Flynn is posting a teaser from Japan that a bunch of upcoming Gargamel sculpts will "blow people's minds" So he can bash that out on a cell phone keyboard, while waiting for a train, and broadcast it around the world and not to just a static closed email list or to a grumpy bulletin board. It spreads virally among users.
That dude's a fucking retard. Ding dong ditch Ted Turner... I'm signing up right now. The more popular this social networking gets the more I want to retreat into a cave and live the quiet life of a hermit. It's bad enough all the girls in my office are on Facebook all day long trying to show me their photo albums and I have to fake interest in their social lives. I might miss a few S7 exclusives or specials, but oh well.
And back in 1994 could you ever imagine getting video streams across the net? Everything was shitty static home pages with maybe a flash intro page. Drink the kool-aid!!!! Charlene Shiherlis: What else are you selling? Sgt. Drucker: All kinds of shit. But I don't have to sell this and you know it, 'cause this kind of shit here sells itself.
This is a historical event and quote that I'm probably completely mangling, and if someone can correct me on the specifics please do so, but here it goes: way back when the telephone was just emerging, and they made the connection between Delaware and Pennsylvania (or wherever), there was a governor (or something) of one of those states who said something to the effect of, "Well, now both states can talk to one another instantaneously. Do we have anything to say?" Every once in a while things like Twitter emerge and I feel exactly like that guy. There's nothing about Twitter that's revolutionary. It's evolutionary in the respect that it's just a refinement of existing Web-based technologies from blogs and social networking sites. For years we've had things like RSS feeds to provide up-to-the-minute updates, the ability to browse and post information from mobile devices, etc. What I think makes Twitter de-evolutionary is the format of the messaging. Anything you say is limited to 140 characters. It almost seems tailor-made to limiting communication, forcing the user to say less. To me, the advantage of the internet is that it's a medium that eliminates traditional restrictions of time and space that previously limited communication in other forms of media, so why impose that limit? What Twitter does have going for it right now is that it's trendy. Everyone who screwed around on MySpace and then abandoned that for Facebook is now moving there. If toy folks like Brian want to Twitter, that's cool, but it doesn't really make sense to me. In Brian's case, he already had a web site with a blog and a message board to spread news. What's the real advantage for him and others like him to use Twitter? What's the advantage to us? To me it's just one more thing I have to bookmark somewhere. (This post has been brought to you by the Horse and Buggy Consortium.)
...who all won't be able to spell or talk properly... 'oh noes! it's borken der interwebs!' kthxbai...
lol! yeah, pretty soon we'll just be plugging our phone/ipod/computer/alloftheabovecombinedintoonestampsizeapp into the little gap you have surgically opened behind your ear. No need for bluetooth anymore!
Roger...along with that post, you'll have to do one on leet speak as well. Twitter seems to be perfect for leet speakers. I like that Twitter has a small character count. It does force you to say less, but it also forces you to get to the point. For some people, that's great because I know that there are those that like to just ramble on and on. Revolutionary? No. Evolutionary? I think so. De-evolutionary? I'm not too sure. I'll need to dwell on your words a bit...and then post something on Twitter about it...hahahaha I like what you're saying Roger. Especially the tag at the end about the Horse and Buggy Consortium.
I'll preface this by saying I'm somewhat of a luddite as I don't own a cell phone and I can't stand all these people texting while walking on the sidewalks. I also don't own a MP3 player or any other gadgets. On my subway commutes, I see all these people juggling these gadgets and have to laugh at them. I'd much rather be alone with my thoughts or reading a paper or a book. Analog stuff. But.... "640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981 The 140 character limit is a function of SMS. More characters would make SMS impossible. Also if there was no limit to messages, then you'd have feeds of just pages and pages of text without the ability to scan. Also alot of tweets link to blogs or other sites so if you want to drill down or get more detail you just follow the link. I agree that it's trendy with senators and tv talking heads name dropping it. But I also see it as facebook outdid myspace which outdid friendster which outdid, I dunno, bulletin boards? Also facebook must see something there as they attempted to buy twitter for $500 million but the deal fell through. Meanwhile facebook has started to mimic twitter's streams. From my perspective, I no longer need to bookmark certain sites or remember to go to certain sites. It's all pulled into one river of information that I can scan or filter or ignore. Instead of having a dozen rss feeds, everything flows into one. I constantly forget about that S7 blog cause it's hidden somewhere on the store site. If they blasted out updates on Twitter, it would find me versus me having to remember to chase it down. There's also kind of a Stumbleupon aspect to Twitter where your message may get picked up by others who are following those who are following you. It might be a way to expand your presence organically or virally. I have an automated search for "kaiju" that brings up some interesting things from time to time. Is it a godsend like the JesusPhone? I dunno, it's to early to say as its in its infancy.
This is probably where we're diverging... The way I see it, we were already at that point a few years ago when everyone had blogs enabled with RSS. You went to one place (like Google Reader or your Firefox bookmarks menu) and you saw everyone's updates, from CNN to Onell Design. I have 150 feeds that I follow in one place, it's excellent. Again, I never miss those updates because I've had Super7's RSS feed in my reader since they started. (2 years ago? More?) Well, if you are going to Twitter's site to read these updates, then they're not exactly finding you, are they? You're doing the work to find them. However, if you broke down and got a cell phone, you could have Twitter send the updates to you... ;p
Also, full disclosure: I do actually use Twitter, and Blogspot, but they're not for my personal use, they're to promote something else. So I am somewhat intimate with the two mediums.
Twitter's pretty nice for networking and promotion. I'm still trying to figure out what else it's about. Sometimes I'll see someone doing something strange or funny, and I'll mention that on my Twitter page. Like's been said, it is what you make of it.
You'd better blog about the effects of the asparagus on your pee or you're not helping the technology fulfill its promise.
Strange I did exactly that last night, and I don't even have or use twitter... Telepathy is the new buzz - Twitter is sooo last week!
This is exactly why I like twitter. You are forced to keep your information concise. I tend to access my twitter account from my phone, so it's perfect when i'm using EDGE as there isnt as much data to pull vs. trying to access individual sites or RSS feeds.
If Twitter and texting in general can detract people from using there cell phones (as phones) in public places I can't walk away from, I'm a happy camper. I commute 2hrs a day on buses and am sick and tired of people using public space as their personal phone booths. Every bus, train, elevator I get on, some dingleberry is gabbing away on their cell phone about their demonic kids, the pimple on their ass, the gyro that made them shit their brains out.... whatever, for the whole world to hear. And regarding Twitter, you do get what you want out of it. A friend of mine that is into U.I. design was closeley following a circle of like minded people she had met at a conference... networking via twitter landed her a dream job in San Francisco.
i network amongst the local vegan community and have been privy to some delicious vegan taste testing. mmm
Hey, I hope nobody at the office took this to heart, but I did notice that there were four updates to the blog today. ;p
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oprah is going to send her first tweet today from her show. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But seriously, whoever is doing Twitter's PR is doing an excellent job at feeding the hype machine. All the talking heads on tv blathering about it and asking for tweets That 70s show actor vs CNN Now Oprah
