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Recently my cousin's head was run over by a car. This is what's left of her helmet. My cousin completely survived because of this helmet. Please think of this before riding a bike without a helmet next time!

July 29, 2008 from twhirl - Comment - Like - Share

Harold, Michael Pardee, Amy and 81 other people liked this

I've ridden only once without a helmet in as long as I can remember. Felt vulnerable! - Adam Loving from StumbleRead

32 more comments

It's true. They work. - Andrew Feinberg

wow... that's amazing. how old is your cousin jesse? - dave mcclure

dave, my cousin's 30, just 1 year younger than me - Jesse Stay from twhirl

You can read her story, in her own words here. I'm inspired: http://thetopotheworld.blogspot.com/ - Jesse Stay from twhirl

This happened to a friend of mine at the beginning of the month. He didn't do so good in the accident, but the helmet obviously saved his life. Thankfully is on his way home tomorrow: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit... - Steve Lacey

I used to ride my bike without the helmet even though it is mandatory in Chennai, India. But after reading this I am not even going to the next street in my bike without helmet. - Sudar

I never wear a helmet. When hearing things like this, I always think of this article.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1.... In the Netherlands no one wears a helmet. It seems safe to me. - Peter Stuifzand

I was hit while riding to work in summer 2006 & did not want anyone to touch my helmet at all costs. If my brain was scrambled, I did not want anyone to touch my egg:) I highly recommend a helmet especially if you think you will not need one! Mine was almost the same color too & manufacturer, but there is no conspiracy there:) - Roney Smith

Bicyclists/motorcyclists that don't wear helmets are better called future organ donors - Brian Sullivan

Thanks for sharing. I ride often at traffic time between cars. always wear my helmet...itsg good to know that It does work :) - jonathan from twhirl

that's incredible... - Jamie Allen from twhirl

Wow, glad to hear your friend is doing well after that. I agree, helmets save lives. Regardless, I've many intentional close-calls by drivers who don't want to share the road. Unfortunately, this is the common attitude where I live (southern US). - pete

we wear helmets for everything: mtb, snowboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding & even surfing - skulls are fragile why not put a protective layer around it (i also try real hard to not ride on streets - a high percentage of drivers are oblivious to bike riders)... - mike "glemak" dunn

I always ride in my helmet and stay to bike lanes as much as possible. Nice to know the safety tools work. Now, if I can just avoid that NYPD cop with a penchant for knocking people off their bikes. Hopefully, he won't transfer to LAPD. - Jason Toney

Peter Stuifzand, my cousin would be dead if she did not wear her helmet. That article is BS. Wear your helmet! - Jesse Stay from twhirl

Point blank. You are a moron if you ride without a helmet. Sorry, but that's true and you're just going to play into Darwinian theory should you continue to ride without one. Any 'real' cyclist (e.g - you've been hit by a car - and yes, I have been) will tell you this without reservation. Helmets work without a doubt. - AJ Kohn

I survived a nasty motorcycle crash in my youth and would also be dead without that helmet - which cracked in 2 like an egg (that would have been my head, as the nurse aptly put it!). - Susan Beebe

A friend who's a cop refers to motorcycles as donorcycles whenever she sees someone riding without a helmet. I figure that applies for bicycles, too. - Ha3rvey (obviously wrong)

I was on the way to work Monday morning while it was raining, when the third car in front of me spun out of control and flipped twice into a ditch. When I pulled over to help her out she was just fine. She only had a scratch on her left shoulder from the broken window and was not hurt anywhere else. THE REASON: She was wearing her seat belt. It's nice to hear that these devices are actually helping us! - David Cook

Awesome. I ride my bike to work everyday and I see a lot of people with no helmets on. I don't know how they do it. - Clint Ecker

Wow! I wear mine! Didn't for years - I was lucky I guess. Thanks for posting that! - matthew hunt

OMG... Jesse, do you have a link other than here on FF? I have friends whose kids refuse to wear theirs, and seeing this may help. - Cyndy

Cyndy why not just link here - http://friendfeed.com/e... - Brian Sullivan

Dutch don't wear helmets and they don't get killed by cars http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterd.... - Peter Stuifzand

Actually they do get killed by cars. But culturally they are not inclined to wear helmets. - Brian Sullivan

Cyndy, with this being dug out of the grave, I just noticed your question. That particular picture is from my cousin's blog here: http://thetopotheworld.blogspot.com/2008... You can read the full story here: http://thetopotheworld.blogspot.com/2008... Search for "run over by car" and you can read about her entire ordeal. - Jesse Stay

My brother would not be alive today if he did not wear his helmet while riding his motorcycle; please wear a helmet! - Sandra

man - Shey, Jamaican of FF

If it's nice enough to ride, I probably won't be bothering with the human-powered bike any longer. I always wear a helmet on my gas-powered bike. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

As long as we won't have mountains, we Dutch will not wear those things. Otherwise we won't be able to recognise the tourists on bikes. - Ton Zijp

Thanks for sharing - I had a mishap with a car, wasn't wearing a helmet at the time, was lucky. If they don't see you, it doesn't matter either way. Wear the helmet! - Rick Bucich

This isn't as extreme as this but when I fell off my bike onto a sidewalk and broke my arm, I thought I was fine for a while. Later, my dad noticed that the whole front of my helmet was all scratched up and the visor in front was torn off! I realized that if I wasn't wearing my helmet on the 2 minute trip down the road, I probably wouldn't be typing this comment right now! Not that I'd be dead but I would have suffered some head damage, limiting my ability to do most things. - Kevin Lyons

Helmets for cyclists are mandatory in Australia. Still gives me the shudders when I'm travelling and see bareheaded bicyclists on the roads. - Kate Foy

Mitchell Tsai

NGC 1569: Starburst in a Dwarf Irregular Galaxy [Hubble Heritage, APOD: Astronomy Picture of the Day - 12/29/08] - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod...

January 11 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Lars Clausen, Joe Silence is not dead, Anna Haro and 5 other people liked this

Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact, as pictured here, dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 is apparently undergoing a burst of star forming activity, thought to have begun over 25 million years ago. The resulting turbulent environment is fed by supernova explosions as the cosmic detonations spew out material and trigger further star formation. Two massive star clusters - youthful counterparts to globular star clusters in our own spiral Milky Way galaxy - are seen left of center in the gorgeous Hubble Space Telescope image. - Mitchell Tsai from Bookmarklet

The above picture spans about 8,000 light-years across NGC 1569. A mere 11 million light-years distant, this relatively close starburst galaxy offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study stellar populations in rapidly evolving galaxies. NGC 1569 lies in the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis. - Mitchell Tsai

Larger version [1280x770] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod... - Mitchell Tsai

Robert Scoble

Can you be a thought leader without a blog? I'll discuss that here:

June 26 - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Chow, Volkan Özçelik, Mike Fruchter and 96 other people liked this

Jeremiah Owyang last night was giving me crap about not blogging. I notice that the people on the top of the http://www.ffholic.com most popular lists aren't participants, they are mostly thought leaders. - Robert Scoble

262 more comments

OK what is a "thought leader" - anna sauce

He misses the "thought leadership" that I provided on my blog. - Robert Scoble

And Forrester thinks they are "thought leaders" (instead of analysts) which I got from a recruiter there. - anna sauce

Yes - through twitter and FriendFeed - LPH™ and his dog P™

Are you a thought leader or a conversation leader Robert? I'd call you a conversation leader. - James Watters

We discussed that a bit over beers and it takes thought and time to put together a blog, especially one that is going to get discussion. - Robert Scoble

I think you give plenty of thought leadership here at FriendFeed. - Bill Kinney

I can be a thought leader w/o a blog only if a bear shits in the woods. - geoff hines

I wonder what he's really asking or saying to you. - Myrna

I'm willing to bet if you're a thought leader you have a blog. How often you update it is another issue - Tyler Gillies

Myrna: I think a lot of people want to read considered opinion, not little grunts or small items on friendfeed or Twitter. - Robert Scoble

It all comes down to audience doesn't it? - Mitch

is a thought leader who has a blog but doesn't' have startup experience or experience building a company akin to the old saying that "those who can't do teach"...would be interested on your thoughts Robert. - Mike Bracco

Well, I miss your personal blog too, but really you have transferred that energy over to Building43, so pretty much we are getting you're take over there - Stephen Pickering

tylergillies: I wonder if you can be a thought leader without a blog, though? Can you be seen as "serious" by just Twittering or FriendFeeding? The evidence says no. - Robert Scoble

Yes. You can be a thought leader without a blog. It depends on your subject and your audience - it all depends on who you are a thought leader to. - Rachel Clarke

Maybe he wants to know there's a place he can find you instead of searching for your FF postings. - Myrna

Re: grunts on friendfeed, the same thing can be said for books and magazine articles compared to the idiots on television. - Mitch

James: I used to do a lot of longer pieces over on my blog which many told me were thought leadership. - Robert Scoble

I wonder if Ghandi and MLK would be blogging... - Ken Sheppardson

Not all leadership is thought leadership, lets make that clear first. - James Watters

I think you're the guy that brings people together. You're the firestarter. You don't need a blog for that. - erwin blom

You need to gain a following, then say "eff it" and get rid of the blog. For instance, no one listens to a damn word I say - Mike Nayyar

Being a thought leader requires coherent original thought a medium to express that thought and an audience who are interested in either you or the subject matter. - Anton Mannering

the truly confident have nothing to prove. but sharing is caring. - Mike White

erwin: I agree, but why aren't the most active participants here on FriendFeed (or over on Twitter) the ones who get to the top of most popular lists? I think it comes from authority, influence, (and in Twitter's case, getting lucky and getting put on the Suggested User List) but those are things that are hard to earn 140 characters at a time. - Robert Scoble

For me to consider anyone a thought leader, they had better have made a career out of what they say and do. I don't consider someone a leader in something until it is their life. - Mitch

YES mike! - Myrna

But you know Robert on your personal blog, its like we are always talking about just getting it out there, I wouldn't worry about it being perfect. It's like this blogger that Jason interview on one of his first shows said, "The biggest thing I had to teach new bloggers in order to be successful was the ability to hit the "Publish" button. - Stephen Pickering

For instance, one of my tutors was thought leader in the origin of apples. he's never got near a blog. - Rachel Clarke

you bet Ghandi, et al would be blogging as they were keen to communicate to the masses - Geer

One could argue that thoughts are occasionally more than just quick 140-ish character blips from one's skull. Some thoughts require more in depth thought and consideration. So I think that long term, no you can't be a thought leader without blogging or writing some form of thought piece. Isn't that what a thought leader is? Someone who brings ideas to the forefront using logic to back up and show how they drew those thoughts? - Michael Koby

The greatest thought leaders are people like Zuckerberg and Brin/Page - who are CREATING the companies of the future - WRITING blog is sort of beside the point right? - Mike Bracco

I think this shows that Jowyang never participates in FF, which is a pity b/c I followed him here! - anna sauce

anna: Jeremiah has a day job: to write reports and white papers and meet with companies for Forrester. - Robert Scoble

Pre-internet, editors of widely read highbrow magazines were definitely considered thought leaders by their peers and readers. Filtering, featuring and commenting on relevant and cutting edge content via Friendfeed, Twitter and Posterous is arguably an analogous pursuit -- if done well. - Alex Gault

I think the assumptionthat the only method of communication to be a thought leader is using a blog is flawed. A blog is fine if the people you intend to be a thought leader for read blogs. If they don't I'd suggest you go where the audience is. Or the conversation. - Anton Mannering

Don't confuse popular with thought leaders. - Jim Turner

Robert: well I'm new to following you this year, so I would definitely say your current medium has affected my view/opinion of you. At the same time I also really valued your leadership on the Iran front and will admit I was moved by it. - James Watters

If you don't have a blog you know nothing about social media and wouldn't be considered a "thought leader" at least in this context - Tyler Gillies

The best/most interesting ideas tend to be the shortest and most concise - therefore no, all you need is Twitter and a following - Nick Smith

To me, blogs are for essays, and a certain less-early-adopter audience. But tey are going rapidly by the wayside, and that's totally OK with me. This was a hot topic at my happy hour #2 after 21st amendment, where some old publishing industry, SF journalists were, most of them were bloggers, new to Twitter. When I mentioned Friendfeed, the expressions were "we have no idea what you are talking about" but they have learned to embrace, instead of running from it. - anna sauce

Yes Anna and Anton - Myrna

"I accomplish in ten words what many authors fail in a lifetime of books." Nietzsche - James Watters

Nick: well, then, why are the people at the top of the Twitter lists almost always people who either blogged or worked in some other media, like TV or films? - Robert Scoble

I wrote on a Paul Bucheit post that blogs aren't dead, what's dead is text, Video is 10x more compelling and more likely to be consumed - Stephen Pickering

@robert agree. Maybe the best is the combination of indepth vision in blogposts with firestarting and engaging in Twiitter / Friendfeed amongst others. - erwin blom

Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Paul Krugman, Stephen Hawking, et al...those are the thought leaders...how many of them are blogging? - Alex Scoble

@TomVMorris is a thought leader and he's doing a good job of keeping it on Twitter. But for most topics, I would think you need a better tool, then just Tweets. - Robert Wilkins

Alex: +1 - Mike Bracco

Stephen: I am big into video and I disagree. Video is more likely to communicate emotion and visual cues, but is harder to consume. On the other hand, I think video is very important to being seen as a thought leader on friendfeed. - Robert Scoble

Bill Gates??? Rich monopolist who has credibility because of power. - James Watters

If you wrote a piece for the Atlantic Monthly I'd consider you a thought leader :) - James Watters

Yeah you're right, I can read a blog post quicker than 15 minutes - Stephen Pickering

Alex all those guys still have a vehicle with which tio relay their thoughts. which is what I think is the real idea behind blogs. - Jim Turner

I rarely consume video. it takes too long compared to the written word. - Rachel Clarke

The point is that he built something real. An empire. What has Michael Arrington built? - Alex Scoble

