Shoulders of Giants

Justin Williams wrote an article on carpeaqua, The Social Networks.  It was about which social networks he uses and his normal use for them.  There were some interesting insights such as his Twitter etiquette and absence from Flickr, I recommend checking it out.

MG Siegler wrote a response on his blog and the last paragraph caught my eye.

Williams broader point about social network overlap is a good one. Most of us are at the point now where if a new social network comes into our lives, it means getting rid of an old one — Flickr -> Instagram, for example. That’s a pretty big problem for new social networks going forward. They can’t just be good, they have to be really, really good to make up for a switching cost.

This is when things get exciting, or rather are about to get exciting. Almost everything we interact with on a daily basis is a better version of the thing that came before it.  Whether we're talking about the laptop you use every day, the car you drive to work, the carabiner you use at the rock gym or even the shoes you wear.  Everything replaced an inferior version, for the most part.  (John Siracusa would argue against toasters I am sure.) Things like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are only going to get better or be replaced, just like that StarTac in your dad's junk drawer. I just can't wait to see with what ideas come next.

The Facebook Resistors

New York Times

Tyson Balcomb quit Facebook after a chance encounter on an elevator. He found himself standing next to a woman he had never met — yet through Facebook he knew what her older brother looked like, that she was from a tiny island off the coast of Washington and that she had recently visited the Space Needle in Seattle.

I'm no Facebook appologist, but this sounds pretty dumb. So basically this kid thinks the social network is "unhealthy" because he internet stalked some girl? Are Anderson Windows "unheathly" because you can sit right outside someone's house and watch through them?

Mr. Balcomb needs to stop stalking people if he feels it's not healthy. The goings-ons of second removed friends doesn't just show up in my feed.  I would have to actively look into their timelines to figure that stuff out.

As Merlin Mann says, Don't be creepy.

P.S. Yes I just made the guns don't kill people, people kill people argument.

[Via Dan Benjamin at bigweek.co]

A Statement from Louis C.K. (December 13, 2011)

Louis CK: Live at the Beacon

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.

So awesome to hear how well Louis has done with this experiment.  Hopefully this will lead other performers to do the same.  I bought it on Saturday as soon as I heard, if you haven't yet go put some money in the "fat sweaty dolt's" pocket.