"In a world where music is discovered through quality, style and any number of user-configured variables, the idea of megastars and glitzy fame taking all the attention of the audience is going to change. Music on the internet, and the ability to build exciting applications using it is going to allow more artists to establish sustainable fan-bases."
- Ken Kennedy
FriendFeed should be faster again. We were had some network issues which caused a lot of slowness this past week, but I think it's fixed now. Let me know if you are still encountering any extreme slowness.
Mainly just had problems with email posting and the bookmarklet. The rest seemed fairly okay.
- Jason Huebel
I've been told that I'm extremely slow much of the time, but I don't think that's what you meant. Thanks for taking care of the issue, Paul.
- Jim in Real Time
Meanwhile, Dad's kids with his new wife get what kind of toys?
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, FriendFeed users have no reason to complain about our toys. And even if we did, bitterness doesn't help.
- Bruce Lewis
FriendFeed is dying for me. In fact. it's just about gone. I use it as a control room and discussion space for my Twitter feed, and a searchable archive. Discussion threads are down about 80 percent. "Likes" are off about 90 percent. There's no real time feed in from Twitter any more. Sad.
- Jay Rosen
Agreed, Jay. My personal life is in a bit of an upheaval right now, which hasn't helped, but the FB acquisition took the wind out of the sails for me. It feels like there's no future, or worse, a future wired up to the "friending" criteria of my Facebook account. I use the services COMPLETELY differently, however. Inbound updates continue, since they're automatic, but this is the first comment I've posted in weeks. Sad, indeed.
- Ken Kennedy
I am using Twitter and FB more and more lately. On the plus side, it's strengthening some real world connections. I'm missing out on the cool new stuff but I think I had gone overboard on that front.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I like FriendFeed, but I happen to find myself using Twitter and IRC more as of late. I guess I've probably just burnt myself and others out, given that I don't seem to have much in the way of compelling content and commentary these days, and that I just don't feel as motivated as I'd like to. :(
- Tyson Key
Thanks for throwing some love over to FF :)
- Susan Beebe
Is there currently an issue with posting from FF to update Facebook -or is Facebook broken after the re-design ? i dont get anything posted to FB anymore which worked fine before yd
- Del_
Hi Paul, I know it has been a while since this post. But over the last 48 hours my Twitter updates have quit showing up in FF. I tried manually refreshing. Then I removed the account so I could just add it back in. When trying to do that I get the following message: "We could not find the given account" I haven't changed anything. Any thoughts on why this is happening? I haven't had any trouble until now. Thanks.
- Mary-Lynn
My Twitter feed is coming into FF much faster now - thanks! *Edit - Blog feed, too!
- Kurt Starnes
"I hear your larger point, though, Dave, and in fact the confusion w/in FB over how things update is in a sense a separate issue. One that using the Twitter API as an goal highlights. Heck, maybe it might even be useful to flag issues and raise them to the forefront. A lot of users don't even realize that a wall post and a status update are considered different types by Facebook. It is certainly true that the Twitter API is not only clean and simple, but has tools, bindings, and scripts all over the place that support it. Providing a clear and clean mapping to a least a portion of the FB API could be very interesting!"
- Ken Kennedy
"It's an interesting idea, but part of the issue with bolting the Twitter API onto Facebook is that Facebook's functionality is a pretty large superset of the Twitter one, and they already do a poor job of mapping one to the other with their existing tools (like Twitter/Identi.ca/Friendfeed apps for FB sync). A simple example is the fact that in Twitter, an tweet is a tweet is a tweet...but to Facebook, a tweet that syncs over with no link in it is a "status update", which has one set of privacy settings, and a tweet that syncs over with a bit.ly link in it is a "wall post with link", which can have another set of privacy settings. Same thing with FF syncs, etc. This is already confusing enough; until FB cleans up some of the way it works, trying to bolt on another API would muddy the waters even further, IMO."
- Ken Kennedy
"Except it doesn’t, completely. As near as I can tell, there’s some weird difference in Facebook between a pure status update and something with a link attached. When identi.ca posts come in with a URL in them, that URL becomes an attached link…and suddenly the post goes from something viewable only by my default group to a post viewable any friend!"
