Michael Carter - Likes

"Avoiding the Fail Whale." Hey, FriendFeeders, check out who's speaking!

September 17 at 9:03 pm - Link

Vijayendra Mohanty, Hutch Carpenter, Michael Carter and 2 other people liked this

Matt Mullenweg (founder of Automattic, folks who make Wordpress), Paul Bucheit (co-founder of FriendFeed), Nat Brown (CTO of iLike). Free on October 9th. - Robert Scoble

Jeremiah Owyang posted a message on Twitter

“Humor Video: If "24" was filmed in the 1990s http://tinyurl.com/2hm7ct AOL, ChatRooms, Pagers, ahhh memories”

August 11 at 6:22 am - Link

Michael J. Cohen (mjc), vincenzo, Iain Baker and Michael Carter liked this

Mark Jeffrey posted a message on Twitter

“Mahalo Event Aug 13: We ARE doing an RSVP List after all, sorry for confusion, here it is with details: http://mahalomeetup.eventbrite...”

August 8 at 6:33 pm - Link

Michael Carter liked this

Louis Gray shared an item on Google Reader

Why Isn’t there a Google Version of MobileMe for the iPhone?

August 6 at 3:58 pm - Link

Brad Davis Seal, Nathan Chase, Tim Probst and 6 other people liked this

Because the people who already have the Mac version do not want? - Cyndy

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cause Google want to release a version that works, but just havent yet! - Josh Chandler

There's a new SyncML app for iPhone that let's you sync with multiple SyncML services - Jason Carreira

@Jason: Care to share what it is? - Justin Korn

I like to think conspiracy but then I find that more fun then the realities of development schedules. - Shawn McCollum

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r... - Jason Carreira

Hmmm That link didn't work for me. I just did a search on SyncMl and found Synthesis SyncML Client for iPhone / iPod Touch. The proper URL is here: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObj... - Greg

Tad - the Meme Maker posted a message

“For all my nerdy .NET FF'ers out there I just wanna say - Linq totally rocks! I never ever wanna write another bit of SQL ever.”

August 2 at 11:59 am - Link

accesine, Michael Carter, Peter Simard and 17 other people liked this

I try to stay away from the data layer but, I agree, LINQ's hot stuff. People can make fun of Windows all they want but Microsoft has it nailed with .NET. - Akiva Moskovitz

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Nailed it with .NET! Yay :D I wonder how .NET will be when I graduate in 4 years... - Yuvi

Even better: Linq for NHibernate :) - Michael Hocter

I am using Linq with SP's - Alex Sauceda via fftogo

Dude - I was talking to a buddy that works at MS - he was telling me about plinq - Parallel Linq. Say you have a linq loop to process or build some data... by adding one keyword plinq will run the loop on all your processors simultaneously. He says that makes stuff go stupidly fast. That'll be part of .NET 4 which he says should be out next year. I think there's a community preview right now though... - Tad - the Meme Maker

@Micheal: I believe LINQ for NHibernate isn't really 'nailed' yet? And, it doesn't have the designer that EF has? (I'm a virgin in both NHibernate and EF, so forgive me if I say something stupid) - Yuvi

@Tad - D00d, I've been using PLINQ since the CTP came out a coupla months ago and allow me to say that it's totally effin effin awesome. I mean, just so totally effin awesome. effin. - Yuvi

Yuvi - I wish I had the time you have to play with all the cool CTP stuff. :) - Tad - the Meme Maker

LINQ to SQL and other ORM's are good for basic CRUD's, but when performance counts (searches, reports etc), I'd rather write SQL/sprocs by hand - Jemm

Wait until the next CTP of Visual Studio comes out soon-ish. It's good, good stuff. - Akiva Moskovitz

Joni - the perf stuff I've seen shows that there's very little performance loss if any when using linq. Have you seen otherwise? I'll take the time I save from having to write sql in my .net code over a 0.000005% increase (my made up sarcastic statistic) any day. :) That said, linq works just fine with sprocs, so still not a reason to not use it. - Tad - the Meme Maker

@Joni - I heard LINQ to SQL chokes if you use it for a large number of updates/deletes/inserts. *heard* - not seen first hand. - Yuvi

Dear Akiva - do you have any inside sources/outside sources? One d00d waiting for 2k8 SP1 here. - Yuvi

I'm actually working a contract with Visual Studio right now. Of course, I can't really give anything away but it's coming very soon and we're all very, very happy with it. I'm writing code on the latest builds of 2k8 every day. - Akiva Moskovitz

