Rameez Nooruddin // Techie. F1 fanatic. Linux enthusiast. Car crazy. Bibliophile. Introvert. Mallu. Muslim.
Google’s two-front war with Apple and Facebook; who are the winners and the losers?
I wonder what Robert Scoble has been smoking lately.
On Monday 7/12/2009, sometime in the evening, the Indian author Chetan Bhagat blocked few people from his twitter account. Chetan (@chetan_bhagat) was having a debate with a journalist (@jojiphilip) on books and piracy, when he received some tweets which didn't gel with him. The result was him blocking those people from his twitter account.
Chetan Bhagat was ripped apart by twitter users when he lost his cool at the smart alec replies he received. He could have easily shrugged off the remarks but instead retorted angrily. More people joined in on the fun/bullying (depends on how you see it). The link above has details on how everything started out.
Moral of the story: Don't take anything in Twitter seriously. Shrug it off. Have fun.
In order to have the maximum effect, the cues should be small, discrete, specific—like the bell Pavlov rang for his dogs. Panksepp says a way to drive animals into a frenzy is to give them only tiny bits of food: This simultaneously stimulating and unsatisfying tease sends the seeking system into hyperactivity. Berridge says the "ding" announcing a new e-mail or the vibration that signals the arrival of a text message serves as a reward cue for us. And when we respond, we get a little piece of news (Twitter, anyone?), making us want more. These information nuggets may be as uniquely potent for humans as a Froot Loop to a rat.
After reading this, I've this uneasy feeling that my Twitter addiction is turning me into one of those lab rats.
I tweeted about it but I’ll repeat it again:
Allow us to hyperlink text on Twitter. Then we can kiss goodbye to URL shorteners and not have to worry about them shutting down.
ref: tr.im R.I.P.
Wondering if Denial of Service attacks can be prevented.
Boy I’ve missed your kisses all the time but this is
twentyfive minutes too late
Though you travelled so far boy I’m sorry your are
twentyfive minutes too late.
Every time you miss a beat in the race for real-time web, remind yourself of these lines from the song “25 Minutes” by Michael Learns To Rock.
With technology’s focus shifting to Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and its ilk, everyone seems to be hopping on to *the real-time web* bandwagon. Even non-geeks & late adopters.
We’re no longer responding to events that shape our lives. We’re reacting. From mundane observations on day-to-day events to the latest BREAKING NEWS, opinions and counter-opinions are *published* as soon as the events occur. Aren’t we starting to resemble the 24x7 news channels on TV?
Isn’t it time we hit the pause button and start enjoying life more. Let’s slow down.
You were a twitterholic. Why are you saying this now?
I was jobless when I joined Twitter. Twitter was a great networking tool. I met some really cool people online & offline through Twitter. I will continue to use Twitter because of this reason alone. To stay in touch with the hip crowd.
Aren’t you doing this because you’re tied up at your new job?
Yes and no.
Work has certainly placed several limitations on my ability to participate in social media the real-time web. I cannot post to Twitter, browse FriendFeed or go through my Google Reader quite as often as I used to. Yet it’s possible for me to return to the almost-spammy frequency that I used to have. The only difference would be that I would not be posting anything valuable. I’ll just be one of those narcissist oversharer.
So, are you going to slow blog?
The Slow Blogging Manifesto is something that has made me sit and think a lot. It’s one of the reasons why I’m giving up on any dreams of Google search result nirvana. I don’t care about SEO for my personal domain. There, I said it!
But I’m not ready to commit to slow blogging either.
No rules, No manifestos blogging
I commit to nothing. I will write, I will blog. That’s all.
Connections & Not Popularity
My primary goal on the Internet will not be about winning a popularity contest or creating a money-spinning machine. I will use technology to connect to people, educate myself & as a medium of expression.
Okay… Are you drunk? WTF are you saying?
I need to stop wasting time. I need to start doing meaningful stuff online.
To begin with, I’ve sent a personal email to my dad now. Before today, I have never sent an email that has more than 5 sentences in it. Usually these emails are only to send some scanned documents. I talk to him through the phone or IM him. All these conversations are short and never as good as the ones I have when we meet face-to-face. And it is not often that I get to spend time with my Dad. Only when he comes home for a month or two during his annual leave.
I’m not sure if @GulPanag is the first Indian celebrity to sign up for Twitter. Some of the high-profile techies & bloggers are also celebrities in my eyes. But ask an average Indian, and he/she is more likely to know about Gul Panag. Anyway, that is not the point I’m trying to make here.
When you usually see an A-list Bollywood celeb signing up for Twitter, you expect those mundane, good-for-nothing updates (read my plucking mangos post) and that air of smugness in the language. Gul is nothing like that.
She replies to ordinary people (She replied to me! How more ordinary can you get?), attends geeky events when invited by users, speaks flawless Hindi (participating in silly #hindi memes), rides a Bullet (and other two-way or multi-way discussions of her passions) and tries her best to please everyone who talks to her.
And everything, with the humility & eagerness of an ordinary person. (No, not my kind of ordinary. The other good ordinary).
Your thoughts?
The second Cochin Tweetup was held... no, still going on as I type this... today at Take One Cafe, Convent Road.
There were 19 attendees... No, wait... @kg86 says there's a 20th one coming. It was an awesome evening. Had fun meeting & interacting with everyone.
