Am I too young for Twitter?

Now this may sound like a strange question. Social networking sites have traditionally been aimed at the younger user. Well, when I say younger I mean under 30 really. Faceparty was one of the first to hit it big and then followed Facewhore which seemed to consist mainly of teenage alternative kids from the UK. Facewhore never really caught on as it was almost always broken and only worked properly on Internet Explorer. Us trendy kids then moved over to Myspace. Everyone added music to their profiles and perfected the Myspace angles (taking a picture of yourself from above which makes fat people look thinner and more attractive).

And then came Facebook. The Guardian tech site wrote about it everyday as if it was the second coming of Christ. Whilst the site was originally designed for university students in the US when it opened up to wider audiences it seemed to attract people that wouldn't usually use social networking sites. Non teenage and non alternative people suddenly had a Facebook... Even some people's mums.

Now the new thing has arrived and most of you will know it's Twitter. The micro blogging site that limits you to 140 characters per post and is championed by celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross. I signed up to the site and spent a few weeks posting to no one (I had one maybe two followers) but enjoyed reading tweets from Fry and Jhonen Vasquez. Now I've found an app in Facebook that updates my status as I update Twitter so at least I'm sending my messages to a wider audience.

Now this is where I come to my main point. I only know of a few people that use Twitter and they are almost all over 30 at least. I've asked a few people to sign up but most people aren't at all interested. The usual younger people that sign up to every social networking site going haven't joined Twitter and I have a few theories why.

1) Facebook already provides the main function of Twitter with status updates.

2) Pictures and increasingly video play a large role in Facebook's popularity. Posting photos and videos from a party or night out is an almost inevitable occurance. When the booze is flowing and someone pulls out their camera phone you just know that you're going to be checking Facebook in the morning to fill in the gaps.

Twitter doesn't really provide this function. You upload a small avatar and can post pictures to Twitpic but it doesn't have the social links to other people's profiles that Facebook has.

This second reason is interesting. Young people enjoy having a rich online presence. Just the other day I spent an hour or two looking through old personal sites that my friends and I had built back in 2002. There were hundreds of photos and even videos of our drunken antics. Sharing photos and snooping on friends and enemies pages are what the majority of Facebook users do. Not having that on Twitter probably puts a lot of people off. This, however, probably appeals to a lot of older people that are less interested in flirting and gloting about how crap that girl looked at that party.

So... Am I too young for Twitter or am I just waiting for my twenty-sounthing year old peers to catch up and get with the cool new thing?


-- Post From My iPhone

iPhone OS 3.0

Apologies for what is going to be a pretty nerdy post. I've just finished up reading the live feed from of the event Apple HQ regarding the new iPhone software update coming this summer. 

Last year we got the iPhone 3G and with it OS 2.0. This was a pretty big jump because we got things like the App Store - a repository of applications that practically increased the usefulness of the iPhone ten fold (as well as giving the world thousands of awful games and a fart simulator).

This year looks like it's going to be a similar leap with some very much needed features. For instance at the moment the iPhone can't copy and paste text. It sounds like something you wouldn't use that much but when you have a fairly full e-mail client and web browser you quickly realise that it would be very much appreciated. For instance you can't text a phone number or e-mail address from Contacts... you actually have to write it down on a piece of paper or borrow someone else's phone... not very smart for a smart phone.

Another thing I can't do at the moment is send or receive media messages. My Nokia from 2003 did this... why can't my £400 phone from 2008? Well, this will be finally added in the summer. I didn't tend to send a lot of media messages but it's quite annoying when someone sends you one and you have to load up the web browser and input your phone  number and a random code (without copy and paste) just to see someone's hilarious photo they just had to send you...

There are lots of other nice updates that I'm sure will be incredibly useful but there was still no mention of some pretty basic features that are missing. I still can't sync my to do list from my calendar for instance - even though its a default Apple application (iCal) that has shipped on Macs since the dark ages.

See... Apple do annoy me sometimes! I'm not that much of a Fanboy :-/

Right... enough typing... must go back to playing GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS :-D 

Update

I finished by temp job last week so I've been frantically looking for something else to tide me over until I (eventually) get a runner job somewhere. I don't think its much of a secret that I hate job hunting. It's just the most tedious and soul destroying activity known to man - especially when you have Film Studies in your degree title and have lived in Brighton for two years where the only work experience you can get is call centre or shop based. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with either of those it's just that in London it doesn't really make you stick out from the crowd. 

Anyway, this is all a little melodramatic as it looks like I've managed to find something for the next six weeks... in a bank call centre... oh the joy. I'm just waiting for them to get back to me but they said they were pretty sure I would get it as, among other things, I scored second best out of everyone on a typing test. Quite surprising considering the amount of typos in this blog!

In other news I got a hair cut. 

It's still fairly long but I do have a slight guilty feeling about giving in to the man... I'm hoping that it being a bit neater will impress prospective job people... we'll see.

Last weeks fun

So we had a very fun week last week with seeing Richard Herring last week at the Leicester Square Theatre and The Cure at the O2. 

Richard Herring used to be on T.V. with his then double act partner Stewart Lee. They had two shows over a few years called Fist Of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy. Not many people seem to remember them but I was a huge fan even though I was only about 12 or so years old. After these programmes they seemed to fall into obscurity. Being fairly young and living in Milton Keynes I didn't realise that they continued on in the stand up scene and I was blissfully unaware that Stewart Lee was behind the infamous Jerry Springer - The Opera. 

Fast forward about ten years and we get to 2008 and I'm flicking through iTunes looking for podcasts to listen to on my tube journey to work and back. I come across The Collings and Herrin Podcast and make the mental link (Richard Herring has a thing about pronouncing 'in' with 'ing' such as Frankingstein and skelington). Needless to say I was thoroughly impressed and listening to Richard Herring's clever, offensive and sometimes brilliantly childish humour after ten years was great fun. After having a look through his website I found that he was doing a run at a West End theatre.

I finally got round to booking tickets and we went last Tuesday and had a hysterical night. The show is called 'The Headmaster's Son' and looks at Richard's teenage life as the headmaster's son (funnily enough). The young Richard compares himself to Anne Frank and reminds us all how it feels to be a moody teenager. He's currently touring and if you can get to a show I highly recommend it.

Thursday found us over in Greenwich at the ridiculously gargantuan tent that is the O2. After having a few drinks and missing two of the support bands that we had no interest in seeing we thought we should at least give Franz Ferdinanz a shot. You'll be pleased to know that we sat through two songs before we went out to get some beers. Most of this time was spent discussing how scared we were at being so high. We were in the upper tier and, as anyone who has been to the O2 will tell you, the arena is huge... and the upper tier is very high indeed. In fact... let me dig out a picture...

I felt a lot higher up than that picture looks.

So we went out to get some drinks and whilst standing around we were approached by a couple who explained that they had a spare pair of tickets for the lower tier that they couldn't sell. They had been out during every interval to find people to give them to but no one had taken their fancy... until they saw us! Strange, I know, but quite sweet. So we ended up in much nicer seats as illustrated in this next picture...

The Cure played for about 100 minutes which sounds like a lot but is actually a really short set for them. They played a lot of new stuff which was to be expected when the gig is put on by N.M.E. Robert then proclaimed that they would play a song from every album... a prospect that I was incredibly excited about as I thought it might mean finally seeing Bloodflowers live or possibly another one of their less played songs. I was a little disappointed with this as they ended up playing songs that they play quite often but missing out some really important ones such as Push and Play For Today. Jordan did spend the whole set shouting that she wanted Grinding Halt and finally got it in the encore and went a bit mental... 

It was still very fun though as it always is seeing The Cure... I'm already looking forward to my sixth show. If you're interested you can see the full set list here.

Getting home wasn't fun and we arrived back at 1AM and had to be up at 7 the next day... fun.

The problems with digital distribution

Companies like Apple and Microsoft have managed to persuade a good few people that the future distribution of music, movies and almost everything else will be internet based. Whilst it would be hard to disagree that music has almost entirely shifted to digital distribution, with iTunes becoming the most popular music supplier in the US, the same can't be said for video. 

The above mentioned companies have provided some pretty slick ways in which to watch movies and TV shows over the net on your computer and/or T.V. A couple of years ago Apple released the AppleTV - a tiny set top box that syncs with your iTunes library much like a giant static iPod. The user can play movies, music and podcasts on the big TV rather than sitting in front of a desk or staring at a tiny laptop screen. Apple then released an update that included 'renting' high def movies and TV shows.

Microsoft has done a very similar thing with the XBox 360. Movies can be rented or downloaded and in America users can stream movies for (almost) free if they already have a Netflix account (the American Lovefilm).

