Streaming API : not getting updates for some standard fields

Question

I have created a PushTopic from my salesforce developer account using following query :

SELECT Id, FirstName, LastName, Name, Email, Contact_Status__c, Contact_Verification__c, Gender__c, LastModifiedDate, IsDeleted 
FROM Contact

I am running JAVA client at my server to get the updates from Contact table.

Now while Updating values from https://workbench.developerforce.com, I am having following issues :

1) Initially I was using following Push Topic query :

SELECT Id, FirstName, LastName, Email, Contact_Status__c, Contact_Verification__c, Gender__c, LastModifiedDate, IsDeleted 
FROM Contact 

(Same as above without "Name" field).

Then, When I was updating "FirstName" or "LastName" fields value, I was not getting any message at java client.
Can you please explain why is it so ?
Is there any option from which we can specify weather or not send PushTopic Updates for given field ?

2) I am unable to find the option to update "isDeleted" field. When I select edit a Contact then there is no "IsDeleted" field over there.
How can I verify that when this field will change I will get an update message ?

3) If only "LastModifiedDate" is changed, then also I am not getting any update message. Although I have specified this field in Push Topic query.<> Can you tell me why is it so ?

Answer 1

Unsupported PushTopic Queries:

The following operates are not supported in pushtopic.

1. Queries without an Id in the selected fields list
2. Semi-joins and anti-joins
3. Aggregate queries (queries that use AVG, MAX, MIN, and SUM)
4. COUNT
5. LIMIT
6. Relationships aren’t supported, but you can reference an ID:
7. Searching for values in Text Area fields
8. ORDER BY
9. GROUP BY
10. Formula fields
11. NOT

Can you check the following link find the text "Unsupported PushTopic Queries"

http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api_streaming/api_streaming.pdf

Answer 2

To answer your first question, the doc mentions that for compound fields like Name, it has to be in the pushing topics query, or else it won't be valid :

So SELECT Id, Name is valid, SELECT Id, Name, lastName, firstName is also valid, but SELECT Id, lastName, firstName is not !

About your third question : the doc says that :

In general, changes in fields that the system populates, such as LastModifiedDate and LastActivityDate, don’t trigger notifications. In addition, see these field considerations for Task records.

To receive notifications on the IsClosed field, the subscriber must subscribe to the Status field referenced in the query.