I'm jealous! Who'd of thought that convincing my gf that the Joker isn't "that scary" would be so difficult? - Kyle
Nice! I have to make a point to see this in Imax - kpoirier
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No Imax down here in Venezuela, but I'm watching TDK tomorrow morning in special showing. And repeat at night. Ah, to be a fanboy... :) - Juan Carlo Rodríguez
Yes - I forgot to credit you. Sorry! - Leo Laporte
Kraftwerk threw me for a loop. That seriously rocks except...3 people left in the world know Kraftwerk these days. - Candace Holly
very cool site - daft punk & pulp fiction theme were first for me & i saw chris post it original so credit too (cross posted to appstore room as well)... - mike "glemak" dunn
NO need, dude - have you tried it directly on the iPhone yet? Not sure if it works that way or not. - l0ckergn0me
Leo reminds me of the street corner musician with the mutliple instruments strapped on at the same time: guitar in hand, harmonica wired around the neck and in the mouth, symbols strapped to the inside of the knees and foot pedal pounding a drum. A real one-man show. - Al Degutis
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Paul, I was just listening to your last podcast and you were wanting a multi-platform chat client that does tweets. Check out www.digsby.com. It has all of the major chat protocols in it as well as twitter, gmail and facebook integration. - Kyle
The honeymoon is over. Obama is now running for President, with all that implies: need for vast sums of money, move to center, compromise with non-liberal voters. And now the backlash begins. "But he's OUR candidate! How dare he." - Leo Laporte
I take it as read that politics is all about compromise, and money. Take the latest vote on giving Telecoms immunity. Nancy Pelosi says she voted for the bill because there might be another bill that's worse than this one. I just don't see how a politician can be elected without selling themselves out in some way. I like Al Gore far better since he left politics (sort of) than when he was an elected official. For me the longer I'm around the more cynical I get. Lost my virginity with McGovern. - Henry Burger
I don't agree with Obama on immunity - but I'm a supporter and he was NEVER the most progressive candidate. Obama is being pretty consistent here with what I expected in the primary and the more I think about it, the more I agree with Keith Olbermann's take on this - Obama might be being smart here. - Lee Stranahan
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I got the same email only they asked me for $25 bucks. Maybe it's proportional to what you've donated in the past? - Kyle
Kyle - it's much more effective to ask for a small amount - those who can do more will, and those who cannot won't be offended. - Anthony Citrano
@Henry Burger - You like Al Gore more - that's understandable. Firstly, because he does his cool slide show. Secondly, because he doesn't have to make possibly uncomfortable choices any more. Telling the world what's wrong is easier than fixing the world. If he actually had to fix the environment, he would have to make choices that a lot of people wouldn't like. - sebmos
Kyle, all my donations have been $100. - Dave Winer
I had a donation of $30 dollars during the primaries. Sounds like they are just asking you to re-donate the same amount you have in the past. - Kyle
Of course you're an ATM-what do you think he wants to show up at your house and shoot baskets with you while he finds out about what issues really matter? If you want that you better put a lot more zeroes behind the amount you give. - Mark Forman
@Mark Forman - You obviously don't understand the US election donation law. - sebmos
@sebmos - you obviously don't understand humour :) - Jordan Brock
Yesterday I was sitting with one of Obama's Tech Advisers. We were having breakfast. He told me to look around. He said that everyone around us was Clinton's biggest money supporters. Turned out he was right, they spoke to these people later that day. They are very pissed, he said. Why? Because they raise money millions at a time. Obama has gotten them out of the loop because they were no longer able to buy their way to power. So, I'm now far more willing to be seen as an ATM by Obama. - Robert Scoble
There is always power and luxury to those that cater to those outside of the borders they represent. Obama and Corn will turn America into a modern day plantation for fuel. No energy diversity here. All about the money - ⓃⓄⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂⓄⓃ
So Obama is a bum because we all don't get to have a personal sit-down meeting with him? - Mike Doeff
I believe it is called a "Cash Crop Economy". America really will be a 3rd world nation, because we won't be able to eat our own food! Energy for the rest of the world. No more corn bread. - ⓃⓄⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂⓄⓃ
@Kyle and Dave: Typical fund raising is to ask for the amount you gave previously or a slight bit higher. It's all dynamic. You gave $30 last time, you might be asked to give $35, doesn't sound like a lot, but that's a 17% increase in giving, do that across a vast donation base and it adds up - quick. Politics and money are intertwined (like it or not), and I'm happy Obama and Democrats have finally figured out and harnessed direct marketing. - AJ Kohn
