Our Geek Life

Twitterface Beta – Initial Impressions

Posted by hegeek at July 4th, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Twitterface, “a web-based, personally-branded, multi-account Twitter interface”, launched its public beta on July 1.  Being a bit of a Twitter addict, I felt compelled to try it out and see what all the hubbub was about.

According to the the Twitterface website:

Twitterface gives you the ability to design your own interface. When you show people this cool, new tool, your brand will be front and center, and you control the place you run in and out of all day long.

We also make it easier for you to view and respond to multiple accounts, and to track things like conference tweets, because you can see up to 3 accounts on your page, and change what you’re viewing in a snap.

Does the beta live up to this claim? In short, yes it does. And I’d say it can only get better from here.

Let me begin this review by telling you what Twitterface is NOT:

It’s not Tweetdeck. It’s not Seesmic. It’s not Destroy Twitter. It’s not Twhirl. It’s not any third party software/app that requires Adobe Air to work. Because it is none of these things, I won’t compare it to apps that reside on a different platform altogether.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the quick summary. (more…)

Wordpress 2.7

Posted by hegeek at February 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

Wordpress 2.7

Recently, we have started using Wordpress 2.7 as more of a Content Management System to power our client websites as well as our personal projects. What was once a pure blogging tool, Wordpress, in its latest iteration of 2.7, has taken a huge leap forward in its flexibility of configurations, template deployments, plug-ins, and also it’s extremely-easy-to-use administrative control panel. 

I used Wordpress in the past back in the days when blogging was all the craze. It still is the craze, but it’s more mainstream these days. I’m referring back to 2004 when I was using the software writing a personal blog. I also used Movable Type, Blogger, and a few other blogging software programs as well. Of late we have used Joomla and Drupal and have begun looking at Expression Engine. We’ve even tinkered with phpBB as a CMS program. 

For the time being, Wordpress 2.7 and up will be our/my software/CMS of choice in setting up new personal project sites, client sites and will also be recommended to folks looking for a good blogging application or CMS program. It’s just that good.

Tweet Scheduling – Bogus or Brilliant?

Posted by shegeek at February 26th, 2009 | No Comments »

Are there tweeple out there who are so addicted to the microblogging/social networking/”if it’s happening in my life everyone wants to know about it” macrocosmic universe known as Twitter that they are in dire need of a productivity tool that allows them to schedule their tweets?  According to Dewald Pretorious of TweetLater.com, there most certainly are, and they most certainly do!!

I’m not sure how I feel about creating tweets in advance and scheduling them for publication somewhere down the road.  It seems almost…dirty in that “no one needs to know I’m reading the end of the book first” sort of way.

It’s a Scylla and Charybdis sort of thing with me.  The beauty of Twitter is the soundbyte-driven, “you’re in my headspace reading my thoughts” experience; the ”L0L my V-Chip has gone berserk” type of commentary.  Scheduling tweets dissolves the impromptu  naked emotional quality that I have come to know and love.  On the other hand, I am intrigued by the possibilities that pre-scheduling tweets might expose.  Tweetlater does more than just schedule tweets.  It can track keywords in the public Twitter stream as well as send automated thank-you notes to new followers.

Always being one to try things just because I can, I have signed up for an account.  I’ll give my review after I have tried to break it in at least 2,796 different ways and explored every  possible cranny of every nook of the functionality.  In the mean time, if you want to play with it yourself, hop on over to TweetLater and sign up!!   And tell ‘em SheGeek sent ya!