While checking out Google Trends today I learned that Tiger Woods may have farted, Screech isn’t in People Magazine’s cover photo, Bill Clinton is in North Korea negotiating the release of two American journalists, and Ashton Kutcher posted to twitpic a photo of Demi Moore’s butt.

Google Trends: "tiger woods farts" is on fire

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blog · google trends · keywords · popular · statistics · topic

I haven’t been satisfied with The Rhetoric’s theme for a long time and have been intending to design/develop my own from scratch. In the past I’ve always selected a well-designed theme and modifying it to meet my needs.

To prepare myself for this adventure I read the WordPress Codex sections about theme development. I also read the applicable chapters of WordPress 2.7 Complete: Create Your Own Complete Blog or Website from Scratch with WordPress by April Hodge Silver and Hasin Hayder.

Yesterday I spent a long time in Photoshop doing design mock-up. The early stages were frustrating and a bit humorous as the design shifted wildly and often in not-so-good directions. I was only vaguely sure of what I wanted; I know I want a fairly simple and clean design that fits my personality.

Design mockup - The Rhetoric

This afternoon I readied a local sandbox for theme/plugin development: I created a MySQL database with a copy of data from this blog for testing, installed and configured WordPress, and created a folder to hold the files for the new theme. A development sandbox allows me to play around with the new design without confusing and annoying the visitors of the live blog.

When the new theme is done I’m going to create several custom plugins. That should be fun, too.

Then I’ll update my resume.

codex · custom · mysql · php · plugin · theme · wordpress

Sometimes 140 characters just isn’t enough room to express our thoughts, activities, quotations, recipes, tutorials, diatribes, announcements, affections, tips and lessons. Our most valiant attempts at compendium often extend beyond the limitations imposed by Twitter. The solution is quite simple: all a tweeter has to do is include a URL to point to a blog post, photo or video.

But, what if the URL is too long?

This URL is 176 characters: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416594787/ref=s9_intb_gw_tr02?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1Q4Z3EN485H4KY6HXSVS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

URL shortening services have sprung up to satisfy the burgeoning need for shorter links. They accomplish this by storing lengthy URLs in a database table with a corresponding alias. When a user points to the shortened URL the longer link is fetched from the database and the user is automatically redirected.

While perusing tweets I noticed Justin Russell had posted a link using a short domain that looked close to his own name, http://jusr.us/. Upon inquiry he pointed me to an open source PHP URL shortener called Phurl.

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.htaccess · php · phurl · redirect · twitter · url

I love words. I do. I use the dictionary many times each day to verify definitions, check spellings and discover new words. Before switching to Answers.com I used Dictionary.com. I may have found something still better: Wordnik.com.

I discovered Wordnik at TedTalks a few weeks ago. Lexicographer and Wordnik founder, Erin McKean, gave a fascinating talk.

Wordnik is much more than an online dictionary: it’s a wiki, aggregator, and word search engine all in one. You can see related words, read examples of the word used in context, listen to pronunciations, discover new words serendipitously, peruse Flickr photos related to the word, study the etymology, look at usage statistics, and see current tweets that use the word. You can also get dictionary definitions, as expected.

Wordnik is in early beta development. There is a lot of potential for it to be a powerful lexicographic tool! I still revert to Answers.com when I can’t find what I’m looking for at Wordnik, but I’m sure those occurrences will become less frequent as Wordnik improves.

Wordnik tweets, too. :) (@wordnik)

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dictionary · english · erin mckean · language · lexicography · lexicon · online · TED · tedtalks · word

If you think the primary use for Twitter is to tell people what you’re doing, you really do not “get it”. It’s okay, neither did I for a very long time. :)

@brentdanley's tweet frequency

The “point” of Twitter is communication. It’s active and viral.

For example, let’s suppose I find a cool website/blog post/article and tweet it. Then, several of my followers like the tweet and decide to re-tweet it to their followers. The dissemination can be exponential. Anybody can follow me and I choose who I want to follow. It’s like being at a cocktail party with the world and being able to participate in any of the innumerable conversations.

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microblogging · social · social networking · tool · tweet · tweetup · twitter

Twitter Power, Joel Comm, John Wiley & Sons, 2009

I opened my Twitter account on August 31, 2007. As you can see from the graph below, it took me a little while to appreciate the value of the Twitter phenomenon.

http://tweetstats.com/graphs/brentdanley

That first day I sent four tweets.

Reading Technology Review and configuring Netvibes
8:06 AM Aug 31st 2007 (more…)

book review · business · joel comm · networking · social media · twitter · twitter power

The Twitter web page is nice, but it lacks the functionality of a stand-alone application. For several months I’ve been using Twhirl, by Seesmic. Twhirl is good, but now there’s something much better, Seesmic Desktop.

With Seesmic Desktop I can have columns for both Facebook and (multiple) Twitter accounts. I can add photos to tweets and shorten URLs. I can like and reply and direct and share. One of the nicest features is the ability to create userlists to organize “friends” based on the nature of the relationships. It’s brilliant!

Seesmic Desktop runs on the Adobe Air platform, which is very nice (and easy).

My Seesmic Desktop, so far

adobe air · application · desktop · facebook · seesmic · seesmic desktop · social media · twitter

I really like Facebook. And Twitter. And Google Talk. And LinkedIn. And Tumblr. And, to a much lesser extent, MySpace.

The problem is that they all have statuses that require updating. I certainly don’t have the time or patience to constantly update the status at each site. I’ve also been unable to update my Facebook status with my mobile phone because Facebook and my wireless carrier, T-Mobile, don’t play well together.

Today I discovered Ping.fm. Problems solved.

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facebook · myspace · network · ping.fm · social · status · twitter · web 3.0

Facebook friends share ’25 Things’ with the world
Mike Snider, USA Today, February 5, 2009

Facebook is great for sharing and keeping in touch with friends and family. As I’ve said in another post, I enjoy it very much. Some of the “chain-lists”, though, are yawn-inducing time-wasting drivel. I usually abstain. But when I was “tagged” by no less than six-people on “25 Random Things About Me” notes, I thought perhaps I should make an exception to my rule. It’s fun to learn things about people you think you know or whom you would like to know better.

Coming up with 25 things was not easy and required a long trip down Memory Lane. However, now that I’ve posted my own note I wish I could amend other random bits to my list.

I was hanging out with Kirsten this morning reading newspapers and came across an article in USA Today by Mike Snider. He gives an overview of the “25 Things” phenomenon and offers some good advice…

Should you choose to join in the 25 Random Things craze, media consultant Shelly Palmer recommends that “you shouldn’t put anything online that you would not want to see on the front of the newspaper or that you would not want a potential client or your boss to see,” says Palmer, whose book Get Digital: Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the 21st Century Economy is due this spring.

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facebook · list · note · social

I love Facebook! It is, as you must already know, a social web site where members can find old friend, make new ones, share photos, blog, join causes, play games and many other activities. This is all made possible by a powerful API, clean interface and sensible privacy policy.

Yesterday I reconnected with Inger Wicks, one of the hottest girls from when I attended Palmer Junior and Senior High Schools in Palmer, Alaska. It has been fun to talk about old friends and to see the directions our lives have taken the past twenty years. I even dug up some old photos which I scanned and posted to my profile.

I also reconnected with several missionary companions from my years serving in the Massachusetts Boston Mission. There’s even a group for that. :)

I’ve also added family members who live far away and with whom I’ve lost contact.

This morning a girl from college, with whom I was madly in love, added me as a friend. She has four kids!

Facebook is a wonderful way to keep in touch with the people we care about, past and present. I’ve long felt happiness is all about relationships. Facebook allows us to bridge time and space to stay in touch with family and friends. I love it.

facebook · family · friends · internet · social · web2.0