WEBVTT

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 Hey, it's Dave Winer here,

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 doing a little cinch task,

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 which is something -- excuse me

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,

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 whoa.

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 Whoa, I should clear your

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 throat before you start one of

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 these things.

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 It's a service that Blog Talk

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 Radio does, where you just call

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 the mod and they record

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 whatever you say into the phone

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 becomes an MP3 that shows up in

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 your RSS feed, and then

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 you can take it and do with it,

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 please.

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 So this -- and they're really

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 good for like, if you have a

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 quick idea, like right now.

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 See, I think Facebook has to be

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 thinking about more vertical

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 products, products that are

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 to do what the general purpose

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 version of the product does,

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 but only works with Facebook.

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 And because when you create a

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 product that has limited

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 functionality, you can make it

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 easier.

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 Generality costs these views,

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 and it goes the other way.

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 So if you take a general

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 product, and now it's a target,

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 then you can make it easier.

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 And for a lot of people, as

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 much as, you know, we don't

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 like this, they see the

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 Facebook

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 and the Internet are basically

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 the same thing, and it's more

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 and more of that is happening

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 and a lot of smart people who

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 really ought to know better

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 that it isn't good for their

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 livelihood to go that way are

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 basically going ahead and doing

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 it that way.

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 And Facebook encourages this,

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 and it's understandable that

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 they do, because their whole

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 strategy

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 is based around this idea that

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 they start -- they just suck in

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 functionality.

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 Because the general

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 functionality gets sucked in,

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 made specific to Facebook, and

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 therefore

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 is easier, but is more limited.

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 So they have an email that's

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 just for Facebook users, and

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 they have a chat that's just

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 for

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 Facebook.

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 They, you know, they made the

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 flicker, and it was just for

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 Facebook, right?

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 All those things are easier.

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 And I had a sort of flash when

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 I was at Queen's Day in

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 Amsterdam last month, and I was

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 hanging

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 out with a group of people that

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 were, you know, part of the

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 people, the people who put on

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 the next web conference, and Sc

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obal, and then there were a few

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 other people floating around.

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 And this created a little

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 social network, and we were

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 using our, you know, even

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 though

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 we were, like, getting pretty

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 high, we were using our, you

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 know, our tools to basically

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 try to stay in contact with

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 people using basically text

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 messaging, and that was all we

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 got available

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 to us.

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 And it became really clear that

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, well, you know, here's, you

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 know, five years from now,

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 we won't be using tools that

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 are this primitive.

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 We will have this idea of an ad

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 hoc social network that forms

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 for one day, and just self-form

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s.

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 It notices that we're all, like

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, in the same proximity, we're

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 moving with each other, right?

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 And they know our names, and,

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 you know, somewhere on the

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 network there's some agent that

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's watching

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 this group of people form and

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 seeing some of the text

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 messages to each other, and

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 boom,

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 sooner or later, there's an

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 option that pops up and says, "

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We figured it out.

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 You're hanging out with this

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 group of people.

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 Would you like us just to

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 communicate with all of them?"

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 And you say, "Yeah, sure," and

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 everybody goes for it.

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 And now you can do a better job

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 of coordinating, and it really,

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 the world's going to work that

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 way someday.

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 And Facebook's on their way to

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 doing that.

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 If they're not, then somebody

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 else is going to do it.

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 And what that leads to is a lot

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 more vertical integration, and

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 if that's their vision of

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 Facebook, I'm pretty sure that

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's what they're thinking, then

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 they've got to be doing a

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 browser.

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 Why?

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 Because there are computers out

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 there that run browsers, and

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 they need to get that vertical

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 experience, too.

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 So, you know, Matthew Ingram

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 asked the right question, and

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 he said, "Well, why would I

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 want to use one of these things

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?"

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 I'm paraphrasing, and my answer

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 is basically, "No, you wouldn't

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 want to use it, nor would

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 I, until the day that you were

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 able to concede that the

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 Internet equals Facebook, and

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 Facebook

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 is the Internet, and that's

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 just the way it is."

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 Once you're there, of course,

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 we'll use whatever Facebook

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 tells us to use.

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 But I'm going to be dragging my

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 kicking and screening to that

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 future, and I'll probably

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 be the one guy out there who

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 says, "Well, you know, back in

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 the day," and they'll all

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 be going, "Well, that's nice,

00:04:49.050 --> 00:04:49.500
 Dave.

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 Thanks so much for witnessing

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 how it was back then.

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 Now, we're just going to keep

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 on doing what we're doing."

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 So, anyway, I wrote a piece

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 today, you know, obviously

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 Facebook's doing a browser.

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 It's so obvious.

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 It's obvious that Google was

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 doing one before.

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 You just get to a certain point

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 in the maturity of, you get to

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 be a mega-company, and that's

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 how the mega-companies are

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 going to fight this battle.

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 This is a point where you get

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 these wars, and we're going to

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 have these wars now.

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 And I didn't bring it on.

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 I'm not asking for it.

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 I'm certainly not participating

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, and I'm more like, you know,

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 just doing what I do

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 and trying to pretend that

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 nothing bad is happening, but

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 we're at that stage where there

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's

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 so many giant companies out

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 there, and there are just two

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 or three that are very giant.

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 Three, really, Facebook, Google

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, Apple, those are the three.

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 First, I really don't have a

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 whole lot to say in it.

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 They're not going to do

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 browsers, but all three of them

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 are going to have browsers.

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 In fact, two of the three

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 already do, and nobody is going

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 to care about MSIe, and

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 probably,

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 I care about Firefox.

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 I use Firefox.

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 I think that by using Firefox,

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 I'm doing something good for

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 the net.

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 I hope that I am.

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 I don't think they're

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 particularly nice people, but

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 that's not the point.

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 I mean, the point is we need to

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 have choice and open source

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 stuff that isn't owned by

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 these big companies.

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 That's good stuff, basically,

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 whatever.

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 Anyway, that's my thought for

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 Sunday afternoon.

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 Hopefully, I haven't rambled on

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 too long, and see you all real

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 soon.