GS 2Go

just the ones i know better even if i haven't seen them ;) - Mystika

so u just ignore people that add u from social networks like Friendfeed etc...? - Zee.

I used to be picky. But then I realized people will follow you wherever they are most comfortable. So now, I never say no to Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. If they want to follow me somewhere else because they like the blog... fine. - Louis Gray

I don't really care anymore - the lines got blurred and now it's like, no return land LOL - Mona N.

I don't distinguish between RL friends and Internet friends. You all play a part in my life and last time I checked Facebook wasn't that sacred. It's a place to keep in touch with me and play some fun apps. Why would that be reserved for people in RL? - Lindsey in Love

Some people are only on FB. It's how it is. I'd much rather be here, but I'm getting the hang of FB a little more these days. - Eric @ CS Techcast

I have no distinction. I don't think it really matters. - Mo Kargas

oh well I stay well clear of the apps Lindsey and to be honest. I really just want people that I've met once or twice to really keep in touch with me...Besides I have like four geek sites I use, FB might just be ideal for only "met in person" people... - Zee.

I only use facebook for the people I know in real life - Michael Hocter

meh . . . then nice knowing ya - Lindsey in Love

Damn, I know adding me is what led Zee to this decision. IT'S ALL MY FAULT! - Derrick

I just go with people that I know, it doesn't matter if I haven't met you in person yet. - mathew, keynote not lame

LOL Derrick, no no...it's the like 10 other adds I get a day from random people I've never seen/heard of that bothers me... - Zee.

What Mona said--the point of no return. - Anna Haro

Agree. Sometimes, even for people I've met, I still wait a second meet-up before I added him/her to facebook :D - Akhmad Fathonih

"(not) met twice or more" != "can't tell who they are" IMO - Richard Walker

not sure what u mean exactly Richard - Zee.

not having met them twice IRL doesn't mean total "strangers" - Richard Walker

yeah, definitely true...i'm thinking now maybe just to make it people i don't instant recognise... - Zee.

Some people I only met online I know longer and much better than people I meet in RL every day. Online we tend to reveal ourselves for who we really are, at least in the long-term, while in RL we have built-up survival mechanisms that may be deceptive of who we really are. We can hide our true selves better in RL than online, in many cases. - Bora Zivkovic

yay! we can stay Facebook friends ! :) - Richard Walker

My FB policy is at least one "meaningful interaction", regardless of meeting in person. For instance, if I enjoyed an in-depth online discussion and got a sense of the person. - Neil Saunders

ha, yeah i reckon we can! :) - Zee.

+1 neil - but then we've been RL friends for ... what, 8 years now? Sheesh, mate, time flies! - Chris Cotsapas

facebook is my meat-space. esp. since most of my family is there. - MikeAmundsen

I haven't met lots of people on my Facebook. - Morton Fox

I'd accept an invite from someone's dead parent on Facebook if they had a page and sent me an invite...my threshold is that low. Invite? Accepted! - Alex Scoble

Facebook for me is for old friends & acquaintances from high school and university. Those are people I knew well in the real world- and people who won't come on FF despite my pleas. - Abby Martin

mine is people I know and friendfeeders. thats it - The Amber

i must be using facebook wrong. i thought you're supposed to make new friends on facebook. - Carolyn Chan

i think i might just go with Amber's mentality.. - Zee.

Until yesterday, I devoted Facebook to meatspace friends. I realized it wasn't fair since there are really cool people here. So go ahead and friend me :) - Rodfather

Almost everyone I have on my Facebook is someone I am friends with through elementary, middle, high or college. There are also coworkers, family and close friends. I have added a total of about 2 people that I have never met but we have become great friends online. A few people I've never met but that share my heart condition and we share solutions with each other threw facebook. Then there are the 3 I've added from FF. But other than that, if I don't know you or havdn't chatted with you a lot. I just don't add. Facebook to me is all about personal friends and catching up. - Adriana

Cool, if people will use it. Kind of like web slices, it has to be implemented. We'll see. - Eric @ CS Techcast

is that like those QR codes? - David

I like this idea. It's the same principle as scanning a supermarket barcode. We need more of this; Japan has it, after all! Thx for the post. - Allen S.

