Web Interest: October 2004 Archives

Someone on the intarweb collects and posts Grocery Lists. Suprisingly they are fascinating. I love found stuff. Sometimes I amuse myself by thinking about things I could leave around my office for other people to find.

In the VP debate last night Cheney mentioned factcheck.org while defending himself against Haliburton barbs from Edwards. (Unfortunately, he actually referred people to factcheck.com which appears to be one of those placeholder/domain squatters.) In any case the good folks of factcheck.org dutifully put up their analysis of the debate early this morning. Cheney and Edwards Mangle Facts. It's well worth a read no matter your political persuasion. Unfortunately, it really won't restore anyone's belief in the political process or the individuals involved.

So I am reading "Smartmobs", the book not the web site, and at the same time have become aware of more people using IM on mobile devices like phones. It's a fascinating phenomenon.

I notice for me, that when a message goes to a mobile device, accidentally or not, I feel like I just intruded. I don't feel the same way if the same message had went to a PC IM client. When I send an IM read on a PC client, it seems as informal as writing a note and leaving it on someone's chair. When it goes to a mobile device it feels more like leaving a note in someone's pocket or their purse. My message just wasn't that important. It didn't have to wing its way across the internet and then across the cell phone infrastructure. I didn't need it taking up precious memory embedded on a hand held device anywhere.

I'm not sure that this reaction is normal. Perhaps it will fade in time after IM with mobile devices get more mainstream like it is in other parts of the world.