Rich Bragg - Comments

Patri Friedman posted an entry on Patri's Peripatetic Peregrinations

September 20 at 12:50 pm - Link

This was pretty interesting... I was curious, and found this article that questions some of the claims: http://www.cert-la.com/Rejoind... - Rich Bragg

Here is another related one: http://www2.bpaonline.org/Emer... - Rich Bragg

Rich Bragg posted a link

Man Almost Loses Penis Humping Steel Bench | Weird Asia News

August 12 at 11:11 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Jess Lee, edythe, Jing Lim and 2 other people liked this

"Xing, a 41 year-old man, was calling from LanTian park in the middle of the night. The lonely and disturbed man had apparently thought it would be fun to have sex with one of the steel sit-up benches around the park. The bench has numerous small holes in it, which Xing used to attempt to satisfy himself. However, once he became aroused he found that he was stuck and could not get his penis out of the small hole." - Rich Bragg via Bookmarklet

Wow, the article actually has pics. (He's tastefully draped, you don't see the penis.) - ⓞnor

Video: http://tv.on.cc/news/news.html... (he's tastefully draped and sounds like he's not very comfortable). - Gary Burd

seth posted a link

Flying Spaghetti Monster @ Fremont Summer Solstice Parade

July 4 at 11:57 am - via Bookmarklet - Link

Rich Bragg and minus3 liked this

Finally, irrefutable evidence of a higher power -- sign me up!! - Rich Bragg

Adam Kazwell shared an item on Google Reader

Despite having no basketball playing ability or experience, college

May 7 at 7:44 pm - Link

Rich Bragg liked this

Damn, I didn't know you could do this....I should have declared while I had the chance. - Adam Kazwell

This is great. I use to joke with my college roommates about doing this all the time, glad to see someone actually pulled it off. - Rich Bragg

Kevin Fox posted a message on Twitter

“"Get a TiVo. If you get your cable co's PVR and never use a TiVo you won't know that your PVR sucks, but get a TiVo anyways. Love yourself."”

May 13 at 3:12 pm - Link

Rich Bragg, Stephen Mack, Rachel Garb and 2 other people liked this

I use a DVR at home, albeit barely. What're the core differences? - Adam Lasnik

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"bong bong" and "badupe a dupe" .... music to my ears. - Erin

badup badup badup! - Kevin Fox

things Tivo can do that other PVRs can't: 1.) scheduling from the web. 2.) TivoToGo 3.) network and stream content from other computers in your house 4.) keyword search for programs. The list goes on, but these are the most important to me. Also, I'm not familiar with other DVRs besides what Comcast provides, and Tivo. I've used both extensively. - Nathan Johns

I don't use any of those features but still love my TiVo. I've heard horror stories from friends who use the cable companies DVR and missed shows because of it malfunctioning. TiVo *never* makes a mistake. It isn't even very expensive when you consider that getting one from the cable company usually costs $10/month anyway. - Benjamin Golub

Ah, thanks for the clarifications. I watch very little TV, so for me the distinctions are minimal (and I don't *want* to know about other awesome programs I should be watching; I want to spend *less* time in front of glowy things :D). - Adam Lasnik

Just remembered, though... I got my parents a Tivo a year ago and they still have 2 years of prepaid service on it. But they just bought an HDTV, and I bought them a non-HDTV Tivo, so they plan to get a DVR via their cable company and move the Tivo into the bedroom (with the older TV). Might it be more cost effective over a few years for them to get a newer HDTV Tivo, since I'm understanding they could use it for both TVs? EDITED TO ADD: Nope, just called Tivo. One box per TV required :( - Adam Lasnik

Adam, for better or worse, my TiVo has helped me be oblivious to most new shows. It's seriously cut down the amount of TV I watch, and every minute is stuff I very much want to see. It's awesome. - Kevin Fox

I definitely watch less TV now too. Because I won't sit and flip through the channels. I also like that I don't feel pressured to watch a show just because it's new and on right this instant...I'll watch it when I feel like it. - Benjamin Golub

Kevin, Benjamin... that's surprising and reassuring :-) - Adam Lasnik

Adam, the most cost effective route is to get the two tuner HD DVR from your Cable provider (usually ~$9.95/mo). What you get via TiVo is a better user interface and the ability to do keyword records. for example, if like Uma Thurman's stalker, you want to record everything with her in it, including appearances on David Letterman, or all movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock you can do that easily via TiVo and won't likely be able to w/your Cable companies DVR. TiVo's interface IS better, but if mostly what you'd do is just get "season's passes" (record all new episodes) of your favorite shows, the cable DVR is the better way to go. - Robert Seidman