Interesting but do we really need another one? I have three of these apps on my phone already. Barcorama seems to be the most versatile but I doubt it will have MS's new stuff. These "Smart pox" systems have been around for years in Asia, do we really need to reinvent the system? - Kalidor

after looking at the site, it is like the QR codes, except colorful and by proxy hip - David

yeah, QR Code is already well established in Japan. - Akhmad Fathonih

Oh, neat! Just wish there was support for crappy old WinMobile devices like mine. (Mine runs 2003SE, and I can't afford to upgrade to something modern at this time.) - Chris Charabaruk for Hire

This was actually one of my startup ideas from a while back. Seemed inevitable. Print Biz card with QR (or QRcode like) and use the cameraphone to scan. Additionally you would never be without a business card if you had your phone since you could use the screen to display the code, the other phone takes a pic of your screen presto. - mikepk

also, you use the geo data in the phone to assign a location to when / where you "met" the person - mikepk

meta data gets attached by the very act of scanning - mikepk

chris, that was one of the things I thought was cool about this startup idea, you don't need a fancy phone (although it helps). Just snap a photo with cameraphone and email it to an online service to process. (or upload after the fact) makes it much more accesible. - mikepk

very cool spin to something that is already in wide use in Japan. Kudos to Microsoft for seeing the applications of this. I'm going to have to try this on my phone. - Bryan

the zune tattoo guy is going to need some more ink :-D - Karim

++ Karim LOL - Mona N.

Would this not be just like 2d bar codes that nokia has been doing for some time? http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/ Cool but not new for the masses just new for Microsoft possibly. - Sloan Bowman

I thought this failed years ago... - Bwana

Hey, I was the second follower of their abandoned-looking @microsofttag account. This program looks cool but appears to be a typical MSFT rush job on all ends. Program launched a blank website, and when I tried to report the bug the form said "Special characters (< and >) are not allowed in full name." (Of course there are none in my name) - Carl Black

Another iPhone app from Microsoft. I grabbed it, but oh yeah - I don't have any of these brand new proprietary tag images around to try it out... - Josh Bancroft

Worked the very first time on a BB 8330 with what I thought would be an inferior photo. Very interesting. I think I'll try making a tag. - Dave Holle II

David: yes, these are like QR codes but that work much more accurately and can be far smaller than QR codes. - Robert Scoble

Here's a video demoing it: http://www.kyte.tv/ch/6118/307... - Robert Scoble

I'd like quantification of accurate and smaller. QR codes can work with over 50% of it damaged, and I have once working that are 3/4'" on each side? I wouldn't mind seeing smaller if it becomes a standard. I notice MS's website doesn't have this info? What do they say? - Kalidor

What is the name of the iphone app? - Amani

Kalidor: the microsoft tags are smaller in size and can be read without special lenses on your cell phone. They seem to work a lot more accurately here. - Robert Scoble

Not sure what you mean by special lenses, the Moto V220 I got from Rogers for free (so you can imagine the quality) had no problem with those squares on salty posters in TO streets? Do some phones need wide angle lenses or something then? - Kalidor

Amani ... it's TagReader (you can also find via search on 'Microsoft') - David HC Soul

Absolutely cool, this thing rocks. Tried it on multiple tags and it is able to recognize most of the tags easily. With even 2 MP camera phone it works great. Now the question, how do I make my own tags?? - Deepak Sharma

Isn't this what ShotCode has been doing for at least the last two years? http://www.shotcode.com/home - Christopher Harley

Oh, please. QR code are exactly the same, they work perfectly well. No news here. And more: it seems that after a period of free beta, creating tag will cost you money. Oh, dear, QR codes are free, instead. Nice try. - Federico Fasce

