Nothing just happened that I can pinpoint. But it's odd how periodically I feel like screaming into my FriendFeed microphone. It's almost like a touch of OCD.
- Micah Wittman
They have medication for it, but I think you're doing alright without it!
- Michael Fidler
I had a short, mild bout with OCD one year in junior high. I'd be sitting in class and would have to trace the edge of the desk with my fingers. And hearing the sand/dust under the metal podium as the teacher habitually dragged it across the hard floor to center it each day was like chalkboard scratching to me.
- Micah Wittman
It fairly common in gifted individuals. It's unusual for it to disappear in one year though. It was most likely caused by changes during puberty, but it balanced itself out quickly!
- Michael Fidler
Hmmm interesting fact, Michael. Yeah I struggled with it in puberty too, but grew out of it. Thanks for the info, I've always wondered about that chapter of my life :S
- LANjackal
You never know, especially when you start with a scream, what turn things will take. This thread reminds me the real reason why 'I had oatmeal for breakfast' announcements actually do matter (and I did have oatmeal this morning, btw).
- Micah Wittman
I need to start eating oatmeal again.
- Laura Norvig
What web apps/services have impressed you the most this year? What ones have you used the most? What new apps have been added to your regularly-used list?
What apps or services would you like to see do well in 2010? What would you like to see change in 2010? What apps have been disappointing or feel they deserve to do better next year?
- Kol Tregaskes
In terms of iPhone apps -- MagicSleep.
- Miss Elle
Well I'm, of course, going to say FriendFeed has had a good year - though the FB buy-out make a huge dent. If I think back to last year and what I wasn't using that I am now then Twitter had improved a lot, particularly with the Twitter Lists, which were long overdue. Chrome has become my default browser - I hardly touch Firefox and IE could easily be uninstalled if I could.
- Kol Tregaskes
Google Wave was impressive but it needs some serious optimisation and made a lot easier to use. Hopefully next year we'll see some improvements introduced. Groups would be the biggest new feature for me. Facebook is getting used more but it needs a lot more FriendFeed-esque features.
- Kol Tregaskes
A tie: Wordpress and Friendfeed. Just hope Friendfeed can stay cutting edge.
- laosan
Friendfeed and reddit seem to be doing well, with a clean and clear text interface...
- TrafficBug
Web apps... Google Wave was a disappointment. Can't really say I have a use for it. Friendfeed had a great year and is my most used web app. Part of what has made friendfeed great for me has been AJ's clean widescreen theme and Micah's huge collection of Greasemonkey scripts. I don't think friendfeed would be quite as enjoyable without them. On the desktop...There is a small,...
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- April Russo (app103)
I still believe Google Wave is exactly what I need for project discussion, support or training that works live and over time and that can stay available through time as new people join in etc. Or a family network thing... Best elements of irc/chat with the best elements of forum/wiki - the potential is there but it was never meant to be a social network, but a work tool/platform. Alas getting the people I collaborate with on Wave will be another thing.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Reddit, news.yc, pinboard.in, and Grooveshark
- Itachi
I see Google Wave as a new form of email, and your Google Wave address should be protected as much as you'd protect your email address (there are some privacy concerns with making it public) Wave would be great if the kind of email you send and receive would be improved by the extra functionality it provides, but most of the email correspondence I receive is just newsletters and alerts,...
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- April Russo (app103)
Bespin hands down. Integral component in replacing desktop apps.
- Raphael, Raphael
I'm sure Google Wave will have better year next year.
- Kol Tregaskes
I can't live without KatMouse now that I am used to it.
- Matt G
Evernote is the biggest new app added to my stable in 2009. And I actually pay for the premium service. SHOCKING.
- LANjackal
In the sense that it has helped me access many services in one and like those hits that appear by December and go straight to the top of the charts, I have to say, Google Chrome but with extensions. Believe me I am really sorry to accept this fact. I would prefer some top 5 or top 10 kind of poll :)
- Carlos Lorenzo
Kol KatMouse isn't new but its new for me. Whatever your mouse is on you can scroll. ie you don't have to click on the box to scroll. Kicks arse.
- Matt G
Feedly, posterous, threadsy, and friendfeed, of course.
- Michael Fidler
twilio is very cool. I have not use it yet but I like it. I will use
- KeremTiryaki
threadsy, posterous, and seesmic (via web) most used. Wave is most impressive but have not been able to implement the way I want. I believe we haven't seen full potential yet. Next year fo-shur. Feedly is reader of choice and Lazyfeed is gaining to give me whats up.
- amarquart
Seesmic Desktop is good but he latest version is way to buggy to use so I'm currently using TweetDeck but I'm only using either one (well at least a lot more) because of Twitter Lists.
- Kol Tregaskes
Evernote Premium and Flickr Premium I still pay for so they must get a mention. But definitely Friendfeed and Twitter.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
I really enjoyed Elder Scrolls. Sadly, I'm currently addicted to a couple of iPhone games. But, I'm still a PC; I think? Happy Holidays!
- Michael Fidler
Lost for me, I thought this the latest season really hit the mark. 24 was good again too. As for new shows, hmm, not seen a whole season throw to the end so can't comment.
- Kol Tregaskes
Go download the first episode from somewhere (iTunes, bittorrent, w/e). I guarantee you will love it like we all do. It's just really, really, really well written and acted.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
LOST was good this year! I always forget since I consider it part of last season. I'm REALLY looking forward to the last season.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Haggis, me too. What's the bet that they'll wake up at the end as if it was all a dream but have gained all the experience? ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Community is my favorite new show and in fact tied for favorite overall with 30 Rock, since the latter had a slow start yet again. Party Down would be my second favorite new show. Pushing Daisies for special mention since it didn't finish airing till Jun 2009. I tend to think in terms of the Sept-May "seasons" for TV, but if you want to go by calendar year, I might put Pushing Daisies as top show.
- Andrew C
I've not heard of Community either. What is that about too?
- Kol Tregaskes
Royal Pains is great, White Collar is good, Community is excellent, Men of a Certain Age has started well too, and Pawn Stars is also worth watching.
- AJ Kohn
Either Family Guy or Two and a Half Men...I'm a simple man
- Morgan Haley
Community's about a community college. It's really well-constructed, well-written, well-acted... the editing is about the only thing I could carp about - there are occasionally weird edits mid-scene, as if they had done several different takes on different camera angles and didn't match them up too well. Still, it's super-solid and very funny.
- Andrew C
I'd say Star Wars Clone Wars(Is that too geeky?) and Mad Men
- laosan
LOST, For new shows, I like V and FlashForward, but I haven't watched much television this year.
- Michael Fidler
Oh yeah, Modern Family is good. Cougar Town isn't bad either - getting better actually. Dollhouse of course and for me, Fringe is still wickedly interesting.
- AJ Kohn
Glee. I haven't checked out Modern Family yet, though I hear it's terrific.
- Spidra Webster
Breaking Bad... thanks to everyone's recommendations!
- Adrian
I don't think I looked forward to any weekly episodes more this year than the second season of True Blood. New show? Parks and Recreation.
- Jason Toney
Fringe is awesome. Pushing Daisies was a great show, I'm annoyed that it got canceled. Love Dollhouse too. V is so-so. Flash Forward is pretty decent, but slow (like the second season of Lost slow). 30 Rock is funny and excellent. Burn Notice was quite good at first, but went downhill a bit, I think. More interesting list of shows I'll never, ever watch: Community, because it's just...
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- Otto
Kol, if you are able to gain access to Hulu, it's where I watch them.both. There's only 4 episodes of V and 10 episodes of FlashForward out, so you haven't missed much.
- Michael Fidler
30 Rock. I just started watching it this season and I have to say it's some of the smartest comedy on TV. I had a couple of marathon weekends of watching the previous 3 seasons to get caught up. I never laughed so hard as I did those two weekends.
- Jason Huebel
Tie between Burn Notice and Leverage.
- Alex Scoble
Didn't like Dollhouse, nice idea but not well executed IMHO.
- Kol Tregaskes
Agree with you Kol. Dollhouse was pants. Lost, 24, The Simpsons is back on track...i swear it is....Hank was atrocious. Kelsey Grammer lost a bit of credibility there. American Dad went downhill this year so far, but a few family guys have been ok. FlashForward was good for the first 8 episodes, but it seems now its setting itself up for a few seasons which I dont mind but would of been...
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- Giraffes Up In The AIr
I watched an episode of Modern Family, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's easy to see how some people might find it entertaining, but it's a little too close to home for me. (It's too L. A.) I also watched an episode of Glee, and found it to be original, and entertaining, but it’s not the type of show that I would look forward to week after week. However, it's clearly well made and...
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- Michael Fidler
Streaming requires the Live3G Web app that you access via the iPhone’s Safari browser. It streams video using Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming technology. (With EyeTV 3.2, Elgato released an iPhone app that allowed similar streaming, but only over a Wi-Fi connection. The iPhone app offers additional features that the Web app doesn’t.) The free Live3G Web app requires an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.1, and an Intel Core Duo Mac or better.
- Michael Fidler
from Bookmarklet
Now THAT is worth waiting for. The SyFy reimagining sorta ... well no... completely sucked. SyFy? Who came up with that? That's soooo sooo... messed up.
- Len Bullard
It looks amazing! It might even make up for what they did with Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
- Michael Fidler
Sitting in my hotel room waiting to get ready. Watching What Not To Wear and trying to relax...There's no way I'm going to stay unemotional today. Cassie's already cried twice.
I jailbroke mine-- right before I sold it on eBay for $325. :-)
- Jason Huebel
Sure it is. It's a peace of crap when it's not jailbroken.
- Willem (@wim66) ☠
Knocking Video put me over the edge... I wanted video recording/ messaging on my 3G and jailbreaking is/ was the only option(Cycorder, Qik...) That, tethering, customizing....? If you like to "tinker" it makes the iPhone a much more intriguing!
- Ron Thompson
Not tinkering, I am enjoying 7 dollar full internet access, and better coverage than at&t thank you tmobile.
- Gregory
Yes. For app switching, backgrounding, and things like running 170 apps with just one home screen.
- Patrick Jordan
I actually hide all but 5 icons for the most used programs(on bottom row/ dock) and use Searchlight to launch any of the rest... Page left for Searchlight, and back right to Home Screen. Simple and a lot less clutter to hide/ cover up custom backgrounds.
- Ron Thompson
Nice Ron. I use the PogoPlank springboard replacement app -with the wheel and placement of apps into folders - and also allows for really enjoying the full effect of your background and theme choices. :)
- Patrick Jordan
Yes, Patrick... I've been missing out, I s/h Jailbroken a long time ago... With the so so cell service I currently get... an unlock and switch to TMobile could be next? Funny when you think about it... the whole Categories/ folders idea is not new? Pocket PC's and Windows Mobiles have used that type of sorting system for years... Having had both, this system makes more sense to me vs the multiple "Home" pages...
- Ron Thompson
yup, Jailbroken and my reception even improved
- sofarsoShawn
I need to figure out why I'm paying T-Mobile almost 3x as much for my TiPhone's Internet access.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Since I canceled AT&T, yes. It now acts like an iPod Touch
- Rodfather
Yep, and if you find you don't like it, you can always restore it back to it's limited un-jailbroken form. Here's what mine looks like, although I've been thinking about trying something else. http://ff.im/aAwJ8
- Michael Fidler
@ Ron - yup, that is one of the areas where Windows Mobile got some things right - although mostly via clever 3rd party UI enhancers rather than any default WinMo scheme. I think the home pages idea works up to about 5 home screens. Beyond that, it becomes pretty tiresome and ineffective. I usually run with 9-11 screens worth of apps - and for that level things like PogoPlank are a much better option IMO.
- Patrick Jordan
"If you look at the reviews for this app on the iTunes store, though, you'll be astonished--there are over 1,000 one-star reviews! What's going on? They're not judging the app on its design or effectiveness, that's for sure. Instead, people are freaked out by that "your audio is converted by Nuance's servers" part. They think this is a privacy violation. They fear that someone at Nuance might listen in to the audio. (Nuance says nope, it's just a bunch of computers, maintained in a secure facility, and the audio and transcriptions are not saved.) They're also alarmed by the welcome screen's note that the names in your address book are uploaded to Nuance, too. Eeks! Nuance will know the names of the people we know! OK, first of all, this business of your audio being sent to Nuance for transcription rings a very familiar bell. Remember the Gmail brouhaha? When Gmail debuted, it offered a fantastic e-mail account, paid for by small text ads on the side whose subjects are matched to the e-mail contents."
- edythe
from Bookmarklet
I try to be careful what I repost or retweet
- Molly, "sorry"
If you don't want something to be shared don't share it
- Molly, "sorry"
Someone can always come by with a rock or hammer.
- Heather Solos
It's a netiquette issue. And not everyone has the same standards as you can see from people on Friendfeed who are retweeting their FB friends' status updates.
- Spidra Webster
You can have private twitter too, right?
- Bruce Lewis
Both FF and Twitter should have more obvious reminders of whether what you're viewing is private so that you can use some netiquette about how you view/RT that info.
- Spidra Webster
"Private" is never really private in social media.
- Steven Perez
Just wanted to let you all know that we're eating Shabbat/Chanukah dinner (made almost entirely of recipes suggested by FriendFeeders) while listening to you guys. You're at our Chanukah dinner! We're having a blast, laughing our asses off.
- Akiva Moskovitz
I had to think about this one a bit because I'm not sure what the scope of the question is. It's vague, but judging by your answers, I think it’s referring to people who are connected to Social Media. It's hard to narrow down to three, but the first one was the easiest; @louisgray, @fredwilson, and @jasongoldberg. I'm still amazed at what he did last year.
- Michael Fidler
hey man I don't deserve that I am truly honoured thank you. Tx
- Thomas Power
"The technology, which offers more than 1 million colors to choose from, could be applied to e-book readers, as well as on walls inside the home or on the exterior of gadgets — allowing you to change the color of your smartphone to match what you’re wearing."
- Michael Fidler
from Bookmarklet
Hell yes it is! All the fine dudes and finest bitches still be rocking the Casbah daily and nightly here on the station with it all! K-FFD!
- Morgan Haley
Still alive but the momentum and will to live is gone -- and the sale and virtual abandonment was like shutting out the lights in the middle of a party -- a signal for everybody to go home.
- Brian Sullivan
The Google real-time announcement certainly didn't hurt!!!!
- Charlie Anzman
Honestly, it's not that much different -- plenty to chat about, and plenty to chat with -- and it's still storing all my web finds perfectly. There's an extremely considerate and passionate community. So... sure!
- Christopher Galtenberg
It is to me - it all depends on what you make of it
- Jesse Stay
Who is here is replying "yes". Who's not here any more just won't reply. The fact is few weeks ago you wouldn't have asked :) [ah, this means it is not kicking as in the past]
- Markingegno - Donato
from Android
I would say yes. It had a slump period for me for a couple of months, but now I'm putting more in it and getting more from it in return.
- Rasmus Lauridsen
Tricky question. Nothing else out there has this feature-set, and AFAIC that's the killer, I use FF because it's the best platform. Maybe some people drifting away since the sale, but OTOH there are new people joining. My buddies Nat and Brent from Calgary both joined around the time of the sale and have both really gotten into it. I have more discussions here than on Twitter, and I think that's true for a lot of people.
- Louis Simoneau
And @Scoble: the fact that you don't get 12 000+ followers on FF makes it less attractive to social media marketing types, which actually makes it BETTER as a platform for meeting and interacting with real people. I have 'friends' on Twitter that I've back-and-forthed with a few times but couldn't really tell you much about, whereas here, I feel like I really KNOW people like Derrick, Jandy, Monique, etc.
- Louis Simoneau
Only to some hardcore dedicated FF'ers. Other then that its just here for Robert Scoble to come on and preach how every worthy tech person he follows is on Twitter and how this site is dead.
- CW™
And regarding Robert's statement, OF COURSE a founder of Google will get thousands people who click the follow button. Then what? I look forward to Eric having 12,000 individual conversations this week, so someone ping me when that happens :) I've gleaned more valuable insights into the thought process and perspective of Google/Googlers from being in and around the conversations started by DeWitt on Friendfeed than I have in any other way.
- Micah Wittman
I have to excuse myself for not being very active for quite a while: I was being busy organising the Dutch Bloggies. I do think FriendFeed is still alive, but I sure wished there were more Dutch people to keep up a conversation with. It's making it difficult, now I'm out of organising for a week, to start up being involved again. I'm jealous at the Egyptian & Italian people, who seem to have a whole community here.
- Ton Zijp
Friendfeed is immortal, perfect, the best. Friendfeed will never die. ... in fact, the end of behemoths like Facebook and Twitter will be tweeted on Friendfeed.!
- Petr Buben
Just got back into using FF more heavily and find it much more enjoyable to any of the Twitter clients I've found. I can actually engage with the people that I "follow" and learn more about them and find interests instead of just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff like I feel I do on Twitter
- Ian Rudy
Am I the only one who got tired of responding to posts that ask if the site is still alive? "Charlie, you there? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you here me *now*?....I gave up on 'em after Scoble's 2nd one. Just ignore
- Itachi
We really enjoy Little Big Planet. Modern Warfare 2 is also an excellent choice. If you want to go retro, there is a Sega Genesis compilation pack that's a lot of fun.
- Jason Huebel
As the games I really want are new and too expensive atm (Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2, etc.) I've plumped for some old ones: Resistance 2, both MotoStorm games and Killzone 2.
- Kol Tregaskes
I've got Modern Warfare 2 for the PC, that'll be played a lot next week I'm sure. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
And I've put Little Big Planet on my Lovefilm rental list.
- Kol Tregaskes
Oh I got Brutal Legend for £15 with the Blu-Ray movie bundle. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
I loved motorstorm when it came out but when it comes to the later sections I gave up due to the fact that I would find myself stringing together strings of expletives out of frustration - it's so easy to go from 1st to last place. Pacific Rift is better though.
- Amy
Welcome to the family. Here's some to get you started:Uncharted 1 and 2, Killzone 2, Infamous, Little Big Planet.
- Chieze Okoye
Oh, I just read the list of games that you got. Oddly close to my suggestion list. 8^) You can pick up Uncharted 1 if you're waiting for 2 to come down in price. It's an excellent game.
- Chieze Okoye