Robert, I respectfully disagree, but as a designer I'm probably more finicky about the look and feel of the product. Season passes are nearly all I use my TiVo for but I wouldn't trade it in for a Comcast box if you paid me. I've used my mom's a bunch and she misses shows and generally trusts the experience a great deal less. It's also just not as friendly, more like a RAZR UI than an iPhone (okay, maybe the TiVo's not an *iPhone*, but at least a *Blackberry*). - Kevin Fox

Alas, in this case, Tivo is shooting themselves in the foot. I called them and they said: 1) Can't transfer the remaining 2 years on the prepaid service plan to anything other than a retail box (e.g., can't purchase a web special). 2) Can't use a rebate unless opening a *new* plan. 3) Can't use a Tivo for more than one TV. So given all this and given that my parents basically just do "season pass" stuff, a Tivo is just way too expensive for what they need, and it's clear Tivo doesn't care about loyalty :( - Adam Lasnik

Kevin, I have had a TiVo (or four) since1998, so you're preaching to the choir kinda. But more people are clearly voting for generic DVR due to cost. TiVo's share of the market has dipped to around 20% of all DVRs and it will sink lower. If you have $200 extra to spend AND you don't mind paying 3 years worth in advance to get down to $9.95/mo., then sure -- go TiVo. But many people factor cost into the decision. Most people, really. Edit: including Adam, who apparently was commenting at the same time! - Robert Seidman

If you know your way around Linux and have time for a project, you can build your own open source TiVo for a couple bills and some change. It can do everything a TiVo can do and a whole lot more, as it's infinitely hackable. One year of XML program listings costs $20. Google "mythtv" - Larry Rubin

Adam, as an 8 year TiVo owner I've always had the impression that TiVo is *all about* customer loyalty. You find very few people who have used TiVos and have then ditched them for other PVRs (Robert being somewhat of an outlier), and TiVo's made an effort to let users transfer their lifetime service to new boxes in my experience. TiVo may be more expensive and not for everyone, but it's not at all clear to me that TiVo doesn't care about loyalty. The fact that their market share has gone from 80% to 20% is *far* more a factor of market growth than of people switching away from TiVo, as their quarterly subscriber counts can attest. - Kevin Fox

Kevin, I'm not an outlier, I still use TiVo, but I'm a realist. It's hard to compete with "free" and TiVo is not actually competing very well in terms of adding new subscribers. Edit: *every* quater for like 7 quarters now TiVo has lost more subscribers than it added, though this was due more to DTV bolting from the TiVo deal and not really supporting the existing boxes than a loyalty issue. - Robert Seidman

I happily display an Apple sticker and TiVo sticker on my piece of junk car. - Louis Gray

I was orginally a Replay TV fan, when they went out of business and almost immediately got a TiVo, what my local cable company, Comcast offers doesn't interest me at all. - Kim Landwehr via Alert Thingy

With TiVo, you can now listen to almost any song ever made (thanks to Rhapsody) and watch practically any show ever aired (thanks to Amazon Unbox). These are just two of the many many features TiVo has that are superior to our competition (yes, I work there). Plus it's actually cheaper than most cable offerings -- despite the box being "free" many cable companies charge you a box rental fee, a DVR fee, and additional fees, all of which are add up to something much higher than our service charges. Get TiVo! - Stephen Mack

I couldn't agree more, Kevin. I've been using TiVo since it first came out and cannot live without it. Recently, I got a DirecTV DVR and a Comcast DVR, and I can't believe how completely unusable and crappy they are on so many levels. But you are right, if either of those were my first experience with a DVR, I would never know how so very much better it could be. It is sad to me that TiVo isn't doing better. - Rich Bragg

Rich Bragg posted a link

Yankees Bury Bernie Williams Under New Stadium For Good Luck | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

April 17 at 4:39 pm - Link

""By giving Bernie this chance, we have once again proven why we are the classiest organization in all of sports," Levine added. "Lesser teams would have overreacted to this whole curse thing and buried Derek Jeter."" - Rich Bragg

Paul Buchheit posted a message on Twitter

“oh no. Now the gas station plays commercials at me.”

March 2 at 7:35 pm - Link

Nathan Manley, Rob Schonberger, Lilly Irani and 2 other people liked this

You must be at a Shell station. I wish there was some way to mute those things. - April Buchheit

22 more comments

April - T.N.T. ?? - Steven Hodson

have the same thing happening in the Mac's convience stores up her in Canada now - feel like ripping the screens right off the counters - Steven Hodson

I saw this at a gas station in L.A. I was horrified. - Mike Doeff

Considering you pay anywhere from 3-7x the price of a movie ticket, I'd hope at least for better programming, or the ability to choose my own channel. - Louis Gray

actually, i thought this was a great example of when advertising is ok...if I'm going to be advertised to it might as well be when I've got nothing else to do (how productive can you be pumping gas?)....and the movie/tv previews after the ads aren't so bad. (also, what if the ads are successful and help to reduce gas prices?) - Adam Kazwell

Not recommended (!!!), but one person reported squirting some gasoline into the speaker grill, which apparently disabled it nicely. Did I say "not recommended"? - ⓞnor

@ⓞnor: lol. Methinks that would pose a risk of fire. - Voyagerfan5761

This started a while ago at Shell stations, and has been spreading. I absolutely hate this. The first time I remember it was in 1997 in Dublin. If anyone has any ideas how to punish them, I would love to hear them. - Chris White

Seconding Chris's request for punishment ideas. The best one I can come up with is to boycott the stations doing it. - Voyagerfan5761

tape over the speaker grills to muffle them? (like, with packing tape or something) it's not permanent vandalism, but it would send a message and also help your fellow motorist. - ⓞnor

How about taping over the speaker grilles in the middle of the night (if feasible in your neighborhood, e.g. considering crime rates and such) and then boycotting the station, but checking back every day or two to re-tape the grilles? :D - Voyagerfan5761

Simple: don't go to Shell. Tell all your friends not to go to Shell. - Amit Patel

Yes, no more Shell for me. - Paul Buchheit

I filled up one late, cold, empty night when the commercial started talking to me. I just about threw the pump in the air and ducked into my car. - Daniel Ha

This kind of reminds me of the Cabs in NYC...they put screens in the back seat that <i>could</i> do useful stuff, but instead blare out mostly Ads. You can turn them off, but they automatically come on when you start your ride. My friends and I have a race to see who can hit the off button first - Nathan Manley

Perhaps the least they can do is make the pump recognize your credit card and target you more effectively. This, along with a mechanism on the touch-screen to opt-out of advertisements, and presto! "You seem to purchase pornography and Skittles when you buy gasoline. May I recommend these products?" - Robert Konigsberg

I'll go hide now. - Robert Konigsberg

Wow, I must really be a different breed. I actually intentionally go to Shell when given the opportunity, because I think the TVs at the pumps are actually pretty cool. So, please, all, go ahead and boycott, I'll get to be entertained and have a shorter wait. :) - Rich Bragg

I actually first saw this when I moved to Spencer. I don't typically go to the Crystal Flash (the gas station with the ads), but occasionally it is the closest one. The thing that really bothers me is the volume... I wonder if typical residents are half deaf or something because I have to park a little crooked to tolerate the noise. - Clare Dibble

God forbid you're actually trying to have a conversation with someone while you pump gas. - Chris White

Why? I do... - Voyagerfan5761

Because you can't hear them over the sound of the advertising. - Chris White

I thought you were saying that was the point of the ads: To prevent people from conversing at the gas pump. :D - Voyagerfan5761

Indeed. I've heard about some discussion regarding adding a flag to television signals that would prevent fast-forwarding through flagged sections of the content. I don't think it's under consideration, it's just a rumor I got somewhere. - Voyagerfan5761

niniane posted an entry on Niniane's Blog

the point of life?

March 1 at 3:06 pm - Link

Ashwin Bharambe, Xavi, Wayne and 7 other people liked this

I've thought about this a lot, and the answer I've come up with has changed over the years. I think my most current answer at this point is "maximize happiness". That covers a lot, from doing things in the moment that make me happy, to treating others well to increase happiness around me, to making choices for the long term that ensure my future happiness. Of course, that is assuming that there actually is a "point" of life at all, which is a different discussion. - Rich Bragg

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I'd say maximize happiness while not encroaching on other people's right to happiness. And that makes things far more complicated. - Lilly Irani

I recall that it has something to do with the number 42... It seems like it also has something to do with helping people out and accepting whatever happens. - Paul Buchheit

"This reminds me that I need to write a blog post about how Chinese mothers need to stop forcing their kids to play the fucking piano/violin." Laughing at this one. Every time I see a Chinese (or Japanese) kid playing an instrument, it is indeed one of those two. Might be something to do with Suzuki...? (Suzuki is Japanese, but still...) - Voyagerfan5761

If we want to discuss it here, I should add: the point of life in equal or below 400 characters. But perhaps that'll force us to find something everyone finally agrees on. Imagine the headlines: "Meaning of Life Uncovered on Social Feed Site -- Mr. Buchheit, site co-founder, calls it quits and moves to the Fiji islands after having succeeded in providing a tool that finally solved the age old ..." - Philipp Lenssen

my japanese mom and chinese dad forcedme to play piano. i hated it and begged them to let me quit. they said ok. but then they forced me to play the electric organ instead. : ( - Jess Lee

The purpose of life is sleeping well, yet looking forward to waking up. - Chris White

My caucasian mother forced me to play the piano as a child. I love playing now, and I'm very happy that she did. :) - Alex Mendes da Costa

I'm with m13a, mostly. And Niniane, I still am amused when I reminisce upon my many piano performances. Typically, me and an Italian kid were the only non-Asians in the recital hall, and we'd look at each other, both a bit puzzled and bemused. - Adam Lasnik

On the plus side, disproportionately many of the Eastman violin students are Asian. Perhaps the maternal insistence is having real positive effects? - j1m

positive for who? - Jim Norris

(that's probably grammatically incorrect, but "whom" just sounds wrong and looks out of place with my lack of capitalization) - Jim Norris

Some of my more profound existential ponderings have come in the Wynn and other buffets..... But the true answer is there isn't one. The point of life is what you make of it. - Chris Reed

The point of life is to share things with others. Using FriendFeed. - Amit Patel

Positive as in leading to an actual career, as opposed to a punitive hobby. - j1m

niniane, that is so interesting: i remember at Caltech my friend was referring to you as the girl who walked around parties wondering what the meaning of life is. yay, that's the niniane i know! glad to see some things haven't changed. cheers, love ya :P - Huy Zing

@Amit: Exactly. :-) - Voyagerfan5761

re: Huy Zing. Oh, you made me laugh so hard. - niniane

re: all the people who said they're glad they were forced. Damn you! You're the justification parents use when they force their children to play instruments. - niniane

"to crush your enemies, and drive them before you; and to hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian - Stowe Boyd

My chinese Mum forced me to play the piano. After struggling valiantly, I said that I wanted to quit. She said, fine, here's your violin. To bring the universe into balance, I'm going to force my kids to play Aussie rules. - Nigel Tao

Surely the best way to bring the universe into balance is to force your kids to play Guitar Hero. - Stephen Ma

Sanjeev Singh posted a message

“Is friendfeed too noisy for you?”

February 28 at 7:47 pm - Link

Phil Ashman, Charlie Anzman, Susan Beebe and 24 other people liked this

Does most of the noise come from (a) friends of friends entries, (b) people you don't know commenting on stuff, (c) subscribing to too many people or (d) other? - Sanjeev Singh

75 more comments

c...but I can keep up. The layout is clean enough that I can sweep a page and decide quickly what to read. If I have time I it's no problem but if I don't I glance over users that I don't find super interesting. - Benjamin Golub

no. Right now on day 2 it is just about right. - Janet Tokerud

(b) because of the fact that comments bump stuff up the feed. Paul Buchheit's Tweet soliciting 2-8 word descriptions for FriendFeed has been on my front page on and off for over a month now. Interesting discussion - but that's too long. - Jeremy Raines

yeah, it's a bit noisy for my taste. the main reason is a) - Dmitry Skavish

I wonder if friend of friend entries could be a preference. They are great when you are a newbie but present clutter perhaps once you get lots of qualified friends in tow. - Janet Tokerud

a and b. - David

I like the idea of Friend-of-a-friend entries as optional, maybe on a per-friend basis? I've noticed the friends of some of my friends are worth following, others not so much. But overall, I'd agree that the f.o.a.f. entries can be a little too much clutter. It also might make sense to make comments muted by default, and only "un-mute" when requested, or after you've commented or liked something. - Sage LaTorra

a. but the noise level ain't too bad yet - Adam Kazwell

Yes. (a) is the best thing about FF, i.e. discovering new things. (b) is bad. (c) is my responsibility. (d) I would like a 'mark as read' so I only have to see things once. Rock on. - Nivi

Jeremy, thanks for jostling me into the realization that I would be happier if I muted that thread. - j1m

Yes, mostly due to a&b, but I feel like I'm lucky to have seeded with an interesting group of friends (mostly FFers and Googlers or ex-Googlers) so their friends tend to have interesting things to say as well. It's not as personally relevant since I don't recognize some of the FoaF's names, but the level of discourse sure beats the crap out of Slashdot etc. - Chris Beckmann

Yes: With an increased population I can't keep people straight in my head so it's hard to tell who is worth subscribing to and who is not. (User thumbnails in the list would be great, far better than service logos I think.) I really like it when people add snippets or descriptions, it makes scanning way easier. I wish I could put a blanket mute on some services (Twitter, last.fm) unless there are comments. Also, dupes. - ⓞnor

Being able to delete certain feeds for a particular friend would be great. Maybe I'm into their photos but don't have similar interests so am not interested in their links. Or someone puts up 40 pix a day and I'm not a photo buff but I love their tweets and blog posts. - Janet Tokerud

You can, it's under "Options" ("Hide entries like this"). - ⓞnor

Some people are extremely active, but it's not difficult to hide their stuff. It's just a matter of optimization. ;) - sebmos

(a), definitely. - Wojciech Polak

well, (b), but probably because it's too hard to control (a). I'd like to have a knob on every friend that says how closely I follow them. Some friends go to 11 -- their single comment on a thread is enough to make me want to see it again, immediately and through several following replies by people I might no know. Other friends only go to 6, or 2: if a few of them comment on something, then that's enough new interesting stuff that it should come back to the top. It would also be nice if ff knew when I'd last read this part of the page, and, when it did pull and item up to the top, it exposed exactly the comments I haven't seen yet. - j1m

Would it be better to have lots of knobs, or a magic do-what-I-want system that learns from your behavior, or some astonishingly simple heuristic that's both very direct and easy to understand and also gives you what you want in the vast majority of cases? Facebook is a nice example of magic gone wrong. - ⓞnor

I wear ear plugs while viewing, so no, it's okay... - David Bradley

The 'friend of friend' entries surprised me a little bit. I'm still evaluating whether or not they are a good thing. It would be nice to have a switch in the setting to turn 'friend of friend' entries on and off on a global basis. - Rob Safuto

What ⓞnor said. - Kevin Scott

i like fof. my problem is that certain people i have subscribed to are too prolific :( - Neha Narula

Perhaps some sort of a throttling feature is in order. Something that would allow you to limit the number of posts from a particular user showing up in your friends feed during a specific period of time. I think the automatic grouping of posts, like those from Twitter, helps right now. On the other hand I think that prolific publishers should consider whether or not its prudent to add every one of their feeds to this system straight away. - Rob Safuto

Totally wish FriendFeed would copy Jaiku and enable us to unsubscribe from PART of a person, not the person themselves. I want to read a lot of shared items, blogs, flickr photos, but not Twitter spam. Please, friendfeed, copy Jaiku! - Eric Rice

All in favor of simplicity. However there's a group of users that strongly feels that the foaf entries are a bit much. I've have even stronger feelings, but of the opposite type: what makes ff cool is that it let's me see all of my friends' comments, wherever they may be. If ff can capture that difference between user preferences with artificially intelligent nanorobots (awesome!), or with a single slider or checkbox (still pretty cool!), then great. - j1m

@Eric, Options->Hide Entries Like This->Even If They Have Comments Or Likes - Ryan Mahoski

I hadn't tried Hide Entries Like This before. Looks like a good solution for now. At some point would be good to have global settings as I suggested in a previous comment. - Rob Safuto

I definitely feel like I've never finished reading friendfeed... would be nice if it was like my inbox that would be cleared at some point :). - Michael

I have the exact opposite feeling as Michael. I love the fact that it's not like an inbox. - Rob Safuto

I'd say no, there are a lot of items funneled through my stream, but I use it similar to Twitter and have adapted to fast-changing information streams. - Rick Mahn

There is a lot going on, but it sure beats visiting 10 different websites. Here, you can just use the scroll wheel and feel caught up quickly. - Jason Kaneshiro

I don't think so... I've been complaining that we need the "great web 2.0 presence aggregator" and this is it. the activity isn't bad (actually the email daily option has a killer feature for me). - Sean Reiser

Not at all for me. If there's a feed that's too noisy, I filter or unsubscribe. Easy peazy. - Evan Sims

If some users are overwhelmed and not likely to find the Hide Entries Like This link under Options, and you don't want to put a HELT link beside every entry (understandable) how about a link that shows up randomly (more for new users as they get more and more content?) asking "Do you like this kind of content?" If they say no, guide them to the Options setting. - Ed Zwart

Maybe foaf items should only come to the top under some circumstances? e.g. if a new comment (1) is by a friend (2) is immediately after your own, or (3) mentions your name? And it really would be nice if the thing that hides the middle comments were smarter. I can never tell whether I need to open it or not. - j1m

I think making the existing mute options more visible would go a long way. - ⓞnor

