twhirl is the only AIR app I've seen worth using but I really like it - tsudohnimh
I've played the both Twhirl and Feedalizr a bit, but always seem to drift back to web interfaces. Among other things, it lets me juice the font sizes a bit -- which i need these days. - Chris Baskind
Twhirl is the first I've used. It's not ideal. Adobe has a long way to go to make them less crappy on OS X. - Bjorn Tipling
And I *am* trying to use AIR from OS X. Good call. - Chris Baskind
Twhirl was the only one I could stand -- but only for Twitter. Now I'm trying out TweetDeck - Shey
I think they're the sexiest apps for windows :D - Corvida via twhirl
I don't think it's AIR itself that's the problem - a lot of the web enabled apps that have been programed with it lately just aren't that great. So far, for me, only Twhirl, Snitter, and TweetDeck are exceptions to this. - Frederic
Tried 3 or 4 Air apps, in each case I bailed out, even though they were OK or OK+. I prefer to work independently of which computer I am physically using. - ron k jeffries
Twhirl on OS X uses more resources (memory, processing) than Firefox. I wonder if multiple AIR apps running simultaneously will be able to share those resources effectively. Otherwise, I don't see how RIAs will become successful. - scott anderson
Scott, what's your specs, because on both my Mac's Twhirl doesn't even show up in the top 5 memory users where as FF is always on top. Maybe it's just me, but I've got no issues with AIR apps aside from some of them being a little wide on my screen. Twhirl, Plurkair, Alerththingy, Feedalizer are all usable apps. - Duncan Riley
I tried several Air apps too, and they were either buggy and/or slowed down my computer to a crawl, which is also buggy come to think of it. - Kambiz Kamrani
I use Adobe AIR on Linux, which could be part of the problem. I really cannot stand AIR apps. Really. It's just that they are so out of place and weird. - possible248
@Duncan I've got an intel MacBook Pro w/ 2GB RAM. When I look at Activity Monitor Twhirl is typically higher than Firefox in %CPU, Real Memory, and Virtual memory. - scott anderson
Just wondering where all the people who have a problem with this would draw the line. When is it OK to express negative things about dead people? Is it based on time passed, level of nastiness of the person, whether they have living relatives who might love them? This is a totally serious question, I am not being snarky. - Elisa Camahort Page
There is no respect for the dead for me. There is respect for the life they led, how they both lived and died, and for those they leave behind. That guides any comments or expression from me on the dead. Nothing else. - Michael W. May
@Elisa I think there are tasteful and tactful ways to make political statements or give personal opinions on someone, even if that person is dead. I don't really have a problem with saying you didn't get along with the person, I just think it can be done with a little savoir-faire. - Shey
On the other hand, someone dying doesn't erase the bad things they did in life. Scumbag us a bit harsh though, Marshall. - Gez
@Shey But surely there's a line. Not to go all Godwin's Law, but are you saying every person deserves tact and savoir-faire, no matter what they did? "Didn't get along with" would not adequately describe the feeling people would rightfully have about various figures in history. I just am wondering if you really think every person or situation deserves such tasteful, polite treatment. - Elisa Camahort Page
Remember the old adage: Never kick a man when he's down... he might get up. Well, it don't apply to the dead :) - Ian Betteridge
Im from the uk. Just done a bit more research on this guy. Seems scumbag wasn't too harsh after all. If I wasn't in polite company I may use worse language. Worth noting that his kids will probably have there own different memory of him. - Gez
@Elisa I think that timing is more the issue. I agree with what you are saying about being nice about Adolph Hitler for example. I think calling him scum bag the day he dies is more the issue with me. His family no doubt loves him and for their sake, calling him harsh names at THIS TIME may be inappropriate. Maybe I am wrong but that is how I feel about it. - Paul L. McCord Jr.