I think it's pretty amazing to see the extent to which Obama's supporters will rationalize his pointless conservativism. - J T. Ramsay
All this talk about money and special interests is why the US should adopt the California policy of two term limits. It keeps anyone from getting to entrenched and beholden to special interests. Or we could go to the Mexican policy of only one term and the holder of an office can not campaign for a new position unless they resign from their existing position. This eliminates the advantage of the incumbent and keeps the person focused on governing not raising campaign funds. The current system if broken. - Jon Erickson
Leo, then let him get the money from non-liberal voters. - Dave Winer
Obama is just like every other politician. He flip-flops and begs for money. I love how he said he would use public funding and then as soon as he found out he could get a whole lot more from people, he's doing that. - Jason Mitchell
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Finding it sad that once again Democrats are finding ways to divide themselves and look for ways to lose an election. - AJ Kohn
I feel honored that I'm being asked for my support... the alternative (the rich and special interest groups) form of funding has put us where we are now. Why isn't McCain asking for your $100? Because he doesn't need it and you definitely don't get to tell him how you feel. - Nathan Manley
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I don't feeling like an ATM either. Ease up - money is important. Agree: focus on community building more. - Brian Rendel
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better you being the ATM than Big Pharma, Oil, etc. - Aaron Brethorst
If I recall the book,didn't Freakonomics authors find that money really didn't affect the vote by more than 1%? Will Obama spend $300 Billion this fall for 1% of the vote? - Daltonsbriefs
“You can't use Qik in the Oval Office but you can Twitter. How do I know that? Because today Congressman John Culberson met with the President and he said the Secret Service wouldn't let him do live video but he did Twitter from there. ”
Why do I find it hard to believe that the president who touts using "the Google" and the "Internets" uses Twitter? Lord knows, McCain has yet to master Windows solitaire. - Chris Reed
Thanks for the Twitter link. It will be really interesting to follow a politician on Twitter. - Chris Rodgers
Where can you find the Congressmans Qik Feed? - amarquart
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Robert: I recant. 140 characters might be just the thing. ;-) - Chris Baskind
unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the West Wing either - WH press room is ok, Rose Garden is ok but not in - Marco (aureliusmaximus)
Following. - Holy moly, he just followed me back (probably auto...). - Vince DeGeorge
Picture the monkey in office Twittering launch codes... "Twitter is over capacity.
Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try to invade Iran again". - Andrew Smith
I follow him also - Twitter name - #johnculberson - Craig Thomler
Commenting here so I remember to add him as an imaginary friend later (since I can't do that on FFToGo) - Tad, Fool
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Culberson was by far the best conversation of the day. He clearly loves his job and wants new technology to do it better, even if he has to learn. Amazing, amazing guy. Can't wait for his Town Hall tomorrow! - Andrew Feinberg
wow, you guys had FUN!! so jealous... twitter in the white house holy cow! McCain is soo screwed! - Susan Beebe
So Scoble is the Maxwell Smart of tech? - Mark Forman
surprised they didn't just put a jammer on the the area - clarke thomas
I'm sure we'll be able to sum up all the positive things the Bush administration accomplished in less than 140 characters. - Kevin Shannon
About to find the John Culberson Twitter account now. Wonder what he's saying about the Scoble effect. :) - Ontario Emperor
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very cool -- like what i see... following Culberson now. - Andy Sternberg
very interesting to see that Culberson also follows you back- almost immediately unlike some of the other politicos mentioned in yesterday's blog post. - Nathan Eckenrode
John Culbertson followed me back immediately and then we even tweeted. I am still unsure about the other two mentioned. I can't seem to find the rep from OH and the rep from AZ (I think) his tweets have the feel of a staffer. Bears another look today though. By far the best thread yesterday! - Mathew A. Koeneker
I had a back and forth with Congressman Culberson last night on gas prices on Twitter; pretty amazing, really. - Lee Stranahan
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I got an immediate followback as well-- Lee, great to hear he is genuinely on the service. - Doug Haslam
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Rep. Culberson and I don't agree politically, but it was civil and it was a real conversation - a couple of people DMd me and said 'wow! this is cool!'. Tim Ryan is a Congressman, also on Twitter - but he follows nobody. - Lee Stranahan
