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Robert Scoble shared an item on Google Reader

Are RSS Subscribers Worthwhile if they Don’t Visit Your Blog?

Thursday at 5:40 pm - Link

Aditya, Alexey, Michael J. Cohen (mjc) and 6 other people liked this

well, if your goal is to broadcast information, sure. if your goal is to engage in conversation, perhaps not. - twcook via twhirl

Yeah, I agree with that story. People who visit my blog every day don't comment every day. But if they find what I've posted to be worth a comment, then they'll click through and comment. Sometimes I do feel as though I'm spinning my virtual wheels, but I see my traffic stats increasing, so I do have visitors. - Julie Barrett

It would take a person with a moderately high degree of cynicism and/or desperation to answer No. And so how long would they even remain in such a negative field? - Christopher Galtenberg

Just answering the question, Yes. - Tejas Patel

Robert Scoble posted a message

“I am now following 3,800 people on FriendFeed: all hand added based on their contributions to FriendFeed. It's a great group of people. Thank you to everyone I'm following for making my life more fun and more informed!”

Thursday at 6:29 pm - Link

Toby Graham, Guy Vander Heyden, Victor and 51 other people liked this

You can see my favorites here: http://friendfeed.com/scobleiz... - Robert Scoble

29 more comments

Or more accurately, here: http://friendfeed.com/scobleiz... - Robert Scoble

:) - directeur

Heh, thanks for keeping things lively and interesting. - Candace Holly

back at ya. - Jim Jannotti

If I'm missing anyone who writes regularly about tech and business, I'd love to know them. - Robert Scoble

directeur? ;-) - directeur

I certainly enjoy following you and your friends. - Julie Barrett

You're not so bad yourself. One of these days you might even make a name for yourself. You've got moxy, kid. Moxy! - Akiva Moskovitz

directeur: I'm following you already! - Robert Scoble

its a nice round number as well :P - BCK

Robert: just kidding! Enjoying your "noise" too :) - directeur

back at ya Robert! - Bill Sanders

Oh, the pressure. Must..be...interesting...must not...lose...Robert! On a side note, I'm inventing the perfect computer tomorrow. You pay $500, and it's exactly what you want every day. In the time lapsed video I have, you can clearly see that this Tablet PC running Windows Vista actually became MacBook Pro the following day. A couple of weeks later, it was an iPhone with version 2.2 software. - MiɳiMagɘ (Sexy Scimitar)

ditto - mike "glemak" dunn

I haven't forgotten the day you started to follow me. Mostly because it was only 2-3 weeks ago. ;-P I still don't think I've paid my dues over here yet. So, hello to everybody I haven't come into contact with yet. :) - Dr. Apps via twhirl

Thanks for writing the article in your blog last year which led me to FriendFeed. If not for you, I wouldn't be here! - Mitchell Tsai

you've lead the way. Amazing content leads to great participation. - Courtney Engle via twhirl

heh, Scoble do you have any 'mean updates received per second' metric? :P - george tziralis

+3.8K @scoble. .LOLz - .LAG

George: I don't, but when I turn on Real-time I see a new message every second or so. Sometimes, like during election night, even faster. - Robert Scoble

That's a whole lot of friendfeeding. - Monique

Why would you say something nice then ruin it with a comment like: "You can see my favorites here." How bizarre! LOL - Mona N.

Hey Robert, any chance while in China, you will be in Beijing? - Alvin

Mona: you are a frequent visitor to my "Like" page. Alvin, sorry, no. I'm in Guangzhou for BloggerCon, then Hong Kong for a night before heading home on Tuesday. - Robert Scoble

@Robert, is language a problem there? - Dave Martin

Hey! Thanks for not discounting me, even though I spout my right-wing crazy stuff! - Trevor Carpenter

Robert: I appreciate the inclusion, but what about the people that are excluded? Your original post made me go: "Awwww, how thoughtful of Robert!" then I read the first comment, and the warm and fuzzy feeling went away... :( - Mona N.

