I would never stream my Twitterings on any normal website, but I thought you might appreciate a small selection of them here:

Why does Twitter ask, “What are you doing?” above the write box? Why not “What are you thinking?” Better still, “Why are you doing that?”

Blackberry 9000 on horizon. Just ordered Curve. Should I cancel and wait?

UK Gov on 23pc in new poll. Conservatives on 49pc. The next election is all over.

Moneyizor. The failing eurozone: http://www.moneyizor.com/2008/05/09/the-failing-eurozone/

I was disappointed with Yanik Silver’s book “Moonlighting on the Internet”. Sooo Web 1.0 Minus. Old hat Plus.

Considering buying “Problogger The Book”, but have I read it all on the site? Can anyone convince me it’s a good investment?

Twittergram sounds like a good service in embryo. See Dave Winer. Let’s hope it surfaces soon.

It’s nearly 1pm and I haven’t started my 3-hour working day. Wandering around book shops and buying an Aussie hat absorbed my morning.

Just bought Herman Hesse’s “Narcissus and Goldmund”. It’s the only one I haven’t read. Also John Buchan’s “Sick Heart River”.

Switched Syntagma to full feed. Resisted long and hard but the tide is irresistible.

Steve Rubel thinks that Renaissance Man is doomed because of the internet. The thing is, RM only uses the i/n sparingly. He reads many books.

New Mayor of London has appointed Bill Bratton to clean up London as he did NYC under Giuliani. Great Move. Congrats Boris.

My problem is I find it hard to work when the sun is shining. This is why I never moved to California.

And lots more, folks. Roll up at http://twitter.com/Syntagma. 140 characters of …

Please finish the sentence yourself.

Steve Rubel has some pertinent views on the whole Web 2.0 bubble and the crazy valuations and hype being bandied around right now.

Last week’s Google strike on the company’s advertising competitors — which may have put a lot of small internet operators out of business — illustrates how quickly the weather can change.

Rubel doesn’t beat about the bush, “This is a sad time for the web. It’s as almost somber as the time just before the last bubble burst in 2000. I was working in PR with dot-com startups at the time and the way I feel now is how I did back then.”

Regular readers of Syntagma will recognize the sentiments he expresses, especially in this passage, “… over the last year my thinking has evolved dramatically. I have become less interested in every new shiny object and more engrossed in the social changes it, slowly, effects. This is in part a byproduct of the tech blogosphere getting drunk on its own Kool-Aid.”

No more first fine careless rapture then.

The picture of the internet I see right now is of steady progress, both in the underlying technologies and also the growing professionalism of many quietly working away under its wing.

Overarching all that is the froth and hyperactivity of a new bubble-in-the-making. From the outside, however, only the nonsense is visible. People are being sucked in with promises, only to be swept aside as technical parameters are changed without notice and the marshals overwhelmed by the cowboys and injuns. It really is a Wild West out there.

That the fundamentals are gradually being put in place is great news for those of us who retain our enthusiasm for the web and will continue to use it as the base for professional and commercial activities.

Are we then approaching another collapse in internet values? We are not immune from the wider economy :

* Oil is nearly $100 a barrel
* Gold is approaching $1000 an ounce
* Housing markets in the US, Britain and Europe are heading south
* Stockmarkets are wobbling tortuously
* The credit crunch has yet to peak
* Inter-bank lending is at a standstill
* Inflation is ominously poised for a comeback.

These are all strong indicators of trouble ahead for everyone.

I’ve long believed that it’s a mistake to follow the crowd. The herd will always produce a glut in the end and the subsequent fall in values will put most out of business.

It’s only those who dig their own distinctive furrows and apply basic cash-flow techniques in the time-honoured manner who will survive the deluge.

And “deluge” seems the only appropriate term for the time ahead.