This is clearly not my cat. If this was my cat he's have one arm shoved down into the printer trying to tear up all the internal whirling bits with his bare claws.
- Soup
Too Funny! Reminds me of the San Mateo Cat Shelter where one of the cats loves to sleep on top of the laster printer where the paper comes out...
- Greg Lato
1600+ to beat the FFundercats live chat thread. I think with this real time now on all threads we're going to see some truly epic comment numbers.
- Simon Wicks
Ivan, no the picture speaks for itself. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Petr, I have no idea what you mean, but thank you. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
@Kol .. :] that, partially, might have been the purpose.... I don't know it exactly either. :] .. was I reflecting on a cat under the fax, and that it is hard to fax that way ... /?:] ... "underfaxing at its worst" ..
- Petr Buben
there ya have me ! :] .... see, to be honest with you, i saw this pic couple days ago, but i let it go, without posting it ..... what does that make me? :]
- Petr Buben
even a flat cat... faxes just can't handle the hair. You'd have to shave the cat first, else the hair will burn and stick to the drum... a mess! (I am extrapolating from transparencies, mind, i don't have access to a cat to test)
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Hehe, Joelle. This is now tied for the 'likes' top stop. One more then, hehe. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Hehe, Greg. Blimey! Erm, is that not far from 500 likes now? ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Bloody marvelous, Kol. Wish I could like it again... too cute (and help u to 500 likes).
- Roberto Bonini
I couldn't believe it when I logged on from the morning over posting it and saw it was at something 200 likes! You all have a strange fetish with cats and fax machines, hehe. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Am I the only one who saw this and their first thought was - My goodness did someone break that cats neck? It still freaks me out a little
- Steve C
Steve, it does look a little out of place, but cats are pretty bendy. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
They fax much better if you flatten them first. What?
- Kevin Pedraja
So we can put this post to rest now. :-) 505 likes final count, wow! :-D Good night all!
- Kol Tregaskes
My like is the last one so far :) - 509 afaik
- getalifejerk
did 3 people really un-like this? now at 506. wtf (edit: uh, oh, yeah, me and 2 + 506 others makes 509. dammit, jim, i'm an artist, not a mathematician)
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
One of the best funny cat pictures I've seen! :-)
- John Collis
Kristian, it appears to be. Hehe, John.
- Kol Tregaskes
ای بابا این پیشول بی خیال نمی شود، بابا پاشو برو دنبال یه بازی دیگه ، از هفته پیش تا حالا تو فکس ولو شدی حوصله ات سر نرفته، پاشو اقلا بپر رو کیبوردی چیزی
- Maryaminaa
It's really only social convention which regards it as inappropriate, same with Xeroxing it, like one does with their b__tocks. Wait are we still talking about cats cats here or...
- sofarsoShawn
OMGosh 700+ likes now!! LOL. Thank you all 702 of you. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
I don't think Google Wave will be ready until later this year. You can fill out a form to be notified when it's done: https://services.google.com/fb...
- Kenneth
You bet I filled out that form. I just figured there must be a sandbox somewhere with happy geeks already playing around.
- Ryan
Google I/O attendees are in the sandbox. I expect Google to begin to invite other developers within the next month or so. They have to open it up to interested developers in order to get extensions and cool apps made before launch. Wouldn't surprise me if they have an invite scheme over the summer too and then publicly launch it later in the year.
- Brandon Titus
Just listened to their video. Well....
- Wins Fern
...or know a developer. I assume developers will be able to create multiple accounts in the sandbox, otherwise how would you go about testing anything? Any developers out there who need an extra tester, feel free to message me.
- Dave
Seesmic, Friendfeed and Twitter next to each other in a test version of Twhirl. Adding tons of Friendfeed experience improvements in there, Marco rocks.
Is twitter's api actually back up at 50 req/hr?
- Shawn Farner
The old Twhirl works for me in linux for me, it just won't remember my password.
- Daniel E. Renfer
from twhirl
Yes Marco does. Twhirl is becoming my info hub. And if Twitter dies, who cares I'm sure Pownce, Jaiku or whatever could be swapped in
- Tris Hussey
from twhirl
Recently my cousin's head was run over by a car. This is what's left of her helmet. My cousin completely survived because of this helmet. Please think of this before riding a bike without a helmet next time!
This happened to a friend of mine at the beginning of the month. He didn't do so good in the accident, but the helmet obviously saved his life. Thankfully is on his way home tomorrow: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit...
- Steve Lacey
I used to ride my bike without the helmet even though it is mandatory in Chennai, India. But after reading this I am not even going to the next street in my bike without helmet.
- Sudar
I never wear a helmet. When hearing things like this, I always think of this article.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1.... In the Netherlands no one wears a helmet. It seems safe to me.
- Peter Stuifzand
I was hit while riding to work in summer 2006 & did not want anyone to touch my helmet at all costs. If my brain was scrambled, I did not want anyone to touch my egg:) I highly recommend a helmet especially if you think you will not need one! Mine was almost the same color too & manufacturer, but there is no conspiracy there:)
- Roney Smith
Bicyclists/motorcyclists that don't wear helmets are better called future organ donors
- Brian Sullivan
Thanks for sharing. I ride often at traffic time between cars. always wear my helmet...itsg good to know that It does work :)
- jonathan
from twhirl
Wow, glad to hear your friend is doing well after that. I agree, helmets save lives. Regardless, I've many intentional close-calls by drivers who don't want to share the road. Unfortunately, this is the common attitude where I live (southern US).
- pete
we wear helmets for everything: mtb, snowboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding & even surfing - skulls are fragile why not put a protective layer around it (i also try real hard to not ride on streets - a high percentage of drivers are oblivious to bike riders)...
- mike "glemak" dunn
I always ride in my helmet and stay to bike lanes as much as possible. Nice to know the safety tools work. Now, if I can just avoid that NYPD cop with a penchant for knocking people off their bikes. Hopefully, he won't transfer to LAPD.
- Jason Toney
Peter Stuifzand, my cousin would be dead if she did not wear her helmet. That article is BS. Wear your helmet!
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
Point blank. You are a moron if you ride without a helmet. Sorry, but that's true and you're just going to play into Darwinian theory should you continue to ride without one. Any 'real' cyclist (e.g - you've been hit by a car - and yes, I have been) will tell you this without reservation. Helmets work without a doubt.
- AJ Kohn
I survived a nasty motorcycle crash in my youth and would also be dead without that helmet - which cracked in 2 like an egg (that would have been my head, as the nurse aptly put it!).
- Susan Beebe
A friend who's a cop refers to motorcycles as donorcycles whenever she sees someone riding without a helmet. I figure that applies for bicycles, too.
- ha3rvey (needs soup)
I was on the way to work Monday morning while it was raining, when the third car in front of me spun out of control and flipped twice into a ditch. When I pulled over to help her out she was just fine. She only had a scratch on her left shoulder from the broken window and was not hurt anywhere else. THE REASON: She was wearing her seat belt. It's nice to hear that these devices are actually helping us!
- David Cook
Awesome. I ride my bike to work everyday and I see a lot of people with no helmets on. I don't know how they do it.
- Clint Ecker
Wow! I wear mine! Didn't for years - I was lucky I guess. Thanks for posting that!
- matthew hunt
OMG... Jesse, do you have a link other than here on FF? I have friends whose kids refuse to wear theirs, and seeing this may help.
- Cyndy
If it's nice enough to ride, I probably won't be bothering with the human-powered bike any longer. I always wear a helmet on my gas-powered bike.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
As long as we won't have mountains, we Dutch will not wear those things. Otherwise we won't be able to recognise the tourists on bikes.
- Ton Zijp
Thanks for sharing - I had a mishap with a car, wasn't wearing a helmet at the time, was lucky. If they don't see you, it doesn't matter either way. Wear the helmet!
- Rick Bucich
This isn't as extreme as this but when I fell off my bike onto a sidewalk and broke my arm, I thought I was fine for a while. Later, my dad noticed that the whole front of my helmet was all scratched up and the visor in front was torn off! I realized that if I wasn't wearing my helmet on the 2 minute trip down the road, I probably wouldn't be typing this comment right now! Not that I'd be dead but I would have suffered some head damage, limiting my ability to do most things.
- Kevin Lyons
Helmets for cyclists are mandatory in Australia. Still gives me the shudders when I'm travelling and see bareheaded bicyclists on the roads.
- Kate Foy
BEX, I love how your profile bit says "I can kick your ass!" :) Not only do I believe that 100%, but I also think it might be enjoyable for some reason.
- Josh Haley
I'm sure that I could get a little whimper out of you ;)
- BEX
Yep, I was right. I'll be in my bunk.
- Josh Haley
I love how cats pose when initmidated with admirers- not this one though - and hey we are looking through lens of 2nd order paparazi (paparazi of paparazi !!!)
- Rahul Deodhar
نمي دونم حرفامو مي فهمي رفيق يا نه ولي خيلي جالبه
- ramezanifar
This is my most "liked" picture to date, I believe. Long live the LOLcat!
- Josh Haley
FriendFeed has been almost completely blocked in Iran as far as we can tell. We have a large number of very active Iranian users, and we noticed a steep decline in activity yesterday. Graph below.
این نمودار نشاندهنده افت فرندفید به دلیل بسته شدن آن در ایران است
- Mycaptain
Bret: Is this based on IP numbers located in Iran, or actual activity from those users? If it's IP based, it'd be interesting to see the activity on a user basis and see if they've been able to route around the blocking.
