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Twitter

Byrichard

The idea that people expose their lives for everyone to read on sites like Flickr, blogger, and many others is a strange one. How often have you seen people partying with their friends yet not knowing a single one of them? It’s a voyeur’s paradise at the moment.

I was listening to Net a night with Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur speaking with the creator of blogger, Odeo, and Twitter. Le was talking about how addictive it is and how it’s a mini-blog.

It also reminds me of the Facebook status bar.

That’s because twitter is about short messages. The messages may originate as easily from a mobile phone as Instant Messenger or the web interface. There are several hundred people who are saying what they’re up to at that moment in time. Examples are “I’m in the queue, third person to the left or “I’m doing housework” and “just got up and it’s a beautiful day.

They’re short, instants in time which individuals decide to share.

Individuals are not the only ones using this technology. I’ve noticed that google news, BBC world service, and news, CNN, and others are using twitter to share news on upcoming events and current affairs. It’s an interesting way of keeping informed on current goings-on around the world.

Due to the nature of the communications, the messages are usually short, to the point, and with Tiny URL. This is because a normal URL would take up all the characters.

Another naming convention is the @name concept. When you’re sending a message to a particular friend and you want them to know that it’s to them that it’s addressed @name seems to work.

I’ve only been trying it for a little over twelve hours so far though

Amie street, the new mp3.com

Byrichard

At one time a website called mp3.com existed to facilitate the sharing of music. I enjoyed this website and downloaded quite a lot of music from there. At the time the idea was to share music for free. It was in the days before myspace grew in popularity.

The site is http://amiestreet.com/

There is one slight difference: All songs on Amie Street start FREE and can rise to 98 cents. We’re about discovery, not raiding your wallet.

That’s perfect. If it’s good they make money, helping to fund the website and the artists and if it’s not that popular yet then lot’s of people getting it for free means more advertising.

It’s an interesting idea

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Hat Parties and the Events Therein

Byrichard

Last night I went to a hat party and I enjoyed it. I found it amusing to look at all the hats, from pink cowboy to chimney sweep, snowboarding and even motorcycle helmets. The more excentric the hat the more amusing the person.

House parties are interesting because it’s a familiar event. We already know everyone that’s there so there’s no time wasted in trying to meet everyone for the first time. A simple hello will suffice in some cases and in others great conversations will fly off like water drops descending from Angel falls into a fine spray. That spray is the culmination of a hundred conversation.

As it hits the plunge pool all of them merge into the pile of consumed conversations. Some wash up on a stone and will come back into our conscience but most will vanish.

Photographs of parties are great. If you’re in a bad mood, feel tired or are down then it shows and you’re dissapointed. When you’re smiling, relaxed and enjoying yourself though they’re great. Some of these are “stolen”, taken by a photographer who prefers spontaneity to the posed image. Occasionaly posed images are good too.

Two weekends, two very different events, one in a London nightclub, the other a few minutes walk from home. Both will leave enjoyable memories.

Tonight I shall rest, content with the way Friday night progressed.

Snowcrash And a Silent Rave

Byrichard

I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts rather than radio and one of the weekly podcasts I enjoy most is This Week in Media, where some people discuss what’s going on in the media landscape, from how they will only sit in five or six seats out of the cinema, how they’re early adopters and how they’d love to have cameras capable of 1080p

The reason I mention this podcast is that recently they mentioned a trilogy of books of which snow crash is the first. Two or three weeks earlier they had mentioned how people should go and watch Blood Diamond and as I enjoyed the film I decided to read the first of the three books.

So far I’m enjoying it and it’s keeping me entertained.

Some UCL students decided to put on a silent rave tonight but as I went through the list of people I saw that it was almost only students from that uni which was slightly disappointing. I went there and although the idea is amusing it seemed to lack the energy from the silent disco I had been too a few weeks ago.

Within four or five minutes security was already asking them to leave.

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All that is left from three years is one essay and one dissertation

Byrichard

Yesterday I handed in my penultimate essay.

There are two main assignments remaining. the first of these is a tech case study which should be fun to do. I already have an idea of a topic that I know fairly well. with the second it’s the dissertation and I should really spend a few hours progressing with that.

I had one of those classic nights on Saturday. You begin with the idea that you’re simply going to drop into the cinema and watch a film before going home and watching the lunar eclipse from the relatively low light pollution of the area around the halls.

This plan disintegrated as a friend encouraged me to stay out and go out clubbing instead. I knew I had the penultimate essay to finish. Most people hate the night bus because it’s so full of weird people, some are just drunk, others are in worse states and finally some are amusing.

On occasion you’ll enter the bus and a girl will offer you some crisps and you won’t say know, to which someone next to you asks whether you’re really going to accept them. Later on you understand that it’s the brother joking around.

In other cases you’ll find that it’s like a plane cabin. If you’ve ever flown easyjet and got up to go to the front of the cabin you’ll know the sight. it’s that of two hundred people having a nap. It’s a soothing sight to see so many relaxed people.

Occasionaly some people get cold so you lend them their jacket and you walk them home before rushing home to finish your essay rather than taking the time to get to know more about them.

There are a lot of people that hate the stop at Sudbury but having lived there last year I know a little secret. That there’s a 24 hour shop where you can buy jaffa cakes and lipton ice tea for the second part of the journey.

What I enjoyed most about saturday was the people I met on the bus journey home.

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As Long as There Are No Clouds

Byrichard

In less than twenty four hours there will be a total eclipse of the sun that will give us a red moon and this should be interesting to see.

Back in 1999 I was in Salzburg for the total eclipse of the sun by the moon. I was almost within the area of totality. It was over 99%.

There is nothing like a total eclipse of the sun. At the start you see hundreds of people go into the square and look up at the sky. You see the moon eating up the sun. Over time you see that more than half is eaten. Then you see three quarters and you approach totality.

At the time I wasen’t spending too much time looking at the process as I was looking for shots for the video. I climbed up the road to the castle and turned around. As I did so I saw all the birds fly away and I saw a grey shadow racing across the landscape. Hundreds of flashes started going off and people started to make noise in excitement. Totality was here.

The light was grey, with no depth, then it was night. As it was night I looked up and saw the corona that forms, where the solar flares are twelve kilometers long, visible because the sun’s main mass is blocked by the moon. Totality is over within a few seconds and day comes back. Many people have enjoyed this event.

It’ll be another century for most people to see the next one.

That’s why I want to see the red moon, that’s why I’d prefer seeing a silver ball turn reddish. That red is formed by the refraction of sun in the earth’s atmosphere being sent to the moon and bouncing back to give us a splendid sight, as long as there are no clouds