mat honan

It means you love the tranquility of a giant backyard with alot of ponds, sand traps, and holes in the ground. - imabonehead

Paul, I laughed on reading this. Then something clicked (I'm a little slow) .. is this a comment on all the opinions flying around about politics? - Stu Andrews via twhirl

I drive by Google, Apple and Yahoo quite a bit. Am I an Internet genius now? - AJ Kohn

Many people live next to roads. Still they can't drive. - Jemm

can you see it from your private island? if so - absolutely... - Frederic

I was just watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... At 4:30 McCain explains that Palin understands Russia because Alaska is next to Russia. It's fun to watch people make such preposterous arguments, but presumably it works with a lot of voters. - Paul Buchheit

Paul - 7 years on a golf course (when I was in my 20's). Ball came through the window once. (ugh!!!!). Played Tennis with the guy next door. Never lifted a club. My only motivation to even think about it is that some of the best biz deals are cut out there on the 9th .... or whatever they call it :) - Charlie Anzman

I live next to a woman and I'm an expert on women, so I can believe that Palin could be an expert on Russia. - Gabe

Of course you are! this is soooo logical (nice joke BTW) - Susan Beebe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... - Photonic

I live next to a missile defense something or another. That means I'm an expert on missile defense. The Pentagon should be calling any second now. - Erica Baker

Seriously, I'm rewriting my resume and LinkedIn profile based on geographic proximity. I mean, hey, I worked near the White House back in the day - that means I've got 'executive experience'. - AJ Kohn

Apparently familiarity breeds contempt... do you want to go to war with the golf course nearby? Sarah Palin is ready to invade Russia (she should really read up on her history, especially Napoleon... ) - Jason Carreira

I work at Walt Disney World. Does that make me the happiest person alive? :) - Mike Reynolds

That may make you an expert on having golf balls land in your yard. :) - Morton Fox

Oddly enough both of my brothers live next to golf courses...But only Ben, the middle brother, actually plays. Oh, and my soon to be brother in law manages a golf course. - Alex Scoble CISSP

I love this new logic. I'm hoping Maersk will let me drive a container ship, since I've got a Bay view. - mat honan

I live near Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg. I must have vast experience in politics. - Shawn Farner

I live 5 miles from Fort Hood, the largest military post in the free world, I must know all things military. Maybe I can invade Russia! - Michelle Martinez

Paul, you forgot to mention that you sometimes walk near or around the golf course as well. I can almost see your expertise growing. - Clare Dibble

I am a Mexican-American Landscape Architect living in Coastal Florida. That must mean I am an expert in immigration, growth management and energy & environmental issues. Right? ;-) - JA Castillo

JA, you should run for office then! :P - imabonehead

That makes your home insurance higher than the norm! - Mona N.

It is true that Alaska is the only state that borders TWO foreign nations. Is it then preposterous to say that the governor of such a state could have some experience in foreign relations? - klecu

p.s. i live IN a golf course and am definitely no expert on the game - klecu

golf course....you mean worldview? - Bryan Power

Perhaps not an expert on golf, but there are things that you know about golf that many people who live far from golf courses don't know. For example, I would assume that any window facing the course would be endangered; based upon your experience, you would know differently. And if April is a golfer, you'll have even more perspective. - Ontario Emperor

It reminds me how much I dislike JPG for screenshots :) - Paul Buchheit

It took me a while to figure out what was going on here, until I realized you'd Bookmarket-ed a blog post from *2004*! That's ancient history, man! - Paul Wilcox

Great to see you had a Prius label in 2004 :) - Roshan Vyas

I am so glad it hasn't changed. - Steve Rubel

There's something to be said for good clean design. Tweaks are fine but not major overhauls all the time. I've always liked this layout. - Al Stevens

it would be fun to see one of the early caribou screenshots for additional historic context :) - Natala Menezes

Natala, http://friendfeed.com/e/eeb5ed... - Paul Buchheit

Archive is nice :D it is very interesting to see the evolution. Thanks Paul :) - Harun Baris Bulut

I love the fact the delete button wasn't introduced yet. I tell people about this and they don't believe me - Derek Coatney

not being able to delete was a bit strange, I remember. - Josh Haley

Delete was there from day one -- it was just in the "more actions..." menu. - Paul Buchheit

Is there any important feature in today's Gmail that hasn't been envisioned from the beginning? - Ionut

