I tweet a lot.

A lot.

Because I have Twitter cross-posted with Facebook, this means my “wall” (or as I like to call it, my “whall”) fills up quickly.  For those who don’t know about “cross-posting”, just know that it’s basic integration betwen social networking systems.  It’s a way for the different social mediums to work together, like Twitter, Facebook, Utterli, ping.fm and a hundred others, so that none of them hog you all to themselves.  In fact, the more a social medium shares (ie, cross-posts) with others mediums, the more likely people are to use it as their primary interface.

It’s like love.  The more you share, the more you have.

Or fire.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a couple of comments a few times from my Facebook friends that I’ve spammed up their news feed, or that my status updates have hogged up their home page.  For that, I apologize.

I’m not likely to reduce my twittering, however.  So, I’d like Facebook to listen up and see if they can come up with a way to solve this.  I have two ideas in this area:

@replies should be a comment, not it’s own update

When I put in “@username” in a status update, I’d like facebook to make my a reply in that person’s status update, if they also have a Facebook account integrated with Twitter.  It takes up so much less real estate and helps promote that person’s facebook page as much as, if not more than, my own.

If they don’t have a Facebook account, then maybe they could just make it look like the following example, but instead of “status” say “tweet” and have it link to the actual tweet. 

Threads should be recognized and put into comments

This is very similar to the first one, but is different enough.  If I do a status update, then someone replies to me on Twitter, then I reply to that reply, I want Facebook to figure that out and put BOTH updates as comments on my original status update. 

Even if the other person isn’t on Facebook.

Yes, I know facebook would have to go searching for the tweet.  But computers are good and fast.

For example, I might have the following conversation on twitter (shown in reverse chronological order here)

In Facebook, this would typically turn into five (5) different status updates with my picture and everything. (actually, it appears as though maybe it’s not doing that anymore – is Facebook blocking @replies as status updates now?).

Instead, I’d rather it show up like a threaded conversation. 

I see that there’s a facebook app called “Selective Twitter” that allows you to add a hashtag (#fb) to tweets to determine whether or not to actually update facebook.  I think that’s a good first step, but I’ve noticed tools such as TweetDeck (my desktop and iPhone tool of choice) allowing me to specify, per tweet, if I want to update facebook as well.

Once my ideas are implemented, hopefully I can be nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.  I could use the $1.4 million dollars.  Oh wait, the government normally taxes at least 50% of all “winnings” so I guess the prize isn’t that high. I know the prize is tax exempt in Hungary and several other nations, but I don’t know if it’s tax exempt in the US.  Anyone know?

I’m very glad for my feedreader.  I use newsgator.com, which offers three different ways of reading blogs

1. Online at http://newsgator.com when I want it quick, or when I just have a browser
2. On PC with the (now) free FeedDemon software
3. On blackberry with Newsgator Go! software

Nice thing about it is when you read a blog on any one of them, it marks it as read on the server.  That means I don’t have to “re-read” the blog or mark it as read with the other methods.

I do use all three methods, and the only annoying part so far is some blogs don’t let me make comments from the blackberry, and it’s not like it’s the feedreader’s fault.

However, there is one enhancement I’d like in my blog reading, and I don’t know if any tool out there offers it yet.

That is – the ability to make a list of blogs to read made up of one blog post per blog.

There are some blogs I read where the blogger posts once a day while others blog every few days.  Some blog more than once a day.  I want to find a more equitable distribution method, where I at least see the most recent blog post for each blog when I decide I have time to read blogs.  I don’t want to miss, for example, one of Marty’s Snowy Sundays or Scooter Sundays.  At least, I don’t want to have to wade through 7 posts from one of the faithful daily bloggers before getting just one of the kinda-weekly bloggers. 

Maybe it’s better explained this way: if I have time to read 25 posts, I’d rather hit 25 blogs, not just the most recent 25 blog posts from 25 blogs, because inevitably, I’ll miss someone.

So, I end up doing this manually, which means I fail.  I fail because the manual way is to expand out all the blogs, click on each one and try to just read one of that blog’s posts.  It’s so hard to do that.  It’s like picking your favorite kid – you feel bad for not picking all of them.  At least if the software provided an easy way, I wouldn’t feel so guilty.

What do you do?  What do you WANT?

Facebooked?

Facepalm?

Facewhahhh?

