I hate to be cynical, but their ratio of two developers to six bloggers/copywriters/PR peeps sounds about right. When your product is a commodity, marketing makes all the difference. - Jake
We saw the exchange, Mike. I think in retaliation, you should make Techmeme only display stories from the TechCrunch network, for a full day. - Louis Gray
@julianbaldwin Are you serious, the thought of not checking Techmeme almost seems sacrilegious to me. There is a huge stream of really interesting stories coming from around the blogosphere and Techmeme helps me to sort the good from the crap! - Josh Chandler
i usually trust my own judgment to sort the crap out. - Nathan Eckenrode
you must be talking about the threaded echoes ? word. - Julian Baldwin
@julianbaldwin you are so right, that is the one thing that annoys the heck out of me at Techmeme! I don't know what they think is benefiting us by doing this! - Josh Chandler
ditto Josh, for me Techmeme is critical for avoidance of drowning in noise - Sean Savage
Techmeme is fine for it's purpose, but if you really want to hear what people are saying, try subscribing to blogs not related to technology or social media - Julian Baldwin
Like Julian, I don't check Techmeme as often since starting on friendfeed. Mostly it's just to see if there's anyone interesting I can follow here. - Kevin LeCureux
That's funny Michael. Thanks for the honesty :-) - Brian Carter
@julianbaldwin Exactly... It's like Cliff Notes for the echo chamber, so you can just stick your head in there from time to time to see the notable memes of the day -> more time to spend w/ more diverse sources - Sean Savage
"The Iraq war is to blame for high gas prices as its cost has weakened the dollar and driven oil speculation, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, said today." - newsjunk.com
Discussion about the connections between the Iraq War, the rotten economy and stratospheric prices for oil and gas should be front and center in American politics. But the very same neoconservative mainstream media which served as cheerleaders for the war want to keep subject far away from the consciousness of the American public. - Sean McBride
More Democrats, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), finding blame instead of offering substantive solutions to the price of gas. - Paul W. Swansen
An excellent start to bringing down the price of oil and gas would be to stop threatening to attack Iran. It would also help to stop dumping several trillions of dollars down the drain in Iraq, with the sole effect of greatly increasing the power of Muslim fundamentalists in the region and devaluing the dollar. Neoconservatives in the Republican Party who control John McCain have promised to escalate these problems, not solve them. - Sean McBride
I call it "Bush's tax." See, Republicans always say "we don't increase taxes." But yet they do when they spend billions of dollars with no other way to find them. See, when we don't pay for what our government is doing in real taxes, the treasury just prints more dollars, decreasing the worth of the dollar (and THAT is a HUGE decrease in real worth -- just go to London or Paris and see how badly we've faired in the past four years) and increasing prices for anything we import, including oil. - Robert Scoble
Paul, if we put political biases aside for a moment, isn't it reasonable to identify a problem's causes as a precursor to identifying viable solutions? - Kevin Fox
I view the Iraq war as far more an economic problem than geo-political at this point. We can't afford this war. It's had a negative effect on the dollar and you know who does fund our debt? Foreign nations like China and Japan. That's who we owe - more and more. The problem is - a majority of Americans don't understand debt themselves! - AJ Kohn
Robert - Bush has effected a huge transfer of wealth (trillions of dollars) from the American middle class to the military-industrial complex and super-wealthy (billionaires, decamillionaires and hectomillionaires), while greatly devaluing the dollar and pushing the price of oil and gas into the stratosphere. Bush hit the trifecta. Much more of these trendlines, and we will witness the economic collapse of the United States. I'm surprised that real Republicans (fiscal conservatives) aren't running around with their hair on fire. - Sean McBride
Wow someone mentioned the elephant at the tea party! - Jim Stewart
What I find most frightening about the current state of the economy is not it's current state, but rather the decade(s) it may take to fully recover. - Sean Brady
Sean: the Republicans I met with last week on the Hill weren't very happy with Bush, that's for sure. Washington DC is waiting for someone to push the reboot button. - Robert Scoble