Federico: they are not the same. Look into it. And not everything Microsoft does is evil. - Robert Scoble

I'm not saying that this is evil. Just I don't get how this is different from QR codes (except for the fancy colours). But, don't get me wrong, Robert, I'm happy for this idea. QR rocks in Japan, but never really made their way in the rest of the world. Maybe Microsoft will be able to get this technology to spread. I think it's great for games. - Federico Fasce

The Adobe TV demo of Flash doing this in a browser with a regular web cam is very cool. http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15384... Long video but worth it. Jump to 41:00 min and 49:00min - Andrew Smith

Created my first tag, posted to blog, took unbelievably blurry photo with my iPhone from the blog page on notebook (hand shaking, balanced on lap & low light) it took me successfully in the Safari browser right to the page. Wonderful. I'm looking at incorporating this for a Sports Hall of Fame to link exhibits to a virtual archive with supplemental information.... this will integrate a Second Place of Learning" with a virtual "Third Place of Learning" so that the two can be combined into one experience! - David HC Soul

This is at least 7 or 8 years old technology. I have early versions of such cards laying in the bottom of boxes in my office somewhere. 2009 off to a rockin' start. - michael silverton

michael: old cue cat scans weren't designed to be used by blurry cell phone cameras. - Robert Scoble

I was thinking of printing bar code info on business cards that could be scanned by the G1 code reader. If this works, way cool! - Greg Birch

I'm impressed, I work in the sign industry and this could have some interesting applications if enough people start to use it. The dialer tag worked quickly even when blurry and slightly crooked. - Patrick Looney

mkay. but i'm sure you'd agree there's a fairly bright distinction between 'breakthrough' and 'refinement' right? why are we still awake? tomorrow will be a huge day! goodnight! ;-) - michael silverton

Robert: QRcode worked as a charm with my E61 camera, which is not the best around (2 megapixel, more blurry than the iPhone one). - Federico Fasce

QR Code already works. It is clear Scoble has not ever used QR code in any quantity. Don't believe the MS hype. It's at most evolutionary not revolutionary. BTW Google has a service that generates QR Code with any url that you pass to it. - Leather Donut

I personally am a MS fan but have to say that in my opinion adding some colors doesn't really mean anything related to innovation. I think the size and ability to be read are depending on the resolution of the consumer device more than the underlying technologies and do you really think that changing the items from squares to triangles and adding some color could increase quality? Is there any academic paper about this issue? - Kivanc Toker

Integrate with http://ejamming.com and http://indabamusic.com and now we're talkin'. "Scratchpad" is definitely the right approach. - michael silverton

Adam: it's available now. - Robert Scoble

Adam: I too am getting "Missing Page We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found." at http://research.microsoft.com/... But *must* call it a night and try tomorrow! - michael silverton

michael: they are working on the problem. The installer should be available shortly. - Robert Scoble

Another backup product fail. It's great that you have another copy of your docs but when siht hits the fan and you have some sort of disk fail on the road you really want something you can boot off. - Boris Gordon

Scary!!! - Bwana

I am a bit confused as to exactly how it decides what is important to backup. Does it just copy files from the locations most commonly used for personal files (documents & settings folder)? In other words, if I don't keep my music in the My Music folder and opt to store it on another partition, does it copy it? - April Russo

like apple's Time Machine? that will work with any disk you nominate! - Scot Mcphee

Scot: they sell two versions. One that is a hard drive you just post up. ANother is a cord that you plug a USB hard drive into and it automatically backs up everything from your laptop onto your USB hard drive. Very cool. - Robert Scoble

Finally Norton has a new product for families. I was disappointed when they ripped the family features out of NIS version 2008-2009. - Eric @ CS Techcast

hopefully it won't be a pig like the rest of their products have been for years - Steven Hodson

