Pros and Cons of Twitter

Twitter has been around for a while now (since 2006) being used by geeks and other technologically savvy people to communicate with each other, but has recently been gaining a lot of mainstream exposure. So, just like I did with Craigslist a few years ago, I’m here to present some of the Pros and Cons of Twitter to help you decide if it is a service you may want to use. In respect of Twitter’s 140 character limit, each item is limited to just that.

Pros:

1. Celebrities and Pseudo-celebrities: Wonder what your favorite actor is up to? A lot of actors, athletes, tech gurus, etc are on Twitter.

2. Limited to 140 characters: Forces people to be more concise. If you ramble, be prepared to be cut-off.

3. Get status updates from your friends just like MySpace and Facebook, but w/o their annoying/sickening page designs and add-ons.

4. Able to send and receive updates with SMS (text messaging) so you don’t need internet on your phone to stay connected away from your PC.

5. Non-reciprocity: you don’t have to follow someone who’s following you; the reason why most celebrities who use it do so.

6. Hashtags (#): want to see what everyone is saying about a particular topic? Use a hashtag search to find all relevant tweets.

Cons:

1. Fake celebrities: People actually pretend to be celebrities. Seriously, do you not have a life?

2. People who need to use multiple tweets to complete one thought. I can tolerate it every once in a while, but some people don’t seem to…

2.b. …understand that they should reword their thought to fit into the 140 character limit. I just want to shout to them “Ever heard of 1337…

2.c. …(leet) speak? Look it up!…Or use a blog.”

3. @replies: Some people use Twitter as an instant messaging service. At least you can choose not to see them.

4. CNN vs Ashton: Caused many annoying and inactive people to join Twitter.

5. SPAM: Yes, Twitter has spam, but at least it is pretty easy to avoid.

6. Links: 99% of links are shrunk by a third party website (tinyurl, snipr, bit.ly, etc). You better trust the linker before you click.

Mother’s Day Poem

This is the poem my 9-month old daughter, Allison, wrote for my wife, Laura, for Mother’s Day yesterday…

…

Sweetie, for you, on your First Mother’s Day

I asked Allison what she wanted to say

When all she could say was dada and googoo

There was lots of code to decipher through

…

I couldn’t tell if she said “daddy, I love you”

Or was trying to say that she just went poopoo

So I made her a hat that could translate what she said

And held my breath as I put it on her head

…

The hat let out a click and a small puff of smoke

Then, to my surprise, Allison looked up and spoke:

“My Mommy’s the best (you’re the best daddy too)

So, for her special day, here’s what we should do.”

…

“Go to Galaxy Motors and buy mom a rocket

Then fly her around the moon and Mars

And look out the window at all the pretty stars

Then give her some earrings or a tiny heart locket”

…

“Or maybe we could buy her a ship

Sail her to Paris, Rome and Jamaica

Take her anywhere she wants us to take her

I know she would really like that trip.”

…

Laura, she wants to pay you back for being so kind

These are just two of a thousand ways she had in mind

But, what she wants most of all is simple to do

To hug you, to kiss you, and to say “I Love You”

Open Letter to Fox

May 4th, 2009

To: Fox Executives

Re: Television Programming Lineup

Dear Sirs and Madams,

          Let me start by telling you how much I love some of your shows. I am a big fan of House, 24, Fringe, Dollhouse, and Lie to Me. I haven’t missed an episode of any of those shows since they went on the air.  I also own every season of House and 24 that is currently out on DVD. It may not have been the smartest move on my part to buy the DVDs, since I haven’t actually watched them since I bought them, but just knowing they are on my shelf helps me sleep better at night. So, thank you for that.

          I also need to let you know how awesome I think hulu.com is. Being able to watch any of my favorite shows that I may have missed for free! is, to borrow a phrase from the Brits, bloody brilliant. On the flip side of that coin, though, the reason why I most recently had to use hulu.com is, to borrow a phrase from the French, #$!%ed up. I work full-time, and I go to school, and I have a nine-month old daughter, so I really don’t have time to sit down and watch all of those shows I mentioned above when they are actually airing.

          To help me actually have time to sit down and watch your awesome shows I employ the services of a Tivo. Tivo is a wonderful thing. I can’t even imagine my life without it. The only real drawback I have found to Tivo is WHEN SOME IDIOT *coughRyanSeacrest* CAN’T CONTROL THE SHOW HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE MCing SO IT GOES LONGER THAN IT SHOULD, PUSHING BACK THE STARTING TIME OF THE NEXT SHOW, AND RATHER THAN CUT THAT SHOW OFF AND PLAY THE NEXT SHOW ON TIME OR CUT OUT A FEW COMMERCIALS TO GET THE NEXT SHOW BACK ON TIME, THE MORON IN THE STUDIO DECIDES TO LET BOTH SHOWS GO LONG!

          Now, I’m not sure if you are familiar with how Tivo works, so allow me to explain. Basically, the networks (i.e. you guys) publish the listing of which shows will be on at which times. Tivo takes these listings and records shows that I tell it to record based off of these listings. When these listings tell Tivo that Fringe will be playing on Fox from 8:00-9:00pm, Tivo will record whatever is on Fox from 8:00-9:00pm. You see, Tivo isn’t a human being. It is a machine that can only do what it is pregrammed to do. It can’t see that Fringe didn’t actually start at 8:00. So, guess what happens when Moron in the Studio decides to let both American Idol and Fringe get pushed back a few minutes? I miss the last few minutes of Fringe, that’s what happens. Then I have to walk all the up to my computer, go to hulu.com, find the episode I was just watching, find the time it got cut off at and finish watching it.

          Luckily for me I have a computer and high-speed internet. But, I would be willing to bet that not everyone who records Fringe on their Tivo has a computer, so they are missing out on the last few minutes. That’s like bringing dessert to someone, letting them see it and smell it, then throwing it on the floor. On behalf of everyone who watches Fringe: Screw you Fox for throwing our dessert on the floor!

Thank you for your time,

Jack Deus