SnoopStick: "Melanie Reed says the secret surveillance of teenagers by parents is a sinister trend. The SnoopStick looks like a memory stick. You plug it into your teenager's computer when they are not around, and it installs stealth software on to the machine. Then you plug it into your own computer and can sit back at your leisure and observe, in real time, exactly what your child is doing online - what "
Zeta Woof - http://grdurand.com/blogger/
Datamation: Apple Xserve ‘an accessible, low-fuss route to hefty server power’: "Apple is known first and foremost for its consumer-oriented technology. The common DNA between..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
15th Anniversary: The Cultural Legacy of 'Neon Genesis Evangelion': "Neon Genesis Evangelion's role as anime pioneer continues to this day. Check out its ever-expanding cultural influence.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Facebook Chat begins to roll out: "The launch gets under way slowly. Over time it could mean a lot more time spent on the Facebook service at the exclusion of external instant-messaging clients."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Microsoft figurehead Bill Gates sees next version of Windows ‘sometime in the next year or so’: "Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates said on Friday he expected the new version of Windows operating software..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
NetNewsWire 3.1.5b4 - RSS/Atom newsreader. (Free): "
NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use RSS and Atom newsreader for Mac OS X. Its familiar three-paned interface -- similar to Apple Mail -- can fetch and display news from thousands of different websites and weblogs, making it quick and easy to keep up with the latest news. Features include:MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Companies struggle as Safari pops up on networks: "Administrators are concerned because Apple's Safari browser is popping up unexpectedly on their networks.
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
 | ' | Zombie Strippers - Trailer Worldwide media sensation JENNA JAMESON and Nightmare on Elm Street’s ROBERT ENGLUND star in ZOMBIE STRIPPERS. When a secret government agency lets out a deadly chemo virus causing the reanimation of the dead, the first place to get hit is Rhino’s, a hot underground strip club. As one of the strippers gets the virus, she turns into a supernatural, flesh-eating zombie stripper, making her the hit of the club. Do the rest of the girls fight the temptation to be like the star stripper, even if there is no turning back? Also featuring ROXY SAINT (of the Goth band Roxy Saint and the Blackouts) and Ultimate Fighting Champion TITO ORTIZ, ZOMBIE STRIPPERS is a sexy, bloody, hilarious good time! Directed by: Jay Lee Starring: Robert Englund, Jenna Jameson, Roxy Saint |
Latest Movie Trailers - http://www.apple.com/trailers/
Smultron 3.4 - Text editor with easy document selection. (Free): "
Smultron is a free text editor for Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 which is both easy to use and powerful. It is designed to neither confuse newcomers nor disappoint advanced users. It should work perfectly for a whole variety of needs - like web programming, script editing, making a to do list and so on.MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Store Your Comics Properly: "Still stacking your comics in a cardboard box in Uncle Joe’s attic? Get with
the geek program. Learn the proper techniques for bagging, sorting and
storing your four-color collectors items.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Murderer Charles Manson issues digital album: "Convicted murderer issues digital album under Creative Commons license, which allows anyone to copy the music."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Researchers Cram 20 Seconds of Music Into Sub-Kilobyte File: "A new compression scheme creates audio files 1,000 times smaller than a standard MP3, and makes quick work of a clarinet solo.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Transmission 1.11 - BitTorrent client. (Free): "
Transmission has been built from the ground up to be a lightweight yet powerful BitTorrent client. Its simple, intuitive interface is designed to integrate tightly with whatever computing environment you choose to use. Transmission strikes a balance between providing useful functionality without feature bloat. Furthermore, it is free for anyone to use or modify. Transmission is open source (MIT license).
These days, bandwidth is a precious commodity. Transmission allows you to ration this commodity efficiently. You might want to queue your torrents for maximum performance. Or throttle their speed during peak periods. Transmission easily lets you do both, and thus only works its hardest when you want it to.
Support for Growl notifications and dock badging keep you updated with what's going on so you can get back to doing more important things.
If you are interested in helping out the Transmission project in any way, we encourage you to head over to our development page. The current developers welcome anybody who is interested in implementing new features, documentation, or translations.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Kittelman offers reward for campaign sign theft, damage: "Douglas County Commissioner Marilyn Kittelman claims that $800 worth of her campaign signs have been either stolen or vandalized in recent weeks."
News Review - News - http://www.newsreview.info
Ski Resort Wants to Blast Snow with Heavy Artillery: "Avalanches are a constant threat in the Northwest high country. In Oregon, one ski resort wants to borrow Army weaponry to blast away the danger, as a resort in Washington has already done. Correspondent Chris Lehman explains"
Northwest Public Radio - http://www.nwpr.org/
"Leatherheads": "George Clooney makes it all look easy in this breezy, affable comedy."
Salon - http://www.salon.com/?source=rss&aim=/
Heroes Will Air In A Block: "
NBC's returning genre shows--Heroes, Chuck and Medium--will each air a full complement of original episodes next season, in contrast to this year's strike-truncated season, with Heroes and Chuck set to air without repeats for 13 episodes."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
Bionic Failure Informs Knight: "
Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said that the network took the lessons it learned the hard way from its failed reboot Bionic Woman and applied them to the upcoming remake of Knight Rider."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
Twitter on your own Server and Teach your iPhone to back itself up: "Why blog in one place and tweet from another?
In the spirit of efficiency, I've got a do-it-yourself twitter you can run from your own server. There's also a new IM client that lets you post to Facebook and Twitter while monitoring Gmail, IMAP and more.
Join me for these and an iPhone app pick in this week's Freeloader Friday.
[read more at MacMerc.com]
MacMerc - http://www.macmerc.com
Fluid 0.8.6 - Place your fave webapps on your desktop. (Free): "
Fluid... Give your favorite webapps a home on your Mac OS X Desktop.
Are you a Gmail, Facebook, Campfire or Insert_Your_Favorite_Webapp_Here fanatic? Do you have 20 or more browser tabs open at all times? Are you tired of some random site crashing your browser and causing you to loose your (say) Google Docs data in another tab?
If so, Site Specific Browsers (SSBs) provide a great solution for your webapp woes. Using Fluid, you can create SSBs to run each of your favorite webapps as a separate desktop application. Fluid gives any webapp a home on your Mac OS X desktop including Dock icon, menu bar, and logical separation from your other web browsing activity.
How does it work?
Fluid itself is a very small application. When launched, Fluid displays a small window where you specify the URL of a webapp you'd like to run in a Site Specific Browser. Then provide a name, click 'Create' and you'll be prompted to launch the new native Mac app you've just created.
Use Fluid to run YouTube, GTalk, Flickr, Basecamp, Delicious, .Mac webmail, or any other webapp as a separate desktop application.
Anytime you click a link to another site in an SSB, the link is opened in your system default web browser, keeping your SSB dedicated to the original site you've specified.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Ricketts' Revue ends it's run: "The show, started by Charles Ricketts, the owner of Ricketts Music Store in downtown Roseburg, will be discontinued after more than a half century of being the Saturday night entertainment at the fair in August."
KPIC - News - Local & Regional - http://www.kpic.com/news/local
Big Meth Trafficking Ring Busted: "Federal agents have busted a Mexican crime family they believe to be the largest methamphetamine supplier to south Puget Sound and southwest Washington. U-S attorney Jeffrey Sullivan expects a wide range of meth-related crimes in the region to go down."
Northwest Public Radio - http://www.nwpr.org/
With Apple’s dominant iTunes rewriting the rules, music cartels struggle for relevancy: "With CD sales dismal and Internet music sites such as iTunes soaring in popularity..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Instant Messaging for Introverts: "
From time to time, someone I know asks me an ordinary and reasonable question: 'What's your iChat (or Skype) ID?' My usual reply is to give them the information along with a big disclaimer: I'm almost never logged in. In fact, let me be completely honest and say I thoroughly dislike instant messaging (IM) except in a few specific situations. For months, I've been thinking about why this is - both the technological and psychological aspects - along with whether it somehow exposes a fundamental character flaw, and whether it's something I should attempt to change. Having experimented with a variety of approaches to instant messaging (as well as its close relative Twitter) and having done a considerable amount of introspection, I'm
inclined to think that my personality type is fundamentally ill-suited to instant messaging. Specifically, I'd like to advance the thesis that - for some people at least - an aversion to instant messaging is a natural consequence of one's temperament, and that this is neither good nor bad in and of itself, though it does of course have consequences.
