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James Mowery › Likes
A dollar bill taped to the floor of friendfeed's offices: - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
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Zu from AOD, Monique, Pat Hawks and 145 other people liked this
This is a dollar bill taped to the floor of FriendFeed's headquarters. It's a bit of social engineering. They figured out it kept people from tripping on the cord cover because people noticed the money on the floor.
- Robert Scoble
Hahaha, now that is brilliant stuff. Awesome.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
This is a fantastic idea.
- Jeremy Botter
Wouldn't last long in my office.
- Ralph Whitbeck
Amazing.. think I could use this idea in a few places.
- Roberto Bonini
Clever! i love it.
- Federico [Kurai]
from twhirl
Simple, clever, great idea. That FriendFeed crew is a bunch of smart fellers!
- Brandon Wood
My employer is too frugal to do that.
- Jonathon
Inexpensive risk management.
- Dave Pelland
Ha! Very clever.
- Brent Newhall
brilliant
- mjc
Wow! I'm speechless.
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
nice
- Mike Collett
The dollar bill trick doesn’t work with strippers though ;)
- Tony C (Unrated)
@Earl: Consider it a stripper-filter, then. You know someone's a stripper if they trip over it.
- April Buchheit
for some reason i expect a "stripper filter" to be something coded using regular expressions. sad, i know.
- Karim
The message here is that Web 2.0 companies are so ignorant of money and revenue that they even step over a dollar on the floor
- Jason Carreira
from twhirl
Genius!!!
- Joe Dawson
Interesting. The photo has been viewed more than 500 times, but has only earned 62 likes and 19 comments. So, for every 1 thing we can see here there's another 9 people hanging out lurking in the shadows.
- Robert Scoble
@Scoble the old 90-9-1 rule :) (well almost)
- Naor Mark
You could always just superglue some road kill to those things. Nothing gets people's attention more than a dead opossum.
- Andrew Leyden
wow, that's funny smart!
- Susan Beebe
I stubbed my toe on that dollar.
- Michael Muller
Heath And Safety in the UK would not approve....but I do!
- Toby Graham
"but has only earned 62 likes". This currently stands as the most-liked Flickr photo of all time.
- Vezquex
I forgot about that photo. It does work, though. Everytime I visit friendfeed's offices I see the dollar and I'm careful not to trip over it. :-)
- Robert Scoble
As an IE I can state that's definitely not something to publicize. Definitely not OSHA Kosher.
- Arawak
Great idea will have to remember this.
- Laura Gonzalez
Reminds me of the deli counter in grocery store in Scotts Valley across the street from NorCal offices of MetaCreations (the Fractal Design arm of it). Local companies'd go there for lunch daily. PROBLEM: Deli counter pencils (for marking your sandwich menu) disappeared at frightful rate. SOLUTION: Deli affixed pencils with price label. Price: $100.00. Pencils stayed at store. :)
- Susan A. Kitchens
Haha I like that trick for keeping Pens from going missing Susan!
- Garin Kilpatrick
whoa CNBC reports SEC is charging Mark Cuban with insider trading
Igor Poltavskiy, andrei_c, Kenton and 9 other people liked this
Wikipedia: "On November 17, 2008, it was announced that the SEC charged Mark Cuban with insider trading in the shares of Mamma.com. A stock dilution occured shortly after the trade, which gave off red flags of inside knowledge at the time of the trade. As Martha Stewart discovered, the U.S. Goverment will aggressively pursue such cases against high-profile individuals as a part of its broader enforcement efforts."
- Aram Zucker-Scharff
just like Martha ... such an inconsequential amount of money (to them) but couldn't keep the hand out of the cookie jar (if true ...)
- Adam Ostrow
surprising to me.
- Thomas Hawk
I think sometimes the arrogance and sense of entitlement is so large that the thought that they might be committing a crime never enters their thoughts.
- Brian Sullivan
I wondered if his sharesleuth business wouldn't at some point come under insider trading. This doesn't have to do with that though.
- Thomas Hawk
Isn't it a shame? You should see his latest blog post. Kinda points out how serious he was about not losing. I touched on it briefly: http://onlyjames.com/2008...
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I find it hard to believe Cuban would do something quite this stupid. If true, it must have been pure ego.
- Kenton
I think it was the ego, Kenton. It is clearly obvious that he is a competitive guy and doesn't like to lose.
- James Mowery
Well, Martha went to jail for lying about it. If she had fessed up and taken the fine, it would have blown over. Cuban, take note: it's not the crime, it's the cover up.
- The original Kevin
Rachel and I saw Mark Cuban's guest appearance on 'Don't Forget the Lyrics' last night and I said 'Oh, Mark's not a good person. He buys companies that give him the opportunity to sue other companies he doesn't like.' Funny that this news came out the next morning.
- Kevin Fox
From his blog: "Mark Cuban today responded to a civil complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States District for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. In its complaint, the Commission charges that Mr. Cuban engaged in violations of the federal securities laws in connection with transactions in the securities of Mamma.com Inc....
more...
- Thomas Hawk
Oh dear. Layoffs at Revision3. Stay tuned.
Phillip Stewart, SeanMc74, James Mowery and 3 other people liked this
uhoes! My buddies at Hak5 just got on board with Rev3. This isn't good.
- ax0n
Isn't revenue for Rev3 and TWiT based on advertisers opinion of the economy, not the actual economy?
- Robert Hafer
Unfortunately I think webTV will be hit very hard by the recession. They are basically 100% reliant on advertising. In this recession, those companies will go to the tried and true television to spend their moneys.
- Gavin
:O
- Josh Haley
See Zadi's thread. Epic Fu is Rev 3 no more. Probably just the beginning.
- Fleagle
I'm really going to miss PixelPerfect. I admit, I didn't watch regularly, but it was a fun and educational show.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
Looks like Sarah Lane is one of the ones who took a hit. This sucks. Who all has been fired?
- ЯIИGҜIИG
I don't know if they've been fired... Just the shows been canceled. Less bandwidth/time costs.
- Evan Travers
Marathoner 'a' winner; Nike looks like a loser - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin...
Glenn Batuyong, Yolanda, Mike Reynolds and 8 other people liked this
"Faced with a blast of criticism from all over the country, Nike issued a statement Wednesday saying that it "recognizes Arien O'Connell as a winner." Did you catch that? It says a winner - not the winner. Even though she ran 11 minutes faster than the "elite" woman who was given first place, O'Connell's career-best finish will exist in an odd parallel universe where, no matter how fast you run, you can't win the race unless you're among a special few."
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
looks like Nike decided to give her her due afterall, sort of... they still didn't call her "the" winner. They are calling her "a" winner. Spineless weak Nike if you ask me.
- Thomas Hawk
If New Balance were smart they'd sign her up for an endorsement deal pronto. Nike looks like mud in all this. They could have handled this so much better.
- Thomas Hawk
Nike has always sucked, as a company. Its complete lack of corporate ethics is never a surprise.
- Bob M. Montgomery
from twhirl
Throughout this whole thing, I'm just wondering how a group of people who got a 20 min. head start didn't notice a person not in their group passing them by.
- Anika
New Balance could do Apple/PC like adds with her wearing NB shoes vs. Nike with the ending tagline being, "real winners wear New Balance." They could do it smart and with humor and get good traction off of Nike's total blunder. Nike should declare her "the" winner and maybe give her $50,000 and give number 2 $25,000 to make up for their mishandling of the situation and give the charity another $25,000 to boot. It would be a small price to pay.
- Thomas Hawk
Who is Nike's PR agency anyways and why aren't they handling this better?
- Thomas Hawk
That's bullshit. You run the fastest... you win. The fastest runner doesn't get a consolation prize. Clearly nike is unamerican, and a bunch of terrorists.
- Joshua Schnell
Major opportunity for NB, agreed. Enjoyed the post and comments on Paul Isakson's blog some months ago re Nike's most recent campaign vs. NB's : http://tinyurl.com/2vrqjm . This event would fit in to that discussion nicely (Nike's "slickness" vs. NB's "real" runner).
- Marko Bon
iPhone Cupcakes: so. much. win. - http://laughingsquid.com/iphone-...
Clay Newton, Faizar, Carolyn Chan and 144 other people liked this
Yum!
- Orli Yakuel
Mmmmmm...
- Anna Haro
om nom nom
- imabonehead
Only one thing to do: I'm going to throw one at you.
- Eric Kerr
Do you clean up your messes, Eric?
- Mona Nomura
iyum!
- Zee.
makes me hungry just to see them. Should be mounted on springs so they wiggle!