- Ken Sheppardson
If Twitter were blocked and FriendFeed weren't, I'd expect an uptick in FriendFeed activity, not a 92% drop.
- Kevin Fox
I.e. given all the users who've previously accessed the site from an Iran IP number, how many have been active from different numbers in the past 2 days.
- Ken Sheppardson
Instead of "liking" this, shouldn't we have an "unlike" button?
- Steven Melfi
:( Bret: According to Stephen fry, these are the iran proxies: 218.128.112.18:8080 218.206.94.132:808 218.253.65.99:808 219.50.16.70:8080 . Can you track these IPs?
- Roberto Bonini
I knew this day was coming. Too bad.
- Robert Scoble
Steven - same feeling here. I always feel weird "liking" bad stories on FF
- Mike Bracco
How does traffic from China look? Or North Korea?
- τorƍue
like for spread but not like for the situation
- Imprenditore
I wonder what the international community can do about stuff like this. Eventually the "bad guys" will lose.
- Michiel Sikkes
Hopefully, we'll never see a graph like this for Turkey...
- Onur Şentüre
that's because the government has blocked access to friendfeed,twitter,facebook,youtube and ... after election and after protests in Iran cities !
- Farshad
Man... :( That's really a corrupt government. Hope it gets better soon.
- Peter
Kheyzaran mentioned over the weekend that both Twitter and FF were blocked for Iran starting I believe on Friday. He is using a proxy when possible to keep us updated
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Bret, any analysis about how many people unable to access FF directly are still able to access it via proxy?
- Daniel Dulitz
Daniel: Well, we are still getting a bunch of Farsi comments and posts. They may be Persians from outside Iran or from Iranians using proxies. We don't have a detailed analysis breaking those down at this point.
- Bret Taylor
Watching the "guerrilla cyberwarfare" aspect of the elections and reactions has been fascinating. Iran's universities are obviously full of resourceful, passionate geeks.
- John Craft
this is really bad. i hope there's some resolution to this. the people or iran have shown a lot of strength and courage to protest the illegitimacy of recent events. i don't think this will stop things
- Cee Bee
Is it possible that the same folks from Iran that are active on Friendfeed are the ones out protesting?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
please help us , we are under attack ,change friendfeed logo if you can
- فرزاد
make a room for us, invite your friends we will fill it with latest news
- Farshad
I'm completely for having a fair vote, but I'm not sure that I'd want to try and align FriendFeed with a particular candidate, which is what a green logo would imply.
- Kevin Fox
Many iranians using proxies to access FF. and therefore their IPs changes to fake IP .
- آدمیرال
MohammadReza: Maryam's mom is still able to call her relatives and friends in Tehran, so they are keeping some voice traffic open, if not all.
- Robert Scoble
@Kevin, totally understandable.
- EricaJoy
from IM
If Iran thinks they have nothing to fear, then why block Friendfeed?
- Frode Stenstrøm
Frode: because the government is like China: they believe that by retarding the flow of information they will reduce the threat of protests and governmental overthrow.
- Robert Scoble
Very reminiscent of the prelude to the fall of the Shah
- Alan Morris
I don't speak Persian, so I don't know all the searches, but there are still (luckily) a lot of Persian users posting: http://friendfeed.com/search.... If you are Persian and looking for updates, try our search engine to find the few users who still have access.
- Bret Taylor
Frode: and in Iran's case, they are run by conservative religious authorities and they don't like the fact that they are not in control of information flow like they used to be. They like to think they can still control information sources and, since they can't, they try to block places where their citizens can go to share information.
- Robert Scoble
is it a joke? iranian users seems the %90 of friend feed. it could not be real!
- Fırat DEMİREL
Firat: There are no units on the vertical axis of the chart.
- Ken Sheppardson
Firat: This is a chart of traffic from Iran, not of FF's total traffic.
- Kevin Fox
Firat, i doubt that this graph is a percentage graph... probably more likely that it's measuring hits, sessions, or total data transfered (mb, kb, etc)
- Chris Heath
Kevin: what impact did this have on FF's overall traffic?
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Iran is the #6 country for FriendFeed in terms of page views per day.
- Bret Taylor
Thanks all for answers. i told that it could not be real.. :) excuse me, i ve just read Bret's notice and looked at breaking point. i saw what i've missed before.. bad news for ff and iran.. :(
- Fırat DEMİREL
These statistics are incredible, especially the normally heavy useage of FF in Iran.
- Curt Mercadante
Bret Taylor, we can tag our pix and vids about iran election by an english keyword such as 'iran' or 'iranelection'. I think it will help to ff non-persian users to find out more about unrests in iran.
- آدمیرال
Iran restored cell phone service Sunday that had been down in the capital since Saturday. But Iranians still could not send text messages from their mobile phones, and the government increased its Internet filtering in an apparent attempt to undercut opposition voices. Social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter were also not working.
- Üstün Üzüm
martin: those words are not mine actually from a news article from washinton post.
- Üstün Üzüm
On twitter people are retweeting the IPs and ports of unblocked proxies, can we do something like that here?
- Canageek
martin, i'm from iran. twitter is blocked. what evidence you wanna? screenshot!?
- آدمیرال
yes Canageek. we use proxies for tweeting
- آدمیرال
Authorities blocking the internet are just reinforcing solidarity between people, can't they understand ?
- Stanislas Jourdan
Stanislas: not to mention they encourage their smartest and richest people to leave (the ones who have technical skills). There's a reason why Silicon Valley has 10,000 or more Iranians living here. Their government sucks and the people are getting tired of it. Of course if their government was great I would never have met my wife (who grew up in Tehran). So, there is good to come out of a crappy government! :-)
- Robert Scoble
it has always seemed to me that the iranian user base is ENORMOUS here. wow. unbelievable.
- edythe
It is interesting how much civil unrest that is brewing across the globe towards their governments. The knee jerk reactions in attempting to block certain websites shows how much they didn't expect the net to become such a widespread conduit for cutting through the bs and informing those that wish to know. I wish those who take a stand all the best.
- alphaxion
Another way for those that are in Iran is to access through Netvibes (but I don't know if it works or if it's blocked too), adding Friendfeed, Gmail and so on such as modules
- Roberto
Thanks for sharing this, Bret. It's valuable evidence of what's going on, evidence which wouldn't have been available even a few years ago.
- Michael Nielsen
Very interesting...so much for democracy and voting rights in Iran...
- freedom fighter mom
If anybody in Iran feels up to it, can you temporarily disable your proxy and run a traceroute to friendfeed.com and twitter.com then post the results here?
- EricaJoy
Bret and Paul, can you let us know if the traffic comes back, which would tell us they've unblocked FriendFeed?
- Robert Scoble
Robert: absolutely, we will let everyone know when it comes back up
- Bret Taylor
from email
Steven: You Like that it was posted, not the content of the post.
- Tanath
Bret, thanks for sharing the info about the dive. Shame, but what could we have expected from the Iranian status quo?
- Jon Osterholm
البته یه چیز هم هست اونکه بعد از فیلترینگ همه با آی پی غیر ایرانی می ان فرندفید و برای همنی آمارشون اینجا ثبت نمیشه ... وگرنه فکر نمی کنم از لحاظ تعداد نفراتی که میومدن کم شده باشه ... بلکه هم بیشتر
- HΛMΣD ƧΛFΛ
Yes, it happend and we have to use proxy to access friendfeed. Look at democracy in Iran...
- Zahra (raoros)
The coversations and comments here are educational.
- Seek Ground
Good luck to all of you trying to get around the censorship. I hope the big sites are doing what they can to help out.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Looking at the potential of this event in the future for numerous causes is mind-boggling. Really amazing.
- Charlie Anzman
Come to think of it, does FF have a presence in China? I'd imagine it's blocked there. I've seen Chinese on here, but never sure if that's from China or speakers outside.
- anna sauce
Yes, Friendfeed is blocked in Iran. Right now the papers and TV channels here are controlled by the government and our access to satellite channels is blocked too. Friendfeed and Twitter are quite vital for us now. Our main source of exchanging information and news is Friendfeed. Via Friendfeed we let everyone know that where people need help and where to go and how to help them and...
more...
- Selma
Nope, they have blocked all https addresses, we have had to sign in to Friendfeed via anti-filters for the past few months.
- Selma
its a shame. it was one the main media we used to inform ppl. thats why they filtered it. now many users cant sign in
- Myri∂m
Can't we "help" in some way? Providing proxies, I don't know, the kind of stuff pirates do. Pirates, and people trying to make a Revolution happen....
- Zackatoustra
It may not be long before Turkey joins the party.
- Sarp Tüzün
I just spoke with my friend Andres, the main BBC correspondent for the Middle East/Afghanistan, and he mentioned the web is being fire walled in Iran much the same as the the "Great Firewall" during last year's Olympics in China.
- sofarsoShawn
The Iranian websites that people used to exchange information about the election protests in Iran are under cyber-attacks by the government forces and from anonymous sources. Many of them are down right now. These Iranian websites were our few last remaining channels to inform people. What can we do about that? Is there anyone out there who can help us with this?
