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John Lam › Comments
I'm starting a trip to Grand Rapids today. - http://www.dopplr.com/travell...
I'll be there from December 7th until December 10th. See more in my Dopplr profile.
- John Lam
Neatorama » Blog Archive » Desktop Butt Station - http://www.neatorama.com/2008...
Onur Gündüz, Andy Bakun, ★amin.m★ and 33 other people liked this
amazing
- mike
from NoiseRiver
Jess, I want one.
- Rob Schonberger
It reminds me of the old joke published in /Mad/: “Q: What does the starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common? A: They both circle around Uranus looking for Klingons.”
- John Lam
^^^ Haha. Klingons it is!
- Jagtesh Chadha
I actually got my little cousin one of these for his b-day and he absolutely loves it. I got the item here - wwww.shopiconic.com.
- Raymond Tam
Peep this revolutionary ergonomic DSLR camera design. Why didn't anyone think of this before? Props to Erin Fong! - http://www.engadget.com/2009...
Rachel Lea Fox, Eric @ CSTechcast.com and Dan Hsiao liked this
Doesn't seem like a stable way to hold a camera. With a SLR these days you want to keep your elbows in as much as possible to reduce movement. This design doesn't quite help with that.
- ronin
@ronin Is the elbows in stance due to current SLR design? Me thinks so.
- EricaJoy
I agree with Erica. Also, I just held up my SLR and noticed that I actually tend to spread out my elbows...
- Rajiv Bhatia
Elbows against the chest move the camera with each breath or heartbeat. I can hold my breath, but i can't stop my heart. :-)
- John Lam
Mm, no, the elbows in stance is to help keep something (doesn't have to necessarily be a SLR) that's right in front of your face immobile. It feels more natural to spread out the arms (even with current SLR design) but unless I'm propping my elbows up on something, it's definitely a less stable platform. This particular design doesn't really solve that main issue. A design that does is...
more...
- ronin
Also, I have found that if I'm shooting in a crowded area, or even on a street not super crowded but with people going about their lives I tend to get bumped more with elbows out. I don't keep them right against my body, but I do try to keep them in some.
- Rachel Lea Fox
I'm returning to Rochester today. - http://www.dopplr.com/travell...
See more in my Dopplr profile.
- John Lam
I'm returning to Rochester today. - http://www.dopplr.com/travell...
See more in my Dopplr profile.
- John Lam
Submitted: Chinese Immigrants' Kids Play Balancing Role · NPR - http://www.mixx.com/stories...
Students whose parents come from China often excel in school, but their educational performance can be affected by cultural tensions at home between their Chinese and American identities.
- John Lam
Bear shot, tranquilized, now dead at state wildlife hands · Democrat & Chronicle - http://www.mixx.com/stories...
"Ninth grade physics tells me a 6m (19 ft) fall reaches a speed of 10.8m/s (39kph or 24mph). Could you imagine cycling at time-trial speeds into a net and stopping in 1m (3 ft)? Spread evenly it would generate 6g deceleration over 0.18 seconds. A 68kg (150 pound) bear would reach 740kgm/s momentum, 4kJ energy, and require 4000N (900 pounds) applied evenly and vertically to stop. Even a net held taught horizontally cannot apply vertical force evenly through its range of travel. In addition, too bad the bear fell off-center. The four men at the close side bore much more impact than the four men at the far side."
- John Lam
WHO TOOK ZEPHORIA!?!?!?! Bastards! Hrmfpt.
prezzemolo liked this
Are you sure? http://www.facebook.com/zephori... still appears available.
- John Lam
It looks like /zephoria has been blacklisted while /apophenia hasn't been :)
- Marco Fabbri
[audio] New DNA Evidence Forces Investigators To Reopen Nancy Drew Mystery - http://www.theonion.com/content...
Jon, you've imported your Google Reader Shared Items twice.
- John Lam
We're thinking about visiting the Rochester area this summer, but flying into Toronto and spending a couple of days there. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do in Toronto with the kids?
Rudolf Olah, Andre P. Siregar, Tony Ruscoe and 4 other people liked this
I haven't lived in the Toronto area for over 10 years, but from my memory: Ontario Science Centre is great and Casa Loma is very interesting. The Toronto Zoo is good if you like zoos and the Royal Ontario Museum is good if you like museums. Ontario Place is an amusement park which I remember being lots of fun when I was a kid. The CN Tower is the defacto landmark, but I was so young the last time I went there that I have no memory of it.
- Laurence Gonsalves
By the way: Canada's Wonderland (just north of Toronto) is very similar to Great America, so you probably don't want to even consider it.
- Laurence Gonsalves
I don't think we're ready for theme parks yet what with Camilla being only 4 (and quite averse to trying new experiences) and Thomas just having turned 1.
- April Buchheit
Yeah, I didn't think so. That list was roughly in order of descending "a good place to take very young kids"-ness, though in addition to my "haven't lived in the Toronto area for over 10 years" disclaimer I should add that I've only been a dad for 6 months, so I probably don't have my suitable for kids sense finely tuned just yet. :-)
- Laurence Gonsalves
When I was a kid I loved Ontario Science Center, Ontario Place, Toronto Island, and the CN Tower. I haven't lived around there in 5+ years, so I can find out from friends some good places to eat at.... Just let me know!
- Karen Padham Taylor
I agree with Karen. Those are all the things we did when I went to Toronto as a child.
- Gabe
Say hi to Geddy, Alex and Neil, eh.
