Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
How To Sync Twitter Tweets With Facebook Status Updates
Feb 22nd
Most of my friends think I live on Facebook and Twitter because they see so many tweets and FB status updates stream across both social media platforms all day every day.
The truth of the matter is that I spend 1/2 the time they think I am on both sites. How?
I have a Facebook-Twitter application which takes anything I tweet and it automatically posts it to my Facebook status immediately. Thus, my Facebook status feed looks well populated throughout the day and week. The truth is that I may not log into Facebook for a week at a time, but it sure looks like I’m over there (another great tip is that you can both read and respond to Facebook posts outside of www.Facebook.com with TweetDeck.
Now whenever I tweet, it will automatically sync my Facebook status update with the same thing!
1) Click on GOODIES at the bottom of any page at www.twitter.com
How To Bulk Unfollow Twitter Snoozers From Your List
Feb 20th
Twittering is a way of life. Either you tweet or you don’t. There’s no half-way in between.
You can’t just log in once in a blue moon and expect others to think you’re part of the Twitterverse community. What other group would embrace you with open arms if you showed up just 3 times in 2010 for example?
Spring is around the corner and that got me thinking of Spring cleaning for my Twitter follow list. It’s time to pare down my follow list to those that I really have a real interest, connection or excuse to follow.
I found a great little web-app at http://www.untweeps.com that lets you identify who on your Twitter follow lists has NOT tweeted in __ days.
Just input the cutoff and you’re ready for a 1-click bulk unfollow.
I filtered my follow list to see who hasn’t showed up in 100 days.
Just like that, my Twitter follow list was pared down by over a 100 people for one of my Twitter accounts.
There’s other bulk unfollow tools that let you see who’s not reciprocating a follow, those that are spammy, etc. But this is the first place I think most people should go when trying to clean out their following list.
What other Twitter UNFOLLOW sites do you use to manage your lists? Please leave a comment below!
Quickest Way To Look Up Movie Listings
Feb 19th
School’s out!
Winter break is here for the kids!
A whole week or two off to fill the kids’ schedules with fun stuff to do if you’re not going away on vacation.
A trip to the movie theater is in order since there are a couple of blockbuster movies that just came out and they pass the litmus test for child-appropriate as well.
Here’s a tip to find out which movies are playing now in your area:
Google has a search built just for movie theaters and listings. You can search by zip code, but movie, or by theater. There are links to reviews as well as listings for future dates so you can plan your movie nights out this weekend.
Just go to http://www.google.com/movies and type in your zip code to start your search!
A Buzz Which Can’t Be Ignored
Feb 10th
Logged into my Gmail account today (which I do rarely since I manage my Gmail email account through pop access both on my Windows Mobile phone and with Outlook on my laptop) and was pleasantly greeted with this:
It’s Google’s latest push back regarding social media is now integrated into Gmail: Google Buzz.
And of course nothing is buzz worthy if you can’t use your cell phone to pass stuff along:
The big question is if Google Buzz will become a turbo booster for Gmail or will it become another Orkut or Wave?
Twitter 201: What Can You Do With Twitter?
Feb 10th
Once you get past the initial learning curve required to really understand that Twitter is not just knowing what everyone eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you start to ask, what else can I do with Twitter?
There’s actually a TON of stuff for which Twitter is useful. That’s why there’s a social media revolution afterall. But the Twitterverse isn’t so easy for newbies to get on what seems like a speeding bullet train at times.
The best place to start for most is to understand that you can control what you get out of Twitter. It is not just a continuous moving feed of random tweets from all that you follow. Once you find Twitter Search, your imagination starts to open up for what you can do with Twitter.
Here’s a quick video that explains just a few practical things you can do with Twitter beyond monitoring your network’s latest moves and ponderings:
Comparing Apples to Apples in High Definition
Feb 6th
This is the big weekend. . . for Flat screen TV sales across the country. With the SuperBowl being held this Sunday, all the consumer electronics stores are pulling out all the stops in order to get a shiny new plasma or LCD (or even LED!) television in your living room in time for the big game.
If you are making the switch from an older 4:3 analog tv screen to the 16:9 format flatscreen TV, you may or may not know that you can’t just get the same “size” TV. Since TV screen sizes are measured diagonally, and the ratio of height and width are different on a 4:3 screen vs. 16:9 screen, you have to do some math if you want the same size tv image to look at (or larger).
So if you have a 32″ tv in your living room, you can’t just go out an buy a 32″ LCD HDTV. If you do, you’ll basically end up with a smaller tv, since your tv image will be shorter on the new 16:9 screen than it was on your current 32″ analog 4:3 ratio screen. You’re not comparing apples to apples if you’re comparing two different format screens.
Of course TV manufacturers and the guy at your local Best Buy don’t really help you out in this area and instead will probably just shrug their shoulders and try to upsell you on a tv that’s larger than you need.
So what do you do?
The internet to the rescue! www.ScreenMath.com has a handy dandy conversion table which lets you look up your analog tv screen size and it will tell you the dimensions you’ll need to get in a 16:9 format in order to match your current tv screen size.
Just as a FYI, the popular 42″ HDTV size that has largely become the “base model” for LCD, plasma and LED tv’s in the store today is equivalent to a 34″ analog 4:3 ratio television set.
So technically, the 32″ tv we have in one of the bedrooms only needs a 40″ HDTV to replace it at the current screen size. If we got a 42″ HDTV, it would actually be an upgrade in screen size for that room. That’s nice to know!
Once you know the facts, you’ll probably feel a little easier walking into the store to pick-up a new HDTV. It’s just one less factor to worry about as you’ll have to sort out all the other alphabet soup jargon as you compare all the different options on the table these days for TV’s.
Virtual Insanity: Facebook Edition
Feb 5th
The march goes on.
Social networks are continuously trying to climb the social ladder by upping the ante almost weekly. Any regular user has experienced the social media sites’ constant redesigning of their interfaces in hopes of getting us users to use their sites more than the competitor sites as well as just use them more often period.
For example, Twitter recently tweaked their retweeting feature, have added personal lists features, hover pop-ups and other small updates they push out continuously time goes on.
Facebook is no different. They just changed the “news feed” display by adding the “live” option (which no one I know has ever fully understood). FB has also changed navigation and various other things along the way as expected.
But I just logged into my Facebook account today and was pleasantly surprised to see the new welcome message on my Facebook homepage:
“Welcome to your new, simplified home page.” [EMPHASIS MINE]
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that “new, simplified home page” on Facebook. It was just plain scary!!
Why they do things like this? Doesn’t anyone over there do any sort of user testing before they push out new features and functionality to the entire world?
I’m sitting here wondering, just where in the world on this page do you want me to look first?
Ironically, there’s a “Facebook Lite” promo link at the top of the page trying to push a “fast and simple” version of Facebook.
I know, I know, these changes are happening because Facebook wants to compete with Gmail and email in general. The Google generation doesn’t email their friends anymore anyway. . .unless you want to attach and send a file (hint to FB coders, this is one new feature which would make sense).
But in the meantime, is it time to create a “I wish Facebook would stop messing with Facebook” Facebook group? Will you join? 