1:45 PM -- I didn't do any tweeting at the recent Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) analyst day, and you know what? It felt pretty good.

My attention is too divided during these conferences as it is, among note-taking, trying to come up with worthwhile questions, and vetting possible story angles. My internal dialogue is stormy enough already.

What if I stop broadcasting crumbs of semi-useful trivia that the speaker mentions, and just pay attention instead?

I've been on Twitter for a full year now, and its usefulness (and the opposite) have become more clear. It's a good substitute for an RSS feed, if you find the right people to follow. It's an indirect way to keep your name visible among colleagues.

But it's a terrible distraction. And I'm still in the camp that says Twitter is dumb. I enjoy using it, I don't mind reading what people's cats are doing, and I even get some productive utility out of it -- but, as with TV, I can't help thinking we'd all be better off if Twitter just vanished. Plus, every now and then my eye wanders to the Trending Topics, and I just get sad.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading