Disqus - Latest Comments for Eric Rice

Re: Should You Friend Your Spouse?

Eric Rice — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:52:28 -0000

Heh, my wife doesn't use nor have the same social marketing needs I do--so she's not on all 34873478 million socnet sites. It's limited to reading my blog and browsing my flickr stream-- and now Twittering (only cuz she got an iPhone), where I've already been asked 'what did you mean by this?' when I'm all artsy/obscure/moody.

Most of my closest friendships barely use any of this. If they do, it's because I tell them to, but we end up just calling each other up on the phone or using IM.

Owning your words is different in real time/same space than in a historical context (five minutes ago in the other room vs. five years).

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Eric Rice — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:57:30 -0000

I often wonder if the TV space will continue to be strong because of the offerings of animation and kids' programming not easily found in DIY/online media. As my kids get older (5 and 7), all the things I've been doing for years are called 'TV'. There doesn't seem to be distinction. If everyone is online, then where's the 'awesome'?

But yeah, I've not thought about the kids programming until today. Spongebob and Dora's equivalent not on TV is............ ??

Re: You stay classy, Engadget

Eric Rice — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:09:23 -0000

Just be like Obama:

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/phlog/OBAMA_THA...

Re: Why Lane Hartwell is wrong

Eric Rice — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:23:38 -0000

I use a variety of licenses on my work, both very open Creative Commons one and very limited All Rights Reserved ones. It's not impossible.

I agree with Lane, and had no idea I was a woman, either. /smirk

Re: Radiohead: People still want an “object”

Eric Rice — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:27:49 -0000

All I know is that my Blade Runner 5 DVD box set comes with an art book, plaque, two toys, and a gorgeous case. Love the objects and love how many video games are following suit with collectible art books and special add-ons. It's something to have/own/display/etc and retains collectible value or something to be passed down. (I LOVE the records I have from my dad)

Re: We have met the enemy: He is us

Eric Rice — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:40:42 -0000

The thing that drives me nuts the MOST is that the original site will end up on techmeme and then as the pile-on gets sorted out, sometimes the tertiary site will be the headliner, second and first ones get buried. Today's example of such is the Computer Science Education/Future post.

Oh and heh, stop complaining dude, you aren't part of the lazysphere, you bring substance, even though I do find I disagree with you more often than not. One of the daily must-reads. /end honest kiss-ass heh

Re: Tiki the Chihuahua

Eric Rice — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:59:00 -0000

Testing

Re: Why did Twhirl get bought?

Eric Rice — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:53:04 -0000

It seems like it's a good marketing approach. Seesmic is now pushed under the users of Twihrl. Twitter inadvertantly had this happen where 'post to twitter' became some random, yet default feature added into a ton of apps. No one did that for Jaiku or Pownce. Why not? Why not have the endless list of flair (or is it too early for the 'post to delicious digg reddit magnolia larry curly moe' feature line installed in apps?)

I think it's acquisition-as-marketing strategy in part. Kinda like how 'beta' doesn't mean 'part of software release cycle'. Beta = buzz :)

Re: Out Riding Fences: Clash of the Storytellers.

Eric Rice — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:10:33 -0000

I'm always amused at how social media is some 'skill'.

You wanna know why it's easy to generalize? Because of how mavens appear to look at themselves in the mirror. I bet Scoble might read books, but you might not ever see it because he can't disconnect his phone from Qik.com. I know Brogan reads, but I can't recall if it's ever come up in all of his work and exploration into social technologies. Has it, dude?

If Christine is generalizing, it's probably for a reason.

Perception is 9/10ths, and if we're to be so brilliantly social, we need to stop failing so much. Because even if one inspires people, the message might be wrapped in an invisible fog of uncertainty.

Also, I highly recommend 'Silicon Snake Oil' by Clifford Stoll.

Re: I Love Twitter, But I Have To Quit It

Eric Rice — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:24:01 -0000

Yup, number one thing I noticed when I quit for a bit. I got stuff done! I'm involved in plenty of other 'time sucks' and they don't even come close to the 'learned ADD' I feel I'm getting with things like Twitter.

What I am noticing is that I'm going back to reading longer formats (like blogs), because I hate having to weed through numerous tweets when someone puts together an insightful thought. It's almost like we're forcing ourselves to be soundbite-y because of 140 character limits (which we can easily get around anyway at the risk of being a conversation-spammer :)

Re: Twitter Should Be A Two-Way Conversation, Not One-Way Like Most Use It

Eric Rice — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:23:16 -0000

Yup, and I'm one of those that thunder Twitter. Not my fault there's no threading and not my fault that the API made it so MORE apps can be made for desktop apps that leave those SMS users who get vibed every nanosecond, in the minority. (SMS seems so one-way and minimal tech anyway, talk @ us all you like, technically. Hopefully you won't 'conceptually' talk @ us. Lots of big names do that.)

I'm not unique in that, though. It's emergent behavior. Someone posts at Tweet and a few people respond, or respond with a question, and that's five times the amount of derivative traffic. Even worse is that Twitter's weird software design puts us in to a position to have to shout out to others to get someone's attention. (If you don't follow me, I can't send you a direct message). That will generate more traffic than needed. Since one post can cause a LOT of responses (just ask a question and watch how fast the answer comes in.

One of the common answers to why people use twitter is 'that my friends are there' and that just sets the stage for activity.

The problem that needs to be addressed is how it CAN be a timesuck and it CAN be a stage and, well, probably will be. "Just manage your time" is easier said than done. And now that the spammers have arrived, it's becoming weird. How many times do Lionel Trains need to follow me, sheesh.

One other thing that peripheral services do-- allow for the auto-cross-posting. So every Utterz, every Seesmic, all of it, can be polluting our own streams unless we create multiple accounts (great for the numbers game, heh).

I wrote a rather detailed 2 part piece called "Soylent Twitter" after hitting 10,000 tweets. I put that service through the paces and tried lots of weird experiments. It opens the door to a darker side of social media that we're in denial over, or just plain refuse to talk about.

Good Luck, Jim!

http://www.ericrice.com/blog/2007/11/25/soylent...

Re: PodShow Sucks …Less?

Eric Rice — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 02:19:30 -0000

How I found this post: I searched for 'podshow sucks' in Google. Theory: if calling it "Podshow Sucks Less" was a game to make sure they dominated the top results in Google for "Podshow Sucks", which apparently doesn't see to be the case.

Also, JT I think I love you, heh.

Re: Facebook As An Email Alternative

Eric Rice — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:09:51 -0000

E-mail being in such a sad state, I'm quite fine that Facebook (and anything like it) puts up a big stop sign of 'approve first, communicate later'. There's no spam because of that (aside from friend spam, heh).

Add a little finesse to messaging, and sure, I'm game. Throw up the walls!

Re: When I was your age, Pluto was still a planet

Eric Rice — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:00:07 -0000

Okay, which one of you fools shot my carrier pigeon in Halo 3?

/me coughs.

Re: 2007/11/13/web2-bubble-poll/

Eric Rice — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:07:26 -0000

Heh like there's a difference between virtual worlds (SL isn't the only one, hello) and social nets anyway. Maybe when virtual world mode is one of the options to the multi-billion dollar industry knowing as *gaming*, then we'll see.

I'll put my money on snackable software, since it's so en vogue to make itty bitty software, heh.

Re: 2007/12/23/segway-social/

Eric Rice — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 03:25:20 -0000

Hilarious the timing of this. I just got one for Christmas.

I fear not my dorkness!

Re: 2007/12/27/flickrfan/

Eric Rice — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 03:50:59 -0000

Would Yahoo/Flickr ever ink a deal with Dish/DirecTV/Tivo, etc to bring this right through the air onto the TV for widespread retail adoption, reducing the need to ever touch software beyond Flickr itself?

Re: 2008/03/15/linden-lab-ceo/

Eric Rice — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:24:25 -0000

It's just user-generated 3D content. If user-gen is useless, we should stop reading blogs and go back to the papers. TV, too. ;)

Re: 2008/04/12/the-web-os-its-coming-just-not-too-soon/

Eric Rice — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:10:36 -0000

Aside from heavy desktop apps like games and paint programs I DO run everything in a browser, but of course, being at the mercy of the internet connection du jour, sorta sucks.

Re: 2008/04/12/flickr-donut-trip/

Eric Rice — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:34:45 -0000

I could either gripe that it ain't Krispy Kreme or I could just say WIN a lot. Maybe both?

Rest in peace, Flickr, we'll miss you.

Re: 2008/06/02/plurk-better-than-twitter/

Eric Rice — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:29:01 -0000

Yeah that was always hilarious to me that a *FEATURE* from another app became an app on its own. In fact, it's hilarious (and irritating) to see the status bars on Facebook get spammed by people who post their twitter statuses there. Like good grief, control yourselves.

Twitter is having problems because we the users turned it into what it wasn't supposed to be: a chat room, instead of that quirky little 140 character update(trust me, you can get around that limit, just post over and over).

Twitter is a bit retarded in functionality, but in the social space, it ain't about function. It's about social. It's the trendy hot spot where you go to be seen (well myspace/facebook-- oh nm, it's a losing argument), it's a trendy hot spot for the early web/tech adopters go to be seen. The iPod isn't the best -featured- mp3 player, it just has the sexiness and the social power to command the world domination (for now).

Plurk is fun, shiny, and prolly will stick if the big names show up.