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I disagree with just about all of his politics, but I love his twitter gumption. :) Go Culbertson! - Jarrod Morgenstern
Is there a central database of elected officials at any level who use Twitter or other social media sites regularly? And I don't mean their staffers representing them; I mean the real McCoys. - Ari Herzog
“Barack Obama on FriendFeed? Don't believe it. I met the guy who set up the account and it actually is done by a Republican lobbiest. He said he set it up to keep track of Obama and also to keep Obama's staff from using the account. I wish there were a way to authenticate that people are who they see”
just like the folks who grabbed "robertscoble" on plurk. That seems like identity theft to me, it's one thing to have the same name but it's another to imply you are a another person. - Doug Brooks
Yet another proof of the classic comic: "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog." - Craig Eddy
Louis knows everyone. Yeah, it is Patrick. - Robert Scoble
Heh, you can tell he's committed to integrity, too: "McCain Nearly Outraises Obama in May" So you mean, he didn't. Friendfeed gave back the Engadget account to Ryan Block when he requested it: who do you have to talk to at the Obama campaign for them to make the same request? - Mark Trapp
brand squatting is a rampant problem. who should get to create the salesforce.com account on any service? i think this needs to be tied to domain ownership, possibly via OpenID - Kingsley Joseph
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classic. let's see how many comment this gets :) - Tim Hoeck
So is this like *real* politics where there's a real dude and a fake dude all with the same name? - Susan Beebe
I thought I read somewhere that Ruffini had the McCain FriendFeed account. Why haven't Obama's people complained? Are they gunshy after the MySpace account incident? Or is it unimportant? Same question to McCain, if Ruffini controls that too. - Ontario Emperor
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unless they use OfficialBarackObama. but i figure knowing this info couldn't they sue? - Outsanity
Pretty simple solution. Obama campaign creates a FFtogo account. Posts it on their site. The unofficial one gets ignored or blocked. - Bill Bittner
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This name squatting across socnets is silly. Fork over your DNA @scobleizer and only then shall you get that coveted @scobelizer moniker across socnets. Bow down to thy namesquatters. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I believe it. Their Internet strategy was beyond awesome. - Charlie Anzman
Louis, what you don't know is that Patrick is merely a vessel in which McCain will enter when his body gives out. Sort of like Being John Malkovich, except Patrick is more interesting. - Andrew Feinberg
This is hilarious. But on looking at the stuff in the channel it is clear that he is promoting Obama. Why is he doing that.... baiting the folks to believe that this is the real official channel? - Vic Podcaster
Ruffini is a Republican, but he's very interested in the process, campaiging itself as well as social media. Not everyone is a Republican is evil, surprise surprise. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Lay off Patrick. He's a smart guy who happens to be on one side of the line. Every time I read his stuff or talk to him I learn something new. I can't say that for a great many Dems, sadly. - Andrew Feinberg
Dirty tricks in politics. I think Jefferson made them up. - Francine Hardaway
He is not a lobbyist he is an ecampaign strategist and blogger - identifying ourselves as Republicans (or worse Republican campaign operatives) on FriendFeed and Twitter is bad enough we don't need to be labeled as lobbyists as well. Next thing you know we are going to be "Republican lobbyist lawyers who own used car lots" - Marco (aureliusmaximus)
Marco you forgot the words 'extreme' and 'fundamentalist' :) - Erin Kotecki Vest
You guys don't see any problem with him purporting to be someone he's not? - Mark Trapp
@erin get back in your fort! I was pretty certain combining "Republican" "Extreme" and "Fundamentalist" would have been seen as unnecessarily repetitive in FriendFeed ; ) - Marco (aureliusmaximus)
Wow, everyone is ready to rip this guy even though he hasn't done anything malicious with the accounts. Has the Obama or McCain camps even asked him to give up the accounts? - Shey
By signing up an account name that is so clearly intended to be someone else, and not disclosing that is really playing on people's trust. If it was used to seed malicious information, surely thats libelous. - Dom Barnes
i'm sure if the obama campaign approached friendfeed, they could get conrtol of the account. this is a non-issue - Baratunde Thurston
I Actaully befriend da obama handle , thinking it was a campaign person from Obama's camp...after all their Twitter handle seemed genuine and worked well. So what is FF's policy for such malicious users ?? Are they going to block account and freeze it or what ? and this is not just about having a prez handle and workin it. rather a community /social question.. we all know the rift on the Loren/Shel issue, but how do we & FF Mod's negate such trolls in this space ? - Peter Dawson
