shey - your comment got lost (I really really hate friendfeed's merging of photos when comments are posted to them) but the answer to your question is yes. :) I will on Channel 10 at some point. I don't control what gets posted over there or when. That's at on10.net or just my stuff at http://on10.net/blogs/sarahint... - Sarah Perez
Sounds interesting, do you have a post on this? - Shey
shey - I will on Channel 10 at some point. I don't control what gets posted when over there. (That's at on10.net, or just my stuff at http://on10.net/blogs/sarahint...) - Sarah Perez
One of the two prior comments *must* be wrong..! :P Let us know when that post gets published! - Luis Jose Conde
I user Google Spreadsheets for my budget keeping. - Benjamin Golub
And to think I thought I was the only one who enjoyed creating Excel budgets! Now keeping to them, that's another story altogether... - Daniel Smith via twhirl
I find the more time I spend in time planning the less time I spend in getting things done. Sometimes I think that's the secret point of these systems. I spent weeks in college creating a master schedule using posterboard and colored thumb tacks. Sure beat writing papers. - Leo Laporte
“I really do dislike Plurk. I'm starting to wonder if the people touting Plurk's virtues just want to be right about Plurk -- versus seeing the reality of Plurk. Thoughts? Am I wrong? If so, tell me. Still contemplating a ZDNet blog on the topic. ”
The threading is really nice, but for some people the simplicity of twitter is much more appealing. - Rob Diana
Look at what's happening on identi.ca. The race for the most amount of followers. Same difference if you ask me. - Bwana McCall
I haven't found Plurk to be usable. The sideways scrolling, the constant "You have an update!" notifications: it gives me a headache. - Mark Trapp
i tried plurk -- a little too bubblegum for me to be honest. plus the karma points make me feel like i'm in some competition. - Cee Bee
I enjoy the threaded conversations while I'm there. Really really easy to have conversations. It took me a week to get used to the timeline, but when I did, I could see the value. It's a totally different animal from Twitter. (literally) - Bwana McCall
I haven't used Plurk THAT much, but it seems to be carving out its niche as a chatty, lightweight application. There's clearly a group of people who really like it. It won't appeal to everyone, but I think it will find its own audience, probably at the expense of Twitter or FriendFeed. Shrug. If nothing else, it shows that people are interested in conversations, just as they have been for the past 20+ years. I will probably be an occasional user at best, but it probably wasn't designed for me either. - Mark Dykeman
I try not to compare it to Twitter and judge it on its own merits. I just feel overwhelmed having to collapse every single thread just to see if I might be interested in the convo. And having to collapse every thread to see if anyone responded to time. I can't even fathom how a business might use it as some folks have suggested. - Jennifer Leggio
Regarding Jennifer's question, I sincerely believe people who say they like Plurk. Of course there are some who simply must be right as that is true with any situation, but the people I've observed and talked to on Plurk use it for meaningful purposes. You hate it and it seems like you hate to see people like it. :) It's not a black and white type thing though. The term "reality" doesn't have a factual meaning here because liking Plurk is purely opinionated. - Bwana McCall
I disagree that Plurk can be used for business purposes. In my opinion, it's a social, fun tool to be used between friends and family. - Bwana McCall
Regarding following threads, the technique I found to work was selective reading. To "catch up" on Plurk, you will drive yourself nuts if you try to read every thread. What I do is skim the conversations and find the 2 or 3 I'm interested in and I read those. With the new "mute" functionality, I have a rule that if a unwanted conversation shows up 3 or more times when I catch up, I mute the thread. This workflow allows me to catch up on hundreds of updates in minutes. - Bwana McCall
Even with that technique, many don't want to bother with all that. That's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with disliking it. Plurk can be a huge timesink even with efficient techniques. That was a big reason why I cut back my usage. I would spend hours talking to people. No time for that :) - Bwana McCall
@Bwana "You hate it and it seems like you hate to see people like it." That was an incorrect, unfounded and unnecessary judgment. Just trying to understand it as all. I don't have that much free time to sit around and play with all of these tools so I ask questions to get other people's insights. I expressed an opinion but that does not mean I hate the other people like it. I don't understand why other people like it. Big difference. That comment kind of discredited your whole statement. - Jennifer Leggio
It was a joke Jennifer, hence the smiley. Text sucks for wit. - Bwana McCall
There are lots of things I dislike -- baseball, pork, country music. I may ask questions to better understand the appeal and in doing so I might express my own opinion, but that doesn't mean it bothers me if other people like it. I just may never agree and may always look at them with a raised eyebrow. ;-) - Jennifer Leggio
@Bwana - Yeah, hard to tell if comments with a smiley online are jokes or passive aggression. lol. In that case ignore my statement. But I still dislike Plurk, baseball, pork and country music. ;-) - Jennifer Leggio
Plurk took away the ability to delete an account about 2 weeks ago... I wonder why that is...? I'm guessing Account Retention due to an increased frequency of deletions... sad though that they would prevent you from deleting your account. They don't answer support inquiries either. Fail across the board. Oh, I should mention that I exploited the site to add thousands of friends at once and it broke the functionality of the site for many of the people on my friends list. They still haven't fixed those issues - Brandon
I'd like to know how in the world people would use Plurk in their business. A far stretch would be to gather feedback from their products (as businesses do on Twitter, etc). Other than that... I can't see it at all. - Bwana McCall
@Bwana Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out. I've seen a lot of claims made but nothing in action. If I hear of anything concrete I will let you know. - Jennifer Leggio
@Brandon I'm actually interviewing the Plurk folks sometime in the next week so I'll ask them about the account deletion and support. - Jennifer Leggio
Angel - so did I at first. You can change that graphic, but it's not obvious - Bwana McCall
I think the Karma thing bugs me the most. The timeline, is kitschy and I think needlessly complexifies the UI, but ultimately is just a personal preference. I could see businesses using it the same way they use twitter, but with greater potential for starting a dialogue since it is trivial for anyone to track the full conversation. - felix
have a plurk but check it minimally - never really had what i was looking for, but neither did jaiku or pownce - think identi.ca will be the same way - am liking swurl so far though but friendfeed is the real keeper... - mike "glemak" dunn
@Mike Agree. I think that FF has the most sustainability of them all. I wish I could say that about Twitter as I do <3 it... but not looking so good. - Jennifer Leggio
@Jennifer agreed, i ♥ twitter too but things aren't looking that well anymore. FF ftw. - Brandon
@mediaphyter, Plurk is as good as the friends you follow... yet I can't condone one replacing the other. - Czar Derek Peterman
Jennifer I can tell you that the people using Plurk are there because we honestly love it. I was on there last night laughing my head off till I was crying at some of the stuff other people were plurking about. It was literally roll in the floor hilarious! I can understand why some people don't like Plurk, but I can also understand EXACTLY why those of us that spend time on Plurk, love it. - Mack Collier
@Mack But the hilarity of the content has nothing to do with the platform, it's the people right? Those people could be anywhere. I have similar experiences with Twitter and FriendFeed and even Pownce before I retired from there. Saying "but it's funny" doesn't defend the platform. It just says you happen to have a good network or find good conversations. That can be done anywhere. - Jennifer Leggio
I'm over at Plurk trying to give it another chance. It's making me feel like I have ADD. Plus there's no way I will remember all of the threads I've posted on. Maybe I need to carry around a Plurk notepad and write them down? :-/ - Jennifer Leggio
Yeah, but people also tout the virtues of MySpace. - Evo Terra via twhirl
Plurk does seem to be a love/hate app - Sarah Perez
Why do people feel that Plurk has to be useful for business? I wasn't into social media at the time but did this type of discussion happen when MySpace came out? Unless you have a band, not too many business uses for that either but it's still very popular. - Vaughn
@Vaughn I don't think anyone's saying it has to be useful for business - but a lot of people are claiming that it is. So I want to understand how (and am currently having that convo with Plurk itself via email). As for MySpace, as much as I've outgrown that myself, a lot of consumer-oriented companies DO still use it for branding and promotion. It's a lot of the B2B companies that it has scared off. - Jennifer Leggio
