July 24, 2009

Is Twitter Living Up To It's Full Potential?

I love Twitter because it lets me share things with other people that I find interesting and helps me connect with the rest of the world. It's simple and to the point, which makes it appealing to many people because it is easy to use. However, there are so many features that can be added in order to make it so much better.

Trending topics are a list of popular things that are being tweeted by the community. This is good because it shows what means a lot to users. But there are so many useless trending topics. For example, take the almost daily #Goodnight. Is that really relevant? Maybe Twitter could create a filter for all those "Character are you?"s from those annoying quizzes and prevent those useless topics from becoming a huge waste of space. So until there's an amazing blockbuster movie called #FF, twitter should filter out those useless topics that tend to make it to the top of the list.

Maybe they can add an auto refresh too. I'm sick of having to press refresh every minute in order to get updates from my tweeps. For people who think this is annoying, maybe it can even be an option under settings or something of that nature.

I use twitter a lot from my web browser, and I hate it when I can't shorten my url's or text. They can lear a lot from 3rd party developers about shortening, and this could make it easier and faster for someone to post a tweet.

Another thing that Twitter can improve on is making everything fit. I have a 13 inch Macbook, and I always have to scroll down in order to see the last 2 trending topics. It would be a lot easier if everything fir on 1 page, and I can see everything just by taking a quick glance.

I realize that I'm really picky, but these are all tiny details that can add up and turn new users away from a fantastic service that has a lot of potential. I find that twitter is great, but there's so much room for improvement.

P.S. Please follow me. I'm @mtl_zack!

July 23, 2009

The Basics Of Health 2.0

Today in my integrative seminar class, which consists of writing a big essay and then presenting your topic, a classmate of mine wrote her paper on Health 2.0. I found this quite interesting, so here I hope to expand on what my friend presented.

Health 2.0 is a variation of Web 2.0 that deals specifically with health. One can post personal information about themselves on sites such as
Web MD, as well as health issues that he or she might have. Then, they can interact with others and provide support for people who suffer from a similar illness.
Some sites like
PatientsLikeMe.com take the information that you add to your profile and sell it to third parties who process and analyze it. This can lead to advancement in research. There is some controversy though, because people give their information for free, and get no monetary compensation. My take on this is that Web 2.0 is all about sharing, and if you don't wanna share, then don't post anything online.

I think that Health 2.0 programs are great, and will truly revolutionize the North American health care system. However, in Canada, th healthcare system is very complex, where there are private clinics and hospitals, as well as partnerships between medical centers that can exclude certain clinics and use a totally different system than another group of hospitals.

So, Health 2.0 has the potential to be a huge hit, and I think it will be one once people realize that the Internet is meant for sharing. We also have to break certain boundaries and unite hospitals so medical staff can cooperate in order to save more lives.

July 22, 2009

Jupiter Is Struck!

Recently, the planet Jupiter has been struck by either a comet or asteroid, and has left a huge scar on the surface. This was discovered by an amateur astronomer from Australia, Anthony Welsh, who called many other professionals about this, who then began studying the immense planet.

The scar is bigger than the pacific ocean, and is irregular in shape. Here is a picture of the planet, now that is has a giant crater:

I think that the object that hit Jupiter was one of the may asteroids in the belt that lies between Jupiter and Mars. Perhaps one of them got free from the rest and got sucked in. Anyways, now there are many eyes on the sky, and this piece will probably join the many other notable events regarding space that happened recently, such as the Apollo 11 moon landing, the launch of Endeavor and the anniversary of Shoemaker-Levy 9.

July 21, 2009

Torchwood

I really love the show Torchwood. It's a show by BBC set in Cardiff, Whales, and it's about an organization that scavenges alien technology and uses it to fight aliens. The main character, Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, is from the 51st century and explores the universe. He is bisexual, and has had a tremendous impact in the UK. Many gay and bisexual groups look at him as a great role model, as well as straight people. Captain Jack can not die, and this may seem amazing, but he seems very saddened at times when he realizes that he will never have a soulmate and that every person he meets will die eventually, and he will live on.


Torchwood is a spinoff of Doctor Who, which I plan on watch soon. It is also an anagram of Doctor Who. It had 2 "normal" seasons, and the 3rd is Children of Earth, which is a 5 day miniseries. It came out 2 weeks ago in the UK, and it is airing now in the rest of the world. I downloaded it after the UK release, so I know how it ended, but I won't give a review until everyone has seen it, because I know how bad spoilers can be.

Torchwood is truly an amazing show, and I really enjoyed watching it.

Mashable: A Site About Social Media

Mashable.com is a website that has grown in popularity recently, and a site that I have come to enjoy visiting. They provide great information about things going on with Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook and all sorts of other social media websites. They also have lists of things relevant to something in the news or a particular service, and they publish overviews of many new features of certain services, as well as of new startups.

Mashable is a great informative tool, and I always check it to understand better the new features that certain companies release, as well as to understand recent news regarding a service. I give it a thumbs up.

1st post (Again)

K, I'm gonna do this again. A new blog, and this time, I'm gonna commit. I swear. So yeah, this is the first post of my fresh new blog. I will write about anything that piques my interest, and I'll design it so it's totally amazing. I hope you enjoy :)