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Adam Lasnik
Bigger than a breadbox. See my Google profile here for more info, links to my photos, blog, etc: http://bit.ly/adamgp :)
Honestly don't understand the auto-follow urge on Twitter. In real life, that'd be falling in like with every fan; 100% untenable for even a moderately popular person!
Marko Saric, John Mueller, Jonathan Greene and 9 other people liked this
Why do people feel obligated to follow those that follow them on Twitter and FF? Is it an "ethics" thing, an attempt at egalitarianism...? I seriously don't get it.
- Adam Lasnik
it can end up in a another way to broadcast to many giving the illusion that you also read what they say?
- righini riprova
Adam: I want to be able to get DMs from anyone who follows me. That's why.
- Robert Scoble
But in this case, Righini, it's the reverse. Someone has already subscribed to you (so you're already broadcasting to them), but you then automatically follow them. I understand (though loathe) the tendency of some to follow 42 thousand folks just to pump up their own subscriber numbers, but that's something different. And Robert... hmm... I hadn't thought of that! But why wouldn't @replies suffice?
- Adam Lasnik
ah! also i thought to your question some weeks ago: why do we post messages to public pages instead of private email or chat? I found an answer: sometimes we dont't know who is adapt to receive our message.
- righini riprova
That's a separate but very good point! While it doesn't explain our tendency to publicly post stuff like, "Hey, [friend], I've missed you so much!" (instead of e-mailing that), it *does* explain our habit of posting status'y stuff... because we might feel funny pushing it to a specific someone in e-mail but feel that perhaps one or more of our friends might be entertained or interested in a particular musing.
- Adam Lasnik
DMs would be the reason. Agree with Scoble here.
- Tyler Hurst
maybe the "hey [friend] how are you?" is intended to mean "hey [friend that read [friend] did you see that I speak with [friend]?] how are you?"
- righini riprova
Okay, Tyler and Scoble, I'll delve deeper, then. Why do you want anyone in the world (that's subscribing to you) to be able to DM you? I can't imagine either of you are hard to find and message otherwise. Is it simply about drastically reducing the barrier to communication? And if so, how is that necessarily optimal? ;). And Righini... true. That public broadcasting does seem like a way to indicate affiliations (even common affiliations) or signal "I am loved" or "I am loving" :)
- Adam Lasnik
maybe people is missing the dear old spam from they want to buy strange pills from Romania?
- righini riprova
Yes, I want to talk to people IMMEDIATELY. I don't want someone to pollute my inbox with non-timely banter. If I'm at an event or in a new city and that person is nearby, I want to learn about them. It's more about me connecting with them than them connecting with me.
- Tyler Hurst
Okay, now I understand the intent. But I'm still unclear why @replies would not suffice.
- Adam Lasnik
@replies require me to check them. I have DMs set up as text messages.
- Tyler Hurst
I believe that auto-follow is for those folks who are primarily using Twitter for self-promotion - they never read their followers stream anyways
- cyberjack
Sometimes @ replies are too public. Imagine if someone wanted to send scoble a tip about something hush hush. Only a DM would do there. Why not email? Well email is around too, but everybody is using twitter. If you're a "personality" that likes to be accessible, you go to where your fans are.
- EricaJoy
Easy: because I want to stay on top of the latest in porn, viagra and MLM schemes that my new followers are working on.
- Rocky
Adam: because I noticed that some people wanted to DM me and couldn't. It's a bug in Twitter (and FriendFeed's system). Sometimes you just want to have a private conversation with people. Without going to email.
- Robert Scoble
Not to mention that for some people finding their email is very difficult.
- Robert Scoble
EricaJoy: you nailed it.
- Robert Scoble
it expands my horizons, opens my mind to unfiltered input, opens (vs closed) doors...
- chaz2b
Ah, okay. So the answer seems to be along several lines: Accessibility (DMs), discovery (new info), and etiquette. Interesting. Still, despite all of these potential advantages, it does seem that adding >[x, with x being an arbitrarily large number] followers would make it quite challenging to keep up with tweets.
