Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Yes, Al Gore Is on Twitter. No, He’s Not Following You

We, the people who use the Internet, are an easily distracted bunch.

Hey! Look at that shiny new Web site!

Oh. Sorry. Where was I? Ah…yes. For a couple of hours this week, a few of us spent a few precious brain cells pondering whether the promiscuous Twitter user @therealalgore was, in fact, the Nobel Prize-winning ex-vice president.

Actually, some of us are still wondering.

Short answer. It’s not him.

Longer answer. Al Gore is on Twitter, over here. He appears to have signed up yesterday and already has more than 6,000 followers.

It’s pretty easy to tell the difference. The fake Al Gore is following some 2,000 people, which is doable only for the most dedicated Twitter users, commercial entities and/or spammers.

The real Al Gore is following just one other Twitter user: Gore’s own Current television-Web operation. Also, the real Al Gore, or whoever is operating Twitter for him, doesn’t appear to have much to say.

Here’s hoping that changes.


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Moore’s Law means that more and more things can be done practically for free, if only it weren’t for those people who want to be paid. People are the flies in Moore’s Law’s ointment. When machines get incredibly cheap to run, people seem correspondingly expensive.

— From Jaron Lanier’s new book, “Who Owns the Future?” excerpted on Wired.com