I got on Facebook because there are a lot of less-tech-savvy folks in my life who I care about keeping in touch with.  I’m talking about people who really don’t “get” blogs, twitter, utterli, or instant messaging.  Or maybe they “get” them but they really don’t care to dive that deep into someone’s online persona, or that it’s too much work.

For many people, Facebook leaves most of that other stuff behind because it’s just plain easier.

The average Facebook user doesn’t need to know about RSS feeds, tweet streams, instant messaging clients or anything technical.  They just use a web browser and they’re in. They’re connected.  They have friends. Then they get an invitation to be in the Mafia.   Who could want more?

The only thing I use Facebook for at this time is to re-broadcast my tweets.   My tweets rebroadcast my thoughts, my blog entries and my utterz, the latter two being also thought rebroadcasts themselves.

In one big huge way, Facebook is better than twitter because of the concept I like to call threading.

Twitter can do quite a number on a conversation (in a bad way), and while there are tools to help figure out a thread, it’s not intuitive. Facebook, on the other hand, makes the conversation very intuitive, and very public.  So public that people who don’t even know each other can meet, in a way.

Oh yeah.  The OTHER main benefit Facebook has over twitter is the email notification of replies.  Twitter can email you for direct messages, but not replies.  That’s a biggie.

Facebook is also apparently very addictive.  I’d like to share with you a glimpse of all the things I DON’T do on Facebook (for those of you who have invited me or tagged me with things and don’t understand why I haven’t responded, this may explain it).  These are the outstanding requests I have on my Facebook page, sitting there waiting for me to act.

Look at that.

It’s no wonder Facebook is so addicting.  It makes everyone feel so… so… wanted.  So requested.  So invited.  So exclusive.  So rockstarish.

I still have 6 friend requests from people who I have no idea who they are.  And it’s not like they’re strangers – oh no.  I’m sure I know them, online.  But I don’t know their REAL name.

There are people out there that have their online names and lives (poohbearextremeLOL) completely lived separate from their real names (John Quincy Doe III).  Facebook doesn’t allow for pseudonyms, so someone I probably have known online for 3+ years can send me a friend request and I have no idea who they are.

Or (this is the kicker) – I know of them online, but I don’t actually know them.  What do I do about those?  I still haven’t figured it out.

Maybe you can now see why I blurred out names from that thread snapshot above.  Those people?  I don’t know if they want their real names displayed.  Some I know don’t mind.  Some I know DO mind.

I’m sure if I let myself, I could spend as much time on Facebook as I do eating, walking the dogs, playing with the kids, hygiene, and commuting combined.  I think a lot of people already do.

Someone hit me if I get that bad, k?

Thanx to Dave2, I now know how to Trek Myself.

But what fun would that be? Instead, let’s make it a little controversial.  oh, AND fun.  Never forget the fun, especially if you can rile up a few people.

See if you can guess who this first one is

Here’s another one I made. Can you spot the speech?

hmm, I wonder if the colorful skin gives it away.

Here’s the next in the series, where Jaden gets in on the fun (please do not call Child Protective Services).

And one last one simply because I couldn’t help myself

(btw, I made all of these external links because when you embed them, they auto-play.  Last thing I want on my blog is auto-play sound.  Well, maybe not THE last, but it’s in the bottom 10,000 things).

Hmm.  Once Upon A time, on this Windows 7 thing there existed absolutely no Windows Movie Maker.  I use WMM to make my DITLs, so it was kind of frustrating to realize that I was required to do more work just so I could do the work to get it to work.

That’s like me being the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude.

Being the savvy and worldly beta user, I decided to google about windows 7 and windows movie maker first to make sure someone else hadn’t accidentally deleted all their videos and set accidental fire to accidental baby kittens from installing the beta version and trying to create new content.

What I quickly found out was the version of Windows Movie Maker that Microsoft makes available is A) part of Windows Live (a collection of many online tools) and B) devoid of many advanced features that I depend on.  For example, I’m not a bit funny by myself, but Windows Movie Maker has that setting where you can make it “decently funny if a bit quirky” and I have mine set to 70%.

However, I also found out soon enough that MS packaged up the Vista version of WMM (2.6) for those of us who still needed the advanced features.  This made me happier than finding out Michael Phelps is more human than I expected and the media is more inhuman than I expected.

While I’m playing with installing WMM 2.6, I thought I’d give Live Writer a try – it’s a blog publishing tool that comes with the Windows Live collection and works with all sorts of blog platforms, including WordPress (which is what I use for this blog).