- Adam Lasnik
I suggest you find the video of how Robert manages all his incoming data streams. Its fascinating. Reminds me of reading the matrix.
- EricaJoy
via IM
to follow MANY users just found this: http://www.baekdal.com/media... here: http://www.twitterforbusypeople.com/index...
- righini riprova
Going to Monterey, possibly Carmel-by-the-Sea soon w/ friend for the day. See/eat recommendations very welcome :)
Point Lobos is a must-see on a clear day.
- Bill Strathearn
Hey, thanks... have added that to the list!
- Adam Lasnik
17-mile drive. Pick up sandwiches at Safeway first. Enjoy!
- Robert Scoble
Carmel beach is really cool as is 17-mile drive. Carmel Valley has a lot good wine tasting options.
- Todd Hoff
agree with 17-mile drive..if you go to the Valley try Corkscrew Cafe..very nice
- Bryan Waters
Bill, Robert, Todd, Bryan... thank you! It's a pity my printer isn't working, so I won't be able to print out any maps or tourist info, etc. But at least I have my G1 (and also in-Prius nav), so that should help a bit :)
- Adam Lasnik
We like to just drive around. There are a lot of funky houses and gorgeous gardens.
- Todd Hoff
The aquarium in Monterey may be the best in northern CA.
- Greg Grothaus
SouthBayFriends: Thought about lindy hopping? This 3mo jumpstarter in MV'll get you really dancing! http://www.wednesdaynighthop.com/events...
The folks at Wednesday Night Hop are super-friendly. And in 3 months, I am pretty darn certain that you'd get the basics of lindy hop and much more and be having a ton of fun :). (this is also very good exercise; I lost nearly two pounds after a week of swing camp, for instance!)
- Adam Lasnik
Peter Strom and Ramona Staffeld demonstrate social Lindy Hop - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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BeeLing, righini riprova and Anne Bouey liked this
Here's a charming video of two of my favorite instructors -- Peter and Ramona -- social dancing. This means nothing was pre-planned, choreographed, etc. All lead-and-follow. I love the flow and the laid-back playfulness in this video; it's what Lindy Hop is about to me (though I like faster-and-furious stuff, too).
- Adam Lasnik
(and it's much better than anti-social lindy hop!)
- Adam Lasnik
Where's the Adam dancing video?
- Anne Bouey
In hiding, thankfully! Still a few more years to go before I will be comfortable having myself lindy-taped :D
- Adam Lasnik
Frankie & Sylvia - GNDC 2006 - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Frankie was 92 in this video. As a gentleman, I'm not gonna say how old Sylvia was, but let's just say that she looks and dances much younger than she is ;). I just love watching their joyful musicality and relatively simple moves in this video. Due to a number of competitions and YouTuve videos and TV shows nowadays, many people (wrongly!) think that Lindy Hop is just throwing people around. It's not. :)
- Adam Lasnik
Inappropriate and unintentionally humorous headline lead of the day: "Jackson Memorial Sketchy..." - http://www.reuters.com/article...
The insertion of the word [memorial] *details* would have greatly helped here :)
- Adam Lasnik
I'm dancing+walking average of ~12 miles a day for 7 days. I guess that does seem like a rather crazy vacation :D.
righini riprova, BeeLing, Hutch Carpenter and 4 other people liked this
Wow - that adds up. Explain the dancing portion.
- Louis Gray
12 miles of dance = longest moonwalk ever !
- Mo Kargas
http://www.beantowncamp.com/. It's a lindy hop (swing dancing) camp held a bit north of Boston and it attracts people from many U.S. states and other countries. Around 4-5 hours of classes a day, communal (and yummy) meals, and then dancing from 9pm to 2am or so each night. And this ain't your father's leisurely ballroom dancin' either ;). And heh, Mo... that would be a heck of a moonwalk :P
- Adam Lasnik
And the walking is just to and from meals, our dorms, the classes, the beach, etc. :). Oh, and I'm very proud of myself: I brought my laptop but have spent <20 minutes a day on it and have done not a jot of work :).
- Adam Lasnik
but fun?
- Anne Bouey
oh yes! I'm getting to dance with amazingly talented and fun people. I'm likely losing a pound or more of fat while gorging on ice cream and brownies and pizza. And I'm getting a good brain workout, too. Being a lead is hard: listening to the music, thinking of the next move, responding to the follow's movement, keeping here away from painful movable and immovable objects, and so on. But it's hard AND fun! I recommend swing dancing to anyone and everyone :)
- Adam Lasnik
Sounds like a complete workout
- Mo Kargas
Indeed! This video should give you an idea - http://www.youtube.com/watch.... Many of the folks in it are my instructors at this camp :)
- Adam Lasnik
aww man! all those crazy jumps!! must be amazing to watch too :)
- righini riprova
Glad you're having tons of fun!! :)
- BeeLing
I just opened a bank account with First Arkansas Bank (http://www.firstarkansasbank.com/). 4.44% APY checking account w/ useful customer service (I checked!), no monthly fees, ATM fee reimbursement, etc. Caveat: The common-but-annoying 10 debit transaction requirement.
Alex Scoble liked this
I hate the thought of doing debit transactions (you lose consumer protections, also benefits of credit card cash back rewards)... but I figure I can find at least 10 small purchases to make a month on my debit card. Even if I have to do a last-minute $1 MP3 purchase or two, I think that's likely worth it given both the high interest rate AND the convenience of having just one core account (not having to shuttle money between a low/no-interest checking and a savings account, for instance). Anyway, just thought I'd share. :) (and yay... even though I'm sick today, I'm doing more than just eating & napping!)
- Adam Lasnik
I have to say I'm not impressed with my experience opening an account with the bank, though :( I supplied a ton of info online, including answering questions against data pulled from my credit report. You'd think that'd be enough to actually have my account opened and ready for use, but no. Instead, a while later, I got an (automated?) e-mail with -- get this -- a Word attachment --...
more...
- Adam Lasnik
maybe they have a deal with microsoft to get people to buy Word. :)
- David Vasileff
If so, they failed. I used the native "view on the Web" option in Gmail :P.
- Adam Lasnik
And you're certain that http://www.firstarkansasbank.com/ is legit and not a really well done phishing site, right?
- Tudor Bosman
Heh... er... {nervous laughter}... um... I'm gonna have to trust Chrome and Google Desktop on this one. And a good handful of other reputably-looking sites on the web linked to this. So, seriously, I think I'm safe. But it's a fascinating point to bring up.
- Adam Lasnik
Ack! This is not good. Just got my debit card, and have learned that what I understood to be the 10-debit-transactions a month requirement is actually a 10 POS (Point of Sale) requirement... which means that the vast majority of my card usage (for online purchases, subscriptions, utility bills, etc.) won't count towards the total. Looks like my relationship with this bank is going to be very, very shortlived <sigh>.
- Adam Lasnik
I'd be shocked if that were actually the case, Adam. That confusing wording is probably in there to make sure people don't think ATM withdrawals count for it. They make less money on true POS debit transactions than they do on "credit" transactions.
- Rocky
Travel tip: For voluntary bumps on United Airlines, don't accept their "free flight" offer. You can get a $400 UA instead, which is almost always better because...
Andrei M. Marinescu and Louis Gray liked this
1) You'll earn frequent flyer miles on that subsequent trip. 2) You can use it towards pretty much ANY flight on United, including international ones or trips to Hawaii or Alaska. and 3) Free trips in the 48 contiguous states are almost always worth less than $400. This credit-in-lieu-of-flight-certificate is nearly always approved without hassles; simply go up to the desk when they ask for volunteers to take a later flight and politely inquire whether they'll indeed be okay with issuing a voucher for credit. Note that in either case, the certificates granted are only good for one year from the date of issue.
- Adam Lasnik
(and yes, this actually works; just took a 4-hours-later flight today and got four $100 combinable certificates :)
- Adam Lasnik
the dollar value varies based on how long you have to wait for the flight. it can go up to $600 for 6 hours or more. but the free tickets on united aren't bad either -- they are among the most flexible in the industry. i've used the free flight vouchers for tickets that would have cost $700. us air's bump vouchers otoh are damn near useless.
- Rocky
Heading to swing dance camp tmrw! http://www.beantowncamp.com/. Likely little e-stuff from me in the meantime. y'all have fun!
righini riprova liked this
Swing tons! :D
- BeeLing
go! let's try this far from the net rehab! :)
- righini riprova
FB's beta'ing new way for users to publish to entire net, & actually handling this quite responsibly http://blog.facebook.com/blog.... Specifically, they make it very, very, very clear that "you will be sharing this with the entire internet" and, more importantly, they explain how to change that setting permanently for your account or on a per-item basis.
Nicholas James, Richard, Arnaud Fischer and 8 other people liked this
Facebook's made some missteps in the privacy realm, to be sure, but I think it's important to give them props when they do a good job designing a powerful albeit potentially-privacy-sensitive feature. And Miss Elle, entirely right. I'd say I'll just sleep on the plane, but that'd undoubtedly jinx me to be placed within the Screaming Baby Circle of Hell. Or stuffed next to Slad and Elad (http://www.bladam.com/main...).
- Adam Lasnik
I'm still a little confused.... First, I don't think the average facebook users reads their blog... so I'm not sure it'll be very, very, very clear to everyone. Second, will the default change for people once the beta is over? and what is the default on new accounts? This is a culture issue if you ask me. They're obviously attempting to shift the culture, guess its just a question of how quickly.
- Frankie Warren
Hey Frankie. Maybe I'm totally misreading FB, but I'm fairly sure that this won't be the default once the beta's over. Totally agree with you about the culture issue, though. I think FB is dragging a significant portion of their userbase towards Twitterdom/voyeurism, and as they say in the movies, perhaps "this can't end well." And Miss Elle, I'm not sure it's something worth panicking...
more...
- Adam Lasnik
I hear ya, which was the theme I was riffing off above. Then again, I remember that there was a massively vocal contingent of people screaming about the News Feed a couple of years ago, and my guess is that 90+% of FB'ers now love that aspect of the service (or have I grossly overestimated that?)
- Adam Lasnik
i fall into the "let twitter be twitter" camp. i use both extensively for very different purposes. twitter is intended for public consumption, fb is for a tighter circle. of course i don't post anything truly private on fb, but i'm just more comfortable with somethings not being truly public.
- Rocky
Miss Elle, agree on both counts. Rocky, I understand. One thing that's funny about FB, though, that many people don't realize or think about: you may publish something only for a group of friends, but when you later add a friend (or a boss or a relative), they may then see something you published when you didn't have them in mind when you wrote and posted it. No easy answers...
- Adam Lasnik
Facebook's ongoing identity crisis, twitter envy, and friendfeed wanna-be-ness -- it's annoying. They may compete well with friendfeed once they open up and turn on internal search, but they're doing it at the cost of the old social graph based Home Feed that quasi-intelligently reported profile changes and friendships formed. Now they're turning into FF's fat cousin - more meat, but less attractive features.
- tollie williams
I agree with Rocky; I have deliberately not linked my FB and Twitter accounts because I choose my status updates in each differently for the different audiences. To Adam, I would go farther and say that the News Feed is central to Facebook, at least for me. I don't have data to support or refute your 90% figure, but I agree having a timeline is central to the user experience and I would strongly suspect drives traffic. That may not have been well-understood at the time, but it seems to be core now.
- Scotty Perkins
Adam: for the record I read the Read Write Web article which reported bad information and later retracted... See more here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
- Frankie Warren
And now, to test out this wonderous new Friendfeed capability, I bring you... Kermit singing "Happy Feet" and also a beary fine rendition of "Simon and the Amazing Dancing Bear" :-)
muppets - happy feet.wma 797 KB
righini riprova and Anne Bouey liked this
aw, bummer, no inline play for WMA (hey, that rhymes!)
- Adam Lasnik
Thanks for that. Both songs were instantly placed on my smart phone which needed some new something to turn into ringtones.
- Miss Elle
Glad to be of service. And hard to go wrong with the Muppets!