- Micah Wittman
Thanks for reporting on this, Ken. That will be a big deal to many. I still can't bring myself to trust FB with any of my qualitatively or quantitatively significant content.
- Micah Wittman
No problem, Micah...thanks for commenting. It's been pretty frustrating trying to figure out all the nooks and crannies of that system, and I'm TRYING. Most people just accept the defaults, and end up with far more information exposed than they bargained for.
- Ken Kennedy
"Instead, successful opinion arbitrageurs must seek the most informed opinions, gooey with expertise, thick with real value for readers." - another vote for the curation model.
- Ken Kennedy
"White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer says the stakes are enormous, telling reporters bluntly that the White House sees no "second chance" if a bill doesn't pass before Christmas. "Congress won't come back to health care next year: It will be all jobs," he said. "The next president will not stake political capital on this. If Clinton and Obama can't get it done, no one else will try.""
- Derek Coward
from Bookmarklet
Pretty much what I told someone last night when I saw the acquiescence to Lieberman's demands. They've pretty much decided to do "something", even if they give away the farm to get "it".
- Ken Kennedy
Zoinks: "Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer."
- Ken Kennedy
Way to step up and remind folks, Bruce. AGAIN. Technology is neutral; we have to make the decisions to determine what kind of tool it becomes. As Schneier notes, ubiquitous surveillance is the very definition of a police state. At the very least, we have to be able to watch the watchers; sousveillance may help even the odds.
- Ken Kennedy
Friendfeeders: Who's a good domain registrar that has an email forwarding (MX) service that's a la carte (*not* bundled with a full-blown web hosting package)?
I use DynDNS for MX Backup (I run my own mail server, but just in case it goes down...used to be on my DSL line). I THINK they have a mail forwarding service as well. I've always liked their services...easy to use and reliable. And IIRC, you can buy pretty much anything a la carte.
- Ken Kennedy
i know DynDNS is good (an old childhood friend is one of their lawyers) but i've been using eNom for years now (reseller account where you have to put in like $100 initially, but can then just let that be your renewal money down the road) - i've yet to use the reseller part of my account, but their prices are fair (from what i can tell) and they do offer it all if you want it
- Chris Heath
Gina Trapani did the legwork last February to find an alternative to GoDaddy http://ginatrapani.org/spun... Based on that data, I moved a bunch of domains over to Namecheap.com--who say they offer free email forwarding--but I handle my own DNS so I haven't used that part of the service...
- Ken Sheppardson
... The transfer process wasn't as smooth as it could've been (had to have their CS folks kick things a couple times), but I don't expect a personal account rep or anything like it from a service with "cheap" in their name. Since the move, I haven't noticed any problems.
- Ken Sheppardson
yeah, forgot about that ken... thanks for the reminder
- Chris Heath
Thank you, gentlemen, this gives me several good options.
- Micah Wittman
I just reg'd a domain with namecheap.com - comes with free email forwarding! All for under 9 bucks. So far, so good :)
- Micah Wittman
Micah, just saw your post. Yes, I have our NP using Namecheap. And yes, like Todd says you could go with Google (Apps) we use that as well. The MX service works well and use Gapps as our email service
- Melanie Reed
Oooh, I see. Not domain registration, but point the MX record for email service. But that only works for google apps which is $50/yr or something, right?
- Micah Wittman
Yeah, unless you qualify for grant, ie, educational, etc.
- Melanie Reed
Todd, Melanie - thank you! Me <=== *facepalm* How did I not know they offered a free version.
- Micah Wittman
You're welcome and hope it works for you!
- Melanie Reed
I find it interesting that this is the second time on friendfeed in the past month or two that someone did not know that google apps for your domain are free for under 10 users
- Chris Heath
Alright, for some reason this reminds me of the phone call I had with my mother Sunday, when we both started talking in really crappy Sean Connery accents. Fabuloush!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
If it's a school picture, you KNOW it's Olan Mills! At least, that's the way it was around here. Those folks had a lock on the uncomfortably posed photo market.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
uncomfortable pose? looks pretty comfortable to me lol :P
- Rob Sellen :o)
"After nearly nine months of negotiations, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, finally reached an agreement on Thursday to acquire the television network, NBC Universal, from the General Electric Company in a deal the values the businesses at about $30 billion."