- Josh Haley
Find peasant style Chinese food you can no longer find in the Bay Area unless you make it yourself.
- John Lam
CORRECTION: You asked about Toronto, not Rochester. The following only applies to Rochester: You can go to the most popular greasy spoon dive in Rochester: Nick Tahou's Hots: http://www.garbageplate.com/ You'll probably want to die afterward, but it is good tasting but maybe 0% healthy. You'll see all types there - men in business suits + the homeless, etc.
- O.Shane
I would add the Hockey Hall of Fame, since it is Canada you are visiting:) And if you want a slice of something more like the Mission in SF try Queen St. West, or College St for coffee shops, funky shopping etc. The new Distillery area east of Jarvis is a cool renovated industrial building with great new restaurants etc.
- Johnny B
Laurence's and Karen's lists are very good. If you're there late August, you might try the Canadian National Exhibition, a kind of strange mixture of midway rides and agricultural show (though my memory of this is 30-40 years old now, so who knows what it is like today). You should probably stop briefly in Niagara Falls on the way to Rochester.
- Howard Trickey
Howard: We'll definitely stop by Niagara Falls on the way to Rochester. I probably shouldn't get too ambitious in terms of doing a bunch of stuff as the kids may not tolerate visits to museums and theme parks (frankly, we adults may not, either). Is there a good hotel to stay where it's within walking distance of nice coffee shops, restaurants, and shopping? Realistically, I think what we'll end up doing is just walk around.
- April Buchheit
Last time we went to Toronto we spent a lot of time shopping on Bloor Street (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...). We also ran into David Beckham trying on sun glasses in a department store (YMMV). Toronto also has a great Chinatown. Let us know when you'll be in Rochester :)
- Benjamin Golub
I agree with Ben about Chinatown. It's a great place to eat. We went to Bright Pearl Seafood Restaurant for Dim Sum (http://www.brightpearlseafood.com/). If you want to just walk around, The Distillery District (http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com/) is pretty quiet and relaxing, with a few boutique shops. They have Segways too! I'm not sure whether this is really suitable for kids but the Steam Whistle Brewing (http://www.steamwhistle.ca/) brewery is a good place to sample their beer after a quick tour...
- Tony Ruscoe
Richtree is a fun place to eat with kids. If you drive to Rochester, make sure you check the border wait times at the three crossings. The wait times can vary quite a bit (electronic maps seem to favor the Lewiston bridge, which can be busier) but the travel times are similar http://apps.cbp.gov/bwt/ or 1-800-715-6722. You can see the falls from the Rainbow bridge. If there still was a ferry, I'd recommend that :-).
- Erik Erkelens
Royal Ontario Museum isn't too bad and they have a kids section somewhere. Definitely go to Queen St West, also Bloor St. Oh, maybe Harbour Front has things to do too: http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/
- Rudolf Olah
Submitted: Precise Measurement: Laser Ranging System Pinpoints Multiple Objects With Nanometer Precision 100 Km Away - http://www.mixx.com/stories...
Combining the best of two different distance measurement techniques with a super-accurate technology called an optical frequency comb, researchers built a laser ranging system that can measure multiple objects with nanometer precision over 100 kilometers.
- John Lam
Vibram Five Fingers: Discover the Barefooting Alternative - http://likaholix.com/ryankan...
HealingBrush, John (a.k.a. dendroica), Mia Huang and 65 other people liked this
I am thinking of buying these shoes today.Wondering if other people have bought them as well. Are they good to use on a treadmill?
- Bindu Reddy
from Likaholix
Robby has some like that.
- Paul Buchheit
Paul do you know if he likes it? I have to return the pair of shoes I bought yesterday if I buy these instead
- Bindu Reddy
I am thinking of getting a pair, too, as soon as I make time to hit zombie runner in palo alto. I read Tim Ferris' http://bit.ly/e3tDI, check out the Cautions and Cons - it looks like it takes a while to get used to them.
- David Vasileff
Looks good for running on the beach
- Rodfather
I love mine. I wear them all over town. Wish I could wear them at work. Sooooo comfortable.
- Brian Newman
they are decent shoes but i dont end up wearing them too often because they take too long to put on (i recommend getting some toe socks too) so i still mostly wear flip flops - its just hard to beat the flip flop :P - end result, i mostly only wear them for applications where flip flops arent ideal, like they were nice for climbing over rocks along the shore in hawaii
- bob
look into the KSO verison (keep stuff out) ...try them on in a store...you need to wear for a few weeks walking about first before you try to run...all depends on usaage ...for better advice contact my good pal http://www.barefootted.com
- Gordon Montgomery
I want one of these!
- Sinan Ata
bob, I am a huge flip-flop fan as well.. However you can't wear flip-flops and use gym equipment in this gym I just joined. I wish you could ... So I am trying out figure out what is the next best thing
- Bindu Reddy
Ooooh it's got toes! To scale walls!
- sofarsoShawn
I would love a pair of these, but I hear they don't fit people like me whose second toe (the one next to the big toe) is longer than the big toe. Is that (still) true? Anyone?
- Grey Drane
I've known a couple people who've gotten them, the Sprint model specifically. One has run in them and is working up the mileage and the other wears them all the time instead of regular shoes. I'm probably going to buy some as soon as I get myself over to Coral Gables to try them on in person.
- CAJ, somewhere else
Here's my review: http://piaw.blogspot.com/2008... (and guy Kawasaki thought they were cool http://piaw.blogspot.com/2008...)
- Piaw Na
I bought a pair last week and love them. I'll need another pair though, so I can wear one while I'm washing the other.
- Graham English
Piaw you make these sound like the ultimate Chick magnet :)
- Private Sanjeev
Sanjeev, with my ugly face, they *have* to be, to attract any kind of attention from women!
- Piaw Na
Certainly an interesting concept, but, given no padding and hardly any wear surface that I can see, on reflection much too expensive for presumed fairly short utility, couple of months running at most. Would be nice to try, but then what... I can not conceive of disposable running shoes.
- ianf ⌘
from what i understand running shoes, to be protective, in any case, need to be replaced every several months. Need to protect those joints! Shoes which help you develop muscles in your feet will help do that too, i believe. But I'd assume you'd have to start off slow.
- Marg Uerite
There are two competing theories. One is that you need to "protect" your tender feet from damage. The other is that, as long as you aren't bleeding because you stepped on something, all's good with the world. These only make sense if you believe in the second theory. If I were to start running, I'd probably get a set. But right now, I'm having altogether too much fun biking.
- Wirehead
Wirehead, you mean biking wearing those? Is the sole hard enough to withstand wear and tear of average pedals. It's unfortunate that the makers haven't posted a closeup/ slowed-down video of feet walking and running in Five Fingers whatever [addendum: and so we have to make do with a Vimeo "review" <http://bit.ly/e3tDI> by a third party, which is made up of 5% shoe opinion and 95% am-i-beautiful-or-not third party ego.]
- ianf ⌘
I don't think I like the idea of biking in one of those. No, I have a pair of bike shoes with clipless pedals. But if I were to be running instead of biking, I'd want to at least try Five Fingers. IIRC, there's kevlar in the soles, so just because it's thin and flexy doesn't mean that it's not sturdy.
- Wirehead
Yeah, well that thin kevlar "insole" isn't the wear-and-tear part of it, a thin rubber layer is.
- ianf ⌘
A friend began running barefoot several years ago. He can do 5k now. Of course, Kenyans can run marathons barefoot.
- John Lam
That reminds me of this article, stating that the most expensive shoes bring the highest risk of injury: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home...
- Brome
'Liked' but doesn't stop it being any less rank. R A N K!
- Toby Graham
I ran 5 minutes barefoot on a treadmill yesterday, for the first time ever. My feet really hurt by the end. The muscles, tendons, and ligaments needed to keep your heel from smacking into the ground are severely underdeveloped due to modern footwear.
- Darren
I spoke to a physical therapist about this, and he said that basically, if you have any kind of over pronation, or other foot-type disability, going bare foot is a good way to give yourself knee, hip or neck problems. Remember, the stories of athletes going for miles barefoot are examples of top physical specimen, and you may or may not be one.
- Piaw Na
darren, you hit the nail on the head. Barefoot running or even FiveFinger running should be approached slowly. Our bodies adapted to the tools we thought we needed for running/walking/etc. Your body has to "unadapt" so to speak.
- CAJ, somewhere else
alan, exactly. i'm going to try to work up slowly. i hope i can keep it up and report results in a month or two.
- Darren
our ceo has them. he wears them every single day at work and loves them.
- Charles Hudson
And the nature of your business being....?
- ianf ⌘
Why journalists deserve low pay | csmonitor.com - http://www.csmonitor.com/2009...
Jemm liked this
"OXFORD, ENGLAND - Journalists like to think of their work in moral or even sacred terms. With each new layoff or paper closing, they tell themselves that no business model could adequately compensate the holy work of enriching democratic society, speaking truth to power, and comforting the afflicted. Actually, journalists deserve low pay."
- j1m
from Bookmarklet
"Journalists are not professionals with a unique base of knowledge such as professors or electricians. Consequently, the primary economic value of journalism derives not from its own knowledge, but in distributing the knowledge of others. In this process three fundamental functions and related skills have historically created economic value: Accessing sources, determining significance of information, and conveying it effectively. "
- j1m
hmm that's hardly a fair assessment.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Jounalists *could* have pushed for actual professionalization (including certification), but that would have involved actually adhering to professional standards.
- Michael R. Bernstein
in some place they did just that - and the job is a lot harder than people imagine.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Really? Where?
- Michael R. Bernstein
I don't think it's compulsory but I think there are "chartered" journalist status existing in several european countries, but i will go check my facts first
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Our Constitution grants rights to a free press. Sanctioned or enforced government licensure would be unconstitutional. Hiring certified journalist would then be up to each newspaper, but they would prefer to invest in their own brand than to depend upon certified journalists. In a maxim of business, commodify your suppliers.
- John Lam
John, it wouldn't necessarily be unconstitutional. Think of the way the bar association works, or state medical boards. And yet, people can still represent themselves in court, and self-medicate.
- Michael R. Bernstein
It is about a professional code of practice - you have it with engineers, accountants, toastmasters, beauty professionals etc. as well - you can practice in many parts of the field without being chartered/certified but it is a requirement for certain roles, and one could imagine it working in journalism. It doesnt even need to be government run.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Accounting is a good example. Not everyone working in the field is a CPA.
- Michael R. Bernstein
Defending my move to MSR a *lot* at ICA. Folks seem surprised/offended that I didn't go to academia. Explaining that MSR is sorta academia.
as long as MSR does not limit your research or its dissemination, your research is its own defense. Same in academia?