@Jennifer Leggio That makes sense. Sometimes I feel that Plurk is the square peg and people are trying to force it into the round hole. - Vaughn
Jennifer, stick around a bit longer, it grows on you. But notably: different types of conversation, more informal, less depth. In terms of the layout, I don't like it either, which is why I created Plurkair using the mobile version for the desktop: I prefer Plurk Twitter style, and in that way it's an able player in the space - Duncan Riley
Only mouse-clickers like Plurk. For the keyboard folk, it's like trying to write a 4000 word physics essay with a giant crayon, horrible interface! and Karma? "come back to our service more than Twitter, or we will punish you!". Plurk sucks ass. - Cait
Plurk just blows my mind. I click on something and then it's all ZAZOW and does something crazy I didn't expect. - brad sucks
I would say blogging, because I count micro-blogging as just a subset of blogging. Meaning...I have really made no choice at all. I still get to do both :) - Rahsheen Porter
Does FF participation count as micro-blogging? I participate in FF a lot more than my blog now. More convenient, easier to start a conversation and keep it going. No self-imposed timetable or post quota to keep up with to make sure enough people are interested in being part of my "audience" (it's built in with FF). Easier to interact with people and get more interaction back. Easier to find the answers to my questions. FF does all I really wanted out of blogging anyway. - Lindsay Donaghe
depends on my mood and what I want to say. it obv takes a lot less cognitive ability to microblog, but many more mainstream people read my blog. - Philip Ryan Johnson
@Lindsay Yeah I definitely agree. FF takes away a lot of my time that I would spend doing other things, that's why I've significantly cut my usage over the past couple weeks. - Shey
definitely would stay with blogging. I can live without things like Twitter. - Rob Diana
If had known micro-blogging / lifestreaming would reach this level, I probably wouldn't blog at all - Charlie Anzman
I can always find time to micro-blog... - Rachel Beer
Micro blogging == FF? If FF posts supported more length, formatting and inclusion of media then blogging would disappear for most people - Brian Sullivan
I don't think we have to or need to choose. Both are great for different things. - Tris Hussey via twhirl
more and more I am falling towards the micro blogging side. I sometimes think I should just get rid of my traditional blog. - (jeff)isageek
Since you did not mention IM, blogging, even though I do little of it, there are times a long public rant is needed for the psyche - Michael W. May via twhirl
Mini-blogging. Creating content while wearing a mini-skirt. - Andy C
98% of my blog's readers do not know what twitter is and they don't care. When I used twitter tools to publish an daily digest of my tweets, they hated it. So: The answer is Blogging. - Rick Powell
I agree with Lindsay. Post directly to FF. - Russellreno
It's gotten so bad that I have to regulate myself. I use a plug-in for FireFox called Leechblock that you can use to limit your time during the work day.: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... - Dan Kaplan
huh? F5 just blips my Mac's little sound level at me. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas F5 = Command + R on a PC. Refresh. - Parth Awasthi
Yes, FF is the new internet addiction. F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5... - Tad Donaghe
The only way to solve this problem is for you people to post quicker ;) - Earl E Morningwood
@Jason you essentially just told Amy Winehouse she should check herself into rehab - how likely do you think we are to match your show of discipline? lol ; ) - Marco
At some point we just need FF to auto-refresh every second and include a pause button so we can stop the action to read stuff that catches our eyes. That would be pretty freaky, huh? - Tad Donaghe
it has been eating into my reading and sleeping time - RAPatton
What? Reading Friendfeed isn't constructive or creative? - Tom Landini
Sometimes I interrupt what I'm doing (re-reading the manual for Twilight Struggle) just to check for new FriendFeed action. Totally addicted. - Akiva Moskovitz
I do that too. But now we're going to see the Incredible Hulk. - Robert Scoble
F5=Crack. Crack is Whack. Flickr = Crack. FF is the new Flickr. - Russellreno
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O... It helps if you don't notice the walls of the maze aren't very high and there are these people looking down on you. - Karim
RusselReno, I had to double-check to make sure that you weren't Steve Gillmor - Todd McKinney
time consumption is simply the manual behavior. Get an auto refresher and save a micro second. ;) then again, if you want to remain aware, you have to read everything! - thecolor
use twhirl and updates come automatically to your desktop... no need of refresh, layout is awesome (discussions, etc) - Gustavo Munoz via twhirl
Tweetdeck is very nice. Breaking tweets out into @ replies and groups makes sense. Pretty, too. - Leo Laporte
Excellent! I'm just not that into all the dark gray. - kennbell
'scuse me while i wipe up this drool, but that looks hot! - Sarah Perez
This is very nice. Love the grouping feature. Makes it a lot easier to follow tweets. - Dave Rutter
ok, see that got all screwed up just now, had to delete & start over. - TheMacMommy via twhirl
so what I meant to say was, I like tweetdeck for trying to improve on apps like twirl or twitterific for that matter, but I'd still love to see some über combination of tweetdeck & twirl that lets you group, customize color in UI, post using ping.fm and receive more than just tweets like FF does - not so much a firehose but more like a spiffy detachable shower head w/the different dial settings. Come to Mamma! - TheMacMommy via twhirl
I like it Louis - thanks for the tip .. even though there are acouple of things I would probably like as options it is very workable in the short time I have been using it - Steven Hodson
I really like this so far, it'll be interesting to see what future plans holds. I'd like to see a tad more customization of the client itself. Nice so far though. - Nick
Nice that you can keep twittering even when Twitter is down. Categories/groups/tags is clearly a direction Twitter user needs are heading. Also need an app, though, that can handle multiple Twitter accounts. I tried Twhirl but after a while kept getting timeouts on the 2nd open account. Maybe that's Twitter's fault, not Twhirl's. - Gordon Vaughan
I still wonder why all of these apps default with a dark background. - Caleb Elston
Just saw it with my 9-y-o daughter. Animation was amazing and it was visually attractive. Story was cute, but not great. I think that Monsters Inc., the Incredibles and even Toy Story had better writing. Most interesting thing to me was that more than half the people in the theater were adults with no children. Definitely a bit of a geeky crowd, different than you might expect for a Disney/Pixar flick. All that said, Nice. Now all I need is a blackberry version (that also handles friendfeed) :) - Barry Graubart via twhirl
Using it .. nice. Try clicking on the photo. Looks like most of us need to go higher rez! - Charlie Anzman
pretty slick...just not picking up all my twitter friends though for some reason. - Zee from WeDoCreative
Ok, another ugly black twitter client. I want an Air app with some brushed metal feel to it. Having something on my desktop that doesnt match the rest of the windows makes me feel like Im on windows. - Colby Olson
I would rather pay for Flickr than put my photos on Facebook to be fodder for advertisers. - Andrew Feinberg
Are there any other Twitter services/apps with the Grouping functionality? Really loving that. - Bryan Landers
looks excellent. love the "maximized view" for real twitter addicts. though I can't imagine there are many left that are addicted, since, well, you know. can't really be addicted to twitter when it's down all the time - Mark Bao
Thanks! I'll check it out over the next few days! - Soulhuntre via twhirl
This is lovely. Funny how some really nice apps sneak up on you. Thanks for linking! - mark.kemperman via feedalizr
nice but I doubt it fits the workflow now that twitter is a tiny bit of it - Dobromir Hadzhiev
thanks Louis, very cool app, what do you think of the group service? - John Cass via Alert Thingy
I use Weight Watchers Online and then shoot for three points below what they recommend. My weight tends to swing over the years. I hope to get it to stay here now. I don't exercise so I overcompensate by not eating! - Steve Rubel
twenty pounds in two months by cutting the size of meals and having a veggie/fruit shake for lunch. Benefits: cloth fit, cholesterol down to lowest level in three years. - Joe Buhler
Congrats Steve...I lost several pounds just by eliminating evening snacks--bare minimum after 7:30.. - mark ivey
That's cool. I'm down 10 pounds myself - eliminated dairy and avoided wheat whenever possible (pasta, bread), and processed meats. Soy yogurt tastes pretty good when you get used to it. - Jason Kaneshiro
Congrats Steve. I've lost 13 pounds since early May by refraining from overeating. Wanted to lose weight to help with the Walt Disney World Marathon I'll run in January. - Mike Reynolds
Congrats! I'm down 6 lbs in 3 weeks--no more alcohol, or chips (Hi My name's Matt, I'm a chip-a-holic. "Hi Matt" <applause>) plus I'm working with a trainer. Ugh! - MattKelly
Awesome! I lost about 8 pounds of my "New CEO 15" - Mitchell Tsai
"The operation, which involved waiters in about 40 restaurants, racked up more than $3 million dollars worth of bogus purchases." -- http://tinyurl.com/5nqagz - Ken Sheppardson
Never thought about it. I must be too trusting. UK and France idea sound good. What would it take to make that happen in the US? - Michael Tefft
I have no liability for credit card fraud, it all falls on the issuer so they have incentives and systems for reducing fraud. - Logical Extremes
Are you making a point that this is more risky than online transactions? LOL - Kami Huyse
In New York City, if I worried about such things, I'd starve to death. - (steve isaacs)
My credit cards have been wonderful about reversing bad charges. Trust them 100% for 24 yrs. However (1) on-line for junk $1 offers (and hotel reservations), I use prepaid credit cards. Buy a $25 card for $30 ($25 + $4.95 fee) & run it down to $5. Find one without monthly fees for the 1st year. (2) I've had problems with "Debit card" reversals. Watch out. - Mitchell Tsai
I hate that tons of places in NYC only take cash! Sorry, just wanted to throw that in there. :-) I think I read something recently about a push here in the states for transactions at the table. - Corie Allison
@Corie As a business person, the cc fees of 1.6-5.0+% are high... Makes sense to do cash (aside from the European dual-income approach - aka hide some cash). - Mitchell Tsai
In south america, they always came to the table with a handheld card reader so it never left your table. I'm sure that was an answer to lots of problems previously... and to assuage folk's fears. - adam christensen
Mitchell - I understand the reasoning behind it, but sometimes it sucks to carry around lots of cash. I think there needs to be some sort of limit to the fees cc companies can charge. I remember reading something recently about a gas station switching over to cash only because, with rising gas prices, they just couldn't afford to pay the fees any longer. - Corie Allison
Never let the card leave my sight - Chip & Pin! - Joe Dawson
@Corie. Carrying cash can suck (I've been mugged at gun-point twice.) However, I usually carry enough to cover my restaurant meals and cabfare. I've had many times when the telephone connections go down, and a restaurant can't process any of my credit cards. At least as a guy, I look REALLY bad if I can't pay for dinner, and my date needs to pay with her cash. Very bad... - Mitchell Tsai
I've been concerned sometimes, but I usually use my business debit card, and so far, I haven't had any problems. I can check my balance online right away. I keep my eye on the waiters and the receipts on the table when I'm about to leave. Sometimes I carry the tray or folio with the (merchant's copy) receipt back up to the cashier on my way out of a restaurant so it's not lying around on an empty table for a long time. - Cathryn Hrudicka
no risk- if they run off with it- or wierd charges show up- i know where they work, and i know the phone number to remove support for the card immediately. - Nathan Eckenrode
I think vallet parking is a far greater risk; I've seen Ferris too many times, however - Michael W. May via twhirl
I only use debit cards for ATM... since I always pay off my credit card, why not use someone else's money for a month for free? Cash is useful when you don't need or want a paper trail. - Logical Extremes
Can't live in fear. It's not that I'm trusting of everyone, just that there is satisfactory recourse available so it's a non-issue - Sally Robinson
Credit cards have a maximum of $50 liability. Most companies won't even charge that much. If someone swipes the number, it gets caught, you get a new one. Debit cards are much more problematic (for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone would use one), as money is actually deducted from your account which takes time + headaches to get back. - Eric
Yeah, but you still aren't held accountable with debit. I left my debit card in an ATM (yeah, I'm retarded) and a guy took $400 out and charged around $500 on it. Same as credit card, once reported, money was returned and charges were removed. - Sebastian
And yet, the guy at chipotle can process your payment while you're in line... I think it's about visitor expectations - Andrea
I find the new trend of "small" pin / signature-less transactions at Itsu / Pret etc disturbing - Phill Price
@Sebastian: Yeah, but when you lose the debit card money still leaves your account. Depending on the institution involve, it's not *always* returned the next day - it happened to my brother and it took three weeks. A credit card, on the other hand, serves as a nice buffer between any would be thieves and my actual money. - Eric
ha. friendfeed comment sections are beginning to be as funny as the reddit comment sections. hmmm...probably just all the same users. - mike via twhirl
Possibly. And other clones have come along. But with identi.ca I have *never* seen such a rush of Twitter faithful to a new clone. We. Are. Frustrated. ;-( - Barbara K. Baker
they might fall apart but its where everyone built their networks, no way to export all the friends, the conversations. you can emulate some of the more active relationships when you move to a new network but the piecemeal people get left behind. twitter is special - Paul Rj Muller via twhirl
Yes Friendster indeed ... and MySpace swept in and cleaned up the pieces, just as FriendFeed looks poised to do ... - Mark Jeffrey
"Prototype contact lenses that include LEDs and circuits could become a tiny personal display. Babak Parviz wears contact lenses. But he's not yet using the new contact lenses he's made in his Seattle laboratory. Containing electronic circuits, they look like something from a science fiction movie. He's now going to add some extremely small light emitting diodes (LEDs), helping turn his prototype contact lenses into a sophisticated personal display - the tiniest one possible." - RAPatton via Bookmarklet
that can't be good for one's health. fascinating though - Cee Bee
How would it be bad for your health Cee Bee? Maybe it might screw with your vision some, but what else would it affect? - Tad Donaghe via fftogo
It would be the a great heads up display, but I don't know if you would be able to track eye movement to select things on the display. The gyroscopes on the lens would have to be almost nano. - RAPatton
i'm not sure but placing some electronic object of that sort directly over one's retina may have its side effects. then again, i've been on this laptop for the past 6 hours and my balls are frying - Cee Bee
I'm totally ready for augmented reality, but I think i'll let other guinea pigs work out the kinks in the system first... - Tad Donaghe via fftogo
hmm, not a fan of this nor of a cattle prod being plugged into the back of my head. though something like "The Thirteenth Floor" would work - clarke
@Phil: That's exactly what I thought of when I saw the photo. I want! - Jeremy Brooks
Very interesting. Gartner predicts that human augmentation will evolve over the next 10 years to the point where it will be feasible to enhance the performance or sensory abilities of healthy individuals. In other words, medical techniques such as sensory transference, direct brain interfaces, and nerve mapping will be used not just to restore physical deficiencies, but to enhance healthy people beyond “normal”. - Alan Cheslow
Whoa... cool. But really, heads up display, blah blah blah... i want my eyes to glow in the dark. Then I'll really be able to fight crime with my intimidating stare! - felix
I tried an earlier version of this kind of thing during a visit to a lab at the UW in Seattle. My eyes ached in a really strange way afterwards; I mean acute pain. I don't like the display as prosthetic, because of this experience. - terra210
I'd be happy with augmented reality embedded in my glasses... I'm not much of a contacts guy anyway. - Tad Donaghe via fftogo
I can finally hook up Friendfeed right into my eyeballs! - Hao Chen
Next step would be flashing contacts like those aftermarket lights underneath cars. - Earl E Morningwood via fftogo
Should give these away with Kraftwerk's-Man Machine Music. Way cool-I want some. - Mark Forman
You know those "spinner" hubs/tires that some folks have on their car wheels? How about "spinner" contacts? Hopefully invisible from the user's point of view, but folks looking at you see spinning in your eyes. based on this article, you could even attach little outward-facing LED lights to the spinners... - Bruce Williams
Just add a tiny wireless receiver, and you'll get special promotions of chips and nylon socks flashed on you contact lenses when you walk past Walmart. - Dewald Pretorius
Now if it can be a camera and take a frame every time I blink I'm in. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas: If you're blinking, you're going to get a bunch of dark photos :P - Eric Florenzano
i look forward to the day when my contact lens overlords control all that i survey - Ranjit Mathoda
"Why are you staring into space and chuckling to yourself", asks my wife. "Oh, just checking my email, got some funny ones today", I reply. - Nick Lewis
My two questionable cents: (1) power supply and (2) cooling. Much like current artificial eyes, but way harder to solve. - 9000
I'm a fan of it just as straight up coffee. But I don't know a thing about espresso. All I know is I didn't like plain jane coffee too much until Pike Place. I've actually got a cup right next to me at the moment. - Benjamin Golub
According to a recent study by BlogHer and Compass Partners, more than one-third (35%) of all women in the U.S. aged 18 to 75 participate in the blogosphere at least once a week - Sarah Perez