Tweetdeck 0.33 is finally working for me, and I will share with you the steps you need to do in order to get it to work on your Mac if you were experiencing the same problem I had.
Tweetdeck support staffer Richard gave me some helpful tips to get it working on my system, which I thought was up to date. Turns out I needed a beta release of Adobe AIR to be installed to get things working for me. Before that I needed to delete a couple folders from my system, perhaps more as a precaution. Deleting these files may or may not be needed if you have the beta release of Adobe AIR already installed.
Here is what I was instructed to do, in screenshot form. I'll provide the links down below.
I followed these steps and now Tweetdeck 0.33 seems to be working just fine. I'll give it a day or two before I provide my general thoughts on the latest version. In the meantime allow this post to serve as a testament to the help that the Tweetdeck staff can provide if you are in need of help.
My favorite Twitter client software, Tweetdeck, saw what looks like a fantastic update released this week with version 0.33. The latest version adds better column and account management and adds better preview functionality to support Flickr and YouTube. Perhaps the best improvement is the limit on API calls from 150 (which, for me, ran dry pretty quickly during football or baseball games) to a whopping 350 calls per hour. That is a thing of beauty.
Needless to say I was anxious to dip my toes in the new waters, but for some reason or another the new Tweetdeck and my up to date MacBook Pro do not want to play nicely. How could this be? I thought things were easier with a Mac? This is the error message I receive...
After submitting a support ticket to the Tweetdeck folks and posting a message on their support forum in response to a similar problem, I took some measures that have worked for me in the past. I removed Tweetdeck entirely from my system as well as Adobe Air, restarted the computer and tried installing again. This time it did not work for me.
If anyone out there is experiencing a similar problem or has been able to get 0.33 to work please leave a message below in the comments section. As soon as I get this problem resolved I will update this post so that it may help others in a similar situation.
UPDATE: 2.10.2010 (9:48 AM) - After receiving a response from Tweetdeck support (view the comments below) I was able to get the latest version up and running. For help on how to resolve the problem, read these tips.
It is no secret that I am a big fan of Twitter. I use it for a number of purposes but realize that everybody finds different ways to best use Twitter to fulfill their needs. That is the beauty of a social networking platform that is so simple in concept.
Penn Olson, a site dedicated to social media and designed to introduce internet users to the different mediums available, has 14 ways people are using Twitter, but here is my favorite one.
14. Curb drunk driving If nothing so far managed to stop those drivers from drunk driving, maybe shame could finally do the trick. The names of those charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) between Christmas and New Year’s Eve would be published on Twitter. Don’t think your neighbors don’t know what you did last night!
Many people are unaware of the Flock browser. Essentially it takes everything that is great about Firefox and adds a couple touches to satisfy the social media enthusiast. You can do all of your normal web browsing in the usual window and utilize the greatness that is tabbed browsing. In addition you can post to your grab photos from practically anywhere and blog right from the browser without much of a problem. As if that were not enough you can load up your Facebook and Twitter streams (and MySpace if you still live in the stone age of social networking) in your left sidebar.
What makes these sidebars so useful, for me at least, is I can post a link directly to Facebook without having to load up the Facebook server. I can also upload photos and videos right to my Facebook page, which has helped me become more of a fan of Facebook than I used to be. Truth be told, I probably have become a little annoying on Facebook because of it as well.
I can also update my Twitter status on the same sidebar after clicking on the Twitter logo. But as a loyal Tweetdeck user (although I am getting fed up with the mobile version lately) I tend to use my sidebar primarily for Facebook purposes.
But recently the sidebar that I adore has been a little buggy. Updates have not been as frequent, leaving me to see updates from friends that are hours, if not days behind. So the good news for me is that they have just released an updated version this week.
Usually I receive an alert informing me that there is a new update for my browser of choice, but the Flock tam has turned off auto-updates for version 2.5.6. So I had to check my RSS feed from the Flock Blog to learn of the new update. The new version is supposed to address issues regarding the Twitter stream, some Firefox security issues and Flickr log out issues.
Facebook chat notifications are still in the works for an upgrade, but because Facebook is always changing their API for that feature and do not share it with developers like they do other features, it looks like the Flock team is going to hold off on correcting that problem until Facebook calms down.
I just installed 2.5.6 so I'll give it a couple days before offering my thoughts on the new version. If you happen to use it and wish to share your thoughts go right ahead in the comments below.
I came across this humorous picture while putting together my previous post on how Twitter changed my life in 2009. I could not resist sharing it with you.
Truth be told I have been on Twitter since 2008 but in 2009 I feel I took my Twitter experience to a new level as I explored the benefits of the micro-blogging tool. I consider myself a "Twitterer" or whatever you want to call it but I feel that I use Twitter in a respectable manner. I do not inform people that I have just woken up from a nap or tell people that I am about to head out to the post office.
