Disqus - Latest Comments for Matt

Re: My Birthday Present

Matt — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:49:06 -0000

So far this is the only method I've seen that worked successfully:

http://alexking.org/blog/2007/07/02/iphone-with...

Basically, you sign up then cancel your contract. You have to activate to get everything working, but once you cancel the service, the WiFi stuff keeps working.

Re: Boing Boing going for sensational headlines

Matt — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 09:41:50 -0000

Yep ... again, not saying it isn't a stupid policy or even that Yahoo! wasn't being particularly helpful.

But the headline and the interpretation of the policy were incorrect and needlessly "sensational."

Re: New job

Matt — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 20:03:11 -0000

Heh. They're working on it. Don't worry.

Re: gMail + gTalk = gFailure

Matt — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 00:48:43 -0000

Yeah, unfortunately it started to happen to the point I could no longer use the service reliably even for email. Too bad really.

Re: Good Customer Service … Where did it go?

Matt — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:47:33 -0000

Sorry Jason, but I have to say that I think you're trying to play word games with

all we said was that these emails raised eyebrows

And even if we take your point at face value, it doesn't really make it any better. "Raising an eyebrow" is still derogatory.

The manner and tone of the original post clearly conveyed to many people that you all are becoming arrogant and probably could use a little head deflation.

Re: Good Customer Service … Where did it go?

Matt — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:28:01 -0000

Matt, since I see you're basically copying and pasting your comments ... I'll do the same, below is my response to your nearly verbatim comment over on Jeremy's blog:

I think itÇÙs fairly obvious, Matt, that many visitors of your website and folks across the internet saw your post as mocking your users. ItÇÙs a matter of perception vs. reality and you all are trying to ignore the perception which isnÇÙt wise.

When dealing with customer service we all have times where we think bad things regarding the customers we are assisting. What good customer service teaches you however is that you need to keep those thoughts to yourself or vent them privately. Venting them in the public, as you did, is only going to land you exactly where you find yourself now Ç? trying to defend the indefensible because what you did was Ç? well, wrong.

As for "raising an eyebrow" being dergatory or not, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. However, I think more people would side with my opinion then yours on that matter ...

Re: It’s official … I’m getting older now

Matt — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:32:47 -0000

Hehe, thanks ;)

Re: It’s official … I’m getting older now

Matt — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:03:40 -0000

Thanks Jeremy and Jason. Appreciate it.

Re: Feedlounge - Matt Walters Release

Matt — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:07:14 -0000

Haha. Thanks.

I trimmed my feeds down some, I went over 100 for a little bit. But find it hard to manage over that. I'm one of those people that must keep the unread count to zero. So I check my feeds constantly and it actually bothers me when I get over 100 unread items. So I'm not sure I could take 500-600.

By the way, do you have your feeds published using the new API feature? If so I'd be interested in seeing what you're reading.

Re: The RIAA has lost it’s mind

Matt — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 23:41:10 -0000

a dinosaur industry

Amen.

Re: Hybrid Vehicle vs. Regular

Matt — Mon, 08 May 2006 11:04:37 -0000

Yeah, I assumed the same thing as you're both saying regarding maintenance costs. But I hadn't done any research into it, so I didn't want to base much of my argument on it.

I also agree with what you are saying Jeremy in regard to this being a "solution" within the oil paradigm. You're exactly right, we need to get outside the box on this problem to find a real, working solution.

Re: Hybrid Vehicle vs. Regular

Matt — Tue, 09 May 2006 09:17:43 -0000

If you qualified for the $3400 credit, it would even things out between the EX vs the Hybrid, however on a DX, it still wouldn't touch it basically.

They really need to find a way to sky-rocket the MPG, or lower the cost of the Hybrid significantly, or, as Jeremy suggests, look to an entirely different way of fixing the problem.

Re: Hybrid Vehicle vs. Regular

Matt — Thu, 11 May 2006 09:05:18 -0000

Jason, that is true. It will be different with every car you compare. But then again, that's why I made the calculator ;) I don't think the point being made will change vastly however regardless of the comparison you make (excluding of course comparing the hybrid to say ... a Hummer).