- Bill Thompson
from twhirl
Shut your hatches, haters! These cupcakes are awesome.
- Mona Nomura
How's the battery life on those cupcakes/
- Michael Markman
yeah - do they jiggle when you press on them?
- Zee.
I bet Caryl could make these easy.
- Will Higgins™
the iphone is soooo del.icio.us!
- (jeff)isageek
Geez, how much do those cost? ;-)
- Jordan Hofker
Ingenious. They look delicious too!
- sean808080
Awesome! Do want.
- Stellina
I don't own an iPhone but I would like to try to make these.
- Melissa
Christopher, I bet the knitted iPhone already exists somewhere. Or crocheted. Check Craft: magazine.
- Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)
i soooo want that ipod icon cupcake in the corner.
- (jeff)isageek
FriendFeed: The People Reader I Always Subconciously Desired - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
Charlie Anzman, veronicaromm, Anne Bouey and 13 other people liked this
Another one of my articles has been Grayed! Hehe. But with this article, i just thought it was amazing how the focus has gone from sites/blogs to the actual people. :)
- James Mowery
from twhirl
It's a really good one, James! I think I've been more interested in the author of the material from the get-go since my focus is...uh...unfocused. Personal blogging. Finding cool sh*t on the internet. Brilliant, incisive essays that make me see the world differently. I've seen other people with my same kind of un-focus list their blogrolls by author name, rather than blog name--very telling!
- colleen wainwright
I agree Colleen. Definitely should be a welcomed change. :)
- James Mowery
from twhirl
Very good article. I finally understand why I fell in love with FriendFeed ...
- Jaime Navon
The Ultimate FriendFeed Client - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
accexine, Leslie Poston, Jennifer Van Grove and 10 other people liked this
The ultimate FriendFeed client is the URL, it isn't as needy as Twitter is, and doesn't need a client to make it more usable (at the moment).
- Steve Isaacs
Perhaps FriendFeed doesn't need a client to make it more useful, but it is certainly needed to make it more accessible (for me anyways). Also, thanks for favoriting this, Louis. Also, thanks for commenting at Performancing and adding me as a friend on FriendFeed!
- James Mowery
from twhirl
Above all else, I don't understand why FriendFeed and Twhirl have not agreed on the display of comments. Why on earth do they have the order of comments different on each one? Personally, I like the reverse chronological order in Twhirl, but when I visit the FF site, it always takes a moment to adjust seeing the older comments first. Regardless, consistency would be appreciated throughout most first and third-party applications. :D
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I like using FF on the web.. tried twhirl and it sucks... I agree with @Steve - why do we even need a client?
- andy brudtkuhl
Andy: I would ask if you believe that Twitter is as useful without a client? If your answer was no... either you don't use Twitter or you are a madman! :D
- James Mowery
from twhirl
"Client" doesn't necessarily mean a desktop app. I do, however, see a need for alternative web interfaces. IMO, the successful third-party FF apps will be improved and advanced web clients.
- Aviv
Yeah, I agree with Aviv. Especially with smartphones coming in their prime with the likes of the Apple iPhone, I see greater importance being put on third-parties. Who knows what could be created to utilize FriendFeed's functionality? I don't think we've even seen the true potential of third-party developers come out yet with FriendFeed.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
One area of opportunity for a FF client would be w/a native iPhone app. While the FF iPhone interface is fairly good, but an app could introduce some additional functionality (i.e. improved filtering).
- Monty
I have been considering the creation of a site specific browser for use with FriendFeed. You get the web interface without the browser fluff: http://www.fluidapp.com/ or http://labs.mozilla.com/2007...
- James Mowery
from twhirl
James, I think the Twitter concept itself makes it that much more suitable for 3rd party desktop clients, pretty much in the same way that we have IM clients. I think FF is fundamentally different, especially usability-wise (ie. we comment, we check back for replies, there are rooms, different types of content being shared - from images to Twitter-like messages). Unlike Twitter - and IM...
more...
- Aviv
James, while FF's current API implementation is great, I don't think we will see serious alternatives to the FF web client until FF lets developers hook into the constant stream of updates (XMPP is all the rage, it seems). It's still possible to aggregate FF data, but at this stage I think it's the main reason for the lack of rich FF clients.
- Aviv
Aviv, while I agree, you just can never know. I wasn't specifically talking about desktop clients with this discussion. I think that web-based applications could be developed to better harness the FriendFeed data. For example, I'd love to see a more in-depth view of the activity that takes place on my FriendFeed account (somewhat like Socialistics for Facebook) or have a third-party...
more...
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I'd love to see a live activity heat-map of some sort that can display the relative activity happening throughout the world on FriendFeed. A simple map with color signifying the amount of activity that has taken place within the past hour, day, week, month, and year would be an excellent application. It could be made more useful, but even having something just like that would be astounding to check out. Stuff like that is what I'm interested in.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I think a mobile client would be great... But I don't think we need another client for the desktop... @James I only prefer using a Twitter client because it pushes the updates to me
- andy brudtkuhl
Andy, I also only prefer Twhirl because it gets the updates to me. When I want to share content from the web, I much rather prefer using the FF bookmarklet. I also use the FF web interface when attempting to catch up on information that I have missed.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I like Twhirl, but not for FF - I would give a client that did all of this a try.
- Leslie Poston
Aurora is F-ing Awesome and Completely Available Today with Flash - http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/...
AJHicks, Brad Nickel, Mohit and 7 other people liked this
Looks like some of the early Longhorn prototypes I saw at Microsoft before I took a job there. Never showed up. But I like where the Surface computer is going more than what I saw the first few minutes of this video. I also really hate scripted videos. They just grate on my nerves. Why not have someone human just talk me through what the UI could do?
- Robert Scoble
James Mowery, Shmoe, Kevin Kelso and 3 other people liked this
Heh. Leo the perennial ham!
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Too amazing!
- James Mowery
from twhirl
Five People I Would Love to Have Dinner With: Christopher Hitchens, Anthony Bourdain, Thom Yorke, Richard Branson and David Gilmour - you?
edythe, Victor Ryden 美久太阿, Jeff P. Henderson and 6 other people liked this
Thomas Pynchon, Christopher Hitchens, Jeff Mangum, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and David Lynch.
- Akiva
David Fincher, Clint Eastwood, Hunter Thompson, Gary Oldman and Bootsy Collins
- Mark Forman
Oh, if we were including dead people, my list would be quite different.
- Akiva
Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Pol Pot, Mother Theresa, Che Guevara :)-
- Peter Dawson
Do they have to be all at once? I'm kind of officially an introvert.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
from NoiseRiver
@MiniMAge, no not all at once.. 1 for each day of the week :)-
- Peter Dawson
Nate Hawthorne, Joseph Campbell, Lao Tsu, David Sedaris and my nephew Cary Grant.
- Boo
Thomas Pynchon, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bridget Fonda, Jon Stewart and Bono.
- AJ Kohn
Of the dead: Bruno Shulz, Italo Calvino, Andre Breton, Stanley Kubrick, and George Carlin.
- Akiva
Robin Williams, Alan Greenspan, Lance Armstrong, Scott Adams, and Stephen King.
- Aaron Schaub
Ronald Reagan, Pete Rose, Stephen Covey, Jon Anderson and John Candy.
- richrecruiter
sry should have clarified was just keeping my list to living people. Am finding a bunch of people I don't know and am interested to learn about! @forman YES Gary Oldman! he would be fascinating. @Aaron Robin williams and scott adams would be awesome! @reich Covey would be cool - @minimage lol I was thinking about that - all at once would suck, the conversation would be fascinating but you wouldn't get the full benefit
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
This is reminding me how much I loved and miss Dinner For Five on IFC.
- Michael W. May
Robert Downey Jr., Barack Obama, J.J. Abrams, Graham Greene, and the so-what-if-he's-fictional Howard Roark :)
- Blake N. Cooper
@ blake I'll second JJ Abrams, I'd imagine he would be facinating to talk to
- Keke
If they have to be living: David Lynch, Stephen Colbert, Robert Scoble, K Eric Drexler, Neal Stephenson - maybe also Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Brian K. Vaughan (Y the Last Man), Grant Morrison, and I could probably think of many more.
- iTad
Christopher Hitchens is damn cool http://del.icio.us/simonst...
- NoahDavidSimon
Wow - hardly anyone wants to have dinner with any women.... Let's see I'd love to have dinner with: Kathy Sierra, Melinda Gates, Cali Lewis, Yuu Watase (Fushigi Yuugi).... oh! and Mona. With Lindsay along of course! ;) :P Oooh - and Diane Keaton (have had a crush on her since I first saw Annie Hall.
