cha0tic stuff

One of the webcomics I read, Bear & Kitten, has a story line involving a TV Programme called 'Iron Chef'. A programme I've not seen. A programme I've manged to find on 'You Tube'. Check it out. It's mental, a bit like American Wrestling meets 'Takeshi's Castle' only for chefs. Pay special attention to the American Football style comentary. The flowery language used when they describe the presented dishes and the Comments from the judges. I'm sure something is added in translation.

 I'd forgotten I'd registered with a thing called Skitch, for a go at their beta. It's a way to grab bits of Web pages or your desk top & draw on them. Well a bit more than that actually.
    Rather than me trying to explain what it does, pop along to the Web site to see if it'd be any use to you, as I have 2 invites to give away. This will save you having to wait after signing up.
    It only works on Mac I'm afraid. Drop me an e-mail if you're interested. First come first served.

...some files between 'phone and 'puter and find that there are 2 'phones within range of me besides mine. One called TEXAS RANGER and another called GHOST RIDER. (their capitals) I've not heard Country and Western Music from any of my neighbours.

OK the post before explains a bit about what Twitter does. Twitter also has quite a few add-ons, made by clever people that aren't twitter. It's something to do with their API, whatever the hell one of those is. I'm not clever enough to make something using the API thingy, but I can use stuff made by the brainy people that can. So can you if you like.

The one I've been playing with recently is something called Twitterfeed.

Twitterfeed is a way to get an RSS feed from say your blog and make it beam out via Twitter.

The way I've set mine up is so that updates on my Blogs get fed out via Twitter. I'm not egotistical enough to think that, my blatherings online are important enough that people will want to be instantly updated every time I spout some nonsense here...

But.

If you would like to know (Within abut half an hour) that I've updated, sign up for Twitter & start following cha0ticstuff on your Mobile :)

OK a trivial use, but Twitterfeed will punt out via Twitter most things that have an RSS feed, Stock quotes, Weather News, Sports results etc. It's another one of those things that exists & it's up to you to see if it's of any use to you.

Regular readers will know I like my interweb & playing with geeky stuff. I've had Twitter for a while, you may have noticed the Twitter thingy in the side bar. I'm not a technical Author, but hopefully this entry will give you some idea of what it's about. As with any interweb thingy, it might not be for you. My Bro' doesn't see the point of 'FaceBook', sometimes I agree with him :)

Twitter is a Micro Blogging and Moblogging Service.

With Twitter you can post using your bog standard mobile phone, as it accepts SMS messages, you don't need a fancy phone that can send MMS, E-mails or get online. Obviously it costs whatever your network charges you to send a text.

You can also post to Twitter if you're online & signed in to your Twitter page. See the picture below:

If you set your Twitter up right, you can also post via an IM service such as MSN, AIM, Gtalk etc.

OK so you've posted your 'Tweet' (thats what they call them) What's so neat about that? Isn't it just like a tiny blog?

Well there are badges that you can put on your blog or Website that update when you post a Tweet. Just like that box in the sidebar on this page. kind of handy if you just want to make a short post when you're out and about.

You can 'Follow' people on Twitter & direct message people on Twitter. If you're following someone on Twitter, when they update you get a message sent to your Phone via SMS, or on your IM service. Depending on how you've set it up.

So what?

Well Twitter is one of those things that exists, that you can use however you want. If you've got a group of mates following you on twitter they all get your update when you post, so you can use it as a group messaging service for the cost of one SMS. You can Direct message, so you don't have to post to the whole group. You can use it as a moblogging service. If you're a band you can use it to update your fans who are following you if you've got a new album coming out, or a Gig. Use it to meet up with pals on a night out by sending one message, rather than lots of messages. If you're running a conference & you want to get a message out to all the delegates get them to sign up & you can give them up-to-date information about schedule changes etc. It really is open ended.