A Bit Eclectic

Use Twitter to:

Broadcast your status, opinions, jokes, and news.
Connect with friends, family, celebrities, authors, and politicians.
Follow live updates of current events and trends.

The power of Twitter is derived from its simplicity. It is a bare bones framework where you choose how to extract value. It is a tool to send text from point A to point B and that is as complicated as it gets. Unlike a blog or website, you don’t need to know code or worry about design. There is no initial cost (monetary or time), you just pick up and go.

The value is built on top of this foundation. Like all services, the value comes from the information that you extract. This information and value comes from the three points above.

I constantly get asked about Twitter. It is hard to give a concrete answer because it can be molded however you want. I doubt my friend would be interested in following nerdy figures like John Gruber (from Daring Fireball) or Bre Pettis (his blog). However, they might want regular new updates from the New York Times sent to their phone.

Everyone should take the time to experiment with Twitter Search. It will blow your mind if you have never looked at the current trends or followed a search term. Twitter Search taps into the power created by thousands of individuals posting updates. It is a real time feed of news, thoughts, opinions, and emotion. Sometimes it is easier to get product reviews from Twitter Search then stumbling around the web.

Twitter is a great way to stay connected with friends and family, if you can persuade them to join. It has become one of the main ways that my brothers and I have stayed connected since we left for college. My Mom is slowly working on getting her own account, the current plan is to sign up by spring break.

One of Twitter’s co-founders, Evan Williams, gave a talk at this year’s TED conference. What better way to grasp Twitter than to hear it from the horses mouth.

You can follow me on Twitter and even get A Bit Eclectic updates.

The Big Picture has a new post showing people at work. I love the diversity, it shows jobs from gunpowder to toilets.

The Big Picture is by far one of my favorite photo blogs. It has great pictures that often make my jaw drop. Sometimes the most effective way to get news is through pictures. Look at the pictures from the bush fires in Australia for example.

There seems to be a fog around the current credit crisis.  People know it exists and that is the extent of their knowledge.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized does a great job of explaining the basics.  This video explains the foundation of this crisis and helps clear up some confusion.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The above video is a great overview.  To get more detail on the topic, also check out:

PBS Frontline - Inside the Meltdown – This has a great video that goes step by step through the meltdown and what caused it.

CNBC – House of Cards – The video isn’t on the site, but it does list future show times. (See below) This explains the mortgage securities.

CBS 60 Minutes – Wall Street’s Shadow Market – This one is a little more dry but much shorter than the others. It explains the complex securities and covers credit default swaps.

UPDATE : Here is the “House of Cards” segment on Hulu.