cind.me

Twitter Is My New IRC

Cindy — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:58:16 +0000

I realized recently why I’ve become so fond of Twitter. (Hint: See post title.) Now you might be thinking, “Internet Relay Chat? That’s all about talking, Twitter is about statuses and thought bubbles.” But that’s where you are multidimensionally wrong.

IRC is for chatting, not. First, old-school (non-mIRC) IRC users didn’t go to a channel to chat for the sake of chatting, they went to hang out and share the occasional interesting tidbit. On EFnet, my old hangout, popular channels were full of users but some publicly silent (lurkers), and many who only spoke once or twice a day. This was fine, and even highly desired by a lot of folks. That’s because true conversations were conducted in private whispers, and the public chat was reserved for PSAs. The key activity of IRC was reading the channel log: a treasure of distilled quips, shared news, links, and status changes. Yes, chat is a key component of the channel log. But IRC is a mostly timeless place, where patience and choice words are rewarded, and where noobish demands for verbal reciprocity will get you a swift kickban.

Status updates. On IRC there were lots of inventive ways to passively communicate. I’d change my nickname frequently based on status: kusanagi_away, kusanagi_shower, kusanagi_sleep. The “realname” field was also abused this way as well. Asking /whois kusanagi could get you “kusanagi is ~kusanagi@what.the.hell.is.a.blep.net (making breakfast)”. In addition, every time you left a channel, joined a channel, or flagged yourself /away was an opportunity for a descriptive update: “kusanagi is away (herding cats).”

But Twitter is one-way. Not really. People send a surprising number of direct messages and public replies. Also, Twitter mimics a moderated channel on IRC. While many can “listen,” only some are given a voice to converse with the speaker. Blocking a user is the Twitter equivalent of the kickban, albeit without the insult that usually accompanies it.

All in all, Twitter is really just a more civilized form of IRC for those who like it old-school. Ah but now I recall why I eventually left IRC. It was too damn addictive.

Thought crumb

Cindy — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:49:48 +0000

What’s more important, art on your walls or clean windows?

Caffeine Glyphs

Cindy — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:16:28 +0000

I like Starbucks culture better than their coffee. Below: An iced venti decaf solo vanilla soy light-ice chai.

Food for Thought

Cindy — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:38:23 +0000

Frequent afflictions of Chinese menus:

Too many choices
Minor variations between choices
Choices spread across pages so not easily comparable
Inadequate descriptions of choices

Obviously these could be characteristics of any menu, I simply see them more often in Chinese restaurants. And I just realized, I see them in the website I’m working on as well.

Message in a Bottle

Cindy — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:27:24 +0000

For someone who graduated from college with an English degree, a shamefully tiny amount of my communication is written. I much prefer face-to-face discussions, or even better, face-to-whiteboard-to-face discussions.

I’ve been thinking a lot about missed opportunities, especially in terms of capturing interesting thoughts and communicating about them. Generally I don’t want to have a dialogue with the world. A handful of confidants is enough. Yet here I am typing into the ether.

The reason is that I don’t know all the answers, and neither do all the smart people I befriend. Once I feel I’ve found a piece of the puzzle, the desire manifests to connect it with other puzzle pieces out there somewhere.

Posting this is a declaration to miss fewer of those opportunities, even if the only result is a message in a bottle.

James Hong on Reinventing HOTorNOT

Cindy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:43:04 +0000

One of the founders of HOTorNOT wrote a three-parter on how their business has changed over the years. He describes how they are attempting to evolve their brand:

1. We are about connecting people
2. Our name sets wonderful context for sharing opinion on anything

Add these together and you get

3. HOTorNOT enables people to share their opinion on anything, and helps connect people around those opinions.

While this sounds somewhat bland, it’s pretty interesting to read the specifics of how they are getting to implied list item #4: “Profit.”

First!

Cindy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:13:23 +0000

I pondered what kind of post to make as my first here, before I realized it didn’t matter. First posts are just the squall of a newborn.