Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

Not sure what it is – but I am not interested in Twitter since coming back from the beach. I will continue to post up my new blog posts to Twitter so my followers can come over for a read, but trying to strike up conversation is out.

I feel like it takes too much effort to try and get someone out of your followers group to answer you and actually have a meaningful conversation about something. Most people are following over 1000 people and probably have more than 1000 followers and so it’s like trying to be heard in an arena rock concert while everyone is standing around chatting and waiting for the band to show up.

I think that with some time off and time away from the blog/internet/twitter I am going to concentrate my efforts on 3 things. 1 – expanding my service company, 2 – concentrating on good blog content and 3 – moving forward with my podcast plans with my buddy Bryan.

Geek on!

I wasn’t looking for a plugin to tweet my blog posts but while I was browsing around today I found a new icon. It is from a service called Tweetmeme.com that lists popular tweet links on their web page. The listing of links on the website is secondary to me then is the ability for someone to easily tweet my article.

Some of the Tweet this type icons are very simple and do not offer a number of tweets. I like the Digg style icons that tell you how many times this article has been Dugg. This is what Tweetmeme has incorporated into their link and now you too can retweet on TheSleepyGeek.com.

I was able to install it quite easily by installing the WordPress plugin. It automatically placed it at the top left of every post like I wanted it to do (go ahead… take a look and hit the button up there!), but it does offer other locations in your post. If you are not running a WordPress blog then you can also take raw code from their site and place it into one of your templates.

I like the way this one works and it’s a handy item to have on your site.

Happy posting and happy tweeting!

How many hits will those two words get in a Google search? Probably only an amount that the Google computers can compute and that is the reason that the people over at TweetDeck have incorporated Facebook support into an already popular Twitter client.

I have installed the version that now has Facebook integration. It is not available as a standard upgrade through the automatic notification feature but can be downloaded here.

So far so good in my books. They have not over complicated their integration with Facebook, limiting it to just updates of your friend’s statuses. This is a good move in my books. In a review that I did over the weekend (submitted today, I know) about PeopleBrowsr.com I mentioned that it is great because it is the same on every computer but the extra features above TweetDeck were not really a benefit to me. This was largely because their integration of other features seem overly complicated for a program that needs to react and be used very quickly. TweetDeck has kept the Facebook integration simple and thus it is very fast and easy to navigate.

Now I have a conflict… PeopleBrowsr.com for reasons mentioned here, and TweetDeck for it’s continued simplicity.

Have fun with the new version Tweeps!

There are a ton of ways to access Twitter these days and many of the solutions offer advanced ways of organizing the tweets in a logical way. I have been a fan of TweetDeck for quite a while but I always found it a pain to set it up on each computer I use. I have an office PC, a laptop, a home desktop and sometimes I work on my wife’s laptop if it is the handier of the computers in the house. Having to install Adobe Air, then TweetDeck  and then configure TweetDeck like I am used to using it can be a real pain. Then there are other times when I have to re-do it because like a lot of techies, I format and reinstall quite often.

Most recently, while Tweeting about I heard of an alpha release of PeopleBrowsr.com. This is a website that is quite similar to TweetDeck in layout and features, but like most websites I don’t have to worry about configuration when I move to another computer. I think it comes down to the same reason that I use Google’s hosted e-mail; no matter where I am, I always have access to it and the configuration remains the same.

Knowing how to get somewhere and do something in a software that is meant to increase efficiency is the key to its success. The only reason that TweetDeck worked for me is because I invested the time in setting it up exactly the same on every computer I use. If not for that, TweetDeck wouldn’t have been as effective.

On the other side of the coin, if I were a person who was always on the same computer then I wouldn’t have made the switch. Other than the accessibility of the product, I don’t use many of the extra features. I am able to connect to other services such as FriendFeed but I actually prefer to login to the FriendFeed website and use their interface. The same reasons why PeopleBrowsr.com is a great access point for Twitter don’t apply to FriendFeed.

So a heads up for those of you who find yourself at more than one computer in a day. To be able to instantly jump into the Twitterverse as soon as you sit down, even for the first time at any computer is an awesome thing.

Note that this is still an alpha version and is prone to bugs. I haven’t found anything that is stopping me from using it in the last week. It is also only compatible with Firefox and Safari at this point.

If you are Canadian like I am then this sucks! I am sure that this is not the fault of Twitter but the fault of the wireless providers in Canada. To be completely honest they all are pretty bad up here. In a statement release on their site they explain the reason is due to cost.

Unexpected changes in our billing have forced us into a difficult situation with our Canadian SMS service. We can’t afford to support this service given our current arrangement with our providers (where costs have been doubling for the past several months.) As a result, effective today we are no longer delivering outbound SMS over our Canadian shortcode (21212).

The ability to update Twitter over SMS will still be supported over 21212. But we know that this is only part of the experience and we want to make Twitter work in the way folks want … regardless of where they live.

There is a realistic, scalable SMS solution for Canada (and the rest of the world.) We’re working on that and will post more details on the Twitter blog as we make progress.

I hope that they are successful at finding a better solution. Until then I actually will have to get on my computer to look at twitter. DOH!

Have fun, and Happy Tweeting!

• Bedtime, good night twit world! #

• Good morning twitter world. Today I am going to try and install OSX on a non-Mac. This is just for sport! #
• AAckkk, can’t get my wordpress to automatically update plurk.
  I just want to get my word out there as far as possible. #
• @Veronica Are ugly guys telling you that you are pretty again? Only you feel what you feel! #
• Listening to the Hip! Blow at High Dough, now Boots or Hearts. Come on all ye Cunucks! #
• Time to head home from work. Lots of things to do tonight before leaving on vacation on Saturday! #

• Had a good evening last night with my dad and family. It was his b-day. Then went for a late night swim with my wife. Pool was an awesome 80 #
• Does anyone else feel like this is the @chrisbrogan network? Chris, how do you have so much time for twitter? Keep it up :) #
• @chrispirillo ummm, no… no she can’t :( #
• Getting a Tim Horton’s coffee. They are too good! #

• Best Suzuki online dealer? www.brownspoint.com from NJ. Being from Canada that sucks but that’s not their fault :) #
• @tekknikk Where are you? #
• Watching Lewis Black on youtube. He’s so funny! #
• I agree. Pardon for George Bush? wow. #

• Why is it impossible to find Suzuki marine parts? I need it faster than online can give me. #