Chris Weiss › Comments

Maybe she was feeling nostalgic about eating pizza? - Carlos Urrutia

I'm feeling BOL nostalgic! - Veronica

BOL? - Thomas

Buzz Out Loud. - Veronica

Ah :) - Thomas

http://cnettv.cnet.com/buzz-ou... - Veronica

I still haven't seen that movie - really need to Netflix it at some point... - Thomas

I'm trying to avoid that movie as much as i possibly can. - Carlos Urrutia

Oh man, I love that film. So silly. :) Also, a pizza place that shows movies = awesomeness! - Amy

Enough is enough, I had it with these MF'ng spambots on this MFing twitter! - Fee501st

Worth it for that line alone. :) - Amy

Loved seeing that on network TV: "Get these monkey fighting snakes off my Monday to Friday plane!" voiced by The Man himself. - Chris Weiss

lol - Veronica

i have a couple friends with blackberries and for the life of me i don't know how they use that thing... it's worse than using windows! - Chris Heath

Didn't realize there was still a fuss. Seems to be all Pre and iPhone and Android vaporware. - David Chartier from iPhone

It's all in the keyboard shortcuts. Only through mastering them do you unleash the true power of the crackberry - Chris Weiss

unless you are a push email addict . leave it alone!! UI is the equivalent of a really good feature phone. It not even in the league if the new generation of mobile OS' ie OS X mobile, Android or WebOS. - Tate DA FF MVP

has both phones and thinks the blackberry is great for email & the iPhone for everything else. - barce from iPhone

There's still crackberry fuss? I thought that died out 3 years ago. - Fleagle

BlackBerry devices are fairly solid. I loved mine but jumped to the iPhone mainly just because. My wife still uses her BlackBerry. They handle email extremely well and the apps for them are getting better (though most still not "iPhone good"). Just be fair while you use it Veronica, I don't think you'll be disappointed. - Michael Koby

Is the BB browser still crap? I loved my BB other than the general clunkiness of the apps and the horrible browsing. - Logan Hall

I tried only the win version of Boxee, and it sucks bad. Lots of bug, and really slow on my machine. - bnoise

It's GREAT on OSX but I haven't had a chance to use it on Windows. I like it since it combines all my images, music, video, Internet video feeds in one app. It's based on the open source XBMC. - Ari Braginsky

I use it on my Apple TV and have had good luck with it. My problem is I don't have much time to actually watch TV. :) - Paul Wade

Boxee is pretty slick, but it's biggest value is also it's biggest curse - Sharing content means you're locked into Boxees content definition. If you've got a movie Boxee doesn't know about, you're SOL. Plex and other XBMC derivatives dont suffer from this. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

I don't care for the social aspects in boxee, probably because I kick it oldschool and chat by the watercooler. The hulu and other streaming integration is a nice +1 over xbmc. For me, watching tv still has to be on the couch, the browser is far too distracting to watch tv on my computer. - Jamie Dool

I believe you can get Boxee on the Apple TV as well.. - Ari Braginsky

Am I the only one who hasn't used Boxee? - Tyson Key

It is still invite only I believe... - Ari Braginsky

I'm most interested in the Hulu access, but I can get that through any UPnP device with PlayOn now. What I really want is nice tight integration of online content like Hulu and Netflix with OTA content so I can get rid of cable and still have my wife be able to watch shows without needing an instruction manual. - Alan Cheslow

Ari, Boxee is open to everyone now, except for the Windows version. - Veronica

Ok good. I still had some invites left just in case :D - Ari Braginsky

Boxee is nice on a Mac. Although I can't always pull up network shows. My one complaint is you can't leave it full screen on a second monitor (TV) and do other stuff. For that, Plex is much better. - elroy

One nice bit of recent Boxee news is that Apple has approved an iPhone remote app for Boxee on OSX (they recently Tweeted the news today) and it should be on the App Store soon. - Ari Braginsky

Boxee on a MacMini is great. It makes up for the deficiencies in FrontRow, and handles way more video formats. Netflix, Hulu, ABC HD work great for me. (BTW Lost episodes look great on a bigscreen). There are some occasional bugs that need to be worked out, but their support has been timely thus far. - Jericho