Re: FeedPass ignites blogosphere?

Matt — Mon, 22 May 2006 19:59:59 -0000

OK, that makes a little more sense to me. Personally, I don't think it's something I'd utilize, but I could see how someone else might, which is fair. After all, I'm not a member of every niche market out there.

Thanks for the compliment on the commenting system. I can't take credit for that feature though. It's part of the K2 theme for WordPress.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing thoughts on it as well. I was trying to not come across as attacking FeedPass, glad it doesn't seem to have been taken that way.

Re: Stop the RIAA

Matt — Mon, 29 May 2006 14:05:31 -0000

My problem with the RIAA isn't so much the fact that they want to stop the illegal sharing of music files. It's more the fact that they are getting so absurd in their statements. For instance they have said simply having a shared folder on your computer should be considered illegal. So ... basically they think the internet and computer networks in general are illegal. Statements such as that are what make me want to see the RIAA stopped. They also need to be a little less zealous in their lawsuits. Suing people that don't have computers in their house and stuff ... they're getting out of control.

Re: Hybrid Vehicle vs. Regular

Matt — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:41:05 -0000

I think the corporations could do a lot better then they are at present AC, and they sure have a lot more money then I do...

Re: Corporate America

Matt — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:55:40 -0000

It appears that unfortunately seamonkey makes it hard for you to tell what entry you're commenting on however, so I think I'll stick with FireFox ;)

Re: Promoted

Matt — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:42:59 -0000

Only if you'll come buy and sing "Moving on up" whenever I walk through the door.

Re: Another YouTube video

Matt — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 12:35:56 -0000

Things are going pretty good, I can't really complain. Just working hard and starting to look for a 'home' of my own.

That video is great, heh.

Re: Another YouTube video

Matt — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:24:07 -0000

hehe, it's funny stuff.

Re: Losing my love for Lost

Matt — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:59:16 -0000

Yeah, I really feel at this point they've gone overboard with the flashbacks. We're not learning anything new about the characters that is relevant to the story taking place in "present day."

Re: Welcome

Matt — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:42:19 -0000

Webhost or theme? ;)

Re: Welcome

Matt — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:56:57 -0000

What can I say, I'm always looking for something better ;)

Re: Welcome

Matt — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:51:08 -0000

Thanks, I'm liking it. It's growing on me more and more.

Re: Wii

Matt — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 02:32:55 -0000

test from the wii. Woot!

Re: Wii - Continued

Matt — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:48:45 -0000

Hah, too funny. I do have to make sure I clear out some room for me though, I get pretty into Tennis and boxing when I get going. I'm sure I'll end up slamming my hand into something eventually, hopefully it won't be my TV or anything too hard. ;)

Re: gMail + gTalk = gFailure

Matt — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:49:56 -0000

Yeah, I had heard that there were some new issues this week with google (this post is actually from a while back). It was just frustrating that it seemed when these problems happened, they would persist for awhile. Other email hosts (yahoo mail, hotmail, etc) periodically might bounce an email here or there, but even if the UI was having availability issues, usually the mail was still being collected and would be there for me when I could finally get in. With gMail it seems like if the UI is down, then delivery is down as well, which is no good, at least if you're relying on your email for anything serious.

Re: Samsung Blackjack - Continued

Matt — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:20:59 -0000

I'm not really familiar with zyb.com to be honest, but if it can sync up to your Mac software (like Calendar and Address Book) then the program I mention called "The Missing Sync" should be able to take you the rest of the way. I'm on a Mac exclusively these days, so in either post of my review when I reference snyc'ing my device, I'm doing it with a MacBook.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Re: Launched our new website at wo…

Matt — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:28:34 -0000

There was talk of adding one, we've been staying away from it for now though.

Re: U-Haul has awful customer service

Matt — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:28:01 -0000

At this point I think I might have had better lucky carrying the stuff over there by myself on foot.

Re: Birthday

Matt — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:29:30 -0000

Hehe, thanks guys.

Re: Tumblr - info.mattwalters.net

Matt — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:42:22 -0000

Yeah, but I don't want to just create feeds of the information, I want it brought into a nice website as well. I might end up finding a way to let Tumblr pull all my information together and then just have this blog syndicate it. That would continue to allow for comments and an easy way for me to change aesthetics of the site still. But we'll see.

Re: My language is better then yours …

Matt — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:33:29 -0000

The quote you pulled and your response only really show that you didn't get my point (either through my lack of explaining it, or you not reading it closely enough). My point was that you're never going to get enough firms to pick up a single language and framework to make the task of taking over existing projects easier. It's the same for PHP or any other language. There will never be so many firms programming in PHP that it would be easy to move an app from one to another. So with Rails, there will never be enough firms doing Rails development for this to really get enough traction to be a worthwhile argument. You'll always be taking over a Java project or a .NET project or a PHP project. Sure you can possibly say, "We'll only work with Rails code" but the chances of that ever being a wise business decision are unlikely.

As for the last remarks, I think the link I gave you for Chris speaks well to that point.

"You need to be quite a bit more of an advanced programmer to get into Rails."

This type of argument always makes me raise an eyebrow. It can be restated as "Our technology is better, and if you were smart enough, you'd agree." If I have to be smarter to use your technology, then your technology sucks.

You may not have been saying I'm not as advanced of a programmer, but you were about as close to it as you can get without saying it.

Re: My language is better then yours …

Matt — Wed, 23 May 2007 12:18:01 -0000

... I also kind of think whenever I make a well-founded counterpoint to you, you're saying, "Ok, well let's strip that part away." Comparing Rails to PHP w/ no framework is not a valid comparison. Saying you want to not compare based on the potential of a language is basically the same thing. If we're not going to deal with the fact that PHP has the potential to take advantage of frameworks, then we might as well rip activerecords or some other piece of RoR off. Sure Rails CAN do activerecords, but we're not talking about potential, right?

Re: My language is better then yours …

Matt — Thu, 24 May 2007 08:57:33 -0000

That's somewhat my point. If we really want to compare Rails to something PHP, then it should be compared against a PHP framework.

Re: Good Customer Service … Where did it go?

Matt — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:22:09 -0000

Paul, sorry that you, too, had a poor experience with 37Signals. I'm not really sure where they get the attitude from. I am not familiar with OnStage, but wish you the best of luck with it.

Re: My language is better then yours … (Part 2)

Matt — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:41:47 -0000

Honestly, I think a lot of our problem here is that you're assuming I am taking it personally. The only time I really take it personally is when there is some sort of assertion or implication that I'm being close-minded, which is a personal attack, so responding personally doesn't seem unjust. I remember at some point you mentioned that you would bring up "I found out how to do x in RoR" and I might mention later "I found out how to do x in PHP." I'm not saying it because of some "oh my god I need to show PHP can keep pace with RoR!@#" thought in my head. I'm trying to connect with you on the methodology so we can talk about that, instead of worrying about which language we're both programming in independent of each other.

I mean, if you, or Jim, or anyone, were to say RoR is better then PHP. I would step in to defend PHP. But not for personal reasons, but because I think you'd be wrong. I don't think either language is really better then the other, so neither should be placed above the other.

The fact remains, I believe the end-user experience is what really matters. Clients desires, when the client isn't the end-user/visitor, are another facet of an already complex discussion. One that I feel we don't really need to enter into in order to finish, or have, the discussion we're having.

And just because it continues to glare at me even after I've basically finished this comment ...

"PHP is usually used to do quick, dirty applications."

Sorry ... I didn't realize that flickr, facebook, digg, wikipedia, etc were quick and dirty applications.

Re: My language is better then yours … (Part 2)

Matt — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:30:55 -0000

My point was just that while I'm willing to make some generalizations here, php being typically used for quick and dirty applications is not one of them.

Re: iPhone

Matt — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:02:56 -0000

yeah, I know but I like my gadgets, heh

Re: Development Environment up

Matt — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:37:29 -0000

Gravatars ftw! woot!

Heh, thanks for the tip. I have been considering getting a slice from slicehost and having it as a big sandbox. So I might have to give what you mention a shot.

Re: Darn you Google!

Matt — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:26:21 -0000

Rich -- Not sure what to tell you.

Akash -- I would rather that I as a paying customer, have the ability to turn the features on should I want to. The "feature" they added was the ability to turn those things on should you want them. If I turn it on, and it's broken, then that's my own fault. Not having the ability to turn them on at all is an entirely different point, and was the point that I was making.

Re: Darn you Google!

Matt — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:22:12 -0000

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't have blinders on about the potential risk. I just personally feel it is something that should be available to the administrators at the least. I don't use my account for business, it's just for my personal email, but that also means I'm the administrator, so I'd be ok with having to turn on features from my admin panel.

Re: Darn you Google!

Matt — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:14:21 -0000

Exactly John. You have regular old GMail and you have access to turn it on, yet as a paying customer, I do not. Pretty odd.

Re: 2008/09/02/pingfm-solving-the-problem-or-exacerbating-it/

Matt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:07:38 -0000

I would disagree, but I can see your point.

Personally, I use the socialthing / ping.fm combo. I actively monitor all the services I broadcast to. Most of my friends most actively use Twitter. But at work, we most actively use Brightkite (we work under a "distributed" model, so it being location based is fantastic).

I do agree that there are too many me-too services in this realm. But I don't think ping.fm, nor socialthing are to blame. Besides, competition is healthy. Eventually these sites will need to monetize, the ones that have strong followings and are able to properly monetize will succeed, and others will fall to the wayside.

As for bringing us together ... I'm starting to think that is just not what the web is for. Sorry, but folks have been saying that ever since the web came into existence. If anything, I'd argue that it's further fragmenting us all. It's extremely easy to set up shop in a silo now. If you want to interact with people, tell your friends to meet you for a beer would be my advice.

Re: I can’t get into Flickr anymore…

Matt — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:21:49 -0000

flickr's working good for me. I'd definitely consider posting in their forums or emailing a more general email address (since it's like to go to a team) instead of just one person.

Re: Firefox on Macs giving people fits

Matt — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:53:17 -0000

I'm having trouble with FireFox on my MacBook as well and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one either. It's become pretty painfully lately. It crashes when quitting a fair amount of the time. Every once in awhile it stops responding to refresh requests and new page requests. Not leaving GMail open seems to have helped with the problem of other pages not loading, luckily I looked into the new Google Notifier for Mac and it now supports Premier accounts.

Anyhow, like I said, glad I'm not the only one experiencing this.

I have problems with Camino not loading the Reader interface properly. Not sure what's up with that...

Re: Firefox on Macs giving people fits

Matt — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:58:19 -0000

Oops re: my earlier comment about Google Reader in Camino, it was more user error then anything, I hadn't updated in awhile. Just installed the new version and it's going nicely...

Re: iPhone update rumors cause conversations…

Matt — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:34:41 -0000

I definitely hope that some of it comes true, but I have to admit, it sounds a bit too good to be true. I'm really hoping for iChat and more support for the landscape keyboard.

Re: Wall Street Journal gets blogging history wrong

Matt — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:19:14 -0000

Trying to pinpoint the start of blogging and who it was started by is kind of pointless if you ask me. It has certainly been around since before the late 90's, and you don't even have to reach back to BBS's or "stretch" the definition of a modern blog for that.

I guess I could see if someone wanted to look around for who has been blogging the longest, but that's entirely different then who was blogging first. You're going to constantly be faced with people saying "Yeah, but [so-and-so] was doing [slight-deviation of whatever you just mentioned] a year or two before that!"

Re: Wired? Tired? Linkbaiting? I wish

Matt — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:13:21 -0000

I wouldn't sweat it.

As far as the other videos they should have paid attention to, it's easier to write-up condemning articles then it is to actually spend the time to think about things and write real responses to them (would be my guess as to why they ignored them). I probably could have been more articulate in making my point, but I'm tired, so hopefully you get the idea.

Why discuss education when it's easier to give you grief about "x"? (/sarcasm)