In fact, I’m actually composing this blog post with Live Writer.

About the only things I care about regarding blog composition that save me time when writing a blog post is A) indenting text (which it seems Live Writer does NOT support) and B) pasting in pictures.  I pasted in the picture above, so we’ll see how it looks.

It kinda looks freaky with the whole picture within a picture thing.  How did it do that?  And how far does it go?  I’m scared.  I’m writing in my blog about writing in my blog, so I guess it’s like two mirrors facing each other.

I’ve used Microsoft’s Word 2007 to publish blog entries before, mainly because it had a geek factor to it and it also supported all my special little styling whims.  I could also compose while offline (like when taking bus to work) and publish later, and I always had a problem with that on WordPress.  This seems like a suitable replacement. Oh, and if your luggage ever gets lost or stolen, Samsonite is also a suitable replacement.

Time Passes…

So now I’ve attempted to publish this entry as a draft on my blog, but I keep getting a 500 Internal Server Error.

I’m too tired busy to troubleshoot if this is a Wordpress 2.7.1 problem, a Windows Seven problem, a Live Writer bug or if it could be possibly explained by too much gluten in my diet.  (Wayne, don’t be so silly. Ack!)

I got this in email yesterday and decided that I’m one of the stupidest people on the planet since I keep getting the countries wrong.

As you can see, I’ve been able to choose Egypt and that’s about it.  So that’s one hint you get.  That will make you 2.5% smarter than me from the outset.

One of the nice things about this little “Select-a-country” tool is that it’s a learning tool, not a contest or game.  There’s no score; there’s no time limit.  You don’t have to vote anyone else off your island and you don’t have to create back-stabbing alliances and put down your opponents.

This would be cool to have for EVERY geography.

• United States
• Counties within a state (or parishes in Louisiana)
• European Countries
• Asian Countries
• South African Drug Areas
• Amsterdam Hot Zones
• Canadian Beer Stops

…it will not be televised.  It will be Google Latituded.

We are all Big Brother’s willing participants.

Check out http://google.com/latitude  and wave your freedom goodbye.  

But wave “Hi!” to me as we pass each other on our google latitude-enabled cell phones.  Maybe someday we’ll be notified that we happen to be at the same restaurant.

I’m helping a friend out with some email campaign management, Google Analytics, and some stuff like that.  (It’s not my forte, so if you know this stuff really well and would fancy a phone call or email thread with me to answer some questions, I’d probably pay pretty well for your time.)

Anyway, one of the contenders out there for email campaign management includes Mail Chimp.  So far, they win the interface design award because, man is it DANG easy to sign up and “get to know” their product.

Their welcome page comes complete with a monkey welcome, evidently speaking Monkese

There are links all over that help you understand this, view that, and learn the other thing.  The interface is smooth and easy on the eyes.  It even offers to sign you up for a free webinar, where evidently sending great contact can be easier than eating a banana.  (and yes, they actually link to a hungry monkey on Youtube for comparison.)

And up in the right-hand corner, the monkey’s feelings become a little more clear.

Now who doesn’t appreciate a little monkey love every now and again?

I still need to check out some others, like icontact, Constant Contact, InstantService, Soffront and a few more.  The goal is to send out an email campaign and track it and potentially collect more info from interested parties.  Secondary goal is to make it as cheap as possible.  

Again, any recommendations you guys have would be most welcome.

Or, if you’re interested in some of my sample test Monkey Love emails I’ll be sending with my free trial account, let me know that too – I’m sure I’ll come up with something funny to put into the test emails.

Oh, and Me love you.

Update: I think I just fell in love with Mailchimp.  Evidently, the fresh little monkey up top changes what he says.  Often.  and he’s a LOL-enabled monkey.

Update #2: Now you don’t even have to tell me you want a subscription – you can subscribe yourself!  And I might even have a surprise for you…

I don’t know if this is the coolest thing ever, or just an early April Fool’s joke.

Go to the Powermat site, and watch the quick little demo they have of the iPhone being set on top of the mat and it just charging.  Supposedly it will work with cameras, cell phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets, any enabled device.

Seems way too good to be true.  

What do you think?  Is it real?  Is it a hoax?  Is it proof that the government has been sitting on all the cool technology for years and just releasing what they feel like to keep people right on the edge, teetering between the massively stressful and the incredibly joyous aspects of life?  Kind of like velcro was?