- emin
i was 53rd active user in friendfeed until this filtering. now i can open FF with proxies and if i can fine. a Vpn but many Vpn here come from companies that have relations with security services, i thunk they allow us to bypass filternig and then, they will arrest who has wrote against their goals
- خیزران Never Changed
Can't we transfer the data/databases of the sites you, iranian guys, use to any new domain we could buy? I want to help. Not by throwing rocks to "security service" forces, but, at least, by making possible for what YOU have to say to go public, worldwide.
- Zackatoustra
FF is a useful website for Iranian People to get reliable information about demonstration against presidential election.
- پارسـا
so so sorry for iran people... I hope they will win...
- Tanaydin Sirin
and Now Yahoo messenger and google talk blocked in iran :((((
- پارسـا
Selma: 1- I don't use a proxy but clearing all but one (deleting them all logs me out) instance of each friendfeed.com cookie name and refreshing the page always solves this for me in Firefox. Has never happened on Lunascape or IE. Good luck.
- Alexandros Georgiadis
google block fftogo for iranian users!!!
- ★amin.m★
The reason I ask is because if you can email a post, then try sending it to share@friendfeed and also to YourUserName@friendfeed. Then when someone comments you'll receive an email about it and you can comment back to the thread via email as well.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
@Alexandros Georgiadis:for frienddeck.com I see this:You are accessing this page from a forbidden country! but dev.ctor.org/f2p worked! thank you :)
- ★amin.m★
from MojiPage
+ don't use your ISP's DNS server, verify your Firewall, search for rootkits.. + If you really wanna use Tor, be 'mobile', check the onion's status, don't be too confident, continue to use encrypted protocols & 'mobile' ports. At least, read Tor's docs and articles about Tor & privacy/security..
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
now chat like gmail or yahoo messenger are blocked too
- egza
for me,yahoo messenger is not blocked yet!
- ★amin.m★
from f2p
Alexandros: Frienddeck could work for certain parts - posts and queries against user accounts are proxied through the App Engine, searches are direct against Friendfeed so they could probably not work.
- Paul Kinlan
We wish the people of Iran well in these difficult times
- Marc
Not good at all. Best wishes to the Iranian FFers. I hope this whole mess gets cleared up quickly and with as little violence as possible
- Kamilah Gill
definitely DON'T LIKE this... >_< ...would love to be able do more than retweeting proxies
- Daniele
Best regards from Chile to all iranian people, we know a lot about bad government and human rights. Good luck, strength and courage to all of you.
- Roberto Arancibia
It's to bad there is such attempts to block free flow of information, how long will it be before there is more amazing differences happening? Such limits, hmm.
- Raymond Marr aka Knatchwa
They have to keep the militants in check. Thank goodness for the pipes that were broken.
- tony
Interesting censorship- same can happen in America - I would like to talk to you abt Friendfeed and bringing over some large groups do you have time?
- JanSimpson
I've seen those censorship about FriendFeed (Iran). Do you know some interesting and objective blogposts about it?
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
from email
And China now has a similar blockage. You should also check on it.
- Kenyth
Sometimes we forget how easy we have it than other countries. But until people revolt & I mean a HUGE revolution injustices will still go on.
- Gabriella Sannino
che jaleb , oonvaght por comment dartarin feed kodoome? bebinim mishe feed 2khtare mardom e farzad davan davan ro be oon beresoonim?
- HΛMΣD ƧΛFΛ
from IM
Lately I've found that quite a few clients are still running IE6!! They've updated since the discovery but IE6 made it quite hard to proof certain web projects because of it's rendering bugs...
- Michelle
Don't forget IE7. It's just barely better than IE6.
- Matt Mastracci
Many companies feel that moving from IE to an alternate browser (Mozillla) is not worth the investment/ IT/ training. Big mistake in my opinion.
- David Lanning
Our web dept is allowed to use Firefox (and other browsers for testing) but the company doesn't "officially" like everyone using them. They're very much Microsoft fans & don't believe IE is bad in any way... To them us web geeks are just complainers when it comes to IE.
- Michelle
Matt's right: IE7 is a clunky POS as well. The only thing good about it is that they fixed a few CSS bugs, bumped up the GC thresholds, and fixed the PNG transparency issue. Oh, and they somehow managed to build tabs into the chrome using C++/win32 code and *still* made them freakishly slow to render.
- Joel Webber
There are a lot of complex reasons why people *can't* upgrade (IT policy, legacy intranet apps, etc). But the reason so many people don't think it's worth the trouble is that we all bend over backwards to support it, and we simply don't *try* features that would perform poorly on IE. It's slow enough on the apps that are out there, but what people often don't think about are the apps and features that never see the light of day because they're unimplementable on that foul monstrosity.
- Joel Webber
Every version of IE should die horrible obsolete deaths. Unless of course you enjoy re-writing everything you code for the web. Seriously, has anyone ever did any html which displays perfectly the first time on all browsers including IE on the first shot?
- Fry Ink
IE's a BROWSER?? Isn't that the same for example? /sarcasm
- Robert Sanchez Jr
We have had our Application Control software blocking it for 6 months now
- Simon Bryan
Joel, have seen and heard people *justifying* that if you make things ok for IE6, they'll run like anything on modern browsers- so much for not trying features that'll perform poorly on IE6. I think the proper way to get around this problem is to get the usage % to such a dismal low that lethargic sysads will have no option but to finally invest their 'savings' from an era of not developing applications for modern browsers, into upgrading them.
- Ashish Tiwari
Very cool product. Would have been nice if they were clearer about what the product actually is on the home page - had to dig thru to the products page to know that it was a solvent you apply to a surface. Wasn't sure if the product was a solvent/coating or if it was in the marker. I would buy this.
- Kamath (नमः)
This product has been around for awhile, right? I could have sworn I've seen this stuff in non-web media.
- Zach Landes
Zach, yeah I'm sure but very cool! :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Oh, definitely Kol. If I were building one of those trendy silicon valley offices (kinda like the one in the photo...)I'd totally have to add this.
- Zach Landes
Or if I were a parent of a 3 year old. My sis & her husband just bought a house. They could so use this given my niece's affinity for crayons.
- Kamath (नमः)
the walls in the study rooms of our new library are like this.
- Marie is merry.
nice! One of the walls of our conference room is coated with a material that makes it a whiteboard as well. Very handy
- Tamara
It's uncomfortable while drawing in the conner
- Tony
I was looking at this just yesterday for the room we'll be homeschooling in. I'm excited to try it.
- Heather Solos
Ironically, I just finished making a homemade white board with clear acrylic and some hardboard and some woodworking. If only I had know, I could saved a lot of work....
- Jim
This is so cool. I was actually talking with someone yesterday about having a room with whiteboard in my house. So this was very useful. THanks!
- *Tiffany Diamond*
Just wait til the late 2010s, when nanotechnologically-based paints appear. You will be able to paint computer screens onto any surface in your home.
- J. D. Ebberly
You can now disable comments on your FriendFeed entries using the "Edit" menu. When you disable comments, all existing comments will remain, but no new comments will be allowed.
You can use the feature to stop conversations that are getting out of hand, or to post entries for which you don't want any discussion. Likes will continue to be allowed when comments are disabled.
- Bret Taylor
Chris: yeah, like when you're trying to use the first few comments for your own commentary. It looks like you can. Eeeeeeeeee!
- Mark Trapp
I think it helps those people who feel they are being made fun of in their posts.
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
Mark: yep, re-enabling involves just clicking a link
- Bret Taylor
+1 Gunny. It seems like an interesting and somewhat useful idea on it's own, but I can see many applications for it that aren't exactly in the interests of everyone, or even specific people, for what it's worth...
- Tyson Key
Sweet, thanks Bret. One bug I'm noticing is that if I disable comments on my own feed (that is, from http://friendfeed.com/itafroma), my picture shows up next to the entry and doesn't go away until I refresh.
- Mark Trapp
Bret, it looks like right now it doesn't show that comments are disabled until a user tries to comment, then it errors and says that comments are disabled. Not sure if that is widespread or if I just had a weird interaction.
- joey
Of course, the existing moderation options were already a double-edged sword. "Sticky" posts in rooms seems like a good extension to this, on the flip-side, though.
- Tyson Key
I can see the use for this, but that doesn't mean I like it.
- Shawn Kirsch
Actually, it may be displaying properly for me now. EDIT: I see, it just isn't updated in realtime ;)
- joey
While I welcome this addition to the many useful features on FF, I do feel that you should see all comments on a subject, as this enriches our experience.
- Kevin J Hatton
Scoble got thousands of people to join Friendfeed! How about a little love for the big guy!
- Mark
I see the main use for such a feature as being a way to post 'announcement' or 'stick post' entries but we'd really need the comment box back with the share box and the option to disable comments from there, i.e. before it's posted.
- Kol Tregaskes
You know you have influence when a company will modify their product to get you to use it again ;)
- Mark
Bret: the error message you get if you try to comment on a comment blocked post takes you to the generic FAQ page - perhaps it should go to something specific explaining the blocked comments feature.
- Mike Bracco
feature request: i want FF to flow in a <marquee> format instead of a stream! (kidding)
- sean percival
Is this an attempt to make FriendFeed more like a blogging platform? It sort of feels that way to me.
- Mitch
But you know on twitter or fb you can unblock. Someone that I didn't know came on a great discussion about kabbalah and said F**k kabbalah so I blocked him.
- Myrna
Jannnifer: I TOTALLY disagree with you. Blocking on FriendFeed is a very important thing to do to keep your view clear of jerks, spammers, and other people you just don't want interacting with your content. I don't let jerks into my living room and the block feature is how I keep my online living room clean, too.
