Pownce is Dead. Long Live Pownce, #PW

This doesn't look like a part 3 look at Twitter, but it really is.

After the very poorly thought out decision from Six Apart (again I stress Very. Poorly. Thought. Out. Decision), the small, but dedicated Pownce community was scattered. Most of us have found a home on Twitter and as you have seen I and others have adopted the platform and are enjoying the simple flexibility given by the service.

For those of us Pownce survivors who have stuck around Twitter, we have found it becoming ever more difficult with the noise to keep track of that core group. I don't mean theres an issue of elitism or being cliquish so much as just being able to find each other. After a small exchange with some brilliant, resourceful and fellow Pownce refugees, we agreed to start using Hash tags.

And that's what brings about the subject of this post and final discourse into getting people acquainted with Twitter. There are two well put together articles here and here that will go into better detail on how hash tags work than I could ever post here. Hash tags have been used in Twitter to direct a conversation and to keep thought together in a coherent stream. One can use Twitter Search through the web or through many desktop clients to keep track of tagged conversations. Tweetdeck users can even create a group using a specific search term which works flawlessly.

A big example of hash tags at work was last week's inauguration of Barack Obama. Tweets marked with the hash tag, #inag09 were able to follow people that were at the event, follow well wishers, and keep a discussion together about the event. So how can this be used for the Pownce refugees?

#PW is that tag that has been agreed to originally to give this live action experiment it's first test run. This will either succeed or fail based on if users want to use this for any amount of time. I'm frankly hoping it's only a temporary fix, but one that can help keep an amazing group together.

Here also is a small list of the other projects born of the recent shutdown of Pownce. If you were a member, you'll be able to track the old gang easily by taking some time to add some more services into your social media diet:

Ning - Pownce2 You can even track this hash tag within the site!
Topixz - In Beta (please join) This is the closest thing that we Pownce users have to the old service.
Schmownce - We're all waiting to see what happens of this service
Tumblr - This has the freedoms which is an attractive micro blogging platform, but it's hard to communicate to other users. The biggest credit to Tumblr will be to open up the platform and allow comments without the complications of bringing in a third party.

Apologies to any services I forgot. Please let me know if there has been any other gatherings outside of my list for ex Pownce users.

History Made

As I watched with the world the overwhelming yet smooth transition today involving the most powerful political chair on the planet, I thought about what my comments and thoughts should be about this historic day. I was reminded of the outpouring of the democratic process when millions of people voted perhaps for their first time. I thought about the people that have bled and died to deliver to all of us that ability to vote and that ability to transfer power without overthrow. But one thought stuck out more than any other.

Now, more than ever, as I mentioned after the elections, we all need to do more to participate in our government. I honestly don't know a soul that can tell me who their representatives are much less how often they interacted with these civil servants. We do not elect them to make our decisions, we elect them to represent our decisions.With a President that feels that government and expansion of the same is the cure to our nation's ills, it is imperative that we all look closely at legislation and voice our support or opposition.

So once again, here are those links to not only find out who represents you, but how to contact them. People have been saying now for months, "Yes, we can", now is the time to make that an action, not just more empty rhetoric because we can. Americans have proven that we can do anything.


Virginia General Assembly (Google your own state, it's easy)
House of Representatives
Senate
White House 

25 Things You May Not Know About Me

I have seen in some social circles online a meme of sorts where people list 25 things that most people did not know about them.  I figured I'd take a minute and give it a shot. This was kinda hard for me. I'm really just simple and plain, really:

1. My first PC was a 486 Tandy.And I thought it was fast and a good deal at two thousand dollars!
2. My first internet connection came thanks to America Online.
3. The first site I visited? Yahoo!
4. My Mom proudly admits to stalking my Dad a bit before asking him out the first time. That's right, she asked him out. In the early 60's!
5. I've cried at 2 rock concerts. When I saw Live in 1996 when they played Lightening Crashes and in 2005 when I saw Iron Maiden. They were happy tears, overwhelming tears of happiness. Not very Metal of me...I know.
6. I have crazy vertigo and curl into a ball anytime I'm on a plane and it's landing. I'll never skydive, but I love flying. I love flying! And traveling! Take me to a beach for instant bliss.
7. My brother is the only person on this Earth that can make me laugh until I choke on demand. He also looks like the lead singer of Alien Ant Farm and Syler (from Heroes).
8. My first concert featured none other than Tiny Tim. It was at a circus and I was 8.
9. My favorite gifts ever? 1. Janine 2. My iPod  3. My first 3 wheeler from my Dad. I own my country roots now!
10. My best buddy just got engaged. I'm so happy for her and Sam and wish them a lifetime of insane happiness.
11. I saw KoRn in early '95 before darn near anyone else and predicted their super stardom.
12. I fell ill overnight before two very strange days. The day the Challenger exploded, and Sept 11, 2001.
13. I lost some close high school friends to suicide. I'm unfortunately no stranger to death and loss to suicide.
14. I was a part time disc jockey for two radio stations. I was fired from both jobs in glorious fashion.
15. My first job? Trash collection.
16. I have no desire to eat ice cream. My favorite dessert is a warm chocolate chip cookie or two and some milk.
17. I was training to be a volunteer EMT. I burned out quick thanks to watching Darwinism in action.
18. The best advice I ever got was from my Mom. "Seek yourself first and then everything else will be easier to find."
19. I love a good peanut butter and bologna sandwich or an egg  on a hamburger roll with jelly; both with sour cream and onion potato chips. Top that!
20. I let someone put my hair in quasi dreads after high school. It ended up smelling like a dead rat and I had to shave my head! You can't just...undread.
21. My biggest regret: Letting Mom and Dad down so much as a teenager.
22. My first official car was a '74 Chevy Vega.
23. I don't care for sleep. It just makes me groggy and feels like a waste of time.
24.  I didn't realize that I was a geek until I was 25. I fought it with a passion!
25. I owe most of my tech knowledge to Leo LaPorte. Tech TV was my cocaine.

