* AdSense-ready: The theme comes with three units integrated already. A 468×60 unit on top, a 336×280 unit on top of the sidebar and a 120×600 unit on the bottom of the sidebar. You just need to copy & paste the AdSense code on the specific php files.
* Widget-ready: The theme supports widgets, so just drop the ones you use. (more…)

Steve O’Grady and I have been talking recently about Twitter, social networks, friends, followers and the feeling of responsibility for what you post/tweet.1

Of course it isn’t realistic, but I wonder if people would be more likely to absorb good Twitter behavior if they had to follow people for a week before they could post.

I self-censor in Twitter at times because what I’m writing will be distributed to 1000+ people. I’m sure I still post crap from time to time, but I do make an effort.

It’s similar to the mailing list warnings I’ve seen. I remember one that would tell you something like:

Your words will be sent to n people and approximately x man hours will be spent reading them. Are you sure you want to send this?

Steve and I have similar tastes in Twitter behavior. After much chit-chat, we have come to the conclusion that Twitter could be vastly improved if they simply changed the question from:

What are you doing?

to:

Say something interesting.

Only somewhat snarkily submitted for your review.

One other thing we’ve been discussing is how we react to “friending” activities in various social networks. I’ve gone so far as to set up a filter to auto-delete e-mail from Facebook, but similar e-mails from Twitter don’t seem to bother me. The difference is that the Facebook e-mails all come with a request for me to do something (log in, hit some buttons, etc.) while Twitter’s are just notifications that I can ignore or delete at my preference.

After discussing several different social networks, I’ve got a new postulate: the more a social network asks from me, the less likely I am to embrace it.

Agree or disagree? Sound off in the comments.

1. I’ve written about tweeting properly in the past. [back]

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I empathize with Smalltalkers and Lispers who are in a perpetual state of been-there-done-that. Tons of “new” technologies (on-the-fly code reloading, edit-and-continue debugging, refactoring, and anonymous functions, among others) have been available in Smalltalk-80 since its inception (and frequently in Common Lisp’s predecessors and peers since before that).

That said, when I read C# developers lamenting that .NET 3.5 is only a bad imitation of Smalltalk-80, I have a slightly different reaction than they. Yes, I wish I could program in Smalltalk (or its successors, such as Self) more often, and yes, I wish Smalltalk had wider adoption, but, at this point in my life, I also recognize that neither Smalltalk nor Common Lisp will ever be a mainstream language. Although I may scream “But we already had this!” from time to time, in my gut, I know that our last best hope is to see existing mainstream languages steal as much as possible from Smalltalk and Common Lisp. To that end, I’m actually excited about C# 3, which I feel adopts more Lisp- and Smalltalk-like features than any other mainstream language I’ve yet seen. Is it perfect? Is it really on par with Smalltalk or Common Lisp? No. But in the end, I’d much rather have 90% of Smalltalk available everywhere than 100% of Smalltalk available only in a few nooks. This is a step in the right direction.

Update to last night’s podcast . . . here are the web sites where you can sign the petitions to tell ASO to let Levi, Alberto and Team Astana defend the 2008 Tour de France:

Let Levi Ride!

¡Contador Al Tour!

Sign the petition and let them know how you feel. If you are inclined to send a personal note to the ASO leadership in addition to signing the petitions, please use the email links below:

ASO Competition Director Christian Prudhomme

ASO Press

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