Chieze Okoye - Comments

FriendFeed is the easiest way to share online. Learn more »

Akira Remotely Controls Computers Using Dropbox - dropbox - Lifehacker - http://lifehacker.com/5435397...

5 hours ago from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

"Windows: You can do a lot more with the free cross-platform utility Dropbox than sync files. In fact, with the free command line tool Akira, you can administer, and grab non-Dropbox files from, any computer linked to your Dropbox account." - Chieze Okoye from Bookmarklet

Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, Twitter, Appetite, TheNextWeb Forum, Question of the Day

What is your Twitter URL? What do you tweet about? Mine is http://twitter.com/koltreg... and I tweet about all sorts :-) #twitter

August 10 - Comment - Like - Share

Majento, Jennifer Dittrich, Ahmet Soyata and 54 other people liked this

Feel free to follow me. This thread could get messy. :-) #whatsyoururl - Kol Tregaskes

154 more comments

http://twitter.com/zsafwan - zsafwan 

http://twitter.com/kentonsmith - Kenton

http://twitter.com/amirsp - ДMIROVSKY☂امیروفسکی

http://twitter.com/kevinaw... - Kevin Whalen

http://twitter.com/karnatos - Dean "Karnatos" Michaud

http://twitter.com/kmohr25 - Kevin Mohr

http://twitter.com/Leech - Leandro Ardissone ⍨ from IM

http://twitter.com/vrsj - Vaughn

http://twitter.com/contz - Andrea Contino

http://twitter.com/mastercko - Chieze Okoye

Sorry I had to delete the first post of this, so apologises for the few that posted their URLs on that one. - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/inkedmn - Brett Kelly

http://twitter.com/jcunwired I could use some more followers too. I hope you folks aren't bots! :) - jcunwired

Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/nencetti - Mike Nencetti

http://twitter.com/niczak -- I tweet about the following: Programming, databases, parenting, living & enjoying life, and involvement in lots of local activities here in Northern Nevada. - Nicholas Kreidberg

Thanks, Nicholas. - Kol Tregaskes

Well I'll still be on Twitter once FF is integrated into FB. Join me on Twitter? :-) - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/Convers... - Valeria Maltoni

http://twitter.com/chaz2b my posts start here for what i post on twitter - chaz2b

http://www.twitter.com/rbonini - Roberto Bonini

you rock, Kol! Good community building here. - Valeria Maltoni

http://twitter.com/andrewroche - politics and random stuff (a lot of it from here funnily enough). - Andrew Roche

I have most of you (didn't have Valeria for some reason, but just added), mine is http://twitter.com/jungleg -- see you on the other side ;) - Jorge Escobar

http://twitter.com/mjdat - Müjdat Korkmaz

Find me at http://twitter.com/andrued... and my news updates at http://twitter.com/gearlive - Andru Edwards

http://www.twitter.com/jimgold... - photography and social media - Jim Goldstein

http://twitter.com/magicofpi - you might see a lot of ff.im links there, but I suppose that'll change soon... - Ryan - @magicofpi

http://twitter.com/jwang392 - web design, iphone app development, hawaii events - John Wang

http://twitter.com/onWave - I post links from a useful Twitter tool I made... and sometimes mundane stuff... - Gus

http://twitter.com/outsanity - Outsanity

http://twitter.com/fcbosa - social media, blogging, design, inspiration. - Oğuz Serdar

http://twitter.com/seckoa - I enjoy getting new followers - Seckoa from iPod

http://twitter.com/holgr :-) - Holger Eilhard

Thanks guys. - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/OnuRC :) - OnuRC

http://twitter.com/dendroica - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

http://twitter.com/Chronotope - Mostly I tweet about tech stuff and news local to the Northern Virgina area. I also touch on video games and get some blipping in. - Aram Zucker-Scharff

http://twitter.com/kandeezie - randomness and nerdy gadget/tech love. :-p - Kandeezie

http://twitter.com/lighter... and http://twitter.com/chrisba... - Chris Baskind

http://twitter.com/outofmyarse - outofmyarse

http://twitter.com/gabediaz - Design, development, WordPress and all things in between. - Gabe Diaz

http://twitter.com/antonta... - Anton Tanderup

http://twitter.com/bakere19 - Ethan

http://www.twitter.com/puffadd... I tweet about ninjas lol. - Jason

http://Twitter.com/SusanBeebe and http://Twitter.com/SMC_Roc... - Susan Beebe from BuddyFeed

http://www.twitter.com/banane - anna sauce

I basically tweet politics at http://Twitter.com/hopechat; i follow discussions on books, gardening and general stuff on http://Twitter.com/ruthdfw; grantwriting and freelancing on http://Twitter.com/words101 and for anything related to Dallas and surrounding cities it is http://Twitter.com/NDGEditor - R. Ferguson

http://twitter.com/movieguyjon - I say weird shit, bitch at random times, and will say more weird shit. Occasionally I'll post fun things too, with a smidgeon of inane. :P - Jon, the Chilled Beartato

http://www.twitter.com/rutgerb... tweet about my daily life (aka status updates), tech and photography. - Rutger Blom from iPhone

Pretty clever way to work in a plug for your timeline.. I like your style, Kol ;) - Brad McCrorey

http://twitter.com/3GFalcon - Gaith

Http://Twitter.com/Polizeros cleantech, the economy, leftwing politics - Bob Morris (polizeros) from iPhone

http://twitter.com/sonergonul Feel like a star. - ★ Soner Gönül

Keep 'em coming, I'll add you all later today. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/niron (isn't it obvious?) - Nir Ben Yona

https://twitter.com/AtmosTrio - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

http://twitter.com/praveen... - Praveen Vasudev

http://twitter.com/feeniks ... anything that comes to mind at that particular moment :) - Bhowmik Shah

http://twitter.com/dennis_... (don't forget the underscore) What do I tweet about? Tech, fiction, art, music, politics, comics, and of course my fiction. Occasionally some Seattle or Bremerton related stuff. I also have TwitterFeed tweet my blogs, and I always tweet from Flickr. - Dennis Jernberg

http://twitter.com/alphaxion and http://twitter.com/vertica... - alphaxion

http://twitter.com/patrozoo - Patrik Johansson from Android

http://twitter.com/nzbuu - James Myatt

http://twitter.com/picforme - Malevi4

http://twitter.com/marcoda... Twitting about Communications, Marketing and something about myself :) - Marco Dal Pozzo [mdp]

http://twitter.com/tofu916 I tweet about black people and I use a lot of foul language. then I repent. follow mi! :) - Tofu De la Moore from BuddyFeed

http://twitter.com/hoof I tweet a lot in Dutch, about design, photoshop, 3d and everyday life. - Ruud van Wijngaarden

http://twitter.com/wordsfo... - I actually respond to people to want to chat with me ;-) - Jannifer @wordsforliving

http://twitter.com/icetiger - Kim

http://twitter.com/rovideoblog - Laurentiu

http://twitter.com/harryma... - Harry Mahardhika

http://twitter.com/alexgamela i tweet about media and journalism, and sometimes silly stuff. also in portuguese. - Alexandre Gamela from twhirl

http://www.twitter.com/dcfemel... - Shevonne

http://twitter.com/glenc but I have to warn you, I stopped following people on Twitter a while ago. I have about 300 subscription notices (unread) in my email. - Mistletoe Glen

http://twitter.com/audiocloud - Cloud

i post about film and television editing/post production, I'm a bit of a gadget nerd, and i like anything funny on the web. i love followers... http://twitter.com/toddzelin - Todd Zelin

I'm sure you're all interesting but following 6,000 is my limit. ; ) - Liz

http://twitter.com/cgranier - I tweet about many things -usually tech-oriented, reply to everyone who @'s me, and have lately been posting a lot about #FreeMediaVE, bringing attention to the struggle against communism in Venezuela. Feel free to follow me. @ me for a quick follow back. No spammers please. - Carlos Granier-Phelps

Thank you all. I hope at least some follow me back else I'll hit my follower limit soon. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/fruchter - Mike Fruchter

http://twitter.com/needcaf... - clarke thomas

http://twitter.com/may_gun My music career, interaction with ppl, The Guild, Wiggly Wigglers. - Spidra Webster

http://twitter.com/casschin - I mostly post up funny/odd web gems and nerdy tech news. Occasionally, I tweet what I eat. - Cassidy

http://identi.ca/andyc Microblog about all sorts but mainly OMB and how much I dislike inferior legacy services. No names, no packdrill. - Andy C

http://twitter.com/Felter i tweet about all, but i don't retweet my FF message. From twitter to FF only. if you follow me in FF, you can read my tweet. - Felter Roberto from twhirl

http://twitter.com/abrudtkuhl - web strategy & internet marketing + random stuff - andy brudtkuhl

twitter.com/icetiger - Kim

twitter.com/andi1984 - elearning, web 2.0 - Andreas S.

http://www.twitter.com/jbschro... - everything. mostly tech - Johnny

http://twitter.com/islanddog Tech, Gaming, and everything in between - Spencer

http://twitter.com/cacarr - Tech, Cognitive Science - Christopher A Carr

http://twitter.com/lizaspe... #whatsyoururl - Liza

http://twitter.com/Frannina #whatsyoururl - Fran

http://twitter.com/livepaola (bilingual, in Italian and English) - Paola Bonomo

http://twitter.com/ozuckan, trilingual, in Turkish, in English, in French, all sort... - Ozgur Uckan

http://twitter.com/bsak - barbarars

Thanks again. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/antifreeze Obviously. - Seth Blank

http://twitter.com/oceangray - Muhammet K. (oceangray)

Twitter.com/mathewballard and I tweet mostly about graphic and web design. - Mathew™ one of a kind from iPhone

http://twitter.com/sidmitra #hack,#hackday, and tech/geek in general. - Siddharth Mitra from twhirl

http://twitter.com/PhilBaumann - I'll tweet about anything stimulating, contentious or jackassy. - phil baumann

http://twitter.com/alejandroz and I tweet about...everything. - Alejandro

http://twitter.com/victorgodot - diego morelli

You know, you could have just started feeding in your tweets here and achieved the same, right? Or would that have been too subtle? - Mr. Gunn

http://twitter.com/glitterpoet Don't mean to offend but it's usually not religious. Porn, drinking,dancing, music,makeup....I still do healing work. I just don't talk about it much anymore. - Gabrielle V

My twitter stream is the typical... random thought bubbles, food porn pics, and shared items relating to technology, politics, and $$$. http://twitter.com/sean808080 is where you find me. Oh and I like unicorns and fairy dust. - sean808080

@fossilhuntress or fossilmaitress (I kept getting my email cracked and getting locked out hence the duplicate); all content, linked to digg, delicious... mostly science, paleo and random banter... - Fossil Huntress

http://twitter.com/for4saken - Marcos

http://twitter.com/hrn - Kupa Kralı ツ // hrn

http://twitter.com/joeygibson - I tweet about WDW, Java, Groovy, Scala, iPhone, politics, etc. I'm loads of fun. :-) - Joey Gibson

http://twitter.com/burak - I tweet about technology, gadgets, stuff that matters - Burak "cyrus" Bayburtlu

http://twitter.com/super_g... I tweet about bathroom trips, stupidity and cougar sightings - MVB (Grinch of FF)

Fossil, it's @fossilhuntress http://twitter.com/fossilh... The other one doesn't exist. - Kol Tregaskes

It's @bookhling for me. I usually tweet about DIYBio, computers, books, and what I ate for dinner. :) - Sung W. Lim

@JacquesMuffin and I tweet mostly about music. - Olivier de Villardi

Thanks guys. - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/RonaldTi - Ronald

http://twitter.com/KDii - K.D.

http://twitter.com/satanwyj 中文用户 :) - Roger.Wei

http://twitter.com/lachmir I tweet about dumb stuff - 'Like' robot (frɐnc)

Thanks everyone. - Kol Tregaskes

I have ceased being a twitter user since they are such twats (management) - Richard A.

http://twitter.com/pixum - Baard @ Pixum

http://twitter.com/erier2003 - I write about technology, journalism, and Star Wars. But mostly Star Wars. :) - Eric Geller

http://twitter.com/victorgodot - diego morelli

I twit at http://twitter.com/alfpace on webapps technology cool things - Alfonso Pace from iPhone

http://twitter.com/patrozoo - Patrik Johansson

http://www.twitter.com/charlie... - Charlie Anzman

http://www.twitter.com/victorg... - diego morelli

http://www.twitter.com/rogersd... - Chris Rogers

http://twitter.com/Morgaine - Irma Vermaat

http://twitter.com/sonergonul Of course ;) - ★ Soner Gönül

Maybe this is a good time to 'reactivate' this thread. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Don't forget the other lists can be found at the hashtag: #whatsyoururl - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/gar1n :) - Garin Kilpatrick

@ffcode - ffcode

http://twitter.com/husseinerol - Hussein EROL

http://twitter.com/brexians all about #travel #photography #sci-fi #space and #weird! join and joy - Demetrios the Traveller

http://twitter.com/wangyip - mostly stuff from FF (tech, startups, web apps, sometimes things about math, medicine, fitness) - I've followed a few here on tech stuff (Edit: Thanks Kol for the thread) - Wang Yip

http://twitter.com/JacopKane #web #common #art #life #music - Furkan Tunalı

http://twitter.com/nickhum... #tech #life #randomobservations #bitsofphilosophy #somezenfromtimetotime - Nick Humphries

http://twitter.com/eoghann... - I post sci-fi news (tv, movies, books or comics I'm probably a fan of it), some tech stuff and the occasional round of venting. - Eoghann Irving

http://twitter.com/surriento - Keiko Yamada

http://twitter.com/Michael... - TrafficBug

I have Twitter lists now, and I've started one up for FriendFeeders: http://twitter.com/dennis_...; if you want me to add you to it, @-mention me at http://twitter.com/dennis_.... - Dennis Jernberg

http://twitter.com/eemorni... - Tony C

http://twitter.com/jachitita - Lia Bianco

http://twitter.com/mekkar - Mekkar

Thanks everyone! - Kol Tregaskes

http://twitter.com/mjdat - Müjdat Korkmaz

Just followed you. Btw, mine's - http://twitter.com/jaypee - JP Habaradas

http://twitter.com/DavidHolmes - Focusing on Internet music, Open Content, and the Social Web. I use lists to group/filter the people I follow. - David Holmes

http://twitter.com/JamesFe... - James Ferguson

http://twitter.com/Jeffrey... - Jeffrey Marsh

Keiko Yamada

If you come to Japan, what you want to eat? Sushi? Tempura? Sukiyaki? etc....