I think Microsoft has had this for awhile now. - Richard Ashwell

lets just hope it works - rama mamuaya

interesting idea from a company that was starting to become irrelevant IMHO. I lost a lot of trust in companies like Norton and McAfee, among others, when they started hooking their software so deep into the OS that nothing short of diving into the windows registry to remove it was needed. - slayerboy

Richard, Microsoft is discontinuing their One Care product and replacing it with a free antivirus product (codename "Morrow") late in 2009. EDIT: though I'm not sure if this covers the "Family Safety" product: http://download.live.com/famil... - Karim

i will defend norton with NIS 2009. Works fine, not a hog, and Norton Removal Tool does the trick if you need to get rid of all things Norton. - Eric @ CS Techcast

Stopped using or recommending Norton years ago. I think they are cruising on pre-installs and legacies. When simple trojans (Antivirus2009) constantly defeat\disable Norton I can't see allowing it to become my family's online protector. - Alyx

Sad though that Norton AV Gamer Edition 2009 wont work fine with Windows 7 - Imran Hussain

http://www.istartedsomething.c... - Rahul Kumar

So much for the embargo! - Chris Poirier

Chris: the details of how this works are still embargoed until midnight. - Robert Scoble

It's gotta be midnight somewhere by now... - Mark VandenBerg

Songsmith website with download link http://research.microsoft.com/... :) - Long Zheng

Another half hour; I'm assuming midnight PST. - Chris Charabaruk for Hire

Hell with it. I'm uploading the videos now. - Robert Scoble

it's past midnight... in jakarta... spill it, homeboy! - .LAG

LAG: I'm uploading as fast as the bandwidth will go! Shortly! - Robert Scoble

That's a compliment, Zee! It means you're approachable. :) - Mona N.

Agree with Mona. - Mo Kargas

would be nice if they gave me a heads up first. and I'd want them to meet my boyfriend, too, since he's on here. - Kamilah Gill

It would depend on how much interaction I've had with the person here and possibly what kind of interaction. But I don't think anyone is likely to do that with me. - Silly Jilly

Well, I'd have to be okay with it because my number was out there for them to see. That said, I would never put my number in my Facebook profile. - Rochelle

I'd be willing to meet up if I could. Notice is better though. - Eric @ CS Techcast

Zee - you can totally set your Facebook, so only certain friends can see your phone number! - Mona N.

Has this happened to you Zee? - Silly Jilly

I'd be a little creeped out because I'd be wondering how they'd gotten my phone number. However, if you leave your phone # as public info for a reason, not creepy...if they're interesting to you, meet them. - Spidra Webster

oh for sure Momo...to be honest, i'm just wondering how open to the idea everyone else is on here - Zee.

no silly.. :) - Zee.

I agree with @SillyJilly it depends how much interaction I've had with the person, however, one of the main reasons I'm on sites like twitter and FF is to connect with people all over. So if someone called me up and wanted to meet for a drink somewhere, assuming I was available, I would definitely meet them. And @mona, I have my number on FB but it's only visible to my close friends or ones I interact with regularly! - Niall Connellan

I completely forgot to include the fact that I thought this was a really great question. - Niall Connellan

I'd definitely go to a meet-up if there was one in Chicago or the Quad city area. Personally I'm not opposed to meeting people who I get along with on FF or FB or Twitter, etc. - Silly Jilly

I've pretty much put out a standing drinks invite for anyone who happens to be in the area, so I'd love to know if someone from FF is around. But like others, I've chosen to not put my TN on FB. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

call me when you arrive in SF :) - Richard Walker

ha, you're on... :) - Zee.

I don't have my number out on display via FB, but I'd like to think that I've made it clear that my goal is to meet people in person, if they happen to be in LA, or I'm in their fair city. I've met a lot of people locally and in SF. Hope to keep that going. - Derrick

If the FFers, FBers, and Tweeters that I interact w/ regularly emailed or called me, I'd be happy to meet for coffee or something. I really dig most of the people I follow and know only a few IRL. - Ayşe E.

