"It's definitely not named after Midori Matsuo, the lingerie designer from Japan. And we know it's not related to the "refreshing green liqueur" that tastes like a melon. No, Midori is the code-name for the new Microsoft operating system project that could follow after Windows 7." - Kevin Cearns via Bookmarklet
"The fellows over at Gizmodo have given the world a sneak-preview of Android via a video of the emulator, and while it hints at possible great things, the Android 0.9 SDk is worryingly under-stocked." - Kevin Cearns via Bookmarklet
It's official. Phelps is the man! - James via twhirl
Who wants to bet how many Olympic golds Phelps will win before retirement? 20? 30? Maybe we can revisit this thread in 2016... - Mitchell Tsai
He's almost certain to go to London in 2012, but it's unlikely that he'll compete in 2016. In 2012, he'll be 27, which is old for swimmers. He'll not do 8 events in 2012, either. This will definitely be his best year. - Mark Trapp
Does anyone else here think that they have been posting the worst pictures of Phelps celebrating? They don't show his passion, exuberance and joy...they make him look kind of mean. Like he could be a member of Cobra Kai Dojo. - Alex Scoble
One oughtn't judge a book by its cover, but I think it's perfectly normal for our species, when one has that level of testosterone, adrenaline, lactic acid, etc. surging through one's body, to resemble a deranged howler monkey during exultation. He seems humble and boyish enough standing there while the national anthem is being played, and he always acknowledges the role of his teammates in his success. To me that speaks much louder than slapping the water with his fists at the end of a race. - Karim
"T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October." - Kevin Cearns via Bookmarklet
IMO Chris is pretty correct, 'coz he intended (afais) "Desktop" Linux. If 6 editions of Windows Vista are 5 too much... - Yuvi
Color me stupid - it wasn't Chris. But, I agree with what the blogger concerned said. - Yuvi
Some good points but rather limited thinking. - Deepak
When it comes to shareware apps today, I wonder if the place to be is not with Windows as the author says, but rather with the iPhone or OS X. The Windows market is so vast it's hard to get noticed, even with a great app. Now in terms of the OS, I think it still matters. However, I'd add that Linux developers need to make their case today why Linux on a _notebook_ is the thing to do. Easier to manage connectons? Transparent switches between WIFI and EVDO? Longer battery life? Easy ad hoc networks? More and more people have notebooks. That's where the market is in hardware. Where's Linux in this? One area where Linux permutations are sprouting up along these lines is with MIDs. Special tuned versions of Linux are being created to support these small devices. If they're done well, this may be something to watch. - Loren Heiny
its Sad but unfortunately its true. untill we either find a way to make money on linux or Finally get others to leave the greed theres no way linux will come out the shadows off windows & OSX. although more development of WINE will help a LOT - Ro11z
I do believe there needs to be some change to adopt.. Normal users will never understand the "Free as in Speech, Free as in Beer" concept. We need to get rid of the terms open, closed, free, etc.. (whether you care about them or not) Also, not allowing closed source (i.e. Nvidia drivers, Flash, etc) items to be pre-installed is an obvious death wish. Wine should be installed, enabled, and ready to go by default. There are plenty of awesome apps on Linux. Just make them easier to find and install. - Tim Hoeck
Ya lost me when you posted Ballmer spelling out his "thoughts". Gates, okay, but Ballmer - please... That said, as a full time Linux user, you are right in a number of areas. What is wild is that most of them are not that difficult to fix, either. And your point about open or closed source - spot-on. OS for the job getting done, not its license. I could care less how Linux is licensed, as long as I can maintain certain freedoms with it. Good write up. ;) - Matt Hartley
Unless you're in Rochester NY I think you're going to miss out on this one. The place literally a few hundred feet from my apartment sells these crazy large slices for $4. - Benjamin Golub
I lean towards Pizza Stop and Brandani's myself - Aprille
I have always wondered about then. Drive by there CONSTANTLY on the way back from pre-K. Exactly how big are the slices? And how bad is the pizza? :) I'm a Guida's girl myself. - Cyndy
Guida's has the tastiest Pizza in town... Pizza Stop is close, but too inconvenient if you don't work downtown - Jason Carreira