December 17 - Comment - Like - Share

Rochelle, Helen Sventitsky, Morton Fox and 13 other people liked this

i'm not certain that i could narrow it down. good food is what i would want to eat. :) - Joe Silence

71 more comments

Hi, Joe! I can understand well of you. I want to eat whatever food is delicious, too! .... :)) - Keiko Yamada

Sushi, tempura, Sukiyaki and more :-) I Love japanese food! - Maiko76

Maiko76 san, konnichiwa! komento arigatoo gozaimaaasu! - Keiko Yamada

onigiri - Hakan Uygun

Hello, Hakan Uygun! wow...do you know ONIGIRI?? - Keiko Yamada

Hi, Keiko! Yes I know Onigiri. I'm an anime fan ( almost an otaku :P ) - Hakan Uygun

Ha ha ha....also you know " OTAKU ". Do you want to go to Akihabara? - Keiko Yamada

when I went there I was not sure what to eat so I use to go to DDs...now I would go for the tempura but I was traveling with two guys(and now one of the is my bestest friend ever) that I just meet and was not that adventurous food wise at that time - VAL D. Zone

Oh....What a waste! You can't eat there? Don't you like? - Keiko Yamada

Ramen!! - Alex Scoble

Everything! - Shevonne

Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki and Taiyaki (well, probably all sorts of other stuff too, but those are the top three.) - Jennifer Dittrich

@ Alex Scoble ＞wow! Do you know "RAMEN"?? Shouyu? Miso? Shio? which one you like? ohhh, I want to eat Ramen....I like this one!! : ))))) - Keiko Yamada

@ Shevonne ＞Yeahhh! I understand well !! - Keiko Yamada

@Jennifer Dittrich ＞Hi, Jennifer! These is very very very......popular in Japan. How do you know well?? - Keiko Yamada

For sure Sushi o Sashimi: dove abito io si mangiano molte cose simili. E i giapponesi comprano da noi i tonni ;) - Roberto Chibbaro

I'd want to splurge on a kaiseki meal so that I could try many of the best things. And also get some proper ramen so I could see what it's supposed to really be like. - Kamilah Gill

I think you can eat anyone Japanese food, in USA? - Keiko Yamada

@Keiko - I've had taiyaki and takoyaki at Mitsuwa a few times, and homemade onkonomiyaki from friends who have either lived or studied in Japan. - Jennifer Dittrich

Yes, we can, and sometimes it's really good. But I'd like to see how it's done in Japan, too. - Kamilah Gill

watashi wa okonomitaky to takoyaki tabetai desu!!! - 1la

@Jennifer Dittrich ＞Mitsuwa?? The name of campany? - Keiko Yamada

@Kamilah Gill ＞I see...! I hope you try to in Japan sometimes! - Keiko Yamada

@ 1la ＞Ciao, 1la! Perche parla cosi bene Giapponese? - Keiko Yamada

@Roberto Chibbaro＞Ciao, Roberto! Ti piace questo cibo? - Keiko Yamada

I eat all of them! Plus okonomiyaki (my favorite) - Chieze Okoye

Moltissimo, è il cibo che mangiavo fin da bambino, il pesce crudo e le alghe in sicilia sono normali - Roberto Chibbaro

Hiroshima no okonomiyaki - Christopher A Carr

"I think you can eat anyone Japanese food, in USA?" <-- Fugu is hard to find. - Christopher A Carr

@ Chieze Okoye ＞Nice to meet you! wow....do you know Okonomiyaki? - Keiko Yamada

@- Roberto Chibbaro ＞Anche alghe! wow....ma...sei Siciliano?? - Keiko Yamada

@Christopher A Carr ＞Nice to meet you! wow! Do you know " Hiroshima no Okonomiyaki " ?? and do you speak Japanese?? - Keiko Yamada

@Christopher A Carr ＞Yes, Fugu is very difficult for cooking, right? - Keiko Yamada

Nice to meet you, too. Yep, I do know okonomiyaki! I love Hiroshima style okonomiyaki, too. And Ramen. aahhhh, now I'm hungry. - Chieze Okoye

Why do you know these foods? - Keiko Yamada

Tempura - Chiara S.

Si sono Siciliano: a catania si mangia un'alga che avete anche i ngiappone...non conosco il nome scientifico però... - Roberto Chibbaro

I want to eat any good Japanese food I can't get in the States. I'm not quite Andrew Zimmern, but I will try almost anything edible. Almost. - FF's Bubba of Arizona

sukoshi wakarimasu. I've spent a total of 9 months in Tokyo, and a couple evenings eating okonomiyaki in Hiroshima. :-) - Christopher A Carr

Nice to make your acquaintance. - Christopher A Carr

Something I can't get here.. whale? jk - Rodfather

Rodfather: Tehehe... that's a touchy subject. - Christopher A Carr

sure I would like Tempura, yakitori and sushi...but I love Ramen too lol - Andrea Colaianni

I would like to wander through Shomben Yokocho, sampling yakitori and drinking some beer. Unfortunately, Shinjuku-eki is on the other side of the Pacific. - Christopher A Carr

My favorite ramens are negi-miso ramen and maa-bo (spicy pork) ramen. - Alex Scoble

When I'm in Japan, what I really want is katsu kare. (Just kidding. I do like katsu kare, but when I taught English in Japan, I would tell students katsu kare was my favorite Japanese food. It always made them laugh.) - josh neff, geek at large

@Keiko Mitsuwa's a Japanese supermarket/food court/misc goods store that's located in 3 areas in the US. See http://www.mitsuwa.com =) - ronin

I wish we there were a Mitsuwa in Portland. Closest thing we have is http://www.uwajimaya.com/index... - Christopher A Carr

Yes sushi, tempura, sukiyaki, but I'd also want to be shown things that I don't even know about by someone like you or Akinori - http://friendfeed.com/knu - Bruce Lewis

Which one is more delicious and tasty ? - Viva Vida

@Keiko, I was born in raised in LA and now live in the Bay Area (California). There's a large Japanese population in both these areas and plenty of Japanese restaurants all around. Also, I've studied Japanese since high school all through college and grad school. 8^D Needless to say, Japanese food has grown on me. 8^D - Chieze Okoye

germogli di bambu in tempura - Roberta Greenfield

@Chiara S. ＞Hello! - Keiko Yamada

@Roberto Chibbaro ＞Ah, sei siciliano? mi piace molto sicilia! sono andata due volte....ahhh, nostargiaaaa! - Keiko Yamada

Chieze: You've never been to Japan? - Christopher A Carr

According to Ninja Warrior / Sasuke, the Gifu prefecture has some ssssmokin' firemen! I mean, ah, the best places for being educated on the culture. [edit:You know what? I don't read carefully. I don't want to eat a prefecture or firemen... or publicly announce that I do. I was trying to state where I wanted to go ROFL!] - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Okonomiyaki will do, since I can't seen to find it in one of the at least 9 Japanese restaurants in town.Since I don't know what sukiyaki is, maybe that, too. I may google it later. [corrects Tablet Input Panel's spelling goof] - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

I wandered into a whale restaurant when I was in Tokyo. I didn't know. :) - Cristo

[Silvia] Takoyaki to hiroshima no okonomiyaki suki desu. Itadakimasu! :) - Googlisti from iPhone

Christopher: Oh, I've been to Japan a ton of times, actually. 8^) - Chieze Okoye

@keiko, nihon go wo daigaku ni benkyoo shimastha, demo ciotto dake hanashimasu ;) - 1la

@silvia - googlisti: mo ichi do nihon he issyo ni iku? ;) - 1la

@MiniMage TKDteacher of FF ＞ROFL?? - Keiko Yamada

@Cristo ＞Ah,see? - Keiko Yamada

@Googlisti＞wow! your Japanese is very well! wonderful! - Keiko Yamada

@ 1la ＞totemo jouzu desuyo! ureshiina! yoroshiku ne! - Keiko Yamada

@1la Namba e ikimasu ka?! @Keiko arigatou, nihongo-o benkyou shimashita :) - Googlisti

@Keiko: I think it's very ROFL, and that's why I left it there! short attention spans for the win/lose! Wose? Lin? What do you call it when you win and lose simultaneously? Draw? - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

@ Googlisti ＞do-itashimashite! di niente! - Keiko Yamada

I want all, - R_ C

@MiniMage TKDteacher of FF ＞Hi! - Keiko Yamada

@R_ C ＞really?....wow! ;))) - Keiko Yamada

Alejandro

West Wing Bible Quote - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Saturday from YouTube favorites - Comment - Like - Share

William Harryman, Akiva Moskovitz, Chatsohbet and 3 other people liked this

Annnnnnnd cue the plaintive strings. - Christopher Harley

DAMN SON. - Chieze Okoye

Man! I miss that show!!!! - Lisa L. Seifert

Cristo to Cristo's feed, Home Automation

Why isn't there a wifi chip in every [high end]] appliance? Refrigerators, stoves, cooktops, microwaves, dishwashers, coffee makers, washers, and dryers should all have wifi or bluetooth chips along with simple APIs for controlling them and getting status.

Thursday - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, (1)Bebekvegebelik, Mathew A. Koeneker and 37 other people liked this

I had a similar thought many years ago about why all appliances don't have built-in atomic clocks. Of course, if they had internet now, they wouldn't necessarily need the clock receiver. - LogEx

101 more comments

Because they are like $25 a pop. There's also the configuration issue of how to configure a small cheap device with connection info like passwords, etc. For devices without wall socket power there's also serious power issues. I'm encountering this issue with something I'm working on. - Todd Hoff

Todd, I'm assuming AC powered appliances. I'm also thinking about appliances that cost thousands of dollars, so putting an extra $25 part in shouldn't be an issue. The configuration problem is interesting, but I'm sure it could be solved with some kind of discovery mode. Either that or just use bluetooth. - Cristo

Bluetooth is unfortunately expensive also. With wifi I'm assuming it goes through a wireless router out to the internet, not sure how bluetooth would work. And I'm not aware of a discovery mode because you would want security which requires selecting a security type, protocol, and password. But if it's in an expensive appliance then they'll have a display so it's more doable. We could... more... - Todd Hoff

Although going out to the Internet is cool, I think most of the usage would be on the LAN. I don't actually care if it's wifi, bluetooth, zigbee, or z-wave. I just want to control and monitor these expensive home appliances through web interfaces and apps on the computer, as well as remote controls and touch screens. I repeat, I don't think cost is the issue here, I think it's the mindset of the manufacturers and consumers that needs to change. I believe it will change, I just don't know when. - Cristo

I view the control plane being more in the cloud than local, so internet connectivity is important. - Todd Hoff

Todd, why is having your home control in the cloud critical? I want control to be primarily in my local server closet, with the option of reaching it from outside in a secure way. I don't want everything to stop working because the cable company pulls the plug on my Internet access for 3 days. - Cristo

Once they're cheap enough to embed without significantly altering the price they will be in everything. - Chrimmus Tad

I don't want a local server closet that I have to maintain and upgrade and fix. I've been working hard to get rid of servers. As a producer I also don't want to make a native app or deal with software upgrades and every customer's hardware problems. That kills profitability. It could be accessible over the cell network so you always have two connection paths (more expensive). - Todd Hoff

Todd, that might work for some people, but it's definitely not what I'm trying to do personally. I want all the control in my hands, and I want to go out to Best Buy or order something online and install it into my media closet. Having to rely on a cloud-based 3rd party would be hellish to me. - Cristo

The cell network would be great data and command path for devices, but they are like $10 a month so it's not generally practicable. I would imagine a tethered phone could be used as a router in emergencies, but I'm not sure how that work yet. - Todd Hoff

Dealing with incompatible device after incompatible device is hellish for me. So each to their own I guess. - Todd Hoff

Well, I've got a blu ray player, 2 TiVos, 2 Apple TVs, a Mac Mini, an Xbox 360 and a Wii hooked up in my media closet as source devices. I think it will be a while before we see all that functionality in the cloud. - Cristo

My refrigerator is automatic. I don't control it. Cooking requires precision control. I'm not in another room, I'm right there right now. Dishwashers are more or less automatic, as are washers and dryers. I'm having a really hard time imagining what you're remote controlling in any of these devices. - Jason Wehmhoener

Jason, ah use cases. I love it. 1) I want to push a button from upstairs to make a cup of espresso downstairs in the kitchen. It only saves a minute, but it makes me happy. 2) I also want the underfloor heating to turn on and be warm when I walk down to get my coffee. 3) I want all the clocks on appliances synced so I don't have to set them. They need to change properly for daylight saving, and when the power is cycled. - Cristo

4) The dishwasher, washer and dryer should all be able to notify me on my computer screen that they are done. Ideally there is a countdown display of when they will be done. - Cristo

5) The oven should also be able to tell me when the correct temperature has been researched, should have a camera inside it, control/monitor timer info, and change modes (e.g. convection vs conventional oven) - Cristo

6) The wine fridge should have inventory control. - Cristo

7) The cooktop should allow me to monitor whether water has reached boiling and other long-term events. In addition, I should be able to see if it's on when I'm not home (and turn it off in case we left it on accidentally). - Cristo

I think you're going to need some robotic control to put the food in and out of the oven, the laundry in and out of the washer & dryer, etc. You could just put cameras in these rooms and see when things are done. - LogEx

LogEx, our washer & dryer is in our downstairs bathroom. I don't think a camera in there would be appealing to most people. :) I'm definitely interested in robots though. - Cristo

Of course, one of the dangers of doing something cool and trying to automate everything is you'll always have people who are assuming you are just lazy and should get off your fat ass and do it manually. Of course, the same could be said for using written mail instead of email, or a sliderule instead of a computer. - Cristo

1) I'm a little more old school with my espresso. I actually want a less automatic machine so that I can get more crema. 2) that's interesting. I would have assumed a thermostat would be sufficient, but I guess this is more related to actual usage than constant temperature. I like it. 3) The clock thing is good, I agree 4) notification, nice. good idea. 5) more notification, cool. 6)... more... - Jason Wehmhoener

Also, I think Bluetooth is probably a better idea than WIFI. If you need to go to the cloud, that should be handled by your home server, not each device. My firewall has enough problems without adding 72 more internal ip addresses. - Jason Wehmhoener

Jason, you may be right about wifi not being the best solution. Have you heard of Zigbee or Z-wave? - Cristo

This reminds me of Will Smiths rant in I,Robot..... - Roberto Bonini

Yeah, zigbee is seriously cool. when you mentioned it before i commented with a couple zigbee hacking links. I haven't heard of z-wave. - Jason Wehmhoener

Roberto, can you refresh our memories. I don't want to subject myself to watching that again. - Cristo

The problem with zigbee is it is a seperate expensive network - Todd Hoff from iPhone

Because people don't want to pay $10 more for a web enabled coffee maker. - Alex Scoble

Alex, yeah because then my espresso machine would cost $5010. - Cristo

Todd, Crestron sells systems that cost more than $50,000. Price is relative, and in the home automation market just being able to do something at any price is often difficult. - Cristo

The bit where he's talking about his toaster having feelings..... - Roberto Bonini

Chris, you need to start thinking like a marketing guy who has to get the most sales for the lowest cost and not like Chris "I want to do cool things with my house" White. Companies don't make stuff for you. They don't make stuff for you, because you aren't the lowest common denominator and are not low maintenance. Any company that marketed directly to you would most likely go out of business in less than a year. - Alex Scoble

Alex, I'm not posting on friendfeed to share my marketing ideas. - Cristo

You asked a marketing question, it's not a design one. - Alex Scoble

My mistake was asking a question that Alex Scoble would respond to. Apparently his being on his honeymoon doesn't keep him off friendfeed. :) - Cristo

#scobleapprovedconversation - Jeremy (on vacation)

Your mistake was thinking like an engineer when asking a marketing question. - Alex Scoble

Instead of asking why not, you should have wrote "I wish that every appliance had a wifi chip" - Alex Scoble

And being on holiday doesn't mellow Alex one bit :) - Roberto Bonini

Hehe, Roberto...this is true. :) - Alex Scoble

I guarantee that if there is a market for Crestron and Control4 control systems, as well as Miele and Subzero class appliances, than there is a market for putting network and control capability into those same high-end appliances. - Cristo

Yes sure, you can pay Crestron big money to do it. - Alex Scoble

It isn't however, in the business interest of most small appliance makers to add cost to their wares that consumers won't currently pay for. - Alex Scoble

I don't care about most appliance makers, I only care about the high-end ones that I want to use. It's minimal cost for them compared to the overall price. - Cristo

Again, that's not the question you asked. Which is why you got the answer you got that you didn't like. - Alex Scoble

Alex, so are you an expert on high-end appliances now? You've fully researched that market? - Cristo

