I respectfully throw myself at the feet of the Court Of FriendFeed and beg for special dispensation since I have only learnt that Friday the 5th of June is Donut Day at 1am on Saturday the 6th. I seek leave to engage in the festivities one day later to atone for my trespass on this most......... wait for it.......... holey day
You doughnut-picture-posting folks are just cruel. I never buy donuts but that photo the other day with the young guy munching the donut must have worked on me subliminally cuz when I got back from lunch I discovered I had stopped at Starbucks and bought an apple fritter.
- Fred Yankowski
You cannot petition the FriendFeed with donuts...
- Todd Hoff
may everyday be a holey day for you :D
- zsafwan
I've decided, Johnny, that we can celebrate it today :D A holey day indeed :)
- Penny
Am I Right or Not time: I was thinking about buying a piece of software for $250. Company's policy (and DRM) restricts it to 2 computers (I have 2 desktops + a laptop which I use regularly).
I wrote customer service twice, and was told, sorry, no exceptions... but you can put it on a USB drive to get around the restriction. So my question, before I include this company in a subsequent rant on my blog: am I being unreasonable in my request and my frustration? Related question: is this type of restriction typical? (two concurrent installs, no exceptions)
- Adam Lasnik
Yes, that's normal. For instance, with Microsoft Office, you can install it on a desktop system and a laptop, but you can't use it on both places at the same time.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
The dilemma is -- since this is an information retrieval / organizer type product -- I really want/need it on my home, work, and laptop computers. I apparently can't do this unless I pay for two licenses ($500 instead of $250) or use the lame workaround of a USB key, with which I risk losing my data if I don't back it up all the time. To clarify, I don't want to use the software concurrently, I want it *installed* concurrently (e.g., don't want to have to install/uninstall every day).
- Adam Lasnik
And torque, that's an interesting question. I think it's the principle even more than the money. I believe they're restricting it to two installs to prevent piracy, prevent people from sharing the software with a buddy and splitting the cost. I resent the lack of trust, especially after I wrote a nice note to customer service. I'm used to the honor system with software purchases, though admittedly, most of my purchases have been in the <$100 range the last years
- Adam Lasnik
I've also seen where you have to go through customer service, and if you pass the smell test, they'll give you another license (on the assumption, I guess, that people pirating the software will just bittorrent stuff and won't bother contacting customer support).
- Adam Lasnik
Careful with what you install on your work computer. Software companies frequently have different licensing for applications that are being used "for business."
- EricaJoy
I was actually thinking of a different but related issue, Erica, which is why I didn't plan on putting work-related stuff in the program... which also means that (in good faith) I'd be still using it for personal stuff.
- Adam Lasnik
I dunno, I've bought single licenses that allow for install on a second machine provided it's primarily used only by moi. So your scenario seems like that to me, just with the extra machine. And since you can't, without some really impressive juggling, use all three licenses at once, I don't fully understand why they want to make you buy two. I don't think they'd really be losing money by letting you do what you want.
- Jaemi Kehoe
And in the event that you ever had a FOURTH machine, you might be more likely to buy another license if you were pleased with them.
- Jaemi Kehoe
torque, I'm glad you like this conversation! I really do respect and appreciate the tough decisions that companies have to make when they've invested so much time and money into making a product that many might simply grab without paying for. In fact, while I'd typically shout "remove the DRM, dammit!", I then get jolted into reality when I read about how jerks have pirated even an amazing $20 game by an indie developer http://bit.ly/VQug :\.
- Adam Lasnik
If you do the install on a USB key, why do you have to keep the data on it? You weren't going to put the data on the flash drive if you installed the app on three different hard drives, were you? I would think something happening to the flash drive would lose that installation of the program, not the unique data, itself. Seems to me the solution would be to buy a new USB drive and do a new install.
- MiniMage
Ah, very good point, MiniMage! Hadn't thought of that (I planned to keep the data files on Dropbox). Still, though, would be kinda a pain to always carry around the USB stick, not to mention be constantly plugging it in and out, no?
