Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Over the past few months, I’ve slowly become addicted to twitter. What is twitter, you ask? The official definition is this:

Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!

I think a simpler definition is ‘where blogging meets IM’. It’s more personal that blogging, but more anonymous than sending IMs, which to me, is a perfect mix. It’s a great way to blab about what’s going on that second to whomever chooses to listen. Twitter can also be as pervasive as you want: you can simply log onto the site and post every now and again, perhaps checking up on some friends along the way … or, you can have every update sent to your IM client, cell phone, desktop application, or email address. You have the ability to be as involved as you want in this little world.

What I love about all of this is not always what twitter does - more of what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t hit you over the head with 200 different ways to do one thing like MySpace or Facebook have a tendency of doing. You simply post what’s going on, and others can see this information and reply to it if they choose. It’s oddly addicting, and a good way to clean out your head of those little things you might have considered blogging about, but didn’t think would flesh out an entire post.

There have been a few times where I, like in this excellent article about why twitter matters,have used it to quickly find people with a common interest or area of expertise. Instead of sending out IMs to a handful of people to see if they could help me figure out an issue I was having at work, I sent out the APB, and almost instantly i was greeted with a few potential solutions. Sure, I could have done virtually the same thing with a few IMs, emails, or text messages. However, the collective pooling of trivial and non-trivial thoughts that you see amongst the ‘groups’ that spring up in the twitter world make all of that collaboration, socialization, and egotistical behavior so much easier.

I’m aware not everyone who reads this site is really the type of person who would get into something like twitter. But I recommend you check it out - you’ll probably be as addicted as I am after a very short while.

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Posted on July 17th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

From Airbag Industries:

In other words our Commander in Chief has failed (like that’s a big surprise, nothing he has
done has ended in success). In the last seven years we’ve wasted so much money, allowed our lives and freedoms to be disrupted but more importantly we have lost way, way, way too many good men and women in this “fight on terrorism” and yet none of it has resulted in an over-all positive gain. And to think that our last president was impeached because he lied about cheating on his wife just makes our current president’s performance even more absurd.

I guess the question is this: what the hell are we doing in the Middle East? We are weaker and less safe than we were in 2001, and Al Queda is equally as strong, with thousands of recruits joining all the time due to our foreign policy. Maybe this is all just a setup for an increase in the terror level, but honestly, I think that all we’re doing is playing into the hands of those who wish us harm.

Posted on July 12th, 2007 | 7 Comments »

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

I got an iPhone last week. I’ll write more soon.

Posted on July 11th, 2007 | 2 Comments »

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

Today, Bush commuted Libby’s prison sentence - which isn’t exactly a pardon, but might as well be. I’ll admit, I expected a pardon, but this isn’t far off:

Bush’s statement made no mention of the term “pardon,” and he made clear that he was not willing to wipe away all penalties for Libby.

The president noted Libby supporters’ argument that the punishment did not fit the crime for a “first-time offender with years of exceptional public service.”

Yet, he added, “Others point out that a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable.”

Bush then stripped away the prison time.

Nice.

Posted on July 2nd, 2007 | 9 Comments »

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

30 days with ubuntu. - Part 3 of 4.

Click 1 or 2 to see my previous entries.

Week Three

I don’t have any freelance work this week, so I decided to shut down the iMac and see how I held up. I exported all my Aperture photos (just for the sake of putting F-Spot through it’s paces, I will never abandon Aperture for my RAW photography needs), iTunes music, e-mail, and whatnot and wanted to see if, on a day-to-day basis, Ubuntu would hold up.

(more…)

Posted on July 1st, 2007 | 3 Comments »