You are succeeding in arguing for the sake of arguing, but failing to provide useful insight. - Cristo

You didn't ask a question about high end appliances. Which is why your conversation has failed. Please re-ask your question in a new thread and try again. You won't get the desired result in this thread. - Alex Scoble

Read my previous comment. - Cristo

I added [high end] to the original question so that Alex can now provide an answer. He had a literal block and was unable to process any further. Damn low-powered out-of-date language processors. - Cristo

Answer is still basically the same. Because not enough people want the additional complexity of a wifi enabled device. If I buy a high end stove, I just want it to work. I don't want to have to worry that some engineer put in a bug in the wifi software that will shut down my stove at an inappropriate time. Not everything needs to be so complex that you can monitor it from a central location. - Alex Scoble

And Todd Hoff already gave you many other answers like security concerns. Not to mention the impact of that many wireless devices in the home would have on your main computer's connection or the humans living in the house. Oh and some devices like microwaves would be nigh impossible with current frequencies to do wifi since they significantly degrade signal strength when in use. - Alex Scoble

I see. So it's okay that our military uses network technology for mission critical operations, but we're afraid of bugs in our stove software? Also, I use my laptop right next to my microwave while it's on with no disturbance at all. And the network load for these appliances would be ridiculously low, so I'm not sure what you're talking about in terms of affecting other computers. - Cristo

You mean the military that used unencrypted links for control of UAVs? Very poor example. - Alex Scoble

It's not about network load, it's about the amount of channels and frequencies available. If you get that many devices on a current wifi network at the same time, the network will fail. - Alex Scoble

Alex, no it won't. Have you been to a coffee shop lately? How many appliances do you think I'm talking about? I'm guessing less than ten for me. I have that many wireless devices already in the house. - Cristo

And no, I wasn't talking about the UAVs. I was speaking in general of technology and communication. I trust there are engineers that can build embedded software that won't meltdown. There are already computer chips in these high-end appliances, so your scenario could happen already. - Cristo

My scenario is greatly exacerbated by devices that can be controlled remotely. I wouldn't trust consumer electronics companies to build proper security in to their devices. So yeah, have fun with any teenager with half a brain getting control of your house and making stuff unusable. I'll stick with regular appliances that just work. - Alex Scoble

Alex, you might want to stop using a cell phone too then. - Cristo

Sorry, but the security for cell phones is pretty good, particularly when you are using a Blackberry and their servers where email and stuff is sent encrypted. - Alex Scoble

What kind of companies build cell phones, Alex? Would you describe them as "consumer electronics companies"? - Cristo

Cell phone companies. - Alex Scoble

Alex, ever been to CES? You should go one year and argue with a bunch of people. :) - Cristo

Definitely a case of "hey, let's argue for argument's sake" - Chieze Okoye

No, I don't bother with trade shows for the most part. Although it would be nice to go one year just to listen to a bunch of loudspeakers. - Alex Scoble

Chieze, it certainly wasn't my original intent. - Cristo

I know, I read through the whole thing (and actually I agree with the thrust of what you're saying). More wireless standards options for home automation is a Good Thing (TM). - Chieze Okoye

Alex I'm not really concerned about security and bandwidth, the former can be addressed and the latter is sufficient for request/response communication, if there's a lot of streaming going on that's a different story. A large component of modern cars is software and embedded systems, the same will be true for appliances as well. Cristo's 50K home automation system isn't realistic though. I just want systems I can talk to using http like any other device without exploding the BOM cost. We aren't there yet. - Todd Hoff

Todd, where did the 50K number come from? If there are 10 appliances with $25 wireless radios in them, even with a 4x markup, it's still only $1000. What's the other $49K for? I'm not suggesting flushing money down the Crestron toilet. - Cristo

"Crestron sells systems that cost more than $50,000" - Todd Hoff

Todd, yes I know I wrote that. It doesn't mean I was advocating it, but just providing perspective on how much home automation costs these days. $25 isn't much in that world or even 5x less. - Cristo

You are describing a near-future state of affairs. - Christopher A Carr

It would seem so but I'm not so sure. As Alex mentioned it will take a while for vendors to jump on the bandwagon because as an industry they aren't innovators. Then there's expense, power, configuration. Ideally a system doesn't need expensive gateways and adapters like zigbee, yet you should be able to just drop a device into a network and have it work. I don't see this in the near future. - Todd Hoff

There's nothing inherently expensive about Zigbee, other than it doesn't currently have economy of scale. I think we're talking about different classes of appliances. The average appliance I'm talking about is about $1500. I would easily pay $250 more for a network-enabled device if it had the right API. - Cristo

Zigbee chipsets are not that expensive, the infrastructure to distribute zigbee throughout your house is expensive and it takes installation and configuration. The new low power bluetooth standard should help here, but I don't think these can bond to an IP router. - Todd Hoff

Nothing a network bridge can't fix. Just use a Mac Mini as a home automation server. You can hook RS-232 boxes up to it via USB. Almost all of this stuff supports RS-232 - Cristo

Home automation servers are so last decade :-) - Todd Hoff

Todd, I disagree. They haven't even been explored yet. - Cristo

Personally, I can't wait for my fridge to start spamming me on twitter. Or for my vacuum cleaner to follow me on Facebook. Technology! - Chris Baskind

Luckily nothing about home automation requires social networking to operate. :) - Cristo

In the not-too-distant-future, I see people going out and buying whole-home media & automation servers for their home just like they buy water heaters and furnaces. Builders will plan for these, and there will be rack mounted modular solutions. They'll work without Internet & be battery backed. I plan on getting one installed in my bunker in Montana for when all the shit hits the fan. ;) - Cristo

When the shit hits I hope you can make hand puppets because that's all the media you'll be consuming :-) - Todd Hoff

"hey haven't even been explored yet" - we've had them for a while and the next step after them is pretty obvious so we should just skip that step. - Todd Hoff

Maybe you've had them. Most people haven't and I'm enjoying the beginnings of mine. I've also had service outages in the last couple of months and have no desire to turn over all control to evil/incompetent companies in the cloud. - Cristo

Most of the crap I've seen is kludged. The advantages of a well designed system are fun to imagine, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence of actual implementations of such a system. Which, from my perspective, is all the more reason to think about it and pursue it. I think a big leap would be figuring out how to make it EASY for people/builders/contractors to set up. - Jason Wehmhoener

I can imagine something that would be a combination media server, HDMI matrix switch, and controller for many devices. Support would include Z-wave, Zigbee, Lutron,RS-232, and powerline control. Maybe WiFi and Bluetooth if it makes sense. Total solution should be around 10K not including sources, displays, receivers and appliances. All the software would be open source, maybe leveraging Android. Small systems for apartments could cost much less. - Cristo

And Todd, as long as generators can work, you can still watch plenty of stored media and control your appliances with a home server even if the shit hits the fan. If it's nuclear holocaust, then it doesn't much matter anyway. The cloud-based solution could easily be dead-in-the-water though. Trusting the cloud is like trusting Comcast or AT&T, which is how most people get cloud-based services. Let's see how well that stuff works when the next big earthquake hits the bay area. - Cristo

Pretty interesting Zigbee article: http://www.cepro.com/article... and some Zigbee Appliances http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffbl... http://www.zigbee.org/Product... - Jason Wehmhoener

There are zero config methods for wifi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Todd Hoff

Todd, Sonos uses a modified 802.11 protocol. The limitation is in the standard, not the technology. Any Sonos device can be added to the system by a pressing a button on the Sonos player. You can win the argument technically, but you can't argue that what I'm proposing isn't viable. Certainly it doesn't suggest a cloud-only solution. - Cristo

Look for many easy cheap WiFi internet appliance announcements at #CES Jan 7-10 in Las Vegas - Reese Jones

Reese, just like every year? - Cristo

Yes Cristo #WiFi to internet modules cheaper, easier, lower power and better than before; including (of course) monitoring and control via phones - Reese Jones

Reese, so all Miele, Viking, Subzero, and Bosche appliances will roll out next year with home automation wireless control built in? I'm looking forward to that. - Cristo

We can await many companies making their own announcements, in their own way, just like every year... - Reese Jones

Reese, aren't you worried that you're going out on a scary limb? :) - Cristo

Kind of old, but there was supposed to be stuff already by now. That was the whole idea behind UPnP, which Microsoft started adding to their OS's starting with WinME, in anticipation of all the smart appliances that were supposed to soon become popular. http://architecture.mit.edu/house_n... - April Russo (app103)

If the goal is better integration with existing IP networks, running IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4, i.e. 6LoWPAN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) is much better approach than ZigBee. Both TinyOS and Contiki (two popular open source operating systems for these kind of networks) already provide TCP/UDP stacks that operate on top of 6lowpan. - Vlado Handziski

April, you can run UPnP on top of a lot of these transports. I don't think it specifies a wireless protocol, but is instead an XML discovery and communication system. I've done a fair amount of UPnP programming for Sonos, and it seems overly verbose and cumbersome, but I'd gladly use it if it were widely adopted for appliances. - Cristo

Vlado, I actually don't care that much what they agree on for a wireless technology as long as they agree on something and implement it soon. It's not a requirement for my needs for these devices to talk directly to the Internet without a bridge. I'm really looking just to make things work at all. - Cristo

As someone who has built some wifi gadgets for the consumer marketplace, I can tell you security and connectivity is a fricking nightmare when you get down to your average WalMart user. I have actually had to field the calls from some of the buyers asking about how to connect things to networks they don't have and security protocols they haven't a clue about. It's really so frustrating... more... - Andrew Leyden

Josh Haley

:( http://gioser.posterous.com/feliz-n...

December 1 - Comment - Like - Share

gmarketer, O_O, Ercan and 130 other people liked this

SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! - Morgan Haley

101 more comments

Awesome! - Jeremy (on vacation)

That Heat Miser is one vindictive guy. - Spidra Webster

OOh the humanity!!! - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

well this sucks - VAL D. Zone

Now what will I tell my kid? :(( - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ

:( - WorldofHiglet

MUAHHHAHAHAHA - Bryan Lee

That's a scary Santa. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

It WAS. - Jeremy (on vacation)

Nothing says Happy Holidays like thick plumes of acrid black smoke... NOT! - Mark "DerBingle" J

epic - Josh Haley

Burning Santa Man .. in 29 yrs of firefighting never seen a burning Santa ... a first for everything ,, incredible pics - johnpiercy

I knew this would catch your eye. Must have gone really fast, yeah? - Josh Haley

Kris Kindling - Josh Haley

NOOOOOOOO! - Miriella

*fails to suppress evil cackling laughter* - Mo Kargas

Call me a Ho again will ya fatman *snaps fingers* - Johnny Worthington

Shit , that would go instantly ,, looks like a inside job - johnpiercy

We don't need no water let the motherf**ker burn. - Mo Kargas

Woah. - Rochelle

Elves' Revenge. - Louis Gray

For some reason this reminds me of those extremist Hindus that burn giant Valentines cards every year... - Chrimmus Tad

That'll learn ya. - Danny Minick

Who killed Santa - Donnovan

Krampas has had his REVENGE! - Bluesun 2600

Oh God! - ★ Soner Gönül

ایول ! - سیدیونس

Don't shoot me Santa Claus, I've been a clean living boy, I promise you, did every little thing you asked me to, I can't believe the things I'm going through... - Otto

It's all part of the Santa reboot. Hollywood should now do a Santa Origins story, directed by Michael Bay of course. - Jerry Perez

gittii giittii giitttii giiitti santa gitti :D - €Lyaz

Saaantaa!!! Did it smell like cookies? lol - John Tastad

makes getting down the chimney a lot easier. - Morgan Haley

On Dasher! On Donner! On Cupi.....Oh SHIT! On Fire!!! On Fire!!!! - Morgan Haley

I find this very funny. - Yolanda

Every time I see this, I immediately go to 18% LOL. - Akiva Moskovitz

والنسیا باید باشه ، اونا از این کارا می‌کنن . - mairyland

Gonna bump this every day till Christmas folks. Hide it now while you can. - Josh Haley

See? 18% LOL straight away. - Akiva Moskovitz

18% more than where you were or 18% total? - Josh Haley

bump - Danny Minick

Oh damn. - Derrick

♫ I saw mommy lighting Santa Claus ♪ - Andrew Smith

Mai vista una roba del genere. - braciolanet from BuddyFeed

Did anyone see a grinch? - Jerry Perez

Goooooooood morning, America! - Josh Haley from iPhone

Uh oh. 17% LOL this time but that's probably because I'm a little tired this morning. - Akiva Moskovitz

Me too. :( - Josh Haley

Whoa! - Roney Smith

OH NOOOOOOEEEEESSSSS - Penguin It's Cold Outside

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

hahahahahahahah - Caroline

Top o' the mornin'! - Josh Haley from iPhone

Heck, yeah! 19% LOL. - Akiva Moskovitz

:) - Josh Haley

I still like this - Jerry Perez from iPod

he's making a list. - Josh Haley from iPhone

dear me santa should stop smoking eh - eric

HO HO HOOOAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAH! - Josh Haley

This santa's hot !!! - Maryam

Que lastima! Hace mucho calor! - Josh Haley from iPhone

Last time Santa has mexican food before he goes out. - Carlos Urrutia

Keep fighting the good fight! Bump, bump, bump! - Jerry Perez

Ah yes, thank you. - Josh Haley

D^8 - Chieze Okoye

Today's bump is sponsored by Smokey the Bear. - Josh Haley

Stop, Drop, and Roll - Aryn Corley

G'mornin! - Josh Haley from iPhone

12-09-09 Never Forget. - Josh Haley

Don't show this to children. They'd cry. - Richard A.

or laugh - Josh Haley

hey, stay on the front page Santa. - Jerry Perez

Guten tag! - Josh Haley from iPhone

10 more days to Christmas - Josh Haley

Three till my Birthday, forget Christmas :-) - Richard A.

Shooting for 20% LOL today - Josh Haley from iPhone

bu sene bizim hediye yine yalan oldu ;( - Arapprensi

Well, that's one way to make a kid cry - Jerry Perez

Yes. Yes it is. - Josh Haley

Santer burns!!!!! - Mathew™ one of a kind

they crossed the streams!! - Terry O'Fee

Burn..burn you jolly bastard ! *mad laughter* - Mo Kargas

8 more days - Josh Haley

I see Santa was someone's flame for a little while... - awd

wow - netpiano

Hiya kids! - Josh Haley

Last shopping weekend before Christmas, folks! - Josh Haley

NO ONE! is more of a bah~humbug than me!!! LOL ask my friends, what ones i have left after the past month of moaning .... :s - Tatty Gibson

Howdy Ho Ho Ho - Josh Haley from iPhone

OwOwOw - Terris Linenbach

This is becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy for me. My Christmas is turning more and more into something like this scene. - Josh Haley

Santa Visited Hell And Kissed The Carpet. Ho Ho Ho - Jeunelle Foster

oh no Josh - VAL D. Zone

Did the Martians get their revenge? Anybody see that flick? - Jerry Perez

Short version: major (read: expensive/unaffordable at the time) car trouble right before a family trip. Plan B enacted. - Josh Haley

it's beginning to look a lot like ar-sonnn - Josh Haley

ho - Josh Haley from iPhone

This is giving me nightmares and reminds me of :( - http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Jeunelle Foster

Santa is down, I repeat Santa is DOWN!!! - Jerry Perez

still my favourite post of all Dec - johnpiercy

HERE I COME!!! - Josh Haley from iPhone

I have a feeling you and I would get on like a house on fire. - Spidra Webster

why santa why must he burn! - Avynn Kaboom and its gone

Adam Helweh

Good burger at the Counter - http://adamhelweh.posterous.com/good-bu...