How fickle we humans are. ;)

(Sorry for the huge-ish comment, doh!)

Re: 2008/06/02/plurk-better-than-twitter/

Eric Rice — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:32:50 -0000

Mark: Replace the the phrase 'social networking' with 'social life' and it all makes sense.

Some of us don't actually have time for a social life for the very reasons you state. And some of us don't *want* to.

Your point is very valid.

Re: 2008/06/25/facebook-copies-friendfeed/

Eric Rice — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:58:28 -0000

The best part of being an early adopter and Friendfeed user et al, is that we've got the micro-commenting practice. Now we can easily wander through the halls of Facebook's comments.

FF certainly helped developed our personal agility in using the mainstream social apps.

Re: 2008/07/11/online-interaction/

Eric Rice — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:01:17 -0000

While technology might provide awkward in small distances and local situations (think of all the times you see people unreasonably glued to twitter), it has personally allowed me to have a worldwide network for friends and colleagues.

In almost every country in the world, I have people that I can hang with, socialize with, do deals with-- nearly all of whom are those I've connected with online or other technological means.

When my wife and I went to Tokyo for my birthday, our schedule was pretty maxxed since there were so many people to hang out with face-to-face.

So the future is bright, as long as we learn to find balance now.

Re: 2008/07/15/google-earth-3d-cities/

Eric Rice — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:25:23 -0000

I used Google Earth extensively to fly through Tokyo before visiting and it was a huge help. When I returned, they had added exact building renders, so everything was familiar. I'm going to use Google Earth much more intimately for Paris, almost a year before going, to see how fluent I can be with a city before setting foot there.

On another note, while folks have looked at Google's Lively as some 'virtual world', I think it would be prudent to note that with Google's 3D modeling program, Earth engine, 3D Warehouse (user gen content), purchase of a game advertising company, and of course Google Maps, the notion of virtual worlding/gaming worlds is scattered about, and Lively is just a smidge of that.

Google maps and earth tend to get some pushback from fans of the pure 'open-world' model, but I'd like to point out that Google maps has been used with various functionality, to illustrate/navigate places like Second Life, Grand Theft Auto and World of Warcraft.

They might not be aware (but probably are) at something much bigger than what people are seeing. And with the recent relationships with Sony on their Playstation platform, I'd hope more people would start putting 2+2 together.

Something's up, but not sure what, yet. Although, we can hope. :)

Re: 2008/07/15/google-earth-3d-cities/

Eric Rice — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:26:13 -0000

Sorry for the long-ass comment post!

Re: 2008/07/15/app-store-prices/

Eric Rice — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:29:28 -0000

I suppose the prices could drop to $0 so we can hear the refrains of, 'so how do you make money?' :)

Flashlight apps for $5, I'll agree, yeah, that's a bit much. Games though, not so much, since there's quite a bit more to creating those than a few lines of javascript.

Seriously, put a call out to developers to get their side of the story-- we might look a little weird griping about this, if one guy has netted say, not even the cost of an iPhone in sales revenues, while we can take a day off from work and plop down enough money for one or two iPhones.

Re: 2008/07/14/twitter-versus-friendfeed/

Eric Rice — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:43:24 -0000

Heh, Twitter went down forever, then GTA IV came out, and I kinda faded from any use at all without days and days in between passing.

The only reason I seem to show up there is because I get 30 random new followers and it's like, uh, are they expecting something?

Well, except that earthquake guy, that seems to be on the PULSE of how we the twittering public cause seesmic* activity.

ER
*I meant seismic, but seesmic came out, I'm not correcting it, because it's funny and weird, but mostly weird

Re: 2008/07/30/live-search-homepage/

Eric Rice — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:42:44 -0000

Google changes their logo from time to time for certain things, so let's not get too 'omg how zany' on this. It's damn pretty and they have a huge amount of resources to provide awesome images.

I like that idea of it starting to display things I'd like. Show me lots of big city skylines and 3D imagery... is subconciously cool. The hotspots are just toys and I don't think they'd have a big impact on usability. Also a great place to start bringing in wikipedia-like featured content maybe?

That said, the search results are crap compared to Google and let's not even bring up Cuil, heh.

One thing though, a bunch of us are curious and looking at Microsoft a bit more than usual lately and at least attempting to see what's up. So the spark of hope, is there, albeit a very, very faint one.

Re: 2008/08/04/mobile-tv/

Eric Rice — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:12:13 -0000

Wait, Asia markets and Sports Markets *enough* of a market? Makes it sound like boutique niche content, heh. That's insane cash money in the bank if you can win those, so yeah, more than enough of a market.

Re: 2008/08/04/teen-sex-lively/

Eric Rice — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:13:44 -0000

Funny how a ton of Second Lifers *hate* Lively because user generated content is so locked down (read: not existent) and yet people can STILL get around and do headline-grabbing stuff.

This is the kind of thing that will make more and more world makers (and gaming industry types, think Sony Home) have LITTLE desire to open up content to the users to create and this is why.

At its roots, it's not even about virtual worlds-- it's bigger than that. Do you open up things to the world to 'create'? Think LA Times wiki, comments on Youtube, and so on and so on and so on. Combine that with the recent rulings on corporate blogs being 'official sources of info' and that CNN memo Gawker posted today, a the new lockdown is upon us.

Re: 2008/08/20/gmail-security/

Eric Rice — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:15:02 -0000

Heck, be careful using ANY public hotspot.

If you go to conferences (even major new media/social ones), now or in the past, you probably were sniffed *and* published. It's been known that in some cases, googling for your password (which can be done easily if you are in a hurry, browser windows competing for attention and so on, as is the case w/ Windows), you might find your password in a list on the web.

Still won't fight complacency or, that people probably wouldn't willfully enter their password as a search term.

Re: 2008/10/07/politics-damaging-your-brand/

Eric Rice — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:10:01 -0000

With both major political parties having distinct ideological differences, why wouldn't that translate to an individual's broader world view? Many issues in our social-tech world tie to a world view open vs. closed, shared vs. locked down, microsoft vs. google, indy media vs. mainstream media.

There is deep passion in many tech topics and those tie to dollars and cents-- politics is no different. And since there's so much 'social capital' in what we do, a belief IS important. Is someone more interested in a greater good or a financial gain? Where they stand politically is very important, if it is to believed that one party is for a greater social good and the other for maximum profitability.

Beyond just the political season, it's a much bigger issue not yet realized for all who engage in social broadcasting. Our lives, histories, changes, and evolution are posted-- sometimes inadvertantly-- wait until more geotagging of photos shows up and that sexy computer you posted a picture of to Flickr is tied to a ______ political HQ office.

We're still writing this history each day.

Re: 2008/10/07/politics-damaging-your-brand/

Eric Rice — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:21:30 -0000

Personally, no. However, I do believe that software is born with (is affected by) the ethics of its creators (we'll definitely see this with AI in the future)... software can be inadvertently elitist. That's more of a social condition, yet I think it's part of the same sphere. What kind of politics might the creators have of a site that focuses on Creative Commons licensing as its core ethos? Would it be far-right or far-left?

I think the judgement is valid. If you share your opinion and support of a political candidate or ideology that I disagree with (esp economic), I have to consider if the things you create are in my best interest. Many web software tools out there are not inherently wired to enable me to make the most possible money with their use-- why is that? Is it because the creators aren't of a ideology of making gargantuan amounts of cash and are in it for the greater good?

To use Dave Winer as an example--he's fairly open about his politics so I'll use him as a basic example (not picking on him)--- could I trust Dave to make some software so amazingly awesome with all the tools built in to make craploads of cash by its use? Heh, probably not, because I believe Dave views things much differently than someone hellbent on making a ton of cash and securing that cash-making.

That's where I'm coming from when I disagree. Not saying it's particularly a pleasant thing, but I think it's very real and very much part of our modern social business landscape.

Re: Is @theRealAlGore the Real Al Gore?

Eric Rice — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:51:33 -0000

Crappy seo code, private Tucows registration, name servers in panama and also, Barrick is a gold company that Gore distanced himself from--- they ain't a 'sustainable sponsor' as listed on the site-- (and seems the have a bad rep anyway.)

His Twitter icon is a Getty Images stock from a Rolling Stone interview.

Election is over, I was bored, had to dig.

Re: 2009/01/06/augmented-reality-devices/

Eric Rice — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:38:39 -0000

Google will probably be the single biggest repository of data that we will augment when we look through the lens of our phone cameras. Since there's already the drive for 'real' recognition (like apple's iPhoto and even video games on the Xbox and PS3, the chances to simply hold up a phone to what ever we see are very high.

Re: The Great Jaiku Migration of April 10

Eric Rice — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:03:13 -0000

I can handle slowness only because of Jaiku giving me in terms of a more coherent management of conversations... it's in between twitter and a lite blogging tool. That threading is golden and is the feature I'll put above speed.

Not like the apps will work with each other anyway. Social standards.

Re: Not a Journalist

Eric Rice — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:44:42 -0000

lolponiez

that is all.

Re: What Need Does This Site Fill

Eric Rice — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:58:04 -0000

I read you cuz I know you. Pretty simple.

Going through the same issue myself. Half my blog is for the echo chamber, the other half wants to be for a more mass audience-- and taking the DIY approach to penetrate areas where people don't hang on every web 2.0 shiny thing, is a tough, tough thing.

So, I keep putting it off and not giving a crap day after day, and some how, that's like fame or something.