Robert: it's too bad Republicans didn't do a better job of protecting their best principles and interests when they had a chance over the last eight years. The damage is going to be difficult to repair. And Bush and Cheney could inflict much more damage before the reboot. (Giving a green light for Israel to attack Iran is one possibility.) - Sean McBride
Robert: I hate politics. If the republicans on the hill see the need to push the reboot button, why are they not pushing it. I guess the answer is politics. Ugh. - Sean Brady
"There were no venture-backed IPOs in the second quarter, and M&A deals are down. The last time there were no VC-backed IPOs in a quarter was in 1978." - Andrei M. Marinescu
""This whole trend of moving money into the commodities market, I don't think it's a healthy thing for individual investors."" - Andrei M. Marinescu via Bookmarklet
We had one of those not too far from my hometown, Trondheim. It was known as Speilsalen ("hall of mirrors"): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.... Sadly it collapsed last autumn - one of the very tangible effects of a warmer climate. - Thomas Brox Røst
I saw one of those last year in Iceland. Incredible experience. - Ole Begemann
Looks like some good titles will come out of there ... - Patrick Jordan
We will definitely see some 'different' types of games developed for the iPhone, given its widespread popularity and ability to attract new segments of users to the mobile device culture. All the creatives are waiting for is Apple to bust the doors open, and that will happen... momentarily. - sage brennan
ERrr.. Why is this not considered a "COLOSSAL" waste of time and money?? How does this help us here on Earth? Look I am all for Space exploration and discovery, just not when our economy is in the "TANK". - Da-Chief
@Da-Chief you never know, who knows if this could progress some new solar power that could save the economy. - Chris Harris
NASA innovations are responsible for crucial components of many commercial industries. Science often has long-term benefits beyond immediate applications. If we're doing so poorly that we feel we must stop learning and investigating then we are in bad shape indeed. - Jason Wehmhoener
Also, your quotation marks are unnecessary, as is your non-standard capitalization. - Jason Wehmhoener
NASA's funds are trivial in the scheme of the entire budget - RAPatton
There are only 2 real frontiers left to us outwardly as humans; the deep sea and space. Solar Sails, albeit a slower form of transportation (at first) could be the way that we travel to the stars. Yes, the economy stinks but this has the "potential" to help with that. - Mathew A. Koeneker
If you want to complain about government wasting money, why don't you call your congressman/woman and ask them why entire arms of the government are still storing all their data on paper? There's a lot more waste out in government land than anything that NASA is doing. Just ask John Culberson. - Robert Scoble
@Da-Chief... Do you know how much the first solar sail attempt cost? $4 million. In comparisson, we spend twice that per HOUR in Iraq. Tell me what gets more bang for the buck in terms of advancing humanity. On top of that, that first attempt (Cosmos 1) was almost entirely privately funded. Look at the big picture here... If we can cheaply and easily move about our solar system, lunar and asteroid morning become cheap. Such mining has the potential to supply such ores as iron, nickel, etc. for millions. - Chris Reed
I like this idea, but I liked it better when the original version was privately funded. Too bad the delivery vehicle blew up. - Dave Roth
@Robert: Why not write to complain about waste in NASA and paper? ;-) (please don't, I like my job) - Kirk Kittell
From http://www.treasurydirect.gov/... - "How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt? Make your check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it is a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public." We just need to get all of our friends to participate so we can send all sorts of crap to space. - Kirk Kittell
3trillion.org is an awesome site, Chris--thanks for posting the link. However, I wrote something back in 2006 that instead put a perspective on our fear. Check it out: http://thepete.com/10-points/ It's not as funny, of course, but I think important for people to think about. - thepete
Yes, NASA budget has a history of doing a hell of a lot with a little. I don't begrudge any of the money spent there, nor the many things we take for granted due to JPL and NASA research and development. The debt is not caused by our space budget. - Michael W. May