- Robert Scoble
LOOOOL you better watch out if FF grows too fast, we're gonna be using the block button a LOT
- Myrna
Robert, did you see why I blocked this character. Jerimiah probably would have blocked him from using FF.
- Myrna
@Kol - Looks like FFBlockr is broken/down at the moment...
- Tyson Key
I guess I can see the need for this in some respects, but doubt I'd ever use it. The same way I feel about Blocking......someone would have to be really destructive to get me to do that. I just hope we don't end up with more and more "tools" that stop the natural flow and interaction on FF.
- Bonnie Foster
So Bonnie, would you block a FF stranger who came onto a discussion and said F**k the subject or your discussion?
- Myrna
Bret: I think this feature should let the entry owner to be able to comment without having to re-enable comments (and shutting them down again after that)
- alieb
Myrna....not unless he/she was such a pest that they did this kind of thing all the time.....kept making negative comments, or tried to continually start something. If it was someone who just happened to pop in and make their comment I would chalk it up to them being a jerk, having a bad day, I don't know, maybe just hating that subject. People just aren't going to always agree with everything you say. :)
- Bonnie Foster
Scoble and Krynsky are right, options to turn off comments after 30 days, and a dislike option are needed. Dislikes should be capped at 5 a day though.
- Shawn Kirsch
from BuddyFeed
Bonnie, you mean if I came on one of your threads and just dumped a FU, you would just brush it off? It's negative energy. I don't know about you but I try to keep things positive. Btw, you can disagree and stay positive.
- Myrna
Myrna..not disagreeing that it isn't negative energy, and yes, you can disagree with someone and stay positive. Would I do it, of course not....but everyone is different, and some people are jerks. One FU however, would not crush me, or for that matter, destroy my thread if everyone else was commenting with a positive attitude.
- Bonnie Foster
Just been reading about this over on Techcrunch. Sounds a reasonable idea, although it will be interesting to see how it works out in practice
- George Hall (Australia)
Ok I understand the need to stopping comment when the Mob starts forming, you know the tar and feather, pitchfork and everything, that makes some sense. What I don't understand is why you would post an entry if you didn't want any discussion. If you don't want it discussed then don't post it.
- Kim Landwehr
I am a group admin, I post the room guidelines in a thread and close the comments so that I can stick the thread url in the group description and new users will be able to read a short and to the point list instead of a 150+ comments thread. Sounds good, Kim?
- alieb
Ok, alieb that makes sense I was thinking more of a regular post, wasn't thinking of a room guideline situation.
- Kim Landwehr
You're welcom Myrna, i remembered a thread from a while ago with that link in it and just did a few searches until i found it - i can't find anywhere on the help/faq the friendfeed.com/settings/modifications (for your history of subscriptions and blocks as well) also i can't find the imaginary friends feature linked anywhere in the help/faq either (/settings/imaginary) -- private groups...
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- Chris Heath
Kim, also - if we had this feature back in march scoble wouldn't have had to butcher his post to stop people from trying to enter a contest that was long over http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... - also this helps with spam as a popular post can be preserved without having to be attended to to fight of spammers who would try to latch to a popular search result
- Chris Heath
Bret, I like the timed idea some, but having the owner always able to comment seems right.
- Chris Heath
Robert, I don't see 'blocking' to be important but then I don't have jerks even trying to get into my living room so have no need. ;-) Been here well over a year and yet to block anyone. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Tyson, darn. Sorry I didn't check it before posting.
- Kol Tregaskes
Keep it comin' Bret. Someone ... PLEASE write a Friendfeed guide before I have to ?! (Although ... I'm still lost in the halls looking for what used to be rooms ?! :)
- Charlie Anzman
I believe they call those Groups now, unless they're renamed in a future iteration.
- Tyson Key
Can we get a feature added to the hide interface to 'Hide all entire with comments disabled'? If you don't want me on your thread, I may not want you in my stream. This is a place of discussion, not a bull horn :)
- Johnny Worthington
from iPhone
This is a great idea Johnny and it adds a balance to the whole situation. People who just want to use FF to promote themselves with no discussion could be easily hidden from view this way.
- Gunny doesn't side-hug™
well then you might as well block them, right?
- Chris Heath
@Johnny Worthington, I am totally right there with ya on that one. Why bother reading something on FF that I can't respond to? Isn't FF for conversation?
- (dot)lizard kelly
But Chris, they may still comment here and may comment on my stuff. Because they don't want interaction on their posts doesn't mean I should rule out the possibility of having interactions with them all together. It's about the scalple, not the sword :)
- Johnny Worthington
from iPhone
I fail to see how this new feature is cause for Techcrunch to now reinstate their FF account? How does this prevent Arrington from once again pissing off a bunch of people and prevent a mob from forming on a separate post.
- Kevin Whalen
from email
Arrington won't have to see it on his account everytime he logs in now
- Mark
Kevin & Mark: If a "mob" forms in a forest and Arrington can't see it, is it still a "mob?" If Arrington is worried that FF "mobs" can result in real world, physical threats and action, why does it matter that he can't see it?
- Christopher A Carr
Because he secretly loves getting attention. Not many people know this about him.
- Mitch
I like this ability, but agree with Johnny W on what he says on not wanting to read what he cannot respond to.
- Rick Cogley
I get your point Johnny, i was kind of joking, but also kinda serious.
- Chris Heath
Robert Scoble: Oh No! I was was being sarcastic and kidding with Myrna about blocking being an unforgivable sin!! I agree 100% with what you said above -----> "Blocking on FriendFeed is a very important thing to do to keep your view clear of jerks, spammers, and other people you just don't want interacting with your content. I don't let jerks into my living room and the block feature is...
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- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Thanks. I can't imagine ever using it, but thanks all the same.
- Steven Perez
Gosh, I hope Robert Scoble will be able to see my last comment since this thread is so long!
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Interesting, but what about a 'Generate Comments' option for those us that are, shall we say, boring and get little to no activity and want to seem like they are interesting people too. ;->
- Grant Bierman
I fear that this addition will pave the way for more one way transmission. Friendfeed is about sharing and interaction. I might actually have to start using the block funtionality if I start seeing rant or mlm posts.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
If you want to hide comment disabled posts preemptively and user scripts are an option for you, take a look at this script update I released tonight: (only affects you, and only in effect while running the script) http://friendfeed.com/friendf...
- Micah Wittman
thanks - to "enable" comments, there is a direct link - to disable... it is necessary to click Edit and select the option... Why? a different design?
- Kishore Balakrishnan
Kishore, having 'enable' as a direct link serves as a visual reminder that you've disabled comments on that item. Plus you wouldn't want 'disable' to be a direct link, as you might click it by accident.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Does this feature fossilize a thread? Or can people come in and delete/edit their already living posts in the thread?
- Matthew DeVries
@Matthew - You can disable it, if you're the owner of the post, and at present, it's possible for users to edit their comments after comment freezing, as it's implemented now.
- Tyson Key
A surprisingly controversial move. Good addition, but I can't find myself ever using it.
- Pete Delucchi
from iPhone
this feature seems in accordance with existing moderation options available to post owners
- Mike Chelen
it must be part of the API, since fftogo seems to include a time stamp on the comments
- Trent Olson
I'm sure they do store the timestamp, even if it isn't currently displayed.
- Mack D. Male
Yeah, it's in the api, all comments & likes are timestamped
- Glenn Slaven
I think this is a perfect plan. The only issue I might have is that the time information might take-over the conversations. It might just look more cluttered than FF already is.
- Ryne Nelson
concur, very useful to have. Make it a display option. Those who would think it's clutter can turn it off then.
- Alexander Falk
It is in the API (I use them in fftogo). I vote that the timestamp should appear as text when you hover over the "thought bubble" to the left.
- Benjamin Golub
All comments are time-stamped in AlrertThingy and feedalizr
- Stephen B
from Alert Thingy
What about a comment alert?! How do you follow conversations on ff!?
- TommaSorchiotti
Not sure if this will add to the functionality, but should be something they can try out...
- Dennis Goedegebuure
Not sure a comment alert is necessary. Comments bring the post up to the top of the timeline, which makes it available for anyone who is currently paying attention to Friendfeed. (Not sure why anyone would want their attention brought to Friendfeed if it isn't already there, that would be a huge productivity drain).
- Jason Wehmhoener
Please, please remember that the whole world doesn't run on PDT. I don't want to see timestamps in my FF in gReader and have to always try to guess whether the west coast is 17, 16, or 15 hours behind. If you must display timestamps, please put them in GMT. Setting the timestamps on my FF page/in my FF feed to be correct in my local timezone would be even nicer.
- James Polley
yeah ! and a hide fonction for each comment
- Jonathan
we know which came first... but in n argument the comments can edit. that makes time stamping very important so we know when someone made a change
- Noah David Simon
a timeline function in general would be nice, make everything more timeframe friendly
- Ruben Llibre
Show times either in GMT or in my own timezone, and just make it a tooltip for the quote balloon or something. Don't want it to look cluttered.
- Pat Hawks
just make the time relative from each comment, so I know who said what when in perspective. like 5 minutes later Noah David Simon said. <--this opens up
- Noah David Simon
Is i really important to know when every single comment is made? Only the last one would really be useful, could have 'last comment on june 1 at..." right beside the date of the post.
