I love Twitter

Twitter has been around for a long while. It is very popular thing right now. Everyone is twittering! I just start twittering in last about two weeks. I am very addictive.

What is Twitter?

According to the freedictionary.com:

twit·ter (twtr)

v. twit·tered, twit·ter·ing, twit·ters

v.intr.

1. To utter a succession of light chirping or tremulous sounds; chirrup.

2.

a. To speak rapidly and in a tremulous manner: twittering over office gossip.

b. To giggle nervously; titter.

3. To tremble with nervous agitation or excitement.

v.tr.

To utter or say with a twitter: twittered a greeting.

n.

1.

a. The light chirping sound made by certain birds.

b. A similar sound, especially light, tremulous speech or laughter.

2. Agitation or excitement; flutter.

So Twitter.com would fit the definition of verb: 2.a and 3 and noun: b

From the site itself:

A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?

Twitter is very simple and easy. I would say it is a micro-blogging. Even though it asks one simple question: What are you doing?, I only don’t tell them what I am doing. I also post sites that interests me. I tell them what sites I am reading or looking at. I love sharing cool websites with people. Something that they should not miss those websites out. Twitter is a good place where you can post them. But it has limited characters every twitter you send. It is 140 characters. I say it makes sense because text messaging have limited characters as well. Twitter can be sent via SMS aka text messaging, IM and on the Web.

Now you probably would not see me blogging here often. It is because I twitter on that twitter.com.

A few years ago, we share info, telling what we are doing starting with pager to cell phone to email to IM to blog to RSS to myspace. Now the next thing is Twitter. Remember we did with pager, it takes a while to reply back and forth. Right? But Email and IM got better but still take time as well. Because we don’t always get on. But of course with the new mobile devices, things gets better. But now Twitter, you can get notifications every minute on either one of any: IM, Email, or SMS (or text messaging). You can send twitters anytime (day and night) via IM or text messaging. That is like zero interuption like others. It is amazing. Of course, it is hard to track all twitters on public timeline because everyone is twittering every second. But thank god for follows/friends where you can track your friends…

That is unfortunate for me because I am very addicted to it. Well, it may sound strange when i said unfortunate. I don’t mean it is a bad thing. It is actually good. Heh. I absolutely love Twitter. You can check my twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/deantobias or on mobile device, m.30boxes.com/twapper/deantobias. Also, you can see my RSS on the right sidebar on my blog.

There are many ways you can twitter. I will have to collect them and post them here. You can read two links here: You can read two links: One is The Top 5 Ways Smart People Use Twitter; Second: 5 Ways to Use Twitter for Good – lifehack.org. There is another great website called Twittervision. You can watch and eye-tening (listening) what they have to said on twitter. The site is http://www.twittervision.com.

Watch out for more Twitter stuff coming. I hope I will not take that long to post new entry on “More on Twitter.”

But in the meantime, feel free to check that twitter site out here. It is free. SIgn up and I hope to see YOU there and start twittering!

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PageBull

Not long ago, I mentioned about Snap Preview Anywhere. I talked about its own search engine a bit. The search engine is great and useful. It does like Google, Yahoo, or MSN, but it has a bigger thumbnail preview on the right. It saves your time rather than clicking every link page to look at it. The look of Snap search engine is very simple and modern. It also do images. You click one image, it will enlarge on the right for viewing.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN do have thumbnail preview on each link on the right via Firefox/Flock extension called BetterSearch. But they are small and hard to see. However, with Better Search, you have another option of previewing the website when you see the ‘P’ next to the link in any search engine. That ‘P’ is called Quick Preview. You can see the images below.

Thumnail Preview on Google:

Quick Preview:

It is a great extension. There is also another great extension called Cooliris or Browster. Both opens webpages real-life time when you point at the specific icon somewhere on the end (Cooliris) or in the front (Browster) of the link and it will pop up to the screen almost like a full page on the same tab/windows. I have mentioned that before. But Snap does not need any plugin or installation. It is nice and save your space on the computer.

You may wonder what does PageBull fit in this all?

Well, it is a another great Thumbnail Preview search engine. It shows thumbnail previews only, no listing like the the rest…I just found about that last week. I thought it is a nice search engine just to view webpages. You can view them in either 3×4, 2×6, or 4×3. Those means how many previews in the row and columns. I took a screenshot of the PageBull (3×4) search query: deanscyberspace. You may notice some of them. One is my current blog and other one is my former blog by Blogger.

Honestly every day, I found something cool, better, and more quick in googling something in the search engine. Thumbnail previews are wonderful. However, it is hard to make decisions, which search engine I would like to use — Google, Yahoo or MSN with BetterSearch or Cooliris and Browster extensions, Snap, and now PageBull. But it is a nice change for alternative search engines, rather than using same search engine every day. Well, I use Google.com more often. It has best search results. I use Cooliris for website previewing for now. I like it because I can share the links with anyone via Cooliris using its own email box. But I would use PageBull or Snap once in a while. I like to see what is happening to them and see them grow and become better search engines in the near future.

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Snap Preview Anywhere

When I found about http://www.snap.com last year. I was impressed with this newly search engine. You type anything just like you do to google.com, and then you press enter. You will see the list of links on the left, and, unlike Google.com, it will display the big thumbnail of the webpage on the right. I say it is a modern search engine… but Google still tops of all. Google has to act fast, or Snap.com or other search engeines will topple Google. LIkely it may happen. But you never know. There are cool search engines out there. When I have a chance, I will list the search engines that you should check out.

Recently, I found out that you can add ‘Snap Preview Anywhere‘ on your blog or your personal web page. I want to add to my blog, but WordPress won’t let me do it. I was a bit disappointed. I know that you can do with Blogger.com and other sites. But it made my day when I found today through WordPress blog that they are adding ‘Snap it’ widget to the WordPress.com blogs, though it is only a beta. They are testing out to a few WordPress blogger; only 10 percent of them would have this beta. And guess what? I am one of them. Now you can point to the link and preview a thumbnail of the website before you can open to a new window, or a new tab! I did try it myself. it was awesome!

Since its first public’s Snap Preview, it already has more than 16,300 signups in 5 weeks! And there are already 17 million previews viewed. I have seen several blogs outside of the WordPress.com already used it. It is useful. I can see if it is worth to read or not before I can open the link, it may be small to read. But hey, it may have more features later on to do customization of thumbnail sizes.

Everyone should get ‘Snap Preview Anywhere’ on their blog or webpage. It is free. For the rest of 90% of WordPress blogger, I am sure it will be acceptable and open to the public.

Thank you, Matt, for making it possible. I always wants this Snap Preview on my blog. In case, you wonder who Matt is. He is a blog writer for the WordPress.com.

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Wanna to Add Event or Appointment on GO?

You can do that with Google Calendar mobile! I have tried it. It is really awesome and useful. It is quick and easy.

All you need is the SMS service. You have to register your SMS service with Google Calendar, by logging into Google Calendar and go to the setting and set up your phone number there. It will ask you to verify when you get the SMS and fill in the code, I beleive. It has been a while I have set up mine. .

Wait, what is SMS? It stands for Short Message Service. In other word, it means text messaging service.

Anyway, when it is set, you are ready to use this service. You just need to type gvent (or 48368) and let’s do the example:

To: gvent (it will convert to 48368 automatically for T-Mobile Sidekick users)

Subject: blank

Message: Date Dinner with John Doe 11/30 at 6 pm

click ‘Send’

It will send back to you with the confirmation saying:

Created event: Date dinner with John Doe @ Thu Nov 30, 2006 6pm

It is fast! I like it a lot. I use it whenever I am on GO, like at Doctor appt. I don’t have to fish in my bag for the appointment book… just get my sidekick and send gvent with appointment info… and it is done. Most of the time, I lost my appointment card from the doctor’s office, or sometimes I forgot to post on the Calendar. You can use to post appointments or events for school, work, home, classes, meetings,. and many more.

It also will tell what is happening today, tomorrow or any date you want to check… Even it will remind you of your next appointment or event to another. It is convenient to use gvent.

This Google Calendar mobile works well for me. I hope it will work for you as well.

You can check more information about Google Calendar’s Gvent service.

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He May be the World’s Oldest Blogger

His name is Donald Crowdis from Canada. He has his own blog and he writes interesting entries on his blog. He even has his own wikipedia, you can click on the sidebar on the right. Also, he has Google Mail. He is catching up with the tecnhology and Web 2.0!

His blog is Don to Earth. Check his blog out.

Addition: He is one of the last living survivors of the Halifax Explosion.

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Learned Something…

I like the Vitiman T. It is a great and useful Web 2.0 Site. I will use that site to check great tips!

About Vitamin T

Every one of us is an expert on something. Chances are, through trial and error, hard work, or blind luck, you have learned something practical. Something that has helped make your life a little easier. It saved you time. It saved you money. Maybe it saved your marriage; maybe your life.

What you discovered is too helpful to keep to yourself. You want to share it. You think, “Others should benefit from this.” Maybe you can even profit from it.

Now you can.

Welcome to Vitamin T. Every day, content is added to this site that has helped someone before. The content here can help you. The editorial staff at Vitamin T does not create the content found on this site. People like you do.

If you have a tip that is insightful, helpful, and original, we will publish it and pay you $3 (US). You write the content. We share it with the world.

Make the most out of Vitamin T by referring back to us daily. We know you’ll find something you can use with every visit. Vitamin T prescribes tips on a daily basis.

I just learned something new … you know sometimes the pans or pots get burned by food on the bottom by accident. I am not a great cooker, but I can cook well enough to enjoy my meals This tip from Vitiman T is great one. I will remember that next time. The tip is below:

Use Oxyclean on burned-on pans
To get stubborn burned-on food off pans, soak them in Oxyclean laundry detergent for a while. The food will then wipe off easily.
Amy in Los Altos, CA

You can check that out whenever you can…. http://www.dailyvitamint.com.

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GreedTube is Down!

I posted about GreedTube recently here. I just found out that it is down, and is redirected to YouTube.com. Mmm… You can read the interview of GreedTube owner just days before it was down.

Note: I forgot to add the Greedtube interview above. I am adding it here right now. The link is here.

You can read more about shut-down GreedTube:

greedtube-awaits-call-from-youtubes-lawyers

youtube-nukes-greedtube

For those who have not seen what it look like on GreedTube, you can see it here:

I found another YouTube clone called PhilTube. But it is all about Phil and his office himself. You can read more about it on mashable.com. He create his own videos himself. I cannot find his purpose of this site. But it is interesting, tho. Unfortunately I could not understand a thing he says on videos. No captions or subtitle support yet.

If you see the image below, you will see one photo of Phil doing his thing on the top and left — apparently he tries to create the controversy. It can be found on PhilTube’s tab title “The Hat.” You can click this image to enlarge, which will take you to a specific PhilTube page.

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Another YouTube?

YouTube is widely popular for video sharing on the Internet. Everyone uses them on their blogs, websites, and sharing through email. It is a great tool. I have used some on my blog, too. Google Video is the competition with YouTube, but Google just acquired YouTube for 1.6 billion dollars. That will change…

Now, there is another site looks almost like YouTube but called GreedTube. Greed? Well, that site, GreedTube, is a social video networking site where you can make money and share your videoes. However, will GreedTube still be around since the acquisition of YouTube by Google?

About GreenTube:

Founded in October of 2006, GreedTube is the easiest way for people to share YouTube videos… It’s also the easiest way to make money on the net. With GreedTube, anyone can submit videos and anyone can make money. We pay our users 50% of all ad revenue generated on submitted videos. It’s simple, easy, and free.

You can learn more about GreedTube here. You can make money and share videos now! Enjoy it.

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What is Greasemonkey?

It is a new word for you today: Greasemonkey

According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasemonkey:

Greasemonkey is a software implementation of a conceptcalled “Active Browsing”. It allows users of the Mozilla Firefox web browser to install user scripts which modify specific web pages. This web scripting was hither to reserved only for the authors of web sites. As the Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the webpages are permanent.

I am telling you Greasemonkey is a great extension, used only in Firefox and Flock. You can use Creammonkey for Safari. I have used Greasemonkey scripts for some sites. You would have to install Greasemonkey extension before you can install any scripts you find in the Internet. The installation can be found here. For Safari, it can be found here. No IE greasemonkey. It used to have one, but someone quits on that project, called GreasemonkIE.