I am using my laptop with a second screen. I use one for Email, Twitter, and Skype and the other one for my browser, ustream client, and itunes. I could use two more monitors though! - Troy Malone

two different sized screens. One for my "main" work, one for things like photoshop pallettes, twitter, IM, etc. A sidecar. - Chuq Von Rospach

I have two of equal size (23") on a Mac G5. I use the one on the right as my main monitor of focus, and the one on the left for utilities, Tweetdeck (takes lots of room), iTunes, Photoshop palettes, etc. - Eric Platt

Sidecar. Heh. I like it. - Mitch Wagner

I have dual monitors at work, one's 22" and the other is 20" The main one is for "productivity" (Word, web stuff, etc) and the secondary one holds twitter, trillian, google sidebar, and outlook. Firefox switches between them depending on how much attention I'm paying (anything that requires serious attention ends up on the main monitor). - Chris Weiss

Pogue also posted an update about reader response (can't paste the link from my iPhone...). He prints lots of comments from readers who agree with his review, none from those who don't, then uses a few crackpot comments to make a "BlackBerry nuts" jibe. Seems like he has an axe to grind... - Jules

I think he's got a point though - Have both? Cup of drink in one hand, which can you pick out a single song from a list of hundreds quicker on with the other hand? Wheel or touch? - Chris Weiss from twhirl

If there's one thing Pogue hates, it's criticism. No one likes it, but he goes to great lengths to refute it. - Veronica

Chris, frankly the scroll wheel tires the heck out of my thumb. I've found that I can find songs faster on the touch/iPhone. - Veronica

I was surprised to see that the readers agreed with Pogue about his review. As soon as I saw Gruber's post, I thought there would be a RIM riot, but nope. - Larry Hudson

I'm sure the ones he picked were a little skewed. - Veronica

I'm faster with the scroll wheel, too much twitching to be accurate with the touch - maybe the other hand should be holding decaf instead :) - Chris Weiss from twhirl

I do like it!! Hehe... - Veronica

i watched people flock around a book store 8 hours before it went on sale and couldn't believe my eyes with the 300+ geek queuing midnight in front of city's popular bookstore. (that can be a norm in US but pretty weird for a weak geek population of Ankara/Turkey) - Berk D. Demir

I've been dying to join my friend's guild. I'm afraid to commit to it. Who has the time?? - Mickipedia

I liked Borean Tundra as a level 68 starting area over Howling Fjord but Utgarde and Nexus are a bit of a toss up. - Mattb4rd

Micki... I don't have the time. I MAKE the time! ;) - Veronica

Emm, don't know, think I will just stick to Ikariam - Socom

@Mattb4rd I dunno, I think I like Fjord better.. BT is such a HUGE area, it reminds me of Barrens a little too much. - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

It's actually 32 copies per second, 1944 per minute - Veronica

I read the headline and delete. probably read .01% of them. - Dan London

If by PR blast blast emails you means newsletters etc from companys, i tend to ignore most of them. Especially the ones from where i work.. - Simon Wicks

Yeah, just the headline for me, too... - Jason Wong

I treat them the same as I treat ads from online retailers: 99% get canned. - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

If it's a product I might want to review, I read it. Otherwise, delete. - Joe from twhirl

Delete on sight - Juan Pablo González

It depends on the product but more often than not I just delete. - ♥patricia♥

I delete some of them, keep others, answer the ones I have time for, which is fewer and fewer lately. - Robert Scoble

Click, click, deleted! - Katie: Witch Of The West

Katie: click click? That seems like one too many clicks.. - Angelo Rodrigues

I'll read the ones relating to something I'm very very interested in, but that's 0.1% of the time. Otherwise I delete on sight. - No FB

depends on the product. Delete 95% of them. If I like and know the product or know the PR person though I'll always look at them. - Thomas Hawk

I have to admit I at least scan most of them. - Dion Hinchcliffe

I scan them to see if they are relevant. - Heather Solos

For me they're simply search engine fodder... something you find when you are looking into a company, product or service. More useful as historical archive. - Clay Newton

It depends on the product, but for the most part, I think press releases are a total failure in terms of communication. - Jill O'Neill

