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Matt Faulkner › Likes
It's time to topple the so-called "tech bloggers" -- we need fresh blood just like we needed it when TechCrunch came on the scene.
Chaitanya Purandare, Mike Elliott, James Michael Mike DuPont and 65 other people liked this
How do we create the environment to promote your idea?
- Damond Nollan
Somehow I think Dvorak will reject this idea. Just a hunch.
- Charlieray
Too much blah and too little analysis, sorry if that offends anyone
- Sally Church
I kinda agree with Sally here.
- Paul Papadimitriou
You need tech people that know technologies intimetely, not just superficial understanding.
- Jose Fajardo
Does it make me a "so called" to say that statement sounds "elitist" and not at all in the culture of sharing?
- Floyd Davenport
TechCrunch is a PR outlet for VCs and big companies. There are a handful of people who write for things they call blogs that I trust, but there aren't many. Just do what Mike did when he started TechCrunch, write about products as a user would. Forget all the fancy shit about how one company kills another. For me it was the Hype Cycle piece that nailed it. Somehow the tech is completely gone now.
- Dave Winer
Dave - that's what FriendFeed is silly.
- Internet's Tad
I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. I know nothing, I have no qualifications, but I can fabricate BS and pretend to outscoop people with a sense of arrogance easily.
- Mike Nayyar
First they'll need something to write about.
- Christopher Galtenberg
We can start by writing about twitter :)
- Kashif Khan
Thrilling - another 1000 words on twitter (and no irony there)
- Christopher Galtenberg
Even a year ago, TC was still worth reading. Then it simply went pop. What most of the times is missing in the blogs is innovation. It somehow went out of fashion =(
- Kirill Bolgarov
I think it's time for some bloggers that don't only write about the big or the supercool new stuff, but about small startups that launched and give them some honest directions on design, programming and business model. Time for some critizing.
- Max Schulze
A good chance for the longtail of tech bloggers. For example if i finally start writing in english about IT startups in Russia. Would that be interesting?
- Kirill Bolgarov
Here's the thing: The reporting on (almost) all of the tech blogs blow. I love TC, I have a love-hate relationship with Mashable, but the market is starving for a tech blog that is thorough in its investigations and not beholden to the Club atmosphere out west.
- Brandon Mendelson
Perhaps gdgt.com is what everyones waiting for
- Marcus Beagley
Are we talking general tech or specialists? The problem with specialists, they know their stuff but don't draw a big enough audience.
- Eric @ CS Techcast
Definitely good time for a move in a direction more progressively focused than on pumping one's followers and the latest Twitter API skin.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Wouldn't you be afraid that Om will just buy up the blog?
- CW™
Om is one of the good guys.
- Dave Winer
Marshall Kirkpatrick (http://beta.friendfeed.com/marshal...) at ReadWriteWeb is really good about unearthing unsung tools and trying them out in public. His willingness to build his own mashups and jump into things like Yahoo Pipes and various Greasemonkey scripts is endearing. He reminds me of Gina Trapani (formerly of LifeHacker http://beta.friendfeed.com/ginatra...) but with a different perspective.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
yeh, RWW are the old guard
- Kirill Bolgarov
I actually think TC (Did I say that?), RWW, Mashable, Inquistr, CNET and others have all gotten better in recent months ....
- Charlie Anzman
It does sound elitist and if you don't like them, don't read them. Good Lord.
- George Gray
I'm ready !
- Ryo / Fuck Facebook
maybe the top tech bloggers should write a blog post about how they are going to quit blogging in one year.
- Thomas Hawk
I would love to become the fresh blood one day but just can't find the time to really commit to writing lately
- Joe Dawson
Scoble's always been saying blogging's dead, though punctuated with a just kidding. However he says it so often it make me wonder if he is serious at least in part
- sofarsoShawn
i'm 16 and I keep on writing. hehe :)
- Apostolos Papadopoulos
from twhirl
As people have mentioned, getting started in the game is the big problem if you want to be the new guy's
- Jamie Vidamour
Agree with Jamie, I think location also plays a big factor. Not being in Seattle, Silicon Valley ( or close ) etc can also hurt your chances a bit
- Kashif Khan
include the opinions of Scientists, Engineers, Designers not just enthusiastic tech end users
- shayne catrett
Without naming names, seems to me that a lot of the current crop of top-tier tech blogs have become vehicles for self-promotion. First it's a blog, then it's a conference, then it's a line of branded bathroom products. I'd take a tech blog a lot more seriously if they committed to reporting and nothing else. Once they cross the line into becoming a "media property," they usually start to have problems IMHO.
- Kevin Pedraja
Tesla Model S hands-on - http://ryanblock.com/2009...
Matt Faulkner, Chris Brakebill, Tim Kersey and Joseph Ferris liked this
I love the 3G connected dash. So cool. Electric car aside. That's the kind of stuff big car companies need to be finding ways to implement. Pandora and other apps in my car? Yes please
- Chris Brakebill
Robert and Rocky ride again at Rackspace - http://scobleizer.com/2009...
Jorg Jansen, Riaz Kanani, Daniel Brusilovsky and 50 other people liked this
glad to hear that Rocky's joining you.
- Thomas Hawk
Dynamic duo reunites again!
- imabonehead
Yay, that is great news!!!! Woo hoooo!!! Congrats on being not only being gainfully employed with a cool company, but also for being re-united with your former producer, Rocky! That is really neat... win-win!
- Susan Beebe
Congrats! Rackspace is a great fit for you guys. I hosted a panel with them on cloud computing a while back and it should be a great platform for you to do the good work. http://ross.typepad.com/blog...
- Ross Mayfield
Live feeds for upcoming Gillmor Gang show: http://live.twit.tv/
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Nice one, congrats to both of you. Those guys even have a SXSW iPhone app ...
- Patrick Jordan
Congrats to both of you!
- Kevin C. Tofel
Congrats Rob and Rocky ... great news .
- johnpiercy
Congrats!
- Bill Romanos
Best of luck Robert
- Charlie Anzman
Can't wait to see what comes outta this. And I loved that video of Rackspace you did too.
- Roberto Bonini
Awesome... congrats to both of you guys... you make a pretty good team.
- LionelatDell
Congrats Robert - and you'll be a great evangelist for cloud computing.
- Hutch Carpenter
Good luck & glad Texas is going to get more Rocky & Scoble, that's got to be a good thing :)
- Gordon Vaughan
Robert, thanks for giving props to both KSCO and 12seconds in this post. It means a lot to us here in SC that you come over the hill to see us. Good luck with Building43 and looking forward to seeing you at Envision Santa Cruz
- Peter
Lock Picking (THIS IS INSANE!!) - http://www.metacafe.com/watch...
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Paul Grav, James, netrider11 and 58 other people liked this
that's just cool man!
- frank barry
Now what am I going to do with all those bic pens?
- Troy Forster
from twhirl
So that's why lock-picking tools are illegal.
- wrecks
This guy picks 7 locks in just under 2 minutes!
- Joe Bland
OMG, alarming oO
- Dennis R.
looks like I could do that too
- ★ Esther Rudolph
Heheh, and after picking the locks he's faced with a very large hound looking him straight in the eyes and a terrier jumping for his b$lls... Somehow I think the locks are the least of his worries.
- Henk de Kruyff
from twhirl
Lock picking tools are illegal?? What about crowbars and bolt cutters?
- Paul Grav
All burglary tools are illegal. If they think you are carrying crowbars and bolt cutters to break in somewhere, they can arrest you. Of course, there are legitimate purposes for those tools, too. Lock picks are just for picking locks, so you better have a really good reason for carrying them if caught (e.g., you are a locksmith).
- Brian Hawthorne
lockpicking tools are illegal because it's so damn easy to open for expamle a samsonite suitcase or a bicicle lock. - and the guy in the video is really well trained, a newby takes 3 to 5 minutes to open his first lock.
- pm10
I always wanted a set of those tools when I was a kid watching private eyes breaking into bad guys' houses. :)
- Steve Lowe
Carrying bolt cutters is a little more obvious than these few tools. He should throw in a third minute showing the liquid nitrogen trick and the bic-pen bike lock trick.
- Indio Apache
from twhirl
Wow, this makes picking a lock look far too easy... He even picked a combination lock?!?!?!
- Walt Ruppar
Just confirms... locks are for honest people. :-(
- TranceMist
I saw him pick Loch Ness. Now that was effin' wild! Then he picked his nose and that was kinda gross.
- Christopher Harley
this is really pretty appalling to watch. i assume standard dial combo locks are harder to pick. as for the tools, meh. making them illegal is hardly sufficient to protecting users w/ these types of locks.
- MikeAmundsen
Why aren't guns illegal then? It's absurd that lock-picking tools are illegal. Mere possession shouldn't prove you're ready to break the law.
- thepete
The combination lock was the easiest. Under one second. The last one required three tools and was a little more fiddly than the rest, which were all done in a couple seconds. Scary. In other words, you can't really put your trust in locks. Makes you wonder what kind of locks you _can_ trust, if any.
- Rick Cogley
@Rick: first lock was a keyed 'door'-style lock, not a combination lock.
- MikeAmundsen
Homework project: how many followers on social networks are "real?" My initial findings are astounding, participate here as we discover what's going on:
polymath22, Nicholas James, Lorin Olsen and 116 other people liked this
Visit http://twitter.com/TechCru... and now click on each follower. How many messages have they written? I just visited about 100 and only two had written more than a single message.
- Robert Scoble
Now you know why I say followers don't matter. If I fake 100,000 accounts and follow myself with them do those accounts matter to anything? No.
- Robert Scoble
But I didn't understand just how bad the spam account problem is. On friendfeed I only follow accounts that are putting content into the system. I am only putting people into my ultra special lists (ie, the ones I read first thing in the morning) if they participate. Those are the high value accounts that make being part of this fun. But how many of those accounts do each social network have? That's what matters, not whether a blank account was produced.
- Robert Scoble
Who is a bigger fan of you then yourself. :) So if your not following yourself then why provide any content? :P </sarcasm>
- CW™
They matter because other twitter users think that you are popular because you have been followed by 100,000 users. Thus, in result will entice new followers.
- charles
this is in line with participation stats from other communities like Open Source or UGC - online a thin minority contribute (in the 5%/15% range) - but it doesn't mean they're fake - just shy or dumb
- Marc Brandsma
Beau: I wish I had a tool to delete everyone who hasn't posted at least 10 Tweets from the list of people I'm following.
- Robert Scoble
I have found that a lot of people who are on social networks like Facebook or Twitter are not really there to participate but to be the voyeur (to borrow a term). They are more interested in what others are doing but rather not share their selves. It is not an uncommon social trait to be curious to what others are doing but not want them knowing what you are doing. It's small town living on the internet as I like to say.
- Christopher Mercer
Marc: I don't agree. After visiting a few hundred of these accounts now, they sure look fake and "spammy" to me.
- Robert Scoble
Christopher: that's interesting, but is very weird. Why would you want to watch what people are saying if you don't want to participate? I wonder if anyone will cop to having such an account here?
- Robert Scoble
What's your definition of 'real'? There's a difference between spam accounts (let's say created for SOE or to get you to click on a link to just 'blast' marketing) and passive accounts, where someone is happy listening. They don't *have* to participate, most are perfectly happy just watching.
- Rachel Clarke
There are 3 types of followers - real people, PR accounts and special like you :-). On my personal twitter ( http://twitter.com/michalblaha ) I prefer real people. On my project's twitter ( http://twitter.com/ontheroadto ) I prefer mix of them. I got severel very usefull contacts for http://www.ontheroad.to from my twitter followers . Its reason why I never (rather) block any of my followers.
- News from ontheroad.to
Rachel: you make a good point, but lots of these have weird names, look like spammers, and don't participate. What value are they?
- Robert Scoble
I don't know if I really understand the problem here. Granted, if you have a lot of fake followers that makes you look bigger than you are. But otherwise, who cares? I personally follow (and follow back) people based on the quality of their posts, not on how many followers they have.
- Matthias Catón
Special followers like you are real people with unbelievable number of accounts they follow - not for PR, not for spam, but to be informed. Strange think on it (for me) is how you can handle so much unstructured information together. You know some magic which I don't know ;-)
- News from ontheroad.to
Interestingly, the few I've found so far that have posted real content have had photos on their bios/accounts. I think that's a good way to filter out spammers. "No photo, no friend." :-)
- Robert Scoble
I think the major difference between me and TechCrunch would be the people who look for me and whom I add on facebook are people I actually know. I have some very close friends who are not active users of social networking sites but use them to keep up on their active user friends. As for twitter, yes a lot of accounts follow for the purpose getting follow backs. I subscribe to the the idea that just because you followed me does not mean I will follow you.
- Christopher Mercer
There are a lot of people, at least in India, who are in strict readonly mode. A lot of them just follow interesting people and read their tweets and shares. Its almost like a substitute for Google Reader. So judging by just the tweet count would be unfair. If there were a last login time in the twitter api, it would make more sense.
- Ritesh
Matthias: well, I have been getting more and more spam into my DM column, so there's the danger of that. Yeah, there really isn't too much harm other than if you are in this to just game your follower count that people will figure out that you really don't have an engaged audience there. That will catch up with you eventually. I know I'm more likely to follow someone who has a really great set of friends/followers. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
- Robert Scoble
I think that you are most likely to follow a person who is in the field of your interest, much the same way you subscribe to a feed. I, for one, follow many of the social media geeks since the subject interests me, but I very rarely participate in discussions. I enjoy reading what others are saying and shared news and links. So I guess I am a social network voyeur (@Mercer) :)
- "Jazzperous" Isaksson
Robert - agree with you about the spammers. I block them all. I also block those who aren't automated spammers but still doing the same behaviour. They have no value for you, or me. I'm wondering what value they have for themselves, if they are like spam email where they get enough interaction to make it worthwhile.
- Rachel Clarke
I was followed last night by someone, who it took me 6 pages of back tweets to find 3 actual tweets that did not say 'thanks you for following me' targeted at followers, looks like a real person, but boy so little content, not worth following back.
- Carl Grint
I think its the amount of posts is the give away. Even if people are just taking it in I do not like the idea of passive tweeters. You have to get in and get your hands dirty.
- Sam Philp
Techcrunch has a lot of inactive followers recently because they're listed in the recommendation box for every new Twitter user. But I agree with other commenters, who follows you and how active they are is irrelevant. The real power of Twitter and all social media is in the conversation, not in the lurking.
- Stuart Dallas
On twitter I always page back through recent tweets before following someone back. Generally speaking if I find at least one message or link that's interesting I follow them. I'm not hugely bothered if I'm not followed back. It's not always bidirectional, what you get out doesn't always correspond to what you put in and that's why I find it useful.
- John Samuelson
from BuddyFeed
I think reasons to why I don't interact more, is that 1) my English is limited 2) I feel I don't know enough about the subject, but still have a great interest in it 3) I am a quiet person... Would you guys block me?
- "Jazzperous" Isaksson
"No Photo, No Friend" Sounds like a good qualifier. I can't help thinking though that there is a ton of people who try something like twitter just to see what it is, don't get it in the first 3 minutes and then give up. Shame.
- Jay McCormack
I try to participate as much as possible but being just a happily married regular "Joe" with a nuclear family may not be very interesting to most. That said, I have received benefits in the form of personal and professional growth as a direct result of participation in social networks.
- Mattb4rd
Sam, Stuart, John, Carl, bing, bing, bing. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Interesting how you can classify users based on who they are following and who is following them. The amount of interaction I'm getting here and on Twitter about this (despite it being 3 a.m. in the morning) tells me that people are finding this a real problem.
- Robert Scoble
A bunch of ghost followers can make the difference, that's for sure. Stupid as it may seem, as a presentation card when you first check someone's tweets, it works. You say, hey this guy has 10000, 20000, 60000 followers so that must be for a certain reason spammers included. But still I wonder what the use is except for a bunch of extra work. It is clear that many will hold on to your tail just to feed on the hosting tweeter but they count too. I suppose that a proper balance is ok.
- Carlos Lorenzo
Jeppe: I think it is a mixture of things. On facebook you'd never get friended because I use it for friends and family. On twitter you just would not get a follow back. Since everyone uses these applications differently it is really a contextual issue. Following me is much different than following Robert, Mike A, Doc Searls, etc.
- Christopher Mercer
Mattb4rd makes an interesting point... problem is I don't think there's such a thing as a regular 'Joe'. Everyone has something to share, a passion, a hobby, a special knowledge of some sort. It's getting beyond the 'what i had for breakfast' posts that provide the real value.
- Jay McCormack
Christoper: Yes, think you are right.
- "Jazzperous" Isaksson
Carlos: well, now that the number of followers people have has no integrity I am looking under other rocks too and finding no integrity elsewhere. Some people really try to keep their accounts clean. Others, including me, let all sorts of muck in. I think I will clean that out. Why? Because now that I'm looking at other people's followers I see that having lame followers around isn't good at all.
- Robert Scoble
Christopher: it's interesting, now that I stuck my foot in my mouth over the weekend on the Twitter suggested friends issue people who work for big brands have been talking to me about what they want on social networks. "Real" is a word I hear over and over again. Why? Because users who participate and push the brands are much more important than users who sit there and do nothing. They've already learned that, so why do we feel so compelled to gather up do nothing followers? I'm going to change that.
- Robert Scoble
John: That's exactly the approach I use. Someone follows me? I will check out his tweets to see if there's at least a few that interest me - then I will follow back. The number of followers is of secondary concern to me. As for the number of tweets, I go for the opposite: I prefer less.
- Matthias Catón
I don't follow anyone new back. Too many of them were flooding my timeline with no participation. If you want to follow me that's fine, but it's only with @ replies that you'll get me to pay attention to what you're doing. I might however drop by the blog.
- Richard A.
I found a new algorithm: the quality of your follower count is totally dependent on how many accounts have non-default pictures. The problem is that if you actually wrote that algorithm and implemented it then the spammers would quickly figure out they better put a new photo on the account.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: In my case I work according to a different algorithm. I unfollow anyone that hasn't replies a single time. I don't follow anyone new until they've exchange a few messages with me. If I want to listen to a monologue I simply go to their blog ;-)
- Richard A.
Robert: This 'particular' influx of masses of spam accounts into Twitter is relatively new. Leo Laporte spoke about it recently. As Twitter gains more and more media coverage, it becomes a more attractive place for people to produce these spam accounts. I got an email through http://thetechnewsblog.com from one of my readers, to say she had been told that they controlled my a few users, who are planning some kind of mass attack on Twitter. Who knows?
- Jim Connolly
Robert: I have been slowly coming to the same conclusion; it is not enough to be careful who you follow, you should also care about who follows you... But doesn't this mean Twitter should change the behavior of the Follow button to Ask Permission To Follow ? (or at least provide it as an option for those who want to filter their followers)
- Antoine Bertier
Does it matter whether it's a picture (like of a human) or just non-default?
- Jay McCormack
Twitter should forget about celebrity accounts and encourage dialogue. What makes any social network work is dialogue. Without conversation twitter would be gathering dust as a home server somewhere.
- Richard A.
Robert, I think in your case the nothing followers are people who have decided to user twitter (in the example of twitter) to follow your activities. In my case they likely just want to spam me (hoping I follow back) and in the one case someone used @<username> to spam me, I blocked them.
- Christopher Mercer
Jim: but look at the accounts that are following TechCrunch. Then compare to the accounts that are following me. Mine have pictures on them. Techcrunch's don't. Mine are participants who Tweet. TechCrunch's are not. It's very strange.
- Robert Scoble
Christopher: I disagree. Some accounts are gathering a lot of these "fake" accounts than my account is, for instance. Why is that?
- Robert Scoble
Robert: That's because Michael doesn't speak with his followers - just broadcasts TC posts. It's easy for spammers to 'follow' him without him noticing. You would notice it AND make some noise.
- Jim Connolly
Jim: maybe, I'm not sure that's true. But it does seem to have something to do with the new Twitter suggested friends list.
- Robert Scoble
A lot of posts are very helpful links to interesting things - which I appreciate. However it's seems really difficult to engage anyone in a real conversation or get an answer to a question.
- Breck Stewart
Robert: If a spammer follows one of those 'suggested friends', they get MORE followers themselves. These accounts are super-active right now. By being seen on those follower lists, people follow the spammers too. It's only a small percentage, but if Veronica or Michael can get 60k new followers in 14 days, the numbers these spammers can get is higher, than if they followed me. On my list, very few people would 'see' them.
- Jim Connolly
Finally some traction on this as I only brought it up on the 14th Feb ;) http://twitter.com/styleti... , as I commented on thetechnewsblog its not just about the fact they are fake and bolstering the numbers think what chaos or hram these 10's of 1000's could do to Twitter if they all started spamming or tweeting at once!?
- roger byrne
You know, there is a website that lets you unfollow inactive users and users that never posted a tweet. Twitter Karma! http://dossy.org/twitter...
- Gloson Teh
and if you look into it further the 'Norm' for these accounts is one update and all following 20-22 of Twitters suggested followers!
- roger byrne
what Christopher Mercer said, on my personal id I only follow people who I think have something interesting to say or whose info I want to see, this also includes friends and family. On my projects id I look at every follower and as long as I don't think its a spam follower I follow them also, but I don't read the posts apart from the first page when I first sign in. There I'm providing info for others. I will reply to any questions of course.
- Tina Clarke
Beau: no, thanks, I hadn't seen that yet. @ev is full of crap. These accounts are totally different than the average Twitter account. Look at my followers. Then go and look at the followers on any of the top 20 accounts. Totally different behavior (no icons, no posts). Personally I don't mind. Twitter has now corrupted itself and I really have lost all caring I used to have over that service. It's why I'm putting my friendfeed likes into Twitter now. I really have no incentive not to push everyone here.
- Robert Scoble
I bet that by the end of March that Twitter goes through and deletes all sorts of accounts. Just watch. These accounts don't help the system out. They look lame because they are lame.
- Robert Scoble
I'm real. I may be boring, but I'm real. ;) I block spammers and I don't automatically follow non-spammers back. I only follow people I am already friends with or new people I find interesting. A particular pet peeve of mine is being followed by self-gurus and social network marketing "experts". Ironically, after complaining about these "Tony Robbins types" on Twitter I was followed by the director of Robbins' films. ;)
- Eric Williams
Eric: no doubt YOU are real. But here's one of the lame accounts: http://twitter.com/Serious... -- following only 20 people. No followers. No messages. Only standard icon. This was created by a computer, not by a human being. Now, go through any of the 20 people he's following and look at the follower accounts. They are all lame! I love it, create tons of fake accounts and make your numbers higher and higher.
- Robert Scoble
"This was created by a computer, not by a human being." - As a categorical statement, I think this goes too far. It could easily be the equivalent of discussion forum lurking.
- John Craft
John: sorry, I disagree. The pattern is out of wack. I'm sure there might be a few people who exhibit this pattern, but not thousands among thousands. Also, the pattern changed a few weeks ago. Explain that.
- Robert Scoble
@john craft Bull and you know it ;) check through pages of followers in fact pick page 200 of any of the ppl and you can see how many accounts this really is that we are discussing here, you ever saw 100,000 lurkers before because this is what this amounts to! Now opposite to Robert I believe these people have no responsibility for this but also the fact there has been no action against it beggars belief why? This could seriously screw up their service!
- roger byrne
And, John, let's say you are right, that these are real humans who created on their own the same kind of account. Follow just the same 20 people. Don't change your icon. Don't post a Tweet. Etc. Etc. Are they as valuable as, say, the people who are following me who actually post, actually have attractive icons, actually follow more than just the defaults? No way, no how. They aren't "real" to advertisers. Why not? Because they exhibit no behavior that will turn into sales. THAT is what advertisers want.
- Robert Scoble
the pattern changed for all accounts at the same time chk twitter counter its 9th -11th of Feb for all these accounts...
- roger byrne
"They aren't "real" to advertisers." That, I agree with.
- John Craft
Roger: Twitter is now corrupted and we are just starting to understand the beginnings of what happens when you corrupt your community. Luckily we have a non-corrupted community here to contrast with Twitter.
- Robert Scoble
Thank Robert I love Twitter and it HAS changed my life so I have no plans to leave or to accuse people of wrong doing but if it was my baby I sure would be taking care of it much more!
- roger byrne
roger: me too, but they don't listen to their real users. I guess I should have just been a user like TechCrunch. In fact, I'm starting to understand just how right Mike Arrington is when he pointed out to me that I should blog more on a service that I can control.
- Robert Scoble
This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. If I'm twittering a robot then I'm wasting my time!
- Captain Jack
Captain: nah, I've learned over and over again that blogging/twittering into the wind actually can be useful. I've Twittered things just to get them off my chest, for instance. I've also blogged things just to get them into Google so I can pull them out later. On Twitter I could get readers just by having fun with http://search.twitter.com -- no followers needed.
- Robert Scoble
Captain: it's a serious issue because this, and the very lamely developed suggested friends feature, demonstrate that there's something Rotten in the State of Denmark. But we already knew that because of how many times we have seen the fail whale over past two years.
- Robert Scoble
I find myself checking to see if someone has a blog in their profile also. So for me it's photo+blog=friend.
- Jay McCormack
As the government is so keen to do when there is wrong doing, they call for an investigation. I think its time to call for an investigation and demand answers. I for one don't want to use a system that inflates its number for personal gain. I have discovered that having control is better when social networking. Twitter reminds me of those networking lunches where everyone is expected to give 2 referrals.
- Russ Jackson
And all of these "followers" follow exactly 20 people... I'm enlightened. I was wondering what was happening to my modest Twitter account when it suddenly started attracting all kinds of unlikely followers recently - but it's probably the same thing, machines, and not a sudden burst in popularity. Oh, well. Thanks for reminding me of my FriendFeed account via Twitter.
- Terje Fjelde
Jay: that certainly works for me. Russ: I don't worry too much about it. If I can figure this out with 15 minutes of poking around so can everyone else. I am sure a bunch of these accounts will disappear soon. Twitter doesn't want to be embarrassed by this because it won't help them monetize anyway. Unless they are charging per thousand views and then advertisers will figure out the accounts aren't real very quickly anyway.
- Robert Scoble
Playing devil's advocate: Isn't it also possible that many of these "lame" accounts belong to people who just recently joined? They haven't spruced up their profiles, haven't had the courage to tweet, only follow recommended twits, and are generally feeling their way around the service before getting fruitfully involved. Of those, I bet a large number decide Twitter isn't for them and leave their accounts dormant.
- Eric Williams
Eric: it's possible, but very unlikely (it's also possible I could win the lottery four times in a row). After all, this was NOT the behavior of lurkers BEFORE Feb. 6. Why would it change on that date? You really think there are lurkers out there who'll behave exactly the same in groups of thousands? I don't. Not possible, because of how people get pulled into Twitter. You get pulled in by your friends. So, there will be some variability there.
- Robert Scoble
Robert I agree if you can figure it out in 15 minutes than everyone else can too. I was saying it tongue and cheek. It says something about those who have to inflate there numbers though. Perhaps they are lacking in something or in an area. LOL
- Russ Jackson
Sounds like you're really letting this nonsense get to you. Relax. The free market of ideas that is the net will sort it out before long. If Twitter sucks, it won't survive. Then again, I'd have expected MySpace to die a horrible death long ago. Hmm...maybe Twitter won't die, but it'll become an internet ghetto for the terminally lame (like AOL). ;)
- Eric Williams
my app works on its own as well as as the frontend for the twitter team themselves. Instead of having to report @spam and then go through all your friends to find the bastard to block.... it would auto-parse out 'potential and known' spammers into a group.. one click and your account is clean, meanwhile any new ones are sent off to a convenient way for the twitter team to once-over the account to see if its legit or if its spam.
