In the Future....

[mustang84]

I found this funny and thought I'd share.

[daves87rs]

[balthazar]

So... the answer is that in their future, everyone IS retarded, right ?

I mean, how many more ways can we invent to disassociate & unrelate to the people around us IN THE SAME ROOM ?

{snif} Smell that ??

Yep, thought so; it's P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S (sing it, Aretha!)

[Drew Dowdell]

[Oracle of Delphi]

Twitter in plain English ...

[Satty]

I'm not particularly interested in my own life, I'm not sure why anyone else would be.

[Robert Hall]

I've been tweeting for about a year and a half...follow about 75 people, mostly friends, former colleagues and pundits in the software biz. I don't do it from my phone, just check the web site nightly...kind of a fun way to keep up with the digerati and fellow techies. My tweets are usually pretty boring, just stuff about restaurants I've tried, the weather, vacations.

[Paolino]

I feel I've lost one of my closest friends to Twitter, Facebook, and his Blackberry.

Sure, I can easily interact through him there, but in real life, it's becoming more difficult.

[balthazar]

>>"Twitter in plain English ..."<<

Ahh, it's even more inane that I could've suspected.

'I missed my bus'; read by 1 or 10 dozen other people, fixated by the Meaningless and wasting even more of their unproductive time not already taken up by blogging, e-mail, cell phones, blackberrys, & message boards. The only new thing about twitter is that it's tailored for those with attention spans too short to read beyond the "a" in "fixated" in this very post. God, think how many of the world's problem's solutions could be advanced if people were actually able to apply their attention & 2 hands to them, instead of "drawing closer" to their "friends" in cyberspace. I smell a cyber bubble coming.

Prediction: Mini-Twitter, with a max of 70 characters, and Nano-Twitter, with a max of 35.

[Oracle of Delphi]

>>"Twitter in plain English ..."<<

Ahh, it's even more inane that I could've suspected.

'I missed my bus'; read by 1 or 10 dozen other people, fixated by the Meaningless and wasting even more of their unproductive time not already taken up by blogging, e-mail, cell phones, blackberrys, & message boards. The only new thing about twitter is that it's tailored for those with attention spans too short to read beyond the "a" in "fixated" in this very post. God, think how many of the world's problem's solutions could be advanced if people were actually able to apply their attention & 2 hands to them, instead of "drawing closer" to their "friends" in cyberspace. I smell a cyber bubble coming.

Prediction: Mini-Twitter, with a max of 70 characters, and Nano-Twitter, with a max of 35.

[Robert Hall]

I first discovered Twitter at RailsConf07 in Portland, May 07. Then it was a new, fledgling Web 2.0 app used by the digerati and web developers to stay in touch during the conference, everyone w/ their Mac Book Pros (I felt out of place, had a Dell laptop then) and smartphones tweeting about the conference and where to go for sushi in the evening, or commenting on people's talks, etc.

Since then, it's been going mainstream--even celebretards like Aston Kutcher uses it, as does Shaq (he's tweeted which restaurants around Scottsdale that he likes), the Obama campaign used it pretty effectively last year, my state's US senator's office (John McCain) is starting to use it, I get news updates from the BBC and CNN via Twitter now.

It's pretty interesting to see something that was a 'cool techies in the know' thing amongst Web developers a couple years ago go mainstream so fast...a lot of that is due to the popularity of the iPhone, from which many people tweet.

[ocnblu]

OMG zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

[Robert Hall]

And for a flash from the past, remember 'hand written' notes and 'letters'? It's a dying form of communication, looks like..

Article on handwriting as a dying form

[usonia]

Bleh, I want nothing to do with it. Instead of having technology improve our lives, too may people become a slave to the technology available to them.

I get grief from my friends because I have a cell phone that I carry with me but I keep it turned off most of the time. They can't quite comprehend it when I tell them that it is for my convenience when I need it, not so anybody can get hold of me at any time.

The Luddites were partially right.

[Croc]

Oh, no offense moltar, but I have some very strongly negative opinions about Twitter and the twits who use it. I find it extremely narcissistic, and can encourage stalker-like behavior.

To use your example: Why the hell do I give a rat's ass where Shaq likes eating in the Scottsdale area? Does he really think he's a tastemaker? Am I going to elevate him to tastemaker status?

...and Twitter is a perpetuator of the classic problem of "the guy no one ever invites, yet always manages to show up." Creepy.

[Robert Hall]

Oh, no offense moltar, but I have some very strongly negative opinions about Twitter and the twits who use it. I find it extremely narcissistic, and can encourage stalker-like behavior.

To use your example: Why the hell do I give a rat's ass where Shaq likes eating in the Scottsdale area? Does he really think he's a tastemaker? Am I going to elevate him to tastemaker status?

...and Twitter is a perpetuator of the classic problem of "the guy no one ever invites, yet always manages to show up." Creepy.

Well, it's definitely polarizing. I've found a lot of useful links and info in tweets...but I'm mostly using it stay up on what the digerati are saying---since technology is my livelihood, I like to read a lot of tech and gadget blogs, listen to tech news podcasts, Twitter is just another way of doing that... and the breaking news aspect is great, IMHO.

Edited March 1, 2009 by moltar

[Oracle of Delphi]

I'm with balthazar and Croc, I think this is a total waste of time. Sometimes you just have to leave the Cyber world behind and live in the Real world for a while, it's called living life ...

[Croc]

Well, it's definitely polarizing. I've found a lot of useful links and info in tweets...but I'm mostly using it stay up on what the digerati are saying---since technology is my livelihood, I like to read a lot of tech and gadget blogs, Twitter is just another way of doing that... and the breaking news aspect is great, IMHO.

What the digerati are saying...about what exactly? What they had for breakfast? How they "just had a random thought...more to come"? I mean I find facebook status annoying enough, and I can't imagine finding anything of value on Twitter that I could not find elsewhere sans the inanity.

And for breaking news there are many, many other options. God forbid you don't hear of something BEFORE you sip your latte, rather than 8 sips into it.

Edited March 1, 2009 by Croc

[Robert Hall]

What the digerati are saying...about what exactly? What they had for breakfast? How they "just had a random thought...more to come"? I mean I find facebook status annoying enough, and I can't imagine finding anything of value on Twitter that I could not find elsewhere sans the inanity.

No, what they are saying about tech conferences, new technologies, links to interesting blog postings, press releases, etc. it's not just trivial stuff.

I update my Facebook status occasionally, I mostly use it to stay in touch w/ old friends, high school/college buddies, former coworkers.

[Croc]

No, what they are saying about tech conferences, new technologies, links to interesting blog postings, press releases, etc. it's not just trivial stuff.

Yeah, but wouldn't decent, dependable blogs deliver the same thing, but without the soundbyte form? Without having ANY of the trivial stuff?

Maybe I just don't "get it," but since it doesn't deliver anything particularly exclusive or unique, I don't see a point--it's a trendy thing, and like all trends it will be replaced by The Next Big Thing.

Edited March 1, 2009 by Croc

[Robert Hall]

Yeah, but wouldn't decent, dependable blogs deliver the same thing, but without the soundbyte form? Without having ANY of the trivial stuff?

Yes, Twitter is just a quicker way to access the blogs and the news. It's still somewhat of an experiment, really. The flow of tweets would probably drive me crazy if I was subscribing to it on my phone, haven't gone that far yet.

For a lot of bloggage, I really like Google Reader to aggregate a lot of RSS feeds.

I actually turn off my cell phone at night, when I'm driving and sometimes on my weekend...drives my friends and family crazy.

I'm still on the fence w/ smartphones, thought about getting an iPhone or maybe a Blackberry Storm. I don't want to go w/ AT&T and love tiny phones that fit in my front pants pocket, don't care for large phones.

Edited March 1, 2009 by moltar

[Croc]

Yes, Twitter is just a quicker way to access the blogs and the news. It's still somewhat of an experiment, really. The flow of tweets would probably drive me crazy if I was subscribing to it on my phone, haven't gone that far yet.

For a lot of bloggage, I really like Google Reader to aggregate a lot of RSS feeds.

I actually turn off my cell phone at night, when I'm driving and sometimes on my weekend...drives my friends and family crazy.

I'm still on the fence w/ smartphones, thought about getting an iPhone or maybe a Blackberry Storm. I don't want to go w/ AT&T and love tiny phones that fit in my front pants pocket, don't care for large phones.

Don't get the Storm--it isn't a true touch screen. The screen sits on top of buttons...ummmmmmmm I give those about 4 months before they self-destruct.

[Robert Hall]

Don't get the Storm--it isn't a true touch screen. The screen sits on top of buttons...ummmmmmmm I give those about 4 months before they self-destruct.

I'm interested in seeing what Verizon offers eventually on the Google Android platform...the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 is about the only one out there currently. I'm usually an early adopter on many technologies, but not phones.