- Derek Coward
from Bookmarklet
I don't like this, but I don't know why.
- Paul Reynolds
Well, it certainly raises the specter of "channelization" online, but as Dan Gillmore said on Twitter, it also could force Congress to stop ducking network neutrality. That being said, as pro-NN as I am in the abstract, the thought of Congress trying to legislate it w/o just getting shanghaied by lobbyists scares me. The Devil is indeed in the details.
- Ken Kennedy
Agree with Gigi. Don't take my words just because I work for Microsoft Italy, but my question is fair I suppose. What I do with a Google Chrome OS Netbook when I do not have any kind of connectivity, for instance? For example, Italy still does not have free wifi anywhere and the rates for a GPRS/UMTS connectivity are still high in comparison to the data you want to use with them. It will be a very interesting competitive scenario soon...
- Andrea Contino
@Andrea then Google Chrome OS is not an option for you. not a big deal. Google's OS market will be anywhere which has the most important requirement for this OS which is a low price high-speed internet
- Mohamadreza
Basically entertainment and socialization is moving online. Portable devices being able to access those services is what Google is focusing on. They want to be the eco-vehicle that gets you to those things. MS, Mac, Linux can do the same, but how much overhead is there since you can do more with them then just internet activities. Its a different world they are choosing to be part of....
more...
- CW™
Google OS is for North America primarily. Europe and a bunch of other areas don't have ubiquitous Internet like the US. So we're talking about a fairly confined market here anyway.
- Frank Jonen
Google OS is for the Internet, and the Internet is for the whole world.
- l'Ego di Gigi
@Mohamadreza Not a big deal for me. Try to share some photos from a camera with a friend with a Chrome OS netbook without the Internet :-) That all I ment
- Andrea Contino
ChromeOS is for my mum (and for me). I can buy her this laptop, get her to plug it in and outside of hardware, my 'free tech support' ends. The root is in read only and all her stuff is on the cloud. If there is a problem, hit restart and everything goes back to normal.
- Johnny Worthington
"Why take a $1,000 computer to class? Couldn’t he do everything he needs to do on a low-cost computer" my 12 yr old kid has his Acer Aspire One, running Windows XP, definately not $1,000, good enough for web surfing, pulling up the web version of his math schoolbook, playing Mousehunt
- Tim Jones
@Andrea Contino that's exactly what I mean. I second @Frank about the fairly confined market. this OS has no place in my and your room while we do not have the bandwidth it needs :-) and even my designer would not use it. we should not blame google for this issue. this OS is designed for the internet, not to be compared with PC or Mac
- Mohamadreza
Chrome OS is everything at Google: nothing fancy but it works. And it works damn well. And I'm a long time apple fan an journalist.
- Federico Bolsoman
Right now I really, really want to convert my little netbook to Chrome, just to see how well it gets along with my Droid. They could bluetooth together and do Googly things, it would be beautiful.
- (dot)lizard kelly
Um, no. Unless companies can come out w/ sub $100 laptops (where's the profit in THAT!?!), I don't see Chrome OS being useful to nyone. I mean, if you have to spend ~$200 at least for a netbook, why not shell out another $100 or $200 for a low end notebook? Plus, even if you want a netbook for $200, Windows comes on it...so why switch to Chrome OS? No incentive.
- Scott Carmichael
Scott... That assumes that the Windows OS is free to the manufacturer. What percentage of the build costs go to the purchase of the OEM version?
