Jim - Comments - FriendFeed

Services

Discussion

Comments

2 this week, 41 all time

Likes

1 this week, 29 all time

See both

Subscriptions

Rooms

Jim's Comments - View full feed

Subscribe to Jim

Jim posted an entry on Blern Blog

Blern Learns from Mixx

August 29 at 3:56 pm - Link

FWIW, the Mixx developers were very supportive in getting this integration completed! - Jim

Louis Gray shared an item on Google Reader

TiVo's Day of Reckoning Approaches

August 26 at 11:24 am - Link

Denton Gentry, Mo Kargas, Michael J Cohen, AJ Kohn and 5 other people liked this

Go, Tivo, Go! - Josh Haley

I'm a huge fan of TiVo and wish them all the best. It seems that their case has merit so it will be interesting to see what happens. - Jim McCusker

Show 21 more comments

The question is... will this be an opportunity to buy/sell TiVo stock? - Louis Gray

Big TiVo user since day one, but I fear for them. They are running out of partners, options, etc. Hopefully they can find a way to survive. - Dean Terry

Huh, I was just thinking about getting a Tivo HD - Jason Carreira

I'd be sad to see TiVo go. Their DVR beats the pants off of Comcast's offering. - Akiva Moskovitz

Louis - Might make a bounce if they win but TiVo still needs better penetration into the marketplace. I love my HD unit with Verizon CableCard, but it's a shame that the CableCard isn't bi-directional yet, thereby making On-Demand and Pay-Per-View impossible. - Jim McCusker

I recorded the entire olympics in HD, on a DISH network DVR, the 722. it rules - Brian Hendrickson

I really liked TiVo and was rooting for them big time. They are in a tough spot though. Top technology that a lot of people don't see as enough better than the generic cable/satellite DVRs on the mass market side and competing with Microsoft Media Center on the higher end. Best advice is to sell to Apple who might have the muscle to market them. AppleTV needs a DVR badly anyways. - Thomas Hawk

IMO, Tivo has a pretty good product, but will die a slow death unless they can either get major traction with the cable companies (ie, Comcast deal) or are able to monetize their IP. Most consumers won't pay the premium to get a Tivo when the local cable co offers an alternative for $10/mo. - Jim

Oh, and I'm getting increasingly irritated with Tivo's inability to ship software that is full of blatant bugs that I encounter _every_ time I use my Tivo... and they refuse to fix several of these, as they have endured several software updates. :( Very disappointing... - Jim

I guess I'm just grateful that our TiVo HD doesn't randomly decide to delete everything we've recorded like our old Comcast DVR did. - Akiva Moskovitz

Tivo needs to become the software provider (as the idea behind their deal with Comcast) ... having seperate hardware that doesn't play well with cable and/or satellite is going to kill them. Oh, and lower prices. I love my Tivo. - Tim Hoeck

That's the thing... I've seen the DVR I can get from TimeWarner, and it's just CRAP. Somebody has to make and sell a good one, and if it's not going to be Tivo, then who? I still think DVR's are in an early adopter phase. I think people will get tired of the DVRs from their cable companies and upgrade. - Jason Carreira

Just shows you how stupid people can be... $10 a month adds up pretty quickly when TivoHDs aren't even that expensive. Refurbs on woot a couple days ago for $160, for example. Normal price at Costco is around $200, iirc. Tivo's even offering lifetime subscriptions on units again, making the service even cheaper. Sure, a lot of this is upfront money and a barrier to buy for a lot of people, but the math is solid... if you have the cash, you're a bonehead for renting. Nevermind non-Tivo boxes are 99% shit. - abacab

(all that said, we have three Tivos in our house--2 Series2s and 1 Series1--and love them. At the same time, though, I'd almost rather just drop cable and torrent the shows we watch. It's not like we watch anything live anymore anyway, so the wait for a good torrent download isn't a big deal at all.) - abacab

Dish has always been a second tier satellite provider, IMO. DirecTV has them beat hands down. I was very sad though when DTV decided to drop Tivo in exchange for their own equipment. I really miss the interface on Tivo and it's recommendation feature. Plus, I felt the search feature was better on Tivo. But, at least the DVR functionallity on DirecTV is nice, unlike what most if not all the cable operators have. - Jason Shultz via twhirl

Agree with Jason - the Time Warner DVRs are truly awful. I've swapped devices, tried getting the "newest" ones (almost all Motorolas) and they are world-record awful. Time Warner couldn't give a shit. Is there an elegant way to use Tivo or other good DVRs on TW that I don't know about? I wonder if Apple will figure out a way to make this work. Although they need to fix this iPhone disaster first. - Anthony Citrano

I've heard that the Tivo HD's with Cable Cards work with TW... anyone who's tried it, feedback would be appreciated - Jason Carreira

Jason - I have Tivo HD and it's amazing. But I use it with bunny ears as a small protest against Comcast and their stupid fees for cablecards. Separately... I thought Tivo and Comcast had a partnership in which the software would update on Comcast boxes "any day now" for some regions? - Patrick Lightbody

I am one of those 100k that unsubscribed to TIVO, after 4 years I decided that breaking up with TIVO and TV in general was a good plan. Both are gone. Netflix+Roku+Web all we've been using since June. - Mark Interrante

@Mark, but that doesn't have current seasons of TV shows, does it? - Jason Carreira

@Mark, Wow, bold move. The best I could muster was to eliminate cable and go w/ bunny ears. @Jason, you can get current TV shows via Hulu and other websites. It works fairly well except that: A) it doesn't display on my TV, and B) it doesn't work for sports events and such, though going to a bar works well enough. - Patrick Lightbody

How's the Roku, Mark? Any complaints or nags about it? - Josh Haley

Great, my kids love bars :| - Jason Carreira

I'm missing this year's shows. Except for the Daily Show which stream all their shows. The rest, I'll watch them when they hit netflix. I love Roku, it has a reasonable selection of back catalog, and they continually add more movies. The Roku was trivial to setup and has wifi and hdmi. Patrick, I know that I have the bunny ears configuration if I decide to get some TV. - Mark Interrante

Jim posted a link

Study: Blogs Love Obama, News Sites Love McCain. But McCain Is Catching Up By Going Negative.

August 26 at 12:01 pm - via Blern - Link

Interesting to watch how politics evolves on the web. Although I think we're barely scratching the surface. I'd love to see candidates get more involved _interactively_ via the web. - Jim

Bret Taylor posted a link

Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast - NYTimes.com

June 13 at 11:48 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Nikpay, Kevin Shannon, Timothy B. Taylor, Erik and 17 other people liked this

"A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to one measure by RescueTime, a company that analyzes computer habits. The company, which draws its data from 40,000 people who have tracking software on their computers, found that on average the worker also stops at 40 Web sites over the course of the day." - Bret Taylor

I read this story all the time, and it never makes sense to me. Fundamentally, a lot of my job is about interacting with other people. And it ain't just me, it's everybody I know. Somehow this article always gets written with little attention to the essential nature of email/chat to people getting anything done at all, and instead focuses on its minority role as a distraction. - j1m

Show 5 more comments

Good approach to this issue is using 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen - see http://tinyurl.com/6zlpvf - Jeroen De Miranda

Thats what soul tech is about, http://www.sparknw.com/soultec... - Leif Hansen

But the Rescue Time metric is real and when viewed in light of how many average workers cannot discipline themselves to remain on target for on-time collaborative results, it's important to acknowledge that time-motion studies can bear fruit. - Bernie Goldbach

are there any metrics out there which tell us how much time people spend TAGGING the applications and site within Rescue Time???? geez, i bet that takes 10% of my time too! - Ivan Stegic

Just finished reading this in the paper and didn't understand it. Have we become such children that we need others to tell us when it's naptime? I get a ridiculous amount of email and sometimes, yes, it does cause a bit of apnea when looking at the pile. But there are only so many hours in a day. Accept it, answer what's important, and get on with life. - Carla Thompson

I don't work in Tech, but at my job I think it is fair to say that 20% of my emails contain information essential to my work. The other 80% are mildly relevant to just noise. And I can't even tell you the last time I received an email that required a response that couldn't wait 15-30 minutes. My point is I definitely think I could become more productive by ignoring my emails for 30 minute spans and concentrating ont he meat of my job. In fact, I'm going to try it next week. - Andrew Burd

Where I work, people COMPLAIN when they get taken off a thread and ask to be on as many distribution lists as they can. They want to be in the loop and know what other people are working on, etc. Granted, we've got just under 100 employees, so in a larger org this could be overwhelming. I think the problem is more in managing the emails rather than feeling the need to "act" on ever single one. - Jim

Gee! If E-Mail really takes this much time from people, add in Friendfeed and Twitter and it's amazing any work gets done in America! - Kevin Shannon

Louis Gray dugg a story on Digg

Is Google about to swallow up Digg?

June 13 at 10:42 am - Link

Phil (scribkin), Susan Beebe, Jim, Mike Fruchter and 4 other people liked this

I hope not. I don't like Digg :) - Svartling

Hmm, seems like we get a Digg acquisition rumor every 6 months. - Mike Doeff

Show 5 more comments

if anything, they should really do something to make Google News more timely / reverent - Andy Sternberg via twhirl

Seems like both Google and Digg fanboys hate this idea. - Pat Hawks

I wonder if Yahoo ever tried? - Mark Dykeman

ake to build a Digg? Google can command an userbase - Lakshman Prasad via twhirl

While in many ways, these seems like a great fit... I'm skeptical of the value here for two reasons: 1) Google has the fanbase, why not build themselves... they could do it and they'd have the users on day one for it to be successful (question: could they manage the algorithms and userbase as "successfully" as Digg has?). 2) Where's the synergy? Would Google really realize some value here or is just another case of plug Google advertising unit into Digg and hope for big returns? - Jim

Bad investment. Digg's business model / concept is now old and has many competitors; not to mention "the rumors" about their algorithms. - Susan Beebe

I disagree that Google could just rebuild Digg on it's own. Anybody use Google Shared Stuff (Not to be confused with Reader Shared Items) or Google Notebooks? - Pat Hawks

Based on recent acquisitions, if Google does swallow, indigestion is sure to follow. - Mark Krynsky

Big Lebowski: Jim posted a link

The Big Lebowski on the big screen in Denver: June 25th, 2008

June 13 at 10:05 am - Link

I might have to come back from San Fran a day early to catch this... - Jim

Jim posted a link

The Cogent Strategy

June 13 at 9:41 am - via Blern - Link

Interesting discussion on why Cogent may (shortly) no longer be positioned as the most aggressive player in the bandwidth market... - Jim

Jeremy Zawodny bookmarked a page on delicious

mySQL DBA: How to pick indexes for order by and group by queries

June 12 at 7:28 am - Link

Satish Thomas, Jim, Charles Nadeau, Caleb Elston and 2 other people liked this

a pretty good discussion of the topic - Jeremy Zawodny

very cool. i didn't realize re-wording the question could have such an impact... - Jim

Louis Gray shared an item on Google Reader

Five Reasons FriendFeed Is Better Than Digg

June 13 at 1:24 am - Link

Mark Trapp, Nikpay, Dan Hsiao, Paula Hawk and 17 other people liked this

I stopped using Digg years ago and really don't see why anyone does use it. Maybe it's just my anti-social-ism, but rather than appearing as a site with thousands of contributors, it always seemed like a sited edited by a single, opinionated person that I would avoid in the halls. - Jim

FF is personalized, Digg is for the masses. - Jeremiah Owyang

Jim I still check Digg, just to see if there are any decent stories on the frontpage! - Joe Dawson

I think Digg is quite useful if you have a good friends list. I'm not using it very actively, but check http://digg.com/users/meryn/fr... . Digg would be much better if they'd make this page behave more like FriendFeed. - Meryn Stol

Jim posted a link

CamSpace Creates a Wii For Everyone (Minus the Nintendo Console)

June 11 at 2:36 pm - via Blern - Link

Can't wait (er, or can I?) to see the implications of this in the porn industry! - Jim

Funny Stuff: Jim posted a link

Coolness FAIL

June 10 at 3:48 pm - via Reshare - Link

Vitj0k liked this

Aaaaawwww yeeeaaaah - Jim

Stephen Mack posted a message

“I'm in the market for a new credit card, with good rewards. (I pay off my balance each month, so interest rate isn't a factor.) Blue Cash from American Express and Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards are frequently recommended. Any of you have experience with these or others? What do you use & why?”

May 27 at 4:43 pm - Link

Robert Scoble, Donato (ricin) and Tyler Gillies liked this

Hmm. No one? Guess I should just stuff money into my mattress.... Actually Sparky sent me an e-mail. I'll poke around some more. - Stephen Mack

I would have asked Sparky myself.. then told you the same thing as I think his is the best. I'm just lazy and haven't switched yet. I do like my Discover Card. While it's only 1%, they occasionally have 5% on categories here & there. More and more merchants are also accepting discover card - including my alma mater for awhile (until they realized I got 1% back on my college tuition!!!) - Erin

Show 9 more comments

I like my United Airlines Chase card because I get United miles. Why is it that United miles are the most valuable travel miles to me, when their actual in-cabin experience is so below par? Also, I have a Cal Alumni card (American Express, though I thought it was going to be Visa) that has a huge Cal swoosh on it and a 7.99% interest rate. You might like that (the swoosh or the rate) - Kevin Fox

I use the Costco Amex. 2% cash back I think. https://www124.americanexpress... - Thomas Hawk

I recently switched to the Fidelity visa card. It is a straight 1.5% cashback on everything. For every 5k "world points" you can get a $75 deposit into your Fidelity account. - Joe Beda

my credit sucks too bad to get a credit card ;) - Tyler Gillies

I have had absolutely no issue with Capital One. Just don't go with Bank of America, please, don't. - James Mowery via twhirl

check http://fatwallet.com/forums/fi... - Alan Cheslow

I use the Citibank American Express card, which earns ThankYou points. About a 4-10% return on every purchase (when TY points are used for purchasing flights) for the first two years, then about 2-4% after that. Free for first year, then I think it's $125/year, so you gotta spend a lot on it to make it worth it (I use it for all my corp travel and such). - Adam Lasnik

Used to love my Citibank Dividend Platinum until it went down from 5% on gas/groceries to 2%. I still use the card but not for gas/groceries; instead I got a Chase Cash Plus Rewards (I think that's what it's called) which has 5% gas/groceries but a very very low limit (mine's at $2000 now but when I first got it I think it was around $500). Not that the limit really matters because I pay it off every month. - Benjamin Golub

what are these things called credit cards?? - Steven Hodson

I use the citi bank amazon card... seems to work well but I don't have a lot of experience with other kinds. - Stefan Hayden

Happy with Capital One No Hassle. Easy to track and redeem. Less easy to buy airfare if that's what you're after. - AJ Kohn

I use the Citi Dividend Platinum card and Discover. I have the Amex Blue card, but rarely use it. The key difference is, both Discover and Citi allow you to cash in your rewards as you use them. Amex only distributes it annually--so if you miss a single payment or otherwise screw up, the reward disappears. - Jim

Jim posted a link

Super Pii Pii Brothers - ThinkGeek

May 29 at 11:48 am - via Blern - Link

I wonder if they have a "drunk mode"... - Jim

Bret Taylor posted a message

“I will be in Peru (in the jungle and hiking Machu Picchu) for two weeks starting tomorrow. FriendFeed's big launch next week will be happening without me...”

May 10 at 1:02 am - Link

Aurelia Boralis, Bruce , Gabriel Aldamiz-echevarri, possible248 and 22 other people liked this

Enjoy :) - Yuvi

go to iquitos if you have the time; highly recommended. - David Adewumi

Show 20 more comments

My culinary lesson in Peru: Cuy is not to Pork, as Veal is to Beef. Have fun! - Richard Chen

i hope you have wonderful time in Peru - Kate Mag via twhirl

It's interesting how having animals as pets changes our desire to eat them. - Chris White

Are you going "the cool way" to Machu Picchu? - http://trancemist.net/blog/ind... - TranceMist

Wow! enjoy - Michael VanDervort

What big launch? Is something new coming? (obviously) I want to know!! :-) - Dave Winer

Echoing Dave. Is a new feature set arriving, or is this just FriendFeed's presentation to the world? - Ontario Emperor

I spent a week in the jungle last Sept and had a great time. - Jim

Went to Peru more than 10 years ago and did the Inca Trail (amazin, you should do it!) - Martin Añazco

Wonderful experience! Have fun. - Jody C

Have fun; some friends of mine have visited and it sounds amazing. I think I know what you'll be launching :) - Benjamin Golub

the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is *amazing*. Just remember, the easy part is getting up - going down was much harder and I was jealous of all the people who had walking sticks, I destroyed my knees going down without 'em. - felix

Well, they'll see how much they miss and need him when he's gone. A lot! Not a dumb move. - Alex Hammer

Perhaps FriendFeed is relocating its offices to Peru, and Bret is just the advance guard. :) - Ontario Emperor

have fun! i'm going to be down there in the Peru jungle in just over a week myself - Brad Warren via twhirl

Have a wonderful trip! - Anne Bouey

Have a save trip and enjoy - Zamil A. Safwan

Have a great trip! - Emily Miller

Have a nice trip! (via Posty) - funkyboy

was the big launch delayed? - David Vasileff

have a great time, jealous - Kim Landwehr via Alert Thingy

Have a nice time :) - Grayce Sa

how was the trip? - David Adewumi

Corvida stumbled upon a site on StumbleUpon

Why Facebook Is Useless | sarahintampa

May 6 at 10:25 pm - Link

Siddharth Deb liked this

Great review and perspective on Facebook and its longevity! - Corvida

I too have felt that Facebook was pretty useless. However, I concluded only that I am slowly turning into a fogey and didn't "get it." Now I wonder if early-30s != practically dead... - Jim

Jim posted a link

Photobucket Plays Catch Up To Flickr, Public API Released

April 22 at 8:08 am - Link

Liked by Jim Goss on http://blern.com - Jim

Jim posted a link

If Juno Was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest

April 20 at 10:31 am - Link

Liked by Jim Goss on http://blern.com - Jim

Jim posted a link

The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat

April 19 at 7:11 am - Link

Liked by Jim Goss on http://blern.com - Jim