Saying a lot, saying a little… who cares?
staying.interested
twit twit tweeet
May 11th
Posted by SEV in staying.interested
I’ve jumped in headfirst. Tweeting. Left, right and center. Yessirree Bob. Yada yada yada. Srsly.
And now to repeat things I’ve heard before (for eons) but which have dawned on me as actually making a lot of sense.
So yes, this post might be a bit dated for some of you.
At first, I assumed that my approach on Twitter would end up similar to my “stalking” approach on Reader (via Twitter RSS). But Twitter demands interaction in a way that few services do. I now see a hundred limitations in Google Buzz — filtering being the biggest one. My Twitter stream is pretty nicely sorted by default, and clients such as JournoTwit make it even easier to organize what I want to see and how I want to see it. Clients are another big advantage — I access Twitter using 3 different methods, none of which require me to have a tab open for Twitter 24/7. Sharing is a different matter, thanks to bookmarklets sharing to any service is insanely simple. One does feel like syncing shares across services.. but I’m not really sure I want to do it. I think people who see my shares will end up being the same on both. For now, I think I will limit myself to sharing using only Reader while RTing with Twitter. Explicit sharing of the same content on both will be avoided. And finally, the length. Buzz/Reader posts are long, demand a certain amount of attention while reading. Little wonder about the number of unread RSS items in my Reader. By virtue of being insanely short, tweets can be zipped through. I used to wonder how people kept up with more than 50 people on Twitter. Its actually insanely easy.
What do I have to say that has not been said before, though?
Probably not that much, really.
Do I still think 140 chars is not enough? Yes. In a way, though, it is a curse.
Doesn’t brevity help? Probably prevents long-winded posts such as these. Encourages to-the-point posts that have the maximum information content possible. The problem is that you can very easily start thinking about everything in terms of only those 140 characters. I wonder if I will give up blogging and move to just storing my tweets here? Hopefully not. Essentially though, you end up sharing a quick link with a quick comment. Going through a thought process like this to see where it goes is just not possible.
While I’ve moved my stalking onto Twitter directly, I’m holding out on my news and my sharing yet. My news is something I’m trying to look at only a few times a day (unsuccessfully).. something I’m learning to do for Twitter too. And the biggest advantage of Reader is that I do not have to click through to see anything. In 90% of the cases, full-text feeds exist. I do not want to be checking my Twitter feverishly trying to figure out what is going on somewhere in the world. It comes back to what I was saying the other day: eventually Twitter is yet another service that one has to sign into and track. FFeed could have done it, but was not adopted enough, and is now dead. Buzz seems better, but will always be too noisy without better filtering option (or as they call it nowadays, curation). I’m waiting Google. Please make it easier for me to do my online content consumption.
On a final note: As this remarks, the Twitter character limit allows for the dissemination of the short ideas… the thoughts too short for a blog post. And that is probably the best use for it. Any other character limit would never have worked as well.
notes: tech this, tech that
Apr 16th
Posted by SEV in staying.interested
For a change, I decided to jot down the thoughts that were coming to me while I waded through month-old Reader items. Warning: It gets pretty long.
[Yes, I actually have a set of Reader items that I ensure I catch up with daily, and another set that I'm sure I will always be behind the curve on reading. What's the point? Its the only way that I can ensure that I'm somewhat current with what goes on in the world.]
Some background: the launch of Buzz meant I went about adding a bunch of people on Reader/Buzz that I wouldn’t have known of otherwise. Louis Gray, Tyler Romeo, Jesse Stay and a whole host of other active “technologists” came to my attention as a result of Buzz. Given my aforementioned division of current and ancient news, clearly, I’m always going to be behind the curve on the most happening stuff in the internet-verse — even given how I’ve tried to balance out the “breaking news” feeds and the “info” feeds.
Over the last couple of days I realized that as long as I stay somewhat current with my “friends” shared items… I’m just fine for the latest and greatest in the tech-verse. Twitter’s Chirp conference notes – check. iPad notes – check. Latest Gmail features – check. Expectations for iPhone4, FB F8, Google i/o – check. Of course, when I say “friends” I mean the aforementioned list of people… all of whom are probably wonderful but barely know I exist. In fact most of them probably don’t know I exist at all. But their connection on this Google network is probably the best thing ever. I don’t miss out, and I get to stick to my own reading trends. This use of social networking really appeals to me — really defines what I would like from it.
