Disqus - Latest Comments for Sebastian

Re: The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone

Sebastian — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:07:50 -0000

This is an interesting review, thanks for writing it. From the very first picture of the Droid I couldn't really understand why anybody would call that thing pretty. It's as much "pretty" as my G1 (HTC Dream) was (not).
I can't add to the Android criticism - it definitely got better since the G1 (Android v1) but I can imagine it still being pretty geeky. My impression was always that technically, Android is very capable but they haven't spent time on making it pretty.
You can sea, on the start screen already, that Palm Pre & iPhone have the prettier operating systems. And we all know that prettier in operating systems most of the time also means more easy to use.

Re: 2007/09/10/islam-facebook/

kam — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:40:37 -0000

the joys of atheism ! they are one group of people who,all heir lives,will be completely unaffected by subjects of this nature.

Re: The world’s dirtiest coastal ecosystem? – bet you guess wrong

Sebastian — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:04:22 -0000

Honestly: Did you REALLY expect any different result than that the world's most poluted [fill in environmental treasure] would be found anywhere else but the USA?

I mean ... that has nothing to do with anti-americanism. (I'm not anti-american!) But the US clearly lack any understanding (and mostly, any respect) for the environment.

Re: Why Bing is a stupid ass name for a search engine

Sebastian — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:42:03 -0000

You know, people said the same thing about "Google".

Re: Paris bike sharing program getting trashed.

Sebastian — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:43:45 -0000

In Vienna, theres a similar system in place and it was long before Paris. It had similar problems, but there, bikes simply weren't returned to the "bike stations".

The revised system works much more fool proof and stopped all these problems: When borrowing a bike, you have to register your debit or credit card. Borrowing the bike for up to one hour is free - after that, you pay. If a bike isn't returned, the debit or credit card is charged. If a bike is returned damaged, it can be charged, too, because the previous borrower is known.

Since then, there haven't been problems any more, at least not wide-spread.

Re: Tech News for Everyone? (Scripting News)

dave — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:19:38 -0000

As I said in my post, the tech isn't the issue, it's the editorial. I have that software myself -- it's the stuff behind NewsJunk. Doesn't matter. We still need people. Once we have that, we can open up the flow and let anyone publish it who wants to. The more the merrier.

Re: Tech News for Everyone? (Scripting News)

Sebastian — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:48:39 -0000

You should take a look at ReadBurner (a Google Reader Shared Items-aggregator). ReadBurner's problem is that there are too little people using it to share their links right now.
If you could get your top 100 bloggers to share their shared items feed with ReadBurner, there's a good chance ReadBurner would be what you're looking for, minus the problem of having to explain the elite factor to people, because it isn't.

http://www.readburner.com/

Re: Ist denn das zu fassen?

Sebastian — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:36:11 -0000

Gib hier deinen Kommentar ein.

Re: Ist denn das zu fassen?

Sebastian — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:47:34 -0000

test

Re: Bootstrapping thumbnails for photo apps (Scripting News)

dave — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:49:46 -0000

I appreciate the suggestion, but this is about as central a place as I've got! :-)

Re: Bootstrapping thumbnails for photo apps (Scripting News)

Sebastian — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:40:34 -0000

Could you create a central place where you post these "bootstraps"? This would make finding and referencing them easier then on your personal blog.
Also, finding "bootstraps" could be "crowdsourced". You're interested in photos, other people could be interested in other things.

A central place for discussion would be useful.

Re: TechFuga makes it clear TechMeme is not innovating

Sebastian — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:20:09 -0000

I'll look at TechFuga later, but I definitely discovered that subscribing to a small number of tech blogs brings up most interesting news. If there's something I'll miss - well, whatever. I want to get 80% of the news in 20% of the time, I don't care about the other 20% I'd have to spend all day on retrieving. After all, I've got a job.

More important: Thank you for blogging again, Robert!

Re: Lessig starting to kiss some powerful butts

Sebastian — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:05:45 -0000

You didn't read the news that Lawrence Lessig joined Harvard University, right?

Re: Why it doesn’t pay to play nice with Google

Sebastian — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:25:14 -0000

This post makes absolutely no sense. Couldn't there be a different reason for RTM to integrate with Gmail than to be acquired by Google? (Like providing an useful service that enough people pay for to be profitable?) RTM is still much more than the new Gmail Tasks, and even though many people will likely switch from RTM to Gmail Tasks, those who pay for RTM are those who use the iPhone/iPod touch, Blackberry and Windows Mobile sync tools, and they'll continue to use RTM.

RTM is a useful service, that's why it's loved by its customers, both paying and not-paying, having competition on one of the platforms they support won't change that basic fact.

Re: Ist denn das zu fassen?

Sebastian — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:12:59 -0000

Claudia Bandion-OrtnerGanz kurz hab ich nach der Wahl geglaubt, aber wohl mehr gehofft, dass diesmal alles anders würde. Ich hab der SPÖ unter Faymann mehr Selbstvertrauen und der ÖVP unter Pröll mehr Vernunft zugetraut. Sie können aus diesem Debakel nur gelernt haben, oder? Denkste!

Re: Ist denn das zu fassen?

Sebastian — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:12:21 -0000

Wie kann die SPÖ zulassen, weder das Justizministerium noch das Innenministerium zu besetzen? Macht korrumpiert fast immer und es wäre naiv zu glauben, gerade die aktuelle ÖVP wäre die Ausnahme dieser Regel! Die Judikative ist zwar relativ unabhängig, die Realität ist aber nie so einfach. (Das wissen SPÖ und ÖVP auch - deshalb hat es diese Situation das letzte Mal unter Bruno Kreisky gegeben.)

Re: Ist denn das zu fassen?

Sebastian — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:12:00 -0000

Die ÖVP ist aber nicht besser - sie ernennt die Richterin im BAWAG-Prozess, Claudia Bandion-Ortner, zur Justizministerin. Die Optik ist grauslich - nachdem die ÖVP in der Nationalratswahl 2006 die BAWAG-Affäre gegen die SPÖ auszunutzen versucht hat und Bandion-Ortner ein hartes (nicht rechtskräftiges) Urteil von 9,5 Jahren Gefängnis gegen Helmut Elsner ausgesprochen hat, wird sie dafür mit einem Ministerium belohnt? Das könnte man die Frage, warum Elsner noch immer in Untersuchungshaft ist, plötzlich in einem anderen Licht sehen.

Re: 2007/01/10/google-friendster/

shaney — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:32:18 -0000

hi,wanna be friends? add me to ur contact list...kimyurie03@yahoo.com...

Re: 2007/01/10/google-friendster/

wilgo Dakael — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:41:50 -0000

hai how are U at ther????

Re: Next frontier: Voting (Scripting News)

Sebastian — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:57:34 -0000

That's not possible because votes aren't counted by one individual, but by several people together (each vote is checked by four people or so, representing the four biggest parties in Austria). It's not possible that someone invalidates ballots.

The biggest advantage of this system is, that it's trusted - fraud is nearly impossible.

Re: Next frontier: Voting (Scripting News)

internet reader — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:00:50 -0000

it's still got plenty of of fraud... it's just a different sort, perhaps less voluminous as with computer fraud. (computers are basically giant levers). the classic one is for a vote counter to invalidate (via marking) ballots which they don't like.
i still like scantron ballots--paper, instantly counted by computer.

Re: Next frontier: Voting (Scripting News)

SpencerWhetstone — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:16:42 -0000

It isn't bellweather. It is bellwether.

Re: Next frontier: Voting (Scripting News)

Sebastian — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:11:59 -0000

In Austria, we have a very secure way of voting and counting votes. It's old school. No technology involved. Every voter gets a sheet of paper where they can make their cross (or more, if they want to cast an invalid vote). At the end of the day, these votes are counted by hand, with each party participating in the election having the right to send one representative to that. Through that, it's guaranteed that if a vote is counted, all representative agree on their vote. In the unlikely case that there are unclear votes, lawyers can still come and give advice (something that never happens, because in the end, these representatives aren't stupid and can see if somebody makes a cross or not).

This is a very fast process, we have a nation wide end result several hours after the polling station closes (of course except for people who vote by mail).

It's old school, there's no technology involved, but it's secure, fast and (most important) trusted!

Re: What the worlds most famous Muslim blogger, Robert Scoble, teaches us

Sebastian — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:04:27 -0000

The sad part is that actually some people unsubscribed from his blog because he "only writes about politics" - after this post, and not after one of the many other posts he wrote about that topic.

Re: The customers are gone, now what? Tent sale!

Sebastian — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:08:25 -0000

Boy, it's good to see you blogging again!

Your posts give much better (and more personal) insight in what's going on in the Valley than anything I read elsewhere.

In Europe, we're not hit nearly as bad for now. We're experiencing the slow-down in ad spending through a decline in quality ads (at least from Google Reader).