That's an interesting question. I guess it depends on your definition of "important" and "beginning". In the very beginning, the only definite vision was to make something "better". However, pretty much everything in there today had been prototyped or at least talked about well before launch (see the chat integration in http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-c... for example). As usual, coming up with the ideas is easy, but fitting them cleanly into the product is hard. - Paul Buchheit

The funny part about this is I was being sort of snarky but didn't really mean for Kevin to post the thing about the bandwidth. I had a legacy server in the Google datacenter from the Blogger acquisition that I was using to host shellen.com and evhead.com. Kevin went ahead and made screenshots of that thread anyway. :) I got a few angry comments from people on my blog that I was 'stealing from Google'. This is why the internet needs a sarcasm mark. - Jason Shellen

Loren Feldman is an extreme racist. Unbelievable that any media company would associate themselves with him. \ - michaeledwards

you know what's weird, Lynne, I remember him wearing a wig AND blackface. Okay, maybe we're both dreaming, or maybe it got edited out early on. Odd though. I thought I remembered a 'ghetto blaster' too. Maybe a different 1938 video? - jeneane sessum

I immediately assumed you meant blackface figuratively, but I guess we have to spell this out for some people :-\ - Liz

I'm not going to defend Loren's video or focus on the inaccuracy in the NPR piece, but I think the "I am not the company I work for" is a cop-out. I work for a newspaper and anything I say in public (and I've spoken on NPR as well) reflects on my employer. If I say something that doesn't reflect the views or standards of my company, I would definitely be held responsible. ESPECIALLY if my employer is mentioned in the piece. - Omar Gallaga

@Omar Gallaga -- your point is well taken. @Liz Burr -- right. modern day blackface doesn't have to be literal. @jeneane sessum -- there was a video of that nature in my memory bank as well, but i was mistaken in my recollection on this interview in question. i have no qualms about apologizing for mentioning a wig when there wasn't one. i could see how that could be taken as a falsehood or mischarecterization. otherwise, i didn't say anything today that i hadn't said a year ago on my "personal blog." http://www.lynnedjohnson.com/d... - Lynne d Johnson

I think it was in that video, right where the 1938 intro grey-screen pops up. If not, there is or was another one. Maybe we're BOTH remembering a different video. But I saw it, and he had reason to edit that out a looong time ago when he started making nice with the big boys. P.S. For those who don't know, Lynne was one of the initial folks to write about the video a year ago. - jeneane sessum

you can mean it figuratively all you want, but I've seen him IN blackface, and unless it was a bad dream, it was edited out at some point. - jeneane sessum

FROM GOOGLE SEARCH: "Feldman had donned blackface in the video to answer the question with a litany of offensive stereotypes. [[march 2008]]" - jeneane sessum

FROM GOOGLE SEARCH: "In August 2007, Podtech Vlogger Loren Feldman got dressed up in black face (a tech nigga nonetheless) and asked the question, “Where Are The Black Tech Bloggesr?” While Feldman’s video drummed up controversy and was labeled as racist, it got the blogosphere thinking and talking = [[Sept 3, 2007]] - jeneane sessum

FROM GOOGLE SEARCH: "It appears that Loren Feldman of 1938 Media believes that it’s still funny and totally acceptable to perform in black face in 2007. [[August 18 2007]]" - jeneane sessum

regardless, it strikes me as bizarre that given everything Feldman has said and done on video up to this point, he wants people to think that corking his face and putting on a Rasta wig represent some kind of sacred line of good taste and giving offence that he would never cross, and that anyone who suggests he would do such a thing is committing borderline libel. Uh, what? You make a video, toss around the N-word, say "Black people are lame" and "Black people can't get it together," and then say NPR ought to be ashamed for misrepresenting him as wearing a wig? As if he would never, EVER in God's name go so far as to wear a rasta wig. Please. - Nathan Rein

For what it's worth, Wikipedia says this about the term "blackface" - "Blackface in the narrow sense is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States. Blackface in the broader sense includes similarly stereotyped performances even when they do not involve blackface makeup." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... - Mike Doeff

You are an unethical piece of shit. YOU ARE A LIAR. And you did it on purpose to help fastcompany. Shame on you, I will never stop till I have your job, bank on it. - loren feldman

Jeanne I HAVE never been in blackface you fucking piece of shit. I never edit anything. This is just getting started Lynne I promise FC wont like the heat. You are done you fucking liar. - loren feldman

