Julio Martinez › Likes

how bizarre... the brontes count as one person, and world literature is underrepresented - ௸ (k2g)

They're definately not perfect, these folks who wrote it. Which leaves the question here: Who would you remove, and who would you add to this list, and why. - Rob Schonberger

There's at least one huge oversight: John Fowles, British writer of the great metafictional (and massively entertaining) novels The French Lieutenant's Woman and Daniel Martin. Fowles's novels are gripping in every work, but engaging as well in the sense that the way the stories are framed is so masterful, visibly breaking convention without ever letting the reader out of the grip of the story. Personally I would have topped the list with him, then Shakespeare, then perhaps Faulkner. - j1m

Big call jim, moving someone from nowhere to number 1. I haven't read anything by him. The q then: who to remove? - Rob Schonberger from email

Heinlein is the one person on the list who in no way belongs (well, the one that I've read). Neither his prose nor his characters have any art whatsoever, which leaves one wondering what the authors think he did contribute. He's far inferior to F Scott Fitzgerald, for example, who, I agree with the authors, doesn't belong on the list. I guess if I had to suggest more removals I might start with Cather, Pynchon, and Conrad. - j1m

… And so it begins, the J1m top-100 authors of all time; On 23/08/2009, at 10:22 AM, j1m wrote: - Rob Schonberger from email

Yeah, it's weird how little read Fowles is. But it's no surprise if people disagree in a big way with lots on this list: I'm sure plenty of sensible people think Faulkner belongs somewhere around #30, and Gertrude Stein somewhere below, for example. - j1m

And here's another suggestion for the top 5 that's mysteriously missing: Boccaccio. - j1m

I'm not sure why k2g says world writers are poorly represented -- there are tons of Russians and Brits both. PS: what happened to the French? - j1m

What did Boccaccio write? Also, the contention comes in that, well, I know very few people who have read these 100 folks, and then some; I can't claim to be in that set! And besides, everyone has a personal fave. My current reading is of Leonard Michaels, who i've been enjoying thoroughly for his portrayals of screwy adult relationships that are completely acceptable, but not usually written down. On 23/08/2009, at 10:27 AM, j1m wrote: - Rob Schonberger from email

Well, of course world writers are under represented; It's heavily biased towards authors who wrote in English first, and then the ones that have had the huge popularity to be translated, over time, to English. Yes, though, lack of french power in this list. I demand a recount! On 23/08/2009, at 10:30 AM, j1m wrote: - Rob Schonberger from email

Boccaccio wrote this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... The standard thing to say is that the plot of any book is already the plot of one of the 100 stories in The Decameron. This pretty much has to be an exaggreration, but the space of romantic narratives and conflict narratives is pretty well tiled in The Decameron - j1m

Also missing: Grass, Gordimer, Thackeray, Defoe, and (one of my pets) Puig. - j1m

Also, it took me a while to notice because she seems too famous to omit, but Jane Austen isn't on the list. Also missing: Wilkie Collins. - j1m

Being a fan of comments that I don't agree with, I'm awed by this list of suggestions from a comment, which is so packed full of obvious noncontenders that one's surprised he doesn't include Ayn Rand: "Walter Percy, John Updike, John Cheever, Philip Roth, Sol Yurick, John Gardner, D.M. Thomas, Patrick White, Roberston Davies, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, William Gaddis, Joseph... more... - j1m

that other list is hilarious. JR R Tolkien as a great writer? Issac Asimov? Totally hilarious; Oh well; I think some people just enjoy hearing their own voice; Your suggestions, or at least those that i've read parts of, are fine. I haven't read any Puig. On 23/08/2009, at 11:45 AM, j1m wrote: - Rob Schonberger from email

Because just like in high school, sometimes the sweaty jock who doesn't wash his hands after using the john still gets the best girl - while those of us who carried her books and wrote her poetic love letters and timed our walking to go by her locker at just the right time find ourselves on the outside looking in again." You nailed it Louis! - Steve

Nice post, Louis. Was waiting to see what you'd write. :) - Kali

well said - andy brudtkuhl

this is perfect, Louis. Nicely done. - Jim: Dead Like FF

Super-poke. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

My immediate reaction was Facebook will push ads onto their users. I think FriendFeed could be seriously screwed up with live moving ads, so that's hopefully out of the picture from a purely usability view. Friendfeed is all about realtime web information. I then wonder how in that case will the monetise the relationship. My guess? Facebook will show live conversations and hopefully they will rip out the poor IM implementation in Facebook. The purchase may be nothing more sinister, I hope... - Mark Aitken

Well said Louis. This is the big question. - Mark Krynsky

Okay, so now I'm ready to cry. Excellent post, Louis. Thank you! - Ladybug Heather

