Jon Dillon - Likes - FriendFeed

Rackspace outage and info - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

June 29 from Scobleizer - Comment - Like - Share

Ric Johnson, sean andersen, Peter Warnock and 14 other people liked this

Go to http://www.twitter.com/rackspa... for more info. - Robert Scoble

You know what Robert? This might sound ridiculous but I think the techcrunch post about this was designed to punish you. - Mark

"No suitable nodes are available to serve your request." -- some irony there -- good thing twitter isn't hosted at Rackspace? - Brian Sullivan

love the link to your page that I cannot see becasue of Rackspace problems :-) Priceless :-) - Rasmus Lauridsen

Not liking this. Right when I'm in the middle of a freaking upgrade too. - Andru Edwards

Link works fine here - Qbat

RackSpace link works fine here to (UK) - Jim Connolly

All sites work fine here (UK) - Mark

I got the following: No suitable nodes are available to serve your request. - Rasmus Lauridsen

It's a routing issue mostly affecting the United States (from what I've been able to tell). - Michael Owens

This is purely meant to punish Robert: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Mark

Link worked fine for me. East Coast - Jimminy Fuller

works fine yes, from Norway - Qbat

Yes its his employer telling him to get the F back in here :-P - Rasmus Lauridsen

I blame Scoble. (Is that still a meme?) - Tony Ruscoe from fftogo

Scoble picked the wrong week to stop Twittering! - Patrick Breitenbach

From CNET: Updates: Whatever has affected the Rackspace DFW facility has also hit its phone lines, a spokesperson tells us - Mark

I was wondering why I have all of these emails accumulating in my Outbox. For the record, USUALLY Rackspace is awesome for hosting. We use Rackspace Cloud for http://modea.com/ Rackspace (just Rackspace) for hosting client sites, and Rackspace Email for MS Exchange. All fab MOST of the time. - David Catalano

Robert: Techcrunch is killing you guys! - Jim Connolly

"No suitable nodes are available to serve your request." – Slovakia - Tibor Holoda

The TechCrunch post was designed to punish Robert for daring to go against Mike. And to humiliate his company which "never goes down". - Mark

Maybe its a CDN problem since its only some of us that get it... I'm in Denmark using opendns.com. That mix sometimes kills stuff for me.... - Rasmus Lauridsen

Yeah, as much as I want to take off from the Real Time web something drags me back in. Looks like it's a power outage. It's 104 degrees in Texas right now. I've seen reports that when our power switched back from generator to regular power something didn't work right. There's a team figuring it all out now and we'll have a report soon. First priority is getting customers back up and running, though. - Robert Scoble

Well, the good thing is that Michelle Malkin's site is down *grin* - Rene Wirtz

Oh, and Arrington and I had a nice talk this morning. I don't see this as an attack on me. Our servers are down and our customers are in pain. - Robert Scoble

Rackspace: All power is restored to the DFW data center - all devices affected are starting to come on-line. Details to follow - Qbat

Rackspace: Phone support is not down at Rackspace. Heavy call volume, but no issues with those systems. - Qbat

Rackapps Twitter account is here: http://twitter.com/rackapps -- they are giving other details on the mail customers who are affected. - Robert Scoble

I've been following them on FriendFeed - thanks Robert. - Jesse Stay

Looks like our SocialToo outage was just coincidence then. I thought it was our fault, which it probably was. :-) A reboot fixed the issue for me. Gotta figure out what happened to the database though. - Jesse Stay

Either that or Chris Brogan's recent blog post killed it. :-) - Jesse Stay

WOOT! Email is back up and running on Rackspace! - David Catalano

Strange that this happens today when Rackspace had a planned maintenance window for today to replace some USP batteries - Jon Dillon

Just caught off my Webware tweets - Melanie Reed

I hope Robert has something deliciously inspiring to say after the very minor downtime. - Mark

This does perhaps illustrate Google's reason for building their own servers and network gear, each with its own battery backup: great big UPSs tend to be single points of failure for a large portion of a datacenter. - DGentry

Amir

Demonstration and Protests to Election Results – The 5th Day - http://tehranlive.org/2009...

June 17 from Tehran 24 - Comment - Like - Share

Jon Dillon, Anne Bouey and Bret Taylor liked this

Amir has been missing since Saturday night. His family fears he has been arrested. It says on his website that he is in the notorious Evin prison. - Beth K

Amir is has been released and is home with his family. Confirmed toay. - Beth K

Robert Scoble

Seemic changes direction away from video and starts a lot of conversations: http://friendfeed.com/search...

June 26 - Comment - Like - Share

Josh Asbury, Jackie Danicki, Kol Tregaskes and 22 other people liked this

It is a pity the video conversation service is being subordinated although I have used text based conversation tools far more than video, despite how well Seesmic video works. - Paul Jacobson

56 more comments

Interesting how FriendFeed search is becoming how I can permalink to a bunch of different conversations. - Robert Scoble

It is and it isn't - that search could be useless if someone comes back six months later and sees an entirely unrelated batch of new intitle:seesmic threads pop up. A date range would really help for this purpose. I link to FF searches pretty regularly myself so I think about this perhaps more than I ought to. - Daniel J. Pritchett

Daniel: yeah, I wish I could find a way to pin together a bunch of items in a better way than search. - Robert Scoble

How does that kind of change in direction go down with investors? Seesmic raised what 12m for a video based venture which is now essentially a twitter client. Other twitter clients have raised what 300,000? Is it just water under the bridge and they start over? - Jon Dillon

I am glad to see that while they are de-emphasizing the video part of Seesmic they have not gotten rid of it altogether. I for one always had a hard time with the "talking to my computer" part of Seesmic. - Sean Brady

Ah! I have been asking Loic for ages why he hasn't been talking about Seesmic but he just ignored me or didn't notice little old me. I did notice that it all became about Twitter clients and not video conversations. - Mark

I am concerned: can a free twitter client sustain a company and pay back investors? - Mark

@MarshallK used this wacky service (armadillo?) to build a "slideshow" of links to all of the different RWW affiliated Twitter accounts under a single URL. The implications for google juice and the time it would take you to put it together are probably prohibitive but at least the option exists. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

I've been watching seesmic video for a long time (watching as in looking to see direction) - when i questioned why loic was using other services and that hurt his seesmic, i was called stupid - maybe now i have a point :) as i noted in my post today - http://www.centernetworks.com/seesmic... - i think loic should just shut it off completely if he is not sure he plans to spend time bringing it back to the forefront. - Allen Stern

@Mark thanks that's really what I was asking in a long worded way - Jon Dillon

Allen: I see a lot of ways he could bring back Seesmic Video. But Loic doesn't listen to me, thinking I'm too geeky and too weird. - Robert Scoble

Arrington has a six figure investment in Seesmic doesn't he? I'd hate to see him have to announce Seesmic is in the deadpool in one of those posts he puts up about companies that fail. - Mark

It's always the early adopters and geeks who make something work and who bring it to bigger audiences. Always. Yet entrepreneurs get together and say "don't listen to Scoble." Even FriendFeed is doing that now. - Robert Scoble

continuing - at an event this week, fred wilson talked about why an audio twitter (i posted a video about this) might not work - he talked about how important text is - i think its the same for the video - i wrote about this when seesmic first launched - there was no threading on seesmic, do i really want to see you for your comment? did it take too long to make a video versus typing in a quick comment, etc? - Allen Stern

@allen agreed. - Patricia

Seesmic has 12 million in funding? If thats true they surely need something more than a free twitter client? - Mark

The reason we didn't like Seesmic is it got too noisy. This is why Kyte went almost wholly with celebrities (and why Twitter did too). They realized that's the way to bigger audiences. But Seesmic didn't provide celebrities a way to lock down their brands and interact with just who they wanted to interact with. If they had done that it would have taken off big time. - Robert Scoble

My hair was always too messy in the home office to use video. - James Watters

I got the figure of here: http://www.crunchbase.com/company... - Jon Dillon

That video from Loic is brutally honest isn't it? I almost feel sorry for him on a personal level that it hasn't worked out - he is such a sweet guy. - Mark

Robert hearts famous peoples?? hmm - James Watters

but more than anything and i hate to harp on this point, loic missed some huge opportunities by not posting his leweb on seesmic and to post all his videos on youtube. - Allen Stern

interesting points about the investment vc - didn't even think about that! - Allen Stern

I would use it on Building43, for instance, to talk with people like Matt Cutts and Chris Messina. But the thing is that Loic didn't see that, and instead thought there was value in building an open to everyone video chat room. YouTube just provided enough of what we need with iPhone 3GS video uploads. - Robert Scoble

Well Youtube is nice and widescreen and can do HD, the little crappy player on seesmic would look awful for Leweb coverage - Mark

Confirmed: they have 12 million of other peoples money involved :/ - Mark

Robert, honestly, we realized this with Hictu.com months ago. The difference is: investments close to 0, one developer, side project for us. Seesmic: 12M in investments, core service... I hope they will be able to monetize that Twitter client... otherwise they will end up burning the cash they have, end of the story. - Luca Filigheddu

good thing they didn't shut down the whole video service. while some people don't like to see themselves, the technology has potential. if it dies out, then some might defacto to the saying 'it was ahead of its time.' how many times have tech companies went out of business or stopped a service that would have been relevant later on? it's a good idea to keep it alive in some way while focusing on core competencies that would help generate revenue for them. - sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq

How do you monetise a twitter client? Without pissing peopel off so they go to free one / ad free etc - Mark

Mark: lots of people have paid for Twitter clients on iPhones. On free ones they will be ad supported. Plus you can charge for extra "pro" features. Eventually there will be virtual goods that you can sell (ability to sell things to other people, too). - Robert Scoble

