Author Archives: Stephen Montagna

OMG, Twitter & text abbr. are nothing new ftw

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A very nice piece by Rebecca Bizonet at the Heny Ford Blog; clearing out archives at the Henry Ford Museum, she has encountered a fair number of telegrams, and guess what – abbreviations and shortcuts associated with Twitter, texting, and the like, are nothing new; our predecessors had to use shortcuts too. Not only for Telegrams, which could get pricey if one got wordy, but also because, as Bizonet credits Stephen Fry for pointing out, during the 17th and 18th centuries paper was a precious commodity and therefore a kind of shorthand was used in order to cram as much content onto a single sheet as possible.

Of Secret Codes, Abbreviations, and Knowledge Lost and Gained « The Henry Ford Blog.

Ye Olde Neighborhood Bike Shop…

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Among the ways I try to do my part to cut back on oil-driven emissions and pollution, when the weather turns fair enough, I try to use my bike – a trusty old Diamond Back hybrid purchased in 1992(!) – as much as possible.

So, when it came to pass that my ride needed new pedals, how stoked was I to find a new(ish), independently run bike shop right in my own neighborhood. Old Town Cycles [http://www.oldtowncycles.com] at 920 East Johnson Street is helmed by Joshua, and not only is he knowledgeable and friendly, but thrifty as well; within a few minutes I had new pedals, properly inflated tires, and an over-all assessment of the state of my bike (ie: there are definitely a few part replacements in its future; not surprising given the bike’s age and mileage). All of this at a very reasonable rate which did not break my (very thin-stretched) bank.

In this day and age of economic turmoil, one hopes that it’s not lost that one of the best powers we, the individual consumers, can wield is to give support in the form of business (and praise where it’s due) to small business owners. If you’re Madison-based  and a bi-ped who likes the feel of wind in your face, give yourself a treat and get that bike in tune for the spring and summer (and if you’re really insane, fall and winter). Old Town Cycles, highly recommended.

podcasting…

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Sorry for the cross-post, but for those of you who are unaware, I do violence prevention work – have for the past eighteen years as a matter of fact – with Men Stopping Rape, Inc.; I recently put my multi-media chops to work putting together the inaugural video podcast, and it’s now up online:

http://www.men-stopping-rape.org/?p=29

It’s a brief (6 min) post that just gives an introduction to MSR, an idea of our approach to violence prevention, and a look ahead to some of the topics I intend to be discussing.

Right now it’s merely embedded video, courtesy of YouTube. I’m trying to carve out some time to figure out the XML and RSS hoops I have to jump through to get it on the iTunes Store. If anyone has any pointers, links, that could expedite that process, by all means pass them along!

Daring Fireball: Obsession Times Voice

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It’s amazing how fast and large the buzz over Twitter has become over the past month; you know it’s gone mainstream when the folks at Today Show and GMA are talking about it, let alone that they now tweet too.

People who are new to the Twitter concept seem to get stuck on the belief that it’s all about answering the question “What are you doing?”; a lot of comments via blogs or reported by TS, GMA, etc. reflect this general misperception.

The beautiful thing about Twitter is that it really can be used in whatever way you see fit; and whatever need it fulfills can shift from moment to moment. It can be what you’re doing, or what you wish you were doing, or what you’re thinking, or what you just witnessed, or some plea for information, connection, or affirmation.

I have no problem with people being skeptical or resistant to Twitter; their criticism is well-founded – like any other communication modality, the web can be a powerful tool for sharing information or it can be a vast wasteland of stupidity, self-centeredness, or vapid commercialism. However, if one takes the time to prod the beach rubble, you can find the quality goods.

I mention all of this by way of saying that one of my favorite follows (that is, someone I follow) on Twitter is John Gruber. He not only has a fun, honest tweet style, but he’s the author of the wonderful, insightful, useful, sometimes whimsical Daring Fireball.

Recently (o.k., yesterday), he published a piece reflecting on a session he and Merlin Mann (another fav tweeter and all-around-articulate and interesting technical illuminati) had done at SXSW (that’s South-by-Southwest for the uninitiated). The whole post is worth reading – and there is a link to an MP3 of Merlin and John’s session – but the take home piece is his closing paragraph:

There is an easy formula for doing it wrong: publish attention-getting bullshit and pull stunts to generate mindless traffic. The entire quote-unquote “pro blogging” industry — which exists as the sort of pimply teenage brother to the shirt-and-tie SEO [search engine optimization – ed.] industry — is predicated on the notion that blogging is a meaningful verb. It is not. The verb is writing. The format and medium are new, but the craft is ancient.

Journalism should still be quality journalism, writing should still be done with skill and care, and people and ideas should still be treated with respect, even in the blogsphere. Bravo.

via Daring Fireball: Obsession Times Voice.