Let it flow, man. Cuz when you start thinking, you start beating yourself up. There are so many great bloggers that are lost in the perfectionism of it all, that they never pen a word. And 'just do it!' doesn't cut it for everyday folks.

Re: Killing Jacks

Eric Rice — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:59:16 -0000

Jacks are always asked "What do you actually DO?", to which there is no clear reply. (Aside from "Stuff" heh)

Re: Why I Dont Visit Second Life

Eric Rice — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:36:19 -0000

I have been playing XBOX extensively after the kids are in bed and proof positive that 3D representations of self (and stuff to do) is not a foreign concept.

I want my own server and a current 3D engine.

Re: Flee The Fishbowl and Re-EMBED in Reality

Eric Rice — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:41:03 -0000

Lan Bui posted a great comment on my blog on this same topic:

"Next video blog event I put on will require all existing video bloggers to bring one non video blogger with them to attend."

Genius.

http://www.ericrice.com/blog/2007/07/16/the-pro...

Re: Platform Platform Platform

Eric Rice — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:23:54 -0000

Well thanks for the props, you helped get me off my lazy butt and write up the most coherent overview to date of Saijo City:

http://www.ericrice.com/blog/2007/07/19/complic...

Re: Ways to Disrupt a Community

Eric Rice — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:17:42 -0000

I tried to make my group at Facebook, but I started to find that I couldn't follow it and use it... I hated Ning at first, but, to be fair, checked it out again and saw that it worked well. RSS alone and benig able to plop ANYthing into those Text boxes (we have a chat room on infocalypse and also, my new love, ZOHO works there-- although often formatted to big for the colums).

And if you choose, you don't have to be a Ning member to read and/or subscribe. I'm okay with some stuff being in a walled garden but other stuff, no.

I'm happy to have a social network of 30. Why? Because size/amount of people isn't what matters to me.

Re: Ways to Disrupt a Community

Eric Rice — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:36:17 -0000

Gosh, I'm so biting my lip right now.

Re: When Points Get Missed

Eric Rice — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:15:06 -0000

Do you prefer to a) read things b) listen to things c) watch things ?

We too often fall into the trap of proclaiming one media better than another, when all have equal pros and cons. A long time ago we had newspapers, radio, and television. Well, heh, we still do, the death of said media has been greatly exaggerated.

Some people sat in the yard gardening with AM talk radio blaring. Some people sat on the porch with their coffee reading the paper. Others watched the evening news in their slippers.

Instead of relying on my old 'do all media if you can and beat the argument' meme, I would like to point out issues of international audiences. Text is the easiest to translate, audio the hardest, and video, well interesting that one... Visual context changes a lot. I can probably figure out what's going on without even understanding the audio... if there are words at all.

The smiling face of a child is pretty much universal.

Re: Bacn- A New Internet Term

Eric Rice — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:25:49 -0000

/me [grabs a handful of thumbtacks, rusty nails, and poison darts, THEN] facepalms.

Re: The Power of Local Social Media

Eric Rice — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:41:28 -0000

I'm still fascinated by the fact that podcamps have a city name after them, and then all these people from other cities import themselves in.

Seems to defeat the purpose. Seems to strengthen the echo chamber.

No wonder things like Podcamp NOLA get criticized for the cliched tourism thing. "Oh hey, let's MARDI!"

We can so do better than that. But hey, we wouldn't be who we are if we weren't pushy, I guess.

Kinda depressing.

Re: Bacn- A New Internet Term

Eric Rice — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:53:27 -0000

Cameron, you won the internet today. Thank you.

Re: Brand Stories

Eric Rice — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:36:42 -0000

I have to challenge you, Chris, it's my job. ;)

One flipside to this, especially from the perspective of being a futurist-type, is when you are perceived as being many steps ahead, it's easy to get typecast, and then, a good amount of your efforts have to be spent helping people un-learn. That alone can alter your behavior.

For example, it's so easy for people to ask me about Second Life, like it's all I'm about (even though my experience in SL 2-3 years, it's just a fraction of what I do) and so I spend time going out of my way to focus on all the other things in that market, including gaming, just to shake the typecast.

Luckily, we have tools like the Twitter/Pownce/Jaiku chatrooms and the profile stalking of Facebook so we can watch someone evolve over time. Even in conferences, I've found that videoblogger comrades are DEEPLY into gaming and game design. I had no idea.

As each year passes, I wonder if in fact, the person is the operating system, always in need of upgrades.

Re: New Media- STAND UP

Eric Rice — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:33:24 -0000

Mmm, the industry of talking and asking lots of questions.

Re: Elements of a Personal Brand

Eric Rice — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:22:46 -0000

Do the unpopular.
Don't fear the Angry.
Tough love.
Moderation in all things.
Look at the mediocre and boring, too.
Pay attention to the hype machine when needed.
Fail.

Be unrelenting.

Re: Planning For a Digital Nomad

Eric Rice — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:22:09 -0000

I think you're referring to the UMPC I showed you back in March. I hate it, I never use it. Wanna buy it?

I have an ultralight laptop (lucky that it has built in EVDO) and an iPhone. Even though I'll be ditching my iPhone for a Nokia, devices like these are more prone to be useful and cut down on my laptop time. Heck, my laptop spends more time charging everything else than use (ok not true totally but, heh). I spend more time looking for sexy bags.

And I simply ADORE Zoho (and my Logitech notebook Revolution mouse).

Re: Human Information Nodes and Routing

Eric Rice — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:57:17 -0000

Man, so short on time here, but I've been working on a fictitious operating system that's based on a similar thing... a person's grid is the OS, and everyone has their own OS. Since we could scrape knowledge data from social networks (and I'll raise the stakes by saying, scrape personality and soul), you might be able to run an OS, with knowledge, and empathy, based on a careful reconstruction of a person, their wisdom, and their vibe.

They'd lock me up if I didn't qualify statements with 'I'm writing fiction'.

Re: Human Information Nodes and Routing

Eric Rice — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:22:30 -0000

Rox, to clarify, fiction is the thing I'm doing, Chris is doing the observation, I agree.

Typing while jetlagged = bad :)

Re: Twitter Packs Goes off the Rails Quick

Eric Rice — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:13:41 -0000

Dang, I just got a phone call about this tonight and had no idea this existed.

I hate to say it, but it's times like these I -get- the top down 'conversation-control' aspect to big media. Namely, having to do things like log in to Spock just to MANAGE what is known about me, puts me in a position to have to manage how I-as-a-person am perceived. I bury a lot of terms.

I like things like onXiam, because it enables ME to put forth information about where to find me on the web. I like facebook's 'Lists' and Pownce's 'sets' because *I* am making the groupings for people-- this idea with packs, however, puts it out in the open for others to do.

I'll give an example of one place I struggle with this. The most irritating thing you can say to me is 'So, how's Second Life?' as if that is all that I'm defined by. I'm actively trying to thin that perception and almost distance myself away from SL, only because there are other things I'm focusing on LIKE it, that are NOT it. It also impedes my ability to work with many other virtual worlds if I'm perceived to be focused on one piece of software.

If someone doesn't follow me (blog, twitter or otherwise), they'll have no idea how broad my own reach is-- that I'm more about gaming industry + social media + OTHER worlds-- and I'll be typecast as X.

I'm also considering if I want the 'blogger' label as I've thought about scaling that to include blog activities and more mainstream activities as well (I've kinda already done it under the radar like). That's a label I'll never be able to shake.

I'm listed in the virtual worlds pack and yet I'd rather be in the video pack instead of that. I'm not established enough to be in the 'writer' pack. That's not to say I don't WANT to be in the VW Pack, but yeah, you can see how it gets all weird.

I still think 2008 will be the year of the anti-social media for reasons like this. It's becoming an unbearable amount of effort. It's a testament to the flaws in social attention. Good idea perhaps, but certainly a victim of its own construct. Social means people. People don't mean the same thing across the board.

Re: Twitter Packs Goes off the Rails Quick

Eric Rice — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:24:48 -0000

I love the meta of the conversation, especially in the context of quotes with the vibe 'oh what's the big deal are we in high school' because it illustrates (not wrong or right, not calling people out, it's a very real emotion there) a part of 'social' ________ that has nothing to do with technology but human-ness. You can't solve prejudice with software.

It's like the top 8 on myspace, kinda like having to pick your favorite child. Who's gonna be pissed off they didn't 'make the cut'?

Ask people with differing opinions on 'mommy bloggers'.. Some wear that like a badge and others avoid it/despise it like the plague. Now if that's not part of 'social' I don't know what is.

We must include the nasty side of social when talking about it in order to be all-inclusive. Cliques and in-crowds and idols and enemies are just as real as community, networking, bonding, connections and collaboration.

Re: Social Networking Features are Toilets

Eric Rice — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:33:52 -0000

You know....oh forget it. I'll let someone else say it.

Happy wiping!

Re: Am I Too Naked

Eric Rice — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:44:54 -0000

Heh, the more you give away for free, the less I need to pay you. And not to get into that whol blogosphere echo chamber issue, however, a lot of people in this 'social media' chamber give away plenty of valuable information. Annnnd that can all be taken out of the Chamber of Echoes, taken to clients and corporations that know nothing of you, and charged top dollar.