- iTad
Russell T Davies, Joss Whedon, Warren Ellis, Neal Stephenson, and Phil Lesh
- Andrew
Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman.
- Shawn Farner
Michael, I miss that show, too.
- Akiva
Joss Whedon is great too. I just thought of Burt Bacharach too.
- iTad
Dinner For Five FTW - And now that I have started thinking about Dinner for Five I want to add David Cross and Carrie Fisher to my list but I don't know who to remove. :(
- Andrew
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Bacall, Tad Williams, Queen Elizabeth II, Edythe
- Michael W. May
dinner with women? Does Waterboarding with Arundhati Roy count as dinner? ...because that would be a blast! Porn watching with Gloria Steinem! Fisting with Catharine MacKinnon... er hmmm why not Condoleezza Rice and an Ann Coulter menage toi... bring the whole Blogher group with 'em
- NoahDavidSimon
Gina Trapani, Robert Scoble, Dare Obasanjo, Pat Helland, Edythe. The fact that i've had dinner with 3/5 of these folks is not a coincidence. ;)
- Chris Hollander
What? You don't want dinner with your girlfriend Amanda Chapel? [Why am I doing this.]
- Akiva
Hunter S Thompson, Scott Bourne, Leo Laporte, Adam Duritz and Michael Palin
- Johnny
Terry Gilliam, Alan Moore, John Stewart, Kevin Smith, and Woody Harrelson
- Pete D
I thought this tangent was going towards women for dinner. aMANda Chapel is exempt from my feminist orgy. oh and I would never invite Robert Scoble over for dinner even if he would come. He's a bitch, but he would eat all my food.
- NoahDavidSimon
Classy Noah!
- Andrew
if your saying that robert is a "eat all of the mashed potatoes" sort of guy, then you're putting him in very lofty company. :)
- Chris Hollander
really... I would like to meet. Sarah Cudo, Justine Ezarik, Beth Cleaver, Orli Yakuel, Leora Israel, Michelle Oshen and my own girlfriend. I'm kidding about my porn fantasy. come on that was rare sexist form for me. don't I get at least one knee slap? ...er also maybe Christine Cavalier if she can stop calling me a stalker
- NoahDavidSimon
Gary Coleman, Emmanuel Lewis, and I'll have to think of the other three later
- Nathan Rein
BTW, my list wasn't just hypothetical... i'm free for dinner all this week. :)
- Chris Hollander
Scoble will eat ur potatoes Chris Hollander
- NoahDavidSimon
I want to hear Scoble's list, since he's already talked to so many interesting people.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Nathan just google famous midgets
- NoahDavidSimon
Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, Andrew Wiley, Herman Melville and Alan Moore.
- Blake Robinson
@Boo Joseph Campbell is dead. I'd like to meet him as well
- NoahDavidSimon
@noah, tnx, i now phear midgets, necrophiles, and potato eaters.... GASP!
- Chris Hollander
lol @nathan are you making your list off of Bloodhound Gang lyrics? ; p Terry Gilliam, Robert Downey Jr, Terry Gilliam and JJ Abrams would be interesting
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
Aden Pennington, John Lennon, Mozart, Charles Manson, Clint Eastwood
- Eric Truman
Oh living people. Only two of mine were. Subbing Bill Bryson, James Burke and an unknown.
- Boo
on a more serious note... I would like to have dinner with all living former supreme court justices. I wanna talk about porn with the pros. hey Clarence... LONG DONG SILVER was the bomb!
- NoahDavidSimon
The Pope, Clint Eastwood, My Dad, Queen Elizabeth, Dahli Lama...
- Kathy
After some deep contemplation, I would like to respectfully un-invite Obama to my dinner party and replace him with Cal Ripken Jr.
- Blake N. Cooper
I'd like to have Bill Kristol and Noam Chomsky over and make them talk to one another
- Nathan Rein
Ian McEwan, Haruki Murakami, Nick Cave, Richard Dawkins, Werner Herzog
- Robert Stribley
yoda, god, confucious, bruce lee, & stephen hawking
- chaz2b
Canova's Dual-Touchscreen Notebook Coming within Two Years - http://blog.laptopmag.com/v12-des...
Cale Bruckner, imabonehead, Dobromir Hadzhiev and 28 other people liked this
...it looks like an oversized DS Lite
- Mona Nomura
from Bookmarklet
An oversized DS lite that costs a fortune:)
- Gordon Swaby
it looks like two tablet-pcs strapped together
- sdfx
Giant eBook
- Susan Beebe
Oh, look, another piece of technology designed to say "Screw you, buddy, you can't use me!" :P
- Alexander Williams
from NoiseRiver
A very expensive mirror
- Mona Nomura
I wonder how heavy that would be.. 3kg?
- Winston Teo
Winston, that is SUCH an Asian thing to say LOL
- Mona Nomura
@Mona Haa! Why's that so? Aren't you guys concern about weight? I mean would anyone buy an iPhone if it's like ermm.. 1kg?
- Winston Teo
All my Japanese friends' complaints about the 3g iphone? It's too thick and heavy HAHA
- Mona Nomura
HA.. Well, I guess we are always trying to make things as small in size as possible, cause most Asians probably have smaller hands. =)
- Winston Teo
Don't Be Popular. Be Useful. - http://www.bruceclay.com/blog...
Tyler Gillies, Susan Beebe, James Mowery and 12 other people liked this
I agree, I have started to find (thanks to some smart friends' feedback) that as bloggers we overestimate our value as pontificators and underestimate our value as curators.
- Anthony Citrano
I'm trying to be as much useful as I can... at a point that I'm not even blogging on things I've made and should promote :(
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
All great points. This is why instead of opting for frequency, I go for quality content on my personal blog http://onlyjames.com/ I've actually written quite a few posts about this myself on Performancing.com as well: http://performancing.com/bloggin...
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I'd much rather follow/listen to someone who posts useful and insightful information less frequently rather than someone that is constantly in my face (read noisy) with low interest content, regurgitated/stale news or just plain chatter, just for the sake of being out there, (read, not too interested in what anyone had for lunch today).
- Jeff P. Henderson
@Jeff You hit the nail on the head. This is the problem with the blogosphere as a whole. This is why tools that are able to sort through the crap are going to be absolutely invaluable in the future. I've also written on that topic as well. Going to interview Brent Simmons about NetNewsWire 4 and how AideRSS can help cut down on the junk.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I'd also like to throw out a few more links that could be relevant: http://onlyjames.com/2008... and http://onlyjames.com/2008...
- James Mowery
Hong Kong on a Sunny Day - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3123...
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Kim Landwehr, tomio geron, Kol Tregaskes and 29 other people liked this
That is an amazing picture!
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
i want to go back to China, and also visit Japan and Korea this year. wish someone would invite me to keynote something. :-)
- Jason Calacanis
wow, takes me back. I haven't seen my home town look so good for a long time. You can even see the Lamma ferry heading home
- Jon Dillon
awesome pic
- Sujal Shah
That truly is stunning photography.
- James Mowery
I just received Jason Calacanis' first email "blog." I'm very saddened that he decided to go back to email for a whole number of reasons. Let's talk about them.
peter huesken, David HC Soul, Alex Barbara and 41 other people liked this
Push model of communication vs. conversation?
- Sprague D
Maybe you could start listing the reasons you know
- Brian Sullivan
Email seems so closed off - it prohibits growth. At least, that's how I see it...
- George Smith
I just received Calacanis' first email newsletter. Which is really his replacement for not blogging anymore. He makes several great points. 1. That commenters have destroyed blogging. 2. That Nick Denton's style of paying for page views instead of smart ideas has destroyed blogging. 3. That he seeks out a more intimate conversation. 4. That email is it.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Please forward them to post@posterous.com. Heheh. : )
- Erhan Erdoğan
I am saddened because all of this is true. Except by going back to email he's taken us back to the 1990s where I can't share his ideas with others (he only will accept 1,000 subscribers, he says). He also is cluttering my email stream which is cluttered beyond breaking. Imagine if everyone did email newsletters...
- Robert Scoble
I don't know about you folks, but I just don't need any more email. I can't keep up with what I already have. I've started replying to my co-worker's emails with Office Communicator, in an attempt to ease the deluge. You'd think IT folks would know that it's not always necessary to hit "Reply All."
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
from NoiseRiver
I think it harkens back to the glory days of yesteryear when there were email lists like the lockergnome. Maybe it's just nostalgia. I don't have a problem with commentors on my blog, but then, I don't have the numbers that Calacanis or Scoble have either. He says he has a problem and that an email list will alleviate those problems. We'll just have to see what happens and see if his experiment does work.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
Here it is: http://robert_zrxrc.posterous.com/ -- he already has 1,100 subscribers.
- Robert Scoble
FF is the answer, possible a FF' room. Once FF becomes mainstream as a sharing and communication tool bogging activity will decrease significantly: if not FF will become the de-facto “bogging” platform.
- Joao
"I'm very saddened" ? what makes you sad and why ?
- Peter Dawson
that's one looong e-mail
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
Robert - Jason hasn't taken anybody to the 90's except maybe himself. The whole thing smacks of ego anyway. I think better just to ignore Jason (I mostly did that before as well so not much change for me).
- Brian Sullivan
Peter: because what Jason says is true. It's why I've slowed down blogging lately. Blogging used to be about discussing ideas. Lately it's been about getting on Techmeme. I share the blame in that part of things. But even while that's been going on I've tried to read many times more stuff than what I write. It's why I still read hundreds of RSS feeds and participate here on FF (I like many, many, many times more items than what I start). But I hate his choice of media. Email is just the worst place.
- Robert Scoble
The remark on commenters is disingenuous -- he regularly turned off commenting on his blog when he didn't want to deal with blowback, unlike Robert who rarely disengages. For a guy who made $25 million off blogging, turning his back on the medium seems like bad faith, to me.
- Sprague D
I think the cap on subscriptions is interesting. Pushing the scarcity button ("Act now -- supplies are limited!") is considered a fairly low Jedi Mind Trick. [waves hand] Wasn't the cap 500 at first? Then 750? Now it's 1,000? Because you can only have an "intimate conversation" with 1,000 people? hahahahahahah...
- Karim
Brian: I agree with that. I subscribed, but with my luck the newsletter will get thrown into my spam folder. Interesting that many bloggers started out with newsletters (Chris Pirillo and Dave Winer both had famous email newsletters before they moved to blogs).
- Robert Scoble
I don't like it , if you limit the communicatin to just who gets your email. Then it's a monologue not a conversation
- Kim Landwehr
Another place Jason is right? The need to have one-to-one smart conversations. If I didn't have those every day and just did my blog I'd be one sad puppy. It's the smart conversations that matter. Most of which I don't have an audience for while I'm having them.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Will you go on forwarding these on posterous? : ) I subscribe your posterous. ; ) Thanks for sharing.
- Erhan Erdoğan
@robert , "Blogging used to be about discussing ideas. Lately it's been about getting on Techmeme." Agreed, but you can't solve a problem with the same mindset that created the problem and that goes to all the A-listers too.. They have always fought / jostled , manipulated the SM streams to get to their way to for google juice, page views/hits. etc Now all of a sudden, its like wait.. whatever happened to the original idea of exchanging ideas ? Whatever happened to passion and integrity ?
- Peter Dawson
Erhan: I'll forward them when he has something smart to say. (and I remember to do it). :-)
- Robert Scoble
Peter now you know why I've focused so much of my energy on FriendFeed. I'm having a lot smarter conversations here than other places.
- Robert Scoble
I'll take the contrarian view: This email was the most relaxed, best, most enjoyable, insightful writing I've seen from Jason in a while. I'm an old school McLuhanite wrt the medium being the message. But sometimes, the message is the message. Sometimes the author is the message. Gotta let an author choose the medium. If this change boosts the quality of Jason's output, I'm glad he did it.
- Michael Markman
Scoble: I think you're wrong about blogging being all "about getting on Techmeme." As a blogger in a niche community, I can tell you that the VAST majority of bloggers out there don't care about or plan to get on techmeme. This particular problem (and all of the problems that you mention) lies in a very small subset of the blogging community--the "A-list", as it's put.
- Eric Florenzano
Robert: Calacanis's new official blog: http://robert_zrxrc.posterous.com/ : ))) You may change its name to "calacanissbug.posterous.com" : )))
- Erhan Erdoğan
Robert, BUT BEWARE - the same thing is happening on FF too , the platform has changed, however the attitude is the same. http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Peter Dawson
Robert, the one thing e-mail is severely lacking is the ability to thread a conversation so late comers don't jump in and ask the same questions that were already asked - or make the same points that were already made. Sure Jason has some points, but I'm not sure the direction he took is the road to travel... It does indeed sound like he wants to 'recapture' something that was lost, but I can't help hearing you (Robert) start ringing the innovation bell rather than what equates to throwing in the towel.
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
I blog, comment and email. I have a large target audience - non-tech, non-connected biz owners, who prefer the email format. Of course I invite conversation, and try to direct people back to my blog, but the large percentage of my readers are passive - so email works.
- Lorraine Ball
I have to say I agree with Michael Markman on this one. I'm rather enjoying the tone of Jason's writing in these posts. It's brings me back to earlier writing of his that I enjoyed.
- Cathy Brooks
Peter Dawson, really great point. My aim is to find, create, join, or otherwise be part of mindshare... I want to expand my horizons and learn things. I like that I don't agree with everything out there - it gives me room to make a difference or move on. However, I would submit that I fear the Internet is finally starting to mirror the real world... but this is not a cause to despair but a reason to fight harder!
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
it seems that the A-list bloggers are exposed to a lot of "A-List Envy/Angst" and a lot of what comes out comes out as vitriol at not being as successful. It's a very negative energy and I could see how it would start to get annoying. I can't blame Jason for being annoyed by it anymore than I can blame you (Scoble) for blocking people who are always dumping negativity on you. That said, I agree with Ted Leonsis that Jason is pulling a Brett Favre, but I do believe the toll the negativity takes is real.
- Robert Seidman
Well, it was only a matter of time before this whole transparency, aggregation, data portability thing started to freak people out. Walled garden, anyone?
- Karim
I prefer this to: “I'm streaming live right now, come chat!
- Oldengrey (Jay)
I always thought of a blog as a catalyst to cathartic discussion. While I love reading Jason's work, the mailing list is just a one-way distribution list. I have to use friendfeed, twitter, or another blog to discuss the content. If you're tired of clueless commentators, then moderate the comments. Wait a second. . . .isn't THIS a blog in a way?
- Peter Ghosh
Sorry, but while I understand his reasoning, I utterly disagree w/ his solution. We don't need to 'go back to listserve' to have a conversation. In fact, I've been saying for a while now that the reason microblogging sites have done so well is that they really DO facilitate conversation. Blogging is more like lecturing w/ a Q&A session in the comments. Twitter, FF, and other sites have lead us into actual organic conversations. Jason's email is back to lecturing. I won't be subscribing.
- Lucretia Pruitt
Peter: I'm still very passionate about having smart conversations and furthering our understanding of the technology that we all use every day.
- Robert Scoble
Maybe it's all one big joke. I've learned that Jason and I have different senses of humor.
- shelisrael1
I can't believe people actually believe any of this is serious. Calcanis is not retiring from blogging to do email lists. See the truth, see the evidence!
- Ben Parr
Instead of talking about it, let's just ignore it. Don't subscribe. We have to make it as clear as possible that we've moved beyond these one-way conversations.
- Shawn Farner
Maybe he wants more control over his own conversations?
- Omar Vasquez Lima
It was a brilliant move. People who've never heard of Calacanis now do. He is going to be talked about by everyone. Even news organazations are picking up on this. It doesn't matter what you say anymore... it matters how you say it to get in the spotlight. He is a brilliant man in that regards. Can't everyone figure that out. It is all about being in the spotlight. I got that the moment I even saw the first headline.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
BTW, my aforementioned statements does not conclude that I appreciate such ways of getting in the spotlight. I'm disgusted with it, but it makes the Calacanis brand more widely known. Everyone else is the sucker for constantly talking about it. It doesn't matter if it is true or not. Calacanis already won because we are all talking about him. That is brilliant marketing folks. Think about it.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
@Karim I have it on good authority (i.e. I made it up) that he kept subscriptions open until 1095 because that's when Scoble signed up. I know, I know, you would have thought he would have done it sooner, but popular opinion is that he wanted to make Jason sweat.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
I think the fact that this move has created as much buzz as it has shows that it is working. How many more eyes will see this now that it will only be delivered to a select few?
