Twitter: Explained

Twitter! What is it? How do I use it? Why is it so popular? Are there downsides? How have other people used it?

All these questions answered in today's post about this popular social internet service.

WHAT IS IT?

Let's go to the basics of Twitter. Like perhaps.. an evolution of Twitter.

First, there were blogs. Blogs, like this one, are articles posted online about a specific topic.

Meanwhile, text messaging technology was becoming more widespread. Text messaging is when you use your phone to type out little messages which you can send to another person's phone. They usually have to be 140 characters or less. Today, text messaging is huge. It is used by business men and obnoxious teenagers alike. It's a massive industry and people text message to vote for American Idol or to succinctly, briefly communicate with friends.

Then... two two technologies collided. Behold! Twitter is born! To use Twitter is to create your own blog that is updated via text messages sent from your phone. Each blog post is very brief- 140 characters or less. Because Twitter only works through your phone, you can update your blog at anytime! You can update it from work, or at a convention, or during a Congressional session! Hallelujah.

HOW DO I USE IT?

Step One: http://twitter.com/
Step Two: Create free account.
Step Three: Activate phone. Send a text message to the number they give you for your account- this updating is also known as "tweeting." Voila!

Optional step four: Check your cell phone service provider to make sure you have a good text messaging plan in place. If not, you may be paying 25 cents per text message.

WHY IS IT SO POPULAR?

It's a very hip way to stay relevant. As technology expands, mass exposure becomes easier and faster every day. As citizens become overloaded with things clamoring for their attention, short easy-to-read articles become popular. The shorter the better, sometimes, and Twitter is the next step for this new, attention-deficit way of communication. Tweets are only 140 characters! They lend themselves to witticisms! They are updated from your cell phone! You can update from any place at any time! There are thousands and thousands of twitter accounts, and some of them are written by famous people, some are written by witty people, and most are written by people hoping to be witty AND famous.

ARE THERE DOWNSIDES?

Well, yes. Your average person is boring to read. Do you really want to read that your neighbor "really wants coffee and is excited for Panera bagels"? Do you really want to tell the world that your daughter has "the worst diaper rash ever"? Uh, no, LAME and GROSS and DOES NOT RESPECT A NEED FOR PRIVACY. Seriously people, some things are better kept to yourself. Like your current location, opinions of people, and state of personal hygiene. The lines are becoming blurred as people seek attention and popularity, though, and often the results lack taste and class. However, this application is available to anyone, and dull people are everywhere. Now, they can bore the world for free.

Also, tweeting about current events as they happen is a popular twitter pursuit. However, current events seen through one person's eyes are skewed and unreliable. There's no screening process for the individual, no oversight or fact-checking, and individuals by nature lack the ability to zoom out and see the big picture. Plus, one-line tweets trivialize and bias events for the sake of brevity.

My final criticism is that Twitter-ing can be like passing notes in class. Tweets can be so dumb! It seems like a great way to stay relevant, but it can be a distraction and a time-waster. Celebrities are now using twitter as thinly-disguised promotional tools, which is a very non-creative use of a potentially very creative medium.

HOW DO PEOPLE MAKE TWITTER WORK FOR THEM?

For all its downsides, Twitter has some really innovative uses. The potential for humor is endless- brevity is the soul of wit, after all. DarthVader is a popular, very funny Twitter feed.


Celebrities often use Twitter for a variety of purposes as well. Shaq has a fun twitter feed that he uses to give away tickets when he visits new cities. He also uses Twitter to connects to fans. Other celebrities are not so much fun. Britney Spears' Twitter feed, predictably, sucks. Recent tweet: Went shopping in Coral Gables, bought some purses and sunglasses! - Britney.

On a more serious note, Twitter is an excellent way to communicate during disasters and emergencies. Phone lines often become clogged, and a simple "I am alive, I am OK" will do wonders for the blood pressures of loved ones. Recent disasters where Twitter has been successfully used: the Virginia Tech shooting, the 2007 fires in California, the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Hudson River emergency plane landing in 2009. Twitter is an excellent way to distribute authoritative information to people quickly, as utilized by the Australian County Fire Authority in February, 2009 and again by the Red Cross during the Fargo, North Dakota flooding in March 2009. (links lead to relevant Twitter feeds.)

The site Twitetterholic.com is a great site that shows the top-followed Twitter feeds. It also shows trends in the readership of each feed. The top ten is a mix of news feeds (for example, CNN's Breaking News), famous celebrities and The President of the United States (http://twitter.com/BarackObama).

Now that you know how to use Twitter, you can be a fully-functioning member of pop culture again. However, be warned: the line between using Twitter and being a twat is a thin one indeed. Please folks, use Twitter judiciously. Don't be another Britney Spears.

Gmail: Explained

The latest trend to sweep through the email world is Gmail, the free email service provided by Google. It seems to be able to do everything but slice bread, and if you talk to certain tech-minded young people, I'm sure they'll tell you that there's a feature that delivers homemade-sliced bread to your door.*

*Not an actual feature.

However, there's no denying that Gmail is huge, and it is becoming more popular by the day. In this post, I'll explain what Gmail is, what makes it so special, and I'll touch on some of Gmail's pitfalls.

WHAT IS GMAIL?

Gmail is an email website. It's similar to hotmail.com or AOL, because both of these places let you make a username for yourself (ie, CivilizedEngineer) and then it gives you an email address, something like CivilizedEngineer@email.com.*

Gmail is accessible through the website http://www.gmail.com. Because it's website-accessible, you can get into your Gmail account from any device that allows you on the internet. So you can access it at work, or at home, or from your iPhone or Blackberry or Palm Pilot. One day, when I am rich, I will be able to write a post on how awesome an iPhone is, and I will mention how much I love reading my email from my phone. However, my lack of bitchin' phone is not the point of this post, so we'll just move on.

WHY IS GMAIL SO SPECIAL?

Gmail has some features that are really unique and interesting. Some of the most popular features are G-Chat, Archiving and Labels. One at a time, shall we?

1. G Chat
Have you ever heard of instant messaging? The idea behind it is that I can have a conversation online with someone else who is also online. I would type, "hey." A window would pop up on the other person's screen. "CivilizedEngineer says: Hey." They could type back, "Oh, hey. What's up?" and so on and so forth. Well, G Chat does that, too. When you open your inbox, there is a list on the left side that keeps track of the email addresses you frequently use. If those people use gmail, then there is a little circle next to their name. If it's green, they're checking their gmail at that very moment. If you hover your mouse over their name, a little menu pops up. Click the "chat" button, and a little chat window appears in the lower right! Poof, you can talk to that person via G Chat. It's a lot faster that email, and Gmail will automatically keep all your conversations stored for you in case you want to re-read them later. Pretty neat, eh? Here's a screenshot of G Chat in action. (By the way, this is NOT my inbox.)

The three blue windows (and, randomly, one orange window) at the bottom are G Chat windows.

2. Archiving

This feature is sort of like... email purgatory. If you don't want an email cluttering up your inbox, but you're just not ready to delete it, Archive it! When you search your mail for a certain phrase or date, Archived emails will still show up. And you can access Archived emails. They're just not in your Inbox, sucking up space that could be used by more important messages.

3. Labels

Gmail does not use folders. If you keep all your emails from your boss & coworkers in a folder called "Work Emails," that's great. However, like I said, no folders in Gmail. They use Labels. I know, this sounds weird. "Why don't they just use folders? I love folders. They reduce the clutter in my inbox and I stay organized, it's great. GIVE ME FOLDERS."

Don't worry, I thought that too. Stick with me though- Labels are pretty cool.

So, let's say your boss sends you an email. You want to organize it. On the left sidebar, scroll down to see "Labels" and then click on "edit Labels." Make a Label name- i.e., "Work Emails." Then, open up this email from your boss. On the top of the email, there's a little tool bar. Select "More Actions," and under the "Apply Label" header should be "Work Emails." Select this Label, and poof! That email is forever designated a Work Email. (I know that explanation was long, but trust me- Labels are worth the initial confusion.)

You can apply more than one Label at a time. Labels are great because even Archived emails can be Labeled, and you will always be able to find them by clicking on that Label in the overall sidebar on the left. It's not a folder, but it works just like one.