Cyndy: the slices are crazy huge. It is far from the worst pizza I've had. Better than the big chains. Definitely worse than say Great Northern or Pizza Stop. I go there mainly because it's a 2 minute walk from my apartment :) - Benjamin Golub
The original original trilogy or the awfulified "special" edition trilogy? (also +1 to james for speaking the truth!) - felix
James is right. There are only three Star Wars movies. I've heard rumors of more, but I doubt they are real. :) - Harvey Simmons
The original original. Han shoots first, Hayden Christiansen is nowhere to be seen, and Han sure as hell doesn't step on Jabba's tail. - James Williams (willia4)
so he lost his virginity..now to he gotta watch LOTR Trilogy -- yeah one after the other.. :)- hey, I watched Band of brothers like that !! - Peter Dawson
Yuvi -- If you liked the movies, you really need to find a copy of the Christmas Special. It's amazing. - James Williams (willia4)
@felix I think the original original, 'coz there were not too many Pixaresque graphics around. - Yuvi
Don't forget the entire characterization switch from Luke's silent leap away from Vader to him screaming all the way down. ARGH. LOL, yeah, Christmas special should not be missed... - felix
@Peter: I would finish READING the LOTR Trilogy before I would finish watching them back to back. (Exaggeration, I know.) - Sean McGee
@Sean - Err, I _have_ finished reading the books, not watched the films yet. However, I read the book when I was a rather very stupid 13 year old, so I think I missed most of the stuff. - Yuvi
@sean, I read the LOTR series in later 79's /early 80.. long before any movies come out :)- - Peter Dawson
@Yuvi & Peter - although I do recommend reading the LOTR before watching it, my comment was more about the length of the movies rather than the accuracy of them. But, if that's the last time you read the books, I definitely recommend re-reading them...starting with the Hobbit. I re-read them at 28 and loved them even more. - Sean McGee
"OAuth came out of my worry that if the Twitter API became popular, we’d be spreading passwords all around the web. OAuth took longer to finish than it took for the Twitter API to become popular, and as a result many Twitter users’ passwords are scattered pretty carelessly around the web. This is a terrible situation, and one we as responsible web developers should work to prevent." -Blaine Cook - DeWitt Clinton via Bookmarklet
Er, that's the whole quote. No need to click, I guess. - DeWitt Clinton
I dislike taxes as much as everyone else, but I always pay my bills. How else can we as a country pay our bills without the taxes? Debts always come due and the responsible thing to do is to suck it up and pay 'em. - Kevin C. Tofel
Here in Canada we understand the relationship between our tax dollars and the quality of living that we enjoy. Ordinary citizens do not have to expect to go bankrupt if they develop health problems - they are covered. Children of all social classes receive a good education. If you make a lot of money, you pay more taxes. Whether the rich are responsible with their spending is thier own problem. - melmcbride
Correction - in Canada ordinary citizens can go bankrupt if they develop health problems - I know people who have. There is NO single tier health care system in Canada. Tell me that the next time you have to pay out of pocket for prescription medication, or hand over your VISA at the emergency or they won't admit you because the ambulance ride costs money...or you have to go to Buffalo for an MRI and pay $$$...sorry to vent but I keep seeing these misconceptions and I'm getting a little tired of it. - Kevin Cearns
Kevin: You can promote your version of Canada, I'll promote mine. The liberals helped to destroy our healthcare system and now the conservatives are finishing the job. Others: my view (above) is the progressive NDP position on healthcare. Kevin's is the standard party line Tory view. Tommy Douglas outlined the real reasons for healthcare crisis long ago http://www.healthcoalition.ca/... - melmcbride
I hate oversimplified commentary like this. I am not going to defend current government spending, because that bugs me to no end. But, the idea that Clinton was responsible for a surplus is laughable. Read this link for a little enlightenment. http://www.letxa.com/articles/... - Jeremy Hall
I don't particularly hold to any party vision. And I'm not promoting a version of Canada. I'm merely pointing out fact. It is one thing to aspire to a particular reality, another entirely to assume that reality already exists. - Kevin Cearns
