Can you help with my Quora addiction? (My favorite questions)

So far on Quora I’ve answered 332 questions, mostly in the past month or so.

Now, some people are wondering why I’m spending so much time there and not on my blog. I’m having a tough time answering that, other than it’s easier to write when someone asks a question and it’s just hanging out there to answer. Plus, there’s the interplay of other people’s answers, the voting, the commenting, etc that I just wouldn’t get here.

It HAS become my main blogging place.

Lots of you are signing up as well, I’ve gotten more than 14,000 followers, most in the past three weeks.

Of course I don’t need to worry about monetizing my blog. If I did worry about that, then I guess I would feel more impelled to spend time here, rather than there.

Keep in mind my first reaction to Quora was to ignore it and try to keep using other tools, like Twitter or Google Buzz. That was back in July, how times change!

The cartoon above? Just seemed to fit this blog post. It was done by Hugh Macleod for Rackspace in a post titled “not everybody’s cut out for ‘normal.’”

Here’s some of my favorite questions that I’ve given answers to:

Is having a blog useful in 2011? Why?

Is Robert Scoble an investor in Quora (And does he get compensated by Quora)?

What platform should I choose to develop? (Android/iOS)

Why does Apple gets more media coverage than any other companies?

What are the coolest things from the 2011 CES?

If RSS is dead, what’s next?

Will Google figure out social?

What events in 2011 have the most potential to be the introduction ground for transformative and disruptive technologies?

Got any advice for startups launching at SXSW 2011?

What do users want on a location based app?

What apps should every journalist have on their iPhone?

Should I move my Rails app from Heroku to Rackspace? If so, why?

How will Xbox Kinect evolve gesture based interfaces?

What are the must-have iPad apps? Why?

What are the must-have iPhone apps? Why?

How would you make Path better than Instagram?

What do you like about Cinch?

Why does Twitter enjoy such success in comparison to FriendFeed, Plurk, Buzz or any of the others?

Why haven’t list features on Facebook and/or Twitter caught on?

Does it frustrate employees at Google / Yahoo / Microsoft / Facebook that they can’t genuinely speak up on the Internet and are compelled to do so anonymously (self-censorship), in most cases?

How do TechCrunch, Mashable, RWW and other influential tech blogs get their news/sources? And how much do they reward/pay their sources, if any?

What are the best sources for original tech news?

How do companies apply social media to customer service?

How do I get blogs to post about my startup?

What are some tips for getting your startup featured on TechCrunch, Mashable, and other tech blogs?

Is the “Scoble Effect” on startups real or imaginary?

What is the key to achieve success as a startup outside the Valley?

Who are the most influential people in the Valley?

Which Quora users have the most followers?

Why is Quora better than Facebook Questions or Linkedin Answers?

Will Quora suffer from the chat room/forum problem?

For an amateur concert photographer, which DSLR is recommended?

If I’m not happy with life, should I commit suicide?

Besides developing Building43 and hunting down new exciting web-startups, what do you actually do at Rackspace?

How does a busy man like you find so much time to answer so many questions and be so approachable? Does your day have 72 hours?

What are some good strategies for dealing with information overload?

What is the most magical software?

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Woz’s tour through computing history (and his favorite iPhone apps)

This morning was a real thrill for me. Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, gave me, and about 20 other journalists, a tour through computing history while giving us a sneak peak at the 25,000-square foot new “Revolutions” exhibit, which opens January 13th. Here’s a panoramic photo of Woz doing an interview in front of the Apple I inside the personal computer exhibit, which is only a small part of the Revolutions exhibit. It wasn’t lost on me that I was the first one to use the new Occipital iPhone app, just released this week, to make this image.

Harry McCracken has a great writeup of the Woz part of the tour. Go and read that.

Next week we’ll have our videos of this event, plus a private interview Woz gave us, up on Building43.

It was a great thrill talking with Woz again. For those who don’t know, he really got me started in technology journalism, both by being my first celebrity interview (I met him while we both took classes together at West Valley Community College) but later I talked him into donating $40,000 worth of Macs (back in 1989) to our journalism department and Rich Cameron, the journalism teacher back then, made me set them up and learn how to make them really work. It was the best educational experience I’ve ever had and one I’ll always be in debt to both Steve and Rich for.

I talked with Woz about growing up in Cupertino, just a short distance from Apple Computer (now just called, well, “Apple”) and I told him I helped Hyde Jr. High unbox its first Apple II computers back in 1977 (I was in the first computer club back then) and that my mom worked for Hildy Licht building Apple II mother boards (she hired me to stuff the boards — I earned a few cents allowance for each one we did).

Anyway, the new museum exhibit is pretty damn cool. If you are a geek it’s a must-visit. Bring a kid and try to inspire him or her to do the next innovations.

Here’s an audio interview I did with the museum’s CEO, John Hollar, right after Woz gave us his tour.

We’ll be there for the official opening on January 13th, too (there’ll be another press preview on January 11th — none of the exhibits today were finished, so it’ll be interesting to see it after it’s all put together).

Of course, at the end, I asked Woz which iPhone apps he likes the most. Siri, he started out. One of my favorite interviews this year was done with the team that funded Siri.

I’ll get back in touch with him to talk more about iPhone apps he uses. He was being pulled to do something else, and we didn’t get to cover that in enough depth. Anyway, what a day and what a great museum.

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Bruce Willis & Rebecca Hall Circle ‘Lay The Favorite’

Bruce Willis and Rebecca Hall are the current favorites to star in Stephen Frears’ latest directorial effort.

The film is an adaptation of Beth Raymer’s gambling memoir Lay The Favorite.

Deadline reports that D.V. DeVincentis has written the script for the “dramedy” which shows how Raymer became involved with geeky gamblers who worked out how to “fix” the Las Vegas sports book system.

However, it remains to be seen if Willis and Hall will actually sign on the dotted line.

Willis has been circling Wes Anderson’s Moon Rise Kingdom and a new film with 50 Cent called Set Up. The Die Hard star has regained some box office power after top-lining the box office hit Red, which also starred John Malkovich and Helen Mirren – both of which have worked with Frears in the past.

Hall, meanwhile has been getting a lot of heat lately following her turn opposite Ben Affleck in The Town. She’s currently being eyed by Baz Luhrmann for the role of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.

Lay The Favorite sees Frears return to the sort of world that he inhabited with con-artist drama The Grifters twenty years ago. The Grifters starred John Cusack, a close friend of DeVincentis, who in fact wrote the adaptation of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity that starred Cusack – which was directed by Stephen Frears. Might there be a role in Lay The Favorite for Cusack?

Frears, as a director seems, to switch from one genre to another with ease. His resume is littered with a variety of films including gothic horror in Mary Reilly (not his finest hour), comedy like Tamara Drewe, costume drama with Dangerous Liaisons, and political films like The Queen.

Focus Features and Random House Films will produce the feature, and I imagine that if they don’t get Willis or Hall for these roles, then they might look for actors of similar stature, an established older star and a young, up and comer.

Whatever happens with Lay The Favorite, you can sure to find out here at Screen Rant.

Source: Deadline

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