Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

Over on Arstechnica’s forum there is a verbal battle going on about Twitter. What is Twitter?

First off I’d like to describe Twitter. According to the Twitter’s website, Twitter answers the question “What are you doing?” I find this to be a succinct explanation. People post what they’re doing, where they’re going and what they’re thinking. If you’re an outsider looking in then this probably seems trite. You may be wondering why you should care about what people are doing and thinking. For strangers you probably wouldn’t care. But, when it comes to your friends, you probably do care.

In the times that we’re living in keeping in touch is hard to do. Each of us have different schedules and different responsibilities. Although email, cell phones, VoIP, IM and text messaging have helped us to work around this gap it still takes two. How often have you sent an email or made a phone call and not expected a reply? How often have you done either of these just tell someone what you’re doing? In both cases I’m willing to bet not too often, if ever. Enter Twitter.

Twitter allows us to tell our friends, family or even the world what we’re up to. Although Twitter has been described as an exercise in vanity, I don’t agree.

When we post to Twitter we do not expect a response. We are creating a log of what we’re doing, where we’re going and what we’re thinking. This log is viewable by the world or only those we choose. This log allows our friends to keep track of us and conversely, allows us to keep track of our friends. No dialog and no scheduling required.

In short, Twitter allows us to provide bite size glimpses into our lives and allows our friends and family, or even the world to view them.

invititis n: An inflamation whereby a person is overloaded with invitations to join different web sites, often sites used for social networking.

In recent history many sites have allowed users to join only after they have been invited. Some of the more notable of these sites include GMail, Orkut, Joost and Pownce. So many sites are only open by invitation that a community named Invite Share has been created so that people can get trade invitations!

Why are so many sites invitation only? The most used reason is that it helps to limit how many people are using the service. Since most sites that are invitation only are in beta, this is a very good idea. It allows the web site operators to give their application real world test while preventing the servers from being overloaded.

But I think there is another reason. Going “Invitation Only” gives the service a “cool” factor. If only a select group of people have access to site then those who have access are cool and those on the outside are not. It is kind of like standing outside a club in New York City begging the bouncer to be let in.

Invitations also create a buzz. If only a select group of people know what it’s like on the inside a lot of other people will want to know. There will be blog posts and e-mails and IMs set. People will be talking.

The most recent “Invitation Only” site that I’m aware of is Pownce. I have invites, I can’t give them away. No one wants them. It could be that Pownce is trying to break into a market that already has some heavy hitters - Twitter and Jaiku. Or it could be something that I like to call “invititis.”

As I mentioned above, invititis is an inflammation, an overload of invitations to join a web site. “If you’re cool you’ll join GMail.” “Hey you’re a loser if you don’t join Pownce.” It goes on and on. I think people are sick of being pressured to bounce from site to site. Tired of being with the in-crowd one day and waking up only to find that the new cool is somewhere else.

The Internet is supposed to be for sharing ideas and knowledge. If you create a website, and it needs to be tested then by all means open it up to a limited amount of people. But the idea of invitations is an exercise in vanity. “Look at how many people want to join my service. They’re even selling invitations on Ebay!”

I too have fallen prey to invititis. I scoured the ‘net for Gmail invitations. I quickly emailed someone when they announced that they had Joost and Pownce invitations. But I think the time has come that I back away from trying to catch the next wave as it is heading for the shore of common place.

I’ve been a member of Ars Technica for over 7 years now and I’ve never been a fan of its search functionality. Tonight was the last straw so I whipped up a quick-and-dirty Firefox add-on to search the Open Forum.

Please remember this is quick-and-dirty so its features are a little limited. That being said, below is its meager feature list.

• Automatically sets the “Site” parameter to “episteme.arstechnica.com”
• Automatically sets the “All Words” parameter to whatever you type into the search box.

I feel the add-on lacks the following.

• A pretty Ars Technica icon. Anyone care to donate one?
• Advanced search features such as “Exact Phrase,” “At Least One,” and “Without.”

You can install the add-on or view its source.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please post a comment or email me.

This is great new for my fellow Mac fan boys.

read more | digg story

Well, I’m not really sure I believe this. I think the poster has confused the amount of money Apple is making from ATT with the tax he writes about.

read more | digg story

I am embarking on a new project and I’d like to use AJAX. Being unfamiliar with AJAX I decided to buy some books on the subject. After an hour or so spent browsing Barnes and Noble I settled on two books: Pro Apache Struts with Ajax and Practical Ajax Project with Java Technology both from Apress Publishing.

Below you’ll find mini-reviews of each book and the reason for this post.

Pro Apache Struts with Ajax

I have been using Struts for about two years now. By no means am I an expert but I am quite proficient. I was drawn to this book for two reasons: 1) I could use some more in-depth knowledge of Struts and 2) Combining Struts and Ajax seemed like a natural progression.

I perused the book before purchasing it and I found some interesting pieces of information and a very nice introduction to Ant. So I figured it was worth a shot. If the Struts part of this book is so in-depth, imagine the Ajax portion!

To say the least, the Ajax information in this book is lacking. By lacking, I mean the XMLHttpRequest object is explained and that is about it. If you look in the Index under “Ajax” there are a few references, but everything listed is in the appendix.

Although this book is interesting and still worth the price I found the title to be very misleading. I almost feel cheated because it seems like the publisher is trying to win sales on the back of the Ajax hype.

Practical Ajax Project with Java Technology

This is an excellent book. For a technical book it is a really great read!

The book is laid out in different projects starting from an implementation of Johnny Carson’s Karnak through a simple webmail application and onto a chat and RSS reader application.

Along the way the author, Frank Zammetti, shows us different Ajax Libraries such as Java Web Parts and DWR.

Also included in the book are some design patterns and anti-patterns. Although this falls more into the academic arena these sections are also a good read.

In the end, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking for an introductory course in AJAX. As I mentioned, it is more of a big tutorial so those looking for a reference book may want to look elsewhere.