DISQUS

Robert, great reporting man, I love it when you get excited about technology, this framework looks really interesting, us on the east coast are just revving up to the news.

Thanks for the entertaining twittering last night too, I can usually tell how important thing are just by how excited you get. Sometimes I wonder if you ever wonder if Microsoft would be doing differently today had you stayed with them? One of Microsofts biggest mistakes was not paying you even half of what you should have been making.

Steven: you are absolutely right! Also, more and more, we will see this division of old school & younger bloggers. Diversity of thought occurs and is good. Techmeme compels a growing number of quality bloggers to be a part of a conversation and it's the diversity of thought in which we can quantify or even qualify our own thinking.

The whole thing reeks of green envy; it doesn't even make sense as these part time bloggers do it for free most of the time, they (we) do it because they love it, they present bias free rhetoric on a growing variety of subjects in which they are increasingly becoming more adept at analyzing and presenting.

Steven, there will always be a few jaded I don't feel like everyone thinks I"m important enough people out there who will always find a smaller person to whack, it's the visual worlds equivalent to kicking the dog.

Dave, I'm sure you know this but creating innovation is simply adding customer value. It doesn't matter whether they pay or not, if you deliver new value, like with flikrfan, you are innovating. I always thought the same thing, it had to be some new revolutionary concept. Little chunks of innovation make the word go round these days.

Coming from a person who was a big inspiration to me for many years this one really gets to me man, what happened to your inspiration? Seems like a jaded post.

What have you said millions of times Robert? EVERYTHING, starts with a conversation.

Conversations move things like quality user centric movements like Data Portability, and conversations stop wars.

Just because there is education going on, does not make it PR. Good causes need support to extend, if I had enough time I'd try to help more. PR? They are having conversations.

This is just me, but IMHO, a movement like Data Portability, who's entire reason for existence is to make the life of customer easier by having a damn conversation with all of these big companies is going to be hard to squash. It will take time. AOL was around a long time. Data Portability does have elements of PR; they are speaking to big companies and they cant speak lewt user tongue. THe movement is also a lot about education, a blueprint, and most importantly a GOOD conversation, one that's going to help us users. Perhaps you are trying to light a fire under everyone's seat, so maybe it's a good question to ask but I hope that's the reason you ask it.

Apple still has a lot of cool people working for them. My friend made an appointment with the wanna-be genius bar and they fixed up his iPhone earpieces problem even though he knew it was running T-mobile. He said in a condescending voice, you know, "We don't support these!" and then fixed the thing. :)

What's changing is the democratization of information and people realize that they can get Windows on their Macbook (even though you really need a pro to run Vista well IMHO) There are the 1 percent of people who are the innovators (like, you Dave and Even me to some extent and I Robert who influence the early adopters and those early adopters start influencing the rest.

Of the innovators and the early adopters, many don't feel comfortable using a machine that everyone else is using and so they will seek to differentiate themselves from the crowd. It's a physiological type subject that's beyond my understanding but it does happen ya know.

The next thing you know, we will live in an age where everything is modular and a commodity. Many of the smart people will roll their own OSes and subscribe to the services they trust and need.

The semantic age is upon us. Microsoft probably has a lot of crazy awesome stuff just waiting that they will bust out right when the tide turns. They are a calculating animal, they are still under heavy scrutiny by all sides for Monopoly stuff and once the Mac gets to the point where they are over 10 percent of the share, Microsoft can resort to playing the game of Bill Vs. Steve anyway they want.

For me, I don't sit and argue about what I think is better, I have a Mac Book Pro which runs all os'es. I run a geek data center in my home and I love to learn the pros and cons to each technology, and I try to apply that knowledge in a way that I know someday will help me turn my great new idea into something that will help everyone accomplish something better, and possibly earn a buck or two doing it. Dave Winer always has my respect for the whole sending out RSS to the masses. He doesn't horde it or charge an arm an a leg for its use, which is very important for somethign like RSS.

Okay, I am way off track, if you read this far, Happy Holiday/Merry Christmas to you Robert. A happy new year/end of year as well.

Hi Dave, I've been stuck on live.com for years. I've started my own Wordpress blog but I'm still working out the kinks on getting my data off of live spaces. Google Summer of code produced a nice little python script to pull data off but Microsoft (I thinK) embeds random unicode which blocks an easy exit.

My time on Live spaces has been pretty great, but I want a copy of my data so that I can move it myself.

What we are proposing is a static form of data ownership. A dynamic form of ownership would consist of true semantic author properties which at the press of a button could be pulled from multiple sites at once. I'd love to join a team that could start whiteboarding the architecture on something like that. Sometime in the future after everyone has a local backup on a cloud, we will want to start backing up our web data locally. Okay, I'm taking things a little too far but it would not surprise me to see this if a real "Open Social" were to be the dominating factor. Ultimately, it will take people like Dave and Doc pounding on the table to make it happen. Great post.

One last thing we can be sure of, advertising, like taxes, are no fad. unfortunately...

Facebook represents a new paradigm in advertising, albeit a small one. This is the only reason Microsoft is even having this conversation. What they are afraid of is the advertising monster which shall be named Gphone.

GPS + Social Network Tie in + Keyword Search all wrapped up in a brushed aluminum package less than the size of a pack of Marlboro Lights is scaring the bejeezus out of Mr. Balmer.

Think about what pulled the internet out of the first slump. It was Google and this word auction crazy business. Now take that power, ease of use, care of customer, and then think about how much money gets spent in the car, compared to how much gets spent on your computer. In less you are 1 in 10,000 or more, the answer is much more money gets spent in the car.

When you enable advertising to the other 95 percent of all countries GNP, now we are talking paradigms. Now think about Office. What is your corporation going to do? Give Microsoft 5million dollars a year to use it's phones and office suite? Or take the free advertising supported one that works much better from Google? Google will get the complaints nailed out, Microsoft better hurry or it's going to be ugly.

I feel for you all without mothers. I cherish all the time left I have with mine. Hang tough Robert.

Wow, the cold war is over, Patent Armageddon has arrived. This could get ugly.

Congrats Robert and Maryamie!! Best of luck on rearing tomorrow's best camera man around!

Microsoft is going to be SOL in advertising unless they pull off some new innovative stuff that makes money. They need more thinkers and less project managers working for them.

Mr. Robinson, that "immature" community is indeed perhaps 5 percent developers and they--if still around and not obsolte--are younger slashdot community. A few of the folks who read digg do matter. They certainly have the ability to influence even younger folks, who might be even brighter than they. You have to look at things 10 years from now always.

@ Chris: It's not so much that everyone should settle on a single format--competition in the formats themselves is good--it's that the DOJ and th rest of us make sure that each of these formats work well with one another, hopefully complement one another, and are only used when there are a high number of users who can read such rich content.

From the designer perspective, it's a testitmate to your merit and ability to see--without techmeme spin0--which technolgies YOU choose to deploy based on THEIR merit.

As a flash user since Flash 3, I can vouch for the quality I'm finding in WP/E via Expressions Web Designer, aka Silverlight. I'm getting ready to launch a new home technology business and I'm building out the website with both technologies. I'm brushing up a bit with web usage--it's been a while since I've checked--but within a few months I think I'll introduce a product with WPF/E. It's an amazing way to demonstrate product and push your brand. It will be interesting to see the numbers in a year, and as I get more proficient at using the product I'll consider deploying it more broadly if I keep liking what I see.

What Flash has is an ARMY of developers and with the integration you've got coming from Adobe's other line of products, I think you have a company that Microsoft won't push around.

What I meant to say is: In light of a company who’s ideals support a mashup of the internet, you should have at least extended an offer to this small developer, what he was doing was making the web better, not doing something bad. Protect your assets without a forked toungue, offer to buy the company or extend a business relationship to them, your brand is your most important asset and I think the value that it just lost would have covered the purchase of this company.

In light of a company who's ideals support a mashup of the internet, you should have at least extended an offer to this small developer, what he was doing was making the web better, not doing something bad. Protect your assets without a forked toungue, offer to buy the company or extend a business relationship to them, your brand is your most important lawsuit and I think the value that it just lost would have covered the purchase of this company.

Robert, Flikr does own a lot more cool content than Images.live.com. If you have said that you think live images is better than Google Images then I'm sorry and I have a lot more respect (not that you care) for you.

About Google maps, Microsoft is doing a lot innovating and I'm glad you pointed out the weak point, the interface. maybe those guys do need to come over and work but it's an entirely different type of interface.

Also, if you want hi quality images, please see the drop down on live's image search. you can search for only images that are the same size as your desktop (looking for wallpaper) I can find all types of images that are 2560x1600. I have about 5 gigs of great things I've found on Images.live.com I can search for any resolution of photo I want, 1920x1200 (True HD) is a popular format.

What I'd like to see is the indexes of all the majors and the interfaces become seperate services. If I like Microsoft's patented infinite scroll to search google index, I think all consumers would be happy if these different services were seperated. But then we get back to the photobucket-myspace trama.

Actually, it has more to do with fandom. People don't call the shots as they see them. I've never heard Robert even so much as mention how much cooler images.live.com is than images.google.com. Never, not once. I could be wrong but I see through a lot of things and most people don't want to give Microsoft the credit they deserve when they actually do deserve it.

My 2C

Robert, good luck to all of you guys. I thought you both lived by those rules. These situations are tough. I think you both give strenth to the trolls by acknowledging they exist. Thus a badget against a troll serves to attract one.

If I could be useful at all, I would just have everyone get back to their roots. But don't pay attention to these people, we live in a safe nation, be brave, a threat should be passed on to law enforcement but we need no badge. Robert, you among few really turned me on to blogging, and it was your sense of joy about technology that I felt. Perhaps it's the cold weather or something but I've not felt that excitement coming from you lately. I feel you say things you don't feel to be a part of something you are not, I don't know what it is, I haven't put my finger on it.

The code of conduct is very useless Robert. Also, you said yourself you are a very public person and you will blog about everything that happens in the open. Not to take sides, this looks like it could get ugly, but did you and Maryame assume David was different?

Dave, imho, in the past has shown that his is a very analytical machine who can compute the worth of something very quickly. It's tough when you combine this engine with personal friendship because there is no clearly defined line. He's trying to compute his brains realization that this code of conduct is useless and this is overiding his friendship for anyone, you folks are calling him out on what's his charm has been all along.

I know a guy who used his Apple TV to make a Car-puter. The specs are perfect for it. I don't know if the thing is actually fit to watch TV on though. I need something that can dim the lights too. Have you ever heard of Life|Ware from exceptional innovation? I would suggest going over to Tvtonic.com and then looking through the feeds they have there Scoble. They have you on there and a decent amount to choose from. I would say engadget but I noticed you didn't mention them.

Bit off topic: Live Images is much nicer than Google Image search.

Especially if you have a great screen.

About local search, you are supposed to type subject location not location subject. Google is the only one who is reversing the query it seems like.

Another thing no one has noticed is if you type in a city in Google Maps, it gets stored as a cookie, which increases the relevancy of that city when you zoom out. The smaller city now appears even when you have a larger city right next to it that does not now appear. That's a spit finish shine--like the one Robert points out--that wins loyalty!

Google is doing a heck of a lot right, including building brand loyalty by going to bat for consumers consitantly and consistantly, but I'm tired of sensationalism and jaded spin on tech stories.

What happened to when we could sit back and be excited about technology and call 'em like we see them? I'm sure I could find a fluke in Google's tech that was better polished on the live.com side. (I did find one major glitch on Google Maps where spam was leaking into the results and my company had Google make some corrections to it's top results)

The fact is I use Google maps more than Live simply because it usually loads faster depending on where I am connecting in the US, but they (Live) have a much nicer technology in place, and Google has been playing catch up for quite some time in this area. Scoble, you're a wish washy dude sometimes man, I can see you wearing a Zune in two years. :)j.k. (about the Zune)

J

Steve Jobs sells DRM even on music that music companies don't require DRM on. This proves that Steve jobs is just trying to put himself in a position where he can tell himself that he had something to do with the end of DRM. It's a well known fact that the record companies are all discussing removing DRM. Steve probably knows more about this, and he's making a power play here just to make it seem like he had something to do with it.

I can see Steve Jobs sitting with Al Gore in a few years. Al says, you know Steve, I did some critical research, which is responsible for the internet, without which your great safari browser, would just be browsing the local hard drive!! I know Al, Steve says, but I did put an end to that nasty DRM! Yeah, you are great Steve, Al says. Steve says, I know Al, we both are great people!.

Robert, I think you are experiencing tension created by a winter depression. I've been a feed reader of your for quite a long long time and I've never seen you get like this. Here's my advice, leave all of your gadgets at home (maybe even your cell phone) get on a plane and find some place to wiggle your toes in the sand. Before you get back, get on the phone and order your self a nice 30" monitor from Dell (I just got one) and get some nice 2560x1600 rez beach photos to use as wallpaper. You can even bring your camera and then take them yourself.

You seem to have lost touch with why everyone enjoys reading you, it's the excitement that you have about technology, the bickering is best left for the old unhappy people of the Nytimes and WSJ. Get back to your roots man. Maybe reinvent yourself or something.