TechLifeWeb

Sites that I found interesting for May 18th 2009 through May 20th 2009:

• Windows 7 Virtual WiFi lets you connect to multiple hotspots – VWiFi will allow hardware adapters to act as separate WiFi adapters, thus giving the computer the ability to connect to multiple hotspots simultaneously. One of the most useful things you could do with VWiFi is to connect to a WiFi hotspot and also share the connection simultaneously with other laptops. via @windows7center on Twitter
• Ramp Up – Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program that will help you build professional development skills. via @Jere_Joneson Twitter
• BookMooch: exchange books and trade them, like a book swap or book barter – BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

There are so many articles around about how to find people to follow on Twitter. It is never clear to me why people are searching for some kind of instant friends list. You didn’t show up at school and get a Xeroxed list of people titled “Your New Friends.” It is the same on Twitter. There really is only one good way and it is mind numbingly easy. Go into your Twitter notifications settings and check it from the default (Show me @ from the people I am following) to Show me all @ replies. Save. Done.

I hear you scratching your head. How could this help? Because you will start to see people you follow talking to other people. Granted, until you follow that other person you will only see one side of the conversation but things start to look interesting and you’ll click through to find out more about that new person and then start following and being part of the conversation. Then those new people follow a slightly different circle of friends and you see them talking and add another. And so on and so on. Get it? It is all about finding people naturally.

One simple change. No need to learn anything new. Start following people you are actually interested in following. Make it your own micro community.

Twitter Replies Summary

• A reply in Twitter is any Tweet that you start with @username.
  You can reply to anyone even if they don’t follow you.
• Anytime you create a Reply in the proper way (see #1), the reply will always show up in the Replies tab of the person you are replying to.
• This is true if the person follows you or not and regardless of their reply settings.
• Putting @usernamein other places in your Tweet is common courtesy when you are referring to someone else on Twitter but is NOT considered a reply in any way.

Tips on reply settings

• To keep your recent time line clutter free, set your reply settings to “no @ replies”. Replies to you will always show up in your Replies tab.
• To keep up with conversations with mutual friends, set your reply settings to “@ replies only to those I am following” (default setting)
• To follow all conversations and have more potential to find more Twitter friends, set your reply settings to “all @ replies.” (This is the setting I recommend in this post)

Sites that I found interesting for September 4th 2008

• Google Updates Picasa And Web Albums To Version 3.0 – Google is calling Picasa 3.0 (beta) the next-generation of photo-editing software. New features include facial recognition capabilities.
• Mozilla Fires Back At Google: Our JavaScript Engine Runs Faster – Mozilla posted data from a speed test that pitted Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine against Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which should appear in Firefox 3.1.
• Save DVR-MS Toolbox – DVR-MS doesn’t work with the new TV pack and part of the reason for this is that a published API in the Windows Media Center SDK that is broken in the TV pack and with no sign of a fix being developed the developer of DVR-MS Toolbox Andy Van Till needs to raise a business impact statement with the hope that the number of users effected makes it a case worth looking at for Microsoft.
• Six Degrees of Separation Is Now Three – O2 asked adults across three different age groups — 18-25, 35-45, 55+ — to make contact with random strangers from areas all across the globe using only personal connections. By linking their shared interests, the participants were able to connect to that person in three person-to-person links.