fun with pi (Pie?)

This is one of my favorite videos...and pretty much what being owned by a cat is like:

My children love this, and adopted the finger pointing to mouth with the plaintive "MROW?" as the universal sign around here for, "Hey, I need something to eat!" It gets my attention and they think it's cute. (it is, but shhh!)

So, with that in mind, last night, my daughter, JBug, who is pretty tech-savvy, sent me this through my IM:

So I responded with a link to this:

Yes, we are geeks. What of it?

T, who may or may not have important exchanges through IM and never a word spoken

What's the geekiest thing you did this week?

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When others didn't share I didn't play with them anymore: twitter, you listening?

Or...it's called social NETWORKING for a reason!

Once again, in a massive twitter fail, twitter has jumped first, asked questions later. (and then not really listened to the answers!)

2800+ follow me. Of those, I follow 1800+ people. I listen to ALL of them. And their friends. If they say something I find interesting, I click over, and often follow them, too. It is how I find new people, and local people, events and tweetups, in order to actually, you know, meet real people and connect in real life. I have met a lot of really great people, both online and off. And a lot of that is attributed to seeing all replies.

And I would hope if you are following my stream, you do the same. But that isn't going to be an option anymore. Because twitter has taken that choice from you. The settings for @replies used to have three toggles:

• all replies
• replies of all you follow
• replies from those you follow to all of their followers.

You had a choice. Now, you don't.

The entire reason for social media is, well, social. To limit the options is not the wisest course for twitter to have taken. Power users like @chrisbrogan,@kevinrose @GeekMommy and others, who ooze social media and tweet things I really want to know? I will miss replies unless I am following all 10,000+ of their followers. I don't have time for that. This is just short-sighted on twitter's part. The value of twitter has always been discovery of new users, and the conversations that arise. Twitter has effectively crippled themselves. And explain how this will help those who do social media business on twitter?

What set twitter apart was the ability to hear ALL of the conversations or as much as you would like. It is like drinking from a firehose...not all want to do it, but some of us enjoy getting soaked in the conversation. Now, our streams became significantly less wet. If I wanted a drinking fountain, I would do iChat. I am looking to be immersed in the fountain of social media. I want to be soaked to the skin! So twitter has miscalculated here. Judging from the way #fixreplies is trending, I am thinking they will have to address this, whether they want to or not!

And twitter isn't the only option out there. There is Facebook, a platform that is gaining popularity with the last update. I can still see the things my friends (and theirs!) are up to. I can follow their friends, if I choose to do so. I have said before that Facebook feels like I am cheating on my boyfriend, Twitter, but breaking up is hard to do...not impossible.

Or there is @Scobleizer's baby, friendfeed, which uses all types of feeds to create a "superfeed" that is customized by you. You can add RSS, all of your social media sites...lots of choices.

Part of the problem here is that twitter has never cared what their user base wants...unless we are Ashton Kutcher. We have never been important to them, and they have made that clear from the beginning. Every time they change things, they announce, and that's it. Take it, and like it.

Facebook changed their user agreements based upon feedback. Entrecard changed their policies based upon what their users said. But twitter has remained unresponsive. I suspect this isn't about "convenience" for users, as much as scaling a terrible and shaky foundation. Twitter has always maintained it is not a messaging platform. And it was never created to be. And yet... that's exactly what it is. See: Identi.ca ...the open-source system that actually gets it right from the ground up.

Rather than punish users, the very users who have made twitter a household name, that gets them recognized on CNN and has Oprah following, they need to turn towards the myriad of build problems, the fail whales and the missteps, rather than remove features that users are actually well...using.

And, they need to listen to their users. Or their users just might not be there when push comes to shove.

Agree with me? GET SATISFACTION and tell Twitter exactly how you feel about this new change.

ETA: there is a work-around. start tweets without the @, so it becomes a mention rather than a reply. Then everyone will see it. As in, "Hey @namegoes here,..." But it's annoying, and the point is, we shouldn't have to do that. Also, it breaks threading on messages (so you can actually go back and figure out what someone was talking about!) and doesn't allow for RT through the web interface. We had the option, now we don't. And that's limiting. How many will not change their tweets as they post, and how many conversations will we miss out on because of it?

UPDATE: Twitter listened, and brought back @replies, sort of. But ony if EVERYONE doesn't start with either the replies arrow or tab, or doesn't start with the @... still not there yet, twitter, but we can see you are trying. Kind of.

T, who is beyond frustrated by their idiocy

Twitter Blog: Whoa, Feedback!

Shhh! It's a SECRET or Why I Love Blogging

And this is why I freakin' love blogging, the Bloggysphere and all that goes with it. I believe in true love, I admit it. Sometimes it is a bit worse for wear, but it is always enduring. Going on twenty years with my tech support, this year. But he didn't do it this way. I kind of asked him. Yep, after I swore I wouldn't get married. He wouldn't push,see? He knew I didn't want to get married, he respected that. We laughed it off when I asked and I felt like a complete idiot and just played it off.