- Brent Terrazas
Eric: online communities have been getting to me since 1985. You're right, just because something sucks doesn't guarantee its death. In fact, it can easily get much more popular, even with these flaws. That said, now I have something new to think about. It's not the end of the world. Just the end of the importance of followers. :-)
- Robert Scoble
In the last month there have actually been close to 7 full blown twitter mass account creation and/or twitter mass account spammer apps released. Some cost over $200. Regardless, everyone i Affiliate marketing is going ga-ga over this... this is literally the beginning of a new era of twitter spam..
- Brent Terrazas
I never gave a rat's ass how many people followed me anyway. As long as I have enough followers to maintain interesting conversations, I'm happy. :)
- Eric Williams
Eric: you don't need any followers to have interesting conversations. Friendfeed proves that. :-)
- Robert Scoble
This is my first real FriendFeed convo. I'm still not entirely comfortable here. Keeping track of conversations feels like too much work. Either I have to visit the web page and manually reload or use something like Twhirl and drown in a flood of data. Am I just really dense? Is there an easier way to keep up without being overwhelmed that I just don't know? Is the learning curve less steep than I think?
- Eric Williams
Are followers following someone else's follows just because they deem that person to be an influential tweeter?
- Mark Fletcher
Eric: I just use the web page and refresh.
- Robert Scoble
Mark: I don't think so. Three weeks ago I was on Twitter's top 10 list, so should be getting nailed if that's the case. I'm not getting nailed that way.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Excuse my ignorance, but surely you know someone with connections at Twitter? Ask them. There's something seriously weird going on.
- Jim Connolly
Jim: I'll ask Biz when I wake up.
- Robert Scoble
Still trying to get my head round friend feed. as far a Twitter goes, I follow a few "celebrities" and interesting people but most of my actual "tweets" are intended for my family and real life friends. I guess most people who don't know me personally won't be interested that I've just walked the dogs or I'm going to bed, but friends and family will be as they will know if it is ok to phone or visit me. My facebook is really only intended for my family.
- Andy
Robert, you and I think a lot alike so there's really nothing more I can add. It. would be nice to have some sort of threshhold setting that a person has to have nnn posts before you can follow them. But then, that could be gamed also.
- Keith Barrett
they're building them like you build blog farms.... at first while amassing quantity, you don't spam outsiders, u link up and spit out aggregated comments, then at somme point boom.. all 5k go off and spam.... onto the next 5k...etc..friending a top 10 would=ban
- Brent Terrazas
I don't twitter a lot but that is because who would find my changing nappies and going to pick up the kids from school interesting? Okay maybe one day of that but everyday the same tweets? I'm one of the ones that find other lives more interesting than my own at the moment until things start to get interesting in my own!!!! and no I'm not embarrassed to admit that.
- May
As far as I see, even unreal followers can help to get real ones. Many people just look how many follower you have, and only follow you, if you seem to be popular a.k.a. having a lot of followers. It's like real life. You getting more and more attractive, if more people think you are :) Weird? No, just human nature.
- Ryo / Fuck Facebook
A large chunk are just people that are hoarding contacts.
- Gerard Vanschip-Miyama
Beau: the main goal of a private account seems to be to make the tweets private (they are do not appear in everyone, or in search for instance). The interesting side effect is that you get to filter your followers, but there is no reason to limit this feature to private accounts. The issue is not to prevent valueless accounts to get my updates (since they are meant to be public) it is rather to prevent them from polluting the list of followers that appear on my profile.
- Antoine Bertier
Almost every time I "tweet" I get several notices that so and so is now following me. when I go through to their accounts, twitter have usually deleted them or they have nonsense tweets about this or that product that i "need" to enhance my life
- Andy
What is real? I have to remind you, Robert, that we met online. And now we are real. I met @stevegillmor, @karoli, @mobilejones, and so many more people online and they are as real to me as @chelseahardaway, my daughter, who is now also my online friend. It' a blur. I know tons of my Twitter and FB friends personally.
- Francine Hardaway
from twhirl
Where's the white paper on this? You should be writing it.
- Francine Hardaway
from twhirl
I seem to have added about 50-60 followers in the last day or on Twitter, which is unusual for me. Honestly, I wonder why as I am not a heavyweight twitterer...nor do I think I post anything particularly profound or even useful. The only things I changed recently were putting a bio, blog link and headshot in, so I assume that this is what many people look for...I think the human factor is sometimes lost with the proliferation of social networking.
- John Samuelson
I have a number of accounts in places where I participate by observation. Seriously. We all pick and choose what we do with limited time and endless choices of what to do with that time. I've only been "twitter-active" for the last week or so, "twitter-dormant" for a year or two. The point is that I don't recommend writing off the silent majority as spammers or of no use. They contribute by being the audience for much of what goes on, via Twitter and other channels.
- Colin Wheeler
Are you going to blog your numbers? That would be cool if you did.
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
Also, an analogy I like using - swimming in the sea; some folk are OK to jump in where it's deep, others want to slowly inch their way into the waves, others will stand still and wait until the tide reaches their chest ... but they are all getting wet! And probably all will end up swimming to one degree or another. Well, it sort of explains my point ;-)
- Colin Wheeler
It's amazing how many fake accounts I see trying to connect with me. I'm still a small Twitter user and getting everyday a couple of spams, is way too much.
- Zack Brandit
Robert, are you trying to fight with Turing test? :)
- A.T.
Speaking only for myself: I follow a lot of people because in my position (someone who teaches new media journalism) it is a potentially valuable way of keeping up with thought leaders (like you, Robert!) ... and is increasingly replacing my use of RSS feeds. While I would also like to accumulate my own cadre of followers, at this point in time I still prefer to spend my time on longer, more thoughtful items (i.e., blog posts) than tweets. That may change in the future.
- Rich Gordon
i'm real.... just real quiet :)
- todd
I am a human :)
- Joe Dawson
I like to follow Twitter conversations from my iPhone but often don't like to type out a response if I'm away from a keyboard. And it just feels odd responding to a tweet that's been up for a while. So not sure if that makes me one of the odd ones that watches more than comments, but it works for me :)
- craterdweller
Have you seen Brooks Bayne's post on this subject: http://brooksbayne.com/post... - seems to confirm what you're saying Robert. I've been thinking of zeroing my twitter followers and asking the real people to re-follow. Bet I'd lose 50% or more.
- Leo Laporte
Maybe I should start working again on my little web app, that lists your followers and the date of their most recent tweet. I guess it's also possible to get the number of updates along with this time/date...
- Holger Eilhard
Last summer I took a look at the full feed from Identi.ca, and found that around 25% of all registered users had posted only once. Only half had posted more than 5 times, and IIRC, the 80/20 "rule" applied and ~80% of the traffic came from the top 20% of users. I'd be surprised if Twitter's stats were much different (chart: http://kshep.posterous.com/more-id...)
- Ken Sheppardson
I think there's a lot of dormant accounts. Join, use the service for a bit, then fade away. Takes too much work to maintain a lot of networking sites.
- Barry Biddlecomb
from twhirl
I think there are only 5 real people out there. :)
- mikepk
I think real <> volume. Isn't the value of this technology many frequent intersections on many different threads...Is there a map that shows the frequency of those people's interactions elsewhere? We (I) don't all have time to trawl through the feeds alll the time. It's an attention economy and we (I) split it between about 7 sources on average every day..?
- dromologue
mikepk: I'm convinced there are ~101,000 real people, as I've seen that many in one place at one time in person (Michigan Stadium.. Go Blue). The rest is all CGI. Of course there's no reason you should believe me, as I'm just part of the plot to deceive you.
- Ken Sheppardson
I'm real . Blip beep zip <CR> <LF>
- Ken Pruett
I'm real, at least I'm pretty sure I'm real.
- Aram Zucker-Scharff
from twhirl
Far better of an argument is how much traffic is truly real.
- Patricia
I think active users who are authentic = real. I have been getting lots of phonies following me lately. Get real!
- Jeremy Campbell
from twhirl
wow, such a long and winded thread discussing phenomena of followers and following. it is very simple, really. follow whom you think is interesting to you and with whom there might be possible exchange of information and life experience. I do find Robert and some of his friends quite intersting. I do however not follow the A-lister bloggers or entrepreneurs whose feeds are prevalently twitter insider info. Fake followers? That happens, it is inevitable with FF- and Twitter-like architecture. Live with it.
- Hayk H.
I find twitter is just a entertainment tool. It's better served for popular people to make fans feel like they have a live channel to their idol. Marina of hotforword.com uses twitter for such purpose. She doesn't even follow me on twr and I'm her assistant on her website. Micro blogging just waste too much time when one could spend it on adding more content to your master blog.
- Captain Jack
I'm real. But I must admit that I do a lot more following on twitter (and here) than posting. And I only follow informed people. Don't care for the silly stuff.
- lolise
This thread proves one thing, Robert: your friendfeed followers certainly are "real." :) The number of comments on this thread are a bit overwhelming.
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
It's not about "how many" - it's who, in what context, and by what percentage. Check out http://twitter-friends.com for a glimpse of the social network analytics that addresses these questions.
- Lawrence Liu
Greetings Robert, some of us use the social channel as our news source. We do not input a lot however we are consumers of the feed. Does that make us not real?
- James Tallman
James: you're real, I wouldn't worry. Here's the deal, though. "Real" people always exhibit random behavior. Always. Whenever you see 10,000 people who sign in, add the same people, don't do any posts, don't customize their icon, don't add any random friends, that can be demonstrated to be fake. Why? Cause everyone hears about Twitter from someone else and there's variability in the friends they add. At least there was before February 6. What happened after that date? Twitter's community was corrupted.
- Robert Scoble
I'd say based on recent twitter experience about 25%. I'm a relative nobody, and my followers quadrupled. My guess is they are all REAL nobodies.
- jcunwired
The challenge is that many tools use the number of followers to "rank" you and make you an influencer. Is it right? No, but we have to play with the rules we have.
- Julio F ~ @SocialJulio
For us newbies on twitter and friendfeed, it's pretty challenging navigating all the comments. A lot of interesting stuff out there but it moves so fast you almost have to be plugged in 24/7 to catch the conversation that most interests you. That's tough when we all have lives outside the Internet ;-) I'm wondering if there are unwritten "rules" I missed somewhere...How long can we be silent (attending to other business) and still be considered "real" followers?
- Donna Horne
Julio: bing. Which is why the integrity of Twitter is now gone. Advertisers might be fooled, but not for long. This world passes info around so fast it'll make your head spin so anyone who buys advertising (or hands out access or something else like review units) based on Twitters follower numbers is lame and deserves to be ripped off.
- Robert Scoble
I believe twitters integrity is being challenged by its own success and spamming, hopefully this opens up the market for friendsfeed and 3rd party filtering applications.
- Carl Plant
Carl: Twitter's integrity is being challenged by its own stupid decisions and lame algorithms. But they probably will just arrogantly write off this as the ranting of someone who was punished by them. Which is true.
- Robert Scoble
Robert - bingo!
- Susan Beebe
I'll only follow if people have made the effort to upload a photo, sent at least a few messages to show me they're going to give me something to follow and most of all - dont proclaim they are the best at anything / use their twitter account as a billboard..
- Matt Randles
also, a tool to go through existing contacts and see those who have less than 10 updates or say no updates in the last 90 days ... with intention of removing would be cool, unfortunatly the twitter api limits mean running it would have to be low process and could take a long time..
- Matt Randles
I just added 1,382 new friends on FriendFeed by synching up with Twitter. The new feature launched today. - https://friendfeed.com/setting...
Gavin, tomit, polymath22 and 91 other people liked this
I made a new list called "Twitter Clone" and will slowly migrate folks to more frequently viewed lists. Check out the new feature here: https://friendfeed.com/setting...
- Louis Gray
*GULP*
- Josh Haley
Oh lord. I need a separate list for you and Robert and all your FoAFs... :\
- Mona Nomura
Just added 904 :)
- Michael Forian
Mona, that only is true if I'm active on a ton of other friends' activity. Theoretically, unless my total activity per day increases, you won't see a change, just new people!
- Louis Gray
Added 184, nice feature
- Tejas Patel
Added like 51 I believe!! ;)
- Paul
I actually don't want to sync them. I follow people on FF for different reasons than Twitter.
- mikepk
The only downside is that it also sent 184 subscription requests to private feeds. So that means when those private subscriptions approve the request, it hits the home feed. Then I have to move the new adds to the lists manually. And they can accept at any time.
- Louis Gray
Lost count but maybe I saved myself some future work. I added new ones on a separate list just in case I want to see later what I've got in there :)
- Carlos Lorenzo
0. Done and done. That was easy. Presses big red button.
- Mark Wilson
just added 302 subs
- Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF
Sweet, finally! Now for the FF team to add syncing for other connected services too.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
This is great. Thanks for the info.
- Bill Romanos
Thanks again, Lou.
- Bryan R. Adams
40 new friends and two requests (private feeds? ick!)
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
how do you honestly filter all these information flows? What king of filters features would you like to be able to set up? would you like APML based recomndation?
- duprat julien
I should have done what Louis did. I just added everyone to Home feed, and now sorting it out is a total mess. Oops. :|
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
My number was similar. Now come all the e-mails showing they followed back.
- Jesse Stay
added 370-ish
- Justin Yost
as mentioned above, by several people, add these people into their own list, before moving them across to your 'main' lists. Also, running this script / feature needs to be done on a regular basis to keep up with your new followers
- martin english
I added 240 and put them in their own list like Louis until I decide what to do with them
- Sally Church
Just checked that out. Funny thing, is none of those people, save one guy who I thought I was subbed to here, are actually active on FF. Which is why they are either in my Dumpers list or I unsubbed from them.