- smkvt
Avie Tavanian, a key grad student behind Mach, then developer at NeXT, and Vice-President at Apple, also reacted when Rick Rashid, his professor and creator of Mach, jumped from Carnegie Mellon to Microsoft Research.
- John Lam
You can now choose which of your services you want displayed on your profile page. The option is available at the bottom your services page at https://friendfeed.com/account.... (We will otherwise select five icons to show automatically.)
paniaguai, david beckwith, Jannifer @wordsforliving and 233 other people liked this
Thanks to Casey for implementing this. http://friendfeed.com/casey
- Bret Taylor
Just to avoid a clutter? Thanks Casey, but wouldn't it be easier to adjust the style (or use a js trick)? (Just suggesting of course) :)
- directeur
Excellent addition, thanks!
- Aaron Draczynski
YAY!
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
Uh, bug. Nasty bug. I can't see some of my services, the box is taller than my screen. You should columnize them or make the list scrollable or something.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
Details of my bug: http://friendfeed.com/friendf...
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
We can still only choose 5? :(
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
awesome thanks guys
- Alfredo
Yep, only five for now. We have gotten lots of feedback that the icons became useless when there were too many because you couldn't find the useful profile pages within the countless imported feeds. This lets you choose the few that have the most relevant profile info, but keeps the icon explosion from happening.
- Bret Taylor
I like this, and five is plenty for me to be able to get a sense of someone. thank you!
- holly
Very cool Thanks! :-)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Wow, nice.
- Adi
It's nice to have the choice. Thank you.
- Rick Cogley
minor problem: can't save when services exceeds screen size.
- AJ Batac
AJ: Ctrl-(mouse scroll wheel). Although, it gets pretty unreadable.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
that needs to be fixed.
- Alfredo
hmmmmm -[
- Chris Loft
Yay! Thanks for the choice =)
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Again. This is the same issue we had with the Rooms dialogue in the old interface. Didn't anyone check this first? What freakin resolution do the FF devs run at, anyway? LOL
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Rah, I'm 99.7% sure they use portrait mode on their monitors.
- AJ Batac
You'll take your five icons...and you'll like it! Thanks for the new feature.
- Mark Krynsky
Chris Charabaruk: some of us on macbook pros and other machines don't use scroll wheels. i agree with others that the truncation bug needs to be fixed. and, only five choices defeats the purpose of adding any more. some of us already have more services set up are used to seeing them. don't limit everybody in the process of simplifying it for a few, if it can be helped. thanks.
- sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq
Bret, Casey, thank you for this. Can you either make the list of services on the new screen either scrollable or in a smaller dialog box with a scroll bar? There's a bug that if you have a lot of services you cannot see the bottom of the list. :-(
- Kol Tregaskes
Love this, but can't use it because I use too many services. I can't scroll down the list.
- Thomas Hawk
A vertical screensize of 1200 pixels fixes mine. Your mileage may vary. I chose more than 5 services and let FriendFeed pick, presumably the way it can, had i chose less than 5.
- John Lam
Ok, I logged on on a PC and used the ctl scroll wheel trick and it worked.
- Thomas Hawk
great! I only want to show the most important feeds in my profile; and not clutter my profile with too many feeds that I include
- Jeroen De Miranda
Any word on the Iphone FF web? Or any news of an app? I can't see "my" discussions on the Iphone web version.
- orionstarr
So glad this has happened! :D
- Nicholas James
That's a simple but crucial feature, in my estimation. But if I had to be fussy (which I usually am), the option to (re)order them would be also be good.
- Wayne Smallman
agree with wayne. I'd like to draw more attention to my blog, and less to my twitter ;-)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Good that we can choose, thanks. Don't really understand why only 5 though. I don't have "countless imported feeds"; I have 15, which does not seem "too much to look at" to me.
- Neil Saunders
+1 Neil
- Richard Akerman
Now if we could just select the order they display in - a' la Google Profile. Speaking of Google Profile... is FF planning on adding that to the list of services?
- Alexander Grundner
This thread was discussed on the FFundercats (http://www.ffundercats.com/2009...)
- Josh Haley
not a feature i couldn't live without.. but still nice to have the option. thanks!
- Peter Efland
In my top 5 was facebook by default! #friendfeedfail
- Jordi Rosell
The services dialog is taller than my screen too. Please make it scrollable.
- Morton Fox
Google Calendar added tasks (I know I'm really late in noticing this) but there doesn't seem to be a way to have reminders sent via email. Am I missing something?
Rishabh Mishra (p248), Stephen M. Otto, Arnaldo M Pereira and Kol Tregaskes liked this
Guess not.
- Arnaldo M Pereira
Not only that, but it doesn't sync up with iCal's task list :(
- Will Goldstein
i work around this by using events as tasks. more workarounds [sigh]
- chad calease
In Google Calendar under the left sidebar, click “Settings”. Then select the calendar you need to enable notifications.
- John Lam
John: the "tasks" calendar doesn't have notifications
- Benjamin Golub
Agck, i just notice you wrote “tasks” and Google Calendar tasks, too. Hmm, for reminders, maybe go back to http://RememberTheMilk.com.
- John Lam
Submitted: Seniors ditch nursing homes for life in co-housing. - http://www.mixx.com/stories...
The oldest of 79 million Baby Boomers turn 63 this year, and they are "not interested in what their parents had in terms of assisted care, wasting away in a private house or nursing home," says California architect Charles Durrett.
- John Lam
Is there a spray to keep cats from scratching expensive wood cabinets?
Morton Fox, Kol Tregaskes, Dan Morrill AKA Techwag and 4 other people liked this
There are, but they don't work very well (in my experience).
- ⓞnor
Cyanide. But...it's a one time usage.
- Carlton Hackett
aluminum foil… though it doesn't spray on. At least, none i know.
- John Lam
Ours stopped scratching other things when we got a _good_ scratch post -- the kind that's tall, wrapped with carpet on one part and thick twine on another part, and has a place to sit on top -- and (this was key) we applied spray-on catnip to the vertical part of the scratchpost. If they still go for the wood, I agree with trying the aluminum foil or a small polycarbonate cornerpiece on a temporary basis. If you can discover what they like about the thing you don't want them to scratch you'll win.
- Daniel Dulitz
She's not using the cabinet as a scratching post, she's trying to get into it because she wants to sleep inside of it. Someone left the cabinet open the other day, and now it's her new fascination.
- Cristo
cap-stun.
- Anthony Citrano
nostay - works great, keeps my cats from shedding things, non toxic, non staining, non stinky to humans, cats hate it.
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
Anthony. lol.
- Cristo
That sounds easier. :-) Put a noisy thing (radio, ticking clock) inside, with foil, and leave the door open for a day. Place the foil over the threshold. The next day close the door. The next day remove the noise but leave the foil. Sometime later try removing the foil. Let me know if this works. :-)
- Daniel Dulitz
Daniel, I'm just not going to feed her until she stops doing it. ;)
- Cristo
Weasels: Ticketmaster Tries To Evade California Law By Calling "Gift Card" A "Discount Card" - http://consumerist.com/5237869...
Michael Ehline, Felicia Yue and Alex Scoble liked this
As if we needed yet another reason to hate Ticketmaster. Bastards. (reshared via /msh)
- Dan Hsiao
from Bookmarklet
I hate everything about Ticketmaster.
- Joey Gibson
It's not necessarily easy, but i've never bought nor redeemed any Ticketmaster ticket.
- John Lam
Silly Wabbit! · Nabaztag - http://likaholix.com/jlam...
M F, Kol Tregaskes, Dobromir Hadzhiev and 16 other people liked this
This sounds extremely neat. Has anyone actually bought one of these? The rabbit connects to the internet and than alerts you about email/news etc.
- Bindu Reddy
from Likaholix
It's neat, but mine doesn't really do much of anything practical. He does tai-chi a few times an hour (moves his ears, lights up, makes cute noises) ... but that's plenty for me. :)
- Jonathan Terleski
Don't one of the FF peeps have this?
- anna sauce
Wow Jonathan you have one of these. I wish I could just say bring it to work tomorrow so I can play with it :)
- Bindu Reddy
Rachel and I have one, as do our best-friend/neighbors. Our rabbits are 'married' and when we move the ears on ours, their ears update to the same position, and vice-versa. We use it as a signal to know when they're home. They have an ear that they 'put down' when they go out, and put back up when they return and vice-versa, so we each know when we can stop by. We've had them for about three years, but the system recently stopped working and we haven't debugged it yet.
- Kevin Fox
Yes, the FriendFeed global headquarters has a Nabaztag. I made it do something simple but it wasn't very interesting, so then I tried to make it speak everything posted to FF, but never finished. That feature might be overwhelming these days ;)
- Amit Patel
bindu++ I F'ING NEED THIS
- ௸ (k2g)
i was about to buy one and then i watched an internet review... sounds like it's not quite yet where i want it to be. i wish the friendfeeders would start making hardware, i bet they could do something this awesome, but more reliable, and with faster wi-fi, and maybe (dare i hope) in panda form
- ௸ (k2g)
It was a pain to program, and if I remember right, everything had to go through their servers. I'd love to have something like this but it needs to be local wifi and a web interface for commands.
- Amit Patel
That was the strangest thing about our Nabaztag bunnies: When our bunny needed to tell our neighbor's bunny that we weren't home, it had to do so via a server in France, despite the fact that both bunnies reside on the same wireless network. One pushes and the other pulls, so there's an average 25 second delay between action and response.
- Kevin Fox
Yea, we need an opensource bunny/panda, quickly hackable perhaps using Ubiquity scripts—as i wrote—running Bonjour/Zeroconf, and free from centralized servers.
- John Lam
i want one of these but I haven't quite figured out exactly what they do yet. I admit, i'm attracted to the bunny aspect and the lights.
- Violet Mae Lim
Kevin, I love the story about how your guys communicate using these bunnies. This also reminds me a little bit of those cute Furbys which were all the rage a few years ago
- Bindu Reddy
Paul is testing FriendFeed's Facebook status import https://friendfeed.com/account....
Daniel Rowley, Nicholas James, Winston Teo and 35 other people liked this
Hey this is good - I was wondering what FF did (it seemed to be nothing) when I added my Facebook account.
- Chu Yeow
awesome - so looking forward to when we can bring in our friends status'
- Zee.
Chu, the Facebook app publishes your FriendFeed to your fb mini-feed. It also finds your fb friends on FriendFeed and adds a FriendFeed "box" to your profile. Unfortunately the Facebook API doesn't provide access to any of your feeds, so the process for importing feeds from fb is completely separate.
- Paul Buchheit
Hey Paul, thanks for explaining that. I may have worded my comment wrongly though - I was referring to importing Facebook as a feed into FriendFeed. Previously, I've never seen FriendFeed post anything from Facebook onto FriendFeed, but now it does (nicely done too!).
