Disqus - Latest Comments for Jack Yan

Re: We vieren feest. Win een boek!

Jack Yan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:03:00 -0000

I didn’t count if I am in the top 100 for the draw, but I hope so! Trivium: I was the first digital typeface designer in New Zealand (not the original Zeeland).

Re: Stormhoek, open source beer and SME marketing

Jack Yan — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:15:05 -0000

Would you like fries with that? (I believe these actually have a chance to get to number one in New Zealand.)

Re: Multi-screen working

Jack Yan — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 06:18:30 -0000

It makes total sense, Dennis. If these screens are indeed our â€œdesktopsâ€, then one screen really isnâ€™t enough given how weâ€™ve wired our brains on how much real estate is on a regular desk.

Re: Advertising is dead

Jack Yan — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 09:34:12 -0000

My goodnessâ€”and we here in New Zealand think itâ€™s bad that we have to put up with four minutesâ€™ advertising per break.

Re: Importance of the Gadget Show

Jack Yan — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 18:03:17 -0000

You know, Dennis, I never thought of Meccano that way. Itâ€™s the old thought that nothing is truly newâ€”we just put different terms to describe what we go through.

Re: Deeply personal

Jack Yan — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 23:28:25 -0000

My pleasure! They say Mercury retrograde is a bad time to buy houses, and if you start and ink deals during that period, you wind up buying lemons.

Re: Deeply personal

Jack Yan — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:10:53 -0000

Astrologically, this is a better time to buy than during your earlier house hunt, so I have a good feeling! Good luck, Dennis.

Re: Modest proposal: kill the web

Jack Yan — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:15:03 -0000

What proponents of killing the web do not realize is that staff often surf for work purposes at home, are reachable outside ofﬁce hours on Blackberrys or cellphones, and merely use work access as a time management tool. Killing it in the 2000s leads to frustration and inferior work, in my opinion.

Re: Off the air

Jack Yan — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 09:01:50 -0000

True: grass is always greener, etc. Though I would rather fancy a place on the Riviera one of these days and would be prepared to hunt â€¦

Re: Off the air

Jack Yan — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 05:04:02 -0000

Enjoy your time in Spain, Dennis! Ah, I wish I was there. Or anywhere away from work.

Re: IE7 – a quick look

Jack Yan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 05:24:02 -0000

I used to prefer Macs myself but budget constraintsâ€”when you buy for a companyâ€”usually leaves us with PCs and Windows.
However, I was quite turned off Macs simply because bad luck, technology and I seem to hop into bed together more often than not. Recently, on an OSX machine, it took three people and two tech support personnel 90 minutes to ﬁgure out how to burn a CD-ROM. The usual icon that appeared with a blank CD-ROM insertion did not appear, and we took that long to ﬁgure out whyâ€”before we could even burn the disc!
The troubleshooting pages were the worst I had ever seen. Macs used to have wonderful help pages for their system, but now (based on this experience), they are written in a technojargobbledegookgonbabble that tells me little more than what I ﬁgured out myself.
I am not surprised about your friend, as I am suspicious of anyone who writes troubleshooting pages. For I wonder if they relate to average Joes like me who always encounter the computer errors that no one else on the planet does! No troubleshooting page, except perhaps for those in programs of the past and Macs of old, is in plain English.
As to Windows: it is largely no better and the software is even more quirky. Iâ€™ve had to reinstall various things so many times and trojans and virus attacks happen daily (though I am protected). We get bitchier tech support personnel. However, in Windowsâ€™ defence, I have yet to spend 90 minutes searching for a CD-ROM icon.

Re: IE7 – a quick look

Jack Yan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 01:52:17 -0000

The weirdest things happen to me. I was the only MyLinkedinPowerForum member that I knew of that had the LinkedIn problem. I was also one of the few that could see the number of members on the home page, at a time when the feature was moved to another page for most other members.
My concern, too, with the Mozilla browsers is that it was all OK up till Netscape 4Â·7. Iâ€™m on a pretty high-res screen, so the sudden changes in font while I read across the line get very noticeable. Interestingly, Firefox on Mac works ﬁne with ligatures, quote marks and PostScript fonts (as does Safari), so someone inside the company knows how to do itâ€”I wish they would simply serve Windows users.

Re: IE7 – a quick look

Jack Yan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 01:24:38 -0000

Interesting post, Dennis. I use IE6 and Maxthon (an independent browser using an IE engine, but it has tabs and a built-in RSS reader). Maxthon is more stable, and I have all the beneﬁts of IE without the impracticalities. I think I might like this new IE7â€”Iâ€™ll stick with it till they ﬁgure out how to display fonts properly in the Mozilla browsers (see here for my complaint).

Re: Technorati for dummies

Jack Yan — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:04:17 -0000

Technorati seemed to be the most logical way to group posts into topics; and it was nice seeing my two-month-old blog climb from being ranked in the millions to the tens of thousands. It gets back to the original principle of the World Wide Web and what made it so revolutionary: the hyperlink.

Re: I got my 1%

Jack Yan — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 04:36:26 -0000

For a blog that began in September, that is very impressive. My ranking has been going up in bits: currently ranked at 55,132 though it wasnâ€™t that long ago that it was in the millions â€¦

Re: Journalism or not?

Jack Yan — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:22:32 -0000

Very true, Dennis. I got into blogging to get stuff off my chest, but there are simply days when I donâ€™t have the same passion about the dayâ€™s issues. And I get busy some days so I have to stop blogging. Journos cannot afford to have moods and use these excuses if they want their pay cheque; they also have to do continual research whereas a lot of bloggers write from what they have internalized.
Therefore, some of the news on OhmyNews.com (and its English counterpart) are not of major events, because these are written by people who adopt a journalistic persona yet might not have access (in some cases) to the same sources.
Gary is right on the drifters: I blogged about the Muslim cartoons because things annoyed me there, and got a lot of hits. Now Iâ€™m back to my own topics, and the drifters have, by and large, gone. So I have a choice: do I want the drifters, in which case I repeat the stories from the mainstream mediaâ€”and essentially become coopted by themâ€”or do I pursue my own authentic voice? The latter feels more real to me, and it helps break the idea that, despite 24-hour news channels and a proliferation of media, only seven stories ever circulate the planet at any one time.

Re: Cheney Accidently Shoots Hunting Partner

Jack Yan — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:00:00 -0000

There is a part of me that humorously thought, ‘Gosh, I knew the President wanted tort reform, but I didn’t expect he’d send Vice-President Cheney to shoot lawyers,’ but seriously, I pray for a speedy recovery for Mr Whittington.

Re: In Dallas Safe and Sound

Jack Yan — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 02:00:00 -0000

I have to agree. The Texans I have met have real heart. Genuine people.

Re: ETC - Etcetera

Jack Yan — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

It’s nice to know the President appreciates the blogosphere. I was one of the typography nuts who outed the Memogate documents, noting that even some of the original bloggers had their details wrong (the typeface was Linotype Times off a post-1985 PostScript printer, not Times New Roman as most of them wrote, and as the MSM reported). The CBS defence after that was lame (and got lamer by the attempt)!

Re: Live Blogging The Beach

Jack Yan — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

Ah, I wish we could have wireless at the beach … wi? is pretty sparse down here …

Re: The Real Face of Martyrdom

Jack Yan — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

My thoughts go out to Abdul. I feel very sorry for his family, who turned him in to the authorities for converting. If it were not for the family, he could have continued practising his faith privately, as this should be no matter for the state to interfere with.

Re: randythomas.org

Jack Yan — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

I know from our own servers that the www preﬁx is one tiny setting. It may be on your server end, rather than the registrar’s. Could you email your hosting company about it, Randy? I have a feeling they may be able to help.

Re: Detour

Jack Yan — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

I wonder if an Outback steak is ﬂown in from Australia.

Re: Top Ten Airplane Annoyances

Jack Yan — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

I don’t like those folks who take up more than one seat, putting their bags up so that no one else will sit next to them.
As to the cologne problem, it’s not too bad. I once boarded a plane where another passenger had mutant BO. I had to make sure not to stand downwind from him when we boarded!

Re: Rahman to be Released?

Jack Yan — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

I hear tonight that Abdul will be released on the grounds of insanity after President Karzai gave in to international pressure. So our prayers are working. Now to pray for his safety so he may be spirited out of Afghanistan.
I believe this will be a good thing for him, as he may wind up in a nation where Christianity is more commonplace and he will not be in fear for his life. Though it is sad to leave one’s homeland.
However, his faith will keep him steadfast and it is another example of the Lord’s grace, acting through in unexpected ways.

Re: Hao Wu and Abdul Rahman

Jack Yan — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

I will pray for Mr Wu. His persecution is unacceptable. I had just blogged today about Iranian censorship, mentioning China. I’ll go and update my entry now.

Re: HusbandOnStrike.Com

Jack Yan — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:00:00 -0000

The sick thing is that there will be enough MSM outlets to pick up this story … and I agree with you, Ryan. This guy needs to take some responsibility for the state of his home as well.

Re: Maitland Florida Arts Festival

Jack Yan — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 02:00:00 -0000

The fresh air will do you good, Randy. Get well: I am continuing praying.

Re: Immigration, High School Activism and Memories

Jack Yan — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

We never protested at high school, though at elementary school, there was a massive incident. The headmaster and the Synod did not see eye to eye, and there were families taking sides, pulling their kids out, and so on. Some teachers stopped teaching, and the whole thing was a mess. I don’t think any of us kids understood what was going on: I just remember confusion.
As to the vandalizing principal, that is appalling. I can think of several causes of actions both the police and parents could have used against him. In a litigious American society, I am surprised that lawsuits weren’t commenced, regardless of whether the student was parked illegally. It amounted to criminal damage.

Re: Everyday Thoughts Collected … from Other People

Jack Yan — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

On those Abu Ghraib photographs—ooh, look at those cruel American soldiers!

Re: Solo

Jack Yan — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I love it—just the opportunity of dialogue can create agreement and mutual learning. I like the blogosphere as it currently is—not too much disruption from the likes of spammers and other evil-doers. Mostly decent folks sharing viewpoints.

