Monthly Archives: July 2009

7 things I did not know last week

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  1. There are more than 35 ways to do pushups.
  2. You can go to Gmail in Firefox by typing the letter g in the address bar and hitting Enter.
  3. ‘Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.’ Via Mike).
  4. MacArthur Park (one of Donna Summer‘s hits) was originally recorded by the late Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films).
  5. Microbial cells outnumber your own by a factor of 10. Via Richard Dawkins.
  6. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-L focuses on the browser’s address bar and select the whole URL. Works in Chrome and Firefox, would expect in others too but haven’t tried.
  7. And something I had a hunch about, and I’m not the only one: swapping the position of batteries in a device makes them last longer. Still scientifically unconfirmed though.
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My week on the web

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Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account over the past seven days:

7 things I did not know last week

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  1. Twitter only lets its users retrieve the last 3,200 updates they’ve entered into the system.
  2. Venice residents get free city-wide wi-fi. Tourists need to pay about $7 a day.
  3. The word oxymoron means ‘sharply dull’ in Greek.
  4. There are 100,000 people buried under Washington Square Park in NYC.
  5. Animal welfare legislation generally applies only to vertebrates.
  6. Excessive amounts of alcohol interferes with REM sleep.
  7. A trip to the dentist before brain surgery could prevent pneumonia.

7 things I did not know last week

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  1. Twitter only lets its users retrieve the last 3,200 updates they’ve entered into the system.

  2. Venice residents get free city-wide wi-fi. Tourists need to pay about $7 a day.

  3. The word oxymoron means 'sharply dull' in Greek.

  4. There are 100,000 people buried under Washington Square Park in NYC.

  5. Animal welfare legislation generally applies only to vertebrates.

  6. Excessive amounts of alcohol interferes with REM sleep.

  7. A trip to the dentist before brain surgery could prevent pneumonia.

I am going to Mars!

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I am going to Mars!, originally uploaded by bitful.

My name will be carried to Mars on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011.

NASA Lets You Send Your Name to Mars (Mashable)

My week on the web

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Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account over the past seven days:

7 things I did not know last week

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  1. Putting butter, mayonnaise, or ice on a burn is a myth.
  2. You can smelt iron ore in a microwave.
  3. In the first half of 2009 I covered 2% of the distance to the Moon.
  4. Actor Greg Grunberg (Heros' Matt Parkman) is also a social media entrepreneur.
  5. If you click on a link with your mouse's scroll wheel, it will open in a new tab. You can then close a tab by clicking anywhere on it with the scroll wheel. Works in Chrome, Firefox, IE (haven't tried other browsers. Requires a scroll wheel that you can click, of course.
  6. You can put a Twitter feed on your blog with Google Docs. Create spreadsheet, pull Twitter RSS feed into it, embed spreadsheet in blog. This also mean that you can use Google Docs to read RSS feeds.
  7. The method I sometimes use to shorten long cables is called a chain sinnet (or monkey braid). This means I can finally stop calling it 'crochet' (because that's what it is and how I learnt it).

7 things I did not know last week

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  1. Putting butter, mayonnaise, or ice on a burn is a myth.
  2. You can smelt iron ore in a microwave.
  3. In the first half of 2009 I covered 2% of the distance to the Moon.
  4. Actor Greg Grunberg (Heros' Matt Parkman) is also a social media entrepreneur.
  5. If you click on a link with your mouse's scroll wheel, it will open in a new tab. You can then close a tab by clicking anywhere on it with the scroll wheel. Works in Chrome, Firefox, IE (haven't tried other browsers. Requires a scroll wheel that you can click, of course.
  6. You can put a Twitter feed on your blog with Google Docs. Create spreadsheet, pull Twitter RSS feed into it, embed spreadsheet in blog. This also mean that you can use Google Docs to read RSS feeds.
  7. The method I sometimes use to shorten long cables is called a chain sinnet (or monkey braid). This means I can finally stop calling it 'crochet' (because that's what it is and how I learnt it).

Checking out iTwitter

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Another week, another Twitter app graduates to the home screen on my iPhone. This week’s is iTwitter, which might have been round for a while but I only heard of it yesterday when it was incorrectly heralded as the first Twitter app with push notifications (it turns out that IM+ already does that).

I checked out iTwitter, only to be disappointed when I found out that you only receive push notifications if another iTwitter app user mentions or DMs you. If anyone wants to follow me and play with it, I’m @bitful.

The disappointment did not last long, however, as I discovered that iTwitter is an iPhone application with a very attractive simplicity that fits the way I use Twitter on my iPhone very well. That is, I want to do few things, and I want them to be super easy (and work well).

