Train, Weather, and Twitter Talk

(Written yesterday evening on the train and in Palo Alto, while freezing my patootie off at the Starbucks in the Stanford Shopping Center.)

First off (while I catch my breath), thank you to the kind conductor who held the train the extra two seconds it took for me to hop, skip and jump through the open doors from the platform ramp that I swear gets a degree steeper every week. If he hadn't, I probably wouldn't be writing this and there would be a me-sized dent on a northbound train.

Now for a brief weather report: What started as overcast in the morning turned to showers by midday and blue skies by late afternoon.

You know, that report could have fit on Twitter. It could be a Tweather Report. That sounded cleverer in my head.

If you only read the feed, then you probably haven't seen the Twitter badge I added in the sidebar. Not that there's much to look at. I've twittered an entire three times since joining five days ago. I believe one isn't making good use of the service unless one is updating hourly.

While I'm still skeptical of its hype, I can see the appeal of Twitter. It's an easy way to find out what folks you know are doing or tell folks what you're doing without having to invest too much time or effort. It's a bit like the CNN ticker (or an RSS feed in list view). It's perfect for busy people who don't want the details, only the headlines.

Of course, if you only follow the Public Timeline (PT), then Twitter seems like a complete mess and makes absolutely no sense. Following the PT is like being in a crowded stadium (or bus) where everything everybody says is blared over the loudspeakers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm positive chaotic cacophony has its benefits. (Personally, it makes me more appreciative of silence.)

If one only follows the PT, then it seems that 99% of the people on Twitter speak simply for the sake of speaking (which is probably the worst reason to speak and the best reason to zip it). I fully include myself in that 99%, probably one of the few times when I've actually been in the majority of anything.

While observing the PT, I noticed that Fox News, Digg, and similar entities are using Twitter. I wonder how long it will be before the full corporate wave crashes upon its shores.

I read this Kottke post about Twitter earlier today. He has some keen observations and I agree with most of them, but I disagree with his statement that “Twitter's like Flickr without the images."

For all of Twitter's simplicity and usefulness, calling it “Flickr without the images" shortchanges Flickr. If Flickr were truly like Twitter, users would only be able to upload 12 × 12 thumbnails without captions or tags or the ability to organize photos. And the question it would ask would be, “What are you looking at? Pixels available: 144."

Now I'm trying to imagine how this entry would've looked if I were writing this on Twitter.

Thanks, Mr. Conductor. AM showers, PM blue skies. Twitter is neat, but it's no Flickr. Coffee in the cold at Stanford Shopping Center.