Zach Beauvais › Comments

Put me down for a T-shirt.... you ship to the UK?;) - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Put me down for a T-shirt.... you ship to the UK?;) - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

I'm not so sure... you see many of the bigger news sources already have a pretty good grasp of handling data—it's hardly new for a story to report figures or uncover a problem with published information. I think the skillsets exist, though you're right to point out that many of the current generation of journalists aren't explicitly data-handlers. But they are fact-handlers, analysts... more... - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

I'm not so sure... you see many of the bigger news sources already have a pretty good grasp of handling data—it's hardly new for a story to report figures or uncover a problem with published information. I think the skillsets exist, though you're right to point out that many of the current generation of journalists aren't explicitly data-handlers. But they are fact-handlers, analysts of events and reporters; and I think that's also important. You could conversely say that no data-lovers, hackers and statisticians are trained in narrative or working with [human] languages. Either way, it's a problem, and you're definitely right. However, I'm sure many of the larger news sources have many people trained in both, and it may be a steep learning curve to get the mix of their best people right. Data mashups will not kill journalism, it's part of reporting, it's a source. A good journalist can glean facts from the sources, and the geeks can work on providing better tools for the journalists to use. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Just found this post doing a search on Siberian Huskies... so sorry to hear about your dog :o( Our girl is 7 and still fit and healthy, but we're so aware her time with us is shortening. Take care. - Mellissa Jane

Thank you for taking that kind of time. It means a lot. To be honest, at that age, I was fairly happy with the fact that he finished off quickly, especially since I don't live near him anymore. Cheers, again -Zach On 14 Jul 2009, at 15:38, Mellissa Doyle wrote: - Zach Beauvais from email

It's cute, and the interface is interesting with some good ideas (like the "addressbook" metaphor). But, it's slow! The keyboard freezes, and it's photo takes a very, very long time to load—it even crashed. I've been using Tweetie, which I've found great, though £1.79's a bit of a cheeky price for a twitter client. But, with iTwitter's epic failure to grasp the nature of twitter (by... more... - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

I've been using IM+ to push Twitter notifications. Though I like it more as an IM client than a Twitter client. - Dee S.

<blockquote>It pushes all mentions and direct messages...but only if the person sending them is using iTwitter, too.</blockquote> And suddenly all the fuss about it dissapears... I wonder why...? - Miladin Miladinoski from FriendFeed MT Plugin

It's cute, and the interface is interesting with some good ideas (like the "addressbook" metaphor). But, it's slow! The keyboard freezes, and it's photo takes a very, very long time to load—it even crashed. I've been using Tweetie, which I've found great, though £1.79's a bit of a cheeky price for a twitter client. But, with iTwitter's epic failure to grasp the nature of twitter (by locking people into using it in order to get a feature), I see no reason to change yet. Indeed, I agree with Ken, and would like to see another app make this work nicely, because I'd rather not make use of a closed-perspective app for something as open as twitter. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Actually neither Google suit nor adobe suit I like to use when zoho like powerful office suit is available. - Madhav Tripathi from FriendFeed MT Plugin

There is an option "Neither" - Wins Fern

*cough* Wave... *cough* - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

*cough* Wave... *cough* - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Nice to see that deep web come to the surface with interactive goodies! - Sean Canton from twhirl

Google flu trends showed how this could be useful (eg. ensuring anti retroviral drugs were correctly distributed). Or imagine how swifter analysis of migration trends (UK official census only every 10 years, for example) could lead to local authority and core service provision could be increased in line with - rather than a pitifully long time after - demand. Still, as with all things, knowledge is power and should be used widely. - Katie Dob

"Twitter has won that race already." But they're still not generating revenue, right? IT's all VC. It's won the race for an ecosystem of users, but isn't making its own profits on top... yet. I'd say it's still racing. Far ahead of facebook in its simplicity and openness (it's public, and has a fantastic API and a whole host of complimentors) but it's still running. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

@Alex - I wrote a detailed post (see URL link) about the difference between public and private status culture that highlights the differences in relationship structure and how it affects the community that is very relevant to this conversation. To your point, I don't think that Facebook need chase Twitter - people are happy to use both - one for personal (Facebook = I know you offline)... more... - Steffan Antonas from FriendFeed MT Plugin

"Twitter has won that race already." But they're still not generating revenue, right? IT's all VC. It's won the race for an ecosystem of users, but isn't making its own profits on top... yet. I'd say it's still racing. Far ahead of facebook in its simplicity and openness (it's public, and has a fantastic API and a whole host of complimentors) but it's still running. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

