Get some colour and come graphics in there. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Does that case come with the Kindle? Looks nice.
- Benjamin Golub
Pure pleather-like goodness: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-.... The case has a clever little hook mechanism that makes it easy to pop the Kindle in and out, but you can definitely use the Kindle with the case on. Feels and looks more like a book with the case on, plus it protects the screen. They say it is real leather, which is a shame, as it feels like pleather and frankly I'd rather it was fake.
- DeWitt Clinton
Can you please check if it shows UTF-8 characters? Like my name?
- Vinay | विनय
I am starting to get pretty excited about those... was pretty skeptical at first, but that is going to be a game changer.
- Susan Beebe
@Michael - I had never heard of it. But I'll admit that, off all the things I wished my Kindle could do, fold in half was not one of them. And this may sound like heresy, but I'm not sure the high-level OS stack is the limiting factor in of ebook readers. Give me more surface area (Kindle DX size), a thinner bezel, higher resolution and maybe color, ditch the keyboard (okay, so maybe an touchscreen IME would help), a brushed aluminum body, and keep the thickness and weight constant, and you have an upgrade.
- DeWitt Clinton
Ugh. It's like 1993 all over again. Whoever can figure out how to make high resolution, eInk screens in color, not necessarily with a rapid refresh rate, will pretty much own this device space for a while.
- Bill Strathearn
I read a tweet from someone who captured the "service unavailable" screen, then tried to post it to FriendFeed...but realized that he couldn't because the service was unavailable.
- John E. Bredehoft
El. Oh. El. You gotta be some sort of stupid to friend your boss before your probation period is up. Fired in front of friends and family? PRICELESS.
- Admiral Anika
She's a f*ing idiot. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine at an ad agency, who accidentally texted "my boss is a fucking cunt" ... to her boss. She didn't get fired or reprimanded, but she freaked out about it.
- LANjackal
It floors me how much people openly vent about their jobs on public feeds like FriendFeed. Even if your boss isn't a direct contact, how are people so sure that a boss or co-worker won't stumble across it?
- Mike Doeff
from iPhone
If I have complaints about work, I try to mask them as much as possible or make them more about me personally than the job itself. At the same time, I really try to stay mum about any job I have..
- Jon, the Chilled Beartato
Mike and how are you so sure that other people don't know who you are talking about? There's a person here on FriendFeed who complains about their coworker. Even though I live in a different city, I know that coworker.
- Admiral Anika
+1 Anika. I generally refrain from talking bad about my employer/coworkers ANYWHERE online. Even on anonymous accounts. You just never know who might freak out and file an unmasking court order. It's happened before.
- LANjackal
from IM
It also doesn't matter if anyone sees it when you write it, because The Google sees it and records it for anyone looking for it years from now.
- Trish R
Maybe the more general rule that comes into play here is to never say anything about someone you wouldn't tell them to their face.
- Ken Sheppardson
What an idiot... When people claim we don't need guidelines for employees using social media, I just have to point out cases of extreme stupidity like this...
- Badger Gravling
Ouch! Hope she learned the lesson. And +1 Ken, this is the simplest rule not to forget at any point.
- lelapin
Well someone has to make room for other people! From the sounds of it, she was probably already canned anyway.
- Robert Fisher
Well that was a bit dumb. The thing about social media is it's just so much a part of our lives. We are encouraged to pour our views and feelings into it but we have to remember who is going to be reading it. In the end we have to censor ourselves so as a result our lifestream is a watered down stream. There are no directors cuts.
- Parvez Halim
Interestingly, every time I consider complaining about my job via any social media platform, I stop and think "how can I make my job better? how can I improve myself?" and then end up writing about that instead. It has made me a much happier person. Really.
- mike fabio
.. and that's why I'm private. I'm pretty good about not talking about work, but never know when I may say something completely stupid
- Rodfather
I think there is a serious point here: Your on-line social network pals will be supportive of you regardless of whether you are right or wrong. That's what friends are for, kind of. All the boss does is let in a bit of reality.