Based on their announced bias' it appears that Obama is likely to cut NASA funding while McCain is likely to continue at the current investment. Neither seems particularly interested in doubling-down on the long-term investment that we need to make in the space program to get off this rock. - Sam Pullara
"The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday." - Andrei M. Marinescu via Bookmarklet
Is this from the You Suck at Photoshop guys? - Vince DeGeorge
donnie is back today, maybe the competition made him show up again - Dobromir Hadzhiev
"what email?" "you just powered off the exchange server" "just the letter a" "don't use aol" "salesforce.com was on the right testicle" - Ranjit Mathoda
That was a good use of ten minutes. I'm smiling again. - Russellreno
Ok, after watching the new YSAP - This is much much better - flavor of the week to be sure. - Vince DeGeorge
that's brilliant. and i'm about ti run out of battery power here, and I won't bookmark, adn I'll probably 4get about these guys 4eva. what a shame!!! - john conroy
You mean he rebooted the webserver without submitting a Change Request Application with work procedure and rollback steps to the Change Advisory Board for review at their next weekly meeting? ;-) - Stuart Woodward
:)) I was getting very frustrated with FF's best of the day page, showing mostly meta-links about FF itself all the time. And then this. Once in a while, there is one single link that makes all these page loads worth it :) - Yaniv Golan
LMAO for most of the 10 min. Will fwd to several IT peeps I know...and maybe a few peeps at Twitter. Wonder if they'll think it's funny. - Cathryn Hrudicka
The realism of this thing is just awe-inspiring. That techie behave pretty much like any techie I've ever encountered who's been asked to do a stupid task. And the sales dude is lethally real too. This is Dilbert meets The Office on steroids. Thanks for the link. - Roy Blumenthal via twhirl
huh, that's odd, I was under the impression that you were the Senior Executive Vice *Group* Director of VP Coordination & Vision... did you not allocate your synergies properly and get demoted?? - felix
"Senior Executive Vice Director of VP Coordination & Vision" and "Deputy Senior VP of Strategic Synergy" Fantastic! SEVP of VPCP and DSVP of SS... - Mitchell Tsai
Ah! Interesting :) The funniest is that these guys don't even wear shoes at work, and play with thier bicycles in the office - directeur via NoiseRiver
ok pauls title is really wacky - "Sr. Executive Vice Director of VP Coordination & Vision" - like wtf does that mean ? SERIOUSLY !! btw what does "VP" stand for ? - Peter Dawson
Scott Adams (?): "If it's more than two words, it's not a career" - Philipp Lenssen
I want Senior Fetchit Boy reporting the Staff Photographer. - Russellreno
These are beyond fantastic. Can I be your Human Branding Liaison? - Ginger Makela
I know a guy who runs a 600-person company, and walks around the offices barefoot! Not even sandals. My brother works there - Rhythm & Hues Studios - http://rhythm.com - Mitchell Tsai
Another company I helped rented a house at the beach - rather than a traditional office. Lot of fun having meetings there. They took surfing breaks for lunch. - Mitchell Tsai
I think i need to include those in full in all posts from now on - MG Siegler
longest title i've ever seen - you could have thrown in an acronym! - Allen Stern
You need a staff librarian. No, really, you do. I'm available, and like most librarians, I work cheap. - Cecily Walker
Did you guys steal these titles from Yahoo? - Eric Eldon
Is Ana still the "Chief Miscellaneous Officer" or does she go by a different title these days? Also, I'd like to know the other FFers' titles. - April Buchheit
Did you get to make up your own? The coolest title I've seen has been for a Microsoft employee - Professional Geek (before he worked there his title was Amateur Geek) - Craig Thomler
I actually have an outstanding diplomatic relations issue with wyoming. Who would I talk to about that? - J. Phil
So Bret, what's your title ? (This kind of culture is the kind that spawns neat stuff. Always has, always will. Keep it up!) - Charlie Anzman
Mine is "Supreme Allied Commander." I was always jealous of NATO. - Bret Taylor
I'm a little scared that some people don't seem to realize it's a joke. - Alan Cheslow
And here I was soo confused thinking Bret was the CEO! hehehe (ok he really is guys!!) - Susan Beebe
I just noticed Casey has Asian strategy in Wyoming? yo what?! - that's funny! - Susan Beebe
Do you have any Master Squirrel Hearders (project mgrs) yet?? that's my specialty - Susan Beebe
I really want a title too. If I bring all the Mommybloggers over...I better get one dammit - Erin Kotecki Vest
So is Casey's job to reach out to those parts of the world that twitter works? - Nancy Babyak
I got mine this morning: "Kevin Fox - Comptroller Third-Class, Tiger Team V" We are so going to kick Tiger Team III's ass at this year's interoffolympics!!! - Kevin Fox