Thursday from Posterous - Comment - Like - Share

rowlikeagirl, Jimminy Fuller, Morton Fox and 7 other people liked this

Posted via web from Adam Helweh's Posterous - Adam Helweh from Posterous

2 more comments

...dude, that is so wrong to just post things like that! Some people haven't had dinner yet! :P - JA Castillo

I love their fries (normal and sweet potato). I'm so hungry now - Chieze Okoye

a-ha! there are the fries. :) - Marie likes mistletoe

metalerik

YouTube - Pivot Tables for Google Spreadsheets (Part 1) - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

December 11 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

manielse (Mark Nielsen), Chieze Okoye, Christopher Harley and Nicholas Kreidberg liked this

"Panorama's pivot table functionality for Google Spreadsheets can help you analyze both spreadsheet and enterprise level data thus helping provide robust insights that will help you answer all sorts of questions." - metalerik from Bookmarklet

This is the main thing that GSpreadsheets is missing (this and the data limit are what keeps me using Excel as my "daily driver," so to speak). Looks interesting, must check it out. - Chieze Okoye

I'm hoping we see some updates to Google Spreadsheets soon. At a minimum for me, as you said Chieze, I need to be able to upload and create spreadsheets that are way bigger than what they currently allow. Pivot tables are a must as well or I can't be off of Excel. I'm ok with that for now but I don't see that many companies can go google without a stronger spreadsheet solution. - metalerik

Joe Pierce

Oh, I get it. Because they can't obtain it, it is unobtainable, it is Unobtanium! GENIUS I SAY GENIUS!!!11!@@!!

December 23 - Comment - Like - Share

ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,, Morton Fox, rowlikeagirl and 50 other people liked this

Closely related to "handwavium." - Christopher A Carr

135 more comments

Brilliant! - Josh Haley from iPhone

I thought it was cutely self-referential and definitely a welcome aside for a movie that otherwise takes itself a little too seriously. - Akiva Moskovitz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Christopher A Carr

I hated that part. Too on the nose. - Derrick

The part that I hated was when they actually had lines about 'terror'. I mean, c'mon. Cameron might as well have interrupted the movie with a PSA. - Akiva Moskovitz

"Unobtanium" is an apologetic wink to hard-sci-fi snobs. - Christopher A Carr

Or hard-sci-fi knobs. - Derrick

O.O - Joe Pierce

I probably should have found it kind of cute or tongue in cheek. But really it was just one of the first (of many) things to totally take me out of the movie. - Joe Pierce

I searched in imdb and got 2 hits, im guessing your all talking about the new film called Avatar? http://www.imdb.com/keyword... - Halil

Yep Halil, we are talking about Avatar. - Joe Pierce

I'm with Joe. the first mention of it made me groan internally. - jbrotherlove

is that related to "hardtofindium"? - Yolanda

Wasn't that in that silly "The Core" movie? - Yolanda

Yolanda, that was the other film in the link i posted, so yes it was apprently, although i never watched the film properly, even though film4 keeps repeating it! i agree, it wasnt all that great a film! - Halil

I just saw and liked the movie. For me unobtanium was take-it-or-leave, but the war/terror allusions, nay, PSAs (++Akiva) were eyeroll jazzercise inducing. - Micah Wittman

I never said the movie wasn't pretty. It really is. But I'm not willing to give the movie a pass just based off of that. The 3D earns it nothing in my book, the movie is only going to be viewed in that kind of 3D for a few months, after that it'll have to hold up in 2D for the rest of it's existence. Its hard to tell, but I really didn't hate Avatar. I was disappointed by it, and I think it is getting too much of a pass by people. But it was ok. - Joe Pierce

the story's not good, and I judge people who give it a pass. It's insane that you can have a 2 hour and 40 minute movie with so few details about anything related to the plot or characters. the only character with any depth at all is jake, and he doesn't have a lot. - Richard Lawler

it was pretty much a videogame story, without the game. - Richard Lawler

Wait a second, are you all saying that you've never enjoyed a single movie just on its visuals or its action? Every movie you've ever watched that is entertaining had a deep, complex plot? To me personally, I basically agree with echostreamer: it's not really about "giving the story a pass," it's about the story doing its job, which in this case was to get you from one groundbreaking visual tapestry to the next. I think it did it well enough that I didn't mind it (I chuckled at unobtainium, btw). - Chieze Okoye

A movie doesn't have to be deep and complex. It does have to make sense and explain itself, Avatar doesn't. You are giving it a pass because the story didn't do its job. It never gave any of the surrounding characters any depth or any motivation for their actions. Even in an action movie, that's unacceptable. - Richard Lawler

What? This is the far future when humans have developed great technology but have also ravaged Earth. One company is searching for <insert-resource-name> which leads them to <planet-where-resource-exists> and conflict with the native population of <insert-race-name>, which happens to live on top of a huge store of <insert-resource-name>. Motivation of company: Money/<resource>.... more... - Chieze Okoye

I mean yes, the secondary characters are all more properly called caricatures, but to say that they didn't have any motivation is a bit much as they all had quite clear and simple motivations that were easily understood. Not unlike almost every other action movie ever made. - Chieze Okoye

Applied Phlebotinum - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki... - teh Dork Knight aka Kenny

Chieze - That covers absolutely zero bases. You know what you didn't mention in your breakdown? A single individual character. you know why you didn't? Because none of them have any identifying characteristics, you can't tell them from each other. Every good action movie has more characters that are developed better. Avatar is not a good action movie. - Richard Lawler

The company didn't go on a suicide revenge mission at the end, the barrel chested war caricature did. Indigenous race didn't fall in love with an alien, the one character did. Pilot B didn't go up against an entire army to help some alien race, the one character did. Too bad we never got to know any of them at all. - Richard Lawler

But like, the Bourne Trilogy had zero memorable characters besides Bourne himself but I would call that an excellent series of action movies. This is just the first example off of the top of my head. I didn't mention any specific characters in my overview because the text would have gotten too long and I was just trying to give an explanatory gist. - Chieze Okoye

Bourne Trilogy sucked, the books weren't any good and the movies were empty shells. I said good action movies. and every bourne flick I saw had at least two or three better developed characters more than avatar. - Richard Lawler

I basically disagree with everything you said there (except the part about the books not being any good). I guess we won't see eye-to-eye on this one. - Chieze Okoye

Good action movies are things like Die Hard, Aliens, Indiana Jones. In those flicks individual characters have their own identity and motivation, because they're well written. Avatar is a two hour 40 minute special fx ramble with no depth to anyone except Jake Sully. - Richard Lawler

Wow, if you thought only Jake Sully had depth, you weren't watching the movie close enough. - Akiva Moskovitz

I think everyone saying this movie sucks because it's storyline isn't "complex" are just jumping on a bandwagon and being contrary for contrarian sake. The story is simple, true. The characters that count are believable and the story does what it needs to do. It gets you from point a to b to c in the visual storyline. What I don't see people talking about is how successfully Cameron is... more... - veo

unobtainium is from Rocky and Bullwinkle ;) - WarLord

Also, unobtainum was kind of dumb but it's been used in countless sci-fi stories over the past 100 years. get over it. - veo

So...I'm expected to take a mediocre plot in an "epic" film because it "does what it needs to?" I'm the douchebag or expecting a story to try to do something more than just the bare minimum that is required? .. I could also point out that saying people whose opinions differ from yours are just stating them to be contrary and to jump on a bandwagon is a really douchebaggy statement. - Joe Pierce

The movie was in development how many years and it still had little to no story? I was excited a few years back, but now all it can do it disappoint. I am waiting for someone to say something that would lead me to believe otherwise. - Amber, Random Time Lord

Amber, Avatar is pretty (can't say I didn't try). - jbrotherlove

Amber, it's REALLY pretty. I think that honestly you're best just spending the $10 now to see it in 3D in theaters because that experience is not really replicable anywhere else. - Chieze Okoye

It's really pretty outside and that is free, and the story is better. - Amber, Random Time Lord

I prefer Wonderflonium - WorldofHiglet

Or Atmospherium. - Amber, Random Time Lord

It HAS a story, and it tells the story it's got well. It's just that the story's been told a thousand times before, and it does very little new with the formula. Once you take away the visuals and 3D, you're left with a pretty routine oppressed-people-with-an-unlikely-savior story. I still think it was worth watching in 3D because the technology is really amazing, but the claims of... more... - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

+++Jandy - RAPatton from iPhone

Jandy is smart, and a less grumpy person than me. Listen to her. - Joe Pierce

lol. It helps that I spent a good portion of the day on Monday discussing the film on Row Three - what I just said is pretty much the short version of a dozen or so very long comments over there. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

I kept looking for a place to jump in over there, but most of what I had to say was already getting said and the same arguments were being brought up against it. I didn't think jumping in just to say "Nuh-uh!!!" would have been very effective. - Joe Pierce

I can wait for the movie that uses the stepping stone. I'm all CGIed out and if that is all that it has going for it, I'll pass. - Amber, Random Time Lord

Hee! Yeah, once the guys get going over there, it can be tough to jump in. The funny thing is, that thread is still going (nearly up to 200 comments now) but no one's been talking about Avatar for a long time. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Amber, if it helps. As much bitching as I've done over the movie. I would still recommend seeing it t least once. Just don't expect it to be as epic as all that. - Joe Pierce

I don't. Hence why I'll pass. - Amber, Random Time Lord

Saying that Avatar has just CGI is like saying that Titanic has just water. - Akiva Moskovitz

It was for me. Until the guy hit the propeller. - Amber, Random Time Lord

Titanic could have been a decent movie if about an hour of the useless crap had been taken out. - Joe Pierce

Okay, bad analogy. Some people just aren't as into the technical side of movies or cinematic milestones. Nothing wrong with that. - Akiva Moskovitz

I can respect all the money they spent making it, and all the people that got paid to make the thing look as real as possible. But I'm not going to spend money on it. - Amber, Random Time Lord

Look, every movie fails if you drill down on it hard enough and long enough. The endeavor is not unlike constructing a modern building - in this case a sky-scraper. I love a 'perfect' character home too, but why not admire each craft work for what it is?! Ok. Got that out of my system. - Micah Wittman

failtanium - Will Higgins™

Every Yingtanium deserves a Yangtanium :) - Micah Wittman

Micah, that's exactly what I'm saying (3 comments up). Also, Amber, I think that you are selling this quite short when you say "it's pretty outside and free and has a better story." I'm not disagreeing with you exactly, but this movie is honestly visually spectacular. It's not just that it's a "CGI-fest." Yes it's CGI heavy, but this is really the first movie that I've seen with this... more... - Chieze Okoye

I've got a good analogy, I think. Saying that Avatar is just CGI is like saying that these are just pencil drawings or that the first one is just a tiger: http://friendfeed.com/mikerob... (well, assuming they are real, heh) Technically true, but you'd be completely missing the point. - Chieze Okoye

lol, this made me laugh. "I judge people who give this a pass." LOL! It's a movie! ahahahahahahahahaha... Like it, don't like it, disappointed that JC didn't change the world, impressed that he seemed to seamlessly weave the 3D throughout the movie, whatever. I liked it, I had fun, and I'm pretty sure we'll own it at some point, even if the husband hmphed at the unobtainium and the... more... - Bette Cooper

I can't believe I wasted the no energy it took to make a mental note that you have crap taste in movies and don't pay attention to things like story or dialogue, I'll go consider my life's path and where it went wrong now. Or I won't. - Richard Lawler

It very clearly doesn't tell it's story well. Anyone who actually paid attention to what happened in the movie will notice there's no attention given to plot elements like why the evil villain would do any of the things he did at the end of the movie. What Na'vi and human interactions were like before jake got there. The aliens have no individual characters at all. After betraying his... more... - Richard Lawler

I think so - ★ Soner Gönül

I call bullshit on this movie and the studios that let it through. No excuse to spend $X million dollars on a bad story that took X years to make and push X new technology to introduce us to something that someone else will take and make good. If you have that length of time to polish it, polish the damn story too! No excuse for bad writing if you've got 4 damn years to make the movie! I won't see it, I don't care what it looks like. If I want to see something amazing, I'll drive to the mountains. - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

Oh un-OBTAIN-ium! I get it! That's clever. - s t e v e

I call this movie artwork. Its a shame that we don't have silent films anymore so people would STFU about the plot and look at the movie for what it is; a stunning 2.5 hour moving work of art. Remove the words (leave the score) and people might stop freaking out about characters and start paying attention to the pure artistry in the visuals, which is really what the movie is about. - EricaJoy

That was pretty bad, it distracted me from enjoying the shiny every time they mentioned it. Thankfully that was not often. - Lo

Well, it's better than oldcrapium. - Jason Hill

I second EricaJoy's comment. It's a shame that people need to find a negative in a (visiually) nicely made movie. - liladreams

I'm really enjoying how riled up Richard is over this. And I fully agree with him: of all things to take a stand on in life, Avatar's script is definitely where one of refined taste should draw the line. I mean really. How could anyone possibly have an alternative and opposing viewpoint? It's preposterous! - Akiva Moskovitz

As I mentioned previously, JRR Tolkein took 12 years to write LOTR. That was worth it. James Cameron took 15 years to write Avatar. You can do the math. - Melanie Reed

Question, Did Richard take a principled stand on Star Wars Episodes 1 to 3?? - Roberto Bonini

Do I need to? I think there's a 70 minute review on youtube that covers all the points necessary. Some would do well to apply its lessons to this movie. (tell me something about the characters that isn't how they look or what their job is) - Richard Lawler

I havent seen the movie yet Richard. But if its as bad as Star Wars for plot..... - Roberto Bonini

It's better than star wars in that it has a main character and he has some (not much, but some depth to him. the prequels, especially TPM, lack that entirely. If you're interested in the effects it's worth seeing once, but leave your brain at the door. - Richard Lawler

Richard, that YouTube review is awesome but I can easily take the character challenge with Avatar. Even the minor characters in Avatar have more clear, personal definition than the characters in Star Wars (with the exception of Chacon who might as well have been a flight computer). Of course, that might be more derogatory toward Star Wars than it is complimentary toward Avatar; I mean, when you've set the bar so bloody low... - Akiva Moskovitz

The question really is: Can Avatar be considered opera? A simplistic plot can be justified if it lends itself to the grand themes of mythos and opera. Star Wars does that. Can you justify that Avatar does the same? - Melanie Reed

I'd have to see it more than once to even consider such a question. - Akiva Moskovitz

Akiva - beyond the main guy? For example, Grace - she went to stanford and.... what brought her to pandora? what happened, who decided to close the school and/or why? the company brought her to pandora, what was the reasoning at that time? is she (or any of the other scientists) leaving anything behind on earth when they side with the na'vi? - Richard Lawler

Absolutely. I would put Avatar on par with movies like SW: A New Hope, 2001, etc. I would recommend watching the episode of Totally Rad Show where they review Avatar. They pretty much say everything I think about the movie. It's just an amazing film. http://revision3.com/trs... - Jason Huebel

It's ironic that the only character that is memorable in the Bourne Trilogy is the main character, seeing as how it's about guy trying to figure out his identity. - Andy Bakun from Android

Richard, that was all explained. She's a botanical expert, the entire planet is full of dangerous flora; that's an easy one. They closed the school when it was made clear that no matter how much they tried to 'civilize' the Na'Vi, it didn't stop them from still attacking the miners so it was seen as a waste of money and time. And it's stated almost immediately before she appears on the... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

Another comparison (defining where to place this film in genre): Compare Avatar and Tron. What do they have in common, each for its day. - Melanie Reed