- Zach Chisholm
Jason, ha! :-D Somehow I'm sure he'll always manage to squeeze in another subscription or two for the "right" people ;-) I'd have more respect for these caps if they were given as powers of two (512, 1024) -- that way I'd just assume there was some technical basis. lol
- Karim
I think Jason has a point. Techmeme and Valleywag have turned an idea culture into a celebrity culture. Trust me, I started to get sucked into the anger and negativity this week, and I didn't like what I was seeing in myself. But honestly? If he wants to push messages and have conversations back and forth without dodging trolls and negativity and egotism, he's got the right idea. If Leonsis is right, I'll be pretty sad. Speaking of Leonsis, LETS GO CAPS!!! STANLEY CUP 2009!!!
- Andrew Feinberg
I don't see how you can get involved in 'drama' if you just stay the hell away from valleywag and techmeme
- mjc
Zach, re "select few," I shouldn't be telling you this, but the Force can have a strong effect on the weak-minded. [waves hand] And please don't tell anyone I told you that, keep it just between the two of us. [waves hand]
- Karim
Your going about it wrong... he didn't go "back to email", he decided to use a "distributed push blogging platform". Your so 1.0 with your blog on your server it's laughable ;-).
- Robert Accettura
Email blog? *sigh*
- Czar
I'm a "single inbox" advocate, and have all my RSS feeds fed to email, so Jason's really just saving me a step. I really wish FF could feed individual comments and posts to email, so I wouldn't have to come here. All these distinctions between blogs, FF, IM, SMS, twitter, email... I look forward to the day when it's all transparent, you simply subscribe to the content rather than the medium, and you choose whichever delivery mechanism you prefer.
- Ken Sheppardson
Jason makes some valid points. I don't have anywhere near the audience of many of you, but comments are seriously problematic. On one hand they make writing pretty thankless, because often the only people who comment are ones who want to criticize or attack. On the other, you crave them because you're trying to start conversations. But having said that, I have made a considerable chunk of my living doing PR and I know buzz-building when I see it. That's not a criticism, it's just an observation.
- Anthony Citrano
M. Cohen: that's the point. he's (at least trying to) remove himself a step or two from that medium. To be honest, I take more time reading and digesting an email than I do a blog post, because when you send mail to a list, you know who your initial audience is. Another thing? Mailing lists and Usenet (before outlook destroyed threading) had great conversations, better than many blog comments. FriendFeed actually reminds me of a Usenet-Listserv mashup in that way. (continued)
- Andrew Feinberg
Most high-traffic blogs have way too many trolls, sock puppets, and other crap to make conversations useful anymore. Does anyone remember Slashdot in the early days? I do (my UID is 4 digits) and I never go there anymore. Why? Sock puppets, trolls, very few good conversations. The medium did not scale well. In many ways, Jason has been out sailing and has spied a FailWhale off his port bow. He's altering course to avoid, but the destination remains the same. Let's hope he gets there.
- Andrew Feinberg
This is a personal decision for me and I realize that intelligent folks will disagree with my decision... however, I can tell you that after a couple of emails to the ~1,000 folks on the list I've a) learned more, b) gotten much more response (50-150 really well thought emails each time I send an email so far), and c) there has been no drama/haters. When you reach critical mass in blogging it implodes as the majority of feedback you get is from the haters and the mentally unstable (sometimes both).
- Jason Calacanis
Jason: Agreed for the most part, but others on the list can't see the replies that people send to you :( I'd love to learn what you're learning.
- Eric Florenzano
Robert - I think it's all a matter of perspective, when it comes to the benefit versus harm of doing exclusively email. I've shared some specific thoughts with Jason, but the overall point I'll make here. For you, it's hard because you're flooded already. For me, it's a chance to break away from what's going on during a day and read some thoughts that are shared to a very small and specific audience. I like what Jason's doing. I just, as I stated to him, hope that he's not cutting off his nose...
- Brad @ The Next Web
Eric: the responses from the email list to me are 1-to-1 and that is providing me with so much more value than public comments, which i've found tend to be for a) the promotion of the individual, b) the chance to lash out/behave badly, c) some combination of a&b. I'm getting much more considered response because people understand it's one to one... this means i'm more likely to email more--it's a virtuous cycle so far. i wonder what will happen with email 100 or 1,000. will it continue or go away? who knows
- Jason Calacanis
I think at some point one wants to blog or write more intimately. Instead of e-mail, I think Ning.com would have been a much better solution. It also puts a face behind the names and they can share too.
- Janette Toral
Email may be the worst place, but maybe Jason has something new brewing in email land?
- drew olanoff
Jason - I read your email via Robert's posterous. I really enjoyed that post. I'm someone fairly new to this world of the Web. To be honest, my only impression of you is as The Mahalo Guy who tweets about his bulldogs. Didn't realize there was so much more there, especially your trailblazing in the genre. With a closed-off email list, you'll miss a lot of new people. As for Google juice, Techmeme, etc, look to Marc Andreessen as an example. Blogs only on his own time as he tends to his start-up.
- Hutch Carpenter
I thought you posted the email message, someone Twittered about that. I think it's about exclusivity, or the perception of exclusivity and accountability, ability to quantify. I think if SAR was still around it would be the only (5 maybe?) email lists i would need to subscribe to, so that was the '90's. As far as the focus on Techmeme, you got to just ignore it. Why do people need to know which 50 stories discuss the same issue? I'm glad it's successful for him. There are haters, always have been.
- angela penny
Didn't LISTSERV's die when www came out? This is a step backwards if you ask me. Another silo'd walled garden community. Meh.
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I feel lucky to be on Jason's email list.
- Owen O'Malley
Jason, if the responses are 1:1, you could end up answering the same question 1,000 times... and like Eric said, some questions don't get asked repeatedly when everyone can see them.
- Karim
Who is parsing Jason's comments?
- Anne Haynes
an email list is not a conversation, it is a one way street, Email lists are old fashioned, old school tech Most people have already been there, done that and are trying out all the new ways to communicate.We have moved on to Blogs, FriendFeed, Twitter, etc with new things showing up every day. Who else besides Jason wants to go backwards to the old list days? Negativity is always a problem, but does that mean we stop talking because of it?
- Francine
Email is a follow-up medium IMO. It's what you might use once you find someone who you find worth having a more intimate conversation. I don't think most bloggers get an over abundance of these gems, but Jason achieved an order of magnitude that yielded a large cadre of intelligent folks. I get it. However, I'd blog simultaneously and see if other gems emerge that could be added to the email dialog.
- AJ Kohn
I don't have any stats to back this up, but I suspect that despite all the twitterati/friendfeeders/bloggers hopes and dreams to the contrary, 90%+ of the non-navelgazing, productive activity on the internet is probably still conducted via email.
- Ken Sheppardson
good for little jason. email rules
- Big Jason Henderson
I can see (and have empathy for) a lot of the reasons why Jason (or anyone else) would decide to take a deep breath and opt out of the fray; a large part of the stakes in keeping blogging alive in the next - say - five years depends on a delicate balance between "taking" and "giving back" ideas from a communal place - when the former replaces the latter, things start getting less and less fun and interesting. Also,thislaptopspacebarisdyingonme.
- dario
As for the Techmeme and page view stuff. I suppose if you're doing this for a living that might be a concern. Even then, it's still about content and ideas. I still believe that if you have the former, the latter will come to a large degree. Should you really be interested in traffic you might be better off doing SEO.
- AJ Kohn
Annie, I tried to parse what Jason meant by the implication that answering the same question repeatedly had a greater value than not doing so :-) but I couldn't... I can see that it would *possibly* lower the amount of self-aggrandizing or hateful messages, because of the lack of a public platform, but it seems like the price is replying the same thing over and over, to potentially hundreds of people. Why even bother with replies, why not just make it a newsletter? Or a blog with no comments.
- Karim
I applaud the move. Though I think it is a technological step backward, it seems to me, it is from a desire to move forward with, to me, what makes life valuable: relationships. And although disagreement is important to growth, detractors are less valuable than a reduction in disagreement.
- ·[▪_▪]·
It won't last.
- Jim Kukral
I was on Jason's old Silicon Alley email list years ago. There was something cool & useful about that list that was different from the blogging experience.
- Paul Rodriguez
A few months ago I had a rather relaxed (blame tuscan red wines!) and interesting conversation with De Kerchove - a scholar who knows a thing or two about media - about the existence of collective intelligence and the concept of 'smart mobs' - the central point being 'are we starting to see something larger than the sum of its parts?'- the answer - more or less - is yes, but as any form of evolution, it takes lots of time and course correction along the way.