Unforseen Twitter Post

I had intended on making a post on how to share media on Twitter, but that may have already been done for me.

Twitter Part 2.1: Sharing

So we all saw the events yesterday with US Air Flight 1549 which crash landed in the Hudson River not long after taking off from La Guardia airport in New York City. News reports came flooding in around 3:45 and cameras were there to to show the events as they happened live.

Fifteen minutes earlier, people on Twitter were already discussing the crash and this picture was uploaded through Twitpic . It was sent up by Janis Krums who was on a ferry which ended up being used as a rescue vehicle for the passengers of that ill fated flight.

This is where something like Twitter shines. I am no fan of citizen journalism, but when something happens like this, and people are savvy enough to record and send that to a community of like minded people, world events can be spread around the globe in seconds instead of minutes. We can now see news just about anywhere as it happens, not after it happens.

We have come a long way from print and now even broadcast media. Every day the world is becoming more and more of a community. What an amazing time to be alive, not only for those fortunate passengers, but for all of us!

It's a Tweet New World

Part 1 Twitter Peripherals

I made a statement recently that I think Twitter is going to hit the mainstream really soon. Celebrities, athletes, and politicians are now using and finding the service to be very useful. That means that as people that are in demand embrace new media, it will trickle down to the rest of us.

So as the rest of us come out of denial that this is a niche tool for geeks that like to hear themselves talk, I figured it was time to run a short series on some tools and tricks in Twitter and help get people acquainted with some of the lingo that's involved. This will be very basic, so I'm not going to talk over anyone's head, hopefully.

First, I did a poll of current Twitter users to see how they send their messages or Tweets (isn't that adorable?). After a quick informal review, most people still use the web interface at Twitter. Then comes people who are using Adobe Air applications such as Twhirl and Tweetdeck. A couple nerds are using the Twitterific app on their Macs, I have not had such luxury, but I have used their mobile application on my iPod Touch. The last group uses apps on their phones such as Twitteriffic, Tweetie, Twitterfon and mobile web apps such as Hahlo.

I know, that is an overload to people who have never used anything besides the website to update, so I'm going to talk about the apps and services that I use so things stay simple. There is a wiki showing all the applications you can use with Twitter. Above any recommendations I say go here first, and find the application that works best for you the user. Go to the wiki first!

On my desktop lately, I have been using Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is an AIR application that feeds your friend updates, replies, direct messages, but the feature that wins me over is the ability to create custom groups. With this ability, I can turn down the noise that comes with having following 300 people, I can just tune into the people I want to hear first. That is why I recommend this over other desktop applications.

m.twitter.com is the basic mobile site for those who have not moved into the smart phone realm and it works fine on my old RAZR. It's a very neat feeling to be able to send a text to Twitter and it updates your status. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. Now that I have an iPod Touch, I can use their applications. The iPhone was made for applications and having great Twitter apps is only half the fun.

Hahlo is the great web application for me with great functionality and I recommend checking them out, but as far as actual apps I prefer using Twitterfon. I love the look, the feel, and the interaction and it's been relatively glitch free for me. Plus it is the most simple app from my experience as far as figuring out what goes where and how to use it. That's what this post is all about, simplicity. Twitterfon is a great basic app.

Once new users get their hands dirty with these applications, they'll be able to quickly see why there has been such tremendous growth and get even more addicted to sending those Tweets.

And don't forget to add me! (mlewis106)

More House Pics?

Janine has done such a fantastic job cleaning up house that I had to show off a couple of pictures. The corner with the piano is all cleared out. It looks so nice. 

Here's our new entertainment center which can now house the flat panel, FiOS receiver, DVD player, and potentially a kitten or two. I'm also looking into getting gas logs for that fireplace. It's going to be so nice and toasty!

Speaking of toasty. We've been putting our new stove to work. It cooks everything perfectly. I made the best shrimp tempura the other night. That is one white stove though. We're going to have to paint the kitchen first. You can see the off white of the counter next to the stove and the wall.

One last touch to the new house. Our kittens find it sport to climb our front door screen. This was one habit that was cute for 15 seconds and then became a great source of aggravation. We had to break them of this little stunt quick.

And the last big project was putting all of our clothes away. We've pretty much knocked out that project so now we can have a nice clean, quiet bedroom. So now we're pretty much ready to start bringing in guests. Well, there is the guest room. That project will probably linger for a long, long time.You won't see pictures of that room any time soon.