Archive for February, 2008
Twitter is not a chat
That statement has been creating some controversy but I will continue to stand by it. Twitter is not a chat. Twitter is a micro-blog, twitter is a broadcast, twitter is NOT a chat. Here’s why:
When I post an update to Twitter, or tweet, it is broadcast to everyone who is following me as well as publicly through the public timeline and my public twitter home page and any and all RSS subscribers of my Twitter account.
The whole @username thing that people use on Twitter to let someone know their tweet is directed to them was never intended by the folks at Twitter and in fact they found it rather irksome. The direct message exists so that you may carry on conversations over Twitter should you chose to do so without broadcasting your entire one on one conversation to the public and anyone following you.
Remember that new feature where you can chose how you see replies? It was put into effect because people got sick of seeing everyone’s public conversations that they shouldn’t have had to as well as all the one sided conversations filling up their SMS and webpage timeline.
Back and forth @ messaging on Twitter is like sitting at a restaurant and being forced to listen to the couple at the table next to you talk too loud about personal things or even worse, you only are on one side of the conversation like being stuck behind someone at the store who is talking on their phone and you can’t help but overhear since you are in line too.
Twitter @ messages aren’t always that uncomfortable. Sometimes there is a public conversation going on or you just want to shout a quick reply from a generally public question… there are many situations where the @ message is perfectly acceptable. When isn’t it acceptable? When that is all you are doing is carrying on a bunch of public conversations that really should be private. There are just some things no one really cares about and once you get too many back and forth @ messages no one really cares that isn’t involved. If you are sending messages back and forth to one or two people on Twitter wouldn’t it be easier to take it to IM rather than trying to keep it to 140 characters or less? Too many @ messages are just as tacky as doing that whole “reply to all” in email when you are talking to just one person on the list.
Twitter is a blog that has implemented extremely short blog post restrictions therefore creating a microblog that users can subscribe to with or without an RSS reader. Twitter is a broadcast mechanism. While some Twitter posts tend to foster conversations, it is still not a chat.
links for 2008-02-16
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In view of your failure to elect a competent President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
links for 2008-02-13
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Build a LAMP environment quick & easy on any OS
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Seriously. Please people.
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LOL
links for 2008-02-10
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Online Police Auctions
Cul-de-sac Propaganda
“I’m boring but overcompensate
With headlines and flash, flash, flash photography”
-FOB “The Take Over, The Break’s Over”
You know that guy, yeah, THAT guy, he talks in cul-de-sacs. He is revered for the things he says he knows and he keeps you guessing as to what genius will pass through those golden lips of his next. He doesn’t talk in circles or he would have been called out long before now. Oh no, he has mastered the art of cul-de-sac propaganda.
His followers are many and he showers a little bit of personal affection and candy coated generalizations on each person who flatters him. A lucky strike or two gets him a winner of a theory and his brain will break free of the monotony and doldrum of the mainstream of “alternate mainstream” thinking. Unable to sustain the feed he slips back into the routine.
Innovation - New Thinking - Transcend - On-demand
The hype and the vaporspeak; riding the coattails of the developers and the hackers and the DIY’ers. You need someone who gets it and he is your man. He is the 2.0 of middle management, a regurgitator with a silver tongue. Same message - modern model. He controls your thoughts by being intentionally vague with positive newspeak.
Hoards of squishy 2.0 groupies fall into their place in line to generate his adsense income. A MLM without the scam watches and Snopes entries. New perspective doldrum dished out in healthy helpings to the starving through every “new media” outlet possible and in person when manageable. The cul-de-sac propaganda machines are everywhere, cookie cutter copies of each other for each tech division imaginable. Live and in person for the generation of privileged early adopter kids like us.
In our “shared culture” can you spot the real from the dozens of fakes?
links for 2008-02-07
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Add a few lines to your site to ensure the longevity of your OpenID account in the event that you change providers or just about any other circumstance.
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5 data/voice cables cut in the ocean
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This free SEO tool will show you what a Web robot gets when it requests a page from your Web server. Use it to check what your CMS’s browser optimization delivers to crawlers. This tool spoofs the HTTP_USER_AGENT imitating search engine crawlers.
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Steps necessary to stop sites from stealing your work. Includes links to DMCA contacts, advertisers, form letters, and more.
links for 2008-02-05
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Blog Catalog
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Download Free Web Design Templates
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Productivity, mobile, and just plain handy webistes and their services.