I’ve personally starting finding the charm of general social networking fading steadily. Facebook was interesting once, and fun to check in on a couple of times a day.. but my frequency has reduced to maybe once a day. One of the major reasons was FB pushing that “awesome” new feed more and not letting me customize my UI (earlier I could put my lists of interest on top and the general feed below, but now its all fixed in place). And this sucks. Maybe FB Purity will make me go back to using FB as I won’t have half the tripe that FB somehow assumes I’ll be interested in (Really? Someone I barely know commented on some FB activity by someone I don’t care about?) FB seems to have assumed that all my FB friends are bosom buddies that I want to know every little tiny detail about. Can that ever be true, especially on FB? Do they not realize that people just use FB as a proxy for a real relationship with a LOT of people? But, to return to topic, the activities on FB seem trivial at best. At worst, banal.
Which brings me to Twitter. For the longest time, I’ve avoided the service (yes, I thought 140 character thoughts could be nothing but “banal”). Based on some recent experiences though — work related and otherwise — it seems a lot more interesting. The obvious allure of a new service is there (I remember updating FB status twice or thrice a day when I joined. Now its barely once a month, if that). But the interactivity on Twitter appears hugely increased. On FB, I am still a consumer of other people’s activities, just as they are of mine. The interaction is limited to when they “comment”/react on something I post about. Sort of like this blog, but on a much larger and much more “social” scale. But Twitter appears to encourage conversation to a huge extent. How much will actually be meaningful will obviously depend on who you’re talking to. For e.g. talking to this guy seems to epitomize banality to me. What worries me? The information overload. On Reader, my feed organization keeps evolving. I move feeds around. I keep checking which feeds are not really interesting to me any more (too few — once they’re added, they generally stay forever. I even have a category of “dead” feeds). I know all about Twitter Lists and their organizational ability, but it still seems like Twitter will just be one more service that I will have to manage, check in on, and follow up with. And that kills it.
I was honestly hoping that Buzz would form the “one-interface-fits-all” for me. Anything but. It has actually become its own little network, mostly populated by the early adopters. There are imports from different services, true. But without some effective filtering, it just gets too noisy to use. Consider that I currently have to mute all the high-frequency Reader imports from people. I barely bother to look at the headline.. I actually mute based on who the activity is by. Why? I’m going to spend time reading it in Reader later anyway. So then what does Buzz become? Restricted to my friends i.e. a more social interface for my friends shared items and thoughts. Its even been found that the most Buzz activity is for articles that are Buzz specific i.e. not imports into Buzz. Articles written for Buzz. Buzz has thus ended up as another service that I have to check in on and manage. My Buzz usage has gone down to once every few days because about 90% of the activity on it has pretty much become imports from other services. You’ll say: “Wait. what? You want Buzz to be the all-in-one service and you’re complaining about imports? Something is not adding up.” My issue is not imports per se. My issue is the lack of filtering ability for the imports. For e.g. I get over 20 emails a day on one of my email accounts. 80% of them are filtered by Gmail to go to particular folders — because they can be checked later. It should the same with Buzz. For e.g. I should be able to filter out Reader shared items to a separate view, as I already check them in Reader. Can I move to only checking them in Buzz? No, because some of the people I follow are not on Buzz but are on Reader. And so my experience with Buzz has further soured my experience with social networks.
Moving on. The Windows Phone 7. I’m dallying between 2 POVs. There is the one that M$ is essentially replaying what Apple has been doing with the iPhone. Closed system – check. Closed source – check. v1 released without copy-paste, multi-tasking and other features that are ubiquitous with other phones (including the iPhone today) – check. But on the flip side, it will integrate Windows and Office beautifully. It makes use of the Zune interface, and maybe will use the Zune software for syncing. Both of which are absolute joys to behold. A sheer lesson on beautiful type and having a beautiful intuitive interface. Considering that Apple = iTunes, which is also the biggest piece of bloated crap on the Windows ecosystem.. having a beautiful intuitive software interface suddenly makes the hardware all the more interesting to me. Which brings me back to the phone. The interface. The idea of data over function (i.e. info hubs which collate information vs. functions which collect specific information) is very alluring. There is a faint parallel with my want for a “one social media interface fits all” and my thoughts about this phon. Which M$ seems to be about to deliver on. Unfortunately aforementioned weirdness/caveats detract from my enthusiasm for the phone.
