Ross and Dan made this video to illustrate the advanced technology we use behind the scenes at FriendFeed. (Ross and Dan, you are amazing - I can't believe how awesome this thing turned out)
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
How very creative. This is very fluid and cool.
- Louis Gray
OK, not exactly what I was expecting, but very cool.
- Kevin Arth
Anyone have the video somewhere other than Youtube? it's banned here in Turkey and I can't wait until we get home (next month) to watch it!!
- Chris Myles
This is superb. I just showed it to my 5 year old son who enjoys Lego and has already taken some great photos, including one or two of his toys. So now he has the seed of the idea that, in time, he could take multiple stills and put them together to make moving pictures. Thank you very much for posting it and giving me and him that opportunity. Maybe, he might use FriendFeed one day too!
- John W Lewis
I think they need to make a full stop-motion version of the Matrix in legos. Now THAT would be awesome. I wonder what bullet-time looks like in LEGO?
- Bret Taylor
i'd pay to see the stop animation lego matrix, but not the sequels
- patrick
"Equipment Generously Provided By Casey Muller" - hahaha!! THIS IS AWESOMESAUCE!!! I love the creative energy and vibe in this video... LOTS of work went into that one! Thanks guys!! :)
- Susan Beebe
Genius, how much time did that all take?
- Wayne Hornsey
Chris Myles: if you want ot - DM me an address and I'll mail you a copy.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Graphics research is amazing. This project: sketch and label something you want a photo of, then the system finds photos on the web, cuts out the parts that it wants, and composes everything together. Watch the video too.
- Amit Patel
from Bookmarklet
This made me wonder once more how things spread through the social web. When I posted this the site was up! Then it got on gizmodo, reddit, etc. and the site went down. :(
- Amit Patel
"People who ate the most full-fat dairy had a 69% lower risk of cardiovascular death than those who ate the least. Otherwise stated, people who mostly avoided dairy or consumed low-fat dairy had more than three times the risk of dying of coronary heart disease or stroke than people who ate the most full-fat diary. Contrary to popular belief, full-fat dairy, including milk, butter and cheese, has never been convincingly linked to cardiovascular disease. In fact, it has rather consistently been linked to a lower risk, particularly for stroke. What has been linked to cardiovascular disease is milk fat's replacement, margarine. In the Rotterdam study, high vitamin K2 intake was linked to a lower risk of fatal heart attack, aortic calcification and all-cause mortality. Most of the K2 came from full-fat cheese. In my opinion, artisanal cheese and butter made from pasture-fed milk are the ultimate dairy foods."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Can I like this several times?! Finally. What my books have been saying about margarine. Butter has a naturally occurring lecithin and lecithin breaks down the fat in butter.
- Melanie Reed
The question then becomes: if one is overweight or obese, how do the risks compare between obesity --> cardiovascular disease vs. non-full-fat-dairy/dairy avoidance --> cardiovascular disease? [Of course, this assumes that the overweight/obese person is actually losing weight on their reduced-fat/calorie diet.]
- Ordinarybug Heather
Damn. I was pondering starting to drink milk again, but I don't think I could handle skim. Thank you for this, and also supporting my cheese habit. I don't need to lose weight, but I do worry about my arteries with all the fat I eat.
- Lo
Well, according to my mouth, fat is awesome. But my mom did end up with high cholesterol, so I worry a little. Nutritional advice is so contradictory and prone to alteration, even from relatively trustworthy scientific sources, I never know what to think. My only dietary guideline is that when I get too skinny, I eat more bacon and chocolate. :-P I'll see if the library has that book, though!
- Lo
The book makes a strong case that cholesterol is 1) Not a very good indicator of CHD risk (though low-HDL and high triglicerides is a good indicator of risk) and 2) Not caused by eating fat.
- Paul Buchheit
id like to wholeheartedly agree w/ all of this, esp. Paul's book recommendation. read Taubes' book, or at least his huge NYT article that preceded it...
- Anthony Citrano
from BuddyFeed
One day people will catch on that it's the industrial scale processed food that is bad - use of poor quality and nutritionally vapid ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and MSG purely to give the illusion of nice food while wrecking our bodies in the interests of companies making a higher percentage profit per unit. Perfectly fine, traditionally produced with traditional...
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- alphaxion
I like fat, but only when indistiguishable in my food. That's why I avoid any food labeled "Low Fat", but I only eat the "lean" versions of corned beef or bacon.
