The Death Of Tweetdeck

Well, I guess it’s not technically dead. They were all “Oh it’s still online so it’s not like it’s really gone! Ha ha—wait, why are you all leaving?” Like we don’t know that they canceled the desktop version of Tweetdeck because they don’t get any ad revenue from it.

Twitter has made some really annoying changes over the years. The worst part is they aren’t awful. Yes, that makes sense, shut up. The changes they’ve made aren’t anything that would make someone quit. But they do make it a lot suckier to use. Case in point: stop calling Favorites Likes damn it this isn’t Facebook. And like dropping the desktop version of Tweetdeck. Yeah, it’s lame as hell, but you’re not going to quit and trash all of your followers for it.

But I really liked being able to access Twitter without having to go through my browser. I especially liked the fact that it presented your lists in easy to read columns where you could keep your important/interesting follows separate from the ones that are basically spambots. Overall, I liked the convenience and presentation of Tweetdeck more than Twitter itself. So obviously I’m going to find something to replace it rather than use the damn browser version. Seriously, Twitter must think I’m stupid.

And that’s how I found Janetter. It’s basically another Tweetdeck, but…well, it’s not a perfect one. Here, let me break it down for you:

Pros

---Can hit enter to tweet again. The fact that you couldn’t do that on Tweetdeck really bugged me.

---Has little wavy lines to show when you’ve caught up to tweets that you’ve already read.

---Still calls Favorites Favorites. Honestly, this may be the clincher.

Cons

---The settings aren’t very intuitive, so they can be hard to figure out.

---Does not show favorites or RTs : (. Unless there’s some way to do it through the settings that I can’t figure out (see above).

---Can’t click on a tweet and see all the responses to it. Kind of annoying that you see a response and can’t figure out what it’s for without going to Twitter.

---Interface is a bit jerky, and it can be slow at displaying new Tweets.

So that’s it. In all, it’s an acceptable substitute. Plus we have Favorites. I really, really like that.

Ads

I have been soooo sick of online ads lately. If I leave my laptop unmuted, I get attacked by obnoxious sound ads. And don’t get me started on the hated pop-ups. It’s like, advertisers think that if they make the ads obnoxious enough, we’ll pay attention to them, which is some sort of logic I can’t wrap my head around, like string theory or why Law and Order: SVU is still on.

But! There are ways to block them. Adblock Plus is considered one of the best, and it’s available as extensions for all browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera if you have to be different. As for Explorer...well, I’m sure it works, but if you’re using Explorer, that’s an entirely different problem and frankly, you’re asking for trouble. Adblock is good because you can adjust it to allow non-intrusive ads (e.g. regular banner ads) so the sites you visit still get their ad revenue. I follow a lot of independent web comics and I want to support them, so it’s a good option. Just remember you have to go into options and adjust it manually.

So that’s enough unpaid shilling for today. Ads mostly suck. And if advertisers really want their messages  heard, they need to stop being so obnoxious.

I’ll be more wordy on the next post. Later!

Random Thoughts

---Yay! It’s strawberry season!

---Oh, adverbs. Get the hell out of my MS. And take the –ing words with you.

---Granted, there are occasions for them. But not as many as I have adverbs.

---“Pleonasm is the use of redundant, unnecessary words to express an idea!” Have I told you I’ve been reading Dinosaur Comics lately? ‘Cause it’s all kinds of awesome. To wit: Ryan North has managed to use the same six panels almost every day for nine years and still be interesting and creative. That’s some five star writing ability right there.

---Apparently, it’s not only society who has a prejudice against left-handed people. It’s nature, too. Higher incidences of mental disease and they get sick more often. Poor lefties do not get a break.

---Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for stiff penalties for drunk driving. But…45 years? Okay Texas. We get it. You’re the toughest.

---Are weaksauce and awesomesauce in the dictionary yet? Because they need to be. You know. Instead of stupid frigging ginormous.

---If I had a mortal enemy, it would be the word ginormous. Also NBC.

---They know why.

---“Ooh, I really don’t want to miss this seven hour concert, honey.”

            “Me either. But we have this baby. Should we get a sitter?”

            “Nah. We’ll park in the shade and lock him in the trunk. He’ll be fine.”

---While not worse than having no bandages at all, band aids aren’t very good at what they’re supposed to do, namely keeping the wound moist (uh oh, I used it…you know it’s got to be gross).

---Scientists finally figured out why Guinness bubbles fall instead of rise. Also, they cured all forms of cancer. What? They didn’t? Cancer’s still out there? AIDS too? Heart disease, diabetes? Sorry. I must’ve assumed.

Blocked

On Twitter the other day, I commented that I was having a little writer’s block—the words are there, but I can’t seem to get them out (the only consolation is that the resulting frustration is fuelling my ideas for blog posts, so there’s an upside to everything). I know where the story is going, I have a good grasp on the characters, I can picture the scenes in my head, but when I sit down in front of the computer…boom, it all goes out of my head.

Part of the problem is the thrall of the internet. I look at something when I’m supposed to be writing and I get distracted. Then later on, all I want to do is go back and I can’t think enough to write, and missing one day is enough to screw up my whole flow. It’s a problem.

If I had advice to give from this, it would be: don’t break your writing schedule for anything. Granted, this isn’t always possible (especially for those of you with kids…happy summer vacation, by the way) but you have to have discipline. Or at least I do, and there’s probably someone out there who this also applies to.

Habit-habit-habit. Keep writing. When you can’t visualize a scene, write another one, even if it doesn’t come for another ten chapters. Write something else, maybe a short story, just to keep your fingers moving. Write blog posts about how you have writer’s block and possible ways to break said block. Keep the story in your mind and stay away from the internet. Especially TVTropes, the foul temptress.

How do you deal with writer’s block? Do you have any ways to keep it at bay?

Yes, It Happened Again

This is a piece I call "What Happens to the Writer When the Internet Gives Out After Shelling Out Seventy Dollars for a New Router".

The hammer is named "Righteous Fury"

My wrath is undying, internet. Remember that.

Finally!

My internet is being soooo annoying. It completely cut out last weekend and then yesterday I fixed it, but I don't know how so if it happens again, I'm going to be stuck trying things until it works again. So if I disappear again, that's why.

Honestly, it's disconcerting to be away from the internet when you're so used to going on every day. No emails, no webcomics, no news, no Twitter! What will I do when there's no one forced to listen to my every petty complaint because they Follow me? I think up all these things to say and there's no one to enjoy my wit. I could call people up on the phone but I can never say the things I think, only type them. My speaker isn't well-connected to my thinker. It must have the same modem as my internet provider.

And while writing can be done as long as I have a keyboard and a computer, there's no easy way to do research. How am I supposed to know the effects of explosive decompression on the human body without Google, huh?

In summary, without the internet I goes the crazy. I hope to see all of you later. If I don't, well...I'm sure you'll read about what I did before they lock me up and throw away the key.

From the Spamfiles

Spam is a constant in internet life. You can’t even tweet certain words without getting messaged with a million shady links. Although in my opinion, the stuff in my email spam folder is much more hilarious, as you can see from the following list of actual things spammers have tried.

Warning: sarcasm rises to dangerous levels towards the end.

“Your account has been suspended.”

This one can come from anywhere. Banks (including ones I don’t have an account in), Facebook, PayPal (nope, no account there either), you name it. The links always seem legit, but they only go to dummy sites that probably download viruses onto your computer if you even look at them.

“you aren’t going to beleive this but Im stuck in Spain and i need 1500 euros and i hate to ask but could you send it to me?”

Supposedly from a fellow writer who I knew, from her blog posts, wasn’t in Europe. The entire feeling of the letter was that it was written by someone who didn’t know English very well. Come on. If you’re going to try to con me, at least put some effort into it.

“OMG great Facebook post.”