- John Duff
If the timestamp is a tooltip, then it isn't really "in the way." Maybe we can have all the timestamps as tooltips, except the most recent comment will have the timestamp printed out below it, like John said.
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
I am so tired of entering an empty room and talking to myself for twenty minutes. lol
- Russellreno
A needed feature for sure I agree. I suggested this to the FF feedback room some weeks ago.
- Mike Fruchter
<--- try hover your mouse cursor on that little dialog icon
- topo
Sorry it's not more obvious, but if you hover your mouse over the comment icon you will see the time that the comment was made. Thanks for letting us know that it's hard to find! The feedback is much appreciated.
- Ross Miller
I believe they are timestamped but this data is not yet displayed.... you're right !
- David Berrebi
other than timestamp I also want to be able to like the comments individually =]
- Özgür D. Cyric
This thread shows what happens when nobody reads the comments before theirs
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
<<Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) is one such site, a place where 100 or so volunteers have been working since January to compile a free encyclopedia. Using a relatively unknown and simple software tool called Wiki, they are involved in a kind of virtual barn-raising. Their work, which so far consists of some 10,000 entries ranging from Abba to zygote, in some ways resembles the ad hoc effort that went into building the Linux operating system.>>
- Philipp Lenssen
Impressive! Now you can save real time searches as embeddable widgets. That's just awesome! This is a massively POWERFUL feature. Thank you FF team!
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Lol, you flipped the switch before the post came out as far as I can tell. I was searching for it and I couldn't see it.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Yowsa. Makes quick easy work out of social media monitoring, don't it?
- Ian Wilker
Congrats Paul to you and your team! Another one bites the dust!
- Jorge Escobar
WAAAAAAAAA.. meta real time search.. love the concept of embed a real-time search !! Way to Team FF -- luv u guys !! :)-
- Peter Dawson
Do you guys sleep? Honestly, love the constant output and attention you guys pay to user feedback. I know this highly requested and probably not easy to implement.
- Frankie Warren
@Jesse: It's a dead twitter command "track keyword" sends you realtime updates whenever the word is used. Think of it like realtime google alerts for friendfeed.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I'm pretty sure Gillmor et al kept calling it "track" because that's what Twitter called it back when they had it for a week.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
On a related note, live embeddable searches mean that I can hack together my own FF embeds for the pages that don't have them yet, like say "comment:dpritchett" http://friendfeed.com/search...
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel, Twitter never had this - this isn't "track"
- Jesse Stay
The blogpost said they're working to implement "keyword notifications" Jesse, that will be "track"
- Frankie Warren
Twitter's brought back track, it's just no one cares. You can now have updates by keyword on Twitter pushed to you, via XMPP, just like track used to. Gillmor says that's not track.
- Jesse Stay
That's why I hate the term "track" - no one knows what it is. The way Paul is explaining it, as real-time search, is a much better way of explaining it.
- Jesse Stay
I guess we're still missing the realtime notifications piece that folks want. You can shape the firehose to watch terms in realtime but you can't yet get it pushed outside of FF via email or IM?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Daniel, Twitter has that right now, but Gillmor says that's not track
- Jesse Stay
/me prints up a few hundred "That's not track!" t-shirts
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Killer feature. I'm watching news about Honduras scrolling by. Very useful.
- Chris Baskind
Jesse: Oh, i'm with you... Real-Time Search is a better term :)
- Frankie Warren
BTW, integrating this into my blog right now
- Jesse Stay
Me too Jesse. Making a new static page for that comment:dpritchett search I mentioned
- Daniel J. Pritchett
this is definitely cool and all, but what about API? We are falling way behind on feature sets :)
- Tim Hoeck
It's like an alternative to watching TV, in a literary sort of way.
- Ted Gilchrist
Yay! This is the killer feature (once it's in the API, of course ;)
- Brandon Titus
I'd love to see a blog post about how this is implemented. Real-time search has some interesting problems.
- Chris Lamprecht
I take it back - I can't integrate this into my blog until I can filter it to a single list. I really need an embed for "comment:dpritchett list:e20" except lists are still virtual in that no one other than me can see them unless I use the atom export.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I am sloooooooooooow. But what/where is the template to make the embeddable widget. please?
- Marg Uerite
You're right Jesse - it's not exactly Track but it's getting a lot closer. The old Twitter Track allowed you to set up multiple search terms (e.g. track iphone) and get those delivered to your IM with zero time lag. At any time you could type "track" to see what you're currently tracking and "untrack" to untrack something - e.g. "untrack iphone". There are some third party tools that...
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- Mike Doeff
Paul, is there a way to change the title of the embed? The long search string looks kinda bad.
- Jesse Stay
Mike, Twitter offers that today. Gillmor says it's not Track.
- Jesse Stay
Marg, after you do a search, click the "Share / embed search" link to get the embed code.
- Dan Hsiao
Jesse, are you sure? Can you provide a URL describing this feature? I think you're referring to Twitter Search (and saved searches) which is totally different.
- Mike Doeff
Jesse, when / where did Gillmor say that isn't track? I'm pretty sure that Steve just wants the old track brought back, with some filtering capabilities added (the old Track didn't filter out blocked accounts).
- Mike Doeff
Yay! Have been eagerly awaiting this. :)
- Rick Turoczy
Mike, he's said in various comments. Looks like Track to me... Heck, it's even called "track".
- Jesse Stay
I want to 'Like' this *twice*! many thanks!
- topo
The first step in a storystreaming platform!
- Kevin Sablan
Whoa. Wow. And Yes! Fantastic work, FF team.
- Micah Wittman
Good stuff although should support negative operators such as I should able to search my name in the all posts NOT coming from me. I've tried "from:-username" but it doesn't seem to work.
- Ferruh Mavituna
OK, you guys are wicked talented! It's kind of scary, but I love it. So what's next? Just kidding:)
- Michael Fidler
Ferruh: you just have it a bit backwards... try -from:username instead :)
- Ross Miller
WOOOOOOOOOOW. Friendfeed is really pushing some cool features out :). Friendfeed is the best :)
- alfred westerveld
Highly addictive--great stuff! I did notice that if you do a search like [google] you'll see dupe stories streaming by quite a bit (e.g. the TechCrunch story about Google Voice shows up over and over right now). Not sure if it's possible to de-dupe based on destination url a little bit more?
- Matt Cutts
two months after redesign, we have access to real-time search. good news bc my preferred search engine is friendfeed. ;)
- 'Like' robot (frɐnc)
We are there, in the battle against Twitter
- Michael_techie
I can't say enough how amazing this is. So, I ordered a bottle of real-time translation to go with this magnificent feast of real-time search :D http://friendfeed.com/friendf...
- Micah Wittman
Just to show what is possible now with this feature, I've built SteroidFeed: Go here to see it as well as download the files: http://friendfeed.com/lph... Latest version is 1.01.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
The only place I ever hear about blogging being dead is right here on Friendfeed. Meanwhile, back in the real world, my wife blogs every day and her friends are always talking about this blog and that blog. Why do all these social media types keep claiming blogging is dead?
- Luke Stay
Because they're on FriendFeed and aren't blogging anymore would be my guess. :)
- Bryan Zirkel
Luke, what Bryan said. With the advent of Twitter and FriendFeed the "experts" are all saying you don't need to blog any more. I was on a panel with a few of those several months ago and I had to argue with them why these technologies have actually gotten me to blog more than before, not less. The early adopter types are usually the ones that start a trend, and eventually the rest of...
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- Jesse Stay
I just signed on with word press. Very nice site for blogging.
- James Hague
Yeah, sorry social media folks, Friendfeed will never replace blogging in the real world. In fact, Friendfeed will never catch on in the real world. Facebook has too strong a hold on mainstream users. Yes, I understand that they're very different, but the average Joe doesn't care about those differences.
- Luke Stay
Luke, sites will change and FB dominance will die just as MySpace died. It'll take time but will happen.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
from BuddyFeed
Luke, whether it's FriendFeed or some other site Facebook can't hold onto their dominance forever. Others will compete - never say never. At the same time FriendFeed and Twitter are far from replacements for blogging.
- Jesse Stay
I agree, FB dominance will die someday, but not any time soon, and FriendFeed certainly won't be the one to cause its fall. FriendFeed attempts to add features and solve problems on the internet that the average Joe just doesn't care about. Show your mom FriendFeed and watch her reaction. I predict you will see complete indifference, "What do I need that for?" Any of my non-geek friends...
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- Luke Stay
Jesse, I never said Facebook will never lose it's dominance. I said FriendFeed will never catch on in the real world.
- Luke Stay
Luke, that's the same with Twitter - they each have their niche. Is Twitter mainstream? "Mainstream"'s such a vague word.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, the minute Twitter was featured on Oprah, it became mainstream. Not to mention all the local news coverage across the US and the huge feature on the cover of TIME magazine a couple of weeks ago.
- Luke Stay
Luke, yet millions of moms and dads still don't use it, despite Oprah.
- Jesse Stay
But they know about it. Mainstream is not a vague word, it's a relative word, and relative to the US, Twitter is mainstream. You can't watch Prime Time television without hearing it mentioned at least once.
- Luke Stay
I asked someone at work if they were on twitter and they just gave me a blank stare- they never even heard of it! OR Facebook for that matter.
- James Hague
James, wow, Twitter is one thing, but Facebook too? That surprises me. They are in the minority, that's for sure.
