete opposite, use the dishwasher for every thing other then big pots and pans. Though i pre wash all the stuff going in the machine, Sort of defeats the purpose. - Mike Fruchter
Don't have and have never had a dishwasher. - Jack Carlson
are you kidding? that seven years i did handwash I consider to be 7 wasted years of my life. EVERYTHING goes in the dishwasher. if it does not survive in there it was not meant for my household. only exception: pans which do not fit in there, but they are easy clean due to teflon - Nicole Simon
I just do this dishes right after using them and pop them into the dishwasher to try. It only takes like 2 minutes (all of our pans are easy to clean teflon). And we usually cook at home...no problems at all. - Benjamin Golub
My dishwasher holds only dirty dishes - I run it and immediately empty it. The only way I can keep my kitchen clean! - Diane Ensey
I also use my dishwasher as a drying rack. Sometimes i save big jobs for it only because the seals need to be lubricated to keep from drying and cracking. Note the ingredients of dishwasher detergent: it includes silicone lubricant. - John Lam
dish washer have been proven to be the most economic and green way of washing dishes and alike. ;) - Nicole Simon
I almost never use a dishwasher. Taiwanese thing. - Mitchell Tsai
I don't use mine either... only 2 of us...seems like a big waste of energy to use it for so few dishes. - Susan Beebe
