Franky

wow, crazy. tell her to contact me if she needs any development - Jason Pratt

I am trying to remain personally optimistic, but I don't believe the bottom has been reached. - Louis Landon

This is what I love about being a student and working with other students. I can do everything much cheaper. $1 mil would probably fund my current business for 2+ years easily. - Daniel Zarick

It'll get worse before it gets better. Next two quarters will be tough. - Patricia

@Louis Landon Me too. I still hope thing will get better. - Marcel Janus

Eventually, things will get better. - Patricia

how people/firms/investors respond in bad times is much more telling of their character than how they respond in good times. they're doing it because they think they can get away with it. that window will close. - Bryce Roberts

Look, things are really bad and getting worse. They will eventually get better as Patricia says, but it will be hard for very many people. No one is really insulated, but there's no point in panicking or worrying about what you can't fix. However, we all should try to understand WTF happened and learn from it. I just shared a speech today by Charlie McCreevy of the European Commission in my timeline that everyone should read. It's simple and clear. - IRWebReport.com

better worse better worse better worse better worse better worse ... been going on forever, every up has a down ... why complain about the inevitable? - Gregory Lent

I don't doubt that VCs are having a tough time, but Intel Capital wanting to lower the valuation to $1 doesn't mean Intel Capital is having a tough time. It means some of the previous investors who participated in the rounds leading to the $5 mil are no longer putting in more money, and Intel wants to squeeze them out. They don't want to carry nonperforming investors. Those other VCs might be shutting down, I guess. - Denton Gentry

You kinda get the feeling that the 'world' is on hold until someone, anyone, suggests a REAL solution. Crazy stuff - Charlie Anzman

I have to say I agree with Denton. Value of a company is still consistent with the market. At the end, you're only worth what somebody's willing to pay. - Patricia

"who labelled the provocative billboard "appalling" and said it demeaned the holiness and meaning of Christmas." Oh give me a break! - Sofia Gkiousou

As a strictly non-religious person, I say; "Hell yeah that's offensive". It's not like it's challenging creationism or anything, it's just needlessly offensive to a lot of people for no good reason. - Sean

Sean this is just all too politically correct for my taste. sorry. - Sofia Gkiousou

As a Christian, I'll say my jaw dropped, then I chuckled, and then I thought. Probably what they were going for. I wasn't offended, but I can see how people would be. And I'll agree with Sean that it does seem needless and pointless. - Ladybug Heather

comment on the culture, well done - Gregory Lent

Considering how "christmas" has been an marketing ploy for who knows how long now.. its got less about christ than ever... I am not religious, but but even if i was, i doubt it would offend me. Whats "Tui"? Is that a company or something over there? - Rob Sellen

Several things could be offensive to different people (discussing what is offensive or not leads to quite hypocritical and contradictory conclusions). I would comment it's good enough to attract attention, thus meeting it's purpose as an ad. - Cωνσtantίnoς

That's true... controversy works for getting attention... as prooved here. ;o) - Rob Sellen

That's hilarious! Ah, Tui. Did it again... - kirsten

IMO, it's a condescending remark and that's offensive. - MikeAmundsen

christianity is condescending - Gregory Lent

Religion is condescending...IMO. - Rob Sellen

Rob +1 - Clay Newton

:o) Is that...an agreement with me? lol :o) - Rob Sellen

Who is Tui? - Clay Newton

I liked the old one.. was getting used t it nicley.. could have asked us to give em feedback first lol.. :o/ - Rob Sellen

I preferred the old one as well - Duncan Riley

And how hard would it be to just give the user the choice as to how it looks? - James D Kirk

It's just a case of getting used to it. I think. I didn't like it originally but it does grow on a person - Paul Sharrock via IM

I was quite disappointed about the change as well. - trextor

Ugh -- not a fan either. Much like with the stink I raised over the iGoogle shift a while back, I'm not sure why they can't give us an option here, as James said above. - JR R.

I was happy with the old one. Don't much like the new look even though it is a subtle change. Wish they would put a "change back to old view" like Yahoo does. - Jeff P. Henderson

I like it, except the line items need to go back to their smaller size. - Jordan Hofker

Just seems like change for change's sake. The look isn't an improvement on the previous style. It's too washed-out now. Bring back the colored background for the left column at least. - Rowan Hanna

some themes can be added just as what had been done with Gmail. - pestwave

Missing the old google reader. We had just gotten to know eachother well. We were vibing. - Ebm

I like the new GReader... nice and clean... - Aad 't Hart

I think it's neater. Is it faster or am I just a big enthousiast ? - Genaro Bardy via twhirl

i didn't even notice the change, and I spend a LOT of time in my reader - William Harryman

I like the new look. - Denton Gentry

My reader on the iPhone is messed up. The lines don't wrap. I tried clearing the cache but no luck. This happening to anyone else? - Brian Newman

I liked it at first, but that wore off quickly - Shey

the overly bold text is grating to me... my whole left column is nearly all bold - Nathan Chase

Lol Bob i dont think Larry & Sergey will be sleeping like babys...the N97 seems good competition for android in my opinion - Eldon via twhirl

Eldon, there is no, and there will be no competition in near future for Android. If you want functionality, a open world of apps, there is no alternative. When you want to have a lifestyle gadget get an iPhone. Android (which is a whole platform, not a single device) is for tech guys and Google users, not for snobs. If there are some who can sleep like a baby, it's the one from Google. There will be new Android phones, when the iPhone is already history. - Ryo