- Luke Stay
"Unlike many other ants, which bite and then spray acid on the wound, fire ants only bite to get a grip and then sting (from the abdomen) and inject a toxic alkaloid venom called Solenopsin, a compound from the class of piperidines. For humans, this is a painful sting, it hurts, a sensation similar to what one feels when burned by fire—hence the name fire ant—and the aftereffects of the sting can be deadly to sensitive individuals."
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Grow some aloe vera. When you're bitten, break off a tip and rub the aloe juice on the bite. Works best on a fresh bite.
- Steve Lowe
Yep. I remember those little bastards only too well.
- Steven Perez
thing is, so-called "fire ants" aren't actually ants at all, they're a type of wingless wasp. so those are stings and not bites.
- Joe Silence is not dead
"JULY 1--A will signed in 2002 by Michael Jackson stipulates that his assets be placed in a family trust and that his mother be appointed the guardian of his three offspring. The will, a copy of which you'll find below, lists three executors, including lawyer John Branca and music industry executive John McClain. The will makes no provision for bequests to Jackson's father or any of his eight siblings, and a court filing indicates that beneficiaries of the Michael Jackson Family Trust are limited to his children, mother Katherine, and six relatives, including his brother Tito's three sons. Branca and McClain believe that the value of Jackson's estate "exceeds $500 million" and consists of "non-cash, non-liquid assets," including Jackson's share of lucrative music royalty rights. In the case that Jackson's mother Katherine were to predecease him (or was unable or unwilling to serve as guardian), Jackson stipulated that singer Diana Ross should be appointed guardian of his minor children. The "Last Will of Michael Joseph Jackson" was executed in Los Angeles on July 7, 2002. (8 pages)"
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
There were all these rumors that he died intestate. Not much chance a superstar with so many lawyers at his disposal didn't have a will. None of those lawyers would ever work again if that were the case. But my hunch is there's a good chance one or two wills from later than 2002 will emerge.
- Stephen Mack
I'd assume that even if more wills show up that his assets were properly titled to the Family Trust which would exempt them from probate and pretty much render future wills insignificant. I'd imagine the estate taxes on his estate will be large. He gets a $3.5 million estate tax exemption and everything over that the Govt. gets 45 cents on the dollar roughly. It will be interesting to...
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- Thomas Hawk
God, this is like a bad bar exam question. It'll probably show up in the next couple of years on the California bar exam as an essay question, I'm sure.
- Brian Chang
I really like this statement - but will people return to blogging as we've known it?
- Tony
Are you perhaps over estimating the allure of thinking?
- Todd Hoff
Micro-blogging is good for idealets and infotainment, but it really is turning the web into a mindless medium like TV. Of course, there will always be the equivalent of PBS trying valiantly to raise the bar somewhat. Blogs will always have the possibility of transmitting real knowledge.
- Paul W. Homer
The interesting thing for me is I think we have lost the definition of what a blog is. Everybody jumped up and down about what Steve Rubel did, but really I see his change as a shift of platform. If he posted that same content on wordpress, nobody would have said a word. Just because he did it on posterous and called it a lifestream, people took issue with it. So, what is our definition then?
- Robert
Dave - I read through the link you sent, thanks for the information. So, in what ways do you think posterous goes against this definition?
- Robert
from email
I think Steve still has a weblog, he's just submitting posts to it in a "different" way. Like Dave's link says a weblog is "... a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser." Pretty much sums it up, I think. Steve's post is going to generate attention, and debate, but in the end it's a weblog.
- Rob Fahrni
Robert, I know you're asking Dave a question, but I don't think the Posterious way goes against the definition. If I'm not mistaken Radio could post via e-mail, and I know Blogger supports this feature. Maybe I need to dig into Posterious a bit more but isn't that what it does?
- Rob Fahrni
Rob - That is my point. This in my mind is one of the major problems with looking for a "new name" for these social products. We see it as something different because it is called something different. Posterous, from what I can see so far, allows for the writer to interact with their "weblog" in a different way, just as you said...
- Robert
from email
Dave - I think your "huh?" was towards me... We call Posterous a "life stream", I say it is a blog, that we have given a different name to. That is what I am saying.Rob - I agree with you 100%, and that is my point exactly. I keep reading these post about blogging being dead, or blogging being alive... but those that say they are not "blogging" are still "blogging" Maybe I am not making sense, but I hope I am...
- Robert
from email
Robert - Precisely! I think Posterious is trying to find a why to differentiate their product, so they've coined a new phrase. It's still a weblog, how the data arrives may be different, but it's just a weblog all the same. When I read Steve's story last night, from his new site, I thought I was going to find a link on it to something "new and innovative", then I realized I was AT the actualy site, his "life stream."
- Rob Fahrni
Rob - YES... That is what I am saying... Same with Tumblr in my view, it is a weblog... Blogging is not dead at all in my view...
- Robert
from email
Blogology is a still too young science, and definitio usually comes when plays are over. What I feel sad for is the lack of opportunity future literature and social behaviour experts will suffer not using post's content ( and graphics ) as sources for studying today's world zeitgeist. Borges prophecy is at work, few understands - too many doesn't even know what they're writing about: a...
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- valerio fiandra
from iPhone
Robert, the photo sharing site you've used recently is structurally a blog too. It differs from normal blog software mainly in that the chronology is by date of occurrence, not date of posting.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
It's funny that this sentence and a few lines from Anthony Trollope's autobiography should have crossed paths in my consciousness on the same day, since it's almost the same idea, thrown back two temporal orders of magnitude. Trollope tells of a correspondent, a vicar, who had enjoyed his clerical novels but was upset by Lady Glencors'a contemplation of adultery in the Pallisers series....
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- Amyloo
Bruce - Very true! I'm glad that you are not working hard to call it something different. I'm loving it so far, even though I have not had a lot of time to put a bunch of pics up...
- Robert
from email
This is silly. Blogging isn't defined by the tool, it's defined by who's doing it. Read the piece I pointed to. I don't mean click on the link and hit the Back buttton, click the link and READ.
- Dave Winer
Agreed, Dave. Heck, we blogged back in the day via FTP uploads; that's what moved you towards developing "Edit This Page", in fact (IIRC).
- Ken Kennedy
Dave - I did read through it, and I agree that a blog is NOT defined by a tool, I think that is what we have been saying. I do not see where we are at odds on our viewpoints, please expound.
- Robert
from email
This subject keeps coming back - blogging will never die.
- Jesse Stay
Before Web 1.0 we listened, conversed, collaborated and then we wrote. Writing was the synthesis of all the thinking that occurred in the first steps. In the new medium, the thinking process is the streams, both personal and community. Blogging is the synthesis of this new kind of community thought process.
- Joolio
Pity there's no "Really, Really Like" button.
- Chris Baskind
Of course bloggin won't die, but you better have compelling content, because people have little tolerance for long articles.
- Todd Dewell
I think a large percentage of bloggers were really microbloggers, they just didn't have the correct apps to do that. The people that actually have something to say will keep blogging and those that just like to say something small or share something interesting will continue microblogging, or lifestreaming, or whatever variant you want to name it. Blogging is akin to publishing articles...
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- xero
This was known since the times of IRC: you can only have idle chatter or quick focused questions at that speed.
- Michele Costabile
Michele, if that premise is true, then kids only absorb important life-long lessons from their parent(s) when they're sat down for a full length lecture. No? :)
- Micah Wittman
The best food for thought always come in easily digestible chunks, however, sometimes you need to digest some larger/harder stuff to give you the ability to digest that chunk.
- xero
Xero - That is an interesting thought...
- Robert
from email
Dave - I very much appreciate you keeping up this fight. When I heard this past weekend the term "Lifestreaming", and seeing it picking up momentum. No, this has to stop. Twittering is an aside to your thoughts, or a highlight to pull people to your thoughts, if it's you only thoughts, you need put your head below the surface of your lifestream while carrying a big pile of rocks and...
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- Matthew DeVries
This isn't a fight. I love all this stuff. I was just saying what I think.
- Dave Winer
Even calling it a "Lifestream"? That's the creepiest sounding thing in tech, since Steve Balmer was threatening to "Squirt" his music onto my Zune.
- Matthew DeVries
Who really quit blogging? Even the most active lifestream addicts never really quit. For me, the blog is and has always been home. Everything else is somewhat ancillary, even when it's the first place I go. Critical thinking sometimes requires the depth of a written post.
- Ken Camp
Question: Of those of you out there who use posterous, do you use it as a replacement of your blog, a mirror of your blog or something different?
- Curt Mercadante
One of the things I like about blogging is the ability to not finish a thought, not to try so hard to say all I have to say or say come to any definite conclusion in a single post. The unfinished thought is what encourages conversation. Let someone else add to your thought. Let others challenge your incomplete premise. I don't know everything, why pretend I do? My thoughts are never finished.
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
Wow, you're right Dave, scripting news was indeed VERY much a microblog. Interesting & thanks for pointing that out!
- Rick Cogley
Just because you can finish a thought, doesn't mean people will read it.
- Will Higgins™
Tell me about it. That happened earlier in this very thread. But at least you ca read it yourself.
- Dave Winer
Just as your diary became your journal and then your log, your log has become your stream. The web has become your life..... AND SO IT WAS, that in the year naught-nine, the web-log was renamed to life-stream, dissected, and it's pieces scattered about the hundreds of "cloud" services, from which it could fall as raindrops of thought, pinging here and there in an attempt to spread ideas to where they were needed the most.
