Disqus - Latest Comments for JoeDuck

Re: How Did Jamar Clark Die?

JoeDuck — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 21:45:02 -0000

#frustration! Complaints are NOT a reliable proxy metric for police abuse, yet this article treats them as if they are. Police deal with millions of people every year. A tiny, tiny number of those encounters lead to police violence against the suspect, so even if *every single police act of violence* is defined as "abuse" it's not a large % of total interactions. And of course only a small number of the small number of violent encounters would reasonably be defined as abusive.

The mathematics of this issue reflect the pathetic state of how people interpret data. You and activists are focusing very narrowly on a handful of incidents, many of which later are shown to be *legitimate* uses of force. This sheds no light on the reality, which is that police show enormous restraint despite the fact we constantly push them into very dangerous conflict.

I'd guess that the activist alternative to the current state of affairs is a world where there is considerably *more* violence perpetrated against an underprotected public.

Re: We Tracked Down Our Biggest Troll…and Kind of Liked Him

JoeDuck — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:58:01 -0000

I've always been frustrated by the idea that well informed "trolls" like Hoyt are detracting from the conversation. They are the reason blogs are interesting. People who want them to "go away" are generally just weak thinkers who prefer groupthink to rational discussion and debate.

Re: Penguin-friendly link building: Insights from SES San Francisco

JoeDuck — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:45:47 -0000

Great post here. I'm supposed to be there now and this was a session I wanted to report on myself. Thanks.

Re: ExoPC's 40-inch multitouch EXOdesk is coming in 2012 for $1,299 (video)

JoeDuck — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:30:49 -0000

Really impressive, and an amazing price too!

Re: Google’s Mayer criticizes content “locked” inside Facebook

JoeDuck — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:41:30 -0000

Mayer's exactly right that users should DEMAND their rights with respect to their own created data. It's for that reason I hope she sees the contradiction here with Google's often non-transparent policies. Few users understand the extent to which Facebook, Google, and many other applications "read" and analyze their content, usually in an effort to target advertising more profitably. I don't object to that but I'm angry that they don't provide access to me so I know what they are using and how they are using it.

Re: Too+Few+Women+In+Tech%3F+Stop+Blaming+The%26nbsp%3BMen.

JoeDuck — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:31:30 -0000

IMMO (in my male opinion) Mike's point is very valid and it's about misdirected blame and responsibility to fix the problem most recognize as an issue that needs to be addressed.

Interesting how the comment dialog jumped out of that very relevant issue into ... whatever....

Re: Twitter and third-party Twitter developers

JoeDuck — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:47:48 -0000

Great insights here Chris. Twitter is remarkable but needs to make money, and their journey to that end will be fascinating. Some will get rich, some will perish, and that's a good thing.

Re: Help Girls in Kenya Get a Fresh Start and a New Home

JoeDuck — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:45:59 -0000

jke in my opinion it's always good to consider the ROI of charities, but in this case and generally with overseas charities your money does a LOT. Here in USA we have a lot of programs that do not exist elsewhere. There are plenty of poverty problems in US, but it's not as easy to solve them as in countries where dollars will literally save a life or create a new life for people. Raising living standards reduces other problems (e.g. health goes up, birth rates go down, populations stabilize, etc). This is especially true with charities that help women and girls as this has been shown to stabilize families.

Re: Let's Take This Offline

JoeDuck — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:44:15 -0000

You are a blogger .... you'll be back .....

Re: 3D TV? Too Soon Now, but One Day You Will Want It

JoeDuck — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:33:02 -0000

Yes, luke warm, but I'll just wait for augmented reality and skip the glasses...

Re: The push and pull of China

JoeDuck — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:55:02 -0000

A great post. I also would add that China's new brand of hybrid communOcapitalism (where Govt heavily supervises but also encourages entrepreneurial capitalism) is so unique that it's very hard to know where all this will lead.

The stakes couldn't be any higher and it's going to be very interesting to watch how Google navigates the competitive disadvantages they'll have if they cede this territory to Microsoft, who from a business-only perspective should be talking to the Chinese about making Bing the search of choice for China.

I'm convinced both by analysis and history that the Govt in China has far less sinister motivations than many believe. Obviously they are in this for the win as are all countries, but also obviously they understand the power of free market capitalism and the challenges of trying to impose thought control on the population. Thought control is so ... 1950s ... and it won't last much longer in any but the most totalitarian countries. China's future is now so entangled with that of the USA that we both need to be looking into the future for the infinite number of "win win" scenarios that will maintain high living standards for us while continuing to raise the average living standards for a billion Chinese.

Re: Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year, co-founder Stone says

JoeDuck — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:29:20 -0000

Great idea - A Twitter business account will become a great online marketing tool for even a small business who can use the service to enhance the customer experience with better information, offers, news and problem resolution.

Re: A Second Market Is Emerging

JoeDuck — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:24:34 -0000

Really interesting though I share the disclosure and potential for fraud concerns some are expressing here. It seems to me the "big problem" is that IPOs are so expensive they are not an option for small companies. Might this create a broad marketplace for all interested buyers and sellers no matter how small, while preserving high levels of accountability? If yes it will be great.

Re: Ashton Kutcher and Evan Williams Talk Twitter With Oprah [Video]

JoeDuck — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:11:56 -0000

Twitter is rapidly becoming *the* mainstream social media tool. Myspace has sort of devolved into an oddball place, Facebook continues to grow but clearly is worried/copying Twitter ideas. Twitter's simplicity, lack of clutter, and huge
online footprint makes it the perfect introduction for folks who otherwise ignore tech.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:34:16 -0000

Interesing Bill, and again Bezos is really vague about what's going on. I suppose he could have strategic reasons for keeping things quiet but it seems far more likely that the success of the Kindle has been greatly exaggerated, helping to keep AMZN stock hot. while they hope for better numbers in the future. Hmm - sounds kind of like our US recovery plan?