I dunno, Avatar is in it's own league, IMO. It's a space opera, but you really can't directly compare it to any other film. - Jason Huebel

when did it say when they closed the school? They said "we tried building them a school" they never said when it was closed or why. In fact, they never even actually showed the na'vi attacking the miners, only talked about it.and ok, she hates people, but what about the other scientists on pandora? they all flip sides real quick, no family for any of them? - Richard Lawler

Also, Richard, I think what you're missing here is that this isn't an ensemble movie. It isn't M*A*S*H. It's a science fiction action adventure movie. Deep, Altman-like examination of character isn't required to move the plot forward. Any character development is a side effect of the action and not the other way around. And I repeat, it's a sci-fi action adventure movie. Did you get as... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

How is it operatic? Is it dealing with large themes: Good vs. Evil. (or are those relative and somewhat gray based on perspective?) Are those clearly defined? Are there three acts (yet)? - Melanie Reed

Does the protagonist clearly know what to do or is he conflicted in the end? - Melanie Reed

Akiva - I don't need to know where he went to college, I do need to know why the characters make the decisions they make. It's never explained why Grace left the na'vi at first and why they're apparently so reluctant to accept her back. None of the na'vi have any individual reactions at all. Evil Guy has no reason to be evil after the battle is clearly lost. He's not fighting for his life, he just goes on a suicidal rampage for no reason. It goes on and on. - Richard Lawler

@Melanie, there is definitely an internal conflict for both main characters. There is also an obvious story of good vs. evil. (BTW, have you seen it yet?) - Jason Huebel

@Jason read it. - Melanie Reed

both main characters? - Richard Lawler

@Melanie, ah. How was the book? I'm considering picking it up. - Jason Huebel

@Richard, Jake Sully and Neytiri. - Jason Huebel

How is neytiri a main character? We never see her except when she's interacting with jake. - Richard Lawler

You're kidding right? Did you see the same movie I did? - Jason Huebel

Yeah, and Alice in Wonderland is a stupid story because you never see any characters except when they're interacting with Alice. Oy vey already. - Akiva Moskovitz

Now you're lying akiva. I didn't say anything like that. But you wouldn't call them main characters now would you. that was my point. - Richard Lawler

Jason, let me know the part when neytiri talked to anyone without jake present. The movie has one main character. - Richard Lawler

I'm done. I don't have any interest in getting into an argument today. I'm on vacation. - Jason Huebel

Richard, you do realize that this movie is told entirely through the eyes of Jake Sully, don't you? That's why we rarely see anyone that isn't in the room with him. Hell, the movie tells us that with its opening and closing shots. One eye in the beginning symbolizes a limited view of the world; two eyes at the end reflecting a fuller (but probably not complete) view of the world. In fact, are there ANY scenes without him involved (even if off-camera)? - Akiva Moskovitz

So does the movie have one main character or two. - Richard Lawler

+100 Akiva. Great description! - Jason Huebel

I thought you left jason, if you're still around, you can surely describe how neytiri meets the criteria for a main character in any way. also, we see a lot of things that Jake doesn't see. But of course, I apparently didn't watch the movie. - Richard Lawler

@Richard, nope. Just not arguing. - Jason Huebel

If you can't answer a question without arguing, then I wish you much relaxation on your vacay. - Richard Lawler

Thanks. :-) - Jason Huebel

@Jason http://www.amazon.com/James-C... | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Plot will tell you. - Melanie Reed

It matters how you define a main character, Richard. For me, a main character is essential to the core of the plot and usually has a lot of screen time. By that definition, Sully, Neytiri, and Guaritch are all main characters. I don't think a character loses 'main' status simply because it doesn't have 'alone time' on-screen. And I've seen some movies where the two main characters never... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

@Melanie, so it's a children's book? I would imagine that would mean it's a bit watered down compared to the movie. I was hoping for an adult novel. Although I would imagine since this has always been a movie concept first, there might not be one. - Jason Huebel

Also, I had asked if there were any scenes in which he wasn't involved, not things that he didn't see. - Akiva Moskovitz

Sometimes when a story is told over and over again with no variation, it's because the story is important and most people aren't listening. My guess is that this same story will continue to be told until the underlying problems which draw storytellers to it are addressed. (just a random thought) - Lo

That's weird, because I always thought the main character was the one who experienced things for the audience. Guaritch and Neytiri never have any experiences in the movie except in relation to their affect on jake. That's why he's the main character. The world revolves around him and his experiences - Richard Lawler

Lo++ - Jason Huebel

Akiva - what you actually said was "told entirely through the eyes of Jake Sully" I inferred you meant saw since you said his eyes and that's what they're usually used for. - Richard Lawler

I think the problem does need to be addressed, I have not yet mated for life with a ten foot blue alien version of zoe saldana. This is an underlying problem that needs to be rectified. - Richard Lawler

@Jason an interesting comment by the Author through a marketing choice, wouldn't you agree? - Melanie Reed

Richard, I meant that more metaphorically. Sully's the Frodo of Avatar; he's the device used to introduce us to the world. And, you're right, the audience is only given one main character to really bond with (although we can empathize with Neytiri and have antipathy toward Guaritch). I also agree that the script's weak but, ultimately, I feel the value of the movie is greater than the sum of its parts. - Akiva Moskovitz

And about your last comment, Richard, Cameron was on The Tonight Show and joking how he had a team dedicated specifically to Neytiri's butt and that it took them nine months to perfect it. - Akiva Moskovitz

Nine months well spent, clearly. It's impossible for me to empathize with neytiri because other than her inexplicable love for jake (he betrays her and is directly responsible for the destruction of her home and death of her father by his inaction of not telling them what's coming and action of giving info to quaritch, this is reason for a quittal on the planet i'm from) I know nothing... more... - Richard Lawler

Richard, I think you're on to something. :) - Melanie Reed

I guess this is testament to both Saldana's acting ability and the technical artistry of the film because I got a lot more out of Neytiri than what I suppose was explicit in the script. And, well, love is inexplicable anyway but her attraction to him was two-fold: first, he was different than anyone she had ever met before which made him a 'rebellious bad boy' and that he was tirelessly... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

I don't see how his willingness to face death is notable, every na'vi we ever see has done exactly the same thing. To her, he, should be nothing special, and yet he gets three second chances at life when should be killed immediately before he ever does anything remarkable. - Richard Lawler

and how much does it suck to be tsu tey, you not only lose your girl to a cripple, you only get to be chief for like 5 minutes before dying in a battle planned by the same guy who took your girl and you'd have been better off killing on sight. - Richard Lawler

That's true but she knows he's not Na'Vi. He's human and STILL willing to die for the Na'Vi. Furthermore, she follows him into battle because of his legendary feat but I don't think she actually truly reconnects with him until she sees him as who he really is for the first time, as a tiny, delicate, little human. - Akiva Moskovitz

Hah, yeah. That guy gets the shit end of the stick from scene one. - Akiva Moskovitz

Anyway, I think a lot of your points are good, Richard, even if I don't agree with them. I clearly got a lot more satisfaction out of the script than you did. Of course, I went in with low expectations and, I suppose, ended up doing most of the heavy lifting in the end. But I'm all right with that. I really liked the movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Would I watch it again without the IMAX 3D, though? Probably not. So I suppose that says a lot, too. - Akiva Moskovitz

I get that, but it doesn't make sense to me, he doesn't really have a lot of options. If he hadn't gone w/ the navi plan from jump, they were gonna kill him anyway right then, his life's been hanging in the balance for a while and she wasn't particularly impressed the first time. - Richard Lawler

Plus, through their unreasonably deep understanding of avatar technology, she knows he isn't really risking his life, he's a "dreamwalker." - Richard Lawler

@Richard: Yes, and for me my inability to commune psychically (or whatever) with plants and have hot tree-of-souls sex is also a problem that needs urgent attention :D - Lo

Richard, a key point in whether something is operatic. Does Sully really have to put his life at risk as say even Neo does in The Matrix? - Melanie Reed

Once he turns his back and they dropship the avatar beds all up in na'vi territory late in the film, yes. But I'm troubled by that because really, what did he have to lose, his human body sucked (though fixable) and his family was dead, of course he falls in love with being a na'vi. The one thing I found satisfactory about the story was the explanation of how he came to be in the avatar program at all. - Richard Lawler

Again Richard, I think you are on to something. There has to be a sacrifice more important than what is supplied here for a true hero to confront. The stakes must be incredibly high. Frodo has this. Neo has this to an extent(He begins a pattern of where we are beginning to lose this clear line in stories). Also, if memory serves, Dances With Wolves never overtly or even really... more... - Melanie Reed

It's hard to say. After he destroys the cameras, Jake still isn't fighting the army yet. It's only after they realize what happened and lock him up that he takes the fight to them, and at that point, any opportunity to get his legs back and live the human life he wants is probably long gone. - Richard Lawler

I think I'm going to need to see this movie again. Not only was it fun the first time, but it's even more entertaining watching people go off over it. *laughs softly* Merry Christmas! - Bette Cooper

Matthew DeVries

How many people have never ever in their lives laid their hands on a firewire device or cable?

Wednesday - Comment - Like - Share

Jason Huebel, Mike Nencetti, Kol Tregaskes and 3 other people liked this

*raises hand* - Matthew DeVries

18 more comments

raises hand - chaz2b

Oh, I misread. I have laid hands on a firewire device, whoopsie. - Chieze Okoye

I have. - Penguin It's Cold Outside

Me, probably, if I even knew what you were talking about. - Mellissa Claus

definition of what http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - chaz2b

I still don't know what you're talking about! So my answer is definitely "Me!" - Mellissa Claus

Me - Alex Scrivener from iPhone

I still have the FireWire cable from my first iPod. - ha3rvey (Ho)^3

I definitely misread, too. - Penguin It's Cold Outside from fftogo

I last laid hands on a firewire cable... this morning. - DGentry

Me - VAL D. Zone

I'm not sure if I ever have... and this PC tech generally knows what new stuff she's gotten to play with. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Years ago I purchased Pinnacle video editing software that came with a PCI firewire card. That was pre USB 2.0 days. so I can't raise my hand. - Mike Nencetti

I have a "firewire capable" external hard drive, but I don't actually connect via that port. Otherwise, nope. - Mark "DerBingle" J

BTW... I have several parallel to SCSI converters if anyone is interested!!! (Deafening silence...) - Mark "DerBingle" J

an iPod? - Giraffes Up In The AIr

Well, I've had a computer or two with a firewire port built in. But I never used it. So I think that counts. - Jason Huebel

Yeah, I'm not counting computers with the ports, we couldn't avoid them No clue why they were drilled into every notebook I bought for the last 10 years though. Could have done cool stuff with that space. - Matthew DeVries

Me. - Jeremy (on vacation)

Brad Greer

How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room | Mark Lynas | Environment | The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environ...

December 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Michael R. Bernstein, vicster is..., Alex Scoble and 5 other people liked this

"China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again." - Brad Greer from Bookmarklet

21 more comments

That's so lame, and so believable. - Lo

At least the concerned girl is pretty. - Eivind

But she looks so heartbroken :P - Lo

Prescient commentary about the Copenhagen agreements and Geo-political implications. Self-Assembling Structures in Dynamic Networks mi2g http://bit.ly/6KP5ha - Eric Logan

Kudos to China for not embracing AlGorism. The last sane country on the planet. Thank you very much. - LANjackal

Love the look of defeat on the girl's face. Priceless. Take that, alarmists. - LANjackal

LANJackal, no offense, but a defeat of "alarmists" does not equal "non-existence of the problem that people are alarmed about" (ex. Superman origin story) - Chieze Okoye

LANjackal, for real? Based just on this one headline, or you really stand by your statement given everything the Chinese govt does? - Lo

Al Gorism? You've got to be kidding me. Your use of that term is even designed to stop any discussion of facts of the issue before it even begins. - Alex Scoble

LANjackal: Earth's atmospheric system is either becoming increasingly energetic due to human activity, or it's not. It's an empirical matter and doesn't have a single damn thing to do with the US political spectrum. - Christopher A Carr

Yep, I've never been for a reduction in CO2 emissions per se, as that's a physical consequence of combustion (unlike NOx emissions, which can be modulated via the combustion process). This explains my resentment toward Gore and his focus on carbon. What I always have been in favor of is increased efficiency, across the board, period. I also prefer low (read: zero) regulation, so the... more... - LANjackal from IM

Are you trolling? Because I have a hard time believing this type of strategy is generically applicable enough to be worth "saving for future reference." I'd also be interested in hearing what your efficiency metric would be. It's true that CO2 emissions are a narrow view of a complex problem, but do you have a better idea of what to measure? - Brad Greer

No, I'm not trolling. China used textbook negotiation methods to get what they wanted despite being outnumbered at the table. It's a good lesson for the aggressively ambitious. As for efficiency, the proper technical definition thereof is Useful Energy Out/Energy In. It's measurable for all power generation systems. You can increase efficiency by reducing the Energy In, which translates... more... - LANjackal from IM

Yes, because clearly the carbon fixation cycle is completely irrelevant, ask the dinosau... oh, wait. :P - Lo

1) The last time I read, the jury's still out on what killed the dinosaurs, and the leading theory is an asteroid strike 2) We're far more advanced than they were and can adapt - LANjackal from IM

Not all of us can adapt...in other words you don't care about people in developing nations, LAN...so much for those poor poor folk that can't afford the technology and systems required to survive climate change foisted on them by the richer people of this planet. Like I said, you obviously have zero interest in discussing this and are using your language to build up barriers. - Alex Scoble

"Richer" nations such as China and India? They're the ones who sank the talks, see the article for yourself. As for "care", I'm not Jesus and I'm not here to save anyone. You want a hero, go watch a movie. - LANjackal from IM

Like I said... - Alex Scoble

O, I forgot ... Sudan was acting as China's puppet. I suppose they're rotten rich too. The funny thing about this story - which is why I'm saving it as I said - is that the people who killed the talks managed to avoid all the blame for doing so and shifting it to the "rich countries" who were actually trying to save the discussion. It seems even you, Alex, have fallen prey to their machinations. As I said, impressive play by China in terms of negotiation tactics - LANjackal from IM

I was reacting more towards what you said than to what China did during the climate change summit. Sorry for being a bit testy. :) - Alex Scoble

Nah, you're ok ... my feelings on the issue are just as strong, I have to restrain myself while typing :). Cheers - LANjackal from IM

I wasn't arguing that carbon would kill us, LAN, just a little scientist joke. Most people don't even know the carbon fixation cycle exists... in any event, if I'm remembering college correctly (never safe bet) the jury's not out on what caused the deaths during the various mass extinctions, just what triggered the start of the process. An asteroid did not kill the dinosaurs, or at least only a few of them, but the resulting atmospheric changes could have. - Lo

Scott

Fwd: Explosm.net - Where do you see yourself in ten years? - http://www.explosm.net/comics... (via http://friendfeed.com/boredcw...)

Fwd: Explosm.net - Where do you see yourself in ten years? - http://www.explosm.net/comics/1896/ (via http://ff.im/dgk29)

December 22 - Comment - Like - Share

VAL D. Zone, Pavlo Zahozhenko, \(*_*)/ and 36 other people liked this

I'm using this in my next interview - Mo Kargas

7 more comments

Oh, if only... - T. Brent, technopeasant

Awesome! I want this guy on my team. - Becky Snyder

i needed a laugh ... good one - johnpiercy

I love it! I can think of someone who would get a job there easily! Can you? - Sandra Large

I really hope my next interview is appropriate to say this. - Heather

Hilarious! - Nicholas Kreidberg

I saw this one yesterday, too and thought it was hilarious. - Chieze Okoye

Can't stop giggling, now coworkers are flocking around 8) - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,

guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Graffiti tagger sentenced to 8 years in prison - no chance of parole - Corpus Christi - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

December 21 from Facebook - Comment - Like - Share

what the eff? That seems unreasonable. - Chieze Okoye

2 more comments

completely. It's several consecutive sentences for felony spraying. judge should be locked up. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Woah, pedophiles get less here. - Mo Kargas

Everyone gets less. For just about every crime, including violent crimes. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

jeneane sessum

I remember when Linksys was a good and helpful company. now, they want to charge you $40 to answer a question? FTW.

