Twitter is nothing new. Considered Micro-blogging, Twitter is a social networking platform that allows its users to post up to 140 characters describing “what are you doing right now?” Similar to the Facebook status message, Twitter has been around for several years, though it wasn’t until just recently that I’ve become addicted.

I’ve always written Twitter off as a silly application that has no practical usage. In the past few weeks however, I’ve gotten quite a kick out of providing my periodic updates throughout the day with random thoughts, or comments that I have to make.

There was even an article in the latest episode of Wired, which discussed how many people are shutting down their personal blogs in favor of Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. The reason? Who has time to write a long, well thought-out post for a small personalized audience when you can accomplish the same thing with 140 characters interspersed throughout the day?

There are so many blogs out there nowadays that have become their own “new media.” Huffington Post, Politico, Lifehacker, and Boing Boing are just to name a few. If you are interested in reading commentary about the latest debate, doing a Google search will likely return a few top news sites mixed together with a few of the top political blogs. Your personal review of the debate is likely not to get picked up and will only be circulated amongst your small community of readers.

Have no fear, dear readers. I’m not shutting down The Diatribe. Instead, if you’re looking to get a quick fix of what Miss Possible or myself are up to. Check out our twitter feed: bseils and kseils.

Feel like trying it out for yourself? Read the FAQs and send along your user ID so we can follow you as well!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first human in space. As such, there are parties all across the globe celebrating Yuri’s Night. We’re fortunate enough to live within 10 minutes of one at the Ames NASA Research Center in Mountain View.

The event starts at 2pm and goes to roughly 2am complete with an aerial show, exhibits, 2 stages of bands, 1 stage for speakers and other shenanigans.

We’ve actually teamed up with Scotty L and his girlfriend Katie to head over to the event — so it’s gonna be a good time. Pictures will be taken and posted — so fret not dear readers, you will experience it as well.

In the meantime, let’s get those Red Sox bats going…

I just found out there’s a new beta version of Internet Explorer 8…. Do people even use Internet Explorer 7? Do people even know that IE 7 exists? I doubt it.

Just download Firefox and be done with it.

I think the title says it all. I got such a kick out of this in yesterday’s Google Blogoscoped:

// idiom 1
cop[0].goodInPercent = 100;
cop[1].goodInPercent = 0;

// idiom 2
isCrowd = personCounter >= 3;

// idiom 3
injury += insult;

// idiom 4
1: board.draw();
goto 1;

// idiom 5
if (bird[1].feather == bird[2].feather) {
    bird[1].flock(bird[2]);
}

// idiom 6
a = getThickness('blood');
b = getThickness('water');
assert(a > b);

// idiom 7
a_spade_a_spade();

// idiom 8
die(1000);
function die(max) {
    for (i = 1; i < = max; i++) {
        cut();
    }
}

// idiom 9
prey = 'worm';
time = getCurrentTime();
if (time >= 4 && time < = 8) {
    bird.catch(prey);
}

// idiom 10
while ( rome.fire() ) {
    doFiddle();
}

// idiom 11
function getValue(garbage) {
    return garbage;
}

// idiom 12
take(salt * .01);

// idiom 13
var here = false;
var there = false;

// idiom 14
if (i == 2) {
    tango();
}

// idiom 15
days = 365;
for (day = 1; day <= days; day++) {
    if ( random(0,100) <= 50 ) apple++;
}
if (apple <= days) doctor();

// idiom 16
if ( !dogs.sleep() ) {
    disturb(dogs);
}

// idiom 17
function tunnel() {
    var dark;
    for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        dark = true;
    }
    dark = !dark;
    return dark;
}

// idiom 18
if ( ape.inLineOfSight(it.x, it.y) ) ape.do(it);

// idiom 19
return way.my || way.high;

// idiom 20
hay[ random(0, hay.length - 1) ] = 'needle';

// idiom 21
a = 0;
b = 1;
hand[a].wash(hand[b]);
hand[b].wash(hand[a]);

// idiom 22
function getGain(pain) {
    return pain >= 1;
}

// idiom 23
if (cooks >= 3) {
    broth = null;
}

// idiom 24
if (a != 'cake') a.eat();

// idiom 25
doesStand = you == me;

// idiom 26
var location = getLocation();
if (location == 'rome') {
    do( location.getCitizen() );
}

As someone who has worked in online advertising for over 6 years, I can say that this type of ad format is the worst i’ve ever seen.

