Tech Industry News
Identi.cating the Twitter down-time
I admit, my initial impression of identi.ca was rather bland. Aesthetically, it was pretty bland and, at the time, I saw nothing really special about it. What I was looking for was purely the look and feel of the system… Identi.ca, or more specifically, Laconica - the open Micro-blogging tool behind it. This article is really more about the system, Laconica, than their canonical server, Identi.ca, but the name went really well with the pun. So what is this other than an apparent Twitter clone? And what makes this different than all of the others? Open Source Software. I was first excited and then rather down about the idea, and then I got happy again. Digg.com, the name in itself, and the popularity and community behind it. MySpace, as well, had the same namesake behind it. Besides Facebook, I think the name of Twitter has the strongest ‘label’ behind it. As it was for IM clients for me, where I chose MSN mainly because that was just the standard. Without installing seperate clients, I could not talk to other friends. As do users now have tools like Pidgin and meebo, RSS is allowing users to spread their content around thusly. Leo Laporte calls it the Network effect. More daunting, even, than the Leo effect. Laconica is taking that idea much deeper than some API. And here is how I mean;
- Identi.ca has its user base powered by Laconica. As Laconica is an OSS system, it is free to be used by any server with PHP support - so any web server. And yes, it is running on PHP. Twitter runs on Ruby on Rails, which along with its coding scheme (apparently, I dont know why, but this is what I hear), and with PHP they are seeing a lot more up-time, and is also a lot earier to install. Copy & Paste, yannow?
- It works backwards. Laconica is to, and does, work as a micro-blogging form of OpenID. OpenID works thusly, by letting a single username be used for multiple services. In the following diagram, the OpenID server (there are many) relays requests from a user toward the website. Laconica runs the same idea. Essentially, Laconica will lets you post in other Laconica micro-blogs with your user name from another Lacronica server. My identi.ca account could comment and subscribe to posts from my zeitgeister account. Different website, same program.
- It is self-hosted. One of the major reasons, or so I would assume, that companies and the like shy away from working this micro-blogging idea is that it is all on your own servers. It would be fantastic for niche communities, open for whoever you want, but also, wherein it necessary, entirely safe and private.
First and foremost, I am excited for the idea of this, I am excited for the OSS behind it all. But even moreso than that, I am excited about what can happen with this.
You are unable to follow more people. Come on, we KNOW you haven’t that many friends.
For those who are human (or at least from SkyNet) your RSS feeds have been flooded with bickering’s about the new Twitter following cap - a measly 2,000!
When you are ‘following’ someone, that means that you have subscribed to their feed. When you log into your own Twitter account, their feeds are integrated into the list of your own. In no mean do I label myself an average Twitter, I do it randomly when on MSN - as stupid as it may sound, it has sparked some good conversations. I average about 5 ‘tweets’ a day, but do not often check my actual Twitter page (I set a custom RSS feed, using FriendFeed and Yahoo! Pipes). A Twitter profile has 20 entires per page, if you were to check your Twitter page 4 times a day, on average, 2000 subscribed users give you 80 pages of redundant information. Now how many pages would I get if I was a Twitter addict? That is just an extremelly rediculous amount of subscriptions.
The keyword here is Following, note the last three letters in that word - ing. This bit seemed to have been overlooked in the initial outcry of Twitter…ers;
Follow spam is the act of following mass numbers of people, not because you’re actually interested in their tweets, but simply to gain attention, get views of your profile (and possibly clicks on URLs therein), or (ideally) to get followed back. Many people who are seeking to get attention in this way have even created programs to do the following on their behalf, which enable them to follow thousands of people at the blink of any eye.
Source: http://blog.twitter.com/2008/08/making-progress-on-spam.html
Even I, a completely ignored micro-blogger, has gotten a few of this ‘Follow spam’ from time to time. You know its done by computer when they target me, eh?
The thing that bugged me about this was not about Twitter itself. It was the reactions, specifically those in the Digg story. Case in point, people are already asking for an alternative to Twitter. Do people these days really think they are going to need that 80 pages of lunch menus? Now, I understand how the web goes, and when Twitter got big, the idea got big. When the idea got big, the internets were flooded with copy-cat programs.
Personally, the thing I think that Twitter has going for it is the API behind it, and how more than any other platform, it has been put to good use. Like the iPod, the fact that it is so popular (not neccessarily the best) means that more companies can afford to opt for compatability. The only real problem with Twitter is, anyone who has used Twitter for more than a fortnight has become well aquainted with the Twitter whale, aka: the picture they show when Twitter is down. So now, in an apparent flood of fed-up-ness, the blogosphere is debating and arguing and hish-hashing about where to go now.
Ping.fm is where you go, dang nabbit. I feel a definate feeling of ease in hard times like these. Why? Because I simultaneously post to Twitter as well as all (or most) of the aforementioned copy-cat programs, via Ping.fm. And I must say from personal experience, doing everything really simplifies the task of doing something. What I mean to say is that this rather intelligent cap on Twitter has, of course, sparked the debating in a few posters. And with that we are starting another micro-blogging-war.
‘Zombie’ Aint The Term I Would Have Used… (RE: Cracked)
I must admit something, I do take fondness in laughter and hilarity. Wit is also up there as well. For the past while Cracked has been Digging (its a website, I am not trying to be hip) out some good “Top #” lists, and I generally agree with the points made. I, a nerdXcore to the maxXcore (to the power of hXc), even finds it odd that I have a few comments-worth-blogging about the negateness that tech has apparently swallowed traditional media with.