No one is the wiser. (doesn't make it right, but it does make money for someone... else)

Re: Cuil Misses Me

Eric Rice — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:12:04 -0000

Cuil is facing a few challenging things (having to use space to say 'pronounced cool' is going to be the defacto one): The early crowd is going to be absolutely brutal on this-- it's getting hype that instantly puts it at the top of techmeme and the reports are coming in on how out-of-whack it is. I can forgive a lot of startups more than most people (since beta is the new gold master), but sheesh, the picture next to my blog is SEVEN years old, and not even from the same site.

Being put into the same category as Google (and I swear, TechCrunch set it up for failure accidentally it by hyping the size of the index), is going to amplify the scrutiny.

That, and I've already been yelled at by a Googler for saying 'Google _____ on Cuil..." heh.

Re: Cuil Misses Me

Eric Rice — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:16:31 -0000

Also, I could give a rip about privacy policy. I'm searching for things. Privacy is a variable that people are split over.

Re: Advertising and Trust

Eric Rice — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:48:03 -0000

In the real world, no one would give a shit about the ethics, instead that it was freaking KMART, and not someplace cooler. ;)

Also, I was in a paid-to-blog program about a million years ago (2005). The arguments and drama were the same then.

History repeats, and moves on, like history does.

Re: The Small Talk of All Brands

Eric Rice — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:40:02 -0000

Social media's place is where we can kvetch about a product's logo being BADLY covered up in a TV show, like we can't figure out what the product is, but all know that they didn't pay to put the laptop in the show, and so they fake it, and think they are fooling us by making a cuter logo, and also like how you say f*ck, and then legions of people are stumped as to what you mean, and by 'stumped', I mean, no one is fooled, curse you corporate america.

I don't write run-on sentences, but damn, that felt *gooood*.

Re: Watching Clarence Own It

Eric Rice — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:09:08 -0000

/me chuckles, just chuckles @ comment # 4

Re: What are your video game rules?

Eric Rice — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:57:52 -0000

What about things like *making* games? Using scratch.mit.edu or perhaps building block type scenarios where you construct? It's been noted that many games from America focus on destruction while games from Japan focus on creating, enriching. I for one, having come off of a high from PixelJunk Eden, am REALLY looking forward to Flower, where you just float around as a flower, making more flowers grow.

Re: What’s The Formula to Mastering Social Media?

Eric Rice — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:20:33 -0000

I have one solid tip, but it goes against the rules of social media. Consider if your customers are interested in participating in a relationship with you IN PUBLIC. Social Media implies social and public displays and that can be a negative. Fantastic relationships can form in discreet methods.

Be a little publicly anti-social. Otherwise, you'll be as political and showbiz as anyone who realizes 'omg, they are WATCHING ME'.

Re: Why I’m in a malaise…

Eric Rice — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:35:46 -0000

As a lifelong resident and native to Silicon Valley, please allow me to remind everyone that it's not just about software (I'll be generous and be more general than 'web').

From our heritage to our future, we are technology, from hardware to biology and everything in between-- and software is part of that.

Why are there so many powerful companies anchored here, like computer makers, chip makers, search engines and more?

Why is this one of those world targets for terror attacks? It's not because of the 43rd consecutive launch of a social media site.

It's far, far, far bigger than that.

That is the key.

Re: Why I’m in a malaise…

Eric Rice — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:25:00 -0000

Paul, probably because the geeks look to esoteric to the everyday people (and might get severely rejected big time) and the everyday people look like mundane, culture-less and pedestrian.

Both sides are probably right, and it's always amusing when one side takes control. Hell part of the reason I love mySpace is because of how irritated geek snobs get at how horrible it all looks.

Damn kids today!

Re: My favorite 35 feeds for the past month

Eric Rice — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:59:53 -0000

Doesn't TechMeme carry some of those routinely? I was able to change priority on blog reading habits by skimming topics, following brand names (or discover new ones) and lower the priority of reading someone for someone's sake. Seems like quite a bit of redundancy in consumption, with a fave list like this. There's still a difference though, regarding subscribing to people vs. topics.

Re: Why can Leo Laporte and Disney do it, but Mike Arrington and TechCrunch can’t?

Eric Rice — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:07:20 -0000

It's funny, it's like we shouldn't even blog anymore because someone can piecemeal together our views on anything and everything from all the opinions and documenting of our lives we put forth.

Of course, all this is assuming a 'blogger' means something. I'm a loudmouth dude with a web site. As I wrote in one of my recent posts, I was told NOT to talk to a certain sales team, and yet, it's pretty damn clear where I stand on certain advertisers, my view on advertising, who I want and don't want for a sponsor.

So yeah, I *didn't* talk to the sales team anymore. But guess what? They are part of my readership.

Kinda stupid really.

Re: Oh, danah!

Eric Rice — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:57:49 -0000

It's a great piece. I've casually extended it to Bloggers (and a great comment by Bryce Moore in there)

http://www.ericrice.com/blog/?p=569

Re: A real-world troll story

Eric Rice — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:21:58 -0000

@Aruni one thing about blocking trolls is the consensus of what or who is a troll by a majority. There are people I enjoy reading that other friends consider trolls and vice versa. Who is right?

Hey Robert, one thing this Nokia vs. Apple debate has sparked, is that I have had no clue about the Nokia before, and now I'm seriously considering one. I have no experience on either device and I've witnessed more conversation, flaming, fanboys, and propaganda spewing from both iPhone and N95 people. So I'm coming at this from scratch.

Kinda tough being an informed consumer in spite of how religious the information is.

Re: Web rendering differences on mobile devices

Eric Rice — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:21:09 -0000

Sure, love to chat about it. But I think we have a different definition of 'experience'... going to gmail via a browser and seeing a link to 'download Gmail, it's fast!' is a more human experience than 'people cant' install apps!' Saying the latter sounds nerdy, but in reality, people might be doing it anyway because their sites like Yahoo and Google tell them too.

And the camera is important to me, as cameras are on oodles of phone, and the world of Youtube is people doing crap with video. I'm kinda normal there.

And also, I have HD camera and an 8.3 megapixel. But I just don't lug that stuff everywhere I go.

Experience is end-to-end, not limited to an interface experience. I've had more non-techies complain about the things it misses-- which I was blown away by? They aren't supposed to care?

Sounds like a great idea, let's do it. :)

Re: Web rendering differences on mobile devices

Eric Rice — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:53:54 -0000

I have to give credit about the OS issue... while it's been so long since I used the Sony Ericsson 910 and a Motorola, I distinctly recall that one of them had a WAY better experience in use-- (duh I can't remember which one was lamer).. Even though the phones were different, the methodology in navigation make sense was apparent on one over the other.

No question I'm a producer-consumer so my needs will be better.. but then that leads me to question why Robert would pick the iPhone over the N95 based on that baseline.

The very important fact to remember about me here is: I had never paid attention to the N95 until this whole iPhone vs. N95 thing came up. And I'm an Apple fanboy, too. So cultural and functional are colliding all over the place.

Once upon a time I thought the RAZR was awesome, and it was-- with a bluetooth headset. Until I was too lazy to keep the headset charged, and then, the RAZR become the most uncomfortable, irritating POS when having to hold it/cradle it between the shoulder/chin. It's still an amazingly sexy device and I'm keeping my old one for nostalgia's sake.

But anyway, that's 'experience' too, that doesn't have anything to do with features or OS or usability (I didn't dig the keys no matter how sci-fi they were and fun to touch).

I'm also consulting mobilejones.com for her take on all this too. She makes my head hurt.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Eric Rice — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:59:43 -0000

I'm finding a lot of great music on Pownce. I love sharing stuff too, and can filter just links or just files. That reduces the noise a lot. That also reduces my own noise. It's already been observed that I'm not spammy on Pownce, but that's probably because Twitter seemed to evolve into slow-motion IRC (with logs)

I paid 20 bucks to go Pro.

Should this really be Pownce vs. Tumblr and not Pownce vs. Twitter?

Here's how I'm using all the services:
http://www.ericrice.com/blog/?p=597
Twitter = chat room; Jaiku = aggregator; Facebook = address book

Re: Listening to Adam Curry…

Eric Rice — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:35:41 -0000

"I’ll also take Curry’s other advice, which is to stop blogging about the issue."

What the........?

Re: Jakob Nielsen says “don’t be like Scoble”

Eric Rice — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:49:36 -0000

Have to say, I agree with parts of Jakob's post. If there's anything I'm grateful for the rise of all these TwitterPownceyJaikyFace apps, it's that it lets me stash my own drivel other places and focus on writing more-- from what I've heard, it has worked. Even I feel like the quality of my posts have risen a bit and I've considered the next step... should I become a publication?

So from a pro-blogger perspective, I think there are some value in his words. And yes, my site is way prettier. :)

Re: Bubble? Ning! Bubble? Ning! Bubble? Ning! Bubble? Ning!

Eric Rice — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 01:09:19 -0000

I just started a Ning site for a project and it works well. A social network of 24 people. Awesome.

At least the bandwidth will be there, one would hope.

Re: The “secret” video lives of Facebookers

Eric Rice — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 04:56:17 -0000

We can't share, embed, put in iTunes, nothing. It's total walled garden. I have no idea why.

I feel kinda dirty!

Re: The “secret” video lives of Facebookers

Eric Rice — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:12:13 -0000

But it's trapped in there! I thought things were supposed to be all open and APIs and granola and hugs and lolcats and such. Lockin and all that.

Or, do we deep down not really care about that, and stick to the same tribal butt sniffing that we, the animals, will do until the end of time?

Also, zombies.