For most normal operations it is fast enough but the special situations (20%, maybe) require some work by hand. And yes, sprocs can be called from the LINQ, too. :) - Jemm

@Akiva - Latest build of VS 2k8? *swoon* *thud* - Yuvi

*jealous* damn I need a new job, but there's not much of ANYTHING here in Phoenix with .net 3.5... *pout* - Tad - the Meme Maker

@Akiva - hey, I can ask you 'bout your IDE Code Editor coloring scheme, right? Don't tell me it's the default Blue+Black on White courier! @Tad - yours? - Yuvi

Mine's still just the default - I've gotten used to it over the years. If I could find a GOOD scheme that mimic'd TextMate on the mac I might try it out. - Tad - the Meme Maker

@Tad - It's not even Consolas? o_O - Yuvi

Not familiar with that Yuvi... Linkage? I code on so many different machines/platforms that I usually just end up with whatever the default is. I used to care a lot more when all my screens were CRTs, but LCDs are so much easier on my eyes. - Tad - the Meme Maker

Well, I get new drops every day but I don't install them! I'd waste an hour of my day every day. - Akiva Moskovitz

Yuvi, mine is definitely not default. Dark gray background with low constrast colorizations (lots of earth tones with some blues). The only white I have is for numerals. If I remember on Monday, I'll cut a screenshot of it. One of my co-workers who does code reviews for me absolutely hates it. - Akiva Moskovitz

Yuvi - just changed my font to Consolas, but that made me want to increase the font-size to 11... I'll see how this looks for a while. Neato - Tad - the Meme Maker

@Tad - http://www.codinghorror.com/bl... that should do it. - Yuvi

Neato cool Yuvi - I'll try some out. - Tad - the Meme Maker

Tad, Consolas for LIFE. Although you might want to check out a font called Dina (http://www.donationcoder.com/S...). It's very, very readable at low font sizes and the lower-case 'm' is clear. A few coders I used to work with awhile back swear by it but I've gotten so used to Consolas that I just never saw the need for switching. - Akiva Moskovitz

@Akiva - Consolas for LIFE! Atleast, till something better comes out ;) I hated Monaco (the Textmate font). And, I use Consolas at point 13, so the 'unreadable at small font sizes' issue never arose for me :D - Yuvi

Yuvi, my colors are very similar to the second example from that page. - Akiva Moskovitz

Thanks Akiva! I'm trying Dina now. :) - Tad - the Meme Maker

@Akiva - Mine too - although not the same (Mine are slightly bigger, and most of the time they're VB9) ;) - Yuvi

I can't wait to start using linq! - Justin Korn via fftogo

I've to test out how LINQ is in Mono. Once I get the VM working.... - Yuvi

We were able to leverage Linq to build a strongly typed API to our database for our clients. It's VERY cool stuff. (And I say this as a total Mac fanboy.) - James Williams (willia4)

cool! I hate dealing DB coding :) - Tim Hoeck

Yuvi, Tad, Akiva, tried most of those settings and have lasted longest with this one : http://blog.wekeroad.com/2007/... - /(bb|[^b]{2})/ (Kamath)

@Kamath - I too had it till my last re-install ;) - Yuvi

Yea folks - any of you tried db4o? Rocks as well! - Yuvi

+1 to Consolas, but that Dina font is way cool. - Peter Simard

Yeah I downloaded Dina and set that as my default font. Gonna do that at work too. Love it! - Tad - the Meme Maker

Kamath, that's really nice but it probably has more contrast than I'd like. I'll give a whirl for a few days (or hours) on Monday, though! - Akiva Moskovitz

Robert Scoble shared an item on Google Reader

SEC To Recognize Corporate Blogs as Public Disclosure. Can We Now Kill the Press Release?

