Here's an interesting article on why myspace became so popular: MySpace: Is 'ghetto' a design choice?. Has some choice comments from former employees of myspace as well.
What a bunch of condescending BS. All the article says is that "Men can't develop software for women because they're not women. Therefore they should just replicate already popular software for women, for example, by placing trivia games in WoW."
Men can develop software for women, even without predecessors to replicate. These aren't games, but: Livejournal, deadjournal, and myspace were started by Brad, Frank, and Tom, yet their user-bases dramatically skew toward females.
You don't have to be a female to make software for them.
MMO Markets is my site that is a quick way to get a sense of the kind of market out there for these games:
World of Warcraft US Gold (WWGU) one hundred gold: $8.96
World of Warcraft EURO Gold (WWGE) one hundred gold: $12.27
EverQuest II Plat (EQ2P) one plat: $10.46
EverQuest Platinum (EQP) 10K pp: $4.52
Final Fantasy XI Gil (FFXIG) one million Gil: $14.87
Lineage II Adena (LN2A) one million Adena: $3.06
Matrix Online Information (MXI) one million Info: $1.37
Star Wars Galaxies Credits (SWGC) one million Credits: $4.36
Guild Wars Gold, America (GWGU) 100k gold: $7.20
Guild Wars Gold, Europe (GWGE) 100k gold: $7.20
I agree that some moderation is necessary, but a fundamental feature of YubNub is that most every command I'd want is already there. Any engineered resistance to creating new search commands would jeopardize the completeness of the YubNub lexicon.
Moderation should come post-creation, not pre. Get the commands in the system, then moderate.
With namespaces, I'd have to first seek out other users that have the right ones I need, and then I'd have to memorize their particular namespace-specific commands. In the time it takes to do this, I could have created a Firefox keyword search myself. Nobody would use your namespace keyword besides yourself. YubNub could devise a system where you choose your "trusted buddies" wherein you don't have to type prefixes to use their commands. But then this requires user-management which would interfere with the fluidity of the YubNub system.
While Firefox already has a command-line feature, YubNub takes it to the next level. I have about six Firefox keyword searches, and I haven't made anymore because I'm lazy. YubNub makes this process much more convenient. First, it saves me time in having to create the searches. Second, I don't have to re-import those Firefox bookmarks for fresh browser installs. And Third, it exposes and provides searches to things I would never made the effort to create, or that I wouldn't have known existed.
The product as it stands is neither redundant nor ineffective.
Nobody calls Microsoft when they have a problem, do they? If I knew my employees were throwing away our money on expensive Microsoft support, I'd fire them.
If you call Microsoft, you will lose your first hour talking to a dimwit who is just fumbling through canned responses.
If that dimwitted, canned response is good enough for your company, then you need to re-hire.
It looks like the tops of building in DC are somehow blurred for security reasons. For example, some of these building look intentionally pixelated, or are covered with some solid color. Look to the east and west of the white house.
Nichification is the norm, not displacement.
E-mail has not killed off the fax. IM and has not killed off the phone. Phone has not killed off person-to-person. The Internet and PC hasn't killed off books. Photography hasn't killed painting. CDs haven't even killed vinyl (look at DJs)
Every medium that's in wide use does a very specific task well. If you make a new medium that sort of tries to do the specific task, it will actually create a different task because it is a new medium. The task that the older medium tried to accomplish will always be uniquely accomplished by that medium.
Unless, of course the new medium is a pure upgrade of the existing medium. For example, I think DVDs are killing CDs and blue-ray will kill DVDs. But then that's not really a new medium but the furthur development of an existing medium.
This thin-client business is a completely new medium compared to the thick-client, and so it will serve new tasks very well. The thin-client, because of it's different nature than the thick-client will never get above replication of 97% of the tasks a thick-client couldn't do. Even if there was 100% coverage of wi-fi with gigabit transfer speed, and free thin-client laptops for everybody, there will always be someone who needs to do photoshop while out on his little boat in the ocean.