Helms was a bully, an unreconstructed racist, a homophobe, a demagogue, and one of the most execrable human beings to ever carry the title "United States Senator." - Chris Baskind
Does it make me a bad person if I "liked" this one. - Larry Kless via twhirl
@Paul L. McCord Jr: I agree that people are shocked by the timing, but I think the more they learned the more they might not care. - Elisa Camahort Page
The term homophobic is often misused. It implies a fear of homosexuality. There is a big difference in fearing it, compared to being disgusted by it. - Paul L. McCord Jr.
You're correct. I redact my description of "homophobe" to "bigot." - Chris Baskind
@PaulLmccord. No real difference, if you feel either fear or disgust you are a bigot. - Gez
Bigot was not his original term. The original term was homophobe. If bigot is the term he would have used, then you may be able to make that argument. - Paul L. McCord Jr.
He even called himself a bigot. No biggie to see you guys calling him one. At least he was willing to stand up for what HE believed in... What do each of us believe in?? Are we willing to look stupid for it? Be berated for it? Even though I disagree with almost everything Jesse Helms believed, I agree with his chutzpah. He was willing to uphold his beliefs even though it went against the grain. Just sayin'. - Lisa L. Seifert
@Elisa its a fuzzy line to be sure but I think we can all agree that Jesse Helms cannot be equated to Hitler regardless of how much one may disagree with his policies. One of my favorite paragraphs of Carnegie's "how to win friends...": "Martin Luther King was asked how, as a pacifist, hecould be an admirer of Air Force General Daniel "Chappie”James, then the nation’s highest-ranking black officer.Dr. King replied, "I judge people by their ownprinciples - not by my own.” - Marco
Homophobia refers to irrational hatred or fear of homosexuality. Some are arguing it should be listed as a distinct disorder. http://www.washingtonpost.com/... - Sprague D
the man supported Pinochet - that alone makes him a scumbag in my mind - dead or alive. - Frederic
he is dead. may he rest in peace. let's not piss on his grave - ron k jeffries
it's ironic how people are getting offended at other people who take offense to a man with such an insidious and loathsome history. you know what? good riddance. - Cee Bee
@Sprague D Sounds pretty typical that the main stream media would try to nullify the views of those they disagree with by labling them with a disorder. They search far and wide for a story that promotes this view. I read the article in the link you posted. The title is "Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness". Who determines what is extreme? I reject this out of hand as an attempt to nullify other points of view. A civilized society can have different points of view without a disorde - Paul L. McCord Jr.
"Helms was a well known backer of the KKK and other white supremacists; he once referred to the University of North Carolina (UNC) as the "University of Negroes and Communists." we still elect people like this? fuck this guy, good riddance. - sean percival
You reap what you sow. Live like Helms and your legacy will include things like 'scum bag'. Do we stop talking about how bad Saddam Hussein was? "Hey, he's dead now, let's not kick the cruel dictator now that he's gone." Yes, it's an extreme example, but seriously folks, why not call a spade a spade. (Helms might even like that term.) - AJ Kohn
indulge yourself into cholesterol stream :) - silpol
a KK Original Glazed only has 5mg of dietary cholesterol, not that big a deal, and "only" 200 calories. The bacon cheddar cheeseburger filling is quite a bit more nutritionally questionable than the doughnut. (On the other hand, it contains actual nutrients, which the doughnut doesn't.) - ⓞnor
Sugar's a nutrient, right? The brain runs on sugar. I have no problem with the donut or the bacon cheeseburger. I just don't like mixing sweets with non-sweets. - Amit Patel
Voodoo Dougnuts here in Portland has a bacon doughnut, but I can never bring myself to buy one... - Frederic
I guess that is one way to reduce headcount at Google! - J. Phil
But how do I get a good donut burger here in the bay area? - j1m
This sounds like something that would happen in my neighborhood. - Michelle Martinez
I'd also like to note the spontaneous eruption next door of what I believe is termed "karaoke fever". There is a very loud and, I might add, very crappy drum track over which some drunk dude is wailing "Love you" rather persistently. - Cyvros/fyc
Sounds like an "unauthorised taking of a vehicle" to me ;-) Either that, or the icecream man topped himself. Come on, someone had to say it...! - Matt Harwood
I am going with a very drunk ice cream truck thief who thinks he is in a under cover police vehicle and has the “siren” turned on - Earl E Morningwood
@Earl: That explains everything! But... what about the drunk karaoke guy? *strokes chin* - Cyvros/fyc
Even the Japanese have been unable to solve the age old riddle of Drunken Karaoke! They finally after years of research just embraced it as their national past time ;) - Earl E Morningwood
greeeat stuff! - "i can't get to the conversation" - yep. - jeneane sessum
I think @scobleizer's point about Twitter was how well it interfaces with FF and while not a conversation facilitator, it is a conversation starter that can be carried on over here on FF. I don't really think you'll be leaving Twitter. My hope is that we can get all of these services interoperating and stable. Twitter has an established community and I think that was also @scobleizer point. - James
@James An established community that's inaccessible the majority of the time. I shouldn't have to carry my conversations on Twitter somewhere else. - Corvida
@corvida ... Stability and reliability are the key. I think Twitter will get it right in the end. - James
has robert been able to get scobleizer back from whoever has it at indenti.ca? - Jeff Evans
You have made your point. Don't you still see potential in twitter once it gets its act together? They had not anticipated such growth so cannot totally flaw them for their constant service interruptions. - Tatenda Mbavarira
@corvida - You're absolutely right - Twitter, at least for the time being, isn't where the conversation is happening - it's happening here, on FF. Twitter still has a lot of goodwill in the community - if they get their act together, we will all jump back on the bandwagon. In the long run, I think they will get things up and running again. - Frederic
Why return to Twitter when the FriendFeed logo looks just like Twitter's? Seriously, FF is missing a few self-promotional features but other than that its functionality exceeds that of Twitter. - Terris Linenbach
@Tatenda I still see potential in Twitter now. I'm not denying that I'll be back there if and once it gets it together. Until then, it's just kind of moot for me since the conversation is inaccessible on my end. - Corvida
It will be up and running but by then everybody would have been gone - Gordon Swaby
I'm still over at twitter more often than on FF for conversations and quick updates, and think that the simplicity gives it a lot of traction - Bill Thompson via twhirl
Sarah has 1,100+ subscribers now. She's in the big leagues! - Louis Gray
Add /rss to your url and you can read the feed in Google Reader. Add /all/rss and you can follow the friends incoming comments. BUT you can not click thru the Google Reader feed to the Identi.ca page only follow the feed. - Mike Reardon
Identi.ca needs new feature - automagically subscribe me to Sarah's subscribed user list. - Susan Beebe
lol @frederic and Rizzn. Well this is going to stop me from getting the text messaging plan. Great. Now I'm down to $70 again. :) - Corvida
Doesn't work with Fluid, even with the tricks that work for Gmail and Google Reader. Ah well. - Mark Trapp
It's just an early step, but an important one. The next one will be an IM native app on the iPhone. I bet the mobile companies eventually start including text messaging in the unlimited data plans. Sprint is already with its unlimited plan. The fleecing has gone on long enough. - MG Siegler
so now they'll only be on EVERY OTHER corner... - MG Siegler
@MG - imagine the horror of that - I just counted how many Starbucks we have within a five minute drive from here - I got to 10, not including the supermarkets kiosks - Frederic
There are three coffee shops relatively the same distance from me (a 5 minute walk as opposed to a 5 minute drive) and only one of the 3 is SBUX. all have the appearances of being very recession proof, but obviously it is a very skewed perspective. - Robert Seidman
@MG and @Frederic don't diss Starbucks! I'm only joking, as much as I love starbucks frappucino's I can't stand the monopoly they run. I work at a coffee shop and they question me when I go to either Costa, Caffee Nero or Starbucks! - Josh Chandler
Interesting. I wonder if SBUX is pulling out of certain regions, or if some of this involved franchisee conversions. - Bill Sodeman via fftogo
The Starbucks death watch is on. When people have to pay more than $4 a gallon, they aren't going to pay $4 for a cup of coffee. - Chris Reed
This doesn't surprise me. There are three around Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga (if you count the Barnes and Noble), all of which are visible simultaneously. - Lee Adkins
@chrisreed weren't starbucks was kinda overpricing before the rise of fuel? - Josh Chandler
I wonder if they are growing outside of USA? - Atul Arora
I think what is even worse is that in those 600 stores over 12,000 jobs will be lost: http://sacramento.bizjournals...., there is also mention that Starbucks will only open 200 stores in 2009! - Josh Chandler
Oh Noes, how will I be able to survive not knowing that when I get off the metro that delicious cup of go fuel will be waiting for me? - Andrea Baker
@Josh Nice mention of the jobs, though I would argue the job Starbucks provided weren't exactly going to put much food on the table, let alone allow them to afford their own coffee... - Chris Reed
Yeah - this doesn't suprise me either. They have saturated the market for coffee. Near where I live, there are four or five starbucks within driving distance easily - more than McDonalds. That's just too many. - Jason Kaneshiro
they all must go Moscow - there is market vacuum for Starbucks - silpol
agree with C. Reed - the coin that used to be my daily SBUX run now goes into my fuel tank. - James Hull
@Chris Reed: Starbucks is actually one of the better employers in their industry, both in terms of wages and benefits offered. While I doubt many people are supporting a family off of a job at Starbucks, it's still a good job to be had. - Eric
let me say I don't actually like this, I like that I'm now informed - Julian Baldwin
I think so. Taking conversations private is a great way to further a business relationship. A DM on Twitter is often a much better communication method than a public posting - Jim Duncan via Alert Thingy
I think that would be great, I use DM frequently and would love it on FF :-) - Maria Reyes-McDavis via twhirl
I'll be the dissenting voice and argue that we don't need yet another walled messaging system. Is something wrong with existing systems? Why not something open and interoperable. E-mail, anyone? - Aaron B. Hockley
Perhaps use what's already there - some kind of ad-hoc private room that exists for the duration of the conversation. - Colin Walker via fftogo
FriendFeed already allows you to add a google talk account, though I'm not sure what updates it shows (maybe status?). Rather than building another messaging system, what about allowing adding other IM services and having FriendFeed provide a gateway to directly contact someone on whatever their preferred service is? (Users would probably have to prioritize their accounts, and there would be some need for the reverse path to be traversed but those could be dealt with...) - Andy Tinkham via twhirl
Yes, so people joining my feed and I can message each other, and so we don't have to toggle back and forth between FriendFeed discussions and other socnets to send private msgs. If FriendFeed just added private messages and a profile feature, it would be really helpful and would keep people here. That may be one reason why some people don't like FF. Being able to add a photo to profile would be good, too. - Cathryn Hrudicka
I would prefer a profile where I could post e-mail and instant messaging addresses. I do not want FriendFeed to become yet another inbox to check. - Robert Seidman
I also dont need another inbox added on top of all the others. - Andru Edwards
YES!! But perhaps to speak to Andru's concern we could have an "on/off" option that would tell other users "Andru does not accept private messages" or something along those lines. - melmcbride
Why not a profile where you can say how you want to be contacted? An internal message via FriendFeed could be one option, for those young'uns that don't use email. - possible248
I am with Andru, I don't need another inbox to keep up with. - brian junyor
definitely don't need another inbox. something over xmpp would be lovely so that I can just route it to Google Talk - Jamie
The solution is very easy. Hook up XMPP to Google Talk so we can have instant messaging. Hook up email to Gmail so we can all message each other with a robust messaging system. Please do NOT add another lame messaging service like the one that Facebook and Twitter have. Thank you! - Robert Scoble
I use google chatback quite heavily across my blogs, and it's great: plus, it takes your status updates from gmail, so you can choose when you'd like to interact with others - if this sort of app was on FF, I'd certainly use it - Iain Baker
I agree with Scoble. No bacn. Give me ham via IM. - Steve Rubel
No no no, this is open social. Not close circuit... - Hakan Dahlstrom
First comes IM support, then we'll want to use to read email, then we'll be considering as a replacement for emacs... - Kevin Johnson
NO THANK YOU...unless there's an option to turn it off. - Mona N
I agree with Scoble as well. I have completely disabled the Facebook chat and would probably to the same with FF. A connection to Google Talk is the way to go... - Justin Korn
I think you should be able to do @ responses to Rooms only, not on main posts - Justin
Yes, a direct message API would really help me move my fledgling Twitter app. - Andy Murdoch
I'll join the chorus and say yes to DM to gmail, gtalk or within Twhirl. I don't always use the web interface. - Larry Kless
No inbox in FF! However, easy solution is just show my e-mail for my friends. After that we will talk as usual. - Бозон Хиггса
Yes! Some people on FF don't connect a Twitter account or any e-mail. I rather not "comment on some random item in the feed" when sending them a message. - Mitchell Tsai
That would be nice, but moderated use of it is advised... say, if this is implemented along with a block feature... Plus I do not want to have sevral email boxes to check, one is already too much :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
I would like to see a messaging system - doesn't have to be private. Maybe just a Twitter like timeline on the right side of the screen would do. It would have to be separate from the rest of my feed - otherwise the time line would get thrown off. - Frederic
Before a DM-System, it's more important to have SMS and IM. I don't see a big point for DM. There is a solution called E-Mail for that ;) - Ryo
How about a simple "E-mail this member" form? So if someone on FriendFeed wants to drop me a note AND I have not disabled the "Allow members to e-mail me," I'll receive that person's note in my (regular!) e-mail box and can choose to reply or not reply. - Adam Lasnik
ooo... or on a related note, FriendFeed could have two e-mail addresses... one private (for us mailing stuff to our feeds) and one public (for forwarding mail to our registered address), e.g., thatadamguy-rhq4h@friendfeed.com, with the latter part being there (and changeable) to prevent FriendFeed dictionary spamming. - Adam Lasnik
i agree with many points made here, i dont want yet-another-mail-box, please hook it up with other services in my weblife, (like you already do) - Ruben Llibre
and I changed my handle recently so my link is busted (UPDATE: fixed - Thanks Mark). am now @infinitelymeta - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
There's two women, but that list is completely screwed up. It definitely has people who are ON FF, but it's not based on their use of FF at all. So don't exhale yet, Steven. - Cyndy
Only 2 likes on the original post. Need to find a logical way for Glenn to incorporate collateral likes somehow into the WP plugin (see link) , or at least factor in Louis :) http://friendfeed.com/search?q... - Mark Krynsky
For the record I think Steven belongs on the list...if only FriendFeed knew someone at Google who could fix this :) - Mark Krynsky
Mr. News Junk may look like a man, but he's actually androgynous. "Don't ask don't tell." - Dave Winer
Mark: I totally agree - Steven Hodson should be on this list!! - Susan Beebe
How I ended up on this list on #8 is totally beyond me, but I guess it helps to have been on FF for a while already. And yes - how come Steven isn't on here? - Frederic
Thanks Louis. You granted me an appearance on today's best of FF. Almost as cool as the time I made the front page of digg for my check from Google bouncing http://krynsky.com/my-check-fr... - Mark Krynsky
@mark - thx for the fix. no worries, happens all the time, just remember: I before E except after C :) - MG Siegler
I'm shocked to not only be on the list, but to be at #14. Might explain why I have some new friends... :) - Grant Bierman
Better analysis might be searching people's names on Google with "friendfeed.com" to see how many entries appear. The Lifestream list appears somewhat random (1) Robert Scoble 66,600 (2) Louis Gray 20,000 ... (5) Chris Baskind 3,290 (6) Mr. News Junk 885 (7) MG Siegler 5,190 (8) Frederic 4,010 (9) Muhammad Saleem 2,320 (10) Scott Beale 29,100. See http://friendfeed.com/e/3d2ed5... for a list I'm trying to make on “Top FriendFeed Users (by number of pages on Google)” - Mitchell Tsai
Danke schön, Alexander for sharing your list of German users. Es ist sehr interessant. Ich weiß nicht ...who is active in the German community. Deutschland? Österreich? Schweiz? - Mitchell Tsai
J. Phil was 7,020. Sorry I forgot you too... - Mitchell Tsai
@Mitchell Tsai: I just restricted the Google search to language=german. So people listed can be from Germany, Austria, Switzerland... Friendfeed users who come from one of these countries but write in english couldn't make it on the list. - Alexander Ebel
"the plight of the solo blogger" - it is indeed harder for someone to take a personal single-author blog beyond just a hobby - Paul Stamatiou
it's interesting that between the date of this post (which got pushed to the front page again) and now (6.27.08) you are now writing fulltime at RWW and your own blog :) - Steven Hodson
Good point Steven. From Frederic's post :"It’s close to impossible for a solo blogger to make a living in the tech blogosphere." And now he's at ReadWriteWeb. - Hutch Carpenter
@steven that is weird, i read this thinking frederic wrote it tonight. - MG Siegler
I was surprised to see this post show up on FF again - but yeah - the RWW gig happened very quickly - pretty much a week after I wrote this. But of course I had been thinking about the topic for quite a while already. Things can happen very fast in the blogosphere. - Frederic
Frederic, I have not seen this post before but it proves once again that some topics this days are so acute that we keep discussing them with a passion on a daily basis without ever getting tired of repeating the same things over and over again. - Svetlana Gladkova
That's really cool. They're not a separate box. They're mixed in with the other comments. - Hutch Carpenter
cool in one way, but having said that there's also no FF reply built in from what I can see. Someone also needs to hassle Richard about threaded comments. - Duncan Riley
@duncan - I think a reply function is going to be added pretty soon - Frederic
I gotta say I find it kind of confusing, it's like reading two conversations on top of each other. - Glenn Slaven
Glenn, in this specific case, that's true. There are two conversations here. The reason is that Frederic linked to the - Mark Carey
Glenn, in this case that is true. There are two conversation here. The reason is that Frederic linked to the "Bezos invests in Twitter" story above, although the conversation he started in unrelated to that story, since the link is just an example of the FriendFeed Comments integration. The plugin looks for links to entries and pulls in the comments -- in the rare case that the FF comments are unrelated to the link, it can seem like two conversation mixed into one. - Mark Carey
Fair enough. I was just concerned that you'd get this weird disconnect in the comments. I was toying with the idea of integrating the comments originally for the WordPress plugin, but in the end I went with the separation. I guess this will be a good test to see which works better :) - Glenn Slaven
Liked for the concept. The execution leaves a bit of room for improvement. Still, quite cool!@ - J. Phil
Yes, it will be interesting to see how it compares. Let's continue the discussion over at http://friendfeed.com/e/811496..., which has a link to a live demo and to the plugin, which has now been released. - Mark Carey
Nicely done, fluid with all other comments - Julian Baldwin
just as an update: you can now also CC: your comments from RWW to FF - Frederic
Trying to get back in to making some tracks so some free VSTi's are always welcome :) - Colin Walker via fftogo
I have always been amazed how many free VTSi's there are - I always found I had to limit myself, otherwise I would just keep looking for sounds and never get anything done :) - Frederic
You got that right. I used to find it so much easier to get stuff done when all I had to play with was ReBirth. When things got more complicated the creation process became so much slower. - Colin Walker via fftogo
great. thanks, guys. feel free to share or mod. - Hao Chen
hao Chen-now make me a script to find people that I'll like and only allow stuff I like when I'd like it... :D Louis Gray all on-24/7 of course :D - Mark Forman