#6. Phone Books
There really is nothing to say about this, it is the one that I fully agree with. My phone book at home is never actually opened. We have our dentist, doctor, lawyer and church phone number written on the front. The book is big enough that you really cant lose it. But it really is a waste of a few hundred pages for a few numbers that should be in my cell any ways…
#5. MP3 Players
My first comment on this is on the use of example by the apparent decreasing MP3 player sales. You know why I first bought an MP3 player? Because my MP3 CD player was bonk and held only ~200 songs. You know why I got my second one? Because I filled up 40GB real fast. You know why I still have my 80GB iPod Video? Simply put, I don’t have enough to fill it up. Mind you, I got rid of a good 35GB of music (from a 90GB) and then had my entire HDD crash and had to re-download it all… but the point remains: no one will ever need more than 80GB, never mind 160GB.
I like having all my music on my iPod, it is convenient when my mood changes on the bus. But then people ask about video. You can store your entire compressed DVD collection on that thing and still have all of your CDs. Flat out, we really do not need more room. I am banking on the 160GB iPod video to be the biggest one we will see in a long time. I mean, look at the new Nano and iPod Touch? You can see where their efforts are headed to now.
The second argument is the whole cell-phone thing. My answer is this: my iPod is a better and bigger player and has a better battery than my cell-phone. And I mean, I shelled out a few hundred for this baby (never mind my rad skin), I have no reason to toss it.
#4. DVDs
The HD war between HD-DVD and the BR ended a few months ago. Sony praised itself for its amazing new Blu-Ray format and expected, in the wake of their win, sales to spark. They went up 2%. Thing is, we really don’t care that much.
There is a growing-age of all technology, of course. When you buy a HD/ BR disc you are getting some great picture, right then, right there. When you buy a Plasma/ LCD/ any TV you get a generally crappy picture that gets better over years.
That’s were we are at. Until we all get all new TVs, the DVD really is not going to be much worse than its HD counter part, not until we upgrade properly. Even Kevin Smith thought the DVD was a gong-show, but has also admitted to its amazingness. The DVD is where we first saw series of TV shows come home in boxes, and especially in old/cartoon television, and HD set up is not going to help much.
Give it time, Luke.
#3. Magazines, Catalogs and Newspapers
I do not think that the amount of money a company makes from magazines alone is enough to pay for the money spent printing them. I am no expert on the topic, and actually am entirely writing this opinion of imaginary facts, but we can all pretend. I mean, I do like flipping through a $10 magazine every month or so and, about once every 3 issues, going out to buy a product that cost me $5.
I am not that mentally deranged that, however, I am the only person here today that just… feels better reading from recycled paper than an LCD (or CLR, if you are a loser) screen. I mean, I pre-paid and pre-ordered the last Harry Potter book, … and the Deathly Hallows, a good 6 months ahead of time. I downloaded the .pdf a good 2 days before the book arrived. Do not tell me that there was not a good damn reason I never read that file beforehand.
I muchly agree with this Digg user in this quote;
I was waiting for them to say books, and was so glad when it didn’t come up.
I like books.
#2. Video Games on Disc
Because hard drives crash and DRM is a whore.
#1. Cash
I am not being lazy for cutting this last one short, but I agree with this man on every account. I mean, I better manage my monies when in cash, but that is just because I am horrible with monies.
"Seven iPhone Disappointments"
The iPhone recently came out with its, incredibly anticipated, 3G networking upgrade, featuring GPS! The price also dropped down to $199, which front up sounds a lot better than the previous price of $399. It did not take long before people started crying about the apparently hidden fees in the AT&T, 3G price of $10 a month. Since then there have been a plethora of rants, raves, Digg’s and Reddit’s about this subject. I cannot claim to post brand new information on subjects of this matter, I am not America, nor am I an iPhone user. That being said, this is my response to the list in the link shown above.
- The Cost: as said before, the customers are paying more because of an incredibly faster Internet service. I do not see how this simple fact can be so blatantly ignored. You flamers are so damn picky.
- No Flash: I am not extremely well versed in the ways of camera phones, but I did have a really nice BlackBerry Pearl. There are much nicer cameras out there, but I really, really needed my camera flash. It was a great picture if you had the right light.
- No Replaceable Batteries: this point surprises me in the sense that… well, it is an Apple product, they just don’t do batteries. Apple claims the iPhone has 8 hours of Talk TIme. Even if those numbers are false, that is not bad at all. And with the popularity of the iPod/ iPhone, it would not be hard at all to buy a third party charger. A battery would be nice, but… it aight.
- Video Recording: considering what most of the Macintosh computers are used for, video, it is surprising there is no iMovie integration in the phone. The biggest surprise here is just that every damn phone has a video camera any ways… not quite generations ahead here, eh?
- No Cut-and-Paste: one of the best features of the Facebook app for the BlackBerry was the fact you could copy numbers straight from their profile. I do not know if the iPhone is completely lacking all copy-and-paste function, but it helps a lot, especially when compiling an address book.
- No MMS: I am actually completely indifferent about this point, I have never seen a reason to use MMS.
- No Voice Dialing: I have not used much of this feature as well, but if I was using a touch-based phone (especially one with Apple’s fingerprint-bait-surfaces) I would, ironically, try to touch it as little as possible.