THE PITFALLS OF GMAIL

There is a really interesting anecdote about gmail that comes from my sister. Last summer, I sent her an email asking her if she wanted to come to a Tigers baseball game with me. My sister loves Google, and the host of programs that go with it. For example, she uses Google Calendar to keep herself organized. After she got my email, she responded something like, "sounds good, I'll call you tomorrow." The next time she logged onto Google Calendar, it asked her "Would You Like To Add This Tigers Game To Your Calendar?" She had not prompted it to do this, Google Calendar did this automatically.

The obvious conclusion here is, "Google" reads your mail on some level. No person is sitting at a computer, reading your mail as it comes in. That's not what I meant by "Google." No, I meant that a computer run by Google is processing your mail as it comes in to customize ads and encourage cross-usage between different Google products. The official policy from the Google gmail privacy page is that "The Gmail service includes relevant advertising and related links based on the IP address, content of messages and other information related to your use of Gmail." (Bold added for emphasis.)

Also, because Google mail is different from other mail services, the features can be strange at first. Google is constantly coming up with new free services for users, and these can be weird to work with for a while.

However, I am confident that you will be able to use gmail confidently and effectivly if you stick with it for a couple of days. It really is a great program, and I highly recommend looking around Google for other programs to use. This blog is a product of Google software- I use blogger.com to write it. And really, isn't that the ultimate endorsement? My endorsement? I thought so, too.

Explained: Portable Hard Drives

What do an iPod, a USB flash drive, and a laptop have in common? They are all examples of portable hard drives! A hard drive is something that holds memory for computers, and if it's portable, well.. you can take it anywhere. There are multiple ways to make use of portable hard drives, and they have many advantages - and a few disadvantages! Let's look through some examples first, eh?

EXAMPLE ONE: IPOD

These little music players have revolutionized the recording industry. They even eclipsed beer as "the coolest thing to have on campus," according to college students. It topped BEER! On a campus! Crazy. These little devices carry more memory than my desktop computer has, total. You can keep music, photos and videos very easily on ipods. You can also hold files, like documents or powerpoints, but the ipod isn't really set up to be used as purse for your files. It can carry a lot, but I wouldn't save a presentation on it and hope to plug it in and pull the presentation off perfectly. Currently, they can hold as little as 99 songs - which is 1 gigabyte (abbreviation: GB, or just "gig" with two hard "g"s). They can also hold 160 GB- approximately 40,000 songs!

EXAMPLE TWO: USB FLASH DRIVES
USB Flash Drives, USB drive, flash drive, thumb drive, dorkstick - all nicknames of the same thing. (Alright, I'll admit it- dorkstick was coined by my roommate when she saw how excited I was about my USB drive. Hey, if the shoe fits..)

USB drives are a great way to store and transfer files. It can hold pictures, videos, files, documents, presentation, music - anything you have on your computer, you can put on this little guy. They are much, much bigger than CDs. They are also much easier to use; you don't need a CD burner to put files on your USB drive. You literally just plug it into a special port that all computers have- the USB port - and your computer recognizes and you can open it as if it were your C:/ drive.

I wouldn't put entire programs on it- those are best saves for big-boy toys, like full computers - but they're great for the person who wants to use more than one computer but access the same files. For instance, if I start writing something at home, I usually don't get very far into it. Home is often too distracting for me. Instead, I move the file to my USB drive, and I can go anywhere! Libraries, a friend's house, work- it can go anywhere.

Usually, USB flash drives range from half a gigabyte- like mine is- or they can now get up to 8 GB for a cheap price. As technology goes up, price goes down, and a few years ago even holding 1 GB on something the size of your thumb was amazing. Now, it's de rigeur... back in my day though, I tell you...


EXAMPLE THREE: EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES
This is a pretty serious portable hard drive. USB drives usually hold a few gigabytes- enough for a couple hundred photos, sure, but what if you need to house a lot of movies? Or what if your computer breaks down and dies? Having a backup is a great idea. Cue the external hard drive's entrance! I recently moved across country temporarily, and I didn't want to lug my desktop along with me. So, I bought a sleek little pepsi-sized external hard drive, and now I can look at my photos and listen to all my music whenever I want to! Also, when my desktop dies, I won't lose five years' worth of photos and music and files. My whole life is in those photos!

A word to the wise, it pays to research these before buying. USB flash drives and ipods don't need much research - one is as good as the other- but if your portable hard drive has problems with staying alive beyond a year or so, you don't want to get it. The good hard drives will be quiet, they won't heat up very much, and they will be able to last a long time. Some hard drives are even waterproof - I think some are even bulletproof! You can take my life, but you can never have my- FILES! It's like Braveheart, for nerds. And the technologically wise.



PORTABLE HARD DRIVES: THE PITFALLS

1. Small Size: Where Did I Put That Thing??
It is much easier to lose a small hard drive than it to lose, say, your Hindenburg-sized desktop. iPods are notoriously easy to lose, and if you don't keep it close, it could even get stolen. (Hey, they're hot right now.) USB drives are usually attached to a key ring, that way you always know it's with you. However, they can have very cheap, thin plastic rings that can snap over time. Once it snaps, they can be pretty hard to find again. Portable hard drives are a bit harder to lose- usually those don't get carried around every single day. However, you have to treat it with care, otherwise it could slip out of your purse.. or get snatched out.

2. You Have To Have The Right Touch
Portable hard drives are a little more delicate than desktops or laptops. The most important thing to remember is to properly remove it when you are done with it. Did you get that? DO IT RIGHT. Earlier this summer, I thought my life was over because I didn't properly remove my drive and it got erased. ERASED! All my photos, my backups, everything. Gone. Luckily, it was a temporary thing, and I somehow got them all back. But don't count on being so lucky, you need to learn how to properly connect and disconnect your device.

3. Use It Or Lose It
Finally, portable hard drives are only as great as their utilization. If you have one, use it! It's better to have used and lost then to be stuck in the dark ages and not use a portable hard drive at all. They can really help you move photos around. If nothing else, use it to develop digital photos! You can put your pictures on the USB port, take it to a Walgreen's or CVS, and for mere pennies you can have high quality pictures without using your own expensive printer paper and ink. Jump on the bandwagon, folks- you don't want to be chained to just one computer. Go ahead, share what you have with your friends, family and coworker! Just do it safely, and always disconnect properly!

Explained: Why "Children At Play" Signs Are Useless

First, let me say this: I know this is a slightly controversial topic. It hits close to home for many, many people. If you've ever loved a child, then you know what it's like to want to keep them safe. That being said, I don't think that putting up Children At Play signs are a good idea.



Also, for brevity, I will be abbreviating Children At Play as simply CAP. Onward!

PROS OF "CHILDREN AT PLAY" SIGNS
or, Why Parents Love These Signs

There are two main arguments in favor of CAP signs. The first one is very emotionally based - I love my children, and I am going to give my all to make sure they're safe

Besides the emotional investment that comes with protecting children, these CAP signs seem to make sense. If you see signs to stop, you stop. This line of argument appeals to the rational brain - if you see a sign indicating playing children, you would slow down, right?

Many parents who want these signs choose to petition their local government. The local department of transportation (abbreviation: DOT) is a great place to request new signs in your area.

However, even if the local DOT says no, many places offer CAP signs for sale. Amazon.com, Toys R Us, and several other parent focused websites offer some kind of CAP warning sign. Most of them feature reflective material, bright colors, and some kind of portability. Some places recommend that you take down the signs after playtime is over so the motorists won't grow complacent and begin to ignore your sign.

This idea of complacent motorists is a great bit of logic, and if we follow it down the rabbit-hole then we can begin to understand why CAP signs are such a bad idea.

CONS OF "CHILDREN AT PLAY" SIGNS
Or, Why I Wouldn't Depend On These To Save The Life Of A Fly

There are four major reasons why requesting a CAP sign is not likely to happen.

1. Motorists tend to ignore these signs
   
2. They give a false sense of security for the families
   
3. They could pose a legal risk for the DOT

So, I have done work for a DOT before. While there, I was able to get some great resources. In fact, all these tidbits come from interviewing the employees. I was suprised to find out that my DOT has a policy against installing those signs. What's more, they're not alone. If you live in the US, I recommend looking up "Child at Play [name of state] department of transportation" on Google.com. I think you will find that your DOT does not install those signs. They do nothing! People can and DO ignore signs. If you put a sign up, and children are not actually playing at that time, then people will soon learn to disregard that sign. Seriously. It makes sense, really- if you are in a neighborhood, you should know enough to look out for kids. If you don't habitually look out for children, then a sign might help you. However, if the children aren't out a majority of the time, then the sign is meaningless for that driver and it will get ignored.