- Adam Lasnik
Yes, that would be a pain. Do they license server installs? Do you have a server that could serve apps?
- MiniMage
How on earth is a server going to help if the laptop is remote??? And I feel you Adam.
- Roberto Bonini
If the licensing isn't differentiated, a server install could serve two computers at work, and the standalone at home could be the second install. Now, if two computers are remote, I suppose it won't help much; it'd probably be slow as molasses via VPN. Of course, I'm speculating about stuff I don't really know about; I'm just a desktop tech. I use server apps; I don't get to install/support them. That privilege is reserved for people other organizations have trained. :(
- MiniMage
Licenses for similar software are similarly restrictive. The one for OneNote for example can go on 3 computers if you have the Student Edition, right? Lot of software isn't that upfront either; you find out when you activate that you can't take it with you. Honestly, i was happy to see my $250 got me two licenses: that's just 125/install instead of 250/install... TheBrain is well worth it & they've seen there product stolen already so...
- Ruud Hein
It's interesting to ponder how the situation might be different if the software in question were a service (web-based or otherwise). Granted, you'd probably be paying per unit time, but there would be no question of "which" machine it was installed on -- probably just a prohibition on running it simultaneously on a single account. I've never understood why more desktop software vendors don't do that; perhaps just that people are used to paying a single fee for installed software?
- Joel Webber
Ruud, I think that that model isn't going to survive. Young people today aren't (IMHO) buying office, buying PersonalBrain. They're doing everything online, where there are monthly fees (use anywhere) or no fees (directly or indirectly advertiser sponsored). I'm 37, and in all my geekiness and all my software/service experiences, I can't recall a single instance of a program that has such strictly limited installs. iTunes/Rhapsody songs are... 3 or 5 computers? Even even that DRM seems on the way out.
- Adam Lasnik
I just don't think people, especially young people, can even fathom pay-by-install. And Joel, as for pay-per-use-hour, that's an intriguing idea, but IMHO also doomed to failure. For many products, the more use = the more one sees the value = the more evangelism. Pay-by-hour seems like such a relic of the time when computing power / bandwidth was crazy-expensive. In today's multi-tasking world, it'd also be infuriating (how many of us dedicate 100% of our personal CPUs to one web/software app at a time? :P
- Adam Lasnik
Agreed: I think the software-sales model is broke - dot. Subscription is the way to go although in the Evernote forum some discuss how *that* keeps them hostage... I think PB should let me do with the install as I wish -- but failing that I do think they have the right ... and that it's worth it.
- Ruud Hein
I can get two hamburgers for $2.50, should I steal a third one? Seriously Adam, it doesn't really matter if the model is broken or not, if software licensing has a future or not, those are just the restrictions that they have. It's how they have built their licensing system (and software costs money to make :-), especially software that is not used by gazillions of people). Going from...
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- John Mueller
John, normally I respect your brilliance, but I gotta heartily disagree with your analogies and reasoning here. 1) Hamburgers cost per item. Software does not. It would not cost the company any more if I used it on 3 computers instead of 2. In fact, their revenue would increase by possibly $250 ;). 2) I wasn't advocating a move from $ to ads. As I noted, I'm quite happy to pay for software and have done so frequently. 3) I see absolutely no relationship between size of a company and licensing model.
- Adam Lasnik
Actually, hamburgers cost close to nothing per item; It does however cost quite a bit to be able to sell them to you. The thing is, these companies have built their business on being able to sell you a license for a certain number of computers. You might not like that model, but that's the way they are calculating costs, the way they're paying for overhead and the ability to provide the...
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- John Mueller
I used to run a software company so it's something I spent a lot of time on :-). Changing a licensing model is a lot of work and you can't just say $X/2PCs/user is unfair compared to $Y/user or $Z/year. In the end, the overhead (of creating, distributing & supporting the software) has to be paid for just the same -- how it's split up is (simplified) based on marketing. Marketing changes...
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- John Mueller
To clarify, John, while I have to admit to some temptation to bittorrenting in this case, I wasn't seriously planning (and do not plan) to violate the license agreement. Rather, I plan on not further evaluating the software and simply finding an alternative. And despite your arguments, I still think it's a lousy marketing decision, a lousy way to calculate costs. I mean, they could say "People should pay based upon the sum of the letters in their last name" and I'd see that as only slightly less arbitrary.
- Adam Lasnik
This sort of thing makes my head hurt. There was a time, until recently, where My husband and I each had a desktop and a laptop. We like to travel, so we needed some software on our laptops. It was frustrating to run into this situation where we'd have the software on one laptop and one desktop. That meant a lot of switching seats in the office and travel sucked because we'd have to trade off laptop tops to finish our projects. This is one of the reasons we're trending more open source and cloud for our biz
- Anika
I agree, Adam, in your case it sucks and to be honest, in your situation I'd think twice about it too. I don't think there is ever a perfect licensing model. When we sold software for $2000/user, we'd get people who say they're only working part-time and couldn't we give them a discount, etc. Sure, if you're working 30% it seems really unfair to pay the same as someone who's working...
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- John Mueller
I just noticed sharing files through dropbox is not working any more. I used to share free version files through dropbox, but recently found that all the links to pages drag-and-dropped into the app won't save the URL as it used to. And it won't even let you copy-paste the link into the Notes – whatever you posted disappears in a matter of seconds if you're adding it on one computer (at work) and forgot to close it leaving home. Their licensing really sucks.
- earlyadopter
Yay! The graphic has officially been flipped! No need for nostalgia.
- Louis Gray
Kenndy actually makes a good point here... :)
- Roberto Bonini
Merry Eggnog! ... and jeez, what's with the rude comments? It's the holidays. #relax
- Mona Nomura
I think everyone knew exactly what you meant jeremy :)
- Roberto Bonini
Jeremy, perhaps there's a misunderstanding. As a rule, FriendFeeders celebrate Festivus - maybe someone mistook this thread for the Airing of the Grievences ceremony. In any event, I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it!
- John Craft
Right now, Mark Zuckerberg is sitting in a dark room, looking at monitors on the screen. A big red button marked "Kill Friendfeed" sits on the armchair to his right. As he giggles menacingly under his breath, his finger hovers ever-so-gently over the button...
- Fleagle
++ Fleagle. "And suddenly, a question pops his head. How come, why not here on my own developed turf? He sips the last of his milk glass, raising the finger off the button, and decided to give them another day." -The book of SocNet, 12:10
- Zu from AOD
Ross and Dan made this video to illustrate the advanced technology we use behind the scenes at FriendFeed. (Ross and Dan, you are amazing - I can't believe how awesome this thing turned out)
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
How very creative. This is very fluid and cool.
- Louis Gray
OK, not exactly what I was expecting, but very cool.
- Kevin Arth
Anyone have the video somewhere other than Youtube? it's banned here in Turkey and I can't wait until we get home (next month) to watch it!!
- Chris Myles
This is superb. I just showed it to my 5 year old son who enjoys Lego and has already taken some great photos, including one or two of his toys. So now he has the seed of the idea that, in time, he could take multiple stills and put them together to make moving pictures. Thank you very much for posting it and giving me and him that opportunity. Maybe, he might use FriendFeed one day too!
- John W Lewis
I think they need to make a full stop-motion version of the Matrix in legos. Now THAT would be awesome. I wonder what bullet-time looks like in LEGO?
- Bret Taylor
i'd pay to see the stop animation lego matrix, but not the sequels
- patrick
"Equipment Generously Provided By Casey Muller" - hahaha!! THIS IS AWESOMESAUCE!!! I love the creative energy and vibe in this video... LOTS of work went into that one! Thanks guys!! :)
- Susan Beebe
Genius, how much time did that all take?
- Wayne Hornsey
Chris Myles: if you want ot - DM me an address and I'll mail you a copy.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Indeed, I do. I was so jealous when someone posted from the west coast about eating crepes filled with Nutella, whipped cream and strawberries, but there was nowhere I could go for that. I was in Cincinnati yesterday and took advantage of Jungle Jim's proximity to pick up some things I can't find in town, and when I saw crepes (which I will NOT make myself), I nabbed 'em! Now I need the other three ingredients.
- MiniMage
from BuddyFeed
Reckon the comments in mutiple languages, I think the love for Nutella is a worldwide phenoma. <3 I think Nutella is the key to world peace. ;)
- Olivia Lovag
Nope. Neither the chocolate nor the hazelnut flavor seems to pop out to me, it just tastes sweet. I'd rather have the fresh ground chocolate peanut butter from Whole Foods.
- FFing Enigma
YES,yes,yes....i do and i like it even more when listening to my ipod and doors are locked,...must be a english thing to do ......nikki......^o^ -
- nikki hayes
hi, nikki ! ...... nice to meet you !! ........^_^
- keiko-san
@Ortaparmak - Since 1973>soudesu. nihonwa kyoukara "Golden-Week" ni hairimashita. demo, watashi wa shigoto desu. nichiyoubi to getsuyoubi dake oyasumi desu. doko e ittemo hito ga ookute.....
- keiko-san
Italian Restaurant de hataraite imasu. yoru dake desukedone......; p
- keiko-san
keiko-san, I fine and I'm busy at work. how about u ? : )
- Lost Abyss
@AyDin >hello!.....I did't know taht. What's so good? I tried looking on the Internet, I have little information. What is it made from hazelnuts, I guess? It seems to eat once. It also has made what countries?
- keiko-san
@ Lost Abyss >hi!.....are you busy?.....me, too!......^_^
- keiko-san
I'm home now : ) weekend rest time : )
- Lost Abyss
to ke dargire jabre mohiti hastio masaele zin das...papak...ba to hastam...to ke ba kasi ke tarside az un donya bara doori az atashe doozakhash hame jayash ra pooshande chon pooshanidan az atash kasi ke sarapa tarse va tars doshmane manteghe che manteghi bahs mikoni pas manteghi bahs kardan ba kasi ke door az mantegh hast khod eyne bi manteghie ;)
- peepoo
Keyko, stop rebumping same old posts. Now Nutella makes me throw up. Would you still like something that you see 3/4 times per day?
- Apostocosì (Vulvia)
Hi :) I'll write recipes with nutella a.s.a.p :P
- SanalMutfak (M)
No, it's disgusting. The worst such hazelnut cream produced, sticky, oversweet and at the same time flavorless. There are bunches of much better similar creams around, not necessarly hugely more costly: Novi cream is hugely better and still in the same price range!
- Alice Twain
Alice come on... a little spoon of Nutella could make you less ... :P
- Eta e basta
use translate button keiko :) (I know It doesn't perfect)
- SanalMutfak (M)
@Eta, nutella is disgusting. not hazelnut creams. The point is that nutella has next to no hazelnut in, that's part of what makes it so bad. Again, try some better hazelnut creams, stuff that does not feel like sugary glue in your mouth but rather is silky with a distinct taste of toasted hazelnut. You will taste the difference.
- Alice Twain
I'm in it for the chocolate, not the nut
- MiniMage
from Android
In Italian, "Slurp" is an onomatopoeia, i.e. this word means that someone is licking him/her own lips while thinking about the goodness of a food.
- Smeerch
"Fox Sports is reporting that Chicago Bears rookie linebacker J.T. Thomas escorted a wheelchair-bound girl to her middle-school dance. The former West Virginia standout last month met 14-year-old Joslyn Levell, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. During that meeting, she told him that all of the boys she had asked to the dance turned her down. Levell, who attends Suncrest Middle School in Morgantown, was disappointed and cried a little because no one would escort her to the dance. After clearing it with Levell's parents and school, Thomas picked up Levell on Friday night in a rented black Chrysler, and brought her roses and a corsage. When they arrived, Thomas danced with Levell after she introduced him to many of the same boys who had declined to be her date for the dance. "This was Joslyn's night," Thomas said. "It wasn't about me." "It was so exciting," Levell added. "I'm just so excited to go to school and see what everyone has to say." Thomas' 7-year-old brother, Jared,...