I am starting to feel like it is getting too noisy, but only because I'm likely subscribed to too many people. I'd like to have different friend groups, so if I don't have much time, I can just start with a feed of the people I find most interesting. I'd also like a way to know which stuff I've read already, so it doesn't feel neverending, but I see that some people like that it feels that way. - Rich Bragg

Noisy? Actually, it's signally! LIke @Beckmann said, in ways it's better than SlashDot. I also agree with @Jim4's suggestion for a smarter automated “show more comments” especially for feeds and with NetNewsWire. In addition to @e3r suggestion to make the mute more visible, please also thread and let us also collapse the comments, a la Digg. Allowing paragraph breaks in comments would be nice too. - John Lam

In way of an original suggestion, how about groups, like @Rich Bragg says, but instead of a priori categories plus arbitrary groups like http://Multiply.com, use the social graph to magically group friends. - John Lam

I am not sure if I will term it as noisy. I may find the information overload overwhelming sooner than later. - Krishnan Hussein Subraman

Not yet ... plus you have the option of removing someone's Twitter stream if you are already following them on Twitter and they Tweet a lot - Deepak

Need ways to mark a story as read, no matter what comments later pop up - Huy Zing

Huy, the nearest thing to that is "mute comments on this entry" under the options button for each post. - Slippy Lane

been thinking more about this. Where it's not noisy there are things that could be added to FF to cut down the noise. I've blogged some if it here (http://seanreiser.com/node/213) - Sean Reiser

Hehe, not now we have "Super Hide" it isn't! :-) - Slippy Lane

Much noise,but sometimes great signals - Igor Poltavskiy

No, I have my computer set to mute. But seriously, it's all about your connections. I don't mind my FriendFeed-stream at all. It's nice that I don't see all of Scoble's tweets :) - Mike Reynolds

Both a and b, but only through you and Paul. You guys are high profile, so the set of your friends is a huge crowd of strangers drowning out people I actually know. - seth

muting all sounds on my windows computers is the only way i can coexist with them, so...what friendfeed sounds? - edythe

oh, ha! you mean "noise," not sounds. - edythe

(a), though it's not that noisy yet. - Ruchira S. Datta

No. There's usually plenty of interesting stuff in the first page of my feed. I use the "hide" and "unsubscribe" features quite a lot. - Alex Mendes da Costa

you bet...but I find twitter way noiser - viki saigal

Wow! This was fantastic. Sorry if it's yesterday's news for you old FriendFeeders. I just saw this today. What a great "noisy" discussion. :-) - Mitchell Tsai

Yes. Mainly for a. and then b. - Aditya Kothadiya

(a). Might be nice to have a way of only showing friend of friend entries that pass a certain user-defined threshold. For example: "only show me friend of friend entries than have more than N likes or comments". - Simon

I think I've mentioned this before, but I think services should adapt based on how long it's been since you last looked. If I look every hour, I want more detail than if I look every week. If I spend an hour on FF every visit, I want more detail than if I spend five minutes on FF every visit. Combine expected time I have with what's changed since the last visit to generate the list. Friends, commented, liked are ranked higher; friends-of-friends, duplicate, and similar posts are ranked lower. - Amit Patel

I think the irony is I would love the option to follow every single one of the people I follow on Twitter on FF, regardless of whether or not they have an account -- but that would just make FF noisier and noisier. - Sean Quinn

FriendFeed is no more noisy than the Sunday Los Angeles Times. I don't care about 50% of the LA Times, and I never read more than 10% of the LA Times, but I don't complain that the Times is "noise." I don't complain about noise on FriendFeed (or Twitter) either. - Ontario Emperor

friend feed too noisy? not a chance! - Chris Jones via twhirl

not really, I just scan. It would be nice if I could identify the hot spots in 5 min or less though. - engtech

The real question is how relevant is FriendFeed. - Mike Reynolds

I love the fact that an item about "noise" has generated 60+ comments. :) - Ontario Emperor

I feel like the value of Friendfeed is your ability to manipulate, interpret, and communicate through that noise. Web 2.0 is about channels, fields, lines neighborhoods of communication and the more you survey what is out there, the more opportunity you have to see. - Anthony

Oh yeah! Too much!! We need a very good client app! - Jigar Mehta

no, not at the moment at least. i enjoy reading public feed of the service. - Jansen Lu

I notice that Sanjeev has unsubscribed from me. So I guess the answer is "yes" for him, and "no" for me. :-) - Robert Scoble

Sanjeev never subscribed to me. He is one of the quieter FriendFeeders, which is fine. Everybody has a role. - Louis Gray