Re: Katie Poll - Not so good for CBS

Jack Yan — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I can only speak of this from a foreign perspective, and believe the news (for us) may be that it has taken this long for a woman to get the top job as a network weeknight anchor (with the exception of Connie Chung, but CBS still needed Dan Rather to acccompany her!).
In a country where women had the vote ﬁrst, and where our Governor-General, Chief Justice and Prime Minister (our second) are women, female anchors are normal for us. The US situation may be thought of as a little strange in some other countries, too, where women have been anchoring weeknight programmes on networks for a long time (e.g. Angela Rippon on the BBC).
The irony here is that I feel drawn in to this story even though your network news programmes don’t air here!
We do get Fox News but the broadcast is cut short, and ever since Juliet Huddy went to Dayside, which we don’t get here, I am sadder …

Re: Commenting Now Easier for Humans

Jack Yan — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Amanda’s employers seem to have good taste if they have not blocked this blog!

Re: Commenting Now Easier for Humans

Jack Yan — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

You’re welcome!
And thank you! It could be the reading difﬁculty though having typeface design experience I think I should be OK. Maybe the timing thing is the problem. I’ll try it now and see.

Re: Carb Free Cruelty

Jack Yan — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Also, envisaging you have already lost the 43 lb is another technique, on top of everything else you’re doing. I always viewed that as a form of prayer.

Re: Friday “ Fame ” Factor

Jack Yan — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I always seem to get lucky with press coverage and the like, and I know that “fame” is just a consequence of certain events (you probably do, too, Randy). I enjoy having a good reputation, but I think that is different from fame, which, while it spawned from reputation, has negative connotations now with what passes as “journalism”. I think today, people seek fame without having done the hard work ﬁrst, or they are riding off something they did a long time ago and the goodwill has passed—some socialites spring to mind. It is better to try to earn that reputation ﬁrst, and leave its “evolution” to fame in God’s hands.

Re: Friday “ Fame ” Factor

Jack Yan — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Apologies, Randy, that link I posted was password-protected. A tiny preview image is here, but you can’t see much.

Re: Immigration Reform Leads to May 1st Rallies - Fly the Flag

Jack Yan — Mon, 01 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I am not a huge fan of amnesty, either, partly because it is a slap in the face of all those who entered the United States legally, respecting your laws. Whatever the case, I hope any May 1 protests are peaceful and respectful.

Re: Extreme Blog Makeover

Jack Yan — Tue, 02 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

You’re very welcome!

Re: We were attacked …

Jack Yan — Thu, 04 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Hi Ryan: I am sorry to hear this. I only had time to ask one contact after you brought this to my attention, and it turned out he wasn’t on TypePad but another service. I suspect it was the same person, or a person afﬁliated with the ﬁrst one.

Re: Everyday Thoughtcast for May 4, 2006

Jack Yan — Sat, 06 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

How cool, Randy! Thanks for mentioning me on your podcast! First time I have heard your voice—you sound very pleasant (exactly how I imagined you to sound).
Had a huge day yesterday, starting with my usual TV broadcast and ending at around 1 a.m. with a call to London. This morning I was 10 minutes late to a radio interview … wish I had time to blog about it as it was webcast and you could have heard my voice!

Re: We were attacked …

Jack Yan — Tue, 09 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I wonder if Blogger is next, Randy—mine’s been down for half an hour, maybe an hour …

Re: First Vlog Remix

Jack Yan — Wed, 10 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Yay, works perfectly here, Randy—seems like you enjoyed it. I vote for more vlogs from you … :)

Re: Everyday ThoughtCast #1 for May 11, 2006 - Birthday Edition

Jack Yan — Fri, 12 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Happy birthday to you, Randy! Does this make you a Taurean? No wonder we get on. A lot of my good friends are Tauruses. (And great video of you, too! This is a good angle for you.)
For a future topic, how about “Randy’s neighbourhood” and some of the folks around there, with you as our tour guide? I have never been to Fla. and I want to see what it is like at street level, not what they show the tourists.
And what a nice pool! Can you report next week closer to the pool?

Re: Happy Mother ’ s Day and It ’ s Official - I ’ m 38

Jack Yan — Mon, 15 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Happy birthday, Randy! I know I wished it earlier but it’s closer to the real day this time. :)

Re: Everyday ThoughtCast #2 for May 20, 2006 - Stop AIDS Edition

Jack Yan — Sat, 20 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Wonderful post, Randy! I like the scenery as well. Yes, I realize the wind harmed the sound but I still thought it was neat.

Re: Living Water

Jack Yan — Sun, 28 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Thank you for sharing again, Randy, and what a beautiful drawing! Amazing how intricate it is.

Re: Resting, Watching … Chill

Jack Yan — Tue, 30 May 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Steve, I can empathize, from the point of view of being a minority. I have only been exposed to the ﬁlms, but to me I can see the message of a ﬁght against prejudice through them.

Re: Hack Attack on Jack!