Also, these signs are not legally enforcable. If you speed in a neighborhood, the police can't fine you extra because you're in a Child Play Zone.

The final reason why most DOT's don't install the signs is because of lawsuits. There have been lawsuits where people sue their department of transportation for tacitly approving children at play in the middle of the street by installing those signs. The DOT does not want children in the road, and this sign could be construed as approval of this activity. In fact, the Manual of Traffic Control Devices - the traffic signage Bible - does not have a Children at Play sign currently in it. It has been removed for these very reasons.

All in all, there are many great ways to keep your children safe from fast-moving cars. Education is very valuable, and teaching your children early on about the dangers of cars is never a bad idea. If the speeding is a concern, however, call your local DOT and request traffic calming options in your neighborhood. Traffic calming is when the road is altered to force traffic to go slower... but that explanation is for another time! I hope this was useful, if you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know!

Explained: Mozilla Firefox

WHAT IS MOZILLA FIREFOX?
It is a web browser, just like Internet Explorer or Safari. If you can see this page, you used a web browser to get here.

WHY IS IT SO GREAT?
Mozilla Firefox, also known just as Firefox, is a pretty innovative web browser. The code responsible for this program is open-source, which means that anyone can view it. This encourages a lot of creativity within the web browser community, and there are more add-ons and useful features then you can shake a stick at. There are add-ons to play music, check the weather, make page fonts larger, or to check news sites! If Internet Explorer is a train- chugging along, gets you where you want to go- then Firefox is a VW Bug. It's fun, speedy, efficient, comes with great features, and- much like the spherical design of the Bug- it is actually very safe. Firefox is much less vulnerable to viruses transmitted on the web.

HOW WOULD I USE FIREFOX?
Firefox is great at managing multiple pages open at once. It uses tabs to help you control your pages. Think of a manila folder- the tabs at the top tell you what's inside, even though all the files are in the same drawer. Think of one Firefox window as a drawer capable of holding many tabbed files. Right now I actually have four tabs open at once, but flipping between them is as easy as pie! In comparison, most versions of Internet Explorer can only open one page per window. This forces your desktop toolbar to become very crowded and it can be difficult to remember which page is where when there is a bunch of clutter on your toolbar. Fireox eliminates that.

Another neat thing with Firefox is its close relationship with RSS feeds.* If you like reading news online or if you follow any blogs, Firefox makes it very easy to check the most recent headlines without actually visiting the page. There are also bookmark buttons that are very convienent to use. Instead of going to a Favorites menu, like in Explorer, you can press a button and voila! You are at your favorite website.

*note: RSS feeds give you a menu that tells you what the headlines on a page are. For instance, CNN.com publishes an RSS feed that will show you what the top headlines are without making you go to CNN.com. See the photo example below for an example of RSS feed headline-checking in action!

One of my favorite features is the built-in search bar. If you like to search on Google, or if you use Wikipedia, or Yahoo!, or Amazon.com, then the built-in search bar will be very useful to you. It actually suggests items for you to look up once you start typing in the box, too! So if I were start typing "oba," a little drop-down list would pop up and suggest things like "obama for president" and "obama muslim." These suggestions are based on popular searches, so even though Barack Obama is not a muslim, clearly a lot of people have been checking this on Google.com!

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE FIREFOX IN ACTION

WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FIREFOX?
Firefox is a very hip way to surf the web. It is also the second most popular web browser in the world. In fact, when the latest version was released, it set a world record for most downloads in one day! So if you come across any college students, chances are good that they use Firefox. People in technology industry also like Firefox because it is more secure than Explorer- you can get fewer viruses and pop-up ads with Mozilla Firefox.

I hope this has been illuminating. No longer will you read a paper and wonder, what is a firefox? Maybe you will even abandon Internet Explorer in favor of something a little sleeker. As GI Joe and Sir Francis Bacon have said, Knowledge is Power!

If you are interested in downloading it, you can visit www.mozilla.com/firefox