Dave: sometimes. Many people speak English, though, so it's not too bad. Plus, if you are visiting you usually have guides or friends who speak English. What's funny is that Liam Casey built a company here and has been here for 12 years and he doesn't speak the local language, just English. So, it can't be that tough. :-) - Robert Scoble

Back at you! Thanks for watching. - Aram Zucker-Scharff

Friendfeed wouldn't be quite as lively without you. Thanks for keeping it interesting. - Flippity

Robert, your personal stream-filtering capacity is nothing short of awesome. - Slippy Lane

Thomas Hawk posted a link

Meet the Henrys (high earners, not rich yet). They make $250,000-plus and get taxed to high heaven. And they're about to get socked again.

October 27 at 2:13 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Melissa, Jason Toney, Noah Tutak and 16 other people liked this

"For all his blessings, Kwon gets really steamed when politicians and pundits claim that he and other Americans in his income group aren't shouldering their "fair share" in taxes and should pay more. Nor does he appreciate being branded as "rich" when it's far from certain he'll ever build the kind of lavish nest egg the truly wealthy enjoy, especially after the current market meltdown. "I'm not a trust-fund baby," says Kwon. "Raising taxes for people at my income level is like being punished for success, for working hard." Kwon's total tax bill is already more than $100,000, and the bite is taking an ever-rising share of his raises and bonuses, not to mention his wife's income as a photographer. Kwon fears that America risks killing the incentive for people like him by shrinking the rewards for logging extra hours or starting a business, diminishing the dream that brought his father from Korea. The Kwon family has plenty of company, representing an income group comprising five million households that e" - Thomas Hawk via Bookmarklet

60 more comments

Careful, Thomas. You'll get run out on a rail with this kind of post. - Akiva Moskovitz

And the retort from the millions of other Americans who don't bring in more than $250,000 per year is a resounding...Waaaaaaaaa. I can hear where Kwon is coming from, but for the many Americans who are worried about paying their heating bills this winter or are working more than one job at a time just to make ends meet, it is hard to drum up a lot of sympathy for those who are doing so well in the current economy. - Rob McNair-Huff

Oh, the poor dears...No PayPal link where I can make a donation so they can get a bigger minivan? - Lon Harris via twhirl

So he earns $350,000+ plus his wife is a photographer (no detail on her income given)... I would like more detail before getting out the tissues :) - Johnny Worthington

"He is a wealth advisor at Morgan Stanley"-maybe he won't have worry about making more than 250 k soon? - Brian Sullivan

First off, the lede is misleading. He alone makes $375,000, and that doesn't include his wife's income. $100,000 doesn't even get to 30% of his income. I don't know where everyone else lives, but if we were taking HOME $275,000? Yeah, that's rich. It's not Gates rich, but I wouldn't be serving the kids Ramen waiting for my next paycheck to show up. - Cyndy

I guess you have to look at things from your own angle. My angle doesn't include that kind of dough. Hence, not a problem I have to worry about. - Eric @ CS Techcast

$300K+ a year. One putting $800 away toward kids' college and $4K toward retirement A MONTH. Another says he doesn't feel rich because he doesn't have golf-club membership. Cry me a river. Seriously, I'm not out to punish the rich but this type of whine doesn't go far. - AJ Kohn

No, but I have a hard time seeing how his salary plus her income as a freelance photographer put them in this situation. They obviously have several dependents and her business would provide plenty of deductions. I say this after reviewing McCain's '07 tax documents: he grossed 410k but had an AGI of 258k and an 83k tax bill. It would see to me that, in their situation, there would be more deductions than in his situation and ergo a lower AGI. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

'Yeah! Where's MY slice of his paycheck?!' - Akiva Moskovitz

Your slice of his paycheck was given to the 'banks" as part of the 700 billion bailout - Brian Sullivan

Akiva, seriously. My heart isn't going to bleed here. I'd hazard a guess that a LOT of us live paycheck to paycheck. The insinuation is that either the rest of us aren't working hard, or something. I can't imagine being able to put away that kind of money. There are families out there who go without medication for kids because it's that or food. And again, highest tax bracket is supposed to be 30-35%, and that family isn't paying that. So why the whining? Are they in danger of foreclosure? - Cyndy

Alright, so here's my confusion. Using an AGI of 344.5k per year (which means 2 parents + 4 kids per the picture and taking ONLY the standard deduction) gives a tax due of 92,555 for 07. No deductions for property taxes on the 5 BR home or the car, no medical deductions, no business deductions from his wife's freelance business, etc. I'm wondering if they just threw the 100k tax bill number out there based on the straight calculation and not their actual returns. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

