Disqus - Friends of sidmarks

Re: NYT traffic jumps after paywall drop

mathewi — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:11:04 -0000

Thanks, John. I can assure you that they've heard plenty of such comments already -- including some from me :-)

Re: Does Google hate PayPerPost?

mathewi — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:34:56 -0000

I agree, Steve.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:27:11 -0000

yeah, I have to agree, Tony -- it doesn't even have a kind of anti-chic ugly look. It's just plain ugly.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:42:47 -0000

Tell you what, Ryan -- let's cut Jeff out of the loop and I'll send you the 99 cents a month directly :-)

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:46:03 -0000

Aaron, I don't have any content woes -- I read things on the Internet and they are free, apart from what I pay to access the Internet. If Amazon wants to charge a fee for the wireless access, that makes sense to me -- but then I already pay a fee for my cellphone, and I can read any blog or information source I want to on there as easily as I can on the Kindle.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:49:19 -0000

If Amazon wants to charge for the wireless access, that's fine with me. Charging for the content is a different story.

Are they going to have tiers or packages like cable? You can have a bundle with Proust, Dostoevsky, the New York Times and PaidContent, but not Engadget, unless you get the sports package... what a nightmare.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:50:49 -0000

I assume they're going to make deals with certain blogs, Matthew. At least that's the way I read the Newsweek story.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:52:01 -0000

It's something you have to sign up with Amazon to be part of, Hal --
as PaidContent and others have. That raises an interesting question
though: if I pay for those feeds on the Kindle, do they come with ads?

Re: Kindle: Colour me still unconvinced

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:15:02 -0000

Definitely, Jake. And how much bandwidth is the average blog going to
use anyway?

Re: Kindle: Colour me still unconvinced

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:17:02 -0000

Good point Jake.

Re: Bono gets jiggy with the Facebook

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:19:20 -0000

Thanks, Ali -- I corrected the Elevation investment error after someone from Elevation emailed me to point that out. My bad. And your other points are good ones as well -- I should have made it clear that iLike is more than just a Facebook widget.

Re: Help me push this post up Techmeme

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:37:01 -0000

Thanks, dude.

Re: Help me push this post up Techmeme

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:18:01 -0000

Yes, I saw that. Don't you just love irony?

Re: Kindle: Colour me still unconvinced

mathewi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:08:02 -0000

Good one, Greg.

Re: Kindle: Colour me still unconvinced

mathewi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:08:02 -0000

Good point, Constance.

Re: Kindle: Colour me still unconvinced

mathewi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:28:02 -0000

depending on the price, weight, etc. that could kill the Kindle dead.

Re: Stop the presses! Facebook caves in

mathewi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:47:02 -0000

Mathew is was happy to hear that too :-)

Re: Stop the presses! Facebook caves in

mathewi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:31:01 -0000

In fairness to me, I'm pretty sure it was already on there before I
wrote about it :-)

Re: Stop the presses! Facebook caves in

mathewi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:10:02 -0000

Ok, well it's not always *that* important I guess :-)

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:56:01 -0000

I agree, Karoli. It seems like a gadget with no obvious reason for
being. Kind of like the Segway :-)

Re: Online ads up — just not enough

mathewi — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:02:02 -0000

Those are all good points, Alex. Thanks for the comment.

Re: Facebook Beacon woes are overstated

mathewi — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:02:01 -0000

Maybe I am simplifying, Sean. But what are the implications of
Beacon, when it gets right down to it? That one's friends get
notified when you buy a coffee table or a movie at Blockbuster? Not
exactly the end of civilization as we know it, I would argue. And if
it happens enough and people get upset, then I expect that Facebook
will change the way it works.

Re: Facebook Beacon woes are overstated

mathewi — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:19:02 -0000

Yes, that's true Mario. He may have to do the same here.

Re: Facebook Beacon woes are overstated

mathewi — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:20:02 -0000

Antje, I can see how some people would definitely feel that way -- and
that's why there needs to be some flexibility. And I expect if the
backlash is big enough, it will change.

Re: Facebook Beacon woes are overstated

mathewi — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:46:02 -0000

That's a good point, Leigh -- Canada's privacy commissioner may have
something to say about Beacon, just as she did about Google's
StreetView.

As for the opt out choice, I think that appears on a case-by-case
basis at the site you're on when you buy or do something. I haven't
actually seen one.

And you are free to disagree with me, of course, as always -- although
by definition that makes you wrong. :-)