Totally depends on the product. By now, I've figured out which PR blasts might actually contain useful information and which are just "We loves you! Buy our stuff!" The quality/message is amazingly consistent per-company. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

I mostly just leave them unread (yay virtually unlimited Gmail space), but I may scan them depending on who's sending and more importantly, how bored I am when they come in. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

It depends on the pitch. Most of the time blast emails do nothing to reveal where or what the story is. Just saying "XYZ has launched" is fine for a news beat reporter, but doesn't do much for a trend or feature reporter. - Patricia

As an aside - since I'm thinking a few PR folks are reading this. Don't get cute with your sender name/subject; From: "sales@company" Subj: "Winter tips from company.com!" will get a lot farther than From: "Jill Stevens" Subj: "Winter tips!". Save the 'informal tone' for the message body. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

delete immediately - Melissa Maskevich

I've had plenty of editor response from targeted blasts. It also has a lot to do with the industry. - Dean Rodgers from twhirl

I own 10 or so, only one is not made by Apple. - LogEx

The problem is you have to let go of your PC habit completely to really see the time you are loosing dealing with PC related issues - Antonio Altamirano

Does it matter anymore? They both run Firefox, RDP/VNC, VPN, SSH, WoW, iTunes, and Photoshop. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

Yeah, it matters. There's no Mac client for Remedy, so it's either run an ancient version of Netscape or run a virtual Windows machine if I want to use my Mac to do work. And don't get me started on how sucky Entourage is with Exchange. I had to set one of my users up in Outlook on his secretary's PC earlier this week just so he could add someone as a delegate (to put entries in his calendar). - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Chris: I was a PC guy all the way and did not think there was any difference. Once I tried a Mac I pretty much dumped all my PC programs. Mac by being UNIX based offers a better environment for coding/designing/creating IMHO - Antonio Altamirano

Uh oh, no religious wars please. Sometimes there are special requirements, sometimes it's just preference or what you're used to or have invested in. These days, Mac, Linux, or Windows will do almost anything you need done, and they're similar enough that you can work on any of them without too much trouble. - LogEx

In the perfect world the OS wouldn't matter. I can do almost all I want on either a Winbox or a Linux one. However, as I use Adobe CS3 for work, I keep a windows machine for that, so it can run natively. Web, email, etc, I can use either, as I run that all through Firefox. No sucky Outlook/Exchange here! - Ian May

Yeah, if my employer didn't choose Active Directory, Exchange and Remedy, I'm guessing my MacBook would be sufficient by itself. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

I've used Windows all my life, and I'm completely sick of it now. Mac seems much more promising to me at this point. Ubuntu is impressive but I need iTunes and Traktor. Hoping to get an MBP as soon as I can afford it. - Alexander Carlill

Point taken. In my experience, anything platform specific is on something that can be remoted into from Win or OS-X - Chris Weiss from twhirl

RE:Exchange - OWA works fine for my needs. Even under FF. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

Yeah, Chris, but can you change the permissions on your calendar from OWA? My user couldn't. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

But you're not restricted to having to do that directly from a Windows box. You could have use RDP from Ubuntu into a Windows box to change the permissions. Without even having to deal much with the remote OS, really. What I was trying to say was that between remote access tools like VNC/RDP/SSH and so many productivity tools being available "in the cloud" what folks choose to use as their "main" box is getting less and less relevant. - Chris Weiss

I like to have as many computers as the next person (or maybe more), but there might be something a teensy bit wrong with needing a second computer to get work done on your first. Then again, how often does one really need to change permissions on an Exchange calendar? I've got to say, it's all about what works best for the individual. I don't want anyone else's constraints, so I won't try to place any on anyone. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

it's about time! ;) - Joshua Schnell

It most certainly has! Hoorray for Twitter. - Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty

i love that: "post-apocalyptic...not all sunshine and flowers." until we have an actual apocalypse, how can anyone know? lolz - .LAG liked that

See, the crowds for D3 need to follow F3 instead. - Jordan Hofker

i think we can say, with some certainty from past nuclear experiences, that the landscape would not be very pretty. - Veronica