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- Anika
from Bookmarklet
It looks like people are solving it, so hopefully I'm not spoiling it: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Tab, Return. It's a variation of the Konami code (which nets you 30 lives in Contra) adapted for the keyboard. Figured out the first part from Paul's clue, but it took going through the minified Javascript to figure out a) that they didn't use the original Konami code like Google does and b) what they used for keyboard equivalents for "select" and "start."
- Mark Trapp
AWESOME! but didn't the code net you 99 lives?
- Keith - @tsudo
In Contra it was 30; not sure what it was in other Konami games.
- Mark Trapp
hahah man that's intense. i guess they know their audience :)
- Frankie Warren
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja: U U D D L-Button R-Button L-Button R-Button Start. 30 lives. I'll never forget that ;p (there also was that B A B A variation too..) GG Mark.
- Zu from AOD
Stephen, very happy to see new features like this, but I think the "death" part is the major users reducing their activity. I'd love to see some support from Facebook in promoting FriendFeed more to encourage those users to go back. Or maybe they don't want to? Regardless, bonus for me! Thanks Benjamin - you're awesome!
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, fair enough but major users always did come and go. Some of the departees who left said they were doing so because there was no new development. Clearly not all development is halted. Last week Paul hinted that FF may receive a major new feature, and characterized his participation as "20% time" -- I'll take that.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
I backed down off the all caps. The group "best of" is really useful, love it.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Stephen, I agree - I'd just like some confirmation that Facebook cares about all this so I can know whether to focus my efforts on Facebook or FriendFeed or both.
- Jesse Stay
I noticed the best of on the iPhone the other day, wrote it out on a cake and then ated it.
- Josh Haley
Jesse, I think you should focus where your users are focused. What do SocialToo users want? But if they want Facebook focus, you should still keep an eye on FriendFeed, since the future Facebook will look a lot more like FriendFeed.
- Bruce Lewis
Paul Buchheit said the FB acquisition was attractive because of shared vision/direction. I would be surprised if a lot of that vision wasn't already embodied in this product right here.
- Bruce Lewis
BASIC - high school - clunky ASR teletype, accoustic coupled modem and dial-up to PDP8 somewhere
- Nick B.
I learned programming on my own. There was some kind of "computers" class in one of the high schools I went to, where they covered binary and Hello World-type things, but I don't think anyone really learned anything substantial in that class.
- Andy Bakun
Whatever was available on the Apple II GS in 7th grade.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
They didn't even have electronic calculators when I was in elementary school! (Or high school, for that matter.)
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
In the mid 80s high school, we had a single semester elective "Computers" we could take which did touch upon basic BASIC. I don't know if they go into underlying programming at all in the schools these days, even though they have the computers at each desk in grade school.
- Michael W. May
Yes to Logo but that was it, and it was a specialized program. Not the mainstream classroom.
- Rochelle
from iPhone
I recall using my first electronic calculator in my physics lab as a college sophomore. There were two of them on top of a counter along the windows of the lab. They were about the size of small typewriter and plugged into wall outlets. We had to wait in line to use them, but it was worth it because--not only did they do addition, subtraction, division and multiplication--THEY DID SQUARE ROOTS!!! That was a big deal, believe me.
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
Nope. Not until my junior year in high school. BASIC. 1982. You do the math. :p
- #cryptic
Yes. BASIC and COBOL in 5th and 6th grades. It was mostly for just showing us they existed and what we could do. It wasn't until 7th grade that we were expected to do solo programming.
- Anika
We had one Apple ][e in elementary school. Some friends and I would stay after a half-hour some days to play games but that was about it. In junior high, we had a computer class which was an elective. There were maybe 15 Apple ][e machines in that room. We did some BASIC but it was a 'if you want to' assignment. Some kids did it, other kids spent time brutalizing Print Shop Pro.