- Johnny Worthington
Also, Microsoft are reported to be restricting the hardware that the Windows 7 Netbook edition can be installed on. Particularly processor speed and memory. No news yet on if that applies to ChromeOS
- Johnny Worthington
Chrome OS is clearly overhyped. There will be no $100 netbooks - at least $200 (youtube or vimeo hd don't run on ultracheap cpu's). And just a $100 difference between a limited Chrome netbook and a fully capable Win machine will cause most people choose the latter. Remember all those Linux netbooks - return rate was sky-high, so manufacturers moved back to WinXP. And those Linux...
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- Kirill Petrovsky
from fftogo
I figured it out -- Chrome OS is going to run on something like Crunchpad and its competitors (in the future maybe whenever hardware like that is available). I am guessing the market is limited though. Scoble will want one -- but he has one of everything .
- Brian Sullivan
Today I have tried ChromeOS on my EeePC....... I could survive without.
- l'Ego di Gigi
Actually, reading the comments to the Chrome-related posts, I noticed one idea people like, and which no one is against. That's a remote cloud desktop, with infinite firepower, replacing their desktop PCs. And ubiquitous access from any web-enabled device - at home and on the go. Now, who is working on that kind of technology... oh, it's Windows Azure for serving power and "3 screens and the cloud" concept for end-users.
- Kirill Petrovsky
from fftogo
Scott: Google makes billions of dollars WITHOUT SELLING ONE LAPTOP! How the hell? Hint: Google will make a LOT of money from $100 devices.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: The ONLY way Google will be able to monetize this is if ads start appearing in the OS and/or web apps. In that case, it DEFINITELY will fail instantly. WHY? Let's not forget all those ad-filled PCs of the 90s where you got the computer for "free" but were bombarded by ads 24/7. Plus, have you done a parts cost analysis on a $100 device? Get back to me when you have.
- Scott Carmichael
Google OS hasn't won anything except false hype. People aren't going to go out in droves to buy $100 sub-devices when just a bit more money can get you a full-fledged PC.
- Spencer
Besides I predict no such device capable of internet access is going to priced at $100 ever. Prices of hardware are coming down but not that much. In fact I predict that no such device will cost $100 to build -- ever.
- Brian Sullivan
The ChumbyOne is priced at $100 in the Chumby store right now: https://store.chumby.com/ Not the same device, of course, but not that different.
- Ken Kennedy
I'd gladly order one of those if they were available in Canada. I believe Chris Pirillo did a review recently, and it looked quite good.
- Kittyburgers
Brian, you are absolutely right. Even Nintendo & Sony's portable gaming devices are so cheap because they can (and do) subsidize hardware costs with the knowledge more profit will be made from software sales. So unless Google will be charging for web apps, I don't see hardware nowadays being that cheap, EVER, except maybe in 3rd world countries.
- Scott Carmichael
Google OS is all together interesting 2 use together w/other OS, but 2 use as lone nay, I would not
- polou/indigo_bow
Excellent point: "...management and the incentives of the market aren't just something you can trivially add to social relationships. The addition of those things transform social relationships, and often not in a good way."
- Ken Kennedy
"If Settings in Android 2.0 are the same as 1.6 (I have a G1) ... open the GMail prg, and with the Inbox open (vs. an individual msg; context makes a difference), hit the menu button, and Settings should be an option. Choose Settings. Scroll down that list to Notifications, and choose "Select Ringtone", and choose Silent."
- Ken Kennedy
Hello? Are you there? Tina? It says I'm connecting but I can't hear her. Hello? I think I'm leaving a tragically bad voice mail maybe. Can you ZSSZZHSHZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZBZZZBZZZBZZZ
- Stephen Mack
I saw no issue, but suddenly I magically saw a 3G logo show up on my t-mobile for the first time ever in my local area, then went away about about an hour.
- Tsali, The Native of FF
I could make outgoing calls, but incoming calls just rang busy, so you may have been effected and not known it.
- Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy
I agree with Steve. I called Adrian and got sent to vm at first, then got messages that said, "This subscriber has no service." He showed me the number of calls he made to me (about 10), yet my phone history (I'm with Sprint) shows he made 3 calls, all before 12:30.
- Admiral Anika
I had no signal from 6:30-8 or so. And I had no sms for another 30min (Atlanta /Decatur)
- tiffany
from Android