- sjjh
Maybe she wanted to be fired by her boss? Just questioning...
- Torsten Eckert
Splendid. Too bad the story isn't real. OR IS IT...?
- Francesco Balducci
I do so love the false sense of anonymity the Internet instills in people.
- matthew john ernisse
Where did you get this? I'm trying to verify that it is actually a real event. Looks too 'perfect' and to generate this much hype I believe it is just two friends that wanted to laugh about how stupid the world is...
- Brian J. Reeves
I wondered the same myself. The language suggests it's from the UK
- LANjackal
from IM
... or somewhere else where the British style of speech dominates
- LANjackal
from IM
April - you can't imagine how many people e-mailed me screenshots of this :)
- Charlie Anzman
I wish I was here in order to press the "Like" button.
- Clément Cailly
social media and your boss don't mix well :)
- Dave Q
Obviously I can't provide a lot of detailed plans and guarantees, but I can tell you that I'll do my personal best to ensure that the FriendFeed users and community are treated right. I love this product too, and don't want to see it disappear.
We love you guys and FriendFeed.. we are just a little hurt and worried.. just please give us details as soon as possible.
- Tim Hoeck
FriendFeed lets me use people as filters to turn data into information. Facebook doesn't. Until it does, please, Please, PLEASE keep FriendFeed as a destination alive.
- AJ Kohn
congrats guys! facebook needs what you got!
- Lorna Herf
I'm sorry that I haven't said more about this. As you can imagine, it has been an extraordinarily busy day (and I've barely slept in the past week).
- Paul Buchheit
I'll add my plea to the chorus: Please don't take FriendFeed away from us. And don't make us go to Facebook (because we won't). FriendFeed means a lot to a lot of people and the thought that it will dry up and blow away shortly is very disturbing.
- Fa La La La Lindsay
It's still great to hear from you Paul. Congrats on that new swimming pool full of cash. :D
- Tad
Simply glad you're here now. You've always been a very responsive and transparent team. As much as I cringe at the thought of FF going away, I *am* happy for you and the team.
- AJ Kohn
I request you make it to the next scheduled FFundercats podcast to talk to the community. This announcement deserves a live appearance to the community.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Have been dealing unsucessfully with Twitter for two days, trying to get logged in...Their password reset page says"Snap we can't find you." I keep writing to Tech Support at Twitter and get their helpful auto-generated Twitter Trouble shooting email. My problem is not there. =( Hope FriendFeed does not get that blaise about helping users. @EV
- SashaKane
If FB can't keep the service running, would you consider open-sourcing the thing, so we can?
- Christopher Galtenberg
from iPhone
Hi Paul, thanks for the assurances. In the future, I would highly suggest that you make this sort of statement shortly after the initial merger release. Thanks again.
- Alex Scoble
I would like to give you a hug right now Paul. However, that would be awkward and April might beat me up so I will just say thank you and press the like button.
- EricaJoy
Thank you for affirming that. Much appreciated.
- Karoli
A few more points that would be nice to have addressed soon. Ability to export data, tool to import friends to Facebook, and will ff.im urls continue to function?
- Mark Krynsky
Those that like friendfeed as is should be most pleased with this statement, as it probably means maintenance to keep the current system as is, without as much attention to new features. It's also good news for all those who like both friendfeed and facebook, as facebook will likely adopt the better features from friendfeed
- Ivan Kirigin
Thanks for making FriendFeed what it is, and lets hope it stays that way, though there's slim chance of that
- Aaman (Clone of FF)
Now that I think about it: are you kidding me? They've already stated that FriendFeed's going to be absorbed into Facebook. What kind of sleight-of-hand are you trying to pull now, Paul?
