Becoming a political tweeter and hating it

Those few people who read my blog will know that for some time, I’ve been complaining about political tweeting, digital narcissism, and my longing for more sociable networking. It’s not that I think services like blogs or twitter in themselves have a tendency to make people more self-conscious, but that more often than naught, people use the services for promotional purposes, and in the process, a lot of the personal glitter that made the early days of web-self-publishing so innovative and interesting are losing the sparkle.

However, I find myself becoming more and more of a political tweeter and digital narcissist myself, excluding random rants for fear of looking emotionally insecure, knowing that anyone can look at my profile– not just people (like my parents) who are interested in what I’m doing but also scholars like danah boyd who does research by looking at public profiles of people using social networking services. Of course, being “open” on the web is like being outside on the street; technically, anyone can stop by and look at you, take your picture, or even use observation of your activity for empirical research. I guess that is why I dress up when I go out instead of walking out in my nightie, but having a public profile on the web is different and I feel I’m more likely a guinea pig candidate for social science studies.

I long for the “olden” days (which for me are the late 90s) when web communities were tightly knit and I still had a strong, true-to-life identity despite the use of a pseudonym. I feel I can’t be my true self– not because I have something to hide, but because I have to maintain a professional front 100% of the time. And I feel disgusted with myself when I see myself using Twitter or Facebook in a very different way than I used them a year ago.I was so ashamed that I recently went back and deleted some of my PR-esque tweets. Really, do I want to waste bits to brag? It seems pathetic.

To some extent, I realize that this change is somewhat related to the fact that I’m getting older, and having recently celebrated a major milestone, I feel entitled to join the posse of mid adulthood and the unspoken tendency to increasingly hide one’s feelings. I feel it is also affected by my being Korean (in which what shows on the outside is sometimes more important than what is inside)– traits that have been pummeled into me by my mother. Whatever the reason, the web is becoming less of a friendly place, more of a professional place where I have to share with all or none, or put up with multiple identities.

I wonder if I am building myself on sand and not rock. My sister uses the Internet as much as I do, yet her social networking and identity building on the web is very minimal. I, however, have a very strong cyber identity that is so much a part of me that if all servers around the world (or at least those of WordPress, Flickr, Naver, Cyworld and Blogin)were to blow up, I would feel like a part of me were to disappear. [Being the imaginative person that I am, I actually asked Eric Schmidt once what would happen if someone bombed Google's servers. He said that Google had enough servers around the world to keep my information safe. Hopefully that is true. Even in the past decade, I have already had to "bury" several digital identities as services come and go, whereas all the journals and stories, photobooks from childhood are still intact in their original form.]

I wish that Twitter would be ephemeral– have an expiration date of some sorts– so that Tweeters can tweet impulsively without having to worry about the archive that follows. Or if I could have some sort of setting that lets me show people only 5 or 10 of my most recent tweets, I don’t think I’d be so much of the political tweeter that I am now.

North Koreans Get Internet…sort of

South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world- a place where national high-speed Internet access has created all sorts of interesting Internet-derivative culture that usually starts a few years before the U.S. On the other hand, just a stone’s throw away is North Korea, where Internet access is limited to the privileged and Internet-induced culture is practically non-existant (although I’m sure Kim Jong-il watches dancing hamsters on YouTube).

It was only a matter of time before the North introduced the Internet to the masses, and now they have taken the first step, by offering Internet service via mobile phones. It makes sense that Internet is being provided through mobile phones instead of fiber optic cables– as can be seen in many developing countries. But the Internet that North Koreans are getting is not exactly the Internet we think about. People will only have access to websites run by the Korean Central News Agency (run by the North Korean government).

One such website is Ryomyong.com. The site is a fun one to peruse through.  There is some straight news and other “feature-type” news like “results of the Children’s baduk tournament”– which of course, was hugely successful. There are also books and e-books (costs 3.5- 5 euro to download) which are  mostly literature pertaining to North Korea  (North Korean political history, North Korean ideology, about Kim Jong-Il, etc.) except for a few novels, some music (all North Korean music except for some old Korean folk songs), a catalog of local agriculture products (produce, liquor), and a cyber art gallery that also comes with a form where you can submit your own art. For some reason, this site looked more like a site intended for curious foreigners instead of catering to the needs of actual North Koreans– kind of like North Korea making a statement “Hey look at what I can do!!!”. It was cute that the site made an effort to include multimedia content–photos, videos, music.

But it’s not like everyone can own a mobile phone. Some 20,000 customers are allegedly already using the 3G cell phone service, according to The People’s Korea (Chosun Sinbo) a N. Korean newspaper published in Japan. However, this number includes foreigners. Also, the service is currently only available in Pyongyang and on the highway between Pyongyang and Hyangsan (about 75 miles northeast of Pyongyang) and one is not allowed to make overseas phone calls (surprise surprise!). So I don’t know if we can actually say that North Korea has Internet access, because North Korea’s idea of the Internet is certainly not what the founders of the Internet had in mind. Maybe it’s more fair to say that North Koreans now have a new way to access government-supplied information. I guess that’s still an advancement in terms of developing communications tools.

Why is Internet Slow When it Rains?

Why is the Internet so ***ing slow when it rains?

When it’s raining, I like staying indoors (gee, wonder why) eating some hot and crispy and watching TV. I watch my TV through the Internet (of course) I was terribly annoyed today because Lie to Me on Hulu was stopping to buffer every 15 seconds, and I’m not exaggerating.

At least regular web-surfing is okay, but as more of our content because reliable on Internet connection that is time-sensitive (think of streaming, online gaming, distance learning) what are we going to do about these weather problems? Will people living in tropical areas have slower Internet connection? In a future age where Internet is essential to all aspects of society-economy, politics, religion, education, etc.- is it fair that people in geographic locations with more precipitation be automatically at a disadvantage?

And it’s not just Comcast, and it’s not because high-speed internet connection in the US is not exactly high. Even in Korea, where I had 100mbps coming through on cable, there would be rainy days when the Internet just didn’t live up to expectations. The odd thing, however, is that I don’t understand why it is so. Physics is the last thing I’m good at, so forgive me if my theories are wrong, but it doesn’t make sense, because even when Internet connection would be screwy at home, PC rooms would have great connection. And when you’re in a country where Starcraft is a national pastime, that’s extremely important.

So what is it? Were the PC rooms paying for more bandwidth? And even if they were, what is it about rain that clogs up the Internet arteries? Is water the cholesterol of the Internet?

To some extent, I am sympathetic about wireless and satellite Internet because perhaps the precipitation affects the airwaves. I know light is affected by water; don’t know about how sound works, but since water is a dense physical component, I wouldn’t be surprised if precipitation warped air transmission. But I don’t understand how water would affect fiber optic cables and copper pipes. Does it affect the conductivity?Electricity travels faster when it’s wet, but what about bits?

Everything would make so much more sense if the Internet were run by hamsters. If it rains, their fur gets soggy and heavy, so they have no choice but to run slower.

Getting angry over domain names

The world is running out of IP addresses, but a greater concern for me as an average user is the lack of domain names that are available. The thing that angers me is not the fact that most domain names that are actual words composed of 6 letters or less are already taken, but the fact a lot of those domains aren’t linked to actual web sites that are relevant to that domain name. I am actually sympathetic to those people who buy domains so that they can sell them to others; at least they are making the domains available. But domains that direct you to weird “directory-like” sites are the ones that are frustrating. Would it be wrong to regulate domain names so that they are only linked to “proper” websites?