Main functions

The first screen you see is the last you were looking at upon quitting the application after the previous use. I tend to leave it in the ‘Home’ screen that shows your friends' timeline and only four options:

  • refresh
  • mark all as read
  • delete
  • compose tweet

If you tap on a tweet, a few options pop up:

  • go to the URLs mentioned in the tweet
  • reply
  • retweet
  • favourite

iTwitter popup menu

Very handy if you have large fingers like me and have trouble tapping on tiny icons or URLs.

You need to go up one menu to select, among other options, to view mentions and direct messages. Here you can also start a search, which can be saved and it will then appear on this menu. This menu also lets you access an address book with everyone you follow, and another with everyone who follows you.

iTwitter menu

Direct messages

The only way I found to send a DM is by tapping on a name in the Following or Followers address book, which involves too many clicks and is also confusing because as far as I know, you can only DM people who follow you. I haven't tried it yet though.

@Reply threads

iTwitter sticks the original tweet (with smaller font and avatar) underneath its reply, which I think is incredibly useful when people reply to you, especially if you tweet a lot and the replies are a simple ‘Ditto’ or ‘LOL’. Unfortunately it only works if you follow the person who sent the original tweet.

Threaded conversations in iTwitter

Multiple accounts

You can add more than one account but you will have to move up to the top-level menu to switch between accounts. Again, not something I need.

I like this application and will probably stick to it. For the record, lately I have been using TweetDeck on the iPhone, which has a killer feature of displaying tweets grouped by whatever criteria you want. But I have recently unfollowed 40 accounts and I now get everything I want to read, nothing less, nothing more, so TweetDeck was largely unused.

Checking out iTwitter

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Another week, another Twitter app graduates to the home screen on my iPhone. This week's is iTwitter, which might have been round for a while but I only heard of it yesterday when it was incorrectly heralded as the first Twitter app with push notifications (it turns out that IM+ already does that).

I checked out iTwitter, only to be disappointed when I found out that you only receive push notifications if another iTwitter app user mentions or DMs you. If anyone wants to follow me and play with it, I'm @bitful.

The disappointment did not last long, however, as I discovered that iTwitter is an iPhone application with a very attractive simplicity that fits the way I use Twitter on my iPhone very well. That is, I want to do few things, and I want them to be super easy (and work well).

Main functions

The first screen you see is the last you were looking at upon quitting the application after the previous use. I tend to leave it in the 'Home' screen that shows your friends' timeline and only four options:
  • refresh
  • mark all as read
  • delete
  • compose tweet
If you tap on a tweet, a few options pop up:
  • go to the URLs mentioned in the tweet
  • reply
  • retweet
  • favourite
photo (2).jpg

Very handy if you have large fingers like me and have trouble tapping on tiny icons or URLs.

You need to go up one menu to select, among other options, to view mentions and direct messages. Here you can also start a search, which can be saved and it will then appear on this menu. This menu also lets you access an address book with everyone you follow, and another with everyone who follows you. 

photo 2.jpg

Direct messages

The only way I found to send a DM is by tapping on a name in the Following or Followers address book, which involves too many clicks and is also confusing because as far as I know, you can only DM people who follow you. I haven't tried it yet though.

@Reply threads

iTwitter sticks the original tweet (with smaller font and avatar) underneath its reply, which I think is incredibly useful when people reply to you, especially if you tweet a lot and the replies are a simple 'Ditto' or 'LOL'. Unfortunately it only works if you follow the person who sent the original tweet.

photo (3).jpg

Multiple accounts

You can add more than one account but you will have to move up to the top-level menu to switch between accounts. Again, not something I need.

I like this application and will probably stick to it. For the record, lately I have been using TweetDeck on the iPhone, which has a killer feature of displaying tweets grouped by whatever criteria you want. But I have recently unfollowed 40 accounts and I now get everything I want to read, nothing less, nothing more, so TweetDeck was largely unused.

My new workflow with Posterous

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I have been keeping a blog of some sort since early 2001. Over the last two years I blogged less and less, but used a number of other sites more to post photos, links, short updates, and to develop conversations arous them.

At the same time, I also kept looking for ways to get all this content together in one location. I tried a few WordPress lifestreaming plugins, and connected all my activities at Friendfeed. I also funneled everything through to Facebook, which to date is the location where my content gets most comments. Sometimes I connected sites together so that the content would propagate without me having to do much.

All of this was starting to get a bit too complicated, so when Steve Rubel switched his blog to Posterous I was inspired to do the same. Posterous lets you update many sites at once via email. You tell it which sites to update, and Posterous choses which ones according to the type of content attached to the email.

I am experimenting now; I want to see how Posterous handles multiple sites and have connected everything to it. If you are thinking of doing the same, please continue reading.

I have just emailed the following:

  • To: post@posterous.com (the email address that posts to all sites)
  • Subject: The world through a sink drain thingy
  • Body: A rubbish picture to test a new photo posting workflow via Posterous.