- dario
My responses to the four points that Robert summarized above: "1. That commenters have destroyed blogging." - this is not new and many bloggers at many levels deal with hecklers. "2. That Nick Denton's style of paying for page views instead of smart ideas has destroyed blogging." - might be an issue for those bloggers who actually earn income from blogging. "3. That he seeks out a more intimate conversation." - less likely to happen if every E-Mail is posted somewhere. cont'd...
- Mark Dykeman
"4. That email is it." - it could be a personal preference, but he could easily achieve the same thing with a public forum requiring a password-protected user account. All this would actually do is to prevent people from publicly criticizing him because there's no forum to do so within the E-Mail list. Unfortunately, there will be lots of other places to do that. More power to him if this is his true intent, but long term I don't think it will work.
- Mark Dykeman
Why haven't bloggers incorporated "slashdot-like" rating into their comment systems in order to get rid of the noise. What am I missing? Let the community protect its own resource if they value it.
- Derek Tutschulte
TechCrunch also wrote about this, but the comments here are a lot more interesting and smarter: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008...
- Robert Scoble
Oh, and Jason, I agree that 1:1 conversations are the best. That's why I put my phone number on my blog. +1-425-205-1921 -- a troll of mine even called last night (seriously, she did) and I got to hang up on her. It was most satisfying.
- Robert Scoble
Derek: Slashdot's comments don't work to get rid of the noise.
- Robert Scoble
Scoble: You're right, it's embarassing for TechCrunch, really. In a way, it's validation of his move.
- Eric Florenzano
Email is broken
- paul mooney
Still fuzzy on why being able to weed out comments rated belowa "4" (5 being the highest) wouldn't filter out useless comments. Deputize your allies among your audience as editors that can rate comments and they clean up the mess. Forgive me, but why wouldn't that work?
- Derek Tutschulte
from twhirl
Kudos to you Scoble for keeping the conversation going. While I agree with Jason's sentiments, that the blogosphere needs to grow up a bit and stop focusing on views/clicks/getting on techmeme, etc - that's the responsibility of the blogger. You can have a blog WITHOUT being distracted by those things. Just... write the emails in a blog. That's why blogs are revolutionary. Email is for suckers. No way around it. Techcrunch publishing the email = fail. Is that really news?
- David Cohn
SezWho has a plugin for WordPress. http://www.sezwho.com/ this can help a bit with commenters.
- Ryan Lane
"This was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction..." -GLaDOS
- Eric Rice
I wonder. Considering my first comment (up two comments) and your blog post @RobertScoble - if the course of action is to just ignore it all. I mean - we are feeding the ego-flames here and I think Jason wants/knows it. Robert - considering it's just an "email" newsletter, why not drop Jason's new form of communication from your inbox? Especially if it's a cheap ploy. Would be a bold statement from you.
- David Cohn
Like everything in life, Jason decision probably has pros and cons, but my personal feeling is that his going backward with this one, kinda like Facebook before they joined Dataportability... (conversations remains hidden inside)
- Orli Yakuel
You can follow his emails on http://www.calacanismail.com
- Frans
Is not Jason stil bloggin ? hmmmmm.. I mean micro bloggin when participating in convo /Sharing on FF :)-
- Peter Dawson
Here's how it went down: Mrs. Calacanis: "Hunny, you're on the computer too much." ... Jason: "OK babe... I'll quit blogging"
- Jimmy Gleason
Jason is still twittering, so isn't that essentially blogging?
- Green Screen Cinema
No, that's microblogging and/or lifestreaming. :)
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
Full Disclosure: I work for an email marketing team, I like email. That said, I don't think email is dead, but not the best channel for two way, one-to-many dialog when you have volume involved. If you limit your distribution and allow reply to, then email can spark some very intimate or insightful conversations between the sender and sendee(s). If you become a high-volume mailer, then...
more...
- Melinda
Screenshot proof that Twitter is failing more than it's succeeding: http://www.flickr.com/photos...
Jake (aka Jawee), Dobromir Hadzhiev, Rishabh Mishra (p248) and 2 other people liked this
Twitter really has lost its momentum lately. Even I have been using FriendFeed more often than Twitter now.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
that was months ago http://bit.ly/2AQEKH and that's now http://bit.ly/23iWKA Firefox is fast on cathing up titles
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
MSFT just polled the Pro photographers here at the conference in the autidence informally. 10 to 1 Canon users over Nikons among the Pros.
Brandon Wood, Mrsth, RyanEs and 27 other people liked this
It was a show of hands thing so very informal. Could be 7 or 8 to 1 as well. Clearly the Pro crowd here though uses Canon over Nikon. Other manufacturers were not even mentioned. Strictly a Canon vs. Nikon show of hands thing.
- Thomas Hawk
I am wondering if the D3 will slowly get the Pros to switch to Nikon or if the cost of glass will prevent it
- William Reveal
from feedalizr
Microsoft keeps talking about the importance of backup and photo storage at this conference. Wonder if they have something interesting in this space coming down the road.
- Thomas Hawk
How were conference goers selected? It doesn't suprise me that Canon shooters outnumber Nikon shooters but that ratio seems very skewed.
- Brian Sullivan
I think Pros still clearly prefer Canon.
- Thomas Hawk
"Pros" needs some definition
- Brian Sullivan
more PC users than Mac too, correlation?
- dbcohen
So having a Canon makes me a lemming? I'm sorry that's the height of ignorance.
- Mike Lewis
from Alert Thingy
I knew I should have brought my hammer to work with me! :P
- Mike Lewis
from Alert Thingy
PC users make smart choices in cameras, too. *hides in bomb shelter*
- No FB
Canon and Nikon are equally good for Pro use. I know many who use Canon and many like me who use Nikon. Some argue the glass for Canon lenses is superior. Perhaps.
- Photo Larry
from twhirl
When I was researching to buy my first DSLR, the consensus I found was Canon for pros, Nikon for amateurs. That was anecdotal because that's what everyone I talked to said was the practice, not necessarily the way it should be.
- Gregory Pittman
Canon is a MUCH larger company than Nikon. However, I just didn't like the feel of their cameras, and I prefer Nikon glass to Canon. That's what works for me.
- William Beem
I love how competitive it has become. We all win as long as these companies put out great products!
- Mike Lewis
from Alert Thingy
canon has been the industry standard for forever so it isn't any surprise at all.
- Damien Franco
That is quite a difference in preference. I also like Canon products.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
for the last few years canon has been killing nikon at the high end digital range. nikon has been working hard to catch up but the damage may have already been done. both companies make great cameras today and will continue to do so for years to come
- sam b-r
Should asked about D3 vs Cannon 1 DS MK3 and what they think. Scott Bourne just switched to Nikon: http://twipphoto.com/index...
- Roberto Bonini
Wow, looks like Canon wins!
- Susan Beebe
I use/love Nikon, but I don't care what people have...as long as it takes pictures.
- Kreg Steppe
My guess is it's about the same ratios among us amateurs using pocket sized cameras as well. Just spent sometime in BestBuy stores. Couldn't help noticing most people walk out with Canons.
- shelisrael1
Wow, you mean I can be happy because I own a Nikon and I favor the underdog at the same time. Cool!.
- Dennis E. Hamilton
from twhirl
I use Canon; it just works for me. YMMV. However, Canon's wide angle glass is not the greatest so I'm starting to look elsewhere for alternatives. The 21mm f/2.8 Distagon is insanely sharp but it's no longer in production and copies are priced into the stratosphere.
- jho
hmm, that adds a new wrinkle to my decisions. One of the benefits(so I was told) of the Nikon is the ability to use the same lenses through the years? Personally I like Zeiss lenses, so whomever has those I tend to go w/.
- clarke thomas
nice post, making my decesion easier
- Ryan
I chose Canon for two reasons. The first was that it felt natural in my hands. The controls seemed to be where I would want them. The second (and perhaps more important) was that two of my friends friends have Canon. It's great going on a shoot and having double the arsenal of lenses. But I think both are great choices and the competition makes for better equipment for everyone.
- John Wright
Hmmm.. I agonized for weeks over what DSLR to purchase for my first one. I wavered back and forth between Canon and Nikon. Then, I went to the nest camera store here in Austin and ended up buying a.... Sony. It was the best bang for my buck and with the Minolta lens options available out there I have been very pleased with my decision. Of course, I'm no pro.
- Jeff Jones
@shelisrael1 - P&S cameras are a different world. The margins are razor thin and Canon is larger than Nikon; better able to absorb the costs. Nikon's recent statements indicate that it wants to focus on the higher end market. Given it's position against Canon, that's a wise move. It can't complete as a commodity.
- William Beem
I'd assume there's some selection bias in the attendees.