- Adam Lasnik
Let’s End Short Man Syndrome Now! « My Six Cents - http://mysixcents.wordpress.com/2009...
Note to self: After brazenly staying out past 1am on a school night, don't succumb to compulsive urge to read reviews of movie you just saw. And check e-mail. And post to Friendfeed. All of that will still be there in the morning. Or, in this case, later in the morning.
Anika Malone and Josh Haley liked this
Seriously! The internet can be a major bed time delayer if you let it.
- Kelly Seiler
Saw the movie "Up" tonight in San Francisco with a friend. Darker than I expected, a bit too much fighting for my liking, but still very clever, funny, and quite touching.
righini riprova and April Buchheit liked this
Also, it was both cool and a bit freaky that my friend and I were the ONLY people in the very large theatre. I had never had that happen before, and am surprised given how popular Up has been (to my understanding). Granted, it was the 10:30pm showing on a school night, but... :)
- Adam Lasnik
Anyway, I'm curious to hear how many of you saw this movie and what you thought of it.
- Adam Lasnik
The movie was awesome! It was a bit sad at times and darker than I expected -- Jeanette and I saw it less than a week after her grandfather passed away, and so the flashbacks were particularly emotional.
- Tudor Bosman
My goodness :\. I'm sorry about Jeanette's grandfather. But also glad you still found the movie more enjoyable than painful.
- Adam Lasnik
Oh, and one other review'y note from me: I didn't find the musical score anywhere near as engaging as the one in Ratatouille (by the same talented composer). Didn't find it to be distracting either, which is a good thing, but also a rather low bar by Pixar/MichaelG standards IMHO.
- Adam Lasnik
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews - http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps...
This review made me laugh, but also made me a bit sad when I realized that, yes, movies like this will still get made because people will still (inexplicably) fork over money to see them .
- Adam Lasnik
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Patrik Johansson liked this
Photos from a few days in Stockholm in 2001. Yeah, yeah, I'm going through my back catalog. Not sure I'll ever post the photos from my junior high and high years, though, which I recently got digitized :D
- Adam Lasnik
Pluto going on a cruise... nice! :D
- BeeLing
Some nice pictures there!
- Patrik Johansson
Hey, thanks, Patrik! And judging from your last name... I take it you're Swedish? :)
- Adam Lasnik
Yes I am, born and raised in Stockholm (still living here) :)
- Patrik Johansson
Did you enjoy Stockholm then? Quite some time you were here I see.
- Patrik Johansson
Hey Patrik, Stockholm is absolutely one of my favorite cities! I have visited three times now... twice in conjunction with a dance camp (www.herrang.com) for a few days each time, and once when presenting at a Search conference (alas, when it was very cold, and I had only one day free). You can find many of my other Stockholm photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/adamlas... :-).
- Adam Lasnik
Hehe ok! Yeah it can be cold here sometime. I saw the photos, quite impressed of how many places you've visited! I have some photos of Sthlm myself, under "Public Album" if you want to check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/patrozo...
- Patrik Johansson
Speaking on Google's behalf @ Commonwealth Club in SF https://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/open.... Very honored & excited; have HUGE respect for this org!
Louis Gray, Atul Arora, Aaron D'Souza and 7 other people liked this
Hope to see some of you there :). I believe this'll be my first time doing any Google-related speaking in SF, and also my first time being a part of any Commonwealth Club events. For those of you who aren't familiar with this organization, you should just know that they have been around forever and have organized respectful and insightful panels that have included Presidents, famous authors, nobel prize winning scientists, world renowned economists, etc. And their events are broadcast on NPR. NOW you can understand why I am humbled and excited to be a part of one of this organization's events!
- Adam Lasnik
I gotta pay to hear you speak? Don't I get enough of that already? :) I may swing by to heckle. If not, we should grab a drink or something.
- Rocky
BTW, the link doesn't seem to be working.
- Rocky
if it's any consolation, Rocky, I'm happy to give you a 10% share of my speaking fees. Granted, they're zero (understandably so!), but it's the thought that counts, right? And I'll check out the link. Hmm.
- Adam Lasnik
URL fixed :)
- Adam Lasnik
Congrats on the speaking gig Adam. CC is a big deal in my book.
- AJ Kohn
Thanks, AJ!
- Adam Lasnik
Webmaster forums/groups: Which ones do you like & why? Non-English ones especially welcomed! :)
They both miss my favourite feature on web discussions: the nesed replies (indented :) but when i used them i found nice people on both, so the greatest part for a web forum has been done!
- righini riprova
ohhh... sorry, I mean, which *specific* ones do you like! :-)
- Adam Lasnik
Webmaster World...no brainer there. But I use forums a lot less than I used to. Logging in/registering is a hassle and the people who used to work hard @ forums moved to their blogs...some went to twitter/FF...where often u get answers quicker. Why :) ?
- Joe Devon
oh! I thought you were speaking about Google's webmaster's forums. We always need to read many, but the best is still Blogoscoped, they feature only the useful stuff.
- righini riprova
Alice - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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righini riprova liked this
Very, very trippy. I like how he's sync'd the movements with the beat!
- Adam Lasnik
he is the incredible Pogo, one of the new electronica best hopes :) http://www.guylumbardot.com/pogo-e-...
- righini riprova
Dancing Germans. Leiderhosen. And Chrome. Truly a weird, wacky, winning combination! http://www.youtube.com/profile...
Matt Cutts and Karen Wickre liked this
Check out the other videos on the page, too. Whoa! :D
- Adam Lasnik
Hat tip: Nick Baum (http://friendfeed.com/nickbaum).
- Adam Lasnik
Kaiser (health organization) has its faults, but their pharmacy is cool. They've been filling one of the pills I take 2x daily into 60-capsule bottles, which has made for a hassle on my end always having to order refills. But this time was different :)
In the prescription note, I randomly asked, "Hey, could you kindly put more pills in the bottle?" The package that arrived today: 200 pills. Same $10 price tag. Neato! I think I'm gonna try that at the bank. Me-to-teller: "Hmm... could you include a few extra $20s at no additional charge? I'd really appreciate it." Then again, her stunned look might not be worth jail time. I'm guessing tellers might not have a sense of humor about this stuff.
- Adam Lasnik
We've paid $15 each for two pregnancies (including labor, delivery and recovery) with Kaiser. And the care in all respects has been wonderful.
- Brett Kelly
I used to have health care through Kaiser, but they pulled out of NC about ten years ago and so I had to switch to BlueCross. I miss Kaiser.
- Miss Elle
Pretty impressive, Brett. And I'll tell the Kaiser hi for you next time, Miss Elle :)
- Adam Lasnik
Falafel & Kebab (2/5) - http://www.yelp.com/biz...
"A sad poem detailing my experience with Falafel & Kebab: Tender, juicy, seasoned meat That's what I was really hoping to eat But flavorless and dry's what I got instead "This is a lousy combo plate!"…"
- Adam Lasnik
I am resigned to never finding a doener kebab like I have enjoyed in Germany <sigh>
- Adam Lasnik
LAST time, I promise*. Pick a new AdamDomainName, earn great karma. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s... (*for at least 2.718 yrs).
For those of you who already saw this on Facebook, no need to vote again or whip me with a wet e-noodle. And yes, I think this might be the most indecisive I've ever been about something. Though I'm not totally sure about that.
- Adam Lasnik
I really wish my roommate and her boyfriend weren't so television obsessed. I'd love to ditch Comcast and go with a responsible ISP + TMO $10 phone service... saving us, oh, >$120/month.
Netflix ought to solve their problem. That and Hulu.
- Jaemi Kehoe
via IM
Latest joy-of-joys: Comcast phone service died. Two tech guys came out a few days later & my roommate kindly stayed home from work. They apparently pontificated about all sorts of random things, noting that the signal strength was weak, suggesting we might want to buy some sort of signal strengthener thingy blah blah blah. Long story short, two hours later, they left... and still no dial tone. Repair guys apparently never actually bothered to check whether the phone worked. COMMONSENSE FAIL!
