If only we had computers to automatically do the work for us..

Thanks geoff. and cedar, I'll check those out.

you read Camus in your spare time

Only at work. In search of lost time I read Proust.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 4:27 PM on December 15, 2007

"This is a really cool thing that you all should want to buy" isn't welcome here.

..but "This is a really cool thing that you all should want to rip" is welcome. It seems ethically questionable that posts containing riped content (a few every day) are more acceptable than posts about a commercial product. These are generalizations of course and there are exceptions, but seems to be approximate (probably not... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:18 AM on November 25, 2007

tkolar, I wouldn't keep humoring this guy with a response. BTW thanks for the suggestion. The system of interlocking forums worked exactly as designed: Problem in blue, solutions worked out in grey, better post made in green. No need for a complicated conspiracy theory, mine and yours posting history and reputation are open for all to see.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 2:20 PM on November 26, 2007

Astroturfing account, caught in the wild. Cool.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 6:03 AM on December 22, 2006

Hey sperose!

I'm kind of embarrassed - I got the sticker from cafepress when I did a solo cross country trip a few years ago on the off-hand hopes it would spur conversation or even a horn honk (at the time MeFi was probably less well known and "blog" was still an emerging word) - kind of a solidarity tag as I drove through the heart of Bush country. This is the first time it has ever had attention (that I know of).

I'm trying to... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 6:59 AM on September 29, 2006

Sperose, come to think of it, I do recall seeing a black car with lots of bumper stickers and thinking "not many people have bumper stickers but that one has a lot" - maybe that was you I don't know.

terrapin yeah Olney Ale House is a great place.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:14 AM on September 29, 2006

slight disagreement (correct URL)
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 2:57 PM on May 2, 2006

thanks mathowie!

The metadata will be invaluable. Ranking/rateing systems are key to taping the "wisdom of the crowds" - it's how Google works and the secret to Amazon's success.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:53 AM on December 5, 2005

It's a damn fine *fffpppth* (takes another swig)
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:52 PM on December 10, 2004

The demonization of the troops shall not end just because one our own posts about his brother. Did you hear about that guy who admited to killing the iraqi teenager as a "mercy killing"? The troops in Iraq are cold blooded baby killing psychopaths, it's not just a few bad apples like Bush wants us to believe.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 9:17 PM on December 10, 2004

Jesus, stbalbach, that was so fucked I still can't tell if it was sarcastic or not.

It started off sarcastic, but then crossed the line and made sense.. somthing went wrong.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 11:03 PM on December 10, 2004

I'm very late to this thread but Cod Liver Oil is an excellent cure for SAD. Other forms of Vit D supplimentation are not so good, CLO is the best. There's a reason the Scandanavians are big into CLO.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:39 PM on September 29, 2004

MetaFilter is a place to post interesting things.

I don't worry about the other stuff it takes care of itself.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 4:42 PM on August 16, 2004

Followup post corrections in th reads.

That should be:

Follow up post corrections in threads
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:48 PM on June 22, 2004

knowwhat your tryingtosay.

oops..

that should have been:

"know what your trying to say"
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:49 PM on June 22, 2004

Theydrive me nuts. It takesawayfr om the point your tryingto make.

aww damn..

"It takes away from the point your trying to make."
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:52 PM on June 22, 2004

Heres a simple idea that anyone (not Matt) could impliment.

Create a website somewhere with a form that can be filled out .. it might include MeFi username, the thread number, and a text input for the follow up information.. then publish by RSS so anyone can subscribe and get an ongoing feed of new information. Limit the folllowup to one per user per day to keep it informational and not conversational.

No fancy user interface or database or... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 9:19 PM on June 8, 2004

Correct link for luser
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 11:56 AM on June 8, 2004

No TV in the house since 1998. Grew up watching lots, the web and Internet were prime factor in the change.

I have noticed that TV has an emotional reward for watching .. a happy ending, a conclusion that makes sense, things are logical, the world makes sense. It is a very comfortable escape.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:35 PM on May 16, 2004

I'd like to see old FPPs re-done with updates.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 12:22 AM on April 1, 2004

Rod Stewart *shaking fist*
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 5:41 PM on March 17, 2004

Good article could have been a FPP even. I've had people ask me "What's a blog?" and there be a certain amount of skepticism about the blogging world this article in the first few pages answers a lot.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 5:39 PM on March 17, 2004

If you actually read the FPP links, you will find they contain the text of the book. The first contains the first chapter, the second contains the entire book. That is why they are linked to, not because they are book sellers. This was allready dicussed in the thread.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:56 PM on March 14, 2004

The PC Weasel is a very cool remote management device for PCs .. in case your looking. Basically runs a seperate OS on the serial port so its possible to access the PC BIOS screen remotely.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 5:22 PM on March 4, 2004

I've recently been using BlogLines to organize and read all my blogs including MeFi.. which means I never need to see the blue of MeFi anymore if I dont want too.. which makes reading a lot faster and easier and allows reading more blogs.. but I wonder how this will impact the blog providers. There is a loss of community when you strip off MeFi's design structure to just get to the FPP content, yet RSS is almost required in order to keep up with reading lots of blogs. I have not looked into Atom... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 2:13 PM on March 3, 2004

Umm.. given the 17,000 people who use MeFi, would it not make sense to have at least one other person as a backup who can do something as simple as replace a CPU fan? I mean, I run a private server with lots of websites on it, for free. But when I go on vacation there are at least 2 other skilled people who can maintain it if something goes wrong. Just seems like common sense.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:52 PM on February 16, 2004

If it is true the site has no backup, I would like to offer a free USB 2.0 60GB drive donated to MeFi for the purposes of making backups. I bought it for another project and never used it and is sitting here waiting for a good use before 60GB or USB becomes obsolete.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 9:56 PM on February 16, 2004

Backups are so simple. Just add a drive (USB plug-n-play) and then copy the files over. Done. Takes 5 minutes to setup, and 5 minutes to automate. No reason to mess with RAID or tape drives they are a lot of work and error prone.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 5:56 PM on February 17, 2004

The Monkey is evolving on its own diversity is a good thing.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:57 PM on February 16, 2004

It is worse than you think. Millions of people voicing political beliefs online. Not only that, almost all of them do it for free, brainwashed by what they believe in.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 9:44 AM on January 23, 2004

I have posted pictures on MeFi before and tracked the number of hits it ranges 2000 to 5000. Matt would know exactly the number in this case.

A 36k picture @ 5000 hits that is about 180MB of traffic (or 1.4Gb depending how you measure). It's never been a problem for me as I have near unlimited bandwidth at 100Mbps near a core backbone in VA at a flat rate and look for ways to use it. It's like driving a Hummer, finding outragerous ways to blow resources. MeFi is good for that.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 6:27 PM on January 20, 2004

or 0.14Gb if you measure accurately. :-)

180 million bytes times 8 (8 bits in a byte) = one-thousand 400 hundred million bits = 1.4 Gb

0.14Gb = 140Mb = 17.5MB
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 10:20 AM on January 21, 2004

I have to agree that much of MeFi is Blog Churn. Nothing wrong with that though because that is how things get spread around. But MeFi allows more than just a repost (like LinkFilter is just a place to put links). MeFi excells at added value, additional links and thoughts about a subject not just the one link, which makes it a worthy read on its own even if you read it elsewhere allready. I think sometimes we get lazy and strive for quantity over quality.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 2:29 PM on January 7, 2004

It provides insight into how the wire and news system works and lexicons used. I thought it was interesting too. Plus it's not blog churn.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:32 AM on January 7, 2004

Slithy, thank you for takeing your rant outside to MeTa. Perhaps we need a political room/board to take political discussions off somewhere else like the kitchen so the rest of us can party on in peace.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 9:30 AM on December 19, 2003

Clarification: Slithy I think you are a troll looking for a fight and you picked on some otherwise fine posters to get all riled up about nothing. This kinda says it all "Mayor Curley: I have tangled with you only once". This is not Pro Wrastlen. But I do thank you for not crapping on my thread with this stuff and taking it to MeTa.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:39 PM on December 19, 2003

I thought it was funny.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 6:34 AM on December 15, 2003

Then the extra time will give time to plan out a thoughtful post. The idea is to keep posts from showing up for the primary reason of being first in line to give time for those who actually read it a chance to post near the top of the thread /. had this problem forever and as MeFi is more popular it will too and untill it has a scoreing system, or unless it keeps new users down, what to do.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:11 AM on December 11, 2003

GoogleAnswers is similar, but there is money involved. Kevin Kelly wrote about it recently how he has a paid full-time personal researcher who does just this. Answers any question he asks.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:52 PM on December 10, 2003

The Laurie Garrett roast was my favorite.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 1:41 PM on December 4, 2003

My userid is the year the Lusitania sunk, The San Francisco Earthquake, Battle of Gallipoli and the first German Zeppelin air raid.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:35 AM on December 3, 2003

Not interested in filtering, just highlighting. Filtering is wrong for a lot of reasons IMO. highlighting is a way to make a certain person stand out kind of like scoring.

There are what 17,000 people here? Some really good posters are here, but they only post infrequently and in a long thread and over time it is easy to miss and forget this is someone whose opinion you care about to read and think about. I'm really talking more about threads and not FPPs.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:59 AM on November 22, 2003

That way you can go through life without ever really knowing anybody.

Somthing like this would help like-minded users create trusted groups which is exactly how human communities work in large groups. MetaFilter is 17000+ people. Who here knows everyone? Currently, it is how often you post that makes how well known you are. There should be a better way.

Angry Modem I agree there would be a limit
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:07 AM on November 22, 2003

languagehat, highlight certain users so they stand out from the crowd as deserving of special note for their quality comments and unique backgrounds and perspectives. Or do you mean I should read every single comment of every single FPP with equal attention and scrutiny? I don't have the time unfortunately and a mechanisim to tag those users is what I'm interested in.

Thanks for the suggestions willnot and cortex those are certainly doable. Indeed even add a link to the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 11:55 AM on November 22, 2003

That's awesome milov.. but I can't get it to work under IE. Seems to have limited support for CSS.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:27 PM on November 22, 2003

But comment counts dont mean quality often quality FPPs have few comments.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 5:38 PM on August 18, 2003

scarabic -- ill be there.. somewhere
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 5:35 PM on August 18, 2003

Whatever side your on expression and freedom to voice it is paramount. I hope certain users are not squelched no matter how offensive they may seem. Offloading the meme to its own Freefilter site is brilliant.
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:04 PM on March 30, 2003

oops sorry should not have been under "bugs"
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 7:45 AM on February 9, 2003

This would be along the lines of a personal blog that used MeFi as one source. So yeah, the voice would be that of the blogger (therein lies the value-add one hopes) and it could be an entire page of text/links to summarize, for example snarkout. The concept is it would be possible to create a new expanded full-page FPP from a juicy MeFi thread with the choice bits edited in and the noise taken out yet also retain some sort of ownership for the original contributors and room for more user... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stbalbach at 8:58 AM on February 9, 2003