James: that's not why Bill has credibility with me. He knows more about technology business (and now charity) than any single human being I've met. - Robert Scoble

Thought leadership operates across a reasonable broad continuum of medium : at one end Twitter, the other end Books, with Blogs down towards the Twitter end - so they play a part but there is too much noise! - Geer

James: credibility b/c built a great business that changed the computing world maybe... - Mike Bracco

yes you can be a thought leader without a blog. - sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq

Yeah, but an empire built on shadiness, capturing people - Stephen Pickering

Alex: Arrington has built a news network that is very good. I can't compete with it. - Robert Scoble

to be a thought leader, all you need is a platform. a blog is just one of the many you can choose - Rachel Clarke

Jeremiah's a smart guy - he's good to catch one-on-one time with. I'm with Jeremiah on this one. - Jesse Stay

"The king will always have eloquence for a simple reason, the drum roll before he speaks" Nietzsche (my view of Gates) - James Watters

I don't like these discussions on "what's dead/dying" because it's always absurd hyperbole. - Mitch

Same for Buffet, his only business strategy is consolidation, becoming a monopoly in an area and then hammering you - Stephen Pickering

@ Robert See Jim Turner's comment - Don't confuse 'popular' with 'thought leaders'. - Nick Smith

That said, Jeremiah's also the one that convinced me to use Google Reader much less than I used to and rely more on FriendFeed and Twitter to find the news. - Jesse Stay

Mitch: I don't think blogging is dead and anyway anytime you say someone say something is dead just replace that word with 'becoming less interesting" and it almost always fits. - Robert Scoble

I'm sorry guys, when Gates thought the internet wrist watch was the next big thing? Please please explain how that is the best ever. - James Watters

Not all thoughts can be narrowed to 140 characters and that is what blogs are for, they are for longer thoughts and essays. I think you need a blog to be a thought leader it is just not necessary to post to it everyday about everything. - Kim Landwehr

@robert The good thing about blogging is it freezes time. It gives you time and breath to think. It's there tomorrow as well. FF is real time and evolving. This conversation develops every minute. And tomorrow i won't find it anymore or easy. So yes: start blogging again ;-) - erwin blom

Microsoft is one of the greatest American success stories in history and also one of the greatest declines, rapidly, in business history - Stephen Pickering

James: even the best athlete loses once in a while. Gates is no different. I've had my major disagreements with Bill but he still is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Just look at his annual letter for his foundation and try to argue with that. - Robert Scoble

Guys it's the message not the medium that's all. The Medium is only relevant as a method of reaching the audience. Being a thought leader is achieved by having a track record of obvious expertise and innovation and then choosing to share that. If you share it with your cat though you're not a thought leader. If you share it with an audience who trust your expertise then a thought leader you are. The medium is irrelevant. The person, the message and the audience. That is all there is. - Anton Mannering

Stephen: how many billion dollar businesses does Microsoft have TODAY? Go ahead and guess. I guessed wrong yesterday. - Robert Scoble

Tumblr, Posterous sucess show me impulse is in, thought composition is out; thinking hurts, and reading good thinking hurts. Most people don't do it, it can cause you to reconsider your world. Like right now if I have to reconsider thinking Bill Gates is overrated it will hurt my head, I live by that thought. - James Watters

Robert- I know Jeremiah, and I know he has a job. I have one too. I choose to participate in FF, he doesn't. That's totally OK. I'm just saying, that it's interesting that he thinks it's necessary to have a blog to be a "thought leader" (Forrester's key phrase lol) - anna sauce

Anton: Totally agree. I always thought it was funny how people equated journalism to the newspaper. The newspaper is just a medium. - Mike Bracco

Yes, but its one of the greatest squanders of wealth in history. Apple has more cash I think on hand, and for a company that nets 6 billion a quarter, their equity is abysmmal. Its one of the greatest squanders of wealth in history. The stock price is less than it was 10 years ago, I think. How Balmer can still be CEO is beyond me - Stephen Pickering

Following long conversations on iPhone interface is painful because you have to scroll down after every refresh :( - Tyler Gillies

@tlergilles stick in there I'm glad your here - James Watters

tylergillias, click on the "16 minutes ago" thing at the top left of this thread, should sort you out. - Mark

Stephen: I agree, but Microsoft has 14 billion dollar businesses. Many of which are increasing in growth, not decreasing. - Robert Scoble

Mike - Exactly and as soon as journalist realise that they're not married to the printing press they'll be better off. - Anton Mannering

Stephen: I don't know many other companies that have 14 billion dollar businesses cooking along. - Robert Scoble

I think a blog is a stepping stone to becoming a thought leader. - Tamar Weinberg

Dangerous math, by this reasoning John Chambers is the thought king. - James Watters

Robert - A blog is more like a column with comments, this is a conversation that never ends. I think we need both. - erwin blom

MSFT, 36 billion in Equity after how many years of netting 15-20 billion? That is just criminal. All this time they'd been better off giving that cash to shareholders. - Stephen Pickering

+1,000 Stephen. - James Watters

If you want to be a thought leader in molecular physics then having a blog or being on friendfeed would be irrelevant. The medium that the relevant community flock to is scientific journals. - Anton Mannering

All bloggers don't become thought leaders(obviously) and all thought leaders don't have blogs so what feels best to you Robert? - Myrna

Robert surprised me yesterday with is post from 21st amendment. He seemed surprised the person next to him didn't know who he was. That's dangerously close to celebrity think. - James Watters

Robert, what's there 14 billion dollar business cooking along, and how many billion dollar businesses do they have? - Stephen Pickering

I think so. Chris Pirillo is a thought leader with or without his blog... - krystynchong

I do miss your blogs Rob xx - Mark

Mark: that doesn't work on iPhone interface - Tyler Gillies

Having a blog is only a pre-requisite for being a thought leader in blogging. - Anton Mannering

Anton lol - Myrna

I think chris pirillos blog complements his video and not vice versa - Tyler Gillies

Robert - If the audience you're interested in is on Friendfeed then that's where you should be. However if a significant number of people in your audience feel you should be blogging then perhaps you should communicate that way as well. Go where your audience is. - Anton Mannering

Talking about thought leaders, i'd like the name of the person before the entry. Not everyone is equal when talking. - erwin blom

What's the char limit on friendfeed posts? - Tyler Gillies

Erwin - I'm equal - Anton Mannering

erwin: i like that idea. it could work as a sort of "mental filter" - Tyler Gillies

Erwin - Interesting stance that. If you know the people it makes sense. But surely you should take every unknown commenter as you find them and judge their comments neutrally until you can assess their knowedge/ability over time? Otherwise you run the risk of being lead by the same old faces without intelligent interruption of the conversation. - Anton Mannering

anton: sometimes a comment doesn't make sense contextually until you know who wrote it. i like the "feature" because it would allow you to form that context _before_ you read the comment - Tyler Gillies

Character Limits on friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/friendf... - Robert Scoble

robert: thanks :) - Tyler Gillies

I still think the internet wrist watch is the next big thing :-P - Jesse Stay

tygerlilie - I agree, I was commenting on Erwins thoughts about not all commenters being equal not on whether the names should be first. - Anton Mannering

Great topic, been discussing this lately with colleagues too. If you're an individual who has an already established industry reputation, you can show thought leadership in many other ways beyond a blog, but if you're just starting out, you need some sort of a platform and a blog is an easy way to get going and show depth/substance - Louise Rasho

Implementing @username in friendfeed would be helpful - Anton Mannering

Anton - Of course that problem is there, but it's how i use FF on a busy day. Scan my favourites among the masses. - erwin blom

Regarding earlier posts re: video, it's just far too slow. I can scan faster than listen and watch, and with scanning you can absorb so much more information. - anna sauce

Jesse, I think you should continue your vodcast. I think it could be big. I myself looked forward to it as much as TWIT - Stephen Pickering

Louise - Totally agree. As long as your audience are likely to read blogs. - Anton Mannering

Absolutely. - Peter Johnson

Stephen, you think? I'm thinking I'll need to space it out more if I do. Also, need to figure out a focus. Editing is a pain, too, so need to figure out a solution for that as well. - Jesse Stay

i think video transcription will be a big thing. building 43 has already done it with at least one interview - Tyler Gillies

Jesse, definitely, just shoot it and let it go raw, forget the editing. Also it helps your exposure and compliments your other businesses - Stephen Pickering

Anton - even if they're not regular blog readers, you could use other tools (Twitter, FF, etc) to drive them to your blog. It just gives you an opportunity to have a longer monologue so that when you get into other short-form platforms you've established some cred. - Louise Rasho

yeah raw footage is always fun - Tyler Gillies

maybe I'll try that - I think I may space it out to every other week though. - Jesse Stay

Oh that's fine, every other week, I think, I would look forward to it - Stephen Pickering

Erwin - That's cool. I understand and if you get to know a lot of the people who regualrly comment you get to be able to watch out for the good ones and autoblank the ones who's comments you don't find useful. - Anton Mannering

Well, I think this proves that you might not be a thought leader using Twitter and FriendFeed but you certainly can get discussion going. I think I'll write a blog. :-) - Robert Scoble

Louise - I more meant that, dependin on your subject matter, it's dangerous to assume that people will be looking for your information online. Serious scientists read peer-reviewed journals to be taken seriously that's where you have to be. - Anton Mannering

Louise - But for a lot of things a blog is perfect and easy way to start sharing your thoughts/expertise with the world - Anton Mannering

Absolutely yes, a big yes. Scientists, acedemics, historians, archeologists, artists (except art marketing) are publishing research studies and conceptual papers. They may wind up on TED talks, but they are looking for large grant backing. Social media would be useful to meet others, so even Twitter is fine, but it is all unrelated to their career. - E-Advocate Network

hmmm. Robert, i'm 1 of 7 board members for an indigenous mapping wannabe nonprofit. i volunteered to redev the website. last oct started twittering news about mapping and indigenous issues. save them every month and archive onto the site. few days ago, we had a conference. folks came from different parts of world becuz of the twitter. not because of email marketing. people thought i was the leader or director becuz my writing/twittering in the back of the room with news. - Rosemarie McKeon

You have to have some way of publicizing your thoughts. A popular TV show would work just fine. Given then lack of Twitter or FF posts on Digg etc I would say they aren't yet ways of becoming a thought leader. - Todd Hoff

I think the blog is going to be the central hub of one's identity on the net. It's so cheap to host one. I think it will be the dial tone. So I think Wordpress is the biggest threat to Facebook - Stephen Pickering

Stephen: I disagree. My hub is going to be an aggregator. For now that's either Facebook, FriendFeed, or Plaxo or something like it or maybe Twitter since that's the defacto place most people come to pimp their blogs anyway. - Robert Scoble

I was busy and am late getting here, but I'll say you can't be a thought leader without a platform. For many the low barrier to entry in blogging provides the cornerstone of that platform. Speaking and writing books can be that platform too. And for many FriendFeed, Twitter and the like are the platform. I'd say microblogging tools, even with the conversational capability of FriendFeed... more... - Ken Camp

Ken: that's a good point and one that I was trying to get to. In the future thought leaders will communicate using a number of different tools, not just 140 character messages. Even the Twitterers I follow the most and like the most are ones who use other tools to communicate with me. - Robert Scoble

Just cause people 'follow' you on FF doesn't mean they _follow_ you, if you follow. (Whee, that's one of those fun words that becomes silly and nonsensical if you repeat it enough. follow follow follow.) - Andrew C

I don't think a blog has anything to do with being a thought leader. It's just another form of media. It comes down to what you say not how you say it. A blog might help to gain visibility, but there are plenty of ways to lead tribes without using electronic print. Having said that I think the real question we should be asking is can you be a thought leader w/o a FF acct? Is availability and interaction going to be required for thought leaders in the future? - Davis Freeberg

But with all these widgets you can bring all these services into your blog, and the blog is so much more expressive of who you are, with personalized design elements and so much more flexibility - Stephen Pickering

I don't agree to be a thought leader you need to blog. I also don't agree you need an audience to be a thought leader. To be seen as a thought leader in public, you do. If your goal is to be a thought leader in any industry, then you need to speak your mind, directly to that arena and do it loudly enough to be heard. However you better be prophetic unless you already have an audience... more... - Sheryl

Robert - great question and dialolgue here! Thought Leaders are wise folks that engage, lead, inspire and mentor their respective audiences by a *variety* of methods; including but not limited to blogs. For example, they may author and publish a book, launch a blog, speak at a conference, lead a discussion group, host a podcast, etc. Blogs are just 1 tool in the thought leaders' aresenal, albeit a very key tool at that as it's become an expected tool ... as in your case with JO. - Susan Beebe from BuddyFeed

When I google Stephen Pickering or Robert Scoble the first thing that comes up is our blogs - Stephen Pickering

Stephen: yes, but that's a historical problem. My blog has been around longer and has had lots more work and links to it. So Google counts it higher. For new users who don't have blogs the same will not be true. - Robert Scoble

I also think JO is a very bright man, but sometimes his thinking is about trends and assumptions, not reality. Reality can tell a very different story. - Sheryl

wow, great way to mine information here!!!! impressed. I truly attest to how great FriendFeed really is. - iTbay

Sheryl: I agree and good point. Some of the strongest thought leaders are the voices that aren't heard of the noise. In the Internet culture, it's easy for people to associate the noise of someone constantly talking with thought leadership. (ie. every time I look so and so is saying blah blah blah). That isn't thought leadership. Those are simply the leaders in echoing the lesser heard thoughts of the real leaders. - Ken Camp

JO is a very bright man with an amazing knack for echoing things others have said before. He's visible, but visible and visionary aren't quite the same thing. I like him a lot, but for me, he's not a leader. He's another preacher preaching to the choir, albeit a good preacher. - Ken Camp

Another key point: seeing a new developing trend, e.g. Steve Rubel's adoption of Posterous instead of his former tradtional blog site indicates two things: 1. he wants to speed up and simplify blog posting, and 2. he may feel that lifestreaming is a better way to connect, share and engage with his audience. I'm seeing that folks want more sound bytes, not thesis style content. - Susan Beebe from BuddyFeed

Sheryl / Ken - I disagree with you there. Audience is everything. That audience may be on Youtube, twitter or Friendfeed or blogs as Ken said, but ithout an audience (it can be a niche one) who are you leading? Where I'd disagree with Ken is that these are not the Platform these are only the medium. Previously in peer-reviewed journals the fact that a certain had to be reached to be... more... - Anton Mannering

A question, will you still do longer post and if so won't that be a blog, or is a blog only a blog if you call it a blog. - Kim Landwehr

But If I'm interested in Robert Scoble or Jesse Stay and I follow them, they should be able to monetize their energies and thoughts by way of their blogs. If all of their energies are on FriendFeed or Twitter or Facebook, its only pimping those services and putting money in their pockets - Stephen Pickering

I launched a new blog http://susanbeebe.com on 5/11/2009 and within only a matter of 2 weeks my blog was appearing on page 1 of my vanity search results on Google. Blogs are really fabulous for personal branding and what I call "personal real estate" on the web. - Susan Beebe from BuddyFeed

Susan, I agree, my blog was only born in March or so - Stephen Pickering

Some jewish guy once said "Do not hide your light under a bushel" Thought leaders who don't influence the world by doing or evangelising are just theorists who affect little. - Anton Mannering

TylerGullies- regarding issue reading FF on iPhone - use a FF client like the BuddyFeed app (no scrolling, etc) - Susan Beebe from BuddyFeed

Anton - I think the media is the platform. Broadcast TV and radio were platforms and they've been replaced by the new distributed now media of the Internet. I say that is the platform. And the Internet is a peer reviewed media in that we get validated, fact checked and are held accountable for our veracity and integrity or quickly shunned and forgotten. Sock puppets don't live long... more... - Ken Camp

And Blogs are so much more flexible. I still think these other services are ancillary, valuable of course but not a hub - Stephen Pickering

Anton: Hey! :) Thought leader doesn't necessarily imply you lead anyone but rather have thoughts that are unique and have potential to inspire. Having a blog will not make us so. Having a platform might, even if someone else is better. Example: Ken is brilliant. You know it, I know it, and he has been blogging longer than the vast majority of internet users. He comes up with amazing... more... - Sheryl

Yes you can be a thought leader without a blog or even be in public, its just a matter of scope of audience. You can be a Thought Leader within a Company, a department, within a community, etc. Believe or not, most people never heard of the people on these lists. So these are just Thought Leaders in areas that interest people that read Blogs, Tweets, Social Media or Tech. - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

But if you are a thought leader don't you want to monetize it? - Stephen Pickering

Stephen: I know some thought leaders who do it because they just want to be seen as the expert in that field. - Robert Scoble

Google monetizes, Facebook monetizes, Twitter and Friendfeed certainly plan to, so what's wrong with an individual? - Stephen Pickering

Hmm.. I disagree with you here Ken. I think that's 'Old Media' thinking. If I went on TV to speak about particle Physics everyone (especially particle phycicists) would be like "who the hell is this guy?". But the fact that I was on TV would give me a platform of a kind as people assume that the TV station checked me out. With new media there is no-one to check credentials so the only... more... - Anton Mannering

think most true thought leaders find money to be a horrible metric. I know several now vested and moderately rich start up CEO's who are still frustrated because their ideas didn't get to be as big or as impactful as they want. Money is a horrible metric: just look at the rich CEO of AIG..thought leader? Smart? - James Watters

I bet Malcom Gladwell doesn't consider money a horrible metric - Stephen Pickering

Hey Sheryl. :) I disagree (I know you're shocked lol). YOu can't be a thought leader unless you're leading. And you can't be a leader without followers. There's nothing wrong with being brilliant and not being followed not all thinkers are leaders. Sometimes one mans great ideas aren't recognised until a leader picks them up and champions them. - Anton Mannering

Anton Particle physics is dead. We have strings now! - Stephen Pickering

Stephen - See I told you the physicists would be horrified. :) - Anton Mannering

Anton: I love that we disagree and both are good with that. I think your physic example just perfectly described "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (a kids tv show personality of the past in the states). I think what is revolutionary about now media is that the fact checking power, the vetting if you will, of every piece of information is now in the hands of every person connected to the... more... - Ken Camp

Robert there are some out there that have others blog FOR them so they can be seen as thought leaders in their field. ;) - Jim Turner

Anton: Was Van Gogh an art thought leader? He wasn't leading anyone during his lifetime. How many thought leaders are recognized long after they've shared the leading thought? I think in human history, that's been the majority of real thought leadership in many areas. - Ken Camp

The determinists were horrified by Einstein's findings and Einsteins was horrified by Quantum Mechanics. We need horrified physicists! - Stephen Pickering

Anton I am not shocked at all and I'm honored to even be involved in this discussion. Now, having sucked up, (was that a 'leading' statement?) I would say to you, I believe you're misinterpreting the word leader here. To be a leader you need only have the potential to influence, not that you have actually done it. It's about original ideas and thoughts, content if you will. Many people... more... - Sheryl

Ken - That my friend is exactly my point. Those credentials that you build over time... that is the platform! Everything else, as you said, is a stupid network, a collection of tools. - Anton Mannering

And Einstein was just a lowly patent clerk - Stephen Pickering

No serious thinkers or CEO types I know read Malcom; he is considered 'pop' - James Watters

Depends on the context I suppose. I don't think there is any arguing that Jack Welch (@jackwelch) is a thought leader. A notable early trait was his resistance from using a computer. - Rick Bucich

LOIC seems to like him :) - Stephen Pickering

I don't consider Welch a thought leader. He was an executer. Peter Drucker was the thought leader behind GE's massive resurgence - Stephen Pickering

Thought leadership is subjective. Case in point, what Rick above me said. I have no idea who Jack Welch is. He is not a thought leader to me, and yet he may be incredibly bright and articulate. That I have never heard of him doesn't make him less a thought leader. Only means he has his own niche. - Sheryl

Sheryl: Jack Welch ran GE for years and is widely seen as one of the best executives ever. - Robert Scoble

Stephen #ironic given the Loic discussion today :) Interesting that the other day Jack Welch said a dog could have run GE in the 90's because of positive macro trends; most company performance is due to industry trend - James Watters

That was him being modest. All the greatest are modest, Buffett, Sam Walton - Stephen Pickering

Ken, I was just thinking about Van Gogh in terms of this. What about the visionaries who are tragically 50 years a head of their time. Van Gogh could have blogged until his face turned blue. He was not going to be accepted and that is just the truth. He knew it, so he became a "do-leader" I guess you could say, and focused on being a prolific creator. - E-Advocate Network

Robert: it doesn't change my opinion that you've explained who he is. He may be a thought leader to you, but to me he is just a man on the street. Does that makes sense? Now...if I met him...and he said something that made my ears perk up, I would likely think differently. In the meantime, anyone may be a thought leader in their own circle. That one person has a big audience takes nothing from those who haven't got one. - Sheryl

Emily Dickinson never published a poem in her lifetime - Stephen Pickering

E-Advocate Network: Funny because that was exactly what Ken said to me before he wrote that down about Van Gogh! :) - Sheryl

Ken - No he wasn't. He was a brilliant man whose genius was only recognised after his death. Which inspired the expressionist movement in Germany. The leadership was not his though. In fact Nietzche had as much to do with that as anyone. - Anton Mannering

Ken - Picasso though was a thought leader par excellence - Anton Mannering

Too much invested in the concept of thought-leadership. I'm just happy to be participating in conversations about what I consider to be relevant thoughts and theories. It is first and foremost about context. I think this is a perfect case in point. - Jerry Schuman

You can be a thought leader via voice.... but more people will find you if you blog about what you talk about on-air and in podcasts. - Lisa Osborne

Scoble is the catalyst for this. I know I kiss ass, but its true, none of the other "important people" as Guy Kawasaki terms them engages us everyday folk like Scoble does. Why is that? He's as busy as the others - Stephen Pickering

Jerry: ^5 I couldn't agree more! - Sheryl

Lisa: I agree with you. I do a weekly podcast and I write a blurb about it. I also write the occasional blog post. Still, many people come to my site via search. - Sheryl

Stephen: Agreed, but sort of reinforces my point. The idea of thought leadership aside, Robert uses a broad platform; Guy uses a narrower one. But they are doing what works for them personally. - Ken Camp

Yes, oh I'm not dissing Guy, I love Guy, Tim O'reilly, Leo, and all the rest - Stephen Pickering

E-advocate/Sheryl - Unfortunately if you're too far ahead of your time you're not a leader. It's tragic and horrible but there you are. The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells is a cautionary metaphor. - Anton Mannering

Anton,and I have the scars to prove it. - Jerry Schuman

Stephen: I'm not dissing Guy either. Today. I've done enough of that. lol He's simply on a platform I don't hear any more. ;-) - Ken Camp

Anton: I love you! :) I don't think we're that far apart with thought's not really, I just think we have some minor differences ;-) - Sheryl

Does YouTube count as a blog? I think any form of user generated content can allow a person to step into an audience and be a thought leader. A blog is just a mechanism. I'm not talking about replacing a hammer with a saw either. I think there are plenty of mechanisms to get in front of an audience and we're likely to see many, many more. - Dave Saunders

Ken - Guy is an interesting case. Do you not listen to him because of the tools he uses or because you feel he has "worn out his credentials" so to speak? - Anton Mannering

Anton: You like poking a stick in the hornets nest don't you? lol if you want to talk about Guy, we'll find somewhere private. I simply have chosen to remove myself from his audience as much as possible. ;-) - Ken Camp

No, I think he was just asking - Stephen Pickering

Ken: I don't mean to pry and I meant only in general terms. You response though indicates to me that you don't trust the messenger. - Anton Mannering

Anton: :-) - Ken Camp

Sheryl: Oh no, I was caught yapping away about academics and artists. Anton: Agreed on Picasso- he achieved fame while alive. He was outstanding and much more articulate than Van Gogh. He had a slight edge- being "avant guarde" was somewhat interesting to the art world at the time. It still required heavy lifting for acceptance and Picasso had that brilliance. Other artists before him had to crack the academies. - E-Advocate Network

A blog or some other long-form, semi-permanent body of work that belongs to you I believe is required to be a "thought-leader". As both a producer and consumer, I think this will become even more important as information flow gets more fragmented, higher volume, and unfortunately, lower quality. FF, Twitter, et al are great for finding thought leaders and getting bits of insight but at the end of the day, real value comes from a smart person putting hours/days into a robust article/blog/essay. - David Ziembicki

Ken: It goes to my point earlier about the platform being the trust you have for the person not the particular tool they uses to transmit the message. Basically to me Platform = "The reason I listen to you". In the old days a soap box was used as a literal platform, and was used to "stand out from the crowd" and the crowd paid attention because you were higher up. As things developed the "platform" became more figurative. For instance a politicians "platform" is the fact he was elected. - Anton Mannering

Anton: The politician being elected may not be elected at all but they may have bought their way into office quite nicely ;-) - Sheryl

Michel De Montaigne became a thought leader without a blog. As did Adam Smith and Emile Durkheim! - Mark

Sheryl: That can happen. I would suggest though that in that case his legitimacy is questionsed and his "platform" becomes somewhat eroded. Everyone will start to question everything he does much more. :-) - Anton Mannering

Anton: I think what you call platform I call pulpit. And what I call platform you might call message. We don't disagree on any of this. We just use different syntax. - Ken Camp

Ken: I'm not so sure we are totally aligned here, but I'll be writing a blog post pulling together all my thoughts on this and you can call around and berate me if you think I'm wrong. LOL ;-) - Anton Mannering

Anton: In art that may be hard to find now. We expect it to be wierd, finally. For this discussion, an interesting question may be are there any thought leaders to whom a blog might greatly alter your perception of them? - E-Advocate Network

E-advocate - I agree somewhat re Art, but perhaps people are looking in the wrong place. Regarding your question: I don't think so. It would depend what was in the blog posts. If they continue the same quality using a different tool then great. - Anton Mannering

@Robert, being a thought leader has nothing to do with writing a blog or not. It is a label put on you by others. It does imply you need to express and interact over your thoughts very frequently, but that can be done anywhere. Given the broadcasting and interaction possibilities on Twitter and Friendfeed you would be heard faster there. I know from experience that writing long,... more... - Alexander van Elsas

BTW on the general topic here neither Jeremy or Robert are thought leaders but the guys they talk to every day are. - Anton Mannering

I would characterize most of twitter/friendfeed traffic as infotainment, not thought leadership. - Steve Wilhelm

Steve: that isn't what I asked, though. - Robert Scoble

Twitter and FriendFeed would be perfect for: Thought leaders in mathmatics, computer science or a similar field who can write a technical journal that revolutionizes their field, but just can not dumb down what they do and have never been good writers anyway. - E-Advocate Network

Hey, I have a blog, but whenever I try to do Thought leadership, Scoble slaps me down... then again, I usually deserve it... - The Web's Wendell Wittler

A great Twitter stream belongs the head of Warchild. She can rarely give away her location, let alone blog as she in war zones most of the time. She is a thought leader and we would never know her experiences if it was not for short form. For some it is not choice but the only way. - E-Advocate Network

Thought leadership is innovative thinking - this can be done in a narrative way on a blog, a visual way on video, and short succinct way here on FF/Twitter ... now thinking of it I think thought leadership is almost obsolete -- give our ability to crowd source ideas. I think the should be "pattern recognizer" or "synthesizer" or "insight spinner" or whatever .. - Beth Kanter

I misread this and thought you wrote, "Can you be a thought leader without a DOG?" Now that would be an interesting question too. - Amy℠

Actually you can be one thought leader that spread the idea of being a thought leader that don't uses a blog, you just have to show how - Felipe Lopes

absolutely - Patricia

Having a twitter account is practically having a "microblog" and having a FriendFeed account is practically having a blog anyway since you can easily post full blog posts here although, its better in the sense that you can engage via conversation etc to provide more indepth points about something which you are discussing rather then just mentioning them all in a post. As it become easier to elaborate on a point in real-time ;) - Nicholas James