Kevin: A fine point. And I'm sure you know that many conservatives and republicans would agree with. There is no question that healthcare is in crisis. I think where we all differ is in our vision of the solution. I am not against some forms of privatisation. But the current models aren't very good ones. Thanks for the exchange. You seem equally passionate about your perspective - people should be passionate about this issue. - melmcbride
You as well....Thanks for the conversation. - Kevin Cearns
Type “buttermilk pancakes” into Google, and among the top three or four search results you will find a link to a detailed recipe complete with a photo of a scrumptious stack from a site called Knol, which is owned by Google. - Atul Arora via Bookmarklet
Hmm. Looking at the results I'd say that the placement of the Knol result is about right for "buttermilk pancakes". I mean, as the author notes, "this is a rather long article for 'just a pancake recipe', but it tries to cover both beginner and advanced techniques." Certainly far more comprehensive than the other results. Not sure what the issue is -- it is simply because it was authored with Knol? - DeWitt Clinton
Also, as the NYT article states: "There is little evidence that Knol has received favorable treatment. Many of the Knol pages that rank high on Google rank similarly high on Yahoo. (The Knol buttermilk pancakes? No. 4 with Yahoo search.)" - DeWitt Clinton
esterday afternoon, while my son was upstairs leveling up his blood-elf and exulting in his new ostrich mount, I was downstairs, working my way through the 87-page research paper, "'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virt - Leo Laporte
"But with its stock closing the day at $10.01, almost 20 percent below the offering price, Rackspace's IPO was a crashing disappointment. As has the service to its customers. Rackspace once promised "fanatical" customer service. But the company's management seem most fanatical about taking care of themselves." - Kevin Cearns via Bookmarklet
"In Japan, since 2006 more people have been accessing the web through cell phones than through PCs. Is this a picture of things to come in other countries? Not necessarily. The interplay of five specific factors paved the way for the success of the mobile web in Japan (where I live) and largely explains why it hasn’t taken off yet elsewhere..." - Kevin Cearns via Bookmarklet
Agree. Less likely to read, much less subscribe and/or comment if a site is too ad-saturated. - TDavid
I put ads on my blogs to generate a little revenue, but in my view there's more to blogging that JUST the money. I concentrate in the area above 'the fold' but you won't find them all over. - Ian May
RSS sure but I've seen a bit of a trend to move away from full content feeds to excerpts with ads still in the feed. If your going to do excerpts, I'm fine with that but kill the ads in the feed then. - shawn
Adblock, baby. I haven't seen a banner ad in years. It makes the Internet so much more usable. - Ernie Oporto
shey,why not use firefox with adblock plus extension and ignore all these ads. you won't download ads and these sites would be more usable. - Atul Arora
@Ernie, Atul -- I don't mind ads -- but maybe i'll have use it for sites that are overrun with ads. Or just not visit them at all. - Shey
shey, you can selectively switch it on for sites where you want to watch ads. - Atul Arora
Dieter: I found great sample design sites, CSS templates, and free Photoshop brushes :) One mans trash is another person's treasure, but how do you find treasure without looking? Thank goodness for the Internet, for, in lieu of digging through REAL trash it's just clicking and scrolling :) - Mona N. via fftogo
Good find. Can't wait for the set in Aug. lol - Daynah
July, 31 2008: Google Tech Talks. re: Security implications and visions moving forward in consumer driven B2C and B2B markets (Currently running in background while surfing... nothing new, just reinforcement) - Mona N.
The problem is that Enterprise software is asstastic so that consultants / trainers / programmers have job security. It's a policy inherent in the system. It doesn't need to be friendly. If Enterprise apps need friendlier interfaces, and consumer apps need better security modeling - it's heading to the middle. - l0ckergn0me
But where is the line, that would please all parties involved? Sooner or later, this market is going to start resembling the Health Care business model. The question is, how do we or can we (as consumers) prevent that? - Mona N.
Well, it's like the presenter said, people are using "these apps" already - outside of an enterprise environment. That's how it changes - not from decisions handed down from on high, but from a groundswell of support from below. - l0ckergn0me
Right, so how would you propose 'spreading the word' per se, to make the consumer manipulate the flow of the B2C market? - Mona N.