- Akiva Moskovitz
@EricaJoy: I have nothing against hugs. :)
- April Buchheit
Thanks, Paul. I've been getting more and more depressed thinking about the bad ways this could go. The reassurances help a bit, at least. In fact, just hearing you speak on the point is encouraging - the open lines of communication between the FriendFeed team and its users has always been one of the great things about FriendFeed that I'm afraid will be lost with the Facebook buyout. And yes, a FFundercats appearance would be a great idea.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
I don't want to read too much into this reassurance but the "personal best" remark made me think like there is not a united FF anymore and that it's up to your personal efforts to prevent it from being eaten by FB :)
- Turker Keskinpala
you can sell the tech but the community can not be bought sold transferred or merged
- Robert Higgins
from f2p
Turker, I do believe that this deal was the right decision -- I'll write a bit more about that when I get a chance. I say that I'll do my "personal best" because I will -- it would be misleading to make promises on other's behalf :)
- Paul Buchheit
Paul: I'm hopeful that this will be the best for both Facebook and Friendfeed. What you and the staff at FF have done is amazing, with only 12 people! I love the service here. I also enjoy Facebook (one I ignore all quizzes and stupid apps), but in a different way. Hoping some coolness can be brought to both. Good luck to you and your team!
- Travis B. Hartwell
this echoes star wars galaxies, incredible unique community. but they upgraded it to be like world of warcraft. this is a replay of the devs soothing messages. the forums were livid the community evaporated.
- Robert Higgins
from f2p
When socialmedian was acquired by Xing they left it alone. I hope the same happens here. I'm sure you will do your best though!
- Michael Fidler
On behalf of the Dutch citizens our Queen wants to let you know: Thx Paul.
- Ton Zijp
Don't know what to say, so lets start with big congrats! from one hand, as an early member of Friendfeed I think we've created here a very cool, collaborative and tech-savvy/passionate community of great people that all probably wish to stick around as much as possible. From the other hand, I know how corporates work and it takes one small decision of share holders to close Friendfeed...
more...
- Nir Ben Yona
My first reaction is disappointment. I don't believe big corporations do better than small ones. Facebook is inferior to FriendFeed, although it's user base is much larger. Clearly FriendFeed won't survive in the long term, unless it is open sourced. Why not open up and embrace the wonders of the GPL instead of joining forces with the Walled Garden no #1? Facebook don't even operate with permalinks,.
- Morten Blaabjerg
Thanks for the explanation Paul. Of course, I congratulate you guys. I think anyone would do the same thing if they were in your shoes :)
- Turker Keskinpala
Ryo: if you delete your account everything goes away. I totally disagree with you about Facebook, but that's OK.
- Robert Scoble
Good to hear. Unfortunately I think Facebook are going to download the brains of all FriendFeed staff then kill FF.
- Michael McGimpsey
but Paul it is going to disappear - Facebook bought FF not for the site but for you guys. So obviously once its integrated into Facebook, development on FF will stop
- Anthony Feint
If FriendFeed and all of it's functionality get integrated into Facebook I'm all for it.
- Hugh Isaacs II
Paul - that's great news. It surely can't cost a lot to keep this place running and it's a good place to try out ideas before they move to FB.
- Martin Bryant
what about improving the product and making sure it gets more users, not only supports those who stay?
- Ihar Mahaniok
Ihar - unlikely. Facebook bought FF for the developer talent, not for FriendFeed itself.
- Martin Bryant
from iPhone
Martin - I also think so, and it is most likely. But I could still have a hope
- Ihar Mahaniok
Paul, please - underpromise & overdeliver...they say it works.
- A.T.
Nice to hear. Too bad you don't call the shots anymore.
- jcunwired
FriendFeed is Dead! Long Live FriendFeed! (nice name for Facebook skunkworks) I'm sure everyone would love to see FriendFeed itself stay around, even if the innovations that happen are geared towards implementation at Facebook. Thanks for this note Paul! :)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
There are a few promises and guarantees that you SHOULD be able to provide. Like, that our network of friends will remain intact and that the features that make this site great will remain. If you can't make those promises, then you shouldn't have done the deal. I sure do hope that the real-time search engine wasn't the centerpiece of this deal (it probably was), because that certainly...
more...
- Brad Williamson
Paul you did such a nice job with friendfeed, and I so want to believe you, but I'm not sure I can. Not because of you, but because of your new employer. Because your new employer is no longer you, and while I have kind of come to trust you, I do not trust your new boss. Not at all. Please prove me wrong, if they'll let you.
- Jim in Real Time
Paul - thanks for that reassurance. PLEASE stick to that! I was in the middle of reading and participating in a lengthy discussion off of a Robert Scoble post yesterday ... then I came up for air and saw your news. Congratulations - I have no idea what that feels like or how pumped you must be. There are so many things FF does that I LOVE...I know you know that. Please Please PLease dont' go away! Thanks!
- Tobin Truog
Thank you, I think everyone here loves Friendfeed. :)
- Hunt
from BuddyFeed
This is nice to hear, and I really hope that FriendFeed will keep on living. I still have some pain in my stomach because of this :/
- Patrik Johansson
First zombie/mafia request and we're all outta here....
- Fossil Huntress
+1 Fossil Huntress The partitioning of the networks between friendfeed and facebook was a major feature that many people made use of, lacking appropriate controls for who sees what. Merging the two groups of friends isn't going to work, at all.
- Mr. Gunn
we all know what needs to happen. the question is, where? ... FB needs, - apart from being/it is, a large, general, open application platform, - 1. Smart keyboard shortkatze - and Im a kbsCzar to go to, 2. Aggregating facilities, smart /RSS/ .. 3. Full blogging facilities, capabilities, not 140 chars. 4. Full real time comments facilities, capabilities. 5. Real time, live, but ALSO...
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- Petr Buben
I hope you're being open and honest with us. This time. :(
- Kamilah Gill
Thank you! I am sure you will do great things at FB. I just hope that the great app you built here isn't destroyed. I don't know of any other aggregation app that I can embed into my site like this one!
- beersage
Congratulations on your successes, best wishes for more. And thanks for continuing to look out for us loyal, addicted FFanatics!
- Rob Schieber
I hope it continues, i'm a new user and absolutely love it (wish i knew the value of it before)! Congrats!
- Luis D. Santos
As nice as it sounds I'm sorry to say that as a, now, Facebook's employee I'm afraid you'll have to comply to whatever your new boss tells you. Didn't MZ make it clear?
- lelapin
and let me add second, obvious, "Facebook needs" - Friendfeed bookmarklet, and Friendfeed tools - widgets, embedding - real time and not - of posts, and groups ...to embedd, to inject oneself into this thing called Internet ..... so, if FB listens to FF engineering long enough, they are going to get it .. right
- Petr Buben
Paul, what I am worried is not that you're brainwashed, but that there's simply no business need for Facebook to improve FriendFeed from now on, period.
- Ihar Mahaniok
I have confidence Paul. While some of the comments were probably uncalled for, covering an investment (of time and money) in these times to move on and hopefully provide even 'better stuff' makes sense to me. It's pretty obvious there are a LOT of people that don't want to 'lose' Friendfeed. (I wouldn't hold a town hall for a few weeks though :)
- Charlie Anzman
Congrats, Paul. It's sad that people have to make these uncalled for hatred comments about Facebook though. Why can't both sites work together. I think Facebook will do better with FF and vise versa. Take the good features of both services. Don't boycott FB, enjoy it. I'm sick of the negative comments going on, that's all. :(
- Molly, New Ears :P
Molly: What makes you think there's going to be a "vise versa?"
- Christopher A Carr
Because I don't think Paul and the other FF developers would allow FB to do anything. I'm sorry, I am not going to think negative here like some here are. I guess I'm a fangirl for FB.