I don't have my phone number on my profile. - Morton Fox

My number would never, ever be on my Facebook profile. If, however, you post your number there then you're fair game. If they simply looked you up in the directory using your name from Facebook that's at least a +10 on the creep factor. Make your plans ahead, yo. - Soup

I put my phone number NO PLACE. Personally Zee, I'd be kinda creeped out. OTOH, if this person's been nothing but good to you, then why not? - Helen Sventitsky

name and shame! - Darren Heydon

I would be stoked... cause no one comes here :) - Johnny Worthington

johnny - where in AU are you, if you don't mind me asking? - cjmart

I think it's great to be contacted by someone that found me interesting and that I had been having contact here on FF. However, I am very private so i wouldn't list my number on Facebook. And I would be cautious regardless of who they were. I'm like that online and in life. - Adriana

nice one Adriana! - Darren Heydon

Scoble, the details are on http://www.istartedsomething.c... bloody great product though - Duncan Riley

Is this it? http://research.microsoft.com/... Oh yeah is it just me or are they using a MacBook Pro in this video???? - Matt

Argh, THIS is what you were talking about? I watched that whole boring keynote after your tweet about MS announcing something that might make you "sing their praises". I expect an IOU for that hour of my life back :-). - invariant

I'm a little let down as well invariant - Bwana

To clarify, I was mock upset because I inferred that what Scoble was tweeting about would be announced in the keynote and it wasn't. I wasn't expecting anything all that mind blowing. But while I'm here - where the heck is the Zune Phone? You can't tell me that Microsoft bought Danger to continue making Sidekicks. - invariant

Just got a demo. It is pretty cool. Yeah, that is it but seeing the demo really helps understand how cool this is. - Robert Scoble

alkaline, dude :) - John Munro

They're not rechargeable, though! Why waste money on batteries that aren't rechargeable? - donato

I had a MAJOR problem with these in my canon flash for my eos rebel... overheated... tried another pack, same problem... they burned my fingers when I removed them... don't use these if you are taking a lot of shots, quickly... - Paula Wirth

so far so good, they are in my GPS and seem better. - Squid

When I opened a pack of them they burst into flame. I threw them on the floor and the carpet caught fire. Soon the entire house was completely engulfed in flame. Then that damned bunny came in, beating his stupid drum. As I fled, I did manage to take some measure of satisfaction in the glimpse I caught of it burning. The *thump thump thumping* kept on going though. I heard that when the firemen finally put out my house they found the vermin, now reduced to soot and melted fur still beating its drum... - Tad Goes to 11

I use these in my camera all the time and have never had a problem. - Monique

I use those in my digital camera. The batteries also seem to do better than ordinary alkalines in very cold weather. - Morton Fox

Have yiy tried Duracel Ultra? - Spyros Papaspyropoulos via twhirl

Robert these things are all over my local supermarket battery section. They're expensive though. Maybe I need some for my bluetooth Mighty Mouse, it eats batteries something fierce. Also, Tad .. the bunny is Duracell. ;-) - Scot Mcphee

No - I swear it was the Energizer Bunny. Either that or the absinthe... - Tad Goes to 11

Why would you spend $10 for 4 non-rechargeable batteries when 4 Maha PowerEx 2700mAh batteries cost $12? http://thomasdistributing.com/... + charger http://thomasdistributing.com/... - Alex Scoble

Isn't that what they've always promised? - Duncan Riley

So that bunny has finally stopped playing? - Bwana

Exactly my point, Alex! I haven't purchased batteries in over 4 years. I have all Maha and Lenmar rechargeable batteries, and a couple Maha C401FS chargers. Worth every penny. - donato

The little engine that could? - Adam Kantor

Video of then in action if you haven't seen them yet - http://www.gottabemobile.com/2... - Matt Faulkner via twhirl

Wow. Those are some powerful LEDs. - Chris