This notion has been difficult for me to come to grips with, because I'm a self-professed computer geek since way back when, someone who lives and breathes technology. For me not to be excited about a common modern mode of communication seems contradictory in some way. In addition, my dislike for IM has caused - well, continues to cause - practical communication difficulties. So I wanted to explore what's underneath this, partly for my own benefit, but also as a courtesy to others out there who may find themselves in a similar situation and would like to commiserate, share their experiences, or simply know they are not alone. And I want to offer suggestions from my personal experience that may help others to make peace with instant
messaging, to one extent or another - or to better understand those who seem to have the same trouble with it that I do. Ultimately, I can't offer a solution that will magically and perfectly bridge the gap between IM lovers and IM haters, but I hope I can at least shed some light on what the situation looks like from both sides.
I Is for Introvert -- Let me begin by stating that, like 25 to 50 percent of the world's population (depending on who's counting), I'm an introvert. A common misconception about the word 'introvert' is that it means someone who's shy, withdrawn, afraid of crowds, or lacking in social skills. If you've ever seen me give a presentation to a large Mac user group, you'll surely know that description doesn't fit me at all! I will happily stand in front of hundreds or thousands of people, give a speech, answer questions, make jokes, and generally take charge of keeping the group interested and involved. If anything, I have a reputation for being long-winded in social situations, telling stories that go off on one
tangent after another - and for being among the last to leave. I like people, and I think I'm reasonably competent and comfortable in a crowd of any size.
However, given the choice, I do generally prefer to be alone. If you asked me which would be more fun - going to a lively party where I'd be socializing with a couple dozen other people or sitting in a quiet corner reading a book - I wouldn't even have to think about it: I'd much rather sit alone and read. All things being equal, I prefer smaller gatherings to larger ones, and I prefer solitude to company. To put it differently, being around other people seems to drain my energy, whereas being alone (or with smaller, quieter groups) gives me more energy. When I've spent hours around other people, I need to be alone to recharge, whereas for an extrovert, it's typically the opposite: being alone saps energy, and being around other people
restores it.
Psychologist Carl Jung (himself an introvert) first developed the notion of the introvert/extrovert distinction as a way of describing whether a person's focus tends to be more inward or outward. The categories don't represent simple binary states; there's a long continuum between wholly introverted and wholly extroverted, and everyone falls somewhere in between. In addition, a person may exhibit introverted characteristics sometimes and extroverted characteristics at other times. A variety of personality tests reveal where on the continuum a person's tendencies lie - whether you're strongly or weakly introverted
or extroverted. One such test is the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which employs the idiosyncratic spelling 'extravert' rather than 'extrovert,' and which uses the terms primarily to indicate one's manner of spending and drawing energy. Another good example is the Kiersey Temperament Sorter.
Introversion and extroversion are often referred to as 'preferences' or 'attitudes,' but such terms misleadingly suggest that either characteristic is merely a matter of choice. In fact, being an introvert is much like being left-handed: even though you may have another fully functional hand that you could use, you didn't choose for your left hand to be dominant and therefore the one you can use more naturally, comfortably, and effectively. Although the influence of nature versus nurture in the development of introversion or extroversion has been much debated, research strongly suggests that introversion is in some sense 'hard-wired' in the brain. Once a person has developed one tendency or the other, it's as difficult to conceive of
changing it as changing one's dominant hand.
In decades past, left-handed people (like my grandfather) were forced, sometimes violently, to write with their right hands, based on the belief that right was right and left was abnormal and therefore wrong. Today, even though lefties are still very much in the minority, most people think such attitudes are ridiculous and even offensive. But comparable enlightenment about introverts is dawning more slowly. I routinely hear people talk about introversion as a problem that needs fixing or as a trait that one should actively try to suppress and change. True enough, extroverts tend to be the movers and shakers, the squeaky wheels, and the stars. On the other hand, many introverts have famously risen to positions of wealth, influence, and
authority - both in the real world (Warren Buffett, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Al Gore, Julia Roberts, Barbara Walters) and in fiction (Batman, Jane Eyre, Dr. Jean Gray, Harry Potter, Mr. Spock). The point is: there's nothing wrong with being an introvert, and this characteristic need not keep anyone from success or happiness. Introverts can learn to work with this trait rather than against it, while extroverts would benefit from understanding introverts better and in some cases making accommodations to interact with them more effectively.