- Molly, New Ears :P
Finally something about the changes on the horizon that isn't all d0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0om and whining. Thank you, Paul! :D
- Christian (Simply X)
The time to think about how you could do your 'personal best' to ensure FriendFeed continues to exist was prior to the discussions with Facebook. Not after.
- Andy C
Paul, what about the content scam that FB T&C is, does it apply to Friendfeed now? Should we all start writing scripts to retroactively delete all content ever uploaded to Friendfeed? Elaborated a bit here - http://friendfeed.com/mbravo...
- Michael Bravo
We know you'll try your best, Paul. But sometimes, you just can't win the dark side...
- Winston Teo
Thanks Paul for all your efforts. Founders often want the best, but acquiring companies often have people with political/power issues or different/limited visions.
- Mitchell Tsai
*throws a sheep at Paul* is that a good thing?
- Joe
from iPod
yes, thank you, Sergeant Paul ... well, good to hear we go on ... because if not, how about starting www.anotherFeed.com ... or, www.Letsgofeed.com ...... anyway, lets boost blogging capabilities, post more than current amount of chars, lets have TOP POSTS / clicks count list at the head of each group, some stats, lets index group headers, lets have MORE keyboard shortcuts .. - now ......
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- Petr Buben
I say it's time to get some talented developers together to create our own site. People have been complaining about UI issues with FriendFeed for a long time. Now we can address them on our own.
- Akiva Moskovitz
It will. Buy-outs like these don't happen and then everything stays status quo. Basically what I expect to happen is this: Facebook will absorb all of the best FriendFeed features which will make FriendFeed 'obsolete'. They'll expect us to join into FriendBook or FaceFeed or whatever you want to call it when FriendFeed will inevitably get shut down.
- Akiva Moskovitz
If everyone was so good at reinventing the wheel, we'd have flying cars in our garages by now.
- ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift
I am totally disappointed myself. I can't stand Facebook... the only reason I have an account is for less-tech-savvy old friends and acquaintances to find me on the web.
- Fa La La La Lindsay
As a consumer of a service when changes are made you have the right to feel any way you want about it, including anger. You can even choose to stop using the service as I imagine some of the FriendFeed population will do.
- matthew john ernisse
I'm reserving judgement until we see what happens. Right now it's just an announcement. I hope they keep the platforms separate, but have some kind of integration. What I don't want it having all my subscribers become FaceBook friends. I like the platforms separate.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
I'd reserve judgment. Beyond that congrats to the team which I'm sure made some good money off of this.
- Nation Hahn
It's like we've all been told we have a terminal disease. They're not sure when we're going to all die but that we should continue to enjoy our lives before the time runs out.
- Akiva Moskovitz
I don't know about you guys, but the vast majority of my friends on Facebook don't give a crap what I do online. The ones that do are over here already anyway. This is good for the team, but bad for the audience here.
- Jordan Hofker
They never gave a damn about their users. As evidenced by completely ignoring all input about changes. I guess the real question, is what did they do first, blow off expensive hooker's asses or buy Bentleys with spinners?
- Matthew DeVries
Maybe Paul, Bret, and co. will take the money, leave the company, and start a new one. That will eventually be sold for the sweet tech to Facebook. Then rinse, repeat. (!)
- Jordan Hofker
My boyfriend (who is in a state of protest and is now refusing to use FF) wants to know, does anyone know what computer language(s) have been used to create FF? He's guessing C# is involved.
- Kamilah Gill
As far as I know, it's C++ on the back-end and Javascript up front.
- Akiva Moskovitz
This is the most technical detail I remember seeing from Friendfeed staff: http://bret.appspot.com/entry... They make heavy use of Python, but I imagine there is also a fair amount of C/C++ in there. (I would assume more C than C++).
- Jason Wehmhoener
Their use of MySQL is quirky, nonstandard, innovative, and obviously works. Facebook also has quite a history of bending MySQL and PHP into new, interesting and generally unrecognizable shapes. It's the wild and crazy world of distributed data + HTTP + pushbutton web.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Regarding the languages FriendFeed's written in: "[...]pretty much all Python except for our search engine, which is Java." - Bret Taylor (c.f. http://friendfeed.com/friendf...) Not sure where people got C/C++/C#.