Thursday from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ, Chieze Okoye and mjc liked this

Acronym fail? - Louis Gray

11 more comments

*giggle* - Admiral Anika

liked for Louis' comment - Chieze Okoye

Actually, back in the day that meant "fuck the world". - Spidra Webster

they were good before Cisco got to them....i'm not sure who I would buy from now in networking equipment. I've heard good things about Buffalo. Netgear not so great, D-Link is iffy, and Belkin....pfffft. The old linksys stuff is amazing. - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

George says you are all sick for being on at 3 in the morning answering router questions. - jeneane sessum

George is jealous of your fan base. - Louis Gray

ok so i'm sucking our neighbor's wifi and i have to connect through a VPN on monday, which ain't gonna work w/ 3 bars. So do we buy another Linksys? Or pay them $39.99 to answer a question and try to get this one working? - jeneane sessum

Louis, stop slaying me.!. - jeneane sessum

Did i mention they stuck a q-tip all the way up my right sinus today? THAT was as fun as linksys technical support. - jeneane sessum

I saw that on your Tweet stream. I didn't want to pick on you twice in one night. :) - Louis Gray

LOL. pick. heehee. - jeneane sessum

More like WTF! - Jeff P. Henderson

Mona Nomura

The West Wing is the best tv series aired ever. I dare you to name another show that 1UPs it. #doubledogdare

December 22 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Jack DeWitt Smith, ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,, Hari and 31 other people liked this

Never seen it... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

123 more comments

Totally agree. If I could only watch one show for the rest of my life, would be The West Wing. - Caleb Elston

CSI and McGyver - Shey, Jamaican of FF from iPhone

Gilligan's Island. - Joe

I'm not sure that I'd for sure name it best (it's kind of unfair to compare all different sorts of TV shows together in one category), but it's certainly the one I return to over and over and over again. (Too bad not all of the seasons were of equal quality, though.) - Spidra Webster

M*A*S*H - Jeremy (on vacation)

Homicide: Life on the Street (edited: stupid keyboard) - ha3rvey (Ho)^3

you mean "Homicide"? - Joe Silence

Mission Impossible - Cristo

Part of the impact of West Wing was the marked contrast between Josiah Bartlett's administration and the real-life version under Bush and Cheney. - Mark "DerBingle" J

Wild Wild West - Cristo

Star Trek - Cristo

(Hint: There weren't any cowboys in the Josiah Bartlett version.) - Mark "DerBingle" J

Seinfeld - Cristo

All In The Family - Cristo

That may account for some of its popularity, Mark, but I think West Wing was popular for what marks a lot of Sorkin shows: excellent dialogue, fantastic mix of comedy and drama, supernal ensemble casting...and the extra for West Wing was being able to geek out over all that governmental stuff. The dialogue was so thick with it that repeat viewings reward you. Takes several times seeing an ep before you really feel you've gotten everything out of it. - Spidra Webster

Without looking at other answers: Homicide, particularly the first year. - AJ Kohn

Chappelle Show - Cristo

NYPD Blue - Louis Gray

The Simpsons - Louis Gray

Hill Street Blues - Cristo

Red Dwarf - Cristo

Chapelle Show - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

House, MD - imabonehead

Firefly. - AJ Kohn

Hannah Montana.... naw, just kidding. :) - Cristo

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman #checkmate - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

The Wire, The Sopranos, Arrested Development - T. Brent, technopeasant

Any PBS shows :P - imabonehead

NOVA - ha3rvey (Ho)^3

You guys are ridiculous!! LOL - Mona Nomura from iPhone

Yup. I had to place the Mission Impossible theme because of this thread. - Cristo

Dr. Quinn, medicince woman. Chapelle Show. LOL Just EL OH EL!!!! - Mona Nomura from iPhone

A show with Rob Lowe in it is the best of all time. LOL. :D - Cristo

West Wing rocks.. seeing the cast in any other show still disturbs me. they are supposed to be in WW working :) - Yunus Tunak

sports night. - Sean Oliver

SportsCenter. - Louis Gray

60 Minutes. - Louis Gray

Spidra - Agreed. Trust me on this, I wasn't trying to diminish the "West Wing" side of the equation! - Mark "DerBingle" J

Nightly News With Tom Brokaw. - Louis Gray

Pee Wee's Funhouse! - Mark "DerBingle" J

First season of Miami Vice... unfadeable baby! - Adrian

The West Wing was so awesome I remember bit characters. Like the guy in records or something who had the best line ever. "Well you're a strange little frumpy man, aren't you?" Of all the series I've loved, this one lasts the longest. - Heather

The Streets of San Francisco - Steve

CHiPs - T. Brent, technopeasant

Magnum P.I. - Steve

Jay Leno Show. - imabonehead

Laugh-In - T. Brent, technopeasant

In Living Colour. - imabonehead

DOCTOR WHO. - Steven Perez

Robot Chicken for sure! - Jeff P. Henderson

People are so serious about their TV! People are yelling at me on Twitter, too! Geez. LOL - Mona Nomura from iPhone

None of the above. But. Mad Men is climbing the charts fast. Still. WW is in the stratosphere, and nothing will touch it. - Christopher Galtenberg from iPhone

I've been watching it again on DVD. In fact, watching it right now... Jean-Paul just spiked her drink, Tae Diggs is talking to a bunch of folks about to get it... uh oh... aaaaand.... poor Molly... - Ken Sheppardson

Yes. Mad Men. - T. Brent, technopeasant

The Shield - Jan Ole Peek

Johnny Quest - Mistletoe Glen

Doctor Who... - Christian (Simply X)

The Unit. - imabonehead

I liked The Unit as well. :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

Plus most of the rest that ya'll listed. Good picks! :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

better than TWW: Arrested Development, Futurama, Veronica Mars, The Simpsons (uh, stopping somewhere between end of season 9 and season 12 at the latest), 30 Rock, Community, and Newsradio. Action, Pushing Daisies, and Life, too if we can sneak in those shows that were "cancelled before their time". Buffy up to S5 but not past it. Esp considering the relative doldrums of TWW s3 - s6. - Andrew C

That's easy, 24 and X-Files are far better. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Guess I'm just one of those peeps who think the west wing was boring. Couldn't get through an episode. Was more interested in ER at the time. - Jon, the Chilled Beartato from Android

Rome series 1, BSG reimagined, Sportsnight, Buffy, Farscape, Magnum PI, Red Dwarf, Thundar the Barbarian, Underdog, M.A.S.H., Password, What's My Line?, I Love Lucy, The Carol Burnett Show all rank pretty high with me. I'm sure I missed some. Loved West Wing in doses, but it became taxing for me to watch. - Michael W. May

Cheers. *dead* - Morgan Haley

West Wing is a tough show to compare shows to. As far as must watch TV: Damages, Flash Forward, Rescue Me, Dark Blue, Fringe, Lie To Me... This would be easier if I was near my DVR! - amarquart

The West Wing might be my FAVORITE series but I think the BEST series was The Wire. - Akiva Moskovitz

Good show, but best ever? Don't think so. The Wire and Rome, for instance, are way better. Heroes Season 1 (only), Kings, The Black Donnellys, Babylon 5, New BSG before season 4 are some more. Andrew C names a bunch more that I agree with. - Chieze Okoye

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (sorry, @Ha3rvey.) - edythe from iPhone

Austin City Limits - J. Abdul-Qahhar

Kung Fu, All in the Family, M.A.S.H - Christopher A Carr

The Unit - Alex Scoble

Burn Notice - Alex Scoble

Small Wonder. - Joe Pierce

Leverage - VAL D. Zone

24 you cannot beat Jack Bauer - VAL D. Zone

Nobody's mentioned The Greatest American Hero? *sings* Believe it or not, I'm walking on air. I never thought I could feel so freeeee-eeeeee-eeeee! - Jason Huebel

Arrested Development - Alex Scrivener

Soup Sales - VAL D. Zone

wkrp in cincinnati, :p - chaz2b

I've never seen West Wing. - Laura B.

WW was great for a few seasons, then I just got tired of it. - dthree

The WIRE and at a canter too - JSLeFanu

Father Ted - Mistletoe Glen

Feckers! - Christopher A Carr

Alex, yes, Burn Notice, I should have mentioned that one, too. - Chieze Okoye

Mona: Never seen it. Alex: BN rocks socks. - Nicholas Kreidberg

Homicide - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

The West Wing is one of the few TV Series that I love. - Roberto Bonini

FFundercats. - Jim Norris

The Wire. - Mona Nomura from iPhone

Star trek longer lasting and bigger impact/influence on society overall. ^_^ - Dan Morrill AKA Techwag

Mr. Wizard's World. - Joe Pierce

Reading Rainbow...thats the big guns now boy! - John D Reasor

Sports Night. H:LOTS Arrested Development. - Gunny doesn't side-hug™

A-Team, MacGyver, and AirWolf. - imabonehead from Android

A-TEAM. LOL. - Mona Nomura

AirWolf, LOL - Amit Morson

All in the Family. Brady Bunch. Dallas. and newbie: Glee - Eric Matas

Airwolf *smile* I did almost say Riptide myself ;) - Michael W. May

OMGing at Joe's Small Wonder. - Alix Whitmire

I've never seen West Wing, but that's how I feel about Six Feet Under. - Alix Whitmire

ditto what Alix wrote. and I'll add The Wire. - jbrotherlove

"The West Wing might be my FAVORITE series but I think the BEST series was The Wire." - Akiva - Mona Nomura

West Wing is a great series. Period. BUT NYPD Blue was better. - Louis Gray

The Prisoner (the original 60s series, not the remake). - Parody

I saw a clip. It showed a person being cowed into standing for the president. That was enough for me. - SuezanneC Baskerville

What does cowed into standing for the president mean? - Mona Nomura

intimidated - one is "supposed" to stand up when the president enters a room, at least according to the show. it's a statist ritual, like singing songs of praise to governments. i find it offensive. - SuezanneC Baskerville

Respect != intimidation. Besides, what's wrong with showing respect to ranked officers? POTUS is the Chief of Staff. - Mona Nomura

Secret of the Dead on PBS. - imabonehead from Android

By West Wing, you actually mean Wings, am-i-rite? Tony Shalhoub!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... ;) - Micah Wittman

++Micah - Joe Pierce

Ugh. Not a fan of Monk or Tony Shalhoub. - Mona Nomura

Not even in Galaxy Quest? - Joe Pierce

Don't even know what that is... - Mona Nomura

Joe, you've got your work cut out for you on this one :D - Micah Wittman

BSG. No greater show has ever existed. - Shawn Whitmire

The idea and potential of BSG may be great - but certainly not the show that actually materialized. - Christopher Galtenberg from iPhone

Silver Spoons. - imabonehead from Android

I'll also second whoever wrote Rome above - fantastic series - Christopher Galtenberg from iPhone

"Ugh. Not a fan of Monk or Tony Shalhoub." D^8 MONA!! Say it ain't so!! - Chieze Okoye

Now I know how to get some suggestions for TV shows. Good job on that one Mona! X ) - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,

Deadwood is absolutely better - Spaceweaver

Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

Snack

December 23 from email - Comment - Like - Share

Michelle Martinez, chaz2b, fatima and 7 other people liked this

GOTDAMN. - Derrick

9 more comments

Uh oh. Tacos. - Christopher A Carr

I ate 12 total - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) from iPhone

Sad thing is I could eat 4 more - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) from iPhone

You are taco glutton! - Christopher A Carr

One thing I will enjoy in San Diego when I go home for the holidays is some carne asada french fries. Oh, home. - Derrick

Asada French Fries? - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) from iPhone

Christopher - there are 4 things I can eat almost inhuman amounts of at a time. Spaghetti, Shabu Shabu, Tacos, & Pizza. - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) from iPhone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Derrick

mouth is officially watering. - Chieze Okoye

Derrick - that looks amazing - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) from iPhone

Mistletoe Glen

Does 'Avatar' Contain Hidden Messages? - http://movies.yahoo.com/feature...

December 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Chieze Okoye, veo, Penguin It's Cold Outside and 2 other people liked this

"Since it opened last week, James Cameron's much-anticipated film "Avatar" has won praise from movie critics and been a juggernaut at the box office. But some who have seen the film say that it contains hidden messages that are anti-war, pro-environment, and perhaps even racist." - Mistletoe Glen from Bookmarklet

7 more comments

Avatar is anti-war and pro-environment? Seriously? Wow, how did they manage to hide that in there? - Mistletoe Glen

I don't know. I kept my tin foil hat on all during the movie - Uncle CW™

the hidden messages are "buy popcorn" "supersize your drink" - Mike Nencetti

the message: blue chicks with corn rows and bulgy eyes are hot. - Morgan Haley

People who are looking for hidden messages in this film are looking to find hidden messages EVERYWHERE. This story has been done 1000 times before in different films and venues. The material here is nothing new. It's still a kick ass movie but if people are objecting to it, they should also object to the last 50 years of cinema in it's entirety. - veo

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" Freud - WarLord

Morgan, you forgot the part about being 12-feet tall. 8^P - Chieze Okoye

This part is exactly how I feel about all this hubbub: "But are these hidden messages really all that hidden? James Cameron himself hasn't been shy in publicly proclaiming the fact that he's an environmental activist who believes that humans and "industrial society" are "causing a global climate change" and "destroying species faster than we can classify them." In a recent interview... more... - Chieze Okoye

Chieze Okoye

SYNC FTW: Ford adding mobile internet compatibility to USB ports — Autoblog - http://www.autoblog.com/2009...

December 21 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas Kreidberg and aldenoneil liked this

"The SYNC system offered by Ford in most of its models just got a lot more interesting. In addition to giving vehicle owners super simple connectivity with virtually any phone or music player and the best voice recognition in the biz, the next generation of SYNC will add mobile internet compatibility to its USB ports. What does this mean? It means that if you've got one of those fancy 3G modems for your laptop, you can plug it into the USB port of your SYNC-equipped Ford and voilà! Your entire vehicle is a WiFi hotspot." - Chieze Okoye from Bookmarklet

"SYNC was already a big reason for infotainment-obsessed car shoppers to consider a Ford, but at least when it comes to browsing the internet in your car, SYNC 2.0 with in-car WiFi just leap frogged the entire auto industry." No kidding. I was already excited about SYNC, but this is just too much. Holy crap, this is how you shake stuff up. 8^D - Chieze Okoye

I would still never buy a Ford but hey this is definitely a cool feature. - Nicholas Kreidberg

Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, friendfeed Gamers, electronical games

Top 20 Games of the Decade | A MCV Feature | MCV - http://www.mcvuk.com/feature...