@veronica... um, sarcasm... i hope all of our apocalypes are in brown/gray and in videogames, and not RL. ;-) - .LAG liked that

If it's like Oblivion (it's [a descendant of] the same 3D engine, at least), there should be a good modding community. Maybe someone can make a psychedelic version. Put Josh Haley in there somewhere. Dancing around in a little circle, maybe. - Akiva Moskovitz

If only the NHL streamed in HD, live sports are pretty much the only reason to have a TV feed these days. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

I am moving soon, and I thought about doing this. Most shows I watch are online and I already have a Netflix account. - Robert Peña

High speed internet + Netflix is the way to go. Got a Roku player? - Daniel J. Pritchett

How much are u selling the tivo for? - James Haley II

Don't forget if you have a 360 or PS3 you can download shows and movies on your tv as well from those systems. - orionstarr

I actually did the exact same thing this morning to save $70/mo. Netflix, Hulu, etc. Don't need much else. - Rey Anthony

reminds me of two great posts from stuffwhitepeoplelike.com ... - Adam Ostrow

You people with your fast internet connections make me so jealous. I go through a long chain of wireless modems and it ain't pretty. - Todd Hoff

I partly that: Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, bunny ears + HD Tivo, and the local bar (for sports). Comcast free for a year now. - Patrick Lightbody

Too bad he doesn't show FF any love. - Brandon

If Criminal Minds were available on Hulu I wouldn't need cable, either. - Nine

I've been doing that for a while now , and I don't miss it at all. - Michael Fidler from twhirl

@ Michael ditto. I've been without cable for 7 years. How many channels is it now? And still nothing to watch. - Kevykev

Glad to hear it Kevin! I've been all Internet for over a year now! - Chris Menning

sounds like an HD less setup for TV series/sports unless you're using appletv or vudu.. i suspect you have a nice tv. isn't that a waste/ - Chad from twhirl

Wow that is going for it - Kipp Bodnar

welcome to the future :-D - Karim

Times, they are a changin' - Charlie Anzman

what do you use for Internet without comcast? They're the only decent pipe I can get... I think - Trevor Pressman

thats what i am talking about Kevin, I was on that bandwagon a while ago and i am not jumping off anytime soon. - chris

I'm sold. Looking at the new WiMAX provider in the Duke City. - Steven Perez

I would do the same if I could get my husband to agree, but he is a bit of a ludite, tivo is about as modern as he gets - Kim Landwehr from Alert Thingy

plus Hulu... - Phil Yanov

Miro is great too. Think a tivo-like feedburner or bloglines for Video RSS. - Chris Menning

My wife would not be able to live without her daily Soap Opera feed. - Victor

Having just read Zittrain's "The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It", it makes me even more sensitive towards bundling content and access in appliances... Good job sir. But it's too bad we have to make such difficult decisions. - Ben Turner

Chris, thanks for the Miro heads up! Checking it out now. - Rey Anthony

Crazy I just called Charter to tell them it just wasn't working out and that they should come get their stuff. - Mathew A. Koeneker

get a cheap ota hd antenea and hook it up to your media center pc and you'll have free hd network tv and still be able to zap the ads like TiVo. - Thomas Hawk

I so want to do that. - Cecil

Oakland Public Library! - Pandora Radio

Arent you required by RIAA to keep the physical media? - Chris Weiss from twhirl

We do keep all the CDs! We're only donating duplicates to the OPL. We have a huge CD library. You can see it here: http://bit.ly/1p1BTq - Pandora Radio

Ahhh. Awesome! Especially awesome for OPL! You guys rock on so many levels :) - Chris Weiss from twhirl

yep. - MG Siegler

arrrrrr! - Veronica

If true, they should fire their ad company. I'm thinking Fark Dumbass tag for this one, if it's not already there. - Steve Lowe

oops - Mauricio

like ^100 - Internet's Tad

obviously couldn't resist writing this up even though i'm running late http://venturebeat.com/2008... - MG Siegler

I'm not surprised by this, but I am surprised that they would forget to wipe the metadata. If any company should know about dealing with metadata it should be Microsoft. - Alex Scoble

Countdown until the Macbots start scrambling to diminish the impact of these ads.. 3... 2... 1, - Sprague D

Buddy at MS just told me that 90% of their designers and other creative types use Macs and Adobe... - Internet's Tad

No huge surprise here but seriously MS, what are you doing!? - Nicholas Kreidberg

What? The creative folks at Microsoft use Macs? Makes sense to me. - Rob McNair-Huff

Same thing happened with the Vista print ads back in the day. - Veronica

I doubt the commercial was done in house - Alex Scoble

Does this also mean that their creative software engineers write Vista using Macs? :P - imabonehead

Or maybe someone has just taken screenshots with Mac and uploaded to web? Other parts of campaign (even the video) could have been made with Windows. - Daniel Schildt

It makes sense - most creative work is probably done on Macs these days. - Sally Church

I just made the point to @mathewi that chances are the project plans and time lines for the Apple ads were likely done on PCs using Microsoft Project (and if one were doing the Apple website, all the Info Architecture and wireframes would be done on PCs as well) - leigh himel

pc's are fat and bloated , same as actor - johnpiercy from twhirl

@Chris your actually wrong about that - maybe not about Apple but definitely about their agencies - leigh himel

This thread just reinforces the Microsoft message. People are making a big deal out of the fact that marketing creatives -- a tiny sliver of the population -- use Macs, when most of the world uses Windows PCs. - Sprague D

Most Art Directors/Designers use Macs (Photoshop, Illustrator) but most client services people, IAs, tech people use PCS and Microsoft Tools such as Project, Excel, Powerpoint etc. (and for both of these I say most - there are always exceptions to the rule). It's kinda why i think the whole, the Microsoft ads were created by Macs thing is silly. - leigh himel

No, but most design-y people buy that lie. Hook, line, sinker. - Jordan Hofker

Machines generally better? They all use the same hardware these days. The only difference between a Mac and a PC is the OS, in all reality. - Alex Scoble

and here's Hodgman using his iPhone in full view on public transit: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e... - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

Am I the only Mac user that can't stand Mac users? - Andrew Smith

@AndrewSmith I dunno, maybe it's just who I follow, but the Mac haters seem a whole lot more vocal than the Apple Fanboys in the last couple of years. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

MORE BREAKING NEWS... the agency receptionist uses a pc and the ceo has a blackberry... gripping stuff - James Tenniswood

I've worked in an advertising department. The artists used Macs, everyone else used PCs. - Mark Radigan

I second that.. .good price too! - Socom

I want one, but I'm not looking forward to taking apart my MacBook Pro to install it *shudder* - Guillermo Esteves

I've already voided my warranty, so I'm ready! - Veronica

Wasn't Samsung shipping 500GB laptop drives in March? - Percival

Looks like I finally have motive to upgrade my aging HDD on my laptop :). - Shivanand Velmurugan

yeah, and I think you can even find them cheaper! I forgot about those... - Veronica

I would've suggested you get Patrick to swap it out for an episode of Systm. But after witnessing his iPhone antics, I don't know if I'd trust him to work on anything worth more than $5. >:oD - Paul Reynolds

I hear Apple makes it very difficult to upgrade a HD on a macbook :/ - Percival

Speaking of which, waiting for the new ones to come out before I get one.. mayhaps they will have much bigger drives.. problem is, who knows when they will get released! - Socom

@Percival - Not sure if you're being funny,but just in case...it's extremely easy to upgrade the drive. I've never replaced a laptop drive before and I upgraded my 80GB Macbook drive to 320GB this past Saturday in 12 minutes. It was extremely simple. - Angel Smith

grrr...all this macbook talk, macbook touch rumors...I want to get a MBP but keep waiting to justify the $. Mabye I should just bite the bullet. - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

Sorry I meant macbook pro, it's easy on a macbook, but requires 'surgery' on a pro, and voids your warranty as shown here: http://tinyurl.com/347k46 - Percival

@ChrisKimA - Wait until next month either way, they're supposed to do a refresh. Also, consider refurb? I've bought several Macs refurb and been totally happy. - Chris Weiss from twhirl

Percival, Angel, I replaced the HD on my old G4 PowerBook (the procedure seems similar to the MBP, according to ifixit) and it was horrible. It took me the better part of an hour just to figure out how to remove the upper case, and in the end I couldn't make if fit back correctly. I ended up with an ugly 2mm gap over the DVD slot. If taking apart a MBP is anything like that, I won't be doing it anytime soon. - Guillermo Esteves

okay, i love you mac people...but it's gonna be a PC. Just deal. - Shawna Benson

core duo macbook - anna sauce

when i am made of money i will own a macbook too. Now, PC people...help me out. - Shawna Benson

@Shawna.. haha, I AM a PC person, no lie. - anna sauce

My Dell Tablet PC has taken a TON of abuse and is still working great. Long battery life too. - Robert Scoble

macbook? oh right sorry. Um, eee? - Geoff Schultz

anything mac. definitely. - Alex von Halem from twhirl

Dell Inspiron. I have a 6400. Works great. Core Duo. 5:30 to 6 hour battery life if I turn everything off save the screen and be draconian on the Power Saver settings. Vista runs great on it. - Roberto Bonini

Macbook refresh coming next month, wait for that. Unless you plan on going PC, then I would go intel based HP. - Mathew™ one of a kind

my currrent laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6000 which has been a great workhorse. In a perfect world, i'd wipe a new laptop clean of Vista and install XP. Sadly, that won't happen. Maybe Vista will move me closer to Mac-ville? Thanks for the advice FF'ers! - Shawna Benson

every PC laptop I've owned (seven of varying manufacturers and price points) and every PC laptop I have ever seen meatspace friends own has invariably been INCREDIBLY frustrating or a lemon. broad claim, I know, but still. - mjc

seen a handful of macs that were lemons or frustrating too. just to balance that out. - mjc

I love Macs, but I've never had any trouble with a PC that I didn't cause. Yes, they do crash more, but that is because of the OS *cough*Vista*cough* and not the PC itself. Hell there are people running OSX on PCs and they are loving it. - Mathew™ one of a kind

my first job out of college was pc support, so BSOD doesn't really scare me anymore. I can fix my own problems or rebuild. Sucks, but I'm used to it. Now, in college I was using Macs (of course) but I went years without touching one - Totally freaked out trying to use a friend's macbook last week because I couldn't remember single button navigation. - Shawna Benson

In my experience as an IT type person, all laptops have at least a 5% failure rate within the first 6 months. In my opinion, Lenovo still makes some of the most solid laptops. Driver issues are actually the biggest pain with any laptops running Windows, particularly if you dock/undock your laptop often. - Alex Scoble

MacBook. No argument. - l0ckergn0me

@Mathew, most of the ones I see are hardware dying - mjc

@Shawna fixing and rebuilding wastes WAY too much of your time, and time is money. - mjc

mjc: you are correct. Thankfully, my laptop has had exactly 2 problems in the 4 years i've owned it: 1) the battery no longer charges and 2) my '7' key came off and I can't put it back on, though I have tried. :) - Shawna Benson

it very much depends on 2 things... what you want to use it for and what your budget is. Figure out the answer to them and you will know what to look for - alphaxion

Again, thanks everyone for the help -- you are all awesome! - Shawna Benson

What was your price range? Macbook refurbs aren't that pricy and they are covered under the warrantee. $899 for C2D now, probably even less after the refresh next month. I've bought 3 Mac refurb laptops over the years and been very happy with each one (and run XP under Boot Camp). - Chris Weiss from twhirl

seroiusly the macbook core duo is a great processor- and it beats hte pants off of the last few PC notebooks I've had (I've had them all!). I do understand if you have software for PC and can't make the shift. Still, when the new macbooks come out the old ones (the one I've had for 2 yrs!) will dive in price, and be a better per-component buy, as they are wicked fast and sturdy. and quiet. My last IBM was nicknamed the 747 by friends in the laptop chip biz! - anna sauce

I second @Chris Weiss on refurbs, I usually buy those. The warranty is good and saves you a few 100. Got my iPhone that way, before they were cheap! Check MacRumors. - anna sauce

current macbook is WAY old. - mjc

I also highly recommend that you get three years of at home support and accident insurance if you can afford it. - Alex Scoble