July 31 at 12:03 pm - Link

David Hulbert, rob friedman, Brian White and 16 other people liked this

This is huge news for corporate bloggers and proponents of them. - Robert Scoble

Wow, this is a big step. However, I don't think this is the end of the Press Release. Corporate Blogs would still require people to go to them to read the information, Press Releases get sent to the media, which means you know who your information is going to. - Aram Zucker-Scharff via twhirl

It's big news for corporations; they have to be doubly careful what they say on their blogs, that it does (or doesn't) meet Reg FD standards.The press release isn't dead-- it's useful as a push tool and great for journalists (citizen or otherwise) to get basic facts in one place so they can have real conversations w/out having to ask minutiae like title, spelling, etc. But are press releases evolving? Oh yes. The post makes good points re SM but it will be interesting to see how it plays beyond the digerati - Merredith Branscombe

I sent this over to our Executive Communication Director at my work today (Nelnet, Inc.) I am curious what her response will be. This is HUGE!!! Brian Solis did a terrific job on this blog post over at TC today. - Susan Beebe

Louis Gray shared an item on Google Reader

WETA quietly building an HPC powerhouse

July 25 at 7:10 pm - Link

Michael Carter liked this

Duncan Riley posted an entry on The Inquisitr

Randy Pausch: 1960–2008

July 25 at 7:47 am - Link

LouCypher, Mike Fruchter, Flemming Funch and 53 other people liked this

I had a professor read the last lecture as part of his retirement; it's definitely a good read. It's so sad to see Pausch go. - Mark Trapp

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It's so Sad! He made our world richer with is intelligence and good humor. I wish all the best to their kids. - Fernando

I am so happy I got to interview him. One of my favorites! - Robert Scoble

This really hits home. Great guy, great message. May he rest in peace. - Dave

I just looked back on my blog from meeting him: http://scobleizer.com/2006/01/... -- interesting that he had a big impact on me even back then. - Robert Scoble

Really very sad. I saw his last lecture and was very impressed. Always hoped, he would get through this... - Matthias Schwenk

So sad - he gave one of the great speeches of all time and in such an unassuming, selfless way. I'm glad his kids will at least have that to treasure. - JMaultasch

An inspiration to many. He will be missed - Tim Finucane

One of the finest. Some people are great a reminding us how to live, mainly by example. He was one of them. His web page doesn't seem to be loading..does anyone see where we can leave thoughts for his family and friends? - Loren Heiny

A real loss. I never met him (obviously) but I know of him through the eyes of those who did. - Soulhuntre via twhirl

The book was amazing. - Steve Rubel

Fuck. fuckfuckfuckfuck. Randy was one of my favorite HCI teachers at CMU, and I'm so glad that his 'Last Lecture' got the world-wide attention that it did. I can't imagine being as brave as him in this place, and he fought off the cancer for about 6 months longer than the 4 months his doctors gave him. Even though I've known this was coming for months it's still really hard. - Kevin Fox

I keep putting off the book, which is ironically exactly the opposite of what I should be doing: moving forward and living life instead of treading water and letting life happen. Peace to you, Randy. - Kevin C. Tofel

I'm very sad but will always be inspired by the way he spent his last several months. - Dimitrios Diamantaras

I was a huge fan of Randy's; his work will live on far longer than this in the lives of those he influenced. - Aaron Krug

i love the "bedside conversion" line... - Don Martelli via twhirl

Inspirational. Will be watching his video many times throughout my life. Brave, wise man... - Hao Chen

What better way to go than knowing that you made every day count and that you touched the lives of so many people around the world! Even though his departure is a huge loss, we are blessed with the inspiration he leaves us with! - Gabriel Biguria

I'm going to order the book, finally. - Roberto Bonini

We knew this day would come but it's still sad just the same. The way the man approached his death, is an inspiration. My prayers are with him and his family today. - Peter Simard

He understood life and therefore death. He was attached to what was important in life, not to life itself. He was proof of the fact that scientists and engineers are the most spiritual of people. My thoughts are with his family - I hope they know how many are thinking of them today. - /(bb|[^b]{2})/ (Kamath)

death is overdramatised, it is the coolest thing that will ever happen to anybody, and is the culmination of everything embodiment was about - Gregory Lent

Paul Buchheit liked a story on Reddit

Craiglist introduces phone verification systems; spammers are not happy

July 16 at 10:04 am - Link

Rob Dolin, Adramelk, Noah F and 22 other people liked this

those dudes are hilarous; trying to find ways around the system - Gordon Swaby

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"Why not use GrandCentral? It's free." from one of the comments. Jeez. - AJ Batac ♘

I posted on Craigslist yesterday, it was a bit irritating - I had to pass 2 captchas, do phone and email verification. These spammers make life hard for normal people :( - Bindu Reddy

Takes one bad egg doesn't it to make all our lives miserable. Life in prison for spammers - Deepak

I read just yesterday that phone numbers are available for $1.50 in bulk - Gabe

cool idea!! - Susan Beebe

Christopher Sacca posted a link

Patton Oswalt gives a high school graduation speech

July 16 at 8:29 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

siavash, Crystal English, rob friedman and 17 other people liked this

"First off: Reputation, Posterity and Cool are traps. They’ll drain the life from your life. Reputation, Posterity and Cool = Fear." -- I loved this talk. Hilarious, insightful, and causing me to reflect. (via Kottke) - Christopher Sacca via Bookmarklet

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"...And I’m trying my pathetic best to look cool and mysterious, because I was 17 and so into the myth of myself." Oh why didn't I know this then?! - Christopher Harley

nice, forwarded it straight to my highschool-graduated brother. - Vincent van Wylick

You know, this advice would've useful at the beginning of high school, middle school even. So much adolescent misery is rooted in the pursuit of social standing and popularity. - Cornelius Toole

This was brilliant. Profound *and* hilarious. You don't often get both in the same speech. Though, for a couple of the jokes (e.g. "Were The Greaseman and Arch Campbell not available?") you really had to have lived in the D.C. area to get the joke. - Karim

Patton never ceases to amaze me, normally with uncomfortable cover-your-ears humor, but i'm pleasantly surprised by this nugget of hilarious insight and awesomeness. - Crystal English

Paul Buchheit posted a link

Official Google Blog: Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning

July 16 at 2:23 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Steve, Simon, Marc Chung and 59 other people liked this

"Here's a real-life example, a challenge a team of our engineers once faced: designing a spell-checker for the Google search engine. The routine solution would be to run queries through a dictionary. The non-routine, creative solution is to use the query corrections and refinements that other users have made in the past to offer spelling suggestions for new queries. This approach enables us to correct all the words that aren't in the dictionary, helping many more users in the process." - Paul Buchheit via Bookmarklet

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"a team of our engineers" = Noam :) - Paul Buchheit

This was actually one of my favorite interview questions early on at Google ("how would you write a spell corrector?"). Most applicants fumbled around and needed quite a bit of help. Noam, on the other hand, had the best answer I ever heard. It was immediately obvious that he was smarter than me. - Paul Buchheit

What did Noam say? Was it the one Google lists as "The non-routine, creative solution is to use the query corrections and refinements that other users have made in the past to offer spelling suggestions for new queries."? - Philipp Lenssen

That's a very basic summary Philipp -- the actual algorithm is quite sophisticated. - Paul Buchheit

"Learning, it turns out, is a lifelong major." Amen! - Nenad Nikolic via twhirl

@paul: its wrapper can use some common-sense improvements, though. - Alex

@paul Noam was a legend at Duke (at least among the Putnam-inclined math majors.) I love the feeling of asking an interview question I really like a few dozen times and then having someone come along who gives a better answer than the one I came up with. Of course, that raises the bar for all subsequent candidates. :) - Josh

I always worry about a company or organization that hires the same types of thinkers, even if they are thinking in a good way. Some of the best ideas I've ever had have come from trying to answer the questions of pretty dumb people who just weren't thinking through something. It's best to have a mix to truly spur on creativity. - Andrew Leyden

That algorithm explains why searching for an obscure word (vetted) causes it to give me search results for "Dictionary". - Gabe

@penguinsix: one can quite safely assume that an average googler (and non-googler) has enough interaction with the outside world to be routinely presented with such questions. Hiring them might be useful to increase the concentration of them, though =) - Alex

Paul, That's a great example, I use Google Search as a spell check tool all the time. esp when FireFox and MSFT spell checks don't offer the right suggestions, or pick up words like blogosphere. Google always gets it right. - Tac Anderson

Not to be nitpicking but Google doesn't always get it right Tac :) http://images.google.com/image... - Philipp Lenssen

I've found that companies that ask interview questions about problems they've actually faced or solved have a better chance of understanding the candidate than those that make a question up. - Robin Barooah

It's interesting to see Google saying "Major in learning" on their blog, when it seems like the first step in filtering for many of their jobs is "Did you major in computer science?" I guess saying "Major in computer science with a minor in learning" is a bit more awkward. ;-) - Keith Pelczarski

Steve Rubel posted a link

A Corporate Brand Won’t Shield Your Personal Brand Anymore « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

July 15 at 5:35 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Noah Sussman, Brad, Michael Carter and David Weiner liked this

Interesting item - the two work in tandem as I see it. - Steve Rubel via Bookmarklet

I see it more as corporations hiding behind human shields - Bjorn Stromberg

Great post Steve! - Brad

Steve Rubel posted a link

AnandTech: iPhone 3G - First Battery Life Results

July 13 at 6:42 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Ben Reierson, Brian Newman, Chris Messina and 21 other people liked this

Looks like battery life is down 1/3rd. - Steve Rubel via Bookmarklet

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darn - Allen Stern

interesting. anecdotally it seemed to me my battery life with the blackjack was better. - rob zand

So when wifi is on, 3G is off? Does that happen automatically? - Tom Landini

I keep my WinMob phone on 2.5G (GPRS) day to day which gets me a few days of battery (and is fine for my push email). If I want to surf, I just switch it into 3G mode and back when I'm done. Can you force the iPhone into 2.5G mode as that would be the clincher for me? - mattpovey

iPhone is mortal ... 3G eats power - Jonathan Greene

That really hurts. My at&t tilt has pretty terrible battery life but at least I can swap out the batteries if I need to. Despite this, I still want an iphone. - Robert DeBord

At least the Blackjack came with 2 batteries :p - Rodfather

For 3G, it beat out the Samsung, so for 3G that's pretty good. You have to compare apples to apples, so to speak - David Jacobs via twhirl

I want to see tests with wifi, bluetooth and location services turned on/off - Eric Schlissel via twhirl

Steven Hodson posted a message

“when you click on a post headline in FF - read the post - return to FF only to find the item has disappeared - do you go looking for it so you can like it or comment on it? or do you just carry on?”

July 13 at 4:29 pm - Link

Kevin Johnson, Aviv, Michael Carter and 6 other people liked this

I never open a link in FF without opening it as a second window. But, if I made a mistake and couldn't find it, I'd just use search to comment or like it. - Robert Scoble

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I open links in a new tab. I hate it when I can't find an item again. - ha3rvey (That One)

ya but sometimes Robert the item on FF can still move to another page while you are reading due to the auto-refresh - Steven Hodson

Yes...Both-it just depends. - Mark Forman

Opening in current window means the back button should always keep the post on screen. - Andrew Smith

The recommended strategy I think (assuming you open links in new windows) is to open a comment box -- to avoid refresh. I often forget though in the heat of the moment - Brian Sullivan

I often go back. - Duncan Riley

I open it in it's own tab, then click any links - Michael W. May via twhirl

You can come back and *try* to search for a lost post, but it seems FF indexing is too slow so recent items are not available for searching. - Yuval Atzmon

You can't step in the same FriendFeed twice. - Karim

I allways open links in a new tab. And if the FriendFeed page was refreshed, I try to find the item... during, say, 30 seconds max (which is too much ;-)) - Thierry R. Andriamirado

I often open the link to the entry then open the link, means I can refresh the comments easily - Glenn Slaven

A reddit style top frame could be handy - Glenn Slaven

I always open in a new tab. - Louis Gray

I open the "Link to this entry" in a second tab. - Hutch Carpenter

I open it in a new tab so I can keep FF open. I want to comment on both if possible. - Ben Parr

*All* links always in a new tab, not just on FF.. - Atul Karmarkar

FF links should open in a new window (at least on iPhone) to make it easier to comment - it could be a preference in a user's profile - Francesco Bertocci

I often do - Shey

I installed the Greasmonkey script called 'FriendFeed Read Later' http://ffapps.com/readlater/ it ads "Later" to the list if buttons after a post. Click Later and a new tab forms at the top of FriendFeed labeled 'Read Later'. That way I can always find the post even the next day. - Jeff P. Henderson

Good lord, was that comment spam?!? - Glenn Slaven

Yep! -- blocked - Shey

Used Read Later too - it's a good fix to this problem. - AJ Kohn

Jeff-nice one thanks. - Mark Forman

Always come back and find it to like / comment - almost always forget the search feature is there - Patrick Jordan

I wish there was a setting where I could tell FF to open a new window when I clicked on a link. This would be really helpful when viewing FF with an iPhone. - Michael Carter

Same as Scoble...open in new tab to read. If it's gone when I get back, I hunt for it or if I am lucky, I would have "liked" it for easy retrieval. - JA Castillo

@Michael Carter - if you go to your account settings (https://friendfeed.com/account...) there's a check box you can select to 'Open links in new windows' - John Duff

I don't have a problem finding the post after clicking through, when I click back the browser brings me back to where I was in the page - right where I clicked the link. - John Duff