@Mark, you recognize that two way communication platforms are a utility, like the phone, and you charge upsell services that users want/use. these platforms are not true ad play platforms -- they are utility platforms. They can be, but traditionally, ads have never done well with utility platforms. - Patricia

I remember watching Scoble and Loic and others on a bus a few years ago going to a convention in Las Vegas I think and Loic was talking about Seesmic. It all seemed so exciting 2 years ago. - Mark

Loic's putting his energy / money where the 'buzz' is and that's Twitter (right now) Looks like that could change though: http://www.thetechnewsblog.com/2009... - Jim Connolly

As mentioned on the other thread about this, video commenting was shown at the VON show in like 2005 or something. Unfortunately, the user base drives what works and what doesn't and they've not evolved enough for applications like this on a mass, money making level. - Patricia

Problem is you don't invest 12M in a twitter client start up--that's poisinous - James Watters

right now tweetdeck has to be the top (or one of the top) most useful twitter app around. it seems as if loic wants to get this momentum going. its popularity and userbase has potential. if loic wants to build a lemonade stand, then he can start selling lemonade too. :) - sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq

James: yeah, thats terrifying. - Mark

Twitter clients could be the next browsers, so I can see the sense in that, but I was looking fwd to seeing Seesmic on the iPhone as a video equivalent to audioBoo, hope that still happens. - Chris Nuttall

Seesmic was over-funded. There are other companies with awesome ideas that struggle to get 500K... Ans 12M are too much even for a Twitter client only. - Luca Filigheddu

I know I can't get over this number 12 million. He has a competitor with a service called PHREADZ or something which is virtually self funded and as least as slick. I cannot fathom what 12 million buys. - Mark

12M buys a competitive startup to youtube with heavy infrastrucure expenses; 3 weeks of expert coding buys you a twitter client - James Watters

I imagine the hardware on the back end needed to handle the video and originally estimated traffic must have munched a fair chunk of change already - Jon Dillon

So any social media experts in here want to suggest what they did wrong? Why did video conversations fail? - Mark

They failed because unlike FB and Twitter you can't do them impulsively; the RWW is all about what you can extract from a users life in under 20 seconds without them thinking about it - James Watters

@mark years ago everyone was pushing mobile video calling in Italy. Lots of investments, TV ads and so on. It failed. Why? It takes too much time, you have less privacy, not that easy for many people, don't really need it. - Luca Filigheddu

We had a similar thing here in England, 3g video calling, but to be honest most of us only use it for rude video calls with significant others. - Mark

@mark ok, so you know what I mean... ;-) - Luca Filigheddu

@mark, i'm not a social media expert, but i think what they (and tons) of people in web 2.0 have done wrong is fail to really look at what the user needs and does. sometimes ideas are just too early for the users (or enough users) to adopt, some are simply just not something users find valuable. at the end of the day, always what works online is what the users find valuable and what the users can adopt. - Patricia

Patricia: yup, that's why funding startups is risky. Out of 10s of thousands of ideas for companies only a handful become significant. You try things, and you try to change human behavior. Some, like Twitter, get lucky and find the way. Many others die at the vine for a whole lot of reasons. - Robert Scoble

here is my post from over a year ago - http://www.centernetworks.com/seesmic... - where i talk about why seesmic won't work (the video service) - not 100% sure it's all still appicable today - btw for those wondering if seesmic the twitter client will succeed - remember that loic has very tight contacts at FB, etc. he even got a 4-letter vanity url - will those... more... - Allen Stern

I don't think the people who spent 12 million on the video tech will be pleased that their money is gone but the education remains ;) - Mark

Mark: Seesmic only spent a fraction of their money. - Robert Scoble

i think seesmic also changed their staffing model - moving from a completely sf based team to mostly offshore teams - loic mentioned something about going to meet the teams in eastern europe a few weeks ago - Allen Stern

Bah! I am all about American Jobs ;) Hang on.. I am British. - Mark

Seesmic as a technology play was pretty good. I think the problem is that video commenting is simply viewed as a huge time suck to most people in an era when anything over 140 characters is considered too lengthy to consume. - Aviv

Video fail - users can't quickly consume video content; impossible to skim or index effectively. - Susan Beebe from BuddyFeed

Well, the lamenting over this didn't last long. - Matthew DeVries

Gabe Rivera

A Techmeme oldie from April: Is Steve Jobs Moving to Memphis? http://www.techmeme.com/090415...

June 19 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Wayne Sutton, TheHenry and 7 other people liked this

http://cultofmac.com/is-this... - Corrales Cachola

dan farber

From Tianamen to Tehran--the Internet makes a difference http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs...

June 16 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

berchman, Steffan Antonas, Dan Morrill AKA Techwag and Jon Dillon liked this

Loic Le Meur

Working on seesmic desktop roadmap feature priorities. Then I send them to the dev leads and they do what they want anyway. Management 3.0!

June 15 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Cathryn Hrudicka, Rachel Luxemburg, Charlie Anzman and 5 other people liked this

That's how it happens at Building43 too! - Robert Scoble

Developers Developers Developers - David Lloyd

Charlie Anzman

Barb and Charlie's attempt at YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

August 9, 2008 from YouTube - Comment - Like - Share

Mark Trapp, Tamar Weinberg, Jon Dillon and 13 other people liked this

OK Shey ... here's your answer on cheap webcams. - Charlie Anzman

11 more comments

Thanks Charlie and congrats to your daughter! - Shey, Jamaican of FF

First online video ... look out Allen Stern ! :) Thanks Shey. - Charlie Anzman

Did I know you were downstate? Or are you downstate natives? ;) - Cyndy

Not sure what you mean. Downstate NY? I am (Long Island) ... Barb's from Jersey ... In PA (and elsewhere occasionally) now. - Charlie Anzman

I could hear the accents. :D - Cyndy

Thought it was long gone. Amazing. South Shore (Merrick mostly) 30+ years - Charlie Anzman

Nope, sorry... not gone. :D - Cyndy

My kid said .... "You did what?" :) - Charlie Anzman

Hi Barb and Charles ... great quality video ,, nice to meet you ,,, congrats on the daughters news .... jp - johnpiercy

Tks jp. Amazing how far tech has come. Plug in a camera I never used before. 10 minutes later (or less) we're on YouTube. (Good thing Barb was around ... she's much more photogenic than me :) - Charlie Anzman

how did i mssi this ?? tis the stuff what rocks my boat.. simple people telling their story.. what more can we ask for ? genuine grass root level peeps wanting to share themselves to our world. I heart u Barb & Charlie !! - Peter Dawson

omg, this is SO cute!! - Mona Nomura

Robert Scoble

@screwdriver says study shows babies fall 50,000 times while learning to walk.

August 14, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, Maia Bittner, Jon Dillon and 21 other people liked this

that is the definition of perseverance! How can a parent NOT burst with pride when they finally accomplish it! - Melanie Reed

10 more comments

can't resist. Zach teaching himself to walk: http://karinandbrad.com/node... - Brad Nickel

Seems like I failed 50,000 times before I got a date, but I may be exaggerating. - Andrew Leyden

This reminded me of the simulating humans TED talk: http://www.ted.com/index... - Simon Janes

I'm still falling! - Jeremiah Owyang

Somehow that number doesn't pass the smell test - Brian Sullivan

It's not the 50,000 falls while he was learning I worry about. It's the 500 he will take now that he is big, fast and clumsy. He seems more so near walls and large posts in the ground. - Sean Brady

"Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again." - Dr. Thomas Wayne - Craig Ritchie from twhirl

this guy has no baby ! - Frédéric Sidler

+1 For Crsigs quote. - Roberto Bonini

Brian, if a baby learns to stand up and walk well over a 9 month period or approx 270 days, this would yield about 185 falls per day on average. I bet there's a logarithmic drop off of falls, however, but oh well. I've seen babies do a pop up and down thing early on which could easily skew the average. Anyway, 185 drops on ave does sound a little high, but it may be at the right... more... - Loren Heiny

i think you could replace the word "babies" with "entrepreneurs" or "startups" and the 50,000 number would be just about right. - dave mcclure

Loic Le Meur

I am getting so many more comments on Friendfeed than my blog I want them back on my blog. @danielha is cooking this in Disqus, great news!

July 7, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Kate Foy, Svartling, Fred Neil and 12 other people liked this

just add the wordpress friendfeed plugin... - Luca Filigheddu

15 more comments

you're one of my favorite people to follow, if only because you're so active in so many different communities. - Pat Hawks

thanks Pat. Luca, my blog is actually on TypePad and I use Disqus comments on it. - Loic Le Meur

Yes, a big tradeoff here: better conversation and interaction but less traffic and convo ownership. - Soso Sazesh

I hear you! Read this blogpost about it http://peckpack.com/2008... - Dave Peck

right same need for me on blogger. when is Disqus coming out with FF comments? - Simone

For something that didn't look much in the beginning FF sure is becoming quite disruptive. - Jon Dillon

Hey, this IS good news :) - jjprojects

check out js-kit for integration - Loic - talk to Khris at js-kit and get Seesmic integrated for comment re-integration - Ivan Pope from twhirl

Disqus automatically integrating FF comments would be great. - Kevin Bondelli

I don’t believe it is ethical to claim comments back from people who write them on FriendFeed. This means imposing power on your readers. If people want to comment on your blog, they can do it but that is not their preference. And you are not asking people if they want their comments to be seen on your blog. - Kerem Ozkan

I don't care where it takes place. I', just happy to have a good conversation. - shelisrael1

Though, if it weren't for friendfeed, many folks like me probably wouldn't see it to start with. - adam christensen

but to comment on FF is so much more easier and faster...it's Twhirl fault !! - Jean-François Amadei from twhirl

Yeah, the same for me. I've installed the WP plugin, but it keeps telling me there aren't comments on FriendFeed. - Gianluca Neri from twhirl

Guess it might be too late to capitalize on my Disqus-friendfeed comment combiner, huh? - Kevin L

+1 shel - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Cyndy

When FriendFeed Creates a Mob - http://www.fourlittlebees.net/shakesp...