He came back later that night and got down on one knee in the bathroom and I told him he was being stupid and to just get up off the floor. Then I hit kissed him. Couple of romantics, us. But it's a strong relationship if you can propose in the bathroom and be together 20 years and 3 kids later.

So apparently, this is not the first time, that distinction goes to dooce (doesn't everything?!) where her husband proposed in her comments. I guess. That's what he says. And pioneer woman fits in there, somewhere... but the first proposal with an entire blog goes to mommypie and The Boy. Visit and make sure to read the comments. All brought to you by Marci. She wants you to be a part of this, so make sure you head over to her blog, sign the Mister Linky and put your own spin on the love story, along with your marriage proposal story, too.

Say it with me now... awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

T, who loves a happy ending

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Sunday Silliness..because life is too short not to laugh

(what, you were expecting inspiration??)

On second thought, let's not do this...it's too silly...

From Slashdot:

Bomb disposal teams were called in and a nearby pub evacuated after water company engineers mistook a Monty Python film prop for a hand grenade. After nearly an hour of examination by bomb experts,they deemed it was safe. After close examination, they declared that the grenade was actually a copy of the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" used in the film Monty Python And The Holy Grail. A police spokeswoman confirmed that the device was a toy and that it had been no danger to the public.

I can't make this crap up, you guys. Life imitating..a Monty Python sketch:

ARTHUR: Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! 'Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! Brother Maynard! Bring up the Holy Hand Grenade!
MONKS: [chanting] Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. ARTHUR: How does it, um-- how does it work?
LANCELOT: I know not, my liege.
ARTHUR: Consult the Book of Armaments!
BROTHER MAYNARD: Armaments, Chapter Two, verses Nine to Twenty-one.
SECOND BROTHER: And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying,'O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--
MAYNARD: Skip a bit, Brother.
SECOND BROTHER: And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'
MAYNARD: Amen.

T, who has a soft-spot for goofy British humor

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Your Ten Year Mission: To Drive Your Mother To Distraction

My children are always having these conversations right out of Clerks or Big Bang Theory. The kind that make you shake your head and wonder, "What the hell was that?" I can never, ever do them justice, but they surely make me laugh.

Overheard:

JBean: This car is more advanced than Star Trek. It has automatic door locks.
JBear: The door is more advanced than your brain. You can't compare a self-sustaining spacecraft to a car.
JBean: My brain is smarter than...Star Trek..
JBear: Technically, the Enterprise is artificial intelligence, it has a personality. The episode where the Enterprise was going to be destroyed, that's where it was revealed it had an artificial intelligence..blah blah blah Ginger
JBean; No, it doesn't, it's not alive! It doesn't breathe!
JBear: Right,but that's what artificial intelligence means. It's smart, but it's not alive.It's a machine. It's artificial..(launches into a ten minute technical explanation of Artificial Intelligence..blah blah)
[pause]
JBean: Your brain isn't alive.
circle back to first statement...

at that point...I turned the music up in the car...

T, who really likes loud music, I must since I listen a lot

How To Talk To Someone With Autism Without Pulling Out Your Hair (Or Theirs!) PT. 2

Continuation of Part 1, yesterday's post on how to talk to a kid with autism.

• 3. Be HONEST. Just tell him you can't talk about that right now. That you are busy, maybe later you can discuss it. He probably won't be hurt by it, he will appreciate your candor. But if you tell him this, know he has the memory of an elephant and long after you have forgotten? He will find you.
• 4. Play a game. I Spy, "I'm Thinking of a Word..." "When I Go To the Moon I'm Bringing..." these are all good choices. But don't be surprised if he kicks your butt. The kid has an amazing attention to detail and his memory will blow you away.
• 5. Engage in an activity you both enjoy. Go to a ball game. Do a craft. Find time for one-on-one. Just know we are working on good sportsmanship to board games and video games...win or lose, he will shake your hand and say, "Good game!" Be prepared.
• 6. If all else fails, shoot me a look. I will rescue you both. Under no circumstances be unkind to him...he will remember it. as will I

Remember that he is a work in progress. He is really trying. If he is having a hard day, let me handle it. Please don't judge my parenting, or question my decisions. I know my son, I know what helps him calm and what triggers him to fall apart. And realize that just because yesterday he had a conversation with you about physics doesn't mean he can do it again today. He may be able to...in fact, he probably can.

But, the difficult thing with autism is that it is different everyday. I continue to teach him, and he continues to grow. And really, that growth is all we can really ask of anyone. Get to know my son...or any kid with autism. I would bet you will find a great kid with a really unique way of looking at things.

Aspergers truly makes the world go around. Silicon Valley? High population of Aspergers Syndrome. Computer engineers? Electrical engineers? Scientists? Maybe one day that will be my son, because he can hyperfocus. (his father is a software engineer, you connect the dots)

My son brings a lot of joy to my life, simply because he looks at things so much differently than I do. If I kept him at home, you would miss the chance to experience this. And really, diversity, neuro or otherwise, really does make the world go around. See you on the plane. Or in the grocery store. Maybe at the library...