They supposedly explain the whole gizmo on their Technology page, cleverly throwing out references to Tesla (what does 80’s rock have to do with this?  Oh wait, maybe it’s a power ballad thing?), magnetic induction (pulling babies out of pregnant mothers with magnets?  Sounds painful) and something called “optimized standby consumption” which evidently means I can efficiently eat while I sit and wait for my next flight.

How long until the first person dies from falling asleep on their desk, with their head rested on top of this ultra-thin mat?  

Or maybe we’ll be redefiningt the meaning of the “power nap.”

I sold a few things on eBay recently and was just plain AMAZED at the ebay/paypal/ups/usps partnerships that have grown over the past years.  I’m new to this “online postage” thing and “back in my day” (hehe) when we sold something online, gosh-darned-it we had to box it up and go to the post office and stand in line.

<Potter voice ON> And we didn’t even have a fancy computer drawing program to paint us a picture! <Potter voice OFF>

This time, however, I just accepted my paypal payment and from there saw the “print shipping label” link and figured, what the hey.  5 minutes later I was able to print a shipping label for USPS for $2.20, boxed up the item and could just stick the sucker in my mailbox at home.

That was convenience in a cup.

The second item I did?  Same deal, but even faster because now I knew what I was doing.  

Call me Shipmael.

Then I needed to ship a box NOT related to an auction, Paypal, or anything online.  Jaden (our 6yr old son) received a pair of Heely’s skate shoes for Christmas and was hella excited about them.  

And why wouldn’t he be?  I can’t recall how many times I dreamed of going through school halls or down the street with shoes that had wheels in them.  I knew I’d invent it when I got older and make a million dollars.  

Ooops.

Anyway, problem is, they’re a size too small.  So I go to the retailer’s website, and lo-and-behold, they have a great return policy for wrong size.  You just ship them the shoes with a note, and they’ll ship a replacement pair FREE.  They’ll do this only once, but that’s more than fair.  Did I mention they’ll ship us the replacement pair for free?

I box up the shoes and weigh the box – comes in at 3.8 lbs.  I go over to my trusty paypal account thinking I could just whip me up a neat shipping label and…. 

nope.  Paypal won’t do a shipping label unless it’s specific to a transaction.

Oh well.  So I go to USPS.GOV thinking I can just print me up another one of those fancy labels.  And sure enough, I can.

But only for PRIORITY MAIL.

What kind of crap is that?  For one, why is it more than eight bucks to ship a 3 lb box, even if it is just Parcel Post?

UPS Ground was about the same price, but I expected UPS to cost more – they’d get it there in 4 days vs 6 days.  Another issue is that I remember seeing a sign at the post office that said something like “packages over 13 ounces cannot have stamps on them” or some such, so it’s not like I was comfortable buying $8.62 of online postage and taping it to the box either.

A driving force in play here is that Jaden is without his Christmas present until the Heely’s can get to NY and back.  So the 4-day delta is a big factor, especially since I’m the one who picked out the original size and messed everything up in the first place.  Guilt creeps in, makes a bed in my soul and promptly starts snoring.

So I go with the $12.14 2-day Priority Mail option.

While I wait, I peruse the “features and benefits” of this shoe.  No-lie, these are ACTUAL PRODUCT QUOTES FROM THE SHOE.

• Slice through the skate park – ninja style. 
  um, you have to be a pretty imaginative person to equate a 6yr old learning how to skate on just one wheel per foot, flailing about through the park, hugging on every stranger, pet or porta-potty they can get their hands on to not fall down… with a ninja.  Especially a slicing ninja.  
• Synthetic suede and perforated leather upper with text-filled graphic. 
  mmmm, sythetic suede!  And what’s that you say?  The graphic is, hold me down from the excitement… TEXT-FILLED??!!?!! OMG!  I didn’t know graphics could be filled with text!
• Padded tongue and collar add extra comfort and support. 
  I wish all the asylums had that.
• Soft textile lining. 
  Hmm.  a lining made of textile.  You might as well say “this shoe is very shoe-like.” 
• PU midsole. 
  So does this mean the feet come pre-filled with stink? 
• Textured EVA outsole. 
  Best. Outsole texture. EVA. 
• MEGA graffiti wheel. 
  Not just a graffiti wheel, but a MEGA graffiti wheel.
• ABEC 5 608 bearings. 
  I have no idea what this means.