Attachment: a photo (3264×2448)

And Posterous updated:

  • Twitter with email subject and a shortened URL to the post on Posterous
  • Facebook with email subject and body, no picture but a link to the post on Posterous. Note that this is an entry on the wall, not as a status update
  • Friendfeed with email subject, full URL of the post on Posterous, and no email body but the picture
  • Jaiku same as Twitter
  • Picasa with the photo in a Posterous Photos album, no subject nor body from the email, no link to the post on Posterous
  • Flickr with the email subject, the photo with the original size, a link to the post on Posterous
  • Vimeo was not updated (I trust it would if the attachment was a video)
  • YouTube was not updated (I trust it would if the attachment was a video)
  • Tumblr with the photo, email subject and body, and a link to the post on Posterous
  • Delicious with the post on Posterous saved as a new bookmark, with email subject as header and body as text.
  • My blog with the email subject as post title, the body as an entry, and the photo, and a link to the post on Posterous.

This is helping me see that it works very well almost everywhere, but I might remove the autoposting to Delicious. Also, I will need to remove all the links between various services and FriendFeed, as it can now ingest everything from Posterous instead.

The big winner for me is the possibility to post from Gmail. If you do, check out the Zemantabookmarklet that provides the usual tagging/linking/image functionalities from within Gmail. Mindblowing.

Right now I'm keeping both my usual WordPress blog at bitful (but updating it purely from Posterous) and my Posterous lifestream (which I have redirected to my own unused domain. Will I dare let go of the last bit of control over my content (my WordPress database) and put everything in the cloud? I'll see how it goes and the I'll tell you. For now, it looks like it is simpler, and I like that very very much.

7 things I did not know last week

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  1. Tel Aviv is only 100 years old.
  2. If you search Google for ‘c’ you get the speed of light as a result.
  3. There used to be a United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve (between 1815 and 1822).
  4. Pavlova (the dessert) was created in honour of Pavlova (the dancer) in New Zealand.
  5. If you add the text string ‘eom’ (End Of Message) at the end of a subject line in Gmail you can send a one-liner message without being prompted that there is no body text. It works if ‘eom’ is followed by nothing or a non-alphanumeric character.
  6. The band Metro Station is fronted by Miley Cirus‘ older brother Trace.
  7. ‘There are now more money transfer premises in the UK than there are McDonald’s and KFC outlets put together.’

 

Posted via email from Luca’s Lifestream

7 things I did not know last week

Posted on by
  1. Tel Aviv is only 100 years old.
  2. If you search Google for ‘c’ you get the speed of light as a result.
  3. There used to be a United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve (between 1815 and 1822).
  4. Pavlova (the dessert) was created in honour of Pavlova (the dancer) in New Zealand.
  5. If you add the text string ‘eom’ (End Of Message) at the end of a subject line in Gmail you can send a one-liner message without being prompted that there is no body text. It works if ‘eom’ is followed by nothing or a non-alphanumeric character.
  6. The band Metro Station is fronted by Miley Cirus‘ older brother Trace.
  7. ‘There are now more money transfer premises in the UK than there are McDonald’s and KFC outlets put together.’

 

I am going to be British!

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I have been notified by the Home Office today that my application for British citizenship has been successful.

I got the news when reception at work called me to say I needed to go and sign for a delivery. The Home Office was returning the documents I had sent as evidence (payslips etc) and also telling me the good news.

The courier saw my name badge and asked 'Italiano? Io brasiliano ma origine italiana' and showed me his badge with a very Italian last name.

When I opened the envelope and learned the news, I thought it was quite apt that a descendant of Italians who moved to Brazil in search of fortune delivered the news to an Italian who found his homeland in the UK.

I called Stuart right away, then twittered about it (of course), then bought chocolate things for people at work to celebrate.

Then I went home where a letter inviting me to my citizenship ceremony was waiting for me in the mail.

I have dreamt of this for so long. I am the happiest I have ever been now. And incredibly proud that I'll soon be a subject.

Posted via email from Luca’s Lifestream

I am going to be British!

Posted on by

I have been notified by the Home Office today that my application for British citizenship has been successful.

I got the news when reception at work called me to say I needed to go and sign for a delivery. The Home Office was returning the documents I had sent as evidence (payslips etc) and also telling me the good news.

The courier saw my name badge and asked ‘Italiano? Io brasiliano ma origine italiana’ and showed me his badge with a very Italian last name.

When I opened the envelope and learned the news, I thought it was quite apt that a descendant of Italians who moved to Brazil in search of fortune delivered the news to an Italian who found his homeland in the UK.

I called Stuart right away, then twittered about it (of course), then bought chocolate things for people at work to celebrate.

Then I went home where a letter inviting me to my citizenship ceremony was waiting for me in the mail.

I have dreamt of this for so long. I am the happiest I have ever been now. And incredibly proud that I’ll soon be a subject.