- Anika
I wouldn't do that. I am not so sure I like the feature.
- rampantheart
I just did this, started a new list for these... but how do i see how many it was? can't see that anywhere?
- Rob Sellen :o)
Rampantheart just create a Twitterimport Friend list and then you can sort them out from there. (Imported 183)
- Keith - @tsudo
Just added 444.Cool feature!
- Igor Poltavskiy
It was about 400 for me.
- Amani
I added 887, now I'm subscribed to over 1500. I'm putting them into a list for now, til I can sort them out a bit better.
- jjprojects
for me more like ... 50 or so? a nice number anyway
- Snipergirl
Olá sou willian su brasileiro , bom dia!!
- Willian
I just added 176, now I see loads of tweets asking what's going on with all the new FF subs :)
- Nicola Quinn
wow, 1382 sounds pretty noisy...
- Peter Efland
so, its now i get hit in the face for having auto-follow back on twitter. I have no clue who all those people are, probably marketeers... but dont want them to clutter my friendfeed stream... Guess the most important thing I´ve learned today is that I need a total Twitter clear up
- Peter Efland
I only added 40, that is either good in that I was following the people already, or bad cause that was not a lot of people. I'll go with the good bit. :-)
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
Not goanna do it. Organic growth ftw :)
- Yuvi
Most of the ones it wanted to import for me I didn't recognize -- does this feature really work as intended?
- Brian Sullivan
very smart move by friendfeed
- Marcel LeBrun
I did that too. Now I am wondering how to organize it.
- Martha
This is something that should have been done a long time ago, but I am glad it is now available. Would be nice if they ran it for you every N days. If I follow you on Twitter auto add them in FF.
- Scott Watermasysk
Done. 184 new people subscribed at FF. I hope some are following back here on Friendfeed. I found out, that people here follow less back than on Twitter.
- Ryo / Fuck Facebook
I added a whole bunch... my FF lists need to be revisited
- Bwana ☠
Same here, 200ish.
- Mike Reynolds
OMG you're an ff'n freak Louis!
- sofarsoShawn
wooo i love the new feature!
- andy brudtkuhl
I just brought over 264 friends - very cool!
- Bill
Milan fooling around (our 16-month-old son) http://m.kyte.tv/ch...
Ahsan Ali aka. Slick, Steven Perez, Moushumi Kabir and 24 other people liked this
running around, having fun.
- Richard A.
He's sooo cute! Milan the Indian
- Orli Yakuel
That's the very definition of toddling. :-)
- Louis Gray
just unboxed his netbook? :)
- ★ Esther Rudolph
what a cute babe his name's lovely :) specially I love that babababa thing :D
- Sinan Ata
dramatic ending when lil scoble turned off the TV :-)
- Alex
He's adorable!!
- Jen
Why did you give him a Czech name? After Milan Kundera?
- Petr Kočí
Petr: my wife is an English major and, yes, Kundera is her favorite author. Plus, she kept wanting me to take her to Milan and I never did, so we joked around that I gave her a Milan instead.
- Robert Scoble
Punch Hole Clouds & Other Rarely Seen Cloud Formations - http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008...
 |
Jens Christian Freund, Mattb4rd, Soup and 142 other people liked this
Must of eating beans under there.
- CW™
WOW
- Mona Nomura
My jaw dropped with that first pic.
- Yolanda
That first picture caused a flash back of Independence Day.
- imabonehead
My first impression? ALIEN INVASION!...
- David Feng
amazing!
- Susan Beebe
Wow! Oh, and that looks just like a huge fist.
- Chris Loft
Nice collection of photos
- Matt Faulkner
from twhirl
Yeah ... what Mona N. said!
- Allison Kipta
Educational and beautiful at the same time. Nice!
- Michael Fidler
from twhirl
Wowzer great pics
- BEX
'shopped?
- mike fabio
from twhirl
I don't believe so revrev - but u never know
- Zee.
awesome, I love staring at clouds.
- Carmen
Nice photos
- Bob Gannon
I could have sworn I had Raoul Pop as a contact already
- Michael W. May
Ooh, aah!
- Egyirba
sheesh 120 likes - and they say people don't like clouds...
- Zee.
Wow!
- Mitchell Tsai
WTF, is Twitter down during the fucking BCS Championship?
VC Freak, Internet Strategist, michael silverton and 3 other people liked this
Chill out and enjoy the game dude. The game is on tv not on Twitter.
- beersage
Awesome! How can we possibly watch the game without twitter!? :-)
- michael silverton
I will say this, however. Twitter needs a status update service that is...not...on Twitter.
- beersage
LOL
- Internet Strategist
Twitter's like Roach Motel right now. Tweets go in, but they don't come out. Either that, or I'm the only one whose home page isn't updating
VC Freak, Internet Strategist, Matt Faulkner and 2 other people liked this
Cool. Finally making the switch over from Blogger to WordPress. Aaron Brazell is going to do the conversion for me today/tonight if all works out. Hopefully all goes well. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Peter Efland, Nikpay, Akiva Moskovitz and 56 other people liked this
Wordpress is so much better then blogger. You should make sure to update your favicon when you make the switch.
- Davis Freeberg
is it pretty easy to update a favicon with WP?
- Thomas Hawk
super-easy - just upload new favicon.ico to the root of your public_html
- James Hull
My friend is gong to do this as well. How hard is it to switch?
- Jake Rome
Nice, congrats on the switch. You'll be *very* happy! WordPress FTW.
- Tamar Weinberg
If you mean self-hosted Wordpress, I agree that for most purposes it is much better than Blogger. But if you are referring to letting wordpress.com host your blog, I'd have to disagree. I like being able to use JS and make money off of ads, which is something wordpress.com doesn't allow.
- April Russo (app103)
WordPress.com or .org?
- Tom Harrison
Wicked! I hope it goes through smoothly. (By the way, will you be on your own host or through WordPress.com? I don't think you can update a favicon through WordPress.com.)
- Bryan Villarin
Wordpress is awesome, but April makes a good point. To really take advantage of it, you need to self host.
- Chris Rogers
Yes - usually when I think WordPress I mean .org. Hopefully that's what you're going for!
- Tamar Weinberg
I've been testing Wordpress myself. WP 2.7's new Dashboard is just great, so easy to use. Don't forget the WPtouch plugin for iphones/itouches!
- Paul Ward
I feel that 2009 will be the year I make the switch, will I be able to keep/replicate the same visible structure - http://joedawsons.com ??
- Joe Dawson
Joe: is that on blogger? should be easy to make the switch
- Chris Rogers
Joe, for the most part, yes, but you may need to get a graphic designer or web developer to help create a theme that you like.
- Tamar Weinberg
Joe Dawson: The self-hosted version of WordPress lets you code your own themes from scratch, so you can replicate any design you want. WP templates are dead simple to learn, too.
- Tom Harrison
yeah, self hosting, not at wordpress.org. I've already got thomashawk.com and my own dedicated server. Aaron's installing it on my server for me and doing the migration. Jake, it looked too difficult for me to figure out how to do the transfer but I'm sure Aaron is infinitely more adept at this sort of thing than I am.
- Thomas Hawk
It should go great! Good luck!
- iSteeve
*fingers crossed* good luck thomas!
- david noelte
good luck. i think you'll find a world of exciting possibilities, especially with a self-hosted wordpress setup
- Glenn Batuyong
from twhirl
I'm not planning on updating the theme much. I picked a very simple one with a white background and have a new logo for the top of the page. Other than that it's just a simple two column blog. I wanted it to look really clean. I'll add a few widgets though. Probably the friendfeed one and maybe the flickr one if it looks good.
- Thomas Hawk
Make sure you use the same permalink format, or redirect posts to their new locations with 301 redirects.
- Tom Harrison
I've been meaning to make the switch, too (I'm a self-hosted Blogger person as well), but it's all a little (well, a LOT) too daunting for me to tackle over a weekend.
- vicster
hmmm.. not sure how that works Tom, hopefully Aaron is familiar with that. I'm assuming that the old links should still work.
- Thomas Hawk
Sounds good. I've been thinking of switching from self-hosted Movable Type to WordPress. It seems to have a better selection of community & 3rd party supported templates, pagination, etc. Six Apart's direction for MT just doesn't support individuals as well as corporate clients.
- William Beem
vicster, it was wayyyyy too daunting for me to even try. Glad that Aaron was willing to give it a go for me.
- Thomas Hawk
Yeah, wouldn't worry. Aaron's quite capable.
- Tom Harrison
Congrats...this will be a major upgrade. Will you be using a photo optimized theme? Let us know when the site is live.
- Mark Krynsky
Good Luck Aaron & Thomas. I look forward to finally meeting Aaron in person tomorrow at the Social Media Club (SMC) Rochester NY meetup @ Triphammer Grill wooo hooo!
- Susan Beebe
he's the man I'd trust with the job.
- Duncan Riley
Going the same route while I put my blogs are 'on vacation' last week Thomas. Tried to hold out but WordPress currently offers more versatility moving forward. Having a little 'Blogging Withdrawal' but fun messing with different templates and formats. FYI - Be sure to take a little blog SEO into account if you're changing URLs. SEO is still 'free advertising' .....
- Charlie Anzman
Have you seen WordFrame? http://wordframe.com
- Dimitar Vesselinov
thanks for all your help with this Aaron. Dimitar, I haven't seen WordFrame.
- Thomas Hawk
Yeay!
- Shevonne
Oh NO! Not Wordpress!! Habari http://www.habariproject.org for blogging. Wordpress is a mess.
- ·[▪_▪]·
good for you. Wordpress is da bomb
- David Parmet
from twhirl
ExpressionEngine...but I wish you well ;)
- Andru Edwards
All my personal blogs are on Wordpress.....great platform.
- Seagate
Personal blogs are fine on Wordpress. But no way I would trust my business and livelihood to it.
- Andru Edwards
Andru: What would you recommend then? In my opinion WordPress is excellent software. I have been very, very frustrated by the recent security exploits, but they were fixed quickly and hopefully similar situations can be prevented by staying up-to-date and taking a proactive approach to security. I've been running a business on WP for nearly 3 years.
- Tom Harrison
Tom: I've used ExpressionEngine for 4 years. They've had two security exploits in that time, and both were fixed within hours of being found - less than 24 hours for sure. Compare that to Wordpress. Wordpress is a great personal blogging tool - but I use EE because it is best in class, hands down. :)
- Andru Edwards
In the past I have built my own CMS tools from scratch, but those were very basic. At the moment my photoblog runs on custom software. But for everything else, the time it would take me to match the feature set of WordPress is better spent writing.
- Tom Harrison
Yes, there is big need for regular security testing procedure for WordPress's source code and I think there should be better guidelines for development of extensions. Also, extensions should be checked before they are added to public sites running WordPress if it's critical to have website running stable as possible. Even then, it's not problem specific to just WordPress; other software have their own set of difficulties.
- Daniel Schildt
It would be great if there would be automated testing of WordPress source code that would allow them to find possible problems faster and possibly even before those are integrated to main base of code. That kind of automated testing is probably not that commonly used in most web-based software projects… but things like that could make software more secure and reliable in long run.
- Daniel Schildt
Just wanted to second the call for ExpressionEngine. I've gone from TypePad to WordPress to EE and EE is by far the BEST CMS/blogging platform. It's a bit unusual at first to learn, but once you grab a hold of the main concepts - the sky is the limit!
- James Hull
Fully agreed, James!
- Andru Edwards
Thomas, I think you'll absolutely love Wordpress... much more flexible and customizable.
- Shawn Duffy
from twhirl
wordpress is totally better!
- Logan Lindquist
Did Google Just Expose Semantic Data in Search Results? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive... either everyone I asked has missed this or it's huge and new
Seth Greenblatt, Toni @ NavinoT, Chris Heath and 9 other people liked this
Yikes. I remember reading, a long time ago, that a Google team in manhattan was working on revolutionizing structured information. Anyway, not much to say. I can only hope that they fall asleep and end up behind us all ;) Too much to ask? maybe... Marshall, one small correction: tripple --> triple
- Aldo Bucchi
from FriendFeed MT Plugin
They could be parsing infoboxes in wikipedia or Freebase data. Would be good to check if that's the case (which is pretty much what Powerset was doing too)
- Deepak Singh
mndoci we did check and though in some cases they are doing that, it appears that's not in every case. see the source, for example, on the oregon capital search above
- Marshall Kirkpatrick
from IM
Oh cool. Missed that part. Hmmm ... Interesting
- Deepak Singh
I have not seen this before and it does look like a trial semantic structure. Odd that it isn't leveraging Freebase data.
- AJ Kohn
That is pretty huge. And typically the way they do it (silently releasing new features).
- Laura Norvig
By the way, the Jesus example supports the semantic structure. Chris Ferguson is well known as Jesus in poker circles.
- AJ Kohn
"what is the weather in Brooklyn" vs "brooklyn weather" - guess which query will give you structured results. It's the latter one. I'm not quite sure Google has gone semantic but it has gone structured from time to time.
- Allan Benamer
from twhirl
I've always felt that semantic web search is a lousy business to be in exactly for this reason. If there's any real value for consumers there (and I guess there is), then why does people think anybody other than Google will own that market just as they own traditional search? Google will be the semantic search engine of the future for 3 reasons: 1) They can: they have the money to build...
more...
- Simone
from FriendFeed MT Plugin
A list with the keywords resulting in semantic results would be more than great.
- George Tziralis
from FriendFeed MT Plugin
That's pretty old, although it has expanded in scope. See http://glinden.blogspot.com/2005... for example
- Nick Lothian
This is an interesting development. Recently Google search results also started to display richer information about forum and bulletin board posts. For example: "Weblogs Forum - What about a decorator module version 3.0?" - 5 posts - Last post: Dec 3, 2008 - http://www.artima.com/forums... Does anyone here know when it was introduced and point to more info...
more...