- Chu Yeow
There's *so* much more FriendFeed could do with Facebook. Glad to see a step in the right direction. Would love to see events, pages one becomes a fan of, groups one joins, changes in relationship status, likes, dislikes, etc.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: It'll be a lot easier to manage / organize on FriendFeed than Facebook. - just saying!
- Mona Nomura
Mona, I agree, which is why I'd love to see FriendFeed bring more of the Facebook news feed items to a public view.
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
Don't you know people at Facebook? I don't understand why they keep overloading all their pages with scripts (our browsers can't keep up!) and how we have to hunt and peck for everything. They don't even have privacy options for messaging and they're thinking of venturing to music and enterprise? That is so not ok. Where are their priorities? :( Oops, I just hijacked the thread. Bottomline: FriendFeed ftw!
- Mona Nomura
Mona, I know people at Facebook as much as Louis Gray knows people at FriendFeed ;-) I'm just saying FriendFeed could provide more information through the Facebook API than what they're already doing.
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
I presume this won't cause an echo, if i post at Facebook, feed it here, then aggregate back into my Mini-feed via the Friendfeed Facebook app?
- John Lam
My apologies Jesse -- I thought you had the 'in' over there and hoping you'd let them know what the 'little' people are thinking. :) Never hurts to ask!
- Mona Nomura
@John, we should have safeguards against the "infinite echo" - let us know if you observe any problems.
- Bret Taylor
yeah!! FB integration time!
- Susan Beebe
No wonder I start seeing FB status messages from my friends now. Nice!
- Winston Teo
*trots off to FB to give it a whirl*
- Laura Norvig
Hey, I can't seem to find the My Status link to subscribe to on my fb feed, and so therefore can't feed to ff.
- Tim Evans
Hey Paul, this doesn't work if you're a recent FB subscriber. The My Status link is no longer displayed.
- Keith Bennett
Dr. Pepper has to be the worst soda ever. It tastes like Cherry Coke with Pepto.
John (a.k.a. dendroica), Darren Heydon, Bob M. Montgomery and 16 other people liked this
If you would like to join TAMN: "Texans Against Mona Nomura", please contact me. ;)
- Josh Haley
It's definitely an acquired taste. I couldn't take Dr. Pepper for a long time, now I don't mind it, and occasionally (rarely) crave its weirdness.
- Tudor Bosman
*wraps herself up in the Confederate Flag* YEE-HAW.
- Mona Nomura
Screw Dr. Pepper. I'm all about the Throwback Pepsi! ban HFCS NOW!
- Gunny doesn't side-hug™
also Dr. Pepper VS Cheerwine... and GO!
- Gunny doesn't side-hug™
I'm liking just for Josh's comment. For the record I love Dr. Pepper. And yes Diet Dr. Pepper does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper than other soft drinks.
- Alex Scoble
actually, Mona wrapped in the confederate flag would make for an awesome photo shoot.
- Tudor Bosman
Hahahhahahha!!
- Mona Nomura
from IM
I could never get into Dr. Pepper, but I don't recall it tasting that bad. Of course, I've never drank pepto as of yet so...
- Arlan Koizumi
DP is my favorite, Mona.
- Valley
Texas is Dr. Pepper land. Even though I love the stuff, I can;t do the sugar so much and I prefer Diet Coke over ANYthing, so...yeah. But just TRY and find any place in Texas that doesn;t have Dr. Pepper on tap.
- Josh Haley
I like Dr Pepper. Don't agree with Valley
- Rodfather
Dr. Pepper is pretty good to me.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Never could stomach the Pepper. Or cream soda.
- Martha
It's my favorite. Pepper's simply better. (I JUST RHYMED!)
- Brad Williamson
Don't you wanna be a pepper? Mr. Pibb is good too, and if you can get your hands on it, try Cheerwine.
- Matthew
Good call on Pibb, Matthew
- Brad Williamson
You lost points, Mona. Oy... Guess I'll just have to move to Texas to join the mob. ;-)
- Zach Flauaus
Dr. Pepper is so bad they don't even sell it in Australia.
- Bryce Roney
from email
There is not disputing in matters of taste.
- Mot Faerin
THANK YOU, BRYCE!
- Mona Nomura
You should try it hot.
- Kevin Fox
In fact, the only way to get it here is to seek out dingy little shops that import it from America.
- Bryce Roney
Love the Dr and Mr Pibbs
- Kim Landwehr
+1 Mona (you get one back for the wrap in the flag) +! Tudor (for a great photo shoot idea!) and +2 Dr. Pepper!!!! It's almost the only soda I drink (but I hardly ever drink soda)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
I really dislike Dr Pepper
- Bindu Reddy
You haven't tried Tab, a diet cola with saccharin, now removed from the market after rat studies showed carcinogenic potential. That matters none: i suppose it tastes like rat poison!
- John Lam
I'm okay with standard DP. I prefer Mr. Pibb, but the best was that batch of old school, sugar-sweetened DP that they released for their anniversary... that was some of the best soda I've ever had.
- Roger Benningfield
I agree Mona!
- Carmen
MONA! YOU FAIL! IT IS AMAZING! UGH!
- Michael Forian
Kevin, That is SO wrong. Hot Dr.Pepper is just not ok.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Dude, bite your tongue Mona! Love Dr Pepper! Specially Flaming Dr Peppers! :-)
- Live4Emma (L4S)
I drink a Diet Dr. Pepper every 5 years or so. Not bad.