- Adam Lasnik
I wish, Jaemi. I've not been able to persuade in that regard. It's not live TV.
- Adam Lasnik
so....they....LIKE commercials?
- Jaemi Kehoe
via IM
heh!
- Adam Lasnik
I regularly see "Composed Salad" on menus. Why never "Decomposed salad"?
Or maybe "Stressed Out Salad"?
- Adam Lasnik
I see deconstructed salads from time to time.
- Rocky
What is a composed salad?
- Rochelle
a salad that has its shit together, ready to make a speech without screwing up its lines? Technically, every salad is a "decomposed salad" since it begins decomposing the moment you take it from the parent plant and/or prepare it for consumption.
- alphaxion
I'm with you Rochelle. I think it may be a weird west coast thing.
- Miss Elle
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is.... This, however, does not yet answer my question :P
- Adam Lasnik
Today, I sent a respectful but firm note of disappointment to a very senior Googler re: a project he contributed to. After sending, I thought... holy crap, what did I just do?!?
Amund Tveit, Tamar Weinberg, Derek Coatney and 13 other people liked this
I think it's a testament to this person and this company that -- at 9:51pm -- he replied with a *very* kind note and sincere appreciation for my feedback, and promised to get back with me later. This really made my night. It's a big company with sometimes big problems. But the core bottom-up culture is still there.
- Adam Lasnik
stones
- Rick Bucich
and no, I don't plan to go into details about the project; when I am delighted by Google stuff, I am happy to point it out publicly. When there's a hope I can bring about positive change, I work hard to do that from the inside. And if someday I lose hope that I can make a difference in this way, then it's time for me to move on.
- Adam Lasnik
Didn't Sollozzo invite Luca Brasi to that bar with a very kind note?
- Erik Dafforn
Heh, Rick! Well, I will say this: I think in the future, just to be safe, I will save a draft and send next day. And Erik, okay, now you're scaring me :P.
- Adam Lasnik
One thing I am thankful for doing right: I sent the note just to this fellow, not to his team, not to a large mailing list. Ranting -- especially sometimes semi-public ranting -- can feel good, but in the long term, I don't think it typically makes things better.
- Adam Lasnik
I agree with the save-draft "rule" :-). And I agree it's awesome to work at a company where we can do this and where it can make a difference in a good way.
- John Mueller
my drafts: http://www.harrr.org/rrr... lol :) not many people are able to make profit out of a sincere message. I hope you found one of them!
- righini riprova
Dear lazyweb: If I want to park $x0,000 somewhere reasonably safe & fluid (or at least not tie it up for more than a year), can I expect to do better than what Ally bank (http://www.ally.com/index.html - formerly GMAC) is offering? 2.5% for a 9 month CD with no penalties for early withdrawal. Or 2.8% for a 1-year CD
And yeah, they're FDIC insured, so I'm not worried about the safety of my money with 'em.
- Adam Lasnik
(still, having seen 5%+ CD rates growing up, it's rather sobering catching myself get excited about a 2.8% rate!)
- Adam Lasnik
When I was 12 years old I put some money into an 8% 12-month CD. Ahh, the good old days.
- Kevin Fox
2.5% sounds pretty good right now for a secure short term investment. I checked the web sites of a few of the local banks here in CA and didn't even find any CD rates that were even close to what you found.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Make sure to check moneyaisle.com for the best CD rate.
- Arvind Sundararajan
Yep, Jeff. Question becomes, though... am I willing to have this money or a part of it at risk at all? If so, then -- as I've been reading -- I could probably invest it in a *pretty* safe (but obviously not principal-guaranteed) fund of some sort that would likely earn substantially more than 2.8%/year. And Arvind, thanks for the site! (though it didn't find anything higher than Ally's rate).
- Adam Lasnik
@Kevin That was probably around the same time my cousin had an 18% mortgage!!
- Cyrus Lendvay
I prefer to bank with ING direct, but I cannot see what is wrong with your idea. 'Course if I had that kind of money to invest, I would look at social justice lending for microloans to developing countries. Becoming a minor venture capitalist has its perks. I've only got $x,000 invested that way but haven't had a loan default and get lots of warm fuzzies.
- Miss Elle
Ah, Jennifer, believe me, I've been a huge fan of microloans and have supported Kiva.org for many years! :). This is on top of that.
- Adam Lasnik
I came up with my own answer/solution, which I've posted here :) http://friendfeed.com/thatada...
- Adam Lasnik
RateBrain has a really clean UI with rates updated daily: http://ratebrain.com
- Maneesh
Aside -- @Maneesh, I read RateBrain as "Rate My Brain" and since we already have Hot or Not and Rate My Prof and Rate My Body, I naturally figured that it was only a matter of time before Rate My Brain was created. :: giggle ::
- Miss Elle
Jacob and righini riprova liked this
oooo... inserting an audio clip via Noiseriver (http://www.noiseriver.com) *does* work! :) (and this is a tiny piece I wrote ages ago, so truly no ethical/legal qualms on the insert :P)
- Adam Lasnik
hat tip: Christopher Harley (http://friendfeed.com/pdxcabb...).
- Adam Lasnik
COOL!!
- righini riprova
Hey cool, have to give it a try.
- Jacob
Web layout survey: Regarding # of columns per site/blog, which do you prefer (1-3), and why / in what circumstances?
Charlie Anzman and Daniel Schildt liked this
My blog, for instance, is in one column (http://www.bladam.com), but it seems many sites nowadays have 2 columns (1 for content, 1 for nav)... and some 3 or more (to enable 1 for content, 1 for nav, and 1 for widgets and such). Curious to hear your thoughts :)
- Adam Lasnik
I prefer one column layouts only if the width is defined so that text don't go all over the screen (it's generally bad for readability if the length of line is too long). 2 or 3 (or even more) columns are good for many situations but only if the site is well designed for clear and simple navigation and reading.
- Daniel Schildt
Daniel, you hit upon a fascinating point that I hadn't thought to include in this thread... specifically, that about fixed width (particularly to avoid the problem you've noted) vs. fluid width (to avoid having people gripe that there's too much white space / not enough text on their big monitor). My temptation is to have a three column layout for both my new blog and my new sites, but with the nav + widget columns fixed and the middle fluid, figuring, well, people can always resize their browser, right? :)
- Adam Lasnik
I prefer single column layouts such as those on my blog. (http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com) Navigation can be in a bar at the top and bottom of the column. Makes more sense and is less cluttered that way. Subscription sites can have two columns, but that is because subscribers need access to certain tools while reading site content. Case in point: FriendFeed.
- Miss Elle
Adam, that could be it. I think your approach could be good, but just have even some kind of max-width of text elements so that things stay in even some limits (while it could be possible that someone would be streaming your website in the one-row LED screen, I find that might not be the normal usage case;).
- Daniel Schildt
I know how to make a min-width, but not sure how to make a max width in 3 column CSS layouts. Something to check into. And Miss Elle, I take it you're not a fan of widgets, eh? :D (shoutboxes, music players, etc.)
- Adam Lasnik
@Adam Lasnik - You figure correctly. I find those to be annoying "noise". If I wanted to comment, I'd leave a comment, not a shout in a box. I'm all for creatively integrating feeds from different sites, but to do so in widgets that stand out just says MySpace to me. And don't even get me started on music. What is this, 1998?
- Miss Elle
Not a direct answer but uncluttered and fast loading
- Charlie Anzman
My movie blog and business blog have three columns because I need to fit more things on there, but my personal one just has two cause I don't.
- Shevonne
I read your blog in my feed reader because it doesn't render on Opera :-). I've found that so many blogs have so much clutter, widgets & gadgets & all, that it takes **FOREVER** to load them. So I either ignore them (and instead focus on the discussions around their posts) or read them in my feed reader instead. In other words: the layout is less important to me than the...
more...
- John Mueller
Gah, sorry my blog still doesn't work in Opera :(.
- Adam Lasnik
1 col + small sidebar (like actual FriendFeed)
- righini riprova
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