Using Regular Expressions With Yahoo Pipes
yahoo pipes
Occasionally, you’ll want to manipulate the data you’re working with in Yahoo Pipes. Utilizing Regular Expressions can make the task fairly simple. Here are some great references I found while recently working on such a task. Enjoy! Oh, and if you find any errors, please let me know so I can update this document. **
++ Regular Expressions in Yahoo Pipes
* [http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=operators#Regex official Yahoo Pipes RegEx documentation]
+++ The basics
The RegEx module is one of the most powerful modules in Yahoo Pipes. You can do all kind of data transformations with it. This wiki page here would like to give you a short overview.
**Please note**: Like in the Yahoo Pipes discussions, I put RegEx patterns within square brackets. That way, you can distinguish for example [] and [ ] easily. Please omit the square brackets unless noted otherwise.
+++ The Modifiers
You might have noticed four checkboxes next to each RegEx line. Those are used for modifying the way the RegEx behaves and succeeded the so called “embedded pattern-match modifiers”. But they did not completely replace them.
In fact, you can use the modifiers “I, M, S and X” in embedded notation, while the checkboxes offer the options “I, M, S and G”. So there’s no X for checkboxes while there’s no G for the embedded notification.
The answer is taken from the [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=3410&mid=3414 Yahoo Pipes Discussions] and updated with information from [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4840&mid=4840&tof=1&frt=2#4840 RegEx documentation started].
**What they do**
* **g** allow global matches. set=match every occurence; unset=match only first occurence.
* **i** be case insensitive. set=’A’ equals ‘a’; unset ‘A’ and ‘a’ are treated differently
* **m** treat string as multiple lines. set=’^’ matches every start of string after a \\n and/or \\r . unset=’^’ matches only the very first character in the string.
* **s** allow ‘.’ to match new lines as well. set=’.’ matches ‘\\n’. unset=’.’ does not match ‘\\n’.
* **x** allow white spaces and comments within an expression.
**Embedded Notation**
[http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4415&mid=4415&tof=131&frt=2#4415 Hapdaniel] from the Yahoo Pipes Discussions points out, the original form of specifying those flags is the “embedded notation”. If you prefix your RegEx with a (?x), you’ll set the X-modificator. You cannot set a (?g) that way, though.
**Checkbox Notation**
To activate one of the checkbox-flags, just tick it. You can tick as many flags as you like. Except the X-flag, which apparently is not available as checkbox.
+++ Common patterns
**Matching empty**
What, if you want to match “nothing”? [http://suggestions.yahoo.com/detail/?prop=Pipes&fid=96717 Hapdaniel] has the solution:
* [^(?!.)]
**Matching not empty**
And here’s the opposite, again from the suggestion thread.
* [^(?=.)]
**Removing whitespace**
Sometimes, you’d like to remove all the linefeeds and unwanted spaces out of a field. I usually use a three- to fourfold approach to that. For each of the following replacements, use +g (the global flag)
# replace [\\n] (line feed) with [ ]
# replace [\\r] (carriage return) with [ ]
# (as needed) replace all [
] (html break) with [ ]
# replace [\\s+] (all whitespace occurrences) with [ ]
With 1 and 2, you remove all hard linefeeds. With 3, you remove all “logical” linefeeds (the ones that only get rendered, when the field is interpreted as html). with 4, you make the result more compact. If for example you have 3 or more spaces in a row, those will be reduced to just one space.
**Using reserved characters**
In RegEx, some characters are “reserved”. That means, they are not used literally, but instead used as functions. Examples:
* [.] — one arbitrary character. if +s flag is set, this includes the new-line character (\\n). if +s flag is unset, the dot does not include the new-line character.
* [\\d] — one digit. (0..9)
* [\\n] — new line, like in C
* [\\r] — carriage return, like in C
* [\\s] — one space character. Includes ‘ ‘ and tabs (\\t)
* [^] — beginning of string. If +m flag is set, this matches every start of a line. a line is then defined as something at the very start of the string or something after a new line (‘\\n’). If +m flag is unset, this matches only the very first character of the string.
* [$] — end of string. If +m flag is set, this matches every end of a line. if +m flag is unset, this matches only the very last character of the string.
* [()] — groups. You can use the groups matched in the replacement field. For example replace [(\\d)] with [0$1] results in a leading zero added.
* [[]] — character groups. For example, [123] matches 1, 2 or 3.
* [!\\d] — combination. ! means not, \\d means digit. So one character, being everything but a digit, is matched here
* [\\d*] — ‘*’ means: 0 to n matches. This would match no or up to infinite digits.
* [\\d+] — ‘+’ means: 1 to n matches. At least one. This would match one or more digits.
To “escape” reserved characters, that is to match them literally, you put a backslash in front. For example, matching [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4832&mid=4832&tof=3&frt=2#4832 (twitter)] is possible by using \\(twitter\\).