Next up. Playing with the PC. I was working the other day when I suddenly realized that my computer was concurrently running (1) Zune for music, (2) MATLAB processing images, (2) GIMP editing a high-res image (3) Fx & Chrome with different mail accounts open, (4) Miscellaneous Explorer and IrfanView windows. And in all of this it wasn’t hiccuping in the least. A far cry from being unable to run full-screen Flash for over 1.5 years as my graphics cards was frying
This is the 701st post on this blog. They’ve not all been the most informative, the most insightful posts in the world. But they exist. And I’m actually starting to think that #1000 could be a lot closer than I think if I remembered to actually hit publish once in a while.
p.s. There were more Reader items, but I figured this was enough for now
notes: buzzing around
Feb 17th
Posted by SEV in staying.interested
Google’s latest experiment – Buzz – has been launched to the world recently, with varying degrees of appreciation, hate, irritation and all the reactions that every new social idea is greeted with. Personally, it is a social media outlet/inlet that I can get on board with – seeing as how it integrates nicely into my existing Gmail/Google experience. It has its caveats though.. features/glitches/annoyances that I wish they had ironed out before getting it out the door:
- Google Reader posts can be easily imported to Buzz – and comments on Buzz are back-ported to Reader. However, liking and reading of Reader imports in Buzz are not back-ported into Reader. Irritating in some cases, when there’s nothing much to see. Good in other cases, as I may miss something/want to re-buzz something.
- Privacy settings from Reader are correctly applied for such posts (unsurprising, as the dashboard for Reader privacy is still through Reader) – so if I can’t comment on your shared item in Reader, I can’t in Buzz either. However, the status of those settings is not correctly shown in Buzz. Everything imported from Reader appears as ‘Public’, when in reality, only the item is public – the discussion ability is anything but for the ‘Public’.
- Google seems confused as to what they want to make Buzz. A single life-stream source that you check for all your social updates? Or just another interface to their social services – to popularize them more? I would have thought the former.
- Setting privacy settings in a particular way is not easy. Needs a lot of thought, as each Google service still makes use of its own privacy settings. For example, I didn’t want to see a particular person’s Reader shared items in Buzz. Unfollowing them has a global effect – I unfollow them on Reader too in the process. I ended up unfollowing them and adding the RSS feed of their shared items in Reader separately. Crude, but effective. Similar ideas have been suggested for re-buzzing.
- A cool idea is posting via email to Buzz, but the functionality is more of a status update than a post — more like short updates posted to Twitter. The power of length offered by Buzz is not exploited as the body text is ignored for such a Buzz update. Sad really, as would have been such a simple yet refreshing re-buzz idea.
- ‘@’ replies are nigh-impossible when you do not know the person’s Gmail ID that is associated with the Google profile.
- Muting is golden.
Feature requests I have galore: lists/groups support, ordering/collapsing messages, re-buzzing, additional import options into Buzz, selective streaming for my Buzz feed etc etc.
I’ve discovered whole hosts of new people (who have also discovered me) and have already had some interesting conversations using it. Most privacy complaints and issues I’ve read with are minor or non-existent: I firmly see BIG things in Buzz’s future.
If only it would get here faster.
(to be added to if I think of more)
Update (26 Feb 2010): Via Reader found a series of comments I had missed on a Reader-Buzz export. Searching through my Buzzes in Gmail showed me I muted this post. However, opening it up there does not show me any comments on it at ALL. According to this post muting a Buzz apparently mutes me from ALL future comments on that post in Buzz, to the extent that the related Buzz in my Gmail does not show the new comments after I muted it i.e. muting completely silences the Buzz conversation for me from that point on. Even if I’m ‘@’ mentioned in it. Need to use it more sparingly.
notes: what should be the real plan for the chrome os?
Nov 21st
Posted by SEV in staying.interested
The world has been talking about the Google Chrome OS. We have people saying ‘next big huge thing‘, and obviously, ‘next big huge steaming pile of crap‘.
Me, personally? I haven’t, and still don’t like the idea of Google having a browser on the market – it reeks too much of a company trying to ensure that they take over every part of the Internet (their proposing SPDY, which will best work in Chrome does not help matters). There have been a series of posts recently dealing with different facets of this particular takeover: the oncoming war, google’s war-winning strategy (+counter-point). The Chrome OS spells the onset of Google really taking the war to the big guys – M$, Apple, – and trying to ensure they have control at the level of OS.
Can it really succeed?
What can the Chrome OS really achieve then? As Scoble pointed out, there is the “dumb device” market that need not do much more than access recipes (even if his estimate of $1000 is a bit off as a good price). Which can also be occupied by E-Readers like the Kindle, Nook and what have you. The Nook runs Android, meaning Chrome OS will then fight a losing battle against another Google product (anyone else smell monopoly?). Android is far far more extensible than Chrome can ever be, so that battle is lost before it begins.
There is one other market that struck me today as being perfect for the Chrome OS. The flash-based quickstart (or the pre-boot) OS. We have such things existing today in every single laptop, where at the press of a button you have a media center/web browser accessible within 7-10 seconds. As opposed to resume/start-up times of >30 seconds fore Windows 7 and Mac OS X [cat's name]. Its a tiny tiny margin that people don’t really care about – and so we don’t bother ever pressing that button. 2 reasons. OS media centers along with OS functionality is something people don’t mind waiting for – rather than have quick access to something crippled. Plus whatever browser/media player they offer is way way below par of anything usable. (Seriously. Have you tried any of them?).
What are the Chrome OS specs? Start-up time of 7-10 seconds. Browser available with Internet connectivity at the end of that. Easy access to Gmail, Docs, Lala, Hulu – essentially all the web apps. Basic media player functionality probably there in some manner (web-based or actual app unknown). No storage. Every single one of which fulfills all the requirements of a pre-boot OS. If we really are to hit that quickstart button on a laptop, most of us want to do one of 2 things properly: (1) quick access to personal e-mail, (2) media playback. Yes, in that order. Work cannot be something I do in a pre-boot. Chrome is a pretty decent browser, steadily gaining in features and speed (while ballooning in memory – just like Fx used to be). Infinitely better than the trash in pre-boots. And there are enough open-source media players out there to integrate into Chrome OS too. It all comes together perfectly.
Give up on the damn specific notebooks specifically pre-configured for Chrome OS and nothing else, Google. You have tie-ups with Dell, HP, Acer and so on to pre-install Chrome, Google Desktop etcetera. Tie-up for the pre-boot as well. Will users press that button? You have the hype already, work on that. There are definitely some curiosity presses of the quickstart button that will happen. It is near impossible to make an actual OS start up in the time-frame you are pushing for. Too many things to load up. There lies the killer move of this strategy: do NOT make Chrome able to do every single tiny thing. Read USB, Internet access, media. Thassit. That’s the basic stuff that you want people to use you for. Nothing more. You’re never going to be able to replace M$ or Apple. Ever. Plus you’re fighting with them on every other front anyway. But you can undercut them perfectly. And it’s a market they are not going to touch for a long time to come. Think of it this way: even if people use Chrome OS once or twice a week, that’s still a level of access that you don’t have today.
But is that enough?
Update: As Raghu pointed out below, there is a chance that the Chrome OS will merge with Android, in which case above strategy might still help them get a foothold in a market that they have no standing in. Additionally, a very in-depth look at the Chrome OS by Thurrott, a guy who is a big proponent of the cloud, and is actually already using it via Amazon.
notes: is the zune HD not awesome at all?
Sep 28th
Posted by SEV in staying.interested
[opinion due to : Betanews - Zune HD: The best portable media player you may never buy ]
Like many other reviews have done before him, the author demonstrates real love for the Zune HD. He also stresses limitations – both artificial and real – which apparently translate to it being the device that nobody will ever find utility for. This is a tack that a lot of people have taken when it comes to this device. I completely disagree.