Blog does not equal thought leader. In today's age, a blog is becoming one tool to present ideas and interact with others. - Ted Kinzer

Ted: Your definition on what a blog is becoming is something which FriendFeed already is a place to present ideas and interact with others ;) Personally I don't think a blog is needed to be a thought leader because, there are numerous ways which facilitates you to be a thought leader without the use of a blog. Although some people would prefer you to place them on a blog since they have got used to blogs. - Nicholas James

Thought Leaders need media to spread their thoughts, share ideas- its not necessary they need to have blog.. look for yourself you will find numerous examples of them.. - Saravanan

Of course, but if you are a thought leader, a blog is a good place to share your thoughts. - Francine Hardaway

If you have a good thought dropping it into the right pond where the other fishies will munch on it and spit it back out would lead me to believe that FF with some heavy hitters subscribed to your feed. Not too many folks read my blog per google analytics but I like doing it so I do much like my aggregating things here. - Mathew A. Koeneker

You can certainly be a thought leader without a blog, IMHO. To say otherwise is to assume that all thought leadership must necessarily be only pertinent to the subset of populations that are connected to the Internet and that understand how to communicate using social media tools. I don't think anyone could credibly argue that all thought leadership is that narrowly constrained. That said, it certainly can't HURT. - Scotty Perkins

Thought leader does not equal blogger. The number of "thought leaders", or people that make the world go around, far out number those that blog. So, categorically, the answer is yes. - Diego Barros 

What do you mean by "thought leader"? Do they actually do anything? Produce anything? Or just think about stuff and blog about it? I'm glad Steve Jobs doesn't have a blog. Then we'd be readying about the iPhone and not using one. - Diego Barros 

To be a Thought Leader you must have a) Original Ideas that are b) Somehow Disseminated, either c) Directly or through Credible Intermediaries to a d) Large Following and e) Sustained through Practice. and f) Influence Social/Governmental Decisions. So the First Critical Link is (b) .Today, dissemination of ideas occurs mainly through broadcast or dead-tree media. Increasingly, the... more... - Murli Nagasundaram

wow, you got to F), thats a heavy duty list. - James Watters

Holy crap, this thread proves my point. How could these many comments from everyone prove that Robert is being a thought leader. Robert, I can barely hear your voice in here. Case in point. Case closed. - Jeremiah Owyang

Robert, I wrote this for you: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog... - Jeremiah Owyang

I responded my own thoughts in the comments of Jeremiah's post. I've got a blog post in the making I think, too - still putting together my thoughts on this. - Jesse Stay

Isn't friendfeed a form of microblogging? - Khürt Williams

I would say that FriendFeed is more of social discussion platform then microblogging. - Usman Bashir

Yeah, maybe, as social medias rule.. but a blog is an important item in the whole system. ;) - Thierry R. Andriamirado

Of course, you can. Being a thought leader means contributing original ideas that affect the way people think. You don't need a blog to do that. - Leslie Carbone

A media is required to express the thinking - thus 'thought leaders' actually 'do' rather than 'think' because without a medium, there is nothing to exchange. The issue about having a blog or not is meaningless - the choice of medium today is based upon it's ability to spread an expression, not an idea - and that means reproduction. Anything digital is reproducible - an expression... more... - David Bausola

"Can you be a thought leader without a blog?" Yes. - Greg J. Smith

Leaders are nothing, without people to help/to 'give directions' to. Blogs -and- other (social) medias are tools for them to do so. - Thierry R. Andriamirado from email

Which came first, thought leaders or blogs? Did thought leaders exist before the internet? Can you name one modern thought leader that doesn't have a blog? Not all thought leaders are good at spreading their thoughts to the masses, but they are smart enough to surround themselves with those that are (or perhaps they just attract them). Not every "thought leader" is a spring. Some are... more... - April Russo (app103)

April, yes - this is the difference between Synthesizers and Generators. The reality is that we are all 'thought directors'. - David Bausola

Yes. In this age of collective thought, leaders are able to ask the right questions and engage people in insightful dialogue. Maybe we just need a feature or method for dialogue/thought leaders to synthesize threaded discussions like these in order to capture knowledge. - Steve Levin

I think you're over thinking it - Jesse Hattabaugh

Part of the issue is "thought leader" is community dependent. In order to be perceived as a thought leader, you have to be visible in the tools that that community uses. For example, I have been blogging much less since starting to use FriendFeed and Twitter, which connects me to one community, but disconnects me from my still large blog reader community. I tweeted and FriendFeeded a... more... - Richard Akerman

What i need is someone who wraps discussions like this up ;-) Otherwise: to many thoughts to follow! - erwin blom

Great thoughts ... from non-bloggers : http://www.stanford.edu/~somik... - Meryl Steinberg

Wrap. - Jay Collier

Late to the discussion, but will answer anyway since I'm egocentric enough to think you'll be interested in my response. Yes, you can be a thought leader w/o a blog, Robert. You'd be a thought leader if you were standing on a street corner discussing English Muffins. It's who you are, not the medium you choose to express yourself with. However, as I'm proving by this long response,... more... - Molly

Robert -- you're a thought leader in your respective medium. So no matter the tool you use, they'll follow you. So yes, you can be a thought leader with out a blog. Once you're an influencer people will watch your every move. Especially since the area in which you're a thought leader is the interactive space. We look to you for guidance. Now if you walked the public streets here in... more... - Ramsey Mohsen

Yes you can. There were thought leaders before the era of blogs. Being influential is medium-independent. - Volkan Özçelik

Wow- Sorry if I repeat anything as I am tired and couldn't read everything posted before me.... YES, you can be a thought leader without a blog, but you do need to express long-form thoughts. Nobody will ever be a thought leader through Twitter, Friendfeed, or even Facebook (unless it is completely open). Twitter and Friendfeed, as we have all mostly agreed, continue the conversation,... more... - Daniel Zarick

Mitchell Tsai

Top 51 FriendFeed Likeaholics - You've helped make my FriendFeed experience lots of wonderful... Thanks for your cool links! :-) WARNING: Subscribing can be hazardous to your feed...and bring WAY too many cool articles/pictures/links...

January 13 - Comment - Like - Share

Mahdi Ebrahimi, phil baumann, Ehsanislav and 83 other people liked this

Robert Patton - "RAPatton" (49,307) http://friendfeed.com/pattonr... Discussion http://friendfeed.com/pattonr... - Mitchell Tsai

101 more comments

Polly Roberts - "edythe" (45,308) http://friendfeed.com/furry http://friendfeed.com/furry... - Mitchell Tsai

Po Shan Cheah - "Morton Fox" (37,488) http://friendfeed.com/mortonf... http://friendfeed.com/mortonf... - Mitchell Tsai

Yolanda (32,826) http://friendfeed.com/yolanda http://friendfeed.com/yolanda... - Mitchell Tsai

Hossein Mazidi (31,179) http://friendfeed.com/mhmazidi http://friendfeed.com/mhmazid... - Mitchell Tsai

Mahdi Ebrahimi (30,260) http://friendfeed.com/mahdieb... http://friendfeed.com/mahdieb... - Mitchell Tsai

Anna Haro (26,427) http://friendfeed.com/annaharo http://friendfeed.com/annahar... - Mitchell Tsai

I guess I'm just more stingy with my likes - only 1422 from me - Nathan Chase

Sorry, but my one pet peeve about FriendFeed are those who Like EVERYTHING. It tremendously devalues the feature when these Like-happy FFholics start OCD'n with their trigger finger. - Brad Williamson

Mehrdad Rajabi (25,572) http://friendfeed.com/papiyoon http://friendfeed.com/papiyoo... - Mitchell Tsai

I should hit 10,000 in the next couple of weeks. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Whoa. I'm at like 12K. And I didn't really start getting into FF until September of '08. - Derrick

Michael W. May (24,862) http://friendfeed.com/joffi http://friendfeed.com/joffi... - Mitchell Tsai

Brad: From my experience, these heavy likers all have really good taste. If you surf 20,000-100,000 entries/day, you still have to be pretty damn selective to choose 400 to like. There's a huge amount of dedication (or addiction) to look at so much stuff... Take a look at their discussion feeds before you pass judgement. :-) Surfing these people's discussions is a great way to waste (...use) time. - Mitchell Tsai

Some people aren't looking at anything except the link that says Like - Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF

Sorry Mitchell, but there's just no way to absorb anywhere near 20-100k pieces of content in a single day. Honestly, it's probably impossible to even adequately peruse a thousand in one day. - Brad Williamson

Brad: Watch the live feed on Friend for just an hour. How many items do you think you're seeing in an hour? Some studies show that our brains can visually recognize pictures in 1/3 of a sec (and get about 1000 words of information). Many of the people on this list are on FriendFeed 4-12+ hrs/day. They might be liking only one item every few minutes, and still have 100-400 likes/day. FriendFeed's got quite a few people with AMAZING taste. It's a joy to have so many people helping me filter the news! - Mitchell Tsai

Maryam Ardakani (20,832) http://friendfeed.com/maryam5... http://friendfeed.com/maryam5... - Mitchell Tsai

Vida Nour (19,506) http://friendfeed.com/vivavida http://friendfeed.com/vivavid... - Mitchell Tsai

Foad Sadeghian (19,318) http://friendfeed.com/foadsa http://friendfeed.com/foadsa... - Mitchell Tsai

Susan Beebe (19,086) http://friendfeed.com/susanbe... http://friendfeed.com/susanbe... - Mitchell Tsai

Cee Bee (19,014) http://friendfeed.com/ultrasu... http://friendfeed.com/ultrasu... - Mitchell Tsai

Those likes aren't from one full day, Brad. That's over the lifetime of their FF account. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Amir Beitollahi (18,717) http://friendfeed.com/amirbei... http://friendfeed.com/amirbei... - Mitchell Tsai

glad to see you spreading the love, Mitchell :) - mjc

The funniest part of this thread as that none of the people listed are the ones I consider likeaholics - Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF

Rah, not even RAPatton and edythe? - Akiva Moskovitz

Oh, sorry. Didn't see edythe. Can't say I noticed RAP, but maybe he just doesn't Like my stuff :) (or doesn't like as fast) - Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF

LOL Rasheen! "Quality" likeaholics. P.S. Brad, in the "old days" the speed limit on likes was ~60/day. I hit it quite a bit in my like-a-holic days. It was raised for people like Polly Roberts and Robert Patton who brought so many non-tech articles to my feeds before I started following 700+ people and reading the Everyone feed (Thanks to Robert Scoble who first brought me here...) - Mitchell Tsai

Oh, and Mitchell, I'm not sure everyone would appreciate their full, real names posted here for all to see. - Akiva Moskovitz

@Tina I know, I know. I was afraid you might think that. I'm talking about those who knock out about 5k a week. That's nowhere near the degree I believe many of you might think I'm hinting at. - Brad Williamson

@Rasheen That's what I'm thinking, too ;-) - Brad Williamson

Akiva: Simply click on people's Facebook icons & you'll see their names... If there's no easily-found name linked to FriendFeed, I'm not posting it. (Kind of confusing "edythe" is "furry" is Polly Roberts. And so many Farzads...) - Mitchell Tsai

Lindsey Smith (18,635) http://friendfeed.com/eclipse... http://friendfeed.com/eclipse... - Mitchell Tsai

I think the Likeaholics I'm thinking of are new to FF and maybe trying to catch up - Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF

Ehsan Moslehi (18,480) http://friendfeed.com/9blog http://friendfeed.com/9blog... - Mitchell Tsai

Mitchell, ah, gotcha. As you were, then. - Akiva Moskovitz

Good point though Akiva. If anyone wants me to blank their name from this list, just tag this entry, and I'll edit your name (and delete your entry)... - Mitchell Tsai

iamghostblogger does not agree: http://friendfeed.com/e... - edythe

Welcome to FriendFeed, Buth dangoi! - Mitchell Tsai

Sara Jafari - "Adomide" (17,943) http://friendfeed.com/adomide http://friendfeed.com/adomide... - Mitchell Tsai

Alex Scoble (17,350) http://friendfeed.com/itblogg... http://friendfeed.com/itblogg... - Mitchell Tsai

Atal Matal (17,090) http://friendfeed.com/atalmat... http://friendfeed.com/atalmat... - Mitchell Tsai

Michael J. Cohen (16,271) http://friendfeed.com/projct http://friendfeed.com/projct... - Mitchell Tsai

Pedram Veisi (15,779) http://friendfeed.com/pedramv... http://friendfeed.com/pedramv... - Mitchell Tsai

Tina Parcell - "Stupid Blogger" (15,434) http://friendfeed.com/isthiss... http://friendfeed.com/isthiss... - Mitchell Tsai

Mo Kargas (15,329) http://friendfeed.com/mokargas http://friendfeed.com/mokarga... - Mitchell Tsai

Kol Tresgaskes (15,165) http://friendfeed.com/koltreg... http://friendfeed.com/koltreg... - Mitchell Tsai

Milad Epoush (15,126) http://friendfeed.com/milad http://friendfeed.com/milad... - Mitchell Tsai

Mark Wilson (14,905) http://friendfeed.com/markwil... http://friendfeed.com/markwil... - Mitchell Tsai

Farbod Mostofi (14,753) http://friendfeed.com/littlef... http://friendfeed.com/littlef... - Mitchell Tsai

Robert Scoble (14,704) http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... - Mitchell Tsai

Helen Sventitsky (14,643) http://friendfeed.com/bigstar... http://friendfeed.com/bigstar... - Mitchell Tsai

Ontario Emperor (13,132) http://friendfeed.com/ontario... http://friendfeed.com/ontario... - Mitchell Tsai

wow I almost feel good that this is a list I didn't make it on :) - Steven Hodson

Derrick Jefferson (12,642) http://friendfeed.com/geekand... http://friendfeed.com/geekand... - Mitchell Tsai