**Removing html tags**
From a post in the [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4813&mid=4813&tof=5&frt=2#4813 Yahoo Pipes Discussion].
* [<[^>]*>] – please note that this translates to something like <[^>]*> . matches every term that’s within <>.
* [<.*?>] – similar to the first statement, but “lazy match”. Not as efficient.
**Showing Images**
From a post in the [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4654&mid=4654&tof=26&frt=2#4654 Yahoo Pipes Discussion]. Sometimes, one of your field contains just an image URL. You’d like to replace that URL with an image tag, so it is rendered as an image.
* Replace [(.*)] with [<img src="$1" alt="" />]
**Prefixing something**
Sometimes, you’d like to add something in front of a field. For example, to add a “Yahoo: ” in front of every title, you could
* Replace [(^)] with [Yahoo: $1]
$1 matches the first group used (we have only one group in this example). And ^ matches the beginning of the expression.
Source: [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4840&mid=4840&tof=1&frt=2#4840]RegEx documentation started]
**Postfixing something**
And to suffix something, you’d use a $ instead of the ^.
* Replace [($)] with [Yahoo: $1]
Source: [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4840&mid=4840&tof=1&frt=2#4840 RegEx documentation started]
**Translating dates**
What, if you want to change a date of format mm/dd/yy to the ISO equivalent of yyyy-mm-dd ? You could use an expression like this one:
* Replace [(\\d\\d)\\/(\\d\\d)\\/(\\d\\d)] with [20$3-$1-$2]
Here, we have three groups. In the result, I also prefix a “20″ as the year was specified only with two digits.
**Convert to Uppercase**
Also from a [http://discuss.pipes.yahoo.com/Message_Boards_for_Pipes/threadview?m=te&bn=pip-DeveloperHelp&tid=4349&mid=4349&tof=159&frt=2#4349 Yahoo Pipes Discussion]. You can use the \\U flag to convert something to uppercase. For example
* replace [(.*)] with [\\U$1]
**Convert to Lowercase**
No surprise here, you can use the \\L flag to convert something to lowercase
* replace [(.*)] with [\\L$1]
**from a text file online
Lose access to your MySpace profile email address? Send a "salute".
Uh…a salute?
No, not that kind. I recently let a domain expire that I wasn’t using and like a boob, I didn’t update my MySpace email address before it expired. Woops! No big deal, right? I’ll just send in a support request and get the email updated. Not so fast. Apparently, if you don’t have access to your old email address you have to send a support request with a “salute”.
What is a salute? According to MySpace:
To create and send a salute here’s what to do:
- Create a handwritten sign with the word MySpace.com and Include your MySpace Friend/Profile ID number. (Your friend ID is the number after “&friendID=” in your profile’s web address/URL. If you can’t login, you can get this info by clicking on your profile)
- Get a picture taken of you holding the handwritten sign. Be sure the photo is clear and the handwriting is easy to read. If we can’t read the information and see your face clearly, then we will ask for another salute. (If you do not have access to a digital camera, please consider the accessibility of disposable cameras and digital film processing available at most drug stores)
- After you take the pic, send us an email to help@support.myspace.com with the salute attached.
That’s not a bad idea if you don’t have access to your old email address *and* you don’t remember your password. But it makes no sense if you’re logged in. Just because you don’t have access to your old email address doesn’t necessarily follow that you forgot how to login to MySpace.
MySpace, you should let people submit support requests for email address changes while they’re logged-in so they don’t have to create a salute. As “stylish” as the salutes are, requiring them in every case, is completely unnecessary. Seriously, imagine me posing for a salute pic. Ew.
MySpace’s support nomenclature, FTL!
Is anyone even using Myspace anymore other than bands, filmmakers, emo kids, or Lori Drew?
Brooks Bayne – Still Missing In The Twitter Public Timeline
Either @brooksbayne has set twitter to private mode (hiding all messages from public view), or the messages between these users were so far apart in time that we couldn’t connect them.
…or he has NOT set twitter to private mode and he’s still missing from the public timeline.
What if a liberal who worked at Twitter got offended over something you posted and decided to censor you?
What if?
I’m gonna let some of you in on a little secret. I’m a conservative, recovering Libertarian, and self-described Independent. I don’t live in a bunker in some far away “Hickville”. I live in Los Angeles. I’m sure some of the liberals reading this know that L.A. is in California, but, if at the time you’re reading this, you’re too stoned to know, let me assure you that it is.
During the 2008 election cycle, I (@brooksbayne) made some new friends via Twitter – I also made some new “not friends”. Since the election’s been over, I’ve unwittingly become the resident and leading conservative in the L.A. tech scene (does that come with a door prize?). I’m not dogmatic about my views when I discuss issues with the other side. However, I’ve been told that I can be snarky.