- Uldis Bojars
from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Burger King Facebook App Offers Free Whopper for Dumping 10 Friends - http://www.inquisitr.com/14638...
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James Williams, VC Freak, Simon Wicks and 14 other people liked this
LOL
- Mona Nomura
A good opportunity to drop the random-adding folks.
- Morton Fox
I'm dumping Mona.
- Louis Gray
and if yer a Canadian it's 12 you have to dump
- Steven Hodson
Sorry friends, you are totally expendable in the face of a free Whopper.
- Shawn Farner
Not sure I have that many
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
I think this is great. I've been meaning to prune my facebook friends down! :P
- Jon, the Beartato of FF
I dumped 10 friends last week, I wonder if they will make it retroactive
- Cathleen Rittereiser
If I add 10 friends, will they dump the whopper?
- Paula W
What if I were a Whopper Virgin, so impressed by this shining example of American culture that I embraced other American things such as Facebook - and then got dumped because of that same Whopper?
- Ontario Emperor
from fftogo
New OQO mobile Internet device. #ces09 Me wants!
Ben Reierson, Numan Arda Çebi, Susan Beebe and 30 other people liked this
Really awesome OLED screen. $1499. Now has touch screen. Twice as fast as older ones. Runs Vista or XP. Lust! http://www.OQO.com
- Robert Scoble
from email
Cool!
- Bluesun 2600
jeebus! its awesome but expensive
- David
That's not fair!! OLED!!!
- Bwana ☠
looks amazing and would love to have that
- Joshua Smith
Looks nice - might be something to conisdert... hook up to external monitor when at the desk
- Matt Faulkner
from twhirl
Is that a fully functional PC in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?
- Eric @ CS Techcast
$1500 for 2gig of RAM and 3G? Who buys this stuff?!
- Mona Nomura
It's essentially a netbook in a smaller body. Not quite sure it's worth $1,500.
- Shawn Farner
Like the screen, but yes that price is galactic. That said you could put an OLED toaster in front of me and I'd love the screen.
- Mo Kargas
Not worth it?!?!! Dude!! OLED!!!
- Bwana ☠
$1499? Is it made out of gold?
- John Munro
I'm waiting for the Sony Vaio. At least it folds and the screen would be protected.
- Mona Nomura
When it get's cheaper, that'll be awesome. I'll have to enjoy my netbook for now.
- Kamilah Gill
i'll wait a year when its $700 - early adopters will pay the R&D costs for me
- Damian Holmes
Damn. My oqo is ready for an upgrade. I wonder if they give discounts for current oqo owners. @Matt - I hook my model 02 up to my 56" Samsung DLP via HDMI connection. It's amazing.
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Do you guys know what OLED is? This isn't going to drop anytime soon
- Bwana ☠
yeah I know what it is
- Joshua Smith
isn't that the flexible led monitor screen stuff?
- tony
yeah i know - what I also remember is LCD 7-8 years ago for a 15"
- Damian Holmes
Looks like they polished the design quite a bit. I don't think I'd consider it though without some kind of "instant on" feature like the HTC Shift.
- Chris
I apologize. I see OLED, and bodily fluids are involuntarily released. Carry on
- Bwana ☠
Mona, likewise - dreaming of a Vaio P
- Christopher Galtenberg
too expensive for something I will drop and break...
- Peter Hoffmann
Very cool indeed.
- WilliamMuncrief
Robert this is a PC and not a device ;) (jk, 4 all eavesdroppers)
- LPH™ and his dog P™
too fucking small. give me a 17" macbook pro instead. wink wink.
- mjc
If you had $3,000 in your pocket, which would you buy? Canon 5D MKII or Apple 17-inch MacBookPro. Discuss here:
americanm, Nicholas James, Mol, Time Warping and 83 other people liked this
Neither
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
We are arguing about that on the CES bus. Geeks!
- Robert Scoble
Canon 5D MKII hands down.
- Andrew Hyde
pro for sho
- Bradley Will
Canon camera. I need a great camera more than a Mac
- Keith - @tsudo
5d Mk II
- Scott Loftesness
5D MKII, since I've already got a Mac Pro. ;)
- Cory OBrien
Have a Nikon D300 and my old MBP is on the fritz, so this woud be a slam dunk for me
- Gregg Gallagher
17 inch MBP because I love it. Then I'd buy a cheap 40D. I get more use out of a laptop than I do a camera.
- Michael Yurechko
Apple 17-inch MacBookPro with a matte screen.
- Arturo Puente
People who get a good cannon keep them forever, I go through a macbook every few years
- Michael Struening
Macbook Pro. Only because I'm a Nikon fan. D300 is definitely my choice of camera ;)
- Tamar Weinberg
mac
- David Banes
from IM
Mac
- Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)
Would have to be the MacBookPro
- Jason Townsend
The Canon. A solid peice of hardware and I'm after a camera
- Mo Kargas
5D MKII of course.
- Jeremy Franklin
The Canon. I'd have so much more fun with a zippy camera than a Big Mac.
- Mike Neumann
Probably the computer. I'm happy with the first gen 5D I'm about to buy and as awesome as the camera is, the MBP doesn't need another $5K in lenses.
- Derrick
Neither, you need at least twice that for glass & equipment to get the "rig" you should want for a Canon MKII - sorry, 3K isn't enough for that toy; and spending 3K on disposable technology (Mac equipment) isn't a wise investment.
- Enrique Gutierrez
MBP....i miss my macs!
- Brian Bufalo
5D MKII hands down. I can hold onto the memory cards until I get to a desktop :)
- Austin
Without question: 5D mark II
- Rodney L.
MBP - it's a means of production for me, once i make some extra cash with it I can always buy the 5D ;-)
- Warren
which are you going to get more utility from? I'm guessing the Canon.
- Peter Warnock
I already have a 5D MKII but I would take another one in a heartbeat, or a couple of nice L glass
- Bill Pennington
5D Mark II..... no doubt.
- Albert K
Canon, without a doubt.
- Brad Butner
Definitely the MacBook Pro...but then again I'm not a photographer.
- Charlie Flowers
Canon
- Tyler (Chacha)
from IM
Neither, I'd use it to buy food for a year.
- Will Higgins™
Considering I can make quicker cash with my Photography work I would say the Canon 5D MKII and then I would buy the Apple 17 inch MacBook Pro with some of my earnings!
- Patrick Greer
5D Mark II. And then throw the remaining towards some new glass.
- Andy Hannon
2k into the bank, 1k for computer upgrades and other stuff.
- Grant Bierman
5D Mk II everytime ... unless I don't have a Mac at that particular time ...
- Stephen Taylor
I would go for the Macbookpro
- Troy Malone
5D MKII...already have a MacBookPro and I'm willing to ditch my Nikon gear!
- Dan Shust
Canon 5D MKII since I already have the 15" MBP.
- Alan Le
I don't need either one--but I think the Canon would have much better resale value--so given the choices: Canon.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Canon 5D MKII - for sure! - I really want one.... :(
- Brad
MBP - not a photographer
- Matt Faulkner
A 50D and a fast lens. ;-)
- D. Lambert
I've already got the 15" unibody so I'd go for the 5Dmkii
- Sparky, a big deal
If I didn't have a laptop, then I would get the 17" MBP. If I already had a lappy, then get the camera...
- William Sellers
Well, I recently moved from a 30D to a 5DMII because it was a huge upgrade for my "system". With a 2 year old Macbook Pro still serving me well for my needs, it's an easy decision. Additionally, I can't see using a 17" notebook over a 15 for portability sake, I'd just as well get an iMac and keep using my Macbook Pro for mobile use.
- Ryan
Aren't you in Vegas? I think there are a few other options in front of you..
- LA Snark
5D!!
- Wil
The camera. I have a new macbook already.
- Jim Williams
The 5D is more than a $3k investment. It's $3k upfront but thousands in lenses, flashes and other gear over the years.
- Michael Yurechko
Canon 5DMIII...
- Greg Kamer
MacBookPro 17-inch. I am a Nikon guy. So, Canon 5D MKII if I had $7K for all the lenses, too.
- Chintan Zaveri
The camera! I already have the 15" MBpro. 17" is just too big.
- Sherry Main
My 1 yr-old MacBook doesn't thrill me; it sits on the desk unused, and I just couldn't pay more than $200 for a camera, unless I was dreadfully rich.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
5DMKII - sell some images on istockphoto, and then buy an MSI Wind and install OSX. It is faster than my 15" MBP!
- Darren Mak
Definitely the 5D MkII
- Christopher Chan
$3,000 worth of NOODLZ
- Bwana ☠
MBP. I just got a brand new camera.
- Glen Campbell, B.A.
100 shares of CRM ;D
- barl0w
What would I do with a Mac?
- drsPIX
5D MkII - want! I already have a Mac, iPhone, 2 PC's and a laptop. <sigh> gadget budget is small right now though.
- Jim Bergman
canon 5d. already have a 15 mbp
- Kiran Patchigolla
5D MK II You can always get the Mac later.
- Yu Yu Din
I'd pay my bills and buy some groceries.
- ::Kristen::
Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro.
- Chris Luckhardt
What's an Apple 17-inch MacBookPro and why would a person need one?
- Michael Krigsman
Mac book pro
- Randy
MacBook Pro because I have neither a mac or digital SLR and the Mac does many things where as the canon does one thing well/
- Bryan Lee
Canon 5D MKII
- منصور
I'll take the MacBook Pro
- Rob
MacBookPro...or a Martin 12 http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product... and use the difference to buy a copy of logic pro for my 15" macbook pro
- Armen Chakmakjian
I'll go for the MacBook. My heart beats nikon so....
- studio_juan
5D MKII - do you want to lug around that 17" beast?
- nicholas einstein
MBP - already have a nice Canon - but my Mac sits firmly on my desk
- shaun mclane
MacBook Pro, but I would need another $1200 for the 8GB of RAM.
- Shawn Hickman
5D MKII. Even though I already have one.
- Kathleen McGivney
Neither. Maybe 3 coins :). I have a Macbook Pro which I don't use often comparing to my PC. I am not into the consumer electronic stuff, only got a digital cam last year :).
- dexin
Canon. Can't believe Apple ditched the matte screen on the 17" - FCP users and photographers don't want a glossy screen - the idea of the 17" is the ability to use it out in the field for photo/video editing.
- Peter Clayton
So limiting, Robert! If I could pick whatever I wanted, I'd get one of those sweet Asus multi-touch netbooks coming out - and then use the rest to buy Yahoo! stock. :P
- Shawn Farner
MB 13'' and the external cinema display. MBP17 is huge to carry out
- Jean-Charles VERDIE
canon
- jtothea
17" MBP FTW! You should create a poll on SocialToo.com Robert, then we can see graphed results!
- Joseph
Craigslist in Cincinnati - 5D for 1200: http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/ele...
- D. Lambert
Wow, what a great argument! 82 comments in 17 minutes!
- Robert Scoble
MacBook Pro. I really, really, really want a new laptop even though my current MacBook works just fine.
- Nation Hahn
Camera. Droooooooooool.
- Alix Whitmire
Well part of it would have to go towards fixing my car, http://preview.tinyurl.com/9dz2kz. Then the rest would go towards buying a second camera body to be my main and at least one lens if not two. Then the rest would go towards bills.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
Robert: Apple products plus awesome SLR cameras...response is a given :)
- Mo Kargas
the camera is nice - especially all the HD video. friend of mine in the movie post-production business reckons this sort of Camera will KILL the movie camera business in a few years time. especially at the low-budget movie (<$30 million) of the movie business. RED already making big inroads. much cheaper than an ARRI.
- Scot Mcphee
The MK II as I already have the MBP 17 inch...older but it works.
- Semipro
Canon 5D is the winner for me. Great digital photography is the gift that keeps on giving.... ;-)
- John Uppendahl
Well.... Given that I have 4 PC desktops, 2 PC laptops, and 1 iMac, all of which are operational and regularly used, AND that I suck at photography, I'm going for what's behind door #3: A whopping big HDTV -- which will get hooked up to the living room PC, of course. ;-)
- Joanmarie
17" Mac. Already have a camera. . .
- Scott Whitney
Nikon D3
- Bill Sanders
Macbook Pro for me. Would be my first Mac.
- Jim Bednarz
Nikon D3
- ThePicMan
MacBook Pro. Don't need such a super-duper crazy camera. Not a real photographer. But a very real Mac geek.
- Louis Gray
5D for sure!
- Daniel Pourasghar
I'd go the MacBook - but I'd also load it up with the full 8gb of RAM I see as an option (and not many people mentioning). Sadly, a nice 17" MBP setup it just over NZ$10k :(
- Mark Derricutt
MacBook Pro. Hands down. I'm a computer engineer, not a photographer.
- Logan Leger
well since I've already got a Canon 5D Mark II... hmmmm...
- Thomas Hawk
I'll buy neither. What I would rather do is try to buy one share of BRK-B if it gets to that price. :)
- imabonehead
The 17" Mac Book Pro, I already have a 5D MkII ;-)
- Jeff P. Henderson
I'd buy the camera, I have always loved photography and wanted to learn.
- R. Ferguson
The Canon, all the way man!!
- Finding The View
Apple! I don't like the fact of the hd video recorder on the 5D and I want the Sony alpha!
- Brandy Lea
Canon. 15" MBP is the largest I'll go.
- ronin
I would take the cash and build an ultimate gaming PC !!! :D
- ralphsaunders
When you buy an inexpensive camera, you really sacrifice quality, and that lack of quality endures (you want to keep your photos forever, right?). When you buy an inexpensive computer, that's not the case (I don't need a unibody case :)
- David Andrzejewski
Canon 5D - easy answer!