This is not a "if you don't like them don't use them" kind of argument.
What's wrong about this is how sneaky it is. Terms of Service agreements are not read by the vast majority of users. So, they're basically screwing their AIM users without informing them. I don't consider little lines in Terms of Service informing them.
So, let's hope the media and slahsdot and others can make people aware of this.
You wonder how privacy rights are lost. It's the naievety of the common man.
Does the word Guardian have to be hyperlinked to the Guardian's website?
This creates a UI issue, at least for me, because I wonder which link I should click on. Which one contains the article? If someone wants to find out what the Guardian is all about, they can easily just click on the link of the article.
Why don't they just make it available on the net and see what happens.
The net has a reputation for novel ways of propogating data. Maybe servers will be donated. Perhaps a company would sponsor the service. Perhaps bittorrents would work. Perhaps they would be uploaded into sourceforge. Perhaps one could rely on Google caches. Maybe power users, like universities, could mirror their database.
Seriously, put it online, see what the public does.
First, where's the comparison with the experience at other R&D labs, like Microsoft's.
Plus, the guy's article runs under the assumption that the R&D Lab is holy and that any attempt to reduce, shape, or in someway modify them is evil.
This is not necessarily true. Xerox PARC gave us the mouse, the gui, and ethernet. Microsoft's R&D Lab hasn't done much noteworthy yet has a $1 billion+ budget.
Apple's innovation shouldn't necessarily even be attributed to an R&D Lab. I remember that Apple emphasizes a research-to-product-development cycle. Apples tells its developers precisely that: "these things better turn into products!"
And this makes simple business sense in some cases. Look at what good those innovations did Xerox. Apple took the GUI and mouse, Microsoft took the GUI from Apple, and 3Com took ethernet.
This article's the typical kick-her-on-the-way-out story. "Yeah, I didn't like her either! She didn't increase my budget! I don't need to argue anymore."
I'll believe it when there is an export of this project beyond some papers. If someone can make a product that I can use, or something that society can do something with, or that scientists can play with, then I'll believe it.
What is the feasibility of having a SETI@home thing, where wikipedia acts as a waypoint for a bunch of people having screensavers going on to send out content?
If you have a pole that is the length of the milky way, and pushed from one end, would the other end move simultaneously?
If so, doesn't that data, the data of you pushing, travel faster than the speed of light?
This is still such a small minority. Less than five percent is less than the number of people that use 800x600 resolution. And nevertheless you will hear web designers saying, "can we stop designing websites for 800x600 already??"
However, a warning to web masters that aren't Firefox-friendly (and there are many), is that the digerati is like 50% or more Firefox. People who are frequent commenters on technology in blogs and in magazines are up-to-date on the trends, and use Firefox. So if you alienate the Firefox users, good luck getting that precious slashdotting or BlogDex coverage. Can you imagine BoingBoing or slashdot ever covering a site that was IE-only?
yeah, duh, very good point.
although, gmail could respond and offer their own Gmail drive, maybe charge a small fee, or put ads, but at least ensure that if you use THEIR program, that your files will be safe.
It wouldn't be too hard for them to make life difficult for these these gmailfs hackers though.
In fact, detecting gmailfs's could be slurped into their spam filters.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an interesting article on why myspace became so popular:
MySpace: Is 'ghetto' a design choice?. Has some choice comments from former employees of myspace as well.
What a bunch of condescending BS. All the article says is that "Men can't develop software for women because they're not women. Therefore they should just replicate already popular software for women, for example, by placing trivia games in WoW."
Men can develop software for women, even without predecessors to replicate. These aren't games, but: Livejournal, deadjournal, and myspace were started by Brad, Frank, and Tom, yet their user-bases dramatically skew toward females.
You don't have to be a female to make software for them.
MMO Markets is my site that is a quick way to get a sense of the kind of market out there for these games:
World of Warcraft US Gold (WWGU) one hundred gold: $8.96
World of Warcraft EURO Gold (WWGE) one hundred gold: $12.27
EverQuest II Plat (EQ2P) one plat: $10.46
EverQuest Platinum (EQP) 10K pp: $4.52
Final Fantasy XI Gil (FFXIG) one million Gil: $14.87
Lineage II Adena (LN2A) one million Adena: $3.06
Matrix Online Information (MXI) one million Info: $1.37
Star Wars Galaxies Credits (SWGC) one million Credits: $4.36
Guild Wars Gold, America (GWGU) 100k gold: $7.20
Guild Wars Gold, Europe (GWGE) 100k gold: $7.20
I don't delete my cookies because nothing is going to happen. There is no threat.
I agree that some moderation is necessary, but a fundamental feature of YubNub is that most every command I'd want is already there. Any engineered resistance to creating new search commands would jeopardize the completeness of the YubNub lexicon.
Moderation should come post-creation, not pre. Get the commands in the system, then moderate.
With namespaces, I'd have to first seek out other users that have the right ones I need, and then I'd have to memorize their particular namespace-specific commands. In the time it takes to do this, I could have created a Firefox keyword search myself. Nobody would use your namespace keyword besides yourself. YubNub could devise a system where you choose your "trusted buddies" wherein you don't have to type prefixes to use their commands. But then this requires user-management which would interfere with the fluidity of the YubNub system.
While Firefox already has a command-line feature, YubNub takes it to the next level. I have about six Firefox keyword searches, and I haven't made anymore because I'm lazy. YubNub makes this process much more convenient. First, it saves me time in having to create the searches. Second, I don't have to re-import those Firefox bookmarks for fresh browser installs. And Third, it exposes and provides searches to things I would never made the effort to create, or that I wouldn't have known existed.
The product as it stands is neither redundant nor ineffective.
Or R2 is just the plain-old deus ex machina. Wait, I think that's what you are saying.
Is this founded on experience?
Nobody calls Microsoft when they have a problem, do they? If I knew my employees were throwing away our money on expensive Microsoft support, I'd fire them.
If you call Microsoft, you will lose your first hour talking to a dimwit who is just fumbling through canned responses.
If that dimwitted, canned response is good enough for your company, then you need to re-hire.
It looks like the tops of building in DC are somehow blurred for security reasons. For example, some of these building look intentionally pixelated, or are covered with some solid color. Look to the east and west of the white house.
Nichification is the norm, not displacement. E-mail has not killed off the fax. IM and has not killed off the phone. Phone has not killed off person-to-person. The Internet and PC hasn't killed off books. Photography hasn't killed painting. CDs haven't even killed vinyl (look at DJs) Every medium that's in wide use does a very specific task well. If you make a new medium that sort of tries to do the specific task, it will actually create a different task because it is a new medium. The task that the older medium tried to accomplish will always be uniquely accomplished by that medium. Unless, of course the new medium is a pure upgrade of the existing medium. For example, I think DVDs are killing CDs and blue-ray will kill DVDs. But then that's not really a new medium but the furthur development of an existing medium. This thin-client business is a completely new medium compared to the thick-client, and so it will serve new tasks very well. The thin-client, because of it's different nature than the thick-client will never get above replication of 97% of the tasks a thick-client couldn't do. Even if there was 100% coverage of wi-fi with gigabit transfer speed, and free thin-client laptops for everybody, there will always be someone who needs to do photoshop while out on his little boat in the ocean.
This is not a "if you don't like them don't use them" kind of argument.
What's wrong about this is how sneaky it is. Terms of Service agreements are not read by the vast majority of users. So, they're basically screwing their AIM users without informing them. I don't consider little lines in Terms of Service informing them.
So, let's hope the media and slahsdot and others can make people aware of this.
You wonder how privacy rights are lost. It's the naievety of the common man.
