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The user of Twitter is just one more step in our evolution as a species. Before you laugh, consider this:

The pace of our society and its technology continues advancing at an accelerated pace. Every piece of technology that comes along, from cell phones, texting, instant messaging, blogging, wireless Internet (and all that encompasses), are all but tools of communication.

Telecommunications, teleconferencing, telephone…how about telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation?

Twitter is yet another stepping stone in a collective, sometimes unconscious effort to reawaken our latent gifts.

I use Twitter to merge multiple streams of consciousness: be they businesses (I have at least 3 biz profile accounts), shared collective profiles (again, I use at least 3 other accounts), or just my personal one.

Twitter is a great melting pot for all sides to life. No longer is 9-5 separate from happy hour (or after hours), or weekends. They’re all steamrolled into one, collective consciousness.

Instantaneous news, experience, shared joys and sorrows, mundane minutia…they’re all here for us to experience one, unified lifestream of thought and action.

I use it daily even if I fail to post that day, as I still absorb everyones’ shared feeds into each other’s networks.

And of course, make use of it to plan with friends and contacts, find new ones, etc.

Lastly, though it’s tough to sum up all that Twitter offers into one ten minute post, is the artful, Haiku-like, Twitter-speak that’s evolved into an art form by some. Such posts are a pleasure to read.
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From my Twitter post as prompted by their latest feedback request.

It’s been a busy past few weeks as I had my pilot solar powered web server configured.

It’s been a wee bit of an undertaking since quite candidly, I’d never really bothered to learn Unix and its use through the command line shell. So I’ve been scouring through several books, forums and picking several friend’s brains to get past this learning curve.

After an initial failed attempt to get Plesk installed on Debian, I switched to CentOS and then branched off into researching DNS configurations, settings, etc.

Simultaneously, I started a web hosting plan comparison (while waiting for my unlimited domain Plesk license to arrive) to start zeroing in on the services and pricing that Green Gurus would be offering.

I didn’t find many clear tutorials online or in my books (everyone always assumes you already have some foundation that I apparently still don’t :), so I called upon another one of those friends/contacts, this time Zak Brown (an Orangekid contact) and sat down with him for two hours downtown at my shared warehouse (with The Do LaB).

Thankfully, he gave me a pretty detailed overview of DNS configurations and then some help buttoning up the solar server.

Now I’m noodling around with some test domains, trying to solidify the tutorial…unfortunately it takes awhile for most things to sink into my dense, Capricorn head.

Thankfully, I’m diving back in manana with another, long-time OK friend…Steven Dalton, so it should all finally start sticking.

I was reminded by Adam Wiggins today that the annual Startup School is fast approaching.

I submitted my application this evening for the event here.

Looking forward to this and several other dot-com, marketing and startup events this spring.

One of my business partners Adam Wiggins‘ latest company Heroku, got its first TechCrunch mention today.

Congratulations to Adam, Orion and James for their continued success!

I so totally rocked at least one class this past Fall semester at SMC. The other two, on the other hand, aren’t looking as hot. Results should be in sometime early next week.  I’m gonna’ go curl up in a ball and cry now…or something. ;0

What a three months it’s been, back in school at SMC, studying computers.

One of my classes was a lot more comprehensive than expected but to date I’ve managed to keep my grades up, even with everything else that’s been happening elsewhere this month in my personal and professional life.

I’ve attached a snapshot of my grades as a motivation to myself to study hard in this last mile up to finals. I’m hopeful that I’ll pull better marks than prior testing but knowing my history of poor testing (no matter what really), I’ll probably lose this cushy top-three percentile.

I’ve been thinking for awhile now that Google, with its master lens and all, should consider opening a service to its users to empower their empire with an opt-in data mining feature.

While I’m sure they’re harvesting invaluable data at near God-like levels already (even if their privacy agreement states otherwise), I think such an action should be taken public and allow we, as the users, to experiment alongside them in the process.

To back this opinion up, I’ve just contacted them via their feedback form with this message:

“I’ve often wondered how much/if any of the data being passed through one’s Google accounts is actually mined for your own analytical use elsewhere.

