Disqus - Latest Comments for mrshl

Re: Annie, are you okay? Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?

mrshl — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:33:03 -0000

Yay! Our first comment.

Re: Simplify for iTunes makes it easy to share.

mrshl — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:28:21 -0000

only now, when i post that conversation, do i realize that he was talking about bedhead and i was thinking about blonde redhead. d'oh.

Re: The man from the big VA.

mrshl — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:13:16 -0000

yeah, i really want to get this, but i don't understand why they chose to use that site with so many other choices available.

also, why does the forest service advertise on file sharing sites? is this how our federal tax dollars are being spent? senduit has the same damn ad.

Re: Killing time: Scrabulous

mrshl — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:30:11 -0000

Haha. If Facebook weren't blocked at my job, I'd be right there with you.

p.s., You have been added as a Life Partner.

Re: 35-year history of Tokyo skyline condensed into 10 seconds.

mrshl — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:41:59 -0000

Not sure why, but the link to the page was breaking the comments. I've removed it from the story and I'm giving proper credit here.

Re: http://mrshl.net/139/

mrshl — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:48:21 -0000

Saw the trailer for this while watching the Daily Show tonight. It looks ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome.

Re: Radiohead’s 7th. Pretty. Fun. and… Unpretentious.

mrshl — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:02:34 -0000

haha.

<**3 you, miles.

Re: links for 2007-11-06

mrshl — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:30:43 -0000

320 or 160: i cannot tell the difference. my dumb ears are fine with whatever compression is available north of 128.

i paid $4. money well spent.

Re: links for 2007-11-15

mrshl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:33:33 -0000

dood. i can't hat tip in del.icio.us! all praise the beard!

Re: Slacker, the real iPod killer?

mrshl — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 12:15:31 -0000

brian: slacker has probably negotiated with rights holders separately, which the law allows you to do. pandora can do the same. i don't think pandora's going anywhere.

it's the small webcasters and hobbyists that are going to get killed by the new royalty rates. and i think that's the point. it sucks, but i don't think it's going to cripple the larger services. because musicians and their labels can see the obvious benefit to being streamed on services like last.fm, pandora, and now slacker.

Re: Six Alternatives To Twitter « My Thoughts On Social Media

mrshl — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:05:20 -0000

Yeah, Plurk is the one I wish everyone used. But the poor adoption rate (and Twitter's renewed dominance) is killing it. For me, too. I use Twitter and Facebook. That's it.

Re: Virb wants you to leave MySpace

mrshl — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:19:37 -0000

Virb will, as you say, peak early. But I think their feature set will gradually attract a more demanding and sophisticated set of users. Instead of burning out, I think it's going to burn slow, gaining a loyal, dedicated set of users over time. They don't have to conquer the world. They just need a critical mass of users who are willing to grow and maintain the site at a reasonable pace.

Another thing to consider is that Virb is competing with a more than just Myspace. Users of Orkut, Friendster, Bebo, and other smaller networks are going to be even more attracted to Virb, and because those networks are smaller, switching costs are lower.

Re: 2007/02/25/youtube-and-google-video-player-in-google-serps-this-is-evil/

mrshl — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:16:28 -0000

What is unfair about this? And what is evil? This is a pretty helpful feature, I'd say.

The word you should be looking for is "compete." That's what they're doing. What would you say if Microsoft or Yahoo had done it first? Would you still look askance at Google? People aren't stupid. They'll find what they want. And if they decide they'd rather click through to yet another page to see the video, I'm sure that's what they'll do.

Re: 2007/04/12/google-checkout-uk/

mrshl — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:20:35 -0000

Google Checkout also has a promotion where they give you $10 off your first transaction with a participating merchant. I keep forgetting about it. I tried once but Buy.com kept saying that I had to choose an "eligible" product.

I do think Google Checkout is aiming to be something slightly different than Paypal. Not many large online merchants use Paypal, but Google's been making headway in that market by lowering the transaction costs. If they could get Amazon or Walmart on board, they'd really have something.

Re: 2007/04/16/microsoft-adobe-smackdown/

mrshl — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 11:35:48 -0000

"Even MSN Soapbox uses Flash - no doubt theyâ€™ll switch to Silverlight now, and take advantage of their current downtime to do so, perhaps."

You're probably right, but it seems like a weird thing to do. For a lot of users installing Silverlight is just going to be another barrier to viewing media on Soapbox and other Microsoft properties. It's going to expand rather than decrease Adobe's dominance. On the other hand, MS can install and update through their automatic updates feature, so maybe they'll grab users that way.

Also, I'd say the difference between Silverlight and Adobe Media Player is that AMP is entering an area in which there is significant room to innovate. I'm sure a large number of users can think of features they'd like to see in their antiquated media players. But where's the demand for a Flash competitor? Was there something about Flash that wasn't working? Most users would say "nah."

Re: 2007/04/17/graphita/

mrshl — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:51:18 -0000

Graphita doesn't appear to support retrieving photos from Flickr. That's a pretty important feature; one most similar services already support.

Re: 2007/04/19/amazon-sues-alexaholic%e2%80%a6web-as-platform-is-bullsht/

mrshl — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:36:45 -0000

I usually roll my eyes when I hear a larger firm accused of "bullying" a smaller start up through simple competition. Even appropriating features spawned through a smaller firm's use of an API doesn't bug me a all that much. This "evil" is the risk these small developers have to take as entrepreneurs. It's just as likely they'll be purchased by the larger company (see e.g., Salesforce).

But Amazon's conduct here is beyond the pale. It's difficult to believe there's not some seriously personal beef a the heart of this dispute. Like you, I'm trying to figure out what the cause of action is. The pleading actually includes includes a claim against Statsaholic (through Hornbaker) for use of the Alexa name and trademark. It specifically asks for relief under the AntiCybersquatting Consumer Protection act. Given that Alexa has already ceased using the name, and that Amazon's asking primarily for injunctive relief, I'm at a loss to see what they're after. Perhaps they want Mr. Hornbaker to give up ownership of the Alexaholic domain name, which I'm guessing he still owns. If so, perhaps this suit is simply a negotiation tactic against further use of that name. Indeed, Alexaholic.com now points to Statsaholic. Maybe Amazon wants the site for itself.

Re: 2007/04/22/facebook-twitter/

mrshl — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:57:47 -0000

I have a Twitter client that works great most of the time. It's called gmail chat. And really, if Facebook had the same thing, it WOULD be just as useful as Twitter.

But I predict (and hope for) something a bit more basic. Facebook isn't exporting your status updates yet as an individual feed (you can get a feed for your pals, but not for yourself). If they changed that, and Twitter allowed us to import that feed, all would be well. No crazy mergers necessary.

Re: 2007/04/22/facebook-twitter/

mrshl — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 10:11:37 -0000

I think SixApart makes better sense than anyone as a Twitter buyer or partner. It would be so easy for Twitter to become an integrated part of their disparate blogging platforms. It's similar to their offerings, and yet it fills a niche.

Be it MT, Typepad, LiveJournal, or Vox, all it would take is one extra form blank, and boom. Post to Twitter.

Re: 2007/05/02/minglebox/

mrshl — Wed, 02 May 2007 19:15:21 -0000

Wait, what's elitist about Facebook? Not saying it's not elitist, necessarily. Just wondering why you would say so.

I'm having trouble coming up with anything "elite" or particularly snobby.

Re: 2007/05/02/minglebox/

mrshl — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:42:18 -0000

Gotcha. Yeah, their initial rollout at Harvard, and gradual rollout everywhere else wasn't a model of openness. I might have said "closed/limited rollout", but whatever. I just wondered if you meant anything negative, and it's clear you didn't.

Re: Facebook Platform: 30+ Awesome Applications for Facebook

mrshl — Fri, 25 May 2007 00:37:43 -0000

Did you notice that Twitter is now on Facebook, too? It integrates pretty seamlessly. I have to say, that's not what I expected, given that Twitter would seem to be a competitor with Facebook's own status update feature. Guess that's not how they see it.

Re: 2007/06/13/my-yahoo-beta-features/

mrshl — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:44:40 -0000

Dear Yahoo, I am not using your dumb start page again until you get rid of that ghastly ad that takes up a quarter of the usable page.

