Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

I am spending a couple of hours tweeting and surfing while my buddy borrows a computer to check his email. While doing so I saw a website fly by on Twitter. Like I normally do, I hit the link and then immediately went back to Tweetdeck to read some other posts. I leave my stuff rot in Firefox sometimes for ever just because I am busy with other things. But another tab won’t hurt right?

Well this tab was there for over an hour and I had forgotten about it. Pointing to http://visibletweets.com/ I inadvertently clicked on it. It was a clean site, so I put in my twitter ID and just watched. This is an amazing thing to watch. Sit back, relax and enjoy the great programming.

After you have come back to reality, you realize that this site actually is more than just pretty. One of the animation options in the top right of the screen is “cloud”. So if you entered your ID as the search critera then you can see what other words in posts about you are being referenced more. VERY COOL.

Have fun with it! And above all, appreciate the good craftsmanship here ;)

From a high school friend of mine. I couldn’t agree more with this comedic depiction of my reality!

Automated: “The Day The Twitter Died” | Ara Pehlivanian.

And so without surprise, Scott Bourne is  giving away some new items within the next little while.

1) A second generation Firewire Drobo – value $500 (US and Canada only).
2) A ScanCafe.com gift certificate for $500 worth of scanning (US only)

2 great things to have, if you ask me the Drobo is an awesome prize because we all need backup and storage space! To be ellidgable you need to do the following things on your site:

1) Place a link on your website or blog to http://www.photofocus.com..
2) Place a link on your website or blog to http://www.mydl.me.
3) Follow me on Twitter. <- you’d be following Scott here, not me :)
4) Send this Tweet out ONE TIME if (AND ONLY IF) you think my contests are a good idea…

“Follow @scottbourne for a chance to win a Drobo, ScanCafe gift certificate or a RayFlash. Details here: http://bit.ly/cnWXt”

Simply by posting this and letting everyone know about it, I have sumbitted myself for the winnings. Note that I am Canadian so I don’t have much use for the ScanCafe.com prize. Such is life!

Go check out his post at http://photofocus.com/2009/04/20/contest-update/ for a couple of rules and conditions and them make sure to keep following him on Twitter.

Update – A tweet just came down and the winner was listed as follows “Congrats to @anasplayground – you win a FW Drobo! Thanks for following. I’ll DM you for shipping info. More giveaways soon.”

On my ever lasting quest to find new software, I ended up looking for another Twitter client to try under OSX. After a little searching I found Nambu, an OSX native app. The first thing I really liked about Nambu was the layout visually. Instead of the column method which is very popular among websites and TweetDeck like applications, they use a whole page layout with sections along a bar on the left (seen below). This allows you to look at what ever type of tweets you want on the whole page. This is one of the limits that bothered me about TweetDeck.

All these nice things to look at allow you to setup and organize your tweets in a way making it more piratical. When I want to see my friends tweets, that’s all I want to see. There is no real need for me to see all my replies/mentions and direct messages at the same time. Switching between them is also easy as mentioned by way of the toolbar on the side.

All this being said – I stopped using it after about 4 days. Back to TweetDeck I go. It’s completely due to the interaction speed. When I get notified of updates on TweetDeck I quickly bring it up and even though the tweets are squished into a column, I can have them read in about 20 seconds with a quick scan. Nambu was too slow to do this and lost out.

One of the most oft-asked questions I get is “Why should I switch to Linux?” It comes to me either via inbox or sound waves attacking my aural system every day. This has been going on for over ten years now I’ve heard the question from different locations on the globe, in different languages, from all ages, and in some odd locales. What is interesting about this question is that the answers, over the years, haven’t really changed that much. The order of importance has altered somewhat, but the answers have all pretty much remained the same.

via Technology and Computer Guide: Top Five reasons to switch to Linux.

A tweet just came in from @markshaw – “When Did you Join Twitter? http://whendidyoujointwitter.com/ Please RT”

Of course I go and check it out. Enter my name and poof! My twitterversary is tomorrow. How cool is that? It’s amazing how many small websites are popping up with cool tools to get information about your twitter account.

So go check it out. You might be surprised to find out when you joined. Either that or you have a photographic memory and then screw you :)

I was chatting with @Gordonamy today and she was talking about a friend who lost of their followers. Seems like another Twitter glitch and so after some back and forth about the horrors  of it all, she asked “@thesleepygeek hopefully, its a simple fix hey, how DO we back up our lists anyway?”

Of course that prompts a searching session and it brought me here: http://tweetbackup.com/.

This service seems to provide a backup that we all probably want. The problem is that after some digging it isn’t a backup if your profile. ***UPDATE (2-May-09): Read the commend below from Jonas*** This service will simply backup all of your tweets and all you have to do it follow them. Their server will automatically follow your account and record anything that you tweet.

Cool service, but don’t be fooled. At this point the only people who are backing up twitter accounts are twitter themselves. Someone please prove me wrong and let me know!

So you’re trying to build up a following on Twitter, but things like sleep, work, and bathroom breaks are getting in the way of your goal to out-update Scoble?

via Schedule Twitter updates with Twuffer and FutureTweets.

I came across this article on another website and it’s a really important question that some people don’t understand. This offers some insight into mixing different types of fish.

Will my fish be peaceful or territorial?.

I have had an aquarium on and off for most of my life. Most of the time we have has fresh water fish and for a stint we had 2 turtles. Aquariums are great for warming up a room by offering a peice of nature in your home. Right now I have an 80 gallon aquarium measuring 48″ wide by 24″ high by 16″ deep. I have spent a lot of time looking around for information on how to set up plants and what fish go with them. After a lot of searching I found a lot of information but noone who put them all together in a list. UNTIL NOW!

General Aquarium Sites:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/ – Typical about.com site that might give you just enough information to give you the aquatic bug
http://www.fishlore.com/ – Good overall page, lots of FAQs and beginners guides
http://www.aqua-fish.net/ – Large database of fish species
http://www.tropical-aquarium-fish.com/ – Good information for beginners
http://saltwater.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/Fishcare/Index.asp – Good information on fresh and salt water aquariums, might help decide which you prefer to start
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/information/freshwater.htm – How to start a fresh water aquarium from what type of tank to buy and forward

Aquarium Plants:
http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/ – An online store but still has good information
http://www.tropica.com – Has a large species list with good information
http://www.aquariaplants.com/ – Good tips about planting, choices and care

Specific Pages With Important Information:
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm – This is very important to know as a first time hobbyist

I hope these sites help you as much as they have helped me. It’s an amazing hobby to get into. An aquarium is a relaxing thing to have in the home and kids love them. My son is now an expert feeder (with dad’s help of course). It makes sense for families.

Update: A friend of mine was poking around and because he has just purchased his first aquarium he found this site!
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/home.php – Great page with a lot of good photos of tank layouts from the UK