Twitter

I'm more open to Swine Flu (sorry, H1N1) than I am social networking tools and sites. Maybe that makes me the crotchety old guy with the cane spewing curse words at the younger generation from his yard but what can I say. Privacy is important to me...like oxygen important. If I had time machine, I'd travel back to the constiutional congress, lobby for a privacy amendment by wowing the delegates with some futuristic toys (imagine their reaction to the iPhone) and return home to a place where privacy is as protected as religion.

With my rant aside, I'm ready to crack the door just a sliver. Would I be doing this without the MIT provocation? No. Twitter always seemed to me as the perfect application for two people that really, really wanted you to know they were having a conversation. You know, the internet's version of obnoxious people trapped on the elevator with you.

But here we are anyways. Follow me at http://twitter.com/FatAsteroid

Reading the Twitter homepage, I see the service isn't entirely evil, which is a distinction shared with cable companies, Taco Bell and Zach Snyder's Watchmen. There are some cool features:

1. You can find all of your friends or people with your friends' names. If I'm using the service, dive in right?

2.  Search for tweeted about topics. Now...this feature is something to get excited about. I'll expound on why in another post.

3. Twitter commands. The brevity is refreshing.

4. Privacy Control. After my statements above, you might expect me to turn on the privacy control. No. I'm going to ride this Twitter thing out. As abhorrent as social networking might be, I can see a few uses too, which are neutralized behind a privacy fence.