A long run and a heads-up

-= Running =-

Having totally prepped my run yesterday evening, I got up at an ungodly hour this morning and - after a light breakfast - went out the door for a long slow run. As opposed to my previous run, I had my new belt filled with water - rather than a sweet sports-drink -, my cellphone and some food and my buff on my head (@cami, congrats on just having ordered some!). I set out to do the course I figured out yesterday. The shorter tracks in my area are regular parts of my runs, but I have never had to figure out a 21k track. Today's track was a combination of a 13k loop and an 8k one.

Both Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had joined me on my iPod, Garmin was freshly charged and set to pace me at a max. pace of 6 min/k. It goes without saying I wore my buff. Still - and this is likely to be due to the fact that I only have a Very limited number of 90+ minute runs in my log - despite the preparations, I noticed that I was a bit nervous before starting. The first three Ks were somewhat awkward, but after those, I got into the run and my book. From that moment, I zoned through the run in a very relaxed state of mind.

The stats:

Total distance: 21,7 k
Total duration: 2:13:27 min.
Avg. pace: 6:09 min/k

-= Twitter =-

Being a bit of a narcissist - why else would I keep a blog despite my ever present trust issues? - I not only write about my activities approx. three times a week, but have also signed up for a Twitter account some time ago. However, it seems only fair to mention that I hardly ever tweet anything other than announcements for new blogposts.
It seems only common sense to want to know more about this very popular and very public web 2.0 privacy nightmare.

I must admit that Twitter does have its pros. Finding the right people and topics to follow will give the reader. a very interesting sense of what is going on in the world. The main thing to remember is that the speed of the medium might negatively influence the reliability of the source and the correctness of the information.

Not too long ago, CNN reporter Peter Wilkinson tweeted his way through the London marathon. More recently, Pink told the world that she is having an excellent time in Sydney (something to do with a poodle) and Grant Imahara (one of the Mythbusters on Discovery Channel) tweeted that Kari Byron (another one of the Mythbusters on Discovery Channel) is about to become a mother. Grant is keeping interested tweeters up to date by posting occasional updates, tagged #babywatch. I liked the following reaction on the subject:

@grantimahara Jeez, when's this kid flipping from "Plausible" to "Confirmed" already? #babywatch

http://twitter.com/GinnyRED57/statuses/2368655128

Yet, privacy matters are not the only concern in Twitter-land. People using Twitter can use a great number of clients to upload their micro-blogposts. Many of these clients contain vulnerabilities, that can allow bad people to steal information or do other evil things with a Twitter account or maybe even someone's Tweeting gadget. A security researcher has announced that July is going to be the Month of the Twitter Bugs. Each day, a vulnerability will be disclosed (after having given the producer of the vulnerable product 24 hours notice) on the website: http://twitpwn.com/. As the information posted on this site could possibly cause an increase in attacks on Twitter users, best keep an eye out for updates to your software and take good care when using the medium.