Excellent, you've captured my sentiment very well. Mark - I disagree. FF is an excellent platform for floating ads based upon our behavior, and it is just about the only platform in existence where the algorithms for ad placement could have been done right - and welcomed. - jcunwired

Louis's reaction is the one I most wanted to see. Thanks for not disappointing us, man! - Daniel J. Pritchett

Very nicely done. Puts feelings across perfectly. - Roberto Bonini from iPhone

"FriendFeed is the one that has a 4.0 GPA and had big dreams of an Ivy League diploma. And yet, she ends up with you - the Silicon Valley equivalent of your local state school. When you come rolling in with your heavy car, big wheels and pumping bass, we don't care how much money you say you're worth - we still don't trust your grin when you open the door and say "hop in"." - anna sauce

I'm *loving* the high school stereotypes as metaphor, btw. - anna sauce

jcunwired - I hope it's unobtrusive, don't mind people making money, but lets hope it's sensible. My worst fear is FF is seen as a threat and silenced, but I'd doubt Zuckerberg would be so brash.. - Mark Aitken

This metaphor reminds me of the "Forrest Pimp" strip on Sinfest a few years back: http://www.sinfest.net/archive... - Daniel J. Pritchett

We are watching. - WorldofHiglet

Nice post. - John μller

Brilliantly said. Don't think it could have been said better! - Matthew Horton from iPhone

I just learned about this minutes ago. Louis it's not 4 big companies. there will only be three after Microsoft merges/acquires Facebook and Google buys Twitter. This move makes perfect sense for Facebook and it's what their SocialTV initiative needed to really work. I see big things for it in Facebook's future. I don't know how I feel about it though! - Michael Fidler

Wow....vicious.... Pure perfect. - Matthew DeVries

Somebody wrote that this is just about getting FF's tech talent. Don't you love how all these social networks conveniently forget who it is who makes them valuable? - Dawn

"Me? I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid." – Captain Jack Sparrow - Matthew DeVries

That was a very enjoyable read :) And the point about bright startups having dim perspectives at the end is alas the truth at the moment: you have to be able to bootstrap your finance, have revenue from the start (membership, affiliates, whatever) that funds your growth. Or find a way to get sold to the big boys (although there are big boys outside the immediate industry that might... more... - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

As always very well said Louis! - Jacque

Good post and commented on your blog. I need to get back into that habit. :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

yes, your comments are treasured on my blog, they will not be sold :) - Valeria Maltoni

Really great post, Louis.. We all will be watching to see what happens. Interesting if it goes the same way google's acquisitions all have. Seems like when they started buying up apps, they killed them. And so it goes.... - Sheryl

I agree with Sheryl. We'll be watching. In my very quick Tweet earlier, I said this really narrows the choices and flings the door wide open for disruptive competition. In many ways, I see this as proof positive that the winner in the battle royale for microblogging (orwhatever we choose to call this services) is Company X, as yet a sleeper who will disrupt the landscape significantly.I don't think it will be a known player. At least not one known in this space. - Ken Camp

Louis - that post is awesome... I just laughed out load with that one... nice!!! - Susan Beebe

I had suggested facebook to buy friendfeed in one my blog post. - Madhav Tripathi

Terrific article Louis, best I have read on this deal so far. - Nicholas Kreidberg

Wow! Wonderful blog post! - Peter

This was one of the best yet, Louis! - Ken Stewart | ChangeForge

Remember Rule #1 though :-) - Ken Stewart | ChangeForge

All true. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Great post - Thierry Lhôte

The FriendFeed-Facebook relationship will need a healthy dose of Dr. Phil. - imabonehead

And friendfeed.com ends up like Nola Rice? - j1m

http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2... - Gregor J. Rothfuss

Chart is woefully incomplete without reference to Aliens (especially the queen) or Predator - LANjackal

The scientific accuracy of this chart is questionable. It looks like the Megatron silhouette is from the Transformer's cartoon. The 50 foot woman is crouching. And the line from Ghostbusters is "killed by a 100-foot marshmallow", which presumably doesn't include the hat. - Andy Bakun

In my head they were totally the wrong way around! I think they just got bigger the smaller I was! - Chris Lloyd

I voted for you to take 30 days off Twitter. Gives me a chance to stretch my wings a bit. - DeWitt Clinton

Right on. I think it would be pretty healthy for me too. - Matt Cutts

Try Bing for 30 days? *grins* I can't even type that with a straight face. - Diego Barros 

not using the letters "g" on the keyword for 30 days. - gareth【ツ】

I love this concept, thanks for sharing it. - Bill Kinney