Bunch Of Twapps

Having recently bitten the Apple and got an iPhone, I thought I'd bung any old Twitter app (twapp?) on it and be up and running, happily advising the world of the exciting cheese & pickle dilemma which might befall me in Pret of a Tuesday lunchtime.

Not so.

You can plump for Twitterrific, TweetDeck, TwitBird, Tweetie, Twittelator, Echofon (which rather surprisingly doesn't begin with T but was previously called TwitterFon, so that's OK) and a whole host of others which don't appear on the first couple of pages of search results.

But which one?

Reviews abound on the interweb declaring their undying love for each, and slagging off the competition. Perhaps most people just get used to the first one they try and can't be bothered to change. But that's boring, so I'm going to try them all.

Simultaneously.

For a period of two weeks, every time I go to check Twitter on the iPhone, I'm going to use a different one of the above six apps, in strict rotation so they get a similar amount of face time. To be fair, I have installed the free versions of each, so no paid-for functionality can muddy the waters. The settings will be identical and they all support the same photo-sharing and link-shortening services. At the end of the fortnight, I should know which ones I've looked forward to using and been most 'tweetful' (ahem) and to which I've given a little sigh and been as quick as I could.

Maybe there are magic features you can't live without, or perhaps it's all about speed of use and a clean interface, but at the very least I'll have my Twitter app (which I'm sure everyone will then tell me is "the wrong one"...)

Geek out.

EOTW #6

On to Week 6 of the TLS-lauded* Euphemisms Of The Week and we're bang up to date now. So it turns out that Twitter is a rich seam of snigger-inducing phraseology. Who knew? Oh, you all did. Right.

Recently observed on the web of shame:

• Christening the muffin pan
• Buying specialist table sauces
• Falling over in George Michael's back garden
• Springing a leak in the cafetiere
• Getting coronation chicken all over the desk

More to follow...

* no, not really.

Recycling

Genuinely laughed-out-loud on the 0633 to London Bridge today, at this from one of the 'Adam & Joe' Twelve Podacsts Of Christmas:

Joe: "So, 'Nil By Mouth' - a real tour de force."

Adam (as Ray Winstone*): "Yeah, well I've always liked cycling, the bikes and all that, love it..."

I may have woken some people up with my guffawing. Sorry about that.

* because he had a cold, obviously

Font Of All Knowledge

That nice Mr Andronov pointed me at typekit just now.

Bit of javascript in the of the template, pick a font (or two) and which tags you want to use it and blam! New look for blog (in compatible browsers, obviously, but if you're not using one you should be :) and you can tweak it - live - to your heart's content.

Love it.

Overheard #104

I even know who this was about. Scary.

"Did you see her office? Could you smell her?"

EOTW #5

Week 5 of Euphemisms Of The Week is upon us with some beauties this time round (must have been the influence of Valentine's Day :)

Recently observed on the web of shame:

• Receiving a haggis in the post
• Folding a Kemp
• Taking helicopter shots of The Gherkin
• Playing cricket in Surbiton
• Getting cheese on the Korg

More to follow...

Dry It (You Might Like It)

They do not call me 'Mr Fashion'; this much I know.

However, I would like to share an excellent brand of clothing and stuff - which I'm sure all the cool kids gave up in 2007 - which I have suddenly found to be 'most excellent':

Superdry

So I've been looking for a lightweight coat, sort-of waterproof and with a hood, but not too 'mountaineer' because altitude-wise I don't venture much higher than Blythe Hill Park. Oh, look?

Also, I really could do with a new winter coat, definitely wool but perhaps some kind of pea-coat style but not too long or grey. What's that you say?

And actually I'm probably in need of a new sweatshirt with a bit of colour but no crazy-ass logos all over the shop. Really?

It's simply great. And, presumably, dry. Although quite what this chap has got to look so grumpy about, I have no idea.

Er, right, sorry about that. Advertorial over, your regular programming will continue shortly :)

Happy Hour

I think I may have invented a new cocktail.

Double Moskovskaya vodka + shot of Calpol + cube of ice + twist of flamed orange.

I'm calling it a 'cBeebies'.

Remember: please drink responshiblzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

EOTW #4

And onwards we march with Week 4 of Euphemisms Of The Week

Recently observed on the web of shame:

• Spotting a pea in the wine
• Tucking into a melon basket
• Warming up the butter in a pocket
• Finding a chocolate under the expenses pile
• Rationing the spiced apple Febreeze

More to follow...

Danny Boy

If you don't already, I urge you to listen to the Danny Baker show on Five Live. Obviously 9-11 on a Saturday morning might not be amenable to most people, but the podcast doesn't half light up a grey drizzly February commute. Currently loving the Roman numeral footballers feature (VIDIC!) and of course the ever present 'Sausage Sandwich Game'. A couple of hours of irreverent fun of a vaguely sporting nature, all held together with Danny's infectious enthusiasm for the absurd. Worth checking out.

Pressing Question

Looks like Blogger has got a bit bored with supporting externally-hosted blogs (like mine) over FTP. According to the press release:

"FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only 0.5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that."

Understandable I suppose, but which way forward? Probably a good opportunity to have a look at Wordpress publishing (I've also got a Tumblr thing running with a feed from here but that's a whole different kettle of ballgames).

However, Solveig's used to the Blogger way so I guess we will port hers to be a Google-hosted 'Custom Domain' - she'll also then get access to the fancy sidebar widgets which might be a boon.

Anyway, between now and mid-March, expect to see some changes around here, not least with the RSS feed, the commenting system and probably the design.

Ah well, any excuse for a tinker :)

Stuffie?

I blipped this, but it's worth pushing again.

Uffie + Starkey = Massssssssssive tune.

EOTW #3

Blimey, Week 3 of Euphemisms Of The Week rolled round so fast, I missed it yesterday...

Recently observed on the web of shame:

• Tucking a Bentley behind the Range Rover
• Getting out the Euro Disney brochure
• Eating a jazz apple
• Riding the drama llama
• Overestimating the size of the wheelhouse

More to follow...