A, I don’t have a Facebook page (although I’ve also gotten this for supposed tweets). B, it’s always from “Australia.com.” While I do know people from Australia via the internet, somehow I doubt everyone in the country has an email at the same domain.

“I would like you to become my guardian and have access to all my millions. All I ask…”

Wow. A deposed princess who is in danger of being killed by her greedy uncle. Can you say “cliché”? That story wouldn’t fly for an agent and it’s not going to fly for me.

“You have won the British Lotery!”

I get this one a lot. And yes, I meant to spell lottery that way because that’s usually how I get it. And to think, I didn’t even know I was entered! And all I have to do is send you money for taxes? That makes perfect sense!

“Dear most trusted friend…”

Someone calls me friend just has to be trustworthy. You don’t throw that word around. Sigh…come on spammers. Give my intelligence some credit. Oh well. I suppose it’s good that they’re easy to spot.

Do you have any funny spam stories to share? Or do you not find them as ridiculously hilarious as I do?

How Much Is Too Much II: Everyone Is A Potential Stalker

Alternate title: A Paranoid’s Guide to the Internet.

Yesterday I wrote about the influence of each word we type. Today is a similar topic, but more along the lines of being safe online.

We all hear horror stories of the internet. Someone’s credit card numbers were hijacked. Another lost all her data to a bad virus. Yet another actually believed a Nigerian prince wanted his help. And there are new scams all the time.

There are also those who might follow you, scrounging up every piece of information you have to find where you’re vulnerable. A tweet that you’re heading out to a family reunion may seem harmless, but it’s also a big, neon sign saying, “My house is empty! Burglarize it!”

You might go, “Well, it’s not like anyone actually knows where I live.” Except, you know, if they Google you, maybe see what state you live in on your LinkedIn profile, then what town you live in by your blog post on how the governor made a speech at the local high school and you got a picture with him. Then it’s just a matter of looking you up on the online yellow pages or, if you don’t have a land line, maybe they caught your house number on your Facebook page and can look it up from there. You might think that no one will go through all that trouble…but they do. All the time.

If you click that “add your location?” button that seems to be on every social network site, just roll out the red carpet.

This all might be a little paranoid. Perhaps so. I just wish I didn’t read about these things happening to people.

Every word we type can resonate in our lives.

Websites for Writers

Whew. I spent the morning fighting the scourge of ants in the kitchen. Unpleasant. But that's not what you came here for. Let's talk about Skype. Again, not a website, per se, but a useful internet tool. Skype is for talking to someone over the internet, kind of like Chat Roulette without the roulette. And inappropriate behavior.

Yes, it’s like using the phone, but the basic version Skype is free (or at least, it costs as much as you pay for internet usage) and can be used for video conferencing. It’s great for things like conversing with your critique partner or a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

Like I said, the basic version is free, which means you can talk to anyone who also has Skype. You can sign up for extra features that basically turn it into a replacement for a phone service.

Full disclosure: I haven’t used Skype. But I have friends who swear by it and I certainly see its usefulness. If you want to keep keep in touch with someone far away, it sounds great.

Distraction Friday: And Now For Something Completely Different

I was supposed to be writing this post yesterday. I had a nice idea in mind, too. But I was feeling a little bored with...well, the internet. I took an "internet break." My laptop was still on and I was writing, but I wasn't looking up anything, I stayed away from Twitter (gasp!) and even Blogger (shudder...sorry for the lack of replies, by the way).

I know. It doesn't make sense when I type it out. But sometimes, one needs a break from social networking and internet distractions. So that's why for this Friday, the distraction is...turning off your internet connection.

The insanity! Still, a break is nice. I like visiting all my friend's blogs and reading their tweets, but sometimes I just want to be asocial and shut out the world. It's kind of nice, I have to admit. And here I am, back and ready to go!

So take a deep breath and hit the X in the upper right hand corner of your computer screen. You don't have to leave a comment. Distract yourselves with the joys of the non-internet.