Does the word Guardian have to be hyperlinked to the Guardian's website?
This creates a UI issue, at least for me, because I wonder which link I should click on. Which one contains the article? If someone wants to find out what the Guardian is all about, they can easily just click on the link of the article.
don't take me seriously... I was just hunting for a decent FP.
Yeah, I know RTFA!!!
Why don't they just make it available on the net and see what happens.
The net has a reputation for novel ways of propogating data. Maybe servers will be donated. Perhaps a company would sponsor the service. Perhaps bittorrents would work. Perhaps they would be uploaded into sourceforge. Perhaps one could rely on Google caches. Maybe power users, like universities, could mirror their database.
Seriously, put it online, see what the public does.
First, where's the comparison with the experience at other R&D labs, like Microsoft's.
Plus, the guy's article runs under the assumption that the R&D Lab is holy and that any attempt to reduce, shape, or in someway modify them is evil.
This is not necessarily true. Xerox PARC gave us the mouse, the gui, and ethernet. Microsoft's R&D Lab hasn't done much noteworthy yet has a $1 billion+ budget.
Apple's innovation shouldn't necessarily even be attributed to an R&D Lab. I remember that Apple emphasizes a research-to-product-development cycle. Apples tells its developers precisely that: "these things better turn into products!"
And this makes simple business sense in some cases. Look at what good those innovations did Xerox. Apple took the GUI and mouse, Microsoft took the GUI from Apple, and 3Com took ethernet.
This article's the typical kick-her-on-the-way-out story. "Yeah, I didn't like her either! She didn't increase my budget! I don't need to argue anymore."
I'll believe it when there is an export of this project beyond some papers. If someone can make a product that I can use, or something that society can do something with, or that scientists can play with, then I'll believe it.
Okay, so consider weather to be a big RNG, why don't we do what the global conscioussness project does, and have a seansce to control our weather?
What if their probability theory is wrong?
Yeah, another is using Google to somehow figure out whether the phrase you're using is in popular domain.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
April is the cruelest month
Call me ishmael
You ate my dog
All your base are belong to us
I am a sexy beast
etc...
What is the feasibility of having a SETI@home thing, where wikipedia acts as a waypoint for a bunch of people having screensavers going on to send out content?
I'd donate my spare bandwidth for sure.
Eh, I did a view source on Google and saw TABLE tags.
If you have a pole that is the length of the milky way, and pushed from one end, would the other end move simultaneously? If so, doesn't that data, the data of you pushing, travel faster than the speed of light?
This is still such a small minority. Less than five percent is less than the number of people that use 800x600 resolution. And nevertheless you will hear web designers saying, "can we stop designing websites for 800x600 already??"
However, a warning to web masters that aren't Firefox-friendly (and there are many), is that the digerati is like 50% or more Firefox. People who are frequent commenters on technology in blogs and in magazines are up-to-date on the trends, and use Firefox. So if you alienate the Firefox users, good luck getting that precious slashdotting or BlogDex coverage. Can you imagine BoingBoing or slashdot ever covering a site that was IE-only?
yeah, duh, very good point. although, gmail could respond and offer their own Gmail drive, maybe charge a small fee, or put ads, but at least ensure that if you use THEIR program, that your files will be safe. It wouldn't be too hard for them to make life difficult for these these gmailfs hackers though. In fact, detecting gmailfs's could be slurped into their spam filters.
okay, so how does google respond to this.
I think they just have to throw their hands up and go, okay, fine 1GB virtual drive for ppl, how to best make money off of it?
Could they analyze your files and serve ads related to it? If you put up an mp3, could they upsell albums related to it?
If you upload a text document describing to your girlfriend your favorite lingerie, could they flash an adsense for Victoria's Secret?
If you have an excel spread sheet describing mission-critical CRMs, could they analyze those and start throwing ads related to that?
Is there any way I can turn this into a web server?