Having written an article for Comment is Free back in April about internet footprints and the danger inherent in leaving personal data all around the internet for future employers/parents-in-law to see, what have I gone and done? Enlarged my trail from its previously modest sparrow-like proportions into an elephant-sized paw print of worrying dimensions, that’s what. A week of enforced inactivity in a Yorkshire village was all it took to unleash my inner 2.0 monster.
The eagle-eyed among you have already noticed the petite myspace link in the sidebar, to your right, along with my facebook profile and associated non-official “fan” site, with its own cafepress merchandise store (I shan’t link to these as they are not my own creations). I’ve been scrobbling away in LastFM and joining groups with names that made me snort my Yorkshire tea down my nose. The only thing I have so far managed to resist – and I must, because it is the internet version of crack cocaine – is twitter. But I fear it is only a matter of time.
Where will it all end? Will I find myself unable to engage in any form of communication which does not involve a keyboard? Will my MacBook become welded to my satin pyjama clad thighs?
I fear for the future.
about
books
press
fbk
petite anglaise 
Okay, okay, a blog is one thing… but LastFm is so
p-e-r-s-o-n-a-l…
Britney Spears, eh ?
It’s like a red rag to a troll, I mean a bull…
I’m keeping shctumm about my profile just in case, they do a Britney on me while I’m away from the PC answering the door or something !
;-)
Comment by Ajay — May 28, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
I won’t add you as a friend as I know you but you have no idea who I am. However, consider yourself poked ;)
Comment by Daniel — May 28, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Even the Internet palls. The trouble is the amount of cr*p one seems obliged to receive as part of getting the good stuff. I’m somewhat “shy and retiring”, but still there are a hundred e-mails of rubbish each day.
Comment by John Norris — May 28, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
Please do take a moment to admire the detail from the sampler I made when I was eleven.
A BBC micro 32k, no less.
Comment by petite — May 28, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
Thighs clad in TWO pair of satin pajamas!
Comment by Le Meg — May 28, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
“Will my MacBook become welded to my satin pyjama clad thighs?”
Will we be treated to a photo if it does? :)
Comment by bonkers — May 28, 2007 @ 11:07 pm
I never heard of Twitter before your post. Great, another way to fritter away time that I should be doing something productive.
Thanks!
Comment by Voyager — May 28, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
Alrighty, I friended you. Even though I’ve never met you. :)
Comment by srah — May 28, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
Just sent you a friend request on Last.Fm. You mention twitter as the internet version of crack cocaine, I guess that makes Last.Fm the interweb equivalent of weed. I’m always obsessed with the latest track scrobbled, tagging tracks, and reaching the next magic number of tracks listened to (at the moment 10,000).
I really like the blog, and am intrigued about the book. Maybe it’s time to start building the anticipation with trailers (just like in the movies).
All the best,
The Chemist
ps. You just took my commenting virginty. How was it for you? ;-) (I hope not too much of a disappointing fumble in the dark)
Comment by the_chemist — May 28, 2007 @ 11:41 pm
My own internet trial has been a cause of some worry for me for awhile. Most particulary, when I worked at my university’s student union a petition was signed ON MY BEHALF for some cause, and placed upon a socialist alliance website! There are also two other people with my name, a scientist also living in my home country and home state, and a lawyer from New York. I thought I could get away with a fresh start by the name change when I get married, but sadly I made the mistake of using it as my user name in a forum where I was subsequently involved in a flame war, and despite the evidence being gone now is archived in google searches forever….
Comment by Rochelle — May 29, 2007 @ 12:39 am
If it’s any consolation, the mobile phone networks seem to be blocking Twitter and Jaiku either completely, or on a case-by-case basis.
If you do end up using them, I wrote some code you might want, that publishes your last few twitters into the sidebar of your blog without hanging your webpage in the meantime. Give me a shout.