@Scobleizer I have a "disagreement" in point of view, to me, S60 application development is up to Symbian not Nokia, at least that's my take on it. Nokia develops it's own software, but they're not in the same "genre" (bad word choice) as Apple... - Sociosophy Reviews via twhirl

Sociosophy: Nokia owns Symbian now and is open sourcing it too. - Robert Scoble

Holy moly! That's huge news to me... Nokia owns Symbian? I had to jump to Google News just to verify that's so awesome. Ok, yea - Nokia needs to step their friggin game up on dev now for sure then... That's... I'm excited - Enrique Gutierrez via twhirl

@robert; But there are serious differences. Android is a real open system, a nice gui and infinite possibilities. The iPhone is a closed, very cool gui for snobs, running from a insane genius with a lot of disciples. And Symbian is simply a pile of shit. - Ryo

Androids short comings are the fact that the phone feels like a pile of under developed garbage. The iPhone has a large dev base, but once Adobe releases mobile Flash & god forbid AIR, that game is up. Symbian needs work, but if anyone can make an improvement, it's Nokia - Enrique Gutierrez via twhirl

Aren't we all too focused on the US? Mobile phones are fast proliferating in other parts of the world where Nokia has a strong base and market share.I believe that means a strong Symbian developer base too? Thinking aloud... - kamla bhatt

Kamla: It's been that way forever too. Back in the early 2000's GSM was all the rage with 140+ countries adopting the technology, partly due to poor land line services. Nokia's been ahead of the curve (globally) for ages. - Sociosophy Reviews via twhirl

It's true Nokia has a massive footprint. But many people who have even the S60 smartphones don't even know how to install apps, and you can forget about the S40 users :-). - sixbit

sixbit: I'm assuming you've never used the Nokia Application Installer via PC Suite or Ovi? It's mindless and fast. Also, apps can be installed from the phone-based browser. - Sociosophy Reviews

@ryo I couldn't agree more with you. Apple has done a great job with making apps available but Apple's characteristics limitations restrict it from achieving it's true potential. Android on the other hand has limitless possibilities which will only truly be displayed from 2010 onwards when a lot more devices start coming out without necessarily outdating current gen Android devices. - Bhavishya Kanjhan

What I like about S60 phones is their ability to sync with Lotus Notes (what I use at work). So, I think I will stay with Nokia. - Olivier CASTETS

excellent weather this time of the year - Dave Hodson

"excellent weather" = "bring insulated, waterproof clothing"... - Jules

Nice to have you visiting our fine country for the weekend. Gives me hope that you're maybe able to tell us all about some amazing "something" from the UK. :) - Matthew J Hendrickse

I am here in London for the first time and loving it. Working on getting a visit to Google's HQ with no luck so far. - Johnny Makkar

Bring thermal undies, the weather is atrocious at the moment. Not that it's great under normal circumstances. - KateB

Look forward to hearing what you're up to here Robert - Drew B

welcome. it's a lovely place - Sofia Gkiousou

Robert, nice to have you in London. What about the Sunday meet up, you talked about earlier today? - Bastian

I feel like I haven't seen much of you. When does LeWeb start? - Francine Hardaway via twhirl

Have fun... http://portlanders.ning.com is the best place in the uk ::o) here we have the only olympic site yet to be finished. the sailing. :o) - Rob Sellen

This is for Barcelona? - Paul Denlinger

Yes, Barcelona. - Robert Scoble

Just look at the Container Ship Time Charter Assessment Index. It's down from 1 022 points in February to 416 points. - Marcel Janus

If I may be honest, I'm sick of reading how bad economy is. Heck, what is the economy? Isn't it but the sum of single business and their relations? If a single business is in trouble, then likely because it isn't producing something useful, isn't able to sell it or doesn't have the funding and the stamina to survive the dip. Maybe on the big scale it isn't that different. Maybe we weren't producing the things that we needed. Maybe we didn't build good, strong relationships. Maybe we, as a society, have become crybabies and simple lack the stamina to push through this. - Dushan Wegner

The guy at dinner that Robert mentions was Jordi Soler (@jordisoler). He's really remarkable. He's running a family-owned business that trucks containers around Europe, and is totally plugged into the web tech scene, reading all sorts of blogs, signed up to lots of services, etc. And a really nice guy. - Terry Jones

I'm the guy working at the docks. The Tweetup was excellent and I learned a lot about startups with you guys. As to the economic situation, yes, here in Barcelona times are pretty rough right now. I'm still holding up because I have a little family business, but right now big companies are suffering a lot and firing workers. Business is clearly slowing down and we can only hope that the situation recovers soon. - Jordi Soler

company I work for had a round of layoffs.. thankfully they can't trim the IT dept down any further since there's only 2 of us providing support for our global operations! - alphaxion

Ever ask someone you don't know really well - how's business? I stopped asking because the vast majority of the time all I've heard is "not bad" or "good". All around me I see signs that things aren't good. - Wayne Schulz

Wayne, I ask all the time, and I've been getting "not very good" or "things are slow" from cab drivers and shopkeepers, so while in general that is the response you'll get, it's not the one I'm getting lately. - Chris White

The economy will remain this way until people stop complaining about it, and start doing things to help it. - Spencer

Spencer, kind of like the weather. Seriously, this is not just people complaining, it's people explaining. Getting an understanding of what is happening in a global economy is useful to individuals. IMO, this economy can't be fixed without going through some pain, which includes de-leveraging the over-leveraged economy. This means stop bailing out companies, and stop lowering interest rates and printing money. Real estate is over-bought, and needs to come down in price. - Chris White