- Akiva
Computing didn't get onto our national curriculum until I was 14 (by which time I was self-taught). When it did it was BASIC mainly, with a little Logo, and then they introduced Ada at my school.
- Mark H
computers didn't exist when I was in elementary school. BASIC in high school. PASCAL was new enough that it was the advanced programming course when I was a freshman in university
- DJF
Formally, I was taught Logo starting in 5th grade (1986) The version we used was LogoWriter on the Apple IIcs we had (but there was Commodore 64 version as well) which allowed multiple turtles. I seem to remember they spent some time teaching us about the LISP-like list processing commands, which I never really figured out how to fit into recursive procedures. They made us do projects...
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- Victor Ganata
In high school, we were required to have programmable graphics calculators (I had a TI-81) and I remember the cool thing at the time was a port of the MS-DOS game Drugwars. My high school did have an AP Computer Science class, but I didn't have a chance to take it. I ended up teaching myself how to program in Pascal for fun, and took the AP test for the college credits (that weren't really useful)
- Victor Ganata
Not from the school itself. One of my friends and I used to look at old C & C++ books in 2nd grade('96-'97), most of it went over my head though. I ended up programming for the first time at about 9('98-ish), when I found QBasic while snooping around DOS on our home computer.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
I've still had minimal exposure to programming (I'm 38).
- Bren
from iPhone
Learned some BASIC at home when I was middle school age. They had a computer class that I didn't take in HS that was also BASIC. I took BASIC as a math credit in college (ca. 1990-1991).
- LB: #TeamMonique
Basic in grades seven and eight. The interface was a teletype. That was 40 years ago. The teacher assured us that computers couldn't do algebra.
- Mary B: #TeamMonique
from iPhone
Johnny, I used UCSD Pascal on an Apple II at school, which compiled at about 1 line per second. At home I had Turbo Pascal on my Mac that compiled at about 16,000 lines per second.
- Kevin Fox
Elementary school? No. They didn't have computers. In Jr High there was an Apple II that some were getting games to play on. In HS I was too busy connecting the Apple-talk network to the Novell classrooms and working on other tech issues to try to learn. But I think in HS they tried to teach Pascal.
- Me
BASIC in middle school on Apple IIe.
- Steven Perez
First year of high school: BASIC. My town now teaches Python to elementary school kids, grades 4-6.
- April Russo
No, not until my freshman year in upper school (BASIC), but that's possibly because I'm so old. I was learning on Kaypro IIs, just like the one Ricky Schroeder had in his bedroom on Silver Spoons.
- MiniMage
Very little, I only remember Turtle - which I've just found out was actually LOGO.
- Heleninstitches
This is the most awesome thing I have seen in a long, long time.
- Michael McKean
I was going to put a bandolier on the bunneh and have it say "VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!" but the bunneh was too small. Seriously, though: that bunneh with the carrot bandolier from the PETA ad? PURE WIN.
- FFing Enigma
Not nessecarily girls... I know a tradesman who puts fluro pink handles on his tools so other people can take them
- Johnny
from iPhone
Half the items in this store have English and Chinese labeling. I don't think these were made with gendered marketing in mind.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
Exactly, Johnny. In my experience in the construction industry for the last 15 years, it is common practice for the workers to use pink so people won't steal their tools. Also, foreman issue pink tools and hard hats are punishment for those workers who forget their tools/hardhats at home.
- Tamara J.
"For any readers who think I'm being scientifically elitist, narrow-minded or protective, I'm presenting one simple challenge. Will somebody please remote view the icy dwarf planet Pluto for me from a close-up distance?" CHECKMATE.
- AJ Batac
Someone has obviously been watching Transformers 3......
- Roberto Bonini
Pedantically speaking, I still count what could be/what will be as part of this reality. The things I'm thinking about cutting down on are things that will almost certainly never be, and the things that probably already are, but I can't prove, and even if I could, I can't do anything about.
- Victor Ganata