It has to be organic - and that's where we have to be patient. You can't force change down anybody's throats. Not to beat a dead horse (and believe me, mine is just about as dead as dead can be), but look at the iPhone and how Apple is trying to stick its design-centric foot in an overtly-utilitarian arena. Spreading the word comes from using and sharing and talking and learning and... youth. Tomorrow's workforce is not going to put up with government "cheese" when they've been used to eating caviar. - l0ckergn0me
Hell, I wouldn't even *TOUCH* Lotus Notes back in 2000 - despite it being the groupware app for TechTV in the day. I didn't care, as a user, how powerful the backend was - I've always been a software experience connoisseur. Most people, however, are not. They're used to shit, even on their home desktop (Windows - HELLO?!). As their home experiences evolve, so will their expectations - but it takes time. As more apps move to the Web, the more likely enterprise will be FORCED to change. It's a slow crawl... - l0ckergn0me
Ya, but no one gives a crap. People dont' care about prevention, it's all about b*tching about it after the fact.. History keeps repeating itself. Look at Apple. It's slowly moving towards the Microsoft monopoly pattern and no one cares.Heck, we're contributing by labeling ourselves "early adopters" or "that's Apple" and excusing them for releasing unreliable products. - Mona N.
IT systems should be top-down at the server end, bottom up on the client end. Microsoft is/has been making a HUGE mistake with this by not releasing a full featured Outlook for OS X. But ActiveSync/Exchange OTA is on a TON of different mobile devices, and I'm starting to question (but not yet abandon) my BlackBerry for the new Treo (at least for my day job). Enterprises succeed by standardizing at the top, but productivity gets maximized when users at the other end can use what makes them comfortable. - Andrew Feinberg
I'm certainly not excusing Apple about the clusterfuck known as iPhone OS 2.0 (and you know that), but most people are used to blaming themselves - and turning to someone else to help them. "I'm helpless! The software doesn't work! I suck!" And sometimes software is made to make people feel helpless, confused, etc. - this ethos is replete throughout many enterprise-level apps. If software requires training, it should be taken out in the back and shot. We're not early adopters, we're tastemakers. - l0ckergn0me
*waiting for enterprise software apologists to chime in, but they seem to be (a) not on FriendFeed, (b) doing something else this weekend since working with software is likely a job and not a passion* - l0ckergn0me
Andrew: But we (the consumers) haven't had the choices we currently do. The market is shifting so the power can lie in the consumer's hands. Hence, corporations we would have NEVER expected, turning over their source codes. The US mobile market is finally catching up to the rest of the world, and we see how huge of an impact this country has, since the rest of the world is scrambling. ie: Nokia and Symbian merger. We're at a brink of a HUGE technical power shift so IMHO, it's imperative more than ever, for - Mona N.
consumers to take charge... There's no crucial time than NOW, but it's maddening to see no one cares. - Mona N.
You can't make someone care, Mona - they either do, or don't. And the last thing they're likely to "care" about is the software they MUST USE at work. How do we get them to care? We give them comparisons, and that (as you so rightfully pointed out) is exactly what's happening in the marketplace outside the enterprise today. The consumers need more, better, RELEVANT tools. How do you know something sucks? When you find that something else is better. PalmOS < WinMo. WinMo < iPhone. - l0ckergn0me
@chris: how well does the exchange sync on iPhone work? - Andrew Feinberg
Andrew - Exchange sync on the iPhone works astoundingly well. Painless, from setup to usage. It's a *FANTASTIC* user experience that makes the complexity of Exchange *INVISIBLE* to the average user. It doesn't hand me a Swiss Army knife with all the blades extended. Of course, the rest of the iPhone 2.0 OS has been just about anything but painful for me. Ironic? - l0ckergn0me
hmmmm...i'm still hung up keyboard + battery life. Can I have more than one exchange account at once? That'd be a killer implementation for me. - Andrew Feinberg
Chris: Agreed. Well, with mobile browsing increasing, we're seeing everyday sites becoming more mobile friendly, and companies are experimenting, whether it be using two style sheets (mobile view/desktop view ie: Facebook) or redirecting (friendfeed.com/iphone) or plain and simply overhauling (delicio.us).... IMO, sites and services are experimenting, hence my need and sense of urgency to act on this NOW and mold - Mona N.
the future market, as opposed to complaining about it down the road. So my question is.. how? How do we get people to utilize the Social Networking median as a way to get people to care. How do we spread the word so people would actually start caring? - Mona N.
