Jumping Twitter?

Saturday, January 24, 2009 ~ 3 comments so far

I’ve been Twittering for almost two years now and after being an early adopter who quickly turned naysayer, it’s now proving to be useful in a myriad of subtle and different ways.

It alerts me to breaking news (I heard of the Hudson River crash before anything featured on the BBC News website), provides movie, music and book recommendations, links to interesting websites and topics, and keeps me amused with that little touch of voyeuristic pleasure that is akin to sneak a peek into a living room window as you walk past.

I think it’s safe to say that, as Stephen Fry said last night, I get it.

I can’t recall the exact quote, nor who said it, but the true value of Twitter is only now being uncovered. The instant nature of the technology, the ease of use and forced brevity lend themselves to several different uses. Corporations are now looking at how they could use it internally, the marketers are trying to figure out how to leverage it, and everyone and their dog seems to be jumping on board.

Which brings me to the second quote that is now applicable to Twitter. It has, most definitely, jumped the shark (in the newer sense of the phrase). Anyone who has a Twitter account can probably sympathise here, with each day bringing a new ‘Follow’ request from a complete stranger (at best) to some company or other (at worst).

There has also, recently, been a spate of celebrities signing up. The good news is that they seem to ‘get it’ as well. The aforementioned Mr. Fry and Jonathan Ross both have Twitter accounts, personal accounts that is, not something created to help ‘market’ them. In the case of Jonathan Ross it’s been especially interesting to read his very personal thoughts as he returns to the TV screen. Time will tell how that will change of course.

Despite having hinted at it recently I’m not ditching Twitter, far from it. I will be locking things down a little more, and it’s likely I’ll start blocking people I don’t know, and thankfully whilst the Twitter website itself remains low in functionality, there are several Twitter clients out there which can help filter and manage what is, by nature, a high volume way of communicating.

I’m not entirely sure what the rising popularity of Twitter will bring but I am looking forward to finding out.

Once more he descends

Friday, January 23, 2009 ~ 3 comments so far

“Inspire me!” he howls. The frustration echoing loud through the room.

“Step away” came the voice, the gentle caress of a whisper, fading almost before it had begun. That cold sheen of silk pulled across skin, comforting yet alien, the voice soothes him once again. Closing his eyes as the colours flow, emotions swirl vivid in technicolour, washing from blue to red, anger to love.

But he will not. He remains there, resolute in his determination. This has worked before and will work again. He will see this through, it’s all he knows, all he can do. The world washes white, then colour floods his view once more.

He is drawn through purple and green, closer still, knowing what he seeks is a fragment beyond his grasp, that translucent clarity will reveal itself in moments. Consumed, it’s all he can consider, totally, willingly focussed. The room slips away from him as he graps and grapples towards his sanity and the tortured salvation he seeks.

Behind his eyes, colours swirl and merge in the raging torrents and deep pools of his mind. Emotions cascade, tumbling through thoughts, eclipsing everything whilst he searches for the light, the release, the answer.

Suddenly, peace. A quiet resonate. He has arrived.

Blinking against the sudden, dazzling light he opens his eyes to a room that dazzles and glows. Quietly the voice rewards him, praises him, comforts him. He smiles, knowing the worst is over for now. One day he will heed the voice, one day he follow and learn more, one day he will step away and be inspired in other ways, he will accept what he didn’t know as true, he will succumb and no longer suffer his way through.

But, for now, he is happy and content. The room tilts back towards normal and with a slow smile he reveals what he knows, offers it up and finally placates her. She quietly approves and relaxes her grip, and as he breathes once more his mind spirals back to the beginning.

White slashed black, curls and lines form and dance, circles and dots wash into view. His fingers furious now, desperate to capture it all, to fill the void.

The words spill and dazzle, inspired by light, daubed in vivid colour.

He relaxes and calm descends.

And he types on.