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:29:30 -0000

Fred I think you mean "Whoa Heaveho", which ironically sounds like the beginning of your upcoming cowboy ebook for the Kindle.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:27:12 -0000

Excellent idea, very innovative approach.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:25:16 -0000

Thx Fred. The two things I'd expect to see, but have not yet, if Kindle's are really poised to take off would be sales numbers from Amazon (why hide a sales revolution during a recession?), and a lot more reviews from mass market folks who ultimately will be needed to make this a big hit.

At $99.95 and $2 a book and $SmallAmount per month I see the Kindle reshaping publishing, but with the costs of Kindle production I don't think any volume of sales will make that profitable for Amazon for some time and I think other devices will come up to compete by then.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:18:37 -0000

Fred why do you think Amazon won't release Kindle sales numbers? I remain very skeptical, esp. as the best reviews seem to be coming from folks who got free Kindles. Millions are very happy to use Google for free, click on a few ads, and make Google money. As netbook sales soar, how many will pony up for an additional reader and books to feed it and connectivity. I'd guess the answer is enough to make a very, very modest market for this, but nothing like what most are projecting.

Re: Let a hundred Facebooks bloom

JoeDuck — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:24:57 -0000

Lucy I was (sort of ) just kidding. I love Twitter and I'm there a lot, though it's a mistake to think that the content there is profound. It's usually not very deep at all because we are pretty simply little creatures who value socializing above thoughtful reflection. I worry that social media is at the same time opening up new horizons while it inclines us to interact even more superficially than before.

Re: A Stimulus Plan For Venture Capital? No Thanks.

JoeDuck — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:00:33 -0000

The worst firms, on the other hand, will gladly accept government money. And that is what is going to happen with all of these government efforts to pour more money into the "innovation sector". That money will go to bad investors and weak entrepreneurs and management teams for the most part. It's a problem of adverse selection.

Wow Fred, a really great articulation of the pitfalls of stimulus handouts. Friedman's heart is in the right place as you note but like most he seems to think VCs have been raking in fistfuls of money and only need more capital to rake in more.

Re: Can TWITTER Move Stocks?

JoeDuck — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:04:23 -0000

Yes! As a much more transparent system than the chattering punditry who failed to even predict the greatest financial crisis of modern times and consistently provide the same stock insight you'd get from a Chimp (this is literally and provably true), I'm moving to StockTwits where even if people are as bad at stock picking as Jim Cramer, at least I can have my own say in the show.

Re: Why Hulu Should Embrace Boxee

JoeDuck — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:55:09 -0000

Fred it seems to me that Hulu is after the growing Boxee market, wants to nip things in the bud before Boxee gains a large following, and sees no reason to pay anything. With all due respect this is probably a case where they'd have bought Boxee if big players (who need a big payback) were not involved, but you aren't going to settle for anything close to what Hulu can pay to just get this done themselves. They have the infrastructure already so the marginal cost to develop a Boxee environment can't be more than what, a few 100k? Good luck but I think you may have to chalk this up as another example of the risks of building a business on top of another who is providing the "must have" part of the equation.
http://joeduck.com/2009/02/...

Re: How You Use Social Tools is Up To You

JoeDuck — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:03:46 -0000

Thanks to you and Chris for opening a timely and interesting conversation on this topic even though we are in disagreement about some of this - what I think I'll be blogging soon as "Twitter elitism". Along these lines I've also been calling for a "blogging revolution" in the same vein to avoid the growing challenge of A list bloggers "sticking together", esp. with respect to linking, which has too often confined the conversations too narrowly. I'm hoping this "A list" problem will be self correcting without a revolution because I'm too lazy to lead that anyway.

Although I agree that nobody should dictate how others use social media, I'm definitely in what one might call the Scoble camp of "massive friending" because I think that approach is the most consistent with the new social media sensibilities and against what I see as a *huge* growing threat to blogging which is the old type of legacy media elitism where a limited number of influential voices define the conversations. More than anything I want new media to do something old media could not do - open the conversation to everybody and expose everybody to new perspectives and ideas.

I'm obviously not recommending folks friend somebody who is marketing to them in ways they don't like or abusive or other annoying things, but I guess I am suggesting that a very cool aspect of Twitter is the ability to get a sense of the pulse of a smart community as it swirls on the web - without following a lot of people you lose out on this intriguing aspect of Twitter although I supposed you could spend time at the "public" timeline for that. However as I moved from following small to large numbers I found there was also a neat aspect of feeling part of a very positive community experience.

I should caveat this with the fact that a lot of the current growth in Twitter seems to be in the PR and Marketing sectors. To the extent folks are only friends so they can pitch MLM schemes the massive friending may break down but I think we'll find that problem regulates itself as "selfish" users will lose friends or those communities will simply spin up among each other.

Re: louisgray.com: Could Sundance Do for Qik What SXSW Did for Twitter?

JoeDuck — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:19:05 -0000

I predict...no. I think video is too time consuming. The key communications channel needs to be fast which is why we've trended from using phone calls to text messaging and Twitter. Even email communication is falling to the brevity of Twitter's 140 character maximum which I think was one of their (unintended?) brilliancies. IMHO Qik will be lucky to be able to monetize enough to even pay for ongoing development and infrastructure.