Javid Momeni (12,495) http://friendfeed.com/jaavid http://friendfeed.com/jaavid... - Mitchell Tsai

Carlos Perez -"Live4Soccer" (12,063) http://friendfeed.com/live4so... http://friendfeed.com/live4so... - Mitchell Tsai

It is interesting but I am following every single person on this list already. Now I know why there's so much good stuff coming at me! - Robert Scoble

Robert: For the first time, I ran Felix's FriendZone, and I was subscribed to everyone on the Top 100 already! http://ff.deasil.com/friendz... - Mitchell Tsai

Steven Perez (11,818) http://friendfeed.com/silas216 http://friendfeed.com/silas21... - Mitchell Tsai

Shandiz Shahram (11,578) http://friendfeed.com/shandiz http://friendfeed.com/shandiz... - Mitchell Tsai

Selma (PRIVATE) http://friendfeed.com/selma http://friendfeed.com/selma... - Mitchell Tsai

Hutch Carpenter (11,151) http://friendfeed.com/bhc3 http://friendfeed.com/bhc3... - Mitchell Tsai

Cool band name: "So many Farzads" - Oldengrey (Jay)

Rasheen Porter (10,933) http://friendfeed.com/rahsheen http://friendfeed.com/rahshee... - Mitchell Tsai

Carmen ... (10,549) http://friendfeed.com/boxercab http://friendfeed.com/boxerca... - Mitchell Tsai

Silly Jilly (10,297) http://friendfeed.com/jilibra... http://friendfeed.com/jilibra... - Mitchell Tsai

Mike Fruchter (10,282) http://friendfeed.com/fruchter http://friendfeed.com/fruchte... - Mitchell Tsai

I'm at 10,156 http://friendfeed.com/mitchel... http://friendfeed.com/mitchel... - Mitchell Tsai

Atul Arora (10,032) http://friendfeed.com/atul http://friendfeed.com/atul... - Mitchell Tsai

Mark Trapp (9,657) http://friendfeed.com/itafroma http://friendfeed.com/itafrom... - Mitchell Tsai

Farzad Zamani (9,451) http://friendfeed.com/bizblog... http://friendfeed.com/bizblog... - Mitchell Tsai

Mona Nomura (9,157) http://friendfeed.com/monasfe... http://friendfeed.com/monasfe... - Mitchell Tsai

You might as well add me to this list. Because I'm well on my way to getting there. BTW, there is nothing wrong with liking a lot of things. If your worried about things getting buried then use the tools available on Friendfeed to filter things. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Saeedeh (9,105) http://friendfeed.com/persian... http://friendfeed.com/persian... - Mitchell Tsai

Matthew Ballard (8,725) http://friendfeed.com/mathewb... http://friendfeed.com/mathewb... - Mitchell Tsai

Shey Smith (8,501) http://friendfeed.com/shey http://friendfeed.com/shey... - Mitchell Tsai

Apologies to anyone I left off this list. I thought of this when reading Kol Tresgaskes' “I just hit 15,000 likes on FriendFeed!” post http://friendfeed.com/e... and people were asking about other people with lots of "likes". - Mitchell Tsai

Thanks to Felix for his FriendZone tool. I looked at the 200 people on Mahdi Ebrahimi's FriendZone http://ff.deasil.com/friendz... and my FriendZone http://ff.deasil.com/friendz... to create this list of 50 people. - Mitchell Tsai

You're forgiven Mitchell - Charlie Anzman

LOL Charlie! - Mitchell Tsai

wow, 15,000 - thats persistent! - Peter Efland

6800 and didn't make the list...wow. - Amber, Random Time Lord

Sorry I didn't include you on the list Amber... I was originally just doing 15,000+, but stretched down to 8,500 before I got worn-out. By a strange coincidence, I think (not sure of my count) it's exactly 50 people... People have been quite active. Last time I looked at "like" counts, Polly was the only person over 20,000. It was nice to see new names in the list! - Mitchell Tsai

If everyone here hit up my Comments/Likes stats collection http://friendfeed.com/e... , bye-bye quasi-random sampling :) - Micah Wittman

I was pointing out that even with that many likes... I wasn't in the top 50. And it made me happy. Means lots of good shares and conversation. - Amber, Random Time Lord

:-) Amber, I was worried you felt bad that you weren't on "the list" (many people seem to worry if they are on or not-on any list). There are SO many amazing people here. I started making a short list of people with amazing pictures http://friendfeed.com/e... that aren't on my older lists. - Mitchell Tsai

Great list, thanks for this. Mitchell. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Like! ;) - Tyson Key

Not in the top 50, but ... Mike Reynods (8,124) http://friendfeed.com/mikerey... - Mike Reynolds

Ooops. I forgot Heather Mina (10,516) http://friendfeed.com/hedwyg http://friendfeed.com/hedwyg... - Mitchell Tsai

To be fair, a good portion of my likes are songs that appeared in the lastfmfeeds room, so my like totals may be somewhat inflated. (Then again, I created the room, so I guess I should claim the likes and shut up.) - Ontario Emperor

Any statistic is going to be possibly meaningless. Even if one looks at comments instead of likes, those may be skewed from commenting on your own things (e.g. if you share something from Google Reader and add a note). - Ontario Emperor

I guess the takeaway from here is that anyone on the top 50 list, or for that matter anyone on the top 5000 list, is using likes and comments to engage with others. And that's a good thing. - Ontario Emperor

[Update: May 11, 2009] Wow! Morton Fox is at 107,095 likes - Mitchell Tsai

Yes, a like from Morton makes your day - LPH™ and his dog P™

[Update: May 11, 2009] You guys have been so busy here at FriendFeed. Morton Fox has 107,095 likes, Robert Patton 76,251 likes. Polly's 58,458 likes. ....means I have 110,000 items to catch up with (no counting all the commented items). Whew... - Mitchell Tsai

Yup and I've definitely moved up in this list a bit too, hehe. - Alex Scoble

Question: Any way to make lists like these automatically with the new search? (e.g. people with the most comments/likes) I've love to have a way to make topical lists for science, music, movies, etc... (e.g. in simplist form - people with the most comments with "keyword alpha") I made this list by hand... - Mitchell Tsai

Mitchell, perhaps question to pose to the guys in this group: http://friendfeed.com/ffss. As for topical lists I've gone through loads and loads of groups and found my favourites. I've created lists for each of my favourite topics and added relevant groups to each list. Then I've created saved searches for each topic list showing me entries with x likes and x comments. Works pretty well though took a while to set-up. - Kol Tregaskes

Kol: Yeah. But I'm in the position of trying to catch up again on 3 months. It's be nice for some automated tools, or way to share groups. - Mitchell Tsai

Mitchell, 3 months!? Gosh, good luck. ;-) I can barely catch up a missed day. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Sarah Perez

I'm desperately awaiting Feedsqueezer...are you? - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...

January 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Baard @ Pixum, Lu Tao and 24 other people liked this

I would try it out but would hate to lose peeps if it does not work out. Hasnt it been under dev for a while? - ld

17 more comments

Interesting I did not know Dave was behind this. Dave is not exactly known for building massively scalable apps. - ld

@LeatherDonut (hilarious name, btw): the first mention I saw was on the blog post at the beginning of the month. How long *has it* been under dev? Do you know? Yesterday, the account tweeted for the first time, which is why I thought it was worth a look. - Sarah Perez

Well, I'm certainly willing to take a look at this. FB is so badly broken, I've all but decided to pull my last site. In the meantime, I'm going to transition my email subscribers to a commercial mail management service and make ready to self-host, if necessary. - Chris Baskind

We need a Feedburner competitor ASAP! - Jorge Escobar

Heh, glad you like it. I am pretty sure I heard about Feedsqueezer at least several months ago. I've seen the page before linked off of I think Techcrunch. Of course I could be completely wrong. =) Ask Winer... - ld

@LeatherDonut: I tried, awaiting a response. :) Anyway, I'm curious if you are able to dig up any more links, because a search for it on TC, as you suggested, delivered nada: http://bit.ly/uwhL. I know it was mentioned at the beginning of the month on Dave's blog - maybe you are remembering that? I found very little on Google - Sarah Perez

My bad. The domain was registered on December 17th. At most it has been around for a month. - ld

@LeatherDonut: nice sleuthing! now we know for sure - this is new (yay!) - Sarah Perez

Winer or not, I do hope a solid competitor comes. I'm also happy I've used all my own urls for my feeds. Easy moves. - David Singer from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Ooopie, looks like Dave is not behind this, just promoting it via his website. Correcting post sadly :( - Sarah Perez

Annnnnnnd, Dave shows up with his usual cheery self. - ld

Here's why the confusion. Dave wrote: "Steve called a few minutes ago, and I volunteered to write about this. **I also volunteer to help get a Feedburner competitor on the air**, whether it's a small independent project or something run by Microsoft. **Update: Feedsqueezer.**" - Sarah Perez

So that means it *will* do atom feeds as well ;) - Andrew Smith

Coz u know RSS is the shit and all =) - ld

Anyone interested in a more technical, but independent method should look at the Apache Abdera project: http://abdera.apache.org/ - coldbrew

YES! Down with FeedBurner! - andy brudtkuhl

I can't figure out how to leave a comment on the RWW article, do they close comments after a while (for spam prevention, perhaps) ? - DGentry

It seems like the SUP protocol friendfeed has been pushing would be very useful for an RSS service like this. For sites serving lots of feeds, it would allow the RSS provider to poll for updates a lot more often. - DGentry

Morton Fox

When did Friendfeed start grabbing pictures from Twitpic? That's pretty handy.

February 4 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Benjamin Golub, RAPatton, Shey, Jamaican of FF and 3 other people liked this

I saw that just now with a pic I posted. Very nice. I usually rush to FF to get my twitpic posts off my feed. - Anika

Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

my arms are so worked over from the gym i can't open the protein powder to make a shake. ha!

February 4 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Morton Fox, Robert Banghart, Mo Kargas and 2 other people liked this

Want me to get that for you? HA! - Mona Nomura

Sounds like a decent workout ! - Mo Kargas

WorldofHiglet

I went out in my fine hat...

January 26 - Comment - Like - Share

Wallace, Alix Whitmire, "Joey" and 35 other people liked this

And now I'm back. G' night all :) - WorldofHiglet

23 more comments

I love a good hat. - Internet's Tad

Not quite - I'd need to be wearing my Jayne hat for that :) (yes, I have one....) - WorldofHiglet

You are not a dude. I thought you were a guy! - Anika

Yay! This is only the 2nd time I've ever seen WoH, she keeps herself secreted away. And don't tell anyone I told you, but she even has a lovely accent! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Ooohh!!! It's the Higlet!!! It's the Higlet!!! With her fine hat!!! Ooohhh!!! COOL!!!! - Dani Figueiredo

Hey! What's going on here? People aren't supposed to be reading this! Isn't this intrawebz secure?! - WorldofHiglet

And no, I'm not a dude :) And thanks for the accent comment, Tina! People seem to like it for some reason. - WorldofHiglet

yay! i see you WoH! Nice hat... and I actually read your comments with an English accent. - Trish Haley

cute pic - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE

OMG All this time I thought you were a guy, WoH! Cute picture. ;) - Mona Nomura

Haha! No, I've got lady bumps and everything. Most certainly not a guy. - WorldofHiglet

that really IS a fanTAStic hat - Nine

WoH, I didn't know you were soooo pretty! And I love the hat! -

Can we Like something twice????? - Dani Figueiredo

Dani! :P - WorldofHiglet

Yes, WoH has a very cool accent. I heard it when she interviewed Felicia Day once on video. - Josh Haley

And great pic, btw! - Josh Haley

Who knew a hat would be so popular? :) - WorldofHiglet

You look Marvelous. I love it when a FF'r with a goofy icon reveals themselves to the world! - Russellreno

Well, gosh now, y'all makin' me blush with your kindly words! - WorldofHiglet

Yayy Higlet hat! - Katie Durham

WoH - you are a great person with a good heart. :) - Mona Nomura

Mona: that's a lovely thing to say, thank you :) - WorldofHiglet

Gangstarrrrrr. - "Joey"

Martha

Abbey Road

January 28 - Comment - Like - Share

Will Higgins™, Craig Eddy, Robert Banghart and 2 other people liked this

Benjamin Golub

FriendFeed comments in Disqus and on this blog - http://www.benjamingolub.com/e...

January 27 from Benjamin Golub's Blog - Comment - Like - Share

Taylor Davidson, Daniel Rowley, Iggy Mwangi and 12 other people liked this

http://www.benjamingolub.com/e... to see it in action. - Benjamin Golub

8 more comments

Wish I could get it to work. Looks nice. - Chris Baskind

@Chris - doesn't work for you? - Daniel Ha

I would like to see Disqus pull through Tumblr in addition to straight RSS. - Jauder Ho

Hi, Daniel. I'm sure it's my setup. Looks like I have my blog piped to FF as a Custom RSS/Atom feed. Think that's it? - Chris Baskind

When I read the Disqus blog post about it I noticed it was blog only. Custom RSS/Atom would be nice. - Bruce Lewis

I've just switched. We'll see if that was it. Surely so. - Chris Baskind

@Chris - That looks to be the reason. We check "Blogs" right now, but will be expanding it soon. - Daniel Ha

Daniel, that will be good. The OurDoings point-and-click interface for adding your feed to FriendFeed sets up Custom RSS. - Bruce Lewis

Nice...just when I had integrated FF comments into my FF API-driven blog with, errr, disqus comments (plus Facebook Connect and Seesmic enabled)! - Bryan Landers

Derrick

Leica M8.2 Safari Edition - http://www.uncrate.com/men...