This is not free

Thursday, January 22, 2009 ~ 13 comments so far

Right. I’ve had it with you lot, it’s all take take take. Time to pay. £1 each will do. Leave it at the door as you leave. Thanks.

I am, of course, joking.

I know you lot are too tight to pay anything, don’t worry, I wouldn’t either.

But the thing is that I DO get paid for this blog. Not (just) via the adverts either. I get paid in the richness and kindess of your comments and emails, by the fact that I’ve been lucky enough to meet many of you and the startling revelation that you are all really nice in person too!

I only mention all of this to frame my next statement.

The internet, and the social networking aspects of it are not there to be leveraged. They are there to be participated in, and if you don’t choose to join in then, quite simply, you shouldn’t be surprised when you don’t get any benefits and you will continue to remain one of those people who don’t “get it”.

I could go on but I think that covers things broadly enough.

Why am I mentioning this now?

Because over the past 2 weeks I’ve received 3 separate requests for me to advertise something on this blog. No offer of payment just the presumption that I’ll happily promote their latest product for them, help gather ideas or content or photos for their book and so on.

Sometimes it doesn’t feel like 2009 at all. Don’t they get it yet??

President Obama

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 ~ 1 comment so far

The United States of America has, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock these past couple of months, a new President. Bye bye Bush, hello “Change” and a big dollop of hope.

Like many others I’ve been a little swept up in the general goodwill that President Obama seems to carry with him, and whilst it is obvious that he is an intelligent and charismatic man, I’m not entirely convinced his perceived persona is fair.

It’s easy to forget, as most of us are slap bang in the middle of it, that the way we use the internet has changed in the past four years and whilst the way the Obama campaign used the internet is well documented I think there is a more subtle effect of their “internet aware” campaign that is glossed over. It’s not just about the money that they generated, they were also very smart at getting the word out. Call it soft marketing (I hesitate to use the word ‘viral’ here) but the fact remains that I’ve read and know more about President Obama than any previous President.

That may be partly down to the fact that I share many of his views, partly because he seems closer to my generation, or just because he seems like a smart, reasonable man. But the fact remains that word of mouth, via the myriad of social networks in which we all dip into, has been a driving factor in his campaign.

Given how internet savvy his campaign was, I’m certain I won’t be the only person looking at how his Presidency continues to leverage the benefits of being internet aware.

Bravo to the Obama web/marketing machine, and here’s hoping the man can live up to the hype (anyone else think we are setting him up for a fall already?). Time will tell but for now I’m keen to see what he’s made of, what decisions he takes (he’s off to a great start on that front already) and how patient the USA, and the rest of the world, will be.

And, if proof were needed, the Whitehouse blog is already up and running.

MP3 Tags

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 ~ 6 comments so far

MP3 Tags

“You spin me right round baby, right round, like a record baby” … Cue several of my younger readers to ask “what’s a record?”

When I first started ripping CDs to MP3 I was very careful when tagging the information. I used Tag & Rename to make sure they all (ALL) had complete fields. I didn’t bother, back then, with album art as my MP3 player didn’t support it. A few years on Apple release iTunes for Windows and, after a few false starts, I decide to forego my compulsion and let iTunes do what it does best. Take care of my MP3s.

Except it didn’t. Whilst I’m happy that iTunes manages where the files live (within a directory chosen by me) it isn’t really up to the re-tagging of MP3s.

And yes, for those of a nervous disposition, I am talking about illegally downloaded MP3s, and yes, if I like an album I will buy it at a later date. In fact this post is entirely due to the fact that I’m going through my library deleting albums I don’t want and checking what I have purchased.

Where was I? Oh yes.

The problem is one of album art. My older MP3s (mainly those ripped from CD) vary when it comes to the quality of the MP3 tagging. Some have embedded album art, some don’t. Some have track numbering, some don’t. I’m guessing that my switch over iTunes, many years ago now, is to blame but that doesn’t help me at the moment.

Whilst it’s not a big hassle to add album art, one thing that does seem to have gotten out of kilter is the fact that not only does an MP3 tag have an Artist field, it also has an Album Artist field. It seems that, for one or two tracks across most albums, this field is filled in whereas, for the rest of the tracks, it’s blank. So, when playing an album in iTunes (I’m still very album-centric) the track appear out of order as iTunes thinks they are DIFFERENT ALBUMS.

This is a royal pain in the ass and so I’ve been trying to fix it. I have a large library of music so I thought it would be a good idea to find some way of automating this, as much as possible. I’ve tried MediaMonkey on the suggestion of Lifehacker but that only does one album at a time and, I think, has actually introduced the same issue.

So it looks like I’ll be going through all of my music by hand, tagging it properly (although maybe therein lies the real problem, there is no standard to adhere to, just an open set of fields that can be (and are) abused). That’s over 20,000 MP3 individual files.

I’m seriously thinking of hiring a student to do this in the summer.

Small changes

Monday, January 19, 2009 ~ 4 comments so far

Sometimes it’s the little things that add up to make something better.

The realisation that I probably post to Twitter more than I should hit home recently. I use Twitter to update my Facebook status and, as a few work colleagues can see my Facebook profile, one of the jovial nitwits has created a special Facebook group just for me, titled “Gordon Mclean cannot stop updating his status”.

However, despite jokingly suggesting I might stop using Twitter soon (it has jumped the shark, hasn’t it?) I don’t see that happening, in fact I’m still finding new ways to use it.

One of the first applications I put on my iPhone was Twitterific. It was good enough for me to buy the Pro version (not hugely expensive) and it’s been my Twitter client for a while now. However it does have some limitations and when I heard mention of Tweetie I thought I’d give it a try. One intriguing part was the Instapaper hook up it has built in, with one click I can add a link that someone posts to Twitter to my Instapaper account to read at a later date.

Now, a few months ago that wouldn’t have been much use but as more and more of my fellow peers (technical writers and their ilk) start using Twitter, and as I use Instapaper for marking articles and posts that might be useful to feature in the monthly column I write for the ISTC… well it’s a match made in … Tweaven? (sorry).

In other fascinating news, I’ve been tweaking this very blog a little, mainly adding in a better view of the comments. Those of you with a gravatar should see that now, those of you that don’t get a randomly generated pattern (or you can always sign up and get a gravatar, it’s free).

OK, I’m sure you are all in need of a lie down. What an exciting whirlwind of a life I lead, eh?

Inspired by moments

Sunday, January 18, 2009 ~ 2 comments so far

A thousand soft pellets of snow slam against glass as the wind swirls in chaotic flurries. Hedges are dusted and slowly the translucent white gathers in the nooks and crannys. The swell of noise rises as it turns towards the window, then just as suddenly falls away as the assault veers elsewhere. Water and ice race down the window, shimmering with the wind.

Inside the house the scent of fresh coffee floats through from the kitchen, carrying with it the smell of baking. The cat snores and snuffles, oblivious but content. Warm and safe.

The television shows a grizzled man, thick of beard and accent. He talks of his life, picking a living from the scraps of life. He looks happy and content, he bears no ill will, there is no chip on his shoulder.

After a story or two he picks up his guitar. Dulled red, patched up and broken, he strums three strings and sings a song of a man sleeping between trains, grabbing at what he can.

Outside the wind has died, calmed and sated. Tinges of white are all that remain, the helter skelter down the window pane has ended. A man stands at the window, sipping dark coffee from a place he doesn’t know. He ponders what he has and knows he should be happy.

Daydreaming now, a smile sneaks onto his lips. Colour and light, dazzling and brilliant. Vivid and stark he snapshots the moments in his mind, hoping for once to remember them.

And then the swell of the wind rises once more and washes it all away, erasing to canvas the thoughts. He closes his eyes. The snapshot remains and, once again, he smiles.