Love,

Marshall

Re: 2007/06/20/google-maps-local-reviews/

mrshl — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:38:30 -0000

I'd have probably mentioned Menuism.com here, as well. I love their site what with the Facebook App and Twitter integration. It's pretty feature rich, but it's a ghost town. The sparse community is keeping from really using it a ton.

Re: 2007/06/26/facebook-frenzy/

mrshl — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:55:31 -0000

Another note: the way Facebook set up the system means that those that got popular on day one will probably be the biggest forever. Because apps are ranked by popularity first and foremost, the popular apps just keep getting more popular - a fact that has benefited both Slide.com and iLike.

I think Facebook mitigates this somewhat with their "Recently Popular" feature, which doesn't appear to pull up apps that aren't growing. Of course, the most popular apps are enjoying exponential growth, but they're some new apps on the first page of the Recently Popular tab.

Still, they could do more to drive app discovery, and I'm betting they probably will. Developers themselves will probably begin to use ads more than they are now, too. Especially when they start to see some money.

Re: 2007/06/30/rise-of-the-rose-bashers/

mrshl — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:53:26 -0000

Holy crap, yes. Digg commenters, in the aggregate, are whiny, inarticulate, and smugly confident in their own ignorance. The only thing more annoying than reading Digg commenters (and watching them shout down any dissenters) are the even dumber comments I read on YouTube.

I love the idea of commenting on the comments and bumping them up and down, but the feature is a lot more enjoyable when the site has a somewhat intelligent and respectful commentariat. That's nowhere to be found on Digg.

Re: 2007/07/03/pownce-rivals/

mrshl — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:52:15 -0000

Lihi gets it right. Tumblr is a different product. And while I think you guys know that, knocking it as feature-poor at the end of your mini-blogging review isn't really accurate or fair.

From the standpoint of actually blogging, it's the most feature rich client of the group. You can share quotes, photos, videos, chats, or full text posts. It's also the easiest blogging platform to set up with your own domain.
Even if you're pointing to your own domain, you can still take advantage of community features (i.e., see what your pals are blogging & reblog their posts).
Like Jaiku, it allows you to import feeds from other blogs and sources (e.g., Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm).
It does lack interaction in the form of comments. And that's a serious problem they say they're working on. Tagging is also a real need.
But it's still a much stronger product than you imply.

Re: 2007/08/15/movable-type-wordpress/

mrshl — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:59:16 -0000

I just installed Wordpress today. The kicker for me was the ability to have multiple authors for free. I loved how everything just worked right away. After previous installs of MT where I could never get the templates to work right, working with WP was a refreshing change.

Re: 2007/10/08/trillian-mac/

mrshl — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:51:50 -0000

I will add to the parade of negative comments by pointing out that Trillian's refusal to offer Jabber for free is chasing away potential customers who use Gmail/Google Chat.

For serious, Adium, Pidgin, Meebo, and lots of other services wouldn't dream of crippling their product by telling such a huge portion of users to take a hike. When G-chat wasn't around it made sense to offer jabber as a niche/premium feature. But the landscape has changed. Support for Google Chat is standard, now.

Re: 2007/10/22/meebo-12k-users-firefox-extension/

mrshl — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:42:42 -0000

I tried this thing, but the inability to chat within the sidebar means the add on actually doesn't add a whole lot of functionality.

Let me know when I don't have to keep a tab open for this thing.

Re: 2007/10/25/web2-value/

mrshl — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:49:04 -0000

I had a similar conversation last night with a friend of mine. It seems that folks immersed in the tech world are getting a lot more use from Twitter than Facebook. But the situation is different for someone like me. As big a tech-dork as I am, I have many more non-techie friends than tech-savvy friends.

Most of my pals can't even figure out what Twitter is (despite my evangelizing). The funny thing is, they ALL use the status update features offered by Facebook or Gmail. Many of them use both services. For these users, Gmail and Facebook are Twitter. Why sign up for another cow, when they're already getting the milk?

What Twitter offers is becoming a commodity. The next frontier is integration of the different "status" services. Twitter is wisely positioning itself as a intermediary that will be able to update several services at once. Already the Twitter Facebook app can update Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I think we'll see Twitter integrate with Myspace as well.

