May 2008

As the social networking site Twitter has risen like a hot air balloon in a gale force updraft it's become completely snarled in its own guy wires and functions are getting dropped over the side like so much dangerous ballast (archives, IM access, tweets "with others", etc.)
JonW sent me a link to this article which discusses Twitter's scalability issues. (Meaning how it will it grow.)
I have no opinion on whether relational databases or cloud computing are the answer...

...but Robert O'Brien's comment seems likely:

Your assertion that Twitter can't be decentralised conflates the notion of discovery and service. Discovery can be centralised while the service provision can be decentralised. DNS is a perfect example of a centralised namespace with a decentralised service that maps names to ip addresses. Bit Torrent is another. And to over simplify, what you describe in terms of an architecture is typical of many P2P systems - it is just P2P inside the wall.

In a perfect world there is no technical reason why, for example, a twitter type discovery and friend management service couldn't map all message delivery on to a network of decentralised jabber end-points.

The scaling problem comes because Twitter is trying to "capture" all our tweets, control the UX and API, control the namespace to insert themselves as a centralised message utility in order to extract value. i.e. it is the constrains of the business model that makes Twitter have a bundled service and therefore means Twitter (the business/service) can't be decentralised.

Will Twitter "succeed" so that all our "tweets" are owned by Rupert Murdoch or Bill Gates or will the balloon pop in midair? Pass the cotton candy.

Selections from my twitter account.
Doing this because twitter is gradually losing functionality as it becomes popular.
First we lost the ability to group our tweets with those of people we're following.
Now you can't page back more than one page. They say they're fixing it but it's been out a couple of days.

they should call twitter "memento"--nothing can be remembered but it's worse because you can't even tattoo yourself
not sure how good a "diary" is that doesn't let you page back past one page
twitter needs to get its shit(ter) together--half the stuff doesn't work--they should have prepared better to be popular
beats and bits, bots and brats, bleets and butts
found tweet: "if these fucking people do not stop doing YOGA ALL AROUND ME at this coffee shop, i am going to decapitate all hippies ever"
(in reply to WIZARDISHUNGRY) yes, software and remembering to convert from English to metric
"With liquid water comes the possibility of life" is a sentence I wish we could quit reading--the science excites w/o little green beings
the mars landing simulation employs the battlestar galactica shaky-cam, as one blog noted
nasa blog: 4:53 [PDT] pm: Touchdown detected!! We're on the surface of Mars and there is celebration in Mission Control!!
mars landing soon--will it work? from the simulation it seems precarious as hell
loud neighbor party--it's not music, their laughter is earsplitting
octavia butler theme: something changes you and you have no choice but to accept it
"old people should not try to speak LOL Cat"--found tweet, hard to argue with
twitter is worthless between 5 and 9 pm Eastern (as in slow or "something's wrong")--right?
day two: mashed up two old songs, drew annoying viscera, went to cleaners
when I bought some clothes yesterday one of the clerks sang "ring my bell" at the final tally
nine days to run errands, make art
Divine to tabloid reporters: "Ask me more questions!" (Pink Flamingos)

Back in February 2008 this blog called for a moratorium on talking about the 4ss4ssin4tion of a certain candidate. The trend was just gearing up then, with little morbid hints in the papers and even some friends spreading the concern meme. Then Senator Clinton blatantly ignored the call for the moratorium with some stupid talk, and the necrophiles in the media POUNCED. They milked it for days; right wingers were given permission to openly, affirmatively joke about it. This will only get worse, with the toxic sludge piling up higher and higher until the election.