January 27 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Baard @ Pixum, Brandon, edythe and 27 other people liked this

"With a special olive green paint job, the Leica M8.2 Safari Edition ($10,000) is limited to only 500 units. The 10.3-megapixel german comes with a Leica Elmarit-M 28 mm f/2.8 ASPH. lens, exclusive Billingham camera case, a matching leather carrying strap, and lots of guilt for spending junior's college fund on a camera." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

7 more comments

You gettin' one of these for me for my birthday, Derrick? - LogEx

Yummy yummy - Håkan Dahlström

*shakes piggy bank* Unlikely, Logical. But you know I would if I could, bud. - Derrick

Who in the world brings a 28mm on safari!??? - Kevin Fox

I miss the retro 35mm film knob :) - Markus Merz

HOT - Mona Nomura

Does anyone else vaguely remember the weird proprietary Kodak "Disk" analogue cameras and films? - Tyson Key

A camera for people with more money than brains? - Brian Sullivan

Clay Newton

I am amazed at how tuned in my daughter is to Obama. She hears his voice on the radio and screams "That's OBAMA!"

January 27 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Robert Banghart and vijay liked this

laura "@pistachio" fitton

writing and writing and writing and writing and then going back and hating every word of it.

January 27 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

AJ Kohn, Ginger Kenney, Cathryn Hrudicka and 3 other people liked this

well at least you are writing! i find staring at a blank screen much worse - Lou Paglia

Paul Buchheit

39325

January 26 - Comment - Like - Share

Alexander Arsky, 阿石, Gavin and 107 other people liked this

ha nice! - Wesley Barrow

41 more comments

from '95 - Paul Buchheit

Summer intern? - Mike Doeff

Yeah, Sanjeev was also there that same summer as it turns out. - Paul Buchheit

Crazy. - Eric @ CS Techcast

oooh look at how young and cute Paul is! :) very cool that you saved this! What was your job title then (intern for ______)? What location did you work at? Does that # mean you were the 39,325 employee hired by M$? - Susan Beebe

I bet I could find mine if I tried, too. - Gabe

I wish I still had my Apple badge. They made me give it back when I left. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Do I sense a meme coming? - Chris Lamprecht

Yeah, unfortunately I don't seem to have any pics of my Sun badge, so I can't collect the whole set :( - Paul Buchheit

bummer! collection is busted - Susan Beebe

my work badges are boring white - no logo..nothing - designed for max security I guess - Susan Beebe

Paul, did you work in Redmond? - Gary Burd

Gary, Paul and I both worked in Redmond. Paul worked on Plus! Setup. - Gabe

Oooh I remember Plus! that was really cool and made Win95 rock! - Susan Beebe

Wow, I had no idea that you guys worked at Microsoft. Gabe, what did you work on? - Gary Burd

Ex-PM in Developer Tools here. Visual J++ for the um, ... - DeWitt Clinton

Maybe it would be more efficient for everyone who didn't work at Microsoft to raise their hand. - DeWitt Clinton

How cute ;) - Bindu Reddy

I worked on Win NT, debugging OLE. It was pretty bad because the NT OLE code was fine; all the bugs were in 16-bit OLE apps. There are few things worse than debugging interactions between two 16-bit apps you don't have the source to! - Gabe

Wow, 16 bit OLE. Why didn't you force everyone to use 32bit Word and Excel? It would've been very Apple of you. - Eric @ CS Techcast

Yup, Redmond. I think I worked in building 4, which may not exist anymore, and lived across the street at "Timberlawn". I worked on the installer for "Plus Pack for Windows 95". - Paul Buchheit

Eric, it gets worse: one of the first apps I had to look at was Ichitaro, Japan's #1 word processor at the time. It sure would have made things easier if I could have forced everybody to only use 32-bit English apps! - Gabe

Awesome, Paul. - Christopher Sacca

I tried, and I can't remember my ORCL employee number any more! Does that mean I've finally put it all out behind me? - Tudor Bosman

My Intel WWID was 10599476, but I get the feeling that they added at least 10,000,000 to the employee number to generate that value. - Paul Buchheit

I've already forgotten my Google employee number. I think my Yahoo! number was right around 9000... - Kevin Fox

Ok here's a picture of my current ones I mentioned - sorta boring white plan ID badges http://friendfeed.com/e... - Susan Beebe

haha, cool... And I didnt even know that I´m apparently the only person on friendfeed who hasn´t been a summer intern at Microsoft - Peter Efland

At least they gave you a top-30 number at Google :) - Charlie Anzman

Once again proving that you're "kind of a big deal". Nice badge! - Randy Holloway from twhirl

*swoon* - Yuvi

I wonder if it was some kind of foresight to hang on to your old Microsoft badges, but not your diplomas. - Clare Dibble

Nice, a blue badge. I consult for Microsoft and have an Orange badge. - Alan Le

Wow! I was there that same summer interning for "Office Team Manager" I must have started a week or 2 before you as my employee number was 39207. - Joe Beda

I think I returned my badge, so I can't remember what my employee number was. I worked on porting the standard ms installer from windows to the mac. - Private Sanjeev

Sanjeev - a worthy cause for sure! :P - Susan Beebe

It was a piece of code that Ben Slivka wrote to produce cab files :) - Private Sanjeev

#39325 @ Microsoft. #23 @ Google. Do you have an ID at Google? ;) - AJ Batac

My MS ID was #38440 @ Microsoft... There were around 17k employees when I joined in 1995. - Steve Lacey

Microsoft badge #36419, joined 6/94 - peter

You seem very happy in this picture. There's still so much hope and optimism in that face. - April Buchheit

Old school. - "Joey"

Morton Fox

"Global Money Supply and the Value of Gold" by Dollardaze aka Mike Hewitt and Krassimir Petrov, FSU Editorial 01/26/2009 - http://www.financialsense.com/fsu...

January 27 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Steven Perez, Marco(aureliusmaximus) and Robert Banghart liked this

"In this essay we attempt to estimate global money supply and relate it to global supply of gold. For the global money supply, we use money supply figures for currency in circulation from 86 selected currencies, from 81 independent countries and five monetary unions. For the global supply of gold, we use data from the World Gold Council (WGC). Finally, we attempt to interpret the price of gold as a relationship between global money supply and global gold supply." - Morton Fox from Bookmarklet

Thomas Hawk

10 Reasons Why You Should Sign Up for FriendFeed - http://thomashawk.com/2009...

January 22 from Thomas Hawk Digital Connection - Comment - Like - Share

Clay Newton, Benno, Nate Koechley and 216 other people liked this

I wish there was a AIR client for FF though. - barl0w

42 more comments

Twhirl works well for FF and it's an AIR client. - Bob M. Montgomery from twhirl

Great article. I want to learn more about the dumping the RSS feeder part. You should share some tips with that. Good stuff. - Amani

Love seeing FF through the eyes of someone who's not a traditional techie =) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Thanks Bob! - barl0w

A big part of why I wrote this post and have it running in my number one photo spot on Flickr right now is because I want more of my photography friends to sign up for the service. I *love* seeing photos here on FriendFeed and there are so many talented photographers who are not here yet who need to be. If we can get more of them to sign up, you guys will love their work. Of course there are many great photographers already on here but still a lot more who could join. - Thomas Hawk

I had to re-share this with all my FB friends. :) - Kelly W.

Still trying to figure out this whole friendfeed experience. I've had the account for a while and see lots of my twitter friends posting via ff - Demetri Mouratis

great piece! - mashable

Hi Demetri =) Different people use FF different ways because they want to get different things out of it. What are you hoping to get out of it? - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Thanks for the tip. I had FF but really never 'got' what it was for. This helped! - Molly Nichelson from twhirl

Great work. - Nation Hahn

Nice post Thomas. - Paul Wade

TH - for those photographers that are not on here, I put their flickr id into my Flickr Imaginary friend and see their images that way. However, it would be nice to get more photographers on here with their reader shares and such... - Justin Korn

This is definitely the best "Why Friendfeed" post I've seen. - Nick in Manila

Justin, agreed. I have a bunch of imaginary friend accounts for Flickr/Zooomr users as well. But it is nicer when they actually have accounts here, their work can be liked and commented to the larger FF community, etc. It seems like a few new people signed up today based on this post so I'm happy for that. Thanks Nick! - Thomas Hawk

I have AlertThingy FriendFeed Edition as well as AlertThingy v2 -

Well said, Thomas. :) - Josh Haley

Nice list of reasons, all well thought out. While I'm at it, I wanted to tell you that I really like your new blog design too. - Karoli

Good point on getting a domain you like. - Kevin Whalen

Do most folks use FF in Standard or Real-time view mode? - Scott Loftesness

Only ever real-time.. it sits nicely on the second monitor as a Chrome App. - Greg Gannicott

Realtime here... - Chris Gulker

Did you just reformatted your post, Thomas? It a lot easier to scan through now. - Alan Le

Alan, a lot of times I post first and edit later. I probably shouldn't do that, but yeah, after posting I broke up some of the paragraphs better, bolded a few things etc., to make it easier to read. - Thomas Hawk

That's great. Make sure to check out Windows Live Writer for formatting blog posts if you haven't already yet. By the way, I love the new blog design. It's much better than when I helped you with the html way back. http://thomashawk.com/2006... - Alan Le

Barlow, Im currently developping an Adobe AIR tool for FriendFeed: we comin' ! - David Guyon

Y'know... I must've spent two months randomly Tweeting things like "Will someone PLEASE explain to me why I should be using FriendFeed?" ... And then two days ago I start using my account (I'd had one for a while)... and NOW someone finally makes a post outlining why I should be here. You're two days late, Mr. Hawk, two days late. :P - Lou

actually, there's no search for Russian word forms on Frf. For me that looks as if there's no search at all - orie

hmmm.. I didn't know that orie. It seems like there is a lot of international users on FF, that's surprising to me. - Thomas Hawk

I've been trying to make sense of FF for months now, but every time I come away confused. As it is I feel like I'm drowning under all the social networking sites available. I use Twitter, Plurk and Facebook the most, and I use Ping.fm so I only have to post status updates once. How can I integrate FF into this without making things even more confusing? - Chris Taylor

oooh! I found the zooomr version of this post with no formatting and I whined somewhere else in my FF feed. This one with all the formatting is better :D - Tamar Weinberg

Friendfeed rocks! - rampantheart

I really liked how you did a post on Flicker - MaryAnn Chick Whiteside

All good reasons but #10 is my #1 reason :) - Mark Krynsky

Mark - agreed. Also, Thomas ... very nice blog. I like. - Amani

Good post Thomas. I was thinking it would be hard to find 10 points, but I agree with all your points, and am sure there are probably many more. - Peter Efland

@Tamar, the unformated text was a problem on the Zooomr image. Kristopher's fixed that bug now so text in descriptions on Zooomr photos should format correctly now. - Thomas Hawk

I wasn't using FF, but signed up after your post. Now let's see if it is really so useful ;-) - Marcel Körner

@Marcel also take into consideration who you are subscribed to. Aside from maybe four on your current sub list, they are not very active at all on FF. This will affect your experience here. - Carlos Ayala

Didn't know there was a "Porn" room on FF (see screenshot)... - David Young

how did you see that they are not active on FF? - Marcel Körner

David, the "porn" room on FriendFeed isn't all that active actually. I'm not really interested in porn per se, just thought it was a good group name to claim in the great FriendFeed land group name grab of 2008. - Thomas Hawk

@Marcel by their numbers, and the fact that i know most of them and can tell you first hand that they are not. (if you hover over people's names you will see their numbers) - Carlos Ayala

Jemm

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1 - http://www.neowin.net/news...

January 26 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Nia, shanebe, Robert Banghart and 6 other people liked this

"As we reported last week, Microsoft has just launched Internet Explorer v8 RC1." - Jemm from Bookmarklet

4 more comments

http://tinyurl.com/w22sw - Alfredo

All versions (search results): http://www.microsoft.com/downloa... - Jemm

I'm more interested in MS pushing auto-upgrades IE6 -- until then, IE can #suckit - Shey, Jamaican of FF

No Windows 7 beta -version yet, though. - Jemm

give it up - andy brudtkuhl

Duncan Riley

Resveratrol: the magic ingredient in red wine that makes you live longer - http://www.inquisitr.com/16440...

January 25 from The Inquisitr - Comment - Like - Share

Glenn Slaven, J. Abdul-Qahhar, Frederic and 4 other people liked this

It is available in pill form - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

I thought it wasn't on the market yet? - Duncan Riley

updated to isn't available locally.... If it is, where do I sign up ;-) - Duncan Riley

Michael W. May

Fouquet - Sweet Life in Paris - http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archive...

January 25 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Anna Lynn M., Rob Brammeld, Brandon and 26 other people liked this

"Fouquet is one of the oldest confectioners in Paris, and one of the last remaining who makes their candies and chocolates in their own shop, which is tucked away on a sidestreet near Drouot, the main auction house of Paris. Speaking of terms, when I asked him what "fouquet" meant, he told me it's an old French term for squirrels, but didn't know how the business took the name. (There's a fancy-schmancy restaurant on the Champs-Elysées with the same name, but there's no connection to them.)" - Michael W. May from Bookmarklet

3 more comments

love! - vijay

Oh, sweet life in Paris<3 It would be that for sure! - Nia

France has the most amazing chocolate. Years ago a French friend sent us an Easter Chicken that was hallow chocolate full of all kinds of different bonbons. It's was the most incredible chocolate I've ever had. (Yeah, they have the Easter Chicken instead of the Easter Bunny, which actually makes more sense when you think about it.) - Dawn

An other famous chocolate maker is "Debeauve et Gallais, appointed chocolate makers of the ancient Kings of France". An all time favorite from them are the roasted coffee beans coated with chocolate (http://www.debauve-et-gallais.com/v1... the website is awful ) - Olivier

Alex Scoble

If your brother's name is Robert Scoble and you follow him on friendfeed, you'll see a lot of noise.