Re: The “secret” video lives of Facebookers

Eric Rice — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:10:54 -0000

Yeah I think you have to add the video app to watch videos. Which is uh, yeah.

Re: James Robertson asks “where’s the social networking value?”

Eric Rice — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:07:45 -0000

Julian, that's what kinda makes it nice. Because if Google sees it, then someone will abuse the crap out of it. (read: SEO)

And hey, this is social stuff. A lot of folks act more normal and human on Facebook than they might on Twitter. Once those APIs and RSS feeds show up, guess what.... mmm audience! Time to perform, time to be a bit louder perhaps?

Re: Why the iPhone makes us happy

Eric Rice — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:57:07 -0000

So now that I have an iPhone (a story I've yet to explain), in my non-tech sphere of contact with other humans, the most common thing I hear after the wow-ing over the shiny-ness?

Some comment about 'having to learn a new thing' or 'that thing must be hard to use', or some variation of that.

I'm going to continue to monitor that from anecdotal, unscientific samples. That's certainly not on-message for anyone....

Re: iCult trading cards, collect the whole set

Eric Rice — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:57:04 -0000

Aw man, don't show me geeks holding phones, show me phones holding art. Like videos from BT's album 'This Binary Universe'.

As an aside, we found a dog wandering around in the busy street and rescued it, spent the past couple days looking for the owner. The first use of the iPhone? Taking a picture and holding up the thing to various neighbors asking if they'd seen the dog.

Interestingly enough, it hits a strong point with me. No one noticed.

To be able to use new shiny technology in an ambivalent nonchalant and reflexive manner is how we can make progress.

It might have the short term luster of the Holy TechnoPomPoms, but long term, we might just move ahead gracefully.

That's how we win.

Re: iCult trading cards, collect the whole set

Eric Rice — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:13:20 -0000

Evelyn, today I continued to make the rounds at the various groomers and animal hospitals with the picture of the dog we found, with full on "Have you seen this dog?" action in full effect.

Not a damn person really noticed the phone. We just existed. "Wow, pretty dog" and "I think I might have seen her, are those paws white or grey?" etc.

How unbelievably dull and normal. :)

Re: Hate my iPhone and Facebook yammering?

Eric Rice — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:01:23 -0000

Easy solution. Guest bloggers for a week.

Re: What would get me (and others) to shut up about Facebook?

Eric Rice — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:31:55 -0000

Chris Brogan just moved his Grasshoppers group off of Facebook and made a custom social network on Ning. I had previously done the same.

There's value in not having quantity. My social network is for a cyberpunk fiction writing project and has 31 members. It will not have 1000.

Beyond that, is there a difference between using it and talking about it? Everyone knows about it, so what more can we say about it? Use it. USE it.

I found this out with my iPhone (yeah, haven't posted THAT one yet). I use it in such a reflexive way and often times, no one notices.

The greatest power is using, existing, 'being one with' the technology. "GREAT DRESS!" "oh, this old thing? /shrug"

What's your value-add in talking about Facebook? It's all over techmeme. And everywhere else.

Anyway, that's all from my peanut galler. And not bad, I went from nutty-fruity-crunchy 'be one with' hippie to value propositions in one comment. /smirk.

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:48:19 -0000

Instead of going for the sensational headline, let's look at one key issue that's not as sexy as going HOLY CRAP FREAKS IN THREE-D. Let's for five second stop talking about dogs humping chicken girls or whatever. Let's talk about Terms of Services. We used to like talking about TOSes once upon a time.

"Broadly Offensive" is the term. A very vague one at that, and yeah, there's normal stuff and there's freaky stuff and there's stuff in between.

I'd beg to ask a Southerner. Your confederate flag. If you display it in SL, can I report you and you are forced to take it down because *I* might consider it to be offens---er 'broadly offensive'? Even if you have the words 'Heritage, not Hate' scrawled on it?

That's where the conversation is not, because we are too narrow focused. If you posted a confederate flag on your wordpress.com blog, could you be banned? I don't know. But with the language being thrown around about content that is 'broadly offensive' in Second Life, please tell me, could the display of the flag be a violation if enough people are 'broadly offended' by it?

ER

(For those outside the USA, during the American Civil War, the Confederate flag was the flag of the South, and is associated with slavery and all the stuff that surrounded our nation divided. While bits of this flag still exist in modern state flags, many consider it to be a racist symbol or a celebration of a time when it was a-okay to keep a human as property. Southerner refute this and there are derivative works of the flag with the phrase above on it, to say, no in fact, we're not racists, it's heritage. For some, that's not good enough. It's not as severe as a Swastika (depending on who you ask, I, guess, but yeah, it invokes serious debate and rage).

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:54:28 -0000

Warcraft being a walled garden, and allowing no user-created content. Facebook, too.

Are walled gardens okay a little?

Would you trust your peers to be able to create something as beautiful and seamless as Warcraft, or is user-generated content destined to be the world of digg comments and flying genitalia.

Linden Lab didn't put it there, we the people did.

(I still want to explore the 'broadly offensive' issue as well, but the top-down vs. bottom-up thing is what has fascinated me about WoW vs. SL)

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:02:21 -0000

Is SL like YouTube? or the Web?

We still have idiots in other virtual worlds and games like WoW-- they just have to be a bit more clever with the nasty, so to speak. Remember the instance of the XBOX 360 game FORZA, that dealt with user-generated racial slurs on a car?

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:13:23 -0000

Heh, well I agree on Warcraft, but don't agree that it's popularity is a 1:1 because of content and safety, it IS a game after all and it is a quite good one.

I just want to make sure I'm understanding that enforcement, policing and such, or say 'moderators' if you will is what you recommend (I remember this came up when Justin.tv launched at the same time as the Kathy Sierra incident and the subsequent digg comments, and these similar themes came up (IIRC)).

That's a good place to get the conversation on track-- if in fact, the establishment of rules and vague terms like 'broadly offensive' are the result of zero policing, the question which I'm curious to see the answers to: Is strict moderation and a little tightening of channels and content a GOOD thing for these reasons, or does the community police itself?

(This is not an SL issue per se, but a content/democratic/user-ish one).

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:18:56 -0000

Darren, I hope when you say 'kids' it's the 5 year window only of 13-18 year olds, and not like drooly babies, heh.

I know Robert's son, he's a smart kid, and in the Warcraft sense, I could give a rip if he is 13 (?), I only care that I can pwn! him in a duel. Which I probably could. ;-)

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:45:57 -0000

One side thought from over on Twitter: Who is in charge of policing content and by whose standards?

(This Barbie world is looking pretty good. They censor the word 'man' in chat hehehe)

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:54:44 -0000

Another Twitter update: Some are FOR policing content and some are AGAINST it.

This isn't an SL-specific thing really. The core issues scale to other networks and sites and content forms.

As an aside, Robert and others, thanks for carrying on this dialog. I'd hope that after 17-20 comments of getting to some actual core issue, we hopefully can avoid the boring, cliche, un-funny, not useful textbook snark that is so characteristic in threads about SL.

;)

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:20:00 -0000

Mitch, the only problem with the tools to censor and manage our land in SL is that it's -offense- driven.

I can't ban who/what I don't know or what I can't see before it happens. I can take a guess of *how* it might be done, but I won't know what to ban until it happens. And by that time, the 'offense' has been committed and it's a nice juicy headline on a tech blog someplace.

So yeah, I'm disagreeing with myself just slightly on that one point. It IS easy, after the fact.

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:09:28 -0000

Mitch, I should have clarified banning or muting people. Anyone can attach a prim or activate a sound etc and none of the prevention measures help. I won't know who I can ban until it happens.

And yeah, we can say 'no free users allowed' or 'group members only', but heh, we're nearing the point of deny*all.

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:29:07 -0000

I gotta pipe in here, because I can't argue with COPA. Yes it's dorky, but while it exists, it's what we are governed by. The law is the law, no one is above it. Lobby to change it, otherwise deal with it.

Keep in mind we are talking about a hosted service and are bound by its rules. (Plenty are working on building host-your-own grids.)

But okay, so this isn't new, a lot of stuff is like this. Don't like YouTube's or Facebook's TOS, well y ou know what you can do. ;)

With the issue being a wide open platform, it's still up in the air if we should have police, who are they, who makes judgement on content.

Some folks will no doubt disagree passionately about policing and others are for it. The tech is just dumb tech. People are the problem. Always have been, always will be.

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:28:39 -0000

Duncan, I'm not 100% sure about this but the PG/Mature rating somewhat made no sense, because as some point, PG sims touch Mature sims and then you can see easily across the border. What I'm not sure about is if it was a TOS violation if someone in a PG sim could look a couple meters aware and see your 'mature' content.

Yeah, wonky. They are SO out of the common carrier space.

But the TOS sorta acts like the policing, doesn't it, Robert? And if not, it still brings us back to the question:

Should we police/moderate/monitor content, otherwise be held liable? Forget about the TOS, we've kinda killed that dead horse, as well as this isn't really a technological issue (there's plenty of tech talk to be had about gaming architecture, trust me heh)

Open, closed, moderated? Because this is where I see the biggest difference in opinion with people. From "Don't you dare tell me what to do" vs. "Yes, clean it up and protect!" (or something similar)

Re: Second Life is trying to get rid of the nasties

Eric Rice — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:59:27 -0000

Prokofy, your terminology may not be clear to those unfamiliar with the culture. Does FIC = A-List, etc? That kind of thing.