T, who learned this all the hard way

Technorati: autism, Aspergers, high_functioning_autism

Scraping the Bottom for SEO

Chances are, if you are a regular at Twitter, you are aware of the mystery of the strange followers with "tweets" that don't make any sense. You know the ones: Maggie668 (not a real account) starts to follow you. You click over to see who she is, and find a picture of a girl, probably a party girl. She's cute. What does she have to say? Her tweets don't make much sense, they are in four languages! The ones in English are barely coherent. What's going on here? Is she drunk? This account is most likely a bot "scraping" tweets off the public timeline, and attributing them to user in question. How many people is she following? How many follow her? And Why would anyone do this? Bottom line? Money. Isn't it always?

First a quick crash course. What is the most popular Internet buzzword right now? SEO or Search Engine Optimization. There is a ton of money to be had out there for people who are good at it. Companies will pay to to raise their page rank in the search engines. The higher the rank, the earlier you appear in the Google results. It isn't enough to google esoteric terms. You want to be associated with keywords that define you, your brand and bring visitors to your blog or business website. It is all about who drives the traffic. This is where Twitter comes in.

Say "Joe" comes in and starts an account at Twitter. He gets a couple of followers, but really doesn't follow many people. In his account, he has a link to his website. Meanwhile, new accounts start popping up all over, usually female, with names like Brittany, Maggie, Karen. The accounts have no links to any outside sites, so it is impossible to check out who they are. They post content but that content is really from the public timestream in order to appear to be tweeting. At first glance, everything seems fine. They follow a ton of people, a percentage follows back. Here's where it gets confusing. Stay with me, now... Once they have a great many followers, they all follow "Joe". Joe's website, an online gambling site,or a monetization site, jumps exponentially in its SEO. Every follower of "Joe"and friends of followers of Joe now gets to display Joe's link. It's right there in the picture bar. This is potentially thousands of indexed links for search engines. Now, the originator of Joe's account goes back to prospective clients and says, "Hey, I can raise your rank", and points to Joe's website. Little companies trying to break through believe it and pay money to increase their SEO. With the scraper bot, the originator of Joe's account wins clients. This is really just another form of spamming.

Why does it matter?

1. They are stealing your data. The things you say to your friends are harvested into someone else's account and passed off as their words. If you are a frequent user of Twitter, this affects you. Don't believe me? Go to summize. Enter your Twitter name, or even some keywords for things you have tweeted. What do you find?

2. They are using Twitter bandwidth in order to scrape your info. You know our friend the Fail Whale? We see him more frequently due to the heavy use of scraper accounts. That hurts us all.

3. It's just bad Netiquette. yes I hate that word, too. But it is much easier to type than "Internet Etiquette.Which I typed anyway...well, now I am too lazy to go back and kill "netiquette." Just like you don't use someone else's bandwidth to host pictures unless they allow it, what the scrapers are doing is effectively stealing.

So What Can You Do?

1. BLOCK scraper accounts. Keep up with new followers, block suspicious accounts. If enough people block the user, it alerts Twitter, and they investigate the account.

2. Don't blindly follow. Check to see who you are following, and why they are following you.

3. Contact Twitter and ask they to address the issue of scraping. I know Twitter has enough in the water right now, that Whale barely floats. But if they are going to grow, they need to figure out how to deal with these issues. Twitter at its best is a Community. As a member of the community, you and I have a responsibility to better it and work towards improving it.. Nothing Orwellian here, simply a little Good Neighbor practice.

By blocking these followers, we all benefit. Less scrapers mean less down time for Twitter. Their servers are less taxed. Now, I know, if you are like me, the ego boost of watching that number go up on the righthand side of your page is something you like. I love getting new followers. But if the followers in question aren't real human, but bots who care nothing for your wit? Why bother? It says nothing about me or my ability to entertain. The bots will follow anyone. My numbers dipped a bit when I blocked the bots, but now the people following me are, well, people who might actually want to hear what I have to say.

In the end, those who game the system will always game the system. But at least we send a message tweet? that we are on to their game and that it won't happen on our watch.

T, who is glad that is settled

*many thanks to GeekMommy for helping me figure this out

Technorati: twitter, SEO, search_engine_optimization, social_media

Finally, A Way to Get the Guys In Line! NSFK

I don't usually run things that aren't PG, but I couldn't pass this up. I know it is an oldie, but I love it. If you are a gamer, married to a gamer, or just know about gaming culture, you will love this. And even if you aren't, (we call that a N00b) it is still very amusing.

T, who IS a Level 70 and don't forget it

Technorati: video, marriage, gamer

Geeks of a Feather

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

T, who knows it's genetic

Technorati: geeks, family,