As long as there is no (realistic, scalable) way to check people's identities that works for everybody (so no credit card) and is free (or companies won't implement it), all this talk is useless. - sebmos
@Peter Dawson - Beside being an account that wasn't created by Obama's campaign, this account didn't do anything wrong. It's definitely not a "troll", as it didn't comment useless stuff, etc. I'm having a difficult time seeing the problem with THIS account. - sebmos
The account does not claim to be Obama, and clearly is not slandering Obama. Further, even if it WAS on Obama's behalf it wouldn't "be" him anyway. As for the whole squatting hew and cry, think of the nightmare. How popular would someone have to be before they could demand the special status of "he who gets to use one name everywhere"? Does Scoble get special treatment but a smaller person is just screwed? First come, first served is fine. In cases of slander or fraud there are already laws. - Soulhuntre
"He said he set it up to keep track of Obama and also to keep Obama's staff from using the account" - and you replied..... - Rashunda Tramble
A really deep insight here about what is driving a revolutionary civilizational change in text media: print is INERT. Digital is globally interactive 9,999 ways to Sunday. - Sean McBride
Books aren't "info gathering" but rather something deeper. As far as ephemeral media goes, I do still read Harper's magazine. The nice thing is they've put their entire archive online in PDF form for subscribers, so if I really need to discuss an article with a friend, I can send it to them easily. - Jason Wehmhoener
speaking of that, anyone know of a good, reliable pen scanner? - joneilortiz
At least for me books, magazines, and other printed material definitely have their place. Technical books are handy for a quick reference when I'm at home and for some things I like the ability to mark up a piece of paper with a highlighter, fold it up, and stick it in my pocket with out having to worry about losing, it breaking it, or it's batteries running out. I do however, get most of my info via the web and other electronic means. - Michael Zitek
@stephenandrewlynch I wouldn't restrict this to news only at all. - Hal Rottenberg
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@andyc I still read a book at night, but my wife reads fark.com with my Windows Mobile phone. :) - Hal Rottenberg
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We (my wife and I) read in bed often. We have no tv in the bedroom because watching tv is not what bedrooms are for ;) - Ray Slakinski
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I read each night as well. I am reading on a Kindle now though, and I often make notes as I read. I would love a way to tag, bookmark or share things. I subscribe to and read Slate on my Kindle, and often fire up my computer to share an article I liked. I agree with your statement Leo. - Sean Brady
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I read ebooks in my bed before going to sleep nearly every night -- and in nearly every other conceivable place (including supermarket checkout lines). Another point: the "deepness" of books is entirely independent of whether they are presented in print or digital formats. A shallow or deep print book will be a shallow or deep ebook. - Sean McBride
it sounds like a cliche but it's true - marcel weiss
newspapers are dead to me personally. - Thomas Hawk
If it wasn't for Sunday coupons, I would never buy a newspaper. Everytime I look at a paper, I think, "That's yesterday's news. I've already heard that." - ha3rvey
I also subscribe to the Sunday paper because I would feel "guilty" reading its FREE RSS feeds if I didn't at least subscribe. They tried to give me a 7-day subscription at NO EXTRA CHARGE, but I turned them down because I didn't want any more paper piling up in the house (I usually don't look at the Sunday paper unless I'm looking for a coupon) so they can't even GIVE THEIR PRODUCT AWAY FOR FREE! - Thomas Ho
Although, newspaper makes for great and cheap packing materials. just sayin' - Yolanda ♥s Nuttycakes
I will always prefer to read anything beyond a paragraph on paper. I prefer the feel of the book in my hand and I can annotate a book far faster with a pen than pulling up any program on my computer. I am an avid user of OneNote but again that's really a secondary activity. Reading, analyzing, correlating, reflecting are all activities that require time -time that you can't collapse by way of the web and the tools associated with it. It has its place, but it is only a tool. - Melanie Reed
As regards the Kindle, that boggles the mind with all the permutations of actions , some good, many bad, that will associate with it in time. Nobody's going to steal your newspaper on the bus or the subway. But wait till Kindles become de riguer and the Nike shoe thefts will pale in comparison. But that's just one example. - Melanie Reed
I don't know. I had a neighbor who would drive by my house in the early morning to steal my paper before I woke up. I am sure people would do the same on the bus. :) - Sean Brady
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It is easier to markup a book; however, personally I never go back to the markups. Tags are way more useful to me. - Bryan Clark