- Susan Beebe
Ouch, this one hurts. I suppose I can't opt for a Nikon equivalent to the Canon? If this is the choice, I'd opt for the MacBook Pro. But if I had 3K, I'd buy myself the Nikon D300
- Karoli
The Canon. A 17" laptop is too big unless you plan to use it as a desktop.
- Hartley Spurlock
Mac for sure.I have a first generation Macbook and I need a new one. Kaya Singer
- Kaya
I'd pay off my credit card. For all that stuff I, like, already bought.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
the Macbook pro but only because I need to upgrade my computer.
- Anna Lynn M.
the Camera for sure
- Tai
5d Mark II
- Jauder Ho
None - a super-gaming rig. :)
- carrotmadman6
Definitely a Canon 5D.
- Maria Colacurcio
5D Mark II - Hands down.
- Seagate
I would save it until I had between $8-15K for a CO2 laser cutting machine. I like my macs small, and while full frame sounds nice, I know I'm not nearly hungry enough to go pro in photography, so 40D suits me just fine.
- Jason Wehmhoener
That's a tough one because I have been wanting to get my first Mac (have to start somewhere, right?!) but am a hard core Canon fan/user. So if push came to shove, I would have to go with the Canon.
- Laura Zickus
Mmm, CO2 lasers.
- Mo Kargas
That would be either a trip to another continent or a Fujitsu LifeBook P1630, but it would not be either of the options in the question. I seriously cannot understand $3k for a camera, unless you're going to make that money back in a month or two WITH said camera.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Neither, I would invest in the stock market.
- DGentry
I'd prefer a D300, however no matter what brand I'd take the camera in a second over the MBP. Save up another $500 and get a Windows Notebook as well.
- Kenton
The Canon 5D MKII for sure. Cameras bring me a lot more joy than flashy computers. Though a 17-inch MacBookPro would be nice to edit those new photos on too ;-)
- Ian Holton
from twhirl
Probably the Mac. I would never carry around a DSLR. Too big.
- Rodfather
Neither. The new full frame format with HD Movies (wow! Woopee *rolls eyes*) is crap - only 3.9 FPS?! Who are they kidding?!
- Adam
Seeing my Macbook Pro is 5 months old. I would buy neither...but I would buy a MacPro with more RAM.
- Ryan
I take a cruise with Lindsay - big ass stateroom.
- Internet's Tad
Neither, I'd get a Canon Rebel XTi and build a new gaming PC, anything left over would go toward the new home NOC
- xero
I would take my lover to Italy :)
- Maryam Scoble
The Canon 5D, I find the photographic process calming, a welcome diversion from the ones and zeros.
- cornedbeefgents
Awwww :)
- Mo Kargas
If I had the $3,000, Canon 5D and a larger donation here http://tinyurl.com/daniela Pros: it's more portable, takes better pictures, and connects to my more compact 15" Macbook Pro. Of course, it doesn't work with my Nikon lenses, so...
- Lee Dale
Canon 5D MKII only cause I have a Macbook Pro. If I didnt it would be the Macbook.
- Bob Maltais
Nah. Patrick's college fund. 5D Mark 2 or the Macbook isn't all that exciting.
- Joshua Hayworth
cannon.I kill computers, so not worth spending 3 grand on one. Plus I have a (beat up) macbook pro already.
- InPerpetualMotion(Gina k)
Photos shoot at 3.9 fps, video shoots at 30 fps. @AdamGiovane
- Jim Bergman
The MacBook of course.
- Rob Fahrni
mac
- Vishy
5D, but I wish it had XLR audio.
- Gus
the new MBP, without a doubt ... my current ones needs a refresh (I'm accepting donations btw) ;-)
- Jeffrey Canton
Since I'll be getting the new MBP anyway, I'll take the 5D. BTW, is anyone keeping score?
- Brad Kligerman
I would buy the Canon, but of course, I would need a MacBook Pro in order to edit/view the photos the way they were meant to be viewed.
- Robert Peña
Blatant self-promotion, but if Robert used re-searchr.com it would keep score for us... I wrote it to suck down inline multiple choice selections so no ne would even have to leave ff
- James Ostheimer
Robert, you're asking the question that's been pondering in my mind from some time (albeit it used to be with the 15" and Cinema display v. 5D/a900/D700 -cannot make my mind-). I want to be able to make a decision before March. I think I'll be going for the Mac, since I might relocate in part of the world where carrying an expensive piece of art around my neck might be more dangerous than here, in JPN.
- Paul Papadimitriou
I'd go for a MBP, mine needs an upgrade and I just bought a 50D not long ago which is just fine for me.
- Andrew Trinh
from Nambu
I need cash! :)
- Randy
Some of us are Nikon people. Some of us are not Mac people. I'll just take the 3 Gs.
- Eric @ CS Techcast
Nikon D700 + 50mm 1.4 prime lens!
- Guillaume Lemoine
More lenses. My camera is fine, and this Thinkpad is a good 'un.
- Paula W
Seems like Apple design the 17-inch MacBookPro just can use in 3years.the battery can only use in 1000 times,1time per 1day,3years.But Canon 5D can take more beatuful pics for me,and can stand by me more than 3years.if i really have 3000dollers,i real do this.kick off 17-inch MacbookPro.
- jedorstar
from twhirl
Lenses, like Paula sez.
- Rob Kramer
Buy half and half :)
- Michael Forian
Wow, I came late to this convo. Well, for what it's worth at this point, I'd probably get the lappytop, sell my old MBP and then use THAT money to buy a cheaper camera. :D
- Jon, the Beartato of FF
Canon 5D MKII, no doubt. I have a 1.5 year old 15-inch MacBookPro which is still more than OK. Going from Canon 400D to a 5D MKII however would be a major upgrade.
- Rutger Blom
Macbook I think. I have a 40D but REALLY want the 5D. Which do you think you could get your hands on first?
- Andrew Smith
The 5D. The MacBookPro can wait.
- Chris Nixon
5D, I have enough laptops as it is.
- Amit Morson
The $2800 MBP becomes a lot more compelling when converted to 2080€.
- Brad Kligerman
I'm a Nikon guy but the 5D MKII has me seriously considering a switch
- Bryan Thatcher
from twhirl
As I don't like Macs and into my photography the choice out of the two is simple. :-) But I've rather spend the money on say the Nikon D3 and if you gave me an extra grand or 2 then I'd go for the Nikon D3X. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
from twhirl
Without though, the Canon 5D MKII. First up, you don't want to trust another "first gen" Apple product. And with the unimpressive lineup yesterday, maybe the 15" laptops are coming out real soon now, with similar features, and all quirks ironed out
- Colin Charles
from twhirl
MAC!!!
- Orli Yakuel
(Friendfeed needs a poll feature)
- Jérôme Flipo
5D over the MAC Pro.
- Robert Miller
MacBookPro - just bought myself a nice camera with a fracking big lens!
- Joel Hammond-Turner
Canon!
- Janet
Canon. I have a laptop and rarely use it - well not as a laptop. It sits on a desk as a permenant fixture.
- Ian May
Canon 5D mk 2 :)
- Joe Dawson
Camera, I never liked the 17". It's too heavy for a "portable"
- Melissa dela Merced
from twhirl
neither, a big ass HDTV :)
- Terry O'Fee
17-inch macbookPro is way too big. so I would go for the camera. Problem is I would need to learn how to use it then...
- Davide D'Incau
If you have good lenses to take advantage of the MKII (extra $3000 needed here), go for the camera!
- Joao Pedro
I would buy a Apple 17-inch macbook of course.! I don't have an apple and I would really like one. I have a camera thats good enough for me.
- Qbat
nor this neither that! i will send money to help people in Gaza or at least I'll send 1000 $.
- خیزران Has gone
canon 5d mk ii based on the videos I've seen - i mean just look at these http://is.gd/cP6x
- planetMitch
The Canon, surely. No use for a laptop that big.
- Ryan Sholin
5D over here too
- Simon Wicks
Macbook Pro 17!
- Greg
The camera. Already have three computers but have no camera.
- Martha
I am not pro enough to need the 5D, I am actually looking at a D60 or D90. But the 17 Macbook is something I can use :)
- TheSleepyGeek
I'd buy the Nikon D700
- David Parmet
from twhirl
neither - cash is still king
- viki saigal
its the lens, not the body - spring for L glass
- @jessewright
MacBookPro
- Stewart Rogers
New MacBookPro 17". I would probably get more use out of it than the Canon. But my, oh my, ya'll, the Canon sure is sweet.
- Matthew Freeman
5D - I don't need a macbook. I'm happy with my PC and laptop - they cover my my needs perfectly.
- Roberto Bonini
MBP.
- Michael Molinar
Donate it to @armano.
- Jim Mitchem
given my current status .. I am happy with my Canon XTi so I would go for the MacBook Pro.
- Kapil
5D, but that's cuz I've been saving up for one. A new MBP would def. be on the list of future purchases (current computer is 3 years old)
- Michael
Canon 5d Mk II, far more useful than the new laptop. More fun. One encourages you to sit around, the other encourages you to go out :-)
- Richard A.
MacBookPro, Canon sux. (OK, relax, just kidding. I'm a Nikon guy. I have no Canon lenses.)
- Trevor Carpenter
Canon!!
- Ivy /composmentis
from twhirl
I would buy the Mac, get a cheaper camera with the money I have left, and edit and enhance my videos using my Mac.
- Shevonne
I'd go the Mac route. I'm looking to buy one anyway and I've already got a camera. Might not be as fancy as the Canon do-dad, but I'll manage.
- James Ferguson
Wow 202 comments! How did I miss this thread? :)
- AJ Batac
17 inch MCP
- johnpiercy
The 17" MBP as my current 12" PB is on it's last legs and needs replacing - need rather than want for me
- Sally Church
The Canon. I already have a 17" MacBook Pro.
- Carmen
The Canon... even though I already have a 5D and actually need a new laptop
- Shawn Duffy
from twhirl
Macbookpro
- Roger Kondrat
I'd say the MacBook... you can do more with it.
- Dejim Juang
EOS 5D
- Julien Guyard
This would be much more enjoyable if there was some kind of poll widget along side comments.
- Michael Leggett
The camera..I find apple laptops overpriced for what they offer.
- Nick
Would be easier to see at a glance.
- Richard A.
I'd by the largest HD display I could...
- Clay Newton
Canon 5D MKII. huh.. no: a powerful Linux box
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
The MacBookPro, I have a Canon 30d but I do not have a MacBook
- Bob Gannon
I wouldn't want a 17'' monster of a MacBookPro and therefore would go for the Canon 5D MKII
- Donald Townsend
Neither. Both are overpriced. If no other options; I'd go camera.
- Wade Dorrell
5D, the 17-inch MacBook Pro is very big. Harder to find bags for it and its less portable.
- seanb
bank it, put in matress, done need either of those things, we need smarter devices that tell us the likelyhood of use-longevitiy in them, "i'm a camera you bought last year, you used me 9 times, i collect dust, owner- please resist replacing me unless you really really really need to, and the data suggests you don't.."
- Dan Rockwell
from twhirl
Not enough to buy what I want with the Canon, and I wouldn't be caught dead spending $3000 on a laptop. What a waste!
- Paul Puri
Neither. A $3000 laptop is not worth it just because of its branding.
- Spencer
ohh.. I can't choose. I want both of them... But if i choose, first canon, second mac... İ have canon 40 d and 15'' mac book pro. And i don't like mac's new screen. It's like mirror...
- devletsah
Spencer: as a recent PC to Mac switcher, it's more than brand. Much more.
- Ryan
I'd buy a netbook for the other three members of my family and put the remaining $2000 toward bills or savings. :)
- Steve Lowe
Agree with Aaron, love my 13" Macbook and really want the 5D MKII
- Kyle
Definitely the Mac.
- John Clifton
Is this thing still going? I can't remember if I replied to this yet, but I say it depends on what will benefit you the most. Robert, you are a photo-maniac. I know that you have a few cameras laying around the house, but I don't know how many Macs you have. You have to remember that a 17" laptop sounds great on paper, but I know that you do a lot of traveling as well, so it might now suite your means. Then again, I would never keep $3,000 dollars in my pocket ;)
- Michael Forian
of course the mac - doesn´t matter what the second option is...
- Dieter Schwarz
I would buy the Canon 5D MKII but being a Nikonian I would end up buying the MacBook Pro and feel no remorse :)
- Carlos Lorenzo
MacBook Pro. I need a laptop really bad.
- Nick Humphries
The camera. 17-inch laptops are fricking ridiculous.
- Andru Edwards
camera and a box of junior mints
- Morgan Haley
I'd definitely go for a MB Pro. My Rebel XTi and Panasonic GS180 video cam is doing me just fine.
- emon hassan
Forget the Mac, keep your current camera, and buy better lenses.
- Michael Krigsman
17 inch laptop is useless in term of mobility so I would go with the Canon
- Hadar Weiss
A Sony a900. :)
- Jeff Jones
Neither. I'd start with the Bonobo Pro Ubuntu Laptop for under $2000 and use the $1000 to max it out. http://system76.com/product...
- Internet Strategist
Impressive amount of comments here, this has to be the highest ever now right?
- Joe Dawson
I'm sorry, can you repeat the question: did you say a "camera", a "computer" or a "shark with laser beams"?
- Micah Wittman
save the money for tougher times. as much as I'd like the Canon, it's going to be just an expensive toy for me. and my three year old Inspiron works just fine for the most things I do on it.
- Franci Penov
from twhirl
5Dm2 because I already have the new MBP 15" 2.8Ghz. Mostly b/c the cam is more revolutionary than the 17", even though the 17" battery life is enticing.
- Thomas Bøhm
Wow, 250 comments - OMG ...FF is really growing ...YEAH !!!
- Susan Beebe
Yeah, this week has produced several >100 comment threads in my feed.
- xero
Not the 5D, but some body+the best lenses, that actually lasts longer. Laptops are out of date in months and often die within 18, cameras and lenses last a lot longer
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
I would buy a Apple 17-inch MacBookPro, only cause I already have a SLR, so I dont need the Canon 5D MKII.
- Colide81 (James)
I would not spend it, id rather invest 3000 dollars with 10 shares of google
- Kyle Weller
then just buy lenses - you probably already have a computer that can do everything you need
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Exxon-Mobile. Oh wait, what was the question again?
- Erik S
Neither- new hardware for the pending Win7 beta drop. :)
- Randy Holloway
from twhirl
both!
- jortai
@Ryan I am a Mac user, have been for a while. It's just my opinion, but $2800 for a piece of hardware in which you can the same or better specs on a PC, is quite a bit of branding.
- Spencer
Using the MacBook Pro 17 inch now (love it!)- and I am quite happy with my Canon Powershot G9, so I'll just take the cash and pay down some of my debt--thanks!
- Kelly W.
Canon 5D MKII then buy the 15" MacBook Pro later.
- John Wang
I would buy a new fast lens for my old 5D (around $1000) and save the rest.
- Alexander Arsky
Nikon E90 *and* a 15" Macbook. :) I bend rules.
- Daniel Miessler
Nikon E90 like Daniel :P
- Mol, Time Warping
I already have the mac so I would take the Camera.
- WilliamMuncrief
is someone tabulating these answers?
- Glen Campbell, B.A.
Canon 5d MKII, i'm not a mac person so that was easy.
- Squid
I've been back and forth on this since the 17" was announced. I am very likely to upgrade to the 5DMKII this year. But I want a more powerful laptop to work on the huge files it creates. Chicken? Egg? Confused.
- Jeremy Brooks
Canon 5D MKII for sure. MBP 15 is still chugging along after 2 years. And the 5D is still doing great after 1 year, but I would really like the new 5D.
- Johnny Sewell
5D Mark II , without a doubt!
- americanm
Caonon 5D all the way
- John Uppendahl
Twitter/friendfeed contest: be the first to get Seagate's FreeAgent Theater HD media player. Details here:
Drew, LeighaB, Susan Beebe and 7 other people liked this
http://scobleizer.com/2009... has the details.
- Robert Scoble
First. I win. I'll tell you where to send it here:
- Shawn Farner
Want to be one of the first to try out the Seagate FreeAgent|Theater HD media player device? It comes out in March, but you can win one today. Here’s the first way to win: How: Be one of the first 10 people to meet me at the Seagate meeting room on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 1 p.m. PT. Bring a business card or contact info so we know where to ship your prize. You must be a member of...
more...
- Robert Scoble
So sool Robert! Segates CEO 'Gets it'. And their quality is still good.
- Michael G. Galli
Now that I live in Indonesia, no chance I'm gonna get that prize. My network is no where near you. Can you make it another one eligible for your online far away readers? ;)
- Toni @ NavinoT
Akhmad: that's not true. Last time I did this several people outside the US won, including in India. This is now a global network.
- Robert Scoble
Akhmad: You don't have a chance if you don't try ;)
- Qbat
Akhmad: Oh, and I'll randomly give away anyone who doesn't give someone else's name other than mine. So that's another way to win.
- Robert Scoble
Randomly out of which group is that?
- Tom Ribbens
Tom: anyone who talks about the contest on Twitter or friendfeed.
- Robert Scoble
Go Akhmad.. :D
- Pico Seno
In my perfect world, EVERY gadget would come with an attached USB, so I'd never have to bring charging/sync cables with me. Just plug it in.
Sylvain Nadeau, Nuruddin Hadii', Matt Faulkner and 10 other people liked this
So a USB drive should have an attached USB? (Sorry, couldn't resist :) It would be cumbersome for some devices, though: small cellphones, digital frames, ebook readers (the slim ones like the Sony Reader), iPod nanos (or any "nano" mp3 player, etc.
- Rui Pereira
yea, it would work best on anything palm size or smaller.
- Fee501st
clearly I meant the plug part ;)
- Veronica
To me.. you only need a mini USB socket on everything --- then one cable would fit all, but that is too easy
- Ian D. Nock
Ian they need to support USB Charging too. The Nokia devices have the mini USB port but cannot be charged over USB. But yes I get what you're getting at. Unified charging is absolutely necessary
- Bhavishya Kanjhan
You are going to CES. Pitch this idea to someone, become super rich, then retire ;)
- Fee501st
SD cards with the built in usb adapter's = Win! :)
- Percival
The lack of charging ability with Nokia is their own choice - not a technology limitation. Almost every device I have has a mini-USB and charges - it has been great for travel. Oh, and as a pitch it is flawed as far as these guys are concerned as it destroys the secondary market for add-on charges, sync cables etc that people like Nokia and Apple love to generate
- Ian D. Nock
I remember that a few cell phone companies last year decided to standardise in future...but picked the micro-USB connector just to be awkward, but I have seen no evidence of any that have appeared like this.
- Ian D. Nock
I have 40gigs of music in my iTunes library on random shuffle. Being caught off guard and pleasantly surprised rules. Little things. :)
Parth Awasthi, Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕, Nine and 28 other people liked this
Always. Little things. Yup.
- Kamath (नमः)
oh definitely.
- Thomas Hawk
Confession: I just fixed a typo LOL
- Mona Nomura
last.fm is my random shuffle. Random is good.
- Ontario Emperor
from fftogo
40! Man, I only have about 25 GB. But, I've been holding back since I only have a 30 GB iPod. Can't wait until I can afford a 60 GB or 120 GB.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
This is at home - I carry a Nano and 16gig Touch but only when I fly.
- Mona Nomura
from IM
I am still uploading my stuff to lala. This is going to take forever since I am acquiring new music at a faster rate than the application is uploading it.
- April Russo (app103)
That rules. (acquiring new music at a faster rate than upload)
- Mona Nomura
Great timing, Mona! I just hit 40.01 GB. :)
- Pete Delucchi
On your iPod?
- Mona Nomura
in the library...my video iPod is only 30gb, and the iphone's only 16 -- so I made the iPhone get all the electronic and dance music, and the iPod gets the rock, blues, alternative, and everything else
- Pete Delucchi
iPhone's 'only' 16? LOL
- Mona Nomura
from IM
Only when compared to modern laptops and desktops. In a few years the 1TB iPhone won't seem so silly. I CANNOT WAIT. I AM WITHOUT WAITING.
- Sparky, a big deal
DO NOT FORGET THE TELEPHOTO LENS THAT TAKES CLEAR PICTURES OF MARS ROVERS AND THE FOOD MACRO MODE WITH 938742938749238749 MEGAPIXELS SPARKY!!!! Speaking of iPhones, how is your dog btw? :(
- Mona Nomura
from IM
I downloaded about 17G of music the other day because my daughter's boyfriend was bored with what was on his ipod and wanted something "different".
- April Russo (app103)
Mmmmars rover! Skype is doing much better. He's done with all the medications except the oral antibiotic and the cone has come off :)
- Sparky, a big deal
Reminds me of a research project at Microsoft. The gist of it was, imagine a storage device that you'd wear that recorded a video and audio stream of your surrounding *all the time*. Basically an indexable / searchable record of your life. Increases in storage could make something like that a reality.
- mikepk
April - I hope she is grateful!! @Sparky: Good to know and I'm glad. :) I still remember my heart racing when I saw all those medications on your counter top... lol
- Mona Nomura
++mikepk, that's the ultimate lifestream! That is the future of our race: all humans experiencing what everyone else does every instant, in other words a -single- consciousness. Life always comes back full circle IMO, born from a single blob, we go back to being a single blob(of consciousness).
- vijay
With Cloud storage and access to services like Lala on mobile devices it won't really matter how large your drive is. I wonder how long that'll be, though.
- Gus
I actually store almost all of my media online. :) I'm waiting for mobiles to catch up but for now, streaming is find for me. Pandora, Sling, Last.fm, SimplifyMedia, etc. ;)
- Mona Nomura
from IM
If you have about 3.5G of empty space and want something different & off the beaten path, I have a torrent for you (CC licensed, legal to share) http://www.demonoid.com/files...
- April Russo (app103)
I dont do playlists, i just do random - either full random, random within a genre, or random within "not played in the last 3 months". As you say, surprises are great
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
II have almost 500GB of music on a hard drive here, which I play with Music Express and/or Winamp. I don't have iTunes
- Ian May
Last.fm and I do not always get along as there are times that I want to hear music from only one group/band/artist and last.fm wants to "Mix it up" with genre selections.
- Robert Miller
If you want to stream your own collection from any location, and have more control over the playlists, listen to a single artist, etc. lala.com might be a better choice for you than last.fm.
- April Russo (app103)
I love the shuffles. Just sayin.
- Helen Sventitsky
Something about having twins makes me think... quadruplets wouldn't really be all that hard... http://jennmike-kingquads.blogspot.com/
mike, DGentry, Randy and 7 other people liked this
Now... just to convince the wife. Come on, just four more! :-)
- Louis Gray
OMG... Somehow I get the feeling this will only end in pain.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
You've got to get past the man to man and over to zone before you say that. Then it's easy. :-)
- Jesse Stay
It was nice knowing ya Louis. ;-) What does the mom think about that? :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
They're so cute! Who wouldn't want three more Sarahs and a Matthew?
- Louis Gray
Wait til they're 13, Louis... ;-)
- Lisa L. Seifert
Four times more than the usual level of sleep deprivation. Just when you thought you couldn't sleep less than not at all.
- Victor Ganata
song of the day: crystal method :: keep hope alive (bonus interview) - http://www.braincellsoup.com/index... .. a favourite band
VC Freak, Mo Kargas, Brian Bufalo and 2 other people liked this
crystal method
- Brian Bufalo
Sign on Leo Laporte's studio
Emily Miller, David Z, Kol Tregaskes and 69 other people liked this
This sign seems to be a good motto for a friendfeed room. Thanks for joining us -- we are driving home now.
- Robert Scoble
from email
Was fun to watch too :)
- Simon Wicks
I saw you, Patrick, Daniel B. and the rest of the crew sitting on (or standing next to) the ball.
- Michael Perlman
Yeah, it was fun. They had so much more to talk about. Never enough time.
- W. Kirk Crawford
Hahaha. Great Show!
- Brent Cappello
great show :-)
- Simon
Great show Robert.
- Douglas Karr
Good show
- Bwana ☠
Great Show
- Tyler (Chacha)
from IM
you're not driving home yet!
- Chris Heath
great show guys, loved seeing Scoble's live show also.
- Chris Pugh
Really enjoyed the show! Could have easily been a 2 hour show.
- Keith Beucler
i love this! great show today.
- Lise
Leo... Have scoble do a IM A Twit
- Joe K
Awesome show! Dvorak was so grouchy, it was great! :D
- CannonGod
Steve is going to plug feedsqueezer
- Bwana ☠
Where can u find the video the FF video scoble did?
- Claes Krantz
Awesome show to see live!
- Billy Doyle
Leo should add a clause that says " TWIT is no responsible for any violation of NDA's or any other legal bindings." It is quite dangerous when people slip and forget they are on camera.
- Steven (optionshiftk)
"After entering this studio, NDA stands for No Dumb Agreements"
- Billy Doyle
Now, Gillmor is on the line. I hope he read this post.
- Steven (optionshiftk)
That was a great show, learned a lot!
- LA Snark
@Claes Krantz: Yeah, I'd be interested in seeing that too :)
- CannonGod
Great show Robert!
- Laura Zickus
Another T.W.I.T is in the...you know what I mean! Enjoyed the show!
- Reggie L.
That would be smart
- Tyler (Chacha)
from IM
You cept asking if it was live lol....
- ralphsaunders
I can't even tell you the number of times I've seen people trash careers, friendships, and advertising accounts by taking for granted that a studio microphone isn't live.
- Chris Baskind
That was a great show! The sign is great :)
- Justin Levy
* How to get attention: "FF sucks" * How to get subscribers: "FF is awesome" * How to get comments: "FF is better than Twitter" * How to get work done: "Forget FF"
Colide81 (James), Matt Faulkner, Loren Heiny and 45 other people liked this
Looks like you've covered all the regular daily topics on FF.
- Trish R
Yep .. those sentences probably cover about 50% of what is discussed on Friendfeed
- Tyler (Chacha)
Add "social media is [fill in the blank]" and you're at 90%. LOL.
- Trish R
That is funny !!! +1 Trish!
- Susan Beebe
Your message got my attention. :)
- Jemm
You forget that you need to work Scoble in there somehow.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Scoble gets you bonus points.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
We need Social Media the Gathering -cards...
- Jemm
Ha! perfect post.
- BEX
Yes, forgot Scoble and "social media is" .. but also forgot to bump the topic 3 hours after you posted it .. this gives other people a chance to comment too .. ROTFLOL.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
+1 Jemm
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
Shopkeeper leaves deserted store open on Boxing Day with an honesty box - and doesn't lose a penny - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news...
Andy Davies, Patrick Jordan, Great Scott! and 3 other people liked this
Shopkeeper Tom Algie faced a dilemma over Christmas - how to give himself and his three staff time off but without letting down his customers. So he came up with a solution to suit everyone, leaving the hardware store open with an honesty box. He left a note telling shoppers who came in on Boxing Day to serve themselves and then leave their payment in the box he had rigged up. Perhaps astonishingly, his plan worked.
- Wayne Schulz
from Bookmarklet
My web log data shows you are using custom FriendFeed lists in a big way.
Iggy Kin, Nicholas James, Igor Poltavskiy and 44 other people liked this
Some of the list names include: favorite professional must-reads louis-gray a-list technews social-media social-media-newsies personal branded industry-leaders a-listers bloggers tech im-worthy a fun loud social-media-whales 20 real-tech famous-geeks mainstream1 techies non-iranians tech-cred tech-bloggers influencers most-popular -rest tech-industry geek test pay-attention a-list-folks must best-friends like subscribed-2-me technology all techie chat weak-links key-people lots-of-posts lurking list-a random socmedia a---list movers---shakers sort foreign-friends best web-people watched recommended everything blogs-follow second robert-scoble chosen web-20-gurus news the-bar rarely topshelf colleagues interesting list top10 lds bubbling-to-review new sm-bloggers techie-by-scoble newsies---techies revision3 yada-yada social-media-pro tech-friends network tech20 a-bloggers high-tech mobile social-gurus socceleb im pro-bloggers human-aggregators social-butterflies a-list-bloggers teh-nerdz fave english zeldas
- Louis Gray
internetz photography guest-bloggers nerds b---list-techies most-popular big-dogs twitter friendfeeder famous-people social-geeks hot techies key web-twodot web--tech maybes web-2-interesting varios international friendfeed techmeme noisy valley all-friends ru buddies b-list socalites all-my-subscriptions business-related locals ff-buddies loius-gray high-volume social-networking bulk it-information zall global my-people cool-people
- Louis Gray
FriendFeed inserts a - where there is a dash to keep the URLs intact, but these were interesting to see. I hate to tell you guys I'm not "A List". Or "loius", but if you write me as "loius", I'll answer to it. :-)
- Louis Gray
Wait...you're non-Iranian?
- Josh Haley
Wow, there must be something wrong with me ,I don't have any lists! I kind of like it, so I think I'll keep it this way.
- Michael Fidler
That's cool you that you''re humble...
- sofarsoShawn
Good thing the custom list "helped-im-trapped-in-a-cave-and-my-blackberry-battery-is-dying" doesn't show up anywhere. How would we rescue them?
- Phil G
So you looked at the people who go to your blog from a custom list?
- Tyler (Chacha)
One of my personal favorite Lists that someone used to get to my blog..."Noise". Ca-cha!
- Hutch Carpenter
*chuckle* Hutch, I'm the same. The FF list that I get the most traffic from is 'noisy'. I don't know who it is of course, but I've put out an open suggestion that perhaps they should put me on a list called 'guilty pleasure' =D
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
I'll cop to having lists called "Signal" and "Noise", but I'd just point out that if you see that referrer it means the person who posted the link to you was classified that way... not you... right?
- Ken Sheppardson
No, that means that they have you in a list called 'noisy' and the referring page to your blog was frienfeed.com/list/noisy i.e. that's where they were looking when they clicked through.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Confession: I have a list called TO (timeout). If people get too noisy for me I take them off the main feed and send them to TO.
- Mike Doeff
Ken - that's true. If someone on your Noise List GReader Shares a post, tweets it, direct posts it, BackType-comments on it...your blog can be clicked via the Noise List, even if you're not on it.
- Hutch Carpenter
Tina = that's great. Guilty Pleasure List.
- Hutch Carpenter
Tina: Right. They were looking at their "Noisy" page. I don't think you can tell whether (1) they have you on their "Noisy" list (2) you're a friend of someone on their noisy list (3) someone on their Noisy list shared a link to you via Google Reader, a bookmarking service, or the FF bookmarklet.... can you?
- Ken Sheppardson
True enough, Ken. I kinda wish FF offered some type of list meta data, if only to satisfy the curiosity that I know we all feel. Surely I'm not the only one who'd love to see the lists I'm on (no, not the people who have me on them, that would or could be rude).
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
fave english zeldas FTW
- Joe Dawson
Louis you ARE in my A List...seriously! You rock and you were highly instrumental in helping me understand how to use Friendfeed and kept me here :) thanks! Best wishes for a successful 2009 for you and your family!
- Susan Beebe
Agree you are the top of the tops LG
- Thomas Power
Interesting, I prefer everyone in one big stream. No management, I engage read and comment and disengage. I don't want to have to juggle and manage my info flow.
- mikepk
I will experiment and try the list approach for a month or so but I sort of like the melting pot. :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
I'd like to know if I can share my list
- Steve Garfield
Kathy Griffin Abuses Heckler With Oral Sex Reference: CNN goes upmarket in 2009 - http://www.inquisitr.com/13914...
 |
j1m, Matt Faulkner, Derek Coward and 7 other people liked this
ROFL!!!!! That was going into break too! Nice job!
- Drew Lucas
Kathy is ... not funny in person either. http://louisgray.com/live...
- Louis Gray
To the heckler, "I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth!"
- Christopher Harley
Ana Ma Roopa so what if he iis its 2009, is it relevant NO
- Dean Blithe
and they thought they could make it the whole time without something like this happening
- Matt Faulkner
from twhirl
what is wrong with her? and is that a wig?
- Anna Lynn M.
Will Twitter and Friendfeed be so big next year that a top blogger will quit blogging?
Nicholas James, Web20Critic, Marcus Beagley and 38 other people liked this
Yeah, they will get bigger but I doubt a Top Blogger will quite Blogging for that matter :-)
- Sampad Swain
you perhaps? but i'll put money on Scoble.
- Zee.
Are you just giving Scoble ideas?
- Andrew
@Zee not me. I want home field advantage throughout the playoffs (but I want to be a good road team too).
- Steve Rubel
I would say no. Twitter and FriendFeed supplement blogs, they don't replace them, in my opinion.
- Nate Pilling
from twhirl
@Nate, I agree but it seems like this is a critical time for blogging, no?
- Steve Rubel
What if friendfeed becomes a blogging service?
- Robert Scoble
I was thinking Scoble, but I'm not sure if any top bloggers could afford to drop their original platform for purely aggregation services.
- Mo Kargas
@Scoble I thought about that as well. But again, it comes down to equity. Where do you want to build it? Here or on your turf - on your own land/domain. We need systems that connect the two.
- Steve Rubel
Seems like it would be giving up alot of Google juice/distribution power. Why not do both?
- Adam Singer
Perhaps, but the rest of us will carry on as usual.
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
What about people who go straight to FF and consider blogging an afterthought? Either way, the premise that FF/Twitter's 'big-ness' can be causally correlated with a top blogger deciding to stop blogging is wrong.
- trextor
No one will stop blogging because of FF and Twitter.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
I like Friendfeed's best of feature. I find it invaluable but RSS still owns me. How about you?
- Steve Rubel
from IM
Blogging is here to stay. I mean, c'mon, twitter is small messages, and FriendFeed isn't exactly large.Blogs are still required for long/lengthier pieces. Maybe we'll get more higher quality blog posts, akin to what you'd see in traditional media... that'll give them and journalists a run for their money
- Colin Charles
from twhirl
The thing that may cause top bloggers to quit blogging is economic downturn. If the bloggers don't have to go do other jobs to pay the bills, they'll lose their usual audiences because either the audiences have to work more often or their jobs crack down severely on computer activity that isn't work related.
- deusdiabolus
I think the 3 complement each other*
- Billy Warhol
I guess this depends on what field this "top blogger" is in. In '06 and '07 I already lost a few of my oft-read political and.or black bloggers to Twitter. One shut down his blog, "If you want to read my thoughts, follow me on Twitter". All his blog is now, is his Twitter stream.
- Anika
@Scoble Friendfeed has been a blogging service for you I suppose. Your scobleizer.com is a just long journal tool. Friendfeed is where you "blog".
- Toni @ NavinoT
blogging, microblogs, microvlogs (seesmic) and vlogs (vloggerheads) will continue. Each expresses different things, differently.
- Tom Guarriello
Twitter = chirping. Blogs = barking. FriendFeed = licking.
- Gus
I don't think so ;) I think FF works as a way to converge information, and it always include blogs. I use Twitter in a different way, only sharing few information, but I don't think a top blogger would quit blogging for Twitter.
- Bibi
Twitter sucks - always has, always will. It's too limited, and only geeks - like myself - use it.
- Brad Williamson
@Robert Good idea.Is Paul agreed?:)
- Igor Poltavskiy
BradW: absolutely wrong to say only geeks use Twitter. You have no idea how wrong you are.
- Robert Scoble
yes
- Damien Franco
Does it matter? People should just use whatever tools are best for them. There are people who blog less or have even stopped, but there are also people who blog more because they find things to write about on twitter than need more than 140 characters. And there will be new things to discover in the next year.
- Steve Rhodes
Yes...wait quit blogging... no. But stop blogging for blogging.
- Ryo / Fuck Facebook
@Robert True. There are non-geeks who use Twitter - there just aren't very many of them. And those who do don't use it on a daily basis, because they have other all-in-one services (Facebook, MySpace) they can use to keep friends updated on their statuses. I give Twitter another two years of success before the downward slope begins.
- Brad Williamson
It'd be great if they did. More room for the rest of us who know how to balance all of it.
- Louis Gray
We might just lose a blogger named Robert Scoble to microblogging
- Sidharth Dassani
Just the opposite - you'll see them integrate more into the blogs of people, and it will just be a transparent part of a person's own blog. People like to own their data, especially in times of economic uncertainty.
- Jesse Stay
Hasn't Calacanis already done that
- Marcus Beagley
Don't you label Tweets and FriendFeed messages as micro-blogging? Sometime you need more than 140 characters... :)
- Martin Lindeskog
Even us gentleman's C-list bloggers are feeling the tug to throw in the long form towel. Just so many words. In future, I expect to add a letter every few days. Nanoblogging.
- david beckwith
If Apple updates the MacMini next month as rumored, I'll consider one. I need an always on device for media streaming and some home automation project plans. Ideally, I'd like a nettop running Intel's Atom CPU because I want to keep the energy consumption down.
Nathan Messer, Benoit Cazenave, Phil Boiarski and 3 other people liked this
You should pick up a personal wind turbine to counter act the energy
- Matt Faulkner
from twhirl
Matt, I looked into one after seeing Ed Begley's. Unfortunately, my homeowners association won't allow one. ;)
- Kevin C. Tofel
Paid Posts, Izea, Kmart, Sears, Social Media, Reputations and Cash Money - http://www.centernetworks.com/izea-km...
Web20Critic, Mindaugas Dagys, Karim and 17 other people liked this
Good detail here, Allen. Well-written and a good length as well!
- Louis Gray
Thanks Louis! I have a lot more on the topic
- Allen Stern
Can I click like 10 times? Great post and I learned something about Allen too.
- Robert Scoble
thanks Robert!
- Allen Stern
another great post Allan thank you!
- Kipp Bodnar
I actually read this whole thing - no skimming! - great article
- Sarah Perez
Nice job Allen
- Charlie Anzman
Quote: "I did notice that Chris Brogan purchased a few items for a charity". That's a misleading statement, which can turn the whole post. You need to go reread his post on Dadomatic.com. MOST of the $500 gift card benefited ToyforTots.
- Ed Shahzade /NextInstinct
thanks charlie/sarah - Ed, will double check when i get home from this event im at now
- Allen Stern
Google launched a program that makes it easy to add driving directions to your site. http://maps.google.com/help...
Sig Lonegren, Matt Faulkner, Chris Baskind and 3 other people liked this
Is There a Get Out of MobileMe Free Card? - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
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Mark Bylok, Matt Faulkner, Aad 't Hart and 15 other people liked this
Even though I'm definitely not as connected as you are, I remember what I went through to try and get all my stuff over from Hotmail to GMail.
- Bryce, Low in Sodium
I SO wanted the promise of MobileMe to be true.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Getting off one Mail platform to another is probably harder than changing phone numbers. I can think about it, but I am absolutely concerned something would break in the process.
- Louis Gray
domains and hosting are cheap enough now. turn off the cable tv bill, tune in to your own IMAP, drop out of all walled gardens. :-)
- michael silverton
At this point, my younger sister is more of an Apple apologist than I am. She works for the Apple store and just posted a comment on the site.
- Louis Gray
I second Michael for IMAP on your own domain... Also, I have never used the .mac service, but I believe you are able to forward a copy of all email right? Forward them to Gmail and then use Gmail's POP or IMAP functions to receive and send through the very same mail application you are using today. Nothing lost, all there...
- John Serra
Currently moving to Google Apps and away from MobileMe. MM will never be worth $99/year.
- Kevin Whalen
Louis, I say get your own domain and have your mail forwarded there. My domain's email is hosted by Google. It has been very reliable, offers 25GB of storage and very good SPAM filtering. Since I use an iPhone, MobileMe is still useful for pushing/syncing calendar and Address Book updates automatically--that is all I use it for. Until someone else enables the same functionality, we are stuck with MobileMe. In the interim, forward your louis.gray@mac.com --> @louisgray.com while you transition.
- Ryan Petty
I never ever ever ever rely on another domain as my primary address. Always direct email to a domain you own. Did I mention I never ever use another domain as my primary email.
- Wayne Schulz
I'm not hugely dependant on calender/contacts sync, but I find not having google calender sync makes me use the iPhone calender and add only the most important events to Google. Its annoying.
- Roberto Bonini
How do you folks deal with spam on your own domains? Do you chose only hosting services with spam assasin or another tool?
- dK
dakay - Email sent to my email address is sent straight to my gmail account, it doesn't have a mailbox on the server. Then anything that makes it through gmail's spam filter gets a label and is archived and forwarded to another address which has a full IMAP mailbox. I get the benefits of gmail spam filtering, can send from my own email address without the "on behalf of" line, plus everything is backed up in gmail in case anything goes wrong with my email server.
- David Owens
+1 for the suggestion of grabbing your own domain. I use my own domain, but I have gmail grab the messages using pop3 (I also grab a copy local into Thunderbird). It took me about a year to turn off the old address after I switched, but I like having everything under my control.
- Sean Brady
I'm using Google Apps for Domains. It's antispam is pretty tight. The spam that does make it through their first round of filters ends up in the spam folder. I never get spam in my main inbox.
- Jason Shultz
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