I learned about introversion and extroversion the same way I learned about Macs: by experience and by reading. If you'd like to learn more, I suggest (in addition to the links already given) reading the book 'The Introvert Advantage' by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D., as well as 'Caring for Your Introvert' by Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic; 'Introverts of the World, Unite!,' an interview with Rauch by Sage Stossel; Extraversion/Introversion by Susan A. Santo, Ph.D., of the
University of South Dakota; and Spectatrix, a blog my wife runs about life as an introvert. (And, no, that's not a contradiction!) And if you'd like an easy way to find out where you fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum, try Quick Quiz: Extraverted or Introverted? at Your Office Coach.
From considerable reading and from personal experience, I've learned that introverts have a number of other tendencies. And taken together, these traits may shed some light on why I (and numerous other introverts I know) have a hard time with IM, Twitter, and the like. For example, introverts typically need to concentrate on just one thing at a time, and are often particularly sensitive to interruptions and distractions. Now, I happen to think 'multitasking' is a concept that should never, ever be applied to human beings (regardless of personality type), but be that as it may, I can certainly say that I'm easily distracted, and having more than one thing to actively think about at any given time is sure to make me both ineffective and
grumpy. Chatting online while also working on another task, therefore, is unthinkable. (For additional perspective on what multitasking might mean to an introvert, read Personality Types and Multitasking by Carol Kallendorf, Ph.D., at BizWatch Online. Note that I'm not only an 'I' ('introverted') in Myers-Briggs terminology, but also a 'J' ('judging'), which apparently makes me the personality type least amenable to multitasking!)
Another typical introvert trait is wanting to compose one's thoughts carefully before sharing them (either verbally or in writing). Once again, while this doesn't prevent me from carrying on verbal conversations at a normal speed, it makes rapid-fire online textual conversations rather unnerving. For me, interacting with other people in real time online is just as draining as interacting with other people in person. So my feelings about participating in, say, a lively multi-person chat are about the same whether we're talking about iChat or a party. I can hold my own in the conversation and it's generally fine, but because it takes a lot of energy I prefer not to do it very often.
Although I can't speak for every introvert in the world, I can say that I genuinely enjoy connecting with other people. I like to know what my friends are up to and I like for them to know what's going on in my life. But when modes of communication like IM and Twitter become the default way of sharing this information, that leaves us introverts in a pickle. If we're never logged in to iChat or rarely post on Twitter, our friends and colleagues may assume we're avoiding them, or that we aren't interested in their lives. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The disconnect manifests itself by way of technology, but the reasons behind it are much deeper.
Quiet - I'm Thinking -- The introvert trait of not dealing well with interruptions comes into play in a couple of different ways with IM. First, naturally, is the whole notion of something popping up on one's screen demanding an immediate conversation. Let me give you a personal perspective on this. Unlike many people, when I'm in front of my computer, I'm working, which means I'm concentrating on something. I'm writing an article, or a book, or an email message, trying to come up with exactly the right way to phrase some sentence or express a certain point. Or I'm programming, trying to solve some logic problem. Or I'm reading an article. Whatever the activity, it's something to which I am predisposed to
devote my entire attention. If the phone rings, or my wife asks me a question, or an iCal alarm goes off, it breaks my concentration in a way that's frustrating to recover from. I lose my mental place, and it takes me a long time to get back into that same train of thought and finish whatever I was working on. I'm not saying I need to write an entire book without any interruptions, but when my mind is actively juggling information, I need to complete that particular thought (or block of code, or paragraph) before moving on to something else.
This is why I love email as a mode of communication. I get many dozens of messages every day, but I can answer them whenever I want. I don't have to look at them right in the middle of this paragraph; I can wait five or ten minutes - it doesn't matter (though in practice, I usually answer email very quickly). Voicemail can make handling phone calls similarly convenient. But instant messaging isn't like that. If my status shows that I'm online, then people expect an immediate response, and even though I could choose not to respond, I'd still have the blinking, bouncing, or beeping notification interrupting my train of thought - it isn't an improvement for me.
So in terms of IM status, I never consider myself 'available' in the sense of 'interruptible.' Ever. There is no time of any day, under any circumstances, when I think to myself, 'I really don't mind being interrupted now.' If I'm not at my computer, then most likely a phone call or a knock at the door won't seem like an interruption. But if I am at my computer, I'm concentrating, which means I'm not 'available' - I do mind being interrupted. And if my status shows that I'm unavailable, as it invariably does when I'm logged into iChat, most people will refrain from trying to start a conversation - meaning I might as well be entirely offline. (Of course, an 'unavailable' status does convey some information, but I'll return to
this in a few moments.)