- Joel Bennett
No time to read it. Can you give us the gist of it in 140 characters or less? Thanks.
- Diego Barros
Blogging is still the platform of choice for sharing a clear/uninterrupted flow of thoughts from a single perspective. Then comments rapidly add value to the original post's material (most of the time). We're witnessing the link power of blogging decline because that functionality (which is monetizable) is moving to social media. We are left with the question, how best should bloggers monetize if they're losing link passing strength? I'm working that issue now by frankensteining several parts together
- Mark Essel
Personalized/Customized ads based on public user status. Semantic tools (via API), memory (local user profile database), and the passing of information to an ad aggregator will help produce custom (dynamic web matched) advertisements. It should serve all parties involved (social media, bloggers/front ends, semantic processing houses, and advertising aggregators).
- Mark Essel
What do you mean, I have always been able to finish a ... ooh a nice shiny object...
- Marcel de Jong
Isn't it ironic that this post contained a clear and concise thesis, in under 140 characters?
- Mike Chelen
There's NOTHING wrong with brevity. There is a time and a place for discussion and lengthy discourse.
- Will Higgins™
Mike Chelen - "a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning ... the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning." - Nope, not ironic
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew DeVries: that covers definitions 1 and 2, yet the 3rd is an "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result," where in this case the expected result was to explain how new platforms prevent thoughts from being finished, and the actual result was to the contrary :D
- Mike Chelen
If you say so. I never saw that definition, but I have no reason to doubt you, or motivation to find the source myself, so, I'll allow it.
- Matthew DeVries
Oh, and if you discovered the internet before the WWW existed, what was your first impression of that?
- Internet's Tad
from fftogo
I first started playing on the internet back in 1991 or 1992. A buddy showed me telnet bbs's and I was off to the race. I became an internet stud back in the time when the net was like 95% men. I think all of my dates in college were with women I met on internet bbs's. I met Lindsay that way. When I first started hearing about web browsing back in 93 or 94 I thought it was pretty stupid. Who'd want to look at that? It took a year or so for me to really "get" it.
- Internet's Tad
from fftogo
First time on the WWW and not a BBS? '91 or '92. Thought it was BORING. Only scientific papers. Never thought it would fly. BBS was much fuller, had a broader scope of items. We had were Prodigy customers from '87 - '91, IIRC. '93 or '94, I saw someone selling their stuff online. Told the record company I was at (worked in the licensing dept. then) that it would be awesome if they put...
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- Admiral Anika
i remember netscape and those aol discs i got in the mail. wanted to try the "free trial"
- Alfredo
I remember playing a mud and when I realized that these guys couldn't understand me because they were playing in BRAZIL it totally blew my mind. I couldn't get over how amazing it was to be having conversations with people all over the world in real time. SideNote: room mate failed music appreciation the summer we found Muds.
- Internet's Tad
from fftogo
around 1997 I would guess. I swiped a 14.4 kbps modem out of our computer parts box and got all the settings off my dads computer and got it all set up. I think I was about 14 at the time. It was the cats pajamas. It was also a little disturbing once you got to like line 300 of that 400 line jpg and you found out you were actually looking at a shemale :*(
- Geoff Schultz
1994 but the school only had a 4800 baud modem so we were limited to BBS and usenet. Used it to read up on xfiles episodes before they were broadcast over here. I knew I'd be spending a lot of my adult life on it!
- alphaxion
It was 1995. We had AOL and Compuserve. I knew that I was in love.
- Shevonne
Those were some expensive shemales Dave!
- Geoff Schultz
I don't really know. I was in Young Astronauts in the fifth grade when I started coding and they had a networked computer that talked to some different things. In the nineties I ran a hacker BBS with a friend and his brother. I guess I first ran into unbound net in the early to mid nineties.
- Neal Jansons
1987. But it wasn't until a couple of years later that they had SLIP and then PPP so my first few years were all through a terminal connection. Although I was fascinated with Mosaic, I was an NNTP die-hard and didn't see the need of the web over it and Gopher. It wasn't until about 1997 or so that I finally got over my attachment to NNTP and embraced the web in all of its horror show glory.
- Akiva Moskovitz
A friend in high school and I would modem-talk, so that was late 80s, we would call each other's computers. I'd say like '88. The first time I got excited was with the WWW, using Mosaic to download satellite infrared images of the world. I was working tech support in college, and I kept telling people how cool it was- it was my desktop image or something.
- anna sauce
1995 and I couldn't understand what all the hype was about.
- Kenton
lol Akiva you make me feel so young...I was writing Hello World when you first hit the net.
- Neal Jansons
from IM
I remember using it in 1993. I was 11 at the time. But I have vague memories of my father using the AOL BBS prior to that. I loved it when I started using it. Having your own computer and a modem is a great relief to an only child, let me tell you.
- Soup
And ofcourse, I was 15 at that time.
- Yuvi
from IM
Yuvi, not really. I was really young when I got my first computer.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Akiva, I would have been 5. Started programming '87-'88 with BASIC, LOGO, and eventually C.
- Neal Jansons
from IM
80s and newsgroups, I thought that sci.energy.hydrogen was going to change the world.
- Robert Hafer
You were programming 9 years before I was born. That's old! :P How old were you when you started?
- Yuvi
from IM
1976 or '77. A school friend's dad was an astronomer and we used his university account to get on the network. We used to change people's account passwords, download files, etc. We also played games that people had available to others on the network. Nothing truly malicious, just kid jokester stuff. It was a world I'd read about but hadn't yet seen.
- Heather
1995/1996-ish....holy crap! there are nekkid ladies on that internet thang! yowzee!!!!
- Morgan Haley
Hey, the first computer I programed had 8 switches on the front panel for entering bytes. young whippersnappers
- Robert Hafer
1991, when I went to college. I thought it was going to be an endless distraction. :)
- Morton Fox
1995, awesome way to get and give information and interact with others around the world.
- xero
1995, when I first went to college. At first I wasn't sure what to do with it.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
1992, university of florida - had to ftp/telnet host to host, then started building it when I got to spain for the USN. God that was fun - thanks for the happy memory jog tad. :-)
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
I was in college, and we could dial into the school's network. I also had an AOL disc. I think my modem was like 9600 baud? Probably 1993-4?
- Derrick
Tad, the most interactive I/O device for that was a Western Union teletype. When I got on a mainframe that supported VT100 terminals, that was something.
- Robert Hafer
1987 - used "med-line" online BBS service @ $50 bucks an hour to conduct medical research for college (that is now a FREE service on the 'net). Also used Lexis-Nexis, CompuServe, and a variety of interesting "chat" services. Mostly research. I learned how to login to various University library ListSrv, gopher, and card catalogs online (using kermit for file tx) - from my green screen...
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- Susan Beebe
Late 80s/early 90s; BBS boards, *Prodigy, then eventually Netcom.
- Pete Delucchi
Late 1994 in college; remember one prof. very carefully explaining what a 'browser' would look like years later. Most students thought she was crazy.
- Jennifer Dittrich
Had to be sometime in the late 90's I was at my friend kennys house and he was trying to teach my how to post on a BBS... I was like "Man this sucks! I'm never gonna use this Interanets thing."
- J. Abdul-Qahhar
1989. I finally had something to keep me company.
- Michael McKean
Probably '94... I think that's when CIS turned on Usenet access. Before that, all I knew were BBSs, CIS, and The Well. My first web experience came via GNN... I was a little indifferent at first, but fell in love with if a few weeks later.
- Roger Benningfield
from BuddyFeed
Wait. There's an Internet? Why wasn't informed?
- BEX
1998 or 1999 probably. I was very impressed at the time, although I only started to use it in earnest around early-mid 2000s when I got around to creating a now inaccessible random-pseudonymous e-mail account, discovered the joys of "free" DRM-infested music via a proprietary application for Mac OS 8 from LiquidAudio (RIP), and spent several hours browsing, fighting with streaming radio and trying to download stuff over a fairly expensive dial-up connection that maxed out at 33.something Kbps on a good day.
- Tyson Key
Oh, don't forget Tripod (doubles as an ersatz file sharing system between myself and a friend via FTP), GeoCities (the time I dabbled with HTML) and ICQ...
- Tyson Key
I 1st discovered the internet in 1995 (Worldnet, France). Impressed but continued to use & B SysOp of BBS and french RTC ;)
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
1994. I ended up in a dorm that didn't have Ethernet, so we had to access the campus network through 14.4k modems. Mosaic was unusable at that speed, so we used Lynx. How did we find anything back then, since search engines didn't exist yet?
- Victor Ganata
1994 or so, on the computers in the lab at CSUS. I didn't really get it for a couple years after that.
- Bren, Not Grinchy
The internet? Well if you count the Usenet, then 1989 with several BBS's that had a connection to the newsgroups. Actual internet with email and everything. PCLink came out sometime in the early 90's. Turned into AOL and the rest is history.
- CW™
Quite late for me... i was already 20, in the late 90's. And i think i was just Napster at the time :)
- diego morelli
I discovered the Internet as it is today in about '97-98 I think, signed up to MSN. I thought it was OK, I think it took a few weeks for me to 'get it'. I used BBS for many years before this though.
- Kol Tregaskes
97 9th grade. Had one classroom with it. Didn't like the prof. Left internet alone mostly until 2000 and had a T1 in dorm.
