theFerf – Page 38 – Chris McIntyre

Amy and her New Scooter

Posted on February 18, 2006 by theFerf

So, Amy has seen the benefit of 2 wheel transportation here in San Francisco. When she first got here, I had my old motorcycle and took her everyplace. It is amazingly easy to find parking for motorcylcles and scooters in the city.

So when we went to buy my new motorcycle, we decided that Amy needed a scooter too. Scooters are pretty cheap, I was surprised. None the less, to the point. Click the link below to see a 10 photo set of Amy posing with her new scooter.

** NOTE **
Last weekend Amy and I both took a motorcycle safety course. She decided to take the motocycle course, and not the scooter course for the experience. It was funny to see (sorry no pictures) her riding a motorcycle and she did really well. Anyway, enjoy the photos.

See the Whole Set

This Photo taken by theFerf

The Nature of Social Networks and its Participants

Posted on February 17, 2006February 17, 2006 by theFerf

The nature of why social networks work is an interesting beast and Im always excited to join in conversations regarding them. My experience with 95% of these networks is that they do not maintain my interest past a day or two even if I am REALLY trying to pay attention.

So what makes a them sticky and what keeps the users coming back? Maybe it is possible I just havent found MY social network yet. According to an article I read today (from the leader of the Yahoo! Technology Dev Group), 1% of any given group starts something (creates the initial content), 10% participate (adding to the pile) and everyone else just lurks (reads). I lurk at MySpace, I lurk at TagWorld, I lurk at Yahoo Groups…but I have never wanted to become the 1% or 10% (for the most part) at these places. Maybe something will come in podcasting where I could be the 1% or 10%.

As Yahoo! has been gobbling up many social media sites over the past year (Flickr, upcoming, del.icio.us) I often get asked about how (or whether) we believe these communities will scale.

As an example take Yahoo! Groups.

* 1% of the user population might start a group (or a thread within a group)
* 10% of the user population might participate actively, and actually author content whether starting a thread or responding to a thread-in-progress
* 100% of the user population benefits from the activities of the above groups (lurkers)

There are a couple of interesting points worth noting. The first is that we donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t need to convert 100% of the audience into Ã¢â‚¬Å“activeÃ¢â‚¬Â participants to have a thriving product that benefits tens of millions of users. In fact, there are many reasons why you wouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to do this. The hurdles that users cross as they transition from lurkers to synthesizers to creators are also filters that can eliminate noise from signal. Another point is that the levels of the pyramid are containing – the creators are also consumers.

Elatable Ã‚Â» Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers

Electric Bus Depot

Posted on February 17, 2006 by theFerf

Wandered past this giant re-charge station for San Franciscos electric bus brigade and found it interesting. Its hard to tell but there is basically a giant wired grid over the entire lot allowing the buses to sit and charge (i assume they are charging).

This Photo taken by theFerf

Bust your next employer, win $50K from the BSA

Posted on February 16, 2006 by theFerf

Make money fast! Listen up friends and family, cash in now on the employers you hate!

Step 1. Every Office has Pirated Software. Find it.
Step 2. Install it
Step 3. Call the BSA and blame it on your boss
Step 4. Take the year off!

Bust your next employer, win $50K from the BSA BoingBoing reader polymorf says, “Job-search website Dice.com appears to be in cahoots with the Business Software Alliance (BSA). They’re offering potential employees a big reward if they narq out their next potential employer for software piracy.”

>> From Boing Boing