(As an aside, if you guessed from the foregoing that I'm also not the kind of person who is constantly making and receiving cell phone calls, you're exactly right. I do own a cell phone, but I spend maybe 10 minutes a month talking on it. I don't follow the typical mobile urban lifestyle - I don't have a commute and dislike being considered 'on call' when I'm not in my home office. Sure, I'd love to have an iPhone for the remote Web browsing, email, and all the rest, but I've come to accept the twin sad facts that I can't justify the cost of an iPhone given the amount of calling I do, and that I'm unwilling to carry around both a cell phone and an iPod touch. Oh well.)
Can I IM You Now? -- However, even though I'd theoretically prefer never to be interrupted, there are certainly urgent situations in which interruptions are not only acceptable but absolutely necessary, and IM may be the handiest way to get someone's attention in a hurry. Being perpetually unreachable can irritate your coworkers and lead to misunderstandings. Unfortunately, current IM software - and iChat in particular - hinders me from making myself provisionally available for 'just in case of emergency' interruptions. Let me explain.
I've tried using iChat's security features to selectively grant or deny access to certain people - for example, letting only important colleagues see when I'm online. That prevents interruptions from random people who just want to make small talk, but it forces me to keep iChat updated with my status, and that's a real problem. Some people manually change their iChat status constantly - you can be sure that it always reflects not only their availability but the exact task they're working on at the moment. I've tried doing this myself, but invariably I either forget to change my status after a few hours or simply get fed up with having to keep telling my computer what I'm doing. I can't be bothered to inform iChat of my current mood or
activity over and over throughout the day.
Of course, iChat can automatically change my status from 'Available' to 'Away' when my computer is untouched for a certain period of time. But I never want to advertise myself as being 'available,' so that doesn't help. iChat can also indicate that I'm 'idle' after a period of inactivity, but only if my status was previously 'Available' - so that's no help either. I could create a custom 'Away' message (say, 'Busy') and stay logged in all the time with that status. But because 'Busy' never changes to 'Idle,' my status then provides no clue as to whether I'm at my computer - it only says that my computer is turned on and iChat is logged in, which could be the case 24 hours a day. If I always logged out or put my computer to sleep when I
stepped away, a 'Busy' status would provide more information, but once again, that forces me to do extra tasks that I wouldn't ordinarily do and will in all likelihood forget.
Apple (or perhaps an enterprising third-party developer) could solve this problem for me by making the 'Away' setting behave the same way as 'Available' - automatically switching to 'idle' after a few minutes without input. That way, I could stay logged in all the time - with my red-badged 'Don't Disturb Unless Absolutely Necessary' status - but colleagues would still be able to tell whether I'm actually at my computer without my having to manually update iChat every time I get up.
(Adam Engst also addressed part of this issue in his article 'iChat Status Report' (2004-03-29) - namely, the fact that iChat offers too few options for setting one's status. Alas, Leopard's iChat is in no way improved in this regard.)
A Little Birdie Told Me -- So far I've been talking about status in the simplistic sense of 'Am I interruptible?' But even though many people use their iChat status to indicate things like their mood or what they just ate for lunch, that isn't the best tool for the job. Enter Twitter, which makes it very easy to supply your friends with exactly those sorts of brief 'what I'm up to' updates. Other TidBITS staffers have voiced varying opinions about the service. Adam Engst didn't like Twitter at first ('Visions of the Sublime and the Inane,' 2007-06-18) but, after seeing how it was used at the C4 conference, he came around to thinking it was useful after all, as
he explained in 'Confessions of a Twitter Convert,' 2007-10-07). Tonya quickly followed suit, though she uses it somewhat differently ('Twitter Turns Out to be Fun and Useful,' 2007-08-24). Glenn Fleishman liked it but then decided it was too overwhelming ('Conversions of a Twitter Revert, 2008-01-02) - and then got sucked in yet again, as a way of maintaining some social interaction after officemate Jeff Carlson started spending more time at home with his new daughter.
Twitter is a way of learning what other people are thinking and doing (and telling them the same about yourself) with a minimum of effort. Unlike IM, receiving a tweet in Twitter doesn't obligate you to carry on a conversation, so even if, say, Twitterrific is running in the background and pops up every time someone I'm following has something to say, I find it much less intrusive and bothersome than IM. I don't always read the tweets, but I often do, and I learn some interesting things that way.
However, when it comes to the flip side - posting my own stuff on Twitter - my introverted nature causes problems again. For one thing, being the inward-focused type that I am, the very thought of constantly telling the world what I'm thinking or doing makes me tired and gives me the vauge sense of not having enough solitude and privacy. I like feeling as though I'm snug in my comfy cave, minding my own business and getting my work done. Having to (virtually) poke my head out at regular intervals to announce what I'm up to requires too much energy. It also feels like a self-imposed interruption, and like all interruptions, it breaks my train of thought. Needless to say, no one has to post every hour or even every day, and in practice I
generally lurk with quite infrequent posts, but then that defeats the purpose of the system by not letting the people who are following me know anything useful on a regular basis.
I realize, of course, that Twitter's 140 character limit strikes most people as being so brief that it requires essentially no thought or effort at all to post a tweet. How can that be an interruption? For me, it's not the number of characters that's the problem, it's the need to mentally shift gears and add another task to my list - 'Decide what to say.' You'll recall that introverts like to choose their words carefully and deliberately, and so for me, even a one- or two-sentence tweet requires thought and consideration. That ends up being another task on my already full schedule, so it happens infrequently.
Two years ago, none of my friends or coworkers would have expected these sorts of frequent glimpses into my mental state throughout the day, because Twitter didn't exist. But now its use as a networking and community-building tool has become so common that some people have worried that I don't like them if I don't interact with them regularly on Twitter! This troubles me - of course I still like you! - but it's tricky to solve the problem in a way that respects the needs of both 'innies' and 'outies.'
The View from the Other Side -- To this point, I've been saying that introversion is a normal, healthy state for a great many people, and that it could help to explain why some of us find otherwise useful technologies - IM and Twitter - uncomfortable or even distasteful. The implication is that all the introverts of the world should (quietly) stand up (in a corner) for their rights and insist (in a carefully and kindly worded letter) that the other half cut us a break and lay off all the beepy flashy instant messages. (Or, to put it less kindly, 'Hey, we don't need to change - you change!') Well, it's not necessarily that simple.
Several people I discussed this issue with expressed dismay at having had relationships deteriorate due to an unwillingness on another person's part to adapt to changing technology. For example, people who don't use email don't get evites, and so they end up being excluded from parties. Once someone has adapted to a new mode of communication, it becomes harder to communicate with people who use the previous standard, so more often than not, we won't make the effort. (How many personal letters did you write on paper and send in the mail last year?) For better or worse, the wave of technology sweeps us all forward, so if you avoid assimilation - no cell phone, or no IM, or no whatever-the-next-thing-is, you'll find yourself left out, and
perhaps misunderstood. And for certain tasks, regardless of your issues with a particular technology, there just isn't another suitable way to get the job done. (Try getting a pizza delivered to your home without using a telephone or a Web browser.)
Without a doubt, there will be times when even the most introverted among us has to just suck it up and deal with the unpleasantness for a higher good - say, maintaining a relationship or keeping a job. And almost certainly today's versions of IM and Twitter will be greatly improved, or replaced by entirely new paradigms, within a few years, so perhaps the problem will improve on its own. But in the meantime, I'd like to suggest that the decision is not merely 'you do it my way or I'll do it your way.' Introverts and extroverts (or let's say, more broadly, those who think IM is icky and those who think it's great) can meet in the middle.
Suggestions -- Despite my complaints about instant messaging from my viewpoint as an introvert, I don't refuse ever to use iChat. In fact, I find it a wonderful tool for doing certain tasks, not the least of which is giving remote presentations (see 'Using iChat Theater for Remote Presentations,' 2008-02-20). But for my own sanity and well-being, I can't be logged in whenever I'm using my computer, and I can't keep my status constantly updated. Similarly, I do use Twitter, just not in the way that some people expect. If you're an introvert struggling with IM, here are some things I've tried that you might try as well.
The discussions I've had with other TidBITS staffers while working on this article have made it clear to me that the question of how personality types affect the ways one communicates is a complex one; it's a topic that tends to produce strong but mixed feelings. I don't pretend to have all the answers, or even an entirely satisfactory solution for myself. And, of course, I can't prove that my theories about why I feel and behave the way I do are correct. But what I hope to have done is shed at least some light on an increasingly common source of grief. If you have opinions or experiences of your own you'd like to share, I invite you to discuss this topic on TidBITS Talk.
