It's not odd at all. I'm sure the company and their investors would like to make money this way. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. The point is that isn't necessary to the survival of the technology and if they go under, it wont stop people from using the product.
All you need with a federated service like identi.ca is a small percentage of the participants to host a server. and those people just need a hosting account they can get out of their disposable income. With open social and the like a lot of other things can work the same way - there is no need for a central authority or revenue generator - everything is distributed. And the costs are low enough out at the end points that their need not be income derived from the activity itself.
I'm interested in what my friends are doing - and 'celebrities'. It's sort of like the status update on facebook - but with a service like twitter that's all that happens. And is a completely opt-in format. I started following a guy a few weeks back - and then when I realized I didn't care for the content, I just stopped following. No one can push stuff to me without my requesting it. Very nice.
I have a few friends from here at slashdot I follow on twitter and I think it is a cool way to keep in touch and know what they have going on. I don't think any of them fall into celebrity status - though The Fun Guy has been on tv and radio I guess.
identi.ca allows for federation which means the cost can be distributed. No single company has to generate enough revenue to support some huge structure. You just need lots of little servers connected to one another and tons of people are already doing that.
Right now on twitter I'm following @bashcookbook and I get a bash tip every day. I also follow @thaumatrope and read little 140 character slivers of science fiction stories. @Outshine calls theirs prose poetry and it is all with a speculative fiction type spin. @oreillymedia keeps me up to date on oreilly stuff including conferences, web casts, new books and things they have on-line like blog posts and interviews.
This may not be your cup of tea - but for a lot of people it is a very popular way to receive and share information. The other people I follow are individuals who are pretty well known (Wil Wheaton, Jon Scalzi, Tim O'Reilly, etc.) and I'm interested in things like what they are doing, what they are reading, stuff like that.
Does all that matter? I'm not sure, it all depends on context. But to me personally it matters right now. There is also the fact that now that I have a number of friends who are also on twitter we are able to use it as a way of keeping in touch. Of course we could use instant messaging or email - but we don't. If we need to say something longer we use another method - but throughout the day twitter is usually enough.
Oh - and with the ability to search through all of this - it becomes an index of sorts as many microblog posts point to other places on the web. That's another feature that I believe brings real value. And I know that this is also available in other platforms - but what I've seen happen is that many people tend to microblog much more freely than they will do a regular blog post. So in the end it will get more information out there.
I've been thinking about this a lot in the last few weeks - which may be obvious. I just put in a request to host a project at source forge for a microblogging tool I'd like to build. So there's my bias. I'm pretty excited about what I see as some cool possibilities. Of course not everyone will be on board with this. It may never grow beyond a niche thing. But I remember the first time I was on facebook and thought "What is the point and who is ever going to do this?" Of course now just about everyone I know is on facebook.
That model is completely unnecessary. There is no reason for any kind of revenue - just people who want to get to know others, participate in a community, etc. And if by buzz you mean all those marketing types and prognosticators going away - then like I said, I can't wait for it to go away. Those people are amazingly annoying.
When I read the summary I was pretty annoyed - but I went and read the article (crazy I know) and that helped because it doesn't say these technologies will fail. It says some of the companies trying to make money off these technologies will fail. That's something completely different and I would agree that they are probably right. Of course most start-ups fail so making that kind of a prediction is a bit of a safe bet.
The thing is a lot of this stuff, I'm thinking especially of microblogging since that has really been something I've been interested in a quite a bit recently, will not go away because a lot of people really enjoy using the technology. That it is difficult to turn that into a way to make money makes me happy. So what if twitter fails? People can just move to identi.ca. Then no one needs to make any money off the platform - they just need to enjoy it and participate for motives other than financial benefit. The costs will still exist but they will be spread out across all the participants.
There is that segment of any new community that see it as a way to make money. Those people are rife in most social spaces ( web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it ) right now. People who just want to constantly talk about making twitter a part of your strategy to increase your fan base to make more money or how to use facebook to get rich, etc. I can't wait until they are gone.
What is exciting to me is that most of the alternatives that will step up to fill the vacuum left by the failed commercial attempts are open. That means I can enjoy interacting with a wide array of people all over the world but maintain control over what happens and participate on my terms.
I never had any issues any of the times this happened. I was able to do all the stuff I normally do and visit all the sites I normally visits. This leads me to conclude that the solution is rather simple. The people who are affected by these outages should do something.
Yes. In the US there is a large pool of press that travel with the President. They are split between a smaller group in AF1 and a larger group in a second jet. They rotate members so that they all get a fair time in AF1. They pay a lot of money to ride in either. Just read about it in the latest issue of National Geographic.
Pretty much - once the shift to giving away the magazine, their level of motivation to make it worth reading drops. They moved from needing to make it worth buying to just making it worth getting for free as opposed to not getting it. You have to get really annoying - say like Information Week - to make it completely undesirable.
I really enjoyed Verity Stobb - and Ed Nisley. (He did an article every month about embedded systems.) Both were dropped off quite a while back. I only kept getting it because I'd been switched over to a free deal. It's funny because just within the last couple weeks I got emails from them about renewing. I didn't respond because I just didn't care. I've got too much to read, not too little.
The last subscription I bought for a magazine was Linux Journal and I did electronic - not print. One of their articles really got me out of a bind and I thought I'd try to show a little appreciation.
When I got my January copy it was in a plastic bag with a brochure for sd west. The brochure was thicker than the magazine. I almost tossed the magazine and kept the brochure. So much has been cut back over the years. I will miss the bug of the month. It was an ad but it was fun. Maybe they'll still have it on the web version.
I'm trustworthy and will take care of everything. That is your best course of action. In times of economic uncertainty and political turmoil this is especially true.
I seem to remember watching a show about little reactors put in out of the way places all over Russia to power navigation aids and stuff. The show I watched, one had been opened and guys were taking turns trying to get the radio active material into a container to get it moved. Some hunters had found it and got radiation poisoning.
Yeah - it doesn't seem like it will be sustainable. Unless there are just never enough people who want to do it. And I'll be honest, I don't relish the idea of long, dark and cold winters. I've lived the majority of my life in places that are predominately warm and sunny - but given the current cost and necessity of an education I can't help but think that this will continue to grow. Especially if, and it sounds like you are saying it does, this extends to post-grad. I've always wanted to get a masters but I've never relished the idea of paying for one.
I saw a news story recently about a guy who went from the US to Finland to study - they said it was free - similar to what you just mentioned.
I'm curious about how this works, what kind of restrictions exist, etc. For example - could a 40 year old American who already has a degree go to Sweden and get this same deal? What kind of visa is required and does it allow students to work?
It just seems that if it as simple as has been described that a lot more people would be doing it.
It's interesting to think about how we are impacted by books based on when we first read them. I wish I could take an objective look at a Heinlein story as an adult - but I can't because I read them all as a kid. And to be honest, at the time I was quite infatuated with his ideas. Since then I've grown up a bit, but I'm so nostalgic about the stories that it is very difficult for me to be objective about them at all.
Re:I was wondering what this book was
on
Zoe's Tale
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· Score: 2, Informative
Gabe did a cover for an earlier Scalzi book - "Agent to the Stars" (which you can read on-line for free if you follow the link) and so the PA guys know Scalzi at least professionally. But I think things are tied even tighter with Wil Wheaton just having played D&D with the PA guys - and Wheaton and Scalzi are friends. Talk about word of mouth - it's a veritable geek storm between those 3.
Re:Scalzi strikes me as closer to Haldeman
on
Zoe's Tale
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· Score: 1
I'd say Scalzi sets somewhere between the two. I think he is a stronger advocate for the use of force but with a lot less 'joy' in the destruction than RAH. I thought all the OMW books were less preachy than either FW or Starship Troopers.
I thought the sequels did a good job of driving home ideas that were just brushed up against in the first. I like how they each stand on their own, and visit those common themes from a number of perspectives.
I think that cartoonish feel is a real tough spot for any work that deals with aliens up close. I think that since they need to be different they fall into that kind of unreal classification. Scary aliens avoid this somewhat but don't make for good allies. I think Cherryh has always done a good job with this. Very 'real' aliens.
Re:Know the end? Big deal...
on
Zoe's Tale
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· Score: 1
The signal to noise ratio here is the same as always - but posts like the gp make for good discussion. It's worth it for that - glad you liked the review. He's a great author, and from all I can tell a genuinely good guy. His blog would be of interest to a lot of people around here I think - I know many already are regular readers there.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not odd at all. I'm sure the company and their investors would like to make money this way. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. The point is that isn't necessary to the survival of the technology and if they go under, it wont stop people from using the product.
exactly
All you need with a federated service like identi.ca is a small percentage of the participants to host a server. and those people just need a hosting account they can get out of their disposable income. With open social and the like a lot of other things can work the same way - there is no need for a central authority or revenue generator - everything is distributed. And the costs are low enough out at the end points that their need not be income derived from the activity itself.
I'm interested in what my friends are doing - and 'celebrities'. It's sort of like the status update on facebook - but with a service like twitter that's all that happens. And is a completely opt-in format. I started following a guy a few weeks back - and then when I realized I didn't care for the content, I just stopped following. No one can push stuff to me without my requesting it. Very nice.
I have a few friends from here at slashdot I follow on twitter and I think it is a cool way to keep in touch and know what they have going on. I don't think any of them fall into celebrity status - though The Fun Guy has been on tv and radio I guess.
identi.ca allows for federation which means the cost can be distributed. No single company has to generate enough revenue to support some huge structure. You just need lots of little servers connected to one another and tons of people are already doing that.
Right now on twitter I'm following @bashcookbook and I get a bash tip every day. I also follow @thaumatrope and read little 140 character slivers of science fiction stories. @Outshine calls theirs prose poetry and it is all with a speculative fiction type spin. @oreillymedia keeps me up to date on oreilly stuff including conferences, web casts, new books and things they have on-line like blog posts and interviews.
This may not be your cup of tea - but for a lot of people it is a very popular way to receive and share information. The other people I follow are individuals who are pretty well known (Wil Wheaton, Jon Scalzi, Tim O'Reilly, etc.) and I'm interested in things like what they are doing, what they are reading, stuff like that.
Does all that matter? I'm not sure, it all depends on context. But to me personally it matters right now. There is also the fact that now that I have a number of friends who are also on twitter we are able to use it as a way of keeping in touch. Of course we could use instant messaging or email - but we don't. If we need to say something longer we use another method - but throughout the day twitter is usually enough.
Oh - and with the ability to search through all of this - it becomes an index of sorts as many microblog posts point to other places on the web. That's another feature that I believe brings real value. And I know that this is also available in other platforms - but what I've seen happen is that many people tend to microblog much more freely than they will do a regular blog post. So in the end it will get more information out there.
I've been thinking about this a lot in the last few weeks - which may be obvious. I just put in a request to host a project at source forge for a microblogging tool I'd like to build. So there's my bias. I'm pretty excited about what I see as some cool possibilities. Of course not everyone will be on board with this. It may never grow beyond a niche thing. But I remember the first time I was on facebook and thought "What is the point and who is ever going to do this?" Of course now just about everyone I know is on facebook.
That model is completely unnecessary. There is no reason for any kind of revenue - just people who want to get to know others, participate in a community, etc. And if by buzz you mean all those marketing types and prognosticators going away - then like I said, I can't wait for it to go away. Those people are amazingly annoying.
When I read the summary I was pretty annoyed - but I went and read the article (crazy I know) and that helped because it doesn't say these technologies will fail. It says some of the companies trying to make money off these technologies will fail. That's something completely different and I would agree that they are probably right. Of course most start-ups fail so making that kind of a prediction is a bit of a safe bet.
The thing is a lot of this stuff, I'm thinking especially of microblogging since that has really been something I've been interested in a quite a bit recently, will not go away because a lot of people really enjoy using the technology. That it is difficult to turn that into a way to make money makes me happy. So what if twitter fails? People can just move to identi.ca. Then no one needs to make any money off the platform - they just need to enjoy it and participate for motives other than financial benefit. The costs will still exist but they will be spread out across all the participants.
There is that segment of any new community that see it as a way to make money. Those people are rife in most social spaces ( web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it ) right now. People who just want to constantly talk about making twitter a part of your strategy to increase your fan base to make more money or how to use facebook to get rich, etc. I can't wait until they are gone.
What is exciting to me is that most of the alternatives that will step up to fill the vacuum left by the failed commercial attempts are open. That means I can enjoy interacting with a wide array of people all over the world but maintain control over what happens and participate on my terms.
why could the timing have been better? how are the two related?