One fine morning, about a month ago, a liberal mommy blogger got pissed off at some harmless Motrin ad posted sympathizing with babywearers about potential neck and back pain that wearing babies can cause. This liberal blogger posted some emotional nonsense on Twitter which was subsequently picked up by Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb) and the #MotrinMoms hashtag was created. Feeling quite pleased with herself after her initial #motrinmoms post, Jessica posted this:
Aw, cute, I just wanna pinch her little cheeks. I wonder if she talks to her kids this way while she’s wearing them.
FYI, I really don’t have anything against Jessica, or the aforementioned blogger, but I do think they were overreacting. Apparently, corporations can’t say *anything* about fads without getting unduly slammed for it. That’s right. I said fad. Although there are a few younger conservative women who may have been offended it seems a majority of the uproar was from the liberal corner. I asked my 5000 followers on Twitter, many of whom are conservative, if any were offended by the motrin ad. The only responses I got from my conservative mom followers were “No”. I do know of one young conservative mom who was offended, but she only repeated the #motrinmoms talking points.
You see, babywearing has been around in the conservative circles for many years, and in some cultures it’s been around as long as people can remember. Take a look at the photo below, dated 7/8/1996. Here’s a American conservative wearing a baby over 12 years ago…and it’s a man. Some of you might be thinking, “Damn, Brooks, you must’ve spent a long time trying to find this photo of a male babywearer predating the current babywearing fad on the Interwebz.” Well, actually, for those of you who know me can tell, that’s me in the photo along with my son right after he was born. Yeah, I know a thing or two about babywearing. Back then, the liberals I knew thought we were crazy for babywearing. My, how things have changed. As a babywearer, if ever there were an issue that could be described as a tempest in a teapot, it would be the motrin babywearing ad.
“But Brooks, you can’t say this is some new fad.”
Yes we can!
Let’s take a look at the evidence of how babywearing has trended. We can examine the 3 top resulting websites on Google for the term “babywearing” and the history of their content.
- By Google search rank:
babywearingconference.com – registered 05-jan-2007 – content shortly after. - thebabywearer.com – registered 23-jul-2003 but no babywearing information until September of that year per the Internet Wayback Machine.
- babywearing.com – registered in 30-jul-2001 *but this domain originally pointed to another domain that had *nothing* to do with babywearing when it was registered. In fact, there’s no babywearing information for this domain until late 2004 per the Internet Wayback Machine.
Next, we can look at Google’s blog indexes to gauge the propagation of the term “babywearing” in the blogosphere.
Google blog search has a whopping 5 blog posts indexed between January 2000 and the December 2003. However, from the January 2004 thru December 2007 over 12,000 blog posts were indexed. In 2008 alone, there have been over 35,000 blog posts indexed.
So, based on the above information, we can see the babywearing trend didn’t really get under way until 2004. Where we see a huge upswing in the stats for the term babywearing is in 2008. I wouldn’t say babywearing has “crossed the chasm” just yet.
I know, I know, you’re wondering what this all has to do with the title of this blog post.
Well, the last tweet of mine that was available in the public timeline and in http://search.twitter.com was my snarky tweet in response to the whole overblown Motrin ad debacle. See for yourself: http://search.twitter.com/search?from=brooksbayne
Obviously, as a man who’s been a babywearer for longer than most of these newer upstart women babywearers, I think I would have a valid opinion about the hype over this. However, since posting that tweet, my newer tweets have not been posting to the public timeline and my posts are missing from search too. My Twitter account isn’t hidden/protected by me because you have to select the “protect my updates” checkbox to hide your profile. Mine’s not checked.
I first noticed something was up because I used Qwitter, now defunct, to let me know when people stopped following me. Days went by and all my Qwitter emails referred to that older #motrinmoms tweet of mine. Qwitter would list the last tweet you posted when someone quit following you. Since this was the last tweet of mine that was posted “publicly”, all my Quitter emails referred to it until the time Qwitter had it’s plug pulled by its devs, Contrast. I contacted the guys at Contrast. Here’s that exchange.
I’ve submitted 3 support requests to the folks at Twitter, but they haven’t responded. Twitter did respond to another unrelated support request within a couple days and resolved that issue. Interesting to note is the support request I submitted for this issue. Look at the the line marked (by me) with the red arrow in the pic below where it says “USER IS hidden on public timeline”. My account is obviously not hidden by me. A normal hidden account looks like this secondary account I created: http://twitter.com/bbayne. My primary account isn’t hidden by me. So, how did my account become “hidden” in the public timeline?
I’m one of the the Top Conservatives on Twitter and I can’t post tweets with that group’s hashtag: #tcot. I mean, I can add the hashtag to my tweets, but if any people want to follow that hashtag using tools like Tweetdeck, they won’t see my tweets, because Tweetdeck searches hashtags in the public timeline.
