Tweet the People

Our Caucus-night media diet consisted primarily of Keefless MSNBC — as opposed to Keefless Current, which isn’t on our cable system anyway — with an occasional foray into Fox, where we learned that HD ages Sarah Palin about twenty years, or she just retuned home from auditioning for the next season of American Horror Story.

We didn’t even consider CNN, mainly because David Gergen ages us about twenty years. But making the rounds Wednesday was this example of how Hilarious! things got on the set during the wee hours, especially when—

Wait. You mean the Twitter tracker wasn’t a gag? We’re supposed to take trends on The World’s Neverending Thread seriously?

Well, sure, okay, fine, that’s just CNN painfully trying to be hip with the kids. At least it’s not holograms.

Except they’re not alone:

Traditionally, several barometers have been used to gauge the success of a campaign: polling data, fundraising totals, ad spending and endorsements, among others. Now social media success, especially via Twitter, is the newest measurable campaign benchmark.

@MentionMachine is a new Washington Post news app that monitors Twitter and media across the Web for political candidate mentions, revealing trends and spikes that show where the conversation is and why. It launched Jan. 3, the day of the Iowa caucuses, and will run through the presidential election in November.

Pareene does a fine job drilling down into the utter meaningless of it all, so we won’t bother duplicating his argument. But we vaguely recall from our time as a Professional Journalist that our job was to separate the wheat from the chaff for the edification of Dear Reader. It would never have crossed our mind as a Brilliant Idea to add more chaff.

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Politics on 2nd Life was more entertaining than this.

Did you consider “Tweet The Press” as a headline?

Paultards tweet. I did not see that coming. Plus, how adorable is AC when he gets all giggly?

Plus. Flash video? Really? How 2011.

@Dodgerblue: No. I should have.

@Benedick: The video is browser-dependent. Plays as MP4 on iGadgets. Same trick YouTube uses.

@nojo: Ah. I wondered how my iThingy could play YouTube.

@Dodgerblue: Actually, two tricks happening with that one…

The old YouTube embed code was Flash-only. It was Apple that tricked your iGadget into using a YouTube mp4 video instead. This required Google’s cooperation, back when they were cooperating.

Google later devised new embed code that inserts an “iframe” — a page within a page — within a post. Since the iframe is a separate page, YouTube (and others) can then sniff yer browser to deliver the proper content.

That’s more than you wanted to know, of course. Which is why I make the Big Bucks.

The Stain Spreads: Santorum Surge Goes National

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/01/05/santorum_surge_goes_national.html

phone tj/ so Verizon has the eyePhoneFour for $99 with a two year contract. Comments on replacing my BB storm?

@nojo: I’m not sure I’m happy with something sniffing my browser. Is Santorum involved?

@redmanlaw: One of my kids has an iPhone and the other an Adroid. They both mock my BB Bold as an anachronistic piece of shit.

@Dodgerblue: As they should. If the j-o-b pays for it, and it’s the only way to get Outlook, well, it’s not your fault.

@redmanlaw: @Dodgerblue: I have an iFon 4S for fun, and a BB f0r work. If I could jettison the latter (short of unemployment, natch), I would.

Plus I still have the grandfathered unlimited data for $30 as an early adopter, so until/unless AT&T takes that away from me, I’m a lifer.

The BB is easier for firing off short replies to emails about work, and I can use it internationally without direct cost (thanks, taxpayer!), so there’s that. I haven’t been able to unlock the new iFon, so no chance yet to use it with an overseas SIM – which will probably be required if/when I head off to NotSiam/River Kwai.

@Dodgerblue: I usually call it spaghetti, but I think “that website code is a mess of Santorum under the hood” is appropriate.

@nojo: Oh, holy hell. I’ve seen that new embed business on videos I put on my blog that I get from utoob. Sniffing? Even Mozilla?

@JNOV is like, Peace?: If we must…

Every time you enter a URL (or click on a link), your browser sends a request to the server. Part of that request is a variable that identifies the browser (name, version, OS) requesting the page.

So, “browser sniffing” is just reading that incoming variable.

If you have content (like a video) whose presentation is browser-dependent, you use that variable to decide what to send back. And since “iframes” are just embedded pages (picture-in-picture, so to speak), it’s easy for a server to craft the content accordingly.

These days, browser sniffing is used most commonly for video embeds and mobile pages. Wayyyyy back in the day, it was a means to deal with the Santorum that was Internet Explorer.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus makes me tingle in all of the right places. I’m almost tempted to replace my seven year old RAZR.

Plus, once you go Nexus you never go back (according to ST:TNG’s Whoopi Goldberg. Oh preach to me, wise eyebrowless one.)

@Nabisco: I’m considering buying an untethered iPhone but I’d have to switch to another carrier which probably won’t work around here. I just want more iStuff. I want total Cloud immersion. I want data push. I want to know that when I update the contact for someone I wouldn’t dream of ever speaking to as long as I live on my iPad, it’s updated everywhere else too. I need this to happen. I have iNeeds.

@Benedick: It took me only a day to realize I can’t live without synced iPad Reading List bookmarks. That, plus the Safari Reading List feature itself.

@nojo: Yeah, that reading list feature rocks.

@nojo: Thanks for the servicyness. I’d wiki’d it in the meantime and felt better. But please don’t stop trying to help me attain mini geek status. I have to be able communicate with the son somehow. (He recently lectured me about the doucheyness of trying to crack encrypted wifi, so, yeah. BUT I also lectured him about that bootleg program he torrented, uh, a few years ago, so we’re even, right?)

@Benedick: You will be assimilated.

I’m 31 on the country, er, county library list for the Jobs bio. Better read that thing fast, cuz I’ll never get to extend the hold.

@JNOV is like, Peace?: I stumbled upon Robopocalyse in the local library this week after looking for it since July.

@JNOV is like, Peace?: NojoMom keeps suggesting that I write manuals. I keep telling NojoMom there’s no money in manuals.

@nojo: FSM bless NojoMom for even trying. We talked last night, and I was like, “Hey — will butt the hell out and STFU unless you want my opinion. I’m here for you always, just no last minute surprises, k?” I’m sure the last minute surprises will come, but if it’s time for you to paddle your own canoe, paddle.

Blogwhoring alert: “At What Point Do You Just Back the Fuck Off? NOW!”

@redmanlaw: All I know is Metalocalypse thanks to ::sniff:: that child. Maybe if I watch all of Archer, he’ll like me again.

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