Well, Tina, you can't actually whine about it if you show all the deductions you are allowed. Also, WTF? 5 BR house? I can only dream. - Cyndy

Thomas, hyenas have no regard for their prey as they rip it apart. Their only thought is hunger and how to satiate it.. - Brian Norwood

So what I don't understand, and I'm not being facetious, but what does all these HENRYs what us to do then with the taxes? Where do they want us to push the load onto to pay for schools,development projects, services, and funding? Who should we tax? Please someone help me understand, because CNN MONEY's little feature on the half a millionaires out there isn't being a tear to my eye. - Terence Washington

Oh, and don't forget that 4k retirement money doesn't get taxed. - Wizetux

Wizetux, not necessarily. There are income requirements in the US about who can contribute to a 401k, traditional IRA, or Roth IRA. Based on the math, I'm guessing the lady stashing 4k per month is contributing to a SEP IRA which is only available to people who are self employed who can contribute 25% of their income up to 48k per year to a SEP IRA, the contributions serve to reduce their AGI and therefore reduce their tax burden. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

@Tina: yeah, it is taken out before taxes are calculated which means that it isn't taxed. - Wizetux

I tried....I really tried. It's like complaining to a starving man about how McDonald's put onions on your big mac... - ♫ Rahsheen™

+1000 Rah - Lindsey

And the eating of the rich begins. - Morton Fox

meet the other 5% of America. they had it good for so long, now it's gonna be hard on them, too. bummer. - MikeAmundsen

Dosen't look like the amount of taxes they pay has hurt their lifestyle any. - Jason Kaneshiro

The rich got us into this mess, and they can get us out. - Alex Scoble CISSP

Morton, I'm not trying to do anything to the rich , I'm simply saying the numbers they give don't gibe with the family's situation and the tax code. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina) via fftogo

"Jill Fenske, on a household income of $400,000. She's saving $800 a month for the children's college fund and $4,000 a month for retirement" - uh, sorry, this person is rich. That ain't the middle class I know. Or if she considers herself "middle class" - my wife and I must be freaking serfs with our "low" six figure *combined* salary. We can only dream of putting 4K a month away *monthly* for retirement. - Jason Kaneshiro

If they lived liked they gross $100K per year (which is a lot) then we would not even here from them. - Russellreno

My god he works for Morgan Stanley -- he his getting his salary effectively being paid for by the United States government -- that must be hard for most Americans to stomach when he is complaining about paying too much taxes - Brian Sullivan

<sigh> ok - everyone's taxes are too high. Govt. spends way too much - a lot of it foolishly. Regardless - those who make more will have to pay more. If you don't like it propose an alternate tax system. - Brian Roy

Sorry but all I see in these comments are: 'They make more money than I do! That's not fair! GET 'EM!@#%!!' - Akiva Moskovitz

i think the definition of rich moves as you get more affluent - these people should feel rich instead of focusing on what they cannot have :D - Joelle Nebbe

At the risk of sounding like a whistling bitch (not that it's stopped me before), but I live paycheck to paycheck and am supporting a husband who is in school full-time. Because we live paycheck to paycheck - and likely always will - we chose not to have kids. Maybe they could've put some of that scratch into family planning, perhaps? - Cecily

Akiva, it's not that anyone's out to GET the rich. It's that there are lots of American children without health care, American roads that need fixing, Americans who die needlessly in natural disasters...It's not just difficult but TWISTED to spend time fretting about rich families who can't afford to over-extend themselves like they used to. I mean, it's almost monstrous, really. - Lon Harris via twhirl

the incentive for creating a business is more than "becoming rich" - it is about creating something, being in charge of one's life and future, proving something, being independent and self sufficient and creating value. - Joelle Nebbe

"This just taxation the millionaires ... have so far escaped, but their day is coming. The hoards of millionaires should be so treated, not as a punishment, but for thier good, because it is just, and justice alone insures general contentment." - Andrew Carnegie, 1912 [http://bit.ly/1dHK3A] (PDF) - MikeAmundsen

i would love to be a HENRY. Also, Tina, are you available for financial planning? what state are you in? :D - Chris Hollander

I just can't feel sorry for this guy. At all. And he's either lying about his numbers or he's just plain Doing It Wrong when he does his taxes. Cry me a river. No more weekly perms for Fifi the dog! Daily pedicures for the kids are out! Someone call the waahmbulance for this guy. Reality's about to run him over. - abacab

Hey, if you don't want to pay taxes, then move to a country where there is no unemployment, no roads, no electricity, no running water, no police, no firemen, no teachers, no schools, no jobs and no hope. You could take your savings in US dollars and live there like royalty. - Alex Scoble CISSP

Perspective is the key. They may need to get some. - Michael W. May

Yeah..they are putting away $800/month for their kids college, but some people are working with about the same just to make sure their kids eat and have a roof over their head. - ♫ Rahsheen™

Yeah, I'd love to be bringing in enough money to be forced to pay that kind of tax rate. Right now, I'd just settle for more work. - Julie Barrett

@BrianN: "hyenas have no regard for their prey as they rip it apart." you're describing investment bankers, right? - MikeAmundsen

The problem with taxing the extremely rich is that they find ways to reduce the amount of taxes that they have to pay so they in fact tend to only end up paying like 10% of their income in taxes...while most of the US population pay around 20-25%. - Wizetux

@Morton and some others, I feel you guys don't like the fact that some people here have some critical opinions toward the upper middle class. - Terence Washington

personally and for what it's worth, I think the Obama tax hike should have started at 500,000 not 250,000. Especially in places like the bay area where a good house in a good school district can cost you huge on prop taxes and motgage alone, I think the tax hike at the $250k level affects too many legitimate hard working folks who are anything but rich, even moreso for those with large families. - Thomas Hawk

anyone who looks at the condition of infrastructure (roads, utilities); the condition of the economy (record debt and trade imbalance); the health and welfare of the citizenry (aging population, record health costs), amd military commitments (two wars, etc.) and thinks this can be fixed by *not* adding taxes is just foolish. don't like taxing top 5% more? find somewhere else. bottom 20% don't pay. corps pay less than ever. anyone claiming exemption from the upcoming pain is just selfish and greedy. bam. - MikeAmundsen

@Akiva: I don't care that they make more than me. The people in this piece are claiming it's not fair and I'm simply calling them on it. I do far better than most and I pay a good chunk in taxes. That's just life. Death and taxes. - AJ Kohn

@Thomas Hawk: 250K is a lot where I live, but I agree that it's a LOT less where you live, where housing prices are (forgive the pun) through the roof. - Julie Barrett

No, Akiva. But someone needs to realize that $275,000 TAKEHOME pay is wealthy. It's not $20 million a year wealthy, but that's not upper middle class by any stretch. The majority of Americans worry paycheck to paycheck, and the majority of the world can only dream of the paycheck to paycheck worries. The problem is that when we have CEOs getting astronomical salaries, people who ARE wealthy are whining that they aren't. - Cyndy

Thomas, I think that's a valid point BUT it brings into question how CoL is taken into account (or isn't as the case may be) with regards to federal income tax. With that said, the higher property values in some areas lead to higher deductions for property tax, mortgage interest, etc. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina) via fftogo

The Henrys can cry me a freaking river. People will not lose any incentive to work hard. That logic is so flawed, I don't know where to begin. Nobody, READ THAT AGAIN, NOBODY, has a thought process that goes, "I could work really hard and earn a million dollars a year but get taxed down to netting $900k. . . . . OR I could work less hard and earn $200k a year and get taxed down to netting $195k. Hmmm, the gov will take less of my money with the latter, I'll slack and do that one." THAT'S RETARDED. - CJ Millisock

@ChrisW: i understand your point. Hoover raised taxes at the start of his admin, and things when sour. public works may help near term, but, in the long run, we can't spend or borrow our way out of debt. in the end, the bills must be paid. our trade balance must recede (china,oil,etc.). and that will take $$ that we are not now collecting. - MikeAmundsen

And here's another thing: we harp on about income tax, but we don't think about other expenses that hit all of us. Our state just did one thing to lower property taxes, and the local taxing authorities came back in and raised their slice of the pie. The US government lowers our income tax, and then hits the state and local governments with unfunded mandates. It's not just the national election that matters - it's also who we send to Washington. - Julie Barrett

@Chris, i big change in tax collection over the last 30 yrs has been in corp collections. while standard rates have gone up, actual collections are way down.there are only so many millionaires to squeeze. lots of the $$ is in corps. - MikeAmundsen

stats on corporate tax revenues (not rates) over the last fifty years: http://www.cbpp.org/10-16-03ta... - MikeAmundsen

@Chris Hollander HAAhahahahhaha! I just saw that comment, and I guess I have to say "I'm not a tax professional and if you listen to what I say and take it as advice then your world could explode and it's not my fault" or some other disclaimer ;-) - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

The problem with people like those in the article is that they equate rich to having lots of stuff. If they weren't so busy trying to keep up with the other "rich" folks they'd have a lot more money left over that they could use to make their lives more fulfilling. - Kenton

this really worries me about how people live outside reality, i dare to them to live like an average mexican family for one month and keep telling they will have a harder time now. - Oscar Juarez

Poor rich guy and his family. That's life in a democracy. He's in the top 5% for sure - and this 5% only gets 5% of the vote. Plus, his tax rate is way lower than what it's been in the past. In fact, the Bush tax cuts weren't meant to be permanent. - Mike Reynolds

I'm sorry, but that's like *a lot* of money. They will survive. And so will the FOUR kids. - Sarah Perez

Fuck. That's (sorta) me. For once I have money, but it's all in the way that is taxed the heaviest -- you know, working for a living. No capital to gain. The real problem isn't progressive taxation -- it's that people who are working their way up get taxed maximally, while people and structures and corporations truly at the top have a billion ways to get around it. - Ryan Brenizer

Robert Scoble posted a message

“Damn economy. The industry is bringing out cool new toys and I can't afford them (I don't dare run my credit cards up again). Damn Sony. Damn Canon. Damn Amazon. Sigh. :-)”

October 14 at 12:11 pm - Link

Susan Beebe, andrei_c, Jeremiah Palmer and 20 other people liked this

Robert: My SO made a rule for me a couple of years ago: I can replace any gadget I want as long as I sell the one I am replacing, but to add a new gadget requires her strict approval. And I feel your pain, I really do! - Mark VandenBerg

33 more comments

Robert, methinks you should see your way clear to buying some medicine to calm your nerves. - Dimitrios Diamantaras

Welcome to life as the rest of us. ;) - xero

It sucks for sure. I'm going to hold off buying the new 5D and I had definitely been looking forward to that one. - Thomas Hawk

Ask for bribes Robert. Surely you deserve a free Canon D90 by now? - Mark Bean

That's the credit trap most American's are facing. I'm glad you have self control. - Michael Fidler via twhirl

I do the exact same thing Mark. The only thing I regret selling was my 1978 Les Paul Custom. I wanted an acoustic with an amplifier at the time and that was the only way I could afford it. - Mattb4rd

Mark: FastCompany doesn't let me take bribes. I'm not under blogger rules anymore, but journalistic separation of church and state rules. :-) - Robert Scoble

Bummer Robert - do they let you do long term journalistic evaluations? You know, just until the next shiny toy comes along. - Mark Bean

Mark: the problem with selling old gadgets is that they aren't worth very much. My Canon 5D probably would get me a grand. That still leaves me with quite a bit to come up with, which I don't have. So, I'll be like Thomas and stick with the old one for now. 2009 is gonna be a tough year cause I don't see the gadget budget improving much. - Robert Scoble

No, no smiley face :( I have to wait for everything. Winning a free iPod classic was a cause for celebration for me, because I sure wasn't going to get one any other way anytime soon. (I had bought an original iPod off of eBay about a year after it came out; that one lasted about 2 years and then I accidentally killed it by leaving it in my freezing cold car. This new one never leaves my side when I take it out of the house.) - Kamilah Gill

Robert, here's the deal. Your employer (or whatever) should pay you enough to buy the gadgets you need to do your job or allow you to expense them. You shouldn't need to go into debt. Why aren't they buying these gadgets for you? It is in their best interest. - Steve Olson

@Matt Yeah, sometimes the choices are tough. I usually employ the "rule" for upgrading and then dump the old one off on one of her luddite family members for a low price. I may have tried the "but acoustic /= electric" reasoning, but it may well have needed a ppt show... - Mark VandenBerg

For those of us that live for tech, we need to decide what is so damn cool about these new gadgets that we must have them. Likely they do all the things the last one did, just slightly better. So slight that we wouldn't notice much except for the fact that we are spec crazy. Our kind will be fine living with what we have for a little while. - Eric @ CS Techcast

Steve: we just laid off 20 people. I'm not going to increase expenses at this time. I might be able to justify a new laptop or a new camera here and there, but I'm not a gadget reporter and have to justify equipment purchases just like anyone else does. - Robert Scoble

Robert, I didn't know about the layoffs. Now this all makes sense. This is hitting really close to you... right now. I'm not seeing it here in the midwest. - Steve Olson

Steve: isn't Detroit in the midwest? GM just announced a major plant closing yesterday. - Robert Scoble

What specifically are the cool toys you want Robert? I have the same TV as you (Sony KDF-60XS955) and have been holding out for a similar sized decent priced true LCD replacement. - Mark Krynsky

Mark: I want a new laptop (lots of cool ones from Apple, Lenovo, and Sony coming out). A new Canon 5D. A new Amazon book reader. A Google Android phone. A few new games for my Playstation. A new Flip that's coming out that's HD. I should start an Amazon wish list. But I don't really need any of this stuff. - Robert Scoble

I feel your pain. I want a Macbook pro, 24" widescreen monitor, new Canon 5D. Nothing really needed, but the wants are driving me crazy. - JC unwired

Robert: I'm in Minnesota. I guess Michigan is in the Midwest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.... But they've been reeling for decades. That great lakes area from Gary Indiana through Michigan and Ohio up to Buffalo New York has been an economic basket case since the late 70s. I don't think it has ever quite recovered. During the housing boom (2006) you could buy a house for under 100K in parts of Michigan, Ohio and Buffalo. - Steve Olson

I call that area the rust belt. - Steve Olson

I was in inner city Detroit for a concert in 1994. It looked like a frickin war zone. Beirut or something. I could write a blog post about that experience. - Steve Olson

Scoble, sir, how can you not afford these things? You earn several times more than I do and I have no credit cards. I don't get it, you and your wife are good earners. - Mark

If you take the plains states from the Dakotas and Minnesota all the way down to Texas, they didn't experience the boom/bust you guys are getting on the coasts. My sister in-law is a real estate agent in south Texas and she said things are great right now. Home prices in my area are going up too. - Steve Olson

Mark: you ever see the housing prices in Silicon Valley? It's not cheap to live here. Especially when you need to replace a shower and bathtub that has a crack. That'll cost $15,000 and we're putting it off. So, if I do have extra cash (I don't, cause I'm making sure I keep a few months of cash on hand) it'll go into that first before my gadget budget can recover. - Robert Scoble

Steve, home prices are still appreciating in my area as well. We didn't have the big boom other areas of the country saw, just steady 6-10% growth year over year. Things are slower now, but still going positive. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

@Mark...it's prob not that he _can't_ afford them but as you saw he said he doesn't _need_ them. Setting financial priorities is extremely important. I have zero credit card debt and always teach my kids all the time the difference between want and need. - Mark Krynsky

Steve: if you go to http://hotpads.com and do a search on Foreclosures I don't see any coastal bias. There are some good areas, yes, but lots of red (this site shows you maps of where the pain is). Keep in mind that the pain hasn't really hit the Silicon Valley area hard yet either. I'm expecting that over the next quarter. Startups, though, are still getting funded, so even here there'll be some pain and some good news. - Robert Scoble

That being said I currently have been watching and _want_ the following. Canon SX1 IS camera but since not coming to US will prob get Panasonic FZ28, Canon HF10 solid state HD camcorder, iPhone or Android or Storm, Apple TV to run XBMC, and an Xbox 360. - Mark Krynsky

Detroit Real Estate and YES those ARE the real prices: http://www.realtor.com/search/... - Steve Olson

@Steve: Maybe I should move to Detroit...and buy a town. Could flatten it and sell it all off bit by bit. Or sit on the land for years. - xero

Did you know there isn't a single major grocery retailer in the city of Detroit. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb.... Sure you can buy cheap, but there is no way to make money and you'd need an army to survive. - Steve Olson

Robert: I'm looking for a map I saw last week that did show a heavy coastal bias. Of course the rust belt was getting hit hard too. Texas was doing better than anywhere else. It wasn't just housing it was the entire economy. The working class in this country has been getting pummeled for 30 years. Now that it's hitting all of us, we are finally starting to wake up. I don't think Obama has the right plan, but Bush and McCain don't either. - Steve Olson

This is the map I was thinking of... http://www.nytimes.com/imagepa.... It looks like everything but Texas is heading south. - Steve Olson

@ Steve Olson, Things aren't that hot in MY corner of Texas. But I just put out a bid for a web design job today. First bid in ages. It won't bring in a lot, but it's better than twiddling my thumbs. - Julie Barrett

Anthony Citrano posted a link

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I | OldComputers.net

August 25 at 7:30 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Mike Reynolds, Michael W. May, Yolanda ♥s Nuttycakes and 5 other people liked this

The first computer I ever wrote code on. In sixth or seventh grade, I wrote a program called "The Oracle" with a kid named Chico Trowbridge. Thanks (and a shout-out?) to Mrs. Cheryl "math" Davis of Connors-Emerson Elementary in Bar Harbor for encouraging us every step of the way. - Anthony Citrano via Bookmarklet

3 more comments

There is no school like the old school. - ha3rvey

My first was a TRS-80 Model 4. I loved that computer. Later I got a Model 1000 and my neighbor and I used to argue over whose was better. He had a Commodore 64. We were both in 7th or 8th grade. Good times. - Jason Shultz via twhirl

Model I and later III, then 4, then even a 4P, Apple II+, then IIe, Vic20, CoCo and on and on... Good times. One of the greatest things I ever wrote was "mac-like" UI for the Model III with a completely dynamic menuing system, overlapping and movable menus and dialogs, etc. I was barely a teenager at that time. Other projects included arcade game clones (Qbert one of my most proud) and D&D character generators and crude RPGs and RTSes. Oh, and hacking the shit outta Trek. :) - abacab

I should add that, quite sadly, not a single one of those projects has survived. :( Damn floppies. - abacab

I used to sell those things. That makes me officially as old as dirt. ;-) - Julie Barrett via twhirl

Raoul Pop posted an entry on Commixed Compendium

Code Monkey

July 24 at 12:24 pm - Link

That's funny. - Julie Barrett

I couldn't stop laughing about it, and it was in the middle of a meeting. :) - Raoul Pop

Julie Barrett posted a message

“Anyone know if there are desktop apps for FriendFeed?”

July 22 at 6:55 am - Link

Found some. Google is my friend. So is more coffee. ;-) - Julie Barrett

Julie Barrett posted a message on Twitter

“Le Car Hot, Le 50 Years Too Soon http://tinyurl.com/6o86xu”

July 21 at 11:09 am - Link

Raoul Pop liked this

Can I have one? :) - Raoul Pop

I wouldn't mind one myself. - Julie Barrett

And at the original price, too. Can I pay with a credit card? I'd place the order right now if I could. - Raoul Pop

Hutch Carpenter shared an item on Google Reader

Nudity on FriendFeed: What Are Some Sensible Rules?

June 12 at 8:51 am - Link

Naked Condo, Andrew Garrett, Andrew Dobrow and 7 other people liked this

I'm a big believer in the unfollow as well. In fact, if someone consistently was Liking or Commenting on stuff I didn't like, I'd have to unsubscribe from them too. You also bring up the point about artistic vs exploitive, and the "I know it when I see it" definition of what's appropriate. - Hutch Carpenter

13 more comments

interesting thoughts. I admire nude photography and consider it one of the great types and styles of photography. I don't view it as pornography I suppose mostly based on context. I've been impressed recently with some of the work Merkley's done with nudes. Everyone is different though and I can see where nudity could be a difficult thing to avoid on FF if you are a heavy user. If it was that significant to a user I suppose they could always hide all Flickr/Zooomr photos from their FF experience. - Thomas Hawk

I will say that most of the nudity I've seen on here is tasteful and certainly would fall more in the artistic style vs. typical hard or even softcore porn. - Thomas Hawk

I've seen a few surprises (NSFW) when viewing the everyone tab. - Delete Me

A safety filter of some sort would be a good thing. I don't have a problem with artistic nudes, but I would be uncomfortable viewing those pictures in a public place simply because I know some others wouldn't be comfortable if they caught a glimpse. Not to mention that it makes for a potentially bad situation in the workplace. - Julie Barrett

I saw his work to and found it to be more artistic than porn. The worry I think is how long will it be before the porn companies get on here and show us things we do not want to see. Of course you can always block a user or their flicker stream. I think it's the friends of friends feature that has people worried. That and exposure to children. - Brad

I haven't run across anything distasteful here. Then again, I don't think that nudity is a distasteful subject. Were I to find something offensive, I'd just stop following and not look at it. I'm a big boy. I can change the channel. - William Beem

William - There's a phrase for what you just said, involving the words "head" and "nail". Spot on sir. - Mat

> The worry I think is how long will it be before the porn companies get on here -- 1) I would avoid friending porn companies, given your concern. 2) Also, maybe glancing at the Everyone tab at work isn't the best idea for you. 3) I think watching FOX news would be far more damaging to today's kids than seeing nekkid people. Only thing worse: A nekkid and ranting Bill O'Reilly. Now THAT would be scarring! - Adam Lasnik

I have no objection to artistic nudity. Nudity is self expressionism and Freedom of Speech. Offensive porn is another story. I am sure the community will know what to do if someone starts posting XXX stuff. - Igor The Troll

Thanks, Adam. Now I have to boil my brain in bleach to clear that mental image. :) - ha3rvey

I hardly find the images offensive. I take a libertarian stance on this... we live in world where those using FriendFeed or other social media applications/sites can opt-in or opt-out of what they want to see, read or share. If you happen to be an individual who is offended or cannot view such images freely then opt-out of receiving such images or the feed of the person in question. I really don't see what the big to do is about this. - Jim Goldstein

Is there a way to block a user? I see there is a "Hide" option for an individual post, but what if a friend of a friend constantly posts items that I find offensive or simply don't like? I don't want to unsubscribe from my "friend" just to avoid my friend's friend. - Brian

@Brian, i think that's something the FriendFeed team us working on. - edythe

@Harvey Simmons: "boil my brain in bleach." :) i have to do something still worse to get *that* image out of *my* head. - edythe

I think the issue is that FF should have the liberty to let you view what you want to view, and filter what you want to filter, but at present you CAN'T filter/opt-out of some things (like friend-of-a-friend posts) without opting out of the friend. We need the ability to block a particular user. - Justin Long

Raoul Pop posted a message

“Hmm, my site (raoulpop.com) seems to be down. Can anyone else get to it? ”

May 15 at 8:30 am - Link

Anthony Farrior and Ontario Emperor liked this

Down - Shey

18 more comments

yah, appears to be down - Eric Berlin

Bummer. Calling web host. - Raoul Pop

I hope they can restore it promptly. - Ontario Emperor

They're aware of the problem and working on it. We'll see how long it takes them to get it back up. - Raoul Pop

Not just you http://downforeveryoneorjustme... - Dave Roth

Close but no cigar, Dave. It's not roulpop.com, it's raoulpop.com. :-) But thanks for pointing me to that site, it's great! - Raoul Pop

Down - Mitchell Tsai

My bad. For what it's worth, roulpop.com is down too. A conspiracy! - Dave Roth

Nope. - Julie Barrett

Ugh. My site's still not back up. I'm getting a sinking feeling that tells me they may need to revert to backups of the files and the DB, and I'm not sure how current those are. At the very least, I'd lose the text and photos I posted this morning. This after harping on others to back up their sites... - Raoul Pop

Who is your hosting company? - Shey

1and1. They've been GREAT so far. No complaints. - Raoul Pop

It was up at 8am EST today but still down now - Sally Church via Alert Thingy

I get a reply when I ping your site. They must be having server issues. - Julie Barrett

Yeah. What a drag. This is the longest outage I've had since I've been with them. - Raoul Pop

yep, it's still down. - Thomas Hawk

Still down @ 2:25 PM Eastern - www.MarketSaw.com

My site's back up! Yes! Still waiting to hear from 1and1 about what caused the outage. No data/content was lost, which is great. - Raoul Pop

yay! - Shey

Good news. - Ontario Emperor