Comment by Jonathan — May 29, 2007 @ 12:44 am
Regarding Twitter and why it is so addictive, you *have* to have a look at the excellently-written post on kathy Sierra’s weblog: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/is_twitter_too_.html
Comment by Bruno — May 29, 2007 @ 2:02 am
I see you’re reading Cloudstreet. Have you seen Tim Winton’s kids books? The Bugalugs Bum Thief is hillarious :-)
(I lived around Fremantle for ~16 years)
Comment by Anne — May 29, 2007 @ 2:07 am
Ohhhhh be my friend on facebook, please?!?! :)
haha
Comment by victorai — May 29, 2007 @ 2:20 am
C’est dommage que dans les mises à jours, les fluxs RSS ne contiennent plus qu’un aperçu de l’article complet.
C’est ennuyeux pour ceux d’entre nous qui aiment lire ce blog sur leur aggregateur en voyage.
Comment by Frédéric — May 29, 2007 @ 5:22 am
You won’t have a problem with your internet footprint as long as you keep to your ‘petite anglaise’ nom de plume and keep your real name out of things as much as you are able.
Petite anglaise has written so much it would take such a real detective who wasn’t one of your fans to find your real name amongst all the words that have been written by and about you.
Comment by AussieGil — May 29, 2007 @ 6:23 am
You’ve buggered that up on LastFM, haven’t you?
Comment by AussieGil — May 29, 2007 @ 6:26 am
I discovered your site via The Glory of Carniola (http://tinyurl.com/3affad) which ran a story on the Satin Pyjamas. I hope it’s a healthy kind of addiction, as opposed to Twitter, which is just so … pointless. BTW you don’t happen to have a cousin called Kim, do you? Same last name, and a spitting image as far as I can tell. We went to uni together.
Keep up the fantastic work.
Karen
Comment by Karen — May 29, 2007 @ 8:38 am
As usual, lots of ‘advanced internet talk’ means little to me but enjoy your publicity; it will serve you well when it comes to book sales.
P.S. I remember those BBC computers when I was a teacher. I can also remember the Spectrum – so why am I so computer illiterate?
Comment by sablonneuse — May 29, 2007 @ 9:00 am
Maybe we should all fear for the future. Was Huxley right? Or was it Orwell?
A U.S. legal publication reports that lawyers are now investigating the social networks of prospective jurors and of parties to law suits, focusing on MySpace.
Watch out for what you publish!
Comment by Lost in France — May 29, 2007 @ 11:37 am
I feel robbed! I knew it was a BBC micro, probably model B and was going to ask…
Comment by meredic — May 29, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
Oh Twitter is so yesterday, it’s all jaiku now.
Comment by Tom — May 29, 2007 @ 1:48 pm
‘Where will it all end? Will I find myself unable to engage in any form of communication which does not involve a keyboard? Will my MacBook become welded to my satin pyjama clad thighs?’
To help out I would happily draw a qwerty keyboard on my so you feel at home communicating with someone IRL. Oh and if you need to be liberated from your MacBook, just let me know.
Always willing to lend a hand, or two! ;-)
Comment by Steve... — May 29, 2007 @ 4:41 pm
Bet twittervision.com gets you hooked …
Comment by Mark — May 29, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
I’ll take a look at your MySpace, as I have one as well.
Comment by Jean-Luc Picard — May 29, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
I suppose the fact that we are all here means that we are to some extent, at least, hooked on aspects of the internet. But I fear that at the end of a day, month, year, lifetime, we may wonder what it is, exactly, that has been accomplished in that time.
Comment by Jim — May 29, 2007 @ 10:47 pm
“Oh Twitter is so yesterday, it’s all jaiku now.”
–> Oh jaiku is so yesterday, it’s all me.dium now.
Comment by rose selavy — May 30, 2007 @ 1:15 am
Sablonneuse said, “I remember those BBC computers when I was a teacher. I can also remember the Spectrum – so why am I so computer illiterate?”
Uh, because you never got past LOAD “” ? :)
Comment by bonkers — May 30, 2007 @ 7:04 am
Go on Twitter ye not?