- Mike Reynolds
Magnet falling through a copper tube: Eddy Currents - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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LogEx, Timo Heuer, onur özen and 43 other people liked this
This is wild and I can't wait to try it.
- Kevin Fox
from Bookmarklet
I would love to see this performed atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa with a really long tube.
- Micah Wittman
Awesome… Faraday currents!
- John Lam
BURN HIM
- Josh Haley
Wow!
- Kol Tregaskes
:O so cool
- Jay
That is unbelievably cool.
- Andrew Leahey
I could watch eddy current stuff all day
- Josh Haley
Horrible stomachache. Started after drinking a mocha. Lactose intolerance? Or allergic to coffee?
Helen Sventitsky liked this
Competitiveness? :-)
- Daniel Dulitz
Clearly, more data is required. Try chocolate milk, and later black coffee.
- Andrew C
It could just be the caffeine. It's a diuretic (sp?)
- Roshan Vyas
=(
- Shevonne
Horrible gas and diarrhea are symptoms of lactose indigestion. Anyway, what's with “intolerance” in this age of tolerance? Few ever assign the majority “lactose tolerant” nor other labels. The majority is always just the norm (so get with it, you deviant!) But here's the secret: lactose digestors are the mutants.
- John Lam
As mutant powers go, it's not exactly up there with eye laser beams.
- Andrew C
All mammals, by definition, at birth can metabolize milk, and all but humans lose that ability once weaned onto their adult diet. After all, we can't all feed by sucking on each others' teats in a perpetual energy machine. But not even most human populations—typically only descendants of northern and western Europeans and African Masai tribes evolved this adaptation.
- John Lam
Could be either the milk or the coffee. I seem to remember that very strong coffee on an empty stomache would irritate it, although this is not an allergy. It's more likely the milk, though. Does the same thing happen after you eat ice cream?
- Melinda Owens
I do not have this problem after eating ice cream or cheese. But I often have this problem after drinking a mocha.
- niniane
Allergic to chocolate or cocoa powder?
- Andrew C
How about milk? Ice cream and cheese do not have that much lactose compared to milk, I'm told.
- Andrew C
You seem to like chocolate, so I'm assuming that's not what it is. It probably is the coffee, then. To really check, you should drink hot chocolate and see if it makes your stomach feel the same way.
- Melinda Owens
OMG SWINE FLU SWINE FLU SWINE FLU
- Stephen Mack
I would say bad milk. I have had that happen to me a few times before.
- Steve Sill
lol re: stephen mack
- niniane
Niniane, you of all people would realize that (at least from what you've disclosed) there are startlingly few data points here. Given this, correlation much less causation seems tenuous at best. I'd see about having friends offer to help with doubleblind studies (caffeine, decaffeine, milk, milk substitute... though the latter would be tough to mask :P). Okay, and in more seriousness, feel better!
- Adam Lasnik
I like where people suggested to split up the potential stomache-inducing ingredients of a mocha and make separate experiments... =P (cough cough)
- Andrew C
Thomas Hawk shooting monster truck on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
Davis Freeberg, alex yu, Henrik Johansson and 89 other people liked this
Scoble captures me shooting a monster truck! Thanks Pal. A good time today out at the dream machines show. Now I'll have to be up the rest of tonight processing mine. :)
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
Run!!
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
I think I'd stand where Scoble is standing instead of where you are.
- William Beem
Heh! I don't process any of my shots. That is why yours are always better.
- Robert Scoble
William: this is where a long lens compresses the scene far more than it was in real life. Thomas was never in any danger. dreammachines09
- Robert Scoble
Nice, Robert, crouching lower to compress even more foreground would have heightened the sense of danger!
- John Lam
Awesomely monstrous shot!
- Mark Krynsky
Ack! It will crush your head!
- Paula W
Nothing wrong with a little danger in life ;)
- Thomas Hawk
John: I was running and shooting trying to catch up with Thomas. I agree though.
- Robert Scoble
while covering a "water safety" story I made a picture of a kid on a jet ski zooming close to a boat, I had a 500mm.. the managing editor ran the picture and added to the caption: "this picture was taken with a long lens, making the subjects appear closer". no hysteria ensued.
- Brian Hendrickson
John Lam that's a great idea. a trick I learned while shooting soccer and football: lay on your belly. the players will appear to be levitating, a neat effect to occasionally throw in the mix.
- Brian Hendrickson
uploading my first batch of images now.
- Thomas Hawk
I love the fact that the only keeping Thomas from the truck is a yellow rope :P
- Johnny Worthington
the shot I got of this scene. http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- Thomas Hawk
I like my shot better! dreammachines09
- Robert Scoble
Are you playing chicken with a monster truck Thomas? I can here the PA system now... 'We have another Nutter on the field... security!'
- Travis Koger
haha, my first batch of images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos.... Many more to come in the days ahead.
- Thomas Hawk
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
- Chris Nixon
Yikes!!
- Charlie Anzman
why is coolness proportional to number of participants - http://niniane.blogspot.com/2009...
Anthony Citrano, Amber, Random Time Lord, Helen Sventitsky and 4 other people liked this
going to a NASCAR race with 100k spectators: not that cool.
- Tudor Bosman
yes, I think the premise is basically invalid, I posted a longer comment on the blog
- ⓞnor
The NASCAR race is still considered cooler than being alone.