What did the newspaper office say when you asked for a replacement...or did you? :) - Melanie Reed
This was happening for about 2 months, almost every weekend (we only have Sat/Sun delivery). We would call, they would send a replacement. Finally, we saw the person who was doing it, confronted him and it stopped...for us. We saw him nab someone elses paper the following week. :) - Sean Brady
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Ach, so it was a worth/risk/benefit scenario. As long as confrontation could be delayed, sleeping in was worth losing.;) I think that will get upped with a kindle. I think there are some who will risk direct confrontation for a kindle that they wouldn't risk for a newspaper in an enclosed space. Cheap licensing for the downloads but the upfront initial and replacement cost would seem to make it a target like other things of that nature. And what of library scenarios for the poor ? - Melanie Reed
I was revisiting "Finding Forrester" on DVD the other night so this is all a little heavy on the mind right now. - Melanie Reed
That's interesting. I tend to read print when I need to give my eyes a rest from the pixels, dogear anything I like and send the digital version to friends later. - Cat Laine
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Melanie - I find digital tools to be superior to paper tools for organizing notes. For instance, I can instantly retrieve very specific notes among thousands of notes on hundreds of books I've read over the last decade with simple text files and a text searcher like dtSearch or Examine32. Attempting to retrieve these notes by eyeballing hardcopy notebooks would take hours or days, not seconds. There is a huge leveraging factor in using digital over paper. - Sean McBride
More magazines need to sign up for Zinio. I love reading my Business week on my mac or pc. - Tad, Fool
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Hi Sean, I use digital tools quite a bit as well. (CIT background) I find them useful for large researches but I bring a LA mindset to a geek education. :) The process that I find works better for me is to marry the two. I use OneNote when writing and researching online quite a bit. BUT then I have and I find that there are things of interest and importance that are not online. Comprehension decreases for me with online and increases offline. - Melanie Reed
By the time the news hits the paper it's already stale. All my daily news reading is online too. I still read some trade mags but that is dwindling. - Larry Kless
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I find I read the front news section of the paper less, but still read the in depth articles. I do wish I could 'hide' articles about Tony Mokbel though. - Michael C. Harris
@leolaprote That sucks Leo, might be something you can report to FF's tech staff. If they can add you themselves to your facebook it might verywell be a bug. - Raymond C
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While *much* of my info gathering is online, I'm still a heavy consumer of print as well. I'm curious about other people's RECALL re: online/digital vs. print -- reason I raise it is because despite a good photographic memory, I've found that my recall strength seems to vary with the font and stronger with paper vs. onscreen. I'm curious if that's perhaps conditioned (PCs didn't start to become widespread until junior high for my gen) & if others find a difference in how they absorb/process/retain info based on source. - Casey
The Hunter / Gatherer (of info) speaks well; feed me some more...I'm hungry. - mark dekruyter
@Melanie I've been meaning to get "into" OneNote, especially since I now have OneNote Mobile on my Sprint Mogul phone - Thomas Ho
had a feeling this is what the announcement was when I noticed a SmugVault entry in the gallery drop down. Think I need to see which is cheaper to do direct S3 storage or using this. - dbcohen
So, anything? If I wanted to run my DMG archive off of Smug Vault, I'd be okay? - Mark Trapp
@Dave Cohen: S3 is cheaper (not much!), but you lose the integration and visual browsing interface of SmugMug. We're certainly not an S3 competitor here. If S3 works for you, awesome. :) - Don MacAskill
Awesome Don, nice one! Let's make a loud sound with this one! - Larry Kless
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@Mark Trapp: Yep, anything, including DMG or whatever. Currently it's 512MB/file max, but I'm working on making it 5GB per file. - Don MacAskill
Been waiting for something like this ever since I started shooting RAW! - Benjamin Golub
Awesome, thanks Don. This could be nifty for my design firm's off-site archive, especially if we can preview the good bulk of the files. - Mark Trapp
Argh! I just starting shooting RAW!! Must have!!! - Bwana
hmmmm... store *everything*, next to *nothing*. Not sure I agree with that. Under this new service my 2TB archive would cost me $600 one time fee + $440 every single month, plus more for getting the images back. Seems like a few drobos are a better deal, no? I can't imagine paying over $5,000 a year for offsite storage. Of course this sort of service is probably not aimed at someone like me. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas Hawk: Compared to competing photo sharing services with RAW support, and other pay-for-storage-in-the-cloud offerings, this is a very compelling price point. It's certainly not as cheap as a handful of Drobos - but then you have to do all the IT, deal with fire/earthquakes/etc. If you're cool with that, great. But many aren't. - Don MacAskill
@Thomas Hawk: There are two components for any really solid archive storage: Local, fast, always available storage and something offsite. That can be drives stored at a bank, tapes at an archival facility, or something like SmugVault. We view ourselves as the offsite component, not the replacement for the RAID at your house. - Don MacAskill
@Don, I'm just saying $600 upfront and $440 per month in my case certainly would not qualify as storing "everything for next to nothing." It would cost me more per month to store my archive than to lease a car. And my archive is only going to get bigger. - Thomas Hawk
Can I get access outwith the web interface? e.g. ftp or sync software - Chris Nixon
I don't think storage in the cloud is yet economical for most heavy photographers. Even someone with only 500GB of images would still have to pay $110 per month which is an expensive cost. Better (and faster) to back up your images yourself on drives and give them to a friend to hold for you offsite. You can also remotely network drobos now to have one at your home, one at an offsite location and sync them for much, much, less money. - Thomas Hawk
I don't get why I'd use this over my $5/m Mozy account? - Phill Price
@Thomas Hawk: Remotely networking drobos? Makes me want to get them even more... Wish they weren't so expensive! @Phill Price: Yeah, I don't see how SmugMug's service beats the pants off of Mozy, except that I don't think Mozy has a Web-based file browser. Am I wrong about that? - Voyagerfan5761
@Thomas Hawk: We have Pros who charge $10-20K for a single wedding that generates a few GB of photos. This is very economical for money-making Pros. And we have tens of thousands of them. :) - Don MacAskill
I haven't remotely networked drobo's yet but Alex Lindesy said that he's doing this with his on the This Week in Photography (TWIP) podcast. Synching two drobos would not be cheap Voyagerfan, but certainly cheaper than paying $440 per month. I do have my archive backed up on cheap external USB drives though and offsite at my parent's house. Most of my finished JPG photos are online as well on photosharing sites which are sort of a secondary backup. - Thomas Hawk
@Voyagerfan5761 it does - and its automatic - Phill Price
@Phill Price: This offering is geared towards people for whom SmugMug is a vital part of their workflow. They've told us they want the archives stored alongside the photos, so their normal workflow is enhanced rather than disrupted. Absolutely using something like Mozy or S3 or whatever is cheaper - but for some, time and/or effort is more valuable than money. SmugMug isn't in the business of being the cheapest solution for anything we offer - we're a premium service. - Don MacAskill
The other thing I don't like about this service is that it has a built in cost increase. The more you shoot the more you store, the more you store, the more you pay ongoing. You pay *more* in the future not less, even though storage gets cheaper. I'd rather have an "all you can eat" sort of plan that controlled future price increases. Still, for the casual photographer with less than 50GB of files, this might be worth looking at. Although even 50GB is $22 a month, a far cry from "next to nothing." - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas Hawk: Actually, that's not true. As Amazon lowers their prices (which they've done twice in two years already, and I expect another one "soon"), we'll lower ours the corresponding amount. Your storage will get cheaper. - Don MacAskill
@Thomas Hawk: While I appreciate the feedback, you're not really comparing apples to apples here. Go find me a photo sharing site that accepts and stores RAW/PSD/etc for less than ours as part of their workflow. We will *definitely* not be as cheap as local storage, that's a given. The question is how we compare to other similar offerings. And in that regard, we're much cheaper and (more importantly) much better. - Don MacAskill
Bear in mind that this is an offering our customers have been *begging* for at a price point *lower* than they said they'd pay. My customers are likely very different from you - but that doesn't mean it's not a valid, useful, game-changing offering. - Don MacAskill
@Don, I might not be comparing apples to apples, but I'd still never pay $440 a month for a service like this. The "store everything for next to nothing," was the part I thought was a bit misleading. The service is actually quite a bit more expensive than someone simply copying their files to an external drive and giving it to a friend to hold offsite for them, without reoccuring monthly fees. - Thomas Hawk
saying the Oakland Mercedes Benz dealer is cheaper than the Beverly Hills Mercedes Benz dealer doesn't mean that you still can't find a cheaper car somewhere else -- or take the bus or bike for that matter. You get to the same place no matter if you drive a Mercedes, a Prius, take BART or bike. Some ways just cost more than others. - Thomas Hawk