January 12 - Comment - Like - Share

Jonathan Greene, Thomas Hawk, Igor Poltavskiy and 48 other people liked this

Especially when he goes on trips to China or to CES. - Alex Scoble

35 more comments

As opposed to having no brother named Robert Scoble, but I still follow a Robert Scoble on FriendFeed. - Andrew Trinh

Isn't he a good filter? - Amit Morson

Depends on what you want to see. - xero

I'm glad i'm not his brother then. - CW™

My noise is here: http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... if you see no value there then you shouldn't be following me. - Robert Scoble

And, yes, Alex is my brother. I follow him, but I see nothing but a lot of noise, just like this post. :-) - Robert Scoble

*chuckle* If your wife's name is Tina and you follow her on FriendFeed, you're going to see some random crap. Sorry Dave! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Alex's noise is here: http://friendfeed.com/itblogg... my noise is here: http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... compare the two and decide for yourself which one has more value (or none at all). - Robert Scoble

Alex Scoble - Noise you can trust! - Alex Scoble

Not so much noise as complaints about noise eh? - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane

If this carries on I'm declaring tomorrow FF Scoble Amnesty Day whereby there will be no threads or comments about the relative merits of having Scobles on FF, only the post and comments the Scobles make themselves. That should solve any noise issues anyone has. - WorldofHiglet

One of these days my brother is just going to block me to make a point, but that's OK, I know where he lives. - Alex Scoble

Change your name? - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Seriously though, this place would be a lot less interesting without all the "noise"...friendfeed is about finding the "noise" that appeals to you as opposed to letting others determine what "noise" they think you should hear/read. - Alex Scoble

Noise to one person is gold to another and vise versa. - Amit Morson

What Alex said, right there ^ - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Alex: you're just jealous I got Milan to pose with some bacon. :-) - Robert Scoble

Alex, the thing you're talking about then is "signal" not noise ;) - directeur

Seriously though, Alex, what's it like being known as the brother of a surname? - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane

Alex - would the title still work if you took out "and you follow him on friendfeed" ??? :) - Patrick Jordan

I have no issues with anything emanating from either (or any) Scoble camp. On the whole I enjoy FF and anything I don't gets hidden. Works for me :) - WorldofHiglet

One person's signal is another person's noise. They are the same. By the way, this post was not a complaint...but satire. - Alex Scoble

Damn, I shouldn't have told everyone this post was satire...that seems to have killed the conversation. - Alex Scoble

HAHA! If anyone thought you were being serious then maximum humour-failure has been achieved! I thought it was funny, anyway :D - WorldofHiglet

God help you, there's no escape! - Steve Rubel

Alex - I can totally top that!! I follow 4 freakin' Scobles on FF and ok just you and Robert are really using it... but the Scoble Clan rules the FF kingdom big time!! *bows before her majesty, King Scoble* :D LOL - Susan Beebe

Scoblewatch: there are 4, if you can find them.... - WorldofHiglet

I have collected all four. Still waiting for my prize... - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

@Mark - congratulations, you win the Internet! Be very careful, don't drop it. - Will Higgins™

Collecting all four is a prize all on its own, Mark. Feel free to go out and buy yourself a nice big luxury automobile now. - Alex Scoble

@Will. I'll just put it up here on the mantle with the other stuff... - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

LOL Alex... I think I'll reward myself with a trip to In-N-Out... - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

Sure, rub it in that we don't have any in P-Town! Oh well...at least the Democrats won the election. :p - Alex Scoble

And I have collected all the Haley's, as well... Still waiting for my package to arrive from that, too. I'm getting ripped-off by the internet! - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

Mark: I think that's because you didn't send me your credit card details. I'd be happy to send out the "I collected the Haley's off of FF" and "All your Scobles belong to us" fun packs if you email all the relevant details (including your Social Insurance number, address and birth certificate). - WorldofHiglet

No problem WoH! It's in the mail! - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

Morton Fox

Processing food photos from this evening. Because we know what's really important to post to Flickr. :)

January 25 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

edythe, Robert Banghart, Her Lindsay-ness and 6 other people liked this

FTW - Mona Nomura

Chris Baskind

Obama to Bush: I Can Release Your Records. Don't Like It? Sue. - http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblo...

January 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Denise Howell, Jaica Kinsman, dK and 112 other people liked this

On his first day in office, President Obama put former president Bush on notice. His administration just released an executive order that will make it difficult for Bush to shield his White House records--and those of former Vice President Dick Cheney--from public scrutiny by invoking the doctrine of executive privilege - Chris Baskind from Bookmarklet

26 more comments

Oh now this could get interesting... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

This is actually a good policy in many ways. However, I wonder if there is a dispute over whether records should be released, if the default action will be to release first then retract if deemed necessary, or withhold until the AG and counsel determine it is proper to release. - Kevin L

I think this is GREAT news. Kevin: Anything security sensitive would be redacted before they're released anyway. - Trish R

show and prove. all this press is nice, but i'd like for it to actually happen - Cee Bee

Let the guy have some time ;p (btw how y'all doin'! hehe) - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,

Yee hah! Go get 'em, Mr. President! - Ciaoenrico

I think it's fantastic. Bush was unusually shielding of his and Cheney's papers. Obama is just rolling it back to the more usual levels of protection. (Now can we reinstate drawing & quartering as punishment for treason??) - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Transparency FTW. - Julian

@Spidra here's your list of GWB's executive actions in order: http://www.shrinkthingy.com/6nyvs2 - Jason Shultz from twhirl

*cough* "http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic... *cough* - Spencer

I want to love this! :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

I actually like this. It's like he's saying "Bam! M*t*** F***ah" - Mattb4rd

In so doing, he may have just made it impossible for him to keep his Blackberry. http://rizzn.com/blog... - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Wow, Jason. Bush Sr. had 2, one revoked later & Bush Jr had, um, 50+? - Alix Whitmire

@Alix Bush was addicted those executive orders. :) - Jason Shultz from twhirl

President Obama needs to keep in mind, what he does to President Bush's records, future Presidents can do to his. And Obama has a record of keeping records and documents out of the public eye. - ComicList

Damn! Not wasting any time at all... - Michael R. Bernstein

If President Obama really comes thru with his Open Government policy, there really won't be much hidden, save for those things that need to be for the sake of others privacy, or for national security. - Ian May

It's almost like we got a shot of vitamin B. The fog is clearing so quickly. It feels good. - sean808080

Trust me. This will come back to bite him. I'm looking for the text of the EO now, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be some unintended consequences here. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

awesome - Kyle Weller

It's the same as Ford giving Nixon a pardon: sometimes letting go is better healing than continuing the fight. - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

Kicking ass and taking names. - Mark Krynsky

My updated thoughts on this - http://rizzn.com/socnets... - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Whatever you guys say, this is a good thing. And Mark, apparently you are wrong: http://techdirt.com/article... - Alejandro

Mark, I posted my response to your post on your blog. But bottomline I cannot imagine the President of the United States being restricted from email in 2009. Particular has he is not planning to use it as a means of conducting business but to stay in touch with friends and family. - R. Ferguson

As far as the BlackBerry is concerned, it would be great if we could trust that all of his correspondents would honor a request not to email him anything that has even a minor relationship with his new job. However, someone always has to do something wrong, just like my users know they're supposed to call the Help Desk, but they always wait for me to show up in the hallway, call me directly, or email me. What's the solution at that point? I want him to keep his BB, but how can he be protected? - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Tara Hunt

Now I'm baffled that there are people who follow me who AREN'T baffled by Limbaugh's comment. Ferseriously? Wow. We are world's apart.

January 23 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Robert Banghart liked this

Kevin Rose

my secret time saving email tip: change your desktop email signature to "Sent from iPhone" - then write 1 sentence replies! sshhh

January 22 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Ashish Bogawat, Rob Boek, Jesper Kjær Hansen and 108 other people liked this

That's GENIUS! - Chris Saad

19 more comments

I do that all the time. Helps if you don't capitalize words and make misspellings too--looks more authentic. - Andrew Leyden

sweet. I'm going to start doing that so people will think I have an iPhone. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

My secret too. Be careful not to type too much w/o errors or it will raise suspicion. - Craig Mische

That is genius actually, I like it. - xero

how many of us do this? (and probably have people do it back to us ;-) - Tobias Peggs

OMG. brilliance. - Anthony Baker

LOVE THIS! - BEX

Don't do this with people that know what the X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (5G77) email header means. - Lars Trieloff

THAT IS AWESOME!!! - Keith - @tsudo

Especially don't do it in a reply to your boss when you are supposed to be at your desk. - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

I like it a lot. My emails have become shorter and shorter anyway, so used to twitter. - jjprojects

smart :) - Sebastian

Just don't ever attach anything! You'll give yourself away. - Gregory Cohen

BRILLIANT!!!! - Paul

Classic - Nina Morena

Simple for me, mine does come from an iPhone 98% of the time. - Tsali, The Native of FF

wow...that is a great idea!!! - Brian Appleby

Kevin... stop fooling around... go and roll out some new digg features already! - Eddie

Oh.... that's GOOD.... - Ciaoenrico

I wonder if people would think I'm never in the office ;-) Double benefit! - Ken Stewart | ChangeForge

l0ckergn0me

OS X trojan found in PIRATED version of iWork. You idiots need to buy software, not steal it. That goes for all, not just Mac users.

January 22 from Ping.fm - Comment - Like - Share

Zack, Nia, Nicholas James and 25 other people liked this

Pretty silly to get iWork from torrents when you can download a fully functional iWork 09 from Apple (sans serial). It expires unless you purchase it but it's literally the same exact binary as whats floating out there in the intarwebz - Glenn Batuyong

48 more comments

Some of us can't afford to buy the software we need. Granted iWorks isn't really need. But, I will be honest and say that I pirated CS2 and CS3 because there was no way I was going to be able to afford it. One day I hope to make enough to be able to buy the software, but sometimes you just have no choice. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Mathew, I don't know what you stand to gain by explaining WHY you pirate. The law is still the law. You're not brave, you're a moron - especially for trying to defend your unlawful decision. COME ON. - l0ckergn0me

l0ckergn0me, the law of where? Copyright laws vary greatly from country to country and Mathew might not be in a country where it is "illegal" - Joshua Schnell

I was merely saying why someone would choose to pirate a piece of software instead of buying. I wasn't trying to be brave, as you tired to put it. And just because I pirated software doesn't make me a moron. If you have to money to buy everything you need, then great. But many of us do not. - Mathew™ one of a kind

For arguments sake, Joshua - if it's not illegal, it's immoral. - l0ckergn0me

Don't worry l0ckergn0me I don't have a problem with being immoral when it comes to certain things. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Mathew - but you know better! :( - l0ckergn0me

Chris, I am a college student and a lot of my friends have pirated software which they dabble in and use to learn new skills. If they didn't pirate software such as Adobe CS4, etc. they would simply never use it and never gain any skills using the application. If you absolutely need software I definitely agree that piracy is not the best way to go; however, many people who pirate software never have any intention to buy in the first place but just want to play with the application. - Brandon Titus

Your right, I do know better and I know its wrong. But, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get things done and to get a career started. - Mathew™ one of a kind

The biggest arguments I have heard for pirating the bigger apps such as photoshop et al have been "you see the price? I couldn't afford that". Which means that surely there's a need for a "residential license" at much, much lower rates than the corporate ones. Also, there is a vested interest in companies like adobe in having their software pirated - gives them mindshare for when they can afford it. So why not drop the price for non-commercial use? - alphaxion

l0ckergn0me, and to keep the "arguments sake" going. Morals of who? Surely in a capitalist and judeo-christian paradigm it could be deemed immoral, but if you step into another cultural perspective it's probably not all that immoral either. - Joshua Schnell

Brandon - Did they pirate their college education, too? *sigh* - l0ckergn0me

It's similar to having a lengthened trial period. I'm not saying it's right, necessarily, but it is definitely something which enables more people to become proficient at an application that they would otherwise never touch. - Brandon Titus

Turn those under-served customers into actual revenue making sure they understand that you can't use that software in a commercial entity. Look at the "student licensing" for things such as office where it's as low as £50 instead of the stonking £300 to £600 for the same software. Surely you'd turn a good enough percentage of pirate users into paid users. - alphaxion

Mathew - to make money, you have to spend money. Period. End of story. It's really NOT that difficult to find a way to get software for free without necessarily stealing it. Why do you think I got into the software reviewing game?! I'm not saying that Adobe is handing out licenses willy nilly (trust me, Adobe won't even return *MY* emails), but you've never considered selling other stuff you own to buy something you really want / need? eBay, Craigslist, hell - work on weekends to make the money to buy... - l0ckergn0me

I get really tired of pirates trying to justify their actions. My favorite justification that I've heard is "well, I wouldn't have bought it anyway, so it's not really stealing." Theft is theft. - Joey Gibson

Chris, they pay for the college education because it's something that is nearly absolutely necessary in our society and they need formal education on a subject which they intend to make a career out of. What I am saying is that these companies are gaining at least some sales by letting kids play around with their software which is otherwise unattainable (and 30 day trial periods are certainly not enough to learn anything about photoshop or the like when you have any amount of other work to do). - Brandon Titus

Once again, it's not necessarily right but I believe it at least adds another dimension which should be considered. Alphaxion has an excellent point. Although, most students won't pay for ANYTHING that isn't necessary (which is why they try and get it for free). Office is a requirement in nearly every university. - Brandon Titus

@alphaxion I agree. If Adobe did drop the price to lets say $500 or less then I would most likely buy it. - Mathew™ one of a kind

I'm surprised to hear Adobe won't return your calls. That just blows me away. With the size of your audience I would think they would be calling you. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Come on guys, you're upsetting Chris ;) - Peter Kruit

Another problem here is the facelessness of these companies. A lot of people have no problem stealing software from a big company because they don't have any real sense of personality behind the big corporation. I think there needs to be more focus on getting representatives out in the communities to give a face to them. - Brandon Titus

@l0ckergn0me For the past year, since I got laid off, I've been selling stuff off and on to pay the bills and everything. I don't have much to sell. Sure, I could sell my computer or TV or something, but what good would that do me. I really don't have much. And being as young as I am its hard to break out in my career at time moment, especially with the current state of the US economy. - Mathew™ one of a kind

my girlfriend is in her last year of uni. She is doing a game design degree where she must use apps such as 3ds max and photoshop. Those apps are stupidly priced for non-businesses but she must use it to do her coursework. The uni wouldn't provide a copy and they get thrown off the course if they're found with pirate software. Which leaves her trying to fight for a small number of PC's at uni with the software she needs because together we cannot afford it. - alphaxion

if the uni course requires it they should either supply it for the duration of the course or they should sell it uber cheap and link it to their active student number. *poof* a bunch of piracy removed and a big source of stress for students gone in one fell swoop. What stops this? fucking greed. - alphaxion

Another problem is, university professors tend to stick with the software they know from the industry which tends to be priced towards professional usage. For instance, if design teachers used GIMP, open source database software instead of access, or Open Office instead of office, then companies wouldn't be forced to make compromised price points for students who are already paying at least a thousand a year just for books. - Brandon Titus

When I was in school I remember the professors would say, you can get it for $1000 with your student discount. And we look at them like, does it look like we have a $1000 to spend right now. The magic number, at least for me, would be $500 for the suite. - Mathew™ one of a kind

@brandon sometimes they have no choice but to use certain programs. Especially if they are industry standard apps.. you try finding a decent open source 3d modelling app. The gaming industry uses things like 3dsmax, maya, zbrush et al because they are the best apps out there. I agree with you about the stupid demands that everything be in office documents - I know the uni my gf is at will refuse anything created in openoffice even if the file is compatable! - alphaxion

@alphaxion That sucks. I REFUSE to waste money on MS bloatware, when Open Office suits my needs. It's not just MS Office is way overpriced, it is slow and it sucks. - Ian May

Just an observation: "no choice" is absolute bullshit. You may now continue your self-justification of criminal behavior. - Glen Campbell, B.A.