You know, Google search engine looks plain and boring. White background. No style. Well, with Greasemonkey, you can change anything you want. However, you have to be good at writing scripts. I am not. I use scripts I found over the Internet.

Before Google without Greasemonkey:

After Google with Greasemonkey:

Is it cool? Something different! Nice… I have been using that Google new look. So refreshing. It is easy to install the script. You can install that script. It supports Firefox and Opera.I have a few greasemonkey scripts, most for Google… ie: Gmail. You know you don’t have to open the mail. You can click right button toward to the new or old mail messagel, and it will pop up the preview conversation, that is what Gmail likes to call. It is nice. The image of the preview conversation below:

I like this, why ? So I can search the email quickly without opening the mail. I don’t always want to read the whole e-mail. Just want to check it quickly. It is nice… you can install that script.

I am not sure if you know about the Lightbox javascript. It apparently is very popular in these days. It is good for building websites on your own and you can add those javascripts in your HTML. A few sites have used the Lightbox method. I cannot think of one yet… but I know Ridor of the Observe but Do Not Interfere used to have that script on his blog. I am not sure if he still uses it. There is a new Lightbox javascript 2.0, improved one; u can find it here.

When you click the image, and it will be shown in the front of the site you are on. First, it will show a loading icon, which means it is loading the image… then there will be aimage with a nice border and the rest is transparent black, like you can see the site through the transparent black. When you are done with viewing, you just click anywhere, and it will close and back to the site again.It is a very nice script. I plan to use on my webpage, when I build one. It also has Greasemonkey script, called Greased Lightbox. For a quick viewing of images before and after using Greasemonkey on my blog below:

before

after

Nice, huh? Yeah, it is… you can go to the site. Also, it has a mini video for you to watch in action.

I will add more greasemonkey scripts in the near future. There are many, many scripts that you can use to block ads, to pop up the photos, or to add new features that they should have. Greasemonkey will make your life easier. You can find scripts here.

Oh, you have to remember not all scripts will work… some will have bugs or errors, so don’t get too frustrated and thought maybe something is wrong with your Firefox or Greasemonkey script extension. It is not. It is the script itself. I have tried one or two that does not work right. If it does not work right, you can either remove it, or try to fix the script itself, if you know how to write one.

Enjoy it.

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The Great Evolution

You know today there is Web 2.0. What is Web 2.0? Well it is well best put by definition by wikipedia:

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

For example, Google is a Web 2.0 site. Google has Intergrated Chat in the E-mail. Google also has web application, ie: Writely and Spreadsheet. Blogging is a Web 2.0, too. Before they have personal site, like journal and dairy (more private). But blogging is more of public and sharing. More sites are sharing, like sharing calendars and documents to collerate.

Oh yes, RSS is one of the example of Web 2.0. For any of you who dont know what RSS means… It stands for Rich Site Summary or RDF (Resource Description Framework) Site Summary. It is written in XML. In other words, it is news feeds. Each site usually has RSS. That is the summary of the whole site with entries or articles. You can use RSS through email, blogging, online, or on the desktop using an application. I will list great RSS services you use to save your time than going to every site. RSS is a one place where you can read all sites. It is quick and easy.

Lastly, web instant messaging services, like Meebo or emessenger (or ebuddy) is one of them.

There is a few sites example that is Web 2.0, if you look the comparsion of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is a great thing. I use a lot of Web 2.0.

Now, Flock is a 2.0 Browser. Why is it 2.0? It has an intergrated social networking service, by a choice using Del.icio.us or Shadows, and photos, like Flickr or Photobucket, and blogging service (any blogger service). It also has a News Reader on the side. Soon, it will add YouTube intergration. Do any browser have done that? Not yet. It’s a new generation browser. It is useful.

Sure, Firefox is a great browser but not a 2.0 browser like Flock. Yes, Firefox has great extensions. Flock has them too. Flock and Firefox uses same engine and similiar type of extensions. But remember, Flock is very young (only a year old), while Firefox is about 5 years old. About. Flock will get there with great extensions like Firefox.

I found a great evolution of browsers over the years. i agree with this evolution!

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