I'm curious though, Prok, you have had plenty of conversations surrounding the idea of virtual governments (EVE Online I believe is walking down this path), and that seems to conflict with your 'more open' statement above.

I have no commentary on the desires of social groups, they do what they do, whether it's Lord of the Flies-ness, A-listism/elitism, sex, violence, education, what have you.

Does the idea of government apply to mainland, and not private islands (analogous to existing on Wordpress.com vs. installing/paying for your own copy)?

I focus on that issue because it seems to be relevant to the discussion of policing content and/or communities.

Re: Big data center down now too…

Eric Rice — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:45:29 -0000

So, I suppose that when disaster strikes and takes out a key data center, we can update via Twitter and Facebook right? Oh, wait, nevermind.

Re: Big data center down now too…

Eric Rice — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:28:54 -0000

I've updated: http://www.ericrice.com/blog/2007/07/24/we-fail...

Re: Calacanis asks deep questions about social networks

Eric Rice — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 02:44:20 -0000

Now that it's all out there in such great detail, can you assemble the patterns to create a profile and take that information completely stealth to stalk psychologically?

I just did an interview where someone has followed my work closely for three years. They remembered things I forgot. This was major stuff, not minutia.

What can people you don't even know do with a lot of minutia and patterns.

They ain't twittering it.

Perspective.

Re: Calacanis asks deep questions about social networks

Eric Rice — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:39:26 -0000

@24 A pal of mine (DYKC) into'd me to the term 'lunchbox' to define just putting people into our own little box, like a million little trophy wives or something. Look at all my contacts!!1! It's like we're 17 year old girls.

So much of blogging is flat out promotion. I'm grateful about Twitter being so chatty where people can shoot the shit. Too few blogs form thoughts, it's just link to this link to that, I did this, I did that.

I will defend only since I've discovered some people that I got to work with and actually deliver. Maybe we would have found each other means, but still. Kinda sad we have to act like myspacers to get there.

Just much older.

Re: Safer than watching paint dry

Eric Rice — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:05:33 -0000

Oh for the love of god WHAT IS THIS?

Re: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Eric Rice — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:32:49 -0000

How does this bubble affect the current housing market and/or general economy?

Re: Warner Music: why do you fund this crap?

Eric Rice — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:54:04 -0000

I'm too tired to be intellectual right now and I've already engaged in Twitter battles tonight.

Short version: two different topics being merged into one; yes I agree fully with Ethan on the ego chamber issue; no I haven't read the Warner issue in full, but probably because it's an entirely different subject that keeps getting dragged into another conversation. And please, enough with the comparing of a media company INFINITELY older than Microsoft. You're acting like he's the CEO. What next? Blame him for locking the Animaniacs in the water tower?

This is EXACTLY the problem. Talking 'round in circles, and then cap off with your own accomplishments. I can set the clock on my iPhoneiPhoneiPhone by this. Over and over and over it's the EXACT SAME THING DUDE.

This is why the shine on the A-list is tarnishing and more than likely why the subconscious defensive position is predictably taken. I swear if it's not Dave crawling up on the cross, Jason taking -any- mention of Mahalo and spinning it in his PR, or the 3428934728374 references to video you've done (and throw in the Valleywag/TechCrunch rags for being the peanut gallery), then auugghh I don't know.

Bottom line. The Warner story is another issue and you know it.

The ones who have 34829048 friends and read 2380472348907 blogs and invented the internet 387429387 times are being accused of being blowhards. ADDRESS IT. I mean ANSWER THE QUESTION.

Which, sadly, I don't believe will every happen. And as a veteran blogger, podcaster, vlogger, metaverser, doer, thinker, futurist, whatever you want to call me, the problem is simple.

As a blogger for the time and you'll get the history of the watch.

You'll help big media become stronger if you don't get there yourself first.

This, I believe.

Re: Warner Music: why do you fund this crap?

Eric Rice — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:55:30 -0000

Also, nice to see Godwin's Law is still alive and well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Nazis? Hitler? Come ON.

Re: Are “demo shows” really free for anyone?

Eric Rice — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:15:08 -0000

deja vu.

Re: How to piss off Mike Arrington…

Eric Rice — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:24:14 -0000

Yeah like how funny it would be if AOL bought Netscape, COME ON, THAT'S CRAZY TALK.

Oh snap, my bad, my clock is off on my computer.

NM.

Re: Seesmic vs. Hictu: a lesson in bootstrapping

Eric Rice — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:59:58 -0000

Famous names help. Social, indeed. I know a lot more of these services, but they don't have popular kids running 'em, just sayin'.

Re: NewTeeVee Conference lacking substance?

Eric Rice — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:24:24 -0000

Heh, you guys crack me up.
Anyway, back to Halo on the home theater.

(Disclosure: I own 5 TVs. Also, I _am_ Web 2.0)

Re: NewTeeVee Conference lacking substance?

Eric Rice — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:24:53 -0000

(someone will inevitably miss the point of my last comment btw. Think.)

Re: The you-don’t-need-more-friends lobby

Eric Rice — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:22:25 -0000

Great, my epic comment eaten by akismet.

Re: The you-don’t-need-more-friends lobby

Eric Rice — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:07:09 -0000

Well, it's also kinda diva-ish.

Re: Why companies move to San Francisco…

Eric Rice — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:22:06 -0000

San Francisco is less than a million people in a region of several. San Jose, the capital of Silicon Valley (home to all the big companies) has one of the better climates. There are five microclimates in the bay area, a region 100 miles wide. Just to clarify.

Re: Micromedia

Eric Rice — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:24:13 -0000

Druids, in a word, rule.

Re: Google Android: we want developers but…

Eric Rice — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:24:06 -0000

Wonder what the masses of RAZR users will think.

Re: Twittering Shelley

Eric Rice — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:29:36 -0000

I posted over at burningbird, however to say again here, maybe because we're all in the same echosphere? Ever notice how much we like talking about the revolution when others just sorta DO. (Take a YouTuber for example who just sorta -does-) We're talking to people talking about the talking. No really, it's silly.

Have you ever wondered if the linkblog is an impersonal medium? It's just so thrown around like the Answer To Everything (like your phone number, for example).

We can cite these isolated examples of this or that or this video or that video but you know what? The whole thing feels all empty.

I'm fully on the side of those that feel the space has lost meaning (but hey, GREAT promotional link loving!). And I say that from the perspective of someone who can certainly out-Web 2.0 even then best of them.

Maybe we can coin a new term of 'Social Void'?

Re: Twittering Shelley

Eric Rice — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:57:04 -0000

Okay, I take it back, everything is fine.

Re: Google makes moves to protect organic relevancy

Eric Rice — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:01:58 -0000

I'm willing to bet that over time, people might blacklist e-mailing Google addresses. I've heard concerns from non-blogospherical-chamber types (run of the mill small business owners who AREN'T in tech) that do not like the simple fact that Google reads the email and displays ads. Why would I ever want to email someone for them to see my competition's ads IN MY CORRESPONDENCE.

PPP/IZEA might have the ire of the aging blog purism crowd, that's fine, get offa my lawn and all that, but let's not put Google on this clothesless-wearing emperor throne.

And heh, we're guilty of the same shit. If I believed for a minute the other side of Mahalo's hype--do we actually believe that the weight of Jason's blog has NOTHING to do with the success of Mahalo in Google?

We aren't even blogging or twittering shit anymore, we're just promoting.

Now, point us to the linkblog or something.

I challenge because I care.

Re: Google makes moves to protect organic relevancy

Eric Rice — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:13:03 -0000

I'm saying that we need to put it all on the table, PPP, Google, Jason, et al. We can split hairs on who is what micron of detail more bad than the other. This is more a comment on Google.

No one in our ghetto is gonna pay attention to those in the other ghetto who really could care less about the ethics as long as they are getting paid (heh, like PPP pays anything worthwhile anyway, but still).

Besides, I'm willing to bet that being 'notorious' or questionably evil is just another PR slant. Look at how much juice everyone gives PPP. What IF someone knew what buttons to push and designed the strategy around it? Kinda funny. Guarantee there are people going 'oh hm, well that's not too terribly world-ending'.

Google being a big dog and doing something against a criticized little guy is probably the best thing to happen to PPP right now. Ironic, actually.

Re: Ways bloggers get paid by Amazon

Eric Rice — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:37:45 -0000

Dawn nailed it.

"Finally, a tech toy that isn’t meant for techies!!!"

And wtf, Richard, do you even go to a beach?

Anyway, I blogged this, because I'm getting one, but only after waiting a week to watch the fanboys go nuts. I have a Sony Reader and the features that I wish it had, the Kindle has. So, yeah. Plus, it's tied to a company that I believe can probably figure out selling books better than the other one. (Amazon vs. Sony)

Also, I'll bring geek thunder any day of the week. I'm just not entirely retarded about the rest of the universe. Read: not us.

And please stop comparing this to laptops and phones, because it's not. I hate that the Kindle can't make margaritas YET ANOTHER DEVICE I NEED IN MY HOUSE ZOMG POOR ME. Seriously. Stop.

So yeah, anyone wanna buy my old Sony Reader? Comes with the Tipping Point installed. Heh.

Re: Buying TechCrunch on the Kindle

Eric Rice — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:27:07 -0000

I'd pay money to avoid the comments on TC et al for sure. ;)

Re: Dear Jeff Bezos (one-week Kindle review)

Eric Rice — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:55:10 -0000

When I eventually get back to the Valley, I'm still ordering one, since I've done the Sony thing and none of the bullet items are deal breakers for me. ESPECIALLY lack of social networking, heh. Trust me, you don't want to know the stuff I read.

