Twitterrific: Buy or No?

I’ve been using Twitterrific lately to keep up with my Mac Tweets.  The free version shows ads for stuff I never knew existed.  Now I’m thinking I should keep the free version to keep up with new technology!  Seems to be a great product.  It works as advertised, is easy to use, and is one of the most unobtrusive messaging clients I’ve ever used.

While I’m at it, as a promoter of computer operation “through the keyboard”, here, from the Iconfactory web site, is the official list of keyboard commands.  It should be especially helpful to Mac users who access their computers through screen reading technology and keyboard navigation.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The following list shows keyboard commands that can be used while the Twitterrific window is active (its title is highlighted in yellow.) The most common ones can also be seen in the action menu.
?Q – Quit Twitterrific
?W – Close the Twitterrific window
?R – Refresh list of tweets
?. – Cancel refresh and reset connections
?K – Mark all tweets as read
?2 – Reply to the selected tweet (using “@name”)
?D – Send a direct message
?? – Delete the selected tweet
?1 – Make the selected tweet a favorite
?C – Copy permalink for selected tweet to clipboard
?L – Login to a different Twitter account
?0 – Zoom window
Tab – Toggle between the tweet list and message input
?? – Open the user’s Twitter page
?? – Open the user’s web page
? – Open the user’s Twitter page (with others)
? – Open the links in the currently selected tweet
?/? – Scroll through tweets list
?? – Go to the newest tweet
?? – Go to the oldest tweet
Spacebar – Select next unread tweet
Posted in Keyboard, Shortcuts, Technology, Twitterrific | Leave a comment

Johnny Lee – Super Genius

Johnny Lee is a big thinker. Check out his web site: http://procrastineering.blogspot.com 
You may have heard of his Wii engineering feats as demonstrated at TED, or you may have heard of him from Carnegie Mellon University. Either way, he is an absolute genius and one to watch.

Posted in engineering, Wii | Leave a comment

Twitterrific 503 Error Resolution

Okay, I’ve noticed other folks using Twitterrific have reported the error that occassionally posts in their Tweets List about a 503 error advising if the error persists to contact someone. Well, near as I can tell, this happens when the Twitter site becomes overloaded and Twitterrific tries to contact the server to receive new Tweets. The server can’t push new Tweets due to being overloaded, so, Twitterrific receives an Internet connection error from the timeout waiting for the server response that never came.
Short of building up Twitter’s infrastructure, what can we do? Here’s a solution that will at least keep you from receiving those annoying notices in Twitterrific’s Tweets List.
Step-by-Step Solution
1. If it isn’t already open, open your Twitterrific client.
2. Open Settings (Use the little crescent wrench looking icon between Home and Refresh on the bottom left corner of the Twitterrific window).
3. Across the top of the Settings window, you’ll see a bar of five buttons: Tweets, Window, System, About and Register, respectively. Choose the System button.
4. There will be a list of checkboxes. The last checkbox on the page, “Show errors in tweet list”, is checked by default. Uncheck the “Show errors in tweet list” checkbox.
5. Choose the OK button.
6. Restart Twitterrific, and you should never see these errors ever again!
Note: If something funky does happen and you do want to see what errors you’ve been missing, you can go to the same page, as above, and click on the button right next to the “Show errors in tweet list” checkbox, the “Open error log file…” button.

Posted in error, Twitterrific | Leave a comment

New Machinima Uploaded to YouTube

I’ve just uploaded a video that was created for the 2008 Blizzard and Comcast Machinima Contest.  

Storyboard by Nick Aunspach and Dan Aunspach
“Rogues Do It From Behind” Copyright 2007 by Blizzard Entertainment
Performed by Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain

Posted in animation, machinima, mmorpg, warcraft | Leave a comment

JAWS 10 Public Beta Released

From Dean Martineau’s Top Tech Tidbits:The first public beta version of JAWS version 10 is available. Anyone who is licensed to use version 9 of the program can run it without limitations, and everybody else can use it in 40-minute mode. This version appears to feature an innovative way of dealing with “forms mode” on the web, some proprietary software synthesizers that are much more responsive than those previously available, support for Microsoft Office Access 2007, and other improvements. You can read about it and a download it here:http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/JAWS-public-beta.asp

Posted in blind, freedom scientific, jaws, screen reader, speech | Leave a comment