I think when it comes to the Zune HD, M$ has just targeted a different market. To my knowledge the author is one of the few people who actually uses a Nokia N-series in the US – meaning he is actually conversant with the term: “true device integration”. For those who have simple phones and don’t know about integration (yes, lots of such people still exist, and especially so in the States) – the Zune HD offers a pretty awesome option. It is affordable, looks/feels beautiful, and has a very viable ecosystem which I am now convinced is a much better alternative to Apple’s. The large global market that M$ is not offering the Zune in currently – these are also places where the majority of the users have moved to device integration. I am not sure if a limited release is a bad thing necessarily; by the time it goes global it has a lot of chinks ironed out, lots of positive karma, more integration with M$ products etc. Even in device integrated markets, the Zune HD will then have an edge.
And remember M$ is in the process of opening stores. How long do you think people are going to go without knowing all about the HD? Before M$ makes it even easier for you to do everything in your home completely integrated with M$ products?
Not long at all.
Now if only some reviews would turn up that tell me more about the media capabilities of the player – audio quality, video fidelity etc. Funny how reviews of this PMP have not talked about that all.
notes: copyrights and comics
Sep 23rd
Posted by SEV in staying.interested
[Thoughts due to: io9: Who Created Spider-Man? ]
It is a deal-breaking case that has been filed against Marvel Comics, probably fueled by the recent success of Siegel vs DC for the Superman copyright (and the acquisition of Marvel by Disney too?). My own WTF was fueled by whether Spidey even belongs to this dispute (he probably doesn’t). The Superman case in itself is not completely without wtf-ness given the way the rights to Superman have been split up [link]:
…the Siegels have recaptured the rights to the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper strips, and portions of Action Comics and Superman comics. They apparently now control all depictions of Superman’s origin story, which means they now own Krypton, its fiery destruction, Jor-El and Lora, and Kal El. In 2008, the Siegels recaptured the rights to the Superman character (which includes his costume and his alter-ego of Clark Kent), Lois Lane, the Daily Planet, its gruff editor, and their love triangle. DC still owns Jimmy Olson, his ability to fly, Lex Luthor, kryptonite, and Superman’s expanded powers and origins.
Plus ALL rights revert to Siegel/Shuster (?) come 2013. Keep in mind this ruling is in spite of multiple previous rulings that the DC owned the rights to the character, and the fact that the creators had actually legally signed away the rights for $130 in 1938 “forever and all time”. Plus multiple previous not-so-small settlements by DC to the creators due to legal disputes. Admittedly I’m taking a simplified view of things, there are deep implications to the settlement.
The Kirby case, on the other hand, is a lot more wide-ranging for Marvel. Kirby worked on almost ALL Marvel’s characters (unlike the above case which is just about Superman). The dispute is over the copyrights and not trademarks, so the movies may remain unaffected (meaning the large majority won’t really care), but the comics may be significantly hit. One interesting point is that the original Kirby dispute was to do with his artwork – he never did get back all his original artwork from Marvel. Very little is said about who owns the character work he did (unlike Siegel who definitely signed his away).
Another thing that jumped out at me was that Kirby did not want to battle it out in court over copyrights. And now, suddenly, cases are being filed all over the place. I’m not really sure what the justification is when the original creator had no wish to do so. Would Kirby’s work be worth anything if Marvel did not publish/market it? Remember that Kirby has been paid for his work, has creator credit in most cases, and all this copyright business was nowhere even a year ago – when Marvel’s properties were just hitting the market. The timing for the case is impeccable given the Marvel movie roster and the acquisition.
Filing cases against the biggest players in the business is a routine matter now – maximum damage is guaranteed. For e.g. M$ has had issues with integrated browser and desktop search – even though Apple/Linux installs have the exact same strategy today! I agree that Marvel/DC may have shortchanged creators, but they must also be given credit for making their characters successful in multiple arenas. Worse of all, targeting their copyrights will first affect the fan-base that makes the movies possible – us comic book geeks. Why? We won’t get the characters we have supported any more. Is that really what their creators would like to see of their legacy?
My new series of posts via Reader. As promised. You’ve been warned.




