Archive for April, 2008

links for 2008-04-29

April 28th, 2008  |  Published in Bookmarks

Mobile Browser Test

April 28th, 2008  |  Published in Announcements, Mobile, Site Performance, Web Development

We need your help for a research project we’re conducting at Cloud Four. Read more about the research and how you can help by simply viewing a web page on your mobile phone.

links for 2008-04-28

April 27th, 2008  |  Published in Bookmarks

April Meeting of Mobile Portland Monday

April 27th, 2008  |  Published in Announcements, Community, Mobile, Portland

Just a quick reminder that Mobile Portland is tomorrow at 6 pm. Visit upcoming for more details and to RSVP.

links for 2008-04-25

April 24th, 2008  |  Published in Bookmarks

links for 2008-04-23

April 22nd, 2008  |  Published in Bookmarks

How to find a Twitter First Post

April 15th, 2008  |  Published in Emerging Technology, Social Networks

Want to the find the first post you wrote or that someone else wrote? It’s easy.

  • Go to the Twitter page of the person whose first post you want to see. Take note of their Twitter username.
  • Look for the number of updates in the Stats section in the right column.
  • Take the number of updates and divide it by 20. (There are 20 updates per page).
  • If you have a remainder after the division, add 1 to your result. This is the page number you need.
  • Construct a url using the following syntax:

    http://twitter.com/[username]?page=[pagenumber]

  • Load that url in your browser.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Twitter First Posts

April 15th, 2008  |  Published in Emerging Technology, Social Networks

I’ve been introducing a lot of people to Twitter lately. The conversation when I introduce it to someone has a very familiar pattern:

Me:
Do you use twitter?
Them:
No, but I’ve thought about it. But I don’t think I would get much out of it.
Me:
I had the same thoughts when I started, but I’ve gotten a few business leads, connections to the community, and speaking engagements through Twitter. So I get tremendous value out of it, and it’s fun.

This reminded me of the way that Scott Kveton talked about Twitter during his intro at Ignite Portland. He said:

By the way, when I tell you about this, you are going to think this is the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard of—because everyone who Twitters thought it was stupid too.

That’s absolutely true. Many of the most prolific people on Twitter had the same thoughts as people who look at Twitter now and think it won’t work for them. I thought it might be interesting to go back in time and see if they tweeted about their impressions.

This sparked a series of re-tweeting people’s early tweets. Some of my favorites:

@marshallk “now if I can just figure this service out quickly :)”

@davewiner “eat ideas flying around”

@betsywhim “figuring out how to use this thing”

1st tweet from @jowyang: “Surfing the web” 2nd tweet: “sitting at home”

@ravenzachary “Is this more than a fad?”

@kveton “I’m sitting here trying to figure out why I’m using this … haha … :-)”

There are a lot of funny early tweets to look at. But the main reason I wanted to expose this was to say to people who are new that you’re not alone in wondering whether or not Twitter will be worth it to you. The most experienced Twitter users started out with the same questions, wondering if they had anything worthwhile to say, and if anyone would bother to follow them.

So give Twitter a shot and be sure to stick with it for awhile until you find your voice. Sometimes things that are valuable aren’t apparent until you give them a try.

links for 2008-04-06

April 5th, 2008  |  Published in Bookmarks

links for 2008-04-03

April 2nd, 2008  |  Published in Bookmarks