Jack Yan — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Hi Randy: it’s been a heck of a crazy two days. We started losing functionality two nights ago, which to me is typical hacker behaviour. As they dig more into your server, the more they destroy.
We do have a pretty sophisticated ﬁrewall up, so it turns out that this was a freak event, with a server hard drive failure, according to Rackspace.
We’re fortunate that there’s a great tech there, Scott Erickson, who helped us immensely in restoring our data. Without Scott, we’d be in far worse shape. I had a chat to him yesterday and there’s no trace of a Texan accent, given these folks are down in San Antonio. But if he’s one of what you folks in the US call a ‘big-hearted Texan’, then I have got to say the description is accurate.
Thank you for the shout-out here, Randy, and for caring! We are around 99 per cent back to normal. God be praised!

Re: The People ’ s United States

Jack Yan — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Wow, I am honoured that my comment inspired your post, Randy. I’m also that much more enamoured with the United States as a result of what you wrote. Coincidentally, today, I wrote a post on how the US can reverse its decline in its share of global tourism—and bingo, here’s proof of how it can be done!
Steve, I’ve heard the ‘how the US used to be’ comment a lot lately from visiting Americans. I have always heard it, but it was usually in relation to how backward we were 15 or 20 years ago! Now, when Americans say it, it is almost always in the context you use: that we lack pretensions, and we like thinking outside the box a bit. Texans, to me, are clever, innovative people who say boo to convention, but who never lose sight of their values and their sense of humility.
Randy, your post—with its genuine, heartfelt words—will remind many of what makes America great, ‘from sea to shining sea’. People need to remember that your similarities far outweigh your differences, and your core values are still admired the world over—if only they could be communicated more, beyond the lacklustre job the media are doing.

Re: The People ’ s United States

Jack Yan — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Hi Randy: thanks! I think what Steve means, and how I interpret what I hear, is that the image and the reality of what a New Zealander is tend to be the same. Humble, everyday people. Also, I have to say I have seen people with pretensions and an inability to keep promises out on the US coasts (speciﬁcally New York and Los Angeles), sadly. I know there are good people there, but in the fashion and movie businesses where I have some connections, there are some very strange folks. Unfortunately, it’s these people who often have a proﬁle, and allow your country’s image to suffer, while “real” Americans such as yourself strive to uphold the nation’s true values.

Re: The People ’ s United States

Jack Yan — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Steve, I sense there is a bit of this negative stuff happening, but I think it may be due to the industries I am involved in. When I was doing software and consulting with US companies, I seldom confronted it.

Re: The President was 10 feet away

Jack Yan — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Away from the discussion in the comments, I wanted to make a minor quip: that had I known, Randy, you would be that close to the President, I would have asked you to shout out a hi from New Zealand from me! (Writing the Ambassador is not enough!)

Re: Worn Out

Jack Yan — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Get some rest, Randy. We all need sleep! (I’ve just awoken from an afternoon nap.)

Re: Al Zarqawi Dead

Jack Yan — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I stayed up to watch the announcement about al-Zarqawi on Fox News live, as it was in the small hours here. Boy, I have lost a heck of a lot of sleep!

Re: President Bush and 100 Other Pictures

Jack Yan — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Awesome, Randy! These are fab!

Re: Celebrate with me …

Jack Yan — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Congratulations, Randy, on hitting the sub-200 mark! Yay! Let’s keep it below 200 lb and you get healthy!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Not sure why the paparazzi link didn’t work above. Retrying:
www.jackyan.com/media-paparazzi.shtml

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Pdub, that is the very issue at the core of branding. When the gap is closed (or near it), you can say the brand is successful. The grass-roots branding method is where you gather the perceptions and craft the brand around it, rather than dictate to the audiences in a top–down fashion. It will be an interesting task to do a small survey to ﬁnd how audiences (not just parishioners, but the community and the Synod) view the church, and learning whether the church is meeting their needs, then discovering where they would like things to be.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Pdub, a few of us at Medinge do try (e.g. Johnnie Moore), plus Stefan Engeseth is an advocate, though getting clients to take this on board is another matter. One that might come close, and it is Nicholas Ind’s example, is Patagonia.
What you are saying about ultimate truth is interesting. Without it, then I wonder what is there? Or is the culture only one of messages, with no context? (I am not taking the mick; I raise these questions out of intellectual curiosity and what could substitute truth.)

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

141 Interesting, Pdubdc—I see the issues more clearly, and thank you for explaining it to me. I can see both sides, and the answer is that both are right! God’s Word is not one that should divide, but unite. In whatever form His Word takes, it is blessed.
That’s me as an idealist. The quick way out, if I were the brand consultant trying to overcome an impasse, would be to retain the traditional message but dress it in modern trimmings. I remember things like the Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes starrer, Romeo and Juliet, which had a contemporary setting though the original Shakespeare dialogue. That may be an incredibly simple analogy, but the Word is eternal and is so strong it can survive different portrayals.
The reason this could work is that we are not talking about changing the brand. We ﬁnd common ground with the message, because no one denies that it is good. So the vision remains the same, but the expression of that vision—another of the four limbs of the brand model—is modernized.
I’m sure there are pitfalls behind this and I am not the ﬁrst person to suggest it, but that can only help make Randy’s thread longer!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Pdubdc, I wish I could think of a quick and ready solution to your predicament. I know exactly the type of person you mean, and like everything man-made, there’s never a 100 per cent strike rate. Bridging the gap is never easy—I do not envy you. If I were to do it, I would pick a slogan that sounds contemporary yet is from the Bible itself. This would be used as a rallying-cry. As the problem is at the grass roots’ level, then there is no harm in being totally transparent about it: why not create a campaign that highlights the differences after you have come up with the slogan? It’d be more radical than ﬁnding a (potentially weak) middle ground, and other parishes could duplicate the effort for the sake of greater fellowship.

Re: A Lot of Media

Jack Yan — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I am getting some more press, too, Randy, and most of it seems to centre around my personal life right now!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

170 Good words there, Pdubdc, about the church. This does come back to ﬁrst principles and how the Word can move us to do great things. People keep forgetting the goodness we see every day, and focus on the negatives. You have identiﬁed the issues but this does come back to our earlier discussion about branding.
Spiritually, we each need to ﬁnd the strength within, and the pride we should have in our faith. So often, we are made to feel guilty for even having a faith—a step above, but not greatly, how we must have been treated in Roman times. If we believe and have faith, we will advance!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

185 Maureen, I feel saddened that an era has passed with David Beckham. For whatever people say about him—out of envy through media exposure, usually—he is a darned good soccer player.
I admit to being a Francophile but that was before President Chirac showed himself to be such a dork. I won’t let him get me down or change my appreciation for France. I’ll likely root for France but I have a feeling the French will confront a vigorous and energetic German side, and if that happens, the Germans will outpace them.

Re: Celebrate with me …

Jack Yan — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

UrbanH, I wanted to thank you for your wonderful link to the image of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

232 Hi Randy: if I get time today, I will post about this effort.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Dawn, I wonder if you would mind hopping over to “the other Jack’s” blog—he asked me about coComment as well and I typed up an answer there.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

This is the number six thread of all time at coComment! (Five more messages and we will be number ﬁve.)

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Speaking of Coke, what happened to Pepsi? We hardly hear about it down here these days.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I have to recommend Pdub’s photos to all readers: they are great! Road trip!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I wish I had more hot chocolate stories, Cheryl, although we did get some great marshmallows yesterday! Down here, you can either get the regular type, but one company does these big cylindrical ones and they just seem more fragrant than the others. You don’t burn these by the ﬁre: you eat them because they taste best that way.

Re: Kite Runner - An ETC Book Review

Jack Yan — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Not to make light of this, but Kite Surfer would be a good name for a book, Randy.

Re: Sorrow For India

Jack Yan — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

And for all those that doubt this was allied to al-Qaeda, look at the date: 9-11, 3-11 and now 7-11. My thoughts are with the Indian people, especially residents of Mumbai. The murdering bastards who did this will be brought to justice.

Re: TypePad Down

Jack Yan — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I hope so. They have disappeared from your India thread, too, though we have a record of them on coCo.

Re: After Three Weeks … Home

Jack Yan — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Thanks to computers, we knew you were away but it was still great seeing you contribute to the threads. I often ﬁnd it hard when I go to hotel rooms with no broadband (still common here).

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Hitchcock’s 1950s stuff rocked. I still love Dial M for Murder for its simplicity—though when you break it down in terms of its cinematography, it was actually more complex. Grace Kelly was stunning.

Re: From Prissy to Piggy - We All Have Rules

Jack Yan — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Wonderful conclusion on this one, Randy, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Re: Everyday Thoughtcast Podcast - Madonna Edition

Jack Yan — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

The odd cigar is ﬁne, in my book! (I don’t smoke, but it sure doesn’t offend me.)

Re: If You Want Happiness …

Jack Yan — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

I love it, Jordan. Randy, thank you for sharing. Today, I met a guy called Ron, who is a business mentor. I’m inspired enough to do the same thing now—he helps heaps of people each month, but I think I could start with one a month.

Re: WWIII

Jack Yan — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Our former Prime Minister, the late Sir Robert Muldoon, warned New Zealand of an Indonesian invasion come 2020. The guy was right on a lot of stuff—unemployment, high fuel prices—and we ignored him those last few times. That was in the 1970s and 1980s. Let’s hope we don’t ignore him now and prepare ourselves.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Hi guys: the new coComment has launched and it counts the total number of comments now, not just with registered users! So we have some way to go before being number one again, but we are still i the top ﬁve!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Cheryl, I sing like Sacha Distel or maybe Matt Munro.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

That is retarded, although if pushed I am sure I can think of some really naff things we do here!

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Pdub, thank God that there was no comparison between the two versions of the song!
How strange, I was about to post the ‘Manah Manah’ song as well! I caught it on Robin Capper’s blog yesterday.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 03:00:00 -0000

How are we doing on the count, Randy? A thousand yet?

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

This is cool and I am glad we went with the unied comments rather than regional editions. (Like America: one nation, indivisible.)

Re: Of George and Mel

Jack Yan — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Amanda, thank you! That is so kind of you.

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

There could be two reasons: one, this is now a separate thread, seemingly away from the rest of Randy’s blog. And for me, coComment is now so slow—I have to wait five to nine seconds each time I activate the bookmarklet, and the nice coCo folks in Switzerland can’t find what is causing this delay. I seem to be unique in experiencing it (on all my computers).

Re: The Longest Comment Thread Ever

Jack Yan — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

John, thank goodness I am not alone. When does your bug happen? (Is it after you activate the bookmarklet?)
Right now, the developers seem to think I am alone so if you want to drop them a message on their forum, maybe they can narrow down the problem.
Cheryl, it is still cold here, hitting the 50s more often though. My spots are weekly, so I think I would have done a couple since we last talked about the subject, but last week’s was a bit boring for me (finances and who looks after them). Barry (the old guy) is twice-divorced, so it was more fun to listen to him and how his property was carved up a couple of times.

Re: Blah-gging

Jack Yan — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

How about: I Survived July’s Mercury Retrograde as a topic? Actually, I am sure you will have more to report after your meeting with those folks from HK (my home town).

Re: MikeE on Raunchy Lyrics = Teen Sex

Jack Yan — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

On a related note, this was in the Murdoch Press today:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,2...
We foreigners do ﬁnd this extraordinary, hence it is “news”.

Re: New Orleans

Jack Yan — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 03:00:00 -0000

Thank you for sharing that lovely photo, Randy. I was at a stem cell research fundraiser (long story). I will be doing a story on the issue, so I need to be fair and balanced.

Re: ‘ Homophobic ’ Hardaway Banned From All-Star Weekend

Jack Yan — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:00:00 -0000

I agree, Randy. Mr Hardaway could not possibly have changed his mind in such a short space of time. But I hope his punishment allows him some introspection.

Re: Back at Wordpress

Jack Yan — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 03:00:00 -0000

I have become a real Wordpress fan since working with it at Lucire: it’s the best one of the bunch, in my view.

Re: The Morning After The Election - Initial Thoughts

Jack Yan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:08:11 -0000

I want to see if the President-elect can deliver. I worry less about him than Sens. Biden and Reid and Speaker Pelosi. I am not sure if there will be any true bipartisanship in his cabinet yet.

Re: No Gloating Zone - A Weird Mix of Emotions

Jack Yan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:13:45 -0000

I understand your feelings on the issue, Randy. It is hard not to feel some sympathy for any couple, straight or gay, whose unionâ€™s recognition has suddenly changed. I always felt that in the California case, where I have read the judgements, the majority judges were not clever enough. If they had an agenda to legalize gay marriage, then their interpretation of the law left matters open to future attacks. Unlike the precedent that some relied upon (Perez) where the legislature had been clumsy (intentionally?), California law was far clearer. You are right that in the case of California, it gave same-sex couples false expectations over the definition of marriage.

Re: The Morning After The Election - Initial Thoughts

Jack Yan — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:22:19 -0000

Hi Randy! Perhaps this is why the President-elect has chosen a partisan figure as his possible chief of staff. It might stop, meanwhile, any of the senior Democrats from pushing President-elect Obama into certain positions. I am trying to read this as positively as possible, because on the flip side one could say that this choice is a harbinger of the partisanship in an Obama cabinet.

Re: Big Hollywood (Conservative Blog) Defends Adam Lambert’s Silence

Jack Yan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:13:19 -0000

Well said, Randy. Frankly, I do not care what sexuality Mr Lambert has, and he certainly does not need to have some activist cause. He is a good singer, period—so can’t we appreciate him for his gift?

Re: The John Dvorakification of the blogosphere (I’m signing off of Memeorandum)

Jack Yan — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 06:05:38 -0000

Good point. With smart people, we can make the world better. With snarky people, we just add to the clutter.

Re: I gotta take more days off

Jack Yan — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 20:33:38 -0000

Too right, mate: just be yourself. If others can’t handle it, it’s their problem. This is your blog. And wasn’t “being yourself” the whole idea of having a blog?

Re: The new A list

Jack Yan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:49:13 -0000

Robert, stick with your principles. I applaud you. I’m surprised that the blogosphere, still relatively new given that I am still asked what a blog is, has bred so much cat-ﬁghting. Particularly as many bloggers are educated people. Maybe it’s the fatigue talking, but I remember the World Wide Web being more civilized at the same point in its history.

Re: The new A list

Jack Yan — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 07:24:59 -0000

Orangeguru (no. 74) has a point, but I felt I expressed it better. Just kidding. My real message: the sad thing is that it has taken a shorter amount of time for the nutters to begin blogging. I wonder if that means society is getting worse, or whether that’s merely a consequence of technology being available to more people. Maybe both. But if it’s the former, it would be awfully nice to think we could do something about it.

Re: Happy Iranian New Year!

Jack Yan — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 04:45:42 -0000

I’ll be sure to use this as an excuse for taking it easy this week at work. I take it Nowruz celebrations last for a little while, right?

Re: Is blogging important? 157 million hits says it is!

Jack Yan — Sun, 07 May 2006 01:03:10 -0000

Amazing stats, Robert—if that doesn’t illustrate Web 2·0’s power, I don’t know what does.

Re: Bad news, my mom is in hospital

Jack Yan — Wed, 10 May 2006 03:26:34 -0000

Robert, I hope your mother heads for a great recovery. Please also remember to look at all avenues for healing. Having lost my mother to cancer, you don’t want any regrets from not doing all you can do.

Re: Bad news gets worse

Jack Yan — Sat, 13 May 2006 09:23:59 -0000

Robert, I am deeply sorry to hear this. I remember getting some similar news when my mother was in a hospice—at age 54. If she is likely to pass, I would encourage you or member(s) of your family to be present at that moment. It was important for me to be there, as a way of saying goodbye.
If you are a spiritual man, then I also believe it’s somehow good for the spirit to see the family there when she first departs from the body.

Re: The motherly instinct

Jack Yan — Sat, 13 May 2006 09:28:43 -0000

Robert, this is a touching subject and I had to cover it on live TV on Friday, talking about my Mum who passed 12 years ago. Far too soon. I know she would want you to go to New York. However, if I were you, I would stay by her side. I just think you need to be there, to know that you were there for as long as you could be.
¶ While I still feel connected to my Mum’s spirit, there are still days, after 12 years, where I feel I have lost an entire limb. I know people are consoling you but I have to be honest and say the feeling of loss does not disappear easily. These last days will be important to you.

Re: The community around my mom

Jack Yan — Sat, 13 May 2006 19:01:47 -0000

Robert, I, too see a lot of my Mum in me. Most of my drive comes from her and when I get down, I can sense that she’s the one urging me to go on.
On Syndicate, I believe you made the right decision. Please spend the time with your Mom. I truly feel for you and, in fact, I know all too well what you are going through. I hope she knows that you both have supporters as far away as New Zealand.

Re: As mother’s day closes

Jack Yan — Mon, 15 May 2006 08:47:32 -0000

That’s nice to know your aunt got there from Germany. Please continue spending time with your Mom—it will be quite a great time for you to know you are spending this part of her journey with her, and she with you.

Re: The call…

Jack Yan — Sun, 28 May 2006 20:06:49 -0000

I was away on a business trip and only learned of this today, Robert. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
I know what you are going through and as so many above have said, the loss of a parent hurts like heck. You may begin noticing, however, that although your Mom has passed from this physical world, that connection you have with her, which you felt while you worked in Washington state, remains almost identical. That is the love she has for you, and it will always be there.

Re: The questioning of career, life, family, love follows grief (taking a week off of blogging)

Jack Yan — Tue, 30 May 2006 06:29:49 -0000

Robert, you should live the moment. Go for it!

Re: The car of the future?

Jack Yan — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:41:48 -0000

When I was a child, the forecast was for little microcars running on electricity by 2000. What did we get? The Hummer. I remain a sceptic, not because the demand isn’t there, but because car companies like GM tend to drag their heels because of the capital investment already made in existing infrastructure.

Re: The car of the future?

Jack Yan — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 22:34:46 -0000

Great comment, Karim. Yep, it may be Toyota bringing us that Hy-Wire car, as GM struggles to make changes to its existing plants.

Re: WARNING: Do NOT load Quechup

Jack Yan — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:12:22 -0000

I signed up before I read your alert, Robert, but fortunately, I make it a policy (on every site) to never feed in address books. This was the site that would not allow me to enter my city in New Zealand! It insisted I needed to insert a ‘region’ and there is no corresponding one for any of the major cities here—guess it’s only for Kiwis who live in smaller towns and in the country!

Re: Poll: Which Facebook Layout Do You Prefer?

Jack Yan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:18:29 -0000

Æsthetically I don’t mind the new design but I dislike the longer loading time (enough for me to cut down my usage) and the application incompatibilities. Feedback to Facebook has been acknowledged, but nothing appears to have been actioned. I hope these groups manage to get their way: taking your Mashable link and using Facebook’s own claim (as of September 3) that only 30 million have even investigated the new Facebook, only 17 to 37 per cent of Facebook users are supporters or users of the new look, with a majority either preferring or only knowing the old. The 700,000-plus members of the Petition group may well represent a far greater number than they realize.

Re: Poll: Which Facebook Layout Do You Prefer?

Jack Yan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:21:43 -0000

We do pay for Facebook in some respects. While many shoot down the advertising argument, users provide personal information and photography, which under the TOS Facebook winds up owning. As to numbers, the Petition group numbers around a million at present, but Facebook puts those who have chosen to be on the new design at 30 million. If there is a 100 million user base, then 70 million either choose to be on old Facebook or are ignorant of the change. Supporters of the new Facebook appear to be in the minority for now.

Re: coComment – hmpf

Jack Yan — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 20:23:49 -0000

I had to Google to ﬁnd myself here. But I hope Oliver will consider it. This is a useful tool and like Patrice I use it to bookmark. Also, itâ€™s full of early adopters, so mostly there are educated people on it.

Re: Cocomment 0.4 released

Jack Yan — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 06:17:19 -0000

I am not sure if it is that much of an improvement. The times I used the new box, I had errors, so I have stuck to the old method of clicking on the coComment â€œtickâ€ box, then ﬁlling in the information.

Re: World’s most expensive cities

Jack Yan — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:27:54 -0000

I would never have guessed it. What is worrying is that this news may mean a widening gap between rich and poor in Moskva.

Re: World’s most expensive cities

Jack Yan — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 01:26:26 -0000

It’s a crisis, ever-widening, and this is proof positive. I wish this signal was clearer to others who read your article.

Re: The Curse of the Presidents

Jack Yan — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 01:31:36 -0000

Weird. But Ronald Reagan escaped it, so will George Dubya?

Re: The Curse of the Presidents

Jack Yan — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 01:41:26 -0000

Here is a sceptical analysis. For what it’s worth.

Re: The Curse of the Presidents

Jack Yan — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 02:15:33 -0000

Oops, I didn’t notice that. I must have clicked on the earlier link.

Re: Holden Barina Basketball Moves

Jack Yan — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 22:09:54 -0000

It’s interesting that on both sides of the Tasman, the three-door Barina is shown more. The ﬁve door model, of course, would look way too familiar given, as you say in your last paragraph, it is a Daewoo Kalos, which was sold in our parts with quite a big TV campaign in 2003. The latest TVC reminds me a bit of the Suzuki Swift soccer commercial.

Re: Will Digg Be a Better Place Without Shouts?

Jack Yan — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:55:30 -0000

Your shout-limit method would have been more sensible. I only had 50-odd friends on Digg, so this doesn’t change an awful lot for me, However, I would have thought less poorly of Digg if we had been given some advance warning of the change, or even a notification on the site itself that the option had been removed. It was arrogant of the service to take away one of its fundamental (in my view) features.

Re: Branson wants MG Rover to make hybrids

Jack Yan — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 07:05:30 -0000

It’s a shame this didn’t happen. A year on, it still makes sense.

Re: Behind The Label by Lucire Magazine

Jack Yan — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 07:38:22 -0000

Warren, thank you for recording this. Summer Rayne has been able to further our environmental commitment. We’ve even tried to make the production of Lucire totally sustainable, too. So while getting seduced by fashion and beauty, you’re helping the planet. Summer Rayne’s ‘Behind the Label’ page helps give that environmental commitment a less subtle push, for those who aren’t aware of our underlying ethos.

Re: Apple Sues Big Apple Over Green Logo

Jack Yan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:03:38 -0000

Sunny is absolutely correct. The mindset, nevertheless, for Apple even to dispute this shows that they are all too happy to make lawyers rich. And when only lawyers are getting rich, tying up NYC and Apple’s core activities and allowing them to get on with their jobs, that can never be a good thing. Remember: the USPTO has better things to do than listen to this—and it explains why trade mark registrations are so expensive.

Re: The Morning After The Election – Initial Thoughts

Jack Yan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:08:11 -0000

I want to see if the President-elect can deliver. I worry less about him than Sens. Biden and Reid and Speaker Pelosi. I am not sure if there will be any true bipartisanship in his cabinet yet.

Re: The Morning After The Election – Initial Thoughts

Jack Yan — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:22:19 -0000

Re: Big Hollywood (Conservative Blog) Defends Adam Lambert's Silence

Jack Yan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:13:19 -0000

Re: I Am Not Dead – Flu 2009 Update (Video)

Jack Yan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 06:56:46 -0000

Good typeface choice. While not the same as Star Wars’ one, at least the basic design comes from the same creator. (You would be surprised how many people spoofing this sequence get this totally wrong.)

Anyway, get better soon! How horrible to have that pent-up feeling. For the next round, and for those who have not had it yet, I would recommend Yin Chiao. And since Chinese medicine has been around for a few millennia, I am pretty confident of this stuff.

Re: Is Social Media a Fad? (Groovy Video)

Jack Yan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 06:52:49 -0000

I agree with Rick on some aspects: namely that another site will come along and we will think of Facebook in 10 years’ time as we now think of AltaVista. (Alta what? Exactly.) However, I believe at our core, people do not change, and will seek those more meaningful relationships. Twitter, for example, is only a tool, and it may spark deeper discussions off-site for those who wish to explore issues more deeply. To me, Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook, are merely sites that help me reach more people.

However, if Facebook were a country, I would call for free elections. This site ignores groups that number in the millions that complain about its service, and I have recently been dealing with false accusations over copyright infringement, on the basis of a presumption of guilt. Facebook seems very unaware of the rule of law, and if it were a country, it would rate somewhere near Burma in its lack of accountability and its conduct toward its users.

As to email, I receive a few thousand messages a week—still not a patch on a Berlin journalist I know whose emails now number in the five figures. But 2,500 or so are too much for me, and email is almost a turn-off. Twitter helps me feel partly connected, as long as one bears in mind what Rick says above.

Re: Mobile Regulation in NZ

Jack Yan — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 07:58:47 -0000

In my travels, I have found other countries to be cheaper for phone charges, so your OECD comment is probably spot on. We even pay more in Auckland and Wellington for street parking than New York or Stockholm. Text messaging prices are also a joke here, considering a single message costs the telcos a fraction of a cent.