Tag Archive for 'twitter'

24
May

friday five: my five favorite twitter apps, engines and mashups

By jess 0 Comments
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TwitterI use Twitter so much that it has become a part of my daily life. I use it as a communication tool, a networking tool, a marketing tool, and as a writnig tool. It’s a great exercise to figure out how to say exactly what you mean in only 140 characters!

There have been some great things done with the Twitter API to make it easier to use Twitter–and more fun! These are just a few of my favorites:

1) Tiny Twitter - By far, this is my favorite app of the week. I recently had to hard reset my Windows Mobile PDA phone, and since that wipes it back to factory settings, I needed to reinstall applications.  I took it as an opportunity to find the perfect Twitter app to use when I’m on the go, since the Twitter mobile site isn’t quite cutting it. I heard @dpaddock talk about Tiny Twitter on his Blackberry, but I had no idea they had a Windows Mobile app as well. It’s exactly what I was looking for–it auto-refreshes every 4 minutes, lets me access my @ replies, DMs, and timelines, and makes it easy to tweet, reply, and DM. I never have to be out of touch again.

2) Hahlo - This is a mobile app meant for the iPhone, but I love using it on my eeePC! It auto-refreshes, which is a big bonus. There is a lack of truly good Twitter apps for Linux for the moment and this helps to fill the gap in the meantime. I keep it constantly open in a Firefox tab.

3) Twittervision - This is an absolutely mesmerizing use of the Twitter API. You can see people Twittering (tweeting?) in realtime on a global map. People’s posts pop up in sync with the location they entered on their Twitter profiles. When I bring it up in my browser, I lose at least 20 minutes every time. Dangerously addictive!

4) Summize - Ever wanted to know what people were saying about a particular subject? Use the Summize search engine for a realtime Twitter search! It’s come in handy quite a few times when I’m trying to get blogging material or am just curious about something. It’s also dangerously addictive for nosy people like me–sometimes I like to just start plugging in search terms and see what comes up.

5) gTwitter - This is probably the native Linux Twitter app I am most excited about. I said there was a lack of truly good Twitter apps for Linux, but I think that gTwitter is about to change that. I’m trying out the 1.0 Beta right now and it is the best of any I have tried so far. I am hoping future releases make it a little more robust and add support for viewing your @ replies, DMs, etc. So far, so good–it may not be everything I need YET but I’m keeping my eye on it!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | May: 4,473 | 2008: 4,473

05
May

monday morning mix: too many overtimes

By jess 1 Comment
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I was up until almost 2 in the morning last night watching my beloved Dallas Stars take out the San Jose Sharks in an amazing Game 6 in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. It was a game full of hard checks and crazy awesome goaltending, and I knew I couldn’t go to bed without waiting until the bitter end. Thankfully, my boys pulled through and Brenden Morrow scored the game winning goal around 1:30 AM. Needless to say, I had trouble getting up this morning and needed a little help from my trusty iPod to wake up.

I think the iPod was feeling feminine this morning, because it spit out a LOT of female artists for my listening pleasure today:

  1. Over the Rhine - How Long Have You Been Stoned
  2. Marissa Nadler - Dying Breed
  3. Antony and the Johnsons - You Are My Sister
  4. Rilo Kiley - Give A Little Love
  5. A Fine Frenzy - Think of You
  6. Stars - Today Will Be Better, I Swear!
  7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With the Night
  8. Andrew Bird - Simple X

I was sad to see this weekend come to a close…we had a BIG ol’ Saturday. Mine started with sleeping very late and then going to meet my good friend Kyle up at CAPE. I got to catch up with my old friend Mandy and finally meet her talented boyfriend, David Mack. I also had the pleasure of meeting the people behind one of my favorite web comics, Two Lumps, and the man behind Starslip Crisis, which has been on my to-read list of web comics for a while now. The most awesome part of CAPE was meeting Mercedes Lackey and her husband Larry Dixon. Mercedes was kind enough to sign one of her novels that I had brought along with me, and we spent a few minutes having a very pleasant chat. I was trying very hard not to be a fangirl, though I think I failed completely. I have loved her books for a long time, and it is always amazing to meet an author you admire.

We started off Saturday night at the 21st birthday party of the wonderful William, graciously hosted by Cali and Neal from geekbrief.tv. I got to meet a lot of absolutely fabulous new Twitter friends, had great strawberry daquiris and Kathleen’s AMAZING spinach and bacon deviled eggs, got interviewed on The Neal Show, and enjoyed some sweet Mario Kart Wii action. Time absolutely flew, and before we knew it, it was time to leave for our second party to celebrate the birth of our awesome friend Dinah. From there, I ended up going dancing with some friends on Cedar Springs, and made it home about 2 AM. I haven’t partied that much since in one night in a very, very long time. It may take me until next week to recover!

04
May

a shift in the social paradigm

By jess 0 Comments
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The Globe I’ve never made it a secret how much I love being a part of the Internet community at large. I have been putting my life out there on the World Wide Web since I first learned how to code HTML back in 1995. I was all over Geocities, as well as The Globe–the very FIRST site solely devoted to social networking! Well, it bombed, but my love of communication through the Internet has never diminished.

I really started thinking earlier tonight how interesting it is that there has been a huge paradigm shift in how people view connecting with other people on the Internet. Back in the earlier days of the Internet, it was considered weird and anti-social to make friends in ISP chat rooms, BBS’es, on IRC, etc. But now, it’s really easy AND accepted to make friends online and then hang with them in real life–it’s even accepted AND encouraged to find dating partners online when that was once shunned as totally unsafe and strange.

I really find it interesting how much of my social life I owe to the Internet. I met my husband online (NOT through eHarmony, ha!) and it was the best thing I’ve ever done. Through him, I have become a part of a core group of amazing people. I’ve stayed in touch with people from my early chat room and IRC days even 10 years later, and I’ve been incredibly lucky to make some great acquaintances recently through Twitter, WordCamp, and beyond.

I just think it’s great that not only is Internet communication accepted, but that the way we communicate is constantly changing. Twitter is one of my favorite ways to communicate these days, and it is amazing to me how popular AND useful it is. The basis for Twitter is one of those simple ideas I wish I had thought of first. I am not a huge Facebook or MySpace addict as some people, but I have also used it to connect and communicate with old classmates and co-workers to great effect. Social networking never ceases to amaze me, and it’s evolving every second. I love being a part of it!

29
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-29

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  • @daysies I can’t wait to see your new MB! #
  • @daysies I am more than happy to share my Mac knowledge! I am so excited for you. :-) #
  • @daysies my older version of Twitteriffic lets you use it for free as long as you put up with some ads every now and again. has it changed? #
  • @daysies Actually, I forgot I just upgraded Twitteriffic, so I am running the latest. #
  • Good night Twitter…I have to go get my pre-Word Camp beauty rest :-) #
  • @scarab I will try my best…gravity is a bitch, though. #
  • Just arrived for WordCamp! #
  • Sitting with @daysies in the Frisco City Hall…waiting for WordCamp to begin! #
  • @DanielthePoet We’re a row behind the Stephen King lookin guy! #
  • @newmediajim Dallas finally got a cool nerd event! I am pretty jazzed. #
  • WordCamp is already all kinds of awesome. For $20 we get two days of stuff, t-shirts, free barbecue, etc. Sweet! #
  • sweet! WordPress 2.5 is already out as of today. Awesome! my new domain will be all pimped out. #
  • If SXSW is like nerd prom, are WordCamp/BarCamps like nerd homecoming? Food for thought. #
  • WP 2.5 is looking really slick…I can’t wait to upgrade my blogs! #
  • Mullenweg himself is demoing 2.5…this is pretty awesome…autosaving and post slug editing in real-time! #
  • @newmediajim I should have tried to snag an N95 to do some live vlogging! #
  • @newmediajim awesome, thanks for the link! #
  • The new upload feature of WP is so good that I might actually use it versus uploading pics for the blog to Flickr! #
  • @technosailor nice to meetcha! I’ll keep my eye out for you today. #
  • I hope the WP plugin upgrade works well for me…I usually have bad luck with plugins breaking on me when I try to upgrade them in WP. #
  • Joking about Al Gore inventing the Internet never gets old for me… #
  • @leahjones You are correct, ma’am. #
  • I am still not used to having a camera that doesn’t totally suck AND is tiny. I keep forgetting I have it. #
  • @daysies As you can undoubtedly see, neither am I. LOL I keep getting distracted by all the WordCamp tweeting going on! #
  • Nice…WP 2.5 locks posting for multiple-user blogs so that it won’t play auto-save ping pong if more than one person is editing a post, #
  • Really starving…I should have eaten something before I left the house! #
  • I cannot wait for better WordPress mobile blogging! @photomatt, if you need any beta testers, sign me up! #
  • I wonder if anyone under NDA at work knows more about Wordpress ON mobile devices… #
  • @daysies We will be moblogging twins when I get *my* iPhone! LOL #
  • Sweet! Gravatar is now built-in to the backend of WP. I love that service. Now if I could just get my old comments imported in… #
  • I don’t think that micro niche blogging is necessary to gain follwoers and build revenue, but I do think focus is a good thing. #
  • I have learned that for me to focus on topics, I need separate blogs to keep it straight. papergraffiti for writing/personal, DTD for tech. #
  • I wish that blogging had really been big when I was getting my media degree. I really was ahead of the game back then. #
  • John is making an excellent point about RSS feeds…I HATE it when sites don’t offer a full RSS feed and it makes me less apt to subscribe. #
  • I bet not everyone got tons of blog hits by making pot-shots at former Kids Incorporated child actors! Oh Dawne, you made my stats so good. #
  • Can’t wait to try Woopra on my new blog. That sucker is starting from scratch. #
  • Wow, Woopra pretty much allows you to be an evil overlord on your own blog. "I see what you’re doing there!" #
  • getting some great Twitter follows from WordCamp…welcome, everybody! #
  • Excited for Cali & Neal’s preso coming up next here at WordCamp! #
  • @DanielthePoet Maybe we just aren’t saying anything interesting enough on our blogs to get plagiarized? ;-) #
  • Learning a lot about copyright and how to fight plagiarism from @plagiarismtoday. #
  • @DanielthePoet mmmkay. #
  • @JeremyHerbel I have had a couple of pingbacks to spam blogs, myself, but mostly just spam comments. Thank goodness! #
  • @newmediajim Yes, I am definitely going to install WordPress 2.5…I manage the server for my blog. #
  • @newmediajim wordpress.org has great upgrade instructions…I would follow those! #
  • Cali and Neal are starting their preso…woohoo! #
  • Myspace: the redheaded stepchild of social media? #
  • @DanielthePoet yeowch!! #
  • The Nokia N95 is such a popular device for live vlogging…too bad work won’t let me keep the one I use for testing! #
  • Starting to get chair butt from WordCamp, but it’s worth it! :-) #
  • @hoopadoo I am thinking of getting some "social media" biz cards printed up to use…complete with my Twitter name. #
  • @hoopadoo Nobody is really interested in my eLearning business cards from my company. they don’t have my twitter name or blog! #
  • @Alexa It IS super sexy, isn’t it? Seeing Mullenweg demo it this morning at WordCamp made me REALLY excited to go home and install it. #
  • @technosailor maybe you’re a mashagroupie? #
  • Trying to figure out if going to dinner with the WordCamp peeps will make me late for my date with my husband! #
  • Also, is there any way I can get comments from my blog BACK in their posts? I lost comments when I upgraded to WP 2.3 and had to redo MYSQL. #
  • Lorelle is singing the praises of Akismet in WordPress, I have to agree, it has kept spam off my blog with little to no actual work from me. #
  • I once had to delete over 60,000 spam comments from my blog…You can bet that I appreciate that Akismet just takes care of for me! #
  • This is not as "power blogging" focused as I would have liked…perhaps I was already a power user and did not know it! #
  • I am finding out about some great WP plugins though…this will be great when I get my blogs all tweaked to perfection. #
  • Ew, a migraine is creeping up on me. I may have to bow out of dinner and even a movie date with the hubby. Maybe take out and a DVD instead. #
  • WordCamp Day One is over! Time to go home. #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

28
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-28

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  • Took an evening off the computer to spend time with my husband, watch tv and play Rock Band. I needed the space to breathe again. #
  • Busy, busy, busy…and actually in the real office today. I wish I was working at home. #
  • @DuckyDoesTV Do you like Lily Allen? If you do, Kate Nash is kind of similar. I really like her album. #
  • @DuckyDoesTV I actually think I like Kate’s album more…it’s more mature and also more cheeky. #
  • Going to the pet store to pet the bunnies. If I do that, I might not kill people this afternoon. #
  • @CaliLewis Hooray, WordCamp! Can’t wait to see your preso. #
  • Randomly, I want to take up Krav Maga. #
  • @kyle1point0 Krav Maga sounds like it would be an expensive hobby. But sadly, I can’t kick anyone’s ass with yoga. LOL #
  • @kyle1point0 I’ll take good notes, but you should really come if you can! It should be a cool conference. #
  • @daysies I am DEFINITELY bringing the eeePC! :-) I won’t be able to make the mixer tonight either though. #
  • @kyle1point0 It’d be nice to see you, anyway! But feel free to pick my brain if you don’t get to attend. #
  • @daysies I have to admit, I’m eager to show it off in a room full of like-minded geeks. :-) #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