I am a pro photographer. I shoot less than ThomasHawk but have my fair share of events. I would like to just see a storage through online means regardless of file type such as Xdrive. But at larger increments such as 1GB at a time not 1MB. Any thoughts Don? - Photo Larry
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"next to nothing" refers to some of our (to remain unnamed) competitors. And it jives with what our paying customers have told us they'd pay for this service. We could have gouged them and charged the $1/GB or whatever they said they'd pay (or that they pay elsewhere now) - but we chose not to. Apologies if it doesn't fit your world view. :) - Don MacAskill
Yes, but the Oakland Benz dealer will sell you the same Benz that Beverly Hills will. A Drobo and SmugVault aren't even remotely the same. So again, you're comparing apples to apples in your analogy, but not the actual product comparison. It's fine, I get it - you won't use it. But that doesn't mean it's not a good product. - Don MacAskill
@Photo Larry: You can store 1MB, 1GB, 1PB with this. Whatever you want. So you're not limited to 1MB. If I somehow gave that impression, I apologize. SmugVault is unlimited and pay-by-the-drink. Only pay for what you use - no commitments. - Don MacAskill
Don, I'm an edge case. I'm sure this offering is just right for many of your customers. Some people like to drive Mercedes and don't mind paying -- it's a huge market. I just like to take the BART, that way it costs less and I can process photos to and from work. :) - Thomas Hawk
This may be the clincher for me. I've been thinking about using SmugMug for a while. They already allow users to sell photos -- which is something I've wanted from other photo sharing sites for a while -- they offer good prints as well, and now they have this. Very nice. - Raoul Pop
@Thomas Hawk: Everything we do at SmugMug is more BMW than Toyota, let alone BART, that's for sure. :) - Don MacAskill
Having read the blog post, I can see the potential of it. Never mind the price, which is way too high for my taste at the moment (and Thomas is right to criticize your headline). But prices will come down. I like the concept of having a photo library somewhere up in the cloud that contains all master files "behind" the one final image on display. With a good UI and a Photoshop plugin that allowed direct editing from and saving to the cloud, this could completely replace apps like Lightroom in the future. - Ole Begemann
Don: Wow. I like this thread esp. for the comments. I withdraw my request for a smugmug invite. That is a pretty elitist view of things. I will just wait until I fill my free off-site storage and then pay an "economy" photo hosting service. - Mathew A. Koeneker
mike it hit because i linked to don :) - Allen Stern
Brilliant! I love betting on the right horse. You go Smugmug! - Leo Laporte
It would be awesome if Techmeme could include FF conversations! Seems like a natural fit, but the problem would be how could Techmeme know *which* of the conversations to append to the article. Sometimes the biggest conversation around an item will happen in the oddest place. Hard for Techmeme to know which is *officially* the related or best conversation. - Thomas Hawk
I'm assuming you have to have a SmugMug account to use this in the first place? For someone like me with about 10GB of archives, the price would be good, but having to pay to join another photo site just for backup would deter me. - Matt
Allen, Gabe recently mentioned that he was starting to look at FriendFeed as another source for discussion (see http://snurl.com/2nnk6 - Gabe's last comment). I think this is a case where it would make sense for Gabe's algorithm to include this in the discussion. - Mike Doeff
@Mathew A. Koeneker: SmugMug invite? We don't require invites. We've been in production for more than 5 years - no invites required. Just a credit card. :) I'm not sure how I (we?) are being elitist, though - we're offering something both better and cheaper than anyone else. How is that elitist? Am I missing something? - Don MacAskill
@Matt: You do need a SmugMug account, yes. They start at $40/year (unlimited JPEG/GIF/PNG storage), or roughly a latte a month. :) - Don MacAskill
Is anyone else not surprised that Thomas Hawk is trying to crap on a thread about a competitor's product? A quick browse on his blog shows crapping on competition all over the place, while his own pet project flounders in obscurity. - Jim
Hutch, great blog post, interesting method -- using activity by authoritative FF folk to determine which post to link right? Would love to see FF conversations on Techmeme as they definitely provide valuable commentary on the story. - Thomas Hawk
@Don, I sent a Tweet about this about two hours ago but never got a chance to get back gere until now. Looks like a lot great discussion has been going on. - Larry Kless
via twhirl
Jim, I don't view SmugMug as a competing product *at all.* I doubt Don does either, but maybe I'm wrong. Two very different markets and services. I actually like SmugMug as an service alot, and especially the people that work there, their high service and community engagement. I just wouldn't pay $440 a month for something like this. I call it like I see it. BART is not a competitor to BMW, even though both get you where you want to go. - Thomas Hawk