And Chris Finke, your comment alone has made me a new reader of your blog. :D

Re: Why enterprise software isn’t sexy

Eric Rice — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 17:18:54 -0000

I wonder how unglamorous all the software infrastructure is that makes sure iPhones are delivered on time to all the Apple stores.

Speaking of, isn't there a facebook app for Apple's enterprise hardware and software? /cough

Re: Kindle goes to Europe…

Eric Rice — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:03:04 -0000

I would hope people would NOT notice it so they can you leave you alone and you can get some reading done.

No one ever asked me about my Sony Reader, which was awesome, cuz it looked like I was, well, reading a book.

I hate that about the iPhone, I'm suddenly a booth bunny and have to do a trick. (And I'm an egomaniac, too, I should love the attention)

Of course, I don't know if it is stated, but isn't this an America-only device? EVDO is a high speed network that's not part of the '80% of the world's phones' grouping.

Glad to hear you are using it and ignoring the design. I bet you get some actual book reading done that way. ;)

Re: I’m selling my Kindle…

Eric Rice — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:37:49 -0000

I'll take it. Drop me an e-mail and I'll paypal ya.

Re: I’m selling my Kindle…

Eric Rice — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:41:16 -0000

Also as a personal aside, my last text chat with Marc was about our respective comments about the Kindle in the comments of Engadget and your blog here.

Re: My feedback for Microsoft’s mapping team

Eric Rice — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:38:28 -0000

Let the Xbox guys have a crack at it. Just sayin'. If there's anything remotely close to the awesome of the rest of the normal world (read: Apple and Google), the XBOX crew can do it.

Once that is done, what could you do with a living room console, with web integration, captive, paying customers, multibillion entertainment genre, and next-gen social spaces, oh nm, I've said too much...

You have the potential for great products, but you won't or can't do it, Microsoft.

Re: New Google Reader “friends” feature sucks…

Eric Rice — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:46:25 -0000

I love the feature, and if all my friends are bookmarking the same thing, that's somewhat similar to techmeme's blogpile.

Like the time when iPhone sold a million phones. I've never seen a bigger list of commenting blogs. What could ALL of those blogs been saying?

This might be a great indicator of being in a chamber, seriously. We're sheep.

I do agree Google could incorporate some smarter logic that the same article is being shared much like how the 'recommended reads' works.

I just felt it necessary to see if there's a deeper issue that isn't a tech one at all.

Re: Scoble is insecure, researchers say

Eric Rice — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:56:41 -0000

Just audience, man. Just audience.

Re: Video funding tap wide open

Eric Rice — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:31:26 -0000

Who has the best chance of hitting the living room, a network or a service? Which one?

What will be sold/pitched on endcaps in Best Buy, Circuit City, et al?

Will there be progress in Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD? Is it an endcap war? Is it a studio war? Will consumers be confused enough to the point of apathy or will it be forced into new computers so it's a seamless and transparent process to force adoption?

Re: Scoble is insecure, researchers say

Eric Rice — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:36:42 -0000

The low cost PC at Walmart was put in a much bigger box than necessary since company research indicated their customers associate size with quality. Bigger = Better!

Size matters.

Having a zillion friends on social networks, that's a purdy big marketplace of one to sell, pitch, evangelize, and entertain to...

Size matters.

Re: Video funding tap wide open

Eric Rice — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:41:29 -0000

That should have read, "What will have the best chance of hitting the living room? A network or a service? Who will it be?"

Re: Video funding tap wide open

Eric Rice — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:31:03 -0000

Well, I'm voting Blu-Ray, and I'd never hook up a computer to my TV to replace the audio and video components. Those elongated black boxes that are usually shiny that plug into/go along with cable boxes or satellite tivos, yeah those.

Wait a second, are we ignoring XBOX and PS3s? The only reason I have a Blu-Ray is cuz of the ps3 video game console. Anyway, still curious about the other questions.

Re: Why I pay PR people millions and millions

Eric Rice — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:10:26 -0000

Stupid question, does every single Web Celeb have to be someone who WORKS in the Web Industry?

THIS is the problem.

(oh and @commenter who said Tila, don't forget how Soulja Boy did the ultimate DIY media crawl to fame, heh like him or not.)

Re: Fake Steve Jobs hoaxes TechMeme/bloggers

Eric Rice — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:44:17 -0000

If it's a hoax, it's VERY detailed. In light of recent events. I would certainly have a reasonable doubt if I were on a jury.

We do not actually know, by the way, if it is real OR fake. We are speculating, regardless of our opinion.

Even Scott Karp's post starts with exactly this: "I can’t be 100% certain..."

Me either.

Re: The MacMini HDTV revolution

Eric Rice — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:48:03 -0000

@omar yeah xbox tends to a) omit features and b) nickel and dime you to death on everything like wifi and such that's just included in the ps3 and wii... and to narrowly avoid a holy jihad about consoles, what can we do about it? xbox is an xbox and if you don't like it, don't get it and then well, heh, be without an xbox.

I wonder if Apple's miniatures will get things like HDMI etc. These console makers know how to make living room hardware, I wish the computer division did as well.

I think PS3 wins hands down for being THE definitive box that can see other servers on the network, directly access files on the web like photos and audio (and save locally), with the bells and whistles of things like wifi AND hi-def. I respect that box the most and it's the one I feel the most sorry for, sadly.

Re: The MacMini HDTV revolution

Eric Rice — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:16:39 -0000

One more thing, I'd like to hear some analysis considering the non-geeks who are faced with online retail in the form of Apple's iTunes store and the Xbox Live Marketplace and how one delivers to computer-to-consumer device and the other that goes direct to consumer device (albeit non portable).

And honestly, as a geek, I am running into format buying dilemmas. I'm not sure if I should buy a disc, buy from itunes or buy from on XBLM, depending how I'll ultimately consume the content.

Re: “What’s your audience size?” is wrong question

Eric Rice — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:34:44 -0000

It's all some of us obsess about, dude.

That, and being in the future headspace is lonely and frustrating.

Re: “What’s your audience size?” is wrong question

Eric Rice — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:02:31 -0000

Heh, yeah 'behind' ain't a big help. Need more people by my *side*, dude. But I appreciate it.

Maybe this year would be a good year to start a magazine. Heh.

Re: Facebook lets me back in…

Eric Rice — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:01:52 -0000

If you have contacts in Outlook and then get a different e-mail client, are you allowed to export and import them into the new program?

I DIDN'T GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO DO THIS. Heh.

Re: Facebook lets me back in…

Eric Rice — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:01:58 -0000

There was one court case where a judge ruled that a TOS was one-sided. A periphery to come from all of this is about the TOS in general. A TOS is not a law.

Re: Erased

Eric Rice — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:20:44 -0000

I have a few friends, who, just for using a nickname, have been banned from Facebook. It's getting old and I no longer have sympathy for Facebook.

Re: In my day…

Eric Rice — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:30:42 -0000

Heh Google searches lead to wikipedia, else, it's a great resource for finding sales on %topic% at %ecommerce site%, which makes for riveting reading.

Re: The Digg perfect storm

Eric Rice — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:25:26 -0000

Steve Jobs dishes out the rude and Bill Gates farewell video makes us smile.

When exactly did this parallel universe start?

Re: Qik kicks Yahoo’s new video service

Eric Rice — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:05:03 -0000

PocketCaster from Comvu supports a ton of phones; flixwagon is another site for mobile live video. I believe all but one are closed beta.

Let's not get all crazy about a closed-beta service partnering with a closed-beta service.

Also, day 1 of Yahoo Live, tough room.

I've used it for several days since launch, it's worked better than it did, and I've figured out a lot of ways to do a better job as a broadcaster to make it more streamlined.

I also do use all these other services you mentioned above as well as others you haven't.

We need to do a better job talking about technology by using it, understanding it, having a wider focus than the next five hours.

Man, I could almost do this professionally. /smirk.

Re: Silicon Valley headed for political trouble?

Eric Rice — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:31:03 -0000

Because we pledge allegiance to corporations instead?

Re: Audience of Twittering Assholes

Eric Rice — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:51:17 -0000

I'm in Tokyo for two weeks and no news has come out of SXSW according to Techmeme.... except this.

Um?

Re: Audience of Twittering Assholes

Eric Rice — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:37:55 -0000

@dawnkey what, were you expecting ideas, concepts, thought leadership and futurism to be the HOT TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Train wrecks are much more easily monetized. So sayeth Google Analytics.

Re: The changeosphere

Eric Rice — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:16:09 -0000

Come on man, that's not an answer! "big enough and not any bigger"? WTF!

Re: Twitter: grabbing defeat from the jaws of success

Eric Rice — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:08:56 -0000

/me STILL lol'ing at the 'ruby on rails' comment.

Re: The noise reduction system

Eric Rice — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:01:15 -0000

As I get older and evolve through this zany web wasteland, I'm finding that I'm turning back to the short bite-sized clips of data, not 40 minute ones. Regardless of what side of the Big or small media landscape I fall into, I'm still the original MTV generation.

This is why I'm watching more CNET and less Fast Company TV. This is also why fanboys are appropriate... if they make enough noise, I can skim the buzz around stuff I don't even follow.

CNET can summarize, fanboys can cheerlead and the social scene can provide gossip (if I'm in the mood for fast-food grade intelligence).

Easiest way to consume for me is by skimming behaviors, not content. If we learn what to expect from various sources, skimming is super-fast.

Re: Twittering the earthquake in China

Eric Rice — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:16:21 -0000

The good thing about Twitter postings being 'FIRST!!!1!' before things like, the USGS is that it gets us to turn on CNN faster, so we can watch their coverage over and over while simultaneously consuming the self-referential coverage about Twitter on Twitter.

Seriously.

Re: This is why I love the tech industry…

Eric Rice — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:34:05 -0000

I do have to pipe up that, while a huge fanboy of Microsoft Surface and damn near anyone who does stuff with multitouch, they are just yet another player in the space. Other commenters have pointed out the history, so I won't repeat it.

A good place to take the conversation is about the social impact on technology 20 years out, input devices, will there be a different type of touch interface based on stationery or mobile systems (desktop vs. mobile), will we see holographic touch, and will the next innovation come from gaming? Can Apple's game initiatives compete with Nintendo while Microsoft struggles to connect Surface to the Xbox?

That's what I want to see/learn about.

Also, how to tell if your video length/quality is a problem? If you have to spend more time defending it and there's more conversation around THAT, rather than the topic you are covering, it's time to revisit the process of producing content.

An example of this is how Joseph Jaffe and his crew who started Crayon (a marketing agency with a neat approach) is more known (and has more Google juice) because of declaring 'being first'. I don't recall much musing about their approach to interactive marketing, but I surely recall the focus on the things surrounding process.

That's how we can collectively become *great* (while not proving Andrew Keen's point).

Re: Brian Solis’ and Loic Le Meur’s real “PR” secrets

Eric Rice — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:08:56 -0000

I love the 'first you gotta build a great product' thrown about like OH, okay, brb. Okay, done. Here's the great product.

Now to professionally stalk people, er, 'build relationships'...

Because we call it 'build relationships' this is somehow different? Come on, if you want to build a relationship with me, help me move/hide the bodies. Maybe babysit for me.

I know full fucking well the only reason people build relationships with any of us is because of our past, present, and future.

Of COURSE someone is going to build a relationship with someone with 20,000 points of data, duh! Well of course, after step 1. "Build great product"

We are just the newer generation of a very old thing. Second verse same as the first.

Re: Putting multiple fingers on Microsoft’s Windows 7

Eric Rice — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:56:21 -0000

Up against the nintendo, sony, and even apple regimes, there's still hope for the living room and entertainment, gaming, etc, however, just because there's a few smart people at microsoft here and there, doesn't mean they can/will be allowed to do greater things.

Re: Putting multiple fingers on Microsoft’s Windows 7

Eric Rice — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:59:31 -0000

I re-read my comment and it made no sense.

Abridged: Microsoft might have some neat stuff, but the deployment and integration with other divisions (like xbox) will suck or Not Happen, and MS will continue to fail against the Sony, Nintendo, and Apples of the world.

That's the Microsoft way, I suppose. Oh well.

Re: Is this the time that 3D sticks?

Eric Rice — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:33:49 -0000

Somewhere in my friendfeed I bookmarked a virtual world made in Flash 9. Flash 10 will be off the hook.

You all really shouldn't be looking at the second life angle, though. Totally wrong place to be focusing now.

Re: How much time are you wasting on Twitter?

Eric Rice — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:29:40 -0000

If we need a tool for this, then well, yeah, that's a whole different problem.

Re: The Silicon Valley VC Disease

Eric Rice — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:52:15 -0000

"First, our society’s most valuable audiences are getting iPhones. "

Easy there, boss. That line is loaded.

Re: The passionates vs. the non passionates

Eric Rice — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:48:44 -0000

Nice post, you're getting the groove back.

One thing to observe in comments here and going forward, is where the traces of elitism and classism will raise its ugly head. For example, the commenters above re: "Educated and Un-Educated" and also the remark from another about "non passionate = lazy"... we've seen this first-hand with MySpace hating.. oh yeah, there are plenty of tech things wrong with it, but I don't believe for a minute those that hate it do it without a sense of superiority or air of 'I'm better than those blingtards".

All we need to do is just mitigate that thinking and work around it. :)

Re: Startups: your web site sucks

Eric Rice — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:39:56 -0000

This article needs a complete re-write. Comments here: http://friendfeed.com/e/5695dd82-66f1-407c-b8b6...

Please correct and re-submit for grade.

<3

Re: Startups: your web site sucks

Eric Rice — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:11:05 -0000

@Kris I don't disagree with the advice, just the presentation of 'these sites suck, how could they now learn from winelibrary' as if that's some kernel of wisdom all bestowed on any with the entrepreneurial spirit. It's insolar and short sighted and doesn't provide concrete examples of what exactly on that site makes it THAT site.

And none of the sites do video, well heh, hope none of them are pitching to iPhone audiences, which is kinda light in the video dept (along with other mobile phones).

Your point is taken, I just feel we need to watch the watchers.

Re: Scoble Sucks

Eric Rice — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:22:09 -0000

My issue is that you wrote that with this assumed 'don't they learn anything from garyvee's site?' (like it's assumed everyone knows who that is) and didn't illustrate key areas why you believe his site to be good. I'm always on the lookout for exact causes of echo behavior and this is it.

I've noticed also how much the geek set is locked-on to design aesthetic... look at all the random comments about why the Android HTC sucks... because it doesn't look like an iPhone. Damn, we've become quite superficial... and to think we were geeks once.

Re: AT&T sees iPhone/voice controlled world

Eric Rice — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:23:25 -0000

We can still dial our phones in California, we just can't hold it up to our ears, so voice activation could be forced upon us by legislation. Apple and AT&T can copy Sprint and many other providers that have had voice-activated for a long time (onStar anyone?)

I mean it worked for Visual Voicemail, heh.

Re: I am not an American

Eric Rice — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:48:52 -0000

I'm amused at the three things in the comments: 1. those that 'get' the post, 2. those that totally do not 'get' the post, and 3. the declaration of un-subscription.

For those who also live on Planet Earth, I'd like to remind you that yes, there are in fact, -two- Americas, so please, hate only half of us.

Re: “All he talks about is politics!”

Eric Rice — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:07:16 -0000

Gee, I dunno, it's only one of the biggest elections in history, I'd kinda think everyone is wrapped up in. I will agree tho that your edge and focus has become super-scattered since the Microsoft days. But no hate on the politics stuff, until after Nov 4. :)

Re: “All he talks about is politics!”

Eric Rice — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:04:11 -0000

Note: Do not write a post that says 'iPhone owners are un-American, GO OBAMA' cuz yeah, the universe will implode people's hard drives, yea verily. /smirk

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Eric Rice — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:26:35 -0000

A lot of people like Britney--the numbers show that. Doesn't make it healthy, now does it? (Well, maybe for her, but even then, heh).

What a healthy business you've become.

Re: Twitter spam, effective or idiotic?

Eric Rice — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:03:07 -0000

Hold the god damned phone, you are SERIOUSLY pissy about Twply after the umpteen gazillion SEESMIC, QIK COME CHAT NOW ping.fm universe we live in?

Seriously, WE are the spammers. We use shit like ping.fm and then it goes to EVERY DAMN SITE and makes no coherent sense.

I HATED seesmic in the beginning because the users had everything on auto-post. It was sickening.

The fact that Twply is offending you, when users of other services (and I'm sure other services themselves) have done this time and time again.

Look in the mirror already. We are the worst spammers of them all.

Re: Twitter spam, effective or idiotic?

Eric Rice — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:15:57 -0000

Or, mob justice.

Re: Is Silicon Valley seeing an economic turnaround?

Eric Rice — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:24:02 -0000

One man's optimism is another man's reckless spending, perhaps.

Re: Facebook: still a data roach motel when compared to Twitter and friendfeed?

Eric Rice — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:39:43 -0000

So, what do all those Facebook users think?

Re: Are There Psychological Problems With Us Tech Bloggers?

Eric Rice — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:29:46 -0000

I had another thought about how to approach the article, like, 'do we have problems getting the laundry done'... it's really silly crap but I dunno. Those little things matter in life. What might irritate your spouse? I'm sensitive to my wife's view of all this stuff as well as my own issues (how can you not LOVE this stuff when you have a big ego ;)

Ok, gotta fold laundry now, heh.

Re: Why I Stopped Using Twitter

Eric Rice — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:52:53 -0000

It's great social marketing too. Everyone is a micro-celeb/micro-conglomerate. You can bank on that timesuck being something to monetize later.

Watch the A-list with something to sell, and they do it VERY well, even if by reflex.

Re: Join The Web Content Conservation Movement

Eric Rice — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:04:31 -0000

@Taylor Oh I don't know, when the top story on Techmeme is "Someone At Apple Sneezes" and there are 93248329048203948 linking blogs, it's probably safe to call that a wipe.

Re: Social Networks As the “New Television”

Eric Rice — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:16:26 -0000

We are. I, Channel; I, Platform. The part we might not want to admit is that the social goodness of networks still will revolve around social conventions, and that includes popularity, outcasts, controversy, etc.

A-Lists will drive it-- they won't die, and A-listers don't make themselves A-listers, other people do.

We are monkeys or peacocks, looking at the prettier plumes. I, Peacock. Heh, /me ducks the NBC C&D letter.