August 10, 2008 from Shakespeare I Ain't - Comment - Like - Share

Varun Mahajan, Dereck, Dean Thompson and 75 other people liked this

this place has become the new / old digg - linkman77

51 more comments

I would disagree that re: about Digg. The comments I find on FF rarely degrade into the crass name calling I run into on Digg. As for group think: sadly, it's a constant in humanity. Your going to find it everywhere, and FF is no exception. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I can't process the group think mentality. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm too eccentric or that I can't stand people telling me what to do. When I first read the post, I was indignant as well. But I also know that my knee-jerk reaction is often wrong. I looked at the MOMA site. I thought about it. I read all the buried comments on Digg. I can't form an opinion until I have more facts. But I know that there is this insane witch hunt here, and I don't like it one bit. - Cyndy

@Cyndy: Groupthink is a fascinating subject, because just about everyone responds exactly as you do. It's the anathema of what we consider an independent and intelligent mind. However, it's also the basis of religion and community/social structure, not to mention the entire advertising industry. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I admit it: I got caught up in it and dugg the story when it was first submitted. I realized how insane this was when people found the guy's Facebook profile and implored everyone to harass him there, and when people charted the vacation schedules of the guy's bosses. The SFMOMA one is notable in that its groupthink now transcends Friendfeed, but have you seen some of the utter crap that becomes popular on FriendFeed nowadays? It's becoming much harder to distinguish it from Digg or Reddit. - Mark Trapp

Wisdom of the crowds :-) - Denis

It's all about who you follow. More importantly, who you don't - Geoff Schultz

Mark- I likey'd it as well and enjoy Thomas' work. I respect Cyndy and have gotten to know her a little. She's not only a good author but a lot more. There's basically two takeaways here. 1... The way things are right now, people will endorse stuff on social networks if their best friend does. 2... I didn't know half this stuff til I read this thread. Think some are getting way too wrapped up in SM and maybe need to take a few days off. The sad part is that (re 1) people vote in elections that way too. - Charlie Anzman

I think we all need to realize that this type of mob mentality is a symptom of a homogenous group. The more alike everyone is, the more likely the mob will kick in. Digg is, despite it's size, a fairly homogenous group of traffic seekers. When FF gets a larger user base, you'll see more 'mobs' but each one will be a smaller portion of the whole and less likely to affect the remainder of the group. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Very engaging entry, Cyndy. It is people like you that are willing to approach the other less popular angle that help us to avoid group think. - Geoff Schultz

I wasn't following this but it doesn't shock me. I still appreciate Cyndy's take on it though. My take: Internet people tend to be a little hypocritical when it comes to "fairness". Generally, it is "fair" if it doesn't hurt them. - David Muir

Nice, mature post. - Mohamed J

Great post. Very provocative. I just posted a comment at your blog (Friendfeed comments are too short). - Nathan Rein

The other part of this is that Friendfeed continues to be an equalizer, unlike any other platform that I'm aware of, which is exciting and important - Charlie Anzman

Charlie, I think the great equalizer aspect of Friendfeed is its value, too. I almost think in order for FriendFeed to not become a Reddit or Digg clone with a few insignificant other features, it's got to drop the popularity metric of "Likes." It was a cool idea, but I think it's become a poor-man's "Digg it!" Then again, that's armchair architecting; maybe FriendFeed has some killer feature they've been working on for the past 2 months to solve FriendFeed's ails. - Mark Trapp

I think there's a significant difference, though, in the fact that nothing gets ranked in terms of number of likes. You can't "like up" a post the way you can on Digg. Yes, you can bump it to the top of the feed, but it will immediately be replaced by the next thing to get liked or commented, so the effect is less pronounced, I think. - Nathan Rein

Cyndy, thanks for forcibly turning my head so that I consider the other side of this campaign. I agree that the original article, much less the community response, has gone too far. - Phil G

That's not true, nathan. Likes have a significant effect, much more so than comments, on what stories reach the top of the list on the best-of pages. They also have a big effect on the rankings on your personal statistics pages. - Mark Trapp

Also, even though the effect may be eventually diluted, the mob here is just a better class of mob overall. :-) - David Muir

hmm ... Okay, I take it back. I never use either of those Friendfeed features. Never mind. - Nathan Rein

Museums are not public property, and they have the right to set whatever rules they see fit. Did they handle it incorrectly? Yes, probably, but usually if you are polite and ask them to review their rules that allow photography, everything can be resolved. From the fact that Hawk had to be escorted out, it doesn't sound like he responded well to the security guard's concerns. - Jason Carreira

I "dugg" the story and would do it again. I had no idea people were staking the guy and do not agree with that. Now in what I have read about Thomas online in a relatively short time I will grant you, I do not believe that is the type of behavior he would encourage. My take away from his post is that he was pissed off, and was utilizing the platform available to him to share that... more... - R. Ferguson

Jason, did you read the original article that Thomas wrote detailing the event? - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Yes there are 2 sides to every story and we only heard one, but I don't accept that it was group think - as much as it was a degree of trust based on what we feel we "know" about Thomas. I basically assumed that publicity if enough attn was gained via SM would cause SFMOMA to issue a response and their side of the story. It is a lot easier to encourage that with a click of a button vs calling their offices. Finally, how is everyone cheering and "liking" your post any less "groupthink?" - R. Ferguson

I don't like the "mob rule" aspects one little bit. I like Thomas a lot from my experiences here, but although I am inclined to side with him, I only have his side. Sure, I did my own research and the guy is certainly suspect, what with sending goofy letters to the editor at Entertainment Weekly magazine, but that doesn't necessarily mean the guy should be lynched. Ruth, to your point, I think Cyndy's post doesn't make me question whether she's "abusing her power". Thomas', and the ensuing reaction... - Robert Seidman

...do lead me to believe that power *can* be abused in this way. I'm not really sure whether it was or wasn't, but something about the way it went down didn't feel right to me. - Robert Seidman

I agree, this whole thing has become insane, especially considering that only one side of the story has become known at this point. I didn't complain when it took over FriendFeed (highly annoying as that was), but finding his Facebok profile and calling for people to harass him/his bosses isn't something I like seeing. If I wanted to see the 4chan mentality, I would go to 4chan. - Stellina

I think Cyndy is way off in her interpretation of this event. The harassment that Mark mentioned came from the digg community and it amounts to cyber-bullying not group-think. It is also a completely separate incident from what Thomas experienced at the SFMOMA. The backstory for Thomas' complaint is a growing public distrust of photographers not some bullshit about taking candy from babies. Its about companies and governments manipulating what gets into the news and public discourse. - Rafael Robayna

Its also about privacy and people wanting more of it in a world where they get their picture taken discreetly by hundreds of cctv cameras, camera phones and other devices every day. Finally its about uneducated (can't tell the difference between a wide-angle and a telephoto lens) jackasses that are supposed to be protecting the interests of the the governments and private companies they work for and do so badly. - Rafael Robayna

I too disagree about the comparison to Digg. This community is a LONG way from being anything close to Digg. I voted up the story because people who are entrusted with brand reputation (as this guy was) should be far smarter about how they deal with the press (and everyone, today, is the press) than they are. Personally the guy should be forced to take customer service classes to understand his role in dealing with the public. If I were running the museum he wouldn't have his job any longer after today. - Robert Scoble

Let's turn this around. Would this guy keep his job if he kicked a journalist from the New York Times out of the museum? No he wouldn't. Thomas Hawk is just as powerful as any journalist from the New York Times (and has, even, been in the New York Times). The guy who kicked him out should be fired, or at minimum, retrained for how to deal with the new press (ie, everyone). - Robert Scoble

And Cyndy, sometimes a mob is needed to make a point that this kind of stuff is totally unacceptable. This organization had a rule that photography was allowed. It should be enforced consistently with all patrons. Also, don't allow your employees to make it up on the spot and cause yourself and your brand embarrassment. Finally, if someone is a paying member of your organization they deserve better treatment than getting walked to the front door. - Robert Scoble

Well written Cyndy, but I respectfully disagree. There is a bigger problem here than just this one incident. There have been at least three stories in recent weeks about photographers being harassed by police and other "public servant" types. We are starting to walk that fine line between freedom and oppression and it's time that the "mob" or community (wherever it may be) starts to speak up about this. When someone is following the rules or is in a public space, no one has the right to harass him. -

Perhaps Thomas Hawk could have dealt with this in a more mature manner, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because I often say things in anger that later I would have expressed differently. I realize we only have one side of the story, but Simon Blint and SF MOMA have not responded with their side of the story. Again, I'm more concerned about the deeper issue of individual rights and am glad that Thomas brought this to light. -

JMS: there's no excuse for the other side of the story. Think about what would happen if the New York Times was walked to the front door. Both this guy and the PR director would be looking for jobs right now. It wouldn't even matter if the NYT photographer was rude, or difficult to deal with. That's just how things work. People with power don't get shown the front door in our society. The mob now has power and is demanding their heads and rightfully so. - Robert Scoble

True Robert, As someone who works with the public every day, I completely agree. But I'm still interested in whatever excuse they might make. If only to hear how they are going to rectify the situation. -

i read the story. yes calling names such as Thomas did is perhaps over the board but behaviour exhibited by security guy was totally uncalled for as well. As said, dealing with new media is smth all those who have to deal at one or another point of time must learn. There was this year a similar scandal where a guy, whose mother was cheated, called on LiveJournal on mob to "bring down" the producer of the drug sold to his mother for big money. That company never recovered since. - Hayk H.