I search for it, forget what I was searching for, get attracted to a new item and its comments, leave a comment, then click the big 'friendfeed' logo at the top to see what's new. - jeneane hussein sessum

I gave this feedback 2 months back to FriendFeed. Hopefully they will implement a way to read the feed within friendfeed or make a "what you clicked" floating section somewhere so that I can like/hide etc. - Sumit Chachra

I've gotten in the habit of clicking comment to freeze ff, then middle clicking on the link. - Phil Glockner

new tab as often as possible, just that my tabbar can go crazy sometimes - Dobromir Hadzhiev

There is option in FriendFeed, to always open links in new tab. I use it. - Емил Генов

Louis Gray shared an item on Google Reader

Walking the SEO Balance Beam

July 13 at 4:55 pm - Link

Denton Gentry, AJ Kohn and Michael Carter liked this

garyvaynerchuk posted a message on Twitter

“http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/bus... I totally disagree in 50 yrs Terroir will be more Important than ever!”

July 13 at 12:43 pm - Link

Michael Carter and Zach Underwood liked this

I agree with you Gary. But the location of the terroir will change due to climate change. - Michael Carter

Nick DeMartino bookmarked a page on delicious

Will the Internet Harm Media's Major Players? - Seeking Alpha

July 13 at 8:18 am - Link

Michael Carter liked this

A little walk through recent history in this analyst's attempt to determine when and how digital downloads might seriously impact the movie biz...mainly leveraging a Lehman Bros. downgrade of entertainment stocks. - Nick DeMartino

Steve Rubel posted a link

8 Cool Things You Can Do With Your iPhone 2DOT0 - Webmonkey

July 13 at 6:36 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Bryon Thomas, Josh Jenkins, Brad Davis Seal and 5 other people liked this

Great rundown of apps to try. - Steve Rubel via Bookmarklet

Robert Scoble commented on a blog post on Disqus

Re: The Death Of The A-list

July 11 at 11:23 pm - Link

Brian Ries, Amadou M. Sall, Michael Carter and 34 other people liked this

"It's about time." - Robert Scoble

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He had me until the last two paragraphs... "The a-list died because we’re tired of them and their incessant drama and posturing for attention...." "The a-list died because guys like Loren Feldman exposed them...." These two comments smell of the constant jealousy I see from the NON-A-Listers. As for Feldman, he's just realized that it's easier to get attention by burning down a barn than building one. I like the rest of the post and think it has great merit. - ScottBourne

Oh delicious irony... The only reason I just read that was because two of my 'A-List' heroes, Mr Bourne and Mr Scoble, brought it to my attention on FriendFeed... mmm thats tasty! - John Worthington

Thanks for the promotion John but I'm hardly an A-Lister. Scoble - absolutely. He still has large influence as do all the "A-listers." But I do think that the time is coming soon when everyone will be an A-lister. I don't agree that the A-List is dead. I just think everyone else will soon be invited to join in and be part of that list. - ScottBourne

I don't think the A-list is dead, it's just less exclusive because of the new communication tools available. The A-list will probably get bigger, making each individual member less dominant, but it will still exist. - Kevin Bondelli

Scott, I agree that everyone is now getting the chance to become an A-Lister. But an A-Lister in what? I think the author may have missed a point slighty. It's not that I have a shot at becoming well know and respected, it's I can now choose to filter out those people or subjects that do not intrest me. I do regard you as an A-Lister in the rhelm of photography, Mac, certainly iPhones and podcast creation but to someone else that may not be the case. Social media has empowered chioce. - John Worthington

And certainly the fact people like you and Robert haven't had to play all the 'corporate' games and have the power over your own brands and content has allowed far more genuine and personal relationship to form with the people who areintrested and trust your opinions. - John Worthington

If they A-List is not yet dead, it is certainly becoming less important as blogging and social media normalize and more people use them as part of their personal and business life. While each day, Scoble's followers may still rise, the growth of social media is such that rises faster, giving Scoble a smaller share of the whole universe every day. - shelisrael1

Purely from the outsider perspective, why are some folks getting so up in arms about this? Isn't it a good thing to have more voices in the mix? More channels in which more can contribute their thoughts and ideas. So far, Robert whom I have yet to "meat" in the RW, has come across to me as a pretty decent person. - Mathew A. Koeneker

I'm not in the A-list because my last name does not begin with the letter 'A'. Let's all just move on from this nonsense, shall we? - Akiva Moskovitz