haha! I wish more work places were like this. - Tsega D
I'd like to be the senior vice associate president of all things that the senior executive vice director of vp coordination and vision doesn't see. - Robert Scoble
Nice job title Paul! Did you try to max out the characters that would fit? :) - Alex Barbara
$50MM sale, and how much funding did Helio raise? Perhaps the conclusion that Sky Dayton can take away from this is that Scientology can't drive the same kind of success in business as it does in entertainment? - Andrei M. Marinescu
"Winemakers in southern France have burned two police cars and vandalized supermarkets during protests to demand government aid." - Jessie Norris via Bookmarklet
Sounds like an average weekend in Napa. - Jim Norris
I'm shrieking and throwing good china at twitter right now. the bastard. - Erin Kotecki Vest
Can't until their mobile client works better on Blackberry. Currently, I'm disconnected from FF when I'm mobile - which is a lot. Twitter has Twitterberry so when Twitter is semi-working, I'm still connected. That's a missing piece for Friendfeed. - Aaron Brazell
The mobile component of Twitter is still the winner for me. This is better for conversation, but still not really intended for true status. - Jared (W.) Smith
@technosailor - Now that I've started work on Blackbird, I could clone it for FriendFeed's API - got a suggestion for a good name? :-) - Dossy Shiobara
@Dennis... I have. Gotta remember a remote key? I don't think so... the font-size also looks ridiculous on the blackberry and makes it hard to read, much less follow conversations. - Aaron Brazell
@queenofspain - yeah, "BlackFriend" isn't the first name I'd use, LOL. FriendBerry isn't exactly great, either. BlackFeed? Uhh... - Dossy Shiobara
I'm trying, but I need a Twhirl type program that works for FF. - Summer
FFtoGo works well, better than FF on the iPhone. Still needs "hide" though. - Thomas Hawk
You can change the colors pretty easily with the Stylish Firefox extension. The appropriate style is at http://ungroundedoutlet.com/mi... (I can't add it to userstyles.org right now as that site is not working) - James Williams
"BerryBuddy" ...but it sounds like one of my daughter's Strawberry Shortcake dolls - Erin Kotecki Vest
Now that I have SMS gateway via Post2FF, the only thing I'm missing is WAP browser support (aka mobile) and the rest of my friends from Twitter. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Dennis, I don't have an iPhone/iTouch. Neither do most people. Welcome to real life. - Aaron Brazell
@itsinsider - Cool names, but FriendFeed's "mascot" isn't a bird (like Twitter's), is it? - Dossy Shiobara
Only thing I dislike is the remote key when signing in. That and having to scroll to find new tweets. I think there should be an SMS option. - Les via fftogo
Agreed. Also, if you don't like the Friend Feed web interface, try Twhirl - Matthew Davidson via twhirl
Hey James, thanks. I knew about Stylish but the code for friendfeed works well. - Michael Tefft
@Dossy his other app is Blackbird, hense the bird thing. - Susan Scrupski via twhirl
I do use Twitter via the SMS interface and would want to have that functionality still. - Joe Magennis
@Aaron - also works fine on S60 mobile with standard web client. Just checked with Nokia N95. Quite a few people have those along with 10+ million iPhone peeps + however many iTouch peeps. - Dennis Howlett via fftogo
I've done my part, haven't logged into twitter in a month. - Jason Kaneshiro
I am all for it if I can get people to move over - twitter is driving me absolutely nuts - at the same time it helped me make some awesome new connections just this week. Love/Hate defined. - Tony via Alert Thingy
I'm one of Twitter's biggest fans, and it's driving me up the wall today. I need to make sure FF could replace the "feed hub" functions and more importantly the mobile access I have to Twitter tho - Doug Haslam via twhirl
I've added a link to FF on my blog bio - Andy Roberts
I just don't want to give up my Twitterfone.com ;) - Richard
Until FF or Pownce, Jaiku, and Plurk have SMS capability, Twitter is the way to go - Glenn Batuyong via twhirl
How about naming it "Grackle"? A fine shiny resourceful bird found in the south that apparently have no fear of lawnmowers as they used the agitated state of the lawn to find things to eat... - Aron Michalski via fftogo
I find it very interesting that this article appears in the Financial Times. Definitely more interest in this new platform is coming from the Business community; until recently FriendFeed was only visible for the more IT oriented people IMO. - Jeroen De Miranda
Just installed Stylish and suddenly Friendfeed is a much nicer place to be. - Roger Benningfield