All of these things sound very cool. No more trips to the video shop and no more waiting for that Lovefilm DVD (if in fact they have enough copies to send you a new release) to arrive. That would be if UK ISPs aloud us to download a decent amount of these movies. For the last couple of weeks our internet connection has been running at a speed of 125kb/s between the hours of 9am and 11pm. This is because we have apparently downloaded over 50GBs of data. Now I'm not saying that that is not a ridiculous amount of data - it really is. But these HD movie downloads from Apple and Microsoft often come in at about 4GB. Even without downloading a few podcasts, system updates and a couple of albums you could only watch 13 movies a month before you went over the limit. What happens if you were a family buying each other movies for Christmas?

ISPs don't usually print their fair usage limits on their websites. Rather annoyingly they just write 'unlimited'. It would be interesting to see how much each ISP considered too much to download in a month. I know for sure that my housemates and I downloaded a lot more than 50GBs some months when with Be (a company I cannot recommend enough). 

I just wish that the telecoms companies and the government spent a bit of time and money on creating a decent fiber network like the one in Japan that delivers 100Mb/s with no limits. Or I suppose it would also be nice if someone other than Virgin were running their network but lets not get into that just now...

Bits and bobs

I've just returned from the cinema. I don't go nearly as much as I should but I'm hoping that will change at least over the next couple of weeks as there is a growing list of films I very much want to see. I went to see Che: Part One which was actually my third choice of film but I am forbidden to see The Wrestler or Slumdog Millionaire without Jordan (I may just go against that as there is a chance I'll be having a day off this week and I'm really itching to see The Wrestler). The film was actually really good and I'm looking forward to the release of part two. I have to admit that my knowledge of Che Guevara was fairly limited before seeing the film. I love Benicio Del Toro and as always he's really fun to watch - once he dons the iconic hat you can really believe that he really is the famous revolutionary. I feel like I learnt a lot from seeing the film and it definitely didn't feel two and half hours long.

At some point this week before I see The Wrestler I'm planning on re-watching Darren Aronofsky's previous three films - Pi, Requiem For a Dream and The Fountain. Anyone familiar with the former two will know that that will be a pretty heavy day if viewed together. I know it's not a popular viewpoint but I'm really looking forward to watching The Fountain again. As Darren Aronofsky himself describes it 'it's a 40 million dollar art film.' It's not supposed to be mainstream. It's not supposed to have a nice, clean happy, ending. It's meant to be ambiguous and personally I think it's one of the most beautifully shot films of this decade. 

/rant

In other news I've had my first 'celebrity' acknowledgement on Twitter. If you've not heard of Twitter it's basically a mini blogging site. You are limited to 160 characters in each 'tweet'. It's much the same as Facebook's status updates - in fact, you can install an app in Facebook that updates your status every time your post to Twitter. At the moment I don't have many people following me so it sometimes feels like a relatively pointless exercise although I'm hoping that people will catch on in time.

The great thing about it is being able to follow famous people that interest you. Steven Fry is a very popular tweeter. He's fun to keep up to date with as he's always jetting off all over the place and often has many witty comments to make. Another person I am following is Jhonen Vasquez - an alternative comic book writer responsible for Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, I Feel Sick and the cartoon Invader ZIM. He's especially fun to follow as his tweets are more on the surreal side of things. This is how things went...

JhonenV Other game systems need miscreant mascots like the 360's 'Xbox Taco Assailant'. Put on your Helm of Brainstorming and get this shit done.

JhonenV PS3 Burrito Murderer? The Nintendo DS Sausage Ronin? The PSP McMuffin Rapist? I'm seeing a fighting game in this.

Louisblack @JhonenV Atari Jaguar Chrizo Child Molester

JhonenV So far Atari's gotten the worst of it from you lot. The Atari Chorizo Child Molester? Atari Hamburger Fucker? Good god, guys. Well done!

Very fun indeed.

I was going to write about Jordan's growing obsession with Viva Pinata as well but I think I'll save that for another day. 

Sieve head

Damn...

Today is an example of how even with lots of technology that make life lots easier my forgetfulness will always prevail. This morning I was flicking through eBay and found a last generation iBook which was at about £60 with a couple of hours to go. The seller wrote that it didn't boot, it just went to a screen with a folder and a question mark. This just means that the hard drive might be dead or even that the installation of OS X is corrupt. I have a couple of spare hard drives around and a Leopard disk so this would be perfect. I made a note to check back before the auction ended.

Of course... I forgot. I just checked the auction now to see what it went for and it went for the measly sum of £123 with £20 P&P. They usually sell for around £350-£400.

Bugger.