March 19 09
Happy Twitterer and designer Grace Smith started someting called #freelance Friday not too long ago and it was such a success that she’s decided to start something called #themethursday (her original blog post here). People can @ suggest (typically nerdy) themes by Thursday where then everyone bombards her with helpful links, much like if Google were run by monkeys on Twitter. I’m not sure how far we can go with this - #weedwednesdays? #tunatuesdays?
This week’s theme? jQuery.
#Mybad: I read “New Twitter Trend : #themethursday” as “the meth users day” -Payo
March 19 09
No Clean Feed is the movement against the “plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians.” Interest has peaked again when what appears to be a blacklist was leaked to wikileaks which has since become unavailable, although questions of whether the list was accurate and if wikileaks just collapsed due to demand remain. Would be hilarious if it hasn’t already progressed to field testing - at the very least these keyword-based filters would be tantamount to censorship and cost Australian taxpayers millions, if not billions of dollars. Think of all the young Aussies that will no longer be able to learn about beast cancer, baby cats, or… porn.
Go to http://nocleanfeed.com/ to learn more, read the usual excellent reporting from Arstechnica, or follow the Twitter search for #nocleanfeed.
Removing data from the internet is like taking pee out of a pool. #nocleanfeed #blacklist -askegg
March 18 09
Tim Beyers and Lydia Dishman decided to start a kind of weekly discussion about issues that editors are wrestling with in today’s perilous world of new media, where blogs reign and the only kind of paper we use is toilet. The actual event comprises topics of discussion that are suggested ahead of time on their blog that guide a chat using #Editorchat on Twitter limited to a healthy 1.5 hours [edited to correct from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours as per Tim's help] every Wednesday night.
It seems like they’re aiming to bring about a weekly event that’s closer to a civilised cocktail rather than the typical drunken frat party typical of Twitter events.
@milehighfool But don’t you think the “anyone can be a writer” phase is going to pass soon — like a bad case of diarrhea? #editorchat -Single_Shot
March 18 09
At this moment more than 12 firetrucks are attempting to battle a fire in central London, UK, BBC reports. This is incredibly sad, especially after the Camden Market fires not so long ago. Also the first time I’m seeing breaking news on Twitter, Google News hasn’t even really picked it up yet but obviously having the local plebes do the reporting has it’s own issues.
Apparently The City is going down in flames. Chancery Lane. Any photos yet @cbetta? #londonfire -annwitbrock
#londonfire A building in London is on fire, and the twitter community responds in 140c with “London is on fire!”. So much for “reporting” -thinkstorm
Keep up with the wave (continuously updates)
Twitterfall on #londonfire
March 17 09
A bunch of pet bloggers (which is apparently a thing) have decided to organise a bunch of activities and contests online revolving around the start of St. Patty’s day. It’s not very clearly explained here but seems to involving waiting to DM things at certain times, the modern radio contest if you will, except with pets in seasonal attire. If there’s anything the internet’s made for besides porn, it’d be petsanity.
However this is all to raise awareness and funds for animals needing care so donate. It’s frivolity with purpose, which is better than the alternative.
The Twitterpocalypse is happening. People are photoshopping green hats on their pets. Pull the plug @ev! #pawpawty -Andrew Crow
March 17 09
Short for Modern Warfare 2, a sequel of the immensely popular Call of Duty series that replicates all the bliss of war set in the near future where we battle terrorists! Input for the game is called for and Tweets with #MW2 show up right on the minisite. Actually if you didn’t know what this was before I doubt you care now but some of the suggestions are quite hilarious. This is what happens when you ask gamers to think.
#mw2 pimp slapping -LarryisScary
#mw2 Have like nazi zombies but call them iraqi zombies and more maps for the iraqi zombies. -HTMLRulezd00d3
March 16 09
AIG is one of the mainstay American financial institutions that deals in insurance affected by the economic crisis and thus sucking on over 170 billion dollars in federal bailout money. Recent whining when AIG’s existing bonus program is still set to pay over 165 million in bonuses to the very asshats that helped bring about AIG’s liquidity crisis.
So the government rewards AIG with bailout money and are surprised when they continue to operate as they do. I say surprise! (in a French accent).
When will AIG be burned to the ground. -jeffroatlarge
March 16 09
Stands for Top Conservatives on Twitter. I don’t know if I’m happy that the party is embracing the technology or if I’m scared they’ll pollute the nice web 2.0, liberal, lefty interwebs that we live in now. Somewhat stereotypically the site uses Arial and still has the default Joomla favicon.
Top Conservatives use Arial!
March 15 09
South by Southwest is a “Music, film, and interactive conference and festival”. Really just a chance for those that Tweet more than they pee and the companies they work for/make money off of to have sponsored parties at bars. There’s also conferences but only nerds go to those.
March 6 09
Apparently Micah Baldwin needed to burn off a Friday afternoon one day and started a new trend. In his words:
I am starting Follow Fridays. Every Friday, suggest a person to follow, and everyone follow him/her. Today its @fancyjeffrey & @w1redone.
And of course everyone loves it because it’s basically that MySpace “top friends” thing all over again. Mashable wrote an article and there’s even a site dedicated to the whole shebang now.