I never had any issues any of the times this happened. I was able to do all the stuff I normally do and visit all the sites I normally visits. This leads me to conclude that the solution is rather simple. The people who are affected by these outages should do something.
Yes. In the US there is a large pool of press that travel with the President. They are split between a smaller group in AF1 and a larger group in a second jet. They rotate members so that they all get a fair time in AF1. They pay a lot of money to ride in either. Just read about it in the latest issue of National Geographic.
Pretty much - once the shift to giving away the magazine, their level of motivation to make it worth reading drops. They moved from needing to make it worth buying to just making it worth getting for free as opposed to not getting it. You have to get really annoying - say like Information Week - to make it completely undesirable.
I really enjoyed Verity Stobb - and Ed Nisley. (He did an article every month about embedded systems.) Both were dropped off quite a while back. I only kept getting it because I'd been switched over to a free deal. It's funny because just within the last couple weeks I got emails from them about renewing. I didn't respond because I just didn't care. I've got too much to read, not too little.
The last subscription I bought for a magazine was Linux Journal and I did electronic - not print. One of their articles really got me out of a bind and I thought I'd try to show a little appreciation.
When I got my January copy it was in a plastic bag with a brochure for sd west. The brochure was thicker than the magazine. I almost tossed the magazine and kept the brochure. So much has been cut back over the years. I will miss the bug of the month. It was an ad but it was fun. Maybe they'll still have it on the web version.
I'm trustworthy and will take care of everything. That is your best course of action. In times of economic uncertainty and political turmoil this is especially true.
I seem to remember watching a show about little reactors put in out of the way places all over Russia to power navigation aids and stuff. The show I watched, one had been opened and guys were taking turns trying to get the radio active material into a container to get it moved. Some hunters had found it and got radiation poisoning.
Synthetic Aperture Radar
4.1 is a lot better than 4.0 but still hasn't caught up with 3.5. I'm really hoping 4.2 gets us closer. Should be just a few more weeks.
I have - once. Not bad.
Yeah - it doesn't seem like it will be sustainable. Unless there are just never enough people who want to do it. And I'll be honest, I don't relish the idea of long, dark and cold winters. I've lived the majority of my life in places that are predominately warm and sunny - but given the current cost and necessity of an education I can't help but think that this will continue to grow. Especially if, and it sounds like you are saying it does, this extends to post-grad. I've always wanted to get a masters but I've never relished the idea of paying for one.
I saw a news story recently about a guy who went from the US to Finland to study - they said it was free - similar to what you just mentioned.
I'm curious about how this works, what kind of restrictions exist, etc. For example - could a 40 year old American who already has a degree go to Sweden and get this same deal? What kind of visa is required and does it allow students to work?
It just seems that if it as simple as has been described that a lot more people would be doing it.
thanks.
It's interesting to think about how we are impacted by books based on when we first read them. I wish I could take an objective look at a Heinlein story as an adult - but I can't because I read them all as a kid. And to be honest, at the time I was quite infatuated with his ideas. Since then I've grown up a bit, but I'm so nostalgic about the stories that it is very difficult for me to be objective about them at all.
Gabe did a cover for an earlier Scalzi book - "Agent to the Stars" (which you can read on-line for free if you follow the link) and so the PA guys know Scalzi at least professionally. But I think things are tied even tighter with Wil Wheaton just having played D&D with the PA guys - and Wheaton and Scalzi are friends. Talk about word of mouth - it's a veritable geek storm between those 3.
I'd say Scalzi sets somewhere between the two. I think he is a stronger advocate for the use of force but with a lot less 'joy' in the destruction than RAH. I thought all the OMW books were less preachy than either FW or Starship Troopers.
I thought the sequels did a good job of driving home ideas that were just brushed up against in the first. I like how they each stand on their own, and visit those common themes from a number of perspectives.
I think that cartoonish feel is a real tough spot for any work that deals with aliens up close. I think that since they need to be different they fall into that kind of unreal classification. Scary aliens avoid this somewhat but don't make for good allies. I think Cherryh has always done a good job with this. Very 'real' aliens.
The signal to noise ratio here is the same as always - but posts like the gp make for good discussion. It's worth it for that - glad you liked the review. He's a great author, and from all I can tell a genuinely good guy. His blog would be of interest to a lot of people around here I think - I know many already are regular readers there.