- Gabe
When I was a kid I read something that said we evolved to like the taste of fat, and maybe I'm just suggestible but ever since then I've loved fat. Eating steaks with other people is the best, friends will cut off their fat & give it to me. YUM.
- Lo
Fat makes food taste good, but does not itself taste good. Buttered bread and popcorn popped in oil taste much better than their raw counterparts, yet I'd never want to eat just butter or cooking oil. Similarly, nicely marbled meat is much better than the alternative.
- Gabe
I'd much rather eat a smaller amount of a "real" food (full-fat, real sugar, etc) than a bunch of fake food.
- Elaine is trying to write
I had switched back to full-fat dairy due to the omega fatty acids--possibly responsible for the heart benefit here.
- Ruchira S. Datta
We seek out fat because it's one of the best sources of energy in a world where your next meal isn't guaranteed... the problem is while we have negated this for the most part, our natural instincts to stock up on fat for periods where food isn't as abundant never went away.
- alphaxion
"To get serious analyses of hurricanes and oil slicks, see Jeff Masters' blog. To get serious discussions of worst-case scenario thinking, see Bruce Schneier's blog. To get enough Vitamin D, don't read any blogs and go outside instead."
- Tudor Bosman
from Bookmarklet
"Next the team wondered whether meth could improve the snails' memories. First they immersed the snails in meth-laced pond water, then they moved them into regular de-oxygented pond water and gave them a training session that the snails should only recall for a few hours. In theory the snails should have forgotten their training 24 hours later, but would the meth improve the snails' memories so they remembered to keep their pneomostomes closed a day later? It did. A dose of meth prior to training had improved the snails' memories, allowing them to recall a lesson that they should have already forgotten. And when the team tested whether they could mask the meth memory with another memory, they found that the meth memory was much stronger and harder to mask. So memories formed under the influence of meth seem to be harder to forget, possibly because the drug disrupts the mechanisms for forgetting, and could help us to understand how amphetamines enhance memory in humans."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Meth scares the hell out of me. I have seen zero evidence that it's possible to recover normal functioning after meth addiction. In that context, this is *really* interesting.
- Lo
I'm curious about that. How many people have you known who used or became addicted?
- Paul Buchheit
Paul, I've known hundreds of addicts, but not that many who did meth. Which is why I said I haven't seen it, I'm sure that some people do beat meth. I don't know what the odds are. I do know the 2 meth addicts I knew the longest still acted noticeably amped up from normal human behavior after 6 & 9 months clean, and they relapsed - brought drugs into the women's home, no less. They also...
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- Lo
I've also seen several college & graduate students with lives & health severely impacted, and academic careers derailed, by adderall abuse.
- Lo
"Under “civil asset forfeiture” laws, [the police] typically do not have to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a crime was committed, or even charge anyone with an offence. What is more, the money raised by auctioning seized houses, boats and cars is often used to boost the budgets of the police department that did the seizing. This conflict of interest has predictable consequences. Total federal seizures have exploded from $400m in 2001 to $1.3 billion in 2008. State data are patchier, but the trend appears to be sharply upward. Police and prosecutors deny that the system is widely abused."
- Simon
from Bookmarklet
The system is not widely abused. If it were, this would be a well-known problem and there would be congressional investigations and such. Instead it is a "deeply abused" system, that is most organizations do not abuse it, but those which do often abuse the system quite heavily.
- Gabe
Louis, we need to start talking about more than an Advisory position if you have billions ;-)
- Jesse Stay
jet skis and I use hundred dollar bills to light cigars
- sofarsoShawn
Jesse, if the twins have their own individual maids, I'd investigate further.
- John E. Bredehoft
to avoid all the difficulties that sometimes plague those with assets, I am willing to shoulder part of the burden and absorb any excess assets that could tip the balance away from happiness
- RAPatton
That's what I'm thinking, RAP. I'm ready to trade my current set of problems for some new ones... like... having too much money.
- Yolanda
Overall very good. I take issue with this bit, though: "Many people with jobs have a fantasy about all the amazing things they would do if they didn't need to work. In reality, if they had the drive and commitment to do actually do those things, they wouldn't let a job get in the way." Some people are able to make things happen despite all odds but most people can't. And that doesn't...
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- Spidra Webster
Also, it would be nice to have money to hire a full time nurse for my Mom.
