RobbyEdwards.com…documenting the minutiae that is my life

This just about sums up how I feel about Twitter:

“There’s a funny paradox that runs across my mind every time I send a message to Twitter. You see, I do it as a personal benefit to myself. Like keeping a little journal of snippets of what I’m doing as I live. I figure that one day it will actually be interesting to go back and read. On the other hand, I keep my Twitters public and I have ‘friends’ on Twitter. With that in mind I always think to myself ‘people are going to read this, so I should be clever.’ Often times, that keeps me from twittering anything at all. Every twitter I make, I think it’s going to be the last; until I send another.”

—Dustin Diaz

“The word ‘technology’ simply refers to machinery and equipment developed for a specific purpose. Some tools of technology are complicated, like atom smashers and the space shuttle. Most aren’t, like hammers and potato peelers. Somehow, ‘technology’ became synonymous with ‘computer’, and computers are highly complex and mystical machines that only the most intelligent among us can operate, right? Wrong.

“The tools we use to communicate and manage our lives aren’t restricted to an elite coven of über-nerds or business people.

“Or, at least, they shouldn’t be.”

—Dave Caolo: “Complexity is a necessary byproduct of the modern age.” – Wrong
(via Cameron Hunt)

“To me, software which enables customers to do something leaves them in charge, whereas software which allows assumes that the developer is in charge.”

—Nick Bradbury: Allow vs. Enable

“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

—George Washington: Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island

“I’ve seen it quite a bit among startups — they spend more time developing the product than they do running it after they launch it. Several have followed the same pattern: build, build, build, launch, quit.

“But you’ve got to keep with it to gain momentum. It doesn’t usually just build overnight, it takes time. Keep building your product, and eventually you gain momentum and a critical mass of people who know about you and tell others about you.”

—David Rusenko: The importance of launching early and staying alive

“Your markup validator, whether it’s the one on the W3C site or one built into your favorite coding tool, is not a measuring stick for greatness. It’s not to be used on other people’s code for the purpose of pointing out their shortcomings as a markup coder so that you can make yourself feel better than them. The fact that your code passes a validator does not make it better than the next guy’s code.”

—Jeff Croft: Your markup validator

“The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes. That is the smell of space.”

—ISS Science Officer Don Pettit: Expedition Six Space Chronicles #4
(via Boing Boing)

“It’s step up time now.”

—Bruce Pearl, Tennessee Men’s Basketball Coach

“Tennessee is like Christmas morning with No. 1 and No. 2 playing hoops Saturday.”

—Twitter / Jack Lail: Tennessee is like Christmas…