- Amber, Random Time Lord
My dad got Prodigy in '88 or '89 and I remember finding the bulletin boards and thinking it was SO COOL. I also found an online game that took ages for each screen to load. But we had that briefly so I really remember getting it in '96 when we got AOL and I got all involved in chatting and even met up with a guy! This was when we all had to write down how long we'd been on because you...
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- Lis Miller
Around 95/96 on Uk dial-up and heading to UK University. But the real discovery was coming to the U.S in around 98/99 and suddenly realising pages could load in less than 30 minutes a time...the only bad thing was coming back to the UK and AOL dial-up but once that was gone, it was all plain sailing...
- Absolute Radio
Around 1994-95. I was working in book publishing doing licensing and started reading about the WWW. I thought that there could be a lot of opportunity for book publishers to license their content websites.
- Lisa Kagel
1995. Used it for info and thought of it as an elektronic encyklopedia that spared med the trip to the library.
- Martin Liechti
1995 I was given a laptop at work to take home and sort out some stuff, I noticed it had a modem, plugged in and dialled up. I believe it was Compuserve I only remember seeing photos of Mars. I didn't stay too long because I did not have a clue about how much it was going to cost me. I bought my own PC the following year.
- M F
in 1980 my summer job was working in a computer room for Mohawk Data Sciences. (yes I am old) Was active in BBS's in the early 90's- Actual internet as we know it today - was using Trumpet Winsock in 1995, with Netscape 2.0 - i think....
- Mike Nencetti
It was around 1992 in the University. First it was email, gopher, and later WWW, which we browsed using Mosaic.
- Peter Sedik
1995: A friend an me sat in this internet cafe for hours and browsed the homepages of LucasArts and Sierra to find walkthroughs and announcements of new games.
- Michael Netsch
1990 in the offices of the East-West Center in Honolulu, a friend showed me Usenet over a VT-100 connection. I'd already heard of the Net from Jeffrey Hallett, former president of the Naisbitt Institute, but this was my first chance to see it live.
- Shel Holtz
For me it was 1994. I was a SAHM but always interested in new things. I'd heard the word "internet" and wasn't even sure what it was other than it connected computers but somehow I knew I wanted access to it and that it would be important. I had to do a lot of searching and asking around to find anyone who knew where to get service in my area. I went through over $500 in "credits" or hours online in my first 2 months. Been hooked ever since ;)
- Merlene
in 1.994 i was studying architecture and i decided to change my life working with internet
- cpons
1988. It was awfully boring back then, just ftp and email.
- DGentry
I don't really remember my first impressions, as it was back in 1986-1987 and it wasn't that big a deal. I was working for the University of Michigan computer network as a student back at the time--helping out in the computer labs--when UofM connected it's Merit network up with NSFNET from MCI and an IBM network into an "internetworked" system. Later, I vaguely remember using Gopher, IRC, USENET, and remember reading a USENET post from some guy in Switzerland talking about some web of hyperlinked pages...
- Ken Sheppardson
Hard to say. I used Promenade (now AOL) when I got my first PC in 1992. I didn't consider that the Internet though. It felt like a box with closed doors where you were able to explore sites and communicate with friends. In fact, I remember getting a {Netscape?) issued computer in '95 or so with all these websites prefixed by http:// and I threw out the magazine since I thought AOL was...
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- Tamar Weinberg
it was mid 1994. It was slow, boring and expensive...
- Tahir Zaimoglu
1997. I lived at thepark.com. I thought it was awesome to be able to chat with people who didn't know me.
- Bec Rowe @d0tski
circa 1995. High school. "WWWhere have you been all my life?"
- Kamilah Gill
1993-1994 round about. I thought it was amazing but didn't yet see how it would really explode.
- AJ Kohn
1994 - I couldn't believe I could send a letter (email) to my family without any postage. I was writing them a letter weekly and I realized that this would be much easier.
- Travis Murdock
I guess that would be junior high, 1987. I was on the academic decathlon team and our advisor showed us how to research information from a local university's "online" papers. I remember thinking the modem was a hoot...one of those acoustic coupler jobs...but being online irritated me. I preferred going to a library in person. I didn't touch the internet again until 1992-ish. A friend...
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- tinypants - Hagitha of FF
88/89 for me - started thru AOL - still remember my old AOL email address - tombuckob2! They got hooked on the rec.windsurfing newsgroup - where I found my tribe.
- Tom O'Brien
1992/93, right as Mosiac was coming into the picture, but I didn't have it on my PC so it was all text.I thught it was cool but a bit confusing and hard to navigate, but couldn't get enough of it!
- Kelly W.
1994. Was kinda young so it didn't make a huge impression other than a new way to make pen pals and play games.
- Katie: Whelmed Overly
Circa 1984 with my Commodore 64 and an attached 300 baud modem. I still recall the text scrolling across my screen from my first connection to a BBS. I was impressed.
- J.D. Deutschendorf
after bbs, I remember buying a book full of newsgroups.. didn't see the point at that time.. then we went to Aol :0 should have stuck with the newsgroups ;)
- Tim Hoeck
from AndFeed
1995, my freshman year in college. ESPN online, at any time I want? I'm sold!
- Jason D Barr
1996. "Lynx is not a very good web browser."
- Guan Yang
around 1989, I think. I wasn't enough of a geek to truly appreciate it at the time, though I did recognize the potential it had to make the world a much smaller (as in more connected) place.
- vicster
About 1992, when I got a Netcom shell account. Had been BBS'ing since '84, so it wasn't utterly foriegn.
- Bob Morris (polizeros)
'91 when I first entered college. And yeah, MUDs took up way, waaaaaay too much of my time at one point.
- ronin
Mine will be 1991 when I was expose to VAX and Sun's machine. I still remember the good old days of gopher and usenet. And email attachments using uuencode/uudecode. YEAH and MUD too which also took out much of my college time
- Thomas Chai
Probably '92 or '93. Went online through AOL and a 2400 baud modem. Was too slow to be of much use, though, so I stuck with AOL and dialing up local BBSs. Once I upgraded my modem to a 14.4, though, I was able to browse the Web at reasonable speeds and had my mind blown by the sheer mass of information on totally obscure topics that was available online - info that was previously only available in micro-run niche zines.
- Eric Tatro
Late 80's, gopher, usenet, WAIS--"Who's getting all this info together and who's paying them?"--early 90's, Mosaic--"Needs some color and movement. Someone's going to want to put an ad on that."
- S. Charles Balazs
Getting my first out of network SMTP email from my wife who was in Nepal and fiddling around with AOL in the early 90s. Browsers were so clunky then.
- Colin Campbell
1993 (I think). I just enjoyed mailing lists and USENET.
- cecily
Oh, wait - BBSes count? Then my first foray was '92.
- cecily
If BBSs count, my first foray was probably 1983. However I don't think BBSs would count: they were modem-connected islands, not using what is now the Internet.
- DGentry
Yeah, unless the BBS had an Internet gateway. A local WildCat BBS had an NNTP connection around 1988 or so. Before then, they were either independent or linked by FIDOnet (and boy do I miss me some FIDOnet hacking).
- Akiva Moskovitz
1994. first intro was irc via an eskimo north shell during lunch @ high school.
- Jason Wyttenbach
it was the summer of 1997. America Online 3.0 to be exact.
- MicahBear78
Dick and I saw Netscape for the first time in late 1994. We signed up with our first ISP, mo.net, in early 1995, and I could have pitched my Maritz client's first web site in spring 1995, but we went to a funeral in VA instead. Later that year I came up pregnant with our son and read Usenet alt.something-or-other.breastfeeding voraciously until Jojo was born - made all the difference...
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- MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF
1993 on a local ISP...all text. loved it!
- (jeff)isageek
1988, dialup to the local .edu, then browse their minerva Library system, emails to others outside my domain, telnetted out to various usenets and ircs and so on and so on, progressing and expanding tyhrough the years ever since. LEGEND OF THE RED DRAGON 4LIFE!
- Tsali, The Native of FF
1991 -- couldn't get my parents to get me a $20/mo Netcom Shell account. It was still years later before I got an Internet connection!
- Garry Tan
1990 - I was consulting for the old DEC and they had a funky connection to the internet but you could get to USENET via a proxy. I loved rec.arts.books and the tech news groups. I thought woaaa, there's a wide world out there.
- Dan Perlman
1999 - Brand new USR 56K Sportster as a gift
- flavio
2000 at the local library in the small country town I lived in. I didn't really know what to do with it, came across as a fast card file. Strangely my school had apples in 83 so was quite computer savvy. I didn't get my own computer till 2007 after backpacking for five years and using cyber cafes.
- Yant
Around 1994 through IRC. Thought it was the greatest thing since swiss cheese. Immediately got sucked into chat. Took my first job designing websites soon after.
- Leigh
1992. And it was awful, but fascinating at the same time. Awful because every command had to be spelled in the right way. No faults allowed. Fascinating because when I typed my own name (was it altavista in those days or was it all the connected university libraries together?) some information appeared! :-)
- Ton Zijp
1993 - I was working for an insurance co and the marketing research person had a dial-up AOL account that she shared with several of us. I was hooked.
- Paul Gibler
"LinkedIn has bolstered its position as America’s leading business social network by the month lately, with Germany-based Xing as the only company regarding itself a worthy competitor in the last few years. But now those days seem to be over - in the US and China, at least."
- Jan Tißler
from Mento