DISQUS

I love the Tahitian fragrance - a visiting friend once left a half-full travel size of this in my bathroom when he went back to his own continent, and it smelled so good I kept it.

I think these would be super hot with a great tan and a plain white shirt tied just above the navel. A marigold-colored scarf tied around the waist to hide the elastic waistband might work - something flow-y and casual.

This really is a good memoir.

Organizing an event is always a stressful experience, but one on this scale must be an absolute nightmare. I was only there for part of the first day, Loic, and did not see you during that time, but Geraldine was running around trying very hard to make everything work. My heart goes out to you guys - I don't know how anyone can call into question whether or not you tried your best to make this a success. Of course you did!

Also remember: People love to complain! Don't let it get you down. I know you won't. :)

"Make sure you’re not caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing."

I wish we could kill this canard once and for all. Even law-abiding people have much to fear from privacy invasion (and that is true quite apart from this case). For example:

Someone who is gay but has not told their family, seen holding hands with their love.

A teenage girl disobeying her family's wishes by dating someone of a different race.

A woman sneaking to find refuge from a violent spouse (or even just having a crafty walk around the block).

Someone going into or coming out of a rehab centre or AA meeting.

Someone going into a mosque, temple, or church in direct opposition to their family's beliefs, whose family would seek revenge for such apostasy.

A child visiting an estranged parent behind the other parent's back.

These are just off the top of my head, example of law-abiding people who do indeed have legitimate reasons for wanting privacy. This is not the exclusive domain of criminals, and the only ones who win from the perpetuation of this myth are people who insists that privacy is a trifling matter.

NB Pat Phelan is my friend at MAXroam, and he's the one who told me to get the 3 SIM in the UK. He can probably advise on the rest of Europe, too, as others here have mentioned.

In the UK, get a pay-as-you-go SIM from 3 for data - they do 3GB for £15 and have a nice sliding scale. You can also put the SIM in a 3 dongle (£50) to get online with your laptop anywhere.

As for voice, I go with MAXroam (http://maxroam.com). Saved me a bomb on my last trip to Europe. (Full disclosure: I am friends with the president of the company, but I'd be saying this anyway.)

So glad you like Qik! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback. (I'm Qik's director of marketing.) Our team loves to find out what users think of our service and how we can keep making it better.

Sure. As you don't believe in unpaid work, I will send you details of my fee via email. ;)

Kidding, mate - sure thing.

As a reader, I love MyBlogLog. It's neat to see who else is reading, and somewhat astonishing to me how often I know the people (in "real life") whose photos appear on the widget. (For example, my friend Ian Kennedy - who is the product manager of MyBlogLog - appears in the upper right corner of the screen grab you've embedded in this post.) Sometimes I get a real surprise and spot someone on a blog that I'd never have imagined would be of interest to them. It's those little insights into the different dimensions of people that really make widgets like this powerful.

The uses of MyBlogLog for marketers may be a ripe subject for the BIMA blog...

Sooo exciting! Congratulations, Jay!

Paul, have you been to the Innovate Europe even that Guidewire Group (Chris Shipley, Mike Segal, Frank Kelcz) organize in Zaragoza, Spain every year? I'd highly recommend going (full disclosure: Guidewire has always comped me as a blogger, so I haven't paid). There are great discussions about just this sort of thing, with lots of worthwhile people. Highly recommended.

What I love about the Bay Area is the healthy respect for failure and its uses. Indeed, my only worry about a blog like Valleywag is that it might start to make failure an f-word out there. (I'm not significant to have to worry about my secrets making it onto the site. Your mileage may vary. ;))

It's so cool to see two people talking and one says, "Yeah, I've had five failed companies" and the other replies, "Cool, lots of experience! Maybe your next one will be The One."
The other thing is the ecosystem aspect which you mention in your post. Pretty much everyone you meet out there is somehow involved in entrepreneurial endeavors, so it's not as if you have to explain to them why you're in it or what motivates you. So many of the people really are, struggle and all, living their dream. The buoyant effect of this on one's own attitude and motivation cannot be underestimated. It's just such a freaking buzz to be around such an outlook. The mindset is a complete 180 from the "Who do you think YOU are?" attitude of the Brits (and other Europeans, with Germans being perhaps the very worst, almost as bad as Japan when it comes to the perceived shame of failure).
Gotta laugh at Dillon saying that everything is "so cheap" in SF, though. Yeah, it's a good deal compared to rip-off Britain, but it's still pretty high for these here Yoo-nighted Stytes. :)

No accounting for taste... ;)

Tamzin Outhwaite is pretty enough to say what she likes about my internet...

I don't think I've bent the truth to land a job, apart from being overly optimistic in an interview about my ability to do certain things. (Thinking about it, I've only ever interviewed for three jobs. The rest were offered to me by people who knew my work.)

But the bit about how underqualified you were for the bank job did remind me of going to work for Swiss Life's e-commerce incubator back in 2001.

My friend John Diamond (the late journalist) had encouraged me to pursue a career as a writer and editor. I had next to no confidence in my abilities; he did, and was a big booster when I don't think I deserved one.

John moderated an online form for journos called Fleet Street (it's still around), and pointed out an editing job that a headhunter had posted for an editor. I had just become legal to work in the UK, so sent my CV off and told myself it all counted as practice. When the recruiter rang me a half hour after I'd sent the email, telling me that the company loved the look of me and wanted an interview immediately, I was shocked.

The job was as the Web Content Editor of a b2b e-commerce site in three languages. I emailed the spec to a friend, Lisa Schmeiser, who was senior editor of macworld.com.  She broke down the spec for me into excruciating, terrifying detail. Her email ended with a note reading something along the lines of, "Obviously this is all well within your grasp." She meant it, which would have made me laugh if I hadn't been bricking it.

I tried to cancel the interview. I called the recruiter and left a message saying that I didn't want to waste the company's time. (I also didn't want to waste the £50 on the train ticket down to Sevenoaks, since I was living on a little freelance work and my then-husband's generosity at that point.)

The recruiter's manager called me back and begged me to take the interview. She promised that they loved the look of me and that it was a great company to work for. I felt so bad that I relented, went for the interview, and was offered the job that day.

I was 23 years old, making twice as much money as my high-powered dad in the US, and absolutely sure I couldn't do any of it. In the end, it was so easy that I was bored.

The whole experience made me certain that, often, we can do so much more than what we expect of ourselves - and what others will allow us the chance to do. When someone (or multiple someones) are willing to take a risk on us, we should show enough commitment to try our best in the face of all self-doubt.

Thanks, Paul. I needed a reminder of all that. :)

For me, Twitter is a place where I can get much more personal than I ever would on my blog (my updates are protected and I err on the side of caution about whose follow requests I approve). Twitter is also a place where I can be much more cheeky and come out with a side of my humor (if I can call it that) which...well, let's just say I don't think it would play well in the context of my blog. It's a safe haven on the web, cheesy as it sounds.

I always seem to mention Dave Winer in my comments here, but when I was following him, he seemed to be using Twitter as a place to germinate seeds of potential blog posts. A high percentage of his tweets seemed to grow into more lengthy and explanatory posts. It was interesting as a reader of both - until everything started being election-oriented! - to see how he played each format for their respective strengths.

For some reason, my eyes got all watery over Carlos!

Most cringeworthy job was my first at legal age. I'd done loads of babysitting and pitching it at my dad's office on reception but the day I turned 16 and could legally work, I had an interview at the truck stop down the road from my house. No, it's not what you're thinking: I got a highly prized job as a dishwasher. It was mostly loading and unloading a boil/steam washer, which was especially ace in the humid, 100+ degree Ohio summer. Eight hour stretches on my feet - also a blast. Mopping the floors was the highlight of my shift.

Wish I'd appreciated then the luxury of being able to leave work at work...

I LOVE diet root beer. Try raspberry Diet Rite and tangerine Diet Rite - the only no-sodium diet pop, so much better for you (tell your mom this so she'll buy it!). My favorite pops of all time, along with diet root beer.

Andrew, you crack me up! More of these, pls. :)

Funny thing is that Winer is one of those Yanks who whinges about "America's image" around the world, but has no idea that it's the actions of individual Americans like him that really affect (connected, opinionated) people and hack them off. He's interesting with tech but I'm not THAT morbidly fascinated by his fresher's view of how the world should be run that I wanna read 3k tweets a day about it.

Speaking of which, time for me to hush. :)

If someone were to tell me why they unfollowed me, I could classify it as valuable 'customer' feedback...unless they're a prat, in which case I can classify it as amusing drivel.

I unfollowed @davewiner because he was really hammering Twitter with one-line tweets about the election. A quarter of the tweets I was having to page through were his. Too much noise (it didn't help that his views were so barmy). But he shouldn't necessarily care about that, and I didn't want him to think I was making a show of it, so just quietly unfollowed.

My Twitter peeve is people who blog a LOT and use their Twitter as a duplicate RSS feed/promo megaphone.

You don't talk too much, no.

I worry a lot about my Twitter output, but so far I don't know of any unfollows due to volume. I unfollowed a bunch of people who were having 100+ tweet conversations about the US elections, and will re-add them after that is all over (after the court cases, etc ;)). I'm going to unfollow a LOT of people during SXSW, simply because it's going to be far too much irrelevant information - coordinating meet-ups, schedules, panel live-blogging, etc - that I don't have the patience to page through. I'll re-add most, if not all, after SXSW is over.

I think we're all still sussing Twitter out, seeing what works for us and what doesn't. All but the most chip-shouldered seem pretty sanguine about this process. Or maybe I just follow all the lovely people... ;)

Thanks, 5chw4r7z - and thanks, Andrew, for the chat!

I think it's pretty insulting to readers to question whether or not they can decide on credibility for themselves. As Jeff says, being up-front is key. The industry is full of smart people - surely they can work out for themselves whether a person has been bought with a flight and hotel room.

I have some experience with this: I have a beauty blog (http://jackandhill.net) where my co-editor and I review products and salons. We are always very clear in disclosing when we have received a product or service as a freebie; it's up to our readers to decide if we're being honest or shady in our reviews. We don't hesitate to criticise freebies, though, and it's clear that we're swamped with stuff and are not whoring ourselves out for more of it. (One result of our credibility is that we've been cited by Allure, Women's Wear Daily, the New York Times, the Sunday Times Style Magazine, and many other publications for our no-holds-barred take and reliably blunt, entertaining posts.)

I can't help but think that some people are deliberately trying to make this issue look murkier than it actually is, or some people really do not respect the intellect and opinions of readers and influencers in this industry.

What's puzzling to me is that the police are fully aware of my blog posts about this, and have said nothing to discourage me from publishing the picture and writing about what happened. (I was, however, not to say anything that would jeopardise the investigation prior to the arrest.) It is expected that the person in question will plead guilty, as the evidence is so overwhelming, and a trial is not expected. I have to be honest, I'm not quite sure how to proceed.