Find the Sleeping Schedule of Your Twitter Friends
Published March 19, 2010 @ 19:44 in Twitter

Yes, there's an actual website that promises to tell you the sleeping schedule of your Twitter friends. You can try it now at http://www.sleepingtime.org/.

Their algorithm "will determine the approximate sleeping schedule based on the time when he or she stays least active on Twitter".

Naturally, I put in my Twitter username to see when it thinks I sleep.

Not bad... I'm more of an 11pm to 7:30am guy, but midnight to 6 are definitely my core sleeping hours.

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Toronto Blog Watch
Published March 8, 2010 @ 21:04 in Twitter

As you can imagine, I try to keep my good eye on the Toronto blogosphere. That's why I raised a Spockian eyebrow when I saw @TOblogwatch pop up on Twitter.

Toronto Blog Watch promises "Observations and commentary about the Toronto blogosphere." Sounds good to me! It looks like whoever is behind Toronto Blog Watch has actually started tweeting, as a few new tweets hit my TweetDeck this afternoon.

This blog, by the way, has temporary immunity.

Who's behind @TOblogwatch? Anyone have a clue? Does anyone care?

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Twitter vs. RSS - That Battle That Never Should Have Been
Published February 22, 2010 @ 21:13 in Twitter

Back in November 2008, I created a Twitter account to test Twitter as an alternative to RSS. Would the masses use Twitter as a real-time push to blog entries over my RSS feed?

Here are the total number of subscribers right now:

1519 Twitter followers
272 RSS subscribers

I swear by my RSS feeds, but I've noted the hesitancy of the "average joe" in adopting this form of syndication. Twitter, on the other hand, seems to be more user friendly... less intimidating.

My friend and colleague Daniel makes an excellent point I believe is worth revisiting. He wrote this comment on this blog exactly one year ago this month.

Here's something that works just fine (RSS), it's a standard supported all over the place and it's essentially universal.

Twitter depends on one closed source company that still pretty much has no idea how to monetize their service (read: unstable), and it's restricted only to people using Twitter, obviously.

It just seems redundant to me: "Hey, RSS blows, I'm going to hook my RSS feed up to Twitter so that people can access my content in the trendiest, most roundabout and restrictive way possible". It's totally inefficient.

Wow I must really hate Twitter hahah....

Daniel did hate Twitter, but today he's happily tweeting at http://twitter.com/dtorreblanca/. After all, if you can't beat 'em...

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Mandy Muffin is a Lost Cause but Mz Kitty Demure Gets It
Published January 3, 2010 @ 19:00 in That Damn Pepsi Cheer, Twitter

While I enjoyed this afternoon's semi-final matchup between Canada and Switzerland at the World Junior Hockey Championship, I kept my laptop at bay to take a real-time pulse of the nation. That's why I love Twitter, you're connected to hockey fans throughout the country and can engage and interact as it happens.

Part of my battle against Pepsi and their Cheer Nation campaign involves saving the souls of those Canadians who have bought into Pepsi's program. One such Twitter user is Ms. Mandy Muffin from Mississauga.

From Ms. Mandy Muffin's Twitter profile, we learn quite a bit about her. How do I get me one of them panty seller jobs?

Official Mandy Muffin Twitter Page! Amatuer (sic) Porn Model, Camgirl, PhoneSex Operator & Panty Seller

Before you jump to conclusions, no I don't follow Ms. Mandy Muffin. I do subscribe to an RSS feed of a Twitter search for the keywords "Pepsi" and "cheer" and that's how I found Ms. Mandy Muffin. Check out this trifecta of tweets.

Clearly Ms. Mandy Muffin is Pepsi's target audience. She's bought their awful, unnecessary and offensive cheer hook, line and sinker. Naturally, I felt a need to reply to her micro Pepsi ads.

Ms. Mandy Muffin wasn't happy. She quickly replied.

I'm still confused by her "proud Canadian" comment. Was she suggesting that I'm not a proud Canadian because I don't want her tweeting and chanting for Pepsi? I replied.

And that just riled her up, as she began rubbing my face in Pepsi's cheer.

Luckily for me, I was defended by none other than Mz Kitty Demure who claims it's all about the music, the sports and the burlesque!

And you thought Twitter was for nerds.

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Forced to Unfollow Chris Bosh on Twitter
Published December 15, 2009 @ 19:31 in Toronto Raptors, Twitter

Chris Bosh is a fantastic Toronto Raptor, and for a while he was fun to follow on Twitter as well. He used to give us an interesting insider perspective, a glance behind the curtain of NBA stardom. He was one of the few celebrities worthy of being followed.

Lately, Chris Bosh is all about selling his DVD. It's tweet after tweet about where to get his DVD, RTs of people who claim they've got it and instructions on how to order this DVD. Chris Bosh has gone into inventory sales hyperdrive and it's forced me to unfollow him.

It's likely for the best. After saying goodbye to Roy Halladay this week, I'm thinking it might be smart to emotionally distance myself from CB4 now...

And Chris, if you're reading this, I'm glad you made a DVD and can make some extra scratch from it, but I understand you have another gig that pays fairly well. I'd focus my energies there.

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My Twitter DM Spam Episode
Published November 2, 2009 @ 16:58 in Twitter

I have 1198 followers on Twitter. Earlier today, I sent a direct message to each and every one of them.

To clarify, I didn't intentionally send a DM to each of my followers, but a DM was sent to each from me claiming I had made $424.23 online today and that I make money with Google. These were spam messages and I have no idea how they were sent by me.

I'm Googling the shite out of this, trying to figure out how my account was hacked. If anyone has any idea how these direct messages were sent from my account earlier today, I'd love to read about it in the comments.

And if I spammed you earlier today, I'm pleading ignorance.

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I Already Search Twitter on Google (And You Can Too)
Published October 22, 2009 @ 11:16 in Technology, Twitter

There's big news from Google that they've reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in Google's search results.

We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.

As I mentioned in April, my buddy wrote a great Firefox Greasemonkey script that puts real-time Twitter search results in Google. You can download it here.

Here's what I see when I google Toronto Blog.

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Miley Cyrus Deletes Twitter Account, Raps About it on YouTube
Published October 10, 2009 @ 20:58 in Twitter

I've been out of the house most of the day, so I completely missed the big news. Miley Cyrus, hero to young females everywhere thanks to her Hannah Montana persona, has deleted her Twitter account. She had over two million followers, but decided she didn't need the PR tool.

Of course, when one goes private and decides to delete a powerful social networking account, it's only natural that they rap about it on YouTube. That's exactly what Miley did. Here's her "Goodbye Twitter" homemade rap video.

If I were trying to make a living as a public figure, promoting movies, albums, tours and merchandise, I wouldn't go deleting my Twitter account with over two million followers. Last time I checked, it was the Twitter account owner who controlled what they tweeted. It's a tremendous PR channel.

And if I did have an epiphany and wanted to live life privately, which would require a career change for poor ol' popular Miley, I probably wouldn't record an awful rap song about it and put it on YouTube. That's likely to draw a little attention methinks.

Kids these days...

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The Dog-Eat-Dog World of the Toronto Twittersphere
Published October 8, 2009 @ 19:23 in Twitter

It's a jungle out there. You need thick skin to tweet in the ever-vicious Twittersphere, especially when representing the T.Dot.

Yesterday evening, as I checked the news in my RSS feeds, I learnt Ho-Lee-Chow had gone out of business. I deemed the subject matter blog-worthy, so I blogged about it. Every blog entry automatically becomes a tweet, so I also tweeted about it.

That's when she struck. @TorontoViewer shot me down with this deadly tweet.

That's right, folks. CP24 beat me to Ho Lee Chow punch by a whole two hours. By the time my silly little tweet hit hit the Twittersphere, it was 120 minute old news.

Umm... thanks, @TorontoViewer, for the shame spiral.

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Nowhere to Hide: BNL Calls Me Out
Published September 21, 2009 @ 08:58 in Twitter

I attempted to come up with my own list of the 200 best songs of the 90s. This was in response to a similar list published by Edge 102 / CFNY a few weekends ago. Admittedly, it was a lot harder than I suspected and I was bound to miss a few deserving songs.

In this day and age, there's nowhere to hide. I missed a couple of deserving Barenaked Ladies tracks, and guess who called me on it? @barenakedladies, the official Twitter account of BNL.

I've actually gone back to that list and made a few edits. Shoot over and throw your two cents at it, if you can. And BNL, I apologize for the oversight. I had the yellow tape.

Update

All is forgiven...

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