- Eric P
We chose a Canon for our first DSLR on you a recommendation from a pro photographer.
- Robert
I'm not buying that poll. Maybe Canon has turned into Comcast and stocked the room?
- ThePicMan
And most "pro" drivers drive trucks and buses, but I'll stick to my BMW thanks. OK, not a brilliant analogy but everyone knows that Nikon has been playing catch up on the pro photography front. They have the line up now but the existing pros still have the legacy gear. it's going to be a long time before the balance shifts (if it does). Also, they used to say that nobody got fired for buying IBM, isn't that a better analogy on the photo front?
- Fraser Smith
Strange how a Pro camera poll has spawned so much debate about P&S and Prosumer models.
- ThePicMan
@clarke thomas - Zeiss has several lines of manual focus lenses that fit the Nikon and several other mounts. See http://twurl.nl/x2p15o. However, they do not have one that directly fits a Canon which will require the use of an adapter. On the flip side, due to the large diameter of the Canon lens mount, it is possible to use lens from quite a few vendors although you have to test for clearance from the mirror.
- jho
Personally, I'm waiting to see if Zeiss will make an updated version of the 21mm Distagon. www.16-9.net is a useful resource if you are interested in lens comparisons. I would also add that the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 looks to be a pretty impressive lens too.
- jho
James Mowery liked this
I want to play!
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I didn't realize it was possible, but Google Lively is WORSE than Second Life. LIke, astoundingly bad. Don't try.
CannonGod, Dobromir Hadzhiev, Susan Beebe and 17 other people liked this
Details, please! :)
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I've got to try to find out how bad now.
- Ben Parr
Google jumps shark? Literally?
- Andrew Baron
I was wondering when reviews would start popping up here. Thanks for saving me the time.
- David Worrell
Now I just *have* to try!
- Mo Kargas
Just wrote something similar. I'm really disappointed - not the greatest of ideas and really poor execution.
- Vince DeGeorge
Okay, now I have to try it because I'm a sucker for bad. :)
- Morton Fox
I'm holding back trying it because I hate opening windows in a virtual machine. No Mac version is just insane
- Duncan Riley
I wrote about it, too. But I'm willing to try anything once.
- Hao Chen
tried it out today and wasn't too impressed. Although if they implement an API that would allow me to integrate my users in there might be some value to it.
- Brad Williams
Why? I thought it was a good try, and represented enormous potential to be the next SecondLife, as it's able to run 3D stuff in your browser without having to download very bulky programs like SecondLife? SecondLife didn't work for me when I first tried it 1 year ago. It always crashed.. Never touched it since..
- Winston Teo
I tried it, it is a very, very, very unpolished 3d chat room, no more, no less.. it's not a social medium... it's a fancy chat room.
- David Silvernail
Almost all of Google's first efforts are crap. They are betting the farm on distributed though, and this seems to fit with that strategy perfectly.
- Kevin Gamble
No Mac version is beyond insane, it is just flat-out stupid. Why on earth didn't they wait until they could release it for every platform? I mean, unless the Windows folks are being used as open beta testers.... Just seems very odd. I agree with you Duncan.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I hate to say it, but I agree. The quality of the graphics is great, but the UI is downright awkward to use. The pop-up bubble messages are annoying and I didn't see any way of private chatting. Customizing your avatar is pretty minimal too.
- Jim McCusker
When a polished product exists in the market - i.e. Second Life.. why... oh... why! would you release this product that is clearly only in a pre-alpha version state?
- David Silvernail
Second Life did not interest me, so I passed on Lively today.
- Russellreno
Mine kept closing itself down before I could choose a character. Will keep trying.
- sergiooo
Thanks for the review. I'm waiting...
- Czar
yea im a pessimist as well in regards to those kinds of web apps. I have no faith in that kind of freeform avatar stuff.
- Anthony
was lively rushed out the door because of vivaty?
- Kevin
We geeks really need to be careful of seeing everything as an opportunity to critique, if not outright bash. Can't anything just "BE" what it is for an hour, a day, a week. What possible harm would come from someone trying it out?
- Douglas E. Welch
from twhirl
No Linux version? Typical. Of course, it's Google. That means I *must* try it. :D
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
i agree, at first glance... FAIL
- tommy payne
Comon.. Lively's just a first cut. We should wait and see how it evolves. As they always say: "Release Fast, Release Often".
- Winston Teo
Oh wait? Developing virtual worlds is hard? Who'da thunk? Google: There's a reason most VWs failed so far.
- Robert Blum
I Still want to give this and vivaty a solid chance before forming an opinion.
- sergiooo
is Google Lively supposed to be like the answer to Yahoo's Avatartown
- Outsanity
Blogged Lively vs. Second Life http://is.gd/OJY
- Hao Chen
Thanks for the tip. SL is bad enough so I'll definitely avoid this.
- Jonathon
Yeah, I'm not really digging this app. I grew out of this virtual life phase on the internet a long time ago.
- Dennis Jackson
Google is many many generations away from turning this into something useful, but at least they got one thing right - they put it on the web, not the desktop.
- Nicholas Molnar
I'm surprised they didn't compare it to Twitter, because that would be comparable. /smirk
- Eric Rice
My son: Lively? No Linux - no fun
- Igor Poltavskiy
BTW, Lively should be compared to IMVU, not SL. Lively + everything you use from Google, now that's entirely different. Thanks for skimming!
- Eric Rice
I tried playing around with it yesterday and was having real issues with it working. Second Life has a good infrastructure, but lacks a style. If I'm going to spend any amount of time there it HAS to look good. Maybe this is where Sony's HOME steps up (when they feel like releasing).
- CannonGod
Dane just booked Woz as a guest on TWiT Live for Thursday evening - part of our 24 hours of iPhone covering the iPhone 3G launch. Woo hoo!
Scott Heinowski, Sawyer, Inksim and 66 other people liked this
Hell yes! I'll def be tuning in!
- jonn
That is VERY cool
- Grant
Sounds great! I can't wait to see it.
- James Mowery
from feedalizr
quite exciting :)
- justine
Sweet! I have the day off, and I'll be tuning in whilst I play with my new 3g iphone :)
- Jeremy
I will definitely be tuning into this. Very cool!
- Matt Donders
Cool. I will (as always) be listening....and viewing. ;)
- BISQ
It turns out I won't be able to get iPhone 3G on launch day but watching TWiT Live is the next best thing
- Grant
Wow, Dane is really pulling out all the stops trying to earn that Kevlar vest isn't he? Very cool news!
- Joe "Brrzzzzzzt" Pierce
Ooo, I'm tuning in too!
- Dillon K. Hoops
awesome news, now how about posting TWiT a few minutes early tonight in celebration?
- Jordan
We don't hold on to TWiT - Dane posts it the minute it's ready. (Which should be soon.)
- Leo Laporte
Is it cool just to buy a 32MB iTouch, most of the coolness, none of the AT&T?
- Steven Van Tilburg
from twhirl
I figured it'd be cool to buy a used, deactivated iPhone with most of the coolness and none of the AT&T, and it would still have the potential to be a phone again.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
I wonder if Super Monkey Ball would fit on a 32 MB iPod Touch:)
- Grant
I have to agree with Keith, Leo. Is there going to be an audio stream or podcast of some of the twitlive activities for the new iPhone debut? Being on dial-up it's hard for me to watch the video streaming.
- Mol, FF Music Lover
Waiting to see magic unroll on the iPhone 3G marathon coverage.. Leo, who is joining you on the 24 live?
- Du Senyao Peter
Leo should do it telethon style... Have really cheesey variety acts, I'm thinking a singing dog and a bird that runs a obsticle course. Then every hour you could cut to a scene of Dane and Colleen at a bank of telephones and a counter of some sort. "Hi and welcome back to the iPhone-a-thon, lets go to Dane in the tally room... how we going Dane?"
- Johnny
That is great!!
- Spirit 2.0
I require yellow lasers...
- xero
cool
- Fred Grott
You need to have Dane put up a schedule.
- TJ Harron
I'll be there. Calling in. At 7:15 AM. With sleep rings around my eyes. :)
- Eric Geller
awesome... i love the woz!
- Chris Heath
Thats great Leo, just try not to gush on him this time ;)
- Chris Kuhner
When Woz is on TWIT Live it's definately a highlight event! The guy has a ton of personality.
- Harry Myhre
Is he gonna have Kathy Griffin with him? : )~
- Hillary
Is there any way to watch or download a delayed twit tv feed
- giovanniv
A Sample Blogging Workflow - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
James Mowery, Ken Stewart | ChangeForge, Kingsley Joseph and 11 other people liked this
A must-read for bloggers.
- phil baumann
I am, hopefully, about to switch into a knowledge management role at work that will include some daily blogging. This is some really great information.
- Sean Brady
Great info, just what I needed! Thanks, Chris!
- Denise
Wow, great post! I've gotta re-share this...
- Chris Thomson
great post Chris!
- David Ward
Bloggers Are Terrible Writers - http://deanhunt.com/blogger...
Кто здесь?, Kate, Bill Powell and 29 other people liked this
do bloggers need editors, then? like "real" journalists get?
- Sarah Perez
So sad, but oh so true.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
@Sarah Perez I only wish all bloggers had their own editors. My eyes wouldn't bleed as much.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
totally agree ... I screw up all the time and have no editor
- Nick O'Neill
Funny article. Very creatively written! A+, this is going in the school paper.
- Phil Glockner
i always thought i wrote ok.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
i've seen so many grammatical errors in "major" news websites that i don't see how they can look down on bloggers.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
Your wrong, I right real good and its there falt for making me puset while i try to blog. wtfomg, some ppl r dumb
- Bwana ☠
Its funny how many of these rules are broken in a typical Scoble post? I do notice a few being broken, how about you?
- Fred Grott
Fred: I break all the rules that the Social Media royalty give us.
- Robert Scoble
Many authors are terrible writers, the same is true for many, not all, bloggers
- Shey
And its good ritten.
- phil baumann
To everyone reading this—please learn the difference between "it's" and "its." It's really not that difficult!
- James Mowery
from twhirl
Are you speaking about me?
- Chris Nixon
Lol, Phil... bad timing.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
I'm with Jason on this: it seems that the rules of grammar, spelling, and the like are being broken daily by the 4th estate. He who is without sin, etc.
- Justin Whitaker
Some bloggers are terrible writers... which sucks when they have good stuff to say. From what I can see there is rarely such thing as a brilliant writer, just brilliant editors. (full disclosure: my wife is a magazine editor)
- Scott Lockhart
Hilarious but pretty true. I think we should all (and by "we", I don't just mean bloggers) should always have a style manual or something right next to the desk. Obviously a lot of "professional" colleagues of mine don't, from what I've seen in some newssites.
- Juan Carlo Rodríguez
Blogs give people more leeway than traditional media, of course, and you can break rules like Scoble says. Rule-breaking is great, as long as it's not sloppy.
- Daniel Langendorf
@Daniel Langendorf Trust me, it can get very sloppy. But it is even more embarassing when Wired.com's bloggers have glaring errors. Again, they don't even know the difference btween "its" and "it's." I think it is pitiful.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
James, merely knowing the difference between its and it's and your and you're and there, their and they're does not mean you will actually *type* the correct word. That editors don't catch it *is* pitiful, but that assumes all the Wired blog content actually gets edited -- I do not make that assumption.
- Robert Seidman
If I could wave a magic wand, I would correct all misuse of the word "loose" when someone obviously means "lose."
- DGentry
@ Daniel - I think you hit the nail on the head - "as long as it's not sloppy." Breaking the rules all you want - just make sure you pull it off and you still convey coherent ideas.
- George Smith
I agree with Jason Shultz, I have found very serious grammatical and spelling errors in places like NYTimes and other "major" news services. It's the rush to publish that is causing all these errors. Also, I have seen major writers intentionally break some of these rules. And there is nothing wrong with that. :)
- gregory
I totally agree with you on that, Paul. Those are SO annoying. I click away from any site that has that anywhere on it.
- Chris Thomson
I thought the rule about split infinitives was relaxed, since it came from the old-world scholarly usage of Latin (and it wasn't possible to split an infinitive in Latin).
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
@Robert Seidman, I am confident that the content on Wired.com's blogs is not edited. I mean, yes, I am being picky here, but you would expect that these folks would take the time to learn this stuff. Maybe I'm just too passionate about the English language. Yesterday, I was reading the CMoS for at least an hour and a half. It is still no excuse.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
So true. Well, for me at least. I try to write well, but then again my blogs in the past have always been personal, and just ramblings of how my week was. Nothing interesting. Ha.
- Dennis Jackson
Most of the bloggers I follow are more accomplished writers than most mainstream journalists -- James Wolcott, Glenn Greenwald, Jim Lobe, James Fallows, Jeff Huber, etc. If they can't write, I don't read them.
- Sean McBride
By the way, does anyone know of any reliable editorial services? I am looking to self-publish my first book (through Lulu.com), and I really would like to have it done right the first time. I might pull it off on my own, but I am not sure.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
As a brilliant writer, I'm finding it hard to relate to this... ;-)
- Sprague D
Have any of you read a newspaper or cnn.com lately? Most bloggers do better than that.
- mjc
from Alert Thingy
The Apostrophe Protection Society - http://snurl.com/2t6v6 - gives helpful advice about putting that diddling little punctuation mark in its rightful place - but I guess people who don't realise they're using it incorrectly won't trouble to visit the site!
- Bob Kingsley
Michael, who reads that crap anymore? I'm only kidding! :D
- James Mowery
from twhirl
Hah, these are great. It's also true that many of them have been around for many years -- since 1979 at the latest -- for whatever that's worth. http://www.shorttext.com/2wt2dn for the original sources.
- Nathan Rein
I need an editor. I think everyone can benefit from having an editor. I still feel I'm a good writer, but the objective eye helps a great deal.
- Cyndy
@Robert Seidman I completely agree with you. I *know* the difference between it's and its and their and they're - I mean, DUH, but I have typoed these things incorrectly before I'm sure. Re-reading a post helps, but sometimes your brain auto-corrects what you see. That's why copy editors are important....and sadly missing in the blogosphere.
- Sarah Perez
I think why I don't get sensory overload in Friendfeed is because I'm selfish. See, unless I'm bored (on Twitter) I live only on the replies tab. Same thing applies here. I will post shit and then let the ME tab reload. That raises questions about the self-centeredness of social media.
James Mowery, Andrej Kostresevic, Rishabh Mishra (p248) and 4 other people liked this
Some may think the world revolves around us.
- Eric Rice
Eric, I'd read this but you aren't talking about me so I hid it.
- Robert Scoble
This is apparent with 'rooms'... people are inviting inviting inviting come to my room room room join join join. Who is the cause of the noise? We are! We think our content is the most important ever. So as a consumer, I have to join join join to you you you. And then bitch about it. Heh. So the key is be selfish, and noise goes away (except your own!) Wheeeee!
- Eric Rice
In an odd way, it's less like the world revolves around any single person and more like the gravity of space as well as the atomic world...that everything revolves around something that revolves around something else. Tonight must be analogy night.
- Jacob Nahin
Truthfully tho, I think that people's patterns in a) dating and b) general conversation reflects how they use the free web service du jour. If you are the type to monopolize conversation in real life, don'tcha think that's how you'd use a tool like Twitter or whatnot? Seriously. Contrast and compare. Homework is due on Thursday. <3
- Eric Rice
Noise? Did you say noise? Your noise is actually pretty fun to swim in. UPDATE: I don't want to monopolize the conversation, just participate in it.
- Robert Scoble
Also: Scoble.
- Eric Rice
@Robert Scoble This noise is keepin me up. G'night all!
- Jacob Nahin
I'm much more interested in the "friends" tab than the "me" tab.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Yeah but the difference is, I'm not. I think far more people are egomaniacs regardless of numbers, which if you run, btw, I have little. I'm interested in others, just not whent he platform is a stage. There is no godlike here at all. Once we stop doing that to each other, we'll make progress.
- Eric Rice
agree with Jason. I'm far more interested in the "friends" tab. I do check back in with the "me" tab sometimes, but usually only if I've been off of FF for a few hours or more to catch up and participate in those conversations. I spend 95% of my time in FF looking at the "Friends" tab. This tab is also now my homepage for my browser.
- Thomas Hawk
I disagree. I think the egomaniacs are in the minority.
- Jason Wehmhoener
i refuse to feed your "you" focus by replying to this message... oh crap.
- tracy apps
from twhirl
I don't think I've looked at the ME tab, I read stuff in Friends and occassionally Everyone if looking for something specific
- Sally Church
from Alert Thingy
egomaniacs are american ;)
- Eric Rice
That must explain why I'm fond of Canadians and Euros. :-D
- Jason Wehmhoener
God, Canadians are so damn nice it pisses me off sometimes. ;)
- Eric Rice
Haha, I liked that.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
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