I find the differing recollections here (especially jeneane) very interesting. This whole situation (both sides) reeks of emotions out of control. Loren's video clearly provoked some emotional responses that, a year later, still override the facts. But a boombox? Dreadlocks? If you miss the details then no wonder you miss the joke. Low self-esteem and self-hate affects all genders and races, but your actions are reinforcing a far more damaging black stereotype than drinking Bacardi and wearing bling. - meanguy

How does a journalist make major factual mistakes like this and then claim that your comments weren't really a reflection of your employer? Impossible. What's your agenda here? - Matt Craven

Matt: Lynne isn't actually a reporter for FastCompany. Her agenda is simple: she thinks Feldman f*cked up with that video. Feldman is crying conspiracy because Scoble also works there. But if you checked the woman's blog post from a year ago -- or her comments on Feldman's video -- you'd know she had an issue with the video back then. This is not a new stance for Lynne, and it's not a part of some "agenda" - tiffany

And with regards to "blackface," Lynne explained that she meant it figuratively. But having seen the video, I can say he did seem a couple shades darker in the video than he does in person. Indeed, when I saw it at first, I wondered if the person who made it was light-skinned or bi-racial. Now, I'll grant LF the benefit of the doubt -- after all, it *was* summer and cameras/lighting can play tricks -- but an interpretation of blackface in the literal sense wasn't a stretch. - tiffany

I don't find Loren's skit funny and do believe it is racist. But it is pretty lame to insist that you were using some obscure definition "blackface" while also having some vague memory of a blackface incident. Stop waffling and making excuses and apologize. - Occasional Headbanger

I think we need more than an apology on some dopey site like Friendfeed. Even Scoble has figured out to turn off comments in "mainstream" blogs (har!) and redirect the conversation to niche sites like this that nobody reads. This has to be handled in the real media. Shame nobody here has any real juice. - meanguy

@lorenfeldman, Lynne d Johnson is the furthest thing from a liar my friend and you might want to think twice about going at her. You cannot win if you take that route my friend... - Tim Moore

Tim she is a complete liar. And she will pay, you'll see my friend. - loren feldman

Have any of you watched the movie Bamboozled or even understand the stereotypes of black people on a whole. If you understand the term "blackface" then immediately you may think of Al Jolson who sang, Mammy, and you may think of other negative expressions of African Americans which were depicted in Loren's video. That is why I feel that Lynne D Johnson is not a liar. But I guess for those who have issues with Lynne do not walk down the path of someone who has been oppressed so you may never understand. - TheJennTaFur

Yeah...I can maybe buy the loss of detail because you didn't see the video in while and may have forgot that he wasn't in a wig but anyone in blackface is so rare to see now days, would be extremely obvious and so completely inflammatory that I'm really struggling to believe the "figurative" excuse...Your 5 min on NPR wasn't set up as an opinion piece but set up as a "give the facts" report. I think at worst you lied to further your agenda and at best, let your emotions skew your reporting of the facts... - Live4Soccer

And Al Jolson was a Jewish man singing in blackface so I don't understand why people have issues with Lynne D Johnson because I understand where she is coming from: http://www.musicals101.com/jol... and look at his blackface. He is a jewish man singing like this. Okay? http://www.musicals101.com/jol... (and I know you may say spare you of the historical information but I am giving facts too) - TheJennTaFur

@tiffany - sure she is a journalist - her own biography says so: http://www.lynnedjohnson.com/b... senior editor & community leader for fastcompany.com - Matt Craven

Come on, people. "Blackface" is used all the time to refer to white actors pretending to be black, regardless of the technicalities of the costume. You don't need to cork your face to do blackface. This is not some "obscure," "figurative" meaning. It's very common among people who actually talk about this kind of thing on a regular basis. What Johnson is saying about how she meant the word is not a stretch at all, in my view. - Nathan Rein

Yeah keep threatening folks on the Internet buddy. The transcripts will look great at your trial. - Kristasphere

I agree with Tim Moore and offer my wholehearted support of Lynne. She has more supporters and friends than you'd ever dream of so you need to go and find something else do do with your time besides threatening people in cyberspace. - Kristasphere

And to reiterate, why is Feldman so upset about being accused of doing blackface? I mean, he put on a doo-rag and gold chains, faked an accent (complete with "oh lawdy"), smoked the chronic, and talked about playas and hos. And now when someone accuses him of making up his face or wearing a wig, he acts like he's being pilloried? Why is it such a big leap from what he did, to what he thinks he's being so unjustly accused of? Come on, I thought he was all about pushing the envelope and being a bad boy. - Nathan Rein