- Mark Trapp
Speaking of pushbutton, this is definitely a good time to go reread Anil Dash's post about it: http://dashes.com/anil... You and I may not have a pile of ex-google cash lying around for a server farm, but it may not be necessary if we get pushbutton right.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Thanks Mark. I should have guessed that since Google is pretty much a Python/Java shop.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Yeah, Jason, I was thinking Google reader would be the next home.
- Matthew DeVries
I was sort of expecting something with Reader too, but oh well. Reader has certainly been looking more Friendfeed-like recently anyway.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Akiva is right. Anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of corporate takeovers knows the pattern that follows when a smaller company is bought out by a larger one. The same principle is at work here.
- Steven Perez
GDGT? We all like gadgets. Like to a man, we all like some kind of Gadget. If we can just get them to change out that infuriating tiered threading system.....
- Matthew DeVries
:( I just found out about this news a little while ago. It's like Jaiku all over again for me. I thought it was good news that Google bought Jaiku because I thought it meant Jaiku would get better and finally gain popularity. Unfortunately it ended up being the exact opposite. **sigh** Now I feel like this situation is worse because Facebook has a bad rep for messing with personal copyright and such. This doesn't sound good...
- Cheryl Jones
from iPhone
Interesting thought, Joe, after all, Reader has (like facebook) borrowed more and more features from friendfeed over the last year or so. Still, I'd rather have a friendfeed. I personally think we shouldn't write friendfeed off just yet....but if it disappears, maybe someone else will step in and fill the void.
- Slappy Line
http://drop.io/ maybe already have the needed real-time core. in the moment it's a bunch of drops, so with a small application to keep track of the created drops (by user, room etc.) it will be pretty close to FriendFeed.
- Stoyan Zhekov
This is a pretty relentlessly logical / utilitarian piece on health care rationing - both the more systematic rationing seen in single payer (etc) systems and the ad hoc rationing system in the US.
- Andrew C
from Bookmarklet
It should be noted that healthcare is already rationed in the US, but it is done so by ability to pay rather than by medical necessity.
- Benjy Weinberger
And since most medical interventions have risks as well as rewards, rationing by medical necessity should lead to better overall outcomes even for those supposedly being "rationed": their need could be slight enough that it's outweighed by the risks. So, yes, please ration healthcare.
- Benjy Weinberger
Yeah, he does indeed make those points.
- Andrew C
What Benjy said. Plus some treatments are vastly more expensive but offer little benefit over cheaper ones.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Ich möchte alle meine Twitter Kontakte in FF abbilden, viele Kontakte haben jedoch kein Konto. Warum kann ich diese dann nicht mit nur einem Klick zu virtuellen Freunden erklären und deren Twitter-Feed abonnieren?
ich twittere sowieso am liebsten via friendfeed, weil sich so schön alles aggregieren lässt
- Klaus Eck
Addet FF noch einen Link zu FF zurück? Als ich das letzte Mal mit FF getweetet hab, hat FF das noch gemacht, das fand ich blöd. (Und abstellen lies sich das nicht)
- Marcel Weiß
inzwischen landen die getwitterten FF-Links wieder direkt auf die verlinkten Seiten und lassen FF aus; das ist wesentlich besser für die Nutzer. Anscheinend war das einige Tage ein Bug.
- Klaus Eck
Super, dann werde ich das Bookmarklet und FF generell als Twitter-Client wieder vermehrt verwenden. Nur den Link zu FF in den Tweets fand ich doof, ansonsten war es eine fast perfekte Lösung. (Und wenn ich einen Link via Bookmarklet auf FF und Twitter gesharet habe, landeten auf Twitter zwei Links, was auch eher suboptimal war).
- Marcel Weiß