A piece ‘a Me

Something I’ve been doing recently is going through my Twitter follows and cleaning out news feeds from them. In the vast majority of cases these places have RSS feeds which are easier to manage, don’t clutter up your Twitter stream and are just as easy to get to your phone or PC.

For some, RSS may be less convenient but I find news sites dumping 5 or 10 stories at a tine into my Twitter feed pretty damnably annoying too.

So, today’s mantra is “Twitter for people, RSS for news”.

Well folks it was more or less inevitable. I’ve dodged it for the best part of 6 months but it finally caught up to me on Friday. I’ve got flu.

I’m doing okay at the moment, just taking things a day at a time and getting plenty of rest. Hopefully I’ll be over it by mid-week.

It’s kinda sad that the most exciting blogworthy thing to happen to me since whenever is getting flu right? No I just happened to find the Wordpress tool for iPhone. Hopefully it’ll give me another avenue to ingore and neglect my blog via

via Seth’s Blog

Seth Godin asks: Making it up as you go along. Just wondering: Is there any other way to make it up?

Well actually yeah there is Seth, making it up beforehand and sticking to your story. People just aren’t that good at it.

Seth Godin explains how important your profile picture is, because it *is* important:

via Seth’s Blog

Image from http://www.parkalgar-honda.com/

Eugene Laverty and the Parkalgar Honda World Supersport team, who joined forces for the 2009 season determined to achieve success following the tragic loss of Craig Jones at Brands Hatch last year, were finally able to celebrate the teams first victory today following a thrilling dice at the Losail circuit near Doha, Qatar.

Laverty, who made a great start and got away at the start with the front runners, looked at one stage to have been bested by the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda duo of Kenan Sofuoğlu
and Andrew Pitt. A mistake by Sofuoğlu however let Pitt and Laverty by, and Laverty was the faster man on the home straight, outdragging a determined Andrew Pitt to take the win.

Both Laverty and his team were elated to take their inaugural victory. Laverty dedicated the win to Craig Jones, citing his work wit hthe team during the 2008 season ans having got Parkalgar Honda much of the way towards the success they now enjoy.

Laverty now lies 3rd in the World Supersport Chamoionship standings, and will look forward to continuing this excellent form to the next round at Valencia.

Fellow British rider and great friend of the late Craig Jones, Cal Crutchlow, also chalked up his first podium finish of the season, capitalising on a late mistake by Sofuoğlu, and having to make a save of his own during the pass, to finish an excellent 3rd, having dropped back and having to make up a lot of ground late in the race.

Just a few thoughts I had as to why using Twitter is better than Instant Messaging:

• It encourages brevity, so wastes little time, and makes you think before you write.
• It makes it easy to see at a glance if something is relevant.
• It can produce some priceless quotes.
• It’s social – everyone can read your public feed.
• It’s private – direct messaging allows private exchanges.
• You never miss anything – if you log in after 2 hours offline you can scroll back and read what you weren’t around for.
• It’s simple – effective, efficient and no-nonsense.
• You can use it on the web, on the desktop, on your phone, and it never loses any value as a result.

Just a few things…

I decided to outline what makes me follow or not follow people on Twitter. I control and moderate my follow list pretty closely in order to keep my twitter feed both rich and relevant to me.

Here’s what makes me follow someone/thing on Twitter:

• I actually know you, in the ‘real’ world
• You live locally and share common interest with me
• You discuss something I’m actively intereted in
• You reply and/or make conversation on Twitter when I direct a comment at you
• You direct a comment at me about something I said, then discuss it with me
• You regularely post ammusing or relevant Tweets
• You are famous and I am a fan (although some of the above still apply)

Here’s some things that get you taken off my follow list:

• You haven’t said anything relevant to me in a while or that’s caught my interest or funnybone
• You haven’t tweeted in a while
• You tweet too much and the majority of it is of no interest to me

This will get you blocked ad infiinitum:

• You insult or defame me, racially, sexually or just plain verbally abuse me or friends, collegues or people or things I’m a fan and/or supporter of.
• You constantly try and waste my time with political or religious arguments or rhetoric
• You tweet offensive or lewd material or horrible jokes (horrible as in graphic or disgusting)
• You spam me with commerical crap all the time

Here’s a few things to consider if you follow me and I don’t follow you back, or I stop following you:

1. Don’t be offended. It’s probably no slight against you, I just don’t find yout tweets relvant.
2. What you are ‘all about’ isn’t relevant to me. I get followed by a lot of people promoting events and websites that I am not interested in.
3. I’m not a serial follower. I pick and choose carefully.
4. Your profile looks spammy, or I can’t tell from it what your MO is.

So there you go, I can’t really make it much clearer

Your source for up-to-the-minute news, views and stories about Space, the Final Frontier.

AstroEngine

You can also follow @astroengine on Twitter for up to the minute updates and good banter.

I’ve always loved this advert, partly because it was performed by Samuel L Jackson and partly because it’s very clever. It says a lot…

“Can I help you” he said
“Nice shoes” I said
“You bet” he said
“How much” I said
“You can’t put a price on the stars” he said
“Talk straight” I said
“Or the moon” he said
“These shoes” he said “are almost like something being said”
“Cat sure aint got your tongue, so say it” I said “as you see it” I said
“I could talk about these shoes forever” he said
“You have” I said, “so how much” I said
“Hundred bucks” he said
“I’ll take them” I said
“Too late” he said
“Shop’s closed” he said

I can’t repeat what I said…

So just remember, sometimes you’ve already sold something and don’t need to keep talking it up.