Robert, I still get your stuff through friends-of-friends. :) - Sanjeev Singh

No. I only follow 36 people, I genuinely care about and I use Filter: Friend to explicitly read their outputs when the noise gets deafening (or just loud) like after my recent extended 3 day bank holiday weekend. - Andy C

You too Loius :) - Sanjeev Singh

@Louis I think Sanjeev is the only FriendFeeder not subscribed to me yet. Gotta catch em all! - Benjamin Golub

Not too noisy, but too repetitive. How many times do I need to see that Google has Notes? - TranceMist

Repetetive indeed, how many times do I have to see this old thread revived with no way of me telling quickly how many comments are new. (ok ok, m'ing now...) - j1m

Maybe comments can be DATED/TIMED? - Mitchell Tsai

It is sure noisy (repetitive & low quality contents). There are various ways they could rank the contents. Probably they are working on it as they have not announced anything new for awhile & they are hiring. - Nikpay

Yeah, it is. I used Yahoo Pipes to separate out direct friends from indirect ones, but still I find it to be too much. - Robert Konigsberg

Rich Bragg posted a link

Humans Marrying Robots? A Q&A with David Levy: Scientific American

February 23 at 3:28 pm - Link

"His basic idea is that, for humans who cannot establish emotional or sexual connections with other people, they might form them with robots." - Rich Bragg

Tudor Bosman posted a message

“Jeanette and I are engaged!”

February 19 at 12:05 am - Link

Congrats Tudor! - Rich Bragg

3 more comments

Congratulations! - Paul Buchheit

Congratulations : ) - Jess Lee

Congrats! - Sanjeev Singh

Congrats! - Philip Zeyliger

Thanks all! Side note: a few months ago, Jeanette said that she'd kill me if I proposed with "I can has wife???!" - Tudor Bosman

Rich Bragg posted a link

Playing the ballplayer market

January 28 at 11:11 pm - Link

"...baseball-playing entrepreneur who's offering investors a small piece of his (potential) future income. Is this the wave of the future?" - Rich Bragg

Reminds me of Bowie bonds. No relation to Barry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... - seth

Paul Buchheit posted a link

It looks like Camilla's going to be a big sister.

January 9 at 4:46 pm - Link

Jason Shellen, mathew ingram, MG Siegler and 8 other people liked this

Congratulations! :) - Dan Hsiao

20 more comments

Congratulations! - Bret Taylor

Congrats! There had already been rumors of this, thanks to FriendFeed :) - Ana

Congrats! - Derek Collison

So happy for you all! - Karen Padham Taylor

Alright! That's great stuff! I think FriendFeed should start helping to pick names... - Louis Gray

Congratulations! - Susan Shepard

Congratulations! Gmail, Camilla, Friendfeed; how many children are you going to have? :) - Tudor Bosman

Congrats! - Phillip Kast

Congratulations! - Kevin Fox

Congratulations. - Paul Appleby

Yeah, we need help renaming Camilla's blog since it won't be about just her for much longer. - April Buchheit

+1 - j1m

congrats! - Sanjeev Singh

congrats paul! - Harjeet Taggar

Congratulations! - Rob Schonberger

Congrats Paul and April!! How about BBB: Buchheit Baby Blog - Rich Bragg

Congratulations guys! - Misha

Congrats! - Mustafa K. Isik

hooray hooray hooray! What terrific news! - Jane Manning

Congratulations Paul! - Ra Roath

Congrats!! - Jing Lim

Congrats!!! Thats really wonderful!! - Rachel L Fox

Rich Bragg posted a link

Stan Honey revolutionized TV football, but first he confused the heck out of everyone

January 7 at 8:31 pm - Link

Adam Kazwell liked this

When I was job hunting in 2002, Sport Vision was my #1 choice, but they weren't hiring, so I ended up at Google... - Rich Bragg

Paul Buchheit posted a link

NPR : Hotel Maids Challenge the Placebo Effect

January 5 at 2:15 am - Link

Charles Hudson, Rich Bragg, niniane and 4 other people liked this

"So the idea that the placebo effect applies only to subjective things is really one that we have to dismiss." - Paul Buchheit

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How to implement this? - niniane

Well, it turns out that if you chew your chocolate really well, you can actually burn more calories than you are consuming. Trust me. - Rich Bragg

I'm pretty skeptical of this. It doesn't say anything about possible changes in diet due to the increased self-esteem of thinking they are exercising all the time - Chris White

I was under the impression that purely psychological therapies having objective physical effects was already established, such as guided imagery and immune system cells. see http://www.breastcancer.org/tr... - Karl Rosaen

