Disqus - Latest Comments for chrisbaskind

Re: New Study Reports the Obvious: Airport Security Theater Doesn’t Make Us Safer

Naika — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:11:34 -0000

Actually, the crime rate is incredibly low here.
Armed robberies are unheard of, because all males undergo mandatory military service starting aged 18, that lasts a minimum of two years and seven months.
(Women only have three months military training, and 2 years 1 month general service)
And it's far from an armed camp.
Your views of Israel are clearly views of one that has never been here.

Re: New Study Reports the Obvious: Airport Security Theater Doesn’t Make Us Safer

chrisbaskind — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:49:48 -0000

I'm sure Israel is a lovely place, but I'd rather not live in an armed camp. Good luck with that.

Re: 5 Decluttering Projects You Can Finish in Under 5 Hours

chrisbaskind — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:17:04 -0000

I know better than to even suggest displacing cats. It's warm, it's high, and they can bat you on the head as you go past. Perfect.

Re: Minimalism Is More Than Less

chrisbaskind — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:41:25 -0000

True, but the Byrds/Dylan lyrics aren't verbatim. I was quoting the song,
rather than Ecclesiastes.

Re: 5 Decluttering Projects You Can Finish in Under 5 Hours

chrisbaskind — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:48:44 -0000

I've followed Nomad Needles for a while, and now it's on our Recommended page. :-)

Re: Thanks, but No Thanks, Chevy

bitterend — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:06:19 -0000

What is good about renting a car is you can pick a car you need. Personally since I joined the car-sharing club I have used the whole scale they offer, from the small one to the "mothership". And I have used them only the time I have needed. For the longer trips I compare different options - bus/train/car.

Re: Thanks, but No Thanks, Chevy

chrisbaskind — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:28:16 -0000

There are bicycle activists who -- in good faith -- oppose bike lanes as a kind of "segregation." I'm not one of them. People ride bicycles when they feel safe doing so. Even the Europeans, who are decades ahead of us on shifting traffic from four to two wheels, know that you *must* create facility for bike transport if you expect people to ride.

We have very little bicycle infrastructure in my county. I am aware of only one local company which makes any provision for secure bicycle parking (ironically, it's Gulf Power -- which runs a coal-fired power plant here). Some major routes have bike lanes, but the markings are inconsistent, and the lanes seem to disappear in exactly the places they're most needed.

Lots of work to do. And please consider More Minimal a safe place to rant. ;-)

Re: Newsome.Org

VictusFate — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:26:00 -0000

Intelligent search agents that learn from our usage, and semantically identify new info that we'd like is on it's way. If I don't build it, Google, Facebook, Lazyfeed, or My6sense will implement it.

We simply want to be aware of all the possible goodies that could interest us by not only time (real time is still important), but matching criteria (tags/weights that help quantify what I enjoy).

Crowd sourcing helps with filtering, we all link something we like (google the first social crowd fiterer).

Re: Thanks, but No Thanks, Chevy

chrisbaskind — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:59:50 -0000

Since June, I've *needed* a car three times. Twice, I bummed rides. Once, I just let things fall down. Neither was a great option, but there's very little public transit here.

Next up: the Holidays. I'm guessing I'll have to rent a car at some point to see way-out-of-town family. Even at holiday rates, that's a much better deal than even a single month of car ownership.

The Equinox looks nice. It's reasonably efficient for a gas-burner -- though not as efficient as pedaling. ;-)

Re: Newsome.Org

chrisbaskind — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:35:16 -0000

There is no more inhumane way to discover, sort, and analyze information than Twitter -- unless, of course, all you are interested in is what's new, hot, and of dubious quality.

And that's coming from someone who likes Twitter (though I admit it's tested me in the past). If you don't want to see those unread item counts (and I couldn't agree more with Robert on this issue), get a script and suppress them. Or try a low-clutter, low-noise RSS client such as Fever.

Either case will be easier than assembling a Byzantine array of lists and *still* having to mentally filter all the lunch menus, non sequiturs, and Mafia Wars nonsense. Gimme search and the more humane layout found in virtually all RSS readers. Better yet, bring on intelligent agents to learn what I like and start doing this stuff for me.

Re: The New, New, New Facebook: Hundreds of Thousands Organize in Protest

chrisbaskind — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:05:42 -0000

I'm not a heavy Facebook user, but I like the changes. The page is cleaner and more useful. You can see the influence of the former Friendfeed engineers.

I do think they should have called the "news feed" what it was tagged on FF, though: Best of Day. Makes its purpose clearer, and that's why it probably seems that items are 24 hours old.

Re: Not All Roads Lead to Rome

chrisbaskind — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:06:55 -0000

Hey, nice Slideshare presentation!

Re: The Rise of Online Community

ConversationAgent — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:04:07 -0000

like doing this?

Re: The Rise of Online Community

chrisbaskind — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:02:04 -0000

Here's a sample comment, Valeria. DISQUS is installed and properly formatted.

You should receive email notification that I've posted a reply. I'll discuss moderation options with you offline. Reply to my comment, so you see how it works.

Re: The biggest difference between Twitter and Facebook

Scobleizer — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:38:29 -0000

That's not really much of an option for me and my fellow addicts. That said, if you are going to keep Twitter open much of the time it's a lot more productive than FriendFeed or new Facebook.

Re: The biggest difference between Twitter and Facebook

chrisbaskind — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:36:21 -0000

The best way to "improve productivity" is to turn Facebook and Twitter off now and then. ;-)

Re: What Glenn Beck Can Teach Us About Consumerism

chrisbaskind — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:38:15 -0000

It's hard to tell where he wanted to go with that. Away from us, I hope. ;-)

Re: Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars?

defacebook — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:46:04 -0000

In a consumer society that worships the almighty dollar, a sales campaign and a "movement" are both considered "just causes". Maybe that makes you queasy (it should).

Re: Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars?

mashable — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:42:45 -0000

No, we never accept payment in exchange for coverage.

Re: Google Wave’s unproductive email metaphors

chrisbaskind — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:31:35 -0000

> Because your eye gets drawn to anything that moves on screen. This is a HUGE attention distractor.

I agree, Robert -- which is why Friendfeed in realtime mode could never replace a real RSS aggregator for me.

Re: Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars?

chrisbaskind — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:40:28 -0000

And that's a good answer, Scott. Thank you.

Re: Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars?

scottmonty — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:14:18 -0000

There was no quid pro quo, no propaganda. Mashable has covered this innovative campaign a number of times previously, and we submitted a pitch to the editorial staff just like they request on their Twitter page. The numbers were enough to demonstrate its newsworthiness.

Mashable also has also reported on Gary Vaynerchuk's activities after WineLibrary.TV was a Summer of Social Good sponsor as well. It's interesting that there's no comment regarding propaganda in that case or others like it.

Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company
@ScottMonty

Re: Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars?

chrisbaskind — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:16:23 -0000

Effective or not, this is a sales campaign -- not a movement.

And this is not an accusation, but was this article a placement? I see the disclaimer, but does that imply a quid pro quo agreement of any kind which resulted in this article being published? Was Ford guaranteed coverage of their Fiesta "movement" in exchange for their sponsorship of the Summer of Social Good campaign?

If not, here's a great opportunity to assure us we've not just been propagandized.

Re: Serious conversations? Not on Twitter

chrisbaskind — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:23:00 -0000

I feel ripped-off and want my money back.

Re: Google Force Feeds Social Media On The World

chrisbaskind — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:03:46 -0000

> So if you’re considering a lawsuit, I’m afraid you don’t have much chance to fight it.

Ah: since we have you, we don't need a court system. ;-)

That there's no physical copying (one assumes) doesn't mean SideWiki isn't a derivative work. We'll just have to see. This *will* go to court. And while Google is huge, they're not magical. They'll have to answer to the same legal principles as the rest if us.

I don't have an axe to grind with Google, but SidiWiki will raise some new questions I think can only be settled in a courtroom.

FWIW, if this were an opt-in, I'd go for it. I'm not sure all copyright holders will agree, however.