Tag Archives: twitter

Friends and Family, Geekery, Me

Hello! Still here…

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I was just messing around with my twitter tools plugin.  It hasn’t updated my twitter updates for the last couple of weeks since I switched hostign providers so I was wondering if it was broken.  Looks like everything is ok.  Last time I was messing around with the blog apparently a few people who subscribe to my friendfeed or twitter account got spammed gloriously with all of my test posts.  I tried to delete them right away but it was too late, they were already out there in the cloud!  This dang interweb, its just way too fast for an old timer like me, lol.  I have noticed a reduction in my facebook friends as well.  I am probably going to guess they do not like the way my friendfeed has the ability to completely dominate their home page when I go on a crazy sharing spree.  Lol, oh well.  Be safe, my good fellows, I bid you farewell.

My parents gave me their 37 inch lcd TV on the weekend.  So its sitting in my place taking up massive amounts of space.  I was messing around with it and have it acting as a second monitor to my computer.  It works beautifully with Windows Media Center.  Today, I’ve been using remote desktop on it to remote into the office.  For some reason, the mouse wasn’t working.  I couldn’t figure it out and it was driving me crazy.  Turns out I was using the mouse to my laptop, which was off, and not the mouse to my computer.  FAIL.  My brother got me these sweet wireless headphones that I absolutely love.  I used them last night listening to some music while making dinner, to lying on my bed listening to some paraliminals, whereas before I had to drag my bed over to my computer because my wired headphones weren’t long enough.  Awesome!  And now, I am complete.  Good day.

Geekery, Life, Me

when death comes knocking.

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“First you have to give up, first you have to *know*… not fear… *know*… that someday you’re gonna die.” – Tyler Durden

Murder… suicide… aids… cancer… heart attack. I’m reminded of the ways people I know have left this place.  I’m reminded of death and I think, wow, that sounds like something out of a movie and yet, this is what has happened with great people that have touched me in one way or another at one point in my life.  Another great one over the weekend has left.

What are your regrets if you were to die today? What would you wish you’d done?

I don’t have many. Mine would be that I never had a child to call my own. That would probably be at the very top. Other things are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things:

  • A dog, man’s best friend. Lol I know weird, but a dog will love you unconditionally, no matter what.
  • Seeing the world. I’ve seen quite a lot, but still microcosmic to the vastness of the world. If I could do it full time, I would. One day…
  • Working with children. I’d love to be able to work with children. Young children, whose innocence and curiosity is just so pure. Right before social conditioning gets a hold of them. If I can inspire some kids for the better, that would be awesome. Its something I’d love to do in my later years.

But really, that’s about it. I’ve loved, I’ve lost. I’ve been beaten up, and it wasn’t the end of the world. I’ve tried my best and failed miserably, and I’m still here. But I know, that my time will come, and your time will come, so instead of fearing it, why not embrace the inevitable? Such a liberating feeling it is to know that today quite possibly could be your last, so why not do the things you love to do? If I were to go today, I’d be content. But I’d love to stick around, because there’s just so much to feel, so much to experience, so much to contribute and be a part of.

Speaking of contributing, check out the awesome idea of Tim Ferriss.  What a great and easy way help a worthy cause.  Social Media for the betterment of all.  I like it.  All you have to do is follow him on twitter, and money gets donated!! I like.

By the way, I hope you guys are checking out my Tumblr stuff, I usually post funny pictures and goofy stories I find around the net.  I know its silly stuff but hey if it makes me smile, maybe it’ll make you smile too 🙂

Oh and check out this awesome poem.

Geekery

Twitter for n00bs

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Disclaimer: Written by a twitter n00b

What is Twitter?

I don’t know.  It is so simple yet so difficult to explain.

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

That was taken from the twitter website.  But that still doesn’t explain it that well.  They call it “micro-blogging”, I guess.  Basically twitter lets you provide small updates (140 characters max) and they make it convenient to do so.  You can update via email, on your Iphone or Blackberry, on the twitter website, through 3rd party applications or websites, really almost anywhere.  Nice and convenient.

Who uses Twitter?

Everybody!  Celebrities like Shaq and Britney Spears.  For the record, Shaq is hilarious.  Politicians like Al Gore and Barack Obama.  Authors like Tim Ferris and Steve Pavlina.  University Professors and researchers.  Companies like Starbucks and Marvel Entertainment.  Sports teams like the San Diego Chargers and the Chicago Bulls.

They come from all walks of life!

So far so good.  But why use Twitter?

Because its fun!  You can let your friends and family know what you are doing and what’s on your mind.  You can share funny things you find across the web.  You can ask questions and get quick replies.  It can be an extremely useful tool.

A snowboarder that went missing in the Swiss Alps was found with the help of the GPS signal from his iPhone, while his friends were raising awareness about the accident on Twitter. His friend, unfortunately, was found dead after an extensive search.

Taken from Mashable

When Gmail went down a couple of weeks ago, Tweeters were the first to report it.  Slowdowns on the public transportation you rely on?  Check Twitter, I bet there is news about what is going on.  Companies are starting to pay attention to what Tweeter’s have to say.  If customers have a complaint, these companies want to gather this information to satisfy their customers. 

In short, twitter has past the tipping point and has hit critical mass.  There are enough people using it that you can get real time information very very quickly.  It can be used almost like a real time search engine, where the information comes in fast and furious.

How do you use Twitter?

Simple, go to twitter.com and sign up for an account.  Then you are ready to start tweeting.  You will need to follow some people to see their updates, and they’ll need to follow you to see yours.  If you don’t hide your tweets, they will also be a part of the public timeline so everybody can see them.

You can tweet from the website itself, or you can download apps for your Iphone, or extensions for your browser.  For example, I use Digsby as my IM client on Windows.  This has twitter integration and so I am able to see what other people are tweeting about and reply if want to.  I usually tweet using the Ubiquity Firefox extension.  The two most popular desktop  applications I keep hearing about are Twhirl and Tweetdeck, although I haven’t used them myself.  Its all supposed to make tweeting easier, not more complicated so don’t get overwhelmed.  If you are confused then just stick to the website for now until you get your bearings on it.

Twitter is the fastest growing social network on the web right now.  Facebook tried to acquire them and failed.  Very soon, your going to start seeing some changes on Facebook’s homepage.  This is a likely a direct challenge to twitter’s emergence, as Facebook will try to beat twitter at its own game.  It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.