I'd be happy to subject the finding itself to skepticism, but is the distinction the critic makes about subjective/objective effects of placebos even coherent? Even if it was, aren't all the classic demonstrations of placebo curing of illnesses, which, you know, are examples of objective phenomena? - j1m

Yes, this is probably true. But I have no doubt that the mind/brain can influence the body's natural ability to fight sickness. I just think there are more variables in this scenerio. It's also kind of counter-productive if it incents people to eat twinkies and skip going to the gym as long as they "think healthy." - Chris White

niniane, just pay your friends to dupe you, Bulworth-style. - j1m

Rich Bragg posted a link

Stay At Home Servers

January 3 at 4:19 pm - Link

"When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much, the daddy wants to give the mommy a special gift." - Rich Bragg

Rich Bragg posted a link

CTV.ca | Flatulence expert defines 'normal' output rate

January 2 at 10:20 pm - Link

"Levitt's research suggests women's flatulence is more ... aromatic." - Rich Bragg

"the colonic calliope". he says the sugar in beans is indigestible; I thought it could be with the right enzymes, which can be produced if you have the correct intestinal flora. hmm - ⓞnor

Bret Taylor posted an entry on FriendFeed Blog

It's beginning to look a lot like...

December 17 at 6:55 pm - Link

Bindu Reddy liked this

We will be performing of Festivus Feats of Strength at the FriendFeed holiday dinner tomorrow :) - Bret Taylor

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So... is this FriendFeed holiday dinner open to the general public? - Louis Gray

...Sir Isaac Newton’s birthday (doesn’t rhyme all that much but i like it) - sahu

More interesting will be the Airing of Grievances... can you guys record that and post it on YouTube? - Rich Bragg

Also, you just reminded me to order a Festivus Pole too -- I was already meaning to do that this year... - Rich Bragg

Unfortunately, no (it is at my house, and we didn't cook enough!). But we will be having a FriendFeed party in the new year, and you will be invited :) - Bret Taylor

Wow, a FriendFeed party! I look forward to it. - niniane

Rich Bragg posted a link

'Could a morbidly obese goalie shut out an NHL team?' - WSJ.com

December 17 at 1:08 am - Link

Bret Taylor liked this

I've always wondered about this: "Because of the geometry of the game, the potential for one mammoth individual to change hockey is staggering. Simply put, there is a goal that's 6 feet wide and 4 feet high, and a hockey puck that needs to go into it in order to score. Fill that net completely, and no goals can possibly be scored against your team. So why hasn't it happened yet?" - Rich Bragg

Rich Bragg posted a link

The Gift Card Conspiracy

December 11 at 1:56 pm - Link

I have successfully convinced Kristen to give all our nieces and nephews gift cards this Christmas, yay! - Rich Bragg

So this means the store is the product. "Things 12-14 Year Old Boys Might Like And Which They Wouldn't Normally Get, But Which Won't Offend You Too Much, Inc." - ⓞnor

Yep, which means there is still the "thoughtfulness" of selecting the store which best fits the bill for each recipient. - Rich Bragg

Rich Bragg posted a link

When Economists Talk, Pulaski Academy Listens - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

December 11 at 2:01 pm - Link

This *should* be the future of football, if only there were any owners out there that insisted the team use real data to optimize performance. - Rich Bragg

Ana posted a link

ESPN Page 2 - The Sports Guy: Past Bill meets present Bill

November 30 at 12:39 pm - Link

Rich Bragg liked this

Lame article, but worth it for this quote alone: "What if the Pats left Chris Hanson inactive for the Jets game and played without a punter? Wouldn't that be the ultimate slap in the face? 'Know this going in, Mangini ... we're not punting.'" - Ana

I'm glad to see the occasional sports post on here... - Rich Bragg

Paul Buchheit posted a link

The Brick Testament

November 29 at 12:12 am - Link

April Buchheit, Alex Gawley, Gustaf and 2 other people liked this

The Brick Testament is the best thing on the whole internet. - Paul Buchheit

2 more comments

I'm disturbed that the Bible says if a man rapes a virgin, then he just has to pay 50 silver pieces and marry her, and there is no punishment. - niniane

I have just read some of the press articles about The Brick Testament. A certain (scary) part of society does not really seem to "get" the nature of the site :) - Mustafa K. Isik

@niniane: Let's hope that people, religious or not, resort to using their common sense a little more - even though the 21st century has been rather disheartening in religious matters so far. - Mustafa K. Isik

Wow - Rich Bragg