@glen my comment of "no choice" was about the choice of software used by a uni for their course. Not about the "choice of pirating that software". I still stick by my comment that if a course requires the use of some software then they should provide it or a deal should be struck where you can buy it as a student, tied to your student ID, for stupidly cheap (say £50 instead of £500 to £1000). The software firm gets a revenue stream AND gets their software in the hands of the next generation of workers. - alphaxion

the observation should be "why are they turning to piracy?". For a percentage it will be because they won't pay for anything when they can obtain it for free. But for others, they would pay for it if they could afford it but can't due to some obscene pricing structure. The solution is obvious, craft a license that restricts them from using it commercially and sell it dirt cheap to them. There's usually a reason why someone pirates something, why not address that instead of whine and bitch about it? - alphaxion

@alphaxion Hmm, at least for Macromedia products (prior to the Adobe acquisition/merger), they had a relatively cheap range of product bundles for students, if I remember correctly (with few restrictions, other than not being able to use the products for commercial purposes, although people could still flout that, if they wanted to, for what it's worth). I still have the CDs somewhere, although I don't have a working PowerPC Mac with Mac OS 9 around, or a working emulator... - Tyson Key

Isn't this part of why Open Source alternatives are slowly gaining traction? - Tyson Key

Why was my comment "@alphaxion That would be fantastic. @Glen Thats not cool. :\" deleted? Or maybe it just didn't post. - Mathew™ one of a kind

It is partly why FOSS apps are picking up - but then it's also because many FOSS products are starting to put a lot of polish into their products too. I remember back in '99 when I first started in IT and the free apps were very "quick n dirty". They got the job done but were unfriendly to those without the knack. It's testament to its evolution that apps such as the gimp and zimbra can compete with their "professional" competitors. - alphaxion

But lets be honest. Most Open Source software isn't nearly as good as the bigger counterparts. Look at GIMP, its ok, but if I would much rather use Photoshop then GIMP. - Mathew™ one of a kind

@matthew Oh, I do agree there too. They have come along so much, and I agree that we shouldn't kid ourselves, there is still much to be done for them to truly be on a par. Though I do think we'll see that day in the near future. Maybe this is why so many of the "big boys" are finally trying to grasp the "cloud" instead of ignoring it for the past 30 years. - alphaxion

It is true that open source software is not always up to the same standards, but where it is it should be used. Also, what is the difference between pirating software and movies/tv? I am more sympathetic to downloading media because it is often not available any other way. (For instance Lost right after the premier. If ABC was able to quickly put up the video within hours of it's tv premier then I wouldn't have to go about getting it illegally). - Brandon Titus

When you can't buy something, then there isn't a "potential lost sale". With online stores and download kiosks there is no excuse to not make your back catalogue available. Missed sales here is the fault of either restrictive contracts or shortsightedness. The major difference between pirating software and pirating tv/movies in my eyes is that, barring rare copies of things, I am yet to see a movie cost £1000 to buy. For many, the sheer cost of something is an insermountable barrier to buying it. - alphaxion

What about all those stolen copies of Ubuntu? /me ducks ;) - Tyson Key

Really, people who steal software are idiots, what if police put that software there to catch pirates? Didn't think of that, did you? ;) - Eevee from IM

it's the exact same reason why knock-offs exist in markets such as fashion. They couldn't possibly afford the £600 handbag so they go to their local fakery and splurge £100 on a copy. Tho the markets are totally different in reasoning behind the actions - software isn't a status symbol, it's a tool. - alphaxion

That's what you get for stealing software. :D - Spencer

If I need good tools for my work, then I have to pay extra. Unfortunately perhaps, but for most things in life the price is the price. A gallon of gas costs the same for the unemployed as it does for the CEO driving the Jag. - Ian May

For your work, that's perfectly acceptable to pay the commercial rates. But when trying to address the issue of people using pirate copies of their software to produce things like movies of their cat or posters for their childs party then you cannot deny that still charging £500 and upwards then bitching about why they're not paying that is a bit incongruous and serves little in the process of solving the residential piracy problem don't ya think? - alphaxion

Why would anyone choose to pirate iWork when you've got online tools that are increasingly better? For instance, SlideRocket beats Keynote by far: http://www.sliderocket.com/ - Jordi Soler

@jordi because personal ownership of data can never be under rated. - alphaxion

Good point there, alphaxion. I'm too "in the cloud", I think... :) - Jordi Soler

xero

How to save $10,000 in 2009 - MSN Money - http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Savinga...

January 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Greg GuitarBuster, Lu Tao, Robert Banghart and FFing Enigma (aka Tina) liked this

I did my own pie chart like this for the Frugal Living room at the beginning of the year. I'm glad to say mine looks very different than this one. Granted, some of its differences are bad, but most of them are good. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Yeah, I run these every month using MS Money. It's good to know, even if you take no action. - xero

Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection Redesigned, Now on WordPress - http://thomashawk.com/2009...

January 16 from Thomas Hawk Digital Connection - Comment - Like - Share

Cristian Vidmar, Jeff Beckham, Sally Church and 54 other people liked this

Love the new look, man! - emon hassan

19 more comments

The new look is much cleaner. Looks really good. One suggestion, when i click on the picture or the title "Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection", it would be nice if it took me back to the home page. I know there is a "Home" link. - Kenneth Chu

Kenneth, good point. I think Aaron is going to add that in still. I agree clicking the masthead should take you home. - Thomas Hawk

by the way Aaron did a fantastic job with the conversion of my blog from Blogger to WP that included at least one very major problem (blogger in the past limited comments transferred out to 5,000). He's going into business for himself -- if you have blog or web projects I'd highly recommend his work. - Thomas Hawk

Welcome to the family. :) - Matt Mullenweg

seriously, that friendfeed box on the right hand bar ruins the design. either change your master contrast from red to baby blue or nuke that distracting box... I understand the need to link other profiles but bringing in an ugly duck is simply wasting the precious amount of time to create this simple and elegant design. I suggest converting the mini icons of your elsewhere profiles to grayscale and placing them instead of friendfeed box. - Berk D. Demir

@Thomas - going off of Berk's comment, if you are using the FF box to link to your other profiles, I'd suggest the Social Homes WP Plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend...) or just mess with the CSS for the FF box. - Justin Korn

Hey Thanks Matt. About time, I know I've been meaning to get over to WordPress for a few years now. I've been playing with it all day and absolutely love it. Aaron's working on some things to keep the blog steady with the load it gets but other than that I think we're 99.9% there. I really love the picturegrid plug in he just added. - Thomas Hawk

I know what you're saying about the FF badge not quite fitting in with the color scheme Berk, but I think I'm going to leave it as is at least for now I think. The color scheme is part of FF's identity and branding and at least for now I think I'll go with it unless I find something that looks even better. I'll check out that other plug in as well though Justin. - Thomas Hawk

Looks great Thomas - CW™

Hey TH; Aaron; I can't seem to get to thomashawk.com now - I could however last night; seems DNS is playing up for me - hope everyone else can see it? - Phill Price

OOO for me as well - Guillaume Lemoine

I've been on the phone with the hosting company. Hopefully will have it back up soon here. Completely unrelated to my WP conversion it looks like they had a network outage last night. They are going to reroute me to new IP addresses which should have it back up in a bit they say. - Thomas Hawk

Nice one. Welcome to Wordpress! - Chris Nixon from BuddyFeed

yeah, looks like the blog is back up now. Hopefully it stays up now that the networking issue with singlehop seems to be fixed. - Thomas Hawk

I'm glad you found a happy home. I like the dark background though, but then again, I'm a minority I suppose. - Mark

Just found myself at the new thomashawk.com for the first time. Looks great and I'm glad to see you on WP. Congrats! - Daniel J. Pritchett

I love your new site! How about a new photo of yourself? :) - Midori

love the new look, second the suggestion on new photo of yourself :) - Cindy Gan

hmmm... someday I'll need to do another photo of myself. :) - Thomas Hawk

Love it, Thomas, very clean and clear look. - Sally Church

FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Mark Bittman: Eating Right Can Save The Planet - http://www.npr.org/templat...

January 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

roel, Tyson Key, Carlos Ayala and 17 other people liked this

"If you're one of those people hoping to change the world in 2009, writer Mark Bittman says you can start by changing what you eat. In his new book, Food Matters, The New York Times food columnist writes about the environmental impact of industrial farming — and how individuals can make a difference by cutting down on the amount of animal products they consume." - FFing Enigma (aka Tina) from Bookmarklet

17 more comments

Cool. - Meryn Stol

I'm a "non-religious" vegetarian. I only eat meat (well, mostly fish) occasionally. I don't miss regular meat or fish at all. - Meryn Stol

We have cut way back on our meat. It amazed me how much meat we ate with out realizing it. - Michelle Martinez

i'm more of a michael pollan disciple here: industrial farming is the issue. in terms of health. though -- of our bodies and the environment -- vegetarianism isn't necessary. and if we consider the state of global fishing stocks "pescetarianism" -- eating fish -- may be healthier for our bodies, but not the environment. - tiffany

I'm with Tiffany on this one, that it's large scale farming of every sort that's a real issue, not just large scale animal ranches and farms. In theory I can get beef, honey, milk, cheese, fruit, and veg all from small local sources (and in reality, I'm working hard to do so). It's costly, but that cost also makes me more aware of how much I'm buying and wasting. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Buying only the highest quality organic meat sure makes you cut back on that. :P But still I'd say that - when looking at it per meal - no meat is better than organic, local meat. Still, I'm not religious about it. - Meryn Stol

Interestingly, up here in the Great White North (between October and April), it is much easier to buy locally produced meats and dairy than vegetables and fruit.If we want a wide range of fruits and vegetables (without canning every fall) we have to resort to buying from larger commercial (whether organic or not) suppliers. - Kenton

Kenton, if you've got a little bit of room (even just a patio), you might consider winter container gardening inside a clear plastic tent system. It's easy enough to put together and holds the heat well enough to grow fall veg like squash and spinach even in the winter. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Tina, how big is a tent like this? We live in a duplex with a small patio, and a tiny yard, but I would love to do something like this. - Michelle Martinez

Michelle, check the gardening room. I've posted a lot info in there on square foot gardening and small space gardening. http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Anika

Thank you Anika! - Michelle Martinez

Interesting idea Tina, I wouldn't have thought it would stay warm enough here, but I'll have to look into it. - Kenton

I hate it when I have an active thread I don't know about (FF, help please?!?). Have joined the gardening room, so thanks! And Kenton, you can do an experiment to see how well it would work in your area if you don't mind you're yard looking funny =) Stick a piece of wood or PVC pipe into the soil and make a loose tent over it with thick translucent plastic. Attache a thermometer to the pipe, near the top where you can see it. Keep another thermometer outside the tent to compare. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

@Meryn Thank you for grouping fish in there. I still can't believe how many people say, "I'm a vegetarian- I only eat fish!" I've even heard somebody say that they were a vegetarian because the only ate *chicken* and fish. O.o - Paul Reynolds

Thanks Tina, I'll have to do that next year though 'cause there's no way I'll get a pipe in the ground now. Have to investigate though. - Kenton

You can do essentially the same thing with a clear plastic container, just to get an idea. I read an article a while ago about a man took PVC pipe and put both ends into the ground making an arch. Several of those in a row covered in thick plastic equals a tiny greenhouse =) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

oh I have that book on my list of things to buy for the library! - Anna Lynn M.

I can wholeheartedly recommend In Defense of Food: http://www.amazon.com/Defense... Short but very enlightening read, at least for me. - Meryn Stol

Chris Messina

On Day One, Obama Demands Open Government | Electronic Frontier Foundation - http://www.eff.org/deeplin...

January 22 from Mento - Comment - Like - Share

martin giraldo, Keith Pelczarski, massimo carraro and 6 other people liked this

"It's only his first day in office, but President Obama has already signaled a serious commitment to transparency and accountability in government. The President ordered federal agencies in a memorandum released today to approach the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) "with a clear presumption: in the face of doubt, openness prevails."" - Chris Messina from Mento

Mark Krynsky

I'm not one for promoting a parting shot, but this is funny - http://www.someecards.com/upload...

January 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Joshua Riley Simmons, Jen Kuiper, Lis Miller and 15 other people liked this

My younger sister sent me this one on Facebook. - Louis Gray

Robert Banghart › Likes