Just remember: introverts may be in the minority, but then, so are Mac users. There's no reason we can't all get along!
'
Copyright © 2008 Joe Kissell. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.
ConceptDraw Business Suite: Take control over your businessTidBITS - http://www.tidbits.com/
Carl Zimmer's Dissection: Your Brain Is a Mess, but It Knows How to Make Fixes: "The brain has a lot of work to do, but most of its signals get distorted by transmission errors. Luckily, it knows how to compensate. Commentary by Carl Zimmer.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Geek Factor: Leopard’s Unix tricks: "Mac OS X 10.5 includes a number of changes to its Unix core, perhaps more than in any prior OS X release. Here are my picks for the five most interesting and useful ones.
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
New DNA Evidence of Early North Americans: "A new study finds humans lived in North America more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than had previously been known. DNA derived from fossil feces found in a cave in Oregon shows these early residents were related to people living in Siberia and East Asia.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
25 “little-known” Leopard features that are “too good to miss”: "From the advanced sync options in .Mac to data detectors in Mail to the ability to save Spotlight searches in the Finder sidebar, Ryan Faas (computerworld.com) describes 25 of the ‘little-known but highly useful features’ in Mac OS X Leopard. ‘These ‘hidden’ features may be things you never heard of or noticed,’ he says, ‘but they’re too good to miss.’"
Apple Hot News - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
Control the new 10.5 iTunes visualizers: "There are three new iTunes visualizers in OS X 10.5. Learn some secret keys to control their operation. You'll also see how you can create your own visualizers.
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Hex Script Is Complete: "
Writing/directing partners Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor told SCI FI Wire that they have completed the script for Jonah Hex, a big-screen adaptation of the supernatural western comic franchise from DC."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
Heroes Returns; Origins Dies: "
Heroes will return to NBC on Sept. 15 with an expanded third-season opener, but network executives confirmed that the proposed prequel spinoff, Heroes: Origins, is officially dead."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
Ricketts Revue ends after 55 years as a fair staple: "Ricketts Revue, the amateur talent show that entertained generations of fairgoers, will not be a part of this summer's Douglas County Fair."
News Review - News - http://www.newsreview.info
MarsEdit 2.1.3 - Weblog editor. (Shareware): "
MarsEdit is a weblog editor for Mac OS X that makes weblog writing like writing email, with spell-checking, drafts, multiple windows, and even AppleScript support.
It works with various weblog systems: Blogger, Blosxom, Drupal, LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, WordPress, and many others.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Apple releases iTunes 7.6.2: "Apple today released iTunes 7.6.2 which provides bug fixes to improve stability and performance..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Apple releases QuickTime 7.4.5: "Apple today released QuickTime 7.4.5 which includes fixes that enhance reliability, improve..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Apple releases Front Row 2.1.3: "Apple today released Front Row 2.1.3 which provides for bug fixes and improved iTunes compatibility..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Quick Tip of the Week: Enjoying RSS in Mail: "If you enjoy using Safari and RSS to keep you up to date on the latest Hot News articles or Apple Downloads, now you can receive those RSS feeds in your email inbox just minutes after new items post. That’s because Mail in Mac OS X Leopard now supports RSS feeds. It even lets you set up Smart Mailboxes to keep them organized. Like to find out how you can take advantage of RSS in Leopard Mail? Then watch the latest Quick Tip of the Week."
Apple Hot News - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
Wish list time for Twitter: Here's a feature I could really use: "Twitter's good, but there's a way to make it great. Now all we need is a smart developer or two to see it through."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Iron's Downey Addresses His Past: "
Robert Downey Jr., who plays the title character in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, told SCI FI Wire that he's aware that his personal history resonates with that of his character, millionaire playboy Tony Stark, who has his own history of substance abuse."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
Transfer iTunes song ratings after re-ripping library: "I originally ripped my entire CD collection into iTunes at the 128 kbps quality setting, but recently I decided to re-rip it at 256 kbps. After completing the re-rip, a problem remained: All of the song ratings in my old iTunes library were now absent from the new one.
Luckily, I had exported the old iTunes library database using the File » Export command, so all of my ratings were preserved. The only trick was transferring the ratings from the export file into the new iTunes library. Doing so manually would have required many hours of tedious work, so instead I wrote an AppleScript to automate the process: