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Twitter vs. Blogging

On Anil’s piece titled If You Didn’t Blog It, It Didn’t Happen, I left the following comment:

Twitter is like going to a restaurant. Blogging is like buying a house.

I thought I should expand on that… and what better place than right here, on my own blog, where I’m allowed to.

As I’ve said before (in fact, I said it just yesterday) there are things I don’t like about Twitter, but my not liking these things, or complaining about them probably isn’t going to change them. That’s OK… I don’t own Twitter, I don’t control Twitter, I just visit Twitter.

Twitter is like going to a restaurant. You can talk to people you know, and people you don’t know. They can talk to you. You can overhear conversations. You’re at the mercy of the management. They can kick you out.

Blogging is like buying a house. It requires maintenance and upkeep. You’re free to do what you want, you can redecorate, or hang some pictures, or ramble on as long as you want. It’s your home, you own it, and you make the rules.

Anyway, that’s how I see it. I’ve had this blog since 1997. I’ve been using Twitter since 2006. I can still get to every single blog post I’ve written here (and so can you) while Twitter only lets me see a portion of the content I’ve put into it. I’ve started archiving as much of it as I can over here… on my own site, because I don’t trust Twitter with my data the way I trust myself with my data.

Tags blogging, data, twitter

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Visualizing Data

We all know that management loves its charts & graphs but normal people like us? We love data visualizations!

Why, just take a look at sites such as information aesthetics, Information Is Beautiful, or FlowingData for some examples.

I’m proud to say I’ve been dabbling in data visualization myself recently, and I’d like to share a few things with you.

This is a visualization showing how dark is it at midnight.

This is a visualization showing how bright is it at noon.

This is a visualization showing what color genderists think girls like.

This is a visualization showing what color genderists think boys like.

This is a visualization showing how dirty dirt really is.

This is a visualization of a successful stabbing attempt.

This is a visualization showing the color of oranges.

Whew, that’s a lot of data! Aren’t you glad you were able to visualize it with my help? So many others make visualizing data complex, but we work hard to make it simple.

Data Visualization is just one of the many services we offer here at RasterWeb! Contact us for your next Data Visualization project.

Tags data, infographics, visualization

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RSS is magical…

Dave has a nice post titled Things RSS can’t (and can) do which I assume is due to certain people declaring RSS to be “dead” or something equally as silly.

I’m going to add number 12 to his list:

12. RSS can’t block you.

While there are plenty of good things about Twitter, there are also things I don’t care for… Twitter is a centralized system, they aren’t open enough, blah, blah, blah… and worst of all, people can block you. I mean, that’s a good thing, right?

I’d like to be able to interact with Dave on Twitter, but I can’t because I am blocked. I don’t know if Dave blocked me on purpose (it’s possible!) or if there’s some Twitter-bit that got flipped and doesn’t allow me to follow him.

Keep in mind, I’ve known Dave online since about 1994, met him in 2000, and through the years and technologies such as blogging, RSS, podcasting, Frontier (and other stuff I probably can’t remember) we’ve communicated plenty. In fact, I’m “friends” with him on Facebook and Flickr, but on Twitter… I’m just “blocked.” Oh well…

But fear not… through the magic of “RSS” and “blogs” I’m still able to read what Dave says (on scripting.com) and reply to it on RasterWeb!… and I can even use more than 140 characters…

Tags rss, twitter

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Goals for 2011

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2011-01-03

I don’t have any resolutions for the new year, but I do have a few goals, and writing them here will mean that I see them again in the future.

Try Harder

There have been times in the past year when I’ve said “good enough” even though I felt like it wasn’t “good enough” and I was just admitting defeat for one reason or another… I’d run out of time, or get frustrated, and then move on. I think I can try harder, and I plan to.
Do Better

This sort of goes along with “Try Harder” above. I feel like if I try harder but don’t “Do Better” then I’m not really making any progress. Doing better can be a result of trying harder. It’s safe to say they are linked. Again, there were things I did in 2010 that I know I could have done better… in 2011 I will.
Make Money

I’m hoping “Make Money” doesn’t sound materialistic or greedy. Maybe I should say “Make More Money” instead. I’ve got a number of debts (medical bills mostly) to pay off, and I’d like to make some progress in doing so this year. Making (more) money will make that possible. I’d also like to see some financial stability in my life, which I haven’t had for about 5 years. I also tend to contribute to charities and projects that I like (many of which are open source software projects) so making more money would help me do those things.

As 2011 progresses, I’ll try to look back on this, my first post of the year, and think about how I’m doing in regards to these goals. If you want to help me with any of these goals (especially number 3) let me know!