The catching up begins now!

I’m back, running at about 30% normal output! New child, no sleep, and the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 have all conspired to keep me away from the laptop and my normal RSS/Twitter addiction – but it’s slowly coming back!

I’m amazed at how many great things have appeared in the RSS feed in the last 10 days or so – and at the massive backlog if I wanted to read it all. Add in anything I’ve missed and will have to forego on Twitter, and countless other things, and it’s amazing how quickly a mountain of knowledge, information and chatter builds up!

Still, I’m going to have plenty of time in the early hours to catch up, with baby Oscar in one arm, and the mouse in the other…

Incidentally, GTA IV is as addictive as the previous versions (Although the shinier graphics do mean it’s a little disappointing that there isn’t as much variation in scenery as in GTA: San Andreas…). One interesting item is the use of a mobile phone which can be brought up on screen as needed with one button press…maybe it’s worth setting any desktop apps to run in the same fashion? And would these mean I could justify a customisable keyboard?

The heir to my blogging throne has arrived!

And lo, on Friday, April 26th, the most beautiful baby boy in the whole world was born!

So blogging will take a backseat I’m afraid

A slight hiatus due to an imminent arrival

Apologies for not finishing off the importing of my old blog, tidying the design, and actually writing some new stuff – but my first born is currently attempting a world record for the longest labour, so I’m a bit distracted…

Normal service will be resumed shortly in the midst of piles of nappies, washing, and baby bottles…

Is Instant Messaging (IM) fading out?

I listened to Net@Night today and found it interesting that it was mentioned about not using IM anymore in favour of social networking sites, Twitter and email.

Then it occurred to me: I use Adium so that I can remain connected to MSN Live, Yahoo! and Gtalk, but can’t actually remember the last time I actually used any of them to talk on, despite having a contact list that won’t fit on the screen.

I wondered if IM is ‘old hat’ now?

I did make an effort to try and switch to Skype which (with it’s sensible voice/video options) seems like the grown-ups version of IM, but again – I rarely actually do any ‘chatting’ on it via text.

It seems like mine and lots of others’ attentions are all on RSS, Twitter and comment-featured systems like FriendFeed or forums where real discussions are going on (I hear of a good, uncensored Flickr group somewhere..).

Even the kids it seems have all gone ‘Myspace’ and left IM’s behind. Especially since they have mobile phones (SMS) coming out of their ears.

The only reason I really kept my IM’s was because I was reluctant to let go, but let’s face it: anyone of any personal interest who wants to communicate online will probably have a website or blog, Flickr etc, Twitter, Skype for calls…

What use is Instant Messaging?