Instead I try to use Twitter for two purposes.
Publicize myself
Communicate back and forth with like minded individuals
Twitter is a valuable resource for anyone and you can tailor it to best suit your needs any way you can imagine. In 2009 here are a couple ways that my Twitter experience has grown.
It's like my own personal PR machine Athletes and celebrities have publicists and agents to publicize their work. I do not, but I do have Twitter.
Using Twitter is a great way to publicize my posts on a variety of forums such as this site, Examiner and Nittany White Out. All I have to do is send a tweet that I have a new post active to all of my followers and see if any of them check it out. If I am fortunate enough one of my followers will be compelled to re-tweet my work, sending my posts to a whole new set of followers and potential readers.
I honestly feel that taking advantage of Twitter helped me find a position with Examiner as the Penn State Football Examiner, and then National College Football Examiner. There is no doubt in my mind that Twitter helped to clear my path to recurring guest spots on The 700 Level and Phinally Philly as well, in addition to my contributing to Nittany White Out. Posting on those sites opened me up to a whole new reader pool and I have picked up some followers from each outlet over time.
When news breaks, it's on Twitter Harry Kalas. Michael Jackson. The plane on the Hudson. The Iran election.
When these news stories broke they spread quickly on the Twitter servers either locally or world-wide. When something news worthy happens they look to Twitter for instant reaction and sometimes analysis. I have learned a lot of news just by reading what people are tweeting. Think it is over the top? Google does not think so. Why else would they have added real-time Twitter streaming in their Google search results?
The death of Michael Jackson practically crashed the entire Internet, with Twitter being one of the major culprits. When President Barrack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States people were tweeting about it, including myself.
Twitter is still growing in users on a daily basis, although it is often still mocked by those who feel it is a waste of time. It can be a time-waster if not used responsibly, but so can e-mail and text messaging. When I hear media and everyday people mock Twitter I tend to think that these people have never used the service and therefore do not fully understand it. When people do not understand something they tend to mock them and the people who do use it.
I see the value in Twitter and I hope that you do too. In the past year how has Twitter changed your life? It may be a major change or something on a much smaller scale. Let me know your thoughts. Also be sure to be following me on Twitter @krmcguire!
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On Wednesday Sixers guard Lou Williams used his Twitter account (@TeamLou23) to let off some pent up emotions against certain people who were sharing information from his Twitter account on a national outlet. Williams, who underwent surgery recently to repair a broken jaw, was upset that a photo he had posted on Twitter of his jaw had been used on ESPN, if I have the story correct. Perhaps there were other outlets who used his tweeted photo.
Upset that his personal Twitter information had been broadcast to the world without his permission Williams had this to day to his Twitter followers, directed toward his abusers...
Ok, that is fair enough in some regard Williams, but please do not try telling me that you think anything that you openly post on Twitter is private, because it is not. Sure, you can protect your tweets so that you can select who can and can not see your tweets. This in fact is the best way to go for many people. But if you are going to leave your Twitter profile open for all to view you know that your info is fair game. Consider it like the Freedom of Information Act.
Again, fair enough. Williams followed the previous tweet with the one pictured above. It is Williams' right to block whoever he wishes. The message was sent. Don't tick off the injured Sixers guard.
Meanwhile another Philadelphia athlete currently off the roster due to injury, Shawn Andrews (@ShawnAndrews73) of the Eagles, had sent out a similar message to those who were bad mouthing him...
For the record, I do not feel it is appropriate for Twitter users to abuse celebrities, athletes or common every day people on Twitter. I view Twitter as a valuable social networking tool and am proud of the contacts I have gathered in my time on the micro blogging service. I try to engage conversation more so than advertise my writing and I enjoy checking up with the local athletes in town and see what they are talking about (even if I don't have a clue what DeSean Jackson (@deseanjackson10) is saying half the time). After reading the tweets from the seemingly disgruntled and injured Sixers guard and the Eagles guard who had recently had a back surgery, I tweeted the following in an effort to support both... Andrews, as he typically does, responded in kind to my tweet. Williams was a different story. Soon after tweeting those words of encouragement I received this reply from Williams...
Just like that the young Sixers guard blocked me from his Twitter account, prohibiting me from checking out his latest messages and links to his UStream channel.
Ouch Lou. Ouch.
I am not angry so I do not want this to come across as a rant against Williams. I will remain a fan of the Sixers just like I was before. I wish no ill-will to the guard and I will still root for him because I like him on the court. Instead I get a good laugh out of this whole stream of events and I felt like sharing it with you.
So in closing let me ask you this. What athlete is your favorite to follow on Twitter? Who is the most annoying? Have you been blocked by Williams?
Penn State, Phillies, television, movies, music, Nintendo, internet topics and a whole lot more...