27
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-27

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  • @daysies I used to have an iSkin silicon keyboard cover for my iBook. I loved the idea of it but it was a giant pain in the ass. #
  • @daysies I have never found my iBook to get dirty, however, either. YMMV, but it has not discolored or gotten all gross and it is 3 yrs old. #
  • Registered new domain, FINALLY found where I could enter new DNS servers. Now it’s bedtime, night Twitter! #
  • Good morning Twitter…I need caffeine, stat. #
  • More work writing and editing. I am going to be super-productive today so that I am not working late. #
  • @ejacqui Thank you, I had just gotten that song OUT of my head and you had to go and mention it! ;-) #
  • One more storyboard knocked out, that makes 3 this morning! I love being on a roll. #
  • Off to take a quick shower before getting back to work…I do things so backwards when I work from home! :-) #
  • I have Clueless and Mean Girls on in the background while I work. Movies that I can ignore and enjoy, FTW! #
  • One more storyboard done, and Clueless is over. Time for Mean Girls! #
  • @DanielthePoet you are making me SO HUNGRY!!! I can’t stop and make dinner until I finish working AND go to the store. Ugh. #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

26
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-26

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  • I am glad I am working from home today. Apparently our power went out…I might have slept through work completely were it not for my cats. #
  • Hungry, plotting lunch. We need to go grocery shopping big time, so the cupboards are fairly bare… #
  • FIL came through with tickets for the NASCAR race next weekend–hubby will be thrilled! Have not decided if I am going to suffer through it. #
  • @patrickcurl Ubuntu has a decidely Mac-like feel to it…you might be a Mac fan and not even know it! ;-) #
  • Knocking out storyboards like I’ve got brass knuckles. Pausing for lunch and a shower! :-) #
  • Storyboarding while watching cheesy movies I DVR’ed off TNT and fighting a migraine. Damn you weather!! #
  • @patrickcurl that is a great business idea, but what would set you apart from the competitors? #
  • I am such a sucker for fluffy romantic movies…even ones with only semi-plausible storylines. #
  • @daysies The Prince and Me. SO CHEESY, but so cute. #
  • @DanielthePoet I’m biased, as I found my own prince. His kingdom? My heart. Yeah, I’m a cheesy romantic. #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

25
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-25

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  • ok, I don’t care if the cool kids ARE doing it. I am out of the color war…so annoying! #
  • Listening to the new Counting Crows album…officially comes out tomorrow (3/25) but iTunes had it up early, I guess. #
  • The Internets are slow today…a course is taking forEVer to upload! #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

24
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-24

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  • The entire Girls Gone Wild franchise makes me ashamed of…well, of everyone. Even at my wildest I was never as damn stupid as those girls. #
  • I would be a lot more productive if Word would stop crashing on me! This is getting really annoying. #
  • Watching The Goonies while I finish up this document. I haven’t seen this movie in forever. #
  • @leftyfb I can’t use OpenOffice for some of my work stuff. The formatting doesn’t transfer. :-( #
  • Surprising what I can accomplish in the office when I turn off email, IM and the phone… #
  • mmmm chicken fried rice. #
  • off to another creative meeting for The Project That Will Never Actually Begin. #
  • @wilw Those fixes ALMOST make Rock Band perfect! I love the new music store–so much better than the XBL store format. #
  • Waiting for video to encode so I can go home… #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

23
Mar

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-23

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  • Happy Easter everyone. Doing some work before it is time to go to MIL’s for dinner. Hoping she makes the bunny-shaped cake I love so much! #
  • @leahjones happy official birthday! #
  • It is ridiculously windy outside today. I’m sitting here at my desk listening to the wind howl up a storm. #
  • About to watch my second favorite Judy Garland movie…Easter Parade with Fred Astaire. :-) #
  • I was definitely born in the wrong era. I wish I could dress as glamorously as they do in the old movies every day! #
  • @leahjones True, true. But I’d probably get weird looks at client meetings if I walked in wearing long gloves, a floppy hat, and a day gown. #
  • @leahjones I need to start up WW again as well. I was doing really well on it, then fell off the wagon and never got back on again. #

Word Counts - Today: 0 | March: 0 | 2008: 0

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