In honor of Mitch Hedberg and his brilliant powers of observation
March 2011
14 posts
Ever want to pretend you are in Super Mario Bros and have coins pop out out a block? Now you can...
Simply amazing what is possible in this world. Simply amazing.
Some people's boring is another man's system...
There were plenty of plot-lines coming out of Wisconsin’s thrilling 70-65 win over Kansas State that earned the Badgers a berth in the Sweet 16 opposite Butler, but the first question in the postgame press conference went in an odd direction.
A reporter wanted to know what the Badgers thought when folks say they play “boring” basketball.
No, we’re not making that up.
“If people think we’re boring, there are a lot of channels on TV they can watch,” replied point guard Jordan Taylor from under a slightly arched eyebrow.
via espn.com
Boring — like beauty — is in the eye of the beholder. When you’re a national sports writer and see a team that — let’s be honest — plays mid-major basketball, which is to say with solid fundamentals, it’s easy to get bored.
It’s ok Mr. Sportswriter who asked the question. Golf season is almost here.
Lesson in patience? Internal email from when Twitter was three months old
Good News!!
Our short code 40404 has now been approved and implemented on most carriers. Verizon, who we were concerned about, cleared yesterday. It looks like we will have the code tested and working on all carriers by mid next week. What does all this mean in the big Ol’ timeline of life? Well, I’ll tell ya. It means that we are one week away from a vocal, visible, actual launch-effort-outward-push type-o-deal. To aid that effort we now have invite via email. I think that this will do a ton to help spread the word of twttr far and wide. We also have personalized url now. Check it out: http://twttr.com/noah. Nice!
Also. We currently have 160 beta testers. We receive about 100 status updates per day. We are sending between 800-1000 SMS per day.
via anarchogeek.com
Some things come to mind when reading this internal email from the folks at Twitter three months into their project.
An obvious first thought: “You have to start somewhere, and if you don’t start, you’ll never get there.”
Also: If you can find something users want to do anyway, you don’t need to compel them to use it.
Finally: The answer to the how of the product was simply 140 characters in a text message. The “why” is still being discovered today.
Are we closer to the ala carte broadcast society I was ready for 20 years ago?
Netflix’s purchase this week of North American distribution rights for the TV series “House of Cards” is the clearest evidence yet of the transformation of the television business from one of programmed networks to one of unbundled programs. The event accelerates everything about this revolution, and those unprepared are likely to be caught up in the black hole that’s left behind. Make no mistake. This is the beginning of the end of linear television. So potentially complete is this transformation that it will impact everything from spectrum decisions in Washington to how things are bought and sold in the culture.
via thepomoblog.com
The real problem with twitter's ios trending bar
If Twitter wants to improve the trending experience for everyone, it should change how they are calculated entirely. Rather than generating trends based on the location of a tweet, they should instead show trends related to what is happening in my timeline, who I am following and who my followers follow.
via Justin Williams at carpeaqua.com
Kudos to Mr. Williams for this idea. After all, Twitter has so many tools available to curate — the idea of followers is nothing by curation of who you interact with — so why not tell me what is trending among those I choose to interact with?
Make it so…
A 'Twitter style' for journalists?
That’s why I’d like to see news organizations and professional journalists use our leadership potential within this community to establish some additional conventions - ones that would help more people get better information when news breaks.
Robert Niles builds off of something that Jeff Jarvis brought up a week ago: Some way of distinguishing those who are witnessing news and those who are re-conveying news on Twitter.
Writes Niles:
“Fresh information can be lost between endless retweets of old information. Massive retweeting also allows false information to spread globally, gaining credibility with reach RT. While those of us who’ve taken the time to sharpen the list of sources we follow are rewarded with accurate, timely updates, too many Twitter users fail to enjoy the tool’s potential because they simply don’t know which feeds to follow when news breaks.”
Some suggestions from Jarvis and Niles on a Twitter style for journalists and one of my own.
— A modified hashtag for eyewitness accounts in breaking news situations (Jarvis)
For years now, we’ve all seen # being passed around Twitter. It’s a great way to sort information; it’s the same as a police scanner frequency. Dial in what you are looking for and find out what’s going on. Jarvis has modified his orginal idea, which will allow the “police scanner” model to continue. So eyewitnesses to events — primary sources to those in the biz— use add a “!” after the hastag. So here in Madison, #wiunion would become #wiunion! for those of us taking the scene in first-hand.
— Journalists geotag tweets, unless they felt it would endanger themselves or sources (Niles)
— Use MT when a reporter retweets information in a post, but modifies it in some way (Niles)
— Other abbreviations: HT (Hat Tip, or Heard Through); RR (Repeated tweet); (Niles)
— Recommending sources to follow in breaking news situations or on certain issues (Niles)
The biggest thing I would like to see — and while I can’t remember the exact source, I know the idea isn’t mine — is to standardize corrections in some manner. Perhaps that is where Jarvis’ original ! could come into play? Anyone correcting information tweeted out on # can correct their mistakes on !?
So we need a remake of Apocalypse Now, and you know who plays Willard right? That's right... #winning
The exploits and meme that is Charlie Sheen doesn’t concern me. But I do love Apocalypse Now, and I think it could be re-made right now with a certain someone #winning the role.
So I think I have this whole Charlie Sheen thing figured out… See, he’s gone all Col. Kurtz now, and Captain Willard — who happens to be his dad — is gonna go all “They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound” on him.
And then the “Photojournalist” — originally played by Dennis Hopper, now played by Bradley Cooper or Paul Rudd — goes all:
Hey, man, you don’t talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man’s enlarged my mind. He’s a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he’ll… uh… well, you’ll say “hello” to him, right? And he’ll just walk right by you. He won’t even notice you. And suddenly he’ll grab you, and he’ll throw you in a corner, and he’ll say, “Do you know that ‘if’ is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you”… I mean I’m… no, I can’t… I’m a little man, I’m a little man, he’s… he’s a great man! I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas…
And there’s gonna be surfing and napalm and an ox. Either that or Jed Bartlett is gonna go OMG WTF and send Josh Lyman in there to clean it up.
This is going to be epic!
And then Charlie Sheen has his comeback and everyone can say things about him… But what are they gonna say about him?
What are they gonna say? That he was a kind man? That he was a wise man? That he had plans, man? That he had wisdom? Bullshit, man!
Beginning about the 1:30 mark of this clip, Martin Sheen gets real and into some “Past as Prologue” kinda stuff. And if that is not enough, the clip ends with a Mars Blackmon commercial.
March Madness bracketology – winners and losers
via flowingdata.com
This is pretty slick… Pays to be a No. 1 seed.