Thanks for clicking the link in my Twitter profile. Hopefully after reading this you will have a better understanding of who may be best known to you as @krmcguire!
My name is Kevin McGuire and I am an internet enthusiast, as you probably have already realized. This site here acts as my home base for internet operations if you will. Here on this blog you can usually find my movie reviews, take a nostalgic trip down memory lane with Mario Monday, or find out what I have to say on a number of topics that range from baseball and football to whatever may be happening in the news. I will also be sure to provide you with links to various content I produce on the internet from time to time.
Speaking of which, you can also find me on an almost daily basis on Examiner where I follow college football. I also contribute regularly on Nittany White Out, a popular Penn State fan site. In addition I also contribute to a few other sites, including The 700 Level, Phinally Philly, and Macho Row.
I am always willing to discuss the Phillies and Penn State but I also enjoy discussing the Eagles, Flyers and college football in general. You can also feel free to discuss topics fellow bloggers would be interested in such as social networking, techniques for successful blogging, and the direction of the media in an online generation.
Naturally you can find me on Twitter and I encourage you to feel free to send me a message and discuss anything you wish with me. In addition you can connect with me through Facebook. I am also on MySpace, but in all honesty I do not check it on a regular basis.
As I said, this site serves as my home base, but here are links to my other outlets. In time these will be incorporated more into the flow of this site.
Again, thank you for clicking on the link in my Twitter profile! Send me a reply @krmcguire to let me know you stopped by and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can! I look forward to interacting with you on Twitter. It really is a wonderful communication tool.
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I use Tweetdeck as my main Twitter client as I am sure many Twitter users do (and should). I have used it for a long time now and only just discovered how I can view the trending topics on Twitter. It was my desire to easily see the trending topics that got me thinking of a wish list of features I would like to see for Tweetdeck's next release, whenever that may be.
As it turns out I could only think of one feature that I would like to see implemented; the ability to select a browser for links.
As you know I am an avid fan of the Flock browser. I open it up in the morning and have it open all day. I am an enthusiastic supporter of tabbed web browsing, especially for my needs, and I especially prefer to take advantage of the social networking features that are built right into the browser's design.
As I use Flock for just about anything on the web I would prefer if Tweetdeck would open links from different users in my preferred browser instead of a default browser. I have nothing against Safari, or Firefox on our PC, but it would be easier for me f I could just open up a link in a new tab in the browser I already have open. I have no need or desire to have two separate browsers open, as evidenced by tabbed web browsing style.
So to the developers of Tweetdeck, I hope you take this to heart and work on an option allowing the user to select a browser to open links in. I would be grateful beyond your imagination.
Want to win a free iPod touch or MacBook? Sure you do! Trust me, you do. Here is your chance to do so, and it is really easy so why not give it a shot with this Netfirms contest?
You send a Direct Message to Netfirms via Twitter asking us to register a domain name for you. If the domain name is available we will register it for you and automatically add it to your existing Netfirms Control Panel and bill to your current billing profile. The only prerequisite is that you add your Twitter username to your Netfirms Control Panel. Please visit our tutorial with full details on setting yourself up for domain registration via Twitter. The instructions should be completed once only and you’re good to go after that.
1. Log in to your Twitter account (You can use any of the available Twitter apps) 2. Send a dm to @netfirms with the following: reg mynewdomain.com 3. We will confirm by replying to you via dm at which point the domain will be added to your Netfirms Control Panel. The domain is now ready to be used.
Good luck! Also you can enter their contest by retweeting this tweet from me. If you win, let me know! I'd love to hear a success story!
Maybe my Temple over Villanova prediction stumbled on the hideous turf of Lincoln Financial Field short of the end-zone, but my thoughts on the Boise State-Oregon game were spot on.
Before the Thursday night meeting between the two top 25 schools took place I tweeted the following...
Earlier today the popular micro-blogging service that is Twitter was maliciously attacked, causing an almost two hour hiatus of people being able to see what other people were tweeting.
As you may imagine an outage of this magnitude would be frustrating for many office workers across the United States as Twitter is often snuck into the office computers via discreet Twitter programs like Spreadtweet, which disguises Twitter streams as a good old fashioned Excel spreadsheet.
For future reference, if you are having trouble logging into and using the Twitter service and want to ensure that the problem is not on your end, be sure to stop by the official Twitter Blog. Outage updates of any severe nature will surely be posted there.
Or you can stop by IsTwitterDown.com, which will inform you quite simply as to whether Twitter is up and running or not. For more information on what happens or what to do when Twitter is down, visit WhenTwitterIsDown.com.
For those of you following me on Twitter you may (or may not have!) noticed that I flooded your stream with a number of suggestions for Follow Friday (#followfriday). I want to apologize but also want to provide you with a master list of sorts of my Follow Friday activity, in case you missed any today.
