Posts Tagged ‘Networking Tool’

I don’t get Twitter.

This morning there was an article by Erick Schonfeld called Biz Stone Plays It Cool On Colbert and I have to admit, I feel a little foolish professing this on a technology blog but I don’t really ‘get’ Twitter.

I think my problem ‘getting’ Twitter is that to me it’s a bunch of noise distracting me from my daily objectives. I already have an Instant Message client running as well as Skype, Facebook, an iPhone, iChat and my office phones. Not including my email, RSS subscriptions and usernet group updates … I guess in truth I just don’t understand the need for another source of chatter. 

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s got to be a purpose to it … I just don’t get it.  I don’t think I’m alone either.

Biz Stone (Twitter) was on The Colbert Report last night and even he seemed unable to truly explain what the purpose of the popular social networking tool is. Jeremy Lichtman Lichtman has a point where he states there’s a high ‘noise to signal’ ratio, so maybe my issue with Twitter is the same issue I had as a kid when my uncle tried to get me to listen to the old Ham radio … maybe Twitter users are the modern, Internet version of dorky middle aged men talking to each other in closets?

Using WordPress with LinkedIn and developing custom themes.

If you’re not already using LinkedIn, you should take a look at the business networking tool. LinkedIn is a cross between Facebook and Monster, a social networking website designed to help build your professional career and maintain professional contacts. You can even using the WordPress for LinkedIn plugin to automatically your profile with the latest posts from WordPress.

There’s an interesting comparison of WordPress vs. MovableType with an interview featuring Matt Mullenweg, the article takes a good look at using MovableType for larger websites. Remember if you’re using WordPress for large volume websites you’ll definitely want to read my piece on speeding up WordPress.

There’s a lot of theme reviews done with an eye for design but I really enjoyed themes for developers which takes a look at some themes with more power and a developer focus. Speaking of themes, there’s a great 10 step guide for improving your own WordPress install, it goes over the process of how to improve your WordPress site in the most basic terms for new users. Lunarpages announced their WordPress theme winners today, there’s a lot of great looking work so check them out this morning but if you’d rather develop one for youself there’s a great tutorial for you at developing a Wordpress theme from scratch as well as an interesting review of Artisteer.

Usability is a huge part of my consulting business and WordPress just released a study of their own at Usability Testing Report that takes a look at why the admin for WordPress took on such a major revamp.