If this really, truely isn’t being done now, I would like to suggest that you create an opt-in option for users who would be willing to experiment with such a thing.

I think it could be a tremendously beneficial service to both parties, though how the user would be compensated would need hammering out, as would a very strict privacy agreement, as this would put every miniscule detail of the users life under the Google lens.

Anyway, if this ever comes up for review and you want to start drafting volunteers, let me know.

Thanks for your cont’d efforts to master the universe. ;)”

-should be interesting to see what, if any, response I receive.

If you’ve even at all a little savvy to the world of the WWW say…over the last decade then you’ll no doubt have heard a little something about a problem called Spam. So, arriving appropriately on the heels of my last post bashing Microsoft a little, comes this little blurb on Gmail’s spam prevention.

I’ve been using Gmail now for oh, almost 4 years I think. Not only have I never had to erase any emails, overly large attachments, and the like, but I’ve rarely if ever, had any real problems managing spam. Thanks to their kick-ass team of highly trained ninja’s…er, wait a minute, wrong post…but seriously, they’ve really got it together on this. So much so that their marketing appears to solely rely on it at times, as evidenced here from a recent snapshot from one of their ads on Tribe:

Anyway, don’t just take my word for it, try it out for yourself. Read more about their services and if you try them, let me know.

I’m still surprised to this day when people express bewilderment over why I appear aghast when they say their using Windows.

Well below is another great example of why I’m a devoted Mac and/or Linux fan. I just received an email from a family member who was trying to share some recent photo’s via the MSN Photo E-mail slideshow system. What arrived in my inbox was sheer crap (and not on account of the family member’s pics), just look at the snapshot of its contents:

I thought maybe it was just a corrupted email, link or something like that so I tried to log into the associated link but that failed to work too:

So out of formality, I tried clicking on their “Sign Up Now” button, but that failed too, not surprisingly:

So family members (by this I mean people in general, for those family members who might choose to take this personally ) at large…please, please, please stop using MSN’s services; switch to Google, anything, just not these guys and end this ugly, antiquated technological nightmare you’ve so sheepishly allowed to herd you.

People are forever challenged by understanding the thoughts, words, actions, or other medium employed by another.

Today’s communication, while seemingly enabling an infinitely easier time to make one’s point, is far from clear. Even with all the technologies at hand: personal email, company email, social network email/messaging, instant messaging, text messaging, VoIP, direct connect, tele-conferencing, landlines, cell phones, fax, static communications like a personal webpage or profile, and on and on; there’s just no shortage of tools to communicate with.

But what all this technology fails to provide is the motivation and commitment between people to maintain open, clear and concise communication with one another. Regardless of the tools at hand, people still operate from within their respective bubbles of solitude. They forget that there is almost always someone on the other end, directly or indirectly involved and invested in what you have to say.

These are strange days we’re living in, married to a never-ending parade of gadgetry, all in the name of progress (supposedly). I think the best is yet to come, however. I think all these tools and devices are simply stepping stones enabling us all to regenerate and tap into our latent, higher powers of communication that are far superior than anything high-technology will ever deliver.

Just look at the simple act of making a cellphone call: your fingers articulate some pre-defined number scheme, you hold your hand up with said device to your head, more specifically your ear, then perhaps wait a few moments, in which case often times you’ll urgently call out in your mind (out loud if you’re really in need) for the recipient to answer your call, saying “come on, come on…pick up, pick up” or some such thing. Then finally someone answers, perhaps not the person you intended in some cases, but apparently someone was within range to “pick up” and answer your ‘call’.

I think this example clearly illustrates what’s happening and more importantly, where things are going. Next time you see someone making a call, just take a minute to watch them. And I mean, really watch them. Try to sense what’s happening as they go through the motions of this seemingly inanimate action. If you have to, squint your eyes or something to alter your pre-conceived notion of what’s happening; try to expand your consciousness outward with the call and maybe you’ll just ’see’ what’s really happening.