Byte-Sized Technology In Easy-to-Understand Language

TweetDeck – now with more awesome!

by Brad Grier on June 17, 2009

in Doing, In the life, Social Media, Technology

In the wiggly world of Twitter apps, competition is getting pretty tight between the leading desktop contenders; TweetDeck, Seesmic, and new-kid-on-the-block Mixero.

Today TweetDeck launched their latest update, with some pleasant surprises:

Conversation window – View an entire dialogue all at once.

Video playback – Watch Qik or 12seconds video clips from the comfort of TweetDeck.

New ‘Block & Report Spam’ button – Just one click will delete the message from view, block the user and report them to Twitter.

TweetDeck Recommends column – Find new and interesting people to follow whether you’re a Twitter newbie or a veteran of the Twitterverse.

‘Reply All’ – Tweet everyone mentioned in a tweet in just a couple of clicks.

YFrog – Share and preview YFrog photos inside TweetDeck.

Smart filter – Start typing a username to find a person and add them to a group quickly and easily.

RE (In reference to) tweets – Easily comment on a discussion.

But the two biggest surprises for me were an iPhone / iPod Touch version, and the ability to Sync your various installations of TweetDeck, so you can keep your group and search panels between work and home.

I’ve not had the time to give this version of TweetDeck a full workout yet, but I’m looking forward to doing just that, and maybe comparing it with Mixero and SeesMic…all three have their distinct benefits.

But, if you’ve not yet upgraded, or even tried TweetDeck as your desktop Twitter client, do it now. You won’t be disappointed.

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Installing Eeebuntu on my eeePC

by Brad Grier on June 4, 2009

in Doing, How to, In the life, Technology

You may remember this post where I waxed poetic on the somewhat-easy installation of Easy Peasy Ubuntu on my eeePC 8G (it’s a 701). Well, believe it or not, I’ve nuked Easy Peasy and am now running Eeebuntu…and the install was even easier!

What got it all started was this post about the ‘base edition’ of Eeebuntu. This section caught my eye:

To accommodate the various capabilities of the vast Eee product line, Eeebuntu comes in three different ISOs: Eeebuntu Standard, Netbook Remix, and Base. A week and a half ago, Eeebuntu released version 3.0 of its Base edition, the lightest and tightest of the three ISOs.

And since I was somewhat disappointed by the speed of Easy Peasy, and Ubuntu was now two versions newer than my current install, I thought it was time to update.

So, by following these simple instructions to set up my USB stick, installing Eeebuntu went flawlessly. And it took much less time than my initial Easy Peasy install. I’m a happy camper.

As the EeeBuntu site mentions, Eeebuntu Base is the bare-bones operating system.

…is the smallest, lightest and most stripped down of the three ISO’s. Apart from Gnome and its usual configuration applications, Firefox, restricted extras and the Eeeconfigure application, there’s little else, which means it’s up to you to add as few or as many as you need.

Which means that even on my first-generation netbook, it’s much faster than the Easy Peasy, XP, or even the original Linux OS who’s name I can’t remember right now.

Time will tell how it works out, but so far, for simple netbook tasks, it’s a champ.

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A simple and easy way to back up your Google Docs

May 22, 2009

If you do a lot of your work on various computers in different locations (as I do), conveniently accessing your documents is important.
Though I carry a 2GB USB drive everywhere, I actually find it easier to use Google Docs and store my work ‘in the Cloud’, so to speak.
But, that amorphous blob of computing-storage could [...]

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Me? A Professional Blogger? Yep, somewhat.

May 15, 2009

Today I became a professional blogger for Future Shop, the Canadian technology retailer. Professional as in ‘compensated’ for my writing. No, I’ll not be leaving my most excellent day job, I’d need a bunch more of these to make blogging my sole source of income and I’m not that prolific
You’ll find [...]

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How to synchronize your podcast feeds on many computers

April 30, 2009

A friend recently asked me if I knew of a way to synchronize his podcasts (using iTunes) on multiple computers.
Initially I had no idea, but then I remembered PodNova.
Aside: I’ve since learned that iTunes supports OPML import / export, but still think PodNova is the better way to go — online centralized repository of all [...]

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How to view PDF and other files on your iPhone and iPod Touch

April 26, 2009

I have to read a lot of fiction in the next few months. A lot of Science Fiction to be precice, and it’s so I can cast an informed ballot to help select the best of the genre at this year’s World Science Fiction convention (WorldCon).
As a member of WorldCon, a packet containing this year’s [...]

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Simple update adds iPhone style to your blog

April 23, 2009

Yesterday I installed the WPTouch plugin on this blog. Basically it’s a Wordpress theme that reformats your blog so it’s much more readable on mobile devices (Android, iPhone, iPod Touch). Full list of features here.
More than just a plugin, WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple’s app store design [...]

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Major Tom cover version — official free download available

April 17, 2009

You’ve likely heard it in the Lincoln MKZ commercials, but last night I finally paid attention to the ad and listened… and heard this awesome version inbetwixt shows. So obviously I had to find it somewhere.
After scouring Google videos and all, I’d finally resigned myself to having to listen to it through this blip.fm track.
Then, [...]

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5 favourite iPhone & iPod Touch applications

April 9, 2009

I recently bought an iPod Touch to replace my very cool, yet aging Palm T|X. The iPod Touch doesn’t yet ‘fit me like a glove’ but I’m sure after time it will, and I’ll document my experiences with it here.
Previously I’d written that I was rather unimpressed with the ‘WiPod’ as I called it then. [...]

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Best music player ever. Songbird 1.1.1 now with watched folders.

March 12, 2009

I’ve written before about Songbird, the free, open-source music player based on the Mozilla / FireFox platform.
Basically Songbird rocks.
Well, now there’s extra-new-and-improved Songbird goodness as the update was released this evening, with the one significant feature it’s been lacking up ’till now — the ‘Watched Folder’ feature.
To quote from the songbird release email:
Watch Folders
You can [...]

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