Being apologetic and polite would not have cut it. Winning the mob, like in old times is what will bring about the change, although it might seem painful for some. Now this sec. guy will think again before behaving similarly. - Hayk H.

Cyndy points out that 'the SF MOMA employee’s name is all over the tubes this weekend with no chance to defend himself'. While we have not heard the other side of the story yet, Simon and the SF MOMA have now had 2 days to respond and they have not. If they really cared about this issue it seems like they should have responded quickly to diffuse the viral spread of TH's side of the... more... - Jeff P. Henderson

I hear the objections to TH's use of the expletive and frankly they just aren't doing it for me. Yes, he's a CEO but so was Ted Turner and he wouldn't have hesitated to throw on a half-dozen more colorful qualifiers if this incident happened to him. I'm also hearing a lot about Blint's side of the story. If he has one he should have had it ready the day he chose to interpret SFMoMA's... more... - Christopher Harley

Cyndy, I appreciate your take on the controversy, and I also respectively disagree. Allegedly, TH was wronged by the MOMA, and he took to the interwebs to bitch about it. All his "mob" did was spread the word, like passing out leaflets at a concert asking passers-by to support anti-deforestation. I do agree that kind of in-your-face sensationalism can be annoying, but distribution methods don't have to please everyone. - Pete Delucchi

At the point at which the employee's name was posted, it was over the line. If SFMOMA had done the reverse and called out Hawk as a belligerent nuisance, would the reaction be the same? Also, why is SFMOMA required to respond online? The personal info angle is what is completely inappropriate. - Cyndy

I've been on Flickr for several years, and I've seen Thomas Hawk's crusades before. He truly enjoys tilting at windmills and bringing along as big a torchweilding mob as he can gather. There've been issues a lot smaller than this that he's spent weeks ranting in multi-page diatribes about. Now that he has this new forum for mob-gathering, expect to be rounded up on a semi-regular basis to rally to his defense after he's pushed someone into a confrontation. - Jason Carreira

I think the real issue stems from trumped up "security" meant to keep us "safe." All sorts of power-tripping security guards and police have become accustomed to people immediately accepting restricted rights with the magic words "post 9/11." The reason it is such a hot-button issue is that most people have not pushed back against the Patriot act and all it (theoretically) allows law... more... - Richard pancakhaus Walker

It should be pointed out that Thomas Hawk is a pseudonym. - Jason Carreira

Jason has a point, and until we were discussing it, I'd forgotten that was a pseudonym. Now I'm sure it was over the line. He won't use his real name yet had no trouble publicizing someone else's. - Cyndy

Cyndy, I appreciate your post and criticism. A DSLR is most certainly a handheld camera. In the case regarding Jill Greenberg, yes, I feel it is abhorrent for someone to strip 30+ children naked and purposely use lollipops to get them *extremely* worked up and provoke them into anguish as an art project. Look at the photos. It's more than just a few tears. I doubt you'd subject your child to that sort of activity, I doubt most rational human beings would either, but that's a different story. - Thomas Hawk

Cyndy... "If SFMOMA had done the reverse and called out Hawk as a belligerent nuisance" Lets be clear on something, SFMOMA had nothing to do with this. The employee in question acted outside the rules set by MOMA and took it apon himself to have a person ejected DESPITE other people in the gallery performing the same actions. And as "Director of Visitor Relations", you are not some type of low level employee, you are a person who is the public face of an organisation. - Johnny Worthington

Jason... Crusades? How about issues that need dealing with. How about the right to attend a public space without hassel? How about the right to enter a property and while following the guidelines of that organisation not be ejected. As a person who got questioned more than 6 times on Saturday at our state fair here in Australia when I was taking photos of MY daughter. Grab me a torch - Johnny Worthington

Cyndy, Jason, you are just figuring out that TH is a pseudonym? This is common knowledge and has been for about 7 years. What does that have to do with this issue or anything else for that matter? - Jeff P. Henderson

We all must occasionally vent steam. Social networks enable our venting to more efficiently affect a large group of people, giving them the chance to also vent steam where previously they may not have had reason or opportunity to do so. I'll leave my pitchfork aside for now. - Slappy Line

The new 'likey' is for the dialog.... which (while perhaps a little out of control) has been the most important part of the story. Food for thought for everyone. Mark T - Agree Friendfeed needs a few new features, especially for those of us that keep it open to a lot of people, but think about how many people right now are sitting back and considering their own stuff ... possible including my own Facebook rant earlier this week, which was very much off the top and could have been much better. - Charlie Anzman

To those who would say behaviour like that stated in the article isn't group think I have to disagree. We voice our opinions here on popular entries because we think it will be the right thing to say. We want to affirm the sentiments of the post (for the most part). I have yet to see a social network that can combat against this phenomenon. When we reward opinions with popularity or... more... - Derick Valadao

Thomas Hawk

Simon Blint, Director of Visitor Relations at the SF MOMA, Yeah You Asshole, Photography is Not a Crime - http://thomashawk.com/2008...

August 8, 2008 from Thomas Hawk's Digital... - Comment - Like - Share

William Spaetzel, Ole Begemann, Ihar Mahaniok and 96 other people liked this

still reading...but my jaw is dropped right now! - Justin Korn

43 more comments

Wow, that's unbelievable. - Chris Rivait

Blint and the SFMOMA can kiss my...time to get a group of photogs to all go in together? Let me know when the beg to apologize. - Justin Korn

It is pretty crappy. To accuse someone of using a telephoto to spy on his employees is a crappy charge and not something that one ought to get kicked out of a museum for. If the SF MOMA doesn't want their employees that sit in the atrium appearing in photos then they should not have a "photography is allowed policy" per their website in their atrium. Simon Blint is like plenty of other assholes I've run into over the years. A power trippy person who gets upset when someone challenges their word. - Thomas Hawk

Digg it up...http://digg.com/travel_... - Justin Korn

thanks Justin, appreciate the digg and support. - Thomas Hawk

TH: This is absolutely ridiculous! I don't have that much (any?) power, but I'm going to do everything I can do get this story out (not that you don't have enough followers/supporters) - Justin Korn

"Blint obviously knows nothing of photography because the 14mm ultra wide angle lens on my camera body was about the furthest thing possible from a telephoto lens." Ultra-LOL - Johnny Worthington

Sigh. Amazing that they are still being jerks about photography. - Robert Scoble

It appears that they have (just?) changed their policy on the website. "Photography is not permitted in the galleries. Flash photography is permitted only with a handheld camera in the Atrium." http://bit.ly/4sm86V - Jauder Ho

Jauder: But TH was in the Atrium, and he wasn't using a tripod, so his camera was handheld. Do you interpret the policy as 'only flash cameras are okay. Cameras without flashes are not'? - Kevin Fox

So 'handheld' must only be point and shoot... - Johnny Worthington

Kevin: Upon initial reading of the policy, for some reason I fixated/associated it to mean only P&S. My bad. I do not like what happened to TH and would definitely like to see a reponse from MOMA addressing this. - Jauder Ho from twhirl

sounds like the Curator of the SF MOMA needs a slew of emails , in protest . Perhaps a large photography meetup at the SFMOMA . Press Office commassistant@sfmoma.org - johnpiercy

A photowalk with video camera would be lots of fun! Then we could have a segment about "what to do if you are accosted by an asshole." :-) - Robert Scoble

I'm in for a photowalk over there. I just sent an email to the curator as well. - Justin Korn

http://www.google.com/search... I hope this is just a wake up call for him and that he doesn't lose his job over his poor behavior. - EricaJoy

Sounds like a good human interest 'new story' for a local TV station or Newspaper. Works every time - Charlie Anzman

@Erica incompetence at a high-level position like that where interfacing with the public is priority #1 is exactly the sort of reason he should be severely reprimanded or terminated. That's the last thing a museum needs is bad press. - Pete Delucchi

Thomas - want to come visit DC's Union Station with me? - Andrew Feinberg

Nice shot from the Atrium BTW - Johnny Worthington

Reprimanded yes. Fired? Only if he has an established pattern of this sort of behavior. - EricaJoy

I dugg the post, and sent an e-mail to relay my astonishment. Looking at the other staff members' e-mail addresses on the PR contact page, it was pretty easy to guess at Simon's. - Tom Harrison

like, dugg, shared and whatever else you need to help :) - Tim Hoeck

I'm sorry you got kicked out, Thomas! What I really don't understand about his accusation of your spying (and it seems to be a common excuse to try to stop photography these days) is that newer P&S cameras are capable of crazy zoom. If someone were spying, do they not think they would want to be the LEAST conspicuous? It makes no sense. - carlotta fancypants

I can't believe this happened. I hope everyone talks up this issue and something changes. I noticed that people react differently when you use a DSLR instead of a small point-n-shoot. - Tom Newman

Ppl freak out when I pull out my DSLR..... - John Staton

But more and more people have DSLRs these days -- I think they will just have to get used to it - Brian Sullivan

facebook profile -Simon Blint http://www.facebook.com/home... - johnpiercy

Wow, what a muppet. - Andrew Garrett

I just delicious tagged and anonymous tipped your story for SFist... we'll see if they pick it up... - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Tomorrow night I'm going to see two friends who work in the SF MOMA dungeon. I'll ask them about this miscreant. - Richard pancakhaus Walker