Soon, everyone will be twittering. But most of them won't be on Twitter.

p.s. I agree wholeheartedly about Google Reader.

Re: 2007/10/29/gmail-upcoming-upgrades/

mrshl — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:39:43 -0000

I think this post could have been much shorter:

"I don't understand how Gmail works, and it seems Google is unlikely to redesign their system so that it works just like every other mail client on the Web. Unless their improvements resemble a Zimbra or Outlook-style makeover, I am not remotely interested."

Re: 2007/10/30/pownce-public-api-2/

mrshl — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:15:48 -0000

Wait. Are you suggesting that you might reappear in 10 days to deliver a post entitled "Ten cool Pownce Applications for the new API"?

Come on, I don't see you guys falling into that "XX super awesome _____ tools for _____" trap.

Re: 2007/10/30/opensocial/

mrshl — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:13:12 -0000

This post was completely free of content. The coup de grace was your decision not to elaborate on the weakness of Google's solution vs. Facebook. Will Google's distributed approach best Facebook's walled garden?

Mashable's expert analysis: "Nope."

Re: 2007/10/31/facebook-music-2/

mrshl — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:53:20 -0000

"Itâ€™s being mentioned in the blogosphere that the social network has actually announcing the new platform next week at ad:tech NYC."

This sentence is so bad I don't know where to start:

1) Unnecessary passive voice.

2) Totally unnecessary use of the word "blogosphere" (hint: it's never necessary).

3) No links to any of the various mentions (plenty of links to Mashable, though).

4) "Has actually announcing"? Can't decide what tense or construction to use? Will it be the future or the past?

Re: 2007/10/31/facebook-music-2/

mrshl — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:12:20 -0000

Let the record show my comments aren't JUST for troll week. I am competing for cash and prizes. :)

Re: 2007/11/02/troll-week-whos-winning/

mrshl — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:50:34 -0000

Mashable: Your exclusive source for news about Mashable's sad attempt to increase the numbers of its commentariat.

Re: 2007/11/02/troll-week-winners/

mrshl — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:16:36 -0000

Awesome. And I have to agree with Miss Universe. This was a cool idea. I also must admit I wasn't kidding on most of my posts; there is definitely some room for improvement on Mashable! But I think Mark "Ridiculous Nickname" Hopkins is headed in the right direction with his posts. Balancing those "100 New ____ for _____" posts with some longer analytical pieces that stimulate some discussion will attract even more commenters than troll week.

Now, where do I claim my prize?

Re: 2007/11/07/google-reader-blogroll/

mrshl — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:55:10 -0000

First, I think Adam's right here, Mark. I followed these instructions last night in writing my own piece, and what I get is a real blog roll. Perhaps you are choosing the "add a clip to your site," which is right next to the "add a blogroll to your site" button. Check it again.

Second, I direct both of you something I noticed last night, which is that Lacey appears to be an enthusiastic Bloglines user. You can see that on his site, too. I thought that was kind of odd, but understandable for reasons I make clear.

Re: FindMeOn to Google: Change Your Name!

mrshl — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:53:36 -0000

They don't have a case. There's little chance of consumer confusion between the two services, and OpenSN hasn't even attempted to trademark the name of their service. Finally, aside from "open" there's no similarity between the names. The funny thing is that they had first crack at coming up with a name for their service, and they ended up with the more inscrutable moniker.

They do have a knack for getting publicity. And they may even obtain a settlement. But they don't have a case.

Re: 2008/01/22/zecco-new-president/

mrshl — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:28:54 -0000

Nowhere in this post does it mention why E-Trade is a sinking ship. Care to enlighten us?

Re: 2008/02/19/gmail-antispam-filters-leaking/

mrshl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:28:05 -0000

Nope. I've gotten 2 per week the last two weeks, and they appear to be singular mistakes addressed to one of my imported pop accounts.

Re: 2008/02/19/newspond/

mrshl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:27:48 -0000

Is it just me or does Newspond not have RSS feeds? Show me the way, cuz I'm not seeing it.

Re: 2008/02/26/yahoo-buzz-digg/

mrshl — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:10:14 -0000

This site isn't a threat to Digg, because it's built for the masses. And, as you hint, it's actually perfect for the masses.

It's focused on traditional news, entertainment, and sports. It won't be dominated by linux dorks or Paul-tards. It can't be gamed by a small horde of myopic dweebs.

It's actually attractive. You can get a lot of information without working too hard or trying to figure out the design. The integrated photo interface up top does what Google News (Image View) attempts to do with an entirely separate and inferior interface.

In fact, Google News is real comparison point. You're assuming (because of the Buzz Up feature) that Yahoo's target is Digg or Techmeme, but they're really attempting to crack a nut that lots of people are trying to solve right now: how can you build an interactive semi-social news site that normal people will actually use?

As Mixx.com is finding out, you can't reach a general audience by building a better Digg. Normal people don't understand Digg.

But they'll *get* Yahoo's Buzz.

Re: 2008/05/07/google-reader-security-hole/

mrshl — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:04:24 -0000

This is not a bug at all. It's the same thing you can do ANYTIME you link to someone else's content.

Just to be clear, Google Reader will not alter the source's content; you're only editing what YOU put in YOUR link blog.

It's not any different than linking to and quoting content on your blog. Which we do all the time. The question with Google Reader's new feature is the same question you always have to ask yourself:

Do you trust the source? The person who's running the link blog? Do you trust THAT PERSON?

Well, do ya punk?

Re: 2008/05/07/so-are-you-fed-up-with-facebook/

mrshl — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:19:57 -0000

Normal people are using the site. A lot. Just like normal people are still using Myspace. A lot.

Normal people use Facebook just like Twitter. They don't care about Twitter.

Normal people do not read this blog.

Re: 2008/06/11/youtube-shell-company/

mrshl — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:59:57 -0000

The market determines whether the deal is a good one (not you). If they decide the terms are poor, or that YouTube doesn't provide a meaningful service, they'll move on.

Right now, the market disagrees with you. Maybe ads aren't working, but people continue to use YouTube as their first-choice platform. And they WERE doing it for free. If people can use YouTube's huge audience to effectively monetize their content, I imagine they'll have lots to thank YouTube for.

Re: 2008/06/11/youtube-shell-company/

mrshl — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:58:36 -0000

Again, if you're right, the market will bear that out. Video producers should be fairly sophisticated in their exploitation.

But most of them, I imagine would use multiple platforms and evaluate the revenue potential of each. It's easy to get bogged down in percentages. But consider the video producer who builds his own platform or leverages the more generous terms of a smaller start up, giving him, say, $10x at 80 to 100% of revenues.

What if he could get $50x at 55% of revenues from YouTube? A rational producer will pick the deal that maximizes his return. He won't get pissed about percentages.

Re: 2008/06/16/feedly/

mrshl — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:07:37 -0000

I'm impressed too. The Spring Cleaning feature alone is worth it. Just unsubscribed from all my dead GR feeds much faster than I could have done it in Google Reader. And all that cleaning is synced with GR. NICE.

Re: 2008/06/19/youtube-hulu/

mrshl — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:18:11 -0000

Ding! Ding! Ding!

This guy gets it.

Re: 2008/07/03/youtube-viacom-users/

mrshl — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:42:31 -0000

The judge has not "destroyed privacy". He's entered an order that's likely to be overturned or severely limited on appeal.

Is he wrong? Yes. Is he catastrophically wrong? Nah. What really happens will be decided on appeal.

Re: 2008/07/09/streaming-music-sites/

mrshl — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:03:32 -0000

Dude, where's Jango.com?

Re: 2008/07/28/googles-knol-evil-and-doomed/

mrshl — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:01:14 -0000

Mark,

For once I (partially) agree with one of your "sky is falling" posts. But even if Google is wrong here, and Knol is a bad business decision, that doesn't mean it's "EVIL."

It's just a bad business decision. That's it. If you're right, the market will punish them for it, and they'll be forced to adapt (see, e.g., Facebook's Beacon).

Also, I'm not sure what's so evil in the first place. What are you criticizing? The idea of Knol? Or Google's apparent enhancement of those pages' position (which could still be a function of "freshness").

I think the idea is actually pretty good. But as with Google's other services, there needs to be a pretty clear firewall established between Google the search engine and Google the content host.