Lynne, I think you're pretty much in your rights to take loren's "You'll pay for it" to the FBI. Others have done it for less. Feldman, all I did is post google search results of others who said you 'donned' blackface from the time of the actual video. Odd that they said that at the time. Whether literal or figurative, you GOTTA know it wasn't funny. I said so then. I say so now. No mainstream brand would be affiliated with you -- especially when you talk about going after people. Duh. - jeneane sessum

P.S. People--Lynne wrote about the video at the TIME. She watched Loren back when many of us used to watch Loren because he was funny once. I would assume that's why they wanted her input. When a story like this blows up, reporters start calling. You either answer or you don't. - jeneane sessum

cosign Jeneane ...I'm sure the brothers in the penitentiary would just LOVE his comedy routine. - Kristasphere

@vincent just giving you an example of the meaning of black face to the comments dealing with her comment. That is what I am referring to. Trying to give a short history lesson on the meaning of it. - TheJennTaFur

The irony is that Feldman is probably going to be more popular and get more eyeballs than ever before because of all this. Let's see, campaign after campaign was launched to take Howard Stern off the air and with every single complaint he got bigger and bigger. And for every Pepsi ad he lost out on, there was a Snapple ad ready to take it's place. I mean, talk about a HUGE SCORE for Feldman to get 5 minutes on NPR without having to break a sweat! Especially after coming off getting dumped by Verizon.... - Live4Soccer

from loren's comments: http://www.1938media.com/npr-a... "Loren is Just preparing to ” Snuff Someone Out”!!! Someone is Going Down.. Loren’s Tracking System is Getting Ready to Lock On~" - jeneane sessum

There's a simple truth at the bottom of all this that Feldman ought to think about before he threatens Johnson or anyone else. You can't do a video called "TechNigga," no matter what your intentions are (not to mention another one about how "black people are lame" or "black people can't get it together"), and have the video out there on the net under your name, and expect Verizon or any other major company to want to be associated with you. Ever. That's just reality. It's not Johnson's fault. - Nathan Rein

@jeneane to take the phrase "you'll pay for it" as out of context as you did is a very good explanation of this situation as a whole. the video was and still is hilarious. the problem is that if Loren was black and had done a white stereotype we wouldn't be having this conversation. Everyone just needs to calm the fuck down. - Zach Underwood

I wasn't aware of the vid last summer, but once I saw it a few months ago I was disgusted. I guess I was waiting for a punchline that never came. It was tasteless and not the least bit humorous. If it was satirical and funny, I may have chuckled it off, but it was just WACK! By the way, LynneD I support your swagger. Dude wants to try and trip you up on a technicality. - Jeff Gamble

Well, then since you made a mistake you must have no qualms with issusing an official retraction and then telling NPR to do the same...oh wait you're a scumbag liar! - Andrew Fielding via twhirl

@vincent: ah, so it's okay for loren to do it because rappers do? so it would be okay for me to blow up federal buildings in oklahoma or fleece folks out of their 401(K)s because that's what white men do, right? </snark> come on now. ... that said: if you read the comments both on feldman's original post or from elsewhere on the web (try http://www.lizburr.com/2008/07... for starters), you'd see a range of opinion on whether the vid was racist from some actual black folks. - tiffany

Did Scoble actually work a plug into the comments? - Eric Rice

Michael Edwards, since it is obviousy you haven't seen his videos you are being an asshole jumping to conclusions. - Andrew Fielding

Scoble is a chump. He "laughed" publicly in Techcrunch's comments when Shel got parodied. Now he disavows his coworker Lynne publicly in Feldman's comments when another controversy comes up. Strangely, he didn't think it neccessary to distance himself from Feldman over TechNigga. Scoble thinks he's Switzerland, but really he's France. - Hashim Warren

@vincent that's the same "well they say it too" logic the media used when Don Imus made those ridiculous statements about the Rutgers basketball team. What is at issue now is not the video, but the very personal attacks Mr. Feldman is unleashing on Lynne for talking about the video on NPR. So, if Eminem raps about killing his wife and putting her in the trunk, I don't like it but, I don't know Kim Mathers either. If he raps about killing my friend by name, absolutely I'm making a fuss about it. - Kristasphere

Loren Feldman may be mean, and you may not like his humor but he is not a racist. Anyone who doesn't watch all 7 videos in the series is not qualified to comment on what he did. It was a parody of what so many celebrities, and public figures do all the time. They say or do something stupid and they they go to rehab, they apologize very insincerely, then they come out with a whole new image. That is what he did. The NPR piece was bad journalism at best. Lynne and Loren should speak directly and settle this - Rick Calvert

