The Contents of Trish's Brain: March, 2009

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March 23

You're A Twit If You Twitter

I'm not sure if you're noticing this yet, but there are advertisements coming through from websites asking that you join Twitter so that you then receive discounts on products.

I've kept this e:mail, as I was intrigued as to what Twitter is, and how it works.

Going to the initial website didn't help. The only information I could gain was that the site offers small messages that are updates of your social life to be sent to people in your circle of friends. Upon reading this, I thought to myself, "Oh, here we go again... Don't we already have My Space and Facebook? Now we have another way to keep in contact socially?" I was automatically switched off by this fact, as I am beginning to think that My Space and Facebook are too much like avenues of gossip. (And yes, I do have a My Space, but if you check out the blog entry, there's only one, linking back to this blog.)

Not wanting to be the ultimate pessimist, I decided to do a little research. I of course, went straight to Wikipedia. I know that Wikipedia is not the bee's knees of information, and that users can edit and change entries at any time. I had this thought rolling through my head at the time that I read that Twitter collects 'personally identifiable information' about it's users and shares it with third parties. The company has the right to sell this 'asset' of data if the company changes hands.

Here's where the alarm bells started ringing. Remember tele-marketers? I know they're still around, but having the ability to go on a list that stops tele-marketers from calling you has meant that we are getting less calls in general. Remember how annoying it was to have someone ask you a bunch of questions based on them knowing your name, address, phone number, etc? Want to keep being annoyed? Then join the Twitter website.

I visited the website, and looked at their privacy policy, just to be sure. After all, what information is the most accurate? You guessed it, by getting it straight from the horse's mouth. Here's the excerpt from Twitter's Privacy Policy:

By using our Site you are consenting to our processing of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy now and as amended by us. "Processing" means using cookies on a computer or using or touching information in any way, including, but not limited to, collecting, storing, deleting, using, combining and disclosing information, all of which activities will take place in the United States. If you reside outside the U.S. your personally identifiable information will be transferred to the U.S., and processed and stored there under U.S. privacy standards. By visiting our Site and providing information to us, you consent to such transfer to, and processing in, the US.

That highlighted part basically tells you that when you join up to the site, you are giving Twitter permission to store your information in the United States of America, and that this information could be disclosed.

I wanted to know a little more about this, so I read further:

We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, hosting and maintenance, customer relationship, database storage and management, and direct marketing campaigns. We will share your personally identifiable information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to binding contractual obligations requiring such third parties to maintain the privacy and security of your data.

Okay, so now what? When you join Twitter, they're going to share your information with third party companies, and they're going to contact you with possible offers, etc. Those third parties should be maintaining the privacy and security of your personal information. Yeah... right! It only takes one person to steal that information and sell it to the highest bidder, and wham!, you're up to your elbows in messages from people you don't want to hear from, and you didn't give permission to contact you in the first place.

Now that I know these clauses, I'm extremely wary of even signing up to Twitter. I already get spam in my e:mail, even if it is only five messages a day. Do I really want to be further bothered by another internet website that's really out to make money, rather than help me stay in touch with friends?

As for staying in touch with friends, I think the most personalised way is either calling them and speaking to them, meeting up with them in person, or sending them a personally addressed e:mail. That's probably why I haven't heard from some friends... They keep sending me e:mails to be on their list of friends for Facebook, but I think it's rather impersonal. Besides, if a person wants to keep in touch with you, shouldn't they be contacting you? Why should you be the one to have to go their Facebook page and read up on everything? I just think that's plain rude. You want to keep in touch with me? Then make an effort! Pick up the phone or send me a personally addressed e:mail!

So, after all of that, I've decided that I'm not going to join Twitter.

As for you, dear public, it's up to you whether you want to join or not. If you want my opinion though, I think you're a twit if you do.

3:18 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

March 15

Beantastic Gets An Award!

I've been far, far too busy to keep up with my blog, as I've been making themes almost every week for ndsthemes.com.

Over the last few weeks I've been working on a theme based around Heinz Baked Beans. The idea that I used for the button rollover was to put three forks and have the 'games', 'media' and 'setup' words appear on the end of the fork, as though the fork is coming out of the baked beans. This was the hardest part of the theme, as it took a few weeks just to work on the buttons!

I uploaded the theme yesterday, and had a comment on making the forks look three dimensional, rather than flat. So, I went to work on it again, and found a tutorial to learn from, thanks to another user on ndsthemes. I spent nearly an hour and a half fixing the forks.

The end result? An unusual, but nice theme.

To top it all off, I got a theme award! I got the 'Admin's Choice' theme award. Along with the theme award is 100 points towards my account, and a little badge underneath my theme (see picture below). Very nice.

Screen-capture taken today, with a demo of how the rollover function works.

And an update... I didn't win the February theme contest. Far too many excellent themes apart from mine. I have entered for the March contest, but I'm not holding my breath.

8:21 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet