Twitter posts

Since the beginning of organized communication and transportation, networks have been embedded as an easier way to make things happen. It’s much easier to keep systems running properly when they are placed into a system of connected elements. Networks are everywhere. This graphic by our friends at GetSatisfaction brings it all into perspective from the 1800s until now and into the future. Click to enlarge. …

There once was a time on this grand internet of ours that finding information was hard. You knew there was lots of it out there, but actually getting to it took real work. Now, in 2011, we have the opposite problem. We have too much information. Social networks, aggregators like Reddit and our RSS feeds all bring us far more than we can handle. So what’s a web nerd to do? Here are four tools I recommend to help you better organize and manage how you relate to information online: Feedly RSS readers are a dime a dozen these days, and Google Reader still sits atop the heap. But the problem with Google’s RSS client…

Oh Twitter, what have you become? You used to be a place of the proud few: the tech geek. But now it’s all about the GaGas, Sheenanigans, and celebritweeties. And I don’t like it one bit. I wasn’t too excited to join Twitter back when it all began. I, like many others, insisted that the whole concept was nonsense — it was just a fad, I told myself and others. I created an account when Twitter started making some buzz. But I let the account lie dormant. Instead, I stuck with Facebook. But I eventually came back to Twitter. I knew that it was going to be big after learning that the competition — particularly…

Capitalism, though a big, incredibly complex concept, can be boiled down to a few basic ideas: there should be private property; you should have a free market; and people should exchange currency for goods and services at the price the market will bear. In many ways, the web seems like it is the best place for capitalism and a free market to flourish. The internet is full of success stories of massive growth and humble beginnings, and the lack of many barriers that plague the physical world has seen online business grow at an exponential rate. Yet, at the same time, the web seems to have a knack to kill…

There sure has been a whole lotta tweetin’ goin’ on in the last few years, and today marks the completion of the fifth cycle around the Sun sine the first tweet done been twut. As of now, every eight days, one billion tweets are siphoned through the internet’s tubes – and here I remember a time when we at Techi would remark wide-eyed on a tweet milestone of a couple billion. I guess we’ll just report on the trillions from here on out. In order to get everyone all bleary-eyed about the 140-character messages that touch them most, Twitter has provided a video of people of all walks of life – especially the walk…

He’s risen to power from obscurity as Vito Corleon, helped a child prostitute find peace, ran a casino and met the Fockers. In his acting career, Robert De Niro has done just about everything with everyone and he shows no signs of slowing down much with more movies scheduled to be released soon. There is one Hollywood trend that has escaped the attention of the 67-year-old acting legend. He’s never used Twitter and has no intentions of starting any time soon. “I don’t Twitter or any of that stuff,” he said. “I don’t have a fan club or anything I talk to.” Despite his popularity, De Niro has…

With security being a major concern for Twitter over the years, they have been continuously making improvements and securing internal systems to tighten up the service. The https option has been available for a while, but only by typing it into a browser as such. Today, Twitter announced that they are making it an option for profiles and that they will eventually make it the default setting. Under a user’s settings, they can now scroll to the bottom and select “Always use HTTPS.” Whenever the account is accessed from any device or Internet connection, it will automatically be secure. The goal is…

Matthew Rothenberg, the man who most believed ran Flickr for Yahoo!, announced his departure in a Tweet today. He was there when before Yahoo! bought it and he was the last leader in the company to remain. While Yahoo! said in a press release that it was a “personal decision,” there is speculation that Rothenberg and others are leaving Yahoo! properties because of the future of the company. With so many services entering into the realm of their “sunset” at Yahoo!, who could blame them? Why Facebook Should Buy Them Clearly, Flickr has its flaws. Facebook has its limitations. Adding Flickr into the…

The recent events in Egypt have, among other things, been inspiring, terrifying and remarkable. But though the political situation is obviously the story here, this hasn’t stopped many from commenting on the role the internet and social media have played. Of course, we also know that Egypt very successfully – and very scarily – almost shut down their entire internet. The response from commentators around the web has been predictable: that censorship and repression are wrong and that no country should ever engage in such practices. It has been accompanied by calls for international companies…

Some people just don’t like Twitter – and can they be blamed? An ever-shifting sand of mostly-idle information, a Twitter account following even less than 50 people can be a terrible, cacaphonous racket of nothing in particular. So how would you like to have every tweet read aloud to you? Japanese toy manufacturer WiZ isn’t about to wait for your answer, and has released the Charatter bear, a toy that – of course – reads incoming tweets in a shrill, grating octave. This particular author follows 52 people and receives a tweet about once every 90-120 seconds. Imagine how quickly this bear would drive…