Lynne: Together with Fast Company you have failed the online community with your inaccurate reporting. -

It reminds me of the artifact in the terrible Sandra Bullock movie, "The Net." Click on it while playing Wolfenstein 3D and pressing and holding control and shift, and you gain access to all the black ops secrets of the US Government. I sincerely hope that this is what's going on here. - Mark Trapp

I noticed it too! Thought I was going crazy! - Benjamin Golub

A boat is a boat, but the mystery pixel could be anything. It could even be a boat!! - Hao Chen

Finally dropping the beta? - Kirk Kittell

my you are observant. I use gmail everyday and never noticed. The designer in me feels ashamed. - Alan Le

Not seeing it in Firefox 3 on Mac - Aaron Brazell

Why is gmail still in beta? - Alan Le

I've noticed that before - wondered if it was a tracking type image... - Richard Bradshaw

Interesting, it's not as noticeable in 10.5.4 / Safari 3.1.1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/i... - Mark Trapp

If it was a tracking image, why didn't they make it the same color as the background? - possible248

It is an 0x0px iframe (actually 3). For some reason they now show up in the corner. I filed a bug last night. - Michael Leggett

Can someone pls give me a Gmail invite? - Hao Chen

Seems SOMEONE broke the style on the "invisible" history-fixing iframe ;) - Daniel Bruce

So there might be candy and seekrit features inside, but it's infinitely small? - Kevin Fox

seekrit iframez - Michael J. Cohen (mjc)

Hao, you shouldn't need an invitation to join Gmail anymore. You should be able to create a new account from the Gmail home page. - Kevin Fox

possible248: maybe it's not a real image but just a tag with an src to a script. But Michael maybe right too :) - directeur via NoiseRiver

I see it too - FF 3 on a mac. WTF? - Steve Isaacs

@Kevin: Hao is just being silly as gmail has been in beta for 3+ years now. lol - Alan Le

It's been there for a while now, I believe it showed up when they started using that "loading" bar, which was around the same time they added labs to gmail. - cmiper

I didn't see it on my Mac in Fire Fox 3 until I reloaded. Clicking on the GMail logo just tells the app to check for new mail. - Cyrus Lendvay

@Alan Le - 4+ years ;-) - cmiper

I don't see it. But then I use gmail through Apple Mail. ;) - Chris White

yup, me too...firefox 3 on pc! it's everywhere! - Brian Ries

I broke out firebug. It's a 0px by 0px iframe to be used for fixing the back button, which breaks when you use AJAX. The reason it's visble is because it has borders, and because they didn't set it "hidden". =P - Daniel Bruce

Maybe they should hire a UX guy... oh wait - Roshan Vyas

Ah I do see it after a hard refresh, FF3/Mac - Aaron Brazell

sharp eyes.. this must be part of the skin able gmail themes - Peter Dawson

that's where they hide the laser - Brett Kelly

Mine's been like that since last Friday. Thought it was a Mac thing but apparently not (took a survey via Twitter) It's been bugging me and I even deb web'd it haha - Mona N.

I saw it too. It is on Firefox 3 on my Mac. - Raymond Phillips

dev*web -one thing abt FF iPhone, no edit option =| - Mona N.

Guess I can stop obssessively trying to clean my monitor now. - James Hull

There are 42 possibilities... but I won't list them. - Andrés David Aparicio

I noticed it too one hour ago. ff3 on windows xp - Alessandro

Maybe it's related to the "yelling" dot on the exclamation mark in www.yahoo.com - Andrés David Aparicio

It's an iframe that contains an empty document - very weird - Stuart Maxwell

@Stuart Nope, the iframe is absolutely positioned outside the viewport with a negative margin; change its style with firebug and you'll see it (yet I haven't found what is it) - Andrés David Aparicio via twhirl

They instrumented Gmail with a miniscule camera to record user interactions. They say it improves the experience... - German B.

Yup I see it too! FF3 on Windoze XP! Didn't notice it until I uninstalled Better Gmail2 today because it slowed down FF3 a bit! - Siddharth Deb

woah just noticed that too - Tyler Gillies

Yesterday a friend of mine told me that her Gmail was grey, I will ask her for a screenshot. - Marcos Messer

omg omg google is teh monitorz us - joshed

Little bug in software. - Daniel Schildt

Just noticed this for the first time. Wish it was a secret link to a candied portal page. ;) - Sonciary Honnoll