Pay Per Play Audio Ads — meaning, a 5 second audio ad will play when you get to a site.

Uhh.. Please, publishers, don’t do this to us.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like the WordPress platform? It’s really a remarkable blogging / page management Content Management System.

It’s so extensible that you can pretty much find some kind of plugin (or make one) to do what you want. There’s so much documentation and help available as well, that it makes learning the system pretty painless. Granted, I’ve never written plugin or anything, but I’ve found my way through some PHP goodness to get what I need to out of the system.

But what’s better, is that just tonight I was able to install the new WPhone Plugin which allows you to easily access your blog’s admin pages using your iPhone. It’s nearly perfect — and now I can blog from anywhere.

Watch out, Diatribers.. I’m Mob-blogging now!

A lot has happened over the past few weeks, so let’s take a moment to catch up.

Miss Possible has a new job. Starting in mid July, she’ll be working for a new California-based company that will remain nameless for the time being. If she gives me the appropriate permissions to name it publicly, I will do so. To coincide with this job change, we’ve decided to change our location as well. We’re moving to Los Gatos.

It’s not far, maybe about 20 minutes south of Santa Clara, but we’re excited to move to a much nicer apartment complex. We’re officially moving July 7th, so until that time we’ll be busy little bees packing up boxes and making sure that little Bogart does eat anything he’s not supposed to. In our first day of packing, he already managed to chomp up a CD and chew up a box. We just hoping he doesn’t find the packing paper.

In upcoming news.. can we talk about the >iPhone for a second? There’s not one bad review of this guy out there anywhere. If anyone is getting a bad rap, it’s Cingular. I even mentioned to MP tonight that it was important that we figure out a way for her to join Cingular without forcing me to sign a new two-year contract, so that I can purchase one of these bad boys in a few months. She called me crazy. I told her that disrespecting the iPhone is like disrespecting my family. She wasn’t amused.

So, with the move, the wedding, and everything else going on.. I’m obviously not going to be first in line to snatch up one of these great new products. That’s ok, though.. I won’t be far behind.. Remember v1.0 of the iPod? Well.. 2.0 was much better . It might even be integrated into Cingular’s 3G network at that point, in which case, it’s worth the wait.

So, that’s the news.. I’ve been trying to post at least once a week, but I’ll obviously need to try harder if I want to keep my beloved readers satisfied. So, stay tuned. More to come as we explore our new town of Los Gatos, or as I’ve been calling it “The Cats.”

Ok, so.. it’s like beating a dead horse.. but here’s a great video that describes what RSS is and how to use it.. RSS in Plain English. A fascinating clip that I think anyone who is confused about what RSS is should check out.

Enjoy.

Click To Play

One of the best NPR segments that I’ve ever heard aired a few years back. I recall driving back from Hoboken to Boston, sitting in the passenger seat with Cool Jesus at the wheel. As a matter of fact, it was this specific segment that got me interested in WNYC’s On The Media.

My podcast friends Bob & Brooke opted to re-air this segment as part of last week’s episode, which was a treat. The segment that I speak of is called “Pulling Back The Curtain“.

The segment takes a behind the scenes look at most popular NPR shows and how they are edited and created. From Morning Edition to Car Talk, reporter John Solomon reveals the secrets behind the NPR’s investigative reports and ability to make everyone sound intelligent.

You can read the transcript at the link above, though I encourage you to take a five or ten minutes and listen to the magic. It’s a must for any NPR listener.

At 8:47 AM Pacific Time this morning, I laid my 500mhz Graphite iMac to rest. It was donated to the San Francisco Street Tech Organization aimed to offer low-cost computer training to those in disadvantaged San Francisco Communities.

It had seen many great times and hours invested in The Sims & Diablo II. Not to mention countless Internet sites and assisted in 4 different job changes. This guy was purchased on eBay back in 2001 when I was living on Huntington Ave with Rachel. It survived many upgrades & performance enhancements, but it was finally time to step into the next generation with an Intel Core Mac Processor.

Thanks Graphite iMac. You will be missed.