This could blow the doors off spin, couldn't it? Imagine the discomfort of a politico trying to squirm away from obvious, trended reports which anyone can produce? I'd want to see things which are relevant to me, though. Sure these are great, but I'm not going to pull up a trend of wheat prices before buying bread. What connections could this be making to improve lives at an individual level? We tend to forget that the "macro" world is an aggregate of real-life individual choises and lives. Unemployment is one thing on a graph, another in a pink slip in your inbox. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Very mixed indeed! On the one hand, something inside me recoils at the idea of gTweet (tm). Twitter's so great because of what they've made it, because of the community that's there and their transparency. I just can't imagine it being the same with a regime change. However, Gmail, docs, calendar etc... are all so great, I could imagine tweets etc being a very useful augmentation. If I... more... - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

As sad as this may seem - "Money talks, bullsh*t walks!" If Google ponies up enough cash money, Twitter will take it. Will this happen? Only Google and Twitter knows how much is enough to walk away and let Google have it all. It would be a blockbuster deal if it happened. - Rex from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Very mixed indeed! On the one hand, something inside me recoils at the idea of gTweet (tm). Twitter's so great because of what they've made it, because of the community that's there and their transparency. I just can't imagine it being the same with a regime change. However, Gmail, docs, calendar etc... are all so great, I could imagine tweets etc being a very useful augmentation. If I were being greedy, I'd want twitter and Google to talk about a partnership to share the community (twitter) and the expertise to keep it up (Google) without one buying the other. It could be a project, joined by thousands of others too, without the need to bring it all into a single, focuesd boardroom. That way, we could all decide which bits work for us. First proposal: Keep the Fail Whale! (I just don't want to see it too often ;) ) - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Angry, this - Zach Beauvais

Talk by Open University by Cory Doctorow - Zach Beauvais

"semanticweb book series" - Zach Beauvais

That's great news. Re Pipes for Command Line, I wonder if that'd work nicely with Ubiquity or suchlike? Being able to interactively mashup using something as nice as ubiquity would be incredible. Or, am I talking out of me flat-cap? - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Yes, but how do they make any money? - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Yes, but how do they make any money? - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Recording video is really the only compelling reason for me to Jailbreak but I still haven't really wanted to just for that. Perhaps I can be swayed if I hang out with someone who's done this. - Mark Krynsky

Very good article. I have hesitated since buying an iPhone, but this won me over. Doing it now for the Winterboard and for the tethering :) - Baard @ Pixum

There is a plugin in the meantime called "Tabs Open Relative" which makes new tabs open next to the active one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US... I've used it for a few months, and find it annoying to go back to Safari, where the tabs keep queuing up at the end. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

You can already do this and a lot more to Tabs with an extension called 'Tabs Mix Plus. Must have extension. But it'll still be good to have built in support for it. Better late than never I guess! - Bhavishya Kanjhan from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Sarah I swear I've been getting frustrated with this problem for the past two days. It's been ridiculous. I want ALL my tabs to open to the right, including new blank tabs, not just links. Though I believe TabMix is an ext that already solves this problem. Hopefully the integration will come soon (like this month soon)! - Corvida from FriendFeed MT Plugin

There is a plugin in the meantime called "Tabs Open Relative" which makes new tabs open next to the active one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US... I've used it for a few months, and find it annoying to go back to Safari, where the tabs keep queuing up at the end. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Great to see an article about jailbreaking iPhones that explains the "why should I?" part so clearly. I guess the thing that would get me to jailbreak is for the iPhone to be a first-class citizen on a wireless network. Why, if it's got wi-fi and all its other great connectivity shouldn't I be able to interact with it? Oh, wait... iTunes. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Can't wait to see this as a Wordpress plugin. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Why do you say blogs aren't designed to make conversations easy? - Joy-Mari Cloete from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Can't wait to see this as a Wordpress plugin. - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

I'm trying to work out whether that seems a bit backwards? Right, we panicked and hired some analysts, strategists, consultants, and a new director of development direction, so we're set. Oh, wait... we haven't got any developers anymore... oops, our products aren't being built. Or, is it really important to get a lot of substantial advice and experience from the business side, so the tech you're building is better-placed? Is it surprising? - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

I'm trying to work out whether that seems a bit backwards? Right, we panicked and hired some analysts, strategists, consultants, and a new director of development direction, so we're set. Oh, wait... we haven't got any developers anymore... oops, our products aren't being built. Or, is it really important to get a lot of substantial advice and experience from the business side, so the tech you're building is better-placed? Is it surprising? - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin

hmmm LinkedIn, like lots of other sites, seems to put function/form almost as a statement of ethos. But, looking at your screenshot of the iphone app, I can't help but think that the form IS part of the function—all the more with a "social" application. So, if people are the point (and, in what app are they not?), why are they the final consideration in the actual development of the... more... - Zach Beauvais from FriendFeed MT Plugin