It’s purely coincidental that my last post in the public timeline was regarding #motrinmoms, right? Although, theoretically, it wouldn’t be difficult for the devs to create another Bit column in Twitter’s database and keep people’s posts from hitting the public timeline and search by marking them hidden behind the scenes, but that would be censorship. Is @brooksbayne being censored by a liberal at Twitter who is sympathetic to the #motrinmoms? I have a feeling we’re about to find out.
ShareThis – New Sharing Data
In August, ShareThis released some of their data to give you some insight to where your visitors are sharing to most. Email proved to be the number one destination for sharing activity. Today, they shared the top content categories of the sites that make up the ShareThis sharing network.
Looks like traditional entertainment content is still king.
I met Tim Shigel, CEO of ShareThis at an L.A. TechSet meetup. I like Tim’s vision. I hope Tim keeps sharing what ShareThis is learning.
More Online Ad Nonsense. This Time: Google’s "Masterdebators" Ad
I checked my email in GMail web interface and had yet another silly ad pushed to me from yet another large company’s ad platform. This time it’s Google’s ad platform and not Facebook’s. Google shows ads above the list of emails in your inbox within their web-based interface.
Do Facebook and Google have anyone on their respective ad platform teams who police the adbefore their use in the system? At some point, Google and Facebook will likely face something more than criticism if they don’t do a better job making their ads family friendly. Personally, my skin isn’t that thin, but we do live in an world of lawsuits.
Hypocritical Palin Haters On Twitter
As is probably evident, I’m not a big supporter of Barack Obama. His worldview, which the GOP can’t seem to define, is hopelessly socialist. However, I don’t hate him, or Joe Biden. In fact, I don’t hate anyone.
However, the liberal hate that’s fomented around Sarah Palin is curious. Liberals tout themselves as the “standard bearers” for “tolerance”. So where is the tolerance for Palin? Apparently, it’s gone with last night’s liberal bong water. I can see why liberals wouldn’t like her. She’s pretty, strong, believes in God, married, has great kids and has an 80% approval rating in her state as governor. Although, some secular progressive (SP) women on Twitter keep claiming they are smarter than Palin, but they produce no evidence to support the claim – this includes the SP women I know IRL. To be fair, there are a lot of folks on the other side of the fence that claim Biden is stupid too…oh wait…nm. 
I did a search on Twitter for the terms “Palin” and “Hate” this week right after the mainstream media accused McCain and Palin of hate speech for their questioning of Obama’s past associations.
The image below captured what my search turned up:
I was on my laptop so I didn’t get tons of results in my screenshot, but there were pages of the same sort. All parroting and retweeting the same story with inaccurate information, or plain liberal rhetoric.
A little over a week ago a search for the terms “Hate” and “Palin” was compiled by another blog:
aa86: Watched the debate and hate Palin even more. I don’t want to hear the word “maverick” for quite some time
marigola: Sarah Palin, you are not like me…you’re one of those fucking idiot Lifetime Channel watching hoes I hate…
Najy: dude, everyone and my little brother hate palin. um, me included. dear america: this is what you want? I’m scared.
huettman: MAN does my wife HATE Sarah Palin…might be because she keeps winking at me.
patzy: Hate Palin. If she keeps it up, they are going to revoke our voting rights
ErinaB: I hate palin!!!
chucklenugget: Sarah Palin, I hate her hate her hate her hate her hate her….She sounds like a kindergarten school teacher
johnnycho: #vpdebate The more she tries to be likeable, the more I hate Sarah Palin.
astronomerpants: Sarah Palin I hate you with the fire of a thousand suns.
queenjulie: Hate Sarah Palin, but feel sorry for her now–she’s doing a 90-minute debate in stilletos? My feet ache for her.
ayearatthewheel: WTF!?!?! you twitter fools, Palin, asking if she can call him Joe is proper and polite… FOOLS – ALL OF YOU! btw I hate Palin types.
bloodyscreamo69: i hate palin
bobrio69: god i hate her but palin looks dope tonight #current
televisionarie: oh i just hate sarah palin’s voice and everything else about her so much. so very, very much.
thepete: #VPDebate HATE Palin already. “Hey, can I call you Joe?” “NO BITCH! SHUT UP BITCH!”
bnh: @Phyrdancer ZEITGEIST is some crazy you know what! oh and did I mention I hate palin!