December 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Jeff (the マクダジ of FF), arundadsad, Chieze Okoye and Nispell liked this

"How do you define what makes a game ‘the best ever’? Is it determined by how much it was adored by critics, or by how many units it shifted at retail? The answer to that question will very much dictate which of the following lists means the most to you." - Kol Tregaskes from Bookmarklet

3 more comments

I really don't know how World of Warcraft can't unarguably be #1 on any list like this. It is to gaming what the iPhone was to smart phones. Completely revolutionary and continues to be. - Nicholas Kreidberg

Nicholas, that's a good point. Nevermind that it might as well be an ATM with unlimited stores of cash for ActiBlizzard. - Chieze Okoye

I dunno, if you don't play WoW, it's not a big deal. I don't see how it's affected the development of other games. - Richard Lawler

Oh I just clicked, this is complete trash anyway, like most list posts, but this is even worse than average. - Richard Lawler

Chieze Okoye

Dell Mini 9 suffers meltdown, scorches owner's floor -- Engadget - http://www.engadget.com/2009...

December 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

"While this isn't quite bad enough to merit a "dude, your Dell is on fire" part deux, it's a pretty frightful example of the hazard modern batteries (of any kind) represent. A Consumerist reader reports that her year-old Dell Mini 9 recently popped, "hissed and sizzled" as it filled her room with smoke and tarnished her fine wooden flooring." - Chieze Okoye from Bookmarklet

Chieze Okoye

Bees Always Have a Safe Landing : Discovery News - http://news.discovery.com/animals...

December 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

"Whether landing on a picnic table, underneath a flower petal, or on a wall of a hive, bees always manage to touch down without crashing or tumbling. Now, for the first time, scientists have figured out how these insects maneuver themselves onto all sorts of surfaces, from right side up to upside-down." - Chieze Okoye from Bookmarklet

Keiko Yamada

Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...

December 7 - Comment - Like - Share

ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,, HealingBrush, Jeremy (on vacation) and 57 other people liked this

bellissimo - Isola Virtuale

40 more comments

meraviglioso... - Roberto Chibbaro

loved this movie. One of my favorites from Ghibli. - Chieze Okoye

Like it's not sufficient :) - bak

@Isola Virtuale＞Siiiii! - Keiko Yamada

@Roberto Chibbaro ＞Siiiiii!:D - Keiko Yamada

@Chieze Okoye ＞I know! - Keiko Yamada

@bak＞What do you mean?? - Keiko Yamada

bellissimo!! - Flavio Benassi

@Flavio Benassi ＞Ciao! - Keiko Yamada

Ciao Keiko ! - Flavio Benassi

wonderful movie!!! One of my favourites even if I prefer Princess Mononoke ;) - Dyoniso

Ciao, Dyoniso! Do you like Ghibli's film? - Keiko Yamada

Studio Ghibli is simply one's of the best studios, if not the best aroun... - Roberto Chibbaro

Hello Keiko.. Of course I like them... They are amazing! :) - Dyoniso

Yeah! I think so,too! - Keiko Yamada

I love it!! - storvandre

Hello,storvandre! You, too? - Keiko Yamada

strange thing... Here in Italy this movie was released with the title "La città incantata - The enchanted city" - Dyoniso

Ah,si? Non lo sapevo. Grazieeee!! - Keiko Yamada

Prego :) - Dyoniso

:D - Keiko Yamada

Kiko, I mean that the "like" button cannot be sufficient to say how much I like this anime :) - bak

Veramente dolcissimo questo anime. - progitto

@bak＞I see...! - Keiko Yamada

@progitto＞Ah,si?? - Keiko Yamada

Non lo sapevo così popolare! - Keiko Yamada

:D - Keiko Yamada

Keiko, devi sapere che in Italia ci sono tantissimi estimatori del Giappone e di Miyazaki. Prova a pubblicare qualcosa su Conan http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki... e vedrai. - Isola Virtuale

like @Isola Virtuale: Miyazaki ha cresciuto almeno la mia generazione. - Sabrina Briganti

io preferisco "Il mio vicino Totoro", ma anche questo non è male :) - ӊooқ

Si, Totoro è bellissimaaaa! - Keiko Yamada

Tonari no Totoro (mo' mi faccio bello delle due cose che conosco in giapponese) - Isola Virtuale

avete mai visto "on your mark"? - Dyoniso

Bello pure Il castello errante di Howl. - Flavio Benassi

Eccolo http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Dyoniso

Pochi sanno che la predilezione di Miyazaki per tutto quello che vola deriva dal fatto che il padre aveva una piccola azienda che produceva i pezzi dello Zero durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Non è un caso che la protagonista di Spirited Away venga soprannominata a un certo punto Sen, ovvero Zero in giapponese. - Isola Virtuale

@Dyoniso wow! non lo conoscevo. molto bello! - progitto

@Dyoniso＞Anch'io non lo conoscevo! Che bello eh.....!! Grazie! ^-^ - Keiko Yamada

Prego.. Credo che sia un video musicale.. Giusto Keiko? - Dyoniso from fftogo

Siiiiii! - Keiko Yamada

koremo Miyazaki Anime desu. - Keiko Yamada

Michael Fidler

These are all done in Pencil.

March 18 - Comment - Like - Share

ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,, HealingBrush, veo and 257 other people liked this

Impressive - M F

63 more comments

Great work! - Nia

I reshare this to Ideas & Inspiration room :) These are so realistic! - Kristian Salonen

I'm sorry but this is unbelievable:) I'll give credit to the artist upon more convincing proof! The photogenic look of the tiger and lion really helps the artist's case though:) - Roney Smith

I'm with Roney... I find this hard to believe... or maybe I'm just jealous that I can't even get stick people right! - Jasmin Smith

I don't believe it. Too amazing. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I'm with Rah - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Only the lion looks like its drawn - embee

The bear and rhino look drawn, too. - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

very very talented. Wow they look like B&W pics you know photography. - Gabriella Sannino

These are amazing, were they done by you? - Angelo Rodrigues

Nice photographs - Rafael Robayna

@michael, if they weren't drawn by you, at least tell us who the artist is and the link - LouCypher

Link please? - Jason Wehmhoener

wow - Carolyn Chan

being slightly skeptical, i'm going to say these were done with pencil by a printer of some sorts... #justsayin - Enrique Gutierrez

they're beautiful, but skeptical as well - Jennifer Van Grove

Would need to see higher quality images to see if they are pencil or not - too many jpg artifacts to tell. - Luke Addison from twhirl

Stupefied. - Parth Awasthi

want proof - Jérôme Flipo

Wow!! Yeah it's pretty amazing what they can draw with a pencil nowadays, deviantART has lots of great pencil art. - Kol Tregaskes

Michael, who is the artist? - Kol Tregaskes

wow, cool! - Sarah Perez

you cannot win on the interwebs. draw some crap it doesn't get noticed. draw something amazing in pencil and people say it's not real. - Joe Breen

I'm really happy everyone liked these. They're my most liked entry to date, Thanks! There also seems to be some question about whether these are actually Pencil Drawings.I can assure you that they are.When I get home, I should have the links. I have more drawings, too. - Michael Fidler from fftogo

O_O WOW...Stunning - Anna Haro

Wow, these are stunning!! - Susan Beebe

Yes, especially the tiger. Reminds me of that "Tiger, tiger burning bright." - Melanie Reed

Alright, Mike - I believe you. These are awesome. Good job! - Enrique Gutierrez

HOLY CRAP. - Chieze Okoye

no way! - Mister Groonk

Thanks Enrique, I'll post some more soon. They are a little more obvious than these ones. As Luke points out; without being able to look closely it's impossible to tell. He's right; but up close it's more obvious. I'll upload the originals to Picasa later, and then you'll be able to zoom in with any photo viewer and see for yourselves. I can't believe how many people liked these. A few people have reposted them already. Thanks! - Michael Fidler

Absolutely awesome, Michael. You are extremely talented. Everyone should repost these pix and help to make you famous. You should be doing this full time - you obviously have some passion for this. Bravo. - Chris Loft

These are really beautiful, Michael. Do you sell them? - Shannon Jiménez

Chris, I would love to say they're mine, but it's not true. I've had them for a while, but I'll find the artists names. It will just require a little backtracking. Besides, they deserve the credit; all I did was find them:-) - Michael Fidler

Cut the bullshit! :) Photos are very good. - Burçak Çubukçu

I draw alot in pencil, but they are amazing, the best for me is the girl, that is the most photo-like one. :o) - Rob Sellen :o)

I agree Rob, the girl is amazing. My favorite by far! Wait until you see it close up! It's really had to tell, even up close! - Michael Fidler

Burçak Çubukçu If these were photographs, they would be very good. As Pencil Drawings,(which they are), they're amazing. - Michael Fidler

Wow, amazingly realistic - Threepwood

@Michael Fidler did you draw them? How can you so sure? - Burçak Çubukçu

That is my pencil drawing :) http://picasaweb.google.com/Burcak... - Burçak Çubukçu

dont look like it - Prakash

@ Michael Fidler don't push so hard :) - Burçak Çubukçu

@Burçak Çubukçu I can't tell if your serious now or just kidding around. I hope your just having fun! If you are serious, I've never given you a reason to question my integrity, nor do I ever intend to. However, the second set is up now, so judge them for yourself, but don't judge me! http://ff.im/1BJh5 BTW, I messed up and reposted the shot of the women again. Oh well. Hope you like them:-) - Michael Fidler

@Michael: try deviantART, not Picasa, to submit your artworks - LouCypher

WOW "I can't believe it's in pencil" - sofarsoShawn

LouCypher, I know it well, but I don't see why I would want to do that. I hope everyone knows by now that they're not mine? I'm sorry, but I can't say it any clearer than that. - Michael Fidler

nah, i don't believe it is done in pencil. i am sure it is photoshopped :) - hasin hayder

These would be great even for photos. - tomit

i'm not able to comprehend - Varun Shenoy

More comments here: http://www.bannination.com/comment... - donato

I'm finding this both interesting and humorous at the same time. There's a separate message board where this post is being discussed and it has another forty comments on it already. I think its great how this has created some lively discussion, considering that when I posted this I was doubtful if anyone would even like it. When I went to sleep last night there was only had 3 or 4 likes... more... - Michael Fidler

Very interesting. I would like to see them up close and in person...just to make sure. Bill said it's real and possible. Your 2nd set of picts look like pencil. Nice work in finding these! - LaFern Cusack

Kol, I can't thank you enough! Kol found another post which helps to prove that these are done in pencil. I had my doubts about a few of them because I collected them from several different sites over time, but the site Kol found has done a great job pulling together an impressive collection of these drawings and more. Take a look - http://www.flickzzz.com/2009... - Michael Fidler

Actually there are more than what this site shows. There's an entire set with the cats(little cats), which I have, and there's a new portrait set. - Michael Fidler

Found your post here, Michael. :-) I tried my best to find the artists. - Kol Tregaskes

Amazing and very very very good.... Very impressive ... - Linda Zeek-Bobinski

fake. http://lenscratch.blogspot.com/2009... Even if your not claiming to be the artist, these are photographs, well except the woman, thats pencil - james foor

Yeah we know, thanks though, James. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Excellent pictures - how long did it take you to scan the photographs into Photoshop and then edit them? The only pencil that has come into contact with these "drawings" is the Photoshop pencil. A tip - stop trying to fool people into thinking you are a "real" artist, because all you are doing is cheapening proper artist's works whom have spent hours creating real pictures as opposed to a few minutes on a graphics editing package. - The Wimp

A bell does ring here. And I am remembering why I was so attracted to the tiger...and the lion for that matter. These are exact replicas of prints I had in our bedroom when I lived in Dallas. I had bought the prints (in color) at a department store, - Melanie Reed

Actually, I have learned quite a bit about these drawing since I made this post. Not only have I discovered all of the artists, but I've learned more about how they are created. They are always copied from a photograph or painting, but usually a photograph. It is extremely time consuming and detail orientated work. There are many other artists besides the ones featured here who practice... more... - Michael Fidler

Most of them have portfolio's on deviantart.com and their work is truly amazing even if they are copies of other artists work. I suppose with this level of detail, they have to start with something. Nevertheless, I'm still in awe of their talent. Melanie, the animal prints you refer to are from a very well renowned photographer. The originals are B&W I'll look it up later but I do have... more... - Michael Fidler

wow; they're unbelieavably beautiful. - liladreams

Keiko Yamada

If you come to Tokyo, where you want to go?....... Roppongi? Ginza? Akihabara(=Akiba)? Odaiba???

December 22 - Comment - Like - Share

موسوی phouzhanمیر, Tyson Key, Morgan Haley and Mahmood Padura liked this

Everywhere. =) - ronin

48 more comments

I love it everywhere - Roberta Greenfield

omedetoo yamada-san - Roberta Greenfield

I would love to come to Japan, I really adore japanese food - Maurizio Goetz

@ronin＞oh...really? I'm glad! - Keiko Yamada

@ Roberta Greenfield ＞wow! really? :D - Keiko Yamada

yes :) just a little bit - Roberta Greenfield

@Maurizio Goetz ＞Grazie! - Keiko Yamada

@ Roberta Greenfield ＞:))))) - Keiko Yamada

Tsukishima and Kagurazaka :) - tracina

Hello,tracina! wow....Tukishima & Kagurazaka?.....Why? Do you know "monjayaki" ?? - Keiko Yamada

I ate monjayaki in Tukishima :D I lived in Tokyo three months last year,and I really loved the little red bridge in Tukishima and the old narrow streets of kagurazaka!actually, i loved every spot of the city I saw. - tracina

Ah,see...! Three month? How did you like in Japan? - Keiko Yamada

First stop: Shomben Yokocho - Christopher A Carr

Almost everything was great!so different from italy! - tracina

@ Christopher A Carr ＞:))))) Shinjuku desune! - Keiko Yamada

@tracina ＞No, anche noi! molto interessante in Italia. Mi piace molto! Il mio cuore semple Italia!.....cosi!!! - Keiko Yamada

In Tokyo, I usually go to Shinjuku, Shibuya, Odaiba and Akihabara. Sometimes I go to Kyoto as well (one of my host families is there, the other is in Chiba-ken no Kashiwa-shi, where I also sometimes go) - Chieze Okoye

I see...also Chiba-ken?....:))) Great! - Keiko Yamada

they say that a perfect country would be Japan+Italy...like Japaly or Itapan LOL :D - tracina

Ha ha ha ha! Omoshiroooooi! Che buona idea! The new word! vero? - Keiko Yamada

hehehehe shinjirarenai :D - tracina

:D - Keiko Yamada

Keiko: So desu. I also wouldn't wait very long to go to that gyoza theme/amusement park complex in Ikebukuro. - Christopher A Carr

So...Gyoza mo oishii ne! beer to saiko~~! :) - Keiko Yamada

boku no yaki gyoza :-P http://ff.im/aEUVV - Dund Kalah

??? un'po di strano.... :) - Keiko Yamada

I know, I don't speak japanese well, and I don't cook japanese well, either :-D - Dund Kalah from iPhone

Shibuya - Morgan Haley

@Dund Kalah＞Really? But your Japanese well! - Keiko Yamada

@Morgan Haley ＞Hello! Do you know Shibuya?? - Keiko Yamada

The quality of one's Nihongo is inversely proportionate to the number of compliments one receives from native speakers of Japanese. ;-) - Christopher A Carr

:) - Keiko Yamada

When non-Japanese people speak Nihongo REALLY well, it's just henna. ;-) - Christopher A Carr

:) for example? - Keiko Yamada

Shinjuku - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

dang. now i want some shabu shabu - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

Hello Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) ! Have you ever been to Tokio? What's マクダジ？？ - Keiko Yamada

Keiko: When a gaijin speaks educated Nihongo, and is extremely savvy in Japanese culture, it seems as if it sort of gives many Japanese people the creeps. It's probably worse when these gaijin have a kind of fetish for Japanese culture - know more about sumo and shinto and Japanese politics than most Tokyoites... If I speak broken Nihongo at an Izakaya in Tokyo, I'll be told several... more... - Christopher A Carr

I want to come to your house and have you cook me dinner. What's your address and phone number? - Cristo

"What's マクダジ？" I was meaning to ask the same thing. :-) - Christopher A Carr

Say it out-loud... slowly.... - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

Oh. I think I'll let you explain that to Keiko. :-) - Christopher A Carr

i came up with it here http://friendfeed.com/monasfe... - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

Keiko. I've been to Japan lots. I love it - Jeff (the マクダジ of FF)

Jeff, think it should be マクダ-- ジ - Christopher A Carr

Well, perhaps not. Hard to katakanacize that. - Christopher A Carr

@ Christopher A Carr ＞I'm sorry.....I don't understand well. - Keiko Yamada

@Cristo ＞Are you serious?? - Keiko Yamada

@ Jeff (the マクダジ of FF) ＞Thanks! - Keiko Yamada

Graham Sergeant

Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem: http://www.wired.com/magazin...