- Yolanda
Heh. Yolanda, I had just taken out a couple lines about what could keep someone so busy, stressed, poor and tired that they couldn't do "amazing things" while employed - taking care of severely ill/disabled parents/children/relatives was on that list. :)
- Spidra Webster
I would seriously probably buy a farm in some place really pretty and grow corn and vegetables and other stuff (maybe I'd buy a cow or two). I'd then run a tech business out of my house, probably using other people's investment while I invest in the farm and other resources (leaving plenty aside to decide what else to do with).
- Jesse Stay
WoW is worse than crack? I'll have to try it!
- Gabe
Jesse, a tech business from a farm on pretty land? Good luck getting bandwidth.
- Skyler Call
Skyler, I will have millions - I'm sure I can figure something out :-)
- Jesse Stay
Spidra, of course there are people in super-hard circumstance and the statement is overly broad. The point is just that actually doing stuff is much harder than dreaming about it is.
- Paul Buchheit
Gabe, read the links. The crack addicts has a job and family. The WoW addict had nothing and played 24/7 :)
- Paul Buchheit
So if I have millions of dollars, I can play WoW 24/7 instead of having to put up with a job and family? I don't see the downside...
- Gabe
Nice post. That kind of money would give time to invent and implement the next big thing without having to worry if there is time to do all the unit tests with >100% code-coverage! ;)
- Jemm
Great informative and level headed post Paul. Thanks for sharing.
- Mark Krynsky
I think there are two groups of millionaires: Those that made their millions through mostly hard work, and those that made their millions through mostly luck or circumstance (inheritance, modest stock options that exploded due to a bubble). I suspect the first group has a much easier time managing their money and lives than the second group.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
"Explore the opportunity. Do something remarkable. Go for a walk in the park. Appreciate the trees."
- SteVe C
"If you've been institutionalized your entire life (school, work, etc), it can be very difficult to adjust to life on 'the outside'." - lolz
- Ken Morley
Stephen, it's possible for some in the second category to be aware of the fact and wish to live humbly or at least, "go slowly" as Paul suggests.
- Ruchira S. Datta
Talk about an article that does NOT apply to me, lol ...
- LANjackal
A sudden surge of wealth can be a curse instead of a boon. Thanks for sharing your tips Paul.
- Shakeel Mahate
Sarah, That paper is very interesting. I particularly thought that figure 1 c&d were interesting because UK women seem to have a luck minimum at 31-40, while men's seem to be from 51-60.
- Clare Dibble
The driver was attempting to throw the logging cable over the logs to secure them and as you can see, hooked the 7.2 kilovolt primary instead! - http://docs.google.com/View...
Best of luck Kevin, I'm sure we'll see you around
- Shey
Hope you have some meaningful downtime. We'll look for you in the next endeavor.
- Eric - Too Hot
Kevin, you are such a badass. You will absolutely kill it with anything you put your genius mind to. Give me a heads up when you launch so I can start the first podcast about your new product! ;) Have a great vacation!
- Josh Haley
I don't know you anymore. Kevin, you're breaking my heart. I'll never stop loving you, but you are going down a path I can't follow... Because of what you've done . . . what you plan to do. Stop, stop now. Come back! I love you! *waits for Kevin to Force choke him*
- Johnny
Ah, I knew something was brewing when you posted the "So long, and thanks for the fish" fishbowl message...Well, Good Luck Mr. Fox. You don't know me but, I love your work. Thank you very much.
- Space Cowboy
Have a great vacation and don't be a stranger! Best of luck and you know where we are if you need to crowd source for LOLcats :)
- WoH: Professor MOTHRA
Have a great vacation! Post lots of pics from whatever exciting destination you choose.
- Eivind
All good to your travels, where ever you do go in life. :)
- Daniel Schildt
You are presented with two envelopes. You are told that the amount of money in the envelopes is 10^n dollars and 10^(n+1) dollars, where the positive integer n is chosen with probability 2^-n. The rules of the game are: you are allowed to open one envelope look at the amount, and then will be given the opportunity to switch to the unopened envelope. Doing some trivial expected gain calculations you can show that you should always switch. So it follows that you don’t need to look in the envelope before deciding to switch, and therefore shouldn't need to switch. And that is the paradox.