Re: 2008/08/01/profy-editorial-staff-quits/

mrshl — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:15:39 -0000

I'm amazed anyone (outside of trad. newspapers) is drawing a paycheck for writing about tech stuff. Sure there are the larger blogs (Mashable, TechCrunch) and the self-run outfits (e.g., Louis Gray). But it seems like the tech-o chamber needs to shrink a bit or people need to find a niche. There's a lot of repetition and overlap out there.

The glut of general audience tech writers is expected, of course. There are no barriers to entry, and information isn't hard to come by. That's exactly why I'd expect to see increased consolidation and a free-fall in wages to nearly zero.

A hobbyist like me doesn't much care. But the pros are going to face increasingly tough times.

Re: Twitter: grabbing defeat from the jaws of success

mrshl — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:38:03 -0000

Bless you, Steve.

It's this disconnect between the technorati and normal people that seems to lead to perception gaps. You point out one of them (i.e., people who have heard of Twitter vs. those who could care less).

I will point out another. I have many non-techie friends who actually LIKE Twitter and use it regularly. Neither myself nor any of my Twitter-loving pals noticed any downtime. Why? Probably because they access Twitter using Gmail. But I use Twhirl, and I didn't notice any problems either. Perhaps all these people who follow 20,000 other users aren't getting decent performance because they've rendered the service useless.

I don't know, but there's definitely a disconnect between the small army of chicken little bloggers and the larger contingent of silent, happy users.

Re: Your healthcare privacy is dying and why you’ll kill it

mrshl — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:55:50 -0000

Robert, you're conflating privacy with secrecy, and a lack of privacy with openness. Privacy is really about autonomy, the ability to share information about yourself with others, the ability to choose who may access that information, and who may not. For example, you could choose to tell everyone on earth your medical condition (and I think you have). But a life insurance company would still require written authorization before your doctor shared your medical records with them (although a similar authorization is not needed if you share those records yourself).

In this Web 2.0 world, one of the biggest concerns sick people have is whether they will be able to take advantage of social networks in order to gain and share information about themselves and their disease (which is, as you say, of great benefit), without losing the control they have over that information when it comes to disclosing it to a health insurance company or an employer. Current privacy laws, including HIPAA, don't offer much protection to people who use the internet to research or commiserate. Indeed, Web sites don't have many (any?) privacy obligations at all. That is to say, you may well decide to share your information among only a small group of fellow-sufferers using a private Web site, but there's no legal framework that punishes the site if they allow that information to escape, and there's no requirement that they even disclose a breach. That fundamental lack of protection, which many people accept as a fact of life and law, still affects our autonomy, and therefore our privacy.

I agree with you that privacy is affected by our own decision to share or not to share. But that is a definitional quality of privacy, not the lack of privacy. Real privacy is making a decision to share with your doctor, or with a support group, or with a private discussion group, while ensuring your information does not escape the small perimeter you've defined. Difficult to impossible, you say? Maybe, but for many people who aren't Robert Scoble, such contours and control would be quite possible within the right legal framework.

Again, I'm not saying that's ideal (many would argue that complete transparency is the ideal). But that is privacy. And I do think Healthcare on the Web would explode if there were more protections for people who use the Web for their care.

Re: Your healthcare privacy is dying and why you’ll kill it

mrshl — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:09:58 -0000

James, for people with employer-sponsored insurance plans, disclosure of medical conditions is rarely required, either to your employer or to the insurer. And the incentives for secrecy are high (e.g., discrimination by your employer for expensive treatment, the fear that your insurer will share such information with your employer). For people buying their own coverage, and for the purchase of life insurance, the disclosure requirement is more common. Regardless, in certain situations (especially with genetic defects where expensive treatment will eventually become necessary), the incentives are a bit warped. Obviously, you want to know if you are predisposed to a condition or, if already suffering, you want to gain as much knowledge as possible about your condition. But sharing such information about yourself could put you in a fairly unhappy position: you become both unemployable and uninsurable. Without state-sponsored insurance or care, losers of the genetic lottery are in an awful bind.

Re: Is web music retailer LaLa’s business model evil and bad?

mrshl — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:35:18 -0000

Not sure I understand what the problem is. Lala actually sells DRM-free mp3s cheaper than just about anyone except Emusic. You have a choice.