Tweeter!

Recently, I discovered Twitter; it's yet another social networking site. But this one is pretty different. For one, it doesn't expect any commitment from you! You don't have to be a part of a community or group. All you do, is post what you're doing at the moment, in 140 characters or less, from your cellphone, IM or on the Web and that becomes your current status. Your friends will see your status along with how long ago you posted it along with others in their friends list.

Why do I like it? Well, it has the potential for saving you the trouble of having to explain what you've been doing for the past week/ month/ year when you meet someone who you haven't been in constant touch with. It's easier to follow what your friends are doing in their lives that have inexorably diverged from yours as time passes. You get this wireframe of an idea of how they're spending their time. It would make it so much easier to catch up when you do meet up.

Of course, you and your friends would need to be on the site and doing this regularly. Unfortunately for me, none of my friends seem to find this appealing enough to sign up. They claim to have enough accounts as it is and don't want to try it out. Sad.

Well, I spent the last two weeks making Tweeter!, a Java client for Twitter because I hated having to leave my browser open to be able to post. Initially, I tried out Twitteroo, a pretty popular app, but it didn't work for me. At work, I connect through a proxy and Twitteroo does not support using proxies as of this writing. At home, I don't have enough space to install the latest Microsoft .Net framework and I can't be bothered to clean out my hard disk right now. Once I discovered the excellent jTwitter API from ThinkTank, I decided to build my own; both for use later as well as a hobby app to teach myself Swing.

It's been done for a couple of days and it seems to have turned out fine. You can download it here. If you do use it, consider letting me know what you think at no.good.at.codingATgmail.com; I'd love to hear from you. If you don't like it, you can always try out other Twitter apps like Twitteroo ( Windows only ) or Twitterrific ( Mac only ). You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nogoodatcoding.

13 comments:

Mona said...

social websites! arent they like chatrooms? a modified version somewhat. I have never enlisted...

Hey! are you REALLY 22 years of age! You seem to be a very intelligent person! I am amazed!

I like the template of your blog. The way it slides sideways to make more room for you.The other [given] are too narrow.

Mona said...

& I just checked twitter. You have given the lower age limit [13! is that the official adult age now? I must be an anachronism!!] But no maximum age limit :D

But it does seem an interesting site!

no.good.at.coding said...

Well, you could compare them to chatrooms but they do offer a fair bit more ( apart from the difference of not being able to chat in realtime ); they're a pretty good way to find lost friends from years ago. Orkut from Google is rather popular in India but sadly, there is so much spam on it nowadays that most people are shifting to Facebook.

I will be 23 in September :) but thank you for compliment! It does wonders for my ego :D

And the appreciation of the template helps too since I added that bit of code myself :) Like you said, with my uber-long posts, it used to be pretty narrow and hence, a pain to read.

no.good.at.coding said...

I'm sorry, you lost me there; 13 as the lower age limit? Where?

Mona said...

well I went to see the sign in portion & it said that ppl under 13 years of age were not allowed to. So I thought maybe 'over 13' is the mature adult age these days.:)

Really, it is hard to believe your age. & please call it spirit, not ego.It sounds much better that way! :D

no.good.at.coding said...

Right spirit then!

And right, that 13 . Well, it's scary but kids seem to grow up so much faster, nowadays don't you think? As for me, you might think I'm intelligent at 22, but I still feel like, behave like and consider myself to be a kid.

Mona said...

To be childlike is good. One should only avoid being childish!

& you are certainly way above an average person of your age. You are smart!

no.good.at.coding said...

That is very well put! :)

And thanks for the oodles of compliments; made my Sunday! Though I still believe I'm not better than most of my peers and possibly let intelligent than more than a few. But it's still good to be told otherwise :)

Mona said...

:) I mean that!

Mona said...

I think you might find this interesting

http://codepo.blogspot.com

check it out...it might help you with no good at coding!:)

no.good.at.coding said...

Wow! That is some really cool stuff! Thanks for the link. How ever did you find it?

Mona said...

TED is an old friend! blogger friend. :)

I am glad you liked that!

Unknown said...

All are like that i am also like that.....