For those of you not familiar with Follow Friday on Twitter allow me to explain. Many Twitter users have started to designate a different topic for each day of the week. The most famous is Follow Friday, when users share their recommendations for who others should be following. Another example is Music Monday, when users share their favorite songs or artists with others.
Rather than just share Twitter handles for everyone to look up themselves, I like to try and personalize my Follow Friday tweets. I prefer to give people my reasoning for following somebody. For example, I like to tell people that these people are great Phillies bloggers, or these people make funny videos, or this person is my favorite comedian. Many people are more lazy than I am for Follow Friday and will send out a generic tweet that looks like this. Even worse is when somebody just re-tweets a Follow Friday, like this.
I believe that proper Twitter etiquette requires more information. To recap my tweets from Follow Friday I have broken them down by category.
@flocker - Official Twitter for my personal browser of choice, Flock
That pretty much sums up my Follow Friday activity from this morning. Stay tuned next week for my next edition of Follow Friday! Who knows, maybe I'll even mention you! Of course, you can follow me on Twitter as well.
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In the past year I have steadily seen my activity on Twitter quickly dismantle my need for Facebook. I find myself communicating with friends more on the micro-blogging service than I do on Facebook, although I find ways to use the social networking giant to my advantage in ways I may not be able too with Twitter.
As an avid blogger I find that Twitter is a terrific tool for not only spreading the word about my own stuff but also great for discovering new content. For example, I have found myself hooked to On the DL, a podcast that discusses Philadelphia sports but also takes a look at the way sports in general is covered in the media. Maybe it is not for everyone but I do not know if I would have come across it, or bothered to give it a listen, if not for Twitter.
So what exactly is Twitter?
As you may know, Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows people to share updates in 140 characters or less. The social network has ballooned in popularity over the last few months with celebrities trying to get a piece of the Twitter action and news companies or entertainment companies offering updates through their own tweets to keep people up to date.
To me Twitter can get a bad wrap because of the apparent overkill of Twitter ads. There appear to be four kind of Twitter users;
The attention seeking celebrity
The news source attempting to utilize new technologies
The fervent social networking enthusiast
The casual user who reads updates more than anything else
I put myself in the third category as I do a lot of activity online and like to not only spread my own messages and updates but also to seek out other new content. If you follow the right people that are geared towards your interests you will get a lot more out of Twitter. This is why I follow a large number of Philadelphia sports, Penn State football, and technology news related Twitter accounts.
If you just start up and find yourself following the most popular Twitter folks just for the reason that they are the most popular you may find yourself overwhelmed and lose interest rapidly. That, to me is why many people sign up for Twitter, use it for a day or two, and never check it again.
One way to find quality people to follow is by using Twitter search. Allow this video to explain it to you in plain English...
Searching on Twitter is terrific. Some desktop applications will allow you to save your searches. For example, on Tweetdeck you can set up a column to keep track of search results.
Recently Twitter made the news for the way the stories about the Iran election dilemma played out. People were discussing the Iran elections well before the traditional media sources could break the story. If you want to find out what people are saying about a certain topic just type into your search box what you want to read about. Type in "Iran election" or "Joe Paterno" or your home town. Want to know what people think about a movie? Do a Twitter search for your desired movie and you will quickly find out if people like it or not.
The point I am attempted to illustrate for you is that Twitter can be a lot deeper than what naysayers of Twitter will say. There is much more content available that what Charlie had for lunch or what load of laundry Sally is on or how many nickels are in Lucy's can or what Beethoven album Schroeder is listening too (whoah, Peanuts references overload).
If you are turned off by Twitter because you don't care about Miley Cyrus's love drama or Ashton Kutcher'ssummer tan, then just think about what you would like to get out of your Twitter experience. You will probably get a lot more out of it than you expected if you give Twitter a proper chance.
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Happy Friday everybody! You made it through another week so why not check out some links to kill some time before the whistle blows and you head home from work today?
Top 10 SNES Music of All Time - While we can probably put to rest the all time adjective for a retro gaming system this is a post from a brand new blog dedicated to 16 bit gaming. As the blogger states "To date, I've realistically probably logged 5,000 hrs of SNESgameplay alone... point of pride or shame?..." No need to be ashamed on this site. Your nerdy quirks are welcomed in open arms. My personal favorites on the list ar #8 and #6. (Found via Digg)
I think it is funny how Tina Fey is now included in the conversation of "hot political topics". This image was grabbed from the top of Twitter today...
That's right. Apparently the users of Twitter consider the hot politcal topics during this election time not to be Senator Barack Obama or John McCain but instead feel that the Emmy award winning actress who portrays Governor Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.
I love Tina Fey. She's just awesome for so many reasons.
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