No matter what the medium, some people will get more attention than others. It was true when George Washington entered the doors of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it's true today when (insert name here) writes a blog post, and it will be true in 2727 when Miraloma Xanadu sends her brain waves to the Bigg Sstar. Perhaps the new technologies may accelerate the turnover of names on the A list, but the technologies won't change humans' basic nature; we'll always consider a few people as "experts" who must be heard. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Miraloma Xanadu is totally overrated. She conspired to get me fired off Space Dock 13 and has been ganging up on me ever since. - Kevin Bondelli

@Ontario: Miraloma will have to use brainwaves in 2727 cause Twitter still won't work by then... :P - John Worthington

I'm with Kevin. Miraloma Xanadu is a hack. She still owes me 2.7 gigacredits from that time she "forgot" her chips and I had to buy her lunch. She's not that interesting in RL. Heck, she's not that interesting on the net, either. And don't get me started on her B2B (brain-to-brain) show. ugh. - ha3rvey (That One)

Jim makes excellent points. I don't see it as a negative but a need to simply evolve as conversations and influence become increasingly mobile. While it is true that everyone has the potential to have reach not all will become thought leaders or influencers. Everyone can present themselves as an expert but not everyone has expertise. - Karen Swim

The contention that there is no more A-list can be proven (more or less) mathematically. It is generally accepted (though not universally) that the blogosphere (and Hollywood, and most social networks) are scale-free networks -- meaning, the network has an A-list and a "long tail." If you count the nodes in the network and the number of connections per node, you can identify which nodes are in the A-list and which nodes are in the tail. - Karim

A large part of A-list authority involves *access*, to people making news, new products in the pipeline and simple geographic proximity (Silicon Valley) to the center of gravity. That won't change very quickly. - Sprague D

If the author is saying "the A-list is dead," he is saying one of two things: either the nodes in the A-list have changed -- and networks change all the time, nodes gain and lose connections, this is no surprise -- or, he is saying the network is no longer a *scale-free* network, it is a flat network, the A-list doesn't exist at all. The first contention is common sense. It can be established quantifiably. The second contention seems less likely. - Karim

Circle jerk. The blind leading the blind. A herd of independent minds. Strong and original minds usually do not clump together in conclaves of mutual navel-gazing. (Btw, some of the A-listers ARE strong and independent minds. A-listedness was thrust upon them; they didn't seek it out.) - Sean McBride

Jim Kukral might have pronounced the A-list as dead, but sometimes reports of something's death are exaggerated. ;-) Robert Scoble might be saying "about time," but it seems to me he does a good job of hopping on new social networks, gobbling up connections to other nodes. Except for maybe Plurk. heh - Karim

I'm calling BS and linkbait. There will always be an A-list. As humans, we are incapable of existing without instituting some sort of royalty. And for every person who stared at Scoble with dead eyes, I heard "Hey Robert!" just as often (mind you, that wouldn't have happened HERE, for instance, but I took it as normal in the abnormal world of California). - Cyndy

@Sean, not that I'm disagreeing with you ;-) but in the human population, what is the distribution of "strong and original minds?" :-D - Karim

Karim: .01%? In any case, as a rule they don't tend to get too cozy with one another. - Sean McBride

who defines this a-list you speak of? - .LAG

@LAG, we do. Through our reading/following behavior. - Sprague D

It's like the Supreme Court said about porn, you know an A-lister when you see one. For example, Scoble is obviously A-list because there are 21 comments to him saying three words. - Kevin Bondelli

One can quibble over the methods of definition. How do you determine the most popular songs in any given week? Store purchases? Radio airplay? Legal downloads? Illegal downloads? We've been working on that problem for decades. I don't think there's a consensus on how to measure the A-list (reads? links? mentions in Google? mentions on Truemors?), or what the boundary is between A-list and B-list. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

so it's like the 'cool kids' table in the cafeteria back in high school? and like that table, outside of the school walls, it didn't mean much to anyone else? - .LAG

Ontario, yes, the demarcation is somewhat arbitrary -- it could just as well be "Top 97" or "Top 103" instead of "Top 100" -- but it seems a bit like the author might have been saying there was NO TOP. First he says "it's dying," then he changes his mind and says no wait, it's dead, it's been *eliminated.* That means there is no A-list, and that young Billie Jean Schmuckington's compilation of her favorite LOLcats carries just as much weight as Scoble. :-D - Karim

.LAG, yes, it's exactly like that. Usually when you talk about network effects, you constrain the discussion to a specific network. That was one problem with the article -- was the author talking about blogs? Or FriendFeed? Or Facebook? Or the Intarwebs in general? Different networks will have different A-lists. The lunch table A-list probably doesn't matter much on FriendFeed, and vice versa. - Karim

I'm perfectly happy with life on the D list, myself. - Mavericks of A-sauce!

I keep leaving a comment on the post, but then it disappears. Main points were: Blogosphere growing up is a good thing, but the A-list isn't going to die, just weaken. - David Cohn

I'm holding down the Green list...we just use colors now that the alphabets taken up - Brian Ries

Louis Gray posted an entry on louisgray.com

Staying Loose Can Help Keep Your Ego In Check

July 12 at 2:27 am - Link

Scott Lockhart, Michael Carter, Mike Fruchter and 6 other people liked this

I hope my contributions to Louis Gray Facts (which borrow from the spirit, but not the spirits, of Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World) are perceived as being in the spirit of fun. We could use a break from puppets. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Hmm... Fake Steve Jobs retires mere days before Lois Gray shows up. Could this be Dan Lyons next gig? - Sprague D

if you like these sort of parity blogs checkout - http://newsgroper.com/ - mike "glemak" dunn

Steve Rubel posted a message

“Yo Gmail, push my mail will you? It needs push email.”

July 12 at 7:38 am - Link

Kevin Bray, RyanEs, Justin Yost and 8 other people liked this

Sure would be very nice if google started offering the ability to get mail pushed to the iPhone! - Scott Jarkoff

10 more comments

it is push to the iPhone. It is called IMAP. Check your settings in gmail and add to mail - Jared Radosevich

What Jared said - Daniel Smith

Gmail does push to my Treo. :P - Mathew A. Koeneker

S., What do you want it to push to that it doesn't do now? - Vince Green

I hope Gmail steps up and delivers what MobileMe is currently offering. Along with email, it pushes contacts, and the calendar. - Michael Carter

IMAP is a pull technology like POP3. You can set your iPhone to pull messages at a certain interval. But that is different than push. There is a proposal out there for P-IMAP which would be a push version of IMAP. - Michael Carter

gmail already has push...read up on imap idle... - Rob

IMAP IDLE feature makes it quasi-push. True push assumes your mobile can go deep sleep, no sockets open, but on mail arrival to your mailserver, your mobile network makes special paging, wakes up terminal and it gets mail -- this is what Crackberry does with special support from operators. If this is too much techno/expensive/over-needs - go configure your mobile for IMAP IDLE - silpol

Here is the link to wikipedia on imap. Explains why it works as push. http://tinyurl.com/fjow3 - Henry Burger

Gmail does not yet function completely as push since there is no support for actually having messages *pushed* to the phone. The IMAP server has to be queried and then mail _pulled_ from it, rather than having that new mail *pushed* to the device automagically. Methinks Michael Carter said it best. - Scott Jarkoff

if I'm not mistaken, I think google lacks the IDLE functionality that allows push to work. - Gregory Cohen

BlackBerry has had full push Gmail (and Google hosted mail) for a couple of years now. I generally see the message on my device before it shows up in Outlook or my web browser. It also has full push for Yahoo and Hotmail/Windows Live, and it's all included in your basic BlackBerry service. It's not via POP or IMAP, either, they have some kind of deal with RIM, but I'm not sure how it works on a technical level... It doesn't do calendar, tasks, or contacts though, which would be nice. - David

Bret Taylor posted a link

An Imminent Victory for Net Neutrality Advocates - New York Times Blog

July 11 at 9:09 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

siavash, Mark Stahl, Michael Carter and 10 other people liked this

"The Associated Press reported late Thursday that the F.C.C.’s chairman, Kevin J. Martin, has concluded that Comcast improperly blocked some file transfers. Mr. Martin told the A.P. he would recommend that the commission punish Comcast, and order it to stop the blocking, tell the commission how and how often it blocked file transfers and disclose to consumers its future plans for managing its network. Such an action would be the first time that regulators have slapped an Internet provider for violating F.C.C. open-access rules. Those rules are designed to prevent providers from favoring some services over others — for example, by accelerating the transfer of video from their own movie service or slowing down transfers from competitors." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

Steve Rubel posted a link

failPhone on Flickr - Photo Sharing!