Comment by Alan — May 30, 2007 @ 8:52 am
I remember the days of “Syntax Error at line 120”.
God, I’m old.
Comment by petite — May 30, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
I remember the days of that two tone BBC start up noise. Barrrrp Beep!
Comment by Daniel — May 30, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
The one I truly hated was ‘Missing ” at line 120’…
I mean if it knew it was missing. Grrr.
Comment by meredic — May 30, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Having just joined twitter, I think the next logical step is to physically attach myself with a USB cable to my laptop.
Comment by Neil — May 30, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
Petite reminisced, “I remember the days of “Syntax Error at line 120″.
God, I’m old.”
Old you may be m’dear but those messages are still alive and well today. :)
Comment by bonkers — May 30, 2007 @ 4:15 pm
Ah, Petite. I want to hear nothing about your age! I know without looking I must have several years on you. Tadpole is but . . . well, a tadpole. My oldest led me around Paris in March, finding just what she wanted to see on the Metro maps.
Comment by Kaycie — May 30, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Bring back punch cards! I went not long ago to the Science Museum and saw one of the first computers I worked on in a IT startup from the 80s proudly displayed there ….
Comment by Mark — May 30, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
Congratulations on both your lovely new pairs of satin pyjamas!
Comment by Zinnia Cyclamen — May 30, 2007 @ 5:34 pm
Lost in Paris, if it means that I won’t have to do jury duty, then I think I’ll publish all my personal details and let the lawyers ‘go to town’!
Comment by Ben — May 30, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
Petite
I’m also old; I used to program BBC micros too with the usual basic syntax errors. BTW are your (satin clad) thighs really hot enough to weld a MacBook to them? That’s quite a thought!
Comment by Andy (who loves child bearing hips) — May 30, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
“I remember the days of “Syntax Error at line 120″.
God, I’m old.”
Pff, old indeed. To communicate I actually had to write *letters* in my youth. Oops, sorry, that would be “snail mail” for anybody born after 1980 :-). “Syntax Errors” were still something I associated with grammar … or communication attempts with girls :-). Never mind computers.
Comment by mbast — May 31, 2007 @ 2:23 am
How cute is that sampler?!
Comment by Julia Buckley — May 31, 2007 @ 10:41 am
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/
Off topic, sorry, but I thought that you’d love this blog. This entry most especially. I loved it.
Comment by Susan — June 1, 2007 @ 5:03 am
It’s weird isn’t it? Our email address includes the number 2000 in it. I thought I was being really head of the times in 1998 by putting 2000, for the year 2000.
It’s not even ten years ago. How life has changed!
Comment by Sally Lomax — June 1, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
Where can I buy a tee shirt ?
Comment by King negrito — June 2, 2007 @ 12:09 am
There are all those science fiction books or films that are set in the far future like 1984 or 2001.
I also remember working for a computer company in late 1999, and doing all that extra testing to make sure that our customers still had a working system in January 2000. It make me fell old (but then I am old).
By the way, have a really good bloggers pic-nique tomorrow
Comment by Pierre L — June 2, 2007 @ 1:12 am
negrito: here
pierre: it is next week!
Comment by petite — June 2, 2007 @ 2:11 am
I’d not seen the Petite-inspired merch before, that is pure genius.
Comment by Christian — June 2, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
Four years ago, when I first learned about myspace, I mocked it mercilessly. Same with blogs. God knows what happened inbetween then & now.
Comment by ambika — June 2, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
ooOOOOooh – Fade to Grey by Visage.
I hadn’t heard that one, in a very long time. Great choice.
Comment by Roads — June 2, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
So I must feel very lucky to have met you in Real Life at Musée Rodin… At least your charming presence was everything but virtual ;)
Comment by Emmanuel Vivier / BuzzParadise.com — June 2, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
“I’d not seen the Petite-inspired merch before, that is pure genius.”
Yes, they even come in petite sizes ah-hahahaha!
(Sorry, never could resist a cheap pun :))
Comment by bonkers — June 3, 2007 @ 7:40 am