@ Don: I was being a tad ironic as well as perhaps I misunderstood the post "@Thomas Hawk: Everything we do at SmugMug is more BMW than Toyota, let alone BART, that's for sure. :) - Don MacAskill" I like being frugal and wish that we had better public transportation in StL. I am OK if that is your target demographic (ie. BMW) but it seemed like a slam on those that are not. - Mathew A. Koeneker
@Thomas - and yet you keep arguing a red herring. There is a huge difference between local storage and off-site storage. In order to replicate the security of storage in the clouds, you have to set up multiple synced off-site storage locations. There is a reason that lot of top photographers store their photos in banks and other secure vaults. - Jim
@Thomas - that's right. Techmeme has a heavy bias for those who have been on Techmeme previously. Leverage that to identify conversational hot points. - Hutch Carpenter
@Thomas - a perfect example is world famous photographer Jacques Lowe who stored 40,000 negatives of the Kennedy family in the safest location he could find. He stored them in a bank vault, and 11 years later they were all completely destroyed when 2 planes hit the World Trade Center, right next door. Off-site + redundancy is extremely important to a lot of photographers. - Jim
Jim, I'm not arguing a red herring at all. $440 per month to store my archive is *not* "next to nothing." It's a perfectly valid point to make in light of the headline of the post. The fact that I can archive cheaper other ways is another point entirely -- but worth mentioning given that people might be looking for other cheaper alternatives. Maybe $440 per month is "next to nothing" for a rich guy like you, but it's not for me. Do you work for SmugMug? - Thomas Hawk
@Mathew A. Koeneker: Oh, no, that wasn't a slam at all. I have a BMW, but I love BART too. But when we chose to build a business, we intentionally chose the premium space. Not only am I more interested in it, but the free / freemium / economy space is crowded and a rough business to be in. I built this business with an awful lot of sweat - I didn't want to get into a brawl with companies like Yahoo and Kodak, too. - Don MacAskill
@Thomas - sorry, I was referring the ongoing Drobo discussion. Sticking right to the cost, I guess it is a matter of perspective. You are a prolific shooter, and have a sizable collection, so it will indeed cost you more. The question is how much the absolute security of those files are to you. It varies dramatically from photographer to photographer. For hobbyists with a big collection, I suppose the price would be a bigger deal. (continued, sorry... got too wordy) - Jim
@Thomas - but imagine you are make your living from your photos, and you can virtually guarantee the safety of your life's work for $440 a month. I am definitely a hobbyist, but there are definitely some files I want to make 100% sure I never lose. So I am probably somewhere in between, and part of my library will find its way online. - Jim
@Jim, $440 a month is *alot* of money Pal. Certainly not "next to nothing." You could by three drobos. Stick one at your mom's house in Florida and give another to your friend in Germany and network them all together -- and this would still be cheaper than buying this service, at least for me. I'm not sure the incremental "safety" of cloud storage over multiple location backups is worth it to me. - Thomas Hawk
and you still haven't answered the question whether or not you work for SmugMug. You have a private FF account and are only known as "Jim." As far as I'm concerned you may as well be an anonymous shill. - Thomas Hawk
Nice idea, but I'm not sold on the idea of cloud storage. Having multiple physical backups in different locations is very cost effective these days, and in the event of a catastrophic failure, restoring from the cloud is a time-consuming prospect. If you have enough data, shipping one of your other backups would be cheaper -- and faster -- than restoring TB's of data from the cloud. - Jeremy Brooks
I might as well be an anonymous shill, I am not a blogging/social sort of person. I registered just to post in this thread because your attitude bugs me. I used to subscribe to your blog because I love your photography, but got sick of your ranting and raving about everything. Unfortunately, I have now contributed to the crapfest this thread is... I'm out. - Jim
I think the main thing going for a service like this is the simplicity of it, which may be worth the cost for some people. - Jeremy Brooks
By the way, I'm not saying that this is a *bad* service. I'm sure that there are many customers at SmugMug who want this and at this price point. Otherwise they wouldn't be offering it. And I'm sure it's a good business for SmugMug as they probably make a differential between what they pay Amazon and what they charge their customers. Win-Win. I'm just saying it's not right for me is all. - Thomas Hawk
I'm with Thomas here. All he took exception to was the headline "for next to nothing" and he's right on that. - Ole Begemann
So Jim, you are posting here anonymously and only signed up for FF to post to *this specific* conversation about SmugMug, and yet you've been asked three times whether or not you work for SmugMug and you avoid answering the question every ti
