4 Alternative uses for Twitter

I’ve been using Twitter for quite some time now and even if I am, quite possibly, one of the biggest Twittervangelist out there, I sometimes get tired of dicking around a medium whose purpose seems to be limited to sharing real-time brain farts, idle, incoherent blabbering and general blather to your friends and anyone who has time to burn reading inane musings of people they hardly even know.

But being a certified Fanboi, I will forgo the long, substantive essay I am tempted to write to justify and explain why I continue to use Twitter because face it, the issue of “To Twitter or not to Twitter” is beat. And really, why should I even bother when far better writers have written their respective cases against twitter and pieces in its defense?

Besides, for every argument rebuking its asininity, there’s one that praises its merits.

There is, however, more to Twitter than broadcasting how awesome the fillet mignon you had for dinner was or how bored you are out of your fucking skull to your followers. Let’s take a look at some of its alternative uses.

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Update: Looks like you can embed video recorded using Jing Afterall

Dave McCollom from TechSmith emailed me regarding yesterday’s post about Jing. According to Dave, you can embed screen shots and videos recorded via Jing on your website after all. All you need to do is login to ScreenCast, another TechSmith service Jing automatically signs you up for to store your captures:

Hi Mike - I work for TechSmith (makers of Jing) and would like to thank you for
your nice post about Jing. I also wanted to let you know that you can embed
video. Check out the following screencast to see how and let me know if you
have any other questions or feedback.

As a proof of concept, I recorded a video you could watch that should show you how to go about doing exactly that.

Thanks for the info Dave.

Capture and share everything that goes on in your desktop with Jing

If you spend enough time on the internet, chances are you are no stranger to the sometimes elaborately complex task of taking screen captures, cropping/enhancing them using your photo editing software, and uploading them to a photo hosting service before you can finally share them.

Now, I know a lot of you have your own ways to shorten this process. Personally, I use a combination of OSX’s grab, Adobe Photoshop and this handy ImageShack Image Upload Dashboard widget for the Mac.

I’ve been pretty much happy with the aforementioned combination until I found something that does the job in a more convenient, more streamlined fashion. Techsmith, a company specializing in screen capture and recording software has a service that does exactly that. And more.

The concept behind The Jing project is an always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video from your computer to anywhere. Aside from providing a simple yet functional desktop interface which allows you to take screen shots, Jing also also allows users to make simple annotations to screen captures before storing and allowing users to share them using Techsmith’s ScreenCast service.

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Seriously, did anyone even bother with Pownce?

As a relatively early adopter of Twitter, I am fascinated at how it has apparently reached critical mass and continues to snowball into a networking juggernaut. As to be expected, everybody wants a piece of the action but so far, none has really defined itself as a significant threat to Twitter. Well, except maybe Jaiku after Leo Laporte’s exodus.

Recently though, a lot of hype has been going around in support of Digg Founder and Silcon Valley golden boy Kevin Rose’s startup Pownce. According to the website:

Right now, there are four basic things you can send: messages, links, files, and events.

You might send an event out to a dozen of your friends letting them know you’re hosting a party this Friday. They could easily get the event details you entered, respond with questions or comments and then quickly rsvp.

Say you had a great photo you wanted to share with all of your friends. Just add the file and all of your friends will get it right away. They’ll be able to reply and tell you if it’s cool. You could even post songs you recorded in your home studio to share with your friends.

I’ve only recently been able to fully take Pownce out for a test drive and sans Pownce’s feature that allows users to send updates to a specific group of contacts, I find little to no novelty in Pownce’s touted feature set.

Sure, you can send messages, links, files and events using one convenient interface but it’s not like Twitter doesn’t allow you to do all these innately. I mean, sure, it might take a 3rd party web application (pure volume or even MySpace for sharing songs? rapidshare or DropSend for sharing large files?) to get the job done, but when you take everything into consideration, Pownce’s pretty interface, slightly better usability and what not all fall short of elevating the service as competition in a market segment dominated by twitter.

With that said, and because I am a slut and an attention whore, I am posting the link to my pownce account here so you all can add me and stuff! yay!

Clark and Michael, An Idea for a Reality Show, whutev.

If you liked Arrested Development, you know, that awesometastic show that got canceled just because not enough of you people know comedy even if it rests its ball on your chin, brushes your teeth with its dick and comes inside your pussy ears? Then you are going to like Michael Cera’s latest project Clark and Michael and you will like it HARD.

It’s basically a mockumentary about two friends trying to get their idea of a TV show picked up by Hollywood. Speaking of mockumentaries, newcomer Clark Duke has this David Brentesque air to him that perfectly complements Michael Cera’s dry, awkward humor.

The show currently has 8 webisodes online and at an average of 10 minutes per episode, it’s perfect for you desk jockeys looking to inject some comedy in your boring-ass office lives.

While we’re on the subject of TV shows, mockumentaries and whatnot, I would like to take this opportunity to pitch MY own idea for a reality show. Not a lot of you know this, but I’m a sucker for reality shows (I’ve actually gotten laid many a time for my superior knowledge of Pinoy Big Brother and its participants. Of course, whether or not the sex I got from said knowledge is consensual is for the legal system to decide.)

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