- niniane
Going to an ACM contest with hundreds of people is also massively uncool. Coding is simply uncool, like most technical intellectual activities. It's not a matter of body count.
- ⓞnor
The ACM contest is still cooler than coding alone!
- niniane
It really depends on who you're asking. Lots of people would say, oh, coding by yourself, maybe you've got homework overdue or lots of work or something, or you could be doing something awesome like writing a video game, but an ACM contest -- that's just a sheer geekfest, solving toy problems for fun and competing against other nerds for cheesy prizes; that's hopelessly anti-cool.
- ⓞnor
I call this "chasing the magical experience." I wrote about it the other day: http://scobleizer.com/2009...
- Robert Scoble
"Coding is simply uncool". Nah, it depends who you ask, and if you're asking random people trying to find the "average" taste... now *that* would be uncool.
- Philipp Lenssen
Coolness definitely drops off after a point, because if everyone can do it it's not cool. Coolness is actually proportional to exclusivity. The cool club with 400 people will have a long line outside it even though there's room for everyone, and adding those others would increase the number of participants. Coolness is proportional to how much you put yourself out there, so contests, even geeky ones, can be cool.
- Daniel Dulitz
Skydiving is cooler than going to a house party with 50 attendees. :-)
- Daniel Dulitz
there's an old saying which might be relevant here :--- The more... the merrier. edit: I'm wrong here. I understood the question in a different perspective.
- vijay
nah, programming contests have positive net coolness. To non programmers it's like -0.0001 coolness units because they really don't care either way. But to other programmers it has a bit of coolness.
- Kevin
Is this at all related to Dunbar's Number?
- Amit Patel
I think Daniel has it right. Think of coolness as f(unmet demand, demand), maybe unmet demand/demand, where there is no liquid market. I see little relation to Dunbar's number—the correlation between social group size and brain size. Except for maybe the apes, elephants, and porpoises, would animals even have a notion of cool?
- John Lam
coolness is not something that can be defined or locked down, so it's impossible to know if something is cooler than something else.
- Morgan Haley
=Daniel, coolness is about exclusivity and social power more than number of people.
- Jim Norris
I think it might be difficult in some cases, but there are other cases where relative coolness is fairly easy to discern.
- Andrew C
I understood the post to be about the social acceptability of answers to the "what did you do friday night?" question, not the coolness of specific activities. replying coding alone or anything alone is not socially acceptable - it is considered lame. then generally - excluding the details, the more people involved, the more acceptable the answer. so I agree with niniane.
- David Vasileff
David Vasileff is correct that I originally wrote specifically about times when people are expected to be doing something social, e.g. Friday night. There are specific times of week when society deems it lame to do anything alone. Skydiving alone on Saturday daytime is way cool, but skydiving alone on Friday night seems less cool (though still reasonably cool).
- niniane
I disagree with Morgan - Epstein's Mom. I think coolness can be locked down, and relative coolness as judged by society is easy to determine in many cases. Also, exclusivity clearly is not the whole picture. ACM contests are actually quite exclusive, yet you guys are using them as the canonical example of uncool.
- niniane
But the coolest is to skydive on Friday night, tandem with your date, onto the roof of a club with 400 people.
- Daniel Dulitz
niniane: ok, but who's to say that what the group marks as 'cool' really IS cool? it's like beauty - it's in the eye of the beholder
- Morgan Haley
I'm with Morgan. Coolness is subjective but it ain't so simple. Coolness comes from **unfulfilled wishes/ambitions of people being attained by others**. Some of these happen to be common like attention (parties, friendships, galas etc), flying, fame (direct or indirect: like meeting a famous person etc) and so on. The uncommon ones are subjective like donating money to a charity: some find it cool, others don't. To sum up, coolness is proportional to numbers ONLY when it concerns attention based wishes...
- vijay
... and not the un-common subjective wishes/ambitions. In a sentence, like I already said, ** "Cool"is when you attain an unfulfilled wish/ambition of peers: some of these wishes are shared by many while the rest are subjective.**
- vijay
Vijay is cool
- Morgan Haley
I think less is cooler.
- Captain Bubbles
lol re: Daniel Dulitz's skydiving comment
- niniane
Cat with a paper bag on its head - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Alan, Jens Christian Freund, Hao Chen and 29 other people liked this
I've whiled away many an hour doing the same thing.
- j1m
ROFLMAO That's a weird cat.
- Captain Bubbles
I wonder what exactly was the thought process that lead him to explore the house while wearing the bag on his head.
- j1m
I couldn't stop laughing at him every time he walked past that gap in the wall.
- Captain Bubbles
@j1m I tried it just now and can't figure out how you could spend hours with a paper bag on your head. I lasted about 30 seconds, boring
- Daniel Dulitz
@Daniel, it's most interesting if you go outside and walk around town with it on your head. (ps: kidding! kidding!)
- j1m
This is one of the best videos I've seen in a while...Cute kitteh.
- Alex Scoble
Maru is the greatest! don't miss the classic "dive into a box": http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- James Prudente
Hilarious
- Bwana ☠
most cats are silly but Maru has mad skilz at silly
- BEX
I didn't realize this was the same cat as the "dive into a box" cat. Figures.
- Jess Lee
hahaha hilarious
- Alfredo
I bet the bag has the scent of catnip in it! Note in the high-def version a small hole at the end of the bag for some deep tunnel vision.
- John Lam
The force is strong with this one.
- Mike Lewis
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