I left an hour before this happened but not before I had to body check the over zealous security girl who literally got within 6 inches of my personal space because I refused to acknowledge her 2nd request to turn my off camera. - Mrsth

Simon Blintz is a douche nozzle. He needs a good kick in the nuts. - noeltykay

Something tells me he's going to have come to his senses by Monday. - Pete Delucchi

If you haven't dugg it yet (only 200 or so have!) do it...http://digg.com/travel_... - Justin Korn

Holy sh**. I took tons of photos at the Louvre and no one cared. - sergiooo from NoiseRiver

Ridiculous. This type of stuff really annoys me and makes me wonder about the future of public photography in general. I'm amazed at how quickly our photographic freedoms are being torn away by unbased bias and fear. GRRRRRRR. - Sam Dodge

Interestingly, Simon seems to shoot with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. http://flickr.com/search... His behavior seems more douchey to me now. - EricaJoy

This man needs to loose his job over this incident. Not even a public apology should save him from getting canned. I've had a similar incident regarding my camera at a NY Islanders game in the Nassau Coliseum and have been following Thomas Hawk's series of posts about the museum with interest. David Pogue wrote about this as well after a motocross event incident a few months back. - Tony Vota

Wow! 12 pages of ff entries on "Simon Blint" in just 19 hours. http://friendfeed.com/search... - Jesper Kjær Hansen

What a nippy arse. Hope he gets read the riot act. - Chris Nixon

There are some comments over on SFist from people with first-hand opinions: http://sfist.com/2008... - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Oh, and one more thing to all of you that are trying to make this an issue of Hawk's or Blint's character, I think the real issue stems from trumped up "security" meant to keep us "safe." All sorts of power-tripping security guards and police have become accustomed to people immediately accepting restricted rights with the magic words "post 9/11." The reason it is such a hot-button... more... - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Sorry this happened to you Thomas, it's strange to see how close minded and arrogant are some of the people in art institution. What happened to you and to me last week is a sign of the times: photography is increasingly seen as a danger as it cannot be controlled. http://digg.com/arts_cu... - Davide Bedin

Scott Beale

Did you beat me up Friday night? - http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc...

August 4, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff P. Henderson, Hutch Carpenter and Jon Dillon liked this

I'd love to know the outcome to this story - Jon Dillon

2 more comments

That would be admitting to assault which is a crime, right? - Larry Kless from twhirl

So did u get beaten up? :) - Arjun

Craigslist can be such a strange place. - Jeremy Brooks

Jeremy Toeman

The FriendFeed Drinking Game - http://www.livedigitally.com/2008...

July 8, 2008 from Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally - Comment - Like - Share

Jason R. Hunter, anna sauce, Eric Schlissel and 37 other people liked this

Let the games begin! - Justin Korn

20 more comments

I am going to be in trouble here. - Louis Gray

Oh Christ, it's a weekday! Think of the children! - Mark Trapp

No one ever thinks of the children. *weeps* - B. Hatin

That is both brilliant, and humiliating. - BISQ

No one who is on friendfeed tonight should be driving :) - Gavin

I wish someone thought of this when I still had a babysitter! - Michelle Martinez

You hide a Flickr entry because it's NSFW, take a drink. You see an entry from more than two weeks ago come up again, take a drink. The entry from more than two weeks ago is Eddie Murphy's huge head, chug it! - Mike Doeff

Now that's a drinking game that everyone can "win". :-D - David Cook

Let the game end! Please, I feel sick already. (should have replaced the beer by applejuice). - Ton Zijp

Louis, don't give in! You and I will be the only sober ones here. ;-) - Jesse Stay

That's really good stuff Jeremy. (takes drink for making comment #12 on this post) - Hutch Carpenter

Jesse, I was planning on consuming a lot of Diet Coke. :-) - Louis Gray

Louis, Pepsi all the way here - tempted to go for the hard stuff though (Mountain Dew) - Jesse Stay from twhirl

That game would have me drunk in no time! hehehehe! - Susan Beebe

this game is unbeatable hehe nice one :-D - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Can I play at work? :P - Shey, Jamaican of FF

@shey of course you can! what do you think the bathroom stalls are for?! - acedanger

I guess I should add: if your own entry hits Best of Day, chug away! - Jeremy Toeman

I take it there are a lot of hangovers this morning if everyone played this yesterday! - Joe Dawson

I was awake all night - Jesse Stay from twhirl

This would be a short game. - Pete Delucchi

Dave Winer

Just gave $100 to Obama. McC should be careful not to run motivational ads around the end of the month.

July 31, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Brad Nickel, Katie Ratcliffe, Jon Dillon and 9 other people liked this

Now why didn't I ever consider that? Keen observation, Dave. - Christopher Harley

6 more comments

I thought you stopped donating after the FISA fiasco. - Ken

Memories are short in U.S. politics - Brian Sullivan

I donated 10$ last week and 10$ this week. Brings my total donation so far up from 50$ to 70$. I donated the $50 right after Obama won Super Tuesday. Everytime McCain does something monumentally stupid, I'll donate another 10$. I gave $20 in the last 2 weeks because he's been on a roll.... - Joel Ross Housman

I've been trying to turn NC blue, by donating to Harry Taylor on ActBlue. I appreciate his courage for standing up to Mr. Bush, and telling him what many wanted to say, but were too pussilanimous. Is Obama hurting for cash? Seems to me that he will be a shoe-in... - david beckwith

I donated $25 to the Obama campaign last night. I used to respect McCain, until he became McSame and seemed to start using the same kind of rotten attacks that Rove used on him in 2000. - ha3rvey (business time)

i don't like giving cash to any of these politicians. they'll never be hurting for it and I Want My iphone imac macair updated airexpress newwardrobe credit carddebtpaidoff longhaulflightsaroundtheworld4timesayear ... but sadly obama is always the underdog, will always be, has always been, just like hillary. no matter what anybody says, we know it's true. i'm giving as much money as i can and trying not to let it keep me up nights. ... just my opinion, of course. :-) - Katie Ratcliffe

I was in too. Love how you characterized it though. - Brad Nickel

Andrew Baron

Disney Often Re-Uses Same Frames - http://www.hemmy.net/2006...

July 31, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Diana Valerini, Josh Haley, Steven Perez and 91 other people liked this

Childhood---ruined. - Josh

30 more comments

sweet merciful strawberries, now i'm going to have a nightmares about Christopher Robin being set upon by a tiger. - idnan

that is amazing; who'd have thought? - Herman I May

Cheapskates - James Tenniswood

I'm not complaining. The first like six Disney films were drawn and animated by TWO guys. Not a team, not a server farm, not overseas Korean animators. TWO GUYS. - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

Christopher Robin is really Tarzan? -

Very smart of Disney. Keeping costs down benefits the movie goer as much as the studio. - Michael Tefft

It makes sense considering that the Disney films back in the day were literally animated .. aka done by hand and not computers. I think that makes them more enjoyable knowing all of the hard work that went into them. - ::Kristen::

Those rich cheap bastards! - Outsanity

Hey, that was a good scene. Re-use it again :) - TDavid

I totally noticed that Mowgli moved a LOT like Arthur in "Sword in the Stone" when I was little! When I was younger... ok, yesterday! - Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕

They used to have to wash the animation cels and reuse them as well. This stuff has always been pretty expensive to produce. You need someone to draw it, someone to ink it, someone to paint, need gorgeous backgrounds, massive camera setups, etc etc etc. If there aren't enough people then yeah two dudes have to do all of that. All under a tight budget and tight time constraints. - sergiooo

For those interested in possibly re-using other Disney (and others) backgrounds, check out: http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/ - Mark Trapp

shh, don't tell anyone: even bloggers sometimes re-use their content. - Benedikt Koehler

Mark: thanks for that link. I loves those background. - Chris Rivait

@Mark, cool site thanks. - Andrew Smith

wow, once again I learnt something I didn't know - Jon Dillon

Just learnt that learnt is British english only too. I'm on a roll today - Jon Dillon

Wow! very interesting - Kamilah Gill

Surprise!! we re-use code, why shouldn't they re-use creatives? smart!! (but i do feel sorta ripped off ...childhood is now less cool all of a sudden...nah! just kidding!!) - Susan Beebe

Stock footage comes to the animation world.... - kamla bhatt

Smart of cheap? - Kol Tregaskes

Same layout, but pretty different. There's no pooh in Jungle Book. Just that big bear. Maybe Jungle Book is just a localized version of Winnie the Pooh? ;) - Patrick Beard from twhirl

Interesting, now I wanna watch them! :) - Oli Kenobi

Makes sense, you have to reuse anything you can in animation, it's costly to produce every single frame, especially when they're hand drawn. They don't completely reuse the frame, just the basic, note each example was altered to fit into its movie/art style. If they didn't reuse the frames, body positions, and animations then each Disney movie would have a different feel entirely, you wouldn't get that "Disney-looking-movie" feel that everyone likes. - xero

and they recycle plots, too! - Bill Sodeman

In the programming world, it's called DRY, "Don't Repeat Yourself." :) - imabonehead

They also re-use other character and stories taken from other animation studios: http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2... - Diego Magnani

I was just talking about this yesterday but couldn't remember where I had first seen it...thanks! - cmiper

Interesting to see how similar those scenes are. - Daniel Schildt

in the software industry we call it...JUST SHIP IT - Ryan

"By the time they find the bugs, we'll have them fixed and can send them a quick hot-fix." If I only had a nickel every time I heard that one!! - Tad

edythe

BIG GIANT HELVETICA - http://biggianthelvetica.com/

July 29, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Pete Delucchi, Sparky, Victor Ryden and 5 other people liked this

"Type your message:" - edythe from Bookmarklet

12 more comments

perfect for screen cap'ing junkies like me! - Mona Nomura

Oh Helvetica, what aren't you good for? - Mark Trapp

ha, mark. - edythe

Quick! Someone register BigGiantTimesNewRoman.com. We've found Web 3.0. - Chris Baskind

I'm preemptively squatting on BigGiantComicSans.com. To protect humanity. - Mark Trapp

$10 well spent, Mark. We're grateful. - Chris Baskind

Mark is the savior of mankind. - Andrew Trinh

He's taking one for the team. - Akiva Moskovitz

lol Mark Trapp - Kamilah Gill

Except, um, I don't think that that's Helvetica (well, it is if you have Helvetica installed on your system). - Akiva Moskovitz

Arial if you don't, athough I don't know why you wouldn't have Helvetica. - Mark Trapp

I just happen to not have it on my laptop for some reason. - Akiva Moskovitz

You typeface rebel without a cause, you. - Mark Trapp

Mike Doeff

Twitter Blog: Twitter As News-wire - http://blog.twitter.com/2008...

July 29, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Tamar Weinberg, Fuad Arshad, Mitchell Tsai and 19 other people liked this

"This chart illustrates the beginning of this morning's earthquake followed seconds later by the first Twitter update from Los Angeles. About four minutes later, official news began to emerge about the quake." - Mike Doeff from Bookmarklet

7 more comments

It's interesting to compare the volume of tweets from the October 2007 (9 months ago) quake in the Bay Area (a 5.6) with the quake from today, which was a similar magnitude (a 5.4). It looks like the volume of tweets is about 4x larger for today's quake. In other words, Twitter has grown A LOT since last October. - Mike Doeff

Could also be a larger # of LA folks on Twitter. It's a bigger city after all. - Tsega Dinka

Its a shame more people in the don't subscribe to the AFP wire. We moved the earthquake urgent at 11.46 after it was confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey, 5 minutes ahead of AP. --- URGENT Powerful quake felt in Los Angeles 07/29/2008 11:46 - US-QUAKE-CALIFORNIA - World News (ANA) - AFP LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2008 (AFP) - A strong earthquake was felt in Los Angeles on Tuesday, causing buildings to shake but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, witnesses said. rcw/cl - Jon Dillon

Tsega - but we should also consider the tweets from people who weren't in the area but are talking about it - e.g. "I heard that there was a quake in SoCal". - Mike Doeff

You make a good point - Tsega Dinka

Tsega - that has me thinking - wouldn't it be cool if you could do a Twitter search on some term and then be able to look at a heat map showing the locations of everyone's tweets based on the profile location? e.g. if someone did a search on "quake" today you'd see a concentration of tweets in SoCal. - Mike Doeff

Mike - heat map would kick ass for this kind of information. It would really tell the story of how news spreads. - Tsega Dinka

the heat map idea is nice and might actually work since most tweeter have a location in their profile and twittervision actually uses that to show where a tweet came from - Fuad Arshad

Thomas Hawk

Hot Donkey! Thomas Hawk is Getting Fiber! Internet is Gonna Fly Baby! - http://thomashawk.com/2008...

July 26, 2008 from Thomas Hawk's Digital... - Comment - Like - Share

RyanEs, Parth Awasthi, Russellreno and 23 other people liked this

After 10 years of slooowwwww DSL, fiber finally makes it to my house! Awesome! - Thomas Hawk

31 more comments

Sweet! - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Wish we had the option here in Phoenix... - Tad

So jealous! - Michelle Martinez

I liked this because thomas will be ab le to upload his incredible pictures faster!! - Cody Heitschmidt from fftogo

I just got DSL from 56k a year ago, spoiled! :P - Michael W. May from twhirl

Wow, I'm jealous. Maybe the service will be available in Fresno soon. - imabonehead

Thomas, are they actually terminating fiber at your house? From what I understand of U-verse, it's fiber to the neighborhood then DSL to your house. http://bit.ly/2LvRll - Jauder Ho

Damn you and your sweet, sweet fiber! ;) - Chris Luckhardt

Hey Thomas, you might consider reducing the amount of posts displayed on your blog. I'm running a fast DSL connection, and your page took around 30 seconds ot load because of all the pictures. Just something to consider. Good luck with AT&T! - James Mowery from twhirl

Jauder, it's my understanding that they put some sort of connection box on my street and that they connect in from there. Not sure exactly how all that works. - Thomas Hawk

good point on my blog James, maybe I'll reduce the number of posts on the page. - Thomas Hawk

Have had FiOS for over a year at 50 Mn down and 20 Mb up, it's heaven. Congrats ;) - Andru Edwards

*Jealous!* - Susan Beebe

FIOS would be great. I checked with Verizon even about 2 weeks ago and it said it wasn't in my area yet. But this is going to be a *huge* improvement for me. Previously I was only able to get about 1.5MBPS with the top DSL package from AT&T and that was $60 per month. Now I pay $109 and get fiber *plus* the whole TV package thing. - Thomas Hawk

also jealous! - asiriusgeek

Thomas ... moved from a new hot fibre 20M to a DSL only area few months back. Ughhh! Just made a bid on a house 20 mi from here with 20-30M service. (Really) The DSL isn't horrid for what I do, but miss the lightning speed...bad! When FIOS hits PA ... I'm there. - Charlie Anzman

Thomas, can you split one of your fiber lines and send one over to my house please? That'd be great! :) - Justin Korn

Fingers crossed that everything goes well for you with the install. Lets hope the AT&T Fiber service is all it's cracked up to be and starts appearing elsewhere ASAP - Jon Dillon

got fios when we moved back to dc - love the internet but the tv service has a loooooong way to go - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

Marco - where in DC can you get FIOS? - Andrew Feinberg

God that must be great. I would run the fiber myself if i could get that kind of speed. - Zach Scott

@feinberg sorry used the lazy "outside-the-beltway" descriptor - actually live in Alexandria, right off of Edsall Rd. - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

@marco bah! got me all excited for nothing! - Andrew Feinberg

hehe sry man - you know how it is though - its just easier to say DC than to explain old town/alexandria/falls church/balston etc - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

Fios here by the end of the year supposedly, already have it up the road in Towson - Jeff Quinton

Hah! I totally missed the context of this... I thought "Why is eating lots of fiber going to make the INTERNET fly?" - Bad, bad, stupid brain. - Fa La La La Lindsay

"Hot donkey"? Heh. - Nathan Rein

I hope AT&T brings fiber to Fremont soon. - DGentry

Hee hee Lindsay. Maybe "internet" is a euphamism? - Tad

When Thomas starts a sentence with Hot Donkey you knoe the news is good. - Russellreno

Actually my friend Rudi O'Meara first coined the term "hot donkey," but I've borrowed it liberally over the years. http://www.google.com/search... - Thomas Hawk

I've got U-verse and I'm not getting anywhere near the speeds talked about here. I'm lucky if I get 7 mbps down. I typically get around 5. - RyanEs

Bret Taylor

The FriendFeed Whiteboard - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

July 25, 2008 from YouTube favorites - Comment - Like - Share

Moishe Lettvin, kamla bhatt, K.D. and 68 other people liked this

OMG! Awesome!! - April Buchheit

10 more comments

nice :) - Shey, Jamaican of FF

not only programmers but artists ,,,,, - johnpiercy

Really cool. Where can I get a t-shirt like that? - Rutger Blom

@Rutger: http://www.cafepress.com/friendf... - xero

Very cool ;) - Nicholas Kreidberg

gotta love the white board.. mine just has silly comments the mrs. writes to me. - James Delong from twhirl

Hope it will take off for the YouTube Audiences (Mainstream). Depicting the Youtube video on the top of the page is smart. - siavash

I want a friendfeed T-shirt. - friendfeed

I can't draw that straight on a whiteboard, but I can paint a perfect line with a brush and some oil. Why? - Clay Newton

Wow, now I look cool as a FriendFeed user. EDIT: I'd also like to say that you made a really good choice of music. - Rishabh Mishra (p248) from NoiseRiver

Looks to me like they're erasing a pre-drawn whiteboard, and play it for us backwards. The signatures at the end are a clue, as is the way they approach the whiteboard at the start. I think it's still pretty clever, because it means they would be able to get it right in one take. - Robert Konigsberg

Veronica

Muppets - Mahna Mahna - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

July 17, 2008 from YouTube favorites - Comment - Like - Share

John Asselin, Alexei Tolkachev, morifuku and 74 other people liked this

its strangely compelling.. almost in a mind control manner... - Hank from twhirl

17 more comments

Good find. :) - l0ckergn0me

I've always loved this for some reason. - Matt

This is just what I needed. - cecily

Ha! The question is indeed- 'What is a Mahna Mahna?' - michael sean wright

Check this out from the UK version of The Office http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Matt

One of my favorite Sesame Street things evar! - Fa La La La Lindsay

Bring back the Muppets - now more than ever.... - Sean Alexander

@Matt: Awesome... I don't even have to watch the video to remember that scene. :) - Cheryl Jones

Mah-nà Mah-nà was originally recorded for the soundtrack to an Italian Porn (see "Fun Stuff") http://www.imdb.com/title... - cmiper

Aww, so timely, it's our 4th wedding anniversary today. This is the song we played at our reception when our flower girls & ring bearer were announced at their entrance to the reception. Thanks for posting a good memory for me :) - TheMacMommy from twhirl

Original Mahna-Mahna from the movie (SFW) http://youtube.com/watch... - cmiper

Congrats, TheMacMommy! - Jeremy Brooks

Macmommy, that's awesome! - Veronica

Why am I watching this? Ooh thats right because it is somehow oddly satisfying to watch. - Andrew Fielding

Me and my little Bro would drive my Mom crazy with this one...lol...THX - Michael999

Ha! What a coincidence. Yesterday we went to an exhibition in Washington DC, dedicated to Henson. Check this out: http://www.sites.si.edu/henson - Nikos Anagnostou

funny - morifuku

its already my ring tone..... - James Fridley

Corvida

Oh God. I don't care what anyone says at this point. Loren Feldman is racist. Point blank period.

July 17, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

jeneane sessum, Hashim Warren, Jeremiah Owyang and 28 other people liked this

Why does anybody pay attention to that douchebag anyway? - David Risley

27 more comments

Did I miss something? - Yolanda

whats the scoop..tell the story. Calling a person is not wrong, but you gotta substanitate too !! - Peter Dawson

Liking just so I can follow - wanna know why Corvida has said what she's said. - Tad

Pretty sure it's because of this racist video: http://www.1938media.com/affirma... That guy is a prick. - Mark Trapp

DA here. For the slightly un-informed, why do you feel this way? - Mathew A. Koeneker

Corvida lays it our pretty clearly here | http://shegeeks.net/adding-... - Jon Dillon

oh dear... just watched the video Mark links above... not sure what to say - Tad

Oh my god. I can't find the words. I do not know how to describe or explain this. At least with the other video you could just say bad satire. After the past week, how can you release this video? - Rob Diana

Yikes. That passes my litmus test. Whether truly a rascist or just acting out for attention, that is putrid stuff. - Mathew A. Koeneker from fftogo

Loren Feldman is either a racist or is choosing to use racist humor to create a firestorm of commentary that results in links, traffic, and personal reputation. Either way, he is not deserving of any mindshare or attention. Lets just ignore and BLOCK him and move on to more important issues. - Elliott Ng

The conversation is building again: "Ignore him, he's a sorry excuse for humanity" or "Those who ignore him are just as guilty." I tend toward the former but another commenter the other day implied that meant I had no morals or ethics. If nothing else, we can all agree that he's pathetic and needs to climb back under his rock. - Carla Thompson

I had never heard of him until reading this, so I'll just move on and forget his name in thirty seconds. - Rob Reed

You know, I've really liked a lot of Loren's stuff in the past -- most of it actually. I think this video though is sad. It's not at all funny. It's meant to be inflammatory without any redeeming quality that I can find. Even though it's humor, even though it's a puppet, I find it racist as well. That's too bad. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas: Sorry that you like or liked Loren's stuff. I have always thought him a bit of a slimeball - Brian Sullivan

I'm sure he'll continue to argue he's not a racist, but whether he is or not doesn't matter to me. Being as painfully stupid and unfunny as he is, should be a crime of some sort. - Richard Lawler from twhirl

Like Thomas, I really a like a lot of his stuff (his puppet interviews with people in the tech industry were great among other things), he's very smart and talented, but I always kinda imagined him as reincarnated Nazi officer or something like that. The whole 1938 thing, his theme song, his looks and voice. Makes me think of World War II. It'd sure be interesting to have a talented psychic do a reading on him! I have nothing against him though, and look forward to see what he has in store. - Vincent X

yeah I really do wish that people who insist on linking to him, even if just to point out his racist jackassery, would use either nofollow, or title="racist asshole" - Ross McKillop

Vinny, I think Feldman might be able to pull something like that off if he did it right in part because he's Jewish. In the same way that Chris Rock can pull some of his humor off because he's black. You have to be careful with racial sterotype stuff though. I think that this video 1. is not funny or intelligent and 2. is racist and alienates a whole bunch of people for no discernible reason that I can tell. It's a bad move and bad for Loren and his show. - Thomas Hawk

Yawn - sean percival

Loren has sure received a lot of attention (and free press) because of all of this. Why doesn't everyone just ignore him and move on? - Scott Wamsley

Thomas: I agree. - Vincent X

I'm just. Uh. Wow. There's no reason to have reasoned debate about his material. I tap out. - Jason Toney

+1 Scott - David Worrell

oh he's at it again.. he did this earlier in his career too (da N video @podtech) .. he's pushing the envelope again. once is a mistake , twice means he's stupid ! - Peter Dawson

Just watched it because of the comments... Don't like it, not funny, won't spend more time on 1938media... Perhaps pointing me to it isn't that bad after all ;) - Marco

Feldman strikes me as the kinda guy who would pound his thumb with a hammer thirty times in a row just to prove that he actually meant to miss the nail the first time. - Roger Benningfield

I didn't even really get the appeal before, but now... It's like he wants to be known as a racist. - Sarah Perez

the conversation we should be having about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Richard Lawler

Jason Calacanis

Just posted "Love and failure" to Jason's List -- got tremendous response. Folks say it's best thing I've ever written. High praise... thanks guys. - https://my.binhost.com/lists...

July 21, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Benedikt Koehler, jason l baptiste, Jon Dillon and 2 other people liked this

It was a very good piece, very informative and very helpful. thanks - Jon Dillon

5 more comments

thanks Gregory... got a lot of great feedback on the AROD/Madonna theories in relation to the election in november. - Jason Calacanis

brilliant, more than any mba curriculum could offer - and free :) - franzstehrn

saw it on fb. loved it. going to write a post based upon the "what does your company do in a sentence" part - jason l baptiste

i showed my business partner. a good dose of reality and motivational at the same time - Marissa "malouie"

Exceptional piece. Should be required reading (as a chapter in your book). If you don't have a book deal, get one, and include that post as a sample chapter in your pitch. - Michael Markman

Anyone know what the Jason's list emails come in as? I'm on the list and not getting them. I think it might be caught in Gmail spam filter - JMaultasch

Steve Isaacs

Pictures - Taken Just At The Right Time - http://www.blingit.us/blog...

July 21, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Alexandru Savu, Mike Fruchter, Costantino B. and 26 other people liked this

LOL - Mona Nomura from fftogo

3 more comments

1 second till om nom nom :O - Hao Chen

I'd say that the first one is fake... - Yuvi

awesome, i have seen some of these before - a lot of them strike to close to home especially the mtb ones & as a lifetime surfer, the great white one will give me nightmares for sure :-p - mike "glemak" dunn

reposted this steve - for my non steve isaacs following friends ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

Steve Isaacs

iPhone apps 10 days later: What are your favorites? What was a passing fancy? What's a clever time waster? What can't you live without? What sucks?

July 21, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Jon Dillon and edythe liked this

BigTipper is a god send, same goes for Units, Pandora is a winner, Exposure got boring real quick, the App store is a time sink - Jon Dillon

I'm digging Jott for a networked todo list, Aqua Forest for a game, Shazam music recognition tool cause it's amazing, and music discovery service Pandora because it's simple and very useful. - Steve Isaacs

edythe

Amazon's S3 Storage Outage Felt Everywhere: Even My iPhone - http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008...

July 20, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Jason Toney, michael sean wright, Jamie and 10 other people liked this

""I am still not mad, we need to be patient," Tweets Alex Iskold, CEO of AdaptiveBlue, which uses S3 for their software, several hours into the outage. "This ain't simple." But we bet every S3 customer that doesn't have a solid backup plan in place is rethinking theirs this afternoon. Tapulous, for example, is pushing an updated version of Twinkle to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone app store as soon as it can, which (we hope) includes a "don't crash if S3 dies" provision." - edythe from Bookmarklet

7 more comments

wow... this is bad. :( - Brandon

http://status.aws.amazon.com/ - Brandon

That status page has been *cough* downplaying *cough* the problems all day - Michael W. May from twhirl

http://friendfeed.com/e... - Anthony Citrano

It, once again, points up the need (or necessity) of distributed systems. One system's outage should not be able to have such a dramatic effect. - Douglas E. Welch from twhirl

S3 is a distributed system, so what was your point? - Jason Carreira

It looks like Douglas doesn't know Lamport's Law: "A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable. " This outage merely shows why it's important for someone to clone Amazon's APIs and offer a backup for AWS users. Good luck on finding a way to earn money doing that though. - Adewale Oshineye

@mwm ... yes they've routinely downplayed every single outage. I use S3 for practically everything. :( @Andewale ... yeah, good luck with that. - Brandon

MG Siegler

Love that when S3 goes down the entire Internet loses its face (service avatars)

July 20, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

rob zand, Niv, Warner Crocker and 8 other people liked this

Yeah - a good example of why one should not try to use Amazon S3 as a CDN. - Anthony Citrano

Funny - just noticed this on friendfeed. Caching is good. - Mark Interrante

its amazing how many services now rely on Amazon. You only really notice when it goes down - Jon Dillon

Charlie Anzman

The amount of people calling themselves social media consultants has now exceeded the amount of Twitter users

July 18, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Katie Ratcliffe, Mike Fruchter, Roger Benningfield and 7 other people liked this

I still don't understand what a "social media consultant" is. I understand other fields but I'm not sure if I understand what makes, creates or what it takes to be a "social media consultant". - Candace

My guess is just being on the adopting edge of whatever is out there and being on twitter and FF to "read the pulse". But i am not an expert - Cecil Sandus

Isn't that on same level as Amway Independent Sales Agent? - Mark Forman

ray

these things are everywhere!! - http://www.b3ta.com/

July 17, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Dylan McIntosh, RAPatton, edythe and 17 other people liked this

HAHA - Mona Nomura

2 more comments

nice! - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

...so does this mean that the GPS directions were wrong? - JA Castillo

I tittered. That's cute - Kamilah Gill

Hugh MacLeod

Wondering if they've invented an app yet that allows you to post on Twitter directly from Friendfeed...? More useful than doing vice-versa.

July 18, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Hutch Carpenter, Jon Dillon, j sven and Rodney Rumford liked this

I believe there is a greasemonkey app that does just that. Try internetducttape I think. You should also be able to find it at ffapps.com - David Adam

2 more comments

twitterfeed does that well but he's had some technical issues lately that he had to repair (not self inflicted) so not sure of the status - works well though - mike "glemak" dunn

The GM script is here: http://tinyurl.com/2vu4q2 If you respond to a tweet in FF it's sent by Twitter as well as posted on FF. - Jon Dillon

Thanks, Guys. I found the script: http://tinyurl.com/2vu4q2 - Hugh MacLeod

Robert Scoble

Welcome Twitterers! Here, let us show you around FriendFeed's cool features...

July 18, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Geoff Brown, Brian Roy, Tyson Key and 70 other people liked this

Check out the search engine. It's like Summize, except it searches ALL data types, not just Twitter messages. - Robert Scoble

50 more comments

Click on the "me" tab. That shows YOU what YOU posted. But then click on the "comments" and "like" links over on the right. That shows you what you commented on, or liked. Well, unless you're looking at the me tab on MY account! - Robert Scoble

what are the best apps? just installed MySocial 24x7 the FF3 sidebar, also playing aroung with Feedalizr and Alert Thingy - Tomas Nihlen

Don't miss the "Show best of." These will show you the most popular FF items of the day, week, or month. Great way to get up to speed on what gets discussed here (and to find some new people to subscribe to). - Robert Scoble

only thing is: (and like to emphasize that: I simply miss Twitter!) Come to think of it; can we, as long as Twitter's down, do a Miss Twitter Election? - Adri Munier

One day you like Twitter, the other day you hate it huh? ;-) - Rutger Blom

Comment often. Like often. These are signals to other people that you found an item engaging and important. Soon you'll find that we're also engaging on YOUR items. - Robert Scoble

Make sure you add all your feeds. Flickr photos. Upcoming events. Twitter (so we'll know when it's back up and be able to discuss your best tweets). Your Digg and Del.icio.us accounts. And lots more. The more you put into FriendFeed the more people will engage with you. - Robert Scoble

Is this planned maintenance or more of the same? I am trying to come up with reasons why FF should continue to take second place and I still can't work it out. What am I missing? Twitter's simplicity? I just don't see Twitter as an effective conversation tool. It seems more appropriate as a one way communication tool. - Paul Jacobson from twhirl

Don't miss the "more" menu under each cluster. It does a lot. It also lets you delete comments if you start a cluster, link to a cluster, and, well, more. - Robert Scoble

Click the icons off to the left. Click a Flickr one, for instance, and you'll see all the Flickr photos from everyone you're following. Hint: if you want to see ALL Flickr photos from EVERYONE, click on the "everyone" tab first, then click the icons. - Robert Scoble

I've been resistant to this. I like the simplicity of twitter. However, I also like being on a network that actually works, so maybe it's time to go ff full time. - Adam Christie

This is a good, short intro for FF newbies. Wish someone had posted a similar note when I first joined. FF is a bit murkier than Twitter for new users. I also found http://frienderati.alltop.com/ to be very helpful. - sage brennan

When you get tired of seeing a particular FriendFeed item, just click "hide." Don't worry, that just hides it from your view. You can see hidden items at the bottom of the page. - Robert Scoble

The squeaky friends get the grease ;-) - Paul Short

Click on "Friend Settings." There's some cool stuff in there. This is where you can see who is subscribed to you, who you are subscribed to, some cool stats (useful after you like and comment on a bunch of stuff to learn who you like the best) and some ways to find new friends to subscribe to. Just don't subscribe to that Scoble guy, he's very noisy! - Robert Scoble

Can we all just leave Twitter? - Anthony Onumonu

Once in a while you'll see a jerk in here. Here's how to deal with them: visit their page, then at the top you'll see a link titled "Block." Don't be afraid to block jerks. That helps keep the community clean of drama for everyone. Heck, don't be afraid to block me if you don't want to see me anymore. You define yourself by who you follow and who you allow into your life. One thing: you can still see people you blocked in the "Everyone" tab. They will still show up in searches you do there. - Robert Scoble

Feel free to use the hide button as you read items, even if it is a topic your interested in. Don't worry, if more conversation occurs on the topic, it will pop back up in your feed again. I like to use this to "clear" the screen, so it isn't so cluttered and I am not re-reading something I have already seen. - Tim Hoeck from NoiseRiver

I like Twitter and will go back as soon as it's up. I used to look at it as FriendFeed vs. Twitter. It's not. They both work great together. FriendFeed is much nicer place to have a conversation. - Robert Scoble

The best thing I ever did was to add a few greasemonkey plugins like the one that removes viewed links and filter by service. It's OK now. - Calley Nye

FriendFeed's worst attribute is that it rewards people who visit often. Click "F5" to refresh your browser's page. This is especially important if you're following lots of people, or are watching the "Everyone" page (it changes every few seconds). - Robert Scoble

Is someone posting too much information? You can "filter" content by service for a user, or by a service for all users. Click the hide button, then click 'See options for hiding other items like this' - Tim Hoeck from NoiseRiver

Do a search under the Everyone tab for your city name to find FFs and topics from your local area. This ain't just a San Fran Soical party! - Johnny Worthington

I agree with Robert - FriendFeed has almost become the "home" page in my browser. Invariably it's sat in my browser most of the day... sure, it could be improved (grouping of contacts into channels), but it's very, very good... - Jonathan Beckett

If you have one of those newfangled iPhones, check out http://www.friendfeed.com/iphone - Robert Scoble

Oh one more thing....what's the deal with rooms? Do you have to make your own or can you find existing ones? - Calley Nye

@scoble but doesnt FF refresh automatically? whats the interval on the auto refresh? - Sebastian Keil

Even if you don't have an iPhone (I have a KU990), try fftogo.com. It works on most java enabled phone browsers and is a great way to fill in time when in lines - Johnny Worthington

Friendfeed defaults to showing not only the content of those who you are subscribed to, but items that were found interesting by your friends by other people. This is called 'Friend of a Friend' - If you would rather not see these entries, click 'Hide' on one of them, then use 'See more options for hiding items like this' - there will be an option to hide items from Friends of your Friend. - Tim Hoeck from NoiseRiver

Sebastian: FF does refresh automatically, but not fast enough for me. So I manually refresh it every few seconds. - Robert Scoble

Calley: I'm subscribed to a bunch of rooms (mostly cause people invite me in). They haven't become very useful to me yet, although I'm noticing a few are getting more active lately. You can see the ones I'm subscribed to by visiting my FF at http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... and clicking over on the right side. - Robert Scoble

FF is more than a aggrigator site, it's the true social. Just don't find links and publish photos, discuss them and share in the collective power of community. - Johnny Worthington

@Calley Nye (siliconcalley): You can make your own rooms if you want, or you can join others. Currently, its not immediately apparent where to find existing rooms, but there is a number of sites that have friendfeed room listings. You can also search google with something like: twitter site:friendfeed.com/rooms - I also recommend joining this room: http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Tim Hoeck from NoiseRiver

if Twitter was micro-blogging, would FF be classed as macro-blogging? - Johnny Worthington

@scobleizer Terrific overview/ welcome message regarding FriendFeed, is it possible to move this into it's own room? You are imparting some great information here, don't want to see it turn to vapor. - michael sean wright

I call FF "The Consolidator" .. - LPH™ and his dog P™

So basically you have to know the cool people to get invited to the dance. I like it... - Calley Nye

Welcome everyone! Robert pretty much summed it up beautifully. I bring a little Gizmodo-ness into a more Engadget-esque Friend Feed ;) I'm Mona, nice to meet you all! This link will take you to the bookmarklet, which enables sharing links, images, and videos. It goes right on your browser toolbar. Extremely useful :) : http://friendfeed.com/share... - Mona Nomura

Confused? Ask questions. Very few of us bite. Welcome. - Chris Baskind

This script allows to tweak FF refresh rate. The minimum is every 2 minutes. http://bit.ly/35Eyvs - Nir Ben Yona

Here's a place to discuss Best Practice and Ethics as it relates to FriendFeed- http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - michael sean wright

Use the recommend and subscribe to as many people as you want. The more people you subscribe then the greater the diversity of conversations. - LPH™ and his dog P™

OMG, i didn't know there's a Scoble script allowing FF users to add Scobleizer in a tab on FriendFeed. http://bit.ly/dRo2L - Nir Ben Yona

There's a script for everything... - Calley Nye

A big +1 for Mona's link to the bookmarklet, that's a really sticky way of getting involved with FF - share stuff, then share again, then share some more! - Iain Baker

The reason I'm actually using FriendFeed right now (besides because Twitter is down) is that I was researching for a post. A really cool tool called Moopz - just posted http://www.techcrunch.com/2008... - Calley Nye

Whoa please don't tell me this conversation ended because Twitter went back up. LOL - Calley Nye

...I think it was because you said you're only using FF since Twitter is down ;) -but on a serious note, after a certain number of comments the post no longer gets 'bumped' so I don't think people are aware there are new comments added on the thread - Mona Nomura

Robert, have you tried this? http://flickr.com/photos... Better features for Twitter. (not by Twitter) - Orli Yakuel

Excellent tutorial! - Mitchell Tsai

It's not Twitter or FF. Things like Twitter Bar feed into FF so it's all good :0) - Glenna

Jon Dillon › Likes