RockCandyRags: I hate Palin’s sarcasm,so unattractive & stupid 4 someone trying to convince ppl to vote for her,but hope she lets it spew during VP debate!
adamjamess: i hate palin
jepowell: What a bitch! http://tinyurl.com/3qfbao (expand
) I hate Sarah Palin…
xoxorho: @revmitcz Great blog! I LOVE the Carl Sagan quote. God I hate Palin. Can’t wait for the Thursday night fights!
nitetooth: I hate palin
donnaschubert: @ricksanchezcnn as a professional woman I hate that palin seems to overly rely on her beauty and charisma rather than her on brains
holecomic: @cadrys Oh. No, I don’t really hate either Obama or McCain. But I think that Palin as president would make us a joke. She’s a clown-veep.
praxisblog: (The fact that there are countless good reasons to hate Palin is more or less a coincidence, I suspect.)
csoto: hate to be harsh but calling sarah palin a tool is an absolute insult to tools…. and elizabeth hasselbeck is a nimrod
The_Norah: I hate stupid women. Stupid men suck, but thats a contained problem. When a woman is stupid, it hurts all women. Ex: Palin, camwhores, etc.
PriyaRaju: The reason I hate Palin so much is, she got picked only because she’s an idiotic woman. I sort of feel betrayed by that jackass.
themia: i hate women who only want to vote for Palin because she has a vagina. Fuck YOU.
ryanrpalkovic: Debates are pointless. They’re both going to ramble off their standard responses. You’re still going to hate palin and love bieden
gregwool: christ i hate being sick. also, sarah palin.
tweelings_en: HATE> I just realized that Palin has made me hate Alaska. I’m sorry Alaska. http://tinyurl.com/3gdtgc (expand
megancharles: What? ‘Axe Diesel Palin‘? I hate you, Mom! http://tinyurl.com/5kscfh (expand
dantekgeek: I just realized that Palin has made me hate Alaska. I’m sorry Alaska.
EveGrey: ooh, I really hate the name Palin now. It sounds so harsh to my wee ears.
NotStyro: I think Biden performed well, while Palin was sloppy and went off-topic to often (and I hate her voice-argh!)
LuliB: hate hate hate hate hate palin (there, i’m staying out of politics now)
pratikp7368: i hate palin
Live_Love_Rock: I hate sarah palin. she makes me ashamed to have my name.
alisaharris: Woman next to me to palin: ‘you’ll kill the f–ng polar bears you bitch! We hate you!’
lesliebot: crud i hate sarah palin
brittanyc: i really hate palin’s snide little smile. rubs me the wrong way.
Ambrose58: i hate Palin #current
jp_abello: I really really hate palin. More than any other politician ever
Haloinc: I hate Palin #current
jamtomorrow: my God I hate Palin’s foksy bullshit.
kufflink: I hate Palin’s glasses tonight. Where are those Tina Fey glasses I love so.
planethunt: I…I hate Sarah Palin.
jenlaughs: hate. palin. so. much.
mdh85: I hate Palin so much. So so much.
am6290: Sarah Palin is a fucking retard! I can’t believe im watching the vice presidential debate. I hate politics!
Dazshia: I hate Palin’s smiling sarcasm. Hate it Hate it!
phatduckk: i hate Palin
Dantcer: RT @verucablue: I hate Palin’s “gosh darn you betcha can I call ya Joe” bull. And if she says reform one more time, I’ll slap her.
Leesie: Is it just me, or is Sarah Palin almost posing while she talks. God I hate that woman! Also: Something amazing just happened <3
nymetsfan: #vpdebate Palin needs to get that grin off her face…im starting to hate her even more
djtanuki: I fucking hate Sarah Palin
jamestinsley: Wow I really hate Sarah Palin.. Go at her Joe!
smugasarug: god i hate sarah palin’s voice
chelseamoylan: stop staring at me palin, i hate chu.
jp_abello: I hate palin
tremorx: @skeet2461 Palin makes the whole country hate hockey moms
gsnail: Loving the Palin hate on Twitter. Shame I can’t watch the debate to watch the fail.
sofistakit: Sarah Palin, I hate you so much..and yet, I want to hold you.
conahan: Man, I hate Palin’s hamburger helper accent.
searingblue: Sarah palin: a big folksy ball of bullshit that makes me hate America. Yeah, that’s right, Sarah palin=the downfall of America
blackjew: VP Debate you would really have to hate America to support Sarah Palin
BettaSmetta: okay, i can finally say something nice about palin … her suit is beautiful …. but i still hate her
Overshee: that was a very short 1:30, but quite good. It only cemented my hate of Palin, I have to say. She’s a cunt. Anyways, biden did a good job
Becco: Wow. I really like Joe Biden a lot. Still hate Palin. Maybe even more than before.
sepiamutiny: Mutineer CoffeeFace: “I now hate alaska, bulldogs, and the sound of Sarah Palin’s voice.”
s0_fam0us: this just in: I still hate sarah palin.
capnjoy: I hate palin more b/c she’s a stupid unqualified woman who is setting feminism back. is that wrong?
hatersonlyhate: The filter of the mainstream media?! I hate you, Palin.
jewcyjuice: I officially hate the word ‘maverick’ and want to bitch-slap the stupid out of Palin. Dear god.
sareeloo2001: I offically hate the word Maverick. McCain is NOT a Maverick. Neither is Palin. She is so full of shit I can smell it from here!!!!!
milestonkin: Sarah Palin makes me hate people
elzombo: “Dog gone it” i hate you Palin.
quartertonality: #current Sarah Palin makes me hate America.
Afficionados_HH: GOD I HATE PALIN you bimbo Satan Anti-Christ hideous idiot, man and Dinos together I’ve seen evidence you f-wit.
dekkerdreyer: Palin reminds me of my elementary school teachers and I hate her for it.
grindz145: I fucking hate politics (and palin) what ever happened to punk rock and vigilante justice?
NewMonarch: I really hate Palin’s fake perky voice. Very belittling.
lyrica42: Sarcasm will get you nowhere Palin, except in my heart with a bit more hate.
K_Knight: It’s so obvious I’m not into how Washington works??? Palin, I hate you…but I don’t agree with suicide #current
Chorazin: #current God I hate Palin.
jzay: jews hate sarah palin, sez the jewess sitting next to me
jeffd44: Dear palin, I fucking hate you
esaitta3: I HATE SARAH PALIN!!! #current
jesuiseval: I hate Sarah Palin. I hate her shit eating grin and her condescending tone. You NEED to play a drinking game to watch this debate.
ben_h: Sarah Palin: I don’t hate many people, but I hate you.
dominicdb: Biden is a beast. i’m pro-him. and frankly, though i hate the hell out of her, Palin is killing it on some Palin shit. which sucks.
fleep: #vpdebate I just can’t help it, I HATE Palin’s constant folksy crap.
BroomBox: I HATE PALIN
kristynmarie: I hate Sarah Palin. The woman is a twit!
sethgoldstein: my god i hate palin’s accent
thatgamergirl: hahahaah, watching as I pack! “Team of Mavericks” Gotta love to hate Palin.
hapagirl: Officially hate Palin. It’s Nook-LEE-are, not Nook-YOU-lear. Dammit.
RidleyGriff: Very interesting – according to CNN focus group, women HATE Palin and love Biden. #current
Dazshia: Sorry but Palin reminds me of some cheesy-bimbo-political cartoonish personna! Plenty of comic material there!!
Veronica19: Pakistani President had a fatwa issued on his head for flirting with Palin. Now we know, she winked and he tapped her too
susankirbysmith: Palin is an idiot
dswinder: Sarah Palin is just flat out unintelligent.
lisahubbert: Palin is still trying to become the Prom Queen. Grow up.
cameragrrl: Learned from the debate tonight: I hate Palin more than Dubya.
makesmewant: sarah palin makes me want to vomit. her ridiculous grasp of the constitution is just horrific.: sarah palin makes me want to v..
Sparky6768: Ugh. I hate Palin SO much.
Wow…I’m guessing you see a difference. Previously, the liberal Everyman didn’t have his talking points from master mainstream media. It’s clear there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy on Twitter amongst the liberal Everyman. You publicly engage in hateful writing (and I’m guessing you speak it too when offline, I’ve heard some of you) toward Sarah, and as soon as your liberal mainstream media masters give you a talking point, you attack Sarah claiming she’s a hater.
The problem is that Sarah Palin didn’t state that she hated anyone, nor did she imply that she hated anyone, unlike all you people who posted your hate 
publicly and directly toward her on Twitter so there would be no room for uncertainty. Sarah simply called into question Barack Obama’s judgment over his relationships. This is a perfectly valid point to raise.
Imagine if John McCain sat on a board with Timothy McVeigh (srsly, imagine the Twitterverse if that were the case), or went to David Duke’s church (if he were a pastor), you would want those relationships called into question, right? I would. Why don’t any of you want Obama’s relationships investigated. Hypocrisy? Fear that the world will find something that will destroy your agent of “Change”? The more we dig the more we find that Barack hasn’t been truthful (i.e. “Ayers is a guy in my neighborhood”, “I never worked for Acorn”, etc.). If there were a real concerted effort, by the mainstream media, to truly investigate this guy, we might find a whole lot more. We’ve only scratched the surface of vetting this man, IMO. Personally, I’d like to see Obama’s college records that he refuses to release. What else is Barack hiding? Again, questioning Barack’s past is not hate.
Even if Sarah did claim to hate someone, most of you have disqualified yourselves to say anything about it and have anyone take you seriously. That’s a real life example of hypocrisy for some of you.
I’d encourage anyone with any semblance of intelligence to ignore the likes of haters. Don’t get caught up in their dark sad world. Haters typically can’t be reasoned with due to their inability to override their internal fool. You don’t have to like Sarah Palin, but you shouldn’t hate her either.
Brooks Bayne – Innovate, Iterate or Obliterate
It happens all the time. A business or a product fails, and we’re surprised by it. Still with us is the old-school holdover of your dad’s world and its view that the only viable product came from the innovators and the executive teams who groomed those innovators. Product development was king and customer development, if even discussed, was considered frivolous.
Recently, here in L.A., we had a very public example of the holdover giving us a wink. Andrew Warner, the creator of Mixergy, squeezed out a vid to publicly out his “failure” with Mixergy. I don’t know Andrew very well, but I do like his jackets. I don’t want to talk about Mixergy in the context of failure. My good friend and associate, Chris Gammill, danced with the ugly step-sister of failure here. I’d like to think that Andrew iterated and didn’t fail.
For this blog post, I’d like to draw attention to the balance between innovating and iterating. There will 
always be innovations. There will always be iterations of those innovations. In my experience, where the disconnect occurs with many companies, but especially the smaller ones, is the lack of understanding of what drives iteration. You have the innovation, the idea, and you release to the world. Then what? You have to develop the customer, not only your idea.
I worked with a founder in my last company, who thought all development resources should be spent innovating with every release cycle. The problem with this is that the customer never gets a product revision that meets their needs. As soon as a product is released, the customer needs to be engaged. Period. The customer profile that you’ll need to engage is the early adopter and the evangelist. I don’t know if Andrew engaged those two types of customers, but I do know that many people in the community, including me, had no idea that Andrew was developing Mixergy to be a competitor to Evite.
When we create a product or service we get so focused we “can’t see the forest for the trees”. Even large companies deal with this problem. My friends at Microsoft, for example, refer to the “Redmond bubble”.
My challenge with understanding customer development started back in 1997 when I was a new CEO brought in to replace one of those old-schoolers who couldn’t execute in a new space. I recall trying to get beyond the standard projections in a spreadsheet to a real world method of meeting those projections. With a startup, in a new space, trying to crystal ball what you’re gonna do in 12 months, not to mention 3-5 years out, is usually an exercise in futility. Through research and experience I found that customer development was a missing component.
Most companies can’t effectively engage the early adopters and evangelists. If that’s the case, how can they then expect to cross the “chasm” that exists between those early customer types and the mainstream market? And if they can do neither, what’s the point of the projections?
I’d like to see more new companies and entrepreneurs demonstrate that they know how to engage and
communicate with the early adopter and evangelists. Without those early customers you don’t have a business. Based on my experience, I’m certain most advisors, directors and investors don’t understand that engaging early adopters and evangelists requires a different method of engagement than crossing into the mainstream customer. Don’t assume this is understood – it usually isn’t. Most attention in the early stages is on the innovation.
Innovation has to be supplemented. This means greater transparency, communication and consideration of your customers.
Good luck, entrepreneurs!
Connect with me on twitter (@wolfsbayne) or at my blog (www.brooksbayne.com).
Burninate,
Brooks Bayne
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Facebook, Are You Cindy McCain’s Pimp? Bang Who?
You know the morning routine (order varies by day).
- Check email
- Check phone
- Check 15 social networking sites
Well, yesterday morning I was checking site number 2 of the 15 social networking sites as part of my current social graph activities. For me, site number 2 is Facebook. As I’m checking my friends’ activity steams, I noticed this little “gem” of an ad in Facebook’s lower left ad placeholder.
Aw, how cute? Imagine if this had been Obama’s wife. Hmm…Bang Mrs. Obama…
This weekend, I tweeted about the difference in Obama and McCain’s number of supporters on Facebook not reflecting what current youth vote polls show. The polls show the youth vote is near tied even though McCain trails with 162,599 supporters on Facebook compared to Obama’s 1,113,905 supporters (still wonder how many of those are real ppl). In my tweet, I also poked fun at social media not delivering in the youth vote polls even though Barack has nearly 10 times the supporters on Facebook. Maybe, in some cases, this “social media thing” really is about substance and not just numbers.
One thing of which I’m certain is this – if the ad had used Michelle Obama rather than Cindy McCain as the object, you would have likely already heard about this by now. At least a few of the 1mil+ supporters of Obama on Facebook would’ve seen the ad and tipped off a firestorm of racially motivated noise all over the blogosphere. MSNBC woulda ran this as a breaking tech news story and it would still be on the newscasters’ teleprompters today – k, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. Today, still not even a blip about Cindy. I’m guessing I’m the one who will break this “news” and you probably won’t hear about it again, unless I know you personally and we talk about it the next time I see you.
So, even if the larger numbers of political supporters on Facebook, or more generally, within the social graph, doesn’t translate to leveling the political playing field, it surely helps one with reputation management. More eyes always means more whistle-blowers.
Personally, for the record, Cindy McCain is cuter than Michelle Obama, but the ad was ridiculous and Facebook should police its ads better. So much for the theory of tuning out online ads as some ppl say we are conditioned to do now.
Signal Patterns’ Personality Patterns Service – Let’s Play 20 Questions, Or More
Personality Patterns take you through a battery of questions to arrive at conclusions about you. How many questions? When I finished the first question the status complete percentage showed 1%, when I finished the second question I noticed 2%, same with the third question – 3%. Can you determine a pattern here? That’s right…there were 100 questions in this personality assessment. I know there are reasons for the number of questions, but it’s not so bad when you consider an assessment like Myers-Briggs or Keirsey. I wonder how accessible a 100 question test is for use in the social space when most people want “instant”. If an examination of your personality would uncover that you have no patience, you’re likely never to find out with a lengthy battery, because you’ll quit before you finish. I think I just amused myself a bit…
Assertive
You behave in a confident and forceful manner, take charge of the situation, raise your hand in class, stand up for what you think is right, and lead others.
You are not interested in fading into the woodwork, leaving everything to fate, taking more time than necessary to accomplish a task, or avoiding confrontation.
Among those who have a high score on the “assertive” trait, many have jobs in which they are valued for their organizational skills as well as their talent for supervising others.
Innovative
You come up with a lot of ideas; if one doesn’t work out, there’s always another waiting in the wings. You often have interesting solutions to difficult problems. You’re practically a one-person brainstorming session.
You are less interested changing the world than in dealing with things as they are. Unlike those who spend all their time trying to solve problems, you prefer to zero in on things that work and
stick with them.Creative
You are good at solving problems, coming up with original ideas, and seeing connections between things, connections that most other people miss.
You do not shun abstractions and concepts in favor of the concrete and tangible.
People with a high score on the “creative” trait often are employed in such fields as finance and scientific research, and enjoy avant garde and classical music as well as literary fiction and scholarly non-fiction.
Astute
You are a quick study. You generally don’t need to have things explained to you more than once. When presented with a problem, you will often have an instant understanding of where to look for the solution.
You do not take your sweet time when presented with a new task to complete or problem to solve. You don’t avoid assignments that require you to learn new skills.
Intellectual
You are thoughtful, rational, and comfortable in the world of ideas. People find you interesting to talk to. You’re the living embodiment of the saying “You learn something new every day.”
You do not avoid abstract conversation, experimenting with new ideas, or studying new things. It bores you to stick to the straight and narrow of what you already know.
In general, those with a high score on the “intellectual” trait are employed in such fields as teaching and research, and are enthusiastic about reading, foreign films, and classical music.
Accessible
You’re comfortable expressing yourself in words and actions, with no self-censorship. You believe that if someone doesn’t like what they see it’s not your problem, but theirs.
You don’t see the need to keep your thoughts to yourself, or to have a zone of privacy that encompasses only yourself and a small circle of friends and relatives.
A high score on the “accessible” trait suggests that you have a lot of friends, socialize often, and enjoy rap/hip-hop music.
Optimistic
You are a “glass half-full” kind of person, always on the lookout for the silver lining. Your happiness is contagious, which is why others like to be around you.
You do not feel that the world is an intrinsically depressing place; you are not the kind of “realist” who thinks that only fools find joy in life.
Competent
You strive to master everything you undertake. You tend to learn quickly and do not shy away from challenges.
You are not a “que sera sera” type of person, nor do you go easy on yourself when attempting to master a new skill or get a job done.
Empathetic
You are in touch with your own feelings, which helps put you in touch with the feelings of others.
You don’t buy the logic that your happiness comes ahead of everyone else’s because unless you’re happy you’re incapable of making anyone else happy.
Organized
You like to think a task through before you embark on it. If it’s the slightest bit complicated, you make a list (even if it’s only in your mind) and methodically work your way through it. When you have a goal in mind, you’re not satisfied until you reach it.
You are not one of those people who ignore the details, and you don’t understand how anyone can get anything accomplished without thoughtful planning ahead of time.
I’d love to see the negative corollary provided too – you know, the presentment that services like this won’t tell you outright. That would be a hoot! “Lazy, co-dependent, prone to compulsive behavior…”
Anyway, you can also get a stylish (bah) badge to embed on your own sites.
Personality Patterns is one of a handful of social personality assessments starting to surface. I’m banking on seeing more uptake of these services in the coming months and years. There’s an obvious benefit you can add to the social graph heading down this road. I’ll be blogging about behavior and recommendations and their effect on the social graph shortly.
I’ll take a look at Signal’s Music Personality service soon. For now, I’m gonna relax after celebrating these united States’ birthday due to copious BBQ and Jack Daniel’s.
Take the assessment and share your results in my FriendFeed Visualizations room.
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