- Simon
Gotta love heavy tailed distributions (hint hint :) )
- Simon
"Anybots, a robotics start-up in Mountain View, Calif., is officially unveiling the telepresence robot today. QB will be available in the fall for US $15,000. "We wanted to create a technology that allows remote workers to collaborate more fully -- and feel part of the team," founder and CEO Trevor Blackwell told me when we spoke a few weeks ago. What they created is a sophisticated mobile robot. Its base houses a compact computer, two Wi-Fi interfaces, a LIDAR-based collision-detection system, powerful motors, and a lithium-ion battery pack that lasts 8 hours, or enough for a full day of work. The head has a 5-megapixel video camera pointing forward, a lower resolution camera pointing down at an angle to help with driving, three microphone and high-quality speakers, and -- my favorite feature -- a laser pointer that shoots green light from one of its eyes. The 16-kilogram robot [35 pounds] rolls on two wheels using a custom self-balancing system, an approach that Blackwell says is...
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- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
"How much do you love riding? Probably not as much as this guy did. David Morales Colon, 22, was shot to death April 22 in Puerto Rico. For his wake, Colon was embalmed and mounted on his Honda CBR600F4i with full Repsol colors. The work was performed by the Marin Funeral Home in San Juan, which also made headlines two years ago for presenting the embalmed body of Angel Luis “Pedrito” Pantojas Medina standing up in the corner for his own funeral. Colon will be displayed on his Honda until his burial, scheduled for later this afternoon. As for the bike, it was reportedly a gift from his uncle and brought by his family to the funeral home for the wake. There’s no word on what will happen to the motorcycle after the funeral, but for now, ride on, David, ride on."
- April Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
"This is a story about a fickle little hormone that plays a large role in our lives. The name of the hormone is oxytocin, and until recently it was mostly dismissed by scientists. They knew it played a role in inducing labor and facilitating breast-feeding, but otherwise didn't give it much attention."
- Tudor Bosman
from Bookmarklet
"To understand the role that oxytocin plays in your own life, consider the experience of a small 9-year-old girl named Isabelle." [...] "Isabelle has Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder with a number of symptoms. The children are often physically small and often have developmental delays. But also, kids and adults with Williams love people and are pathologically trusting: They literally have no social fear."
- Tudor Bosman
Happy birthday Tudor & Kelly! It is also my daughter's preschool teacher's birthday today, and the anniversary of Nixon's death.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
In a television interview in 2002, Larry King asked Julia Child which foods she hated. She responded: “Cilantro and arugula I don’t like at all. They’re both green herbs, they have kind of a dead taste to me.” “So you would never order it?” Mr. King asked. “Never,” she responded. “I would pick it out if I saw it and throw it on the floor.”
- Emily
"The weight of the piston compresses the air, heating it to the ignition point of diesel fuel. Diesel fuel is added/injected into the cylinder. The mixture ignites, transferring the energy of the falling weight to the pile head, and driving the weight back up. The rising weight draws in more fuel-air mixture, and the cycle starts over until the fuel runs out or is stopped by the pile crew."
- Gabe
from Bookmarklet
"The attorney said that they were just about to sue me into oblivion [...] Their contention was robots.txt had no legal force and they could sue anyone for accessing their site even if they scrupulously obeyed the instructions it contained. The only legal way to access any web site with a crawler was to obtain prior written permission."
- Simon
from Bookmarklet
"A Jordanian mayor is considering suing a newspaper over an April Fools' Day report saying aliens had landed nearby. Al-Ghad's front-page story on 1 April said flying saucers flown by 3m (10ft) creatures had landed in the desert town of Jafr, in eastern Jordan. It said communication networks went down and frightened townspeople fled into the streets. The mayor, Mohammed Mleihan, said parents were so frightened they did not send their children to school that day. "Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents," Mr Mleihan told the Associated Press. "People were scared that aliens would attack them.""
- Tudor Bosman
from Bookmarklet
Mel and I had McBurger King for dinner last night. Do you do this often? Must be something to do with how the stars are aligned or something.
- Dan Hsiao
from iPhone
Not often. First time, actually. My buddy and I did it on Saturday because he asked if I wanted to meet for "McDonalds/Taco Bell/In n Out" and I replied, "All three at once?" Which got the wheels churning.
- Brian Chang
Today is my birthday and I have but one wish: I wish to help families in need at UCSF Children's Hospital. Please feel free to contribute whatever amount you can--even $1 will be greatly appreciated. There are so many families struggling and they need all the help they can receive. Please donate today at causes.com/ucsfpreemies. Thank you!