That's a beautiful call-to-action. We have to give "them" direction, not the other way around. It may begin with providing open feedback (raw, unfiltered feedback) - like many bloggers, yourself included, do when a new service / software is released to the world. Given the amount of opinions floating throughout FF, I'm quite surprised that Andrew and I are seemingly the only people interested in this topic. - l0ckergn0me
Very interesting. Enjoyed the part about how hard it is for businesses to get to their customers. Heck, it's difficult to even get to your own employees if your organization is large and decentralized. - Kevin
Chris: So basically 1.blogging 2. utilizing Social Networking outlets such as FriendFeed to re-share 3. repeat the cycle?Is that really going to get people to care? I mean this post is the best example. No one is participating aside from the two of us, and folks that aren't even subscribed to me lol. Oh, the irony. - Mona N. via fftogo
I have been wanting to participate in this but YouTube is being a pain and won't let me watch the vid. So maybe I'm off base here, but I think there's an issue, especially in large enterprises, where they don't let their employees use the "cool, new, better" consumer services as a matter of policy for security or productivity reasons. What they don't realize is that people are often a lot more productive when they can use tools they LIKE. I'm not sure how to deal with the security issue, though. - Lindsay Donaghe
My previous employer, who is a child company of Microsoft, had a technical conference for about 200 of it's top architects/developers. There was a surprise keynote given by a guy from Google's business apps division. Some people were receptive, but he got a lot of hammering on security issues, especially the idea of having a client company store their business-critical data on Google's servers which are subject to search and seizure by the US government. - Lindsay Donaghe
Mona - What gets people to care is incentive and relevance. When you share a perspective on an issue they care about, or a tool they never knew they needed, or didn't realize even existed - you're feeding the cycle. It's why Google will always bring you more traffic than just about any source on the Web today - because people are searching for information, assistance, answers. They only care because they have to care - you care because you just DO. Show them how it could be, get them excited about software. - l0ckergn0me
Lindsay: That's exactly why this topic interests me so much. It's not because of Google or security, or even the word conundrum. It's the mere fact that the market IS changing. We (the consumers) can potentially free ourselves from teh constraints of what the corporations dictate as 'our needs', so software and services are catered TO us, as opposed to AT us. That way, we no longer have to hear about NDA this and even they (internally) aren't aware of developments, and supply and demand, and bla bla bla. The market is shifting towards a consumer driven one, and as a consumer, I definitely want to partake in it... FF is one of the BEST examples, since we see FFers (fftogo, Greasemonkey, Noiseriver etc) giving us what we want, and not the other way around... Imagine if it were like this ALL across the board :) - Mona N.
@Chris: It's not that I care just because... It's more so the power we (consumers) potentially have...? Or maybe it's simply, I'm a control freak...? HA - Mona N.
Other thought - What chris said 'bout incentive. I showed Friendfeed to a non-tech friend of mine, and he was totally not impressed. Then I showed him the conversation around Mona being drunk a coupla weeks ago, and then Mona accusing me of not having seen Star Wars, and then Michelle's Brown series of posts, and the reactions to the Earthquake and Mitchell Tsai's shares - - Yuvi
He said 'Dude, these are my kinda people!'. And he's joining up. Had I kept on about powershell and blogging and the A-List - things he doesn't give a shit about, he wouldn't have cared. But, when I showed him things he *already cared about*, but in a new way, it stuck. - Yuvi
Yuvi: That makes perfect sense :) Chris is absolutely correct, in saying no one cares w/out relevance to them. Yuvi, as a blogger, do you include Statbot in your main blog? Why or why not? - Mona N.
@Mona - Branding issues? Statbot isn't supposed to remain just a blog forever - it's supposed to be a pseudo-startup - most of the benefits, none of the risks, slower than a snail's pace. I could call it a hobby website, but pseudo-startup is cooler-sounding :P - Yuvi
I found a nice South Indian Place near my cribs. So Ordered in Mutton Briyani for lunch. Yummy is not the word ..authentic Chettinadu food in 'Ssuaga .. just too Cool :)- - Peter Dawson
The big excitement in Microsoftland this week has been further news of Midori. Midori is claimed to be Microsoft's "post-Windows" operating system—a new platform for the future. The SD Times claims to have seen internal Microsoft documents describing the company's plans for the new OS, and it says that Midori will be a commercial derivative of the Singularity project. Say hello to a cloud-computing-ready .NET OS. - Kevin Cearns via Bookmarklet