December 22 - Comment - Like - Share

Chatsohbet, Kol Tregaskes, zeroinfluencer and 4 other people liked this

"Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had. But because the technology kept getting better, Broussard was on a treadmill. He’d see a new game with a flashy graphics technique and demand the effect be incorporated into Duke Nukem Forever. " - Graham Sergeant

2 more comments

That's really interesting that they were honestly in the last mile (FINALLY) when the money dried up. Too bad. It sucks that the rampant lack of discipline killed what could have been as generation-defining a sequel as the first DN. - Chieze Okoye

They were in a "honestly in that last mile" state of mind for a long time... that's how they kept enticing publishers to swoop into the fray. Gameplay complexity is exponential because of decision trees and often with game production the last 10% is actually the last 90. Closing out a game is always the work of a ruthless axeman hacking at branches not a loving gardener caring for growth. - Graham Sergeant

That point is well taken, but I was referring to the real mindset change that Broussard had when he realized that he had to get it out the door, and the new hires that they brought in that were (again FINALLY) like "no, we can't add that feature. No new features. Stop asking for new features. Oh look, you have a pretty close to finished game, 1 year of hard work and it'll be done. No, seriously, stop asking for new features." - Chieze Okoye

Johnny Worthington

[Expletives] Karate (not Kung Fu) on the fucking Great Wall Of China? If Will Smith raps on the soundtrack I'm fucking going nuclear...

December 22 from email - Comment - Like - Share

Tristan Hambling, Durukan Duru, meric| zalambOdOnt |kara and 4 other people liked this

If I were making the movie Mr. Han would hurl Dre over the side of the wall and then go on an adventure of his own. - Joe Pierce

15 more comments

If I was making a movie, I would do Mayagi vs Sato (early years) - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

I thought that I read somewhere that they were changing the martial arts theme of this movie to Kung Fu (and even naming it Kung Fu Kid)? If this picture is all that you're going by, it's not definitive that this is Karate (horse stance exists in Kung Fu, as well). - Chieze Okoye

I believe the trailer calls it The Karate Kid. - Joe Pierce

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - Chieze Okoye

btw, Johnny I like how you [expletived] out the first part of your post, then wrote "fucking." 8^P - Chieze Okoye

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/ - Jemm

i love how people think the original was a work of art ;) it was fun.. but so will this. just remember, styles have changed. unfortunately the kids films of the 80s were much better than the ones of today... - Terry O'Fee

It was. It's a cultural thing. You can't paint the Mona Lisa again.. It's not the best piece of cinema ever made, but it's ours - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

They really need to do something about the "karate" part. Perhaps we can invite the Chinese Minister of Culture (assuming there is such a position) to view the opening of this film at the Yasukuni Shrine (dedicated to soldiers who died in service of the Emperor of Japan) in Tokyo. - Christopher A Carr

well keep that in your thoughts and ignore this one. the original isn't going away. i feel the same with these terrible terminator films and tv shows that keep coming out as well. T2 is a part of my childhood. i hear bad thoughts that both robocop and total recall are being remade as well... - Terry O'Fee

RoboCop has a chance to be good, but I understand your sentiment. It's Darren Aranofsky. - Christopher A Carr

hardly.. we saw how well 3 went. and the two tv series. even the frank miller comic was only "meh" - Terry O'Fee

I'm not sure that any of that constitutes evidence. - Christopher A Carr

aaronofski still hasnt committed.. i bet you he becomes an "advisor" like that boat film which name escapes me... - Terry O'Fee

below - Terry O'Fee

Ah, well, who knows then. - Christopher A Carr

Keiko Yamada

SUKIYAKI すき焼き : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...

December 22 - Comment - Like - Share

HealingBrush, Freon, Nima نیما and 17 other people liked this

I want! - Adrian Scicluna

10 more comments

Great stuff. By the way, what sort of dishes is meat cut for kiriotoshi used in? - ronin

@ Adrian ＞Hi, Adrian! - Keiko Yamada

@ronin ＞We are using sliced beef. - Keiko Yamada

beautifull.... - roberto dadda

@Keiko No I'm asking what is kiriotoshi? Whenever I'm at Mitsuwa I see meat packaged "for shabu shabu", "for sukiyaki", "for yakiniku." Then there's "kiriotoshi." What is kiriotoshi meat used in? - ronin

ronin: I think it's used for gyudon. - Christopher A Carr

@roberto dadda ＞Hello, roberto! - Keiko Yamada

@ronin＞Japanese people likes sliced meet, not only beef. For "shabu-shabu", " gyudon". so, "kiriotoshi" means ..... to slice like a italian prosciutto! - Keiko Yamada

@Christopher A Carr ＞Yes, that's right! :) - Keiko Yamada

haha, you gotta stop with the food posts. I keep getting so hungry. (Just kidding, keep them coming!) - Chieze Okoye

Thanks!! :) Have you request something? - Keiko Yamada

Mo Kargas

Comics - Explosm.net - http://www.explosm.net/comics...

December 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

NaHi, Micah Wittman, Andrew C and 11 other people liked this

ROTFL! - Uncle CW™

That's great. - Chieze Okoye

LMAO! - अभिषेक(Abhishek) Das from fftogo

Mo Kargas

Comics - Explosm.net - http://www.explosm.net/comics...

December 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Alix Whitmire, Shey, Jamaican of FF, Chieze Okoye and Amber, Random Time Lord liked this

LOL - Chieze Okoye

Joshua Schnell to Joshua's feed, The Apple Room, Appetite, All Things Apple, Apple Fans, macgasmteam, Macstuff, RWW: The Future of Tech

It’s time to abolish free apps on the AppStore - http://www.macgasm.net/2009...

December 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Milton Ramirez, MB Linder, Nispell and 5 other people liked this

leave the free apps alone if you don't like them don't install them - Daryl Hunt on FF from BuddyFeed

46 more comments

no - Will Higgins™

no - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Daryl, when a dev firm can't make more than 21 dollars a day, for each day they worked on the project there's something clearly wrong with the culture on the AppStore. - Joshua Schnell

Also, the argument isn't about liking the free apps. It's about developers not being able to develop for a platform because it doesn't nearly pay out enough to employ themselves. If we keep expecting free apps from developers, the developers are eventually going to leave the iPhone behind because they can't afford to sustain themselves financially. - Joshua Schnell

Shey, Will, care to elaborate? - Joshua Schnell

They're not going to elaborate because they are merely reading the title and not reading the story. Daryl didn't read the story either it appears. - Tamar Weinberg

Here are some snippets for the lazy (cough Daryl/Will/Shey cough): "When a development firm such as blacksmith games puts together an entire month worth of free downloads for the iPhone community, and the community can’t turn around and support the developer by purchasing a $1.99 application in the appstore, something’s clearly rotten in the state of the AppStore." - Tamar Weinberg

Actually, I did read the article. But I'll forgive your snarky comment. :). Reading the article doesn't automatically mean I'm going to agree. Cuz I don't. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

"A dollar ninety-nine for a mobile game is a steal no matter how awesome or crappy a game is, and the fact that a development firm tosses out a tweet that says, “if 5% of the daily appvent visitors would buy plushed i would be happy” reveals a pretty grotesque commentary on iPhone users and their purchasing tendencies." - Tamar Weinberg

Then why just a "no"? Maybe you can add a little more? Surely it's not that difficult... - Tamar Weinberg

In the middle of typing a response... if you guys could just give me a minute... - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Might've been a good idea to say that before the "no." I know it's FF culture not to read articles but only to comment on titles - so apologies if I was misjudging you there, but based on Daryl's comment, it's evident that at least one person didn't read it. - Tamar Weinberg

No. - Akiva Moskovitz

(Just kidding.) - Akiva Moskovitz

LOL@Akiva - Shey, Jamaican of FF

I will let you do that, Akiva. ;) - Tamar Weinberg

First of all -- products and services should be aimed at filling market needs. If you focus on that, you'll succeed. Secondly, if people want to download crappy free apps that are easy to find and that makes them happy, guess what? NEED SOLVED. If there is a market for people who want an app that does more and are willing to pay for it and you can fill that need --- NEED SOLVED. If there isn't a market for it, then don't complain about it -- create a better product or fill another need. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Shey, fair points, but it's not an issue of a "better product" when the culture of free makes "better products" harder to sell. - Tamar Weinberg

Thirdly, it isn't the customer's fault that your development costs are too high. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

No, it's not. But this isn't that abnormal for this market. I bet development costs are high for every decent game in the app store. - Tamar Weinberg

The bottom line is that the culture shift has made it impossible for GOOD products to sell. Look at this article from TUAW: http://www.tuaw.com/2009... - Tamar Weinberg

@Tamar I totally get the damaging effects of "the culture of free". That culture will always be around, so you can a) fight it and reduce your share of the market or b) embrace it, and yes, competition will increase, but so will the overall iPhone share and your share of that share. Get it :) - Shey, Jamaican of FF

It's a shame to have really great products that can't sell. But in the end, if no one is willing to pay for it -- competition or not -- that's all that matters. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

I understand that. I also think Josh's argument is very valid. If App store apps had to cost money, it wouldn't always be around. Embracing it in a competitive market with over 100k games is damn hard. TUAW says it nicely, "Everyone is still working to unlock success in the App Store, but with over 100,000 products on the shelves, it has become increasingly more difficult for the good apps to stand apart." - Tamar Weinberg

People would be more willing to pay for it if there weren't so many free games in the app store. I personally am guilty of it. I won't buy games because there are free apps that can consume my time, even if the games rock. - Tamar Weinberg

@Tamar Then I think the problem is not with the free apps. The problem is with the iTunes' capability of showcasing good apps through social/recommendation engines. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

@Tamar I agree there -- but you won't get anywhere close to 100% conversion. And when others find out that apps are no longer free -- they'll just go to another platform, like Android, and all iPhone devs will lose. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

The App Store needs Amazon's ability to produce recommendations based on what you've downloaded (and from other people who have downloaded what you've downloaded). Right now, it's these big pools of apps that aren't really, in any way, differentiated from each other except by title and icon and very loose definitions. 'New and Noteworthy' and 'What's Hot' don't really tell me ANYTHING... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

Shey, maybe social recommendation engines work, but I'm not seeing the power in those that I'm engaged in. I'm also not looking at 100% conversion, but some conversion that translates to decent sales would be nice. And personally, I think it's close-minded and stupid for developers to only focus on the iPhone market. I personally am not going to buy an iPhone. I'll keep my iPod touch and get an Android phone. If only developers would flock to the Android platform. - Tamar Weinberg

Woah, I jump in the shower and come back to a boat load of comments... catching up... responses to follow. ;) - Joshua Schnell

Akiva, there are recommendations, but I personally used them 1% of the time. There's a "Customers Also Bought" section on the bottom of each app's page though, but it's not very popular. - Tamar Weinberg

I think this can all be summed up with "Free != Best Option". If we stop categorizing things as Free and Not Free we might actually get better recommendations, and find applications that can provide us with the greatest marginal utility. I'd love to see the analytics on the amount of users who just go straight to the free section of the store. - Joshua Schnell

Akiva, I completely agree with the recommendation engine needing serious work. I've commented on it a number of times on the site, primarily here: http://su.pr/1TfAHz and here: http://su.pr/1I0Exv Apple really needs to rework the system. They're long overdue, and need to start embracing social media technologies. - Joshua Schnell

On a tangent, Blacksmith Games sound like they were operating inefficiently, art, story, and level design can be done in parrallel, at least for a small portion of the time. They should also focus on building a game engine that can be used as a frame work, reducing overall time for initial production down a few months, and subsequent titles at maybe half the total time, the story and... more... - Jimminy Fuller

WinMo has had free apps since 2000, if not sooner. What makes iPhone so special that their devs -- many of whom switched over -- can't keep up? Palm has had free apps forever, too. No tears, no abolition. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

I just took a look at my phone. My ratio of paid to free apps is currently at 4:1. In my case, "the culture of free" isn't an issue. - cecily

Jimminy, those are excellent point, but what about the barrier of entry in to a market? If the barrier is so high that new comers can't compete, or even break even, won't developers give up on the system? It worries me that innovative applications might not make it to the device because a developer can't afford to develop for the iphone. Blacksmith Games was just an example, but they're surely not the exception to the rule. - Joshua Schnell

If it's good, best of breed, then it will sell. That's why Tweetie beats out a lot of the free Twitter apps. But, seriously, how many tower defense/match-3/cute-adventures/on-rails-shooters do we need? Or Twitter clients? If the money is not there then stop complaining and take the development effort elsewhere. Android will be *the* platform next year so start now, and you also get to... more... - Andy Bold

Akiva, there's a 'Genius' for apps now. It's a little hit-and-miss, like Amazon's recs', but it's getting better. - Andy Bold

And why the focus only on games? The fact that I don't have very many of them might have something to do with my ratio, but are utility/office/productivity developers also singing the same tune, or is it just this one company that had visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads who jumped into an *oversaturated* market? - cecily

Cecily, that's awesome. How funny would it be if Apple released that ratio. I'd probably be shamed publicly. ;) I think the problem is across the board. I know i'm guilty of looking for a free option first. Why pay 10.00 for omnifocus's app, when I can get something for free. - Joshua Schnell

Omnifocus is only $10 now? When I bought it it was $20. I don't want to see free apps go away totally, but what I would like to see is more free, ad-supported versions of apps that exist alongside the paid versions. Why can't we have time-sensitive demo apps on the iPhone the same way we do on our desktops? Is that even possible? If games developers are so worried about getting lost in... more... - cecily

Isn't Joshua's argument centered on the advertising that takes place at the point of sale. If a developer wants to advertise their app to me, find me and present a compelling reason for me to buy your app. Trying to gain my patronage in the handful of minutes I spend browsing the app store isn't a winning strategy for positioning your product. I spend my life out in the world, reading... more... - Christopher Harley

I'll add this sidebar to the discussion. My cab company desperately needs to understand what our mobile app should do, correctly, right from day one. We can't afford to deliver a product to our customers that isn't immediately bulletproof. Yet no developers are beating down our door to describe to us what we can expect from their talents and what we should pay to tap into that talent.... more... - Christopher Harley

LOL Christopher, in that case, I hope they aren't successful. They should be looking for prospective buyers who can pay up front, not at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. - Tamar Weinberg

This is a really interesting article and discussion. While yes, there are many things the developers can do to improve their chances (and hey, if the market wants something, you have to work with that fact, not against it), I don't think that Apple is entirely blameless in this whole dysfunctional arrangement. The single choke-point (with not very good recommendation or exposure... more... - Chieze Okoye

Don't forget about in-app purchases feature, which was recently introduced for free apps. Some of the apps (namely, Eliminate) made a fortune off in-app purchases, while remaining free. - Pavlo Zahozhenko

Chieze Okoye › Comments